Comments - BaleFrend

I figured the news post right above was clear enough. On the off chance it wasn't, yes, the mod is dead.

Forum back up at: Forum.lordbooga.com

Uh, we did release an "alpha" for HL1 (what we called the Battle Demo) back in late 2003. Infact I believe one of our team members repackaged the demo with the updated server dll and made it available last year (on a side note there's other versions still floating about that use my original installer which contains the old bugged server dll making the demo all but unplayable, unfortunately I think this includes the copy uploaded to fileplanet).

I'm not quite sure how you could have been following since the HL1 days and missed it. There was quite a lot of info on our webpage and chatter on our forums surrounding the release and we'd confirmed the switch to HL2 by mid-late 2004.

The stuckiest stucked stuck that ever did stick?

HL1 version is unsupported, figure it out yourself. I will however say that that the issue has nothing to do with the mod (server browser functions the same as any other mod). If you do manage to get it running, make sure whoever runs the server has the updated server dll.

As for progress in HL2 version, all I'm going to say is don't expect it this year.

Ok, thanks for stopping by?

We don't have anyone on team to create a new site. We might be able to salvage one of old designs, but I never had a copy of the website.

Finally got around to updating the tean member list.

The pokemod is confirmed to be going ahead, but there's been a slight delay on getting the status update up. Some more information will be up as soon as possible.

I'm not sure how long you've been following the pokemod (I don't recognise your name) so I'll give you a quick recap.

The pokemod essentially started back in 1999, but we'll skip all that and fast forward to mid 2003.

Mid 2003:
We decide to switch from HL1 to the upcoming HL2. We do have a fair bit of work completed and we’re the only turn based RPG using the HL engine, so we decide to continue and make a “battle demo” release before abandoning the engine.

Late 2003:
We release our battle demo. A few emergency patches later, all is relatively well. For the most part the team got what it wanted from the release, proof of concept.

Early-Mid 2004:
HL2 release date is pushed back. Since we’re not able to do much for the HL2 version we take a brief break. Still no HL2. We decide to extend our original battle demo, address some of the fans concerns, add a few miscellaneous features and pretty much make the mod more “fun”.

Late (but not quite November) 2004:
Some of the above changes are implemented but never released. The patch is never finished, and nothing extra was released. The team loses interest in the mod for the most part and the extended battle demo is cancelled.

November 2004:
Half-Life 2 is released! No SDK  At about this time our (paid) server host goes down but keeps promising they’ll come back up soon.

Early-Mid 2005:
Interest in the pokemod (which began back in 1999) is at an all time low. Our host never got our site back up. We decide to find a new host after they transfer the domain name (which was registered under them, but paid for by a team member) back to us. They all but openly refused to do so and to my knowledge that team member never regained control of the domain name (I think it’s soon to expire, so he should be able to reregister it then).

April 2005:
With a lot of team members out of contact, and virtually nothing completed since 2003, I make the infamous “Loose Ends” news post. I tried to make the “near-permanent hiatus” of the mod as unambiguous as possible but still allowing the possibility to restart it in the future. I failed; I received quite a few questions via email and even a few people wishing to join the mod.
At the time it was my decision to make, and I stand by it. I’ve made some mistakes over the course of my time working on the pokemod (I authorised the original buggy battle demo release) but this was not one of them.

Mid-July 2005:
Some murmurs of a revival attempt that I’m not a part of (by choice). Nothing really came of it, however it did lead to…

September 2005:
An organised revival attempt. It’s progressing slowly, but it’s not exactly easy to piece together a team that essentially split 2 years ago. In fact it won’t be the same team; regardless of the fact most of the faces will be familiar.

Now with the back story complete, I can answer your question:

We’re starting from scratch, but we have experience. We know where we stand.

October 2005:
Expect the announcement.

The mod never had a Snorlax :P

Probably Marowak and Dratini, they were the two overpowered pokemon in the demo.

They went down between updating the moddb profile and uploading the news item.

They're up now though.

Mudslide (and anyone else wondering):

Just wait. There will be an announcement in the next couple of weeks.

That's not correct.

To use any of the existing HL1 models and maps, you'd need to ask the original authors. As far as I can remember, Tetsuo did all the maps (and textures) and he's easy enough to track down. A lot of the modelers aren't around anymore, so you'd have trouble with those.

What I objected to releasing was the code. As a lot of people know, the released HL mod was a rush job. It was decided to make a quick and drity release and then do a total rewrite for the next version (whether it was HL1 or HL2). The code is simply unmaintainable, there's nothing in it worth salvaging.

On a different note, expect an update to the current situation soon. Yes, that's right, you didn't imagine it.

I'm not sure who you've been talking to. The only member I've talked to in the last month or two has been Tetsuo. Neither of us even brought up the Pokemod.

Negative feedback is ok. That wasn't negative or positive, it was neutral.

It just seemed out of place. Like walking into a random chinese restraunt and declaring, "I don't like chinese food so I won't eat here". Does it reflect poorly on the Chinese Restruant? Nope. Does it reflect poorly on the guy who said it? Not really. It's just out of place.

Any reason you feel the need to tell us this? We're a pokemon mod, we're not about to change.

Most of the games are played on steam but it's rare to find any games up and running. It's easier to contact someone to set up a game. We hope servers will be more active with a later release (there isn't much content in the current release).

If you or anyone else wants to host a server, make sure you get the updated server dll (it is NOT included in the installer). You can find it at Lordbooga.com

Without the updated server dll, the matches are pretty much unplayable.

UDS:

I had the same thought myself until I checked the mod awards. Turns out the Creativity award is for individual aspects of a mod (say our turn based battle system) as opposed to the actual Originality award (for the mod as a whole).

Yes, 386 pokemon are a lot.

As for co-op, we plan to have it function similar to Diablo II. By that I mean things like quest status will be dictated by the first player to join the game (emulating someone creating the game).

There are some obvious problems with that setup, so we aren't completly sure how it will turn out. We'll try our best to sort it out, I for one am a big fan of co-op.

Doofus nomitated it for most improved 2003, it was just placed in best new comers 2003 (which makes sense, since our first release was in 2003).

For some odd reason our link was always text in the nomination forum posts, while most of the others (including all the other new comers) had actual links.

It'll be added sometime after the patch is out. I'd just need to learn enough php to hack in the scoring display.

We are aiming for all 386.

Why do you just assume that? While our little about box to the left isn't exactly informative, "persistant pokemon" suggests no pokemon 'splosions.

The Pokemod will be a 3D version of a pokemon gameboy game (new story, other changes, ect). Pokemon battles will be indenticle (well added eye candy) to pokemon ruby/sapphire.

The problem is that you really do need to change to steam. I'm not overly fond of steam myself, but starting to use steam now will lessen the shock when the plug is finally pulled on the WON network.

There may be lots of other SP and MP, but none of them are turn based rpgs. I also haven't seen any mods that are anywhere near the scope we intend to have.

A small list of reasons why HL would be a bad choice for us (this is by no means complete, I'm not about to list a page or two of reasons):

Entity limit, lack of particle engine (the crude one we use needs a lot of work), bad collision detection (HL wouldn't be acurate enough to handle a weedle tackling a wailord without graphical errors occuring), superfical physics engine (a decent physics engine like HL2 uses will save us doing quite a few animations and will likely look better) and a basic vgui system (we actually have uses for new vgui functions like adding 3d models to the menus).

If for some strange reason HL2 (remembering it was built from the ground up to be modable, unlike HL1) turns out to be a poor choice, we'd switch to Torque.

This isn't going up as news as its not an offical update. This update (along with a more detailed explanation) was put on our forum but we've already run out of bandwidth again, despite buying more and taking download.

This server dll (only needed if you want to host a server) addresss most (but not all) of the bugs found. It also displays a players name when you target them with the crosshairs (a common suggestion/complaint). An offical patch (both server and client) will be released soon which will address the remaining bugs and other concerns (such as the particle effects taking too long).

It should be noted that this dll has only been tested under steam.

Lordbooga.com

The first HL2 version will have support for battling computer controlled trainers. We will not be adding it to the HL version as it would require large sections of the code to be rewritten.

You cannot create a simple bot for the pokemod, it's not a FPS.

Tet posted a warning that the forums would go down for a while. It just took longer to get them up then expected.

But not those who wait too late, we gotta go for all we know.

Your right, still not sure why Booga wanted to display the movies.