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Nato3 for Rogue Spear
 By Chris "Pie4Foo" Abele

Unlike other FPS games with large fan bases, the Rainbow Six line has always had a limited mod breadth hindering its overall popularity. While there is no doubt that the Rainbow Six line is an intensely exciting series to play in either multiplayer or single player series, the game can get old and dry. The time between Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear was remarkably short, however, the community suffered for quite some time because of Redstorm's reluctance to make the series more mod-intensive. The debate concerning the importance of mods in a gaming community been going forever, and if nothing else, the Rainbow Six line has proven that mods aren't everything. But, I believe that it is a fair statement to say that Redstorm's bread winner has suffered somewhat from the limited modding tag.

Fig. 1. The revised Nato3 title screen

To date, the biggest complaint for mod makers has been their inability to make new (from scratch) levels to supplement the original Redstorm releases. Mod makers can modify game features, such as weapons and skins, to their heart's content, but for most of these makers, this just doesn't cut it. But there are some who have made do without the level-making abilities. There have been a few substantial mods that really maximized the use of the limited modding capabilities of Rainbow Six. By far the most well know series has been the NATO series produced by the Alliance of Rainbow Six Mod Makers or ARMM. Their first edition of NATO, created in the very first few months of Rainbow Six, was if nothing else an example of what could be done. They successfully capitalized on the desire of gamers to have more guns in the Rainbow Six engine and (more importantly in my opinion) made the guns based on their real-world counterparts. No BFG1000s in this gun pack - only real guns, created by guys who knew what they were talking about (I'll discuss their particular talents in a bit).

As much as the first edition of NATO was a good start, there was much more to be done. Stability issues plagued the first edition, and the creators realized how much more could be accomplished by taking a bit longer. So they took the next six months to produce the second edition of NATO, released in March of 1999. This edition, known as NATO 2 was a spectacular success, forever sealing the names of ARMM and NATO in the annals of Rainbow Six history. This fairly sizeable mod was armed with literally hundreds of guns. The guns all behaved differently, included sounds, and offered some texture remodeling. Its success was sealed by the addition of official Microsoft Gaming Zone rooms which were specifically designated for the use of the NATO 2 mod. Only one other mod was ever able to get an official Zone room; but NATO 2 always had more. Because of this free advertising the mod is considered by most people to be one of the best mods for Rainbow Six ever.

Fig. 2. The "Predator" super machine gun.