On the 23rd of March, 2011, we officially launched our third game server. To celebrate the occasion, we scheduled a four hour gameplay event.

To help commemorate this moment, here is part 2 of the video we recorded with commentary by The Wildcat and SyrusRayne.

Thanks to everyone that played with us. Expect a new improv series called BWL’s Synergy Stories in the near future.

For more information, visit the Forums.

Music: King Cobra – http://keycityproductions.bwldevelopment.com
Commentary: The Wildcat, SyursRayne

YouTube Version

|-[ Other Specials ]-|

On the 23rd of March, 2011, we officially launched our third game server.  To celebrate the occasion, we scheduled a four hour gameplay event.

To help commemorate this moment, here is the video we recorded with commentary by The Wildcat and SyrusRayne.

Thanks to everyone that played with us.  Expect a new improv series called BWL’s Synergy Stories in the near future.

For more information, visit the Forums.

Music: King Cobra – http://keycityproductions.bwldevelopment.com
Commentary: The Wildcat, SyursRayne

|-[ Other Specials ]-|

YouTube Version

The server can be found in the Synergy server browser, but if you don’t see it join us here… 208.100.41.170:27015

We’ll get started in the train station and see where we go from there.

UPDATE:

2:00 AM – That’s all for tonight now folks.

That was great and despite two unexplained crashes, we had a great time.  For a while there, we were playing with a full server.

Very fun.  Thanks to everyone that played, and helped make a potentially interesting launch video.  Expect to see that up fairly soon on both the blip account and the youtube account.

Thanks again everyone.  And enjoy our third game server.

As of this time, I expect the file uploads to be finished in the next two hours or so.  This will grant me a short period of testing and minor last minute check up works.

After that, ideally around 8:00 pm tonight CST, we will have the “official” BWL Synergy Stories server launch game.

The new server will be mostly public, but will have periods of password locked use for video recordings or forum member fun time.  So be sure to sign up on the forums and ask for a “Server Pass”.

Tonight, I will likely record the launch game for a short video, but will keep the server public.  Being public, and that both Syrus and I will be probably be present as administration, there will be 8 slots available on a first come first serve basis.

Join us tonight for a little Synergy goodness.

Although I had a great deal of fun playing on Syrus’s home grown Minecraft server… It’s time for BWL’s Minecraft needs to grow beyond a hamachi based network with a few active players.

The concept of The Realm of the Nine Fires arose on Syrus’ server and is now being ported.

Details of that concept will be better suited for discussions in the Game Servers forum.

To join our 10-slot server hosted by LowPings.net, be sure to register on the forums and ask for a server pass in the Game Servers forum.  A server pass will give you access to the locked forums for our Minecraft, GMod, and Ventrilo servers.  This includes passwords when needed and addresses for joining in on the fun as well as a semi-private forum for discussing each game with the other players.

For the time being, the Realm is in a pre-game mode.  This means that features such as PVP and Monsters are turned off while I build some world items such as the nine fires themselves and a few structures.  Feel free to go ahead and join and start work on any projects that will be particularly hard to make once we do turn on the monsters and PVP.

For a rules set, address, and current server status Server Pass holders should check the Realm of the Nine Fires locked forum.

Until May 24th, Portal is available for free on steam.  Download it now.  And since Valve has now adapted Steam and some games to support Mac, you Mac users can now play this great game for free as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/freeportal/

…Also…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDj1fYlwR00

Visit the Pernumbra: Black Plague Walkthrough page to view all 16 parts.  Or watch the first part below.  I suggest watching in full screen.

Well, I’m pretty much sure all of you know about SEGA’s upcoming Aliens vs Predator game, but in case you don’t, here’s a short review about the progress, the game and the demo release. The game is being made by the Rebellion team. Their first major successes were Alien Vs Predator on the Atari Jaguar in 1995 and Aliens Vs. Predator on PC in 1999, creating game innovations years ahead of their time. And as their name suggests, Rebellion’s approach to game production is focused primarily on cross-platform innovations and product quality.

It is Rebellion’s aim to produce innovative videogame products of the highest quality, to have solid links with comic, book and movie content to ultimately ensure that the final consumer experience is as exciting as possible. The game has been in development for about 2 years, the team concentrating on creating the ultimate AvP experience.

About the story, the action takes place on the planet BG-386, where the humans have established a colony. Apparently, they find an ancient Predator temple which was forgotten by the Predators and that’s what triggers the whole story. The humans find the aliens and capture them for tests, the predators find out about the temple and the marines are sent on the planet to clean up the mess. You can experience a distinctly new and thrilling first person gameplay as you survive, hunt and prey in the deadly jungles and swamps surrounding the damned colony of Freya’s Prospect.

• As the Marine, you’ll experience a claustrophobic and terrifying experience where light is your friend, but there’s never enough. However, the United States Marine Corps are humanity’s last line of defense, and as such they are armed to the teeth with the very latest in high explosive and automatic weaponry.
• As the Predator, you will stalk from the shadows and from above, passing athletically through the treetops to ambush your victims. Although equipped with an array of powerful, exotic weapons and tracking equipment, honor ultimately dictates that you must get in close and take your trophies face to face.
• As the most deadly species in the universe, the Alien offers you the chance to play as the very stuff of nightmares – the monster in the dark swarming forward with countless others, jaws like a steel trap and claws like blades.
• Play all sides off against each other in a series of unique 3-way online modes and go tooth-to-claw-to-pulse rifle in the reinvention of one of multiplayer gaming’s defining moments

Last week, on Thursday, February 04, the demo was released for AvP. So far, the demo supports a multiplayer deathmatch mode with 8 players. The code presented in the demo is not the final release and all the DirectX 11 features will be available in the full release.

The first time I launched the demo and already I had problems, but wait! I wasn’t the only one who had them. The full game features the ability to browse for and create games but for the purposes of simplicity the demo was limited to matchmaking, so you had to wait from 5 minutes to even 10 minutes to manage to play online. Shortly after the demo was released Rebellion updated the demo and managed to fix that issue. They even apologized about it “We’re really sorry that this issue tainted a day in which we saw many people get hands on with AvP for the first time and we’re hugely gratified by the positive feedback to the game.”.

Overall, the demo was pretty good. It gives us a great example of every race’s abilities to kill it’s prey. The marine for example, his motion tracker can give the alien’s position very easily making the vicious xenomorph an easy prey. The marine’s weapons are pretty much basic, he can equip himself with a pulse rifle, the smart gun, pistol, sniper rifle or a flame thrower. If you’re impressed by those then wait till you hear the Predator’s arsenal! Trip mines, pulse cannon, spear, “ninja disks”, deadly claws and vicious look; all of those are bound to give you a chill down your spine. But what about the alien? It’s quite simple and deadly, you are the weapon.

While you play as each race you see the game through different perspectives and you also have to come up with a completely new strategy. The Predator is based on stealth, he uses a cloaking device to become invisible which gives him the element of surprise. The marine is like a beeping radar with a gun, while the alien is like a deadly sword waiting in the dark.

The demo really convinced me to buy the game and test all the multiplayer modes and the single player campaign and of course, to try the game with all it’s features which are guaranteed to bring a one of a kind AvP experience!

I also took the liberty to record a multiplayer match. Enjoy!

Though the team has worked hard to develop this project, the planned beta has been scaled back to a short demo. This demo consists of a three map training course and five of the original maps that BiGToM developed when he first started work alone back in 2007.

There are several additional bonus maps that can give the player a good idea of what the final project should look like. I recommend cat_introbeta1.bsp and cat_living.bsp for a better idea of the project’s actual map and story line introduction.

I want to discuss some of our chat and then make a few comments of my own here.

Download the Demo

First, this is indeed a DEMO and not a beta. Second, it is a short demo with more limitations then I would have preferred. The main game maps are the same ones we have shown in the screen shots and videos to date. And feel a bit thrown together rather then tied together by the story.

This is largely due to the fact that the actual game story changed when DS began writing for the project. BiGToM’s original story idea was basically as follows:

The cat begins inside of a pet carrier on a transport train. As it progresses, a crane transfers the carrier to a conveyor belt that delivers the cat into the bowels of Black Mesa. Near the end of the line, and after a number of transfers, the cat is one of several crates on the brink of delivery into a test facility when a robotic arm transfers it instead to a waiting scientist.

From that point, the cat experiences the Resonance Cascade from inside a lab and then must escape.

Portions of that story can still be seen in this demo, but not in its entirety. Unless I am gravely mistaken, the story was changed to a scientist’s pet cat and this idea is reflected in the cat_intro and cat_introbeta1 maps which allow you to see a part of a different introduction sequence, one that even pre-dates Newton’s name. Keep an eye out in the living area bonus map for Easter Eggs, which reflect the gags of the final project’s secrets.

BiGToM made the decision to switch over to a demo largely due to bugs. He explained that there are simply too many bugs to fix at this time. I think BiGToM would like some help in debugging maps and sounds. It’s my understanding that part of the reason the demo has so few custom sounds is because of a problem with his sound editing software.

I have already explained the bugs with my source code, but there are apparently a number of additional problems. For example, BiGToM points out a bug on the cat4.bsp map in the demo in which the player must duck to enter a tram even though he raised the door height. The cat source code only gives the illusion of shrunk height and so the player hull is still full sized, but this is a human sized door and should not be a problem.

He also tells me there is a problem with the elevator near the end of the actual full game in which the elevator walls injure the player.

This seems to be unrelated to the code as he elected not to use the modified hull file and scaled hull idea. Instead, we are using the Half-Life friendly version of the dlls. Which does indeed mean that players can play in regular HL and enjoy the game. You’ll want to use the console to enter map c0a0 for the HL Campaign and map t0a0 for the HL training course.

Keep in mind that you will need noclip to get passed the HEV checkpoint in the HL campaign since you can’t pick the suit up anymore [player spawns with a suit].

I think players will have a little fun with this, especially playing the original HL, but they may be disappointed by the very short nature of the demo and a lack of action or changes. Most of the monsters and/or items have not been added yet.

I myself was disappointed as much of the custom content is absent and I feel that the project has hit a bigger problem then just source code or map bugs. I do recommend that you download the demo and enjoy it. BiGToM has explained that his plan is to release a “map pack” once he has more of the bugs defeated.

In fact he said, “all the maps are basically done so all I have to do is tweak them some, add monsters and sounds, etc.

I asked BiGToM if he had any plans for the cheap clones I made for the eventual extra monsters… three headcrab clones and a zombie clone that could have been further refined to “friendly cats”, “juvenile headcrabs”, “zombie cats”, and “military dogs”. He said that if we can find a new modeler, we could possibly create a sort of pet laboritory with an outbreak of the headcrabs and the resulting zombies. He hopes this idea will be usable in the future but is not in the project as it stands.

Keep an eye out for bugs while you play and report them to sayrken[AT]hotmail.com And if you have something to contribute such as :SysOp: has offered to work on a custom HUD, please contact BiGToM via that same address. I’d love to see this project finished and in far greater quality.

However… I have some personal feelings about this and as I said before, I am now disappointed. You do not want Mr Wildcat to be disappointed.

During my discussion with BiGToM we spoke about the “addon map pack” and his hope for the sequel project. I share his enthusiasm for a successful project, but I also am not satisfied with the current project.

For all that has been discussed previously, :SysOp: had some valid points regarding the project as it stands. Despite all of the customization, we won’t be able to see that in the demo. And I’m worried that the final release will not have everything we would like either. And I need to admit that I really do agree with his point that the source code should come first. Maybe its because of my programmer background, but I think any truly good project needs the source code to really develop a proper game.

Truthfully, I feel that the project is no longer what I personally had hoped it would be. So, with BiGToM’s agreement, I am now actively seeking a Source coder.

If you have been by our site recently, then you know I am in the process of changing the site into something more then just a Half-Life fan site. BWL Development is growing and improving, so too should our projects.

It is my intention to write a more serious and dark story for Cat-Life. If you want to know more about my type of story telling, then here are some options for you. Be WARNED, these stories are all rated M for Mature and contain violence and graphic descriptions.

Conundrum – around half-finished, this is my HL fan-fic in epic novel form. It was based on a forum RP thread and is basically a crossover story for HL, D00M, and my own characters and features many character creations by our forum members from years ago.

Mod-Fiction – this is a set of two mod fan-fictions. One is a fan-fic for Cat-Life and the other is for GargArena.

Delivery – this is a short 1-shot HL2 fan-fic that began as a forum rp-thread on the old Concerned forums.

Even though I will be writing a simple story line for team development, we WILL NOT proceed until we have source code in hand. I need someone that can edit the Source SDK to make the player hulls smaller, no taller then knee height compared to a human. I need someone that can code new monsters for juvenile headcrabs, zombie cats, military dogs, and friendly cats. I need someone that can add a limited wall climb and wall jumping. I need someone that can code DarkVision night-vision and ideally also catnip enhanced vision which basically offers a brief highlight of the monsters near the player. And I need someone that can make a bite attack that adds health in addition to standard claws. Basically, all of the stuff I was trying to begin in the original HL.

This code would then be used in the source alternate Cat-Life and it’s sequel Cat-Life 2.

I also want someone that isn’t afraid to write extra code on their own. Feel free to create for this mod project. Chainsaws and grappling hooks have no part in the main story, but they would make a great bonus for finding secret worlds and secret areas as a sort of gag or comical reward.

If you can map for source, make models, sprites, sound, music, etc… start thinking about this project. Can you make a cat player model? Go ahead, we could use it. Can you make Half-Life style music? Get started, we’ll either use it in Cat-Life: Source or we’ll use it in one of our upcoming machinima projects. We WILL FIND A WAY to use your work and of course credit you for your contributions.

And, by all means, ask anyone you know that may be able to contribute to the new source code. We WILL NOT proceed beyond my story development [which I have not yet started] until we have working code.

I welcome existing Team Cat-Life members to offer their aid as well. I know that some of them including BiGToM are anxious to work on this newer incarnation too.

So, in closing, expect a Cat-Life “map pack” and we welcome any help on said project. But also be on the look out for a Source coder. Cat-Life: Source will be a completely different game and we hope it will live up to the BWL tagline of Epically Awesome in Every Way. And we certainly welcome wishes of luck and showes of support.

However, with the lack of a full-time coder and the likelihood that the Open Beta would be basically a map pack with some new sounds and such details, I have also assumed the role of temporary coder.

I re-installed my old Visual Studio 6 for the first time in years and found out just how rusty my C++ has become.  Even so, I tracked down a few tutorials and toyed with the code, creating some cheap and ugly hacks to help give the game a better change to game play.

Even so, there is more work to be done and we really need a good coder to clean up my ugly mess.  You see, I’ve done all that I can without taking more time to refresh my C++ and study the GoldSource code to truly understand the details.  I have some 20 or so projects around the BWL site that I have put off for a few nights of coding, and even then I have used more time than I would have preferred.

I am sending my current work to BiGToM.  The code features wall jumping, wall climbing (modified wall jumps), 2 attacks, a dash button with short stamina bar, simple dark vision, and spawn with long-jump.

The attacks are weaker.  The cat makes 50% less noise for monsters to hear.  Some monsters have been changed to see the player as less of a threat and the houndeyes are now predators and will attack headcrabs and the cat alike.

Unfortunately, there are known bugs.  Sometimes, the attacks can loop unexpectedly making them very potent in that instant.  Sometimes hit detection on dead bodies is a little off.  The Enhanced IR Night Vision Goggle idea I planned to use for DarkVision wasn’t very good.  I considered using it for a “catnip” enhanced vision mode pick-up, but that didn’t really work either, so that feature was disabled.

DarkVision works nicely, but can sometimes stop the player briefly after level change.  Wall climbing works wonderfully, but is also limitless.  It’s not really a bug, but as long as you are on a wall, you can go up as high on that wall as you like.  We plan to use clip brushes to limit players in-game.

Overall, playing this new code has been a lot of fun even with the bugs.  Players will need a replacement set of dll’s in order to play the original Half-Life as the hull changes in Cat-Life require custom hulls.  Basically, Cat-Life works with one set of dlls and playing regular Half-Life with the cat code will require a replacement set of dlls.  I plan to offer the over-writing dlls as a separate download.

In-game, much of the game play will have changed.  You will need to run for your life more often then stand and fight.  The pace is considerably faster and more hectic, yet a fairly experienced player will be able to really play around and make use of the new code for some fun battles.

Here is a short video for your viewing pleasure.