M72 LAW

Going in game after this post. Ehhm, I was thinking about updating the Blog only once a week, Sundays maybe. We're not producing enough content to warrant a daily update at the moment, and any of the new stuff we're at is mostly "proof of concept".

Bo

Promo Video

Sorry Bo had to hijack your blog page to let the people know there is a new promo video of the mod to give them a peak at whats waiting for them in the mod it can be seen here http://www.blackopsmercenaries.us/bom_shots/promo_bomsf/promo_bomsf.html hope everyone enjoys it

Reference Material

Thats the thing about modding or even building stuff in 3D for a game. The material you assemble before you begin drawing or building is key to getting right, unless you want the wrath of the experts on your ass. Thats what you gotta respect from the larger mod teams who research in detail the differences between the MkII and MkIII version of a weapon or tank. So thats why I put a pause on the FIM92, because there are two things that are wrong with the modding scene.. 1: is there only one arms manufacturer of handheld surface-to-air missiles in the world, and 2: why are there bugger all photos and whatnot on the internet? I'm not the first to ask this deeply philosophical question......

Anyhow, the M72 LAW needed to be built - enjoyed its idea since Operation Flashpoint. One Shot - One Kill, and thats the way it'll be coded for the next release. It won't have 3 reloads or anything, its just for those brown pants moments when you come 'round a corner and see a T72 and all you have is a knife in your hand....So I'll paint it tomorrow and code the projectile and main weapon on Friday. Tomorrow involves a a bit of work on the R-17VTO Aerofon....

Bo

General Update

I built this bike about seven months ago when I was very green to the "modelling for a mod" scene. I had built literally hundreds of 3D models for work, but never anything dynamic like this, so I'm thinking of rebuilding it from scratch, with a bit more awareness of polygon limits.

[ A polygon is a triangle. Two make a square surface. A cylinder might take up to 48 to build and theres a limit in the BF2 to how many you can use for a weapon, vehicle, etc.......]

Plus, I don't particularly like the skin either, early attempts and all that! Its based [loosely] on the one on the bottom right hand corner of this page....

http://www.orangecountychoppers.com/occweb_ver2_themecust2.php

Moving on....I'm in the process of deciding what to build for the next mod update, not forgetting the two boats and three cars that still need coding love. I've picked a few new handheld weapons that didn't make into the last update but are built or drawn, to work on in the coming weeks - FIM92 [above], Steyr Aug, XM8, and the desert eagle. There are also a few large weapons, and should my luck with coding vehicles change, I'll have a crack at some dedicated Special Forces armoured fighting vehicles. Nah, I'll build them and get BigDog to export and code them....haha.

If we can find ways to code some of the more peculiar vehicles, the next update should be outstanding. I'll post a list when I have my workflow organised.

Bo

I told a lie....

A big fat one actually. As you know, the mod was released last night and was extremely successful. No crashes, no problems, and people would appear to be relatively happy with it. Now I thought I along with Cobra and BigDog, would have a break for a while and get back to playing. I thought that was us for a while. Not so. I started on coding the OCC109 Chopper that I built a few months ago, and BigDog coded some roadlights in the game for some nightmaps. No doubt Cobra is working on a new map or four.

Seems like the blog will be updated as usual then!

Bo

Lost In Translation

"Nägel mit Köpfen machen" is not an expression I am familiar with. Though I asked my friend Romy from Leipzig, and she told me straight away. It means that one will honour his/her commitment to whatever he or she has said. Straight up, it means that what we have promised, we have delivered. It is an unusual thing to say, yet I respect the German logic, especially when you consider that a hell of a lot of the content in the new mod is german by design. Halo wie gehts, I say!

I would like to thank the many German bf2 sites who have promoted this mod without being asked to. It is uplifting to see the sites listed on the home page recurring time and time again, and people leaving positive comments. Danke!

Let us not forget the French sites also. I must apologise for "je ne parle pas bien francais" and it should be www.somua.com not .net . Je suis "human"!

No hay mucho site en espanol que sabe de BOMSF, pero espera que mucha gente jugais MultiplayerCoop en Espana. Vamos a ver. [lo siento por la qualidad de espanol]

There are no images to display today. Why not? Well you will find out on Sunday when the mod is released. It will be released at 3:00 CST, which is 9:00pm GMT.

There will not be many updates on the blog after this Mod Update - I have too much to do the house i bought, so i will be retiring from modding for at least 6 months. If there is at least 5 people who want tutorials on how to build, paint and code weapons, for BF2 or otherwise, please email me, and I'll make one up.

Thanks for stopping by.. Slan Leat

BO109-BOM- Mod Dev & General Goon

Calm before the Storm

Lordy, another hectic evening! My efforts with the icons was shortlived as bf2 started using our icons for everything with some very strange results. Rank insignia vanished, crosshairs turned into swastikas, you name it. 12 or so coffees later and it works. If you ever plan on modding, let a dedicated code basher do that stuff, or better still get someone else to do the damn thing.

Now, as for the rest of the stuff - RedDog, BigDog, Cobra & I have all been busy busting our heads with the graphic backgrounds, movies, icons...blah blah. Not very exciting, its like this -put four people in a room and you'll get five opinions! BigDog is doing some mad stuff with flash movies and its turning out really sweet. One final pass will be made on the mod content later to make sure its stable, and we'll polish off the graphic stuff tomorrow. Keep an eye out on the main site for graphic changes, as these mean we are getting closer to release.

Oh, and bonjouir a mes amis pour le site somua.net!

Bo

Kit List

Whoa, what a day. Me and Code - i.e. 1's and 0's never got on. It took a few hours to code this stuff and get it working properly. Its strange seeing them, each with a slightly different colour, in stark contrast to the Dice version.

I got the Cobra and Gt40 fixed too, but haven't touched the corvette yet. No panic on that stuff though, we're not a racing mod.

At last count Cobra has 8 excellent maps ready to go for the mod, so with the exception of one or two background images for the loadscreen, its nearly finished.

Bo

Final Render

Next up in the list of things graphic related to fix & fine tune are the Shelby Cobra, GT40, and Corvette. They all have slight imperfections at the moment and I'd like to get them on the same level of presentation and speed so we can incorporate a race map, for fun in the near future. Its more than 7 months since I last worked on them, so it could be hairy trying to find them all. Then theres a few sound files required for the BigCat and that should wrap up the vehicles. The weapons need slight tweaking for crosshairs and sounds, but thats only a small piece of work. A few hours should cover it.

I had a quick blast on the test server last night on a new map that Cobra is working on, and all I can say is that the new Mod is the best fun I've had in absolute ages. It will out very shortly, all going according to plan.

Bo

F15 Tomcat ....???

Well, ever since BiBi suggested this skin, I couldn't find enough reference photos. Until yesterday, so I started chopping it up and adding a bit more black to it. I think we're all used to the black F15. This will not go into the mod until it gets the say-so from BigDog. He has a particular affection for this jet. Anyhoo, its still a work in progress, so I'll have the final version up later. Oh, its from the Jolly Roger squadron of F14's....

Bo

Uniform

Whether yee like it or not, we are now a proper Special Forces squad!!!

HK416 & Camo

Ok, so the camo experiment worked to a degree. One of the skins from Xpack has been absorbed onto the Seal body and it works quite well. I could show you, but then I'd have to kill you mwooohaaa haa. I'd like to leave some stuff till the mod release. Anyway, the camo scheme suits the new weapons, and I don't think yee'll be disappointed. The HK416 is coded and ingame. It replaces the M16A2 that the medic uses and bots seem very happy with the replacement. I've got to go to IKEA in Engerland to buy a bastardin' kitchen tomorrow, so there'll be no work done 'til Sunday. From me, anyway......

Bo.

U.S Camouflage Scheme

Two photos above show the stock US camo scheme for Special Forces on the US soldier model[bottom]. Not the most exciting skin ever. Why? I can only assume that all the stock maps that the US classes featured in were night maps and you never got to see what these textures really look like. Now thats the texture for the light class, but the heavy class texture is really really poor, which is odd because the texture artists at DICE produced some excellent work, given the shoddy base models they had to use. I digress. What I did was grab the texture for the SAS class and cut and paste it to fit the texture sheet - a botchy yet useful method[top image]. So next I want to find out how to change the pouches and rucksacks that the US class has to that of the SAS class, and that involves [i think..] messing around with .con files. This is still only an experiment, and if it screws up then so be it.

Bo

The Lineup

I must say, I feel a little bit taller looking at this pic, and I think the feeling will be extended to all who grab the new mod when its released. We've decided to leave the Bot weapons alone, but extend these to the first unlock level for the MEC guys. That way, if you join a server thats gone all conquest, you will have exactly the same options as the US team, and no excuse for blaming lag, drink, or piss poor weapons for getting your ass handed to ya. Ok, so thats the end of the modelling new content for this update, and iIll be focusing attention on a new skin for the US team, and the blog will be updated with as much news as I'm willing to divulge. [Theres lots of content that I will not tell you about, but let you find out for yourself!]

Things I would have liked to have gotten finished, but will work on at a more relaxed pace are the handheld Stinger, M224 60mm Mortar, and a few other odds and ends that are lying around half finished and partially coded. Our primary concerns are that the content we release is extremely stable, looks polished and slick, and fundamentally adds an added level of fun. ...now wheres that F15 I had a minute ago....its in need of a paint job......

Bo

H&K M416

I think the title of this weapon pretty much sums up the new loadout for the mod. H&K's a plenty, an M4 and M16 variants. Anyhow, the final handheld weapon in our current list is on the surgery table, having being butchered from several of the existing models with some new stuff added, much like what the boyos at Heckler & Koch did. So, with thanks to Zorkon for his kind words, a work-in-progress render, before she gets finished and coded later on.

Ingame Screenie

Hey all. Got the G11 skinned and into game. The animations are a bit on the dodgy side, but I'm not overly concerned. Nonef us can animate, so I'm forced to butcher a few different ones together. Anyhoooo, the bots love it - its a real mince meat maker. One more weapon left to do and then we're nearly good to go.

Bo

H&K G11 K2

Its ugly, I think. Bigdog Likes it. But as the Spec Ops primary weapon ......Whataya reckon?

Bo

Time for a rant....

Its been bugging me. There are umpteen Mods out there for BF2 and if I got a dollar/euro for every time I was referred to them, I'd have enough for a few sups at least. Heres the deal, and some of you still don't get it. The likes of POE have many people working on there mods. Why? because they've been around since the dawn of the Battlefield series and YET it takes these goons more than 12 months to port their previous stuff and create some new stuff into a mod. Don't get me wrong, these guys are at the top of the shitheap when it comes to mods. They are the only mod team who've gotten something to market before the death knell of BF2. And what say of you about all the WW2 mods for BF2? Were the three mod teams that are currently touting their wares on totalbf2.com et al not producing similar content for previous versions of the battlefield series? It beggars belief that these mod teams in particular, whose leading lights are some of the most helpful and knowlegable folks at the editor site, cannot arouse enough interest in what they are doing to get their so called dedicated members to create, skin, and code content in a shorter time.

As a mod team, we must have the daftest CV 's when you analyse it. 1 member who is awake in stints of 60+ hours, another who can barely see, and another who cannot get anything done unless copius amounts of guinness are available. Hardly the calibre of people who would naturally attract other modding geniuses. Nevertheless, we work tirelessly to create new and exciting stuff. In the last three weeks, I personally have built, skinned and coded seven or eight new weapons, BigDog has done and learned umpteen new things to the existing weapons and vehicles and Cobra has been on hand to advise and produce relevant maps for all of this, and the man is not in the best state of health!

We don't have dedicated sound engineers, animators, hud specialists, or even someone solely dedicated to making maps. Our mapmaker spends his time babysitting and generally watching over things. In his "spare" time he produces a map or two. So this brings me to the point - we must be the hardest working under appreciated mod team out there. Plain and simple. We don't hand out a chore to some johnny come lately and expect him to return in two weeks with some half arsed weapon or vehicle only for us to spend another 2 weeks fixing it. No. We build it if we think its going to give us a reason to laugh or curse. Then I look at the level of contributions donated to the upkeep of the servers and ftps in the last three months and I wonder....What the fuck is the point....?

We'll be switching the server to host "Centipede" shortly at this rate.....

Ingame Render