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Topic:
First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
7/3/07 5:01pm
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
- Date Edited:
7/3/07 5:07pm (2 edits total)
Edited By:
Darth_H
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Time for another update, here comes another Dev Diary from the vaults of First Strike.
Enjoy.
And you can find lots more info on the mod here...
http://www.firststrikemod.com/eu/
Hello World!
For you who recognize that intro I can say that naw Im no coder, Im actually a texture artist for First Strike! Im using HaVoC's dev diary as a template and starting out with telling you all a little about myself.
I'm Peter "Pumbaa" Jansson from Stockholm, Sweden, I'm 24 years old and I just graduated from Luleå Tekniska Universitet (LTU) in Skellefteå, northern Sweden, where I studied Computer Graphics (CG) for three years. Before that I had no game creating skills what so ever and I didnt get to start out with CG until my second year at LTU. I kind of took a wild shot with my education since I had never done cg before, how was I to know
if it would interest me at all? All I knew was that I liked games. A lot.
Anyhow, when we started out I obviously had a lot to learn. Everything was really confusing and I seriously doubted my career choice several times, but I kept struggling because my personal goals I had kept me highly motivated, also, the more I learned, the greater my thirst for more knowledge became.
Now, I couldn't be more sure about what I want to do with my life. Im enjoying every second I can spare on this, so much I've actually found myself numerous times waking up at about 5am, disappointed mumbling in my sleep "dammit, it's only 5am, I want to get up back to work!".
So how did I come to join the First Strike mod team? Well, during our last year at LTU we had a specialization project where we got the chance to deepen ourselves in any CG area, eg modeling, texturing, animation etc.
I had no clue at all what to specialize in because I had only had a brief introduction to every cg field, but just before the course was about to start I was lucky and suddenly came across FS which combined two amazing things; Star Wars and Battlefield, and I thought "wow, I want to help out with this!" so I sent an application.
I really had nothing to show, only some texturered models I made during one of my very first cg cources, and, hrm, they looked like they were pulled straight out of 1995. Anyway, I recieved a test model that I were to unwrap and texture.
It took me some time and man was I nervous when I sent it back.. I mean, I was placing my entire course on this, but I placed my bets right and actually got a position as a texture artist and my very very extremely steep learning curve straight upwards began.
So far I have had a blast working with the fs team and when the course was over I didnt feel very much like leaving the roup. So, here I am ow.
What I think I admire the most with this team is the dedication and discipline that's daily being displayed. It is truly motivating to see the progress everyone makes several times every week.
Currently Im working hard together with several FS members to finalize our Mos Espa map, which actually just came to its tweaking/testing phase, which could be considered its very last phase.
Mos Espa is a city on the planet of Tatooine which main focus is CQB (Close Quarters Battle) so expect a hear a lot of e-11 blasts while having a blast with ya blaster blasting stuff in our desert town.
My god, I'm hilarious.
Anyways, I can't wait for the day we release. And I can't wait for the day we can play this Rancor of a game with yall.
Till then, strawberry juice.
FSDev| Pumbaa, out.
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
7/10/07 7:36am
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
- Date Edited:
7/10/07 7:38am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Darth_H
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They're coming thick and fast now as we ramp up for the first release of First Strike. Here's another Dev Diary with added sweet eye candy to whet your appetities.
Enjoy.
Howdy folks.
My name's Mattes and I'm a modeller and skinner for FirstStrike. I do a few other things as well but they mostly consist of giving Blitz a headache.
My main focus for the first few months with the team have been Mos Espa models. I hope you enjoy this collection of Mos Espa buildings as our group has worked very hard on them. You can look at my models from when I first started compared to the most recent ones and really see a difference. I've learned so much working with this team. It's given me so much perspective as to how professional game development works.
My latest project was in the trenches. Preacher gave me the honor of working on the Death Star trench. 3 days of work and I managed to randomize Preacher's models and I made 5 trench plates. This was so the trench was more dynamic and not like a Flintstones cartoon where you see the same potted plant every half-second.
Oh wait, do I have to talk about myself? -groans- I suppose if HavoC did...
Well, I was born on a farm (no joke, I really was. I fed the chickens every morning and collected the eggs.) in California. My first computer game was the original Star Wars arcade. I actually still have the floppy disk. It must be a collector's item by now. My first 3d modelling program I got when I was 14 was RayDream Studio 5. It was a fairly basic program that I taught myself (as there was 0 online support). Then switched over to 3ds MAX a few years later.
But aside from computer modeling and gaming, I've been into movies and the film industry. I attended film school for 3 years and worked on several sets as a production designer, gaffer, casting director and other small roles. My goal in my career is to start up a production company that produces movies and games and who knows what else. Sometimes I can't keep up with my imagination. Just like this Dev Diary. It's gone off in tangents and has no structure at all.
But you get the idea. Yesh?
Mattes:
Age-23
Hometown-Sacramento, CA
Favorite food-The edible kind
Hobbies include (but not limited to) - Naming Models "Steve", teasing krazykyle3 about screenshots, and making pointless yet questionable avatars.
Most used words: "Yesh", "scrawbuckets", and "Let go, that's mine"
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
7/20/07 6:09pm
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
- Date Edited:
7/20/07 6:12pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Darth_H
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We're really throwing everything we've got into testing right now, not long to go, and we have officially gone from Alpha Testing to Beta Testing, so I'm guessing that means serious progress has been made.
And it has at that.
Tonight we were really giving it some in our space maps and the gameplay and balancing between starfighters is getting more and more polished with additional features that add serious depth to the gameplay with every new build.
And as if you needed anymore convincing, here's the next Dev Diary with some nice new juicy pictures for you to feast your eyes on.
Hey, friends!
They call me JayBiggS and I'm a texture artist for First Strike. I hail from the land of the beaver (Canada) and I've been modding for about 4-5 years now.
Before joining First Strike I was co-founder of the Galactic Conquest mod for Battlefield 1942 and stayed on until development was complete. Then the GC team decided to come up with a brand new concept, and Shattered Faith was born. After a few months of work on SF, the team sort of fell apart and FSDev|Preacher brought First Strike to my attention. The rest is history!
My duties here consist of texturing models and post production quality control. I'd say the main things I've been working on have been the weapons. I enjoy the challenge of trying to recreate the props used in the films as close as I can get them. I want you to play our mod and watch the Star Wars films, and recognize details you maybe wouldn't have before playing First Strike. We have scoured every possible source, the films, cartoons, games, books, and toys to come up with what we hope will be the most visually accurate depiction of the saga in game form. No small task, to be sure, but thus far I'd say we are approaching that goal.
Well, I'm out of time, I need to get back to work.
See you on the battlefield, Soldier!
Jay "The Hurricane" BiggS
And as if that's not enough, we have a very special treat for you guys due for the next update, so watch this space.
http://www.firststrikemod.com/
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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xER0hOUR
Registered:
Jan '06
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Date Posted:
8/7/07 9:20am
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
- Date Edited:
8/7/07 9:22am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
xER0hOUR
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DEMO TRAILER NOW OUT!
GAME RELEASED SEPTEMBER 2007
WATCH IT NOW !!! >>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgNCw9lyZ4A
The team here at FirstStrike is gearing up towards a release very soon and to that end we have created a demo trailer for you to enjoy. The Demo Trailer was premiered on German TV games show GIGA TV last night.
It depicts the land and space battles you can play, moreover the Maps Escape from Hoth and Mos Espa respectively.
High Quality Download
http://woodat.com/video/fs_gameplay2_trailer.rar
FirstStrike Demo - Escape from Hoth & Mos Espa
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
8/8/07 2:33am
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
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Get this trailer watched, you won't be disapointed.
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
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Date Posted:
8/8/07 4:17pm
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
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Honors for This Video:
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5,056 Views so far and counting.
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
8/28/07 6:57am
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
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It's been a while (have been a tad busy with getting this mod ready and all that), but with September only just around the corner it's time to keep the updates coming when we can manage it.
This weekend First Strike had one of it's highest profile episodes of exposure when we sent one of the guys to the German Computer Games Convention where he did a live presentation on GIGA's stage. We'll get some footage of that out to you guys as soon as we can.
In the meantime here is a cool Dev Diary come tutorial in all things code from Magus.
DEV DIARY #17 - MAGUS
Hi everybody!
My name’s John Mansir but round these parts they call me magus. I’m 18 and I live near London, and back in March I joined the First Strike team as a coder. I’ve just finished school and hopefully I’ll be going to university in a few months to study physics. I started modding nearly 4 years ago by joining the Battlefield 40000 team for battlefield 1942. It’s been an awesome journey and I’m really glad to have ended up here at First Strike. My job on the team now mostly involves coding vehicles and annoying Woodrow.
I know coding can be boring and you usually don’t hear much about it but I figure there must be at least one person out there who’s interested in
how we code vehicles! To that end in this dev diary I’ll show you how we created the B wing starfighter. Don’t worry, I won’t subject you to big boring
chunks of code, there will be lots of pretty pictures along the way!
Step 1: Get model & texture.
The first step in this process is to retrieve the art assets from the people who created them and load them into 3D Studio max. This time they were
kindly provided by my extremely skilled colleagues RedMonkey and Rybot:
Here’s a shot of the model first loaded up in 3d studio. As you can see from the window on the left it’s in a mish mash of unorganised pieces! These need to be organised into a proper hierarchy so that the battlefield engine knows exactly what to do with all the bits.
Step 2: Plan out hierarchy and organise the pieces in max
Now that we have the vehicle in max, we have to plan out how the vehicle behaves. To do this we have to find out what the vehicle is like in the movies. I put out a request for background information on the B Wing, and my colleagues Talon and Dutch_Razor provided me with a whole slew of
stuff about weapon loadouts and special abilities that the B wing has. The B wing has 2 important features that will be important to our hierarchy;
firstly, it starts off in a horizontal position and folds out into a vertical flight position like so:
Secondly, according to background lore the cockpit is gyroscopic, meaning that it always faces up regardless of which way the rest of the ship is
facing. After some deliberation we decided that a ship like that would be almost impossible to fly; we came up with a compromise in that the cockpit
should only be gyroscopic when the craft is folding out into flight position. As you can see from the above picture, the cockpit is facing upwards in both
positions. Now we know what has to be done, we can plan out the hierarchy.
In the battlefield engine, each separate piece of a model (known as an object) has to have a certain object type. For example, you can set something to be a ‘PlayerControlObject’. These are the base of each vehicle. Each PlayerControlObject corresponds to one position on a vehicle, so in a jeep you would have one for the driver position, one for the passenger position, one for the gunner position and so on. There are many other object types, including ‘GenericFireArms’ (this is just a fancy name for any kind of vehicle mounted weapon), ‘Wings’ (These are invisible objects that generate lift to keep air vehicles flying), ‘RotationalBundles’ (Objects that rotate by player control are RotationalBundles, for example the steering wheel in the jeep), and ‘LandingGears’ (These are a special kind of Rotationalbundles that can rotate automatically when the vehicle reaches a certain speed/altitude, hence their usefulness as landing gears). Since we want the entire ship to rotate from horizontal to vertical automatically when it reaches a certain speed, we’re going to be using a lot of LandingGears!
Each vehicle must have a PlayerControlObject (PCO) as its base, and they can not rotate. Therefore our PCO will be invisible, and attached to the invisible PCO will be an invisible landing gear. All of the other objects will be attached to this invisible landing gear meaning the entire ship will rotate
from horizontal to vertical as we planned. The wings are also LandingGears; they will fold out and go from a position held at the side of the main hull to
a fully extended position as the rest of the ship folds out.
Unfortunately with this setup it means that the cockpit will also rotate and will be facing the wrong way when the ship has fully folded out. To counteract this, we’re going to attach another invisible LandingGear to the first one which rotates the opposite way. (Think of this as if you were
standing on top of a big spinning plate. If you spin the opposite way at the same speed as the plate then you will always face the same direction. We
are going to use this principle to keep the cockpit facing the same direction). Attached to this second invisible landing gear are the cockpit model and the player camera. Finally, we need to attach the GenericFireArm weapons, the Engine, and the ‘Wing’ flaps to the main hull object.
Now we translate all of this into 3d studio max and we end up with this (note red annotation is mine):
This is now ready for exporting into the battlefield editor.
Step 3: Tweak in the battlefield editor
Now that we’ve exported the vehicle from 3ds max into the battlefield editor we can start to change and tweak all of the object properties until they
work just as we want. Here’s a shot of the B wing in the editor, and in it you can see me tweaking the ‘GearDownSpeed’ property. Most properties are
self explanatory from their names, and as you might have realised this one controls the speed below which your vehicle has to be before a landing gear
will deploy itself.
There are many many properties to set and this is one of the most time consuming steps in the whole process. It takes an especially long time
because to tweak certain properties to their perfect value you have to boot up bf2142 again and again and again to test until you’re satisfied. It can get frustrating!
Step 4: Polishing off
After tweaking it in the editor the next step is to put it in an in-game environment and see if any changes need to be made. This is usually
lighting/sounds and other minor tweaks to handling. At this point I retrieved sounds made by Ulversial and added them to the weapons and engines on the B wing. Also at this stage we need to add any extra effects, for example engine glows and ‘damagestates’ (These are the smoke and fires that appear when your vehicle is damaged). Here’s a shot of me testing the weapon laser effects and the engine glows in-game:
Finally after I am satisfied that everything is complete I hand over the vehicle to Blitz and Woodrow for them to do any executive tweaks or add
anything that I might have forgotten. Once this is complete the vehicle is added to the game for our testing team to fly around in to ensure that it works properly. Any complaints from the testers are addressed and the vehicle may be further tweaked. As you can see, not including the testing team, coding this vehicle involved the work of 8 developers so it is very much a team effort to produce each vehicle. It’s an awesome thing to behold and I love seeing so many people’s work come together in the game.
Anyway I’m sure you’re bored by now and this is getting long so I’ll bid you farewell and see you on the battlefield!
Thanks,
John ‘Magus’ Mansir
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
9/6/07 5:26pm
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
- Date Edited:
9/6/07 5:29pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Darth_H
|
It's a bit of a long read this one, but informative, and I've even included a little eyecandy at the end in the form of some nice shiney new in game space shots.
Enjoy.
The following is the transcript from an interview that The German EA Community Team had with members of the First Strike development team, and details on how to enter a First Strike Release Competition.
Read on to find out more.
You thought there was nothing to do, but wait for the release of First Strike? Stick with us and join the big First Strike Release Competition, presented by the FS Mod Team and BF-News.de! Guess what the release size of the client (in megabytes) will be and win one of five download-versions of BF2142. In addition, eight copies of the boosterpack Northern Strike (download) will be raffled!
You have no idea, how big this client could be? Then read through our interview! We sat down with the devs and pulled out every bit of information, we could get: Fighters, maps, history, gamemodes and much more was discussed and some of the information might surprise you. Will we meet at the Death Star? Read through and find out!
A big thanks to the following devs:
• Blitz (Mod Leader)
•xEROhOUR (Press / Recruiting)
• Havoc (Modelling)
• Svenstaro (Modelling)
• Rybot (Skinning)
• Pumbaa (Skinning)
• Woodrow (Coding)
• Dutch (Research)
If you want to take part in the competition, just write an email to news[at]bf-news.de. The email subject hast to be: First Strike.
Include the following:
1. Your guess of the client-size (like: XXXX,XX MB)
2. Your email-address
3. Your F7C ID (register here: http://www.foren.f7c-network.com/boards/register.php-> login here: http://www.bf-news.de/f7c_login.php-> After logged in, you'll find your "ID" printed next to the Header named "Kontrollzentrum".)
Note: If you can't register at F7C-network (because of the language difficulties), then please include a link to your First-Strike Forum profile! Either this or the F7C ID is required!
4. Your choice (not a must): Your BF2 or BF2142 soldier name
The competition will last until First Strike is released.
All members of the First-Strike Team (including Beta- and Alpha testers) and everyone working for F7c-network.com or the FS Mod Page are not allowed to take part in the competition!
- Prologue -
A bit of history: Where did First Strike Start?
*xEROhOUR: *First Strike started way back in August 2005 a handful of guys had an idea, sadly since then most of them have gone leaving myself and Dutch Razor as being from the original team.
Since then Blitz joined our current Mod Leader and the original Galactic Conquest crew ex Shattered Faith, and some incredibly talented guys (they know who they are and if I listed them all we would be here for weeks! Its the most talented, pro active, and "out of the box" thinking team that has made this mod what it is. It really is a team effort.
The expectations towards the mod are very high. Some fans from BF2 ponder whether to get BF2142 only for First Strike. What do you think about this?
*xEROhOUR: *I would say 2142 lends itself very well indeed to the Star Wars format. In FS you get two games for your money Space and Land combat so with the addition of 2142 that’s 3 kickass games for one price, can’t be bad, can it?
Why exactly a Star Wars mod?
*xEROhOUR: *We felt that there was a real need to pick up where SWBF and the X-Wing series left off, with the tried and trusted concept of DICE's Battlefield Series and the advent of the 2142 Engine it provided an excellent opportunity to create and deliver a real Multiplayer SW experience.
Which episodes will First Strike feature?
*Havoc: *First Strike will Feature the Original trilogy Era so that’s episode 4, 5 and 6. This choice was made mainly due to the fact that these are our favourite episodes. and portray the star wars universe in the best possible way.
- General information and background -
Will it also include content from episodes 1-3? Some other mods like Clone Wars already tried it but obviously aren't in development anymore.
*Havoc: *Right now we don’t have any plans to expand into the prequel trilogy, apart from several of its locations. but who knows what the future might bring.
Do you have any kind of problems with Lucas Arts because of the Star Wars license?
*xEROhOUR: *We have been very careful in not to evoke the holy ones wrath (Mr G Lucas) by sticking to core acceptable usage policies.
How precisely is First Strike imitating the role model (spacecraft, sounds, characters and scenes?)
*Havoc: *We want to portray the Star Wars universe in the most accurate way possible. And we have our own separate lore department that digs up reference images for us. Also their movie clips have been key in our animation process. as well as their sound references.
Does the solid source material make it any easier/harder for you to please the fans?
*Havoc: *it does, in fact we find it very hard sometimes to please ourselves. Several of our team members are big Star Wars fans. And can often make quite a fuss when something isn’t completely lore accurate. How ever we do have a Main Rule that states that gameplay is more important than lore.
- Game questions: heroes and playgrounds -
Does it include any known heroes or their vehicles? Which ones can we expect to see?
*Havoc: *we will include some iconic vehicles from the movies how ever due to Lucasarts' Modding guidelines we aren’t allowed to use any iconic character from the movies.
The following hero vehicles are planned: Luke’s Landspeeder, the Millennium Falcon and Darth Vader’s TIE.
Does the mod pursue any background story or do the maps loosely follow the movie?
*rybot: *We have a few maps the follow the events of the movie and also a few unique scenarios as well. For example, on the space map 'Escape from Hoth' we followed the storyline of the movie while also expanding beyond the events seen on film. The objective of the map is to escort the Gallofree Transports past the crippled Star Destroyer and to a hyperspace beacon, while also being attacked by TIE fighters and bombers.
Which scenes/maps are going to see?
*Svenstaro: *There are those that many of you have seen already, Hoth Space, Mos Espa, Endor and some of you know that we're also working on the Death Star. Additionally to those mentioned there might be a few surprises.
Will we be able to participate in space battles like in the trailer? What's so exciting about it? Many doubt it will work well.
*Dutch: *Oh yes you will be, A-Wings, X-Wings, Y-Wings, TIE Fighters/bombers/interceptors and B-Wings, it'll all be here. Depending on their appearance being lore accurate of course once you get in-game, see the HUD, hear the classic sound of an X-Wing, spot a TIE , get behind it, you'll feel the movie.
*Havoc: *players will be able to pilot rebel and imperial capitol ships and fighters in a full 3D space environment, The most exiting thing about it is that these ships are to correct scale. So a Corellian Corvette will be 150 meters long, a Lancer Frigate will be 200 meters long, and a Star Destroyer, yes a full blown Star Destroyer will be its full length of 1.6 kilometres
Isn't this a bit of a problem to have a 1.6 km STD on a map?
No, this has only been an initial problem. At the moment, we solved this quite well.
- Tech and space battles -
Now that we're already talking about space maps, there are quite a few things in the BF2142 engine that make one wonder. Will there really be no gravity in space? So that when you exit you vehicle you don't hit the ground?
*Svenstaro: *You can't exit your vehicle, at least not as of the current state. But there will be no gravity indeed.
Will it even be possible to eject from your spacecraft? Will we be able to enter and capture capital ships?
*Svenstaro: *No, we sadly had to scrap the ejecting/capturing part when we got to know that it just wouldn't be feasible on the BF2142 engine. You know what happens when the Titan moves, right? Low FPS for everyone, high server load, glitches. We might add it in later when we have found a way.
Will spacecraft automatically be slowed down if you stop accelerating?
*Svenstaro: *Yes, we do not use Newtonian physics since those are also not obvious in the movies and we also would like to keep the arcade style aspect of dog fighting.
How big will the space and ground maps be in comparison to the original BF2142 maps?
*Havoc: *we are able to generate maps that are 8x8x20 kilometres though not all of our maps will be this size cause it'll take a while to fly to the other end. How ever we do tend to make the maps big enough so that you won’t fly out of bounds accidentally. And seeing as our maps can also be 20km high it creates the illusion that were in Full 3D space. However, back in testing you were able to jump out of your X-Wing in mid air and it took about 5 minutes for a player to reach the ground.
Are there changes to the radar/hud so a fighter pilot can get to know if an enemy is beyond or above his spacecraft?
All fighters will get a small radar and an enhanced HUD, which marks all enemies in direct sight with brackets. A display, which shows the vertical axis is not planned, as far as I know. But this will go according to the testing experience and what we receive from the testers.
Do you expect orientation problems occurring with the players in this 3D-spacefights?
We didn't have those problems, because you can catch sight of the horizon very easily. The rest, you'll get to know in-game.
- Gamemodes and vehicle overview -
Which kinds of maps does First Strike focus on?
*Pumbaa: *First Strike is not really focused on any special kind of maps (e.g. only CQB maps or only space maps) we simply decided that heck, we want to do it all since we can and deliver to the player an experience of what the regular pilot/grunt felt and went through during the famous battles seen in the movies (so expect some serious traumas). We've had separate teams for separate maps so far, one team creating Hoth Space, one team creating Mos Espa so on and so forth. So as you probably already know, expect to see a lot of everything.
Which game modes will First Strike feature? Conquest seems inappropriate for space at least. Are we going to see the original Death Star gamemode?
*Blitz: *Our intention is to create gamemodes that are unique but still familiar to the BF player as it can be frustrating to have to learn a new gamemode every time a new game comes out. We currently have push, area conquest, objective, and escort style gamemodes. Area conquest will be a mix of supply-lines and conquest, where you will have to take the flags in a given order.
We are also introducing a new concept called Fleet Combat, where in space your goal is to protect your fleet while destroying the enemy’s fleet. I can tell you, it is very fun! To address the Death Star gamemode, we have set it up as an objective style that will mimic the course of events from the movie Episode 4: A New Hope
Can you already provide us a rough list of vehicles that will be pilotable? Will we be able to drive AT-AT/AT-ST or the mighty ISD?
*Woodrow: *AT-ST, Landpseeder, Speederbike, Probe droid, A-Wing, X-Wing, Y-Wing, B-Wing, TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber, TIE Interceptor, Gallofree, Bulk Freighter, Corvette, Lancer, Nebulon-B, Carrack, and that doesn't include stationary and deployable turrets.
*rybot: *unfortunately, we don't have a pilotable ISD at this time. It was pilotable for some internal testing and we discovered some problems that we have yet to work around. We will continue to work on it, but don't expect them to be flying around the map in the first release.
- System requirements, ranking, unlocks -
What are the special highlights of First Strike? How are you going to get people to download the game to their hard drives?
*Woodrow: *Our mod will encompass a full Star Wars Battlefield Environment. We have focused on creating the largest scale playing field within the limited 32/64 player arena. Scale is something we've tackled head on and every player will have the option of playing anything, from the basic Stormtrooper to the captain of a capital ship directing his crew in massive fleet engagements.
Our gameplay goals and ideals are to push ease of teamplay and playability, whilst simultaneously providing a large number of different tests and challenges of a player's skill. Our customization and kit layout system was created to provide for dynamic game balancing, where the player chooses the weapon to fit his play style and mission rather than us choosing the kits and limiting them to it. And, of course, we're shooting for the most graphical and immersive Star Wars battlefield experience out there today.
A dynamic "customization and kit-layout system" - that sounds very interesting. What's the point about that?
This is mainly BF2142 standard-style - but everything is unlocked already.
Will there be a First Strike Mod-Ranking introduced? Maybe with an own set of unique unlocks?
This has been the original plan. But this would have been a lot of work and we decided, that it is more important, to get the game public. Afterwards, we can take care of our secondary goals.
What about the system requirements hardware-wise?
*Svenstaro: *If you compare it with BF2142 Titan Mode: Much lower, expect 3-4 times more frames than when playing Titan Mode while on Titan. If you compare it with normal BF2142 Conquest it should still be less depending on map. There have been rumours that you need a killer machine in order to be able to play space maps and I can tell you that it's the exact opposite. There's no geometry to render and as long as there aren't 6 capital ships + fighters in your vicinity there should be no problems at all. An exception here might be Death Star since we tried to keep real close to the detail of the original but we're still testing it and so far performance has been very good.
- Epilogue -
In what time frame can we expect the first release candidate?
*rybot: *We have a date set for September... yes, of this year. Although we cannot say what the exact date will be, we will keep everyone updated when more information becomes available.
Your message to the waiting fans?
*xEROhOUR: *Remember this is a mod created by a non paid team who have really tried to deliver this conversion as professionally as possible for you in their spare time. We are still developing it so come release, just bare in mind we still have a long way to go to get it to the level we and more importantly YOU want. We hope you enjoy it.
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
9/18/07 8:05am
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
- Date Edited:
9/18/07 8:09am (2 edits total)
Edited By:
Darth_H
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...Coming to a Galaxy near you!
Yes, it's time for the news you've all been waiting for. The endless speculation can now come to an end as we the First Strike Mod Team can finally reveal to you the date on which you the public will be able to get a taste of the First Strike experience with Version 1.0.
And yes, it will be released this month, and yes, this year.
The official release date is Friday the 28th of September.
Mark that date in your datapads people, not long to go now.
So to celebrate this announcement and get you in the mood for a little hot blaster action, allow me to reveal to you the final chapter in Woody's Withering Fire gameplay articles.
Withering Fire
Part 3:
Combat
Ok, so the standard game of battlefield 2 or 2142. You jump in the game. Your next few moments are most likely spent sprinting to a flag, killing one or two people on the way, then capturing the flag. You then get up to another person, die, spawn, and repeat. Each combat involves no more than a few people at a time, and the end objective is usually best met by sneaking in to the places that have the least defence.
This is all very well and good to win conquest games, but all it results in is a bunch of tiny skirmishes across the map. We are aiming to change that in FirstStrike. Part of the whole concept of our mod is for the players to take part in an actual battlefield. That is, we want to encourage actual battles. You know, large scale affairs with intense firefights, squads pushing against one another, walkers stomping through the middle, ground being fought over and defended, and blaster fire coming through the mist or clouds. Lots of blaster fire.
To that end we've embraced gameplay that encourages actual combat and engagement. the first step was withering fire. By having multiple people needed to take down a target that automatically centres battles on large obvious targets like vehicles. The focus on support classes and defensive gear also makes group-centric combat more of a reality. The team that keeps itself protected and alive stands a far better chance than individuals who just run around rambo'ing it up.
Another area in which we have focused is the radar. We've taken the UAV ability from the commander and instead have distributed it amongst the players. Various different infantry now have the power to deploy different UAV devices (droids, beacons, portable scanners). This has had the effect of bringing players more directly into combat. Instead of capping the flag by sneaking around, the players are now more encouraged to seek out and kill the enemy before moving on a position. It also makes it important to scout out an area rather than running blindly into it, because chances are the defenders will have planted sensor beacons and thus will see you before you see them.
And, finally, the maps themselves are also being constructed to encourage areas of focus for the players. Objectivemode maps are the basis of most of our designs, where players need to defend or destroy (or both) objectives on the map in order to win. Objectives traditionally provide for more interesting gameplay as they give a clear goal for the players to go for and a sense of achievement when they are destroyed. They also make more sense to defend than flag points and thus you'll find people playing defense more than in conquest mode.
Of course, the large-scale battles are only part of the end goal. The other half is to provide a large array of challenges to the player. We want everything to be diverse so they have many different areas to branch off into. Each kit has its own uses and usefulness, and it'll take quite a while for players to explore them all and figure out the best use for the gear.
The same goes with the weapons. Each weapon handles differently and has varying levels of usefulness based on the differing situations. Figuring out where to use a certain weapon and/or gear gives players a chance to become specialists in multitude of ways. This is compared to the standard 5-6 single "one-shot use" classes that are easily mastered; as they have only one or two roles and that's it. Indeed, here's a list of the current "jobs" we have within our kit setup:
1) recon
2) shock assault
3) sniper
4) standard infantry
5) fire support
6) bunker buster
7) anti-vehicle expert
8) defence specialist
9) support/resupply
10) Objective destroyer
11) demolitions expert
12) medic
13) biological warfare expert
14) heavy weapon deployer
15) sensor support
16) squad leader
17) Force commander
And this doesn't include our vehicles at all, which also play a part in this:
18) repulsorlift pilot
19) turret controller
20) droid operator
21) fighter pilot
22) Bomber pilot
23) starship captain
24) walker commander
25) Deathstar Operator (just kidding!)
With ours, just because you choose one class doesn't mean you only do one thing. You could say that each class can be used multiple different ways. But it is important to note that the cumulative effect of those various skills are focused so no person can do everything. Thus we are able to create an interdependency between the classes, yet at the same time give a much wider gameplay experience to the player regardless of the class they choose.
But in case this seems overwhelming, fear not. Our underlying design is for everything to be "simple to use, challenging to master." If you just want to get in to the fight then picking a standard rifle and assault kit will let you get right in to the action. From there you can start exploring all the different aspects of the mod. The transition from apprentice to master takes a little time, and with any luck it'll make the mod more interesting as there are plenty of different ways to play it.
For more updates check out all the latest news here:
http://www.firststrikemod.com/
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
9/27/07 7:22pm
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
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Polish those blasters, power up your converters, engage thrusters.
The time has come, and at last First Strike Release 1 is here. True to our word on the 28th of September 2007 at the stroke of midnight you can now begin downloading the fruit of all our labour. The First Strike Mod Team do hope you enjoy our first release, we’ve all had a lot of fun working on it, and are desperate to see the public’s reaction to our baby as it takes it’s first steps into the world.
And remember this is only Release One, Release Two will have even more content for you to play with, but we’ll let you get your teeth into this first before we start talking about that.
So get downloading and get on the intergalactic battlefield and we’ll see you out there.
And don’t be shy, once you’ve played get on the forums and let us know what you thought of it. We’re dying to know.
All the best,
The First Strike Mod Team
Now here's where you can download First Strike.
http://battlefield2.filefront.com/file/First_Strike_v10_Client_Files
Torrent:
http://www.gameupdates.org/details.php?id=1586
http://battlefield2.filefront.com/file/First_Strike_v10_Client_Files;83232
http://planetbattlefield.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Battlefield2142Mods.Detail&id=20
Here are the dedicated server files...
http://battlefield2.filefront.com/file/First_Strike_v10_Dedicated_Server_Files;83231
Torrent:
http://www.gameupdates.org/details.php?id=1585
Enjoy.
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
9/27/07 7:24pm
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
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Begun this Mod War Has....
Polish those blasters, power up your converters, engage thrusters.
The time has come, and at last First Strike Release 1 is here. True to our word on the 28th of September 2007 at the stroke of midnight you can now begin downloading the fruit of all our labour. The First Strike Mod Team do hope you enjoy our first release, we’ve all had a lot of fun working on it, and are desperate to see the public’s reaction to our baby as it takes it’s first steps into the world.
And remember this is only Release One, Release Two will have even more content for you to play with, but we’ll let you get your teeth into this first before we start talking about that.
So get downloading and get on the intergalactic battlefield and we’ll see you out there.
And don’t be shy, once you’ve played get on the forums and let us know what you thought of it. We’re dying to know.
All the best,
The First Strike Mod Team
Now here's where you can download First Strike.
http://battlefield2.filefront.com/file/First_Strike_v10_Client_Files
Torrent:
http://www.gameupdates.org/details.php?id=1586
http://battlefield2.filefront.com/file/First_Strike_v10_Client_Files;83232
http://planetbattlefield.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Battlefield2142Mods.Detail&id=20
Here are the dedicated server files...
http://battlefield2.filefront.com/file/First_Strike_v10_Dedicated_Server_Files;83231
Torrent:
http://www.gameupdates.org/details.php?id=1585
Enjoy.
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
10/17/07 4:17pm
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
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Sorry I've not posted here in a while, obviously I've been a bit busy with the first release and all.
So have any of you guys had a chance to download and play it yet?
All feedback is welcome as this will be incorperated into future releases (as has already happened with the release of Patch 1.1) as we polish the game ome more add new content and aim to give the punters what they want from this game.
Hope to see you out there.
Enjoy.
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
10/25/07 10:15am
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
- Date Edited:
10/25/07 10:20am (2 edits total)
Edited By:
Darth_H
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I thought I'd give you all a quick update on how things are going at First Strike Towers following the release and public consumption of First Strike: Release One.
Well after for myself a holiday, and for the majority of the team a good week or two of solid fragging on public First Strike servers, it has now become another intense period of hard work as we build upon what we already have to bring you the second release. Our intent is to not have long periods without any new content, and to then have major injections of new content that are few and far between.
We're aiming to bring you a steady stream of minor to medium sized releases on a regular basis, these releases will include new maps, new vehicles and characters, and general improvement of current gameplay, content and stability. The next release for instance will include our first fully fledged combined arms map (a vehicle oriented map featuring armour, air forces and infantry) which is where the Battlefield series of games and the game engine truely shines.
This map will not be Hoth, I know a lot of you are waiting with baited breath for that map (don't worry it is coming ), but this map will be more than exciting enough to tide you over until we get the chance to explore the fan favorite battlegrounds of icy Hoth. this map is already looking stunning, and without being tied to a movie based battle it should have quite a few nice surprises in store for you including some EU vehicles including new tanks and speeders. To be frank it's going to be quite a stunning map.
To tide you over until Release Two we have also released a number of news articles of interest including one covering our team's trip to DICE Headquaters in Stockholm, and an interview with the team conducted with Battlefield.com.
Follow the links to read more...
First Strike goes to DICE!
Hey all! A few of us from the First Strike Mod recently had an opportunity to go to DICE HQ in Stockholm, Sweden to show them our work. I would like to say thanks to DICE for making it possible and thanks to my guys for their hard work in getting us there!
Below is a summary of the trip from each team members’ perspective. I didn’t think it would be fair to edit their text as this was their experience and they should talk about it as they choose. My experience was just like theirs so I thought I would give everyone the opportunity to read about this great experience if you so desire.
See you in the Galaxy soldier...
First Strike goes to DICE!
First Strike Interview
First Strike is a player created mod of epic proportions for Battlefield 2142. Set across the span of a much loved galaxy, you can fight battles in space, on a dusty desert planet, densely forested moon… sound familiar?
We invited some of the players who created First Strike team to DICE to hear more about how they created their mod. In between playing their mod we found time to ask them some questions about developing a mod...
First Strike Interview
Enjoy!
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
11/4/07 9:27am
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
- Date Edited:
11/4/07 9:38am (2 edits total)
Edited By:
Darth_H
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Here's another update from First Strike Towers, just a little hint at what's coming next. Not long to wait now for a little combined arms action. And before you go there, I have to burst your bubble and say no, the combined arms map isn't Hoth (coming soon, but not next), the main bane of getting a decent Hoth map up and running is getting the AT-AT Walkers just right, and y'know walking and all that. Not only that, but the model itself has been perfected and honed so it's much better than what you currently see loitering around the Landing Platform on Endor. Believe me when you first see these behemoths tromping through the snow on Hoth in game you'll know it was worth the wait.
What we do have in store for you with this next patch should make that wait for Hoth a little easier. Anyhow, enough of my waffling, here's the update.
Coming Soon
Hey Troopers!
We at FS have been working hard at bringing you more content and a new patch with some fixes. Although I cannot comment on an exact date yet, we are nearing completion on this patch. Here are a few things you can expect to see in the next patch.
2 more maps
3 more vehicles
Several visual tweaks to art assets
Gamemode tweaks
Certain exploits that have been reported will be fixed
And much, much more!
Stay tuned and keep giving us feedback. For those of you who may not have given us a second chance by downloading the Full Build with Patch 1.1, please get it here
Torrent (Please use this one if you can)
http://www.doubleskill.de Mirror
Our website is full of information and helpful people, and we have a great manual put together by our Devs and community members, so lets have some fun!
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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Darth_H
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
11/7/07 11:21am
Subject:
RE: First Strike: a Battlefield 2142 star wars total conversion mod
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To help tide you over until the release of First Strike v1.2 here's a little preview of some of the additional content you can expect to be getting to grips with real soon. First off we're going to introduce you to some of the new beauties you'll be able to get behind the wheel of, for the Empire you'll be getting an S-1 Firehawke Tank looking mighty fine all in black, and for the Alliance you'll be getting the hardy Armoured Rebel Freerunner, a speedy but well armed transport.
As I'm sure you can guess from these assets one of the new maps you'll be getting will be a combined arms map pitching infantry against armour and air forces all on one map which I'm sure you'll agree is where the Battlefield engine really shines. In addition to brand new assets we've also been tweaking existing ones including improving textures on the weapons amongst many other things.
And before you go there, I have to burst your bubble and say no, the combined arms map isn't Hoth (coming soon, but not next), the main bane of getting a decent Hoth map up and running is getting the AT-AT Walkers just right, and you know, walking. Not only that, but the model itself has been perfected and honed so it's much better than what you currently see loitering around the Landing Platform on Endor. Believe me when you first see these behemoths tromping through the snow on Hoth in game you'll know it was well worth the wait. As an added bonus here are a few shots of the cockpit of the Rebel Snowspeeder, and the new AT-AT Walker model.
What we do have in store for you with this next patch is really exciting and will knock your socks off, and should make that wait for Hoth just a little easier.
-----signature-----
And then in 1977 upon seeing Star Wars
for the first time at the tender age of four
I was scarred for life.
www.haroldwithers.co.uk
First Strike Lore & Modeller
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