Tag Archives: squad
Making History expansion announced for Kerbal Space Program
During the past few months, #developer #Squad have taken up a #newchallenge for Kerbal Space Program. While considering the next level of gameplay for Linux, Mac and Windows PC. Kerbal Space Program as we know is a very mature game, loaded with tons of content and a great modding community. Since Squad have gone on to create all sorts of tools and additions to the game. Now the team is making something new and exciting for players, a whole new experience.
Since building upon that Kerbal experience is crucial, like offering further value to players. So making the attempt to bring exciting new content and build more creativity is a tough call. And with the 1.2.2 release, developer Squad now has the game in their most optimal state. Having already made gaming news around the globe, therefore the team is moving forward is this next step.
Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion has just been announced. This new expansion brings new content to the base game, including a Mission Builder and History Pack.
The Mission Builder puts the process of creating and editing missions in the players hands. Giving everyone the tools to get the sense of being part of a space program’s Mission Design Division. Tailoring customer missions and narratives in a friendly yet intuitive interface. Once created, players can easily share their missions with the greater community (Workshop).
Also, the Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion will include a lot of additional content. Which of course includes the History Pack, pre-made missions to play immediately. This way gameplay allows players to re-live historical missions from humankind’s own space history, in the unique style of Kerbal Space Program. This pack includes new parts and a new astronaut suit for those brave heroes.
One of the best aspects of Kerbal Space Program tradition, Making History Expansion very customizable and moddable.
Features:
- Simple interface: Using an intuitive drag and drop node interface, you can easily create new and exciting new missions for yourself or others to enjoy. Creators can also add constraints such as time, fuel and parts limits; as well as unexpected mission events.
- Recreating history: Included in Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion is the History Pack. Players will be able to experience the trials and tribulations of the early days of Space Exploration on missions inspired by real life historical events.
- New parts: Aside from mission creations tools, Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion will have additional parts such as new fuel tanks, adapters, decouplers, fairings and command pods… inspired by both American and Soviet space programs!
- Kerbal Personal Parachute: Your astronauts will now be safer in case of imminent disasters with all new personal parachutes. So next time Jeb is in trouble and all systems are failing, you can simply eject him and activate his parachute. Then, you just have to hope, there’s an atmosphere to slow him down…
- Challenge other players: A new addition to Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion will be the concept of scoring. At the end of a mission you will get a numerical score to compare with your friends and the community.
As for right now, Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion is still in development. And do note, this will be a paid expansion release, except for those who bought the game before April 2013. And available for Linux, Mac and Windows PC. Pricing and details have not been released just yet. So stay tuned.
Stellaris mod lets you play as the Kerbal race on Linux, Mac and Windows PC
This week a new more familiar mod lets you play as the adorable and determined Kerbal race from Kerbal Space Program in Stellaris. Much the information and #details for the #race has been pulled from the wiki page, but this still makes for an impressive mod.
Conquer the galaxy with the race of green explorers made famous in the game Kerbal Space Program by Squad!
Includes portraits for the Kerbal species, and a recreated Kerbol system. Anomalies based on actual KSP anomalies can also be found, please avoid researching them if you don’t want to be spoiled about them.
Future plans:
- More portraits if possible
- Animated portraits/ship models (would require an artist with more skills than myself 🙂 )
If you are a fan of space games, you would appreciate both Kerbal Space Program and Stellaris. And now that you can blend the experience together, this mod makes it easy to import the Kerbol solar system into the space strategy game. The planet Kerbin and its Mun, not to mention the green and brainy residents.
Squad military shooter on December 15th through Steam Early Access
Bringing tactical #teamwork on a large scale back to the arcade shooter #developed using #UnrealEngine4, the indie dev team at Squad has gone from Kickstarter to Steam Early Access in just over seven months, releasing their vision of a coordinated, communication based arcade shooter staged in near past to near future real world conflict zones. Taking cues from their decade of experience working together on their prior Battlefield 2 mod, this indie team has raised the bar for what to expect when the word ‘tactical’ is used to describe a game.
Squad Releasing December 15th at 1100 GMT on Steam Early Access.
With a background of providing a balance point between hardcore milsim and cartoonish twitch shooters, Squad Early Access focuses attention toward the flow and pace of battle with teams as large as 36 per side (going to 50 per side as we develop) fighting over 5 maps on launch day. With maps from training facility to as large as 4km x 4km (1.5 sq. mile) in size, the game also contains four factions, the US Army, Russian Ground Forces, Insurgents and Irregular Militia duking it out on terrain taken from real world satellite data of frontline locales.
Features
- Gameplay faster and more fluid than ARMA but slower and more engaging than Battlefield.
- Teamwork oriented gameplay that doesn’t require a clan or private server to fully realize the potential of the gameplay.
- Built in Voice Over IP using the best codecs available, with attenuated localized, intra-squad radio, and inter-squad command radio communications.
- Showcase Deployables and Base Building which no other military FPS has.
- The creation, defense, destruction and resupply of chained spawn positions in an overlapping and always fluid emergent chessboard designed in our maps.
- Large scale maps up to 8km^2. (currently working with 2km and 4km maps)
- High quality models and complex animations systems.
- A very open development team with excellent community communication, and preparations in progress for mod support near retail release.
- Essentially an “everything” game. Infantry/Logistics/Air Combat/CAS/Armor Warfare
The Terrain
One new map to debut, Chora, and three new maps previewed over the last week to our Kickstarter backers, Sumari Bala, Fool’s Road, and Jensen’s Training Range, have been further unveiled to show the variation of conflict zones and reveal the basis of the game play modes integral to Squad. New gameplay modes and per round randomization of statics and soon map terrain will provide a long term replayability to never allow fallbacks into comfort zones. Player placed and built bases will be the only means to protect your teammates spawns and project control over territorial gains. The gamer will need to think and expect to be challenged each and every map as small things such as windows, to entire hillsides and city blocks are randomized at each and every round start.
The Weather
Coming soon is integration of Simul trueSKY™, the most advanced and reliable sky system available and will further immerse players into a war zone experience based on real time day-night cycle based on latitude, longitude, and time-of-year based on map locale.
The Factions
The last several months has been a quiet and steady production of two new factions, Russia and Irregular Militia, along with the entire series of AK and RPK weaponry designed in house to arm these men in combat. The array of weapons represented in real world military infantry and insurgent armed groups will be represented, with real world characteristics of the weapon handling, sounds, recoil, bullet drop and ballistics.
Next will be seen the reimagining of the US Army character models from scratch to bring them up to our high standards of visual and movement fidelity. Expect to see similar for the Insurgents faction as we move into 2016.
The Production of the Theater of War
Unveiled in the December 15th Steam release is a wide array of custom designed audio effects taken from the highest quality audio samplings in the world, hand drawn custom visual effects and an original soundtrack to meld the experience together by three Squad devs who started out as modders and dreamers many years ago. The art team and coders have been working in the background to prep the motor pool of military vehicles and insurgent technicals for their grand entrance into Squad coming early 2016. Expect to see Combined Arms, 50 vs 50 tactical teamwork based multiplayer action with tools for communications and coordination unheard of in the arcade shooter industry up until this day, with the intensity of rushing headlong into the unknown each and every time you boot up the game.
Do keep in mind, this will be a Windows PC release on Early Access, which is somewhat common the initial release. Offworld Industries has set a Q2 2016 release for the Linux build and we are hoping to see something sooner. Needless to say, they are an indie studio, so patience is a must.
Squad Developers re-cap leading up to an Early Access Release on Steam
As Squad moves into the 20 day# countdown to #Steam release on December 15th for Windows PC, with a Linux release coming in Q2 2016, the #developers want to introduce some features that have been in the works in the background for the last several months. Two new factions are revealed, Russia Ground Forces and irregular Militia, integration of the Simul trueSKY™ to provide real time local weather in Squad’s real world maps’ locations, four new maps are shown in greater detail, two based on real world locales, one is a remake of a classic Project Reality Mod favorite, and the final new map is a CQB training range for squad level tactical engagements. The tracers and explosions have been rebuilt and a half dozen new weapons have been added to the game in the form of new kit loadouts for players to choose. Finally, a new system to randomize statics each and every round, be it a window or door missing up to an entire complex of buildings being replaced, crop fields turning into woodlands or any other reality bending manipulation the developers can theorize and in turn allow our own mappers and map modders easily and procedurally randomize their maps to keep the tactical situation fluid and unique each and every round of Squad.
Midnight PST November 30th 2015, the developers are ending pre-purchasing of the Squad Leader tier and the end of the Founders program with associated limited edition perks. Currently available at joinsquad.com/prepurchase as a Founders “Squad Leader” Package with the following perks on Steam:
- Founder Patch in-game on your soldier (Delivery date TBD)
- Founder Tag in the Community Forums
- Exclusive Alternate Weapon Skins (AK74 and M4)
- Digital copy of the Squad soundtrack
- In-game name in Credits
For early birds, current pre-purchase price for a Steam Early Access key is $30 USD until November 30th, and can be also found at joinsquad.com/prepurchase . The Release Price on Steam will be $39.99 USD and available to buy on December 15th, 2015.
If you have seen or heard of Squad, now is the time to buy up a copy, even with a belated Linux release. This is by far one of the best new tactical FPS shooters available.
The Factions
The team at Offworld Industries is proud to present a preview of the larger feature being worked on in the background over the last several months and show off some of the characters and locales that gamers will be introduced to on Early Access Release, December 15th. These characters models have been in the works for months under wraps, and will include Russian Ground Forces, with both their traditionally known current woodland camo and their less often seen desert camo patterns, equipped with near past and present weaponry and accoutrements. In opposition and ready to brawl in Early Access are the irregular Militia faction, a homegrown defense force with an eclectic mix of uniforms and weaponry. The Russians and Militia will riding newly introduced light vehicles and slinging newly introduced weaponry in the Early Access Release, the MP443, AKM GP25, AKS74, RPK74, M4A1, and RPG w/ HEAT rocket will all make a debut on December 15. There will be maps for both factions across woodland European theaters and desert theaters where Squad’s existing Insurgent and US factions will enter into the mix as opposition forces in various game modes.
The Environment
Squad’s mapping systems have undertaken major overhauls behind the scenes, we have integrated Simul trueSKY™, the most advanced and reliable sky system available.The trueSKY™ SDK generates weather system data and updates it in real time, provides a day-night cycle based on latitude, longitude, time-of-year based on the real world locales of Squad’s maps. Real time weather changes, dynamic volumetric atmospherics and fog, as well as rain (and possibly snow) are in the works for Squad!
The Maps
Four additional maps, Chora, Sumari Bala, Fool’s Road, and Jensen’s Training Range, get boots on the ground to push gamers to go tactical or go home.
Chora, a dusty town of a few thousand residents, and became a major conflict zone from 2005 going forward, it is a sprawling rural river valley and agricultural zone that has been an active conflict zone for nearly a decade so far.
Sumari Bala, is much denser and more claustrophobic map, a literal maze of walled residential compounds, market complexes and alleyways designed to confuse and disorient ill-prepared squads.
Fools Road, Eastern European asymmetrical warfare, this remake of our classic mod map is a huge graphical overhaul of the lighting and eastern european foliage in ways we could not have fathomed within the engine six months ago. The addition of a brand new set of train and rail-related statics, bunker/trench systems, and other european static sets will move Squad into it’s second regional conflict zone with a open world forest valley ambush spectacle.
Jensens (Training) Range, This fun little range has seen a number of interesting additions to the standard pop-up targets, namely with the creation of two different kinds of arenas designed to test a Squads skill at close quarter battle. Expect to see continuous updates for training scenarios as community run servers are brought online.
The Developers will be available on the forums at forums.joinsquad.com and on DiscordApp to continue the discussions on the future of Squad with the growing number of fans and modders who have shown support over the last years since the game was announced. We invite you to join us today as we prepare for the launch on Steam.
Squad 50v50 tactical team shooter coming to Early Access on December 15th
Squad, the Kickstarted 50v50 #tactical team shooter from the Battlefield 2‘s Project Reality mod #creators, #OffworldIndustries, which is coming to Steam Early Access on December 15.
The Early Access release will contain two new maps, a big dusty 4km x 4km one “based on a real world location in Afghanistan”, and a smaller close-combat map for the “rehabilitation” of “gamers who are unaccustomed to proper tactical squad based CQB gaming”.
Coming loaded with four game modes and factions, including two new ones: Russia Ground Forces and irregular Militia. Game modes will include Advance and Secure, combining objective capture with base building and supply; Conquest, which pits irregular forces against conventional military outfits; Insurgency, which tasks mechanised units with the discovery and destruction of insurgent weapon caches; and Territory Control, which has you capturing space “one square meter at a time”.
As of Midnight PST November 30th 2015, the developers are ending pre-purchasing of the Squad Leader tier and the end of the Founders program with associated limited edition perks. Currently available at joinsquad.com/prepurchase as a Founders “Squad Leader” Package with the following perks on Steam:
- Founder Patch in-game on your soldier (Delivery date TBD)
- Founder Tag in the Community Forums
- Exclusive Alternate Weapon Skins (AK74 and M4)
- Digital copy of the Squad soundtrack
- In-game name in Credits
The Linux release
We know Squad is being developed using Unreal Engine 4, but do not expect to see a native release anytime soon. The indie studio has their hands full right now with the Windows Early Access release, “we’re running full tilt here as we ramp up to Steam EA, so that [a Linux port] would be months away, like 2Q 2016 for internal testing Linux clients.”
Furthermore, the Offworld Industries team is “still talking with guys in the industry who port on (UDK 3.X and) UE4,” making it clear a native port will certainly happen. Giving the developers plenty of time to create a solid build with plenty of community feedback to shape the way Squad is being developed.
This is not all, a larger plan is at hand, the decision for a later release is structured around the growth of the platform, “the team are hoping the Steam machines make a big splash between now and then, which will make our choices much easier.”
For early birds, the current pre-purchase price for a Steam Early Access key is $30 USD until November 30th, and can be also found at joinsquad.com/prepurchase . The Release Price on Steam will be $39.99 USD and available to buy on December 15th, 2015.
