First Strike mod weekly update #6

Wraith · Post by **Wraith** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:53 pm

[First Strike Update 6] - [Thursday 24.03.04]

Hi there, and welcome to another tasty First Strike mod update. We hope you have a pleasant meal. For hors d'oeuvre, nibble away at these succulent factettes.

There are an average of 41.36585366 posts per day on the First Strike forums (including developers)

There have been 5 iterations of the Seraph fighter design.

It is entirely possible to introduce two people, who you thought were strangers, only to discover that they already knew each other. It's a small net.

I hope that didn't spoil your appetite, because there's a hot, nourishing main course on its way. Ah! here comes the waiter...

This week Crispy rolled back into town, after a week's skiing. (He had a bet with himself that the HEK would be released while he was away. He lost his bet.) Refreshed, he has been attacking the level design with gusto. Sometimes realism is easier to achieve than at first you think. eg...

Q: How do you design a fusion reactor?
A: www.iter.org. The international fusion generator program has scaled plans, sections and elevations of a genuine fusion reactor design. I have a feeling that the ITER designers are closet Halo fans, because the interior of the reactor complex is an ideal battlefield for Halo's gameplay, with lots of height changes, niches and cover.

Meanwhile, Chaos has been turning his pencil away from character design briefly, to concentrate on space vehicle design. We've only ever seen a handful of UNSC and Covenant spacecraft before. With the second half of First Strike taking place mostly in space-based locales, there will need to be handfuls more. Two current projects are designs for the Covenant Seraph fighter, and the UNSC frigate The Gettysburg. The Seraph in particular is being reworked nearly every day; there are so many ways to go about designing a Covenant fighter, we want to get the right one. The Gettysburg is almost all gun and engine, which is a lot of fun to design!

In the 3d modeling department, Farsight has been iterating versions of a Covenant character model. He has been studying all the concept art and screenshots available to get the shape right. BOB has been testing out animation on this model, to see how to best make it move in an appropriate fashion. However, we will need to know the specifics of the animation format for the HEK, before we can make the bigger steps.

The battle rifle and SMG have been naked for a while, but are now starting to recieve fresh skins. Vice and Iceman (no, they're not an 80's cop duo) (or professional wrestlers) have been painting up textures for thses two weapons. Whilst we do not have access to the flashy bumpmapping of the Halo2 engine, we are trying to get as high a level of detail in as possible.

At last, we have work in progress on a public website. Nof and Merecatfish both have experience running websites, (Halo sites at that!) and so are putting together a proper place from which to spread the word about the mod. When we go live, expect to be able to view all past weekly updates, plus more background info and content, including concept art, articles and other goodies.

This managed to leak onto the HBO forum a few days ago, but it is worth repeating here. Our sound man, Jatin, is putting out a casting call for all you Halo fans out there who think you can act (or growl, or whimper, or scream). There are a bunch of new characters in First Strike, some more talkative than others. Here is a comprehensive list of all possible speaking parts:

Human-Male
1. Lt. Haverson
2. Locklear
3. Admiral Whitcomb
4. Flight Officer Mitchell
5. Longsword Pilot
6. Captain Keyes
7. Sergeant Johnson
8. Charlie Company Marine 1
9. Charlie Company Marine 2
10. Charlie Company Marine 3
11. Charlie Company Corporal
12. Governor Jiles
Human-Female
1. Polaski
2. Longsword Pilot
3. Dr. Halsey
Covenant
1. High Prophet of Truth
2. Tartarus
Spartans-Male
1. Fred
2. Josh
3. Isaac
4. Anton
5. Li
6. Will
7. Master Chief
Spartans-Female
1. Linda
2. Grace
3. Vihn
4. Kelly
AI-Male
1. Ascendant Justice AI
2. Araquiel
AI-Female
1. Cortana
2. Kalmiya

We cannot guarantee the appearance of every one of these characters, but this list really illustrates the massive amount of voice work that could be needed.

If you fancy yourself in any of these roles, pick a suitable line from the books, (or out of your head), and record yourself saying it in character. Send the resulting .wav .mp3 or .wma file to : [email protected] with the subject line "Voice Sample". If we think you're suited to the role you auditioned for, or any other suitable role, we'll get back to you and start making you a star!

Now, after feasting your eyes on that eclectic main course, take a moment to cleanse your palate before indulging in the candy-coated sweetness of the pudding.

Lead 3d artist Farsight has put together a short trailer for the First Strike mod, with the aid of Kooky. It puts you in the mood with an old favorite, and then previews some of the concept and preproduction that we've been doing, set to all new original music from our composer, Steven Miller. The trailer is 2 minutes long and is available in three flavors, MPEG (27MB), Divx (9MB - be sure to have the latest version) and Windows Media 9 (5MB).

We refuse to set release dates for anything, even the public website. But we can say that we aim to have next week's update appear on our new website. Hope to see you all there!

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First Strike is a Single Player mod for Halo PC, based on the novel of the same name by Eric Nylund. All trademarks copyright their respective owners (Microsoft and Bungie, really...) Please contact Crispy ([email protected]) if you wish to contact us or help out (no time wasters, please!).

RunningRiot · Post by **RunningRiot** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 8:05 pm

This should probably be moved to news...

Looks great though!

-RunningRiot

HunterXI · Post by **HunterXI** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 10:03 pm

yeah, but the newsys would move it back again (bastards).

once again, AWESOME! no pics again? wah!

VGChampion · Post by **VGChampion** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 4:22 am

I can't wait till the HEK comes out so I can play this. The First Strike mod sounds really awsome!

Wraith · Post by **Wraith** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 7:17 am

HunterXI wrote:yeah, but the newsys would move it back again (bastards).

once again, AWESOME! no pics again? wah!

Um, that's why there's two minute trailer... ;P

HaloJunkEE · Post by **HaloJunkEE** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 7:23 am

I watched the video.....I'll be back...I need to go change my pants...

Dark Cloud · Post by **Dark Cloud** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 7:53 am

Erm... isn't the MC's real name John, or something?

halofan141 · Post by **halofan141** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 9:36 am

Dark Cloud wrote:Erm... isn't the MC's real name John, or something?

Yes it is.

Dark Cloud · Post by **Dark Cloud** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 11:03 am

Ok... just making sure.. or something...

Anyways, I watched the trailer, and like someone said on the FS boards, half the movie is the final cutscene from Halo, which is really dumb. However, the animation of the brutes in quite nice! Kudos, and best of luck!

HoboRockAssassin · Post by **HoboRockAssassin** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 2:07 pm

watched the video.....I'll be back...I need to go change my pants...

a little too much info
but sounds really good cant waitt for this

Freelancer · Post by **Freelancer** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 2:53 pm

so.......................i dont get it is this going to be on halo 2 or are you just going to make another campaign and put it up for halo. Either way im intrested. And where can i see the animations

Freelancer · Post by **Freelancer** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 2:55 pm

duh never mind. if it was for halo 2 it wouldnt be a mod!

Freelancer · Post by **Freelancer** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 2:56 pm

oh and for those of u who wanted to know why i didnt edit. its because i need more posts lol

Dark Cloud · Post by **Dark Cloud** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 3:04 pm

Well, you aren't suppose to do that, n00b. -_-

Demonic Spartan · Post by **Demonic Spartan** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 6:29 pm

....looks great....