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OWA

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Posts posted by OWA

  1. APB 3.2.3.0 Changelog

    in Red Alert: A Path Beyond

    Posted

    I'm pretty happy with the fact that the RS carries a pistol too. It just seems plausible that he should and it at least offers some level of protection from other infantry classes. In my experience, hard countering really works in RTS games because units are way more expendable, but when those units are players in an FPS, you have to make some compensation and soften the counters a little in order to make the game feel fairer and more fun to play.

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  4. Grenadier

    in W3D Hub Discussion

    Posted

    Perhaps it might be an idea to play around with the Nader's RoF and give him a clip with a reload time? So he can throw, lets' say, 4 Grenades in quick succession before he needs to reach into his pouch for more.

    The Grenadier, Flamer and Shocky weaponry all have one major thing in common, which is the fact that they fire a single projectile and then have to wait for the next one to be ready. Shaking up the number of projectiles a bit by giving the Grenadier more Grenades to throw at once and giving the Flamer a stream-fire mode might be a good way of giving these units more of an identity past their damage types and the amount of splash they deal.

    1

  6. Reddit Exposure

    in W3D Hub Discussion

    Posted

    This is the one to link everywhere:

     

    @RaapThe shorter trailer is used more because it's generally better-edited and the tight 2 minutes of action prevents people's attention spans from wandering.

    A new trailer for APB is very low on my priority list right now.

    0

  11. RIP zunnie

    in Community News

    Posted

    Although the methods and goals of W3D Hub and MPF have not aligned as well as they perhaps could have done, the news that zunnie has has passed is deeply saddening. zunnie was a force for change in the Renegade community and inspired people to get involved with the engine in a positive way that will be remembered for years to come. We had some good years during the Beta era of APB where we really made some thunder in this community.

    zunnie was one of the big characters of this community with a larger than life personality that made him incredibly infamous. This is a terrible loss for the Renegade community and he will be missed.

    R.I.P zunnie - A Renegade Legend

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    • Popular Post
    • Popular Post

    W3D Hub is looking for hobby programmers!

    in Community News

    Posted

    Hi everyone! We're currently actively looking for talented hobby programmers to join our code team!

    w3d_256.png

    Who are we?

    Just in case you didn't know already, since 2015, W3D Hub has been the authority on developing game projects for Command & Conquer Renegade's W3D Engine! Building off the back of the now-defunct Bluehell Productions, W3D Hub has served to unite the majority of the fractured W3D Engine modding scene into a single community from where we can continue to assist each other and grow. Over the years we have cultivated a strong infrastructure and knowledge-base that continues to expand and evolve every year. We have built our team with developers who have a large amount of experience creating mods in the W3D game engine; some of whom have been actively developing content ever since Renegade was released back in 2002. 

    The W3D Hub community is welcoming and is home to a plethora of developers and fans from all walks of life. We are a satellite team, so many of us are scattered across the world; despite this though, we do our best to maintain a high level of communication using tools such as Slack, Invision Power Board, Trello, TeamSpeak and Discord. We are a strictly non-profit organisation due to the IP we work with, so we run the community as a hobby.

    Our mission statement is to preserve the knowledge of how to develop games using the W3D Engine, as well as to create projects that push the envelope in what the engine is capable of. Recently we have been working on a replacement for the game's primary editor, Commando Level Edit. The new editor, "Mammoth", has been written from scratch which allows us a high degree of flexibility when developing new content.

    Mammoth_Editor_SplashUrban600px.png

    What games do we make?

    Now a lot of you guys already know this, but it's useful to reiterate! :)  We currently house and develop several projects that use Renegade's W3D Engine. These include Red Alert: A Path Beyond, Expansive Civilian Warfare, and Tiberian Sun: Reborn.

    Red Alert:  A Path Beyond (which is based on the original Red Alert) is currently released and receives healthy player counts on our organised game nights. Through our server-side plugins we have been able to tie statistics and achievements into the game which allows players to see how they stack up against each other.

    Here's a trailer for Red Alert: A Path Beyond

    Why Renegade?

    C&C Renegade's W3D Engine is an enigma of sorts. Around the time when the Unreal and Quake engines were popular, Westwood Studios released C&C Renegade, a game with mixed reviews that didn't do too well financially. The singleplayer left a lot to be desired; the multiplayer however, was a completely different story. Two teams attempt to destroy each others bases with infantry and vehicles that are purchased using credits from an RTS-style resource system featuring harvesters and refineries. To this day there has not been a game that has come close to emulating the unique experiences found in C&C Renegade.

    It's worth pointing out that Renegade X remade and expanded on the core Renegade experience, but our aim takes Renegade in a different direction by experimenting with new gameplay features that require a step away from the Renegade formula a little bit in order to achieve.

    For the time, Renegade's W3D engine was actually very advanced; featuring very robust vehicle physics, tessellation, flood-fill pathfinding, as well as a robust AI conversation/dialog and action system that allowed for fairly complex AI interactions (for the time).

    When the game was released, a modding SDK was released that allowed modders an incredible amount of creative freedom. Artists could model, rig and export their own assets into the game and programmers could script custom logic for gameplay objects. Over the years, knowledge of the engine has developed to a point where we have managed to reverse-engineer a significant portion of the code base. This means that the engine itself is more flexible than ever and has allowed us to really push the boundaries in terms of what features we can put into our various games.

     We still develop on this engine today because it's fun and we have a good amount of flexibility with what we want to accomplish for each game. The engine is also fairly easy to develop for which allows for rapid iteration on a large scale.

    What are we looking for?

    We are currently looking for seasoned hobby programmers who are looking for a new challenge, as well as newer programmers that are looking for some experience working on games and mod projects. We are strictly a non-profit organisation, so we don't offer any kind of salary however, our community is a constant base where no work will ever go to waste. Too often, mod and game projects are created that don't see the light of day. By providing a community platform to support the W3D engine and its associated projects, we protect ourselves from ever being in the position where we are forced to abandon our projects, as the theory is that there will always be caretakers around to maintain and curate them.

    Here's what we are looking for skills-wise:

    Essential Qualities - All of the following are preferred:

    • Intermediate to High level of C++ programming knowledge.
    • Working knowledge of Visual Studio 2017 for Windows Development.
    • Working knowledge of Git repositories.
    • Good communications skills, being as we are a satellite team.
    • A passion for video games and programming.

    Desirable Qualities - Any of the following are preferred:

    • An interest in Command & Conquer or Frank Herbert's Dune would be nice, but is not necessary.
    • A friendly attitude and the ability to work well with others.
    • Experience reading existing code (particularly code related to graphics engines) and understanding what it does and looking at what it does, as well as being able to write technical documentation about it.
    • Knowledge of how to profile code to find out where slowdowns are (and identifying how to make code faster or better on memory use, especially math heavy code).
    • Experience with reverse engineering with IDA (x86 assembler and HexRays output).
    • Experience with Direct3D 11 (including HLSL and programmable shaders) as well as other graphics-related features such as anti-aliasing and screen filtering.
    • Good 3D Math skills including boxes, lines, frustums, vectors, matrices, quaternions, collision detection math, curves and splines.
    • Knowledge of physics types and how to create/edit them (e.g. Fixed Wing Aircraft, Walkers/Mecha etc.).
    • Knowledge of the FMOD sound engine.
    • Knowledge of font rendering.

    Why should you join us?

    Joining W3D Hub presents a unique opportunity as our mission to unite C&C Renegade mod developers under one banner continues onward, so here's a few reasons why you should consider joining us.

    • If you're a fan of the Command & Conquer series who is looking for some fun projects to work on.
    • if you're looking for a new programming challenge.
    • If you want to have a hobby you can enjoy and put on your résumé/CV at the same time!
    • If you're looking for the unique opportunity to work with Renegade's W3D engine and build upon it's code base.
    • If you're looking for a reliable team that won't fall apart as well as projects where your work won't go to waste. 
    • If you're looking for new friends (inside and outside of the games industry) who enjoy developing and playing games together.

    How to apply!

    If you wish to join our team, please send an email to jonwil, our lead programmer, at jfwfreo@tpgi.com.au and let him know why you're interested in joining us as well as what skills you can offer! :) 

    Hopefully, with your help, we can further development of C&C Renegade's W3D Engine!

    Here are a few quick links:

    Thanks for reading!

    - OWA

    [blurb]We're currently actively looking for talented hobby programmers to join our code team! Come and take a read and see if this is for you![/blurb]

    8

  15. APB: We Know Drama

    in Off-Topic Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Coolrock said:

    I honestly wish I even had time anymore. I’m lucky to get in two hours of gaming after work, and it’s normally on backlog. Out of the ordinary is good once in a while. Keeps the blood flowing. I’ll check it out again sometime. Maybe if @OWA ever releases AR :v

    AR is still gonna be the best game ever. Promise. ;)

    0

  16. APB: We Know Drama

    in Off-Topic Discussion

    Posted

    27 minutes ago, Coolrock said:

    I guess that’s what happens when all the drama leaves. Good that it’s finally calmed down. Guess it’s time to ruin that ?

    The good old days. I’ve been great Stev, how’s Ben? Miss all of you ?

    Tippy top Glen, tippy top. Miss ya too mang. Haven't seen steev in a long time, but Jen is back. Just been chillin here making games and at work making more games.

    AR still isn't out, but that's ok, it will be one day, honest. :shobon:

    Edit: By the way if you want to feel really old, check out the old new APB forum skin.

    0
    • Popular Post
    • Popular Post

    A Path Beyond Forum Theme Now Available!

    in Community News

    Posted

    It's been a while since we last had an APB forum theme, but now that we have gotten to grips with how IPB 4.0 works, we can now start to roll-out a whole host of new themes, starting with the classic APB theme! Re-imagined with a new cleaner look and the classic colours, this theme should hopefully take you back to 2004 all over again! The Reborn theme has also been slightly revamped, but the differences are very subtle (basically it's more of a refactor to make the theme more manageable for us to edit). :)

    Please bear in mind though that there still might be a few bugs present in the themes. So if you see any, please feel free to let us know right here.

    In the pipeline coming up we have ECW, AR, BFD, IA, W3D and even Renforums/Westwood themes coming up, so watch this space!

    Special thanks goes out to neogrant from CnCNet for pointing something out that has made making these themes a LOT easier on our end.

    As ever, if you have any feedback on the themes, let us know!

    [blurb]Red Alert: A Path Beyond's forum theme has been resurrected and released for you all to use![/blurb]

    [thumb]thumb_apb.b.png[/thumb]

    6

  20. Infantry - Lack of C4, lack of weapons.

    in W3D Hub Discussion

    Posted

    It's all very well saying that something is "boring", but if they can't say why it's "boring" other than the fact that certain Infantry match-ups vs Tanks are unfavourable for the Infantry then they may as well be stating the obvious; that's the way the game is inherently designed, with counters in mind.

    It's not an unknown point that basic infantry don't do well against tanks. They didn't do well in Renegade, they still don't do well in Renegade X (even with C4) and they don't do well in other games in the FPS genre; for example, try taking on a tank in Battlefield using a class that isn't the Engineer and you're going to have a bad time.

    I can see that the idea of "more variety = better" sounds good in theory, but that isn't always the case. More variety adds more complexity to the game, which in turn drives up the skill ceiling and makes the game harder to grasp for newer players. It's very important that when you are considering to add something to an established game ecosystem that you introduce features that have strong reasoning behind their inclusion.

    On the subject of APB though, I think the main difference here is that APB isn't trying to be Renegade, whereas Renegade X IS. Obviously you're going to enjoy Renegade X more if you prefer Renegade, but the fact of the matter is the choices made in APB are made in order to give infantry clearly defined roles that have strengths and weaknesses, which makes team composition a LOT more important in rushes and such.

    In Renegade X, there's not much consequence for picking a single type of infantry class and rolling with it, because:

    Every infantry has C4, which means they can combat vehicles to a certain extent and attack structures effectively (this is true with Renegade as well).
    Every infantry has the option to buy a repair gun, which really de-values the role of the Engineer classes.
    Every infantry has the option to buy additional weapons, which conversely powers up Engineer classes and allows them to do fill in the gameplay roles of other classes (which, in-turn, de-values other classes).
    It's almost as if there's an active discouragement in infantry unit diversity because the intention is to let all of the classes buy weapons to fill most of the gameplay roles, apart from more specialist units such as Snipers, the SBH, Anti-Tank specialists and the more expensive versions of them. There are no truly specialist infantry classes in RenX (like the Spy or Thief), who can do unique interesting gameplay things that place them outside of the arbitrary roles of: "Anti-Infantry", "Anti-Tank", "Generalist" or "Engineer". Every character class has a gun that is good at shooting a certain type of thing (which is inherited from Renegade) and the buy-able weapons blur the lines across those four basic class categories even more. Basically, if you make everyone special, then nobody is special.

    I'm not sure what they mean when they say "Renegade X has more features". In terms of vehicles, APB has a LOT more. Granted Renegade X just introduced that commander view feature which seems cool, but I couldn't get it to work properly last time I played, so I can't form an opinion on it. It's very hard to say that one game has more features than another without establishing a baseline of what a feature is and then counting them up. Though both games have a good amount of features, I'd say.

    tl;dr - Variety is the spice of life, but it's not always the answer.

    Personally I think the reason that APB has fairly low player-counts is just a problem of exposure. There's not enough people talking about the game outside of the community to generate more interest. It's not a problem with the game itself, because it is really fun to play.

    4

  23. Forum Update

    in Community News

    Posted

    The forum was updated last night to the latest version of IPBv4 and there are a couple of bugs with the Reborn skin that need addressing. Keeping you guys in the loop is important, so if you see anything that looks wonky, please feel free to submit a bug.

    [thumb]thumb_w3d.0.png[/thumb]

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