http://www.fsmod.com/index.php FirstStrike News Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:44:21 CDT http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-072010-2.htm Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:44:21 CDT Greetings Troopers!

This news post comes from the pen of FSDev Twigs who'd like to introduce you to his new baby, and to accompany it we have a fantastic screenshot extravaganza which is a feast for the eyes, so read on...




This is my first news post on behalf of the team and I hope it meets your expectations! Our regular readers may recall a strange foot note to a news post:

There is another map...

Well, I'm extremely pleased to give you a little sneak peek at it, but first a little history lesson. The X-Wing series of games was produced under license from LucasArts by Totally Games. Proving extremely popular, the series mixed flight simulator with Star Wars, producing one of the greatest Star Wars flying experiences. The series featured four games in total, two of which could be played online. The first of these, X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter, thrilled players of the day and a clan following soon built up, some of which still continue to play.

My own online gaming experience began with XvT and its sequel, X-Wing Alliance. Like many I longed for another game in the series, one which would couple the unrivalled gameplay with modern graphics and network connections. There would be no sequel though, and ten years on many of us searched for another Star Wars game which could match the realism and thrill we wanted.

First Strike was eventually what I settled on to match the XvT thrill, while not a complete experience, the mod plays in some ways very much like those games. Many of the Dev team had in fact aspired to try and recreate the dogfights experienced in the series. When I gained access to the testing team, many of us would throw ideas around about how we could replicate some of the missions from XvT. Eventually, I learned enough about the mod to be able to do it myself.

So here it is. A homage to X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter. The concept is simple, score the most kills in order to bleed the oppositions tickets. The team that reaches the number of kills first, wins. There are no other objectives to complete, no flags to capture and no capital ships to destroy. Don't think this will be a simple walk in the park though, team work will still be vital. Going alone against a squad of TIE Fighters is suicide, always work with a wingman! Your choice of ship is also a factor, you will need to balance strengths and weaknesses in order to be victorious.




We're sure many fans of the X-Wing series that now play First Strike will enjoy this map, and perhaps even rekindle those memories from the MSN Gaming Zone! Maybe this familiar sight will help. Yes, that is a Virella Systems Cargo Tanker you spy!



In other mod news, work continues to add the final polish, the Sentinel is nearing completion and it's weapon loadout is almost complete. We won't give away the full armament of this impressive ship, but here's a little preview of the devastating fire power she has at her disposal.




1.5 is more than just two maps though, its the things behind the scenes that will help further propel the mod. New member Restnpit has been helping tweak the AI ensuring that Yavin will become more of a challenge as the bots bite back, while automated turrets throughout the mod have also seen a similar performance increase. Balance tweaks, bug fixes and much more all help to enhance the player experience.

Finally, Benu Kenobi has completed his apprenticeship and has now joined the mod team. We hope you'll join us all in congratulating him on his accomplishment. An experienced mapper, we're delighted to welcome him onboard.]]> http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-072010-2.htm http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-072010-1.htm Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:29:15 CDT Hello troopers!

We'd like to bring news of a new COMMUNITY MAP released by Benu_Kenobi, titled Outpost Assault. This map is an infantry-based night time map set on a small island, where some Rebels have to liberate some fuel so they can escape from an Imperial outpost before reinforcements arrive.

BlackIntel are currently hosting this map on their testing server, which was used for development for this map, and public players are free to join it at any time. They are also planning on hosting an hour-long event on their regular server at 7PM UK TIME, 2PM EST (1 hour before the community game), running this map trying to get a large game going.




If you're interested in playing the map, you can download it HERE(38mb), just extract the zip and read the included readme for how to install the map. We'd also like to note that as this is a COMMUNITY map, and has not been tested and approved by the FS Dev/Testing team. Although a lot of people involved in the testing for BlackIntel were veteran testers/ex-testers, not all of the testing (and few of the dev team) were present at all stages of testing, so we can't promise the map will run perfectly. We can, however, say that so long as you follow the included Readme file, you shouldn't have any issues playing regular First Strike.

Don't forget, BlackIntel are planning on running an event for this map on their regular server at 7PM UK TIME, 2PM EST, so lets get as many people on this map as we can!

See you out there.]]> http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-072010-1.htm http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-062010-1.htm Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:24:30 CDT
It would appear that 2010 has become a year of problems for First Strike, starting off with a considerable downsizing of the team and delays to our next release. Our latest crisis is a big one, and in this news post we'll be requesting your assistance in dealing with it.

As you may well have noticed recently the First Strike Stats server has been down for some time, well this is only the visible tip of an iceberg which represents a far graver problem. Our server has been maliciously hacked, and this has resulted in the corruption and loss of a great deal of First Strike's assets, as the server also housed our FTP resources where our various assets are stored. Typically when this attack occurred the FTP had not been backed up for a while resulting in the loss of a considerable portion of First Strike work. FSDev Imperial who is in charge of running the server has as a result had to foot the bill to have a professional recovery service retrieve the lost data that would have crippled First Strike development had it remained unrecovered. Now he has done so out of his own pocket, and we feel that it is wrong that he should shoulder that financial burden alone, to assist him we are putting together a donation drive to help him recoup at least part of the cost of the recovery which was a staggering $500.

Now we must make it absolutely clear that this donation drive will not result in us making a profit on the modification that is First Strike, as per our agreement with Lucasfilm we are not allowed to do so when producing a product based on the Star Wars franchise. The donations will go towards recouping the costs incurred due to a malicious attack on the First Strike server. We'd like to ask everyone who loves First Strike to donate at least a small amount to this cause.

Thanks in advance for your continuing support.]]> http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-062010-1.htm http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-052010-1.htm Sat, 15 May 2010 05:25:04 CDT Greetings Troopers!

Due to public demand the First Strike Community Games will be making a welcome comeback this weekend. Held on the ever dependable Black Intel server we should see some good games over the weekend, and with luck some nicely populated servers to help show new players just what this mod is capable of, and with stacks of new content just around the corner, there will soon be plenty of new toys for the vets to play with too. So lets revive the FS CGs as we approach our next release.

So these events will take place on Saturday & Sunday at 21:00 GMT, which works out as 20:00 GMT + 1 for the U.K. (British Summertime at the moment), 21:00 Central European Time, and 15:00 EST.

See you there troopers!]]> http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-052010-1.htm http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-042010-1.htm Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:39:05 CDT Happy Easter Troopers!

Yes, we are still alive and kicking. Many apologies for the delay, that of this news update (has been almost two months since the last), and for the ongoing delay in the next release of First Strike. In the final stages of testing on Jundland Wastes it was decided that some additional tweaks were needed to further hone the gameplay design of this map. These tweaks would involve a number of time consuming changes. Unfortunately there has been some further disruption within the development team with a key member having to withdraw from the team before these changes could be made. With already dwindling resources this was a bit of a blow, but we have regrouped, and are heading full speed forward again with a new mapper and coder, further polish is being applied to all elements of the map ensuring that this release will be well worth the wait. We're currently implementing these new changes in testing, and those results will determine what state we are in, and how good things are looking in terms of getting this new content out to you guys. So bear with us, and we'll have something quite special out to you before you know it.

In addition this seems like a perfect time to remind you that we are actively recruiting this year as we have need of artists and mappers and coders. Texture artists would be particularly useful, as would prior knowledge of working in the Battlefield engine. We are looking beyond the next release and forward to the most ambitious in game rendering of the Battle of Hoth that there has ever been. We already have an expansive Echo Base modelled, we're mainly looking at texturing and object population of that asset, the AT-AT Walkers are also pretty much ready to go with just interior modelling, texturing, and some coding to be done, we still have to look at the overall terrain mapping for the map, but we really just need the man power to put it all together and we'll have an immense detailed and lore accurate representation of that most iconic of Star Wars battles.

If you have the skills and the passion for all things Star Wars?

Then sign up here:


Lastly as a little Easter present here is the full image of the Jundland loading screen to whet your appetite for this imminent release.



Enjoy.]]> http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-042010-1.htm http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-022010-1.htm Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:39:23 CST Greetings Troopers!

This week we thought we'd take the time to release a few more snippets of information about Jundland Wastes, reveal a glimpse of the loading screen art, and a first look at the backstory text as penned by RSFAngel, winner of last year's First Strike Fan Fiction Contest, whose prize was to get the opportunity to write this text, together with tester access to the mod. Let's see what he came up with...



"Hot on the trail of a pair of rogue droids, escaping a captured Rebel starship in orbit, elite Imperial Sandtroopers are deployed to scour the arid wastelands of Tatooine far below. Their orders are to search anywhere that could possibly harbour the fugitives. The droids carry sensitive information which the Empire can not allow to fall into Rebel hands. Meanwhile, a Rebel Alliance cell based out of Anchorhead has been tasked with engaging these Imperial forces in an attempt to hamper their efforts and buy the droids the time they need to get off world and evade capture."

So the stage is set for an intriguing engagement between Imperial and Rebel forces, and unlike our previous Tatooine maps this one will take you up close and personal to distinctive Star Wars movie locales so close to the timeframe of the movies that it will give you the feeling that if you'd got there five minutes earlier you'd have crossed paths with Luke Skywalker himself.

We'd also like to thank all who voted for us in this year's ModDB Awards. We may not have made the Top 10 this year, but your votes are still appreciated. Besides, look at our past form. 3rd Place Unreleased Mod in 2006, and then 4th Place in the Top 10 Released Mods of 2008, clearly 2009 was not supposed to be our year, but we'll clean up in 2010. Thanks once again to everyone who voted.


Finally we'd like to expose you to a little more eye candy in the form of the second in our series of screenshot previews.




And now I'd like to leave you with but one more parting thought.

There... is... another...





...map.]]> http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-022010-1.htm http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-012010-4.htm Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:02:41 CST Greetings Troopers!

It has been quite a long time since we last gave you all a general update of how things are going due to the fact everyone has been working so hard on content for the next release. Things are calming down for some of the team as their projects are completed, giving us ample time to update you all on what is going on within the First Strike Team and Community.


EA/DICE/Punkbuster Bug

First off we'd just like to comment on the EA/DICE/Punkbuster bug issue that has been plaguing our mod, and in fact the actual source game BF2142 since before Christmas. We're quite annoyed that EA, DICE or Punkbuster have still yet to resolve this problem. The problem we speak of is an intermittent lag/framedrop/freeze which some people get which makes the game almost unplayable. It is a global issue, everyone seems to have it to some degree. Restarting your game tends to get rid of it, but it returns in time. We'll be looking at ways to combat this until the powers at be deal with it. We'll be experimenting with disabling PB on some servers to see if that alleviates the problem. If it does we'll let you know, and run our servers in this fashion until the bug is fixed. We'd also like to make it clear that this bug is not a problem with the mod, but an issue at EA's end that they have to rectify.


Recruitment Drive

With the team gearing up for a new release, we are in serious need of more developers to help out. No matter your talent, be it coding, skinning, modelling, mapping or even Music Composition, we could use the help. If you're interested in joining the team please let us know via our RECRUITMENT FORUM (http://forums.fsmod.com/viewforum.php?id=9), please note that evidence of previous work WILL be required.. We are in need of some BETA TESTERS, if you are interested in helping out with our beta team, read THIS form.


Apprentice Program

The FS Dev team has recently renewed the apprenticeship program, where we take on people with some basic skills and they get assigned with tasks which improve their skills, give them vital experience and also benefit the mod through their work. Currently there are two apprentices on the team and both have been hard at work fixing some of the long-time bugs that have been in First Strike and also doing some small work in improving some of the content for the next release. The team is willing to take on more apprentices, however be aware that it will be MUCH harder to get into this position than it will to apply as an experienced Developer due to the fact we have few people with the time that is needed to mentor and we have more need of experienced people.


Bug Destroying

Our apprentices are hard at work, and like good mentors we want to make their lives miserable. Please help us out by reporting any bugs that are in the mod so we can task these guys with fixing them. If you have spotted anything in game which looks out of place or think something isn't working right, please post it in our BUG REPORTS forum. If the bug is possibly game breaking, or you do not want to register a forum account, then please send the bug details to the e-mail address FirstStrikeMedia@gmail.com.


Community Games

Unfortunately, the Shattered Planet community is unable to continue hosting the First Strike Community Events, however the BlackIntel group have stepped up again and offered their services as the Community Night server. We would like to extend our thanks to Shattered Planet for supporting the mod, and it's with a tear in our eye that we see them go. The BlackIntel group have agreed to appoint some more community admins to help moderate the games rather than just having their own members in control. We appreciate this move and look forward to the games this weekend! Don't forget to come online at 8PM GMT (3PM EST) this Saturday and Sunday!


New Team Structure

Recently First Strike's Lead Coder and Development Leader, Imperial, has resigned from his position due to lack of time to commit to the mod. There was recently a meeting of the First Strike Team and we have the following changes to announce:
TALON has now been promoted to Dev Team Leader and is in charge of handing out assignments to developers and establishing deadlines.
Twigs has been raised to the position of Assistant Team Lead to handle the Distribution side of beta content and also working as our new coder.
Gwynzer has been dragged into the position of Testing Team Leader, he'll be conducting all the testing sessions and he's the man to see if you have any questions about the testing team.

Finally after ingesting all this information, here is a little eye candy to help wash it down. The first in a series of screenshot previews showing off the new Jundland Wastes map.





Stay tuned for further updates on as we approach the eve of our next release.

]]> http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-012010-4.htm http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-012010-3.htm Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:05:24 CST Greetings Troopers!

Welcome to another content update as we storm ever closer to the next release of First Strike. Believe me, when you finally get your hands on this you'll see why it took so long. This update will reveal the final shiny new toy we will show you before release.

The Imperial Sentinel Landing Craft has been on a long voyage before it finally arrived in game within First Strike. I started work on building this not long after I first came to join the Dev Team, and though it was finished in a timely fashion, at that time there were no maps suitable for an asset of this size and power, and more importantly, no texture artists which were available to put the considerable time and effort in to get this beast textured, coding was also an issue, you have to remember this was before we'd even got the Lambda Shuttle flying. As a result the Sentinel lay in mothballs for some three years.

Then in 2009 with work beginning on Jundland Wastes the opportunity arose to resurrect the Sentinel, with this map being set around the time of A New Hope on Tatooine, it was the perfect fit for the scene in the movie where you actually see the Sentinel drop off Imperial troops as they search for a pair of rogue droids. There would never be a more appropriate map on which to reveal the Sentinel. With his impressive work on the Jawa Sandcrawler already under his belt, Krenyo was the natural choice to take on the task of texturing this massive Imperial war machine, and as you'll see from the renders below he has done a grand job.




So just how will the Sentinel as an asset play within First Strike? Well the Lambda is one of the most popular craft in the mod so far, it's tactical applications are near limitless with it's impressive array of firepower and ability to swiftly transport a high volume of troops pretty much anywhere on the map, in the right hands it is a force to be reckoned with which can turn the tide of a map. The Sentinel is all that on very strong steroids. The ship operates as a mobile command post, wherever it lands troops can be deployed at a moments notice with impressive fire support from the Sentinel's defensive blasters, shielding over the troop deployment ramps will mean that if enemy troops wish to plant explosives inside to deal heavier damage they'll have to venture on board to do this. Life has just gotten that much tougher for the Alliance. When Rebel troops see the silhouette of this monster on approach it is time to run.


]]> http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-012010-3.htm http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-012010-2.htm Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:34:56 CST


Greetings Once Again Troopers!

We just want to convey our thanks to you all for voting for us in the ModDB Mod Of The Year Awards. It means a great deal to us, and we're extremely happy and grateful to make it past the first phase of voting and into the top 100. However, the competition isn't over yet! Last year we placed fourth in the competition, in order to show up in the top 10 we'll have to place 3rd or higher this year, so get voting again!

Unfortunately, due to the way ModDB accepts votes, unregistered users votes don't count unless there is a tie, which is extremely unlikely with the thousands of people voting, so we'd greatly appreciate it even more if you could register to ModDB and vote when you've logged in.




Votelink: http://www.moddb.com/events/2009-mod-of-the-year-awards/top100

]]> http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-012010-2.htm http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-012010-1.htm Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:28:17 CST Happy New Year Troopers!



As we come ever closer to the next content release of First Strike it gives me great pleasure to introduce you to some of the numerous new and exciting features and assets that shall soon be made available to you guys.

First up in this update is a new toy for those of you with Rebel sympathies to play with. The MLC-3 (Mobile Laser Cannon) is a nippy little armoured unit that packs a hell of a punch for a vehicle of it's size. It's twin laser cannons are extremely efficient at dispensing with advancing infantry, and the charged maximum fire power shot makes short work of enemy light armoured vehicles, making it a versatile piece of equipment that no Rebel commander should fail to deploy on the battlefield.






Those of you old enough to have been around when Star Wars first appeared on our cinema screens may feel a pang of nostalgia, and might just remember this design from your childhood. Yes, Krenyo has taken the design of one of those old original Kenner/Palitoy Mini Rig toys and fashioned a fresh and exciting new vehicle for First Strike.

Stay tuned for the next exciting update, Jundland Wastes has been a long time coming, but it is so packed with goodness we believe you'll find it well worth the wait.
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