Of Plans and Mappers
I suppose it is only natural that I should make a post such as this. Sooner or later, any mod will have such matters arise. Questions are natural and answers should be free flowing. Complaints go hand-in-hand with the internet. And interest can spike suddenly for no apparent reason.
So… let us now delve into the matter of the Special Forces Team plan and SF Studios as a full entity.
The Special Forces mod is still relatively new, and yet it has already lived through one internet life-time and is even beginning a second. The mod began as the brain child of Legend017, an idea for GoldSource that he quickly decided should be built for Source instead.
In early recruitment, it found success in a few mappers and modelers, but ran into the bain of any mod existance… the want of a coder. With that said, production was sluggish at first and many team members dropped from the project.
Yet Legend had more ideas then just one mod. He wished to create SF Studios and dive into other mod projects. With a few deliberations, he naturally chose to focus on SF Source first, but would like to make Gordon Dangerous [a Rick Dangerous style single player game] as the next big project.
With that decision out of the way, focus on SFS was renewed. After changing host sites to BWL DEVELOPMENT and then riding along for the change of BWL’s host service, the SFS team has restructured with more of a focus on mappers.
This is unusual, but not new. Simply put, the SFS Team has received three new recruits for mapping positions in the past few weeks. We have a fairly strong mapping team and have chosen to focus on that aspect of development for now.
This does not mean we have given up on recruiting a coder or 3D artist. On the contrary, we are seeking those and other more minor positions consistently. We are not, however, focusing on recruitment alone. We have chosen to move ahead with the project.
Specifically, the team is currently working on the mapping aspect of the mod. Until such time as a coder is found, or all of the maps are completed, we will continue to develop the maps and improve them, and refine them.
The first goal of the team is simply to build a nice map pack.
The second goal is to add custom code to the map pack to alter game play with the Special Forces: Source TOBP game play, new weapons and armor, unlock system, and three team system.
The third goal is to make 3D graphics such as weapon and player models.
The fourth goal is to make new sound and voice effects to augment the experience.
The fifth goal is to add custom music or graphic changes and any other customization the team may desire.
All of these goals are active now, but the order above reflects our “order of need” in our development process. We want team leaders Legend and BiGToM to have development progress and not spend all of their time focusing on recruitment. A vast number of fledgling mods die that way.
As one goal is achieved, the team will move on to another in the line. The search for a coder is at the top of the list, but is not the active goal at this time… if only because we have not yet recruited a coder.
We would love to begin beta testing the map pack before we even have new models. Perhaps even release a map or two for use in an existing game so that fans can test some of them.
This is our plan.
Nevertheless, there are some detractors before we even publicly discuss our current plan. One such detractor has said, “your plan sucks up the ip of others with no ends in sight.”
Well… the IP in question is mine. I pay for it. I’m okay with this plan. With regard to ModDB and other sites… they exist to let mods suck up their “IP”. [I'm assuming he meant Internet Provider which in turn meant Internet Service or Bandwidth used to host our web pages, screen shots, etc] The goal of ModDB and such sites is to strengthen the mod community by giving all mod teams a chance and trying to help them achieve their goals.
The simplest truth is that Special Forces: Source is on a development track and we are looking forward to real progress. We have as fair a chance at attaining all of our goals as any mod team… and we’re striving to do so in a more organized manner.
For instance, work on the construction site and school maps are both well under way… with regular progress reports and preliminary screen shots in the staff forum. I am not displaying these shots yet as they are very early in development and are not fit for public critique as of yet.
If you want to help the team and can code for the Source engine. Let us now. If you can map, make models, skin, voice act, or whatever… we would love to hear from you. Just be prepared to wait while we attain some of the other goals.
Site Update
Well, after some discussion with Legend, I decided that the old website design was too over-complicated. It was, as the saying goes, re-inventing the wheel.
Specifically, we had a web design and a blog hosting our main mod. When I upgraded my own site, I decided I liked the new version of WordPress enough to consider making a new install here.
We’ve completely remade all of the existing pages and simplified the background code considerably.
Sub-pages for Special Forces: Source and Gordon Dangerous will be easier to browse and the design should be much more user friendly.
Comments are restricted to subscribers so, be sure to sign up if you want to leave a note. And Team Members need to sign up so they can be promoted to Authors and Editors and there-by be capable of adding updates on their part of these great projects.
Enjoy the new SF Studios.
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