[EN] Interview: Russian Railways mod

MANW-like interview with the community mod developer, who promise to bring working trains and railroads in to the Arma 3 world.

Name: Konstantin ‘pilot-sniper’ Spiridonov

From: Russia, Korolyov

Random fact: My favorite painter – A. I. Laktionov



Hello, can you tell us a bit about yourself: where are you from, and when you first started playing Armed Assault series? What was your first mod?

I was born in Moscow, but live in Korolyov right now. I am studying aircraft engineering in college. Operation Flashpoint CD appeared on my desk years ago and never left me. I still have it somewhere by the way.

When I was playing ArmA Gold my friend told me about ‘scripts’. I started making scenarios, after some time i felt that I need more functionality and that other peoples scripts is not doing the job right. So i learned how to do it myself. My first proper mod was port of KV-2 from OPF to ArmA 2

Describe your new Railway mod, what it is all about?

Well, there is not much to describe actually. Mod allows you ride trains in Arma and make scenarios with them.

How many people are working on it? How did you find each other?

There are two of us: Me (lyotchik(pilot)-sniper) and Sandro. Also, there is Pioneer, who helping with models and their adaptation.

Trains in Arma was always my dream. I went from Armed Assault to ArmA 2 because of screenshots of railways and trains. Then there was the gac_train script, which was very clunky, but nevertheless— amazing. When I bought train model (featured in announcement video), I started searching for Arma railway assets. Found one tread on flashpoint.ru . There was Sandro, so i contacted him, he replied and the work begun. Earlier I made proof-of concept armed locomotive for one of my scenarios, and decided to post it for everyone to use. Without it i don’t think Sandro could have noticed me, and nothing have happened.

Your development log mentions that you went from scripted solution to the «c++ extension», is that a mod in conventional sense, or something different?

It is kind of different and kind of not. Have you heard about Space Engine mod? It uses Arma 3 new tech — ability to use extensions. We went the same way. When we started, there was no other mods using this tech. In terms of difference, it utilizes dll library to provide functionality (KillzoneKid has several articles about that)

How will it look for the end user? Nowdays to install mod, I need to put it in root directory of Arma 3 (or subscribe in workshop).

It is the same with the Railroads mod — you just put folder inside of Arma 3 and that’s it. The differences lays inside of the folder:(most important thing there is Ext_16.dll):

How does the trains interact with environment? Will it be possible to blow up or damage them? If not classified, what you done to the train and railways in your internal tests and how it behaved?

Well, trains blow by themselves from time to time :)

Seriously though, we already made dynamic railways damage system. This means, that if you blow up railway or bridge, script will remove closest connection point and train will derail. I already made the particle effects for train explosion, smoke etc. You will be able to destroy armed locomotives as well. But you know how vehicle collisions work in Arma — one time it is perfectly fine, second time the whole thing glicth out.

Will there be pre-made railways and train models, or will it be more like framework? What are you focusing on: functionality or content?

Functionality is priority I’d say, but this is Sandro business. I am bringing ideas and generating interest in community. I produce some content by myself, but it is mostly porting models from trainz and other places (with the authors permissions). There is too much things to do, so we are not making models form scratch.



Will you publish some kind of tool for mission makers to create custom railways?

Yes, there will be tools. You will be able to make railways for your mission or custom map. We will release railmaker mission for that purpose. you will control special sort of cart and lead it through the land.

We are planning to make railroad with gravel embankment on Altis. This will be kid of sample or template similar to what people making with pre-made fortifications and AI bases.

What are you the most proud of? What is important for you personally?



I really like the idea of armed locomotive and rail cars, I had a lot of fun with them already during internal testing.

Can you give the sneak peak into the mod development process, is there some kind of roadmap or approximate release date?

Sandro just answered me in chat: «Release date is 2020, there will be only one locomotive and couple of railroad cars».

He is joking of course :)

In reality there is no roadmap of a kind. When we have time and a bit of motivation we making progress. Release will happen, I can give you that. When — this is different matter. It is very challenging to make such complex and complicated mod. Unfortunately we can not release mod in parts like RHS guys for example. Things getting much more complicated with coding.

You can track the development progress and ask your questions in Russian Railways official BIS forum thread

Original article (in russian) available on TEHGAM.com