I've been working on bases of late, but unfortunately PC issues are doing their best (worst) to hinder my progress. I've been crashing 5+ times per day, and it gets EXTREMELY frustrating to be working on an area, only to crash and find Hammer has corrupted the file. I've been through this a few times already, but my system instability has just highlighted the ASOHGEGH of the situation; even with constant saving of new files (bases is on a46, spirit on a42, mayhem a10 and openfire a2 [no I'm not making openfire, I just did the basic layout to save someone else the hassle]) it is still very irritating and interrupts the work flow badly.

New RAM is winging its way to me, so rest assured I will be rustling something up for a long overdue media release in the not-too-distant future once my PC issues are dealt with.

In other news, the 3D Sky stuff is totally superb fun to work with. I've just got around to actually trying it out and it really does add a new layer of depth to the gaming experience. The world.. it .. it .. exists. It exists outwith the gaming area. It extends out there into the distance, seemingly beyond the horizon. A map is no longer just a random little concrete jungle or mountain fortress seemingly disconnected from everything else, it's a little slice of the greater fortress world. Even better is the fact that, when implemented properly, the sky is seamless. It's very hard to tell where the map ends and the sky begins, so much so that, in some cases you don't actually notice the skybox because it's perfectly grafted on. A good example of this is dust/dust2: There's undulating, understated hills and palm trees for as far as the eye can see, but they're not intrusive or unnatural. On the other end of the spectrum, you can have much more visually striking and grandiose spectacles -- I love the aztec skybox... big temples, enormous hills and so forth.

I fully intend to push the boat out where appropriate.

So yeah, just some ramblings.

Hi hi reading audience! In response to the public forums, when I say "buildable objects" I'm referring to the dispenser, sentrygun, and detpack - in case there's any confusion.

The 'major'/'noticeable in the build' things I've been working on are the "buildable objects" and the undisclosed scout feature. Soooooo, let me see where I'm at right now:

Dispenser:

• Ammo stores need to effect the explosion
• Needs to give players armor (already gives ammo) when touched
• Needs to tell the owner that enemies are using the dispenser
• Needs to send appropriate personalized "you touched my dispenser" New Feature (TM) to the badguy touching the dispenser

Sentrygun:

• Needs lots! Right now it's very basic - gets built and that's about it

Detpack:

• Right now it's just a 10 second timer - needs to be changed to a variable second timer
• Need to add the whine/start up sound before it blows

Currently Undisclosed Scout feature:

• Can't really say much, but it basically just needs to be tweaked as per playtesting

We've decided to add weapon slots for all "buildable objects" (and they're currently in the latest build) - so with the engy you select slot 4/5 (dispenser/sentrygun) and with the demoman you select slot 6 (detpack). Anyway, upon pressing your attack building, you'll start building. Hopefully this will be very helpful for new engineers/demomen.

I've also started working a little on our Hint system... but that's a couple days out from having really anything done with it.

I think that's pretty much where I am - or all that I remember @ 9 AM Monday morning. :)

Welp, time to go through some of my sounds to see if I like them. It's been nice to have a little break so that I can come back with a clear set of ears. My plan is to talk with the dev. team members to see what they feel like adding and/or dropping, and to take it from there.

Stomach in, chest out; on your marks, get set...

After about six weeks of very hard work, mostly spent on maths and dynamics revision for a scary exam, with three courseworks thrown in for good measure (Virtual memory simulator, PS2 forced-perspective [2.5D] sprite game, OpenGL racing [crap] game), I finally managed to escape. My maths exam went very well, so I am extremely pleased about that. I went into the exam fully intending to scrape a pass and came out cursing my luck that I won't get an A because I buggered up two easy questions on finding and classifying critical points (usually do those without blinking, but it was an equation I had a lot of trouble differentiating adequately) and a parametric line being transformed by a perspective matrix (again, usually a piece of cake, but I managed to arse it up). On the plus side, I got 2.5 / 3 of the dynamics questions correct when I'd been absolutely bricking it. It's strange how things work sometimes. Ultimately, I picked up all of my marks on questions I was afraid of doing and then made errors in questions I consider my 'bankers' (and no, that's not a euphemism for anything). Live and learn, I suppose. Next time I shall revise much more evenly. After the exam, I ended up getting sunburnt in a beer garden. Couldn't have scripted it better (was roasting!)

Anyway the whole point in this update (it's getting a bit Joe Webloggish) is that I am FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and can now work on Fortress Forever as much as I would like. As stress relief during my crunch period, I started an AD map called "Mayhem", but it's in the very early stages of development. The source engine really is a sight to behold when fiddling with displacements. Even better is the fact that they're cheaper to render than Jesse's mother. Cobble together several bajillion adjacent displacement maps, contort them into a beautiful cliff and canyon, and then marvel at the miniscule render time.

So, before I get back into it, my current status:

ff_Spirit (Original CTF map) - Architecture mostly complete, just needs a little more detail and some better lighting. I can't say whether this map will be released with FF (I suspect it may be put away for a rainy day, given that the maplist is currently dominated by CTF already) but it will probably see the light of day in future releases at the very least. The FR smacks of 2mesa3 (but different) and it has some nice concs and trimps available.

ff_Bases (Classic CTF map port) - Architecture is still a little rough, texturing needs work in the RR and I'm currently reworking the whole style of the map. I've hit upon some nice combinations with regard to the texturing, hence the revamp. I'm tempted to restart the whole map using a 32 grid. The base map was converted from my TFC layout, so some of it uses an 8 grid which, to be honest, is an absolute pain in the arse to work with. It's like going back to the 70s, man.

ff_Mayhem (Original Attack/Defend map) - One CP roughly laid out and the theme is developing at a rate of monkeys. Just putting some ideas down and seeing how it looks, really. It has an arctic feel to it and looks pretty decent already. A 3D skybox with huge, grey rolling mountains will look fabulous.

Before anyone says "But Defrag, why not just work on one map at a time, you idiot?" I shall answer pre-emptively: Working with several maps simultaneously is great for overcoming any stagnancy in your style. If you hit upon a problem you can't figure out how to tackle, you simply switch maps and do a bit on the others, then come back later. The chances are that during your development of the other maps, you have either discovered a new architectural / texturing style or combination and can employ it to solve your original 'block' or problem.

Anyway, I'm meant to get a PT job for summer, but I'll be doing my best to not bother doing so.

As El Mozzer once sang:
"I was looking for a job and now I've found a job, and heaven knows I'm miserable now"

I've been reacquainting myself with the various APIs needed to get my playerID stuff going. We have a rough auth system for the game client going, since it's the easiest. I'm going to refine it tomorrow, and I'll start the game auth server next week (since it's the next easiest =p).