EVE Newsletter, Volume IV

A new edition of the official EVE newsletter, which recaps recent happenings in the world of EVE, is now online.

Standoff Released

The Standoff Prologue episode has been released. Information and the download link are available at the CIC.

For the People, By the People: Thursday

Bridge Commander:

From BCFiles: Anon's TMP Photon Torpedo, Zorg/Morpheus' Federation Starbase Replacement v2.0, Orion 5's Romulan Crew with Mutator, a series from Cpt. LC Amaral, which includes the Ambassador-Class TNG Pack v2.0, Ambassador-Class Ent-C Pack v2.0, and Ambassador-Class USS Belmont, D&G Productions' Advanced NX Mod v1.1, 1701-E's Elite Force 2 Sovereign Bridge v1.0, mrjohn's Romulan Nierrh-Class Destroyer, DJCube's Direct Hits Bridge FX v1.0, Starforce Productions' USS Ajax Excelsior Variant v1.0, and Starforce Productions' USS Curnow Excelsior Variant v1.0.

Freelancer:

The SW: Tides of War team promises an alpha of their SW TC before Christmas. Thanks Lancers Reactor.

Freespace 2:

From HLP's forums: The Babylon Project (could someone fix their news script, please?) has released a Raider Wars trailer, available through File Planet. Woomeister has posted a high-polygon model, the Mara, which is also available via FP. Continuing on, the Star Wars board shows off an untextured Murian Transport by TopAce and an untextured Trade Federation Battleship by Ratri.

On the campaign side, there is a repack of Derelict that includes voices--all in a single file.

Hardwar:

As seen at Captain Zedo's boards: REAxion continues to release test versions of HardLook and to correct for bugs. HardLook is currently compatible with 2.04, U3.00b4, UIM.01, and UIM.02 games. The editor allows the user to change a variety of variables, including moth specs, pilot cash and names, and moth teleportation from hanger to hanger.

Klingon Academy:

Recent Moogle releases include the Federation TMP Academy Training Fighter, the Romulan Ti'Vari-Class Cruiser, the Romulan Joval-Class Destroyer, and the Romulan Swift Claw-Class Light Cruiser.

Also, Kt'Hyla's AI Trainer Tutorial (final version) has been released.

Nexus:

TheStressPuppy gives a preview of his lovely Ages of War TOS Constitution, and Cmd Kewin previews the VdaTool.

Starfleet Command 3:

SFC3Files hosts red_green's Rise of Kingdoms II v1.0

Starshatter:

Melkor shares his Campaign Setup guide at Starshatter Central.

X2:

Egosoft have released an "X2 All-in-One Bonus Package", which includes all the plug-ins previously released in one package. The user can choose which plug-ins to install.

zeckensacks's Glide Wrapper v0.82

zeckensack has updated his glide wrapper to v0.82. Changes and bugfixes are listed in the readme.

Standoff to Be Released Today

Although it's not available yet, Standoff should be released today. Keep an eye on the Standoff site, the CIC, and the CIC's Standoff forums.

If you need Secret Ops (which is required to play Standoff), the CIC hosts the file, as does Underdogs.

Vendetta Online Update

The official Vendetta Online site details recent changes in the massively multiplayer game, which includes new ship types and ship tweaks.

EVE Ship Tweaks

EVE-I.com has posted a recent developer blog update by TomB, who discusses ship and combat changes and testing on Singularity.

Heads Up: Evochron

Starwraith 3D Games has announced a freeform space sim in their December newsletter. Evochron is due for an early 2005 release. Thanks Nick!

For the People, By the People: Sunday Drive That Carries into Monday Edition

Bridge Commander:

At BCFiles: Breen Shippack (with hardpoints; based on an earlier release by redragon) and Zambie Zan's Deathbird v1.0.

Freelancer:

From Lancers Reactor: Mancer and Crabtree-CCN's "Mancers-Starwars Shippack No. 3" (thirteen Star Wars ships, most of which are TIE variations) and the Hornvipers Mod Team's "Streetch Mod v1.0" (single-player and multiplayer-compatible; adds a few systems and transit opportunities).

Freespace 2:

There's a bevy of Wing Commander Saga screenshots in this CIC thread. Thanks CIC.

Hardwar:

Wez's offers a build on patch for UIM.02. smurph provides details in this thread at Captain Zedo's board. Also, there is a poll question that will determine the name of Ian Martin's new Moth.

Klingon Academy:

His Divine Shadow's Pre-TOS Cruiser Pack is once again available.

Starshatter:

Melkor's posted an update on the Star Wars TC in the Star Wars board at Starshatter Central's forums. turgotZ shared a screenshot of the Gemini Freighter in another thread. Lastly, there are screenshots from the Battlestar Galactica TC on SC's main page.

B5: IFH Dev Update

Space Dream Factory has posted an update on Babylon 5: I've Found Her's "Danger and Opportunity".

Happy Holidays!

Over the next week or so (and starting today), I will be doing quite a bit of traveling and socializing. That means I will have fewer hours to contribute to ATFW; however, I do have a laptop and an aircard, so I will be making a few updates along the way.

There are a few fan projects and mods to be released around Christmas Day, and I'll be doing my best to keep an eye on those.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday season.

For the People, By the People: Saturday

Freelancer:

This one caused a bit of a double take, but PerfectH has released an A-10 "Warthog" for use with Freelancer. Also, Daves Addon System v1.1 is also available at Lancers Reactor. This version only has the Dallas system and a Christmas goodie included.

Klingon Academy:

Kt'Hyla is looking for comments on his AI Trainer Tutorial.

Nexus:

There are a couple of new mod tools--Rainman's Milkshape Plug-in for .msh Files and timetraveller's Nexus Texture Converter (NTC) v1.0 Build 90, which is available at timetraveller's NTC site.

X-Wing Alliance:

greg has released a custom XWA Sound Effects upgrade (from the XWAU forum).

WCU: Privateer Remake Linux Testers Needed

Hellcat has put in a request for Linux testers in a thread at the CIC. An optional speech pack is available and no compiler is required; the files can be downloaded from the Privateer Remake site.

UIM.02.01 and Embossing Screenshot

Ian Martin shares a pic at Captain Zedo's of embossing in Hardwar and also states that UIM.02.01 "will be out in a few days"; the patch will at the minimum fix a "tiling problem with clouds".

All About EVE's 2005 Plans

EVE-I.com shares a recent post by Oveur from the official EVE forums. Oveur discusses some of the projected changes in the game, including weapons and ship tweaks.

SWG Chat on Monday

Stratics will host a House of Commons chat on Monday, December 20 at 5 PM PDT/8 PM EDT. The channel is #StraticsHoC, and there are a couple of IRC servers to choose from. Topics will include Jump to Lightspeed and plans for 2005. For full details, visit SWG Stratics.

For the People, By the People: Friday

Hardwar:

At Captain Zedo's, Ian Martin has posted a screenshot and a request for input regarding specs for a Moth coming to you in 2005.

X2:

Recent official releases include the Gunnery Crews 3.0 plug-in, which enhances the gunnery skills of capital ship crews, and the Trade Command Software MK3, a trading tool.

LPe and Entropy

The Binary Star website has been updated with a brief section on LPe, their physics engine, and some details on how this will affect Entropy, their Elite-styled space sim.

Hardwar UIM.02 Released

Ian Martin has announced the release of his second Hardwar patch, UIM.02, at Captain Zedo's. From the thread:

Here is my second upgrade to Hardwar, mainly a cosmetic upgrade, with the principal feature being 32 bit display and 32 bit textures, and the concentration on Direct3D (3DFX and software support deleted).

This is a 4.81Mb zip file, please save on to your local machine. Please host and/or distribute as you wish.

As usual, it will upgrade HW F2.0 to UIM.02 - no earlier upgrade is needed.

Please see the thread for the direct link, along with Wez's mirror. Update: 3D Gamers also has a mirror on their Hardwar downloads page.

The readme is in a separate thread:

1.<< UPGRADE UIM.02 >>
----------------------

Welcome to Ian Martin's second unofficial Hardwar upgrade.

The main purposes of this upgrade are some fixes to UIM.01
and the addition of 24/32 bit support - a cosmetic update.


Requirements
------------

Hardwar should still run on a 1998 era PC, but DirectX9 is required. Please download
this from http://www.microsoft.com/directx. We detect the DirectX version, and report if
DirectX9 is not detected, but do allow the user to continue anyway, just in case the
detection code, which uses DLL file versions, shows a fault.

A Direct3D compatible 3D accelerator card is required from UIM.02 onwards.

Features and fixes for UIM.02
-----------------------------

1) 3DFX Glide is deleted. Any 3DFX users should select Direct3D. Users of an old 3DFX
pass-thru card should select Secondary Display.
2) Software rendering is deleted.
3) 24/32 bit display mode is introduced. If operating in windowed mode, it selects the
desktop's colour depth, where the desktop is 16 bits per pixel or above.
4) An option to select 32 bit textures is added. This should ONLY be where 64Mb or more
of texture memory is available. Hardwar does not use the automatic texture management
system, it shrinks textures until they all fit.

If texture memory is limited on your system, try some or all of these (in this order)

a) Do not use 32 bit textures.
b) Clamp textures to 256x256 (some older cards do not allow larger textures anyway, so
Hardwar shrinks them regardless).
c) Use the old explosions.
d) Disable mipmaps.

5) An option is added to revert to the old fog colours.
6) Hardman was not correctly reading the max number of network players - this is fixed.
7) The 'victim' modes introduced in UIM.01 are disabled in network games.
8) The clouds now use a new BMP texture, and are redesigned. They are still an option.
9) A missing building was re-added, Vacant 008.
10) A bug was found and fixed in the texture shrinking code (see 4 above) causing a fatal
crash where available texture memory was limited.



Compatibility.
--------------

DirectX9 required.

UIM.02 will only connect to itself in a network game. It has a new network GUID.

UIM.02 will load UIM.01, U3.04 save games, but not earlier ones.

X2: The Return Delayed and Developer Diary

Egosoft and Deep Silver have announced that X2: The Return won't be making the rounds until Q2 2005.

Further, there is a developer diary for The Return at TVG. The first edition covers the team members, the to-do list for the game, the design process, Devnet, the background story, the learning curve, and the state of the genre.

JtL Review and Privateer Fighter Screenshots

SWG Vault points towards a new review of Jump to Lightspeed. They've also posted four screenshots of the master level Privateer fighter.

EVE Object Explorer Updated

EVE-I reports that Crowley's Object Explorer, which provides details for all sorts of items in the EVE universe has been updated. More on the tool can be found at EVE-I's download page for ObEx.

Updated Starshatter Demo

Matrix Games now offers an updated version of the Starshatter demo, which now features "the training campaign, Operation Live Fire, and the first five days of the first dynamic campaign, Operation Highland, along with a few single missions and a few multiplayer missions that can be enjoyed entirely for free." Thanks Blue's.

Star Wars Game Re-cap

UGO has an article that provides an overview of Star Wars games. As expected, the X-Wing series makes an appearance. Thanks Slashdot.

For the People, By the People: Wednesday

Freelancer:

bakedpotato and Eraser's Close Encounters in Sirius v2.0 has been released for single-player and multiplayer. The mod offers a storyline campaign and a no storyline option. GS Studios' Dog Fight Mod Stage 2 is also ready for download, either at its native site or at Lancers Reactor.

Nighstalker has made available a server-side and client-side WTS-World 2.4 Ship Addon Pack v1.02 patch.

On the design side,Watercooler Warrior's FlIniSchema, which is a mod tool for creating simplified INI files, is now available, as is Anton's FLModelTool v1.0a Beta 6, which features a number of bug fixes from Beta 5. Check out Xtreme Team Studios website for more on FLModelTool.

Thanks Lancers Reactor.

Freespace 2:

Ransom Arceihn has announced the release of his campaign, Sync.

The CIC has three pics from Wing Commander Saga.

Nexus:

Rainman has developed a mod called the "Focused Behaviour mod", which removes focused behavior annoyances in the game when using an F-command.

Starfleet Command III:

SFC3Files.com offers a Klingon rank mod by SKills, Annihilation by the_one (Borg mod), and Alternate Universe B: Swift Wars by Alternate Universe.

Wing Commander: Secret Ops:

The CIC features half a dozen screenshots of rendered scenes from the upcoming Standoff.