Comments - The_Wildcat

Not at this time, no.

Pretty much nothing going on. We don't really have any active team members at the moment and I don't have time to do it all myself. If either of those changes, we'll be able to say and do more.

But even then, I won't be posting much until we have a major update like a bunch of completed maps or something to show off and announce the new team members or whatever.

Simply put, I don't want to drag people along while we aren't making any progress.

Just a quick link here to something our followers would probably interested in. Apparently a team in France made a game of a similar but slightly different type.

Store.steampowered.com

Looks promising.

Any more minor updates will only be posted on the public Cat-Life channel in our discord.

I didn't say anything about removing anything. The point of calling the project "dead" is that people aren't going to hear much update news from us for potentially a very long time.

For most fans of the project, they would call that dead.

In point of fact I said "So to summarize, I will continue to tinker and work on Cat-Life... but until we have a driven team Leader this project may as well be dead... again."

This is referring to the fact that I won't be posting news unless the project is basically done or we have a new team leader who can get some real results.

We've gone through this type of hiatus several times in the past, but as soon as we had a new team lead we started posting news and such... just like the voice actor stuff. Then when the team lead disappeared, we fell into years long hiatus once again.

I don't want to keep getting people's hopes up like that.

Instead, we're going relatively silent until we see progress toward a real completion.

I worded the bit about the old files wrong. You can find the links in a news post here... their stored on 4shared.

Ugh...

So, I think we're way past the point that we can call Cat-Life dead again or whatever.

I've asked multiple times now over a number of months for some updates on the project in the private discord chat and no one answers. I'm not seeing new content in the file share either. In fact, I think I'm the only one that has added anything in ages.

GreyCat stepped away until the team produces more activity and CubicTuxedo has been the only VA to actively try to get some record sessions going without any response form the rest of the VAs.

Sad truth is, I haven't heard anything from Sofia - the team leader lolzzz992 - Since January. She was unhappy because I wouldn't sign her up for something additional with some other service... related to web hosting and the hosted site I have been providing her.

The truth is, she was having issues in real-life and I don't know anything further.

She appears to be a member of the discord still, but has removed - or somehow lost - her Team Cat-Life Role. I didn't remove it and she hasn't contacted me to get it back... sooo...

Additionally, many of the VAs appear to have left and I'm not seeing many members in there.

As this is the case, I don't want to post any new news until we have a new and more active team leader.

We need someone that can organize and assign tasks and... well... lead the team.

I'm going to continue to add stuff to the file share as I have time to make new sounds or whatever, but don't expect much in terms of updates. If I have something to share, it will be on the Cat-Life channel in discord or in these comments rather then news.

That will change once I have a sudden amount of time and resources to dedicate to this OR we have a proactive team leader that is getting things done such that I have something worth while to talk about.

So to summarize, I will continue to tinker and work on Cat-Life... but until we have a driven team Leader this project may as well be dead... again.

If I have to do it all myself... it will be a very long time from now before it is done and very few of you faithful followers of this project will still care or even remember it.

Sorry for this sad news... but it is reality.

If you want to be the new team leader and you think you can get work done, let me know. And once again, the old files from 2009 are available for download here on ModDB if you want to work on what we had back then for your own personal version of Cat-Life.

I hope to have some cool and complete version of this project to post some day, but We'll need a good team leader and team to make it sooner rather then later.

I got carried away and did some touch-ups to the website myself. It looks better now.

*sigh* those MP3s are so slow to process on ModDB.

UPDATE: -much later- Finally!

Very slowly, but yes.

Yeah, it's been through the ringer a time or two now.

I'm glad that lolzzz992 was willing to get some work done.

lolzzz992 is working on a new hosted site on BWL for Cat-Life. We'll make some manner of announcement when it goes up.

If I find the time to sit down and write, we may have some casting calls and record sessions for voice work on Cat-Life soon. I need to cook up dialogue and get recordings set up so the map team can work in the character's talking in certain scenes.

Just a heads up, we will need volunteers for scientists, security guards, barney, kleiner, and possibly a few grunt lines and/or radio chatter.

Once I have the dialogue for a character or set of characters, I will post a casting call with proper instructions and some sample lines for folks to try out on the Cat-Life page.

The idea of the hazardous waste is that the facility isn't constantly a hazard course, but has the potential for danger. The point I was making is that the science team wasn't expecting to actually have Newton running around the entire facility... and certainly not during an invasion. They expected to run through a largely disused, cushy administrative hazard course to try out the mock-up and the latest series of injections.

Dr Breen and his admin staff certainly don't plan to crawl through the same grungy hazard course as security or the science team. They're above that after all.

And, by all practical appearances, they don't bother with it anyway unless it is required for some reason. Administrative staff have better things to do with their time.

I'd say Newton is about the size of a medium sized dog. His head, when standing flat footed, comes up to about an average person's knee. Maybe a little higher.

It's worth noting too that some of these are limitations of the engine and our way of explaining it rather then just ignoring it. The ideal is to get the explanation to make a bit of sense.

My assumption is that there are actually both boots and a helmet for the suit. But the cat is prone to remaining in one place once that covered. observe the number of YouTube videos of cat's stiffening up and tipping over when people put relatively light clothing on them.

It is worth noting that the other identifier strings are related to enhancements that cat himself received. A series of mutagenic serums, nano-tech injections, and a series of internal bionic implants. It's part of the reason Newton is larger, tougher, stronger, and more cooperative then a normal cat. It's also why it has such effective claws against alien aggressors.

But there are limits to a cat's willingness and understanding even after changes of this magnitude. And since the experiment on this day was just a run through of a sort of hazard course to test the suit and the Cat's ability to move around in it the science team elected not to bother with the other covers. In truth, part of the day's experiment is actually the latest serum injection series - the expected result is greatly improved problem solving and understanding.

It's also worth remembering that the mod is more survival then strait run and gun action. It would probably be better that you didn't try swimming in acid.

As for the tail thing, a bob tail should work fine. But I prefer the full tail. It's not practical with regard to the rest of the suit being open, but I mentioned that already. As far as the design goes, its more of an aesthetic choice. It just looks better.

After all, a cat with such heavily mutated and bionically enhanced body probably wouldn't look so cat-like. I doubt it would be anywhere near as cute in reality.

Also, for those who can't read my scribbles...

Subject: Felis Catus Mutation and Cyber-Structure Test Unit
Formal Unit Designation: XFC-71 BiSO-37 ESO-12𝛾 DES-1456p
Unit Identifier: XFC-71
Common Name: Newton

And he's wearing the experimental E-HEV [Enhanced HEV] prototype mock up. Basically, if the little kitty version works, then they plan to make a human sized prototype.

Yeah, it works with the original Half-Life - meaning GoldSource and NOT the Source engine version.

That said, this was a simple demo - more or less a proof of concept - so it is very much incomplete.

The hope right now is that lolzzz992 can keep the team moving and get a proper beta release out with the actual maps and content.

Basically.

lolzzz992 wants to try to finish it at least up to a light version release. Ideally, we can get him some help to make the process a little easier and more productive.

But on that front only time will tell. Whatever the case, I've set up a couple of private and hidden channels in the discord for the Cat-Life team to organize and I've typed up a bunch of my story info and dug up a bunch of older files I thought I had lost.

So, lolzzz992 should be off to a reasonable start with a decent set of info and resources.

A little update, we've had someone named "Fusion powerKitten" join our discord and ask for some additional model files back in January. They want to try to make the "lite" version.

Now see, I don't even know what happened to the summary and background picture. And I don't really feel like fixing it.

As far as the project, it continues to take a back seat to other projects and real life issues. As an example, my dad has been in the hospital for a month now - received a tracheotomy and a g-tube, and is still in ICU. And at work, our morning shift is down to 4 staff. They need nine to make coverage on a daily basis.

I am very tired, but still trying to do things. I just really don't see Cat-Life moving forward any time soon. I want to work on it, but it will probably be well down the road. Not right away for sure.

Again, if someone wants to help with the project, let me know how.

Basically, you walk up to the wall. Then while looking up, you press the jump key repeatedly.

This was done with a variation on the wall jumping code. Thus, with practice you can do quite a few maneuvers.

Haven't touched it in a while. Would like to get back to it, but have a bunch of other stuff I'm working on at the moment like getting videos and comics going while holding over at work every day.

Haven't heard from anyone about making a lite verison either. So I guess I'm not alone in my time and work issues.

I've half-changed my mind. I'm making download links available for our 2009 / 2010 files.

It isn't really a question of someone else finishing it. We've recruited before... many times. There just isn't that much interest in modding for such an old game.

HL's been out for 17 years now. The mod's been in development since 2003 - 12 years now as of tomorrow.

It wasn't my mod to begin with and I have dozens of other projects. Basically, this is more a matter of if anyone even still plays Half-Life with mods by the time I finish. Even mod tutorials for goldsource are scarce these days.

I have debated releasing the code, map files, etc. But I don't even have the most recent source code. Our coder still has that and says he can't send a copy for some reason. Everything else is available in our team 4shared directory or on our team forum and I think it best to keep it there for now.

I have also debated closing this project on ModDB and just keeping it up on the site. Lot's of factors to consider. Most of all, I would have probably shut this down and moved on to something in Source by now, but I have always thought the fan base that stuck with us from the old Friendly Garg days deserve to see this done eventually. And done well.

I officially assumed lead duties in early 2010 and have been alone nearly the entire time save for the help of the most recent coder from a couple of years ago. It may take a while, but I'll get the work done given enough time.

With my new rig I can begin looking at model work and more. So yes, it may take a few years to get done... but honestly that's okay by me. Doing this and seeing it finished correctly is better then dumping incomplete maps on the community and then watching the work go unfinished.

No matter how "simple" it may seem, this is a full mod that borders on being a TC. It is basically a game unto itself and thus is NOT simple. Not so long as we're making it quality.

So while I HAVE considered uploading what code I have, I don't see any reason to do so. I'd rather just finish it myself.

I haven't set up the editing software on my new rig yet. I'm pretty busy at the moment with getting several video projects up and running and the like.

Honestly, this would go faster if there was still a team, but there isn't. And as long as I'm the only person working on it - which has been the case since I began working on it personally in 2009 - it will take however long it takes. I have a very real job and a host of projects other then this one, so I can't make any promises on the time. Sorry.

If tools come out for Source 2 before this is done and I can get a team together to make it in the new engine, then I'll try to find someone to take over this version and get it up to a release. Otherwise, I'm just working on it when I can until help comes along or I get finished.

Either way, I'm still looking for help with new models, skins, etc.

Okay, I have to change the release date back to TBD. I meant to do this sooner, but have been busy trying to get other projects and game servers ready. I just now signed in to moddb for the first time in ages.

Why the change? Well, my computer died a couple of months ago. Likely the motherboard. But it was old anyway. 8 years old actually.

I saved backups up everything and all, but I'm forced to use my laptop to update things right now. That means, everything's a bit slow outside of Cat-Life.

Cat-Life itself is on hold until I am back up and running in full.

I hope to pick up a new, better, and more powerful rig during my trip to A-Kon this week. After that we'll see how long it takes to get things installed and set back up for editing.

It's not going anywhere at this time. It's just delayed.

Basically, I'm running into enough issues IRL that I think it would be better to give myself more time. A fair bit more time.

Besides, I've always sort of felt that CLGS should make it's first release in August. Seems fitting somehow.

Okay. Once again, issues are cropping up. I haven't touched Cat-Life since making the announcement. I hope to soon, but I'm doubting that I get the game done before the end of the year.

As it stands, I'm hoping to at least get a new build out with the skippable prologue [ which is our new Hazard Course ]. However, I'm starting to doubt that too. As such, I may well be looking at a delay of uncertain length.

Why?

Work, hardware failures, house hunting, health issues, and more.

Basically, every time I start getting ready to really get this done, something happens to stop me. Did you know my wireless gateway burned out? And then my backup modem started failing?

Did you know that power issues started triggering CPU heat alarms due to power surges?

Did you know our two other shifts at work are so unreliable that I can't count on being off at the designated time on ANY day that I work?

Did you know that I only yesterday canceled all four of our hosted Game Servers because our host service has gone bad? In fact, we haven't been able to play for months.

Seriously, a lot of stupid stuff is slowing me down.

Thanks again to all of you that have been so supportive. I'm going to do what I can, but I'm not making any promises.

It’s been quite a while. Not much has happened with the Special Forces Team or SFStudios.

Even on the team steam group, the last two announcements were two years ago.

The site as it stands in outdated badly and attracting much spam. The .tk addresses have expired. The last news post was September 2011, and the chatango hasn’t even been used since then.

I closed forum registration back in July. And even then, we have spam posts pouring into the forums because they need updating in multiple ways. I actually popped in on one bot while it was flooding the forums with spam.

So, what am I saying? Well, sadly, I’m calling the site dead. I’ll be shutting it down soon. It will be in the month of September as it stands.

Beside the inactivity, the truth is that the steam group now has pretty much all the functions the site once filled. Forums, a chat room, announcements, comments, etc. So too does the moddb profile really. Therefore, I think SF Studios and Special Forces: Source would probably be able to use the steam community and team steam community without too much trouble.

If there is ever a renewed interest in Special Forces: Source and/or Gordon Dangerous, I’ll be happy to host the site again – after some upgrading that is.

However, I will want to see real interest and activity as this has become a security risk and a resource drain.

Sorry again for this decision, but it needs to be made. As a positive, SF Studios will be replaced with a re-born Friendly Garg’s Stories site built from the archive stored on BWL.

So the space and resources are going to a good cause.

I’ll leave the SF Studios team members on the BWL Forums with their special class. I’ll just be clearing the old site itself.
The Wildcat

It’s been quite a while. Not much has happened with the Special Forces Team or SFStudios.

Even on the team steam group, the last two announcements were two years ago.

The site as it stands in outdated badly and attracting much spam. The .tk addresses have expired. The last news post was September 2011, and the chatango hasn’t even been used since then.

I closed forum registration back in July. And even then, we have spam posts pouring into the forums because they need updating in multiple ways. I actually popped in on one bot while it was flooding the forums with spam.

So, what am I saying? Well, sadly, I’m calling the site dead. I’ll be shutting it down soon. It will be in the month of September as it stands.

Beside the inactivity, the truth is that the steam group now has pretty much all the functions the site once filled. Forums, a chat room, announcements, comments, etc. So too does the moddb profile really. Therefore, I think SF Studios and Special Forces: Source would probably be able to use the steam community and team steam community without too much trouble.

If there is ever a renewed interest in Special Forces: Source and/or Gordon Dangerous, I’ll be happy to host the site again – after some upgrading that is.

However, I will want to see real interest and activity as this has become a security risk and a resource drain.

Sorry again for this decision, but it needs to be made. As a positive, SF Studios will be replaced with a re-born Friendly Garg’s Stories site built from the archive stored on BWL.

So the space and resources are going to a good cause.

I’ll leave the SF Studios team members on the BWL Forums with their special class. I’ll just be clearing the old site itself.
The Wildcat

Largely it's all localized in one lab complex/chapter. Not unlike Questionable Ethics in the original game.