Blog 186 (02/06/11)

[OWA]

<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!

[Wallywood]

See told you were not dead

[Guest Bombardment12]

Seeing the IFV and Nighthawk was awesome. But when I saw the soviet base...my jaw dropped.

Blog = Eye candy x infinity

 

Awesome work as always.

[Pyryle]

[2011-05-29_19:21:06] Squidly: hmm, at this point I wonder how AR is doin

[2011-05-29_19:21:32] Host: (BorisNX@MODIRC): Whats AR?

[2011-05-29_19:21:35] %Pyryle: yeah

[2011-05-29_19:21:37] %Pyryle: what is AR?

[2011-05-29_19:21:39] -SG-NodFan: RA2 in Renegade

[2011-05-29_19:21:39] Squidly: some other thing

[2011-05-29_19:21:43] -SG-NodFan: Apoc Rising

[2011-05-29_19:21:46] %Pyryle: what do you mean by thing

[2011-05-29_19:21:51] Host: (BorisNX@MODIRC): tell me more

[2011-05-29_19:21:53] Squidly: made by some angel kid

[2011-05-29_19:21:59] LexieAssassin: omg if you don't know Apoc Rising...

[2011-05-29_19:22:00] -SG-NodFan: OWN

[2011-05-29_19:22:00] %Pyryle: who is this kid

[2011-05-29_19:22:02] -SG-NodFan: OWA

[2011-05-29_19:22:03] -SG-NodFan: Ben

[2011-05-29_19:22:08] -SG-NodFan: One Winged Angel

[2011-05-29_19:22:10] Host: (BorisNX@MODIRC): Who dat?

[2011-05-29_19:22:10] -SG-NodFan: yes

[2011-05-29_19:22:16] -SG-NodFan: he is Angel

[2011-05-29_19:22:19] Squidly: some british fucker

[2011-05-29_19:22:21] -SG-NodFan: One Winged

[2011-05-29_19:22:31] Squidly: these brits always making these gheymes

[2011-05-29_19:22:33] %Pyryle: im gonna tell OWA

[2011-05-29_19:22:34] -SG-NodFan: dont talk smack about him

[2011-05-29_19:22:42] -SG-NodFan: I luv OWA

[2011-05-29_19:22:48] Squidly: ok, you do that Andrew

 

So this is the fruit of the work of this angel kid? Some British fucker?

 

Anyways, great blog OWA. I'd love to see AR get released soon.

P.S. Let the above logs prove an example on just how ignorant some players can be.

 

edit: "ABNORMALLY STRONG 14-YEAR OLD KIDS"

Edited June 2, 2011 by pyryl3

[Guest Chronojam]

We should rip off borrow the signs for the new APB buildings

[Guest reaper ahmad]

once again...YAY!

[Guest Xenon560]

Absolutely amazing work guys

[Guest Alstar]

White IFV is AWESOME!

I <3 u for that!!!!

 

Thank you Bluehell Productions, u make world better

 

Primary fire throws out dynamite bombs whilst secondary fire will retain Ivan's original mini-demo truck superdeath attack

Lets make some noice (and radioactive rain too)

Edited June 2, 2011 by Alstar

[Guest Inferno]

See told you were not dead

But you are posting in the past

[cfehunter]

he's not dead. But now that he's back we've got so much to work on.

It's been hectic lately.

[Guest ma1kel]

Looks absolutely amazing.

[VERTi60]

Nice job on the texturing dtr!

[Wallywood]

But you are posting in the past

You confuse my head.

[Guest Inferno]

You confuse my head.

I was referring to the "we" in your post, of which OWA is one. And look at the date on OWA's OP.

[Guest Kai]

Great stuff! It's too bad theres no Russian letters on the Soviet exit signs, but I guess that would confuse players too.

 

But I have a question with the Tesla IFV being in, does that mean Tesla Tanks wont be added? (I remember it was a special unit for Russia in RA2) Because the way you worded 'scrapped' made me think is it not returning?

[ChAoS]

Great stuff! It's too bad theres no Russian letters on the Soviet exit signs, but I guess that would confuse players too.

 

But I have a question with the Tesla IFV being in, does that mean Tesla Tanks wont be added? (I remember it was a special unit for Russia in RA2) Because the way you worded 'scrapped' made me think is it not returning?

 

I believe that the idea is that, for the most part Tesla Tanks have been abandoned in RA2. Only Russia has them and it's a new design. The tesla IFV we are using is more like the old RA1 design and those types of Tesla Tanks have been abandoned.

 

But don't worry The Russians will have the Tesla Tank when we release the country specific units patch.

[TeamWolf]

edit: "ABNORMALLY STRONG 14-YEAR OLD KIDS"

 

Couldn't stop laughing.

 

The IFVs just look amazing.

[Guest Kakashi]

We should rip off borrow the signs for the new APB buildings

You should make dumb old metal plate signs for APB, those kinda don't fit there methinks. They do fit here, but lol @ english exit sign in soviet building.

 

Edit: Btw, instead of changing the weapons with a rocketeer in, how about the thing gets hover capability instead? Back to the future, anyone?

Edited June 2, 2011 by Kakashi

[Guest Phoenixx]

Seeing AR grow from its humble beginnings to now, I must say...you guys have done a great job thus far, and I can't wait to see this mod released.

 

Good work OWA and team

[Guest reaper ahmad]

will yuri be there in the first release or will his faction be added in later updates?

[cfehunter]

will yuri be there in the first release or will his faction be added in later updates?

 

We've already said in the FAQ.

 

But there are currently no plans to add yuri as a faction.

Yuri himself will be appearing as a soviet unit, like in red alert 2.

[Guest sonarpulse]

Great stuff! It's too bad theres no Russian letters on the Soviet exit signs, but I guess that would confuse players too.

I'm not sure if this is a good idea or box, but you could texture the signs in the appropriate language and then use a hit box to translate it.

[Guest reaper ahmad]

there are currently no plans to add yuri as a faction.

Aww snaps!

[Wallywood]

I was referring to the "we" in your post, of which OWA is one. And look at the date on OWA's OP.

I am SAYING that AR is not dead, Nor will it die. We will not let it. That is the point of MY OP.

[madrox8]

those IFVs are pretty fun thats for sure

[Guest Pyrodaimon]

Loving the new IFVs. And the bases.

 

I wonder what an Attack Dog IFV would be like...

 

By the way, is it possible if the bases had some pavement beneath? I think RA2's buildings are too stylized to avoid looking a bit too weird when placed above regular, natural ground.

[Guy with a wrench]

Dogs can't drive manual transmission maybe can upgrade the IFVs to automatic later on.

[Guest Badger]

WooHoo what an idea, Have been a fan of westwood far longer than the dev's, whats that?! ^^ ya i remember the very first death scream, on the First C&C that has now become a infamous sound bite.

Im glad there are people out there that think like i do with conceptual idea's like this, have been reading most of the documentation on RA2:AR and RA:PB, must admit for those who would think this is best tps - rts, sorry long way to go (HnD2)(Conflict: desert storm/back to bagdad/vitenam/global terror)(Men Of War/red tide/assult squad/ and soon vietnam), an tps - fps again i still perfer Conflict series started by pivital, But since this is a rts - fps - tps cross it would, and can only be put into its own catagory, Hence forth rtstbt/fps = Real Time Stratigic Team Based Third/First Person Shooter Holy crap thats f'n huge

 

Surprised your still using the SAGE engine as well, i think i would have kicked that by now, but do like that any hardware including many older systems will be able to play this with out any trouble, (so old almost the original comp I played RA on would play this, ahh a intel petium 2 266hz)lmfao jk, though i still would have gone with Unity 3d, For a few reasons that as a minor dev myself i will only have to state License reasons. I can only hope once ur done school u plan on a full scale in a lil bit a of a diff direction, hence make money fools!! lol jk this is one hell of a resume, i must admit.

 

Im very excited to see this game when it is finaly released. I do agree with some of the people when they say russian should be used for the signs in the russian bases, but the prob with that is it would not be RA2 accurate, the game all russian soldiers and vehicals including the cut scenes were in english. Yuri will be a interesting feat, i cant wait to see what u guys do to emulate yuri's mind control into a multi-player game, that has always been a form of controversy in many other games. Its hard to balance that into a fps/tps online style game. I love the models though the chopper looks a lil fat, but thats hard to tell considering cant really tell the scale of it, get a shot of a player model standing next to it. Staying true to the original WestWood game is very cool! Its just too bad u started with RA and not C&C always like the original best, Original Kane is the best Kane, he was the best bald bad ass!

 

Your(BlueHell) idea is a complete over haul of the games concept i had been saying to build this kind of game for years, sadly its only just starting to become an idea, the next step for this style would be a fully working mmo with character creation and skill tree ect. a fully evolving C&C war online. I hear there are a few companies that are pushing for a fps/tps mmo, but sadly they are either fanatsy crap like WoW, or its a ugly cross between gay halo (yes halo sucks) and gears of war. This would make a killa fps/tps/rts/mmo. Just throwing it out there

 

Hurry, Hurry, get back in ur lil rooms and work hard to bring us RA2:AR, 45% done? not enough XDDD

 

Btw fast passed fps/tps all the way, COD is good but i find u dont move as fast and the "play long enough u get more power ups/equipment" thing is kinda gay, Im a great fan of pure balance. Quake I/II/III/III arena, RTCW, Unreal, SoF II need i say more? ahh the good old days were it was real talent to be good at these games. Now its like any hack can be good at a fps...

 

BlueHell FTW!

Edited June 5, 2011 by Badger

[Guest Cyberslas]

...

tl:dr

 

Anyways, when will new blargh be outs?

[danpaul88]

Anyways, when will new blargh be outs?

 

Uhh... this IS a new blog.... it was only posted 3 days ago...