Off-Limits - '4 Years' Special Update

[Evo]

The Off-Limits team have been very quiet for the past ten months, in fact so quiet this is the first piece of news since August last year! This update though is to celebrate four years of the Mods life, and includes a wide range of new images to drool over.[br]

Exactly four years ago Simon and Keats were two of those ambitious people who started a modification for Valve's Half-Life Source Engine. A nice amount of HL2 mods have been released and unfortunately a lot of them died but Off Limits is still going strong! As you probably noticed the Off Limits team hasn't posted a lot of updates lately but to celebrate the 4 years existence of the project we are happy to share some new media with you.

[br]

​

[br]Check out all the new images here and enjoy, because Off-Limits is still alive.

 

[Sloth]

Was wondering where they went, good to see they're still alive. Always thought it was a novel idea.

 

[soulslicer]

is this downloadable? cant find links..

 

[simon]

Not yet, it's a media release, not a mod release. We're getting close though, just a wee bit longer

 

[nutcrackr]

I can't even remember this mod.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Awesome work.

 

[Kadayi]

looking good

 

[Sathernut]

4 years? For a mod?

Wtf? Just release it already, this is why so many mods die because they try to make it like a damn AAA title.

Its a 3rd party mod. Get on with it.

 

[Evo]

4 years? For a mod?

Wtf? Just release it already, this is why so many mods die because they try to make it like a damn AAA title.

Its a 3rd party mod. Get on with it.

/groans

:hmph:

 

[Dodo]

4 years? For a mod?

Wtf? Just release it already, this is why so many mods die because they try to make it like a damn AAA title.

Its a 3rd party mod. Get on with it.

shhht.


happy birthday OL !!
Looks great as always.

-dodo

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

4 years? For a mod?

Wtf? Just release it already, this is why so many mods die because they try to make it like a damn AAA title.

Its a 3rd party mod. Get on with it.

It doesn't work like that. Take Zombie Master as an example - we started it in Summer 2005. However, of the two years it's taken us to develop, we only actually used about 12 months of development time.
Mod developers rarely work on their mods full-time. Schedules frequently conflict, people have to drop out for a while for school/college/work/family reasons, members come and go. For small teams especially, it can take a long time to get a game working to release level.
I know the OL guys, and they're not aiming for an AAA title-style release - they're spending pretty much all their time fixing bugs and solving problems. They just happen to have some goddamn awesome artists.
I don't comment on other mods much (as was pointed out to me earlier), but Off-Limits is definitely one to watch. It's a blast to play, and visually stunning. It's definitely joining the (very) short list of Half-Life 2 Mods That I Will Play.

 

[ZoFreX]

Pi, any chance you could publish a list, preferably with RSS updates on releases, for those of us who spend less time sorting through stuff? I'm sure I'm not the only one who values your opinion and is also crassly lazy..

 

[DjBourgeoisie]

Looks great, my only concern with this and mods with vehicles is hl and source dont have the best reputation for handling vehicles in multiplayer. I hope they are able to find some sort of workaround because I like the idea of the mod.

 

[Betelgeuze]

As a playtester I can say that the vehicles work perfect in-game, I was really surprised and impressed by that. Off Limits wouldn’t be the same without them because its lots of fun! You have no idea how great it is to jump in a car with a couple of teammates, do some drive-by shooting, ram enemy vehicles and drive people to- and from the objectives.

 

[soulslicer]

this would be the case with bms as well i think. imagine. 3 years later and we get news on them..

 

[DelaZ]

Looks good like usual! :thumbs:

 

[Narvi]

So... we should expect a release by... 2008?

 

[keats]

Probably; depends on dexter episodes, average rainfall in Belgium in july and august, the wind direction in my garden in a week and a half and the success of my any-E***-or-artificial-sweetener-containing-soda-detox. Caffeine is a bitch. Stay tuned.

 

[Asuka]

Doesn't look that great to me, but ill definitely give it a shot on release.

 

[dogboy73]

Doesn't look that great to me, but ill definitely give it a shot on release.

I can't help thinking, everytime we see media from the latest mods, how dated the Source engine is beginning to look. I remember the same thing with HL1. Remember how good we all thought that looked when it first appeared almost 10 years ago? A couple of years on & 1001 mods later & we were all sick of the way it looked.

At the end of the day though it's the gameplay that counts & lets not forget the Source engine is evolving ...... at a snails pace but it is actually evolving. If the mod teams can direct their hard work into the gameplay as much as the graphic design then Source can be maintained.

Graphically though it's falling way behind when you look at some of the things that are happening now. Things move very fast in the world of 3D engines for Source to have much sustainability outside of the mod world. Certainly given the fact we're on Valve time where Source is concerned.

 

[Gusdor]

FOUR YEARS

For ****s sake just release something already...

 

[Sathernut]

FOUR YEARS

For ****s sake just release something already...

Exactly. Im not bagging the mod itself out. It looks great and looks like a blast to play. But seriously, you guys look like you have quite a lot of content there. Just release a friggin beta or SOMETHING already so we can play it. The biggest mods didnt get their fanbase by making a topnotch polished release first. Take counter-strike for instance. Its turned out to be some-what popular.... ..... and look at the first releases of that? Plant the bomb wherever u wanted, choppy as hell models (i know it was a long time ago but whatever). Like serious, Zombie master is HELLA fun and it definitely had its flaws but thats what builds mods character n stuff u get me?

Basically, JUST FREAKIN RELEASE IT ALREADY.

 

[simon]

Let's see, we had the idea in June (HL2 was scheduled for a September release), but it was delayed for one year. So you can already deduct one year and three months. minus about two summers we hardly work in the evenings cause we do like to have some enjoyment besides the computer. Minus another six months. And all mods have long periods of inactivity, we sure had loads.. most likely minus another four months. And were no game developers who work all day on the game, we do other work during the day and work on the mod at night and we are a very small team (less than 5, mostly 2), which is few for a total conversion.

 

[Betelgeuze]

It's unbelievable how much pressure gamers put on mod teams lately. You guys expect everything from a mod: it needs great graphics, special features, the gameplay has to be perfect and it cant have any bugs... and when a mod takes 4 years to develop you guys say "release the f*cking thing".

They are not holding back just so you guys have to wait longer, let them release when they think it's the right time.

Btw a lot of very good HL2 mods still have to be released, so Off Limits is not 'late'.

 

[poullos]

So which is the winner recipe? Innovative features or gfx?

 

[keats]

Or... Maybe... people should stop seeing this as a competition, or a race, or a duty towards gamers, or whatever. We don't mod for you, nor for showing off, nor to make money, nor to get a 1000 players and get on a plane to Valve. We mod to learn how to develop games, and we have learnt a lot. We don't care about being AAA, visually stunning, succesful, whatever. This is a work of love, and we love what we make. All the rest is just bells and whistles.

Oh and @garry. Stop dissing on TC's. The comparison is not fair. Making a sandbox game as an isolated coder is in a whole different ballpark as making a TC and trying to run a whole team that has to produce all assets into a creative whole.

 

[dogboy73]

Btw a lot of very good HL2 mods still have to be released, so Off Limits is not 'late'.

They'll all be to late if they don't get a move on. Speaking of which where the hell is Black Mesa Source & They Hunger: lost souls?

 

[Betelgeuze]

Too late for what?

The source engine is still being used by different studios and some HL mods are still in development today!

How many mods have you made so far?

 

[dogboy73]

Too late for what? The source engine is still being used by different studios and some HL mods are still in development today! How many mods have you made so far?

There are plenty of Mods in development. I know this. The question is how long before we finally start to see them? How many of the mods that were announced following HL2's release have we actually seen almost 3 years after its release? Only a small percentage.

The main problem is the longevity of the Source engine. No doubt we've still yet to see some great mods. But before long they're going to start looking very dated. I think a spokesman from Black Widow games (authors of the upcoming Source fuelled They hunger: Lost souls) in a recent interview with Planet HL sums it up perfectly when questioned about the games release delay;

It doesn't help to keep working on a game forever until it's perfect. An amazing game by today's standards will look outdated if released a couple years too late, regardless of how much more work has been added to it. There's a fine line between not polishing a game enough or spending too much time to polish it.

It's not a fault of the Source engine. It's just the speed things move on in this game. And lets be honest here, graphics are hugely important in the FPS genre. The genre by & large is driven by graphical advancements. That's why graphics cards sell. We want our FPS's to look as best as they possibly can otherwise we feel we're missing something.

HL2 looked pretty amazing when it came out 3 years ago. I was stunned by the detail & the atmosphere created by the graphics. It still looks good now I think but there are things just around the corner that will blow it out of the water graphically. All 3D engines, including Source are living on borrowed time & these days that time certainly isn't getting any longer.

 

[undertone]

i dont think it'll matter. mods were still being released on goldsrc when it was looking dated as hell and they still werent "late" CS 1.6 still has tones and tones of players yet its on a dead engine.

i wouldnt worry if i were you.

besides, new games like crysis and such all look better, but the community wont be there. hl2 has a vast mod community + now that the game is a bit dated the players will have rigs more suitable for it. the next year will be the perfect time to release a mod.

 

[Shinobi]

I must admit this one slipped out of my radar, glad to see everything is still on track


gj

 

[Gusdor]

It's unbelievable how much pressure gamers put on mod teams lately. You guys expect everything from a mod: it needs great graphics, special features, the gameplay has to be perfect and it cant have any bugs... and when a mod takes 4 years to develop you guys say "release the f*cking thing".

They are not holding back just so you guys have to wait longer, let them release when they think it's the right time.

Btw a lot of very good HL2 mods still have to be released, so Off Limits is not 'late'.

The right time was about a year after production began. I waved as it passed by and I saw what are now successful projects spewing out betas.

I still fail to believe that there are people out there so stubborn they refuse to believe the sentiments of industry professionals. You should treat the community like your test team and through out anything you can compile.

 

[keats]

You say that and have 'help the plan of attack revival' in your sig. Glad to see you're still waving. As far as graphically outdated goes - why are most online gamers still playing CS 1.6 ? Eyecandy is just that - for MP FPS games people want fps & gameplay, and you'll get a much bigger userbase with a game that runs on PC's a few years old than with cutting edge graphics that only the early adopters can run. Valve has understood that. AAA gfx are important if you want to release a AAA console game, but the people in the market for MP mods want fun MP gameplay.

As far as your comment on industry professionals go, don't overrate them. They don't have the answer to everything, and chances are they have their own agenda when they say all mods should release early. There's truth in their words in that you should prototype and have a test/feedback cycle early on, but we do that with internal playtests. Releasing an unvalidated gameplay concept to the masses, especially a bunch of critics as us ( let's be honest, hardcore gamers are very demanding ), is not a good idea in my opinion, and no Erik Johnson can talk me out of that.

[ Btw, didn't you try to start a mod yourself or is that a different gus? Something with blood in the name iirc? ]

 

[Gusdor]

Plan of Attack is a good game dammit! They split because they went onto careers afaik. Not because no one played.

The reason CS is so big is because its a genuinely good game. However, when the first few betas were released it was rubbish! Barely playable, disgusting artwork, buggy. It was only at beta 4 that it started getting a little good. Goose released betas fluidly and regularly. Each one had a plenty of new features - not just bug fixes. He used the public as his testbed on what was then an unheard of game type. And he succeeded.

Releases keep your name out there much better than news posts. Hell, i wouldn't be so irate about this if i didn't actually want to play the damn mod! And that comes just from watching the trailer.

As for me. Yeah, I worked on Hidden: Source right up until i got fed up with the SDK being such a joke. Previously to that I was involved with Eternal Silence (for a short time), Paroxysm for HL1 and Incoming. If i started mod now it would have 'blood' in the name and would be called "Not on this Bloody Engine".

 

[keats]

Haha, at least we agree very much on that point