"Major" Mods' Statuses...

Argyll

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What stage are most 'major' (i.e. total conversion) mods at this point in time? The SDK has been around for a couple months now and there has been ample time for artwork to be created.

These are in no way official stages, just ones I have come up with:

Stage 1 (Pre-Dev. Planning) -- This is what every mod was at before the SDK was released. Basically working on the design documentation, models, skins, etc. No code or maps have been compiled.

Stage 2 (Pre-Alpha Learning) -- Probably at the very least, a major mod should be at this point in time. This is where the developers are just exploring through the capabilities of the engine, etc. Compile models and maps as placeholders for a pre-existing Source game (i.e. CS: Source, HL2DM, HL2, etc.).

Stage 3 (Alpha Released) -- There is a new mod with custom code and artwork compiled and is playable for the team. I wouldn't consider 'Creating a new mod' with Steam as this stage (that would be Stage 2). This is when there is actual mod specific features coded.

I highly doubt that any mods are passed Stage 3, because beyond there would be Beta Testing and Public Release. I would make an educated guess that the vast majority of mods (even despite what they may say) are at the Pre-Alpha Learning stage.

Insurgency is currently at Stage 3 (as of Jan. 23rd). We have various weapons coded along with custom weapons code (iron sights, free aim area, etc.), our own sound, our own weapon and player models, and 2 rough layout maps compiled for testing purposes. For our next IR (internal release) we have gameplay code and bug fixes along with more compiled maps, revised sound, player code, VGUI menu, and the HUD elements. This should all be ready for next week.

That's being all honest with you, so other mods should post their honest status in here and not try to con people into believing that your mod is much further along than it actually is. It should give a good overall sense on the status of all these 'major' mods to people in one place :)
 
Cold War: Melting Point is currently in the ending stages of phase 2. Our programmers are wrapping up exams now, and will be ready to dive headfirst into the code. We're kinda-sorta shooting for an internal release with HUD, weapons, classes, and the basics for the gametype within a month.
 
The Last Grear War is around middle of stage 2, we're inching close to getting an alpha (a basic one, nothing to drop your jaw at).

The Somme Valley however is hitting a snag. Since we were working on the HL1 demo, and our HL2 models were done almost a year before Hl2 came out, we thought it best to simply redo everything insted of porting, why bother porting when you still have the old engine there?
 
Argyll said:
What stage are most 'major' (i.e. total conversion) mods at this point in time? The SDK has been around for a couple months now and there has been ample time for artwork to be created.

These are in no way official stages, just ones I have come up with:

Stage 1 (Pre-Dev. Planning) -- This is what every mod was at before the SDK was released. Basically working on the design documentation, models, skins, etc. No code or maps have been compiled.

Stage 2 (Pre-Alpha Learning) -- Probably at the very least, a major mod should be at this point in time. This is where the developers are just exploring through the capabilities of the engine, etc. Compile models and maps as placeholders for a pre-existing Source game (i.e. CS: Source, HL2DM, HL2, etc.).

Stage 3 (Alpha Released) -- There is a new mod with custom code and artwork compiled and is playable for the team. I wouldn't consider 'Creating a new mod' with Steam as this stage (that would be Stage 2). This is when there is actual mod specific features coded.

I highly doubt that any mods are passed Stage 3, because beyond there would be Beta Testing and Public Release. I would make an educated guess that the vast majority of mods (even despite what they may say) are at the Pre-Alpha Learning stage.

Insurgency is currently at Stage 3 (as of Jan. 23rd). We have various weapons coded along with custom weapons code (iron sights, free aim area, etc.), our own sound, our own weapon and player models, and 2 rough layout maps compiled for testing purposes. For our next IR (internal release) we have gameplay code and bug fixes along with more compiled maps, revised sound, player code, VGUI menu, and the HUD elements. This should all be ready for next week.

That's being all honest with you, so other mods should post their honest status in here and not try to con people into believing that your mod is much further along than it actually is. It should give a good overall sense on the status of all these 'major' mods to people in one place :)
Well the really major mods will still be glints in the mod teams eyes. Waiting quietly to see what the engine can really do before unleashing their plans on the community. Those are the ones standing back and letting those rushing into it make all the mistakes. Watching to see what the popular idea's are and what aren't and planning around that.
 
The Dark Elf said:
Well the really major mods will still be glints in the mod teams eyes. Waiting quietly to see what the engine can really do before unleashing their plans on the community. Those are the ones standing back and letting those rushing into it make all the mistakes. Watching to see what the popular idea's are and what aren't and planning around that.
I think I know who you are referring to... if only you knew what I do about that mod... your opinions may rapidly change.
 
Argyll said:
I think I know who you are referring to... if only you knew what I do about that mod... your opinions may rapidly change.
No, I think your barking up the wrong tree there mate. Whatever your thinking of I can assure you 100% wasn't what I was thinking of.
 
You missed out a large block between stage 2 and 3, which is the implementation of features. I'm there, not at an Alpha stage yet, but still have working components.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Where's the stage where lots of unskinned weapon renders appear

And the "copyright is fine if your doing it for free" stage, which seems to last a good third of a year for those mods, quickly followed by the "err yeah, about that" stage where they are forced into quitting and moving to a new idea.
 
City 13 is in the beginning of phase 2.

My other mod is at stage 1.
 
The Dark Elf said:
No, I think your barking up the wrong tree there mate. Whatever your thinking of I can assure you 100% wasn't what I was thinking of.
Then PM me to what you're referring to :)

Angry Lawyer said:
You missed out a large block between stage 2 and 3, which is the implementation of features. I'm there, not at an Alpha stage yet, but still have working components.
I would consider that Stage 3 since there is mod specific features coded.

Where's the stage where lots of unskinned weapon renders appear...
Stage 1.
 
I'd say it as a seperate stage. A lot of code is in place, but you can't actually play it, nor really test it until there's a little more added. Well, apart from booting up the game, testing the one feature, then going back to C++.

-Angry Lawyer
 
My mod's at stage 1 :p Just me and my mate are doing it, we want something we would like to play.

Yeah, it will be released to public when we have something stable enough. But, if noone else likes it we don't care (the great thing about making a mod just you and your friends :p).
 
Angry Lawyer said:
I'd say it as a seperate stage. A lot of code is in place, but you can't actually play it, nor really test it until there's a little more added. Well, apart from booting up the game, testing the one feature, then going back to C++.

-Angry Lawyer

That's pretty much what an alpha is. The raw physical game exists there, at least for temporary amounts of time.

And Argyll: I don't think TDE is refering to anything specific... I think he's just talking in general.
 
Really depends what you're making. It's hard to explain, but I'm sitting here, with working code, but you can't actually get into the game/load anything yet. It's like setting up infrastructure, or something.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Stage 1 for me.

Im learning a lot of story and plot writing right now, and I want to use it all in my mod. I don't have a deadline and I work alone so no stress.

Got some other things going on in the back that no one should know about yet, but it got with the mod to do :)
 
That's the way to do it. One man mod teams: no stress, no deadlines, no undependable team-members. It gets done only if YOU want it to be.

Majestic's got my respect.

-Angry Lawyer
 
We are sort of in the middle of a lot of things. We have both Windows and Linux code been worked on and I think its nearly complete. We have the game running fine and are just patching up all the bugs such as player animation and physics. We can already play through Half-Life 2 in coop although it needs bugs fixing as I was saying before. Once thats complete we will begin to add the models we have already completed and are currently working on. Thats about it I think... I supose you could say we are on stage 3 but missing parts in stage 2. So infact we are proberly at about 2.51 just to be ahead of Argyll :D

Oh just as a side not for anyone who doesn't know what Sven Coop is. Its not just an addon for Half-Life 2 which lets you just play hl2 in coop. The whole hl2 coop thing is just a little addon to the game which might give some people some fun. Its sort of weird how its a little addon which you would normally do at the end. But we find it easier to test with hl2 single player then start making custom content. Anyway... read the website or play Sven Coop 3.0 you will understand :p
 
I love svencoop, so much fun to play with 10 ppl at a lan ^.^ you rock IchI, and the rest of you for making some very impressive mods :)

/me takes my hat off and bows to the masters of the universe (and then hee-man come along and chops of my head, "I'm the master of the Universe!!! Muhhhahahahah!!!" and then gets eaten by a Garg....The End, Its A Mini Adventure :D)
 
IchI said:
... at about 2.51 just to be ahead of Argyll ...
Would have to be 3.1 mate ;) Sven Co-op better be that far anyways! What happened with your involvement in Corporate Anarchy (I think that's the one...)?
 
Angry Lawyer said:
That's the way to do it. One man mod teams: no stress, no deadlines, no undependable team-members. It gets done only if YOU want it to be.

Majestic's got my respect.

-Angry Lawyer

Thanks for that, but i want to stress some on the word "deadlines". You got to have deadlines some time. Deadlines are good, you wont get anything done if you dont have them. So in that case, i lied, i do have deadlines but not clear ones. I want to learn and write a fair bit of what im doing right now before getting a team working on the idea (since its singleplayer, the storyline is pretty important). If im not done with the other things soon, then i will just go around in circles.

I dont believe in strict/tough deadlines either. Sure, you will get much done but people wont think its fun working on the project, and that, to me, are the most important thing. That and the whole learning progress.

Everyone needs deadlines, or else it wont get done. Its your choice how you want to form your deadlines though.

So take what i said as truth with modification.
 
Compare the Source Engine situation with the Unreal Tournament Engine situation. A great 'major' mod for UT was tactical ops. A heck of a lot of work went into it. And how long did that take to come out since the release of the UT engine? a long time. I would be interested to know the actual timescale here.
 
Dinkleberry said:
Compare the Source Engine situation with the Unreal Tournament Engine situation. A great 'major' mod for UT was tactical ops. A heck of a lot of work went into it. And how long did that take to come out since the release of the UT engine? a long time. I would be interested to know the actual timescale here.
That's partly what this thread is about, to see the progress scale at this present time, so people get a better idea in their head at the development stage and how long it will be until they see their favourite mod available.
 
The Dark Elf said:
Well the really major mods will still be glints in the mod teams eyes. Waiting quietly to see what the engine can really do before unleashing their plans on the community. Those are the ones standing back and letting those rushing into it make all the mistakes. Watching to see what the popular idea's are and what aren't and planning around that.
PM Argyll what you meant. And then tell us. That or edit your post, cause yeah, harsh words.
 
Okies Argyll you win :p Sven Coop isn't exactly at even 2.5 imo. We have pushed forward in main areas but left a lot of areas very wide open which need to be toached up and fixed and even added in general. This is mainly for general testing reasons to make sure we are actually going in the correct direction because unlike a lot of mods we are using the single player code as a base. Which has its good and bad points :p We arn't in a rush anyway and some people seem to be expecting Sven Coop 2 quite soon (1 or 2 months) but I think it will be longer. May be a lot longer, its hard to say. There will be Sven Coop v3.5 released soon though, so that will give everyone something to play with. It may even get more people behind the community ready for Sven Coop 2. Anyway I better stop babbling. Its not really down to who has the biggest virtual penis in length and status its about who makes a kick as mod and I can bet your ass that there are some mods just laid low and will explode in your face (that actually sounds quite sick :p).
 
Argyll said:
What stage are most 'major' (i.e. total conversion) mods at this point in time? The SDK has been around for a couple months now and there has been ample time for artwork to be created.
I'm pleased to say, Dystopia is nearly finished stage 3!

We've got all our main features coded, we're now beta testing & bug fixing at the moment. There's still a bit of stuff to be done for cyberspace, user interface and a few things need a bit more polish, but all in all we're cracking along!

The reason I've been able to get so much stuff coded so quick is because i quit my job to work on dystopia full time, so I usually code for 10+ hours a day. It's been great fun so far!
 
Javert said:
PM Argyll what you meant. And then tell us. That or edit your post, cause yeah, harsh words.

Ok what the hell are you talking about? No really. Read what I wrote and realise both of you are jumping up and down like kittens on a BBQ and making no sense.

NOWHERE did I mention any specific mod, I was talking about, quite clearly I might add, mods that haven't even been made yet, and that they'll be waiting to see what happens, which of course its obvious in the way I said it.

How this relates to the both of you I don't know, but please, point out where I mentioned something nasty or pointed at this mysterious mod of yours, or infact ANY specific mod that has been made and I'll eat my hat. Though I've a feeling im gonna be going hungry this time.

Any future mod worth its salt is going to watch the others closely to see where the pitfalls are to avoid making the same mistakes. How in the name of God is that harsh? lol. It's like, the first rule in succeeding, only fools go and follow the mistakes of others, or didn't you know that?

I fail completely to see how its harsh lol no i really do. Please, enlighten me :)
 
Ah, I had said that because I know of a mod and its leader who pretty much have that theory (or part of it anyways). Sorry for the misunderstanding :) I do see the logic in that theory though!
 
Yea INS is coming along pretty well lately, at least compared to my last experience leading Red Orchestra, which by the way just won the MSU contest and an unreal engine license :D Congrats to the team finishing what I started.

Anyhoo, good to see everyone making progress.
 
Jeremy said:
Yea INS is coming along pretty well lately, at least compared to my last experience leading Red Orchestra, which by the way just won the MSU contest and an unreal engine license :D Congrats to the team finishing what I started.

Anyhoo, good to see everyone making progress.

oohhh you were on that mod team at one stage??

I saw that annocument in my inbox the other day :p Looks pretty good :p
 
Teddy said:
I'm pleased to say, Dystopia is nearly finished stage 3!

We've got all our main features coded, we're now beta testing & bug fixing at the moment. There's still a bit of stuff to be done for cyberspace, user interface and a few things need a bit more polish, but all in all we're cracking along!

The reason I've been able to get so much stuff coded so quick is because i quit my job to work on dystopia full time, so I usually code for 10+ hours a day. It's been great fun so far!

Can't wait. Good luck!
 
Nuclear Dreams currently at 2.

We are taking it slow, picking up speed though. Since we are a single player mod, we want to take our time and not rush it because we want our releases to be good, not buggy pos builds. BTW thats not saying anyone will release those, just alot of mods in the past like to release builds that well just suck.

Good luck to everyone, I cant wait to play some HL2 mods!
 
Kingdom Lost is still in test alpha, we had a bit of trouble conforming our animations, but we made an exporting system with XSI and now we finally have some models in-game

We're working on our website right now and keeping quiet, but things will be pretty neat soon :)
 
because i quit my job to work on dystopia full time

u quit your job??? i wish i could quit school to work full time on a mod... ;(
 
ranga said:
u quit your job??? i wish i could quit school to work full time on a mod... ;(

it just goes to show the dedication on their team :)

dystopia really helped me out a few weeks ago with some stuff, they are the friendliest online dev. team i've ever met
 
Black Mesa: Source - Having entered the "development" stage on January 1st, we are still planning and researching numerous routes and technologies before we commit to the next stage of development. We have several content pieces underconstruction or nearing completion. We are going with the finish everything first, then 'perfect' each piece afterwards.

The reason for our lack of media images is, just as TDE mentioned, that noone likes to see unskinned models or unfinished maps.

Stay tuned.
 
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