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« NEWS ARCHIVES »
January 2006 |
| v1.0 Gold Announced! | | - MooMan65 | January 26, 2006 | This is the newspost you've been waiting for! The announcement of v1.0 Gold which will be the first full public version of the mod! I have successfully secured the services of stordoff to work with the AI as I requested previously, so development should indeed speed up!
Notice that the progress bar has been altered to reflect this change. Beta 3 is no more, and in its place I have decided to just go straight to making the next release the final of v1.0 for public use! The price of this is that the line has been moved a bit so to be at a more realistic point in development for the public to play the mod. Don't be discouraged by the big gap as over half of that is the AI improvement which is being worked on by stordoff independently of the other half by yours truly. Thus, the bar will definitely fill up faster than before.  The contents of v1.0 Gold will be as follows:
- Game Objects
Allied Unit and Structure Changes
Soviet Unit and Structure Changes
Yuri Unit and Structure Changes
- Major Feature 1 - Terrain Retexturing
Part A: Temperate
Part B: Snow
Part C: Desert
Part D: NewUrban
- Major Feature 2 - Terrain Expansion Support
Part A: Temperate
Part B: Snow
Part C: Desert
Part D: NewUrban
Part E: Lunar
- Major Feature 3 - Urban Combat Enhancements
Part A: Civilian Unit and Structure Changes
Part B: ????
- Major Feature 4 - ????
- AI Enhancements
- Miscellaneous Changes
Country Changes/Bonuses/Deficiencies
Collectable Debris
Reworked Points System
Reworked Sight/Speed System
...
????
That seems a lot for just 52% overall completion doesn't it? Well that just shows you there is still a lot more to come in future versions, but I'm just not that mean to make you wait all that time.  To give you some sort of idea, there are currently 10 Major Features planned, and we're only up to numbers 3 and 4.
As for an exact date for this release, you're lucky to even have a progress meter, so don't ask.  If I set dates, I'll most likely end up breaking them, so I just don't bother. Believe me though that it's to my advantage that I get this out before I go back to
University at the end of February, so we'll just see how much time I get to work on it over the next month or so. In the mean time take comfort in the fact that a public version is coming in the foreseeable future! | |
| First Poll For 2006! | | - MooMan65 | January 23, 2006 | Now that Yuri's Vehicles are released I am able to change the poll to the question I've had planned for a while now:
What's making you most excited about YR˛ at this point?
You have a lot of choices here! Between the three sides additions and changes, the new terrain graphics, the Terrain Expansion retexturing/support and the civilian changes announced earlier! I don't want any in-between or "I like them all!" answers; I want to see proper choices... What made you most excited when you read the information on it?
With that for you to think about, the results of the previous poll were as follows:
How would you like YR˛ to be packaged? [257 votes total]
-Using an installer (187)
-As an archive (38)
-Other (please comment) (16)
-I don't care! (16)
I wasn't surprised with how this turned out in the end, hehe. Most of you are just players of the game, so to truly satisfy you I'd have to make it install just like the game itself of course.
Judging from the comments though I think I was a bit unclear about what I was truly asking for... I was talking about the installer here, not the launcher program that would be used. I've pretty much made up my mind that I will use the XCC Mod Launcher or XRML for the launcher (either way it's very easy for you people to run the mod, it won't conflict with other mods and you can install it anywhere on your hard drive, not just in the RA2/YR directory), this poll was on how to distribute that launcher and all other files necessary.
In any case I'm sure the majority will always go for a proper installer program, so that's what I will go for. Depending on what I end up using I will attempt to script it so it does most of the thinking for you (i.e. detecting components such as the Terrain Expansion, Rock Patch, Assault Mappacks etc., detecting and dealing with other conflicting mods, proper uninstall/upgrade components etc.) but be warned that this will take more time to do. | |
| Yuri's Vehicle Released & Update | | - MooMan65 | January 18, 2006 | Finally! I have completed the side briefing pages! The new Yuri Vehicles is up in all its glory! Sorry for the long wait, but I'll explain that in a moment. As for this page, don't expect such a massive lot of changes you saw in the Infantry page, but they have undergone their own fair share of changes:
  
 
So be sure to read up on them, although you might not want to go just yet, as here's an update on general development progress as well, as a special request from me to you:
I do remember that I said I wanted to get a public version of the mod out before I went back to University at the end of Feburary, but I am sad to say that might not actually happen. The reason? Two letters: A and I. The AI enhancement section of the mod is a full 14% of that progress bar, and it's a priority requirement that I at least get half of it done before any public release so the games you play are actually worthwhile with the AI utilising the new things. I am somewhat on track with Major Feature's 3 and 4 to get them done as expected, but this additional thing is something which I neglected to think of earlier that throws a wrench in the plans.
But, there is another option that could speed things up: Concurrent development. If there is anyone out there who has experience with the AIMD.INI file and the time to develop an improved AI system, please contact me! As you now have all the knowledge on what each side has from these info pages, and that info is basically most of the unit/structure changes that will ever be in YR˛, you can work on this while I continue my work on the other features. Thus the AI enhancements cease to become an issue for me and a public release will surely come much earlier! I am perfectly happy to work on the AI eventually, but this is for the public's benefit in that more work will be done at once. As a developer, you would have full access to the current version of the mod to play and experiment with as you do your work. I look forward for any applications.
The other thing is I have been lately called in at my job to work extra shifts. I now work five days a week so my free time is more limited than before. This is just a hobby of mine remember, I do need to earn money. :p I'm trying to keep up, but this will no doubt contribute to any time delays that may arise. I'd better get back to work now. ;) | |
| A Few New Tidbits | | - MooMan65 | January 6, 2006 | I was about to update the poll here, but realised that I need to release Yuri's Vehicles first, so while I type that up, I've updated the Other Changes page to include a few other changes (not major) that I've been saving to release for a rainy day:
- Collectable Debris: This change has been in the mod from a very early stage, and was shown in early screenshots as well. But I've only now officially released the info on it, on what is effectively a third resource in the game.
In a way, this additionally helps to balance out the three side's resource gather methods. Yuri's Slave Miners have always been known to be the best option, but because Allied and Soviet Miner's always return to base to dump their loads, they can pick up nearby base debris without deviating much from their standard routine. Yuri players will need to move an entire miner back to the base for the slaves to start mining it, and it might even have to move about the base with the slaves as well if the debris is spread around quite a bit.
- Reworked Points System: Quite a transparent change as far as gameplay is concerned, but the points that objects gave you when you destroyed/killed them have been altered to a fairer scale (as there were a number of inconsistancies in the existing scale).
- Reworked Sight/Speed System: Not mentioned in the individual unit briefings is the fact that, overall, Allied and Soviet infantry sights ranges have taken a hit. This was done to emphasise the difference with Yuri's Infantry who quite often have large sight ranges themselves (to compensate for the loss of the Psychic Reveal and to display their enhanced mental ability), and to also make the game similer to previous C&C's where vehicles generally boasted longer sight ranges than infantry. A couple speed factors have also been modified, but they are less noticable.
- Psychic Sensor Switchover: This is not something mentioned in the Other Changes page, but I have recently swapped over the now Yuri Psychic Sensor to the Armory section back as it was in the original game for the Soviets. You'll see this if you view Yuri's Structures and Armory pages.
Well that's pretty much it for now. As mentioned, I am working on the Yuri Vehicles page now (as you've been waiting long enough for it) on the website front, and Major Feature 4 work has begun in the mod itself. Don't worry, there is a reason why I'm doing Part B of Feature 3 after Feature 4. A big reason. | |
| Major Feature 3 Part A: Civilian Enhancements | | - MooMan65 | January 3, 2006 | 
I just couldn't resist posting this one as a preview image. It's never a good combination to include one's nickname focus as a usable object in a game, as you know they'll show bias! As for what the Cow now does, you'll just have to wait to play the mod... But I'm sure you can get an idea from the image! 
Right! With that out of the way, it's plainfully obvious now what Major Feature 3 is about. Civilian stuff! Bringing the progress meter up to 39%, Part A focuses on improving many of the neutral infantry and vehicles dotted around maps, adding in many variations and improving their abilities in support and assault roles should you be able to obtain them. Everything from cars to the celebrety heros are covered, so just head on over to the new Civilian Changes page and find out. Don't worry, there are plenty of images in there too!
And on a somewhat related note, uploading that new page gave me the excuse needed to rearrange things a bit as well as upload a second new page. Basically, the background discussions of the three sides are now seperated out from the main mod info pages, and I've added the Credits page putting all acknowledgements into one section instead of dotted around the other info pages. I was planning on doing this when the public version was released, but I found I was missing too many people out so I skipped ahead there.
What's next? Let me get back to ya on that. | |
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