Bear Force II Development Blog 17 - Singleplayer news!

Welcome everyone to the Development Blog #17 for Bear Force II. This Development Blog will cover the most recent info about the upcoming Singleplayer update for Bear Force II and we have a lot to tell!

• Sub factions: Jedi/Sith Order
• Force powers and shooting system as seen in Multiplayer
• Unique scenes
• Overhauled campaign map gameplay and visuals

Singleplayer for Bear Force II will be released alongside Bear Force II v1.0 as a separate module with a different version number. We have chosen to separate Singleplayer and Multiplayer in 2 different modules for the reason that we can start fresh and make Singleplayer more optimised. This means we only implement the assets from Multiplayer that are needed to make a Singleplayer module in the Clone Wars Era.

The first release of Singleplayer will of course have some unique gameplay elements, but our goal for the first release is simple: Make a stable Singleplayer module containing some of the Multiplayer elements and add a few new elements that we cannot get from Multiplayer, for example, the Sub Faction system. This means the first release for Singleplayer will in no way be as advanced as some of the other Singleplayer mods out there, depending on the success of the first release, we will add to this.

You really can’t make a Star Wars mod without including the Jedi and Sith Orders, is what we thought. But we didn’t want to just add them as troops to the main factions, instead we wanted them to be part of the main factions, but not take part in the factions.

The Jedi and Sith Order get 1 location each, for the Jedi this is the Coruscant Temple and for the Sith this will be the Moraband Temple.

You will not be able to join either of these Orders from the start as you will have to prove your worth towards the leaders of these Sub Factions to let you join them. For this we have implemented an influence system. Each action taken against a Sub Faction will gain you influence with the opposing faction. When enough influence has been gained for one of the Sub Factions you will be able to join them.

Once you joined the Jedi or Sith Orders, you will get access to unique items such as lightsabers and force powers and next to that a number of choices will become available to you! Will you focus on mastering lightsaber combat or the mastery of the Force? The more you train in lightsaber combat, the more accurate your reflection skills and faster your lightsaber will be. If you choose to master the force you will unlock more force powers and learn to use these more proficiently.

The shooting system as seen in Multiplayer is an advanced coding system which overrides some of the limits which Native Warband has; certain item tags are changed to give different effects like high fire rate, charge up time, number of projectiles per shot, etc. In the latest release for Multiplayer these systems only work for players. However one of our new freelance coders, Darthkiller, is making a lot of progress in coding the multiplayer AI to operate, using the player shooting system and more. Once he is done with that we will port his newly made system to Singleplayer.

The Force System in Multiplayer is probably even more unique than the shooting system in terms of tweaking/overriding Native limits. It adds force powers as new items that are only available to specified troops in multiplayer and can also be given to AI troops. However, coding these AI to use these force powers efficiently and effectively is very difficult. Making these force powers available to the player in Singleplayer, although it should not be too much trouble.

While these systems have not been fully implemented yet, we are making very good progress on porting them over from Multiplayer.

Bear Force II is partially known for some of its unique scenes that can currently be found in the Multiplayer side. While Multiplayer scenes cannot be ported to Singleplayer due to different load orders, some of these maps were made as 3D models which can be ported to Singleplayer.

This means that we will be using as many of these 3D model scenes as we can, and maybe add 1 or 2 new ones along the way. We are currently making a 3D model scene for the Sith Temple. You will be able to find a picture of the WIP CIS outpost siege model below.

Seeing as we will have fewer locations than Native we will have to compensate on a few elements. The focus for the Singleplayer campaign will be military.

We are also making it so parties can only travel through certain paths from location to location (a.k.a. hyperspace lines). These paths will all be straight and the borders of the paths will be indicated by surrounding interstellar-like clouds, which have not been added yet. Forests are being replaced by asteroid fields.

Right now the campaign map is undergoing heavy development and we are still experimenting. This means that we won’t be showing it off as of yet since everything is very likely to still be changed. That said, here are a few pictures of the outpost models:

Gameplay:

• Added troops for Republic and Separatists
• Reduced main factions to 2
• Positioned planets on campaign map
• Tweaked Native AI as placeholder
• Finished basics for campaign map

Visuals:

• New armours
• Added unique commanders for: Obi-Wan, Mace Windu, Count Dooku, Aayla Secura, Ulundi, Asajj Ventress and Anakin Skywalker
• Added asteroid field models for campaign map
• Added outpost models for campaign map