Raven: Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Platinum: Sure, I was born and raised in Vermont. Attended College for 2 yrs at Goddard. Left for Atlanta, GA in '96 and recently moved back to Vermont. My professions are B2B sales & marketing.

Raven: what about your team, is it a group of close friends, or people you met on the net?
Platinum: Oddly enough I consider it both. Some of the people involved I have known for many years through the net. I have verbally communicated with most of those long term friends via voice over IP. Fury has been with the project since the very start. He is extremely dedicated to HGF. It's kinda neat really since Fury represents one end of the spectrum of gaming, and I represent the other. Strike Ferret has also given life and limb to HGF. He is more than enthusiastic about the project. Hiro is probably one of the best 3d modelers for low poly out there. Some people may not like the gears, but no one can say that they are not exact representations of the gear in question. Hito has given what time he can to HGF. He is a fountian of factual HG data and solid 3d modeler to boot. I know I haven't mentioned everyone on the team. But really all I can say is that the people producing HGF are unique, dedicated, and I appreciate them very much.

Raven: What is the background of this mod?
Platinum: Whoa! Big question there bro. I guess if you want to go to the very beginning you would have to start with Dream Pod 9 (www.dp9.com). Those are the folks that invented the Heavy Gear table top RPG and tacticle game. From there they sold the right to Activision who produced Heavy Gear I & II. I should mention that niether of those games come close to what HG is truly
meant to be. But it did satisfy people for a few yrs. After HG I & II communities died. I wanted to make a mod based on HG.. So I started a simple forum at my teams website (www.cobalt-7-corp.net) Didn't take long before Fury found the forum, and we spent about a year just chatting about it. Thats the short version of it anyway..hehe

Raven: Will this mod, be anything like the game Heavy Gear from Activision?
Platinum: Nope

Raven: Can you give us a idea of how one of the gears will handle?
Platinum: Well really that depends on the Gear your in, and the game mode your playing. Gears vary in size, armour, manuverability, etc.. So there is probably a vehicle for almost anyones taste.

Raven: How will the duel gametype play out? like, how will you reload on ammo/health/weapons if you run out.
Platinum: We are trying to combine reality with fantasy in HGF. So in a duel if you run out and there is no rearm bay, or weapon on the ground for you to pick up, then you better hope your gear has a vibro sword or axe ..hehe

Raven: Will you be able to build/customize your own gear?
Platinum: Yes and no. We are going to have a game play mode with full modding. Unfortunatly this is where HGF will not really represent DP9s HG. Our full modding mode *at this point* will allow players to strap on anything they want depending on the $ ammount limit the server
admin sets. We are working on a way where players could mod gears, and still have them stay within the confines of what would be a normal gear according to DP9's HG.

Raven: Will you be able to transform your gear into, say, a jet?
Platinum: No, Gears are more like the next step in modern military evolution. They are basically man shaped tanks with the exception of having a high tech AI. Interestingly, there are only a few weapons in HG that are fictional. And even those are based on real world science.

Raven: What type of weapons will you be able to use?
Platinum: 20mm projectile Auto Cannons, Snub cannons, sniper rifles, anit-air weapons, Gear sized bazookas, rocket packs, morters, anti-personel weapons, various lasers, rail guns.. not to mention all the weapons for the infantry and pilots. There are nearly 70 weapons total if my memory serves me.

Raven: What is your favorite weapon/gear.
Platinum: In HGII, I always played in the smaller faster gears. The Anolis, Basilisk, Iguana, and Gila I used allot. HGF is a bit different though. More than likely the Hunter and Black Mamba are going to be gears I live in for a while.

Raven: will the diferent gears, have different special features? Like speed, firepower....
Platinum: Yes they will. Gears are much like our modern military infantry. There are units designed for specific duties. There are front line combat units, stealth and recon, Artillery..etc. All of which, have different weapons, Armor, Speeds, Sensors, Manverability, Targeting computers, etc

Raven: What type of damage system do you have worked out, like if your arm gets a certain amount of damage will you not be able to use it?
Platinum: Indeed, that is our end goal. We are using a modified system we created based on DP9s damage system for the tacticle table top game. We hope to use various zones on the gear that will be hot spots for that type of dmg.

Raven: MSU is the biggest contest around, do you have any plans to enter it?
Platinum: Our plans at this point are to recruit as many people as we can to make this mod happen. We would love to enter contests, but really it is secondary to our goals.

Raven: Is there anything else that is really unique to your mod?
Platinum: I think the whole concept of DP9s Heavy Gear is unique. Most people want huge 8 story mechs or super robots like in gundam. HG brings mecha into a more realistic point of view. An average gear is 4 meters. It doesnt have any ultra destruction weapons, it is armed mostly with weapons our military has today *in one form or another* HGF is going to be like Ravenshield meets AA meets BF42 meets MW4. The people who play those games are going to really enjoy this mod when it comes out.

Thanks a lot Platinum, i enjoyed learning about your mod, and to be honest i cant wait for it to be finished! For all those who wish to learn more about their mod, view the Mod List, or their site.

Heres a pic of one of their Gears, it's called the Naga, for a larger pic click on the image: