Star Trek: Enterprise - TCW mod for Half-Life 2

10 comments by JohnBart on Dec 26th, 2008 digg this super bookmark

The development of the mod is going on slowly but steadily with most of the basic modelling and mapping tasks being done for the teaser demo currently in the works. At the moment, besides revamping some of the level props and character models, our dedicated modelling team is focusing on the remaining unfinished non-player characters. The mappers on the other hand are either optimizing the current versions of our beta maps or are busy planning the last remaining one that has not been produced yet. Thus, while there is only a handful of new content in these areas whose quality is worthy for a media release, our situation is fairly good in these areas of development.

On the other hand, there is much more to be done on the animating, voice acting and coding front. Cpangrace is very busy working on the weapon and character animations required for the teaser-demo, while the voice actors diligently keep recording their lines from the demo script.
Coding is however still the most problemful area of development. Even though one of our former coders (Graham alias Rickenbacker) has found time and returned to help us out a little in solving the awaiting programming tasks, we are still looking for additional assistance. So if you are an experienced coder who possesses a deep understanding of C++ and/or Source coding, and would like to help us out, do not hesitate to apply today in our Recruitment section!

Media

In this media release, we have a couple of work-in-progress game elements, two wallpapers and a music compilation to show off. Let's start the media presentation with the WIP stuff!

The first picture on the left showcases some of the most recent texturing work of CaptainSource, featuring some custom ceremonial banners of the Star Trek universe: the Starfleet banner (decorating the walls of Starfleet Command in San Francisco), the Enterprise insignia (used during the decommissional ceremony of the NX-01 Enterprise) and the Starfleet Mission Control logo. These instances of textile-texturing (LOL) are planned to be used only in some minor cutscenes, still we hope that they will also help us in achieving a more diversified level environment than what our previously released level screenshots would suggest.

On the right, you can see a work-in-progress demo NPC: a Vulcan engineer who will have a much greater role in the upcoming demo than what its designation would suggest...
The NPC was designed by Flanker, and is currently produced by TripTucker.

Since our last Media Release, Flanker however has worked not only on character models but also on a couple of mod-related wallpapers to be used by our supporters for decorating their desktop.

The first of these features Starbase 3, one of the newest designs of Flanker, along with our Y-Type freighter, the Kurt-class support tug, the ECS Kobayashi Maru, and two Amarillo-class cruisers designed by Masao Okazaki. These cruisers are actually not part of the mod, but Mr. Okazaki gave permission to use them in the wallpaper - so who knows, maybe he will also let us use them in the mod too...
The wallpaper is available in 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x960 and 1440x900 resolutions.

The second picture however features one of the key events of the main mod: the discovery of the destroyed UES Zagreb and the derelict ECS Kobayashi Maru by the NX-01 Enterprise in 2156. Just like the previous image (not counting of course Mr. Okazaki's design), this wallpaper also features our actual ship models. However, this one is available only in 1440x900.

Finally, we also have something to present you from the audio department. Basstronix was busy to produce you a mix from the mod's current soundtrack, featuring both normal level background music and more dynamic combat tracks in a little-more-than two minutes long MP3 file. You can grab it here, or listen to it below:

Publicity news

Three of our members (namely, Cpangrace, Croesus and Flanker) had the pleasure last weekend to participate in the HL2 webradio "Podcast 17" where they were roundly interviewed by the show's hosts, Phillip and William. You can check the interview out on the podcast's official website here. Kudos to the staff of Podcast 17, we are very grateful for the invitation and wish them all the best!

Conclusion

An acknowledgement is however due not only for the aforesaid pair of radio hosts, but also to our community who tirelessly follow our project since its inception. We have received lots of encouragement, suggestions and constructive criticism from this community both in our forum and on the rest of the websites/portals/message boards where our news materials are frequently featured. We would like to thank you all the attention you have been giving us - hopefully, we can release a palpable evidence of our work soon enough to prove how important our community is for us.

In this spirit, we wish all our readers/members/supporters a very happy Christmas and a very successful New Year!

LightSpeed Design Studios PR Department Out.