It's summer time! That warm feeling (from here in Canada :P ) is sweeping the Northern Hemisphere and things go crazy, this time of year.
The Price of Peace team is set to have a slow, quiet July, full of bar-b-ques and parties; vacations and beaches and even a little relaxation. This update is to inform you of a few minor things, some team changes, and a general direction we will be taking until either just before or just after August 1st.
DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES:
Most of our modeling department is taking some time off after slaving away to get all of the PoP v0.1 weapons completed. The last models for the first release can now be shown, but don't be suprised if we get a few more in before the release. Here are the new models, to view in a larger window simply click on the thumbnail images below.
Bren Light Machine Gun - Model by No1_Sonuk, Skin by Jadams.
Mills Bomb Frag Grenade - Model by No1_Sonuk, Skin by Jadams
M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle - Model by --[Jelmertjuh]--, skin by Jadams
The HUD is being massaged into its final state, with a font-maker package being updated and revised. Images should be posted just after we have the kinks worked out, as we don't want to show you everything with the same old Courier font from ET. The "whole picture" will be up soon. Thanks go to hollowgrave and Guga-Nought for their crazily dedicated and ongoing efforts in this regard.
The Limbo menu (aka Team/Class/Weapon selection system) is being worked on by the same two fellows with the same caveats to the reader that it will be shown when we can accurately represent what we want it to look like as a final version. The same two team members are responsible for this one ;) , and they seem to be forming the core of our User Interface development team :) .
The Animations for weapons are being "sorted", as our British members are wont to say. We have recently aquired an animator by the name of Line_Spike who has been attacking the character animation system with mixed success. To those who don't know the concerns about this problem, don't even think about trying to understand. Suffice it to say that any success is monumental.
Isigny Sur Mer, Omaha Beach, Le Bocage, and Vierville Sur Mer continue development. The progress is astounding and the first two are, in fact, right at the tip of being DONE. These maps have been a long time coming, but they are beautiful to behold as recent screenshots and videos show. The first versions of these maps are not yet laid out for the double-direction play that is a core part of our planned Objective mode. However, the duplication and modification is being considered and worked on as I type this.
Saigon is charged with MANY projects, including the development and coordination of ALL coding. His expertise and that of our other two active coders (unqiue1 of AIMod fame, and hollowgrave from Kaos Klan) has seen the birth of an extensive weapon scripting system for the addition and modification of weapons options without the need for recoding any source, as well as the planned objective mode facilities, the look and feel from first and third person (cross-working with animations by Line_Spike shortly), and several other projects that form the core of our whole "thing". :) The code is in such a state that CVS has been employed to manage the file accessibility. Conveniently, several projects have no crossover and those are highest on the priority lists.
And the beat goes on...
UNFORTUNATELY:
This week has seen a revelation in the team. The month of July will be a month of vacations left right and centre. Several key members (as if they all aren't :P ) will be taking lengthy holidays (2+ weeks). Things are being arranged vey carefully so that production can actually happen while these members are away. Preparations and precautions are being taken and, thankfully, none of the coders are on this list of slacke--I mean vacationers.
In addition, there is worse news:
dime1622, a stellar mapper and deputy leader extraordinaire has left the PoP team. He and Th0rr are responsible for the Omaha Beach map to its current development state, and he is also responsible for several excellent ideas that have fired up the team and fans alike. He has claimed lack of time from his school and life concerns and simply cannot continue. He leaves our team in a state of friendship and his opinions will be consulted on occasion. Sorry to see you go, buddy.
green1152, an excellent modeller and animator has chosen to go a different path. Low-polygon models and simple animations are not his style anymore and we salute him as he leaves to follow more artistic pursuits. Having not heard from him in quite some time, his leaving comes as no great shock. The inherent loss of team ability is less than ideal, but as we haven't had access to him for some time, it is not terribly serious. green, good luck in your next endeavour.
MotoMn121 is the third and final member to leave. His reasons are similar to dime1622's, with a twist. Moto has a long vacation coming up and immediately upon the heels of his return home is his return to school, which will take the wind out of his development-time sails. Similar to green1152, he also has not been seen in some time because of massive computer problems, so we take his leaving also with a grain of salt, while still sad to see him go.
All in all, we are not in any way worse off than yesterday when we had not heard from these fellows in some time (the honest truth about it, sorry guys). Vacations and team flux aside, we are still working, and fans beware, because despite my next announcement, we're actually almost there.
THE NEXT ANNOUNCEMENT:
There will be no updates until early August.
We are focusing on keeping people busy and not idle while leaders (ipox, No1_sonuk) and members (various) go on vacation. Fortunately, we can count on our coders to continue doing what they do best. Our modellers have mostly finished what they have had to do for now, and the animator(s) are diving right in while the water is warm. Jadams, our returned skinner, has managed to pump out several skins in a very short period of time, and is going strong.
The task of keeping people busy means that everything is in a state of disarray as far as displayable items are concerned. Especially as regards coding, even with a CVS system in place, the code is in a state where everything is half-done (so to speak), so a compile and build for public viewing or even internal testing would leave everything not finished. We are sure you understand. We recommend you look away for 3 weeks and then look back and marvel :P .
Thanks go to all our team members, past and present, and all our fans and anyone who reads this ;) . Have a great July, indeed a great summer, and we'll be back at you soon.
Now before I forget here are a few 'going away presents' to tide you all over until the next update in early August. As you can see from the videos below these two maps are nearly done for the first release with only the minor detailing to go on some sections.
- Isigny Sur Mer, American Offensive direction run-through second tech demo
- Isigny Sur Mer, German Offensive direction run-through second tech demo
- Omaha Beach, American Offensive direction run-through tech demo
- Omaha Beach, German Offensive direction run-through tech demo
DrGuppy
Public Relations
The Price of Peace
PS: You may find a few nibs and squibs (videos, etc.) posted seemingly at random... *whispers* it's meant to look that way. */whispers* ;) This is not a contradiction, as I, DrGuppy, am not going on vacation and thus I will be attempting to keep you all informed and psyched as much as possible. :P Please feel free to comment on this update or post on The Price of Peace forums. (http://pop.rtcwfiles.com/forums)
