June 2000
Part IV Of Stomped Interview Posted by utopia on Thursday, June 29, 2000
Stomped has posted the 4th part of their Four-Day Voyager interviews. This final interview is with Brian Pelletier, project leader for Voyager: Elite Force.Stomped: Can you give us an update on the overall progress of Elite Force? How much more work is needed before the game is completed?
Pelletier: We are in the final stages of tightening up all of the levels. The main thing we need to work on is the combat in the levels. We are having some difficulty setting up the combat because the AI for some of the enemies is still being worked on. But for the overall picture the levels are 100% architecture complete, all the puzzles are in place but some still need to be tested. All the weapons are in and working with just a few minor tweaks needed here and there. Basically the content for the game is done and now we are just trying to put it all together so everything is working perfectly. The multiplayer game is shaping up nicely too and we are having a lot of fun playing it but there is still a lot of item and weapon placement balancing to do on the levels.
Info On Editing And More Posted by utopia on Thursday, June 29, 2000
There was yet another great post made by Kenn Hoekstra on our message boards. This time talking about some editing info, and some more information on the game itself. 1. Raven has mapped about every area you can see on the show. There are even a few areas that haven't been truly seen (like Munro's quarters and the Hazard Team locker room) but we've created them with the help of Rick Sternbach. You can't make one big level, though. The brush count would be too high and the engine wouldn't be able to handle it.
2. You can script the consoles to do things like open doors, raise and lower force fields and a few other things (like playing voice cues) by using the scripting language and editor tools.
3. I don't believe you are able to eject the warp core...at least not randomly. You can't just go to engineering, hit a few controls and dump the core. That would result in death/brig time/mission failure. Those things aren't appealing to a good crewman like yourself. =)
On Creating Single Player Maps Posted by utopia on Thursday, June 29, 2000
Once again, coming through for us, Kenn Hoekstra has posted a good reply to a question asked on the message boards in response to whether or not you can create single player missions, unlike Quake III. Here it is:You will be able to make Single Player missions for Elite Force, yes. The original Quake III code base didn't have things like saved games or level transitions or a lot of the elements required to make a single player game. The base code was/is strictly for multiplayer. But Raven has added all of those things, so single player levels and missions will be possible to make...
Shameless Star Trek Plug Posted by utopia on Thursday, June 29, 2000
Kenn Hoekstra, after providing us with bundles of information on Elite Force, has finally done the inevitable; he has plugged the original Star Trek (not a bad thing at all). Here's a little post he made on the message boards.I highly recommend the Star Trek Original Series of DVDs that is on the shelves right now. The picture and sound quality of the discs is amazing! I have the first 12 volumes and I can't wait for the rest.
Now, if they'd just hurry up and release Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, I'd be really happy... Bring on the TNG DVDs too!
Elite Force Weapons Posted by utopia on Thursday, June 29, 2000
From the man himself, Kenn Hoekstra has posted another message on the message boards. This time, it concerns the weapons in Voyager: Elite Force. Not really a definitive list of weapons, but it gives the number of weapons.There are nine weapons in single player, each with a dual fire mode for 18 different unique weapon effects. In multiplayer there are usable items as well, like a damage multiplier, hypospray and a personal transporter.
On The Elite Force Editor And SDK Posted by utopia on Thursday, June 29, 2000
Kenn Hoekstra has posted a message in the message boards with some information concerning the level editor and SDK for Voyager: Elite Force.The SDK and level editor are being released for Elite Force. We're going to try to include it on the CD, but it's more likely that it will be available for download after the game is released. The editor is similar to the Quake III editor, but with many enhancements that make it cooler/more friendly to use.
Part III Of Raven Interview At Stomped Posted by utopia on Wednesday, June 28, 2000
Stomped has updated their site with the third, of four, interviews with the Raven Software team concerning Voyager: Elite Force. This interview is with lead programmer, James Monroe.Stomped: Scripted events have also be highly touted in Elite Force. Can you give us a couple of examples how they will be implemented in the game?
Monroe: There are many different scripted events, but the most interesting ones are the ones which allow you to change the outcome of the scenario. For example, you can choose to save a crewmember, and if successful, he will give you extra information to help you out. Some scenarios have as many as 5 different outcomes giving the player more freedom to choose a creative solution. Many of these will affect your performance rating and they could even affect the course of the plot.
Anisotropic Filtering in Elite Force Posted by twisted on Tuesday, June 27, 2000
John Scott updated his .plan saying he added anisotropic filtering to Elite Force. You can check out the change it makes by trying the next two links. Compare this with that.
Hazard Team Character Bios: Part 4 Posted by twisted on Tuesday, June 27, 2000
PC IGN delivers the final set of player profiles. This pair features info on Juliet Jurot, the team medic, and Telsia Murphy, the group's sniper. Check it out here!
Exclusive Elite Force Menu Shots! Posted by wmull on Tuesday, June 27, 2000
Raven's Project Administrator Kenn Hoekstra sent us two exclusive shots of the menus in Elite Force, and gave us this information about them:
| Elite Force has two separate executables, one for single player and one for holomatch multiplayer. The first shot is of the single player main menu. Here you have access to information about the known star systems in the major quadrants of space mapped by the Federation. It is from this menu that you maneuver through the other LCARS menus to start a game, load a game, configure your player and settings, read about the Voyager crew and Hazard Team (Alpha and Beta Squads) or exit the game. But why would you want to exit the game? =) | |
The main multiplayer menu has information about the weapons in the game. Each weapon has a rotating graphic and a description to go along with it. From here you can choose to start a solo match against bots or a multi match over the Internet. You can configure your player and control settings, choosing from over 50 unique characters. There are menus for demo and mod support as well as the quit menu that you'll never use.
Stomped Elite Force Q&A, Pt. II Posted by wmull on Tuesday, June 27, 2000
In the second of their 4-part interview series with members of the Elite Force development team, Stomped recently chatted with Les Dorscheid, who is the Lead Artist on the game. Here's a bit:Stomped: What sort of weapons will the player characters use in Elite Force?
Dorscheid: The Phaser is your first weapon, then a Phaser rifle. Then the player will acquire 7 other alien designed weapons. Each will have unique characteristics, designed to make each effective in specific environments. There's an Infinity modulator developed to be effective on the borg. You'll find a weapon the scavengers have built out of mismatched components, that fires quick bursts, at close range. Be sure to check out the rest!
Stomped Announces Voyager Week! Posted by wmull on Monday, June 26, 2000
With the Elite Force demo close to being released, Stomped has begun the first of a four-part series of interviews this week with members of Raven Software as they talk with Chris Foster, Lead Level Designer on the game we're all looking forward to. Check it out!
Kenn Hoekstra Interview Posted by wmull on Monday, June 26, 2000
ActionTrip has posted an interview with Kenn Hoekstra. Here's a clip:Kenn: It's safe to say that we're in the beta stage right now. We're finishing up the demo and then moving on with finishing the full game. We're not going to give a release date any more specific than late summer 2000 because anything can happen between now and the end of the game. We want to focus more on finishing the game with its original vision intact than finishing the game on a specific day.
New Preview, Screenshots Posted by wmull on Sunday, June 25, 2000
Prodigy at Gamedata let us know they have a complete and lengthy preview of Elite Force. It's in French (so brush up on your je ne sais quoi), but there are also 42 new screenshots.
New Holomatch Screenshots Posted by wmull on Sunday, June 25, 2000
GA-Source has new multiplayer holomatch screenshots from Elite Force.
New Elite Force Shot Posted by wmull on Thursday, June 22, 2000
Voodoo Extreme posted a new Elite Force screenshot. Check it out here.
Mike Crowns Interview Posted by wmull on Thursday, June 22, 2000
Tech Extreme has interviewed Mike Crowns of Raven Software. The rarely-interviewed Mr. Crowns talks about Soldier of Fortune, Elite Force, as well as his job duties as Director of Product Development. Check it out!
Elite Force Modeling Q&A Posted by wmull on Thursday, June 22, 2000
Want to know how you'll be able to make characters in Elite Force? Lead Programmer James Monroe provides the answers in his latest .plan update:Q. Are we going to include the carcass and assimilate programs with the game?
A. yes, we will give out the carcass/assimilate tools and the max tools.
Q. Are MDR's way different than MD3's?
A. MDRs are way different from MD3s. MDRs can be converted to MD3s using
our MD3Viewer.
Q. Did we modify MD3viewer, are we going to supply our own modified MD3viewer?
A. MD3View has been modified to handle our MDRs. It can do both. Yes we will give out this program, w/source (providing that's okay with the original authors).
Stomped Chat Log Posted Posted by wmull on Thursday, June 22, 2000
As promised, Stomped.com has posted an edited log from the Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force IRC chat event they held last night. Check it out!
Stomped Elite Force Chat Highlights Posted by wmull on Wednesday, June 21, 2000
Stomped posted a few highlights from their Elite Force chat (see previous update) that was held just a little earlier today:Possible ports:
We are working on negotiations right now to have a PS2 port. No word yet on X-box
Elite Force Demo release date:
We are just wrapping up the demo now and it looks like QA will pass it. If all goes well it should be ready around July 1st but don't hold me to that. More info will come soon.
On getting Jeri Ryan (7of9)'s voice in the game:
Brian: No unfortunately we didn't. It wasn't that she didn't want to do it. It just didn't work out. I don't know any details. she could have been out of town during our recording session. we almost didn't get Garret Wang (harry Kim) because of his schedule but at the last minute he came in and did voice over. We got a sound a like to do the voice of Seven, so it's sounds pretty good. Be sure to head to Stomped for more details, and they'll have an edited log of the whole chat event posted soon as well.
Chat With Raven's Brian Pelletier Today Posted by Hunter on Wednesday, June 21, 2000
Stomped is hosting a chat tonight with Raven Software's Brian Pelletier at 8 pm EDT. Brian is Raven's Art Director. So, think of as many good Elite Force questions as you can until then.
Interview with Kenn, Update: Posted by Hunter on Wednesday, June 21, 2000
Kenn has this to add to our interview with him:I forgot to mention in the interview that there will be a tutorial level as well. It's similar to the one in Soldier of Fortune.
Two New Crew Profiles Posted by Hunter on Tuesday, June 20, 2000
IGN PC posted two new crew profiles. They are for Chell and Les Foster. Les Foster is the Hazard Team's leader. Chell is the maquis technician. There's also 6 new screenshots at the bottom.
Kenn Hoekstra's .plan Posted by Hunter on Tuesday, June 20, 2000
Here's what Kenn said in his .plan a while ago in case you missed it:
The Elite Force team is working hard to finish up the game. They've all been play testing like mad and the game looks cooler and cooler every day. It's always cool to see how a game comes together and improves over the final months of the project...
VoyagerEliteForce Interview With Kenn Hoekstra Posted by wmull on Tuesday, June 20, 2000
For our second exclusive interview here at VoyagerEliteForce.com, I had a chance to ask Raven Software's Project Administrator Kenn Hoekstra some questions about Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, and got some very informative answers! We hope you enjoy!
New Elite Force Shots! Posted by wmull on Monday, June 19, 2000
GA-Source has gotten ahold of a dozen new shots from Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, check 'em out!
Kenn Hoekstra Q&A Posted by twisted on Friday, June 16, 2000
The Stratos Group did an interview with Kenn Hoekstra, Project Administrator on Voyager: Elite Force. Kenn answers questions ranging from his involvement on Elite Force, to several aspects of gameplay, and even a snippet of what it is like to work on a Star Trek project. It's one of the best interviews I've seen recently and worth a look. Here's a Q&A from it:SG: With the cultish popularity that Star Trek enjoys, what is it like to work on a Star Trek game?
KH: It's sort of strange, actually. There are quite a few Trek fans that work for Raven (myself included) and I don't think any of us ever thought we'd be working on an official Star Trek project with Paramount. It's a lot to take in, but we have a lot of confidence in our abilities as developers. Despite the awkwardness, we're able to put our giddiness aside and focus on putting out a professional product. Read the rest here!
Jake Simpson On Elite Force Posted by utopia on Thursday, June 15, 2000
VoodooExtreme has posted a question asked by John Epp to Jake Simpson of Raven Software. Here it is:With Raven Doing "Star Trek" and Voyager is this game going to be fully editable, as we have come to expect from FPS style games. And if so, What is Paramount's take on Additional Levels of other Star Trek places such as the Enterprise E or Perhaps DS9?
The reason I am wondering this is because of Paramount's "Foxing" of sites that contain copyrighted Star Trek Material. Cause you can bet the farm and your favorite sheep, "thought that would mean more to ya" that Every Ship and Place in the Star Trek Universe is going to be brought to full glorious 3d life. Are these types of maps going to be "Foxed" as well?
Jake Simpson: Yes, Voyager will be fully modable, and will have the level editor made available after release on our website. The legalities of what Paramount May. decide to do about user made levels I'm not clear on, but to be honest, if there are 50 people out there building Enterprise D levels I highly doubt they will be able to stop them all. Right now I very much doubt that it's in their personal interests to try and prosecute anyone for doing stuff at home. It's only if people try and sell this kind of stuff that I would imagine they would get involved. Ultimately Raven would not stop you doing any thing at home with the editor - that's the reason we are going to release it. I very much doubt Activision would care if you created levels based on stuff you've seen in the show, and while it's possible - I can't speak for them - I doubt Paramount is going to care too much either.
Brian Raffel Talks Elite Force Posted by wmull on Wednesday, June 14, 2000
PC.IGN.COM spoke to Brian Raffel, Raven Software's Co-Founder, about their newest upcoming shooter (you guessed it!), Elite Force. Here's just a piece, but be sure to check out the rest:IGNPC: So how far into development is Voyager: Elite Force now then?
Brian Raffel: Well we're basically done with the game, in as much as everything is in place -- we're probably at a good beta stage now. We should be done by the end of August. We were gonna try and be done so we could ship it out in June, but then we realized that we wanted to make sure that it's very solid and bug-free, and that we had plenty of time to get the gameplay balance down right. So now we've got a little more time to get all of that done, and I think that was a good move on Activision's part.
Voodoo 5 5500 or GeForce 2 GTS? Posted by Hunter on Wednesday, June 14, 2000
Not directly related to this website, but can impact your gaming, is your video card. Two new boards which are coming out soon are the Voodoo 5 5500 and GeForce 2 GTS. There's some debate going on about which one will be the better board to get.
I bought the July issue of PC Gamer and they have done some tests on both boards. The numbers seem to indicate that the GeForce 2 GTS is superior in speed, although, the GeForce they were using was only a reference board. For the exact numbers you'll have to buy the July issue. I don't think I have permission to post them.
Despite the low score on the Voodoo, the Voodoo does have some impressive looking features such as anti-aliasing; T-buffer: motion blur, depth of field, soft shadows/reflections; and more! So, don't count out this board yet. The Voodoo5 6000 AGP is coming soon anyway. It might be able to offer a little more competition. For more info on the Voodoo5 5500 click here. For the GeForce 2 GTS, click here.
(By the way, if you like any of these classic games: Terminal Velocity, Descent, King's Quest, Wing Commander, Ultima, Monkey Island, X-COM, Alone in the dark, Links, Duke Nukem 2, Ultima Underworld, and The Need for Speed; then I recommend buying the July issue of PC Gamer. All these incredible classics are included in the CD-ROM.)
Demo coming soon! Posted by Hunter on Wednesday, June 14, 2000
Voodoo Extreme interviewed Jake Simpson about the possibilities of a Soldier of Fortune 2, a Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force demo, and more! The Elite Force demo could be ready in a couple of weeks Simpson says.Voodoo Extreme) Can you give us current status of Elite Force 1? I'm not sure if it has been answered yet, but will we see a demo of Elite Force? If so, any ETA on that bad boy?
Jake Simpson) Elite Force 1 is going great. There will be a Mac port of it, and right now the team is focussed on just finishing up the levels and scripting sequences. We've taken the Quake III engine a long way, adding in .mp3 support, the ICARUS scripting system and other assorted items necessary for a single player experience.
There will be a demo, yes. You can expect it in the order of weeks rather than months. It will have both multiplayer and single player in it, with the first mission and a half playable. It has yet to be approved (or tested) by QA at Activision so I can't give you a firm date on when to expect it. It will be a PC only public demo. That .mp3 support sounds cool! I'll be looking forward to now being able to put my own music in a game. By the way, you can get the whole article here.
PC IGN's 2nd Set of Character Bios Posted by twisted on Tuesday, June 13, 2000
Part 2 of Elite Force's Hazard Team Character Bios is here! It features info on Alexander Munro, the team's leader, and Austin Chang, one of the team's crewmen. Look forward to the next set of character profiles next week!
Okudagrams In Elite Force Posted by twisted on Monday, June 12, 2000
Okudagrams, authentic control panels and textures on the Voyager ship, will definitely be in Voyager: Elite Force according to our buddy Kenn Hoekstra, Project Administrator at Raven Software. Here's what he had to say on the matter:Michael Okuda has been working with us extensively on Elite Force. He's in the process of putting together the Voyager technical manual and has been sending us schematics from it to help us with the ship design. You'll see a lot of authentic control panels and textures in the Voyager levels of the game. Lots of "Okudagrams," if you will... If you want to voice your opinions on this sweet FPS, stop by our messageboard.
Elite Force Preview Posted by twisted on Monday, June 12, 2000
CNET Gamecenter's Jason Ocampo had a chance to play the E3 build of Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. It's no surprise the preview gave the version they played a ton of praise. Also, the article features in-game screenshots of the game! Here's a clip of it:Of course, the realism of the graphics does a lot to reinforce the game's atmosphere. The Borg levels are downright creepy, with Borg coming out of their wall alcoves from every direction. And because the graphics engine scales objects according to where they are located (close objects use lots of polygons, whereas distant objects use fewer polygons), it's possible for eight or nine Borg drones to appear on the screen at once. This is a terrifying situation when you realize you're running low on ammo. Check out the rest of the preview here!
Behind The Scenes Posted by utopia on Monday, June 12, 2000
John Scott, the technology programmer for Raven Software, has written an article for In The Trenches entitled "Behind the Scenes". It deals with what goes on behind the scenes of a development company. Here's a piece:In the beginning, anyone who cares to submit a game idea is free to do so. This normally consists of a one or two page summary outlining the style of game, which engines are viable, how long it will take and why it will sell in copious quantities. Marketing then peruses all these and picks the one that they think will sell the most, or gives us a licence to work around. This procedure continues until a game is decided upon, and the developers can have at it. You can read this great article here.
On Elite Force's Carcass Posted by wmull on Sunday, June 11, 2000
James Monroe updated his .plan with this news on Elite Force's skeletal animation system (Carcass):Carcass Rules!
Checking memory requirement, i loaded up all 56+ HoloMatch models, (which are stored as Skeletal using our Carcass tools), and the total footprint for all of them in memory is only 14M !
Keith Fuller Interview Posted by wmull on Thursday, June 8, 2000
For our first interview here at VoyagerEliteForce.com, our own twisted had a nice little talk with Keith Fuller, one of the Programmers at Raven. Check it out!
Interview With Kenn Hoekstra At Riva3D Posted by utopia on Wednesday, June 7, 2000
Riva3D has had a chance to talk to Kenn Hoekstra, the Project Administrator for Raven Software, about Elite Force. Here's a clip:RIVA3D: What aspect of the game excites you the most?
The story. It’s solid and full of the little details that Trek fans will appreciate. You can really identify with the characters. The team did a great job with the story and the dialogue for the game. The weapons are sweet, too. You can read the whole thing here.
Translated German Interview Posted by utopia on Wednesday, June 7, 2000
If you don't speak German but downloaded the German Elite Force interview (story), Benjamin Boerner translated it into English. Here it is:SPEAKER:
The so-called licensed products are the newest trend on the market. Computer games with main figures from a motion picture film or a TV show. But a good conversion also has its risks! Lots of work has to be done in order to make Elite Force as authentic as possible.
LAIRD MALAMED:
We photographed the original set at Paramount, we have sound effects from the show, we used the same models you can see in the series or in the trailers. Take all of this together and you're really there.
SPEAKER:
Voyager is a successful TV series, but the viewer can't intervene. First-Person shooters are often much too violent. But in this case the mixture of both is works great! Lots of action without much blood, but with a great story.
LAIRD MALAMED:
We thought about things we like about Voyager and what we like about Star Trek. We found the idea of many different Aliens good, that the ships are really cool and that one can move through the hallways. The result of all this is a group of aliens that you have to stop.
SPEAKER:
Elite Force however brings fresh wind into the genre. The only disadvantage: Elite Force needs good hardware. You'll only get full enjoyment with a Pentium 3 and a good 3D card.
Elite Force Chat Posted by utopia on Wednesday, June 7, 2000
Stomped will be holding an IRC chat with Raven Software's Brian Pelletier, June 22. The whole thing begins at 8:00pm EDT on irc.stomped.com in channel #eliteforce.
Be sure to be there and see if you can get some questions answered. Note: This is a moderated event, so you have to pass questions through the Stomped staff who will choose which ones to ask Brian.
German Elite Force News Feature Posted by wmull on Tuesday, June 6, 2000
Benjamin "BeBo" Boerner, Webmaster at German Elite Force fansite, Hazard Team HQ, sends word that the German TV station "RTL 2" featured Elite Force in its news broadcast. The report is in German, but you can check out the 6.5MB MPEG available at Hazard Team HQ. :)
Brian Raffel Interview Posted by wmull on Monday, June 5, 2000
Daily Radar has posted an interview with Brian Raffel, in which the Raven Software Head Honcho talks a good bit about Elite Force, and even touches on Raven's philosophy towards licensing id Software's technology as a base in the creation of their games. Be sure to check it out!
New DOOM, New Site! Posted by Hunter on Saturday, June 3, 2000
id Software unveiled their plans to make a new DOOM game. Our staff has created a new website for the upcoming game, NEWDOOM.com. This site is not fully complete yet, but will be completed soon. Check it out!
The Return Of HereticII.com! Posted by Phoebus on Thursday, June 1, 2000
HereticII.com, your favorite site dedicated to Heretic II, has once again opened its doors and has undergone a bit of a facelift. Please excuse the appearance of the site as content is regenerated and some more changes are made. And keep your eyes peeled for the return of Hexenworld.net!!
Another Elite Force Movie From E3 Posted by Phoebus on Thursday, June 1, 2000
German site GamesWeb.de is another site that has posted a movie with footage taped from viewing Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force during its showing at E3. You can download the movie here.
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