Help Request - Angels Fall First Universe Thread

Hullo all, I'm Alex Drake, lead designer and founder of the Angels Fall First Project. Some of you may know of us and our work, but I suspect most are not aware of the true scope of our project. We are currently looking to expand our team and branch out into new areas of development. Here is a blurb about our project outline ripped from our design documentation:

I. General Overview

Angels Fall First is not a game-modification or game-idea per se, but rather an original universe from which stem many junctions of related media ranging from fiction, to art, to gaming projects. Accepting this distinction is first and foremost when it comes down to understanding the core mechanics of the system of game play found in each of its related projects. Overall, the goal of each is to simulate some facet of the living AFF universe.

Because of this somewhat diffuse approach to content design, there are several underlying development decisions that must be acknowledged. The most important is that content for the various projects is developed in such a manner to ensure maximum portability across a variety of platforms and mediums. It is the hope that with a small amount of fine-tuning, elements from these co-related projects could be quickly adapted and inserted into a multitude of gaming engines and/or artistic ends.

Ia. Project Overview:

Angels Fall First: Total Conversion (Homeworld 2, Nexus)
• The AFF: TC represents an attempt to duplicate the naval tactics and combat represented in the fiction of the AFF universe. It is an experimental cross-platform project that attempts to emulate two different styles of play and control. The Homeworld 2 portion emulates large-scale fleet control/dynamics using proprietary AI and brand new Command Poinst system, whereas the Nexus portion is meant to emulate more focused small-squadron tactics and battle management, for which the NExus Engine is already well suited and does not require much adjustment). Content for both portions is developed in tandem is hoped to be entirely cross-portable between both engines.

Angel’s Fall First: Planet Storm (Battlefield 2, Half-Life 2)
• AFF: PS is a project meant to explore the realm of ground-combat in the AFF universe. It is unique in the fact that it will require a different sort of investment in terms of development material (character modeling/animation, terrain/level mapping, etc). However, this particular project has the amazing potential to be a truly unique spectacle involving the player more closely with the AFF universe via gritty sci-reality and combined-arms, "Call of Duty"-style squad-based combat. Players will see the war at the ground level and participate in operations with AI controlled NPCs and even other players (online). Further details will come as the project is evaluated.

Angel’s Fall First: The Game (Proprietary Engine)
• Essentially TBA, the purpose of AFF: TG is to explore the possibility of a standalone game based in the AFF universe using a proprietary engine. It will primarily be a two-part simulation involving facets of universal conquest, economic management, politics, construction/appropriation, fleet movement, and naval combat. Further details will be released later pending a full-scale evaluation of the project and its goals (all of which are subject to change).

As you can see, our work is quite extensive an ambitious. One very important thing I'd like to point out is that AFF is not a unblooded operation, I myself have been prominently active in the Homeworld modding community for several years. AFF itself has existed in some form or another for nearly 2 years, our current members hail from all over the world, and include talented professionals (many with real industry credit).

Now for the generic casting call; We are looking for:
- Modelers familiar with Maya and/or Lightwave/XSI(preferably with texturing experience, though not required)
- scripters familiar with .mel, Half-Life 2 and/or Battlefield [series] coding (for a strictly advisory role for the development of AFF's ground-based project
- Map authors (specifically with Half-Life 2 for advisory roles)
- Anyone with game-engine coding experience (again, for a strictly advisory role on the development of AFF "The Game")

Unlike alot of projects, we are not particularly looking for people to deveote man-hours toward building this project for us, but rather, we attempting to build up our community with people knowledgeable in the fields we hope to venture into, while at the same time pushing forward with development on our own. I know I can speak for myself as a second years CS student when I say I am far more interested in learning how to make great titles, rather than forcing folks to do it for me. In order to make this project a success, its imperative that we get the advice, support, coaching, and knowledge of competent modders.

We aren't all talk, take a look at some of these screen shots of our work, and make sure visit our galleries and website for more media and more information:

[pics]

Angels Fall First: TC

Concepts:

Renders:

Angels Fall First: Planet Storm

General Art

Links:
AFF Webpage
AFF Forums
AFF ModDB Community
AFF Ship Database (with 3D previews)

Edited by: Alex_Drake

I'd help, but I only use Milkshape 3D, sorry
(You can check my work if you're interested, though...check the Pimpage and Posing forum).

Thanks Unknown, but we are looking for people familiar with Maya, Lightwave or XSI. But your work looks good nonetheless.

This is a small bump from the second page, hopefully people will take notice!

Why not MS3D or 3DS Max? The majority of modellers use those.

MS3D because people beleive it to be too low poly, which is bull****, it's only problem is rendering. My mod has a MS3D modeller and he's producing some of our best work.

As for 3DS Max, I have no idea why you wouldn't put this into your criteria, it's the most widely used modelling program and the best designers from all over the world use it.

Nout wrong with low poly counts, I model the simplest things in XSI and get poly counts of like 4000

On a side note, Nemor where did the gun renders go? I swear I saw some stuff somewhere including an XM8 and Barrett but I looked today and its gone

Yeh the guy that did our original XM8 has since left (without a trace) and never bothered to leave us anything. My Barrett has been taken down for the time being as it's being sort of redone due to skinmesh problems.

We'll have plenty more up shortly, so don't worry. We're just regrouping on our ideas and stuff before posting alot. And beleive me, theres alot better things coming out than those old nasty things

Lol I hope so, your maps look beautiful

Thanks I'll be sure to pass the compliments on to my staff.

Yer, good luck with it, can't wait to play. I would join but a) you're not looking for weapons modellers and b) i'm not good enough :p

Anyway back on track, which version of Angels Fall First are you releasing first?

Im sure i've seen that Atrius Capital thing already done by an artist already :\

That's our artist orbluvion. All of his current AFF work is on our website.

@ Spammer, we actually do need weapon modelers for the HL2 venture. We'll prolly be releasing the HW2 version first.

EDIT: The addendum to my above statement is that our releases are dictated by what gets finished and when. If we find the staff we're looking for, concurrent releases are possible, if not, then we chug along with the guys onboard already. Basically, the purpose of this thread is to drum up the sort of assistance that will help us get a release candidate for any of our projects out the door that much faster. so the amount of support we receive is somewhat proportional to our speed of release (but then again, we're all modders here, so we know this fact by heart, right).

To address the above issue about 3d Studio max/Milkshape vs Maya/Lightwave/XSI, the issue is mainly one of versatility. If someone is familiar with either of the previous three packages, they can not only build models, but (potentially) rig them in the same environment without a need for messy conversion. It also streamlines our development pipeline, because the folks working with engines that require different specifications can quickly edit in new content (eg; its very easy for a rigger in HW2 to grab a vessel created and textured in maya and format it for play). So with that in mind, we stated our preference. However, we are not ruling out users of other modeling packages entirely, but in that case the quality of work or the area of expertise of the modeler becomes much more important to us (case in point; our premier modeler, strangelet, works in Cinema4D for Mac).

Edited by (in order): Alex_Drake, Alex_Drake

Some nice looking art work there.

Thanks Balr, we have pretty good art direction so far, we just want a bit more to help us seperate from the pack, so to speak.

Also, I'm just thinking out loud here but... would it be appropriate to post on HL2 boards for help, even tho that area of the project has not been started?

Good lord, I'm forced to bump this already?

Come on guys! hahaha...

Edited by: Alex_Drake