JUNE |
The new FLUX TC needs modellers to do some pretty cool creatures.
WANTED: a toilet model - it needs to be made of several peices so it can break and a little water spout should pop up. (or the toilet, broken peices, and spout can all be separate models) Yes, I AM SERIOUS.
TUTORIAL: I am making a humanoid animation tutorial for Rene Post (author of qME) so if you e-mail me about needing a humanoid or similar animated model, be prepared to become a test subject :)
New shots of The Hydrokinematics Lab
Now is a good time to make suggestions before I finish the Quake C for CyberDawn.
We made a lot of neat skins for the early versions of CyberDawn, including some unreleased player skins. Let me know if you want to use them, maybe we can make a deal.
Here's a little "netscape now"
size gif for links to our page.
Humanoid model now has 130 frames of animation. This is probably all I'll do with it for the Free Models Project until CyberDawn is done.
And yes we do plan to make Squawk conversions for Hexen 2 and any other game that we can afford the time and money to convert.
As a company we're not just another group making TCs. We are making completely new games that take advantage of the software people already use so you don't have to pay an extra $10-50 for yet another 3D game engine. Maybe we need a better term than TC, after all you don't call a Java applet running in Netscape a web TC. or a Windows app a Windows TC or anything like that. Here are my personal definitions:
Patch - a broad term that often refers to plug-in and add-on items like weapons and monsters that can often be used with other patches. Usually free.
PC (partial conversion) - a collection of new or old patches with a theme. Usually free.
TC (total conversion) - replaces most of the game with something different. Usually free unless it has new levels like Shrak.
Mission Pack - basically PCs or collections of patches with new levels. Often not free.
______-Engine Game - a completely new game that can't be free because the designers needed to license the game engine and meddle with the C code and a bunch of other expensive stuff.
¿Mysterious Add-On Game Type? A TC (on steroids) with several completely new episodes. Hopefully inexpensive shareware (heroin-ware actually because you get addicted and then we make you pay:) and possibly ported to several different games.
toughen up enemies with armor: Set armortype to 1 so the armor absorbs all of the damage. Set armorvalue to the amount of extra damage you want the monster to absorb.
Give enemies Quad damage: Set super_damage_finished to the number of seconds the effect should last (36000 is 10 hours)
Place gibs and corpses around the level: Make a func_illusionary. Set it's "model" attribute to "progs/gib1.mdl" or some other model. It must be a model used by the player or something else in the level. Set the model's "frame" to one of the models dead frames. Make it solid with a clip textured brush.
MaNSoN from the Quake Serial Killers TC made a female version of the
humanoid. I touched it up a bit (originally it had the quake player
gun)
I made this ray. I'm working on it to replace the promising but
poorly done "serpent" model in the old quake deathmatch test.
Kyle Lemke and I are working on a free quake add-on that replaces many
of the current quake monsters with quaketest monsters. The modified
Quake monsters can't be used commercially without id's permission and royalties,
but this ray is original and part of the free models project.
Also Kyle's Quake Borgs TC uses some models from the FMP with cool new skins.
I also added jumping to the humanoid model. I plan to add crouching and sword fighting (2 handed butterfly pattern) then I probably won't touch it for a while (I'll be adding cyberdawn parts that are not part of the FMP)
We do have some people working on Quake levels for the Squawk TC and they need map textures.
Still changing stuff. The new encumbrance rule is -1 to action rolls for every 1/10 of your mass you carry. This should make extra encumbrance unnecessary for armor. Also added shoving rules and other, bigger changes too numerous to memorize.
Despite the frequent changes, I'd love to have more people playtesting the Squawk RPG rules.
I recieved several new scenes for the orca and snake models by Orca3D
Squawk:
The game mechanics are simpler now -
skills and strength are now in one category called (cleverly enough) "abilities" and we have a handy ability scale (poor, mediocre, good, very good, excellent, etc.)
3 types of hit points and 3 types of damage have been replaced with "ready", "used", "borrowed", "stunned" and "damaged" hit points. (If that seems like a lot it's because these hit points account for health, stamina and speed, and they allow you to do a lot of things not covered by other games)
(the other modellers out there also have their strong points. QMET makes the prettiest pictures and even animated GIFs, while DOS MedDLe still comes in handy once in a while - the flat shaded generator below for example)
A snake (finally!) by Orca3D
Added a new generator model by Jade Fire. with electricity and rotating turbine animation that should look great when we finish the skin.
We're right in the middle of updating the manual RPG rules. We're seperating racial and occupational backgrounds, merging skills with the other bonuses and simplifying the game in several other ways.
Here's a new illustration of 5 anthrosaur races (elf, kobold, draconian,
gremlin, and manticore)
Squawk is not like any other game. All Squawk races fall within
the group of animals known as archosaurs, which includes birds, crocodiles
and dinosaurs. Anthropomorphic archosaurs (or anthrosaurs for short)
are the "people" of the Squawk game. As fictional creatures they
have names from mythology but no scientific names. We also use mythological
names as common names for other archosaurs such as crocodiles (dragons),
pterodactyls (wyverns), and carnotaurus (minotaur).
Orca3D added a mouth to the bird model, a mouth full of teeth to the orca model and a ballista and a catapult model, all animated.
Orca3D was also nice enough to write up his own text files modelled after the other text files in the FMP. This really saves me a lot of time.
The Developer's Kits are finally available. They are intended only for developing levels for CyberDawn. This does mean it can't be used for "player levels" without our permission. (Remember, CyberDawn is still under construction) To see a great looking CyberDawn being made see The Hydrokinematics Lab
CYBERDAWN DEVELOPER'S KIT: Is 50% completed, so now is the time to e-mail me if you have any suggestions, I currently plan to distribute it in .qme format and as a map, sprite, and text file for QuArK haters:)
The sentry's Quake C was in Word 6.0 format. I fixed this and added an extra large version of the sentry (monster_supersentry)
If you have been making levels or helping with other stuff for CyberDawn or Squawk, e-mail me and send your name, what your working on, and if you are making a level, how complete it is.
Also, if you are making CyberDawn levels, it would help if you could report the status of your map(s) weekly (weekends are the best time)
Check out the QuakeLab, an excellent source of Quake map editing tricks.
GAME DESIGNERS: Looking for something specific that isn't on this page? E-mail me and tell me about it.
BUBBAH is making some free weapon models that replace the regular Quake models. So far he's made a set of 'gothic' weapon models, not skinned but very cool looking with claws and stuff. see BUBBAH's Monster Page
I made an explosion model. It needs a skin. It's animation is similar to the Quake sprite explosion, except for a base frame that the skin is made from.
I've been working on the Free Models Project for the last couple of days. We should be able to use a lot of models from this project in Squawk and CyberDawn.
MAY NEWS |