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Just to show you guys that we aren't exactly idle.

Check out pF's kick ass texture set!

There's a lot we'd like to do with FF. I'm going to give you guys some examples of excellent ideas that have been posted in the beta and dev forums.



HUD Customizations
What if you never look at the map time? Perhaps you don't even both with looking at your armor count - you just care about your health. Maybe you want your armor and health to be on the right side above your ammo count. Maybe you want it to be [I]below[/I] your ammo count.

We'd love to have a customizable HUD to a degree that hasn't really been seen in any game yet. You could drag around the individual elements of the HUD and place them where you'd feel comfortable. This would also, of course, support custom HUDs that the user can put in so they can really pimp out their own personal copy of Fortress Forever. Speaking of customizations...



HUD Refinements / Additions
That bar over the disguise area when the Spy disguises is one of many things we would like to do to improve the HUD. The short list:

• Cloak Cooldown Timer - You know that whole "You cannot cloak so soon!" message? A simple little bar or something that shows the cloak recharge time.
  
• Spy Disguised Weapon - A little-known feature that we'd like to make more obvious. If you have the nailgun out and you're disguised as a Soldier, it will show the Soldier's RPG. If you have the knife out, it shows the crowbar, and so on. You should be able to see what weapon your disguise is showing on the HUD.
  
• Detpack Countdown Timer - Shows the time until your planted detpack goes off.
  
• Sabotage Countdown Timer - Shows the time until your sabotage(s) run out. If you have multiple sabotages, it shows multiple timers - up to a limit. Basically, it would show the same icons as the Engy's SG and dispenser, perhaps like this:
  
  • ICON - Sabotaged Buildable Location - Time Left
  
  
• Jump Pad Timer - How much time you have left before your jump pad goes kaplooie.
  
• Navigational Refinements - A lot of newbies get lost. We've been discussing some kind of entity-based waypoint system where its easier for newbies to navigate a map - basically the objective icon on crack.
  
• Team-Colored HUD Improvements - The Team-Colored HUD works decently at best - the text can be difficult to read with some colors and its a bit buggy. We'd like to make it look more professional and less buggy overall.

Customization Management
Replacing standard files is so 1998.

Right now, if you wanted to use a custom model you would have to replace the existing ones. Rather than do this, we'd like to set up a menu where you could select from a variety of models.

Instead of all of the models being put in one folder, there would be a variety of folders divided by purpose and class. For example, a few of the main folders would be Weapons, Grenades, and Classes. The Weapons folder would have subfolders for every weapon - Crowbar, Single Shotgun, etc.

Moreover, if you change a weapon it also replaces it globally in the current version of Fortress Forever. This means if you have a custom crowbar, every class that has a crowbar would have that custom model. Aside from being able to just pick from different models, you would be able to set each model by class - so your Scout could have a giant fish crowbar and your Soldier could have a lightsaber crowbar.



Background Image
Pretty much the same thing as above. Right now, to replace it you would have to replace a certain file in your FF directory. I don't see why you shouldn't have a drop-down menu where you can pick from whichever one you'd like to use.

Converting images to textures is also a bit of a hassle for the average user, so if it could use .jpgs that'd be sweet as well, wouldn't it?



Multi-language support
The Source engine actually supports multiple languages. We have a project in our forums to get some translation work going, and implementing it would be relatively trivial.

But while we can swap out text messages (like "You have the flag!"), swapping out other stuff in-game would be a bit more problematic. For instance, the signs in the game are textures (like the ones that say "Flag Room") wouldn't be affected by the language change.

One idea is to make different versions of the textures - one for every language we support. When you choose Spanish, it switches out Flag Room sign texture with one that says "Flag Room" in Spanish.



Melee Hit Detection
Melee Weapons in Source are spotty at best - they're basically a one pixel dot that you have to hit the target with.

The first improvement we'd like to make is to just have the crowbar, medkit, etc. work better. One idea that has gained favor is that a melee swing is actually an explosion (or series of small explosions) in regards to the code - if an enemy is hit with the explosion, it does damage to them. This would make it easier to hit with melee (and we may reduce damage as a result).

From there, we'd like to work on giving each class their own melee weapon (something many people have assumed that we'd like to do, it's obvious) and have them be unique in their own way. Right now, these are our melee weapons:

• Crowbar - The Scout, Sniper, Soldier, Demoman, HWGuy, and Pyro currently have this weapon. Your standard melee "do damage" weapon.
  
• Medkit - The Medic's melee weapon. It heals allies up to maximum health in one shot and can overheal allies. It also infects enemies with a poison that kills them slowly and can only be cured by other Medics.
  
• Knife - Does twice the melee damage of the crowbar. A backstab is an instant kill on any class, regardless of their health or armor.
  
• Spanner (Wrench) - Reloads/repairs Sentry Guns and Dispensers and it can restore teammate's armor (at the cost of cells). Otherwise, it does the same melee damage as the Crowbar.
  
• Umbrella - The Civilian's melee weapon. I think it does the same damage as the Crowbar, but I'm not quite sure. For all intents and purposes it's a crowbar clone.

So there's our melee weapons. We have 6 classes sharing the same melee weapon and we'd like to change that in the future. For instance, one suggestion was that a class had a melee weapon that gave a conc effect when you hit someone. Another suggestion was a weapon that could reflect projectiles/grenades - if someone shot a rocket at you and you timed it right, you could bounce it back at them. Most of them would just be "Damage dealers", but we can deal damage in different ways. The crowbar could be the standard quick taps like it is now. Perhaps the HW Guy could have a huge, slow, melee weapon that does damage in a wide, sweeping arc. Stuff like that!



Orange Box Stuff
We made a lot of modifications to the Source Engine. Our current build of the Orange Box broke a lot of the stuff that our coders have written over the years and we're going to probably have to rebuild a few things. That's a problem, but the bigger obstacle is the all the cool stuff we'd like to do with Orange Box - global stats (finally!), achievements (a possibility), integrating community stuff (your Steam icon & info), and tons of other stuff that trepid_jon is so excited about that he's having seizures in his computer chair.



Conclusion... FF needs YOUR help!
Why am I telling you guys all this stuff?

One (small) reason is that I wanted to give you guys insight on the kinds of ideas and plans we have floating around in the dev forums. Some of this stuff is solid, some of it is experimental, and some of it we haven't decided on yet. We'd love to get to work on it.

Sadly, we only have a couple of coders at our disposal. A lot of the stuff holding up more frequent patches is coding work. FF needs more coders.

If you or someone you know is skilled with coding in Source SDK and you can provide a few examples of your work, we'd probably bring you on board to help out! Any interested parties can send an e-mail to ihmhi [AT} fortress-forever {DOT] com.

I thought it was high time that I wrote out one o' these dev jernal thingies.

Being the P.R. guy can really suck sometimes. My job is poorly defined, but the basics of it are to work with community involvement, try to keep the front page fresh, and try to work out deals to get the game into the headlines. Basically, I have to keep FF in the spotlight and keep the community involved and interested in playing.

This means my job as a dev is probably one of the most ambiguous and difficult to gauge success on. Why are more people playing - is it because of a video we released, word of mouth, or just a fluke? And if it was something we DID do, how can we repeat it for future success?

The most aggravating thing of all is all the stuff I've seen. Every dev and tester has seen what amounts to probably half a dozen or so maps in the works and on their way ready to release for some future patch, but it would sort of ruin the surprise to tell you all about it. But what the hey, I can bring out some info on what *is* in the works without revealing too much.

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Team Hunted:
Each side has a civvy and is trying to take out the opposing civvy while protecting their own. It's sorta like CTF, but the flag can run around and beat you with an umbrella.

Point... holding?
Point capture? Holding? Er, uh, basically there's a cap point that you just have to physically touch. There are 2-3 variants of this in various stages of completition with maps scaled for 8 players all the way up to maps scaled where you could play comfortably with a full server. This gameplay style (and the variants) is Green Mushy's love child and it will probably serve to be a fun but basic style of gameplay.

Reverse Flagrun-ish?
Yeah, this is hard to do without giving away map names, and I sure as Hell can't describe the gameplay accurately in a few words. A variant of the above, everyone on one team tries to capture one of four points located at one area. While the points are still contested, a timer is counting down. The timer runs out, and the cap points are reset to uncaptured. Conversely, if all four points are captured, well - the offense scores some.

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Please remember that I can't honestly say when any of the playstyles above will come out - they will out when they will out. They might also change a little or a lot from how I've described them here - everything is subject to balance testing and tweaking.

There are other ideas being worked out by mappers all the time in various stages of completion. The ones I've mentioned here are the ones that are being worked on the most and have the most promise for being fun.

A lot of our newer maps make use of round timers, either in halves or the more popular quarters. So an OvD map might have the Blue team playing Offense for 10 minutes and then Defense for 10 minutes - or it might be Offense for 5, Defense for 5, Offense for 5, Defense for 5. This style of switching up O and D has survived months of playtesting and has proved to be a great balancing factor in the game. Having a strong offense won't count for much if you don't have a good defense as well when the Defense half or quarter comes up.

Another shift that has been happening behind the scenes is trying to move away from the standard CTF play of the olden QTF and TFC days. We are by no means abandoning CTF wholesale, nor are we going to be changing existing maps irreversibly - rather, we're trying to have a shift towards OvD. Maps can still be CTF and OvD at the same time - for example, sections of a base could be closed off, and the defender's base would be completely open. Using the round system explained above, each team could dedicate themselves wholly to offense or defense. We've learned a lot from the pickup community, and we believe that this sort of gameplay style will be succesful even on small servers.

But hey, let's say you like standard CTF and don't want to play the OvD sort. Good news - another thing we've been developing is the ability to have multiple Luas for one map. This way, people could say, play Team Deathmatch on 2fort without any concern about flags, or play OvD CTF on Dropdown if there's only a few people on the server. It'd be really cool if this switch could be made while the game is live, but that's something that would probably be implemented far, far down the road - if we could figure out how to do it at all.

I've tried to give you guys some clues as to how things are going, but please remember that we are constantly shortstaffed. We could always use more programmers, mappers, texture artists - if you think you can make a worthwhile contribution to the game, then speak up! If we can use you, we sure as Hell will be glad to put your ass to work.

I hope you've all appreciate this edition of "Ihmhi tries to tell you guys about what the Hell we're working on without revealing too much". Stay tuned for next time, which is whenever the Hell I can think up something interesting to write.

In the meantime, keep your eyes open. 2.2 is nearing completion (how soon until it's done, I can't say). We have some interesting things in the pipeline for both the game and the P.R. front, and we're all very excited to reveal the surprises we have in store.

Allow me to shed some light on how dev maps are being developed behind the scenes, especially the ones with new gameplay types. One of these maps, ff_impact, is in the final phase so I will use it as an example. To give this process a name we’ll simply call it the PDT approach. Not all dev maps are developed exactly like this, but especially for new gametype maps we’re trying to follow this process as it seems to work well and gives us a guidline to track progress etc.

Prototype phase

At the start, there is typically a request for a certain type of gameplay from one of the devs or the mapper himself. The idea is discussed and tweaked by the devs in terms of moulding it into a map. In the case of ff_impact, Aftershock launched the idea for a new gametype combining CTF elements with AVD elements. After 2.0 it was realized that full 2-way CTF wasn’t ideal for pubs as it wasn’t intuitive for new players to use dm (i.e. the straight obvious thing to do) to reach 2 objectives (defending your flag + getting the enemy flag). So it was discussed to simplify this by dividing the 2 objectives into alternating rounds where you only had to complete one objective: one round you are the defenders, one round you are the attackers. Now we were threading into the realm of AVD. But at the same time we wanted to try to implement elements of 1-way OvD reverse-CTF where it’s not over once you cap the flag. This is more forgiving; the defenders can allow to let some attackers slip through and cap. It is more viable for defenders to “hold on” to front line defensive positions. And the front lines can be “filled up” in case of higher player numbers, so that maps are equally fun for low and high playernumbers. Lastly, the map had to be linear and obvious enough to not give any confusion, or so that dm-ing new players contribute automatically to the objective. We hope this will somewhat bridge the gap between clanned play and pub play.

It resulted into a new gametype: ADZ (Attack/Defend the zone). In this zone, the attackers score points for entering the zone and for remaining in the zone. Different possibilities are possible within this concept, and Green Mushy has multiple of them in different stages of completion. In ff_impact we chose for 4 flag capture points within this zone, automatically reverting when no attackers are in the zone for a certain timeframe, and giving bonus points if all 4 are captured. After capping, the attackers can choose to stay in the zone to get additional points, but an auto-health-drain makes sure the defenders don’t have to chase a lone capper.



So after these basics have been laid out, Pon started to make the lua and I started to orange-map this flag room and the different areas leading up to it. The advantages to orange mapping are:

• You hold no sentimental value to any geometry, so you have no problem getting rid of stuff if it doesn’t work.
  
• It’s very fast to do since you use very basic shapes and textures, and thus fast to change.
  

The prototype was beta tested and changed multiple times as we discussed what worked and what didn’t in terms of striking the balance between simplicity for new players and fun/challenging elements for experienced people.

Some of the things we implemented:

• Both the main attack route and the alternative attack route are always clearly visible, they are only distinguishable because of the height difference.
  
• Entrances are brightly lit so that players are subconsciously attracted to them.
  
• Functional elements such as resupply bags and ladders are very obviously visible by lighting them with consequent colours.
  
• The areas provide for good defensive setups which will require teamwork from the attackers to bring down.
  
• Defensive stances will shift dynamically from area to area and the success of this shift will depend on good defender comms. Not only backward but the defenders can also push back the attackers and claim back forward areas.
  

After lots of iterations and test sessions, we were happy with the basic layout and the map was ready to go the next phase.

Detailing phase

I then proceeded to convert this orange map into a “real” map. Now you can really turn those basic shapes into detailed architectural elements and texture it accordingly. What I did for ff_impact was browse through the model database and found a use for some models which I liked and incorporated them. I had an idea for 2 non-existing models so I requested them to our modelers and after some iterations between my goal and their prototypes, PF and Carl did a great job modeling and skinning them.



I chose or made the map textures fitting with the models and the general theme and then lighted the map to make the architecture and details stand out (along with the functional lighting as described earlier), striking a balance between “atmospheric” darkness for non-functional areas, and clear bright lighting for gameplay-important areas.





The challenge in this phase is the fact that layered details, which give detailed depth to a map, are actually the enemy of clear gameplay visibility, so the goal is to “conceal” the busy detailed areas by using unobvious colours in dark area’s. Also the use of consequent distinctive colour schemes and brightness for floors and walls goes sometimes against the general matching of textures, but is to be preferred in terms of gameplay visibility for a fast game like FF.

Tweaking phase

This is all something that had to be tested and tweaked in beta tests. In these tests we verified that the detailing phase didn’t disrupt the final, tested orange map too much in terms of clear and smooth gameplay. Also all the lua functionalities are tested and some little tweaks like the scoring of points etc can be adapted and tested. We feel it’s now ready to be shipped with 2.2 and will learn from the community how it plays and what we can still improve towards 3.0.

With 2.2 coming very soon, enjoy the new ADZ gametype and stay tuned for different variations following.

Hey squeek! They work just fine.

If you're one of those sites that is cool enough to not only have an affiliate reel, but to also have (or want) Fortress Forever to be a part of it, we ask that you use this image, if you're not already:



Many thanks.

For the code impaired:

<a href="http://www.fortress-forever.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.fortress-forever.com/fflink.gif" alt="Fortress Forever" /></a>

You're also welcome to download the button and host it on your own site if you'd prefer.

Well we got tired of waiting for somebody else to do it, so we decided to take matters into our own hands.So we decided to change one of the official servers to AvD. Not to sure if it's the right name but you get the idea.

206.123.95.85:27015 Official FF 2.1 - Server 2 -AvD- Hosted by TFL

Rotation:

ff_dustbowl
ff_ksour_classic
ff_cz2
ff_cornfield
ff_palermo
ff_hunted
ff_anticitizen
ff_waterpolo
ff_vertigo

Well, now that 2.1 is wrapped up, we're already thinking about the next patch. And the next one, and the next one...

I used to hate collaborating or fixing other people's maps. I'm kind of particular about mapping, so when I look at a map file and something's not the way I like, I have to fix it. But since joining FF, working on other people's levels is a big part of what I'm doing. Maybe it's the fun of getting to play with the official levels, or learning from the techniques of the skilled mappers that worked in FF before, but I'd rather do that than build my own maps.

In 2.1 my main project was Dustbowl and the HDR update. Now I'm taking on ff_palermo. The number one complaint on that map is the extreme yellow lighting. So changing that was the first task. Once you change the sunlight, sky and fog to something more appropriate, the difference is pretty striking.


Once I have a map open I can never change just one thing, so I went through to change whatever architecture I didn't like. There are some changes to textures and geometry, and I even made a few new models to add detail to the level.

But it's not just aesthetic changes. Every map has a list of bugs and improvements that people want, so I considered each one. For example, all the beta testers complained that defenders spawn too far from the point they are trying to defend, so I moved those spawn points up a bit. I think it's hard to tell exactly what effect such a change will have on the balance of a map, so I'll submit it for a beta test and see what happens!

Zip comes through again! .... [AE] 82694 that is

Here are some server goodies he cooked up for us. We'll have a section for this soon.

Server # 1

Woo, I'm back!! Even though I will still be very busy with life here in Switzerland and so won't be as active as I was before I left, I at least now have access to Steam and so can continue to play FF & develop FF!

Believe me I was really starting to get withdrawal symptoms! I'm very pleased to be back just in time to join in the 2.1 hype :D I'm glad that it seems to be a success! And rightly so after the amount of work some of the guys put into this! (I did a very small part in comparison.)

So.. what shall I do now Sir Developer?! :D

Happy to be back guys, I've missed you!

Elmo

Official FF 2.1 Servers are up, courtesy of Team Fortress League:

Server 1: 206.123.95.86:27015
Server 2: 206.123.95.84:27015
Server 3: 206.123.95.85:27015

Get in!

'Sup y'all!

2.1 is, like, right here. We're in the kinda 'last call' phase, where everyone is threatened with getting their content excluded if they don't submit it like right now.

Which brings me to the main point of this dev jernal: ff_anticitizen and ff_tiger are done. Like, done done. /champaign.

So, there ya go. Someone will probably have an update about the installers being assembled, and our shamanic witch-doctors performing the arcane rite of linux compiling in a day or so.

I've got all sorts of ideas for projects to do next, but I'm not going to worry about that for a little while.

We've got a new Official Fortress Forever server, thanks to the guys down at the TFLeague.

206.123.95.86:27015 The OFFICIAL Server - Hosted by TFL

Check it out.

Hey oh! Can you smell 2.1 yet? No? Well you should! It's just around the corner! The to-do list is almost all green and green means DONE. Seriously, there's at least 1 update to the dev build everyday and that means people are working hard to get this 2.1 patch out the door asap!

On my end, I've been working on optimizing ff_dropdown alot. The yard is kind of a lost cause if I wanna keep the transparent windows in respawn (and I do) but I successfully optimized the inside of the base, sometimes doubling the FPS count, so it should play alot smoother in some places.

I'm also adding a new route in there but I'm not saying where. This new route should make it easier for some classes to get behind enemy lines and do their job. It'll also fix the issue where you had to type kill in console sometimes....

Besides ff_dropdown, I've been brainstorming ideas for this other map I got on my plate. It started like a small project, now it's a gigantic monster. I don't know if I'll ever get to do what I have in mind right now cause, you know... having an idea just isn't enough, you then gotta work your ass off and actually do it, but I think it would be pretty cool.

I've also been messing with the screenshot button alot lately. The result is that there's a new loading screen for 2.1. We're hoping to implement some cool features related to the loading screen like having a rotation of them so you don't end up looking at the same image all the time or even better, implementing the tools for everyone to create their own loading screen without having to leave the game at all... but don't expect any of this in 2.1.

And that's all for tonight... I'm off to Hammer! Cheers!

So, there have been some cool new things added recently to 2.1. I thought I'd just show some quick screenshots of one of those things: the Objective Icon. Pretty self-explanatory, so here are the pitchers:


Oh, yeah, and that's ff_bases.