Hello all! I apologize for our lack of updates the last few months, school and life has been extremely busy for all of us working on TNE lately, however I have good news: while we still can't say for certain when we will release, we are getting very close to being done with the first version of the mod.

Coders have been making great progress on the last few coding tasks and because other areas of development are mostly done, its coming down to the level designers (myself included) to finish up the levels to be included in the first release.

This brings me to my next reason for this post: we are in need of some texture artists to help mappers with making textures for their map props and architecture. Most of us are very skilled at the actual level design and model prop construction but a bit less so when it comes to actually texturing them :p So if anyone is interested, please post an application up in our forums. We are looking for people who can work with unwrapped models who can “color within the lines”. Work would initially be on models for Cloud City and Naboo levels.

So that concludes my little news post, we hope in the future to have some more dev diaries, possibly from team members who have completed all their tasks for the first release and maybe a video trailer since many issues we had in the EP1 engine that prevented us from making one have pretty much been corrected with the move to the orange box engine.

Fettness - October 20, 2008 Sweet I can't say if I can help but I'll look into it.

Rhuidan - October 20, 2008 thanks for giving us an update id help with the texturing stuff but i know barely anything about shooping lol.

Sorry, your account does not have access to post comments.

The server crash has given us some serious headache during the past weeks, but it also had some positive side-effects. It caused an internal debate of how we could improve our workflow and lead to some valuable results. Wildebeest - one of our programmers - for instance restructured our version control to allow us to quickly create hotfixes and smaller updates after major releases without us needing to slow down production for the next episode of TNE. This will be a very valuable feature for our development crew after our first release. But considering the very first release, we have some more interesting news for you:

We have discovered that our new favourite color is Orange. Any avid player of Source games among you will now probably already have certain assumptions. And yes - you're right. We are right in the middle of switching the entire mod over to the Orange Box version of the Source Engine. After the SDK got some further updates which would greatly stabilize this engine version, we decided to switch over to grant you the following benefits:

• Improved multiplayer netcode
• Motion blur
• Dynamic shadows
  
• New particle system for visual FX
• Multicore CPU support
• New improved chat system 
• Native third person camera

Thanks to VALVes distribution system, you will be able to access these features even without requiring the Orange Box - all you need is still just Half-Life 2.


On a slightly unrelated note, here is a repost of the Imperial Era player models, since the last news post got lost during the server crash:

Riku - August 20, 2008 but i don't have HL2.. will I be able to play TNE? I have Source SDK Orange Box, Source SDK and Source SDK base..

Darth.Hunter - August 20, 2008 The "Source SDK base - Orange Box" is the key to the mod. If you have it or can download it through your Steam account, everything's fine. HL2 is not the only game that grants access, but I thought it was worth mentioning that you do not _need_ the Orange Box to play the mod

Riku - August 20, 2008 Ok thx for answer I was afraid of that i will have to buy hl2 xD

MadMax - August 21, 2008 This is great news guys! And I bet that new particle system will come in very handy

RepublicKnight - August 21, 2008 Nah you'll need HL2 to run it I think, it's described as a HL2 total conversion. Can't wait till it's released! Especially since the Ghostbusters Game has been Delayed...

RepublicKnight - August 21, 2008 Hmm, I read these in the wrong order and got confused :P nah apparently you don't need HL2

cunningmunki - August 21, 2008 Riku, believe me, getting HL2 is worth it. It's possibly the best FPS ever created, you won't regret it, trust me.

jeantyu - August 22, 2008 Yes it's a HL² total conversion, because it's based on the Source engine. BUT, you don't need HL², any game running on the source engine wille suffice (Orange Box, or simply CS:Source,etc). So you can run it with HL², but not only with HL² !

grim_mind - September 12, 2008 These models are great.. ^_^ PS. how many times can we write 'bout it :P All you need is SDK Orange Box..

Sorry, your account does not have access to post comments.

Dear TNE community,

as you have probably noticed, our server was offline for a couple of days. Unfortunately, the entire RAID system of our webserver fried, so we had to exchange the entire server and re-install it starting from the operating system.

The good news: We're back online!
The bad news: We have a considerable data loss (approximately one week) since the latest backup file got corrupted. You might find forum messages missing or if you have registered within the last week, find yourself unable to log on because your user account is gone.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Nomad - July 27, 2008 At one point i thought that the mod actually died , TNE is the best and i hope it keeps going.

77eagleeye77 - July 28, 2008 I saw "It works!" on a blank background for ages... what did that refer to? Just the site? :P

Darth.Hunter - July 28, 2008 That's just some generic feedback generated by a fresh installed Apache.

o0paradox0o - July 31, 2008 it's letting you know "it works" lol :P

Sorry, your account does not have access to post comments.

Jean has just finished cutting some footage that we shot at FedCon. Since there have been many questions concerning ingame footage, listen up: This little video contains only footage from our booth at FedCon. Impressions of the visitors as well as gameplay scenes from the tournament. Speaking of which: If you look closely, you'll also find our tournament winner in that video, who carries a yellow shirt. Enjoy!

You can also watch this video in High Definition on Vimeo.com

grim_mind - May 15, 2008 ^^ nice update ;p I like the vid also.. ;)

Nomad - May 15, 2008 nice vid HD is the best , btw i thought in the 5 page update that you said you didnt shoot and vid footage.

samgwise - May 16, 2008 What I want to know, is why none of them seem to be wearing the headphones? Nice work though, Jeantyu.

jeantyu - May 16, 2008 Problem with the sound drivers, not suitable for XP SP3, only SP2. But players weren't really annoyed by that.

Nomad - May 17, 2008 Sorry for double post but XP SP3 is bugged u know, just like what Vista is! u need XP SP2 and XP Silverlight Pack.

Sorry, your account does not have access to post comments.

I'd like to make a short but very, very, sweet announcement.. One of our very own developers has won the "HPX Day of the Dragon Contest"

Thats right Toshi (Alejandro Argandona) has won himself a brand spanking new top of the line laptop!

HP Pavilion HDX "Dragon" Entertainment Notebook

With his winning entry the Ars Hoplite:

This just adds further credence to the fact that we have an amazingly talented set of developers as a team working on this mod..

Congrats TOSHI!! w00t!

The full announcement of the winner and the original article can be read here at ARS TECHNICA..

ps. Toshi,... I hate you XD

Darth.Hunter - May 13, 2008 Congratulations! Well deserved, with that resemblence to all those "300" pranks around the web, it gets a slightly comedic aspect. At least that prize is better than the LucasFiles contest I once won

ArroW - May 13, 2008 Nice, well done

MadMax - May 13, 2008 Congratz man : ) You r indeed very skilled

grim_mind - May 14, 2008 well.. .congratz :P

Sorry, your account does not have access to post comments.