Community Project: Neocron DeathMatch modification in Source engine

[Biglines]

Because the other thread was getting rather full, decided to start a new
thread to give a bit of an overview of how far we've gotten.

WhiteKrakRBOi started out a few months back on a plaza1 map for hl2, which
turned into a plan to start a bigger project, which is a Mod for the source
engine (HL2/TF2), which would become at least a multiplayer deathmatch
game with the weapons from Neocron, taking place in the city of neocron, and
maybe even incorporate the armour/skills system of neocron.

A lot of good reactions and brainstorming interested myself for the project, so
I started helping out with modeling and texturing.

From the German section of the forum, some people came over and showed
some previous work, which can be found in the other thread.

In this thread I will showcase the work we've done so far on this particular
project, all the work until now (the graphics anyway), put together in the
start post:

By WhiteKrakRBOi:





HL2: PNC Plaza 1 Gravlift Demo


By Biglines:






Silent Hunter ingame with animations

[Marc Hoover]

Nice! Tell me more about your further plans! And the "how" =)

[Biglines]

most of all we need cooperation on the maps I think, hammer is an easy enough to learn tool, so anyone interested can at least help get some areas done.

The weapons need to be modelled, props modelled, and the weapons need to be programmed (it's pretty easy to program as far as I know (mostly editing other guns from original halflife or any of the mods)).

WhiteKrakBoi is going to look into the programming side mostly, but I've seen a bunch of it, and it should be fairly easy to cooperate on that if we get some people who are willing to help. I know an experienced modder (lead programmer of Source Forts) who I can probably ask some specific questions if we run into trouble.

requirements are at the moment one of the orange box games, but I'm hoping we can backport to HL2 deathmatch, which anyone can pick up for like 5 euros from steam (the models and maps should work fine in the DM version, but WhiteKrakBoi was working on some particle systems in orange box, so I don't know if they can be ported backwards).

I'm willing to take management lead (organizing the different assets and workflow), since I will not be able to model as fast in the coming weeks since Uni starts again.

If you're willing to cooperate, please state in this thread what you can do, or what you want to learn (for example, I didn't know how to animate or texture before starting on this project), and what you want to work on, so we don't do too much double work.

Todo for me personally at the moment is:

• GoGo
• P1 chairs
• Vendor desks
• possibly converting the dissy from a procedural model to a lowpoly source model

What we also need is texture artists, this can be done in photoshop or the gimp, so we get some high resolution textures than the ones in NC

[Marc Hoover]

Maybe, there is a way to convert all NC2 weapon models so you could save some time. I'll trying to find that old project + files, but I'am very booked at this time ;/

[Biglines]

they were released?

[Whitestuff]

Thanks for starting a new post Biglines. The old one was getting kind of bloated and it is way below the scope of what we are trying to do now.

Half-Life 2: Project Neocron has developed from a simple map remake of Plaza into the aspiration for a full-blown modification for the Source Engine. It will require that the user own an Orange Box title to play in order to take full advantage of the Source Engine's features.

The concept:
Take Neofrag, mix it with OP battles and hacknet, and add capture points. HL2:PNC will be a fully independant deathmatch style mod with a lot of inspiration from the Neocron universe. Players will compete against each other on teams: Anti-City and Pro-City. The objective will be to control a majority of the control points on any given map for the duration of the match. Each map will include a "hacknet" area that will contain at least one control point as well, and feature a battle system similar to hacknet. HL2:PNC will feature many (hopefully all ) of Neocron's rare weapons, as well as the WoC weapons. It is undetermined whether or not we will allow players to define skills such as resistance setups and armor setups, but it is a strong possibility for later releases. Perhaps we will even have the ability to save characters server-side for individual servers, for the ability to gather an inventory of items, but that is beyond the current scope of the game.

The ultimate goal is to have several "areas" of Neocron recreated and updated in the Source Engine for players to play in. For example: Pepper Park, Several Outposts, MC5, Tech Haven, Reagants, etc...

You will log in to a selected server, pick your class and your primary weapon. As you frag and capture/defend the capture points, you will gain points for you to use to upgrade your weapons and possibly skills, as well as "activate" turrets at outpost maps to aid your team. The points can and probably will serve some other purposes as well, but again, outside the current scope.

So far:
I have completed about 20% of Plaza 1, with the intent to compile Plaza 1-4 into a single map and add a "hacknet" area to the map. I am currently also working on some simple coding aspects for the game, including weapons, but coding is NOT my strong point. I am also working on some in game models and have some of the Gogo made already. I have also created a number of custom textures for use in the mod, to give it a more authentic NC2 feel.

If you want to help:
Please post here if you are interested in helping or learning how to do anything to further the project. As Biglines stated, neither of us do this for a living, its more of a hobby and we are largely self-taught individuals when it comes to making this content.

We need help in:
Map making, using Valve's Hammer Editor
Prop making
Texture artists
Programmers in Visual C++ 2005 or higher

Current goals:
-Create weapon models, firing systems, and placing them in the game
-Create 3D props for use in the maps
-Any textures, including signs, wall/floor textures, weapons, etc would be helpful in speeding up the mapping and modeling process
-Create at least 1 map for initial release

Future goals:
-Incorporate a minimized hacking minigame
-Incorporate capture points
-Incorporate a "point" system
-Incorporate the "hacknet" system and gamerules
-Incorporate game rules for different classes

We have:
Biglines: modeler/texture artist
Whitekrakrboi: modeler/mapper/programmer/texture artist
SMInferno: texture artist
Possible Sarduin: programmer

Thanks for your time folks. Looking forward to having fun and making something great for ALL to enjoy. I also hope that the lack of input from KK means that it is alright for us to go ahead with this project and that we aren't violating any rules by doing so.

EDIT:: Oh, if someone wouldn't mind posting the gist of this in the German forums, I would appreciate it very much. My German is all but forgotten and it wasn't very good to begin with.

[Biglines]

so ur not making the genrep but the gogo? thought u were making the genrep, well, I'll do that then.

[tarasm]

What you guys should do is get skype. And do a conference room. That way all the programers/designers can all be together talking.

[Biglines]

it's useful if ur working on something together, but until now we've worked just fine solo, once we start putting things together we will need voicecomms ye, or at least instant messaging.

[Marc Hoover]

irc: ultimate-networx.net channel: #NCMOD better than skype and anything ;p

[Biglines]

lol, well, at least skype and msn allow asynchronous messaging (as in, when one is offline, just send the message)

found a fellow student who wants to get some experience modeling as well, so he's prolly gonna help out as well

[st0rmkr0w]

I can help with any type of modeling, preferably prop modeling. I've had extensive experience using Maya, but am still fine tuning my texturing skills.

I've also fooled around a bit in the Hammer editor, so I can find my way around it, but am by no means good at using it (yet).

[Biglines]

finished importing the seats, and now figured out how to compile as static prop (meaning it doesnt move and has no physics (good on fps))



note, they still need to be properly textured, same as the citycom

[Whitestuff]

I wanted to post and let everyone know that I am still working on this project. However, I am in the process of moving/fixing my PC/getting internet installed. Hopefully now that my PC is fixed I'll have some content to post when the internet is installed on Tuesday next week.

Thanks to everyone for your support and submissions to the project. Please keep the volunteers and the work coming!

[Setlec]

Biglines make the seats destructible, it would make the map more fun imo.