Hello and welcome to June. We all know how important this month is in the history of WWII. I would like to take this time to thank all of those who gave on that day, June 6th 1944. They are all hero’s and should be honored forever no matter what country they were from. Now back to RnL, this last few weeks we had some nice momentum built up and we are really moving along on the next update to the game. Before I get into the updates I wanted to take the time to welcome our newest member to the Development team.
Eric Murphy – Public Relations
Eric will be assisting me with the day to day monitoring of the Forums, assist with the update posts and even get a few projects of his own to work on. One of the projects we plan to do in the PR
department is interviews with the developers. There will be a sit down with each of the developers of the mod. Furthermore, there will be a chance for you to submit your questions to the to us. From there, we will see what we can learn about what each developer does for the mod.
Please note that we are still looking for Modelers and Artists. So if you have some skill or know some that does. Let them know we are looking for help.
Mike Majoris has sent in a really nice update for the rural area of Carentan that he has been working on. This is looking to be like one of the better maps of the game. I am not sure that is a good thing to say as every time I see a map from this team it is just amazing. Anyway, enough of me and my banter; check this out:
Stefan Bermig is at it again. He has yet another "seceret" project he is working on. He did send me 3 screen shots I can share with you. Please let him know what you think.
Now for the RTTF Q and As:
1. On May 1st RTTF, we saw a WIP model of a paraglider. Are there already any plans how you will implement the final glider in the game?
There are future maps in production that would use the glider as a scene prop. The details of its usage are as of yet, unavailable.
2. Are you going to create a new cinematic trailer for your OB-release?
We hope to, but right now we are working hard to get the OB release ready for Beta testing. During this testing, a few of us plan to take some video to put a trailer together.
3. In the time where you might finish your next patch, there is the possibility that Half Life 2: Episode 3 will be released with probably an updated version of the Source engine. Can we expect that RnL will update on that version, too? (Maybe it's too early to ask that... but maybe not :P)
You are right, it is way too early to ask that. Right now we are working on the Orange Box update and have heard nothing about any more engine updates.
4. Would you accept donated maps, would you release them as official ones? (If they are good enough, of course)
The team would have to look at them and have a unified agreement on the map. It has been talked about and we might do this. But only if they are good enough to be used.
5. The gameplay and the controls get more complex with each update, because of the new content. Do you consider making an official training ground-map where you can learn how to play? (Climbing, shooting, capturing, squad playing...)
There is a basic training map planned for a future release, but the details about this map are unavailable at this point. Furthermore, we are working very hard to make the controls easier to understand, setup and use. This is something the entire team has been working on.
6. Some time ago you said the homepage will be updated with a new design etc. When can we expect that?
Eero reports that the new site would be ready sometime in late July. The site is a lower priority to his other projects in the mod. After the design is done, it will be a while longer until the new site
is actually created using this design.
7. PLEASE fix the "fall more than 5 feet = death" thing.
The fall height will be reverted back to pre-A4 values, last but not least because some maps include fallen trees and other barricades that are almost impossible to climb without dying. Reasonable damage to the legs will remain though.
8. no swimming? - all they do is walk under water, eventually drowning.
The Swimming or lack of swimming is consistent with EVERY source game ever. The time it would take to make that happen (Coding, Animation) is too great for the little gain we would get. Look at it
this way; these guys were carrying around 100+ pounds of gear on them; if they fell in the water they wouldn’t be able to swim. Some who jumped on D-Day landed in swamps and flooded fields and drowned.
That is it from the PR team for this update. Be sure to send in your questions for the 15th as soon as possible. Thank you for all your support and donations.
Looks really good reminds me a lot of good old days of cod. Great work guys keep it up.
One of the finer mods out there, looking forward to the next update!
You guys really have no concept of realism, do you?
For someone whos never played any other realism game that means a lot ;D
if Source was upgraded from GldSrc then shouldnt the swimming thing from HL port to the Source engine as well lol. just wondering. Great Work by the way!
Possibly replace the walking on the bottom of water with a function to trigger a death animation maybe? It is a pretty big immersion buster to just start walking on the bottom of a lake :P
And Mkilbride, they can lack all the knowledge of realism they want, they're making a game, and they know game design pretty well I must say.
I only have one suggestion for RnL otherwise they are doing a great job. The problem with RnL that I see is that the squad system (or lack there of) isnt emphasized at all leading people to really not care about squad combat. One example is that the squad and class selection screen does not let you really understand that you are picking a squad at all. Not only is it not emphasized but choosing a squad is something really subtle and causes most people to not care. They think they are just "picking a class to go shoot people with"
Great update, I'm so glad they fixed the falling damage and the Orange Box update is going to be orgasmic.
I totally agree here. A clearer menu, that is focussed on squads would help.
But it's still rather hard to understand who is on your squaud and who's leading it, when you're in-game. A solution could be to have icons above player's heads, but that would break the no-hud policy, which isn't preferable.
A solution might be is to put specific (maybe colored) details on the models, that define which squad you are on. Alpha team models will carry a different logo (e.g. a yellow thunderbolt) than squad bravo (e.g a blue hawk). If these details are noticable from different views of the model (from the back, side and the front), it'll be easier to spot you're squadmates and leader.
The logo's are just examples, maybe you can find some icons that were really used in WW2 to keep the realism.
awesome screenshots, looks like alot of work has gone into this. Also I was under the impression hl2dm had swimming in it?
Swimming is consistent in just every Source based game & mod derived from Half-Life 2.
The problem is the lack of third person animations which they would have to create & code-in. And, as it is of minimal gameplay value in this mod, it's unnecessary work.
Absolutely, and it's not like they're making a Navy Seal mod. Half these guys probably wouldn't have even known how to swim.
On a side note: Are they planning to release through Steamworks at some point down the road? It seems it'd be a good way to get a larger player base.