Look and Feel Update news

Spring, Fall, Winter

TruYuri worked his ass off preparing innumerable w3d files to account for multiple sized versions of the various plants and trees we have, in multiple season's colors. There is still a little bit more to do. These are not too polygon intensive, but they're going to have LOD versions that dumb down the models while they are far away or if there is simply too much action on the screen. Evergreens obviously don't change in the fall, but the orange one was grouped there on account of colors alone. Here are a couple placed into pretty scenes, then a quick (and entirely unlit) lineup.

Fabian made the original models and springtime colors, plus the dead grass and dead trees like you saw in RA_Killfields the other week. The other looks were done by Chronojam.

RA_CTT_Luna & Capture The Token

In a prior update we mentioned "intermission maps," 10 or 15 minute rounds designed to fit well between the traditional Red Alert base-versus-base scenarios which might take a full half hour to complete. Luna is one of these, and the first CTT map. A derivative of CTF gameplay, instead of sneaking off with an enemy flag you are searching the land high and low for a set of tokens.

In RA_CTT_Luna you find yourself inexplicably on the moon (oddly enough an old Red Alert setting first in the expansion pack Counterstrike), tasked with retrieving several space agency crates in a low-gravity setting. You must recover ten boxes scattered on the hills and in the craters to achieve victory, and in addition to mission-required ones you will find regular weaponry/armor upgrade crates. Future CTT maps will require you to find a set of unique components to win, instead of just a certain number of similar items as is the case for Luna. The testers love both the setting and the gameplay so far, so both will make an appearance in future maps.

RA_Pipeline

ChopBam's map has come quite a long way since we first began talking about it. Pipeline is, to remind you, a map that takes place near Turkish oil fields, particularly at a coastal site where tankers carrying the precious resource are loaded up. Land-based oil pumps abound, and an offshore platform is visible in the distance. Here are some updated shots. This map is currently in playtesting for inclusion in Gamma.

New Hands Base

Eggman and Beerinator worked pretty hard to bring you the new hands and arms that will serve as a base for the various infantry first person representations that we need. Right now you've got sleeveless arms, but of course in the future you will likely see uniformed or gloved hands depending on who you are playing as. Right now, shader use is not in our internal build, but proper bumpmapping has already been done for the hands/arms.

Of course, with new arms and hands, come new animations. We're getting around to doing silly things like reload animations for all the newer weaponry. It is a priority to do this for newer work over older stuff which might just be replaced. As a fun fact, the old arms were just a tube forearm with 2-segmented fingers. These ones have all the right parts and go up towards the shoulder.