TheGrandmaster

Community Round-Up #4

 Posted by at 15:50  14 Responses »
Apr 302012
 

Time for another round-up!

Developer news:
Another sneak-preview has been released by mat^2 regarding the OpenGl engine that he has been working on for the game, here’s the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1cfLCIBe3c

Meanwhile, bcoolface has been busy working on the next public update. Rumour has it it will include some front-end work in the form of the “Ace Launcher”. Firstly, it has a server browser, which is much more intuitive than having to go to a website in order to choose a server. Secondly, and arguably much more importantly, it’ll have an auto-updater. Might not sound all that fancy, but it’ll allow new patches to be installed seamlessly, meaning quicker and easier bug fixes and content additions/alterations!

As well as this, there’s also going to initially be a test for a new registration system. This will integrate with the current forum account system, allowing you to login using your current credentials. It may not be mandatory for the initial release, but as we would have an auto-updater, changes could be made easily eventually leading to this being mandatory.

Forum news
Following a few conversations around the community and within the forum staff,  an all new extensive rule-set has been devised and now implemented.
All those with a forums account, please make sure you give them a good read!

The new rules can be found here: http://ace-spades.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1

Facebook cover competition
As mentioned in the previous post, the Facebook cover competition is still going on! The closing date is nearing, so if you have an entry, send it in before it’s too late!

More info can be found here: http://ace-spades.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=6683

New pyspades game-mode – Infiltration
Made by the python master Hompy, Infiltration is a new asymmetrical game-mode which involves specific roles for each team.

The basic idea is as follows: The blue team are the defenders, they have an intel which they must guard at all costs. The blue team scores cap-points by keeping the intel stationary for a period of time. The green team are the attackers, they must infiltrate the blue’s defences and capture the intel in order to gain their points.
The twist? Green outnumbers blue two to one, which gives this game-mode some fast-paced and nerve-racking gameplay.

So far the game-mode has been given some good reviews: http://ace-spades.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7350
As one of the idea-makers behind it, I personally really look forward to the future of this.

Mumble – voice communication
As many of you have already found out, we have a growing community on mumble. While they regularly raid servers as the ‘mumble squad’, Enari (the server host) has organised a match!
Here are the details: http://ace-spades.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=7610

Details of the mumble channel itself can be found here: http://ace-spades.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=84&t=1933

Community Round-Up #2

 Posted by at 16:31  34 Responses »
Feb 232012
 

So, been a few weeks since last update – lots has gone on!

Recent dev news:

Following the end of the spectator implementation poll on the forums and after some talk behind the scenes, there are going to be some be some major changes from the first 0.75 ‘pre-release’ that was outlined in my last round-up.

So firstly, ‘spectator on death’ is being removed (yay). The code behind this feature is instead being adapted, along with the teams, to create a separate spectator team! This move takes the best part of the old feature (admin abilities, the fun of watching play) and presents it in, what I and others feel is, a better way.

This then leaves a gap. What happens when you die? The idea to replace the spectate on death feature is a form of ‘chase camera’ – in other words, the ability to follow team-mates round the map. This means that you won’t be able to see anything that your fellow team couldn’t see, removing the ability to completely ‘spy’ on enemy positions during the timer.

Last, but by no means least.. attention all modders! You shall, from 0.75, be able to have a different tracer for each weapon: semitracer.kv6 | smgtracer.kv6 | shotguntracer.kv6
By default the semi’s tracer is the same as the current yellow tracer, SMG’s is similar but red, and the shotgun has black pellets.

A new pre-release should be in testing later this week, I certainly look forward to these changes.

Scripted Game-mode: Tower of Babel by Yourself
Recently a new aloha server has been set up with an interesting game-mode called Babel. The game is composed of a fairly normal map, with the exception of a sky platform in the middle that has both intels on it. Other than this, it’s classic CTF!

Gameplay is mostly centred around building a giant tower that you can easily get up/down, but you can go and raid the other team if you so wish. You cannot destroy blocks on your own side, allowing the destruction of the opposition’s tower, but not your own.

A great job by resident scripter, Yourself. Check out danhezee’s screenshot thread for further inspiration!

Mods: xPIXEL’s Intervention Modpack
Recently stumbled upon a rather sweet looking weapon modification on the forums, made by xPIXEL.
Some very nice work done on this, the scope on the kv6 as well as the png is great. Thanks for this great mod!

Link: Forum thread

Forum Discussion
Entitled “Griefing, the Hellhole of AoS – How to Stop?” and started by an in-depth post by Monsteri, the thread has developed into an interesting debate about possible anti-griefer measures, including ideas from global moderators to to point systems based on in-game actions. Worth giving it a read and thinking of more ideas.

Link: Forum Thread

pyspades updates/additions
Recently there’s been a few neat additions to pyspades defaults. The ‘squad’ script has recently been given an extra function that makes sure you are not spawning in blocks. Following on from the last round-up, Triplefox has further developed the terrain generator to include trees! See some screenshots here.

And there’s #2 for you.

 

Community Round-Up #1

 Posted by at 07:59  33 Responses »
Feb 062012
 

Hello!

As bcoolface mentioned in his last blog post, he has opened up this news feed to members of staff.
Myself along with other staff members will be compiling a community round-up hopefully every fortnight, comprising of recent events, tournaments, maps, mods, forum threads that we feel need some attention.

Recent dev news:
Private beta testing for 0.75 went ahead today amongst the staff. We got to test  for ourselves the new click & drag building, as well as the after-death spectator mode.

There were a few major bugs, namely crashing upon head-shotting and on the name entry screen, but those were fixed by bcoolface during the afternoon’s play. Shift-walking had been removed due to a few updates to player input, but we’ve put forward our case and bcoolface is re-adding it, possibly with another extra speed-related feature too, but we’ll see whether that’ll make it into the next release..

Have to admit, the new main features are pretty nice. With the length of a normal server’s spawn time (10-15 seconds), spectating on death gives you just about enough time to figure out which direction the shot came from and possibly follow the player for a second or two. With the longer default respawn of 30 seconds, you generally get a wider tactical picture of the server, meaning gameplay for the individual would need to be more varied. The wave respawn in general is great, since there is not a fixed time between dying and respawning, it can be nearly 30 seconds, but it could be instant (though you regularly get 10-20 seconds). I can see it being good for groups to spawn at base together and organise coordinated attacks.

Click and drag is also neat, can quickly scale buildings without too much effort or build two-high walls quickly – it’ll be a nice cover-building tool. The issues with block-spam do spring to mind, but now the primary shovel action is 2-hit, it is speedy to remove it. Rifle also has 2-hit block removal now as well, SMG and shotgun seemingly the same as it was for the moment.

There are still a few bugs to be fixed and features added/tweaked, but all is looking good.

Script release: hompy’s boss battle!
Those of you visiting sham’s little pony may have heard deadly rumours about a mysterious sea creature.. the rumours are infact true. hompy has recently finished his Kraken scenario, involving some AI to get great interaction between the players and the marauding calamari.

Links: Video | Download info

Map: ‘Remus’ by Yourself
Want an urban map without towering skyscrapers? Give Remus a go! It’s based off the Roman twins Romulus and Remus, who by legend founded the city of Rome. It is made by resident script, tool and map-maker Yourself.

Links: Forum Thread

Discussion/Poll: Click & Drag + Spectator mode implementation
Myself and danhezee recently setup polls about two upcoming features: click & drag and spectator mode.
We have had alot of decent discussion about the two ideas, and some good feedback. Get your voice heard for future releases!

Servers: pyspades map generator API
As y’all know, the Ace of Spades game began with ‘gen’ maps, which is a randomly generated hillside, with trends towards mountains for the blues and the lowland/rivers for the greens. Triplefox, a great mapper himself, has created a map generation API for pyspades which takes the content of a .txt file and randomly creates the terrain for you. It includes features such including automatic colouring and noise and multiple biomes (water, grass, hill and snow). Triplefox plans to continue expanding this, smoothing transitions between biomes further and adding map objects (such as trees). It is certainly something to look out for and try yourself.

Links: Forum Thread | pyspades source

More to come in the next round-up!
~tGM

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