January 2009 - Newsblitz #2 - MechWarrior: Living Legends mod for Crysis Wars

First of all, the whole team behind MechWarrior: Living Legends would like to thank the community here at ModDB for the ongoing support and encouragement, not just in the past few days but since we first decided to show up around here. It is things like these that keep the team motivated and willing to go the extra mile that will make the difference between a good and a great gaming experience.

It's been a busy start into 2009 for the team of the Crysis total conversion modification MechWarrior: Living Legends, so we decided to explain some of the progress we made in the past few weeks. The three screenshots below all represent one of our Solaris Arena maps, Extremity. This map will allow the player to experience extreme heat as well as extreme cold and the effects of these on their vehicles. Shown below are combat scenes like the first two as well as the third one which should give a pretty good idea of the general atmosphere of this map and in particular the battles that can rage there.

One of the major breakthroughs early this month was getting the Blood Asp in game, an assault class 'Mech of the Clans, that's been featured in our advent calendar in various situations and poses. Two of the screenshots saw the Blood Asp in a swamp map , one time leading a combat group of other Clan vehicles out of the hangar and one time together with the other three variants which are currently available in game.

Of course, this strong 'Mech does not just exist to look good, it also knows how to fight - which, of course, it can not do forever, which is why another screenshot featured the Mech in a combat situation together with an ally. Another screenshot saw this powerhouse on the brink of extinction, the blue flashes and shimmer pointing to a 'Mech reactor core about to explode.

Earlier this month, the team of MWLL was in the lucky and proud position to announce that a new developer had joined its ranks. Berker Siino had decided to contribute to the team's efforts as a character and texture artist. Just a couple of days later, we are able to show of some of this work: the Inner Sphere's battlearmor, the Longinus, which replaced the earlier version that had been used in MWLL so far. These screenshots show the model with different textures and, while both model and textures are still WIP, should already give an idea of what the final Longinus in game will look like.

The Longinus' counterpart, the Clan's Elemental, was used in a caption contest on two different occasions and kept both community as well as team members entertained with some of the proposed captions.

The importance of perspective was shown in two further screenshots released independently from each other on two different days. They both show the same situation, an Inner Sphere patrol group in a city and therefore close quarters environment. In one of these shots, you can see the remains of an earlier battle together with a group of Clan Elementals trying to avoid detection. These screenshots feature not only an unfamiliar setting in MWLL - a city environment - but also rarely featured 'Mechs like the Awesome and the Hollander.

Closing this little review of some pretty turbulent weeks, we'd like to thank everyone who voted for us in the ModDB Mod Of The Year 2008 votings and helped us make it into the Top100. This is not only a great success for us, but also proves that the CryEngine 2 is a superb modding platform. We're still eager to claim #1 spot of Unreleased Mods of 2008, so please consider giving us your vote in these finals again.