The engine including the mission/campaign features is ready for some weeks now but Matrixgames decided that the game has to look way better to get some success on the market.
Vicious Byte had to acknowledge this and last but not least we do agree.
Therefore they asked to drop the old hex map style for a more coherrent look. We tried diiferent hex styles but found that none would make the game look like something Matrixgames would accept for a full release. Clueless I asked Stefffan (Fosi), our retired artist of v1.0 to 1.3 for some ideas. He did not let me down and created a 3D look which is both great looking AND doable for a skimpy programmer like me (Thanks god we are using Allegro, a brilliant freeware game library). I asked him to rejoin Vicious Byte and he agreed, now working on the 3D maps.
Welcome back Steffan.
Matrixgames did like what he produced as a beta and added their best artists to improve on titans/interface and sprites. Thats the reason for our new schedule which will hopefully make it till christmas.
My work on the AI has grown so far that I'm now adding internal levels for NOT doing certain feats as it was killing me to often at low levels. I'm constantly testing the new version with a friend (each of us piloting 2 jocks in the same team) and we lost the last 3 battles in a row against the AI one rank lower with 25% weight advantage. Yes, you can now set the opposing rank and
balance, allowing from 50% to 200% your teams weight.
Its not that I have nothing to fix as Iceman is bombarding me with a list of bugs/hints/improvemets each week
A BIG thanks to him as the game wouldn't be as good as it is witout his continuing input.
The battle interface is getting much better and Kais factory is looking gorgeous. Christian did a great job on the editor which sadly can't be included in the first WS release as it is too rough to use for non VB members. His next task will be to make its interface smooth for a public release.
The missions have lots of neat stuff and the AI is behaving good following patrol paths, staying hidden or just doing what the map editor was planning for them to do.
Eric is doing great on the sounds and music.
Relationship betwen Matrixgames and Vicious Byte is growing stronger and I would like to thank David Heath and Marc Schwanebeck for their dedication and patience.
I'm happy to see some of you old TOS bastards here at the forum.
Special greetings will go to Hetz, Prince Corrin and Tarantel Cy Mir. I love it that you are still around.
Larkin aka Henrik
