Level Up!

DysPatch has revealed in this FA Forum post that the skill system and credit cost of FAS has been changed. The skill system will feature six unique skills, with three levels each, for a total of 18 skills. Players will be able to chose as many skills after they want for a set number of kills, for now. In the future, when more skills are added, there will be a cap to how many skills an individual can acquire. With so many skills though, it is unsure if there will still be the standard 10 kills per skill upgrade in previous versions.

DysPatch also provides an example of how this new skill system will work with the new Commander skill.

* Commander I
o 5% Faster Movement Speed for Nearby Teammates
* Commander II
o 5% Accuracy Boost for Nearby Teammates
o 10% Less Damage to Nearby Teammates
* Commander III
o Capture Objectives Twice as Fast

In addtion to the skill changes, FAS will move from the traditional 30 skill points to an even 100. This is for the anticipation of new weapons in the future, allowing for better balance. All current items in FAS will have their credit cost raised to reflect this new system, such as the cost of grenades being raised from two credits, to six credits.

Wide Tracks of Land

Those with very large resolutions, such as 2560x1600, need not worry about FAS supporting your resolution. DysPatch confirms in this FA Input Forum thread that FAS does support larger resolutions.

Steamy Goodness

Now that steam has made their new UI official, you may have noticed that not much is done for third party programs and mods, as shown here.


This feature, DysPatch said, is available to games only who use the Steam Cloud in some way, for now. Unless FAS can be integrated with Steam like previous mods, everyone will have to suffer from the simple display.

Lowlight

The highlight feature in the previous news update may not make it to the first release candidate. DysPatch said in this thread that the highlighting was unstable, and had to be cut. If this means for testing, or for the first RC, has yet be determined.

Ting ting ting ting ting!

In many FPS these days, there is some indicator whether you hit someone or not, be it a change in your cross hair, a noise, or some other visual clue. FAS will not be much different from these other games.

As DysPatch states in this thread, "we plan on having a nice helmet thud or flesh break if you hit someone in the head" and continues with, "I wouldn't mind a cross hair flash for hit recognition. Its been brewing in my mind for sometime." However, adds that it would be something for after the initial release of FA.

Not everyone though shares the same philosophy as DysPatch. Naoto points out that, "hit indicators are borderline cheating." Citing examples from play test, Naota recalls when damage was displayed on the HUD, saying "[it] was one of the most frustrating parts of the game until we went out of our way to remove the damage indicator from testing." These on screen indicators showed when you hit someone, allowing players to "fire their machine gun into the darkness/undergrowth/water/solid walls/prone players/window ledges far away and have the UI feedback tell them to keep shooting because they're hitting someone."

And as Naota said, "As awesome as it might be, bullets are not one of the five senses."

Can I Has Server?

DysPatch has stated that server binaries for FAS will be released a week prior to the FAS client.

Source

FAS Testing Debrief (25 APRIL 2010)

The April 25th testing continuned testing the stability of FAS on the orange box engine, as well as enusring that the push and territorial control gameplay worked. Thankfully, most of the issues have been sorted out, however, there are still issues when a team reaches zero reinforcements and someone captures all the points. Futhermore, there are still some issues with the rag-doll physics. Lastly, some balance changes will be looked at such as increasing each team's reinforcements, as well as increasing the effectiveness of armor. The following are known issues that will be fixed for the next build:

• Increase M24 Scope Accuracy
• Decrease M82 No-Scope Accuracy
• Decrease M79 Damage
• Increase M67 Frag Damage
• Increase Desert Eagle Recoil
• Increase Reinforcement Threshold
• Increase Armor Effectiveness
• Recompile Ragdolls
• Decrease Sako 95 Damage
• Increase SR25 Movement Penalty
• Fix Game rules on Map Full Capture
• Fix grenade throw animation

FAS Testing Debrief (18 APRIL 2010)

DysPatch will now post Testing Debriefings in the Beta Testing Journal. Testing Debriefings summarize the last testing session as well as list bug fixes and changes that will be made for the next round of testing.

The 18 April 2010 testing tested the stability of the game on Orange Box, which is progressing but not as stable as previous builds, with issues such as PS and TC points crashing the server. However, many bugs have been identified and will be fixed for the next round of testing, including:

• Fix Armor Credit Cost
• Decrease Wind Volume in Snowstorm
• Optimize Snowstorm
• Re-add Ammobox reload sound
• Give More Magazines on Spawn
• Decrease time between magazine pick at ammoboxes
• Fix sprint speed, and movement speeds in general
• Stabilize TC and PS capture points
• Add weapon distance firing sounds
• Ragdoll recompile (To fix seizures upon death)
• M24 Animations

Highlight System Revealed

The highlighting system in FAS was revealed with little fanfare, leaving many questions unanswered. Luckily, DysPatch has answered many questions about its implementation in this FAS Forum post.

Q: Or is there an option to turn highlights off for specific things, such as objectives, crates and people with specific skills (medic/leader)?

A: Yes, you can turn these effects off in your multilayer options.

Q: Does the ammo box's color change depending on the damage? Like if its in mint condition, its bright green, but servery damaged its dark green (or yellow)?

A: Not currently.

Q: What happens when an objective is destroyed? Does the outline just disappear completely?

A: The highlight will stay there until it is respawned.

Q: Would CTI items also get this glow when they are included as well?

A: We haven't completed the CTI gameplay model since we do not have any CTI maps yet, but the CTI objects in the map will have the glow. We have other plans to indicate where the intelligence is when a player is carrying it.

Q: Is this a mapping entity added to the specific objects, or does the engine automatically apply the glow for these specific objects?

A: No it is not a mapping entity, it is automatically created.

Q: How would the leadership aura work with this?

A: In terms of leadership, we haven't decided what we are going to do with the highlights, but it will most likely show on the players affected by the aura. In terms of whether or not YOU are being supported by the aura, we will either have an icon or a shader for RC1. Our ultimate goal is to get a shader that adds a subtle effect to your screen, but we may not have time to implement that and may stick with just a leadership icon on the HUD.

Q: What effect does this have on the all ready existing player indicators, if at all?

A: We are keeping the overhead indicators because they still serve a purpose that the highlights do not (health indicator, rank indicator, and skill indicator). We most likely will not be adding highlights to individual players because the screen could get cluttered very easily.

How Does I Map?

Since FAS is moving to the Orange Box engine, that means that anyone creating third party maps for FAS can not use HL:DM or any other Source engine games due to the engine change.

If you are looking for another game to use in the meantime, DysPatch recommends using the HL2:EP2, but be warned that the foliage included will not be a part of FAS.

FAS NEWS (3 MARCH 2010)

FAS's news post has made it official that FAS is moving over to the Orange Box engine. The reason for the change of engines is because of the problems in the older code, making the game very hard to debug and code. This change however does not effect FAS being released this year. As DysPatch states, "game balance down for what we would like to be released with RC1, so its as simple as moving the functioning clean code over, optimizing old code, and leaving behind the bugs." All of these improvements are made possible FA coding veteran, Mazor, who has done various work on the Half-Life version of FA and FA related projects.

FAS has also released new screen shots of ps_snowstorm. The map has undergone revisions since its last showcase. DysPatch has stated in his developer's journal he has been working on "finishing up the brushwork and the lighting on the map."


In addition to ps_snowstorm, there is a new render of the M18A1 Claymore Mine, modeled by Racer445


As well as the Gerber Gator Machete: modeled by Naota, textured by Dr. Hubbler, and animated by Thisismyname09.


Finally StealthSilver has updated and users who have Desura will be able download FAS though that distribution platform.

Detailed

DysPatch has released a couple of new screenshots of ps_snowblast in his developer's journal. In addition, he invites everyone to check FAS's twitter feed and his personal twitter feed for additional screenshots.

Red Barron

In a FAS Input Forum Thread, it was asked if FAS would have a similar jump mechanic to the HL version of Firearms where people were able to jump around and still and be able to fire effective. "The only penalties we have for jumping are a stamina decrease, and a slight disorientation of the screen similar to that of FA," DysPatch said. This goes along with other comments in the past about FAS having a more arcade like experience, not a tactical shooter.

Eraser

FAS has material penetration - meaning you can shoot though some objects in the maps - according to DysPatch is this FAS Input Form Thread. The amount of damage though walls depends on many factors. According to DysPatch: "It is based on the material and thickness of the wall. If its a thin metal sheet, you bullets will pass through it with ease. If its a thick concrete/brick wall, it wont pass through."

Remakes Redone

DysPatch has updated his developers journal with a list of changes he has made to his maps - ps_snowstorm, tc_rubble and tc_iwojima - as well as

PS_Snowstorm (Most heavily modified of my maps):
- Added two rather large routes on either side of the middle capture point.
-- entrance/exit to middle
-- entrance/exit to center
-- exit to underground tunnel
-- entrance from sniper tower
- Elongated the middle to fit more players
- Moved last flag capture to the bunker left of the spawn exit


TC_Rubble
- Replaced old sniper tower for red with a new one that has more cover
- Added new right to the left of the sniper tower incase red is being pinned down at their spawn
- Added alternate spawn exit for blue to drop into the dark building incase blue is being pinned down at their spawn



TC_IwoJima
- Added two new routes at the end of both tunnels in hopes to reduce spam

Breaking the Mold

Don't expect every FA map to be remade for FAS. In thread in the FAS input forum, DysPatch commented that, "I have sorta promised myself I wouldn't make any more "remakes," primarily because they often don't play the same in Source, and they are a pain in the ass to balance." While many players would like older maps for nostalgia stake, trying to balance older maps while keeping them look like the original was to much work, according to DysPatch. In addition, all the resources to make a older map new could put to the creation of a new, better map.

Though, this is not to say that no more maps would be remade. The strongest candidate for a remake so far is obj_bocage as it has all ready been started by undertone.

Let the Bodies Hit the Floor

As you may have noticed that there are no death animations in the recent FAS videos. Rest assured, they are planed for future RC, but would be to much work for the first release unless they wanted to push the game back farther, according to DysPatch on ModDB.

M24

Mirsky has uploaded a video on YouTube featuring the reload animation of the M24.



DysPatch has also said that he would like to see more of these videos, possibly as a show case reel of all FAS weapon reload animations along with sound.

FAS NEWS (26 SEPT 2009)

The FAS team has released two videos of FAS with the arrival of the new batch of beta testers last Sunday. The new players are there to help test server stability, overall weapon balance and help find bugs before FAS's first release candidate. Since most of the work on FAS has most been bug fixing in the code and maps, instead of showing new renders and screen shots, the FAS team had recorded last Sunday's testing session and made some quick and dirty video clips of FAS as it stands now.



The first video is two minutes of Hitman with the MP5 and heavy armor in the tunnels and on the flag on tc_iwojima. Here you can see some of changes DysPatch has made to the tunnels of tc_iwojima to make it flow better, as well as the MP5 aim-point in action, the medic skill with its tool tip indicator showing who is bleeding and their health, and how the game plays in general.



The second video is a shot clip of tc_rubble showing off a brief clip of the M4 and M79 in action.

Little Big Models

Schmung has updated his developer's blog with information about the technical side of the design process as an artist for FAS. While there is a lot of big flashy stuff that makes the main page, such as his gorgeous M79 skin, other aspects of his work are not as appreciated. Prop models for example are necessary for FAS but don't attract as much attention as weapon models.

Prop models are models in maps such as the deuce and land rover. Much of Schmung's work lately has been with making level of detail models of many of these props. Level of Detail models are models that replace the more detailed models the farther you get away.

"The version you see up-close might be 7000 or so triangles," Schmung said but, "view it from a distance and what you are actually seeing is a model with 700 triangles." (Schmung made it a point that these numbers are made up to illustrate how LoD works.) This also applies to textures as well.


These level of detail models are for all models in FAS, not just models in maps. When you select a lower texture quality in a Source game, what you are doing is selecting the maximum level of detail of the textures. For example, "when you set your model and texture settings to low, typically you will only see the last LOD even if you are right next to it," DysPatch said.

Though while this system has obvious benefits for low end PCs, Naota points out that it isn't always a clear benefit. "We really could save a good 10-20% of our overall weapon texture footprint by doing away with these absurd view model mipmaps," Naota said. He continues with stating that his first person texture models do not have mipmaps because it saves a lot of disk space and it ensures that the texture will always look right.