EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE TWIGS
THINGS THAT CAN FLY AND SHOOT
Kuki: Mr. Twigs! Hello and welcome! How are you doing?
Twigs: Hello, hello! Not too bad, yourself?
Kuki:It's my pleasure to have you here today for an interview. We flew together quite a bit on the original TRA 3PO team and also in SCL. You're also one of the most active and decorated pilots, but in case there are any left who don't know you, I'd like to start with some introductory questions. First off, where are you from?
Twigs: I'm from the UK and have lived all around the country. I was born in Leeds, I've lived in Yorkshire, Liverpool, Northern Ireland, Peterborough, Oxford. Currently I'm living in Larne, Northern Ireland again and I'm quite happy here.
My favorite thing about being here is it's close to the coast so I can get lots of fishing done. I was in the Air Force and we tend to set up inland bases, so it's nice being back near the seaside.
Kuki: That's true, you actually worked on things that can fly and shoot!
Twigs: I joined the Air Force in 96 as an aircraft propulsion technician. I'd be looking after the engines on aircraft. I had quite a long training period (18 months!) as it's not something you can pick up easily. My first posting was in Northern Ireland. Back in the 90's you had what they call "the troubles" going on there. Some people may be familiar with the shootings and bombings that used to happen around that time. It was considered a dangerous area. For me it was actually very funny, because my mom's family is from there, so I got extra danger money and a medal for being stationed half an hour away from my mom's home!
Then I got promoted, had another year of training to become a junior technician. I started working on the Harriers for the pilot training unit. We didn't go to dangerous areas, but had a few nice trips to Scotland, Cyprus, Germany and a few other places for air displays with the Harrier team.
I got promoted again to corporal in 2006 and did 3 tours of Afghanistan with Number 1 Squadron, which is a frontline squadron. I also spent a lot of time on aircraft carriers going on the North Sea, so that took us to some nice areas like America and Cyprus again.
Kuki: Did you work on one type of plane or several models?
Twigs: No, within the Harriers, you have the GR.7 which is a single seat fighter for ground reconnaissance. Then you have a two seat training version called the T10. I was there for 11 years and the aircraft received many upgrades during its lifetime such as improved avionics system and a more powerful engine. I worked on the GR.7, GR.7A, GR.9, GR.9A and then also in parallel on the T10 and T12 training vehicles.
In 2011 the Harriers got disbanded, so I moved into an instructor roll at RAF Cosford. I taught aircraft technicians for 5 years and got promoted to Sergeant. Then I spent some time as a quality monitor, making sure all the aircraft maintenance teams were doing things by the book.
After 22 years in the Air Force, I qualified for pension, so I thought it would be good to spend time with the family, bought a house and moved to North Ireland, where I now got a job as a process engineer, looking for ways to improve our manufacturing etc.
Kuki: How is your new job different than what you did before?
Twigs: It's very different! I'm having to learn a lot. We're now nearly 4 years later and I'm still adjusting to life as a civilian or rather to working in a civilian environment. I don't think you'll ever be a civilian if you're ex- forces. You'll always be a veteran.
In a civilian job, at the end of the day, no one is going to die if you don't get stuff done on time, so it's a little less stressful from that point of view, but it still poses its own unique challenges.
BRITPOP, A SPICY CURRY AND LOTS OF DRY GIN
Kuki: What type of music do you listen too?
Twigs: Quite a range of stuff. I like some of the 90's Britpop, Oasis, things like that. Foo Fighters, Volbeat, a little bit of dance music now and again, but predominantly Britpop and rock.
Kuki: Do you like Blur?
Twigs: Yeah not so much, I prefer Oasis's stuff, but I wasn't too heavy on the sort of Oasis vs. Blur argument that a lot of people my generation used to have.
Kuki: Exactly, I recall that was a thing.
Twigs: Yeah you couldn't like both, it had to be one or the other (laughs).
Kuki: What's your favorite food?
Twigs: My favorite food is probably a good spicy curry. Maybe a Lamb Dansak or Chicken Pathia, something like that. Yeah, I like a nice curry, good Indian meals are nice, naan bread, rice, that sort of stuff.
Kuki: I've heard you say on voice chat your favorite drink is called "A LOT", but a lot of what?
Twigs: Probably a gin. I like gin. I also like rum, whiskey, beer, I'm doing pretty much anything. I'm not fussy, but yeah, I do like a nice gin. I think it's quite versatile, you can have it in a cocktail, plain gin & tonic or you can have it with lemonade if you're a bit weird.
Kuki: Any type of gin you favor in particular?
Twigs: No, just a nice dry gin. I'm not too keen on a lot of the flavored stuff, you see, gin seems to have gone through a bit of a renaissance period. It's very popular nowadays, but you're seeing a lot of fruity flavors, blackcurrant, bramble, all that sort of stuff, it's just a little too sweet. I like a nice dry gin with a good quality tonic, a bit of lemon and ice. That's all you need! Keep it simple, let the drink talk!
JOINING THE ALLIANCE AND IMPRISONING ADALLA
Kuki: Agreed! Now for some TRA related stuff! I found out you joined in 2004 and were initially assigned to Blue Squad?
Twigs: Yeah, Blue Squad was great! I was flying with Angel a lot, learning a lot of stuff from Ravagin, Daymaster, a lot of other pilots that people might probably remember, YanYan, all the greats!
I first joined TRA because I had picked up X-wing Alliance. That was my first X-wing game. Before that, I didn't really have a PC. I was in the Air Force and when you're young, single and moving around a lot, you tend to spend most of your time socializing, shall we say, rather than sitting at a computer playing games. Also a heavy PC isn't ideal when you're mobile, so it wasn't until I got married that I got a PC. I started chatting to people on the MSN Gaming Zone and they said "Well, we're busy, with a week of war (or DJO cup), but if you want to take part, join TRA". I did that straight away. I was like "What?! Star Wars fans playing Star Wars games? Deal me in! Let's have some of that!"
I was probably in my early 20's at the time.
Kuki: Was X-wing alliance the main game being played at that time or were many people still playing XvT?
Twigs: Most people were playing XvT because the netcode was smoother, there was less ping and lag. Though XWA looked prettier and it was actually easier to set up multiplayer games there, XvT was just a smoother experience altogether. I think about 6 months after joining TRA I thought "Well I'm not getting that many games anymore, I might as well pick up XvT.".
Kuki: What type of events were being played at the time?
Twigs: First off, there were the week of war events and then TRA and TFA would be doing the DJO cup. These events were consistently being held every month, with week of war being held for both XWA and XvT. In between there were things like "It ain't easy being green". That event had a nice ribbon with Kermit the Frog and was specifically meant to saddle up beginners with someone more experienced to learn the game. We also had a mine clearing event with a time limit. There was something happening almost every week.
Kuki: What can you tell me about the brig on Wing III flagship Illustrious?
Twigs: What was that? The brig? Trying to remember, is that something you dug up somewhere?
Kuki: I did some research and found out Adalla was imprisoned there (if you don't know who Adalla is, try pinging him on TRA discord). I'm curious as to what crimes got him there.
Twigs: That would be going back some time! Did I put him in the brig? Adalla could have been put there for many, many reasons! He could have been put there for starting up another group, making another website, something like that. There was a constant ribbing going on between us, so it might just have been to give him a bit of a ribbing. We used to take part in different things and he had an extra website at some point, as I recall, where he actually did an interview of one of the XvT devs (developers).
Kuki: What can you tell us about wing III in general?
Twigs: Someone may correct me if I'm mistaken, but I think the wings were set up so that you would be in a group with similar time zones, so Wing III might have been European based. There were more squadrons at the time and we were able to sort of put people with their recruiter or in a time zone that was better suited to them. There used to be a lot more rivalry as well! Discord wasn't about yet, so the comlinks were the place where you really communicated, like good old fashioned forums. So we used to raid each other's squadron comlinks and post messages for each other, having a bit of a laugh …
Kuki: Which then had to be fought out through the DJO cup?
Twigs: Yeah, exactly!
FULL MEDAL JACKET
Kuki: What about your time as the GDC (Gaming Division Commander)?
Twigs: I think the best way to describe my time as GDC is that it was a similar sort of point as where we are now with Squadrons. XWA and XvT were already old, we were constantly looking out for new games. Somebody discovered Arvoch Conflict, which we looked into and tried to get support for, but it never took off. TRA membership was dwindling and we were trying to stay active. I think it was just TRA and TFA doing most of the events, some NRN or EH maybe. Uhm yeah, we were just struggling for activity, trying to keep people active and interested. Like I said, very similar to what we see now in Squadrons.
Around the same time I got involved with a mod for Battlefield 2142, called First Strike, which was a total conversion turning the whole game into a Star Wars game. That had some space combat maps. We got to an agreement allowing us to also support that for a short period of time while I was GDC. But again, that never really took off. It did in it's own right, but TRA never really fully adopted it.
Kuki: Currently, what do you enjoy most about TRA?
Twigs: I like the sort of semi- independence TRA has at the minute. I remember the dependence we had on DJO and Battlestats. We're more Discord based now, allowing us to run slightly more outside of that. DJO might not agree with it, but I'm sure all the other clubs are probably doing the same.
Also the fact that we have instant communication rather than posting on a commlink and waiting for a reply … as well as voice chat. In the old days you were doing everything you could to reduce bandwidth as many were still on dial- up internet. You weren't using voice chat because it was bandwidth you couldn't afford to give. I think the fact that TRA has moved on technology wise and is a little more autonomous is brilliant.
Kuki:What would be your favorite TRA memory?
Twigs: Ohhh, my favorite TRA memory, I guess it would be the first time we actually got online for Squadrons. When the hype came for the release of Squadrons, I started looking up TRA again and was happy to see it was still alive! I found the discord, started chatting and everybody was talking about joysticks and what upgrades to make to their PC's. There was just so much buzz and excitement about a new Star Wars space combat sim coming out. When it finally launched and the first people started filtering into the rooms to play online, it was just … an absolute buzz.
You couldn't judge each other on ability yet since nobody knew what to expect. Everybody was still figuring things out and just getting online to get some games together, so yeah, probably Squadrons' launch.
Kuki: That makes sense. How do you feel about Squadrons now?
Twigs: I think people are only happy when they have something to complain about. Even if the game was 100% perfect, someone would still find something to complain about. They would sit and say that a cosmetic was rubbish. Yes, there are things that could be improved (it would have been great to get multiplayer missions) but we bought a 40 pounds game, we got more releases than we expected, more content, extra maps, the custom games everyone cried about from day one, extra ships … only two, alright, but we got something. These were things we were not necessarily supposed to get. We got a competitive scene, we've got people still playing it, I think it's alright. It's a pretty game.
Kuki: Yeah I agree with you. I also think it was great that they kept it focused on the original trilogy and there was not too much uh … b******t in it. That's pretty cool, I didn't expect that.
Twigs: Yep (laughs).
Kuki: What about your role as head instructor of the Fleet Training Academy?
Twigs: That started a long time ago. I think it started with Angel or maybe Adalla at some point with the XvT Training Academy. Somebody would sign up to the FTA and then be assigned a Jedi Instructor who would take them through set things until they would eventually graduate from the FTA. It was kind of a one-on-one training thing. For Squadrons we had a couple of ideas in the Jedi Comlink and I put together a sort of training manual for people to read and pick up some of the basic stuff like boost gasping. That eventually evolved into a more complete document with the training exercises for people to work through.
Kuki: You're somewhat famous in TRA for having a lot of medals and ribbons, … (seriously, check out his profile!)
Twigs: I don't know why …
Kuki: … everyone has seen the gif with the guy opening his jacket full of medals that people use in reference to you.
Twigs: Yeah, yeah, yeah (laughs).
Kuki: But which of those many decorations do you treasure the most?
Twigs: The ones I treasure the most are the XvT Kill/Death medals, because they took a lot more to achieve than the Squadrons variants. Once you got the 1.0 K/D that's fair enough, you know, but the higher ones, I just really struggled on. I sort of reached a plateau and couldn't get beyond it. I got some tips from another Jedi and he said "Look, stop chasing medals, just relax and play the game. It 'll come when it's time". Sure enough, instead of chasing medals I started relaxing, getting the games in and yeah, they finally came.
Kuki: Would you say XVT is harder because of something inherent to the game where it's more skill based? Or was there tougher opposition?
Twigs: The squadrons player base has reached a point now with few people taking part in DJO cup and Week of War and the ones that still do are pretty experienced players. Maybe the skill ceiling to get those medals now may have become harder now in Squadrons, but in XvT you couldn't drift and everything, so it's really, circling, outmaneuvering or getting picked off if you furball too much. Latency also played a big part, you couldn't wait for that little hitbox to light up to confirm your hit and then fire, because it wouldn't register in time. You had to try to predict where someone would be. Plus you had some very, very tough opposition. I won't say any names, but I'm sure people can think of some TFA members that were very, very difficult to kill and could take you down quite easily.
SILENT SPACE SCENERY & VIETNAM TEDDY BEARS
Kuki: What's your main hobby or interest outside of TRA?
Twigs: Fishing or astronomy? I do both. A lot of fishing because it's just a nice easy way for me to unwind. I've also got a telescope that I will occasionally use to take pictures of galaxies and nebulas and things. I've got a 6 inch Newtonian Reflector. They're the tube ones with a big mirror at the bottom and you look through the side at the top, so it's not what people think of as a telescope, what we call a refractor, where you look at the back of it. I got the mount that moves along with the sky, so once you've got something focused it pretty much follows it across the night so that I can take pictures. You're taking a picture for a minimum of about 30 seconds and up to possibly 2 minutes, so if you don't track the object, everything would just end up blurred in your picture and it would be no good.
Kuki: At what age did you see your first Star Wars movie and which one was it?
Twigs: Oh I think I was probably 4 or 5 and it was Return of the Jedi. I remember that my uncle saw the Ewoks and thought it must be safe for children because it had teddy bears.
Kuki: Yeah, Vietnam style teddy bears who split skulls with stone axes.
Twigs: (laughs). But Empire is my favorite. It's just that little bit darker, that little bit more menacing, it's just a great film.
Kuki: What's your favorite Star Wars Movie Scene?
Twigs: Although Empire is my favorite film, my favorite scene in any of the Star Wars movies is actually that space battle in Rogue One. That whole space battle is just truly epic space combat. The fight is going … diving in, trying to tap the shield system, the hammerhead corvette coming in, it's just a brilliant thing.
That said - and I know people are going to hate me for saying this - I also like the bit in one of the sequel films where the ship jumps to lightspeed and goes through the capital ship. There's just something about that … both deadly and beautiful at the same time. It's silence in space as it should be and you see this thing disintegrate. A very pretty scene.
A MOTORBIKE THROTTLE FOR A HANDLE AND STORMTROOPER ARMOR
Kuki: You wrote some fanfiction yourself with the Hex War (If you don't know it: The Hex Wing Series) . That makes me curious what you would recommend to other TRA pilots from the Expanded Universe and what you favorite headcanon moment is.
Twigs: I loved the books when I was younger. Again that comes down to being a young man in the Air Force looking for things to do. We didn't have mobile phones with instant internet access, so books were one of my favorite things to pass the time with, especially when traveling. My favorite was I, Jedi. That was Corran Horn's journey and his whole path to become a Jedi and what happened after that. It's just really well written and really stands out for me. Also it's almost standalone, so you can read it without needing any required background, while many other books were written in trilogies, maybe to copy the films.
There's a lot of great scenes, but my favorite is the one where he makes a new lightsaber and uses the throttle handle grip from a speeder bike. I always wanted to build a lightsaber with a motorbike handle grip or something.
Kuki: Do you ride motorbikes yourself?
Twigs: No I don't, my wife thinks that's too dangerous and I'm not allowed to (laughs).
Kuki: Favorite Star Wars character (EU included)?
Twigs: Do you know what? Not so much a named character, but I've always liked the stormtroopers. Hence why I have my own set of stormtrooper armor. I've always been a big Tuskan Raider fan as well. The looks of both those support characters is just so well done. In terms of main characters my favorite is Darth Vader.
Kuki: Did you build your stormtrooper armor yourself?
Twigs: It was bought as a kit, so when it arrives it's a lot of vacuum formed plastic, where you have to cut out the different parts out of the molds and size them yourself. You need to put them together, glue them, put the strap in, so yeah there's quite a bit of stuff I had to do myself.
Kuki: What's your favorite real life Star Wars Memory?
Twigs: That would be Star Wars Celebration in London in 2016. I met up with an Air Force friend who's a big Star Wars fan and he very kindly let me stay in his hotel room, which saved me some money. I also got to meet up with a friend of mine from the First Strike development team that I spoke about earlier. We spent a lot of time together working on the mod and talking, but I met him there for the first time. Uh yeah, I just had an absolute brilliant weekend with two friends meeting lots of other fans who were all happy to talk to each other and discuss Star Wars. It was brilliant to see so many people sharing a love of Star Wars.
Kuki: Top 3 Star Wars video games?
Twigs: Well I'm a bit biased, but I'm going to say First Strike is going to be number one for me because I was on the dev team alright. I did a little coding for the space combat, it took a good part of my life and it actually was a really good game. It's a shame people can't experience it now.
XvT/XWA in second just for the memories and the time spent playing with people in TRA up until the small hours of the morning.
And then for me Squadrons on number 3.
Kuki: What about non Star Wars game?
Twigs: Oh, I'm gonna say the original Far Cry. It's an older game, but it checks out. It came at a time when first person shooters were popular, but a lot of them were moving to online play. It has a strong single player story but there was also a focus on online gameplay. Far Cry was a refreshing game with a strong single player story, but also a multiplayer aspect and it changed things for the better. You didn't have to follow a linear path to complete an objective. You could go the long way round exploring and doing what you wanted instead of just following the track the devs want you to take.
THE NEED FOR SPEED
Kuki: Favorite Rebel ship?
Twigs: The A-wing. It just looks so fast! It looks like it should be strapping two rockets onto your ass and you're holding on and hoping you make it to the end. It's fragile, but it's brilliant. It's just so sad that they nerfed it to the point it became unusable in Squadrons.
Kuki: And on the Imperial side?
Twigs: The interceptor again. I love all the ties. Just for that howling, screeching engine sound, I love that noise. I like the TIE fighter, but there's just something about the interceptor with those pointed wing that just makes it look slightly more menacing and slightly faster. It looks like it's going to hunt you down.
Kuki: Yeah the sound of those in Squadrons is quite nice.
Twigs: Yep. They did a good job on them.
Kuki: What Squadrons ship do you hate the most?
Twigs: I don't think I have a hatred for any of them, they all take their own little quirks to use effectively, but I think the Y-wing needed a lot more love. It's slightly better now that it can boost so much and drift so long, but it always felt to me like it should be stronger, a lot more armored than it is, because that's what it was designed to be. You know, it's a tank, it's a workhorse and it just feels weak and underpowered in Squadrons.
Kuki: Do you have any Star Wars collection items?
Twigs: I have a fairly wide collection of things. I've got Black Series helmets (Wedge's X-wing, Poe Dameron, Boba, Stormtrooper). I got Kylo Ren's and Darth Vader's lightsaber. I've got some LEGO, the helmets for the Scout Trooper and Darth Vader, the Probe Droid, the UCS A-wing and the Sand Crawler, a few figures, a lot of books …
Quite a lot of stuff, but most of it sits in the attic where the wife doesn't have to look at it. Apparently it doesn't go with the decorations in the house (laughs).
Kuki: The UCS A-wing has some nice detail in the cockpit, doesn't it?
Twigs: It does! Most of the UCS stuff is good, but as soon as you go up from the 30 pound stuff most LEGO sets have good enough detail that you can sit it on the shelf quite happily and it will look very good.
Kuki: You're in the Jedi Elite, what color is your lightsaber?
Twigs: Blue. I think blue looks good on a lightsaber. The only reason Luke's lightsaber is green in Return of the Jedi is what …?
Kuki: Because it wouldn't show against the air.
Twigs: Exactly, it wouldn't show against the blue sky, so they had to change the color of the blade (laughs)!
Kuki: That was it for my questions. Is there anything you would like to add for our fellow TRA members?
Twigs: I think if you read all this and you got this far: well done! TRA will give you as much as you put into it. If you want to be casual, that's fine, fly casual. You don't have to take part in the ranks or anything else. But the club survives on its members and we have a pretty good social scene. We might bicker and get upset with each other, especially in the heat of battle, but nobody takes anything personally in this club and it's pretty relaxed. It's also got a good leadership at the minute. Get involved! Keep the club going and we'll be around for another' 30 funny years!
Kuki: That's a great one to close down with. Thanks a lot for the interesting talks and maybe see you around this evening for XvT night or further down the week for some Squadrons DJO Cup!
Twigs: Yep, alright! Thanks for the chatting Kuki! See ya!