Don't kill me. This update is late, but that's not to say the Dead6 team was slacking. We only slack when Dante takes a hiatus. Last time that happened was a whole four some-odd weeks ago. Out lack of outside communication falls on one simple reason: way too much has happened in the past two weeks to even consider getting an update out. Because of this enormous amount of criteria I must cover, I am breaking away from the usual format just this one time.

So what has happened? Well, Dead6 Multiplayer Alpha 1.0.1 was released which included many, many new additions and fixes in the coding. We brought on a new mod affiliation with Commando, headed by the local Ren/RA2 boy Seaman. I got sunburnt at work the other day because of this gorgeous Spring weather that has befallen my town. We lost two of our team members. (We're still looking for a few positions) And to top it all off, we successfully implemented one of our many mod tool advantages in the programming aspect of Dead6.

D6MP Alpha 1.0.1 . . . big deal, right? Well, considering 1.0.1 successfully implemented many fixes over the network code used in Source, it is quite a "big deal" to the team. On top of getting world animations working correctly with our new weapon system, we also managed to get our decals and special effects sent over the network successfully. Granted this does not seem like a big deal at all to you, the fan. But it is a big deal to us. This team is riding on practically no resources or outside help; everything must be learned from what little help we can obtain and what our own thinking can come up with. Many other small issues have been tweaked and worked out in this update as well. Our alpha testers really pulled through for us and found a few small flaws and even a critical bug crash, all of which the team solved and fixed. We will continue to add new criteria and tweak our existing criteria through future Alpha RCs.

Now then, what the heck is Commando and why should the Dead6 team waste their time on this other project? For starters, I'd like to say that we are in no way wasting our time. We are just as excited to help out other professional teams as well as our own. That's why we affiliated with Commando. This mod was started on C&C Renegade, much like our mod. Its team leader, SeaMan, showed us in the past that he is capable of helping out others within the community he is involved in. Combine the mod's given past with the team's proven dedication and hard work, and you have what promises to be a great mod. But it's not just the mod's past and future that brought us to our decision. The RenEvo Studios team is not out to just do their own little work; we want to help others out. Our work is geared towards this goal, and so are our decisions. We brought the Commando team on to help them out, and maybe help ourselves out as well. You can learn more about Commando by visiting their web site here.

Don't ask about the sunburn thing.

On a more sad note, Maimer and Slash0x have decided to depart the team. They both left for personal reasons and on good notes. RenEvo Studios wishes them both the best of luck wherever life takes them. If you are interested in joining the team, please contact Dante via email at Dante at RenEvo dot Com.

Finally, I'd like to discuss something I'm particularly proud of. As you may or may not know, we at RenEvo Studios are making Dead6 more than just a game. Dead6 on its own will be a tool. A tool that would allow any Joe Smith to create his own map, weapon/vehicle, or even his own TC Mod using the basis of the Dead6 core. It is our priority to create a game on top of a tool. Our primary goal is to allow everyone, rather it be an average player or a server host, to customize their game, build on/off of the game, or make their own game altogether will successful and easy-to-use tools and plenty of support. Now, from past experience I have found that programmers are the hardest to come by for most mod teams. Many consist of one, if that even. Dead6 has four, and we still find it hard to keep up with pressing deadlines and demands. Therefore, one of the many goals in creating our game tools is to minimize as much programming as possible so anyone can do what they want. It's a modtastic idea, and we are living up to its proposition.

If you can use notepad, you can make a weapon for Dead6.

All the programming has been done for you. To make a weapon, all you'd have to do is create a text file inside the Weapons folder with the filename being the name of your weapon. Inside the file, you have to declare the weapon's type (Bat, Pistol, etc) and define the general and type-specific settings and rules for the weapon. When you launch Dead6, all the weapons present in the folder will be loaded and configured by the game using our existing code. You do not need to know how to program and you do not have to have any knowledge in C++ to create a weapon for Dead6! On top of this, server's have the exclusive access to declare which weapons they would like to have in their servers. They can also create their own weapons and send the needed data to the client when they join their servers. Think about it: you can have your own exclusive weapon just for your server! And it's easy to make! Rest assured if this scares you; Dead6 will offer a pure mode for servers so that you can play on only servers that are using the Dead6 standard rules and items.