Greetings, I trust you all had a pleasant holiday. I am Angel Hernandez and welcome to Episode Five of Spotlight.

 I know you were all expecting Part Two of the Christmas Special, as was I. But as of late I have not heard back from DJ Curtis, I promise that as soon as I hear something regarding his interview, that I will keep you all apprised.

Also this interview was on purposely made longer than normal, to make up for the lack of the second part of the Christmas Special.

 But in the meantime Spotlight will continue as usual with today's episode. Featuring another member of the Ultimate Universe modding team.

 This person is responsible for a lot of the custom ships built just for UUM, and is a very impressive modeler. He has also built kit-bashes for Bridge Commander, and Klingon Academy. He was the first to being the Dominion to Star Trek Legacy, and since then has been a member of the Ultimate Universe Modding team.

 He is now one of UUM's  Assistant Directors, the head of Asylum, which is a modding school hosted by Chris Jones Gaming. And the head of the Modeling Department for Ultimate Universe.

 His latest ship the TOS era Proxima was released for Christmas, and can be found on Legacy Files, and UUM.net

Please welcome Mr.Phoenix Bondi, but we all know him as Nix, Phoenix, or PhoenixFett
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 To start I would like to thank Phoenix for being able to take part in this interview.

Q: So when did you start modeling? And how long have you been with the modding community?

 Well my basic’s started with Star Trek Klingon Academy, I use to play and hang around with exar-kun, and Jakeo but it was simple Kit bash’s and stuff, nothing major as I had No clue what I was doing with Light wave, I released a few mod’s but have no time frame memory to give u a date, L But the 4th of January I released a reskin of Rosh for Star Wars Jedi Academy which picked up a nice amount of downloads, I had also been experimenting with 3d max trying to mod for star trek bridge commander, But alas it was still only kit bash’s, before I disappeared due to personal life I released my 2nd and 3rd variant of my borg hybrid Defiant class – F.A.S. Kadet, A Beta for a Huge kit bash called the invincible and about 4 others. Then I resurfaced when legacy came out and started all over again, having lost ALL my old acquired skills L so I’d say from 2000 onwards with K.A

Q: What was it about modeling that fascinated you, and was that why you ultimately got into modding yourself?

 Oh without a doubt being able to firstly improve the game, and secondly add things you want your self. Not limited by damn companies doing only what they wanted.

Q: Do you remember the first thing you tried to build?

 Yea I had a tutorial for light wave to build a Constitution class starship, But couldn’t do it, No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do it L so I gave up L - wish I hadn’t as I’d be even better by now

Q: How did you hear about Ultimate Universe, and the Star Trek legacy modding community?

Well I was hanging around the Legacy forums and had luckily found out about the armada sod files working in legacy before it was announced so I started to put the legacy dominion pack together, then I ended up with 2 emails, one from Chris Jones and one from Acidrain, both from CJG at the time, another team also took note of me who where, - I apologies I really can’t remember, it wasn’t New-Gen or Aftermath, the other main contender back then.
                                                                                                        Please keep reading after the break.
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Seasons greetings everyone, I'm Angel Hernandez, and welcome to Part One of the Spotlight Christmas Special!

 This special will be split into two parts, mainly because these two individuals deserve their own separate interviews, and are each extremely talented modelers

 Let's get started with out first guest...

 In the 4 years he has been here, this person has released impressive work. At first he started doing texture mods and ended up creating some of the most dead-on accurate and highest quality recreations, that we have yet to see of the Constitution, Constitution Refit, Doomsday Machine, and Excelsior. And as of lately the Enterprise from the latest Star Trek movie.

 He has also built ships from another movie entirely, such as the City Destroyer and Attacker from the hit blockbuster film Independence Day. He's also the only person to fully recreate the Star Trek Phase II Constitution, the fan-favored Bonaventure, and the Infamous Monarch Class Enterprise J. 

 His latest ship, the Proteus, is a radical change in starship design, and is truly innovative. It is slated for release in this years Bridge Commander files Christmas Mass Release. As well as an undisclosed surprise ship.

 He also appears in a webcomic known as Hyper Boy Comics, which was created by his brother back in 2005.

 Please give a big holiday welcome, to the man behind the Coyote, Mr. Michael Wiley!
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 I would like to begin by saying Happy Holidays Michael, and thank you for being able to take the time out to participate in Spotlight. Let's get started with the basics...

Q: So when did you start modeling? And how long have you been around in the modding community?

  I started modeling in early 2008 with the completion of the TOS Akira. I was using gmax then, and it was awesome. Though the program has some limits, it has everything you need to make ship mods. I've been modding since January 2006, so that's about 5 years. When I was first modding, I never thought I would be making 3D ships, being one of the "modding legends" alongside of Scotchy, P81, LC Amaral, and Zambie Zan. I guess I'm part of the "next generation" of BC modders. In 2006, I just started with retexturing- it was easier. As long as computers can still run the game, I'm going to still be here for a while.

Q: What was it about modeling that fascinated you, and was that why you ultimately got into modding yourself?

  I was amazed how people can get such detail into something that was low poly. I like the feeling of saying that "I made that ship from scratch."  I just decided one day to try to build or at least script an individual ship so it will not overwrite anything to expand my skills. What I really like about modeling is that anything is possible in a 3D form, a clean slate when starting. You really start showing off your individuality when modeling.

Q: Do you remember the first thing you tried to build?

 The first thing I created was a Terran Empire retexture of the C2 Galaxy. At the time I thought it was cool, but many people were picky about details. They wanted the high poly ships that were recently released, but my computer couldn't handle them.

Q: How did you hear about the Bridge Commander modding community?

 When I was creating additional Terran Empire ships, Tiqhud tested them and Starforce2 helped me with hardpoints and scripting. I think one of them pointed me toward toward BCC. Since I joined, I've started making ships from scratch.

                                                                                                          The interview continues after the break.
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Greetings everyone! I am Angel Hernandez and welcome to episode four of Spotlight.

 Today I will be joined by another member of the Ultimate Universe Mod team, he has been part of the modding team for a little over three years now, and in that time he has done impeccable work for the mod. Recently he was made the second Assistant Director, and also holds the title of Quality Assurance Director. 

 Please welcome to the program Mr.Travis Durf, but we all know him as Muldrf.
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Thanks for joining us today Muldrf, first off lets start off with some basic questions...


Q: So how long have you been in the modding community for? And when did you start?

As far as the Legacy modding community I have been working with CJG/UU since the middle of  2007.  I had done some minor things prior to joining the UU team but nothing I ever released.  The first and only other mods I ever released were some maps for Doom 2 back when it was new.  I tinkered around after that with maps for other games, but nothing very serious.

Q:What was it about modding that fascinated you, and was that why you ultimately got into modding yourself?

To me Modding is most fascinating in that it lets you add things to games that you always wanted.  The reason I actively became a member of UU was because a special situation happened to overlap one of with abilities from my job, more on that later though.

Q: Can you recall the first thing you attempted to script?

As far as “Legacy Mission Scripting”, which is what most referred to in Legacy as Scripting.  That would be easy, it was what became the Vs Battle mode.  Remore, who happens to be one of the brightest people I have ever come across, was talking about something he found in the Mission Scripting that he expected would let you create a real customizable battle where you picked the exact enemy ships you would fight.  That’s all the incentive I needed to learn scripting and try to tackle it.  It was a major lacking feature in the game, and it was one I REALLY wanted.  That’s what Skirmish should have been to start, and it came out far better than I ever though possible.

Q: How was it that you first heard about the Ultimate Universe Mod?

I came across UU on the no longer existing Official Star Trek Legacy forums that Bethesda use to maintain.  I was very active over there, while I didn’t mod I got in discussions and followed all the modders there.  I tinkered with a few things but left it up to the people with the time.
                                                                                                            This interview continues after the break.
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Greetings everyone. I am Angel Hernandez, and welcome to Spotlight Episode Three.

 Today I will be speaking with one of the newest members of the Bridge Commander modding community.

  In the two years that he has been here, he has released more than 17 mods that range from the Vesta Class, to the USS Jenolan. He has also even given us an ant's perspective with the E.V.A. Suit, and has brought to life several designs from others within the community. Such as the Legacy Class by Galen from GK Designs, and the Corinium Class by Hobbs.

Please welcome the founder of Starfleet R&D, Mr. Bankrupt Studios himself, Greg Smith.
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Q: So how long have you been in the modding community for? And when did you start?

Well, I’ve been modding games since late 2006. I had got Star Trek Legacy pre ordered and for some damn reason I got my copy like a month after. So it took roughly a month to beat it (at the time I was working 13 hours a day and I also have kids to spend time with) and by then there were a couple of new ships out so I DL’ed them to play. During this time I was also playing a My Space Star Trek Role Playing game ( funny enough, this is where I meet my Wife) and I wanted some cool pic’s of ships. That’s when I decided to do my first mod, and all it was was changing the letters on the Enterprise, lol. From there I did loads of stuff for Sims 2.

Q:What was it about modding that fascinated you, and was that why you ultimately got into modding yourself?

The closest I might be able to come to answering that is seeing all the new classes of ships being built by other modders and the fact that they looked so good and at times so real. But I never really thought about modeling. I had wanted to do a free internet comic starring a lot of ships from Legacy and BC but to get some of the screen shots that I would need meant I would have to get in to the model itself. So I looked around and got 3ds Max on sale, unaware that I simply could have used Nif Scope for the BC stuff, lol. So I stopped looking at ships for a while because I was deep into researching Star Trek and writing scripts, I got around 13 full scripts and then realized that I had no idea what my ship was, lol.

Q: Do you remember the first thing you tried to build?

Yes, I tried to fix Hobbs’ USS Griffin for the internet comic. During the process he wanted things changed and we ended up building a completely new ship called the Dragon that was never released. Then, a little while later we did the Corinium, a ship he designed and I built... well actually kit-bashed, from Red Dragon’s Sovereign. That was our first official mod.

Q: How was it that you heard about the Bridge Commander modding community?

It was in a search for a ship that was going to be a lead ship in my show. I stumbled across DJ’s Leonides Class USS Raptor. Immediately I fell in love with it.

                                                                                                            The interview continues after the break.
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Greetings everyone! I am Angel Hernandez and welcome to the second episode of Spotlight.

Today I am excited to be talking with one of the most popular names in the Bridge Commander modding community, and his quality standard is one of the highest known. He has released such ships as the Galaxy Evo, the Wolf 359 and Romulan Warbird packs, and his famously known Excalibur Class. 

Spotlight is proud to introduce Luiz Cordova Junior. We all know him more simply as Legacy, or LC.
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First off I would like to welcome you to Spotlight, and thank you for participating.

Q: So how long have you been in the modding community for? And when did you start?

I've modding since 2003. Some moments where i had to drop it, but i never really left it.

Q: What was it about modding that fascinated you, and was that why you ultimately got into modding yourself?

I think the most fascinating part of it is the actual gameplay. Differently from CGI and 3d for movies, when you create a mod, you can actually play with it.

Q: Do you remember the first thing you tried to mod, or build?

That was a .40 pistol I've modded for Counter Strike 1.5

                                                                                    To continue reading this interview, click the link below.
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Greetings everyone, and welcome to the inaugural episode of Spotlight.

I am your host Angel (Meteorafallen) Hernandez, and tonight I will be sitting down and speaking with one of the most widely known contributors of the Star Trek modding community.

 This person has been around since the days of Starfleet Command and has released such classic mods as Universe at War for Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates, and the TNG Mega Mod for Starfleet Command 3. His latest and largest project that I was happy to have been a part of for Star Trek: Legacy,  "The Ultimate Universe" has grossed more than 150,608 downloads and that number continues to grow by the minute. He has also caught the attention of people that are involved with Star Trek such as: Derrek Chester, George Takei, and Leonard Nimoy. Each who were gracious enough to donate their talents to the mod. 

 He is the Founder of Chris Jones Gaming, the director of Star Trek: Legacy The Ultimate Universe, and a very good friend of mine. Please welcome Mr. Chris Jones!
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First off I would like to thank you, for being able to take part in this program. And let us begin with some simple questions.

Q: So how long have you been in the modding community for? And when did you start?

I’ve been modding Star Trek Games since the year 2000 – when I started playing Starfleet Command – the 1st game in that franchise.. Awesome Game!

Q: What was it about modding that fascinated you, and was that why you ultimately got into modding yourself?

The idea that I could make the game do something other than what it was originally intended to do was a concept that grabbed me from the beginning. SFC1 was a great game out of the box, but not totally my idea of Star Trek. The whole Starfleet Battles thing bored me actually, I wanted my TNG ships and that sort of feel.

Q; Do you remember the first you attempted to mod, or build?

The first thing I modded was the FBB – or the Federation battleship in Starfleet Command 1. It became uber! I have to credit my brother Steve for alerting me to the fact that things could be changed in the game. He sent an email about what he’d done to the Fed Battleship – and I tried it myself – the bug started there.

Q: How was it that you heard about the modding community?

As time went in 2000-01 I found that a lot of people were actually building new 3d models for SFC1 – Rick Knox for 1 – Moonraker – and I found that a community had sprung up around this game, dedicated to making it look better and play better. I was hooked. I never became a modeler myself, I was too fascinated with using everyone else’s cool stuff.

                                                                                     To continue reading this interview, click the link below.
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While i'm sure you all are waiting for the first episode of Spotlight to be released, I thought in the meantime I would showcase a fellow modder in the community.

 This person has released several ships for Bridge Commander and mostly Starfleet Command, and as of late begun to create his very own ships from scratch. But has run into a bit of a snag, due to the lack of a proper mapper and texturer for his marvelous creations. MeteorCreations is pleased to welcome Armando Perez (Centurus) to be the first guest of the Artisan Spotlight.  

 If you would like to donate your services to his cause, please contact me via e-mail or the MeteorCreations Facebook or Twitter pages. 

Below are renders done by Centurus of his ship the Chabot Class, U.S.S. Chabot. Downloadable versions of these images will be made available in the Gallery.

To download the Chabot Class for Star Trek: Bridge Commander, and Starfleet Command 3, please direct your attention to the links below...

Bridge Commander Version 
http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/file/Chabot_Class;66497

Starfleet Command 3 Version 
http://starfleetcommand3.filefront.com/file/Chabot_Refit;66507

Please remember any comments are always accepted and welcome.

And I would like to end with a quote from the man himself:

"If you didn't get your ship from me, you probably didn't get the 100,000 light year warranty."
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