Orion - Closed Beta Announcement and Release Dates announced! news

ORION - RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCED / FILEPLANET CLOSED BETA

November 24, 2009

We are proud to be making this announcement. We have finalized the public beta and are working on the last few changes and making great progress. We are extremely excited to get this out to you guys and cannot wait to start fragging. This has been a long time coming... many versions of the game, having to rebuild the game more than once, and plenty of other obstacles. But we did it. We are here.

The following is the Release Schedule:

Friday, December 4th, 2009.

PART A.) FILEPLANET CLOSED BETA

We will be launching a private beta, available to ALL registered members of FilePlanet (free registration) located here:
REGISTER AT FILEPLANET

The closed beta will take place from December 4th - December 11th (1 week exclusive) on FilePlanet. We are doing this in order to conduct larger-scaled tests and server activity. We'll do the last of the small touch ups and modifications to the game during this week and we'll release it to the public on the following Friday, December 11th, 2009.

PART B.) ORION MAPPER SDK FILES

We will be launching the Orion SDK to EVERYONE on December 4th, 2009. This SDK includes audio (ambiences, items, and more), models, materials, shaders, particles, as well as example maps to show how the level designers on Orion made a few things (as well as for reference and tips).

Friday, December 11th, 2009

The official first beta of Orion gets released on the home web site as well as a majority of the servers. We'll be releasing both Windows builds as well as Linux builds for server hosts.

We have also went ahead and created a brand new compilation of game play segments from our recent Private Beta Test that we just conducted with the folks from HalfLife2.net The test took place on November 22nd, 2009. Enjoy! (I also pulled off a sick headshot in it!)

Friday, December 25th, 2009 - 1 (of 3) Content Updates - Released (WINTER UPDATE)

Shortly after the first release of Orion we plan to release the first of three planned Content Updates. These updates are typically significant and usually as large of a release as the first beta will be. The first Content Update is planned to have the following:

>> TWO (2) GAME-MODES: DEATHMATCH & TEAM DEATHMATCH

We will be going old school with the Deathmatch in Orion. There will be no player classes and everyone starts with a default weapon (can be modified by server hosts, however its the pistol). Everyone has a jetpack by default and weapons are scattered around the map in a retro-deathmatch style.

>>5 NEW MAPS:

We will be releasing five (5) new levels with the Winter Update. 4 of them are winter-themed (for some holiday awesomeness) and will be for Capture the Flag. The fifth level is called ctf_opposing _bridges which was designed by Daniel Doerksen and developed for Orion by Joe Janet.

We are attempting to include two new DM levels as well as making reincarnations of some current levels for the Deathmatch and Team-Deathmatch game modes.

>>ALL ALIEN WEAPONS ADDED:

You hopefully are already aware, but if not, we are releasing the first beta of Orion with only human weapons. However, don't worry! only a few weeks after the first release we will be including all of the alien weaponry and swapping out the placeholder human counterparts.

For more information regarding the Spring 2010 Update (2 of 3) and the Fall 2010 Update (3 of 3) stay tuned to our website: www.orion-project.net

If you are interested in getting into the beta even sooner, then register on our forums over at:
Orion-project.net