By Jim Rossignol on June 23rd, 2011 at 12:20 pm.
Nuclear Dawn, the FPS-RTS hybrid Source mod turned (maybe) commercial title, had all got a bit hazy of late. What was going on with it? We hadn’t even posted about it in two years. Two years! Anyway, we’ve just received word that post-apocalyptic project is getting a release in September (definitely!) The game is a multiplayer mix of FPS and RTS, with folks able to take on the roles of RTS-style commander, or one of four classes on the battlefield. As I understand it the two factions differ in how their bases work, with their team loadouts being roughly symmetrical. The new announcement also claims that the game will be packed with all the trappings of modern multiplayer, with unlocks, 60 ranks, squad-functionality, and Steamworks-based cloud configs and character stuff. It will kick off with six maps and 32-player servers. Not 32 player servers. Obviously.
Teaser below.
And here I had all but given up on Nuclear Dawn! I thought it had joined the legion of the unfinished mods.
Or maby I should say games, because this does look professional. I just hope the gameplay isn’t as old as the project itself (there were quite a few RTS-FPS mods for Source being made back then).
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I was under the impression that it did turn professional when Interplay brought up the team, that or I’m mis-remembering the press-statement, it’s been a while since I read it.
In other news, SCREEE!!! I’d basically given up hope on this mod, so this news makes me a very happy man, and to think, I’d deleted the book-mark to their website just 2 moons ago.
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Lack_26, it was Interwave that bought up the rights.
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That’s the one, I knew it was Inter- something or other.
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Hope it’ll be good. The last few screens they’ve released on their moddb/indiedb page are pretty sweet looking, better than the trailer from the looks of it. Still, it’ll come down to how it plays, not how it looks.
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Anyone else play Empires Mod?
I used to play it all the time, but a lot of the aspects to that seem copied off of it.
I’m not talking about the whole RTS/FPS thing. The gun designs, the backstory, the factions, etc.. Reflect the game entirely.
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I’m pretty sure it is still going to be a commercial release, I don’t remember them indicating that was going to change although I may be wrong.
Edit: Wasn’t meant to be a reply -_-
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Men will be shot.
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Original ip, built for large teams, steepened rts learning curve.
I’m sure they’re doing cool stuff with gameplay and steamworks social integration, but unless this is free 2 , play, it’s not going to pick up an audience.
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I tend to avoid free2play games, because it takes away a (or even ‘the’) consequence for cheating.
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Brownclear Dark!
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It’s on the Coming Soon tab in the Steam store so I imagine it’s gone commercial.
I’m still feeling burned from Brink so I don’t think I’ll be dropping cash for this until way after release and it’s picked up good word of mouth.
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Surely nuclear dawn arrives on October the 21st, right?
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It will be interesting to see if it can beat Natural Selection 2.
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Could be interesting. The design was way better when it was a mod though. Think their main designer left the team, but I might be wrong. The old model stuff looked better anyways. This model doesn’t seem to be in anymore.
http://www.halflife2.net/news//1175771467_EmpireStealth.jpg
http://www.halflife2.net/news_images/200711/1196094904_weapons_stealthknife1.jpg
http://www.halflife2.net/news_images/200711/1196094904_weapons_sticky.jpg
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I was in the original dev team.
That model was indeed claimed by its original author when the project was bought. Interwave had to redo all models from scratch.
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Funny, now I remember it, seeing the old pictures.
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Quite a let down to me.
It looked nice 2 years ago, now I don’t see why I’d play it even if it was free.
The concept art was so cool, too. But the in game models now look so plain and move robotically. Ah well.
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For whoever actually cares: This game used to be a partial rip off of the crappy yet extremely entertaining Empires hl2 mod. But then the Nuclear Dawn team decided not to have vehicles, so now the game will inevitably suck even more than it would have. Empires, on the other hand, is a very unpolished six year old mod that almost never has had more than two and a half developers actively working on it that nevertheless has tanks.
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My perfect RTS-Shooter would be Battalion Wars in Multiplayer with 1 Squad or vehicle per player, buildings and controlpoints.
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I remember picking up this mod, oh what was it, 5 years ago? I loved the concept art.
I believed it joined the mod graveyard together with with Hidden:Source, Sourceforts, GoldenEye:Source, Insect Infestation, Iris, Substance, Perfect Dark: Source, Zombie Master, Troy, Iron Grip: The Oppression, Eternal Silence and many more.
Well, it’s nice that it did not join this graveyard. I hope that it will be more playable than Empires. I’m not saying that Empires is not playable, but it has a lot of bugs and glitches and the hit detection is horrible.
Or maybe, it did join the graveyard…and returned! It’s a zombie!
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