32 First 2012 media update!

Posted by Speeder on February 27, 2012 in Mental Omega APYR News

It's true that we're already two months into 2012 and there's been no update yet. We've had a slow start but now we're back to maximum activity, working on the first release of Mental Omega 3.0. We're somewhat close to finishing the basic tech tree we designed and after that we can concentrate on remaining aspects of the mod like AI, game modes or missions. There's still a lot of work to be done, but we're on the right track to a release.

Today it's time to complete the psychic orb. Some of you have already guessed: it's a part of the new logo for Mental Omega and it was designed by CCHyper.

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Credit to 3d4h for the wallpaper.

With the new logo comes a small graphical update for the website. Old sections have been removed. As time passes, we will be slowly introducing you to 3.0 by updating each of the information pages. Links currently available will mostly take you to pages on our ModDB profile which has also been updated. You can download all previously released versions of Mental Omega from there as well.

We have two other wallpapers for you, coming from KaneNash and iamn00b.
Future Tank X-0 model was created by Banderi.

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Now for more 3.0 content.
First of all, Hero Spotlight #2! This time we'll quickly introduce, or rather reintroduce you to two veteran heroes and a new female commando for PsiCorps.

There'll be two more episodes for remaining heroes and since all of them are complete, next spotlight won't take another 3 months to make. I hope.

New units from Azri_Apoc, two of them have been briefly shown in screenshots that have been posted at the end of 2011. We're getting close to completion of basic Allied side.

Opus Custom Tank


Shadow Tank


Gehenna Platform


Drakuv


Stallion Transport (version 2)


Battle Fortress


Aegis Cruiser

We've just started testing a standalone version of the mod. Soon, me and Rik will start work on new missions and updates of the old ones that we deem as "decent" and worth updating. If you have any suggestions regarding new missions, please post them on forums. Also, I hope that with the next update we'll show you some more ingame action.

That's it for today. Stay tuned!

8 Project Phantom - 2012

Posted by Starkku on January 21, 2012 in Project Phantom News

Project Phantom - 2012

Been quite a while, eh? Yeah, I thought the same. This newspost will bring you some media and other small things that'll hopefully show where the project is headed towards. The title does not only reflect the fact that this is first newspost of the year, it also means I am aiming for first public release during this year.

Website

Project Phantom website has been brought up-to-date, with new unit & structure profiles that come with in-game screenshots, some extra visual appeal to the layout of the site and new 'Media' section which currently mainly has few screenshots of the mod.


Media

Let's start from one of the more important aspects of this progress/media update. As you can see from the screenshot below, several Dominion structures have had a graphical makeover, replacing the recolored Westwood assets with all new artwork, and rest of them are to follow in future. This change has also altered the way some of the structures work, as well. In-depth detail on individual units & structures can be found on website. Another thing to note is currently work-in-progress Tundra theatre, a collaboration between me & m666 of Final War fame that will eventually replace Arctic theatre.


Click on the image to view it in a full size.

And no, I am not going to limit this graphical overhaul just to Dominion structures, other sides will also get makeover, in due a time. Phantom Power Core shown in image below.


Click on the image to view animation of the structure. It looks bit better in-game than in this, to be fair.

This of course means that mod is going to have some civilian/misc. eye candy as well, here's pictures of some doodads and those country flag things in-game, respectively.



Click on the images to view them in a full size.

And finally, 3 misc. screenshots from website Media section that were taken during beta testing online games of Project Phantom.




Click on the images to view them in a full size.


What's next?

In near future you could expect more media and showcases, in form of screenshots and possibly video footage as well. Mod content I am currently working on, aside from already mentioned structure graphic overlay & Tundra theatre along with other terrain improvements, involve technology branches, support powers and stolen technology. On top of that, I've been trying to do some map work, replacing some not-so-good or otherwise unfitting maps with more interesting ones. All of this will be showcased eventually too, in one form or another.


Final notes

Project Phantom is also currently looking for people capable of filling following roles in development.

- Infantry Artist.
- Mapper
- Concept/Promotional Art Creator.

More information available here.


Until next time.

2 Kitty Killers

Posted by Mig Eater on January 15, 2012 in D-Day News

Throughout the war the Germans had a technical advantage over the Allies with their Zoo of armoured vehicles, the Americans tried their hardest to close this gap but all of there efforts weren't ready before there superior numbers overwhelmed the German warmachine. You can now though put down the rabid German animals with the best the Americans had to offer.



The Pershing was originally designed to take on the Tiger tank, but by the time it was ready for combat Kingtigers where roaming Europe. To combat this new threat one of the prototype Pershings was upgunned with a more powerful 90mm cannon & rushed to France for field testing. Once there armour salvaged from a destroyed Panther tank was added, which brought it on par with the Kingtiger. The crew then went looking for prey but they only knocked out one Tiger tank before the war ended.


A post war upgrade of the M26 Pershing, most of the improvements are internal tho (engine, gun, armour thickness etc), so to differentiate it from the M26 in-game I gave it a tiger stripe paint scheme, which was used during the Korean War to "scare" the enemy.


The T28 (aka T95) is probably the most unique tank built during World War II. Originally designed to breakthrough the bunkers of the Siegfried Line. It's heavy armour, impervious to any know gun at the time meant it could drive right up to the enemy's defences & blast away. The Siegfried Line was breached before it was ready tho so thoughts turned to using it in the invasion of Japan but again the war ended before it could be put to use.
PS: This is the third time I've made a vxl of this tank & I'm still not happy with it XP


The first true heavy tank design since the M6 at the beginning of the war. It was used to test several types of engine & a experimental parallax rangefinder which in theory would have given it the ability to fire accurately at long ranges but it proved to be unreliable in anything other then perfect weather conditions.


The last of the war time heavy tank designs, the T34 used the same layout as the T29/T30 but equipped with a new 120mm cannon. The experience gained from working on the T34 was later used to help design the T43/M103 heavy tank.

32 Winter Update 2

Posted by Creator on January 14, 2012 in Contra News (eng)

Many discussions were about if super weapon general needs a super unit. And if yes then what should it look like? Super weapon general has her unique play style to build defenses near enemy and attack by building defenses closer and closer to enemy base. At last, final decision was made. The thing you see on the render is walking fortress. Yes it is fortress because it can sustain direct hit of a nuclear missile and it is walking with 2 legs. It is very complex to destroy it it repairs itself and builds structures like a construction dozer. Its disadvantages are relatively weak firepower and very slow movement speed. It moves slower than infantry. Its usage is very similar to super weapon general play style to move forward slowly and build defenses around itself.


Nemesis is new fighting vehicle for cyber general. It is not decided yet if it is a 3-rd rank or 5-th rank unit. But, in any case, it will be universal attack flyer with good armor, ability to attack both ground and air targets and slow movement speed.


Yet another cyber general unit is Harbinger cargo helicopter. It will replace Chinook. It will be absolutely equal to Chinook by its functions, but will be slightly faster.


New 3d model for laser general Omega cannon.


And at last, here are a couple of models for maps and missions. There units won't be buildable, but you will see them on some multiplayer maps and in single player missions. First model is China armored train. It has radar, ECM, antiaircraft turrets, dual nuke cannon and two Overlord turrets on board. In addition, it rams and crushes everything on its way. It will be strong enemy.


The second model is neutral bunker, which can be found on some maps. It is just a conventional building with good armor. In contrast to other buildings, you can't clear it by destroying garrisoned enemy infantry with fire, poisons and other antipersonnel weapons.

0 Desert rats

Posted by Mig Eater on January 12, 2012 in D-Day News

Here is a preview of the new desert terrain I've been working on. Most of the RA2 tile sets have been reskinned, but there are lots of new sets that I still want to add.


Part of a new map based on the Suez canal, it's the first new desert map & still very much a WIP.


One of the standard RA2 maps so ignore the buildings & trees, but shows the new cliffs well.

0 One for the Laser lovers!

Posted by Madin on January 8, 2012 in Tiberian History News

After the non-stop culling of all things laser there is at last some good news for fans of focused light based weapon systems!

The dimensional rift has finally provided a laser based weapon, and it's another classic!

The Nod Laser Tower is back!

But the strange thing is that lots of generals are not too pleased...
You see, Nods excesses with laser weaponry in the 3rd Tiberium war meant that GDI was forced to find specific solutions to solve Nods lasers. In fact Nod used so many laser weapons that GDI devoted most of their 'counter-strategy' RD money on counters for lasers. They were successful.... very successful actually, indeed many Nod generals had complained that putting so much focus on one type of weapon type would backfire and boy were they right.

These generals were rather pleased with the forced reduction of laser weapon production that came about after the death of general Townes and the destruction of Nods primary Laser RD facility.

The recently reintroduced robotic turret was preforming surprisingly well. And considering that it did not draw any power from bases, these generals are wondering what purpose a power hungry static defence could serve in the current environment.
They have a point. The Laser Tower will not be nearly has potent against vehicles now that GDI has learnt so much in countering lasers.

But it must also be acknowledged that the Laser Tower was a passable anti-infantry defence has well.
The problem here is that while the laser beam fired is very potent vs infantry, GDI now attack in much higher squad numbers then during the 2nd Tiberian war.
And because the Laser Tower needs a small cool-off period in between each shot in order to prevent over heating, it is easy to see this defence being overrun.

No worry, the famous Nod strategic defence centre have come up with a solution.
For those generals whose base commanders have lots of power and who can afford to build extra Laser Towers to allow them to be equally effective vs light vehicles and infantry squads, they can simply keep the defence at default.
For those base commanders who are happy with their turrets preforming the anti-vehicle role and who are more concerned about being overrun by Composite armour upgraded GDI squads, there is an upgrade:

The Blue Beam upgrade is a refit which introduces a redesigned focusing crystal that concentrates on a narrower band which does more damage to organic matter, rather than the current crystal which is biased towards damaging metal and metal composites.
This reduced focus reduces the power consumption, but rather than lower the required power of the Laser Tower, instead the researchers have instead used the saved power to launch a triple burst beam.
This should make all the difference when dealing with large GDI or Scrin infantry groups.

As you can no doubt tell the redesigned crystal comes at a price, the Laser Towers upgraded will no longer be effective vs vehicles (at all).
There will be no forced roll-out of this upgrade, it is up to base commanders whether they chose to apply for it or not.

Laser Tower in game action!