The Battle of El Mazuco

There will be no update today.  It’s important to let things sink in.

Sorry.

Today the focus will be less on media, and more on what the developers are suggesting as features or changes in 2.0. Getting right to it:

Acronyms Such as GXX refer to calling method for discussion. I.E. To discuss new scoring system user can note change G07. Comments found in [brackets,] (Addl. Suggestion information found in parenthesis.)

GENERAL (IN GAME) [GXX]

00 Previous Name->New Suggested Name

Name changes to ensure each has specific letter. Suggestion C06 is reasoning for namechanges. This would allow classes to be designated by only one letter. (Found perhaps as player prefix or visible on the gun kill icons)

Melee->Melee: This class can jump on crouched players.

Light Soldier->Demolitions: Only class that Gets the chainsaw. (Block Destruction)

Medium Soldier-Soldier: Grenade launcher weapon – to replace gravnading.

Heavy Soldier-Heavy Soldier: Weapon features a warmp-up period.

Demolitions-Rocketeer: Jumps over walls with RJ.

Engineer->Engineer: Unfreezes Builds and Repairs blocks – repairs much faster as well. A repairing engineer should be able to beat at least two saws and an ar2 hammering at the block.

Sniper->Boltgunner: Acts as support- giving teammates health/ammo. Boltgun features a laser dot when zoomed in. Rocketeer secondary fire homes in on this dot.

01 DX7 Fading locked to cheat Var. [Completed]

02 Server settable score limit for end game win. [Completed] Set new Default to 200.

03 Blocks no longer affect player movement. (reduced spazzing of blocks, and should also fix some other physics launchers.) [Volt had this working a while ago]

04 No freeze zones have a visual indication. [Perhaps on the grav gun- RED glow on the inside of gun as opposed to the usual greenish glow, either that or displayed on HUD]

05 Texture based ladders are enabled (CS:S style) [Can we get a testmap with this to confirm?]

06 New Crosshairs. [gun specific?- cool trajectory things for grenades as well as nifty stuff for Grav gun, xhairs could indicate rotational axis]

07 Implemented new scoring system. [In progress]

08 Improved griefer handling system. Includes freezestatus plugin & login system.

09 Tags can now be sprayed on blocks.

10 HDR added. [Can we get a testmap with this to confirm?]

11 Corpses have no physics effect on blocks.

12 Blocks affect corpses (dead bodies react to blocks)

13 Slams and beacons no longer block doors.

14 Rotation on gravity gun added.

15 Movement exploits reevaluated.

16 Improved Announcement Sounds.

17 Where current Alpha Hud says “red/blue team” above health/armour it shows class and color. [Either colored text or an colored icon]

18 Bullets spark and hit beacons

19 Block count displayed somewhere on hud, either on the main screen or tab scores.

COMBAT SPECIFIC [CXX]

01 Added flag no-entry entity, Mappers can include this entity to an object in hammer and specify the team, (blue red or both), and the flag will not physically pass through the entity, if a player is holding the flag, it acts as a wall until the player drops the flag. [Or should we just remove any reason to re-enter spawn room?]

02 Engineer Drops blocks only after it is damaged XX% percentage from it’s original health when picked up. [This improves combat round wall repairability, encourages interesting combat strategies and increases offensive ramping ability.]

03 Console suicide counts as XX second penalty & dock against score. [World suicide is just death & dock against score.]

04 Grav nading is less potent and demo man can detonate rockets midair. (Suggestion is to give engineer a different kind of grenade, that causes blurred vision, hearing fucked, and movement messed up for short time, but keep gravnade, this new grenade would also go nicely with melee)

05 Indication of which class player is when he dies/kills someone.

06 Player can only raise personal/team score for a flag touch once per life. [Fixes the flag dropping on Deck/Skywalk maps]

07 Health/Armour stations heal both health and armor simultaneously in old maps, and in new official maps are replaced with generic healing station. [Encourages people to actually USE them]

08 Scaled fall damage on by default, maximum allowable damage is 25 points. [Reduces the incentive to build tall ramps.]

09 Added class changing stations. Call up class chooser menu, select class and then run through a portal. [After a mapper designated time you change to the class you chose. Hud can show class glowing when you have selected an alternate.] Amount of current ammo is averaged and you recieve that average amount of ammo for your new class.

10 Mapper and server option to disable friendly team flag return.

11 Multiple Engineers Unfreezing a single block speeds up the unfreeze rate.

12 Shotgun Reload Exploit fixed.

BUILD SPECIFIC [BXX]

01 Console Suicide and World suicide have no effect on score.

02 Blocks no longer leave gravity gun during build round,

03 Build round run speed is melee speed & ability.

04 Build Specific HUD

05 Counter for blocks spawned/remaining. on hud during build phase [Audible/Visual ndicators to note when blocklimit is reached.]

ADDITIONS MEDIA [AXX]

01 Updated map list.

02 Training map included and prompt added before join server is first clicked. Portals lead to Introduction, Basic and Advanced Training. Certain tutorials have timers to encourage competetion between members- times are tied to SF accounts.
“You haven’t completed your training yet, would you like to complete it now?” (Yes)(No)(Check box: Don’t ask me again)]

03 New SourceForts Tags included [Did a few- I'll do more as ideas come to me.]

04 V2 HUD Added

05 ADDED NEW CLASSES and weapons and abilities.

06 Allow mappers to place more than one flag/capture point per team

MISCELLANEOUS (MENUS, LOADERS ETC.) [MXX]

01 Added quality slider for block quality settings.

02 Adurostudios video introduction followed by SourceForts v2 introduction.

03 Public Reveal of Aduro Studios.

04 REVAMPED Launch screen [graphic based buttons, 3d, multiple backgrounds/song tracks to randomly pick]

05 New EULA With installer.

06 Added spectator mode and source TV

07 Hit sounds option (default off)

08 New EULA (End User Liscense Agreement) [Seen below]

EULA
This is a legal agreement between you and the SourceForts Development team (herein referred to as ‘Aduro’) (hereinafter “LICENSOR”) covering the downloading and/or installation of the SourceForts modification, and Components (written code and/or constructed graphic elements; herein referred to as ‘the modification’) (hereinafter “PROGRAM(S)”). By downloading and/or installing, copying, or otherwise using the PROGRAM(S) on any computer or device, you agree to be bound by the terms of this End User License Agreement (EULA). Be sure to read the following agreement before using the PROGRAM(S).

Copyright © 2007 Aduro Studios (www.adurostudios.com)

Copyright © 2001-2007 SourceForts mod (www.sourcefortsmod.com)

Your download and use of the PROGRAM(S) indicates your acceptance of the terms of this License Agreement. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, DO NOT INSTALL OR USE THE PROGRAM(S) AND DESTROY ALL COPIES OF IT.

TERMINATION. If you breach this Agreement your right to use the Product will terminate immediately and without notice, but all provisions of this Agreement except the LISCENSE GRANT will survive termination and continue in effect. Upon termination, you must destroy all copies of the Product.

The LICENSOR grants you the following license:

LISCENSE GRANT: Aduro Studios grants you a non-exclusive license to use the executable code version of the Product. This Agreement will also govern any software upgrades provided by Aduro Studios that replace and/or supplement the original Product, unless such upgrades are accompanied by a separate license, in which case the terms of that license will govern. You are FREE to redistribute the ENTIRE SOURCEFORTS package in any way, however any distributions must be in either the original archive (installer package) form or archive (.rar, .zip) format.

THIS STRICTLY PROHIBITS THE RELEASE OF INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS OF THE MODIFICATION WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION FROM THE DEVELOPERS, INCLUDING AND NOT LIMITED TO MODELS, GRAPHICS AND MAPS.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT: The PROGRAM(S) provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. Technical support is not supplied for any product, nor is Aduro inclined to expressively respond to any queries into technical support. For further assistance, visit the forums (www.sourcefortsmod.com/boards) where members of the community may assist you.

NEW CONTENT: All new content is expressively the property of Aduro Studios. This includes, though is not limited to, sounds, code, models, skins and textures. All other content is used under license from Valve Software (www.steampowered.com)

RESTRICTIONS: No individual component of the modification may be resold, distributed, or added to any type of collection. They may not be offered for download or use from any website nor placed online for promotional purposes. Downloading the modification does not constitute ownership and does not give you the right to the content outside of the intended purpose.

DISTRIBUTION: You may not modify, translate, reverse engineer, de-compile, disassemble or create derivative works based on the PROGRAM(S). You may not copy the PROGRAM(S) other than as specified above. You may not rent, lease, grant a security interest in, or otherwise transfer rights to the PROGRAM(S). You may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the PROGRAM(S). You must maintain all copyright notices in the meta tags on all copies of the PROGRAM(S) if they exist.

TERMINATION: The license will terminate automatically if you fail to comply with the limitations described herein. On termination, you must destroy all copies of the PROGRAM(S) and Documentation. Aduro Studios has, at their sole discretion, the right to restrict access to the PROGRAM to any individual or group on any basis.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY, TORT, CONTRACT, OR OTHERWISE, SHALL LICENSOR OR ITS SUPPLIER(S) OR RESELLERS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, OR ANY AND ALL OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES AND REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY (CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE) UPON WHICH SUCH CLAIM IS BASED. IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, EVEN IF LICENSOR SHALL HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY

DURING THE USE OF SOURCEFORTS, AND AT LATER TIMES, YOU MAY BE GIVEN THE OPTION OF INSTALLING ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS FROM THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE PROVIDERS. THE INSTALLATION AND USE OF THOSE THIRD-PARTY COMPONENTS MAY BE GOVERNED BY ADDITIONAL LICENSE AGREEMENTS.

MISCELLANEOUS. (a) This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between Aduro Studios and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and it may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Aduro Studios. (b) Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement will be governed by the laws of the state of California, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions. (c) This Agreement will not be governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. (d) If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. (e) A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. (f) Except as required by law, the controlling language of this Agreement is English.

That EULA seems like a big waste.

Here’s a quick run down of some of the bigger changes talked about:

01 Engineer: Unfreezes Builds and Repairs blocks – repairs much faster as well. A repairing engineer should be able to beat at least two saws and an ar2 hammering at the block.

02 Boltgunner: Acts as support – giving teammates health/ammo. Boltgun features a laser dot when zoomed in. Rocketeer secondary fire homes in on this dot.

03 Server settable score limit for end game win. [Completed] Set new Default to 200.

04 New Crosshairs. [gun specific?- cool trajectory things for grenades as well as nifty stuff for Grav gun, xhairs could indicate rotational axis]

05 Rotation on gravity gun added.

06 Movement exploits reevaluated.

07 Added flag no-entry entity, Mappers can include this entity to an object in hammer and specify the team, (blue red or both), and the flag will not physically pass through the entity, if a player is holding the flag, it acts as a wall until the player drops the flag. [Or should we just remove any reason to re-enter spawn room?]

08 Grav nading is less potent and demo man can detonate rockets midair. (Suggestion is to give engineer a different kind of grenade, that causes blurred vision, messed hearing, and movement messed up for short time, but keep gravnade, this new grenade would also go nicely with melee)

09 Mapper and server option to disable friendly team flag return.

10 Adurostudios video introduction followed by SourceForts v2 introduction.

11 Public Reveal of Aduro Studios.

12 Added class changing stations. Call up class chooser menu, select class and then run through a portal. [After a mapper designated time you change to the class you chose. Hud can show class glowing when you have selected an alternate.] Amount of current ammo is averaged and you recieve that average amount of ammo for your new class.

That’s a pretty big list, and how much of it is actually done? Not that much. On top of the models not being finished, it seems like that will put a 2.0 release pretty far off.

In closing, some of you have sent e-mails or comments (No, not all comments, positive or negative, will be posted. So sorry.) asking for weapons and maps. Today you’ll be given both the updated sf_skywalk, and the new sf_crete. It is of course known that the new skywalk may not make it into 2.0, because the original creator, Stinger, asked that it not be remade, though they did it anyway.

The switch and border effects in sf_crete will be missing, since you do not have the models.

Skywalk and Crete

11,525 views.

Apologies for not posting video as promised, you’ll get it in this update. Pinky swear.

The last few updates have been admittedly lackluster, but it’s not wise to lay your best cards out all at once, right?

Despite Khuskan’s attempts at providing playable maps, his work has been consistently mediocre. It’s questionable why he was allowed to redesign the most popular and arguably best map in the game. The developers have been quick to assure that the game play is staying the same, but this is not true in many cases. Here, Skywalk will be the focus.

Skywalk video

So the nofreeze is so tiny that the flag defence can remain entirely out of view, and thus not attackable. Of course, the map isn’t done, so on and so on, but it must have been done on purpose, as the nofreeze that is coupled with the flag by default is smaller.

But at least they’re being consistent, keeping with the theme of “everything is scratched”. The new industrialized skywalk is really an eyesore. Maybe you’ll get to play it soon.

Enjoy this excerpt from the developers’ private forums where they talk about how much they love you.

(click to enlarge)

See you tomorrow.

2,239 views. It’s flattering, really.

In this update, the blog will furnish you all with some more details concerning the Source Forts 2.0 development process as well as some “eye candy”. Apologies for the delay.
But first, Khuskan:
Its is deeply startling that posts such as these require all, or even much of your energy.

About 2.0
The Blocks

(Right click and View Image for a closer look)
Weird.
The Textures

This illustrates some very bad texture work in the map sf_crete. The texture has been applied with little thought about looks, and even less thought about the texture corresponding with the theme of the other textures used on the map. Let’s not even go into how poorly it plays.

There are another fifty or more individual errors in texturing alone on this map. One could say that these texture errors will be fixed before release, but they really should have been fixed while the map was being built, but it is known that the map is fairly old. Going back and fixing fifty textures because you couldn’t be bothered to do them correctly the first time is laziness. There are parts where textures don’t make any sense, or follow a theme. For example, the team names are painted in graffiti on the wall of the flag area; it looks completely out of place, especially as there isn’t any graffiti anywhere else in the map.
If you have anything at all that you’d like to share that you don’t want to post here, send an email to theInternationalBrigades@gmail.com

And how are you doing? What is the weather like where you live, and what do you think are ideal conditions?
As always, more to come. Soon.

Quite a response. 937 views.

It seems we have three groups here. The first are those that are thrilled to see something from 2.0, but less thrilled with what they’re actually seeing. This attitude is not new or uncommon.

The second group is made up of those community members who feel that the existence of this blog has somehow done them a disservice, which is strange. They’ll follow those above them to the ends of the Earth. Oh well, the more you know…

The last group is the developers. Their attempts to save face through their vigorous PR campaigns on the forums are a little less than honest. Their hostility towards this blog is no surprise, as it’s something they cannot control, censor, or spin in their favor.

First, they called the build old and outdated. KG later admitted that it’s only a few weeks old, saying that what they have now is hardly changed at all. FictiousWill made sure to point out that the game is not feature complete, it plays badly, the models are unfinished, etc. Basically, nothing is done, looking good, or playable. The models may not have had the finishing touches added to them, but they’re pretty much done unless they’re going to be redesigned entirely. Cross your fingers, this stuff looks much worse in motion.

One can only imagine what they’ve been developing for over a year if this is all they have.

Your comments will be read, and while it’d be nice to reply to everything that will be said over the next coming weeks, this blog will not degrade into an outlet for the developers and their all too eager fanboys.

This will not be a rehash of what has already been shown off. New maps, models, art, game play, etc. Also, private and very interesting developer conversations that have been handed over.

There will be video in the next update. But this exchange should not be one sided, what do you want to see posted in coming updates? Feel free to post anonymously.

Welcome, fellow Source Forters, to the Battle of El Mazuco.

Over the past few months, careful eyes have been kept on the Source Forts development team. Their progress and plans for SF 2.0 is no longer a secret. Through the carelessness of a few Source Forts developers, a build of 2.0 has fallen out of their hands.

And so that brings us to this blog. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing our findings. Everything the developers were keeping from you can be found right here.

Stay tuned.