Saturday, 11 December 2004
Source: Snow War
We are getting closer to the release each day. We have already fixed many bugs, but we still need to do the final checks to make sure it will work.I updated the site with new FAQ section. It containts some questions that were asked many times in IRC and in forums, and also some that will probably be asked many times in the future. So if you have a problem, please take a look at the FAQ. I will update it when necessary, and if you have some questions that you think should be there, just post them on our forums and I will look at them.
Source: Nuclear Dreams
At last, we have our new site almost done. The design was done by Poynter and we really appreciate your hard work. All we need to do now is add the actual content. Now, for the actual mod, we've actually started production and we also have some new stuff being created for your viewing pleasure soon! We have got a dozen new members too. We'll announce them real soon.Please, keep an eye on this page for update because we're going to blow your minds with this modification!
Source: Hostile Waters
The first (and perhaps largest) challenge we are faced with in recreating Hostile Waters is how to fit it all in. The game's islands reached incredible size, taking several minutes to cross even while piloting helicopters. Scaling the game world down is the obvious solution but there is a limit to how big a single brush can be (the required skybox in this case) before compile times rocket and the game crashes while trying to load it. We are looking at small scale maps - very small indeed. This itself presents problems. Although making the game behave right isn't one of them mapping on this scale is going to be very fiddly and quite restrictive. Take for instance the now-relevant size of a 'unit' - each object must rest on the usually tiny grid formed by these units and unfortunately with maps as small-scale as Hostile's they are quite noticeable.Fortunately making islands is significantly different from making standard Source maps. They are, more or less, large displacements surrounded by a water brush with props running around on them plus the odd trigger to keep things moving; thus the apparent modeler overkill you can see on the Team page. Past the technical problems making maps is easy, and more importantly fun. Slap down some models and you've instantly got a working island to beat the Cabal down on.But there's a very important stage I've missed out which is making the island's terrain, or displacement geometry. It's easy too but most certainly not fun: time consuming and (at least with this build of Hammer) frustrating are better words to describe it; another issue is that simply making one displacement for your island results in a spectacularly low number of manipulation points (for more information on displacement geometry, see the excellent Snark Pit tutorials).The solution we have arrived at at this early stage is a tile system. A prefab 512x512 displacement with a high-detail texture that can be inserted as is required, resized to cover large, open, flat areas, and even be turned into an entity. We also hope to see the eventual expansion of the tile system into a fully-fledged tileset, with a large number of designs that along with the sew command can be used to easily and quickly build an acceptable map for a beginner or a first draft for a pro. For now, if there is anyone interested enough at this early stage, we have provided the prefab for download. For information on inserting prefabs, please see the Source SDK Documentation.
Source: GHOST OPs
Heres the deal. This weekend, we plan on making a team release, with the final alpha build, so the mappers can wrap up there maps, and get them tweaked for players. Right now, the maps are looking a bit scarce, we do need more mappers, but we are going to use what we got now, which are some good quality maps.Next weekend, we will release the alpha to the public alpha test team. These members will be given access to the alpha bugs forum, to report anything they see wrong, needs to be changed, suggestions, tweaks, etc. This we will work on before final release to public, as well as getting more maps if we can.Interested in mapping for ghost? contact crackerjack in forums, and get with him to make maps for ghost, we def need the help. Look forward to play ghost with you guys, its coming soon.Also, the hl2 thing. We are building a new game, Ghost2, which will be for hl2 engine. This game will be seperate from ghost, it will be what we had orginally wanted ghost to be, that wasnt possible in the hl1 engine. It also will not take as long as ghost did. As far as a port from hl1 to hl2, we dont know yet. Depends on the process and if we think its worth it. We will see. for now, its concentrating on what we promised the public, and thats ghost. I know ive said it a thousand times guys, but i promise, soon. just be patient.
Source: First Moon
Alright, after long month we have decided to post another update, just to tell you that we aren´t sleeping. With full Source SDK out, we can finally see our hard-worked models and textures in the engine. It looks damn good! But lets get back to this update. Besides one artwork we are also showing up First Moon theme song, which was created by talented musician Dysmusax. You don´t believe? Get into Download section and listen for yourself... We are also working on a new storyline and of course maps, so stay tuned!
Source: HL2 FilesReleated: Burning Blades
In a future world, the human race is in a battle to survive. The story will be your destiny, and you will either conquer or fail. You will have to save the world, and yourself before the game is over before the world is consumed by Absolute Evil. Combining the Classic Feel Of Diablo 2, The Open World of Morrowind III: Elder Scrolls, and the classic First Person Shooter of Half life 1 and 2. Comes Absolute Evil, A classic story of Good Vs Evil, and the main charater coming of age and learning how to defeat the evil. Burning Blades is looking for staff, so head on over to the board and check it out. Additonal Information about Absolute Evil is on the Board. The Board can be found here: http://burningblades.hl2files.com/phpBB/index.php
Source: modDBRelated: Ground Zero
Welcome back to Ground Zero! We've got a lot of news to spread, since we've finally been able to start work. First off, we've finalized the primary game mode. As we all know, a game is only good if it's fun. Our goal is to produce fast-paced, vehicle-oriented combat with multiple teams. With that in mind, we've created a unique form of capture the flag which strips out all the slow and frustrating elements of classic CTF. We urge you to read our specifications document to learn more: http://groundzeromod.com/specifications.doc Also in that document is a final listing of all weapons, classes and upgrades available to players. Take a peek at the upgrade model -- I think you'll agree it's going to be fun. Our sterling coding team is hard at work. LordSpaz would like to give a shout-out to all the homies at Valve for their excellent job on the SDK. He's completely stripped down their code and begun building GZ from the ground up. In fact, he successfully compiled the first version of Ground Zero last night. Meanwhile, it's come to our attention that we need some help with graphics. I've posted a few position listings on our website, at http://www.groundzeromod.com/index.php?page=positions. It's easy stuff, and a good opportunity to work with a great team. That's all for now. Be sure to check out our website at http://www.groundzeromod.com for updates and information!
Source: HalfLife2.net / CS NationJess Cliffe from Valve has released two great looking screenshots of the Counter-Strike: Source version of the map DE_Prodigy at the forums of Steam:
Also CS Nation got two exclusive screens of the map from Jess Cliffe, which you can check out here.
