APB Dev. Blog :: January 11th, 2010 Options

Go ahead, watch the video. It's our new trailer, put together by Occult13 (with the hallway itself done by rm5248) and a bunch of us, based highly upon the original Red Alert teaser video that some of you might remember from a long time ago. The end portion of the trailer is based on scenes from both RA: Retaliation, and the original RA intro video. Hopefully, it's a nostalgia trip for everybody!

We're going to feature it on our ModDB page, as we have of course been successfully nominated as a Top 100 project of the year, in the released indie game category. Apocalypse Rising made it, in the unreleased category. Please remember to log in to ModDB and vote for our projects! It is a great honor to make it so far but let's take it all the way, if we can.

There is only around a week of voting left, and every vote counts!

• First, login at ModDB and view the Top 100 Released & Top 100 Unreleased
  
  
• 1. Click on the game headers to view the projects in that category. A Path Beyond is released Indie, Apocalypse Rising is unreleased Indie. APB is listed third in its category; Apocalypse Rising is farther down the page.
  
• 2. Click to vote for the project you've selected and let it save your vote (this could take a second or two). "Vote!" will become "Voted!" and you've done your part.
  
  

Originally that trailer was going to be a "RA1 turns into APB" setup, inspired by Bittah Commander's DTA Trailer and Sadukar's RA1 is APB screenshot edits. But, I think we can all say the actual results turned out well! More on these two later, down below.

New Visuals

We've been using, for the most part, stock Renegade explosions for a while and they're honestly not all that great. They get in the way far too long, don't look particularly exciting and are repetitive, and don't clue you in to what weapon is hitting really. I mean, if you fire Volkov's alternate fire, you see the same spinning 3 chunks every time... no matter what.The V2 explosion is a notable exception, and it really stands out.

Well, all the tank shell explosions have been redone recently, with notable size variation based on the weapon and a bit of visual variety. New missile explosions for small (LAW/RPG), medium (SAM/Mammoth), and large (M.Sub/Destroyer) rockets were also made. Grenades also get their own unique explosion, full of shards. We're also trying different things with fireball impacts.

If you hit dirt with a tank shell, expect a lot of dirt to be kicked up. This obviously won't happen if the shell explodes in the air. If you plow a LAW into the side of a Heavy Tank, expect large metal chunks to get blown away instead. Igniting infantry also has a newer effect, instead of borrowing from the fireball's after-effect.

Also, if you saw the trailer or read the SAM game update, you'd know that the missile doors animate open as it's shooting down dastardly Longbows. The first two will open and launch as a pair nearly simultaneously, then the next two, then the next two, followed by a brief reload.

Speaking of the SAM, the Flametower is the next base defense that will be finished up.

What's next for Beta

First of all, apparently a number of players joined the official server with the name "Cold Warrior." They ended up banned, and coming back on a different name was no good; their names and their IPs were all banned. This has since been addressed and they can come back to play, with a reminder to not stick with the default name unless they want to be kicked immediately for some reason!

Also, you might have noticed that XCC Mixer can no longer open the data files used by 1.3.1; this is a result of our new patching system. The files are fully compatible with the game engine of course, with LevelEdit, and with Scorpio9a's RenegadeEx mix handling tool (Not to be confused with Renegade-X the mod, or RenX or RenXc the players). You can find this tool here.

Next, some of the key server integration enhancements for 1.4.0 are still in the hands of Reborn the guy with the tragic name, and Ghostshaw of TT. They're not being idle, though; we've hit a strange connection stability issue with two of our testers, and don't want to ship a crippled build, so Reborn has been working very hard with them to get things hammered out. If we get past this we will be in a better position to make 1.4.0 public.

Zunnie has been working on new game mode support so that fan servers can have more interesting things to try beyond what the maps all came with. A new one is the ability to re-build lost structures, which is a huge new can of worms ready for somebody to play with once the 1.4.0 build is ready and the new FDS is out. Rather than releasing a half-finished 1.3.1 FDS (because some of these 1.4.0 features are awesome and worth waiting for), Zunnie's spending his time adding new tricks to the mix.

Update - SSAPB 1.40 Released

Game Update thread here. After the blog was published, Zunnie finished work on the new SSAPB 1.40 release that is compatible with the current 1.3.1 files. Please view the thread for the full changelist, it includes support for:

• AOW (Normal APB Gameplay)
• Snipers Only (Enfields vs Dragunovs)
• Building Mode (Purchase your base structures)
• Infantry Only (No vehicles allowed)

There is also support for randomized crates:

• Money Grant
• Weapon Grant
• Points Bonus
• Vehicle Crate
• Nuclear Blast
• Armor Max +15
• Health Max +15
• Random Infantry
• Spy Aspect (defenses ignore you)
• Credit Theft
• Human Silo +$2/sec

Community News

A few great things to take a look at. First, The Tiberian Sun mod, Dawn of the Tiberium Age (DTA) just had a new release. This is a fan favorite, and a personal favorite of mine. It had a really sweet trailer showing Tiberian Sun becoming Tiberian Dawn, and it is a shame it did not make it past the MOTY 2009 nominations phase as it is regarded by many to be one of the best Tiberian Sun mods. And it's all made by one guy for the most part, Bittah Commander. Check out the thread here for more information, including the trailer.

A while back, several fans made altered Red Alert screenshots featuring APB action. A topic from August has taken off again, and Sadukar09 has started a series of these in the fan projects section that you can take a look at. They're actually pretty funny, and you get a good view of Sadukar's take on the various personalities from the APB community. A number of these guys have redone the various APB maps in Red Alert, and while that might not play well for a real match of RA1, it sure makes for some interesting scenes and great comics (if you can call them that).

Renegade-X just had their own new release, and are also a nominee for MOTY 2009 at ModDB. You can see Fobby's update thread in our C&C section, and may remember him from his work on other projects in the past. With UT3's SDK going free, they have ambitions to release standalone in the future. Exciting stuff, and a must for anybody who still plays Renegade. With any luck, we'll see three C&C FPS games sweep up at MOTY 2009... and perhaps give EA an incentive to produce a quality new first person Command & Conquer one of these days instead of dwelling on FPS Tiberium's cancellation.

Occult made it in such a short amount of time too somehow!

Awesome trailer .

Occult made it in such a short amount of time too somehow!

It'd not have been possible without the testers and the staff for their support anyway

Totally Awesome!

Me likes the video!

it was soooo awesome ....i didnt want it to end

Shit, I just got a nerd boner from that trailer.

Nice recreation of opening scene!

Occult you did a really good job on that trailer.

Sounds good, the new explosions are gonna rock!
Waiting for trailer to load now, damn net

That's one speedy ore truck, lol.

Also, kick-ass trailer. I drooled.

Exactly des1206
This trailer is delicious
Good Job BH team and keep up the good work for the eventual release of Gamma!
BTW Voted Good Luck guys.

This post has been edited by TSAR1: Jan 11 2010, 07:40 PM

Aw yeah, some good APB action. You may also notice how the samsite fires, opening each hatch as the missile flies out.

Really epic trailer !

Wait wait wait, is it just me, or is the BlueHell Prodcutions sign an upside Mammoth Tank & a Mig? Has it always been like that?