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It's been quite a while since oldunreal had an overhaul, but we are moving to another server which require some updates and changes. The biggest change is the migration of our old reliable YaBB forum to phpBB. This system expects you to login with your username and old password known from YaBB.
If you experience any problems there is also the usual "password forgotten" function. Don't forget to clear your browser cache!
If you have any further concerns feel free to contact me: Smirftsch@oldunreal.com
Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 3900
- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Thanks, that was really fast and efficient. I suppose those errors might not matter much or could be fixed later with the 3d file if they are visible/noticable. Tools like unst and yrex's u3dbinread can do some wonders.
EDIT: They are noticable. But should be fixable one way or other later. It indeed occurs with the death animation.
images taken by JackHonda
EDIT: They are noticable. But should be fixable one way or other later. It indeed occurs with the death animation.
images taken by JackHonda
- Victor Delacroix
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 647
- Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 2:16 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
All right - then maybe we should also contact skinners to remake the skin based on that concept art and available UVmaps. Any suggestions?
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
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- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Well, I was thinking of...no I honestly don't know anyone avaiable right now but because of that, there were a lot of custom unreal/ut skins, maybe something can be borrowed with getting credit to the original. I mean wasn't there something like punisher skin or something with a skull that could be used for the belt, using bits and pieces of other skins to make amalgamation that resembles most this. It took some time to make the second female ai skin for upsx(for e2l4 as there are two new ai characters there) that hasn't been released but the package was ready, but it was partially based on a skin made by bryan/trevor for the 1995 woman i believe, inspired by upsx to begin with, so that skin was then ported back partially as amalgamation. But if we did stuff like that then the same could be done for the pirate honestly. Except that this time most of the skin pieces would have to be borrowed from third party skins and given credit.
EDIT: DamianX was a really good guy to make skins, however he suddenly left the community without explanation. He made most of the new skins for upsx like the psx nali pack, the "hockey stick" ai skin and some more, he had several wip ones that he left unfinsihed but I kind of failed making a request for his bloodybody mod, i kind of got only halfway with what I knew/could do and it frustrated me because I was hitting limits.
EDIT: DamianX was a really good guy to make skins, however he suddenly left the community without explanation. He made most of the new skins for upsx like the psx nali pack, the "hockey stick" ai skin and some more, he had several wip ones that he left unfinsihed but I kind of failed making a request for his bloodybody mod, i kind of got only halfway with what I knew/could do and it frustrated me because I was hitting limits.
Last edited by Leo T_C_K on Fri Jul 09, 2021 5:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Victor Delacroix
- OldUnreal Member
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- Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 2:16 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Yes, but in turn, this particular skin was designed for the character. IMO it would be more faithful to recreate it, rather than use a similar replacement.
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
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- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Yea well, if someone like DamianX could be gotten hold of again, as i said in my edited post, he made great skins, some of which he released here on OU as well.Victor Delacroix wrote: ↑Fri Jul 09, 2021 5:58 pm Yes, but in turn, this particular skin was designed for the character. IMO it would be more faithful to recreate it, rather than use a similar replacement.
In his absence the makeshift other female ai skin had to be created, that will be released with episode 2 part 2. I really mean it that the guy is real skin wizard otherwise. He was even working on a surprise skin that had to be dropped, for Hari to appear more like he did on the screenshot/concept art later on in the pack when he's out of a "mecha suit". Unfortunately he only ever sent me a screenshot of the wip skin and then he disappeared.
Btw, "mirror" of your converted mesh
pirate01c
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
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Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
I'm doing things as much as possible now in a limited timeframe now that I'm renting a room somewhere.
Ladders for the "225" compatible range
This way you can play dmladders map under modern versions. One word of caution, the ladders will only work with the two gametypes included or the new player classes as they are tied to them. So don't expect it to work outside of that or if you have a custom playerclass that the gametype will not replace. If you use something like naliplayer you're out of luck too as that wasn't there yet in 220 either and came with 220 botpack for the first time(while being split later).
I also took the moment to conver these files, the latest steeledawn.u and a version before that one (with rename) to 220 so you can play most of steele dawn stuff there just fine.
main file latest ver now for 220
SD1611 for 220
The steeldawn.u as opposed to steeledawn.u was already made for 220. Unlike what gamesharder reported though the QA cannon is different from this version, the effect it causes without hitting an enemy are roughly the same plus some shaking but i'd swear the skin or model was modified further plus the effect it has on enemy is different, the primary fire is more powerful and causes different effects to spawn on the enemy. Plus the "quick fire" feature is gone from when you'd hit someone with altfire and keep having altfire pressed it would fire the primary projectile instead. This is gone from the later revision. Also seeing the f3 grenadelauncher in action really makes me convinced now that it should use the "demolisher" biggun mesh with animations that marissa made for doomreal, although with different skin preferably. Its the only thing that could fit the firing rate convincingly, the u2 pre alpha rl would feel out of place in theme. I am also not sure if the grenades (especially the sticky-like ones) should keep using the flak shell mesh too or use something completely else like the stuf flamegunv2 uses.
Ladders for the "225" compatible range
This way you can play dmladders map under modern versions. One word of caution, the ladders will only work with the two gametypes included or the new player classes as they are tied to them. So don't expect it to work outside of that or if you have a custom playerclass that the gametype will not replace. If you use something like naliplayer you're out of luck too as that wasn't there yet in 220 either and came with 220 botpack for the first time(while being split later).
I also took the moment to conver these files, the latest steeledawn.u and a version before that one (with rename) to 220 so you can play most of steele dawn stuff there just fine.
main file latest ver now for 220
SD1611 for 220
The steeldawn.u as opposed to steeledawn.u was already made for 220. Unlike what gamesharder reported though the QA cannon is different from this version, the effect it causes without hitting an enemy are roughly the same plus some shaking but i'd swear the skin or model was modified further plus the effect it has on enemy is different, the primary fire is more powerful and causes different effects to spawn on the enemy. Plus the "quick fire" feature is gone from when you'd hit someone with altfire and keep having altfire pressed it would fire the primary projectile instead. This is gone from the later revision. Also seeing the f3 grenadelauncher in action really makes me convinced now that it should use the "demolisher" biggun mesh with animations that marissa made for doomreal, although with different skin preferably. Its the only thing that could fit the firing rate convincingly, the u2 pre alpha rl would feel out of place in theme. I am also not sure if the grenades (especially the sticky-like ones) should keep using the flak shell mesh too or use something completely else like the stuf flamegunv2 uses.
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 3900
- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Found magazine mention of world gone dead
https://archive.org/stream/PC-Player-Ge ... 8_djvu.txt
https://ia902902.us.archive.org/view_ar ... p2&ext=jpg
Though the translation doesn't make much sense the end part. I wonder what was there truly originally. Something about lawn lawnmovers
new things:
shotgun and the older SDfile for 220
archive of shots in dmflux
https://archive.org/stream/PC-Player-Ge ... 8_djvu.txt
https://ia902902.us.archive.org/view_ar ... p2&ext=jpg
Though the translation doesn't make much sense the end part. I wonder what was there truly originally. Something about lawn lawnmovers
new things:
shotgun and the older SDfile for 220
archive of shots in dmflux
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
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Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
steeldawn the 220 file converted for 225
This took me a while but here it is. Also converted the nuker file of wod etc because it will come in handy like you can see in the readme.
This took me a while but here it is. Also converted the nuker file of wod etc because it will come in handy like you can see in the readme.
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 3900
- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Partial fix for the pirate model, moving it itself didn't fix the issue and moving the polys standalone affected all the frames instead...
PiratePFix
Also:
weaponpickups
Those are the weapon pickup models that were in 3ds, now that I could do it myself I converted it. I don't know if the compiled steeldawn.u mesh is identical or not but they never seemed to compile the qa cannon pickup mesh for some reason. But its good it exists because otherwise it would be editing the animated mesh for pickup instead....
I also wish someone would post here in the meantime because it always locks me from editing old posts. Does anyone try this stuff out now that all the files are converted except for the two other steeledawn.u revisions? (and i might do that too to complete it)
PiratePFix
Also:
weaponpickups
Those are the weapon pickup models that were in 3ds, now that I could do it myself I converted it. I don't know if the compiled steeldawn.u mesh is identical or not but they never seemed to compile the qa cannon pickup mesh for some reason. But its good it exists because otherwise it would be editing the animated mesh for pickup instead....
I also wish someone would post here in the meantime because it always locks me from editing old posts. Does anyone try this stuff out now that all the files are converted except for the two other steeledawn.u revisions? (and i might do that too to complete it)
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 3900
- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
To round off all the Steele Dawn conversions:
SD1611 conv
the steeldawn file from 16th october 1998 converted
the last steeledawn
The later SD file, you can rename it to plain steeledawn if you prefer this version as opposed to SDConverts one. Read the text file.
But this also means...its time for celebration...one more time... *the daft punk track starts playing*
one more time before sh*t hits the fan.
Also another project is being recovered as we speak, if I don't get axxed in the meantime cuz its really
ONE MORE TIME
WE GONNA CELEBRAAATE OH YEA ALRIGHT
SD1611 conv
the steeldawn file from 16th october 1998 converted
the last steeledawn
The later SD file, you can rename it to plain steeledawn if you prefer this version as opposed to SDConverts one. Read the text file.
But this also means...its time for celebration...one more time... *the daft punk track starts playing*
one more time before sh*t hits the fan.
Also another project is being recovered as we speak, if I don't get axxed in the meantime cuz its really
ONE MORE TIME
WE GONNA CELEBRAAATE OH YEA ALRIGHT
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 3900
- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
SD 'Base' with the rebuilt bsp/lighting to avoid crashes
However apparently some lights and brushes were deleted during original save of the map which is not good. I guess they could be taken/recreated from the other map versions/parts of the spaceport archives, however this original map showed you how its supposed to be connected before they started spltting it. But maybe there could be a way to reverse the lightmap data from original base2.unr back into lights?
However apparently some lights and brushes were deleted during original save of the map which is not good. I guess they could be taken/recreated from the other map versions/parts of the spaceport archives, however this original map showed you how its supposed to be connected before they started spltting it. But maybe there could be a way to reverse the lightmap data from original base2.unr back into lights?
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
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Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Yrex managed to export some of the leftover actors that were "marked for deletion" and already deleted in that map version. At first it was the lights then the brushes/togglezone. I uploaded them both but here's the latest combined version. This will appear alright even on modern versions and has stuff restored and won't crash. The original base2 appeared dark on itself even without lights rebuilt on modern unreal versions due to it recalcalating the lightmaps on some level.
Base2Best
This hopefuly finishes the round of steele dawn minimal fixes and conversions.
Base2Best
This hopefuly finishes the round of steele dawn minimal fixes and conversions.
- Smirftsch
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Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
I really need to find some time to mess with all this...
Sometimes you have to lose a fight to win the war.
- Victor Delacroix
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 647
- Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 2:16 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Do you think that the DM levels could be used as part of the SP ones? Vegra and OldTown seem really... larval.
Also which is better? Your reconstruction of base2 or the actual base4 from November 16?
Are the levels even connected by teleporters at this point?
Also which is better? Your reconstruction of base2 or the actual base4 from November 16?
Are the levels even connected by teleporters at this point?
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
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- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
No they aren't connected. Some of them are very finished and similar to state of crista's last lavaplant level, but even that had no end tp, it just had the end level sign instead. But we have the old text file and the website with level order. Though lavaplant and stronghold got switched order at one point and the original plan was some kind of hub there even which is confusing. So yea there were changes to the project and even the story as I mentioned/could gather. But there's no full level design doc of any kind unlike Unreal PSX which makes it basically up to us to fill in the gaps even more. Maybe Ken Post could have had more stuff including that raptor creature but its just....weird. I mean it was really bad timing and it was the lockdown that put stop to it plus there were health problems of someone close to him (not covid, but I'm not allowed to say what). And since then there was no contact from last year. But he really had a ton, even the missing deadly kiss cinematics where he provided sound for. I kept quiet about this that year because you know how it is, its best to wait to actually have something. He worked as sound designer for so many projects or even music. He did music for AWGD and more. He even mentioned he had access to actual Unreal betas...and might have kept a few. But just as usual those guys with ton of stuff, it just gets to be illusion after a while. That's always a thing to worry about, you hit a "goldmine" but you might get the shaft instead.
The base4 does contain improvements in geometry but base2 is the fullest the level is instead of the areas being split so much into separate sections. So its still unique and its the only version with the stuff connected to that weird room with the spinning circles that remind of cryox. Basically base2 should serve as inspiration for the layout and everything because it reveals most of the layout for the maps and where the security section belongs etc which are otherwise separate maps or were being worked on as separate maps before another merge. So that's how it is. Base2 is basically the full template, there's only one level part missing from it that is found separately.
The base4 does contain improvements in geometry but base2 is the fullest the level is instead of the areas being split so much into separate sections. So its still unique and its the only version with the stuff connected to that weird room with the spinning circles that remind of cryox. Basically base2 should serve as inspiration for the layout and everything because it reveals most of the layout for the maps and where the security section belongs etc which are otherwise separate maps or were being worked on as separate maps before another merge. So that's how it is. Base2 is basically the full template, there's only one level part missing from it that is found separately.
- Mental-Hunter
- OldUnreal Member
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Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
This is an amazing find. And i'm rather suprised i never heard of it before. How long did it take you to sort this all out, Leo?
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 3900
- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Not that long once I could do it but I became without roof above my head during the recovery of this so I couldn't sort things out at that time.
I suppose the fact that yrex did those streams initially also helped and his general support and interest.
I knew of Steele Dawn in the 2000s I mean back when the site was still online even and had all the screenshots including a full sized one of that creature that went missing. But I knew it was dead project, it wasn't until around 2009 or so that I had idea of contacting some people but at the time I could only find Crista (and she still had the most up to date level of hers), but she had only her work and nothing else. I remember there was some communication problem so at the time Delacroix took over the communication and we got her Unreal files plus Deadly Kiss for Shadow Warrior at the time, which was mostly complete together with many WIP/extra levels not all related to DK but interesting nontheless. Then I got in touch with Hendricks266 who had other more complete package (like the first level being finished by someone else than the original author *) I had this public before Hendricks266 who told me to hide the files on unrealtexture since then (and since i put their recovered files there too). Ironically it was robman who got me in touch with them, the same guy later (rightly) complaining that the whole "restoration team" was siting ducks for about 10 years with the files leading to the leakage of them. Which I didn't leak btw but they still framed me (I never to spoke to the person who put it up his website for the first time until after the fact). I played part in it but it was mostly uintentional and Joe Wilcox wanted the pack to be released either way so there was no need for the drama of "you leaked copyrighted assets" etc that happened. But now as we know Joe's version wasn't the final either way to be delivered to publishers and he swapped the cinematics for Nuclear Winter DN3D ones by accident. Now we may never see the original ones unless Ken gets back to business, because Roger (the guy who did the cinematics) died ages ago already. Lots of those people got shared between teams of the Unreal addons and what not, except that the Shadow Warrior stuff got finally released at one form or the other and Unreal stuff not.
* Quote from the original author of the level Jason O'Connel
I suppose the fact that yrex did those streams initially also helped and his general support and interest.
I knew of Steele Dawn in the 2000s I mean back when the site was still online even and had all the screenshots including a full sized one of that creature that went missing. But I knew it was dead project, it wasn't until around 2009 or so that I had idea of contacting some people but at the time I could only find Crista (and she still had the most up to date level of hers), but she had only her work and nothing else. I remember there was some communication problem so at the time Delacroix took over the communication and we got her Unreal files plus Deadly Kiss for Shadow Warrior at the time, which was mostly complete together with many WIP/extra levels not all related to DK but interesting nontheless. Then I got in touch with Hendricks266 who had other more complete package (like the first level being finished by someone else than the original author *) I had this public before Hendricks266 who told me to hide the files on unrealtexture since then (and since i put their recovered files there too). Ironically it was robman who got me in touch with them, the same guy later (rightly) complaining that the whole "restoration team" was siting ducks for about 10 years with the files leading to the leakage of them. Which I didn't leak btw but they still framed me (I never to spoke to the person who put it up his website for the first time until after the fact). I played part in it but it was mostly uintentional and Joe Wilcox wanted the pack to be released either way so there was no need for the drama of "you leaked copyrighted assets" etc that happened. But now as we know Joe's version wasn't the final either way to be delivered to publishers and he swapped the cinematics for Nuclear Winter DN3D ones by accident. Now we may never see the original ones unless Ken gets back to business, because Roger (the guy who did the cinematics) died ages ago already. Lots of those people got shared between teams of the Unreal addons and what not, except that the Shadow Warrior stuff got finally released at one form or the other and Unreal stuff not.
* Quote from the original author of the level Jason O'Connel
Deadly Kiss, yeah, first level. My original one didn't have the boat and
stuff so someone totally just slapped that on. I was in High School at the
time when I was working on that and something had come up where the map
just never got finished.
Jason
- Victor Delacroix
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 647
- Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 2:16 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
I did some digging and...
the SD_List.txt level order DOES REFLECT the order on Infinity's page, in section Credits. HOWEVER, judging from the STORY, indeed, as you said, Stronghold and Lavaplant should be switched. Because, Stronghold is shielded and going through the Plant deprives the shield of energy source, so unless we plan a story rewrite, it's best to just put LavaPlant prior to Stronghold.
Ultimately, it's your call.
the SD_List.txt level order DOES REFLECT the order on Infinity's page, in section Credits. HOWEVER, judging from the STORY, indeed, as you said, Stronghold and Lavaplant should be switched. Because, Stronghold is shielded and going through the Plant deprives the shield of energy source, so unless we plan a story rewrite, it's best to just put LavaPlant prior to Stronghold.
Ultimately, it's your call.
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 3900
- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Yes, the Story and the level list are from different periods. This was already confirmed before, hence the confusion and indeed crista's last version leads to stronghold start room directly (while forcrista.unr is never used).Victor Delacroix wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:55 pm I did some digging and...
the SD_List.txt level order DOES REFLECT the order on Infinity's page, in section Credits. HOWEVER, judging from the STORY, indeed, as you said, Stronghold and Lavaplant should be switched. Because, Stronghold is shielded and going through the Plant deprives the shield of energy source, so unless we plan a story rewrite, it's best to just put LavaPlant prior to Stronghold.
Ultimately, it's your call.
Sometimes the projects websites updated one part and neglected the other.
- Victor Delacroix
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 647
- Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 2:16 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
Developer: Various Unreal Community Talents (mainly Yrex, but see credits), based on original work by Level Infinity
Status: Developing
Synopsis: 47 years before the events of Unreal, a civilian Terran colonist Brandon Steele finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, when the city of Vegra, part of the Seriate IV colony on the moon Io falls the victim of a brutal assault by the terrorists of the Vesspine Confederation. Having realized he's in the middle of a warzone, he has to fight for his life as he is pursued not only by the terrorist forces but also the terrifying Skaarj Empire.
Features:
- 8 all-original missions
- 4 new weapons
- New deadly enemies: human terrorists from the Vesspine Confederation, terrifying new Skaarj leader units and more on the way
Latest News: we're slowly closing in on the first alpha milestone.
Links:
Level Infinity official site (original cancelled project) (on Archive.org)
Important Notice: This is a community restoration project of a cancelled expansion pack for Unreal. Leo(T.C.K.) has recovered all eight levels that were planned, some in larval form, others partially complete, some even nearly complete. After he provided the initial fixes and conversions, Yrex and myself have taken it upon ourselves to get some work done in order to fully complete the add-on. Currently a lot of the groundwork has been done by Yrex to the core code file and three of the levels are essentially complete as far as build goes (and have actual gameplay, albeit not adjusted to the storyline yet). Further work is still required but it is progressing very nicely.
Downloads:
--- not available yet ---
While the OldUnreal topic has the recovered content and Leo's initial conversions, I'd rather hold off on posting public releases of the current work in progress.
Credits:
Level Infinity:
- Levels:
1. Escape from Vegra -- Nick Parde
2. The Old Township -- Steve Farrow
3. River Ruins -- Neil Munday
4. Lava Power Plant -- Crista Forest
5. Mountain Stronghold -- Jeff Miner
6. StarPort/Communications Center -- Ryan Isenberg
7. Planet Head -- Jim Semkiw
8. The Jolly Roger -- Emil Gustavssun
DM Level 1 -- Mikael Wahlberg
DM Level 2 -- Eric Boltjes
- Models -- Roger Tweedle
- Programming (UnrealScript) -- Jess Crable
- Skins -- Crista Forest
- Sound FX -- Ken Post
- Texture Art -- Crista Forest
Community Edition:
- Leo(T.C.K.) - recovery, asset/map conversion, various fixes
- Yrex - map restoration (StarPort, JollyRoger), map fixes (various),
multiple fixes and improvements to the code
- Bleeder91 - original 227 code for the Skaarj boss character
- GamesHarder - examination
- Rikia - pirate skin (prototype)
- PaperCoffee - pirate skin (finalization) (upcoming)
- Delacroix - archive management, testing and feedback (Alpha 1 onwards)
-------
Leo, my PM channel (and phone) is always open to you.
- Leo T_C_K
- OldUnreal Member
- Posts: 3900
- Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:24 pm
Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
I'm temporarily back from my grave obviously so I'm really surprised at this turn of events. I did inform at one point yrex of my plans for "Steele Dawn Extended" though, which was to be my next big thing after Unreal PSX Rework next's release which I left in JackHonda's hands. Basically since there were only 8 maps I planned to extend it/merge with another project that was originally meant to be an addon for FLP. This other project would focus on formerly cover disc levels/exclusives of various kind remastered in similar matter like FLP. Since there are basically two jolly rogers in theme difference and all (the second one culminating in the spantobi unexpected threat release which was also put on some cover cds), I wanted to actually split them into two separate maps with the second one serving as the actual final map but the first one altered so it doesn't feel like a copy of the second one.
Since I disappeared and am in trouble/homeless, I am glad that something is being done albeit not in my original vision, however it might be for the best that this gets done first and keep the steele dawn content vanilla without the extra maps that would also include a rework of steve farrow's liberation e1 (possibly taking place after the first decayeds themed jollyroger but I'd need to check my notes for sure as I might have shuffled the plan) and the other version of ..pardon my failing memory..hollow? That I got from jackhonda as it was a later more rare version that appeared on a russian edition of Unreal.
All I ask though is to please keep the pack 225/ut compatible in similar vein like the UPSX/FLP/ASP releases. As in there might be exclusive 227 features but they are kept only for the OU patches basically.
The main reason why I wanted to merge the planned cover disc pack and Steele Dawn together into SDE is because simply I knew that my time wouldn't be around forever and this would cut the developement time in half for me.
I know I probably didn't inform you about this plan Delacroix, because of the long periods of silence between us, but this is what I had in plan, now I see no reason why to keep holding this information back. JackHonda had the most info on this as I consulted/confered with him many times.
EDIT: Also try to keep as many of the "old map" versions features in, like there were small tarydium crystals cut from corridors in the lavaplant and those temple things that could allow for a less temporary way over the lava apart from the lift (but anything differentiating it from the upsx rework version is a plus anyway).
edit2: it was gramercy not hollow, hollow wouldn't be covered as its a small pack of its own not a single map
Since I disappeared and am in trouble/homeless, I am glad that something is being done albeit not in my original vision, however it might be for the best that this gets done first and keep the steele dawn content vanilla without the extra maps that would also include a rework of steve farrow's liberation e1 (possibly taking place after the first decayeds themed jollyroger but I'd need to check my notes for sure as I might have shuffled the plan) and the other version of ..pardon my failing memory..hollow? That I got from jackhonda as it was a later more rare version that appeared on a russian edition of Unreal.
All I ask though is to please keep the pack 225/ut compatible in similar vein like the UPSX/FLP/ASP releases. As in there might be exclusive 227 features but they are kept only for the OU patches basically.
The main reason why I wanted to merge the planned cover disc pack and Steele Dawn together into SDE is because simply I knew that my time wouldn't be around forever and this would cut the developement time in half for me.
I know I probably didn't inform you about this plan Delacroix, because of the long periods of silence between us, but this is what I had in plan, now I see no reason why to keep holding this information back. JackHonda had the most info on this as I consulted/confered with him many times.
EDIT: Also try to keep as many of the "old map" versions features in, like there were small tarydium crystals cut from corridors in the lavaplant and those temple things that could allow for a less temporary way over the lava apart from the lift (but anything differentiating it from the upsx rework version is a plus anyway).
edit2: it was gramercy not hollow, hollow wouldn't be covered as its a small pack of its own not a single map
- Victor Delacroix
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Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
I'll look into all these inputs but yeah, Yrex and I are focusing on vanilla SD maps, without adding other unrelated maps.
- Leo T_C_K
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Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
that might be for the best indeed to keep it closer to the original vision. once/if i get fully into it I might decide to do the cover pack standalone like initially planned, or do SDE after the fact, but probably the former since the point was to cut down time of both projects and even though I had ideas how to fit those maps into the SD story it might be best this way.Victor Delacroix wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 2:57 pm I'll look into all these inputs but yeah, Yrex and I are focusing on vanilla SD maps, without adding other unrelated maps.
I hope the f8 grenade launcher (or was it f6?) will follow my suggestions of what to use for the looks of it though since it was temporarily flak cannon.
Ah no it was f3 lol.
I don't know how much the shotgun was reworked now but this was my initial suggestion.
"The shotgun is a bit of a blunderbuss like affair but it might have been temporary given the chunks are called testchunk and testchunk2 (which calls the bloodsplat something that for some reason appears in 227 as well but as a different actor (decal i guess). But yea maybe it would be best for it to fire "unquadshot" like shell together with these chunks. It was supposed to be one of the first weapons you get so it is quite weak but I honestly expected qacannon to be a little more useful myself.
"
I would like if the combined way of blunderbuss/quadshot like fire could be preserved somehow but I dunno how it works now. It was too weak in the initial versions anyway but the shotgun.u version had the chunks glow which was cool.
"
also maybe for a rework of steele dawn, the mesh from the old u2 alpha for the rocketlauncher could be reused/reskinned and rescaled for the F3 grenadelauncher which lacked a skin(and mesh). I mean why not? Either that or the "demolisher" aka biggun from doomreal, those are my two candidates but i think the u2 alpha rl could be well used here.
"
Found this bit from older e-mail message to yrex/gamesharder/jackhonda:
"
Just something for the future, since the "f3-grenadelauncher" from 220 version of steeledawn (steeldawn.u) has not its own model, i suggest these options: either a reskinned weapon of some kind, or we take "biggun" from doomreal as mesh or the flamegun and change its skin to resemble flakcannon a little.
It should be made like that. Even though I believe the "biggun" thing aka demolisher was originally intended to be the precursor to the asmd/stunner type weapons, like the "first occupation" skaarj rifles that have some kind of belt ammo clip attached to them, it could be repurposed. There was one more thing planned for steele dawn and they had a mini nuke item/weapon that was to be launched as alternate ammo for eightball. However this can be represented by a peacemaker mesh with the nuke symbol, so like a combination of redeemer and peacemaker, we can have this as separate weapon perhaps reusing the unreal 2 alpha rocketlauncher from the ue1 alphas while secondary fire would "drop" the peacemaker style and primary would launch the rocket? Otherwise I don't know how to handle it, or we have an ammo switch mode on the f3-grenadelauncher instead with the "demolisher" mesh, that could work out better. So the seven-mini-grenade mode is one thing, a bigger grenade mode another and finally the nuke launch as last thing while being able to launch the nuke in peacemaker mode as well (like the script would check for the GL if player has it, then the mininuke is launched shadow warrior style instead of being dropped. I think the explosion should be just enhanced peacemaker explosion similar to how I did the nuclear karel rocket in the gott mod with little spriteball explosions all around as added bonus.
What do you think of this? I'm open for suggestions further but I did think several days about this and it seems to me the best option honestly.
There was one further thing i thought about and using some of the fear mod weapons but i havet finished converting the mod last time myself so I am not sure besides none of the weapons seem really suitable for this purpose as there's nothing really big enough to realistically hold that, yes it has some awesome weapons but none that truly fit the criteria like the "biggun" demolosher thing....but of course the skin should be changed as i said, perhaps pasted from flakcannon bits/recolored etc.
- Leo
"
since i also converted that old "nuke.u" thing it could be partly used for the mininuke and i might have left it in the description earlier. forgot which of the converted packs i packed it with now.
edit:
viewtopic.php?p=98999#p98999
obviously that and it was nuker.u not nuke...after having to purge unreal from my head and focus on irl matters its hard getting back in my mind to it.
it feels like my mind was shot by such a shotgun honestly...
edit2:
from the foreword text file(which is my most up to date suggestion on the mininuke):
also added the nuker.u from one of the psx distributions i believe this was a wod mod and it should be used for the nuke for steele dawn,
it will be item that will have peacemaker mesh with new skin (based on the uc alpha bomb) that when activated will work alongside the f3 grenadelauncher that should have
preferably the mesh of "demolisher"aka biggun with more flak based skin and the projectiles will have the ball mesh that the default nuker has...
edit3:
maybe it would be best to actually maybe re-use the prototype ut flak cannon skins (the ones partially recovered via the botpack sources/u2 stuff) for the reskin.
oldflak
- Leo T_C_K
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Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
still wanted to make this part of last edit:
"
the Old UT flak from I guess before they settled on the final look of the new ut flak somewhere during the 222 ut developement. There were multiple versions obviously and 220 and 221 various versions were the last of the expansion pack prototype, hence the naliplayer separation since 222 it became part of standard unreal."
the link for download is at the end of last post
"
the Old UT flak from I guess before they settled on the final look of the new ut flak somewhere during the 222 ut developement. There were multiple versions obviously and 220 and 221 various versions were the last of the expansion pack prototype, hence the naliplayer separation since 222 it became part of standard unreal."
the link for download is at the end of last post
- Victor Delacroix
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Re: Steele Dawn - the Lost Expansion pack - uncovered
IMO bundling more standalone levels into a pack is risky. There's one guy specializing in this already, Stvaan Ivanhoe, and depending on who you ask, opinions vary. While I really appreciate his remixes of existing maps with new storyline twists, some others outright call it stealing maps. So these types of releases may occasionally draw community ire. While FLP didn't, more... would end up attracting undue attention IMO.
Plus, while compact (just 8 main SP levels!), Steele Dawn is really tightly knit and finalizing such a pack really isn't such a challenge after you look at the levels more closely.
Well aware (you said this before), however I chose a different approach. I asked Yrex to readd missing geometry to finalize Jolly Roger, while keeping its original texture theme. Let Spantobi remain Spantobi, it has its own story, it has its own gameplay (enemies), while Jolly Roger was meant to be a part of Steele Dawn from the start.Leo T_C_K wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 1:18 pmSince there are basically two jolly rogers in theme difference and all (the second one culminating in the spantobi unexpected threat release which was also put on some cover cds), I wanted to actually split them into two separate maps with the second one serving as the actual final map but the first one altered so it doesn't feel like a copy of the second one.
<raises wine glass in toast>
My point exactly.
While I am unsure about Liberation specifically, you just gave me an idea. I'll check Steve's maps overall... maybe there is a more completed, personalized Old Township out there? That would be a huge burden lifted off our backs. Since the two first levels, Parde's and Farrow's are larval, having access to a more completed Old Township made by the original author would help immensely. I haven't thought of checking that. Will do so on Monday.
For the time being we are making sure to keep it 225-onwards compatible, however an UT version of SteeleDawn.u with weapons classed as TournamentWeapons and olWeapons would be a nice touch. However that is for another day. For now, 225 U1, then we'll see. I won't toss everything on Yrex' head. Also, could you kindly ask JackHonda to contact me? If he's handling your releases now and helping with projects, we'll coordinate better if we're all in touch.
In my opinion, not only it wouldn't cut the development time but it would even extend it. Handling TWO JollyRogers, additional maps in-between while finalizing those that are in decent shape or have the potential to quickly become such (I'm lookin' at ya, Starport!) is a lot and IDK how exactly it would help with Vegra or Old Township, which are the only ones completely larval.
No harm done. I kept this under wraps either, primarily because I wanted to surprise you with something nice once you pay a visit in PL as we've discussed. But for now your visit doesn't seem to be happening so I decided to unveil the surprise via online channels. I hope it is to your liking.
Thank you for the warning. I'll give the maps another, closer look and note out all the differences to be restored.
I somehow missed it, or haven't noticed there is one. I'll check this out. You're saying it doesn't even have a mesh? I'll check what would fit but to be honest I'd rather avoid Unreal II weapons, even if alpha ones. I think they wouldn't fit thematically. I'll look into that Demolisher from DoomReal instead, maybe I can extract/convert that model somehow. It wasn't with any Unreal alphas or source codes, was it? So, Demolisher with 220UTFlakCannon look, am I getting this right?
Since this is very clearly a mini-nuclear-warhead launcher, yeah, a flak cannon mesh wasn't going to cut it. For the time being I asked Yrex to give it a miniaturized Redeemer look. If you insist on a peacemaker mesh... I don't know, it could always be switched but I honestly don't think this is a good idea. The peacemaker is the peacemaker and works completely differently. For now I'd rather keep the 'deemer mesh on it, it honestly fits once you think of it, it's the only canon nuke weapon so it makes sense.
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Open for further suggestions, and awaiting contact from JH.