It's time for another Kane's Wrath Player Spotlight and this time we've had the pleasure of speaking to community member and long-term player of Kane's Wrath,
TiberianFuture.
FallenXE spoke to the Scrin and Traveller expert.
Gamereplays: Alright let us first start with the basics, your Name, Age, Location, and Real Life Occupation please?
TiberianFuture: My name's Oskari, I'm 23 three years old, I'm from Finland and I'm studying programming/software development at the moment.
Gamereplays: Besides online gaming, what do you like to do in your spare time?
TiberianFuture: I like reading books and occasionally sketching stuff, and watching movies. I'm also part of a few C&C Tiberian Sun mod projects, most notably Twisted Insurrection, in which I'm a mapper. I like mapping in general, and have made quite a few for various C&C titles over the years.
Gamereplays: You read my mind there, because the next question I was going to ask you was could you give us an update on your modding and mapping career and development?
TiberianFuture: Alright, so like I mentioned, I've been a mapper for Tiberian Sun total conversion mod Twisted Insurrection for over five years now, during which I've made about ten multiplayer maps and one campaign mission (GDI6). I'm in the process of remaking that mission at the moment as it was too bland.
Outside of TI, I've made various missions for Tiberian Sun: Firestorm, all downloadable at ppmsite.com. For Kane's Wrath I've not made much recently, aside from an edit of the popular 8-player tiberium gardens in attempt to make it more open and less turtlefest.
Gamereplays: Tell us about your history as a gamer.
TiberianFuture: I've been playing computer games since I was about six years old. I played various DOS games, perhaps the most notable was the original Prince of Persia.
It was some years later when I saw my cousins playing Tiberian Sun as it was brand new, and I was really fascinated by it. Later that year I received Red Alert 1 as a birthday present and have been playing C&C ever since. Aside from C&C, some of my favourite games include titles like Star Wars: Tie Fighter (epic game), Halo 1-3 and GTA's.
Gamereplays: I notice that there is a player on Kane's Wrath named TiberianPast, and with pretty decent stats himself. Any links to you there?
TiberianFuture: Yeah, he's my little brother. We play team games together every now and then.
Gamereplays: You are famous for being a Scrin player, and a good one at that. Tell us, why the off-the-field choice of using Scrin even in Kane's Wrath even though there are sub factions for you to choose from?
TiberianFuture: Well, actually, I mostly play Traveler. But I do use Scrin when I feel like I need heavier firepower than Traveler can offer, while still having the option to go Devastators and teleporting. Scrin is the nice middle ground between T59 and Reaper, and in larger team games especially Traveler's infantry based tactics are easily shut down so Scrin is the go-to choice. As for Reaper - I don't like them much, their tactics are too limited.
Gamereplays: Do you have any particular maps that you favour or prefer and which you believe enhance your playstyle?
TiberianFuture: My favourite 1v1 maps at the moment are Twilight City, Tournament Undergrounds and Tournament Decision. I generally favor maps that doesn't have contested green fields as I dislike base-to-base fights. Having large open space to maneuver disintegrator hordes around is also a plus.
Gamereplays: What are your thoughts about the game balance in Kane's Wrath and what do you think are the game's strongest and weakest factions as it stands?
TiberianFuture: Black Hand and Traveler are strongest with GDI behind in the third place. Weakest are perhaps Marked of Kane and ZOCOM.
1.02+ has evened it out rather nicely, but there are tweaks that'd have to be done to remove some issues like how Traveler dominates Scrin and Reaper, or how confessor drafting insta-denys light harass.
Gamereplays: Who are the players that you enjoy playing with and who do you consider to be the toughest opponent that you have faced and why?
TiberianFuture: I like playing 6p-8p games with fatihdurdu, MagMugMark and the gang, there are many regular players in those and we have good fun. I don't play 2v2 that much so I don't have preference in there.
Toughest opponents I've faced are bikeRushOwnz, masterleaf and stateoftheunion.
Bike just plays so well and so aggressively that I have hard time making attacks of my own. If I managed to deflect the all-in, that is.
Leaf simply runs circles around me and I really can't do much, my micro isn't very good.
State likes to secure his positions and do some harass until he has the perfect mix of units to counter everything I have, then he rolls in.
Gamereplays: You've been a long time player of the game but looking back, are there any stand out players from the past who you feel has been a strong influence on you?
TiberianFuture: Ever since I begun playing in tournaments, I've been playing quite even with Dirty_Dutch. His Black Hand tactics have helped me to develop my Traveler play, and I could say I see him somewhat as a rival in tournaments.
Also, experimenting how to stop Aoenian's infamous devcorr rush back in the day taught me how to manage against early game aggression. I tried to imitate his style for a while, but ultimately Reaper didn't suit me. Mostly, though, I've just picked up things from replays/vods I've seen, not really looking at who did it, but what was done and how.
Gamereplays: On the topic of replays, do you have a particular match, replay or tournament that stands out to you most when you look back?
TiberianFuture: There's this one Black Hand mirror against bikeRush in a tournament about a year and half ago that I did very well in, taking in account he mains Black Hand and I very much don't.
As for a tournament, it's that one normal GR.org 1v1 tournament from years ago, when I reached third place for the first time, defeating Green_ZERO 3-1 in the bronze placement matches.
Gamereplays: How do you rate the current batch of players today and what keeps you playing after so many years have passed after the game's release?
TiberianFuture: I think there's still many good players playing. Many has left, but new names have risen to replace them, which is always refreshing. Sure, there's not that many very skilled 1v1 players anymore, but I've always liked the more casual, larger matches more anyways so I don't mind. As long as my teammates know how to play their chosen faction in most situations and support their team they're good in my books.
I have played other C&C's and other RTS's online, latest being Grey Goo, but none have the same mix of economy, micro and macro that KW has. I have taken a few longer breaks from KW, one very recently, but missing the action packed fun that KW is always brings me back.
Gamereplays: What are your thoughts regarding the future of the C&C franchise?
TiberianFuture: I think the chances for a new C&C game are rather slim.
But there's still new mod projects and stuff popping up in the community, and via them C&C shall live for years to come.
Gamereplays: Any last words for the community?
TiberianFuture: Kane lives!
See you on the battlefield, Commander.
Twisted Insurrection is a mod for
Tiberian Sun that has been long in the development, of which TiberianFuture has been part of the process. The mod can be viewed and downloaded at
its ModDB page here.
In addition to that, TiberianFuture has also worked on a mission for his own mod
available here. Last but not least, if you wish to play and try out some of the earlier
Kane's Wrath map that TiberianFuture created do
head on to this page to grab them!
