Welcome to Solitudes 34th news update!
While Solitudes has been progressing mostly in the art department, with features such as external textures, and HLBSP support that allows us to have a much wider variety of colours; we've had to really make the extra effort for each of our art assets to look there best. More colours means we can't use some of the old limited art in the latest Solitude build.
While most textures crossed over extremely well, some assets just didn't make the quality standard we were aiming for. One of these assets happened to be our most used and seen model; the Spartan. The model had issues when animated, it was not proportioned correctly and was generally not as attractive and detailed as our other assets. Xalener, our 'new guy' wanted to re-make a Spartan. I agreed that he should do it, not only because he's a fantastic 3D/2D artist, but also creates some halo outfits in real life; part of an online community dedicated to creating costumes from the Halo universe.
You can see comparison shots of the new (Slightly outdated now though) and old Spartan in the Image Gallery. This is a enormous change for the game, as the protagonist look is one of the key features of the game; it sticks into the players head. Multiplayer should now look and, with our new Spartan animations that Chruch has been working on behind the scenes, feel different.
A few members of Flaming Ice have also been throwing around the idea of hosting a podcast; we'd like to know what you think of the idea, and if you've got any hot topics or questions you'd like us to talk about or answer. Post your suggestion in the comments below, don't be to surprised if you hear our voices soon!
The OSMC deadline has ended, the winner has been chosen. Sadly, the announcement video is taking longer then expected to make due to technical difficulty's. However, I can say that we've narrowed the winner down to either Klammy, the creater of the Bulletz mod or Kaplin, the unknown new guy on the forums. Both very talented mappers, and both causing a few friendly arguments amongst the team (The saw off shotgun and Katana are already out, and waiting to be used!). The battle to be the special K of the forums has started!
(Get what I did there.... anyone)
Honourable mention to Busdriver, the creator of Allout, who narrowly missed out being in the top two. The map was fantastic to play, and very detailed. But the lack of custom textures, and un-optimizations it just couldn't compete with the other two maps. Great entry though!
We've changed our IRC channel!
If you have any questions about Solitude, or just want to have a friendly chat with a developer. Join us at:
IRC.Badnik.net
#Solitude
If you like what you see, we encourage you to Track the Game to be be updated on future media, the more watchers, the more pressure I've got to make consistent updates!
Holy. I have to say: THIS IS SPARTA!!!!!!!!!
Thats way better than old one:)
and i like podcast idea;)
Ahh, great. Do you have any topics, or questions you'd like us to talk about?
Betareleasewhen:D
maps and engine come first(after betareleasewhen) in mind
I like the podcast idea too!
Apart from Xalener's attitude towards the comments in the image section with the various pictures of his new Spartan model I'd have to say he seems a good modeller!
Profuse profanity helps no one, especially when you want constructive critisism mate~
What? The "******* offended" thing?
An in-joke between me and Samuk.
Also, I'm pro profanity, you see. Words are ******* words. I can use them how ever the **** I want to. Words aren't offensive, sentences are. :)
We'll just have to agree to disagree about that particular point~ ;)
I don't usually get sucked into things like this, but consider:
If I were to say "Holy ******* **** that's awesome!" It's contextually inoffensive as it would be a compliment to whatever the subject is.
"Go **** yourself" however, IS an insult.
It's not the words, it's how you use them.
I did say somebody was going to make a comment about it ;)
And now Koolvin's banned, so it's all good. :D
since so many people say differently about the spartans, make it chooseable. Mark V and Mark VI
I didn't mean to plus this. I meant to click reply but clicked +1.
They are both Mark V...
There are too many technical problems with the first iteration to use it.
Podcasts sound like an excellent idea
Podcast is a very good ideia dudes
And finally we get a new Sparta.
Agreed with Jukki: "This is SPARTAAAAA!!!"
I have a Q.
Didnt understand this quitly: "The OSMC2 has finished, and the announcement video is taking longer then expected."
What announcement video? O.o
I go with what ducksrule said, You should be able to choose you're armour (Kinda like with Halo 3/odst multiplayer) Either way they will both work good for the game
(I like the podcast idea)
hey can you try to make the first person hands abit more detailed
Talking about first person hands...
Can you show a pic or a vid showing the first person view of this new Spartan?
It probably won't look any different. 1st person view will still be the same right?
I dont know... Only a Dev or Xalener could answer that...
The first person hands are different to the players model. So this new spartan model wont affect the hadns on your screen.
Somebody's gonna havta retexture the FP hands -_-
Told you. XD
jkjk
Hahaha no you didnt XD Yeah I admit you said it, but you had doubts too =D
And thanks Arkage for the answer ;)
This new model is now outdated? What is it like now?
You mean they updated this new Spartan again?? Where did you get that?
"You can see comparison shots of the new (Slightly outdated now though) and old Spartan in the Image Gallery."
It says that in the update. =)
Ahhh I understand now... Cant you see? The img that compares the 2 spartans, the "new" spartan is not the updated one. You can see that by comparing the pic of the new and old spartan and the first pic of this topic.
The first pic shows the updated one that has better colours than the secoud pic.
no they really meant that its outdated.
Kinda. Little things were tweaked. The spartan is more proportionate to a human being, and the texture has a few added details on it. The shoulder plates have been made more pronounced, and that's all that's different from what you've seen.
Thank god about the shoulder plates! I can't wait to see it!
the podcast idea seems great.