We're plugging away at the Engineer update. He's an interesting class to work on, because he creates a larger footprint in the game than any other class. This means we have a lot of options to work with, and the resulting set of ideas is truly daunting. Since we've already built and playtested some things that haven't worked out (with no false modesty, I think we've mastered the art of rapidly making things that aren't fun), we thought it might be interesting to give you some of our failed experiments.

The first was a new building internally known as the Repair Node. We gave Engineers the ability to replace any current building (teleporter entrances and exits were considered one building for this) with the Repair Node instead.

While deployed, the Repair Node would draw from a pool of energy to fix damage to nearby buildings. When the node ran out of energy, it would stop repairing and regenerate up to full, creating a window of opportunity for the attackers. When sapped, the Repair Node's repair function was disabled for the duration of the sap.

The goal of the Repair Node was to solve a perceived problem in the Engineer's play experience: always having to be tied to your base. The Engineer often has little to do after his base is built and fully upgraded except wait for the inevitable Spy sapper attempt, or for the battlefront to reach the base. The Repair Node was meant to buy the Engineer time if he wanted to range out to gather metal or harass the enemy with his shotgun.

This is usually how we approach our game design: Identify a problem, then discuss the ways it could be solved. Our experience told us that even when the Engineer didn't feel immediate pressure, he still couldn't range out away from his base. If a Spy, Soldier, or Demoman found the base unguarded, it didn't take long to blow up. The further away an Engineer was, the fewer buildings he would be able to save from sapping. We also felt that the Engineer invested a lot of up-front work to establish bases that were very easily destroyed. Thus the repair node was born.

Play-testing the Repair Node showed us one expected, and two (somewhat) unexpected, outcomes. The expected outcome was that bases were far harder to destroy, and turtling became a super effective strategy. Fortunately, this is the kind of problem that can be attacked by turning the correct game design knob, and the Repair Node had a lot of available knobs. We could lower the rate of repair, lower the amount of repair energy, lengthen the vulnerable period, and so forth. We tried several options. One change we made was to add diminishing returns so that two Repair Nodes working together were less than perfectly efficient, and adding a third didn't really help at all.

Despite the design choices we had available, we were never really able to get the Repair Node to feel balanced for the attacking team. TF2 maps tend to be designed with very specific predicted Sentry placement locations and length of Sentry survivability. The Repair Node distorted old favorite maps and made testing new ones more difficult by exaggerating intentional choke points and creating new choke points where they didn't previously exist.

The first unexpected outcome of the Repair Node was the team realizing just how valuable the Dispenser and Teleporter were to so many aspects of game pacing. If the Engineer isn't able to build a Dispenser, his team loses the support power that the Dispenser provides. In most games Dispensers are ubiquitous. You don't really realize what you've lost until you've lost it. Fewer Dispensers had the effect of slowing attacking teams down in a variety of ways: Teams were more fragile, metal was harder to get to the front lines, and team rally points were harder to define.

An Engineer who took a Repair Node instead of a Teleporter put his team in an even less viable position. The pacing of many maps became completely broken without Teleporters in play. Teams weren't able to push as effectively and the lines of battle moved closer to the spawn points. This lack of flexibility meant that attackers weren't able to hold gains and matches took longer to complete.

The second unexpected outcome was downstream from the first. Teams perceived Engineers with Repair Nodes as less "friendly", specifically because they weren't building Dispensers or Teleporters. In retrospect, older data at our disposal should have known this would happen. Prior to TF2's release, the Medic had weaponry that was significantly more powerful, leading to highly skilled players playing Medic as a purely combat class. Aside from the balance issues this created, it also resulted in a Medic that wasn't interested in healing anyone, which didn't typically sit well with his teammates. Their perception was that healing is the Medic's job. Medics who didn't do that weren't perceived to be team players -- an identical reaction to Engineers refusing to build Dispensers and/or Teleporters. Like many design exercises we didn't learn what to do next so much as what NOT to do.

Lesson 1: The problem of the Engineer being tied to his base still exists, but the Repair Node was too heavy-handed a solution. If we solve this problem in the future, it will have to be in a way that doesn't distort the existing balance between attackers and defensive choke points.
Lesson 2: The Dispenser and Teleporter are really good. We already knew this, but we didn't know that they were really, really good. Encouraging Engineers to either avoid building them entirely, or to build them in weird ways, broke the game's pacing immediately. New buildings in the Engineer update will probably take the form of upgrades, or entirely new choices alongside the old buildings, instead of replacements.

These may seem like obvious lessons, but knowing for certain why a particular idea doesn't work can often be as valuable as an idea that does. This process highlighted specifically where and why the Engineer is valuable, and how even slightly altering this value can have game-shattering implications.

Ultimately, the Repair Node was cut because it made the game more of a grind. While it definitely made it less stressful to manage a base as an Engineer, it wasn't fun. The Engineer gained a little bit of fun, but nearly everyone else in the match suffered as a result.

Updates to Portal have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.

Portal

• Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations

A Steam client update is now available. To apply the update, click the File menu inside of Steam and then select "Check for Steam Client Updates...". The specific changes include:

Steam Client

• Fixed not always decrypting a game on launch

• Really fixed offline mode not always working

• Fixed cases where a game would stop downloading for no reason
  

After a brief moment of "community quiet time" we are back with a new Community Update.

We are aware that a lot of you have been wanting to play Orion online - I temporarily took down the servers until we release Beta 1.2 - the server crashing was annoying and we are currently doing plenty of server testing on the new patch. Rest assured - when the new beta releases - it will be much more polished and a much improved over-all experience. We apologize - please bare with us, we are getting close! Plus we have plenty of announcements to make in the next coming weeks, so it's not all that bad!

ORION - SOURCE MULTIPLAYER BETA v1.2 PATCH INFORMATION

We have A LOT going on behind the developer doors, and one of these projects is the much anticipated (and slightly delayed) Orion Source Multiplayer Beta 1.2 release! We have been going back and testing and making sure we fix that horrendous server crash bug as well as other bugs. We're currently nearing the completion status for v1.2 - just a few more bugs to squash.

We've added plenty of new content into the Orion Source Multiplayer Beta 1.2 Beta. We've added 4 new environments, over 30 fixes, a new grenade model, an updated flag model, and plenty of other upgrades and updates.

Over the next couple of weeks we are going to do a Beta 1.2 showcase as we remove the remaining bugs and put Beta 1.2 through rigorous amounts of beta testing.

CTF_MYST

For this update we are going to focus on CTF_MYST. This is the most lush and beautiful map in Orion to date. It features plenty of foliage, beautiful water, clear skies and an amazing map layout. Not only do we have expansive outdoor portions of the map, but the bases are the biggest seen in an Orion level. There are plenty of routes and paths to each objective and location - so we are going to be seeing some very interesting and unique gameplay on this environment.

CTF_MYST - VIDEO RUN-THROUGH

I've also put together a quick video walk through of CTF_MYST to give you a better idea. It doesn't have any nice after effects of video cutting - so take it for what it's worth ;)

CTF_MYST - Quick Run-through! video - Orion Mod for Half-Life 2 - Mod DB

Welcome to the March 10 News

We're into the 3rd month of this year already. The Winter Olympics in Vancouver is under way, 2 natural disasters have hit poorer countries and the political scandals in the UK just keep on coming. So yes, it has been quite eventful so far, just imagine what is to come during the rest of the year.

Next month the news will be changing slightly. You will still get your monthly news but we will be having a small visual change and also will be debuting a new feature where a developer each month will talk about their role within the mod team, what they have done and what they are currently working on. We feel this will give you a better insight into the development process and how we work as a team.

So without further ado, let's begin with the media section.

Firstly, Furling has been doing some major work on his Temple map, which is loosely based on the Temple map featured in SGTC1 and our first BETA.

Secondly, Noodles has been working on our weapon models and animations churning a high volume out at very high quality. We've got some screenshots of the weapons for you so you can see what they look like.

Finally, Noodles has also been working on his Mangrove map adding some unique and quite intriguing features, one being The Grumpy Tree which I'm sure Noodles will explain in more detail in his Developer Blog in the coming months.

Anyway, that's all we have for this month. Hope you have enjoyed seeing what we have been working on and we look forward to seeing you again next month.

The Stargate Legacy Team

Well hello there NMRIH fans, I heard you guys like updates. Well this is more of an announcement than an update though it could go both ways. (insert sexual innuendo)

News

Not much to report other than the weekly update schedule will be changing. We will now be doing monthly updates instead of weekly. There are a few reasons for this yet I will not list them here although I may post in my dev log. For those of you wondering about our "Community Creativity Contest & Prizes" winners will be announced when our audio update is released. (March 1st or 3rd) Now we have been doing a bit of in game testeting recently and if you listened to our audio update I said we would have a video out soon. So here it is our second video shot during some of our play tests:

Jobs

We are constantly looking for new blood to join the team though specifically we are looking for a Character Animator & Sound Artist at the moment. So if you have experience we would love to have you on the team.

Character Animator Requirements:

• Proficient in XSI. (knowledge of the XSI mod tool a Plus)
• Demo reel demonstrating good quality character animation.
• Good sense of timing, weight, and flow of motion.

Pluses:

• Positive Attitude
• Team Player
• Knowledge of XSI Mod tool, and Valve .smd format

Requirements for Audio Team Position:

Skilled (and preferably proficient) with writing out soundscape and other sound file scripts for custom made sounds, as well as weapon sounds/soundscripts.

• Able to produce or attain, then edit, various weapon sounds. We need alot of melee sounds at the moment, mainly swooshes, swinging of melee weapons, and punches. But we are [*]always open to additional content.
• Knowledgeable in terms of editing sound files for tasks such as noise reduction, quality control, proper source engine volume levels, and general audio editing/post processing.
• Knowledge of sample/bit rates, frequencies, and file formats that are used in/most useful in the source engine.

Preferred

• Access to a LEGALLY usable library of sound recordings, whether it be your own personal library of recordings, or recordings attained through other LEGAL means.
• Anything else you have under your belt, include it in your application under "Other Experience"
• It also wouldn't hurt to include previews of some of your own audio work, whether it be via video or other format.

Breaking News:
Dan got interviewed for a Independent Production Guide on the IGDA wiki. For those of you who don't know, IGDA is a society for game developers.

Eternal Silence has been around for quite a long time for a mod. How have the game and your role evolved over time? How have you kept momentum up?

"Eternal Silence has been in development for almost 6 years now. I played an active part in development for the first 5 years. Since last year, a community-driven effort has taken over development of the mod and has been pushing it forward ever since. I have moved on to develop a new project (an unannounced XNA title). I used to spend nearly 20 hours a week on Eternal Silence. Now I am mostly on the sidelines, but I do chime in now and then. It's very rewarding to see a project become totally autonomous, driven by the community that plays it. I am still amazed by what they have been able to achieve and I encourage them to continue."

"We keep our momentum going by releasing often. Eternal Silence releases a new patch every couple of months with new maps and bug fixes. This keeps the community active and keeps everyone motivated as developers. The Steam platform has been incredibly helpful here, since it allows us to push new fixes to the entire community all at once without any kind of publicity required. When the original development team felt it was time to move on (after all, 5 years is quite a long time to be working on a single title), the community stepped up and took over."


Great words from the Leader!

Read the entire interview here.

In other news, we're still hard at work on new content! Stay tuned, stay happy and stay awesome!

March 1st is here and Spring is around the bend! There has been a lot of activity going on in these last couple of weeks. Most likely the products of this activity will be talked about on the 15th. Don't worry though, we have a some good news for you today.

First off, there are two new members of the RnL Dev Team! Danny "Prox" Negus is officially an RnL modeler and Felix "Medic" Rauhut has also been accepted as an RnL level designer.

Prox passed his rite of passage assignment with some great looking tapestries. There will be more on his first official assignment in a couple of weeks, but for now take a look at his work that has already been assigned to certain maps.

Medic was inducted from the Beta Tester team after his extremely successful creation rnl_battleofcarentan. If you don't remember it, last month we debuted it with Medic's Band of Brother's based video.

You can download the map at our forums: Link Here

Another treat for you all today is Ryan D.'s paratrooper model textured by Eero. I am still not allowed to say it is finished yet, but as you can see it has been greatly revised since the last update. Knowing Eero, he will probably find ways to make it better even after the Beta is released. None the less and without further ado, here is a "near-complete" render of the new paratrooper.

Before I finish this off, I would like to ask the public for help again. If you would like to dedicate some time to help this mod grow and you know animating, sound engineering, coding, or texturing please (Click Here).

Stick around for two more weeks to check out the March 15th Road to the Future where we should have some more great news and media.

2.41 is mostly a bugfix patch. It was supposed to have been released only a few weeks after 2.4, but that didn't end up happening. Enjoy!

Click here for the changelog

Over the years one of the most heavily debated topics within the development team has been the melee system. This system alone has required hours upon hours of discussion, design, redesign, re-redesign, re-re-redesign, re-re-re-redesign... you get the picture. Let's just say it's the reason that beer is now available on team meeting's menu. All of that aside, I am happy to announce that we have finally found a winner!

There were a few realizations made during the last round of the design process that have had a huge impact on the new system.

1. Players really enjoy simple melee
2. Melee is more about out maneuvering opponents than just mashing buttons
3. There needs to be a way to do complex moves in a simple way
4. ESF's mascot Phil the three headed emu will hurt us if the system fails

As a result, new moves have been implemented that retain the feel of simple melee, but offer players a way to string attacks together to form combinations.

Simple Melee: Mouse button 1
This light damage attack is similar to its beta counterpart with the exception that the knockback distance has been modified to allow average players to perform multiple melee hits more easily.

Simple Melee video - Earth's Special Forces Mod for Half-Life - Mod DB

Combo Melee: Mouse button 2

A more damaging charged based melee attack that delivers several blows to an opponent. Holding a direction will send the opponent flying in that direction after the combo finishes. This is very handy for planning out the attack in the chain or for knocking opponents into objects that are to the left or right of the player.

Combo Melee video - Earth's Special Forces Mod for Half-Life - Mod DB

Combo Melee II video - Earth's Special Forces Mod for Half-Life - Mod DB

Quick Throw: Mouse button 1+2
This attack is based on the beta throw, but with a twist. The ability for opponents to resist being thrown has been removed. Getting caught by this attack may result in your attacker repeating "who's your daddy?" over and over.

Throw video - Earth's Special Forces Mod for Half-Life - Mod DB

Grab and Smash: Mouse button 1+2 with turbo on This vicious attack will remind players of that one time they had to stay the night in jail. It allows one player to grab another during swoop and drag them around. What the attacking player does from there is up to them. A couple suggestions are:

1. Forcefully fly the opponent around the map while giving them a scenic tour

2. Kindly smash their head into the ground and/or adjacent walls

...But, you said something about doing complex moves in a simple way?

In order to allow for the greatest flexibility and ease of use a framework was created where players earn bonus points through different actions, such as damaging an opponent, and spend those points on special moves.

Bonus System: Bonus button (C by default)

Bonus points may be applied to blocking, beams, and melee. Within each area there are three levels of bonuses; the higher the tier, the higher the cost and the more devastating the bonus. But that's really a discussion for another day. All you need to know for now is that once a melee bonus has been activated it's only active for a limited amount of time. It is crucial to setup your bonus attack using simple melee, combo melee, and throwing.

SSJ3 Goku - tier 3 melee bonus

Bonus System - Tier 3 Melee video - Earth's Special Forces Mod for Half-Life - Mod DB