Well, here today will be a diary of sorts on my developments for the Duality project that, hopefully, will be released to Starcraft II. Well, what can I say, I might also put some things from my life. Oh well. Me, don't know where the hell I begin with, so we go to my most comforting point.
Most of you who know Duality and are very excited, lemme just say I got very good news: I ain't dead, the mod isn't dead, and it's getting to a level I'm getting very satisfied with. Like a child growing up, my universe is now gaining more and more substance than I imagined, and I couldn't imagine that would be the fruit of years of useless revising, re-reading, rewriting and adding new ideas. That's right, my story notes are expanding by the month.
Basing on that intel system I saw on C&C 3, I made up an "Intel" folder containing the things that go beyond what is in the game: The details of the factions' societies, military structure, their traditions, even quotes and the background of the Sigman Crusades and Geodosian Legions is beyond my own explanation. Things that would fit very nicely in a 15 giga RPG, hehehehehehehehe. But, now that most of what needed to be told of is done, I'm now getting to work on developing the very mission bases for Episode I. After consulting with Meta years ago, he explained what I needed to improve the missions and bring the gaming level to a point only his and Laconius' campaigns have achieved. I'm putting more micro in here, but I'm giving players the chance to weed out the old build-'n-destroy game in the campaign. By now the Geodosian campaign structure is finished and I'm going to do so with the Sigman campaign. I'm proud that I did it without modifying a lot the original thing.
For units, I've been looking around in the past and felt that the Sigmans, while having number advantage, were way too underpowered to deal with the Geodosian Empire. That's because I've put on more simple point-click-'n-forget units than I could for the Cult. Now, I've added my own tricks for them, and will see to it that everything goes on an ordely, proficient, balanced, funny and breath-taking manner. I've even added what I considered an almost un-existing feature ingame, the Sigman intelligence I proudly call the Mythrian Order. When I say the name, you can think Dark Templar mix with Vulcans, Bene Gesserit and the aliens in The Dig. My intent is to show more of what, pardon my ignorance, Blizzard removed from the Protoss ever since they released Starcraft II: Mysticism, in a mysterious manner. Something that even Mesk must feel curious when seeing, arising questions like "What is such power?", "How is this possible?", these things that must reveal, yet hide. But there's hope Blizzard will show more than just psychic powers, inter-templar merging, religious concerns and cyber-robotic technology. If not, well... It'll be my commitment then. XD
However, in terms of originality, I'm very screwed up on the Imperial stealth police, the Shadow Ops. For a thing like RPG, that's no problem for me. The problem is the BASIC. What abilities can I add to make this more than a Geodosian Ghost? I'll leave suggestions up to you, maybe one might come with something I haven't thought of before.
On graphic matters, advancement is going slow, but with quality. For all these months it's been a constant pain in the ass to make something, delete it, scour DeviantArt, ConceptArt and Google for references, and try again another angle. It's been a pain in the ass, as I rarely manage to get what I want. But now, I'm getting there. Now that I know how TurboSmooth in Max works, my High-Poly is getting better than ever. The only thing I'm pissed off is that it has a tendency to consume lots of memory...
[imgwh 640x450]http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8517/rec01.jpg[/imgwh]GEODOSIAN RECLAIMER PLASMA TANK - COMPLETED FIRST VERSION, UPGRADES COMING SOON
For now, the only work I managed to do was the Reclaimer Tank. Since it's barely what I want, now that I got Turbosmooth, I'll check on it later, 'coz I'm now working on the War Strider. For now I'm quite happy with the results of the Gun Arm I made, and now I'm working on the leg. And all of this with multiple references, look the troubling work that's going on. I take that, if everything goes fine, most of it should be ready in two months. More if something else arises.
[imgwh 640x480]http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6457 ... tracer.jpg[/imgwh]GEODOSIAN WAR STRIDER WIP 00 - GUN ARM WITH DUAL LASER CANNONS AND ROCKET LAUNCHER
But my least of concerns is the sound department. I've put in storage most of what I wanted in the past, and it's too good to mess with. If something else should be made in this matter, Duality will at least be in intermediary stages.
Installed Deadlock this Wednesday, after a long search and download. It was good to relive it, but I can't hear the music anymore. The only way is the compatibility mode, set to 98 or 95, but the fucking thing unexpectedly crashes at every turn! Everything else runs smooth like a cotton dressed inflated doll.
I'm now doing technical mechanic design school. Must say, it's getting tougher by the minute, but it's gratifying. Only thing about it is, designs for perspective and ortho the mechanical pieces require are getting longer to make each day it passes. Mainly because of regulations and finding the right measures. Fuck ISO 9000 and ABNT for so much rules.
In Medical Terms, I'm assigned a proctologist very soon to operate my... Bottom Earl. Very nervous. Worse still is that my father makes scaring stories on it and make me sick, despite my mother's protests. I've visited a nut Dermatologist weeks ago, citing everything that just made me pissed off inside: Diminish Sugar, eat vegetables (A thing I just don't get along.), avoid heavy sun light, eat fruits. Avoiding sun and eating some banana, orange, lemon juice or available strawberry and apple are something I'm following, so little problem with it.
Other than that, nothing else happens. Still not a girl I can find that doesn't have a boyfriend, haven't still got a job and I'm nervous, it's my first one, and my mother thinks I'm isolating myself. That's because I stick around net and don't leave home much, just to go pay some bill, do school or go to bakery get something.
Battle.net's been lately crashing down connection with everyone these past months. Maybe they should reserve some servers to us instead of doing maintenance for Starcraft II, WoW and Diablo III while online. Since I'm not good in a general game, I'm sticking to UMS. Now, problem is, finding good games these days is getting a real pain in the ass. Not only that, but each time I manage to find one, something unexpected happens: Either my parents want to kick me out, or the other players throw me out 'coz they think I'm noob, a storm starts and the lightnings force me to shut down computer, or the fucking computer tilts for a moment and restarts on my face! JESUS CHRIST, LET ME PLAY BATTLE.NET IN PEACE!!!
Despite this, good games I recommend are: War of the Lost Kingdoms, Desert Strike, Random Unit Battle (team version) and Special Forces. I might soon post tips for Desert Strike and WotLK, stay tuned!
So, we're done. Pretty big for a first blog post, eh?Let's just simplify: I'm pissed off, tired, sad and almost crying. Why? EVERYTHING GOES WRONG WITH ME AND WORKS WELL WITH THE OTHERS!!! Sounds like God picked me with his finger and said: "Thou are destined to just take in the ass!". So fuck it, I'm not even giving a try at new things, 'cause I know that will only result in utter failure.