Hello everyone, it’s that time of the month again. One of my main focuses this month was on creating Xen assets. I recently got a drawing tablet, so I spent some time relearning photoshop to create my own textures by hand. I’ve also begun creating normal maps for my models, huge thanks to A-Shift for informing me on how to go about this process. I’ve made quite a few new models and have updated all old textures on my Xen models. The old textures were rough to say the least, and were in major need of some overhaul. The assets weren’t the only focus of this month, however. I spent a lot of time on the programming end of things, mainly working on NPCs but also fixing and tweaking some of the weapons. Let’s dig in, shall we?
As I stated already, I spent a lot of time working on Xen assets. A major focus of the first chapter is the state of the world. Since this game is 10 years after the Black Mesa Incident, the world is almost unrecognizable. Xen flora and fauna riddle the wasteland and have basically taken over Earths’ ecosystems. The mod is set in the Eastern US, far enough from Black Mesa to not have been completely overrun by Xen life, but close enough to have a large infestation.
Here's one of the maps I've been working on. This is part of chapter one, not too far from where the train crashes in the wasteland. These Xen models are where I put most of my time this month. Brand new textures were made for most everything. Marco198 made proper showcases images for the models, so please enjoy this little showcase put together by him!
As I said before, I also worked on AI. The gas flyer is currently being rewritten, in order to make its behavior fit more of what was described on the Raising the Bar page. The flocking floater has been added too, because I am a huge fan of aliens that fly. I think players will get a nice kick out of seeing these cut aliens floating around the wasteland. Speaking of aliens floating around the wasteland, I’ve added boids, the flying alien creatures from HL1. Currently I’ve only added the model that was used in Blue Shift, but with time I will also add the HL1 model. Another cut creature that I'm excited to share is the Stampeder. I’ve never seen the stampeder even receive a model, so there’s a chance that this is the first stampeder model created. The AI is very barebones, and it is only able to idle around and attempt to attack the player when provoked but doesn’t have the necessary animations to charge the player yet.
A topic of discussion this month in our Discord server was the players arsenal. Originally, it was only to be the standard HL2 weapons, with beta weapons added. This might no longer be the case. I believe adding different weapons would help not only give the mod more of an original take, but also help get the point across that this is not Gordon Freemans’ story, but another character entirely. I’d love to hear everyones’ thoughts on this.
Every month brings us closer and closer to our vision for Outcast. I will be working on the prologue map, as well as finishing up the first chapter over the next month or two. More assets need to be made, more code must be written, and more maps must be worked on. But alas! The work doesn’t stop. Thank you for your support and for reading, and as always, any feedback can commented here, sent to me directly on Discord at Zapagoogas#9716, or you can come join us in the Discord server at Discord.gg. See you in 2023, and good luck to all who are participating in Mod of the Year!
Looks good. 😺
About the player’s arsenal: I’d prefer to see a beta-style mod that doesn’t just throw in every single weapon from retail and beta HL2. You don’t need to include both the crowbar and stunstick as melee weapons since they function identically, or the mp7 and mp5k for the same reason, or the crossbow and sniper rifle. There’s just too much overlap in their roles in combat and they would be redundant. I’ve been playing with HL2’s default weapons for almost 20 years so I’m not going to miss them if there are other weapons (beta or not) instead.
Exactly. We've all seen and played with the beta and retail weapons for many years now, so I think it would be nice to see some new weapons
I’d definitely keep some of the beta weapons that had really unique functions, like the immolator and combine guard gun, but there were also a lot of weapons with identical functions in the beta so it isn’t worth trying to include them all. There’s a reason they were cut!
Everything is looking great btw!
For sure. Those are very unique weapons and since the mod will include both the cremator and combine guard in later chapters, you will be able to use their weapons. Thank you for the support!