APB Dev. Blog :: July 12th, 2010 Options

Sorry for the delay for this blog, but I've been quite busy and so have a lot of the staff and testers as it turns out. Lots of people are doing summer activities that's taking them out of the loop for a month or two. That said, we have been busy behind the scenes of course. PointlessAmbler recently posted a blog detailing work on a new launcher application that eventually will do a lot more, and a lot of things better, than the older one. It should be out in time for Nuclear Winter (the upcoming patch for Beta/Cold Fusion), which will serve as a dry run of sorts before it is extended for Gamma purposes. More on that later. PA also gave a preview of the Allied binoculars, useful for spotting enemy soldiers in the distance and for checking health levels of far-away objects. Any good officer should remember to bring a pair.

Badger's Bombs

Something r34ch and TheBeerinator threw together. A high-powered explosive, the bombs dropped by the Soviet's Badger bomber can come either with or without a parachute to delay impact on the designated target. How will you designate a target? It will likely involve an airfield and a flare, but there are also good odds of automatic bombing raids that will take place as an added perk if you can destroy all Allied AA Guns on a map during a mission context. Consider it a bonus objective; a comparable Allied sub-objective might trigger periodic Longbow raids or artillery attacks.

Map Improvements

Lots of maps are being reworked and improved, we've said. ChopBam is basically reverse engineering all the old maps that we have poor source files for into a very useful 3DS format, which also means a chance to redo some of the muddy old texture work, and address map boundaries. Some of those boundaries might include land mines. You will be warned. Signs like this might tip you off to minefields, may also help guide you in the right direction, or let you know of other dangers.

A lot of older maps that were cut or taken away are being finished up and reintroduced, too. There was a recent topic about Camos Crossing and whether or not it can be salvaged, and I think the answer is yes; R34ch and myself are going to try to get something a bit more enjoyable out of that map for sure, and he's making new civilian structures to go with it. Note that some maps actually will be cut out, notably the naval maps. I'm not confident that we can get all the new naval specifics worked out in time, but they should be easily enough retrofitted to maps once the time comes to bring back boats. You might still see Pacific Threat if it plays okay without the naval units, testing suggests so. If you remember Raapnaap's old map Hostile Waters, we do also have plans to actually bring that back once naval returns.

To give you an idea of what we're looking at for a map roster for Gamma, we'll start with the 17 confirmed maps. Anything marked (new) is either completely new (such as Guard Duty), or heavily revamped or remade (such as Fissure). These may get minor cosmetic changes and updates as new assets are introduced and may have small tweaks to be done, but you will definitely see them in Gamma:

• Bonzai
• Bunkers
• Camos Canyon (new)
• Complex
• Fissure (new)
• Guard Duty (new)
• Keep Off The Grass
• North by Northwest (new)
• Pipeline (new)
• Ridge War
• River Raid
• Stormy Valley
• The Woods Today
• To The Core (new)
• Volcano
• Wasteland
• Zama

Up next are the 10 maps that are still being finished but will likely be completed for Gamma's release. They are mostly done or maps that we definitely want to see done, with very little chance of being cut:

• AS_Seamist (new)
• Camos Crossing (new)
• Canyon River (new)
• Fjord (new)
• Forest of Illusion (new)
• Glacier (new)
• Killfields (new)
• Luna (new)
• New Moon (new)
• Under (new)

Pacific Threat may very well be countable among those we'd like to see, although it's not for sure. Post-2.0 maps that we are looking at include the following:

• Alpine Lake (new)
• A Path Beyond (new)
• Coastal Influence (new)
• Equal Opportunity (new)
• Excavation (new)
• Hostile Waters (new)
• Hourglass (new)
• Metro (new)
• Nottingham (new)
• Pacific Threat
• Partium (new)
• Shake It Baby (new)

Guard Duty

For some previews, we've got somewhat final shots of Guard Duty to show you, which is actually based upon an early RA1 singleplayer map instead of the usual multiplayer inspiration. The only clear objective is to destroy the enemy base, though! MetalFej originally made this, but ChopBam has heavily touched it up. Click the images for larger views. It will be a lower tech map, with a few routes into each base. I know there is a Tesla Coil visible in the Soviet base, but it has been replaced by a pair of Flame Towers.

North by Northwest

You might've wondered why NBNW was marked as new in the lists above. Occult13 is working on a few snowy maps lately, and one of them is a North by Northwest remake. It will have a bit more to see beyond the bounds of the map, and fix up some of the potential paths around the land. The textures in these shots were effectively just painted onto the mesh to give you an idea of how it will look in the end, so you may see some oddities there, such as a "road" texture poorly lined up with the river to show the banks. There will also be walls or defenses added back most likely.

Camos Canyon & Fissure Video

Here are ten minutes worth of gameplay from Camos Canyon and Fissure that a few testers recorded. Note that there is still, as always, WIP content here. Sounds and explosions are being redone, particularly for the V2 and Artillery (even more redone than the last time you saw them!) by Wallywood and Fabian respectively. You might notice that on Camos Canyon, there are black "toothpicks" sticking out of the ground. These were old trees that were not yet fully removed in the conversion from Nuclear Winter to Gamma. That's something fun to note: Camos Canyon will be available in NW

I believe I remember Guard Duty from the second mission of the Soviet Campaign, or some variation of it.

Nice blog post, both new maps are looking good!

You are correct!

I looked at the pictures of North By Northwest and my immediate reaction was:
"WHAT?!! WHAT?!?! HOLY SHIT!!!" (as in saying that out loud :P)

Well very done- that goes for the para-bombs, signs, buildings too. Also liking Guard Duty. It looks promising for lower tech warfare.

This post has been edited by EVA-251: Jul 12 2010, 09:40 PM

That's a lot of maps ! And beautifull new ones (I had not seen Guard Duty) !

Are those hills on guard duty like the stormy valley ones where vehicles can climb easily or are they a bit steeper, funneling the vehicles onto the roads/valleys between them?

Depends what vehicle you're talking about. A Light Tank is not impeded by most slopes.

thats a good amount of maps

Bloody brilliant, can't wait to get my hands on that.

Awesome work for both maps !

Under ? Please tell me it's not that like that http://www.renegadewiki.com/images/1/1d/Map_under.jpg

This post has been edited by APB-FR-Cyann: Jul 13 2010, 04:36 AM

I looked at the pictures of North By Northwest and my immediate reaction was:
"WHAT?!! WHAT?!?! HOLY SHIT!!!" (as in saying that out loud :P)

In a good way?

Glacier, Under, .. Oo
U going back to Renegade? :P

I'm not complaining in any sense, but no one is interested in indoor maps? Great job as usual to the dev team.

In a good way?

NO THE MAPS IS BAD

Gaurd duty doesn't look half bad.