My interview with Serellan, he is one of the most respected mdders in the RS community.

1.Tell our readers a little about yourself.
My name is Christian Allen.  I am a 24-year-old former Marine, and work as a computer tech for the State of Alaska.  My hobbies include Battletech, modding, Airsoft, and computer gaming.  I have a beautiful wife of five years, Angie.  I currently am looking to change careers into the game design field, and am tentatively planning on attending the Art Institute of Phoenix this fall to start my BA in Computer Game Design.
 

2.When did you start playing the Rainbow Six series and what impressed you most about this game?
I started playing in the spring of 1999, with R6.  At the time my FPS experience was limited to the Quake and Doom series, and R6 blew me away with it's realistic experience and tactical game play.
 

3.What made you want to mod RS? And what do you get out of personally?
I originally got into modding right after RS first came out.  When I used to play R6, there was a multiplayer mod that allowed one side to play as terrorists.  I enjoyed this and was looking for a way to do it in RS.  After a few weeks of searching with no luck, I decided to figure out how to do it myself.  The rest, as they say, is history.  As far as what I get out of it, I make mods for myself.  I do things that I want, and it is really a byproduct that I get to release them to the public and have other people enjoy them.
 

4.If you had to pick one Mod as your absolute favorite, which one it would be and why?
As far as my mods go, I would have to say Deadly Protocol.  I was really happy with being able to put together a complete mission pack, and I feel that the time and effort that I put into that project paid off well.  And sometimes I still have problems beating the missions, even though I designed them J.
 

5.Why did you decide to join ARMM and help out with NATO 3.5?
I initially started working with ARMM when I decided to do an add-on for N3, "The Rooster's N3 Guns".  I had made quite a few weapons for my LAN group using N3's formulas.  Q helped me out quite a bit with it, and he mentioned that he was working on an upgrade of N3's ammo and weapon characteristics.  I always felt that the only area that N3 was lacking in was the eye candy.  I volunteered to re-do some of the bitmaps in the original N3 so that Q could release them with his rework of the "engine".  Eventually this grew into me redoing 99% of the bitmaps, making some new weapon models, and doing other odds and ends.  Since I had put so much work into N3.5, Q offered for me to join ARMM.  It is kind of amusing looking back because I had always vowed two things in modding.  1) Not to do weapon mods, and 2) Not to join a modding group.  But an offer to work with the famous ARMM group was something I couldn't turn down, and here we are today.
 

6.How do you think the release of the plugins have impacted the RS community and out of all the new maps, which one do you like best?
I think it was a great move on the part of RSE.  RS/UO's life will be extended, and I really believe that the current "lul" in releases is because a lot of people are working on some really big projects.  As for my favorite, I would have to go for RRR .  It is nicely balanced and original.  I have seen some very nice maps (I forget the name of them right now), but one thing I would like to see people work on more is balanced starting locations.  I keep seeing these great maps with really poorly done starts, and I end up redoing them for my own use. 
 

7.Are there any projects (mods) that you are currently working on?
I am in a pretty big crunch for time right now, and it is limiting my available time for modding.  Right now I am slowly working for an update for Nato 3.5 to iron out some of the problems caused by UO's 2.52 release, and an RS version of 3.5.  I am also polishing up for release the single player sides of John Sonedecker's Rainbow Six map ports, much like I did for CS's Airport.  Look for them in the next couple of weeks.  Along with the single player conversions, I will be doing the MP missions, and packaging up the maps into an installer.
 

8.Will we ever see a total conversion mod from the The Rooster?
Probably not for RS/UO.  Deadly Protocol was my biggest project ever, and was not really a total conversion.  Possibly in the fall, depending on my circumstances with college and work, you may see some larger projects from me.
 

9.I know you  have been asked this many times, but for the last time will ever create any tutorials?
Again, probably not, at least in the near future.
 

10.Can you give any tips to people who want to start Modding?
Research.  There are a lot of resources out on the net, especially forums and tutorials.  Also, try something original.  Don't mod just to mod, mod because you want to do something new that you want to use.  And most importantly, after you are done, beta test, beta test again, and then beta test some more. 
 

11.What other games do you play?
Right now I am enjoying a little Mechwarrior 4, Crimson Skies, and Starfleet Command II.  I also enjoy (but rarely play because of time)  Homeworld, AOE II, and Red Alert II.
 

12.Not RS related but, what do you think of Operation Flashpoint?
I thought it was pretty cool.  I like the way weapons worked, and enjoyed the flexibility of the missions.  Looks to be a great game, if everything works out well.