Release isn't that far away now, and to keep you guys drooling in anticipation we're going to throw another video your way. This time showing off the Ice elemental aspect of our magic system. Within this video you'll notice a couple other things, chief among them is our bot support. Anywyas, here it is:

At this time we'd also like to to release the dedicated server files for anyone interested in getting their own server up. For anyone new to running a dedicated server, there's also some helpful how-to files included to get you started. Grab the server files for Kingdoms Collide here on ModDB and get your server setup for release!

Download Kingdoms Collide Beta Server

Last but not least, we've setup an IRC chat over on the Gamesurge network. It's looking a little sparse right now since it's brand new, so stop by if you want to celebrate the first release of Kingdom Collide. Those in IRC will have first access to the client files, so come join #KingdomsCollide on the Gamesurge network.

Today there is an update which will automatically update with Steam.

Here is the changelog for this update:

QUOTE
Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with clients crashing randomly in some instances of a new round starting
• Fixed Skirmisher's using their lunge special getting stunned by kegs and becoming frozen
• Fixed Longbow, Javelin, and Throwing Axes being unable to start charging in water

Additions

• Added a hud display to territory gamemode that appears when you are in a territory
• Net Graph panel now displays loss and choke in every mode
• Added audio feedback to the skirmisher reload animations
• Improved keg detonation sound effects

Fort Changes

• New soundscapes

Temple Changes

• New soundscapes

Sandstorm Changes

• New soundscapes

Localization Changes

• Updates to the Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese translations
• Improved support for Cryillic Alphabet in our fonts used by Russian translation

The Bren is a great weapon for providing heavy support fire on the move but its small magazine size and accuracy doesn’t lend itself to prolonged periods of defence. This is where the MG34 excels.

As I said last month, we plan to have more and more videos up in the coming weeks and months in the build up to release. This first video shows a bit of rifle action, however I’m a rubbish rifle shot so take that into consideration.

Next we have some footage of the MG34 providing forward support for the German advance on haj_mercury, note however haj_mercury is heavily WIP:

Other aspects of the mod have progressed well over the last month as well, with SteveUK implementing numerous minor yet essential features, such as team specific blocking entities giving warnings as to why you are being stopped. This has hugely cut down on the amount of “wtf?” reports we’ve been getting from our testers as now you have some clear visual feedback on why you are being stopped. Other minor stuff includes better implementation of the vaulting and deploy systems along with relevant icons to indicate whether you can or cannot use the ability. Again this cuts down on the “wtf, why can’t I vault?” reports.

Jed has been scratching his head over our helmet system and is in the final stages of implementing a new revised system. Originally the helmets were included in the model and toggled via a model group, a simple but effective system. However with more and more helmets being added it was getting annoying have to recompile the player model every time a new helmet model or helmet skin was added. Now the models are attached to the player models in realtime and can be shot/blown off in a more realistic fashion. This also allows a much easier implementation and the possibility for future customisation.

mXed has been busy at work with his college work which has been…working on HaJ. He managed to wrangle one of his self directed study modules to essentially be for HaJ and has knocked out a ton of new content in a short space of time. We don’t think anything of it will be in 1.0 but we can’t be sure (hence the lack of details here to minimise moaning when it doesn’t turn up). When it does arrive however it will certainly give you more toys to kill people with and other player models to use.

Map wise both myself and surgeon have been hard at work finalising all our maps for 1.0 which includes the ever tedious clipping stage. Some of the testers have been very sneaky and been getting out the maps so we’ve fully clipped the maps to stop that happening.

More next month.

Hey, here are 2 exclusive pics of Jen4's awesome work, he is the official modeler for Smod Trooper (and the only one)

Weapons Modeling

The Heavy Machine Gun

and the Shotgun :

Level Design

HLFallout recently had the privilege of interviewing Hal Robbins, the voice talent behind Dr. Kleiner in the Half-Life series. Here is a snippet of that conversation:

HLFallout.net: What were your favourite scenes in Half-Life and Half-Life 2?

Hal: The original catastrophe, the opening of the Rift in the first game, is one. The player must precipitate it to start the action rolling. Of course, I maintain a soft spot (in my head?) for all scenes in following iterations with Lamarr, beloved domesticated headcrab.

HLFallout.net: So, what does Gordon Freeman sound like?

Hal: Dry, I'd say. Dry and laconic. A man of few words—the strong, silent type. Think Gary Cooper. But Dr. Kleiner, to be just, has never had the opportunity, in the world of the game, to socialize with Gordon in "relaxed" everyday surroundings.

It should be remembered that before the action depicted in the first game, at MIT Dr. Kleiner was one of Gordon Freeman's professors, and even initially recommended him to Black Mesa's AM (Anomalous Materials) team. In that earlier academic setting, however, Kleiner knew the wunderkind Freeman chiefly through his brilliant post-graduate work, not as a drinking buddy.

Check out the rest at HLFallout.

Yesterday, we announced that Steam and all our Source engine games will be coming to the Mac. Sound too good to be true? Well, guess what: It is true! There are no catches! Sometimes life actually works like that. The bad news is that we've just truth bombed your hard-earned lie detector back to the stone age, and you'll probably lose all your money to the next international lottery scam that sneaks through your spam filter. Still, Steam on the Mac!

Since we're getting a lot of email asking the same basic questions, we figured we'd just answer them here:

Q: I own TF2 on the PC. Do I have to buy it again on the Mac?
A: No. If you own TF2 on the PC, you own TF2 on the Mac (and vice versa). You don't have to buy the game twice. In addition, the Steam Cloud will automatically propagate your configuration settings and custom sprays to your Mac for you.

Q: Is it just some crappy emulated version of TF2?
A: No! Also: How dare you! Mac users aren't getting a crappy emulated version of the game. TF2 will run natively on OSX, like an actual big boy game for adults.

Q: Hmm, that all sounds pretty good. But I'll bet I can't play with my friends who own Macs if I'm on my PC.
A: Mac and PC users will all play together, on the same servers. We're not creating two separate universes. We're all going to be one big, happy family with guns locked in a bloody, never-ending struggle for cap points.

Valve announced on Monday that Steam, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be coming to the Mac in April.  This statement has left me stunned, unclean, and queasy.  In 1995 when Windows 95 came out I got my first PC after having Macs since I was born in 80’s.  From that point on in my life, I have never looked back at the Mac.  From a gaming standpoint, PC’s rule over all else that is gaming.  I understand the allure of Console games, but console hardware becomes old and outdated fast.  Now I understand that some Macs now have decent graphics cards and that there is OpenGL which is used in graphic and video applications like After Effects.  There is a reason why Valve originally dropped OpenGL support as soon as they could.  Only in recent years has Open GL been actively worked on since the late nineties.  This decade of OpenGL silence could relapse just as quickly as the first.  OpenGL is "OK" for some games but for most you need the power of Direct X and the graphics cards that make in roar.

While I understand that Valve moving their entire catalog over to the dark side is a good way to make money, it will leave a new generation of gamers without the ability to play most third party modifications.  According to ModDB, there are over two-hundred twenty released mods for Half-Life and over two-hundred and ninety mods for Half-Life 2 not to mention the troves of mods not listed on the site you are looking at upwards of seven hundred modifications for the Half-Life series.  Most of these will never the light of day on Apple Hardware (well unless they run boot camp).  Take for instance Science and Industry, one of the oldest Half-Life mods still around and still played at least every week.  While it still has most of the developers around, it is highly unlikely that it will ever be ported over to the Mac.  Third-party modifications are the life-blood that keeps the Half-Life franchise alive and thriving.  By alienating these older mods and most current ones, Valve is essentially blocking new gamers from a part of Half-Life’s core history and heritage.  For those who don’t know, Counter-Strike was a third party mod that got purchased by valve.  I know understand that there are workarounds for this, but it is not supported and still requires installing windows or using Darwine or crossover.

Many like the simplicity of Apple’s design with their hardware; I am not here to debate that their designs are clean and elegant.  But this clean philosophy has lead simplifying even the most basic of hardware…the mouse.  Apple’s latest mouse the "magic mouse" has ONLY ONE DAMN BUTTON (It’s actually not a physical button). Now while having one button may be fine for casual computing such as visiting YouTube or editing documents in Microsoft Word, it is not conducive for gaming applications.  All first person shooters require you to have at least two buttons plus a scroll wheel.  I know that command + click is the same as a right click but with your fingers already on W, A, S, D, shift, and space, you will need a sixth finger to just use the keyboard.  This will mean that most people purchasing these games will have to go out and purchase a new Mouse (Ironic since one of the most popular mice for the Mac is from Microsoft).

Apple’s mentality of "One size fits all" cannot coincide with most gamers’ personality of tinkering and exploring the unknown.  Apple’s culture is that of control and restriction.  If you even breathe a though of not liking a Mac or want change, you are immediately slapped down by incessant Mac Fanboys and Fangirls.  Even if you present a logical argument and undisputable facts, these people have been brainwashed by one of the most effective cults and advertisement companies of the twenty-first century.

Back to what I said about some Macs have decent hardware but most systems have low end mobile processors installed which will barely run these games.  For their price point, you are looking at spending more money on an already overpriced system to get decent results

On a lighter note, Macs should be able to support server plug in such as MetaMod and AdminMod since OSX is built off of a Linux core.  This I feel would be the best position for OSX.  An easy to install and administrate dedicated server.

March 8, 2010 - Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac.

Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows."

Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. "Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."

Support for the Mac in Source and Steamworks is available to third parties immediately. Interested developers should contact Jason Holtman at jasonh@valvesoftware.com. 

About Steam

The leading online service for games and digital entertainment, Steam delivers new releases and online services to over 25 million gamers around the world. For more information, please visit www.steampowered.com

About Steamworks

The Steamworks suite of publishing and development tools include product key authentication, copy protection, auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking, anti-cheat technology, and more. The features and services available in Steamworks are offered free of charge and may be used for both electronic and tangible versions of games. For more information, please visit www.steampowered.com/steamworks

After Valve's series of teaser images, it's now been revealed that their upcoming sequel Portal 2 will also be coming to the Mac. The above image comes from a series of scans from the latest issue of Gameinformer magazine which carries a cover story about the much anticipated sequel.