Stand Down - Operation Delayed news - Ham and Jam mod for Half-Life 2

NB: This was posted on our official site a few days ago, I am also posting it here on the behalf of Jed so the ModDB community know what's going on in terms of a release date and why it was missed.

It’s probably not gone un-noticed that we missed our planned release date of 6th June. I’m sorry about that and let me apologise for the shabby way I handled the news by not making an official blog post until now. The delay is somewhat indicative of the reasons we missed the deadline.

To get to the point quickly – As mentioned before we’re a very small team with a lot of real-life commitments and though we worked very hard towards the planned launch date we simply ran out of time for the few last tasks that need to be done. There was some consideration to releasing the game “as-is” but I, and certainly others, wanted to put just a little more polish on a few things and make sure that we make the best first impression we can.

So what is the situation? Well, the delay isn’t as bad as it sounds. We probably need another 3 weeks just to finish of a few small things that are important to game play and the ethos of the mod as a whole. I know some of us have a lot going on personally (heck, I’m trying to move house!) so 3 weeks should be enough to get things finished without putting to much stress on people.

As to what we have left to do, two of the biggest issues I’m working on are third-person player animations and the Commonwealth Airborne player models.

The animation set wasn’t 100% complete and while we could of hacked in some temporary ones, others missing would of affected game play. For example, deploying an MG on surfaces of different height you would expect your character to squat down a little. We didn’t have the animations for this ready and I didn’t feel it was a fun experience to see yourself behind cover from the first person perspective but others see you stood bolt upright and an easy target.

As for the Airborne player models, well the mod is called “Ham and Jam” for a reason and those of you have been following us from the start that the name and the first map we every planned to make was based on the assault of the Caen “Pegasus” Bridge on D-day. The effort we put into getting that map as accurate to the real bridge was phenomenal and we’ve always promoted the idea that Ham and Jam bases it’s maps on real historical missions. Not having the British Airborne would of completely gone against that principle so that again was another reason for the delay to get them done.

As I mentioned early we hope that we won’t be delayed more than about 3 weeks but I will say that you *will* be able to play Ham and Jam this summer. We are making progress and things are getting done. Heck, I even just finished the Linux server version and that was no small task!

Over the coming weeks I hope to make more blog posts giving some details of certain aspects of the game, such as the weapons, how they work, the teams, the maps, the objectives, game play modes, etc. You’re welcome to ask any questions you like in our forums and I’ll try and answer some of them in the blog.

In the meantime, I’ve made some panorama images of two of the maps that you can expect to see in the first release. They give you some sort of idea of how they look and what sort of environments you can expect to be fighting in.

Again, we are REALLY sorry for any disappointment the delay has caused but we hope it won’t be too much longer.

Gold – France, 1944

Gold represents events just after the Allied landings on Gold Beach on D-Day. Having moved past the beachhead, troops are moving inland and starting to encounter resistance from German forces located in and around small villages and the surrounding countryside.

The first objective is to push into the village which requires capturing a German anti-tank position and winning control of an area of open ground allow access to the right hand flank. Once through a second anti-tank position hidden in a building needs to be captured along with an anti-aircraft position in the church yard. The final objective is a local German HQ based in a house on the edge of town. This must be taken and held from being re-taking by German re-enforcements.

Archery – Norway 1941

Based on the Commando raids on Vågsøy Island, Norway this is map requires you to destroy three targets using demolition charges.

Having been transported to the dock by landing craft your first objective is to destroy a small fish oil store and warehouse located just behind the warehouses. Pushing on a German bunker being used as an observation post for artillery and ammunition storage is your next target. It too much be destroyed to deny the enemy access to supplies. Finally, a German HQ based in a hotel in the town it to be destroyed with explosives.