Estimated Release Date for OpenCoop 1.x

[Nicemice]

Hi,

You may have noticed that there hasn't been an update for a long time. The reason is that I am currently very busy with real life and do not have the time to continue working on the mod. So the estimated release date is february 2006.




As the new version number indicates the next update won't be a big one anyway, since we are pretty happy with the current version.

To give you a teaser let me post the things we've done already.

• Klonsemann fixed all those little levels bugs which arised in the last version. Hopefully all are gone now.
  
• g_fov doesn't spill out "not allowed in multiplayer message" anymore if set higher or lower than allowed
  
• Completely new networkcode for AI characters. Here we use a new feature from Quake4, which is called 'conditional snapshots'. This is still in the testing phase but works fairly good already. We disabled the clientside scripting for monsters completely and lowered networktraffic. The whole animation information is now stored in the snapshot, not transmitted via the events system anymore.
  
• Reworked AI so that it isn't biased towards the server player anymore. This still need much testing.
  
• target_give allows the level designer now to give items to all players at once. This is important for the hell level to give all players the soulcube.
  
• We fixed a small bug in the projectile code which caused the game to crash under certain conditions.
  
• The player who you point at is now displayed on the hud.
  
• We added a scoreboard button which allows you to look at the current players on the server.
  
• Items are now limited: Like in Serious Sam every player has it's own set of items lying around. If you pick up an item, other players can still pick up the same, but you can't pick up the item twice. You can't even pick it up if you rejoin the server.
  
• The guardian is fixed.
  

Features and fixes we like to see in the next version:

• Reducing the lag perceived in the hell level.
  
• When two guis are too close together, there is a bug with the mouse interaction.
  
• The turrets don't work properly and the characters don't turn their heads towards the player. ( same bug )
  
• We want to add a new gametype where respawns and health are limited to make it more challanging. Now you can loose when no player is able to respawn anymore.
  
• It would be nice if the player can abort cinematics. In singleplayer skipping cinematics is implemented like 'fast forward'. In multiplayer progressing the time fast seems to desync the game. So we don't know if there is a solution...
  

[jaquboss]

seems it will make game a lot mor challanging, sadly release date is too away..
Also wouldn't be nice to do ROE edition too?
I guess you can easily diff and patch sourcecode, but it will needs to redo all maps.. I hope that any volunteers will help with them

[sear]

Hey there. I like your mod and play it a lot, but I really think the item implementation you have gone for is a bad idea. There is too much variation in map difficulty and player ability to have a hard limit on the items in my opinion. I mean, say a group of fairly inexperienced players get to a particularly hard point in a map and most of them die... they are then left to run around with pistols most of the time because ammo is placed in the maps under the assumption that people will have stockpiled some their current position. Which everyone always hates, and if they can't get around it by even rejoining the server, they'll leave. Ammo starvation and the corollary pistol toting is just not fun, especially if you get killed while lagging a bit.

Other than that, the update sounds great and I can't wait to try it out. Would it be possible to add an ability callvote g_skill for the next level?

Anyway, great work guys and keep it up.

[Guest]

The new item pickup system would be much better I think. Sear, dying wouldn't be a problem for inexperienced players as long as they hit the save ammo button.

[Riddick]

I was wondering with this new netcode being installed will that fix the lag we get in Hell??? So bad to where its barely playable.

Riddick

[sear]

[Ultraq]

Nah, you press the button before you go into a battle that you might lose. Or just use it often, lol. It'll save your inventory so you start will all that ammo when you respawn.

As for the next release, I'm looking forward to the minor map updates. Those will really help a coop game run more smoothly, and hopefully without the need to activate cheats and noclip.
Being able to see the ping of other players will also be good for whenever I start a server: I'm really interested in knowing what sort of experience each client player is getting.
_________________
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[Nicemice]

@Riddick: ahh, Thanks for reminding me. The current implementation won't have any positive impact on the lag perceived in the hell level. But I will put that on the todo list.

[Guest]

[Nicemice]

Weeee, I have found some time to work on the mod: Recoded camara synchronisation, no hitching between scenes anymore. Now you can join in cinematics and the camera will still be synced correctly Documented and cleaned up the code ( Not a feature but took some time. )

[Ultraq]

[Random Person #11]

Under the new system of item limitation, how would things such as weapons dropped by enemies/players be handled?

[Nicemice]

Those items just spawned once, so you only one player can pick it up.

[Guest]

Will g_fov ever be unlocked (or at least raised to 120)?

[Nicemice]

Just enable cheats to set it at any value.