Words were exchanged, gauntlets were thrown down, and the stage was set.

First match Valve beat us 2-0 on ctf_prisonriot. Second match, we beat valve 3-2 on ctf_defrost. The third match was a stalemate, ending at 0-0 on ctf_prisonriot. This leaves the overall score for the match tied up, so we're going to need to do this again in the near future to settle this once and for all!

We want to give a HUGE thank you to all the Valve guys that showed up to play with us tonight. We really appreciate it!

---

What's new in Beta 1.1?

Map Updates:

• Updated ctf_prisonriot


• Updated ctf_curved


• Added ctf_lambda_bunker by Trivium

Features/Tweaks:

• Flag does not clip with players anymore


• Mouse over a player shows their name and team


• Added "dropflag" bind to allow players to drop the flag


• Added flag carrier indicator on hud to show who has the flag


• Reduced combine ball lifetime to 3 seconds


• Added extra 1 point bonus for killing enemy flag carrier


• Added extra 2 point bonus for killing enemy near your flag

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a cheat that allowed players to use invalid player models


• Fixed crash caused by players using invalid player models


• Fixed crash caused by looking up bogus animations


• Fixed spectator movement to noclip


• Fixed bug where players could respawn and kill during intermission


• Bullet holes no longer leave strange marks on rebel flag


• Fixed flag indicator not being reset between levels

Download it now and learn those maps!

We want to be sure to beat up on Valve later today! See the forums for more on this match with Valve!

Lastly, we wish to ask all server administrators to fully upgrade to the new Beta and to note that we have reduced the maximum player slots! Please consider changing your maximum players to less than 24, preferably 16!

Thanks and Enjoy Beta v1.1!

The Devils Reef is going to feature in PC ZONE Benelux in a section of up and comming new halflife 2 mods to look out for! After a great response to the first Gate on the old halflife engine PC zone Benelux are also expecting big things from The Gate II which of course they will get:) Of course when printed we will post the news up here with a scan of the issue...

Four more exclusive Fantastic Screenshots have been added to the Media page...

Kevin is currently working on a Promotional video that should be released soon for you to download showing The Reef in action...

Josh is working on the voice over as we speak it should be ready for download in a week or two...

The Mod Development Page has also been updated!

We are still seeking New Team Members , so If you have any Mapping skills with Hammer, Modeling Skills, 2D art Skills or Coding Skills or Voice Acting Skills I would love to hear from you, just drop me an email to me to Katncraig86@hotmail.com

First and foremost, I would like to welcome Krazyace to the MechMod Development Team. He is our new weapons concept artist, and will be making spiffy drawings based on textual data provided to him, in order to facilitate faster production of 3D models. Welcome aboard, Krazyace - hope you give this mod a good boost in the 3D department!

Time for some media!

MrSmo has been busy at work like a drug addict and has been pumping out brilliant model after model, and skinned too!

Name: Perseus
Faction: Planetary Alliance
Class: Assault

Name: Hephaestus
Faction: Planetary Alliance
Class: Builder

Name: Not Decided (Code Name: Spidey)
Faction: Planetary Alliance
Class: Heavy

Name: Female Pilot (Generic) [WIP]
Faction: Both (TN & PA)
Class: All

Here are two pieces of concept art that God Gundam has been working on, this will be the next mech that he will model:

Now onto some slightly saddening news: OpMindCrime, our conceptualist, has resigned from the team as he feels he has contributed all that is needed for this project. Which is less than true, as we are greatful to all that OMC has contributed. A lot of our outline has been created and modified by him, and the entire weapons dictionary was formulated by him as well. We thank you for your efforts, OMC, and wish you the very best of luck in your future endeavours!

Now for some more information! Our Beta Outline is now complete and so is our weapons dictionary. Our programmers have been working on the design outline for all the classes (OOP classes, refers to code) in our code and although we have been slowed down due to various interferences (work, SAT's, WoW) - we are finally getting down to programming in the systems that our beta calls for. We shall post programming updates over the upcoming weeks, keep an eye out and be sure to check our dev journals as most media/information is displayed in the journals before they hit the news.

Keep watching!

Keep your eyes peeled. There will be a "coming attractions" media update with a taste of some of the maps being included in the next version of "The Trenches" including the recently completed tp_fromage by gotrick. Speaking of mapping, our map contest is still going on and we're still accepting submissions. Please contact Hotel Security (Me!) if you need any help or textures and you will possibly be assigned help from a member of the mapping team. Don't forget to check out our mapping forum for the latest works in progress, tutorials, and advice.

We have a few screens for you today. The first 2 are screens from a work in progress map that our mapper chuckybob is working on. These are "clean" shots of the police station containing no blood or corpses.

The next is a work in progress model that polygunner is working on. This model is called the Rogue. The skin is not nearly done, but I hope you enjoy.


Next I have a few new members I would like to introduce.

• 3p!demiC - A voice actor that has worked in mods such as Call to Arms, Vietnam:OP, Conflict, and Living Dead


• Tomato - Another Voice actor that will be doing some male voices for the mod


• Fernie417 - Another Voice actor that will be doing some male voices for the mod


• CaptianChair - A fantastic weapon skinner and a great asset to the team

We have also added a Jobs page so go check it out and if you think you can fill a position, either email us or apply on applications forum.

We've chosen the three winners from the Half-Life 2: Deathmatch map competition. It was tough going through and picking the winners given the quality of maps that the community built, but we feel these three represent the best of the group. The winning maps will be released sometime in March for everyone to play.

We've also been watching what the MOD community is producing lately, and there are some very promising projects underway. Recently, we had the team from Dystopia up to Valve for a few days to get their feedback on the SDK and and help them with any technical issues they might be having. Head over to their website to check out their work in progress.

In news much closer to home, we've been challenged to a game of Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag by the team that created this mod. We noticed on their website that they want to "beat up on Valve" in a match that starts today at 6:00 pm PST. While our relationship with the MOD community usually involves us providing tools and support, we're more than happy to give them a beating in their own game.

This week GameSHOUT Radio will be doing their part to help save the popular program, Enterprise. Joining DeathToll_David, the host of Sci-Fi Thursday (03-03-2005), will be the driving force behind the “Save Enterprise Campaign”, Tim Brazeal of www.trekunited.com. Also joining this special program will be Eugene Rodenberry, the son of Star Trek creator. The show starts at 8:00PM EST (1:00AM GMT).

Among the topics of discussion will be the campaign and to advance what Trek fans can do to save Enterprise. Earlier in February, the UPN announced the Enterprise cancellation after the end of its fourth season, leaving Enterprise devotees facing the prospect of network television devoid of a Star Trek series for the first time in almost 20 years. As of Monday, worldwide Star Trek fans have generously donated over $65,000 to TrekUnited in an attempt to save the Trek Franchise. But yesterday, investors in commercial space flight industry have anonymously contributed $3-million to the TrekUnited campaign to support their goal to fund a fifth season of Star Trek: Enterprise! If the campaign fails to keep Enterprise on the airwaves, all proceeds will be refunded to the donors.

Show Date: Thursday March 3, 2005
Time: 8:00PM EST

The CPL announced today the launch of the online registration for the first World Tour Stop, in Istanbul, Turkey taking place Friday, March 25 to Sunday, March 27, 2005 at the CNR EXPO.

The Stop will feature a $50,000 one-versus-one Painkiller competition and the top four players will qualify for advancement into the $500,000 CPL World Tour Championship Finals.

The Turkey Stop will not feature a BYOC because of local restrictions on the importation of electronic devices, but a practice area will be hosted at the venue.

The 128 competition spots are $60USD per person and spectator passes are free. The online registration for the spectator passes will open next week.

Gamers wanting to participate in the free Cultural Tour taking place Thursday, March 24, 2005 must arrive in Istanbul no later than Wednesday, March 23rd.

Register now for a spot in the Turkey Painkiller Tour Stop at www.thecpl.com/register/

The $1,000,000 CPL World Tour™, primarly sponsored by Intel, and co-sponsored by NVIDIA and CompUSA, is the largest, first-ever, year-long competitive tour spotlighting the growing new sport of video game competitions.

In the first of our monthly content updates, we will show you a couple of our weapon models that will be included in the first beta, a player model, and a couple of notes from myself, "Aneurexorcyst" and our lead programmer, "Nighthawk".

First up is the Colt Python, returning from our previous release. This medium frame revolver packs a punch and houses six .357 Magnum rounds.

Second we have another weapon from our previous release, the Tula Tokarev 33 as seen in the Hard Boiled teahouse scene. This large Soviet service pistol carries a magazine containing eight 7.62x25mm TT rounds.

Our final pistol render this month comes in the form of the common Beretta M92FS. This high quality and popular weapon holds a magazine containing fifteen 9x19mm Parabellum rounds.

Finally our first automatic, the IMI Mini-Uzi. Common as muck and used everywhere, again returning from our first release. A medium frame Israeli SMG, carries a clip of twenty-five 9x19mm Parabellum rounds.

Now onto our first player model, Shing Chen (also known as Ken Shing).

Shing Chen is a respected member of the White Lotus triad in Kowloon. Devoutly Catholic, Shing prays every night to his heavenly father for the strength to undo his enemies, and the patience to wait for the right time to strike at the Black Lotus and give them the justice they rightly deserve. For more information on Shing Chen, check his profile on the media page, here.

We also must welcome several new team members:

"the_fgdf" has joined as our player modeller and will handle all things organic within OperaWorld™

"A2D" or "Andrew2D" is our dedicated weapon skinner, we hope to show some of his work on the above weapons next month.

"Rifter" is our new animator and will be handling the very complex and stylish animations we have planned...

"Reino" has just joined Genn to complete the (rather large) weapons list.

"SoulEscape" is on board as our resident sound engineer.

Now a little from our lead programmer informing you on our (fast) progress...

The Half-Life 2 SDK has been a joy to work with.

In the past week I have accomplished what took me several months in HL1: I'd say we have about 90% of the movement code done, mixed akimbo done, damage handling, action meter, client-side effects, etc...

Even did some things that will be staples of The Opera, such as diving through glass. You can ask any team member that's tried the latest Alpha: we would love to have a map made entirely of glass panes that we can dive through.

The SDK does come with its share of weirdness. I'm not 100% sure if the source provided in the SDK is the same source that's used in game for HL2, but there is one major thing that's apparently broken in the SDK: player collision with physics object. We hope that the latest HL2 update, which includes the HL2DM code base, will resolve that issue. But, for now, I've modified the existing SDK so much that it'll take me a bit to compare and contrast changes.

Also, third person mode doesn't work. At all. The command's there, but the player model isn't drawn. This is beyond bizarre to me; why include the function and the code when it doesn't render properly?

Development is going faster than expected, ten-fold faster than it did for HL1. The fact that I know where everything is and have experience in doing certain things helps, but if the SDK wasn't structured the way it was and wasn't as robust as it is it'd still be a long haul.

I've heard a lot of people complain that you have to "create everything from scratch" in HL2. Is this really a problem? I do that anyway, so what's the deal? I know the HL2 SDK is not meant for novice programmers, and you got to know how things work together, but it's not impossible.

Heck, I got "mixed akimbo" working in ONE DAY, literally. You know what's even more interesting: HL2 already has code in it for some sort of "mixed akimbo", or at least distinct left and right view models (it supports up to four view models, actually). And it's wrapped around comments that emphasize "TF2"... Hmmm...

Very soon now I see myself getting involved with the player models and the trench coat. We have added personnel in this department, and expect to see some wonderful things come out of it.

Finally, there's Persistence. Right now in the Alpha build persistence is a server plug-in, and will probably remain as such. I don't quite know the functionality that will be provided with it, but expect some sort of Persistence in the first publicly available Beta.

Anyway, stay tuned for bigger and better things!

Next month expect more weapons, players and a sneak peek at one of our maps... and don't forget to vote for us over at the moddb top 100!.

Source Engine updates is available and will be applied automatically when Steam is restarted. The change includes:

Source Engine

• Fixed server browser not displaying favorites in game