Happy Star Wars day everybody!
Yes, I'm still alive. As much as I wanted to release an update to The Outer Rim to commemorate May 4th, the mod is currently going through a stage of metamorphosis requiring me to pull things apart in order to rebuild them into something better.
Instead of releasing a piping hot update today I've decided to share a bit of a progress report on how the Clone Reinforcements expansion pack is coming along and give some insight on as to what I've been working on these last few months.
So what is Clone Reinforcements?
Clone Reinforcements is the next expansion pack for The Outer Rim, just like Return to Tatooine and Lost Artifacts. These expansion packs are typically linked with the major updates to Blade & Sorcery and utilise the latest features available in the game engine.Expansion packs:
- Return to Tatooine: focused on new map support
- Lost Artifacts: focused on lightsabers and Unity's LWRP renderer
- Clone Reinforcements: focused on blasters and Unity's URP renderer
What's new in the next update?
Well, as you can clearly guess there will be more blasters. I'm not sure how many blasters there will be since right now since I'm focused on actually programming in the new features necessary for the blasters rather than "make more gun pew pew". I do also plan on getting some thermal detonators working too.The blasters I am aiming on getting complete for the initial release will be mostly Clone and Separatist weapons - with more blasters coming in each incremental update most likely.
Core feature progress:
- DONE: Massive performance overhaul on blasters - sorry I can't release it yet but it's fantastic
- DONE: Completely new blaster model shaders
- DONE-ish: New scope shaders with configurable reticles
- DONE: Convert all sounds to Audio Containers (will require updates to all mods that use TOR Blaster module)
- DONE: Optional blaster bolt deflection assist + optional lightsaber activate on recall. You padawans are going to get slaughtered without it.
- IN PROGRESS: Completely configurable bolt colours + muzzle flash colours
- TODO: Accuracy cones - gun stability
- TODO: Charged bolts
- TODO: Support for multi-barrel / buckshot
- TODO: Modify stun to work as stun bolt
- TODO: Manual blaster gas reloads + interchangeable blaster gas
- TODO: New map - Felucia
- EXPERIMENT: Beam support for blaster bolts
- EXPERIMENT: Distant based fire sounds
- EXPERIMENT: Improve blaster bolt self-collision
- EXPERIMENT: New particle effects for blaster bolt collisions
So far I can comfortably say that all the new shaders are complete for the blaster models and bolts. This will lead to a very nice graphical upgrade on all of the new and existing blasters.
New blaster bolt shader preview video
I've also been redesigning the scopes to have improved shaders and actually include fully configurable reticles now. They still need a bit of polishing but I'll get back onto those after I've added a few more guns. Note, this screenshot is from before I created the new blaster shaders and thus it has the sad Lost Artifacts era E-11 shaders.
I've been working with Plasma, the 3D modeller who produced almost all of the gorgeous lightsaber hilt models from Lost Artifacts (see mod credits), who has created a 3D model for the manual gas reload system I've been planning. This reload system will allow the player to re-gas/re-charge blasters with a new tool I've still yet to name (I'll take suggestions in the comments below). The idea being that the tool will change colour depending on the type of gas it contains (e.g. red, blue, green) and allow you to fill up a blaster with that gas.
The idea being that you'd jam it into the ammo packs on the blasters and it'll reload the gun. The recharge tool will not be 'spent' and can be reused as many times as you wish.
As a result, I can also provide an option to players to disable automatic reloads forcing players to manually reload with this tool. Preferably keeping it in one of your hip slots or even a shoulder slot for those Alyx fans.
As far as the new map Felucia goes. I've spent a month or two on it so far but I'm postponing it until all of the core features for the mod are finished as they are more crucial for the release. So to be honest, I don't know when Felucia will be done but I'll at least show you a few screenshots from its development.
When is it coming out?
The short answer is, when it's done.I'm aiming to release the expansion pack shortly after the U8 release. Hopefully an opt-in beta will be available just like there was in U7 to allow me to make all the changes necessary for compatibility. If KospY and his team at WarpFrog manage to release U8 before I've finished working on the initial version of Clone Reinforcements (very likely) I'll try to release a compatibility hot patch in the mean time.
Since Blade & Sorcery Update 8 is still in development and is not available yet, the state of my planned changes for this expansion are still unknown.
47 comments
Seriously dude, I can't thank you enough for this mod, it's brought no end of entertainment to me and my buddies. Cheers!
if you need further help just reply and i will try to help you the best i can.
If you have it on oculus store, no idea.