Blog 99 (17/09/08)

[OWA]

Well, today's the first blog written from within my new home, Staffordshire University! It's really rather awesome here, so I'm really rather happy. My flatmates are also really great. There are two guys, one's called Tom and the other is called Leigh, but we call him a Mac because he has one of those aweful white machines.

 

Anyway, to the pub blog!

 

<h3>Barracks Weakpoint</h3>

I threw out a thread about this in the internals forums, since you guys already know that we will be using a weapons cache for the barracks' major weakpoint. The minor weakpoint, however, is rather interesting.

 

dtrngd summed it up really nicely, so I'll quote him straight.

 

Ok I think we got the weakpoints for the Allied Barracks.

This is a combination of fuse-boxes and OWA's kitchen idea, also allowing us to have Kremlin Fried Chickens in the Soviet Barracks, as well as disabling refilling but not totally. Keep reading.

 

Major weakpoint is ammo-stock. Destruction-> Building dies from ammo explosion, people inside die too. Separate hp.

Minor weakpoint room is in the kitchen/dining room. No, the weakpoint itself can't be a fridge or something similar.

That is funny as hell. ATTACK THE FRIDGE.

Not because it's funny, but because it doesn't make sense.

 

Just imagine. Tanks are shooting the barracks from outside. And you are repairing a fucking frigde to heal the building

 

But the frigde does need electricity! If the fuse-box is the weakpoint itself, the fridge's freezing operations are borked and the food gets spoiled. Thus LIMITING and not TOTALLY disabling refills for infantry as a negative effect. Because you can still have a sandwich or a loaf of bread to eat without the fridge/freezer/stove/microwave oven/etc.

 

Limiting refills: you are only able to refill every 3-5 mins (something like that). Why? Cuz your kitchen is borked, electricity's gone.

 

This also covers the repairing stuff. Repairing the fuse-box to repair the whole building makes more sense than a fridge.

And once the barracks is gone, well, everything inside is gone, including your beloved kitchen

 

Remember: the health of the minor weakpoint can't be the same as the building's hp, since that would kill the role of the minor weakpoint. Minor weakpoints are for temporary negative effects. Major weakpoint destruction is permanent (kinda like an MCT, but not quite, since it has a separate hp, as ammo-stocks don't have to do much with the building's hp, but the destruction of this still kills the building.)

 

Hope you like that, and it covers everything.

 

<h3>Broken Bridges and Other Wonders</h3>

When inside a building you may encounter doors. BogdanV has modelled and textured some general doors to use on various buildings which is pretty cool. Some of our buildings will have a few locked doors so that the buildings look bigger

 

Also on the menu from BogdanV are these pillars from a broken bridge. Bridges break and they leave pillars, these pillars.

 

The man himself had this to say concerning the cracked pillars.

 

Someone wanted a highway ? Well, we're a bit behind schedule (bridge pillars are still in construction) and some damn derka-derkas from Derkaderkistan blew a hole through the pillars and got away with the rubble!

 

Look at the size of the crack! And how are we going to find any cement in this fog ?!

 

Another thing I had in mind was to make good use of what little physics Mr. Rengay knows. By this I mean utilising rigid bodies for knock-able trees/houses/<anything that isn't squishable> and for destruction anims.

 

Although you'd probably have to spend half of your life to write down a cinematic and to make rigid bodies out of the tons of debris that should appear, it would result in a more realistic behaviour because such an object could be blown up anywhere on the map without worrying about chunks of debris hanging in the air after the destruction anim has finished.

 

 

<h3>Impact Drill</h3>

TheBeerinator has been texturising the Allied Impact drill, as it is near completion. Detailing is pending as you can see, but I think it is really shaping up.

 

Expect to see these rigged up with the new fps gunhands as soon as they are all ready. Since I now have access to a motion capture studio, I may be able to persuade the staff to let me record some new walk/run/jump/pose/taunt/shoot/eat pie animations for our infantry. This means that the Tesla Trroper will walk with a heavy stride, whilst the allide techy will bob up and down as he jogs from place to place drilling things (yes I see the inuendo in that comment).

 

 

<h3>Team Messages</h3>

I am now settled into university. I'm meeting new people all the time, (as well as a few potential staff members!) I played motion capture charades yesterday which was wierd. Being your own mum is great, since you actually get up on time every day and stuff. It's great!

 

Here are a few pictures of my room:

 

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

 

Poster based on this image.

 

And one of me looking like a fool. I love my Nod t-shirt. I saw a guy in a GDI t-shirt and yelled "PEACE THROUGH POWER!". I'm such a C&C geek

 

It was cfehunter's birthday on sunday. He's now 19! Congratulations my friend, you've aged well!

 

danpaul88 was telling me about how rubbish the university internet was and I agreed with him fully until I played a lagless game of APB today before writing this blog. It was at 4 am though, so I guess it's off-peak or something.

 

<h3>OWA's Random Section</h3>

Mr Hitler thought old England was done, so he celebrated early by singing the Jefferson's Theme to a crowd of avid fans.

 

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<h3>Next week...</h3>

You'll get a treat!

[Guest Billy Joe Bob]

Win blog! I love the barracks weakpoint.

Also woot, Nirvana!

[ChAoS]

Nice Blog , can't wait for the big one-hundred!

[Guest killboy06]

Another nice blog OWA. Room looks nice.

[Wallywood]

alot of great info on this blog ...cant wait til next week

[Guest r34ch]

Hahaha my room looks almost the same as yours, I'll have to take some shots myself.

 

Drill is nice

[Guest Xiphias6]

Doors...do we walk into them?

 

Oh yea, about the minor weakpoint...if its destroyed, does the object disappear or stay at a 0 hp with the hitbox still there?

 

 

100 must have quite a few goodies

Edited September 18, 2008 by Xiphias6

[Guest Kakashi]

I woudln't mind repairing the fridge, as long as I get a sandvich out of it.

[Guest GummiBear]

nice weakpoint, and love that drill keep it going beerinator

 

though if you kill a building withing killing the minor weakpoint first will the effects of the minor weakpoint still apply too then? ( in that case of bar limited refills) and if not will you then be able to kill the minor too after the actual building is down?

[TeamWolf]

Cool weakpoints ideas for allied bar, should work well.

 

Like the doors and bridge pillers.

 

The drill looks awsome!!!

 

GL at uni mate!

 

Another great blog, keep it up!

[Guest Deadpikle]

blog 100 next week

If danpaul was telling you about the internet, does that mean he goes to the same college/uni?

[danpaul88]

If danpaul was telling you about the internet, does that mean he goes to the same college/uni?

 

 

Nope, I was just talking in general, due to the amount of users sharing the same connection in a typical university residence.

[OWA]

Doors...do we walk into them?

 

Oh yea, about the minor weakpoint...if its destroyed, does the object disappear or stay at a 0 hp with the hitbox still there?

100 must have quite a few goodies

Some doors you can walk through. Walking into them would hurt if you did it all the time.

 

The minor weakpoint can be repaired again and again until the building is destroyed. The major weakpoint may be a lot tougher and we are debating removing the ability to repair it, otherwise it will just act the same as an MCT in Renegade or APB.

 

nice weakpoint, and love that drill keep it going beerinator

 

though if you kill a building withing killing the minor weakpoint first will the effects of the minor weakpoint still apply too then? ( in that case of bar limited refills) and if not will you then be able to kill the minor too after the actual building is down?

The answer is yes. If you lose the building you lose the abilities that the building provides. In this case, regular refils.

[Guest GummiBear]

The answer is yes. If you lose the building you lose the abilities that the building provides. In this case, regular refils.

o0 that make the bar even more fatal to loose (and probably about any other building too) than APB or normal renegay, but I like that

[danpaul88]

o0 that make the bar even more fatal to loose (and probably about any other building too) than APB or normal renegay, but I like that

 

 

Not really, you could just rebuy the character if your using a freebie one... however it is likely to be fatal for those players who still have a pre-barracks-goes-boom expensive character... Still, that's their own fault for not using said expensive character to actually defend the barracks.

[Guest GummiBear]

Not really, you could just rebuy the character if your using a freebie one... however it is likely to be fatal for those players who still have a pre-barracks-goes-boom expensive character... Still, that's their own fault for not using said expensive character to actually defend the barracks.

yeah so as I said and that in the case of the bar some other buildings the effect might be even more fatal...

[rm5248]

And one of me looking like a fool. I love my Nod t-shirt. I saw a guy in a GDI t-shirt and yelled "PEACE THROUGH POWER!". I'm such a C&C geek

 

Jeez I've been wearing my brotherhood cap practically constantly and i have yet to get a reaction.

[Guest Grendies]

Limiting refills: you are only able to refill every 3-5 mins (something like that). Why? Cuz your kitchen is borked, electricity's gone.

I didn't realize we kept the Kevlar in the fridge.

Love the idea of having the kitchen as one of the minor weakpoints.

[Guest killertomato]

Beerdrill kicks ass, and the barracks is looking epic. I hope all the APB/AR buildings have weakpoints. It should make the game more interesting.

[Guest Gibbletsb]

Good Job on the weak points, especially the Fuse Box in the kitchen. That's exactly what I thought about. I'm always impressed by the new things the AR team is doing. I cannot wait for a Beta and may even sign up for it.

Also I think you guys are doing an excellent job of keeping with RA2 goofiness.

[danpaul88]

I didn't realize we kept the Kevlar in the fridge.

 

Nope, we don't, but the experimental ice bullets start melting once you take them out the freezer

 

 

 

 

(And, before anyone says anything, I do know ice bullets don't actually work, it's a JOKE!)

[Guest r34ch]

So who is going to model the AR beer to put in the kitchen?

[OWA]

So who is going to model the AR beer to put in the kitchen?

TheBeerinator of course!

[Guest Zarconium]

Yaybeer!

Nice blog, centennial blog is next week

[Guest Kurorahk]

Wow that is a great thing to have as a minor weak point, painful too Anyways can't wait for the centennial.

 

-Kurorahk-

[Guest =NX=Occult13]

W00t Nirvana.

 

Good blog

[Guest Admiral]

Hehe, nice, are the Technicians female?

[Guest Stormweaver]

wooo

 

The weakpoints idea is great nice to know more thought went into the idea/consequences than SHOOT THE FRIDGE

 

*claps* I wanna play AR

[Guest kukiric]

I love the weakpoints idea. Really make this not just aother remodeled CnC: Renegade.

[Guest CeilingCat]

*claps* I wanna play AR

 

same here.....

 

loving the fusebox idea, but i personally think that you should have used the fridge for comic effect anyway: Spy walks up to Soviet Fridge and sees how many sandwiches are there, Thief comes and steals them all!