| ★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://sofoperations.com/ | Nouvelle recherche | Portail wanayoo |
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Thursday, May 18 |
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Overlord new pic - Updated by Magic Interface Overlord released a new pic. This time it's the first in a range of player-controlable items. This one's a turret. No textures yet, but it looks promising already :) |
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Wednesday, May 17 |
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Raven Stiff's Mod Community - or do they? - Updated by IcePick This is not a news post, it is a rant. It is not the rant of a game developer or leading industry light, it is my rant. Am I abusing my position here at Sofoperations by using it as a platform for this rant? Possibly, but right now I don't care. Recently I have spoken to many members of Raven Software through one means or another, both in my position here and in helping them build documentation (or rather getting help to build documentation) and I have had many many questions answered but the one relevant to this topic, one I have seen others debate unfairly, is "Are Raven stiffing the mod community?" I'm here to tell those who believe they are that you are very very wrong. I'm gonna break this down into easy to follow points (that I have seen expressed elsewhere). Raven have made things intentionally difficult for mod makers - This statement is almost so ridiculous it beggars belief... almost. To put things simply Raven aren't making it deliberately hard, or deliberately easy. They are a software development company making computer games. They are not making 3d engines that are easy to modify so other people can pick it up and make a game easily, if that's what you want there are open source engines like genesis 3d out there that you can go and pick up. If on the other hand you want a great game which you can make new skins for, make new maps for, make new dialogue for, make an entirely new game out of! (because you *can* model for soldier of fortune, more on that later) then by a Raven Soft game. Raven Software steal ideas and run - Presumably this is referring to their using the Quake 2 engine as a platform for development. OK, a few points. Raven have a long standing relationship with Id, they have worked together before and Id trust Raven to take their engine, enhance it, and turn out a cracking game. That is what they have done. Id don't let their ideas be "stolen" they sell them for a very hefty price tag and you guys get to mod it for free. Think who's got the stained end of the stick there for a moment. Raven spend a bunch on the engine, they spend a bunch on development time, they spend a bunch on building a game and a multiplayer system, they spend a bunch on marketing. And then they get a little back, and lose a lot to people, probably many of the people reading this, copying the game and getting it gratis who then have the audacity to complain that they can't edit it easily. Who exactly did they steal ghoul from? Ghoul is a brand new system, and a damned good one. Funny how when the game came out everyone loved it, and now everyone hates it because they can't... what? steal the idea and run with it? Grow up. If you want new models build them from scratch if you don't want to modify their work. (again, more on this later). Ghoul "stole" ideas from Spectre, an in house engine, it was entirely their own development which proves they put the hours in, the long hard hours that again you warezers (I'm not saying all of you are, but it's a fair bet some of you are) give them no recompence for. Raven stiffed us by using SoftImage not 3dMax - Oh shut up! What percentage of people who use Max to make models for other games do you think paid for it? Raven paid for Max *and* SoftImage and they got what they paid for, the tools to make kick-ass models. Is it possible to make all new player models with Max for SoF? Yes! Have mods taken this extensive task on before? Yes! If you have paid for Max you likely have the talent to do so too, so don't... oh I don't know... steel their ideas and run with them, make your own player models if you don't like Raven's. If you do, use them. But for heaven's sake don't gripe that a software house buys decent software to turn out a decent end result, that's their job. To sum up, this game was made to be played, not made to be modded that's an added bonus that you get for free, along with source, tools, and everything else you need to do the job. That's a *bonus* people, that's not what they were building. If you take a look around at the number of games that don't come out with mod making abilities, and I'd like you to include console games in that and games that came out before mod making was as common as it is you'll see it's still a new idea, still a minority deal, and still a growing "industry". There are alternatives out there for people who chose this isn't the way for them, there are other games out there that are simpler to mod, even if the end results may not be as good, there are free engines like Genesis 3d, the Quake engine has been open sourced. But what it comes down to is that supporting mod makers isn't in the raven guys' job description. Give them a break and be thankful for what you've got, a great game from a great team that are truly busting a nut to help you out in what are not the easiest of circumstances despite getting attacked from all sides. And if you're still reading, thank's for listening. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. Nam mod quits - Updated by Magic Interface The Nam mod stops all activities... Not because of the lack of support from Raven, as some people might suggest, but because of too-busy reasons. A shame, 'cause it really seemed like a good concept! Jake's Rant! - Updated by The Gimp Raven's Jake Simpson has made a huge post to his .plan with an E3 rant, but also had something to say on the subject of SoF mods, take a look: Mod community. There are a few threads on the SOF forums that I've been following. And since I'm my mothers son, I'm going to comment on them. The basic thrust of these comments is that we, Raven, as a company, have gone out of our way to make life difficult for modders. This is mainly based on the Ghoul Modelling system we implemented. Ghoul uses a hybrid of MAX stuff and SoftImage. Now SoftImage is an expensive program, and we are now hearing complaints that it doesn't all work in MAX. Guys - At Raven we try and produce cutting edge games. We (try and) take what others have done and take it to the next level. Be that animation, storytelling, graphics, whatever. Sometimes the reasons that others stop at the level they do is that the next leve requires much in the way of rebuilding animation systems and so on. When we go that extra step it often requires a ton of new code and approaches. Ghoul is this way. We Needed SoftImage to do our animation in, since that's what it is built for, and our animators (9 times out of 10) can produce better results that way. If it produces better results, then that is what we do. If we need special skeletons to make all the bolt-ons work, then we do it. Our primary focus is not "will the modding community be able to do this easily?". It's "Is this the coolest game we can create?". I know that sounds like we don't care, and that's not true, we really do. However, if it comes down to "well, we can't use Softimage cos the modders won't be able to do it" or "We can add bolt ons to the models" then it's going to be SoftImage all the way. Rememeber, we aren't just building an multiplayer game here, with 40 animations. We are constructing massive epic single player experiences, and they require a TON of special casing, which the animation system requires code and suport for. I can personally vouch for the fact that we are doing our damndest to support the mod community, (I personally spent a week rebuilding the download functions so they would work properly with downloading Ghoul Models, and making the available in the game), and any assertion that we are intentionally making life difficult for modders while we steal idea's is at the best laughable. SoF Q&A - Updated by The Gimp Soldier-of-Fortune.com have had a quick chat with Raven's Gil Gribb, the brains behind Raven's Ghoul Engine, which is pretty much the main topic of coversation. He gives a quick mention that he's currently working on GHOUL2 for the PSX2, though no word if it's being aimed at a particular game. SoF Strategy Guide Info - Updated by The Gimp Kenn Hoekstra has updated his .plan with some Elite Force goodies, but also had this to say at the bottom: Oh, and if you're interested in what was involved in writing the Soldier of Fortune Strategy Guide, you may enjoy this article. |
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Tuesday, May 16 |
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Modcentral interview - Updated by Magic Interface Modcentral had an interview with Eric Biessman from Raven. Btw, don't forget to download the files mentioned in the previous post!! :) The Mail I Never Thought Would Come - Updated by IcePick Yup, Gil "Readus" Gribb just sent the mail I never thought he would : Here is the entire set of maxfiles used for SOF. They are a total of 2.7GB, yes GB unzipped. We broke it up into 4 zips, since the meso in particular is v.huge and some people might not need him. Raven Chat Session - Updated by The Gimp The PlanetSoF guys are holding a IRC chat session with a few of the Raven guys. The chat will take place this Thursday (May 18) at 5:00 PM Pacific time, in the #sof channel on chat.planetquake.com. Here's a list of the Raven platoon:
Dan Kramer, Assistant Lead Programmer Scott McNutt, Level Designer John Scott, Programmer Jarrod Showers, Animator Eric Turman, Lead Animator Keith Fuller, code lackey and personal morgue photographer for El Krem |
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Monday, May 15 |
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New Fortress Pics - Updated by Magic Interface New Fortress pics released. Another screenie from the "Lost Island" map, but also 4 shots from the promised Train level. You can go take a look at Modcentral's Fortress picspage. So he's not - Updated by Magic Interface I just received a mail from Slay, to say that he will not be leaving the Sof Fortress team. Hey, i don't understand either, but anyways, good for him! :) Now get back to work!! :))) |
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Sunday, May 14 |
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Sof Fortress lost teammember - Updated by Magic Interface Looks like Sof Fortress lost a teammember. The following can be found on the Sof Fortress homepage. On Friday 12, 2000. I Slay, did a very bad thing on Gamesnet.com IRC channels. In channel #gamespy, I rudely and ridicously treated the ops with disrepect. My actions were irrational and stupid, I did not follow the rules of the channel. Theres more to the story than my plea for forgiveness, but they are now not the concerns of the SOF-Fortress team. I hereby resign from any actions with the SOF-Fortress team. Alot of things still need to be resolved, and I'm not sure they can or ever will. Well this is goodbye from me, it was great working with a good couple of members on the team. CYA!! |
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Friday, May 12 |
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Here's why... - Updated by Magic Interface Most of us have been wondering why that source code isn't out yet! Well, today -after a quite rude post- on Raven's messageboard Gil Grib answered: About this time we recognized a serious problem. Releasing the game source code would allow a "mod" to be made that removes the violence lock on the server end. I know what you are thinking "who cares". Parents have trusted that the parental lock/tactical version is actually low violence, and we WON'T betray their trust. 1.05 will have a solution to this that allows us to release the game source without comprimising the violence lock.So that's why... :) New pics - Updated by Magic Interface Sof Fortress and Operation Overlord released some new pics of their maps. They can be found at Modcentral. Sof Fortress pics; Operation Overlord pics. |
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