Sunday, 03 April 2005
Source: Plan of Attack
After many months of working in secrecy, the team officially launches the web site and announces our release date - April 15!For all of our new visitors, you may be interested in visiting the following sections of the web site:
- Developer Updates - Our blog, where you can find out what the development team is up to.
- Game Info Pages - The information pages of the site contain a wealth of information, including weaponry, classes, and teams.
- Gameplay Scenario - Not sure what Plan of Attack is like? Read this quick story detailing a typical, action-packed round. You may also want to read Kenny's Story for more fun!
- Screenshots! - Want to see nothing but in-game screenshots? Ooo...
- The next two weeks are sure to be exciting around here, so make yourself a spot in the forums; we're very active and will do our best to answer your questions. See you in a few weeks!
Source: Half-Life 2 CTF
Beta 1.3 is almost ready now, we're finishing up some map work and doing a lot of testing, and it should be ready to go before too much longer.We've improved performance on a lot of the maps, and made some layout changes that make them even more fun. In addition to maps, here's a short list of some of the improvements in 1.3:We think you'll like it.
- Added ready system
- Added map voting system
- Added notification of when you were auto-switched to balance teams
- Added 2 point scoring bonus for stealing the flag from enemy base
- Added 2 point scoring bonus for assists
- Added option to allow mouse over to enemy to always be red and mouse over friendly to always be green
- Team balance doesn't wait until death anymore and always switches lowest scoring player
- Added flashing text to indicate flag status
- Players can now set their fov between 90 and 120 using "fov X"
- Added game events for flag capture, flag return, and assist for plugin authors
- Fixed longstanding HL2DM underwater sound death bug
Source: Project Freeman
Hello There.Our Beta will released on Tim--Coops Modification. And our first non-beta will be on the SvenCoop II Modification And our new domain adress is just: ProjectFreeman.NLWe hope so you can find us now better
Source: Citizen-132
Two years, one month, and three weeks ago, Citizen-132 was conceived. Alf-Life and I spent an entire night brainstorming the concept, and we produced a 15 page document, outlining the entire game from start to finish. At first, we had planned to keep it Single-Player only, and about 6 months later, it was decided to add a Multi-Player Portion.Work began on the mod in February 2003. We were working on a Half-Life 1 Mod. A few maps were being made, and a website was produced which drew quite a lot of attention to us. To our disbelief, Half-Life 2 was announced only a couple months later, with a release date of September 30th, 2003 only a few months ahead! We got very excited, and another hundred mods popped up, each sporting their own concepts and ideas. We waited for HL2, and when September 30th rolled around, nothing was released. This sort of shocked us, but quickly decided that while we waited for HL2, we could make a HL1 demo to show the public what we were capable of. Many maps were created by our talented mapping staff, however, we never really got close to a release back then. A very progressive member joined the mod around that time. His mod had been shutdown by the team leader, and he was eager to work. It seemed like a good idea to put him in the top leadership at that time, however, it quickly became apparent to me that he had an alternative agenda. He was power hungry, and in fact pushed my former Co-Team leader out of his position by pissing him off, calling him, quite immaturely and without true reason, a 'cunt.' This progressive member had only one aspiration, which was to get his models in-game, so he could get an industry job. As a 26 year old man, without much of a life besides his work, he forced his opinions, work-ethic, and style onto everyone on the team. Team members often came to me expressing their discontent, and many left because of him. To his credit, he did add a few people to our team, and did submit quite a few models, however, they were never able to be rigged because of the way they were built. Eventually, before we had planned on removing him from the team, he himself quit. It was quite a relief for me, but his entire reign in the team made me hate working on Citizen-132 a lot more. From the time he joined, it started going downhill for ME there.For those of you who don't know me, I am a 17 year old American living over in Europe. I have a multitude of talents, as well as a very involved social life, so Citizen-132 was one out of many things I did every day. Therefore, I could not focus 100% of my time into it, although I did manage over an hour of work a day specifically for it. As time went on, my lust to work on the mod went down, and i had less and less time that i wanted to spend working on it.With the release of Far-Cry, this progressive member pushed us into moving over, and switching engines. My heart wasn't completely in Far-Cry from the start, because I didn't like the community, and wasn't really up to getting myself used to it. I had always been a Half-Life guy, and in-fact, when I got HL1 many many years ago, I never changed games or community. It was an unwelcome shock for me to be working with Far-Cry and their split community. We stayed working with Far-Cry for over 6 months, and then moved back to HL2 when its release became more imminent. Now that HL2 is out, we've made quite a few maps, have some models in-game, but we don't have the manpower, nor do we have the time, or energy to continue. When you invest over 2 years of your time into something and get little result out of it, one's energy to continue begins to disappear.It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to shutdown Citizen-132.I have learned so much about people, computers and games through working on Citizen-132. I have met the greatest person in the world, my best friend, Shaun "Epit0miz3" Belcher, who will continue to stay my friend until our death. I hung out with him in Boston, he came all the way to Europe to spend time with me, and we've built a very strong friendship, all thanks to Citizen-132. I have been published in 3 print magazines, interviewed by 7 websites, and interviewed by an internet radio with a hundred-thousand listeners. I've learned a lot about myself, about leadership, and about organization. I've become a better writer, and I've learned what I want to focus on in University in a year. I know that many people are going to be disappointed. I want to thank all of our diehard and long time fans. Copet, you've been our number one fan for a long-ass time, thank you. Eurofighter, thank you for your never ending support. AA-Engrossed, you're contributions have been immense, thank you. To those i have forgot to mention, I have not forgot in my mind, and I thank you all.Thank you to the numerous publications who have supported and interviewed us: PlanetHalfLife, HL2Central (old staff), BeyondHalfLife, Halflife-Mods, Halflife2net, Half-life-Radio, PC-Gamer USA, PC-Gamer UK, PC-Games Germany, Ubi-Soft... you've all done wonders for us.Thank you to my team members of the past and present. Without you guys we would have never made it this far. Some notable people:Alf-Life: Helped me write the original conceptCrazy-MAC: Our first web-pageTaco-241: A huge ammount of concept art and design supportSnozzle: A lot of early models done by him, helped us survive in the early days.DaanO: Design work, couldn't have done it without youKingKong: THE BEST WEAPON MODELER IN THE WORLD, your work ethic and loyalty are going to take you places.Pariah223: Although you were relatively new, you caught on quickly and worked extremely hard, and I am very grateful.Evert: This is the best Half-Life 1 mapper to ever walk the planet. He is uncontested.Again, I am sorry to those I forgot, but these are the people who stick out to me.Most importantly, I want to thank Epit0miz3. This is a guy who works his ass off every damn day. He cared more about Citizen-132 than everyone else put together, and it was hard for him and I to make this decision to end it. He deserves as many kudos as I for what we've done with Citizen-132.We are releasing everyone's NDAs and Contracts, effective on April 15th, 2005. You may use any work that you created in other mods, all we ask is that you credit back to Citizen-132 somehow. Thanks, we want to be a legacy .You can send all hate mail to smurray@citizen-132.com . Thank you all for a fun ride,Stephen "the_s-man" Murray
Source: OZ Deathmatch
The Half-Life 2 HL2DM SDK has been out for awhile now, and I have been working my way through it trying to figure stuff out.Now that I am not quite as lost as I was before, I have started to work on the SDK to bring OZ back to the fans. My first project is to port the hook over,Which so far has been going pretty well. I have will be making a few changes, and later once I understand the physics system better, I will work the hook into the physics system, but for now it will be very close to the old style one.That said, I will share a few changes I have already implemented:The Grapple will be a physical object (Like a wepon or health pack), they can be placed in the map. There is a cvar that allows you to start with a Hook, or to not start with one.There is a cvar that will allow mappers to allow the hook in their maps or not. If there is enough feedback and support from mappers, I will also add the ability to only grapple to specific textures, that can be set by the mappers.The above will allow for great flexability in the hooks use, and I feel give it added value.As soon as I get the Hook working, I will go full swing into the rest of it.I have also started a new CFG editor for HL2 style scripts, which is were alot of the magic happens.Also for those that don't visit Sparkens LOZT forums, He has moved into a new house, and will be busy for sometime, and also I will be moving 4 April 2005 to a different state yet again, but this should be the last big move for me.Hopefully that is all.DaveAKA StarbreakerPS In the meantime, you can always play HL2CTF until OZ is ready. 8)
Source: Insurgency
Insurgency is looking for new staff to fill in for spots on the art team that have been opened up as a result of certain individuals leaving the team because they got a job in the game industry or for personal reasons.This being said, we currently have a few jobs to fill in our team. Reaching full-development on the mod, we are seeking dedicated, hard working individuals that possess a keen interest in the concept of the project; who are able to work at a rapid pace. If you feel that you meet these requirements, and find Insurgency compelling, please email me with regards to the following opportunites:2d Character Artist (1)Requirements:Appreciated:
- Experience creating high-detail character textures
- Ability to work off of reference pictures and concept art.
General 2d Artists / Skinners (2)Requirements:
- Ability to model or unwrap 3D models
- Experience creating custom skins for the Source engine
- Experience working on a previous mod team
Appreciated
- Experienced skinner with the ability to make photo-realistic textures for various models.
- Ability to skin a variety of things, whether they be weapons, vehicles, equipment, or objects for maps.
Weapon Animator (2)Requirements:
- Knowledge compiling textures for the Source Engine
- Ability to model or unwrap
- Experience working on a previous mod team
Appreciated:
- Extensive knowledge and experience with 3ds Max (Version 7 is used)
- Ability to work with Character Studio
- Knowledge of rigging and weighting models.
The team behind Insurgency is by all means a professional and respected team within the modding community. If you are interested in any of the above positions, and are interested in working on a team where you can not only gain a good opportunity to improve your portfolio and work with a wonderful team on a highly anticipated project, but also be watched closely by professionals in the industry, do not hesitate to Contact Us in regards to one of the above positions.Insurgency is rapidly progressing. We are continuing to work on the mod's gameplay and immersiveness. Our next Internal Release, IR 3.5, will feature new enhancements to the mod's overall gameplay and more. Expect to hear more in the near future.
- Previous custom animation or mod experience with the Half-Life engine ideal.
Source: Steam
An update is available for Counter-Strike: Source. The update will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. This update addresses requests for more realism in Counter-Strike: Source. The changes are as follows:Features/AdditionsRealism Enhancements:Knives:Between rounds, it is suggested that you unsheath the weapon and repeatedly press the attack key to air it out as the leather now collects moisture and creates pits on the blade, making it less effective in the next round.Shotguns:
- Doubled player speed when jumping. The effect to cumulative, so the more you jump, the faster you go.
- Cut price of AWP by 50%.
- Added akimbo Riot Shield to buy menu.
- Removed de_dust from mapcycle.
Player Models:
- Firing the shotgun without ammo loaded will now cause it to jam.
- When the shotgun jams, press F2 to fill out form DA-1823-00/A12-H8.
- You should then hear a scribbling sound. When it stops, press F3 to send the request to LIDM.
- Failure to do paperwork before pressing F3 will result in the immediate return of the unrepaired shotgun.
- The repairs can take 1-2 rounds for completion. During that time, you cannot purchase a replacement firearm and may only use your sidearm or knife.
Machine and submachine guns:
- Several models now feature eyewear. This is a completely cosmetic enhancement with the following exceptions:
- Part EP-7829-292-2 must be purchased and worn correctly at all times in order to see during the round.
- In between rounds, you may purchase and use part EC-2231-833-H34 to clean your EP-7829-292-2. Note: that this does not clean the eyewear itself!
- To clean the eyewear, you need to purchase and use the designated cleaner, EC-2231-233-H34, EC-2231-523-H34, or EC-2231-239-H34a respectively depending on your model's eyewear. You can determine the part # of the correct cleaner by asking someone.
- At least once every five rounds, press F1 to inspect the weapon:
- A musical cue indicates that the inspection has started. Now press F1 again repeatedly to clean and lubricate the weapon.
- Your Preventative Maintenance Status (either "cleaning" or "lubricating") is determined by the speed with which you press the F1 key and will be displayed above your head.
- To accurately simulate real life maintenance mistakes, pressing F1 too quickly will lubricate either the bolt face or the trunnion block. Pressing F1 too slowly sprays lubricant directly into the buffer tube. All mistakes render the gun inoperable, though this may not become immediately apparent.
- Experiment with keypress timing to avoid (and discover!) other common maintenance errors.
- In order to balance the improved stopping power of a well-maintained weapon, the reloading process has been made much less reliable.
- When reloading, you should listen for two or three distinct clicks over a period of several seconds.
- If you hear one click or no clicks or more than two clicks, you've bent the link ejector chute and the gun will most likely explode on the next attempt to fire it, though it may not.
Well my vacation here in Silicon Valley is coming to a close. I will be home at 6:30pm PST. I got well over 25 things to post when I get back. Well untll my next post when I am not typing this from a very slow tv terminal....