AR :: February 2012 Battlefield Update

[OWA]

 

<center>Where have you guys been!?</center>

 

Good question! Let me answer that for you. We've been here the entire time, but development has been at an all time slow due to the age old excuse of "real life"; always getting in the way of making good time on our games development. We're not giving up, so don't worry doubting doubters. You'll get a kick-ass game to play... eventually.

 

I've decided that it's time the blog got a bit of an overhaul, so I've made a shiny new graphic to go with it. Fun stuffs!

 

So, where have we been and what have we been doing?

• I've been working on my final year at University working towards my Masters degree. Lots of assignments have pushed me away from what I've been doing here, which is bad. But saying that, I've been getting back into the community recently and should be able to start juggling tasks round a bit to get the ball rolling once again.
  
• dtrngd has been busy with various exams; but in spite of that, he's taken control of the main Level Edit build of Apocalypse Rising from danpaul88, who has been busy with work.
  
• cfehunter has been busy with university, but he has had his hands on some neat new stuff which we won't be announcing for a while.
  
• danpaul88 is back and offering coding and scripting help again after being busy with work.
  
• BogdanV has rejoined the team and is modelling us a Spy Plane which will feature in the first release.
  
• Guywithawrench has been helping out over in the Reborn camp, but should be back in action on AR once we get the game moving once more.
  
• Eggman891 has been back recently, so you may see some weapons being rigged up soonish!
  

Again, once the game development cycle gets churning again, the team will probably form back up and we should be in a better position to give more regular updates.

 

 

<center>Internal Beta Release</center>

 

dtrngd has been working on getting our internal beta release finished up and ready to ship out to the testers. This build contains a lot of improvements compared to the last internal release. These improvements include:

 

Game Changes

• Added Nighthawk Transport unit
  
• Added Flak Cannon base defence for Soviets
  
• Added Terror Drone unit
  
• Added emitter to Tesla Gauntlet explosion
  
• Added Soviet Radar Tower
  
• Added Soviet Walls
  
• Added allied-only elevator to Allied Power Plant
  
• Added Terror Drone remote consoles to Soviet War Factory and Radar Tower
  
• Added new Chrono Miner model
  
• Added new IFV model
  
• Updated engine sounds for the Grizzly and the Rhino tank
  
• Updated Soviet War Factory with a huge elevator that pushes your vehicles up from underground
  
• Updated soviet repair node with missing animation
  
• Updated War Miner rig
  
• Updated IFV turret weapons, all turrets are available
  
• Added Engineer unit for Allies/Soviets so the Engineer IFV can now be activated
  
• All buildings have been temporarily textured on the external parts
  
• Added textures to Tech Oil Derrick
  
• Added purchase sounds for Nighthawk, IFV and Chrono Miner
  
• Added lighting/throwing sound for Crazy Ivan's Small Dynamite
  
• Added setting and explosion sounds for Crazy Ivan's Big Dynamite
  
• Added setting and explosion sounds for SEAL's C4 Explosive
  
• Added temporary death explosion to Crazy Ivan's killed event
  
• Added new firing sound for GGI's Spectre SMG
  
• Replaced APB sidebars with temporary RA2-sidebars
  
• Replaced Renegade targeting reticle with a new one
  
• Implemented Fabian's surface effects
  
• Implemented some of Fabian's explosion effects
  
• Changed camera settings a bit
  

Balance Changes

• Increased walk/crouch speed of all infantry slightly
  
• Added Veteran & Elite weapon upgrades for Nighthawk and Rocketeer
  
• Decreased rate of fire slightly for Flak Troopers and Flak Tracks
  
• Deployed Guardian GI fires rockets for an increased range, higher velocity and damage plus a slightly shorter reload speed
  
• Increased range of Tesla Trooper Gauntlet as it was helpless against most allied vehicles
  
• Increased resistance of deployed infantry units from 10% to 25% to all warheads and 50% resistance to tank shells
  
• Increased damage and speed of Tech Outpost missiles (Damage(impact/explosion): 6/6 -> 8/8, Velocity: 70 -> 110)
  
• Allowed Tech Outpost to engage air units, as in RA2
  
• Increased Standard Rocket warhead type damage vs infantry
  
• Decreased Armour Piercing warhead type damage vs buildings and weakpoints
  
• Tweaked MBT cannon shells to travel faster, have a small amount of spray and gravity (Velocity: 160 -> 250, Gravity: 1.5, Spray Angle: 1.5)
  
• Increased damage and reload time for Grizzly Battle Tank (Damage: 65 -> 70, ReloadTime: 1.2 -> 1.4)
  
• Increased damage, reload time and hp/armor for Rhino Heavy Tank (Damage: 90 -> 100, ReloadTime: 1.3 -> 1.7, Hp/Armor: 400 -> 450)
  
• Increased range of Tesla Coil to account for bumpy terrain reducing its effective range (Range Normal/Supercharged: 80/120 -> 110/150)
  
• Increased range of Prism Tower to account for bumpy terrain reducing its effective range (Range: 80 -> 110)
  
• Increased Rocketeer's running and flying speed (6.6 -> 8.6)
  
• Increased effectiveness of Anti Building Explosives vs infantry and base defences
  
• Reworked Crazy Ivan thrown dynamite weapon to fire a single projectile and bounce for a short time
  
• Reworked Pillbox and Sentry Gun weapons to fire a small round of bullets then reload, increased damage of bullets
  
• Reworked Harrier weapon to fire 4 rounds with half the damage instead of the original 2 rounds
  
• Reworked Rocketeer's weapon to be a Shrapnel-Based Weapon instead of a High Velocity Grenade Launcher
  
• Tesla Troopers are now unsquishable
  
• Deployed GIs can be run over by any vehicle
  
• AI Miners' damage-taking and death are reported by eva/zofia depending on your team
  
• Building Major Weakpoints are now shown on the radar as objective stars
  
• Tech building capture points are now shown on the radar as objective stars
  
• Added global announcement sounds for SEAL's C4/Crazy Ivan's Big Dynamite being placed
  
• Locked Radar technology units to Allied Airforce HQ and Soviet Radar Tower (losing these buildings lets you build hightech units no more)
  
• Harriers are now built at the ACHQ, separate from the War Factory build queue
  
• Base defences warn players when they are under attack
  

Map Changes

• Added Radar Tower, Pillboxes, Sentry Guns and Flak Cannons to Little Big Lake
  
• Added Radar Tower and Flak Cannons to South Pacific
  
• Added Radar Tower to Iceland
  
• Dune Patrol has been set to be a low-tech map
  
• Rocky Pass has been finally closed on the far tech-oil side
  
• Map added: Freezing Straits
  

Script Changes

• Bugfix to Prism Tower script
  
• Service Depots now use an improved version of the repair depot scripts
  

Here's a load of sceenshots featuring some of the new changes in Beta 1!

 

 

 

<center>New Particle Effects</center>

 

 

 

One of the benefits of Bluehell Productions is that we share assets between our projects for various things. The A Path Beyond team were kind enough to allow us to use their new emitters and surface effects. This includes everything from bullet impacts to shell explosions.

 

However, there is one effect that has really found itself at home in Apocalypse Rising. The Flak emitters that mjfabian made work really well in the game, allowing the Flak Tracks and Flak Troopers to have an amazingly disruptive effect on the battlefield. The flak's explosion, on impact with any object, makes a black cloud which can be used to disrupt the enemy's vision on the battlefield. This is useful as a smokescreen to retreat to a safe distance.

 

Here are a few screenshots of the new flak effects in action.

 

 

 

 

<center>Getting Ahead of Ourselves</center>

 

The observant ones amongst you may have picked up on the Giant Squid that was posted up on the Moddb page a while back. Allow me to explain.

Basically, I have a friend with a degree in CGI and Animatronics who offered to help us with some more organic models for the game. We decided that the Giant Squid would be a fun project to get ready for the future, so that's pretty much what we gave her to do. The result is pretty awesome and we'll definitely be implementing it in AR when we get to the stage of adding Naval units.

 

 

Another surprise for you guys is the Siege Chopper. I made this model for a university assignment after I decided that it would be a good idea to cross over AR with my degree in order to cover more ground. The Siege Chopper is my favourite unit from Yuri's Revenge, so I decided to model it. Simple enough; however, now that it's done, that means we can include it in the release version as a special crate unit or have it feature on special mission maps. This is jumping the gun a bit on what we originally planned to release as part of the first public release, but I think bringing you guys some more units to play with isn't really a bad thing at all.

 

<center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ELiXXYLdnyo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></center>

 

 

<center>New testers picked!</center>

 

If you haven't already heard from the APB and/or Reborn blogs, we were hiring a new bunch of Bluehell Productions testers. That period is now over and this is the list of people who have been accepted onto the testing team. Some old faces, some new faces:

• Billy Joe Bob
  
• Boris
  
• Chewbacca
  
• ChronoSeth
  
• dearlydie
  
• ditto_g
  
• DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr
  
• Garrus09
  
• Gork
  
• HeaVyMenTaL
  
• iLikeToSnipe
  
• kamuixmod
  
• madrox8
  
• Nod00
  
• NodFan
  
• Nodlied
  
• NSpgexp2012
  
• Pushwall
  
• pyryl3
  
• r315r4z0r
  
• Raptor29aa
  
• Souljack
  
• triattack
  
• unrealtormentor
  
• VERTi60
  
• Voe
  
• Xyrom
  

Congratulations guys; however, fear not those of you who applied but didn't get accepted, we have reserve slots in the testing team which we are looking to fill if we think that we may be a bit down on our numbers.

 

 

<center>Renegade X</center>

 

If you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you may have missed out on a pretty significant release in the C&C FPS community. The Renegade X single player release candidate, Black Dawn, has been released and paves the way towards a bright future for our community and the C&C First Person experience that we all know and love.

 

 

It's totally free, so why not give it a try? Grab it from here: http://renxgame.com/

 

 

<center>OWA's Random Corner</center>

 

Here's some random videos that I've been watching recently. This is an awesome news section in my opinion.

 

<center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/P5aWAW2hea4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

Tankin'</center>

 

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lvrPO6Dwp0E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

Uber-splodin'!</center>

 

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7-tNUur2YoU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

Epic.</center>

 

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cYNdUM2gRsg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

Double Epic.</center>

 

 

<center>Shout-outs and Goodbyes</center>

 

Thanks for reading this update and acknowledging the fact that we aren't dead!

 

Some special shout-outs go out to my good friends at Staffordshire University; Tommy, Vix, Terry Towers, Chaz, Brad, Rach, Tagg and all you other awesome people that I've missed!

 

Look out for more Apocalypse Rising updates in the future and don't lose hope! We will deliver this game to you!

[Guest KevinLancaster]

Err, I cannot view any of the images...

Edited February 2, 2012 by KevinLancaster

[Guest Boris]

Great to hear an update from the AR side of BHP

[Garrus09]

WOOOOOoooooOOaaaaAHHHHhhhhHHHHHHH

[Guest namechanged]

Err, I cannot view any of the images...

Same, all are not permissioned.

[Guest ImperialKaskins]

Yes its progressing

[Guest APB_ICE]

Sounds awesome, but none of the pictures are viewable. :sad:

 

Anyway, good to hear that progress is being made. Awesome Siege Chopper, by the way!

 

Congratulations guys; however, fear not those of you who applied but didn't get accepted, we have reserve slots in the testing team which we are looking to fill if we think that we may be a bit down on our numbers.

There is still hope... :happy:

Edited February 2, 2012 by APB_ICE

[Guest namechanged]

Congratulations guys; however, fear not those of you who applied but didn't get accepted, we have reserve slots in the testing team which we are looking to fill if we think that we may be a bit down on our numbers.

There is still hope... :happy:

Fingers crossed :emot-airquote: best I could find.

[Guest APB_ICE]

Congratulations guys; however, fear not those of you who applied but didn't get accepted, we have reserve slots in the testing team which we are looking to fill if we think that we may be a bit down on our numbers.

There is still hope... :happy:

Fingers crossed :emot-airquote: best I could find.

I think that's more of a 'quotation marks' emoticon, like the gesture someone uses when they're quoting something that they know is untrue or misleading.

 

For example: EA thought that they were "improving" C&C when they made "C&C"4.

 

Here are a couple of 'fingers crossed' emoticons:

 

 

Edited February 2, 2012 by APB_ICE

[OWA]

The images aren't showing up because of the way the forum is configured. A lot of the images in the previous blogs are probably also broken. I will get someone to look at it right away and hopefully there should be images soon!

[Guest DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr]

AWESOME!!! Can't wait for the AR test release!

[Guest sith_wampa]

Nice progress. Hopefully the balance works out ok.

[OWA]

Pictures are fixed!

[Guest namechanged]

Pictures are fixed!

YAY!

[Guest Sonarpulse]

good to have all three mods alive and well now

[Guest kamuixmod]

We will be one with YURI!!!

Edited February 4, 2012 by kamuixmod

[Guest ma1kel]

what's with the MSpaint textures?

[Guest Generalcamo]

I don't mind them in AR, as RA2 was always cartoony.

[Guest ma1kel]

Well, Renegade is cartoony. Some of the textures are just lazy and conflict with other, cartoony but more detailed textures like the texture on the Harrier. It's very noticeable in the screenshot with the Harriers on the Airforce Command Headquarters.

[OWA]

Well, Renegade is cartoony. Some of the textures are just lazy and conflict with other, cartoony but more detailed textures like the texture on the Harrier. It's very noticeable in the screenshot with the Harriers on the Airforce Command Headquarters.

The Allied & Soviet building textures are by no means final. They were just slapped on to stop people from getting lost. Both Barracks and the Allied Power Plant are final, but the rest is subject to heavy change.

[Guest ma1kel]

I see.

[Guest Nod00]

SWEET. The Tesla Trooper sucked so hard becaused he could be crushed! Im glad thats no longer the case!

[Wallywood]

Nice progress. Hopefully the balance works out ok.

I'm sure our new testers will do a fine job on that.

[Guest MartinMb]

AWESOME !

[Guest kamuixmod]

i wonder when internal is ready

[Guest Elsa]

soon hopefully!

[madrox8]

downloading

[Guest KevinLancaster]

Are you allowed to tell us that?

[Guest Elsa]

Yes.

 

but he's lying.

 

bad madrox.

[madrox8]

your bad!