Forums Notice

NOBODY PANIC!

The forums will be locked tomorrow (July 12th) at approximately 6pm EST so that we can upgrade the forum software. Because we will also be migrating to a new server, and must back up several GB worth of milthread and hot chicks photos, it may take up to 4 days for the forums to be back online.

See you on the other side, FA:Sers!

Taken from FAS Forums. If you still need your FAS fix, you can visit the FAS IRC or Ventrilo channel.

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.

Happy Birthday Firearms

Happy Birthday Firearms - Monday, April 29, 2002

[Ten] years ago today, Firearms RC1 was released. It's kind of hard to believe, especially when you take into consideration the fact that it's been over [5 years] since we released the most recent version. I'd be the first person to admit that RC1 was hardly brilliant. In fact, when looking at it now, a lot of other team members along with myself are embarrassed with what we released. Graphically, it was pretty nasty. The code was buggy, with a lot of crashes, glitches and exploits. It still appealed to people though, and a buzzing community formed. Many of the original Firearms fans are still heavily involved with the mod, which is really nice to see.

During the year after RC1's release, there were several other releases of Firearms, I personally wasn't too heavily involved with them due to all my time being taken up by a job that I got thanks to Firearms. But with each new version that was released, the improvements were obvious. We were learning from our mistakes, and Firearms was getting better and better...

Lastly today, I'd like thank everyone who's ever made a contribution to Firearms. From Caspar who started it all, to Eric who made Firearms what it is today. There's also this page, which was once [upon] a time run by our lead programmer, Scott. That particular piece was written the very same day that Firearms was first released...Quite a transformation I think.

-Ben

[This post is Ben's two year birthday post, edited to be more relevant to FAS. You can view the original post by clicking the link at the top]

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.

What the Orange Box Means To You

FAS is moving to the Orange Box engine, but what does it mean to you?

According to Naota in a post on the FAS Forums, these improvements include:

• Phong shader masks in texture alpha channels.
• Newer vertex lighting and prediction code.
• Orange Box graphics settings (real-time shadows on dynamic lights, user-controlled motion blur, and improved HDR among them)
• Steamworks compatibility (stats tracked on Steamfriends, persistent achievements, automatic updates, easy FAS downloads from the Steam store)

To see a complete list of these improves, you can check out Valve's Developer Community page.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Looking though the source code in FAS's Map Page, you can see some cut maps that are either no longer included in FAS such as ps_forest and maps that may be included in later RCs, such as sd_durandal. Below are a list of the cut maps or maps that may be included in later RCs.

Durandal

A quiet Middle Eastern town is torn apart when a coalition task force moves into the northern outskirts to set up a forward operating base. Red Forces are positioned across a bridge leading to the highway, which serves as a strategic vantage point for all traffic coming into this part of the city.

Author: Hitman
Game Mode: Search and Destroy

Asylum

Red Force para-military units have infiltrated Blue lines and freed all the inmates at a local mental hospital. Some of the inmates are leaders of various militias allied to the Red forces, held there temporarily, while others are homicidal psychopaths. Blue Force units quickly respond, cordon off the area and take measures to storm the building. Inside, however, it's now the inmates that run the Asylum...

Author: Hitman
Game Mode: Team Control

Forest

As the battle wages on between both the Blue and Red forces, each side has taken heavy losses. In their never ending war, resources have been become scarce as their deadlocked troops fight to survive. Whoever crushes their opponent will gain a vast amount of natural resources to further their campaign and become the dominant force on the battlefield.

Author: Airwolf
Game Mode: Push

Juarez

A combined South American and Mexican invasion of America co-incides with violent illegial alien protests and revolt. The southwest United States is thrown into immediate disarray and chaos. Innocent citizens are slaughtered wholesale by roaming gangs, government offices taken over by illegalsb flying Mexican flags, or captured by the invading armies. News broadcasts trickle in to CNN from behind the lines, where the leaders of the revolt are demanding that 'Aztlan', or the states of New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and California, rightfully belong to them. Within weeks, however, the Texas National Guard has gone on the offensive, smashing through to El Paso and linking up with the encircled Army units holding out in Fort Bliss. Now, their mission is to take the fight to the enemy by crossing the border into Ciudad Juarez.

Author: Hitman
Game Mode: Push

Novospassky

As Blue force freedom fighters bear down on the Russian capitol, the remaining Red Force loyalists hole up in the last remaining sections of the city still under their control. A brutal fight ensues over the Novospassky bridge as both teams try and steal the others' intelligence assets, in bloody attempts to gain the upper hand.

Author: Hitman
Game Mode: Capture the Item

Force

(NO DESCRIPTION)

Author: Inveramsy
Game Mode: Search and Destroy

River

(NO DESCRIPTION)

Author: velvety (ported by Shinobi)
Game Mode: Push

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."

TCP Updates

The Capture Point is being updated steadily. mp!1HP has shown a new screen shot of the site layout, admin tool for TCP, and has a temporary url as well. Be sure to check out mp!1HP's thread in the FAS Forums if you would like to help at all with its construction or help admin it after it's launch.


Until the site is fully up an operational, mp!1HP is offering to create forum signatures, logos or wallpapers in this thread in the FAS OTF Art Forum.

Call To Arms

Could You Spot It In A Parade?

You may have noticed that the Sako 95 doesn't exactly look like your standard Sako 95. This isn't due to lack of experinced modelers, but according to Naota it was, "a personal vendetta against generic weapons attempting to further their lack of aestheic appeal by completely knocking off their parent firearm." All changes with the Sako 95 are intentional and included:

-Aftermarket pistol grip
-Black Valmet plastic magazines (as opposed to olive/dried snot green)
-The blatantly AK-47-esque upper and lower hand guards of the Rk. 95 have been removed entirely, replaced with an adjustable vertical grip attached to a custom rail system.
-The front sight assembly at the end of the gas tube is that of the Sako Rk. 62, rather than the Rk. 95, and includes a bracket for a carry strap on the left side.
-The flash hider is the distinctive Sako Rk. 62/76 version which features a bayonet lug, rather than the fully cylindrical Rk. 95 version.
-Attachment mount plates can be found on the left side of the weapon.

FAS Weapon Page Updates

The FAS Weapons Page has been updated with screen shots of the M224 mortar, NVGs and MK2 Frag Grenade.

M82 Balance

While the M82 can draw criticism from some that is just a AWP/AWM from CS/CSS, one of the key differences is that while you can move and fire, you are most likely not able to hit anything according to StealthSilver.

Of course with the ease of making scripts for HL2 and related mods, one may be concerned that someone could easily make a script that stops the players movement before they fire, negating the movement penalty while still keeping mobility. Naota, however, explains this is not the case, "the physics for player movement in FAS include friction/intertia, so any script which instantly stops a player's movement input won't be able to scope in at the same time." He continues on, saying that even if you were able to compile a script that allowed quick scoping, the delay between each shot would be so great it would be more effective to use another weapon.

Brother of Another Mother

Despite the unique heads, the heads will not be unique for each team according to Shinobi. Odds are, you'll end up killing your doppelganger more than once in FAS.

Also, if you didn't like any of the heads shown at all, there are two more that have yet to be revealed.

PS_River

PS_river, a FA classic, has been remade by FAS team leader, Shinobi. The map looks like the 2.6+ version with the additional pass behind the waterfall and possible alcove over looking the river capture point. This map will not be included as an official map with the release of FAS due to it's lack of polish that you see in other FAS maps. That isn't to say you will never play it, ps_river, along with a slew of other maps that aren't up to par will be released as a map pack sometime after the first release. Maybe with more time and fan out cry, the map will be included as an official map with future RCs.

The Best For Last

The Sako, M60 and M82, some of the last weapons to be featured in a FAS update may be featured in the next two weeks or so, according to Inveramsay. Animations and skinning are at various stages on each models Hitman said. Naota confirms that the reason for the delays - at least for the Sako - is that it has very dull textures that are hard to make remarkable.

WYSIWYG

When asked about the list of maps on the FAS homepage, Hitman confirmed that the list present is indeed accurate (to the best of his knowledge). Hitman is unsure on the status of sd_durandal as he is reworking the map so that the "entire map...looks more realistic and uses far less CSS content."

Content that he showed the team has been met with acclaim, but don't expect for you to see it soon as most of Hitman's contribution to the mod is with code at the moment.

However, Shinobi decides what maps will make it in for the release, not Hitman and as it stands now, sd_durandal is in.

It is also important to note that DysPatch is currently the only dedicated mapper on FAS now that AirWolf is gone, undertone is inactive, Shinobi is focusing on artwork and team leadership and Hitman coding. So if you like any FAS map at release, be sure to thank the one man mapper, DysPatch.

Would You Like To Know More?

Want more information about FAS? Just ask!

"If you go to our moddb page, you'll see team members answering questions when one comes up...A lot of our development work happens at a rapid pace and so constantly keeping the community up-to-date is difficult," Hitman said.

He continues with saying that the FAS team likes to answer questions because it is enjoyable when people take interest in what they are doing.

One Unit

FAS player models have their respective team colors as patches on their shoulder pockets, just like real military uniforms. This would be an ideal spot to put custom unit patches for added realism or for clan patches. However, this feature is not planned and will not be in the first RC, according to DysPatch.

Je ne sais quoi

If you wonder what gives the FAS player models their "look" it is because of next generation techniques such as sculpting, said StealthSilver.