Happy Birthday Black Mesa: Source! On January 1st, 2006, Black Mesa: Source turned one year old. This modification started as a community project in late 2004 and has thus grown to possibly the largest total conversion for Half-Life 2. Reflecting on 2005, we've learnt so much from our fans, Half-Life players and communities from around the globe. We would like to thank everyone for their support during the last year and hope that it continues to grow in 2006.

Alas, December and January were certainly rocky for us, but we're still here and still moving on with development. Following web host troubles, we have finally settled into our new home complete with ample bandwidth and space for us to grow. It's great to say that we won't have bandwidth issues again, as HLGamer has handed us plentiful bandwidth limits. We'd also like to thank everyone who supported us in ModDBs' 'Mods of 2005' competition. It was great to see everyone come out and voice their support for Black Mesa: Source as well as cast their votes. It makes us very proud to work on a project followed by so many. Win or lose, we thank our fans and mod-watchers. That said, the 'Mods of 2005' will be announced live over GameSurge Radio on January 28th. For more information stop by their website.

In administrative news, Black Mesa: Source will here-forth be known as simply 'Black Mesa'. Following our obligations for looking after Valve Software’s intellectual property & trademarks, they kindly asked if we could remove their tagline 'Source' from our in-development name. This is only a minor technicality and will not be affecting the course of development nor should anyone believe otherwise. Our website will still be at ttp://www.blackmesasource.com as it reflects the project and the engine in which it is built upon.

Before we move on to the media, we'd also like to welcome some of the new developers on board. Joining us this time around are Talia, Atrocity and JeanPaul, all in the areas of level design. These individuals will be filling the remaining chapters requiring development on Black Mesa, and they are all very skilled and will certainly bring a new feel to their respective environments. Unfortunately we have had to wave goodbye to some long time members, Andreas and brute_force, they will be missed. On to what everyone has patiently been waiting for - the media!

First we have updates for the ‘Forget About Freeman’ and ‘We've Got Hostiles’ chapters, both with level design by Kester and 2D art by Synthesizer. ‘Forget About Freeman’ features some nice additions and has been adapted based on some constructive criticism received last time around. The same goes for ‘We've Got Hostiles’, sporting a fresh look with custom textures and is now the next Black Mesa topside shot to be released. With the outdoor environments, we really want to take advantage of the power of skyboxes and displacements to make the topside seem gigantic.

Following the updates we have fresh new material for everyone! This update we have decided to release a single shot of the 'Anomalous Materials' lobby, showing off more of the pre-disaster locations around the Black Mesa Research Facility. Level design and 2D art by the experienced Campaignjunkie, ‘Anomalous Materials’ has been shaping up nicely as you will see. The lobby has been designed with the Half-Life environment in mind, with some minor 'source-ifications', as the screenshot will show.

Finally, in level design, and much to everyone's delight, we have more shots of death match levels. Crossfire' is the second multiplayer level to hit the development stage with level design by Atrocity and 2D texture art by Aelroth. Crossfire, along with Stalkyard, has been the focus of multiplayer level design for the past two weeks. Both are looking promising and you can read up on ‘Crossfire's’ development in the Developer .plans forum on our website.

To give everyone some insight into further model and skinning development we have included a render of the .50 calibre Machine Gun. This is the first level of detail model and will be as the player sees it while they utilize it in-game. With sound effects already underway for this weapon of choice, this weapon will have your foes running for cover.

With that said, we are presently seeking additional prop modellers to help continue the steady stream of detail models needed for the Black Mesa environments. Texture artists and skinners are also in demand for our development cycle. If you have the time and the talent, drop a line to jobs@blackmesasource.com with your name, past experience and some examples of your most recent work.

Producers for 60 Minutes have confirmed that the segment about Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, will air this Sunday, January 22, 2006. (Check local listings for times.)
The story, presented by 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, will include coverage from the Dallas CPL Winter 2004 Event and the World Tour Grand Finals in Times Square, New York City.
Any single episode of 60 Minutes attracts a bigger journalism audience than any other journalism outlet in the United States, between 12 to 18 million people.
UPDATE: The 60 minutes website has added a feature story on Fatal1ty with a few video clips.

Updates to Counter-Strike: Source and the Source Engine have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

New Map

• Added cs_militia with High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting

Counter-Strike: Source

• Fixed player name crash exploit


• Fixed rare visibility issue near portals such as doorways and windows


• Fixed a bug that occasionally resulted in doors becoming stuck closed


• Fixed animation issue with shotgun reloads interrupting fire animations


• Fixed bug where footsteps sometimes sounded for crouched players on stairs or slopes (they no longer do)


• Fixed buy menu locking up if keypad Enter is bound to "buymenu"


• Detail props sway in the breeze now


• Underwater observers no longer play drowning damage sounds

Hostage changes

• Hostages can open doors and step up onto ledges/stairs now


• Hostages and Bots obey NAV_MESH_NO_HOSTAGES

Source Engine

• Added FCVAR_CHEAT to some cvars in the materials system

Technoanimal has just released his new version of the Nambu14 skin. Here's an screen shot I took after rigging and exporting. The shot is taken during release sequence.

A screen shot of the Arisaka rifle grenade in action. There's some awesome in game video footage available in the forum, but only for members. ;)

We are still looking for new talent to join the SoG development team.
Positions Open:

• Weapon Modeler


• Environment Modeler


• Player Modeler


• Level Designer


• Sound Technician

Please contact me directly - killerkind@shoresofglory.com

This post is for all of you that think the mod is dead...well it is not. We have been hard at work the past few months. Another news update shall follow later this week with a few exciting things.

*** Added (New features) ***

• Added admin commands to server code. You no longer need adminmod/metamod to give admins basic administration abilities.


• Commands can only be executed if the admin's steam id is located in the admins.txt.

• hia_map - Changes the map


• hia_kick - Kicks the player from the server


• hia_config - Will change the servers default config to this and will execute the config file. Similar to the mapchangecfgfile command currently.


• hia_nopass - removes the password on the server.


• hia_pass - sets a password on the server


• hia_ff 0|1 - Sets friendly fire on and off.


• hia_hostname "hostname" - changes the hostname on the server


• hia_ban Places a 10 minute ban on the player


• hia_say "text" - Same as rcon say command from server.


• hia_help - lists the available commands

• Capped the player speed reducing bunnyhopping and wall strafing.


• Added feature to shake your screen whenever you take damage or come close to grenade blasts.


• Server logs now contain additional information including objective usage, end of round stats, and basic player stats. Logs now conform to the HL Logging Standard.


• Any player whos ping on a server is zero (ie: hosting a listen server) will display the word "Host" instead of their ping.


• Whenever a player is near an objective the words "Objective Found" will appear on the screen. (Sometimes this happens in front of doors and we are addressing that issue)


• All new weapon sounds added


• New map: hi_bunker by kuebel

*** Changed features ***

• Updated the Admins icon on the scoreboard from a @ symbol to the letter A to co-inside with the Dev and Tester icons.


• Changed the background to AndroidXP's released splash screen.


• Improved the hitbox registration (not all hitbox problems are fixed yet and will be addressed in future updates)


• Death animations now work on all models


• Flashbang now takes 1.25 seconds to detonate instead of 2 previously.


• Shotgun damage was reduced due to hitboxes working.


• and much more!

Let me start off by wishing everyone a happy new year, even though it may be a tad bit belated, but happy new year nonetheless!

We've been going through some changes over here at TS. With team members coming and leaving, things can get kind of crazy. Anyway, I bring nothing but good news with this update. I have two new player model renders and some new map screenshots from out latest mapper, Asherak.


There is also another skinner application over in the forums, who looks to be quite promising. I suggest everyone should take a look if you're interested in seeing his skill. Who know, he might be part of the team very soon!

We appreciate all of our eager fans waiting patiently while we finish up the last few remaining items left to do. I have no official release date to offer yet, but we are working hard on making that date be as soon as possible.
For the meantime, here are screenshots of the Brenodi Empire's turrets to hold you over. The engineer can build one for himself (upgrading to level 2 and 3 if he has the Upgrade skill), and the commander can build many while paying resources for each one (his turret upgrades are based on researching the upgrades from the Research Tree). The MG turret attacks players with bullets, and the ML turret attacks vehicles and buildings with homing missiles.

It was two years ago today that we started on a small project for Half-Life, based on The Battlegrounds open-source. To celebrate this time in our history, we're releasing oodles of media for our fans who've stayed with us throughout the time, and for those of you who are just joining us now.

Today we have the three pistols, which we released a few months ago, the Lebel with various touch-ups, the completely re-skinned Luger, and fixed Webley (some faces were messed up during an import, so the barrel looked very skinny). We also have the Stielhandgrenate 1915, Mauser G98, and the three bayonets.

As a special last-minute addition, we have for you a brand-new shot of The Battle of Loos (which was restarted due to Hammer... everybody give it up for Hammer...).

As you see, the team has been hard at work as of late, making sure you get the media you've all been waiting for. Another happy announcement is we now have our gameplay (which you can read more about here) completely coded in and working great. After some great play testing, we all agree that it will be a great way to enjoy Flanders Fields.

Things aren't all sunshine and lollypops, however. We're currently seeking some staff to fill some key jobs here at Flanders Fields, which include the following:

• Second Weapon Animator


• Character Animator


• Texture Artist (Map Textures)


• UVW Unwrapper (Mesher)


• Weapons & Map Model Skinner

If you have one (or more) of these talents, or something else you'd wish to contribute to the team here at Flanders Fields, you can go to our Staff Application and fire one off to us, and we'll get back to you within the day.

We all hope you enjoyed this update, I look forward to seeing you in the Forums and IRC!

Lot's of work has been done in the New Year by our team. First of all, we switched our dedicated server - many thanks to MarcPG for setting everything up!

Of course we've also worked on the game itself. The weapon handling was enhanced a lot and thoroughly tested, it's close to perfect now! Our coder Quak has also fixed some bugs and fine-tuned stuff. More in-depth information about our progress can be obtained at our .plan forum.

The media presented today is about the ingame weapon selection. The vector graphics have been made by t72butt.

The first screenshot shows the view of a player with two weapons and a mission object who just switched to the Colt 1911 while the player in the second screen carries a Colt M4a1 and an outdoor-notebook which is needed for the mission.

Shortly after the equipment is selected, the icons disappear and you can fully merge into the virtual world of HEAT - no HUD or crosshair will distract your experience!