OWA

We're getting round to it, but a few of us have been busy as education begins again.

That's pretty cool. I wonder how it will work.

Projectiles cannot be scripted. :\

You've still got to detect the point where the aircraft hits the ground so that it can explode. This is the bit where our theories fall through a bit.

This may not make it into the game due to engine limitations.

We scrapped the idea because it was pretty stupid and impractical when put to practise. A techy's place is at the weakpoint, not buying an IFV to repair things whilst the rest of the team need to buy that crucial grizzly tank that could help defend the base.

You'd be surprised how good the Flak Cannons actually are at the moment.

Near enough to the original Renegade's requirements.

90% is a little more than most imo, but I digress. It's all a matter of opinion at a second glance. You could go for uber realism with different languages being played in the buildings as background audio. But realistically, RA2 wasn't a realistic game. So putting all of the voices in English with different accents to suggest nationality would be much more fun. Like the taunts in the original games.

Although the beginning of RA2 was fought in the U.S, a large majority of the other missions were fought across other parts of the world. The war was going on in Europe, as there were missions where you needed to attack/defend Einstein's lab in Germany as well as charge the Eiffel Tower to make it into a giant Tesla Coil. One of the mission intros even began with "Thousands of Parisians fleeing their homes". It would make sense if different languages of background dialog were to be played, but only if a particular country is fighting. E.G: if Allies are playing as France, it'd make no sense to hear anything but French and English. tl;dr: RA2 was a World War. The beginning of it simply involved America more. It's kinda like saying that World War Two was fought entirely in Europe, which is wrong.

I have a good friend who comes from Lithuania.

We could use this, but then we would be limited to making just exit signs; whereas we plan to make signs to help players find the weakpoints as well.

We would, but it's more effort than gain. I don't think there are that many non-english speaking players in APB. Rarely do I see someone speaking a different language.

We decided against it so that players could actually read the signs and not get even more confused. It's less realistic but more player friendly.

<h3>It's blog time! About time too!!</h3> Welcome to this Apocalypse Rising blog! Sorry we haven't been updating you on our progress as much as we used to. We've been getting a lot of new content in game to show off and wanted to wait until we had lots of shiny new things for you guys to see. You may also see that I'm writing this blog. I've gotten more free time recently so I'm able to come back to blog writing again! Development has sped up a bit and with more content in game, it means that we are fast approaching the end of our Alpha stage! The next internal version of AR will be Beta 1; as we will have every unit that will be in Release Candidate 1 in the game! This is exciting because we can begin to balance the game immediately, as we will only be waiting on 3d models and other art. So, after the modelling and texturing is done, you can expect to see AR coming out shortly after! Allied IFV After many hours of work, the Allied IFV is now done! There will be more IFV turrets on the way as we add more infantry and higher levels of technology to the game. You can expect to see Yuri IFVs driving round insta-gibbing any infantry that get too close as well as Chrono Legionnaire IFVs which will have a better version of the basic Legionnaire's weapon at the expense of not being able to chronoshift. I personally cannot wait for the best IFV that ever graced RA2; the President IFV. When you put President Dugan into an IFV, the player will have access to an incredibly deadly vehicle that fires modified Prism beams to decimate enemy units. "But OWA, does this mean Dugan will be buyable and in the purchase list? That's just silly!" We aren't putting Dugan in the purchase list, but he may pop up in themed mission maps if we have a little spare time on our hands. The Dugan vs Romanov grudge match is simply too tempting to pass up on. Anyway, let's stop talking about this sillyness and get to the images. Rocket IFV: The Seed of Transformation = This is the basic IFV that every player gets when they purchase it. The rockets are pretty good against most targets and have a basic guiding system. when you have a technician in an IFV, you will be unable to change to a custom turret. This is because technicians are not deemed worthy enough to warrant their own fittings for the IFV. Technicians should stay in the base and repair structures, so IFV turrets are granted to more combat-worthy units. Gun IFV: Heavy Machine Guns rip through the enemy. + or = Combine a GI or Conscript with the IFV and you get this awesome bolter turret heavy machine gun turret which is effective against infantry and (suprisingly) structures. This turret isn't bad against light vehicles either, but it doesn't really work against heavier targets. Repair IFV: Field Repairs have never been so quick. + = The Repair IFV is a great support unit that is given to the player when they combine an engineer with an IFV. this version of the IFV can repair friendly vehicles in the field, so teamwork is needed when using this unit effectively. Clever usage of an Engineer IFV can help Allied armour divisions gain an advantage over Soviet units. Guardian IFV: When the Soviets bring the heavies, the Guardian will protect. + = The Guardian IFV is available to the player when they combine a Guardian GI and an IFV. The Guardian IFV is much like the Rocket IFV, but with one main difference. This IFV is specialised in taking down big targets such as Apocalypse Tanks, Kirov Airships and other heavily armoured vehicles. Due to the anti-armour warheads that this IFV uses, it is not very effective against infantry or buildings. Rocketeer IFV: Flying is better than driving. + = The main reason behind the Rocketeer IFV not being made is the fact that Rocketeers have their own form of transport strapped to their backs. Players using the Rocketeer will have no need for vehicles because they technically ARE their own vehicle. This also gets around some pesky combinations which could have proven to be imbalanced (Rocketeer + Harrier anyone?). Seal IFV: Advanced anti-infantry capabilities to stop any rush. + = The SEAL IFV not only serves as a quick transport for the Navy SEAL, but it also boasts the best anti-infantry weapon of any other vehicle in the game. This weapon is to be feared amongst the ranks of soviet infantry. However, this IFV is completely useless against buildings and vehicles, making it fairly fragile. Flak IFV: Re-tooling technology to clear the skies. + = When the soviet Flak trooper gets his hands on an IFV, he gains an incredibly powerful anti-infantry and anti- air weapon which will make the allies wish they were more careful with their vehicles. this IFV has a better Flak Cannon than the Flak Track, that makes it all the more worthwhile. Tesla IFV: Giving the Allies some Shock Therapy. + = One of the more interesting Soviet IFV combinations, the Tesla IFV is essentially a mini Tesla Tank. After the events of Red Alert, the Soviets scrapped a lot of their old Tesla Tanks to make way for the new generation of Soviet weaponry. However, in several war factories around the world, it is rumoured that the Soviets have been re-tooling Allied IFV technology with their first generation Tesla Tank technology; making for a fearsome combination that will make any Allied veteran shudder. Combining a Tesla Trooper with an IFV will provide a nostalgic blast from the past. Ivan IFV: Happy Birthday! : + = The craziest of the three unique Soviet IFVs is the Ivan IFV. This dynamite launching vehicle makes Crazy Ivan live up to his name. We decided to differentiate this IFV mode from the RA2 version a little bit so that Ivan and the Cuban Terrorist's IFV modes weren't identical. Primary fire throws out dynamite bombs whilst secondary fire will retain Ivan's original mini-demo truck superdeath attack (bound to 'Q' so that there hopefully won't be many accidents!) <h5>IFV How To Use Guide</h5> For those of you who haven't used an IFV before; here's a quick guide on how the IFV turret change will function in game when AR is released. Step 1: Get in the IFV as you would with any vehicle. Step 2: Push 'Q' and wait as the IFV turret is changed. Step 3: The IFV turret has now changed, the new weapon is available (you can also push 'Q' again to change back to the Rocket IFV). This mechanic has been put into place to pre-empt something called "turret spamming". This is basically when you can insta-switch IFV turrets to make your battlefield role change stupidly fast. If a limit wasn't enforced, players would be able to change their turrets quickly; allowing them to change weapons stupidly quick. E.G. You are engaging Kirovs in a Rocket IFV, but you see a few Conscripts running up to you. You switch to the Gun IFV (because you have a G.I.) and kill them quickly before switching back to the Rocket IFV to engage the Kirovs again. Enforcing this time limit, stops the IFV from becoming overpowered. IFV users will have to think on their feet about what turrets they will need to use for what situations and plan accordingly. The IFV is unarmed whilst it is changing weapons, so it cannot fire back if you decide to change turret in the face of the enemy. Keep this in mind when piloting an IFV when AR is released. <h5>In Game Shots of the IFV</h5> For those of you who are fans of camouflage, we're not going to disappoint. Guy with a wrench has textured the IFV to account for four camo patterns. This also accounts for all of the custom turrets as well, so they won't look mis-matched on the field, pretty cool eh. Anyway, here's some pictures of the different flavours of Rocket IFV ingame. Allied Nighthawk The Allied Nighthawk Transport is a massive helicopter that is capable of carrying infantry to and from the front lines. It is equipped with a minigun that is effective against soft-skinned targets such as infantry, Terror Drones and Flak Tracks (if they don't fire back that is). The Nighthawk can carry 5 infantrymen into battle, so it is useful for providing mobility to the Allied infantry forces. Despite being a helicopter, the Nighthawk is built in the war factory and ascends through the giant roof-doors to present itself to the buyer. The Nighthawk is tough, but in AR pilots will need to keep their wits about them because Flak Cannons are an air unit's worst nightmare (especially for one as big as the Nighthawk). Here are a few screenshots of the Nighthawk ingame. Ric unwrapped this beast and Guy with a wrench did a great job of the texturing work; along with dtrngd who rigged it up! Can anyone say "Pick 'em up"? Allied Prism Tower Guy with a wrench has been a really busy guy recently. He's textured up the Prism Tower and it's now in game and working with dapnaul88's Prism Tower charge-up scripts. This means that Prism Towers function EXACTLY like they did in Red Alert 2. When one tower sees a target, it will relay the other towers for a firepower bonus. This means that the Allies start off with a strong defence that gradually gets weaker as Prism Towers are destroyed. Here is an image of the Prism Tower in game. Mirror Force! Soviet Base Thanks to dtrngd, the Soviets have a textured base! It's by no means final, but at least it helps players navigate the buildings better; unlike older test builds. Eventually, we hope to get some really nicely textured buildings that will pay the ultimate homage to Red Alert 2. Nice base you got there comrade Handy Signs I modelled some handy signs a while back to help players navigate our large building interiors. dtrngd textured them to form the basis for this new handy system. We've taken a bit of inspiration from Team Fortress 2's 2Fort map; where specific map locations were signposted to help new players. We hope that this cool system of signposting will stop people getting lost on their first play. So far, we only have the exit sign, but more will follow. Here's some screenshots of the new signs in action(if you can call it that)! Informative! Team Messages I'm free from university for the summer, so I'm aiming to hone my skills and get better at my jobs whilst working on AR. dtrngd has taken a break to work on exams. cfehunter has been moving into the realms of code. danpaul88 has been fixing up the .mix patcher for APB Gamma's 2.1 release, but he'll be back to implement some things to get ready for our next big update. Guy with a wrench has been churning out textures for our models. Finally TEXTURES!!! WallyWood is taking me to Orlando, Florida to hunt for unreleased trading cards! Lord_Kane is bathing in a pool of lava without breaking a sweat (he's also organising something cool for the near future). Catalyst is now on the team providing server support! The rest of the team have been pretty busy with other things. OWA's Random Corner Let's celebrate by blowing something up! VQVT0bOPLqg Pull! Lets also dance awkwardly with Solid Snake to celebrate the fact that university is over for the summer and I have more time to work on AR again! ANjLNm-crHI Do the Otacon! That's All Folks! That's your lot for now. We'll be back with more updates soonish. Remember, if you have any questions about AR, feel free to ask us!

I like this post. Nice wits.

No, the capture point is only affected by engineering tools. Yes, hopefully. Fango has gone AWOL without notice, so we may never get any of the work he has done for us. This saddens me.

Nice capture system

BFD will come out sometime. I don't acknowledge that C&C3 thing as a mod. It's more like a collection of models.

I think Tiberium Wars would be a good FPS. I would have thought that RA3 would be a little too batshit insane to translate over to FPS.

With skill. (We're not sure yet).

Nor can I. Thanks

Uh yes, yes and yes. Isn't it obvious?

We currently have 5 unique maps that we use on the test server which will probably make it into the first release. None of them are from APB.

It's too early to tell.