It has been more than two years since this modification started, and the development team has come a far way in learning new skills and putting their potential to academic use by developing this free online voluntary project known as MechMod.

Back then, we were an eager team anxious to create a modification and we succeeded where a stupendous majority of other mods failed; we released a playable version with thousands of downloads counted. However, as time has moved on, many of our developers have progressed into a more demanding routine with college and jobs. Since a majority of our development team is now busy with such activities, the MechMod project is being closed down so that we may concentrate on that which is more important for prospective students of the games development industry such as ourselves. It has been a wonderful ride, and we have learnt many things along the way, but it is time for us to focus our energies elsewhere. It has been an absolute pleasure working on this project, and the entire development team shares the same sentiment.

I would like to thank the hundreds of people who have supported this project and stuck with us from start till end. Although probably anonymously, I am sure we will meet again in the games industry somewhere and somehow.

Sincere regards,

-grOOvy, Gaurav Verma.

This is my first time using the new news system, so apologies in advance in case this doesn't come out right :).

First of all, Sven Co-op v3.0 is now available on Vapour - an application for installing mods and keeping them updated (similar to Steam, but free to all mod authors). The Sven Co-op build on there has been updated with the most recent HLSP support files from the Files page, as well as a new Steam icon. Check it out at www.vapour-online.com! Though we still recommend using the official SC executable for first-time installations due to some install complexities (registry entries for the MP3 editor and such), it's handy for keeping Sven Co-op up-to-date, repairing corrupted installations, etc.

Just one word of warning: If you have newer versions of any of the original 3.0 files (custom models or ripented versions of maps, for example), using the "Validate Mod" option (and possibly "Update" as well) will overwrite them with the default versions.

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Important notes for people installing Sven Co-op for the first time via Vapour:

• If you want to play the original Half-Life storyline maps in Sven Co-op, you need to run the \\SvenCoop\\hlsp_lan.bat on the server machine to install support for these maps. If you need to uninstall HLSP support for extra disk space, use hlsp_support_REMOVE.bat.


• The Vapour installation of Sven Co-op comes with high-definition content enabled by default. If you're getting low framerates, run the Content-LowDef.bat file found in your SvenCoop\\ directory. (You can use Content-HighDef.bat to switch back if desired).


• Run SvenCoop\\mp3list_generator.exe and browse to the location of your SvenCoop\\mp3.txt file to add MP3s to your Sven Co-op playlist. There's an example MP3 in SvenCoop\\MP3\\

vIf for any reason you happen to be playing on a non-Steam version of Half-Life, run sc_files_WON.bat.

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In the last news post, Sniper posted a screenshot as a clue to a previously unannounced feature in 3.5. As many of you guessed, the feature is the ability for players, allied NPCs, and enemies to be revived from (near) death" (similarly to the way Alien Slaves revive each other in 3.0).

Medic grunts can revive both players and NPCs. I've been testing it in Osprey, and it makes things pretty interesting -- The rush to kill a medic before he finishes reviving an enemy HWGrunt, for example.

Players can revive each other as well using the Medkit's alternate fire mode. It uses 50 medkit ammo, and revives players at half-health.

Here are a couple of screenshots from 3.5 internal testing, by the way. The first shows an undocumented feature (read: bug) that we thought was pretty funny: Sven Co-op kung fu. Sadly, this has since been fixed, and will not be in the final release :).

The next three shots show a player-allied Tor running around on Osprey (...as well as a glitch or two). He used one of his powers to dynamically teleport in the Alien Grunts you see in the background.


We're still looking for someone to finish up a few of Tor's animations, by the way... if you have 3DSMax and are interested in helping, please send Sniper an e-mail with details.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you RnL fans out there. Today we would like show off some screens of St. Marie Dumont, the master work of our newest mapper Toni Kreska.


You may have noticed the lack of media in the past few months; however rest assured that the team has been hard at work making RnL better and better. The entire team has been sweating night and day to bring RnL to a point where we see it fit to release more media. Geoff and Naseem have been working tirelessly to finish up the player and weapons animations. Geoff has really put in the overtime this past week completing and polishing the M1 Garand, M1A1 Thompson, and K-98. Ryan and Valerie have recently got our new arms and hand models in game as well as finishing up the soldier gear. Stefan has been finishing up the player model attachments in addition to adding to St. Come Dumont.
And in addition congratulations to Brian who has been hired by Terminal Reality and to Rick, who is getting married on the 26th.

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 Announced, Coming To Steam

Tripwire Interactive today announced a new World War II PC game, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45. Tripwire will deliver its award-winning first person shooter via Steam, Valve's online content delivery system. The original Red Orchestra won Nvidia's "$1,000,000 Make Something Unreal" contest. Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is a standalone follow-up, built on Epic's Unreal 2.5 EngineTM, that introduces new gameplay and features.

Red Orchestra lets players choose from 28 infantry weapons or crew one of 14 different fully-realised vehicles on the Russian Front between 1941-45. The combination of roles across more than one dozen maps, based on real-world locations and battles, allows Red Orchestra to finally achieve its goal of delivering a full first-person, WWII combat simulation.

In its Christmas 2005 issue, PC Gamer UK touts that Red Orchestra is "showing awesome potential" and that "We already knew the mod was genius, but this is even better" as part of its two-page preview of RO: O41-45.

"Digital content delivery is the future of gaming, and we are very excited to be a part of that future," said Tripwire Interactive President John Gibson. "Working with Valve to release the game over Steam allows Tripwire to remain independent and keep control of the games content and development. This allows Tripwire to continue to offer our fans the same uncompromising level of realism, authenticity, and gameplay they have come to expect from Red Orchestra while continuing to innovate and push the boundaries of the military FPS and simulation genres."

"We're pleased to have the winner of the 'Make Something Unreal' mod tournament bringing their full-fledged game to market on Steam," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "This shows that a talented and passionate group of developers can take a game from concept to public distribution outside of the traditional publishing and funding model and deliver it to over 6 million customers."

Watch for information on the Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 release date on Steam. Further details will be made available on www.redorchestragame.com and www.steampowered.com over the coming weeks and months.

For further information, please contact pr@tripwireinteractive.com

Feel the iron grip of the Rahmos squeeze ever tighter as the progress continues towards our first release! Ome Vince has been on a whirlwind modeling frenzy and today we’ve got a few map elements to showcase. Used at construction and demolition sites all over Rahmos, the Miloshkev Industries Heavy Prime Mover and Construction Claw vehicles make up a significant part of Rahmos’ urban renewal machine force. The Heavy Prime Mover is a multipurpose vehicle usually used for hauling heavy loads around unfinished surfaces either internally or towed, and is also frequently used as a mobile power generator. The Construction Claw, rather euphemistically named, is more of a demolition vehicle than anything else, using its high power claw and arm to either carefully dismantle or forcibly demolish anything in the way of Rahmos progress.

And, a bit of humor! Gather ‘round children, it’s story time! Once upon a time, in the city of Messos, there was a great and wonderful bounty of vodka, passed from generation to generation by Resistance family after Resistance family. Of course, they weren’t Resistance back then, but this is beside the point. They lived only to protect the Vodka from those who would do it ill! Legend of this vodka reached the ears of a Rahmos light tank commander one fateful afternoon, and he took it upon himself to liberate the precious substance from its ignorant caretakers. It didn’t take long for him to find the house it was in, and with a few well-aimed fragmentation rounds from his tank’s gun, he was able to convince the survivors to surrender the glorious motherlode of alcoholic bliss. Immensely proud of his success, he and his crew celebrated in the traditional Rahmos fashion: drink vodka! They drank and sang and basically made superb asses of themselves as they loaded the liberated goods into their tank and drove back towards the Rahmos headquarters where they would surely be greeted with medals and promotions. Unfortunately, the vodka never reached the Rahmos headquarters. Too late, the tank commander learned that his driver was a lightweight drinker! Too late, the tank commander discovered he wasn’t on a main road! Too late, the tank commander discovered his vehicle wasn’t capable of amphibious operations or flight! But, not too late to take one last drink before the commander and his entire crew were drowned as their tank fell off an embankment and upsidedown into the river. It’s said that the tank remains there to this day, the vodka still within. Hey, at least the commander and crew died happy eh?

Before we serve dessert, please welcome Blunkka to the FF art team. He and MrBeefy are both working hard to make sure the FF map designers have all the textures they need.

FriedBunny, while chomping away on his carrots, has created a splendid new forum skin for the Fortress Forever forums. Hope you like it!

And now for something completely different: two modelers each with twelve arms! (I bet those will come in handy...)

Our modelers have taken it upon themselves to enroll in several cooking classes. They've required remarkably few attempts, but Bile and Fooley_Cooley together have baked up a batch of delectable treats. We've found Fooley_Cooley's "RPG Tiramisu" to be pleasantly surprising, but hardly delicate (even though unskinned!).

It's our recommendation that Bile's "Nailgun Tart" be served with coffee. Also, the soon-to-be-metallic crust is simply to-die-for.

Lastly, Bile's "SuperNailgun Jubilee" has been receiving great reviews. Firing out savory scraps at an astonishing rate, the SuperNailgun Jubilee is a dish for the whole family to enjoy.

Check out our media section for a larger menu of Fortress Forever snacks.

The IMI Micro Uzi, modeled by Ecks, won this poll on what weapon our community would like to see most. So here it is!

Last time we demonstrated how to get the power lines on the map canal working, but what does one need them for?
Well, the goal is to submit top-secret data from a laptop via radio to your headquarters, but this radio needs power. You can see the the powerlines, the radio and the notebook on the screenshot below.
Of course the enemy team will try to prevent this from happening because the data provides proof for their illegal activities. The only way to get rid of it once and for all is to crush the laptop with the junkpress, shown in the last news.

Our sounddesigner airon is currently recording and mastering breathing sounds for our stamina system which will be used instead of (unrealistic) graphics on the players HUD. The whole team is looking forward to get this unique feature of HEAT working!

We are looking for a 2d-vectorgraphic artist, for more information check our forum, please.

Here it is - the Colt 1911, modeled by Ecks. A poll in our forums decided which of the finished weapons you'd like to see most. We got another poll for next week, but for now take a look at this baby:

In the last news, we showed you where to refill a gascanister on Vaarscha's map called canal. Depending on your team, you'll have to use the gas.
Either you can fuel a gas generator which supports the power lines who do power another important object - and a lamp, as seen in the first screenshot. However the other team will use the gas to enable the crushing power of a junkpress, seen in the second screenshot.

Stay tuned for next week when we will reveal more details about the mission!

That's right! We are back and hard at work. I would like to answer the main question I've been getting: "Why is the site inactive?". Well, we have been hard at work reforming RT to what we see as the most attainable and best mod possible. During that time we put the media and site updates on hold and focuses on the mod at hand. After weeks of hard work we are back with a media update and some announcements.

Rogue Threat Media is now again viewable, this time with 34 pieces of new media with this update.
Rogue Threat will be released in episodes. This means we will have 6 releases of Rogue Threat. Each release of RT will have its 2 part story included, so Story A will be released alongside Story B. We feel this is the best way to get polished, fun, playable content out to the player in the most timely manner.
Weapons page has been updated with all the weapons that will be included with RT. Looks like a lot right? Well with our branching system we will reveal later, all those weapons will add replay value.
Are you a Half Life 2 site? Do you want to do an interview with Rogue Threat? Contact us!

Rogue Threat is looking for more team members, and is in extreme need of:

• Experienced Programmers


• Character Modeling/Texturing


• Animation


• Model/Weapon Texturing


• Weapon/Character UV Wrapping


• Highly Experienced Half-Life 2 Mappers


• Please contact us ASAP if you want to help or know someone who can help!

We will update each Saturday with more information, so check us out each week and visit the forums and post about your feelings on RT! Don't forget to tell your friends about Rogue Threat.