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.

Developer Notes

The process to make a mod is a long, tedious task. Much of it is a learning experience; most mod teams learn and relearn techniques, seeing what works and what doesn't, trying new things while abandoning others. FAS is no different. Talks in the FAS forum allude to a FAS post modem after the first release candidate.

Schmung said he wouldn't mind writing a forum post or two about the development of FAS which Shinobi agreed it would be a good idea.

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.

Tweet Tweet

FAS has a Twitter page that you can find here.

Unlike other messaging mediums, Twitter is updated at a few times every day.

Engine Limits

If you noticed a few clipping issues with the weapons and player models in the lastest news update, this is more of an engine limit than a technical one. According to Oelund, "buttstock clipping is almost unavoidable because the animations are done in 9 way blending." Nine way blending is nine animations blended to show the direction the player is facing. This allows more more natrual animations most of the time, but some times the animations are blended half between two animations such as when you look straight up, down, ext.

Oelund states this is not a big problem with most weapons, but a weapon like the M4 with a small stock it is more noticable. The alternative is to, "move the gun away from the shoulder so that its not in direct contact at any time, though that would also look weird."

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.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

The red player models are great, but are the blue player models carbon copies with a new skin? Not according to Hitman. "Brand new model. They will look similar, but the shapes are actually a good bit different," Hitman said. Besides some differences in the chest rig and a few other details, the most important change is the different shape of the helmet. The change between the two team's helmets is important because it allows players to recognize what team a player is from a difference. As Hitman said, "nobody looks at chest or knees in combat" but at the head and at a distance.

Total Global Saturation

PFS commented on the 6 June News Post that FAS is due for a huge media blitz leading to the release of FAS. The scope of PFS comments regarding John Philips (from IGN) makes it seem any FAS media push will be much larger than just a simple internet campaign with a few banner adds. PFS expects that the IGN network "is going to run a full week's special on everything Firearms," which include, "interviews, screens and the list goes on."

FAS NEWS (7 JUNE 2009)

FAS has released screen shots of the new red player model. This model was created by Schmung, while Shinobi weighted it to Christian's animations and StealthSilver. The new animations no only include the basics of running, shooting, reloading, ext, but also prone. All animations are unique to to FAS and nothing is taken from Valve.


In addition to player models, new high quality world models of the weapons has been compiled. These world models feature the ablity for the magazine to be detached while reloading. All reloading sequences and most animations in general have been done by previous FA modeling veteran and military expert Christian Oelud with input from the FAS military adviser TheUltra4sshole.


Not only have models undergone improvements, but maps have as well. TC_rubble has been revised with a more interesting sky box, custom textures and better geometry. As mentioned earlier, a new TC point has been added to balance the map to improve the flow.

Annual Update

FAS:R is one year old today!

Hooray!