Last time, we covered the pretty specific topics of the GDI Firestorm Generator and a few Nod voxels. But we've been working on plenty of other stuff too. In this bulletin, we'll be tackling some of the larger additions over the last couple of months. So, lets get to it!
The interior theatre is actually a extension of the temperate theatre. In the past few weeks we've been getting it all working ingame, adding little detailing tiles, and preparing the props which will help to set this environment apart from the outdoors. Once finished, the interior theatre will allow the campaign to go underground, into the bunkers and sprawling facilities of both GDI and Nod. We already have a couple of missions planned which will make use of the set, and if I can get away with it I may sneak it into a few Multiplayer maps too.
Concrete walls, metal lattice walls, hazard stripes, and floor conduit tiles.
I've also been working on tiles to provide slopes from one 'floor' to another, which are slowly being converted into a game ready format.
In terms of props we've been taking our cues from the likes of Half-Life's Black Mesa, with a mix of large 'science' objects and miscellaneous factory and warehouse props.
Large pipes which run along the ground and disappear into the shadows of the ceiling.
Reactor cores, server racks, warehouse shelving! We have it all. As long as it's one of those things!
I have a few big plans for the interior set, especially in the context of scripted missions. I'l like to make a freight elevator which acts as a War Factory, bringing in additional vehicles for you or your enemies, and I have some big environmental set-pieces in the works for the Nod campaign.
Another big thing I just got working is ice. The snow theatre is moving along well with a bunch of new content, but the biggest fix recently is the ice. We discovered something right after I converted all the TS ice into TO, reworked the colouring, and blended it to the terrain; maps made with the TS editor, Final Sun, do not have working ice. The ice will break but never regrow, which is dumb and makes ice basically worthless. Worse than worthless in fact, it makes ice an unbalancing and potentially game-breaking liability on maps which use it.
Ice which was originally generated by Westwood works fine.
I wrote a small program which takes the relevant part of the map and outputs it with ice which works. Since I am ostensibly TO's artist, this was a slower process than it probably needed to be, but I am chuffed to bits to have ice working again! It opens up so many tactical opportunities - vehicle weight becomes an important factor in purchasing choices, maps with lots of ice become more infantry/aircraft focussed, naval assets become... actually, there's some residual weirdness with how ice interacts with ships. That might need some tinkering.
The light-weight buggies and bikes can cross the ice without issue, but the heavier Shock Artillery leaves cracked ice in its wake.
I have also created a few more civilian structures for the snow theatre, inspired by antarctic bases. I feel that they add to the desolate feel in a somewhat different direction to the temperate theatre's brand of apocalypse. They also help to augment the prefab building set.
Also on display again are the arctic snow-tracks, a couple of snowmobiles, and the big orange CAT
That's all I want to show off this week. There's still a couple of other things left to show off from our little hiatus-from-updates, so look out for the next bulletin. Oh, and it looks like we're in the ModDB top 100. Thanks guys! You're the best, thanks for voting!
That would never have been an issue if WW would've just added their Dev Map Editor into the normal game. As it stands right now, it's still in the code but so ******* scrambled it's unusable.
Never would have been an issue if FinalSun encoded maps 100% correctly, never would have been an issue if a tile's icyness was tied to the tile type rather than an additional flag. There are so many ways this could have not been an issue. It was amazing and disheartening to discover this tiny little bug.
But the snow theatre is soooo much more interesting now that its fixed. :D
Yeah, true, I'm just being dumb. xD
From what I heard, there's only references to the map editor left, but all actual code relating to the map editor has been completely scrapped from the engine.
I thought CCHyper got it running at one point, but it constantly crashed and was highly unstable.
i love you guys
Nice update! Mod of the year
Sick brah! Cant wait
Firestorm walling could be used to prevent causality breaking flyovers, unless you moved a MCV inside the base, and spawned helipads, lost your aircraft as they tried to fly in, then you built new aircraft while you wondered how you could make a mistake like that, and again while you wait for your funds to pay for the new aircraft. Then for a moment you fly your aircraft inside the underground tunnels thinking this pretty sick and killing the unprepared noobs, that ends when your air force returns to the original helipads and get destroyed by the firestorm wall. Finally you throw your computer against the wall and cry at the shear waste of such an activity.
Anywho the alternative is a map in perpetual ion storm, which sounds cool anyway
Or an entirely underground base *with really really high roof*
Absolutely beautiful! Great work all the way!
Last photo is very ambient , and fits TS style like charm GJ.
Cute pipes :3
12/10
dead?
Nah, we're just busy people with numerous other things preying on our time. Since this bulletin, I've been working on final art for a number of GDI and Nod buildings (especially the war factories, which had severe clipping issues when producing some of the larger units) and both Morpher and I have been mapping a lot. He's been messing with some skirmish content and concept maps, and I've focused on the campaign missions we have in the works. I've also been doing benchmarks and research for pre-rendered cutscenes to fit between some missions, with mixed success.
So yeah. A bunch going on behind the scenes but as always a writeup isn't an easy thing for me to just throw out there. It's easy to put off when there are a bunch of mission-critical things which I could be doing instead, or I can just skive off and play Civ 5 or something. I've been putting off writing up another bulletin for a couple of weeks now because I'm lazy.
Here's a bonus image from the dropbox of the Nod War Factory's overhaul. Increasing the size at the back and making the interior a bit more interesting, while also smoothing the shape and making the whole thing flow slightly better around the doors - Dl.dropboxusercontent.com
And here are a couple of shots from the cutting room floor, as testing on higher poly cutscene assets are tested out and a general workflow is nailed down (still working on it, who knows if it'll come to anything) - Dl.dropboxusercontent.com , Dl.dropboxusercontent.com
Thanks for the question!
Thanks for the reply. I love your work and I have been following you for such a long time. I'm very much rooting for you guys and just want you to succeed at this. Take your time and all the best.