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| Prepare to be Boarded |
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HAPPY NEW YEAR TROOPERS!
We hope you've all had a great Christmas break and wish you all the best for 2014.
Those of you following our recent progress and new release map updates will note that with today's news post we have missed a map out and jumped straight to Parmel Invasion. We have done this as we intend to postpone Dathomir Prison Break until a patch shortly after the next release so we can bring First Strike 1.6 to you all the sooner, but fear not, it is on its way. Now without further ado, let us head once more to Parmel.
 'Following a critical victory for the Rebellion, Alliance forces have captured a key Imperial advanced starfighter research station at Parmel. The occupying force must now capitalize on their good fortune by securing all the data they can regarding the facilities advanced starfighter program. Unfortunately an Imperial carrier group patrolling the sector has been diverted to the system to investigate after receiving a distress call from the station. Now the Alliance forces must defend the installation until they've completed their mission, and on seeing multiple landing craft launching, prepare for boarders.'With Parmel Invasion we address a long sought after desire among First Strike players, and that is to produce a dynamic boarding map which takes in all the scope and complexity that a Star Wars battle can offer. Space conflict featuring capital ships and starfighters, boarding craft objectives for you to defend or destroy, and the thrill of landing a boarding craft on a space installation and disembark with the intent of invading and capturing that installation, with all the dynamic complexities and gameplay choices that scenario suggests.  
  The station itself, a fantastic asset built by FSDev Redmonkey some years ago has undergone an overhaul to get it up to date with new statics and other dynamic effects to really breathe life into the thing and add atmosphere. The gameplay within the location should prove most interesting too, with wide open hangars, cargo bays and a multi-level central core to fight over, not to mention claustrophobic compact corridors and broad sub hallways and observation decks littered with makeshift barricades to assist in the defence of the installation. There are also a few little surprises in there for you to look out for, so keep your eyes peeled.  
  As far as the space aspect of the map is concerned there should be a lot of interesting and unique elements to the gameplay choices on offer. Taking on the role of boarding craft the Lambda Shuttle and Sentinel Landing Craft make their First Strike space map debut. Ever wondered how the Lambda handles in the vastness of space? Or how a Sentinel would fare going toe to toe with a capital ship? Well on this map you'll find your answers.  
  In addition to this we are proud to announce another First Strike debut, with the inclusion of a new carrier model of the Imperial Carrack Cruiser equipped with fully operational TIE racks. This means that for the first time in the mod you'll be able to launch fighters from a playable capital ship. This should add a very interesting dynamic to the flow of the map's gameplay. The capital ships do not respawn. Once they're gone, they're gone. So if the Imperial faction want fighter support for their landing craft they'd better keep their Carracks in one piece. Similarly, for the Rebel faction several CPs are linked to the various landing platforms and hangars of the station. If they are captured they lose their ability to wage war out in space, with the exception of their capital ships and a small number of starfighter reinforcements in the form of a squad of B-Wing starfighters. So things should get very interesting indeed.  
  What this map is going to be all about is choice. Do the Rebel defenders commit all their forces to the battle in space, fielding the maximum number of space assets possible in the hope of vanquishing the Imperial forces before they have a chance to set foot on the station? They could, but they risk the chance of someone getting through only to find there is no one home. Or do they deploy ground troops at key locations around the station in preparation for the imminent arrival of Imperial boarding parties? Do you focus your Sentinel on making it to the station to help facilitate that boarding action, or do you turn its powerful weapons on the capital ships defending the station? It is all about choice, and we fully expect this to become another fan favourite map.   Well we hope you've enjoyed our informative and image extravaganza of a last news post of 2013, and look forward to bringing you First Strike 1.6 very early in the new year, so keep checking back for more updates on our progress and news of the amended release date. WE WISH YOU ALL THE BEST FOR 2014, AND WE'LL SEE YOU ON THE BATTLEFIELD TROOPER! | |
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| First Strike 1.6 Delayed |
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MERRY CHRISTMAS TROOPERS!
Unfortunately as the title of this news post has most likely clued you into, we have suffered a delay with the release of First Strike 1.6, a few issues have arisen that we have had to deal with which have hampered our development resulting in us missing our self imposed deadline. We're sorry to disappoint those of you looking forward to playing this new content, but we thought it better to get these issues resolved prior to release rather than getting something out to you that is suffering from a number of bugs and is less polished than what we'd be prepared to release to the public. Some really great work has been done and we can't wait to let you at it, but we really need to get these issues resolved first. So bear with us and in a few weeks we should have something really special for you to get to grips with.
In the meantime after Christmas we will continue to release news updates to reveal upcoming features, and to keep you up to speed with our progress as we inch closer to release.
So once again, apologies from all at First Strike to those of you expecting the release today, rest assured we'll have it out for you soon.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND WE'LL SEE YOU ON THE BATTLEFIELD TROOPER! | |
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| The Conquest of Space |
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 'Silver Station, an important Alliance supply depot protected by stolen Imperial technology finds itself under attack. The heavy Imperial bombardment sends a power surge through the defence net scrambling automated sensors and creating targets on both sides. Suddenly new signals appear on the sensor scopes as both Alliance and Imperial ships respond to the growing distress calls. This region of space now faces a new threat, one that takes no sides...'Continuing on with this series of articles giving you an in depth look at the new maps to feature in our 1.6 release of First Strike, we now move on to Silver Station. With this map FSDev Twigs continues his one man crusade to create innovative and interesting additions to First Strike's collection of space maps, and this one delivers very nicely, giving us something new from both a gameplay perspective and visually as well, utilizing many assets from the First Strike library not yet featured in any publicly released maps, not to mention many new assets developed specifically for this map. So what is different about this space map? Well all other First Strike space maps have tended to be objective based. Destroy specific targets, escape to the jump beacon, destroy all enemy capital ships, etc, with the exception of Strike at Parmel which is essentially a Team Death Match game with starfighters. In Silver Station, like with most ground based maps you'll have tactical areas you need to gain control of to win the map. So basically the Conquest game mode has gone to the stars.  
  In addition to this we have other factors that have been added to make things more interesting. As the back story notes, this is a Rebel Alliance supply depot, essentially a huge space station hidden from all but the most focused of prying eyes by its proximity to a nearby sensor jamming nebula, it is surrounded by container yards floating in space, which are in turn encompassed by a defence grid of stolen Imperial automated weapons platform satellites. The engagement on this map takes place after the depot has been discovered and has already been attacked by Imperial forces who knock out essential computer control systems aboard the space station causing a power surge which sends the defence grid loopy. Now these weapons platforms could target any ship in the depot's vicinity, and this has resulted in the devastation of the Rebel ships guarding the installation and the Imperial ships attacking it. Now that reinforcements from both factions have arrived on the scene they'll find themselves falling prey to these pesky weapons platforms, or being assisted by them. So do you go in all guns blazing and take out all the malfunctioning turrets before they can fire on you? Or do you go in more tactically, and wait and see if the turret acts friendly or not before engaging? These devices come in two flavours, Ion Cannon and Turbolaser. Getting caught in the crossfire between an Ion Cannon and Turbolaser weapons platform doesn't even bear thinking about, and if you're about to engage enemy ships, just be aware of your surroundings, as one shot from an Ion Cannon turret could leave you a sitting duck for your intended victim. It certainly spices things up, that is for sure.  
  Finally there are some tactical advantages to be had at some of the control points. In addition to gaining tickets to win the map, some of them offer advantageous properties such as ship repair and ammunition replenishment, so get to those container yards while they're hot. All in all we expect this map to give you a unique space combat experience to what has gone before, as you hold and defend positions against enemy attacking vessels, dive into dizzying arrays of floating freight containers as you perilously dogfight with enemy starfighters hoping to shake them off your tail with a timely collision. Or sweat it out as you tensely await the sound of your ship's power systems coming back on line after you've just been hit by an Ion Cannon while helplessly watching that enemy vessel moving in for the kill. It is going to be a lot of fun. Until next time, See you on the Battlefield Troopers! | |
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| The Lost Community Map |
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 'Imperial Intelligence has received a number of reports regarding an agricultural settlement known as Nesmazzda, situated on the remote world of Dantooine. The reports suggest that the colony may be providing food and medical supplies to local Rebel cells. As a result the ISB Sector Chief has dispatched a small unit to the colony to gather intel on the ground and take appropriate action should their suspicions prove true. Unfortunately for the colonists, just as the Imperial forces arrive, a Rebel convoy shows up to take delivery of the supplies. The Imperial troops' course of action is now clear.'With this series of articles we're going to go into more detail on the new maps you can expect to play in the next release of First Strike. Working from the last news update from the bottom up we're going to start with Nesmazzda Conflict. Now this map has an interesting history going way back to 2007. back then the team was actively encouraging the creation of Custom Maps, even going so far as to dedicate a community board on the forums to just that subject. Some of the latter acts resulted in mapping competitions which brought us community maps which were added to the mod such as Bandomeer Refinery Assault and Null Sensor Station. But Nesmazzda Conflict was one of the first really well rounded, original and professional looking of the Community Maps to come out. It didn't really use any new assets as such, but what it did was take already existing assets in First Strike's library and put a new twist on them and make them appear to be something new. The attention to detail is fantastic with the settlement at the heart of the map looking really well thought out, as if an actual town planner had come in there and thought about how the settlement should logically be laid out. Being an agricultural settlement the mapper also included an area of allotment like vegetable fields which featured vegetation from our Endor maps re-purposed as farmed produce, which was a really nice touch. Roads and alleys feature walls and archways that bring to mind the southern European towns you'd expect to see in the South of France, Italy or Spain. Basically the map has a lot of character.  
  However, it isn't all about style. From a gameplay perspective this map is really solid too. All the tight alleyways, open broad main streets and fully open terrain beyond the settlement's walls make for an exciting and varied combat experience. Thanks to FSDev Dnamro (who, as you'll know from our earlier Dev Diary is one of our singleplayer/co-op game mode Gurus), who took a look at this map back in 2011 and added bot support to it, this map is also raring to go as far as singleplayer/co-op is concerned, and it works scarily well. The nature of the map means the enemy could be coming from any direction. This map is certanly destined to become a firm fan favourite, especially with fans of singleplayer/co-op modes. Personally from a co-op game mode experience perspective I'd say this map is up there with Mos Espa.  
  Finally, the last factor to take into account with the history of this map is the mapper himself, Thomazz. At the time he was producing this map he was in a spot of bother, and due to this he had to leave the internet as he couldn't afford the bills, and as such he made a request for the FS Devs to step in and complete his map. Which was done, and the map saw a limited release with Community Map Packs, and through Custom Map events. On rediscovering this map while investigating our own half completed maps, it was decided it was high time this map got the broader release and recognition it deserves. The fact that it also has bot support is just the juicy cherry on top. We hope Thomazz is in a better place now and has returned to the web, and if he has, we hope he pops in to see people enjoying the map he created. Until next time, See you on the Battlefield Troopers! | |
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| Introducing First Strike 1.6 |
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2013 Mod of the Year Awards via Mod DB
Greetings Troopers!
Good news everyone, after a few years of hard slog with not as much free time as we'd like dedicated to the mod, we are finally proud to announce the release date of First Strike 1.6!
As an introduction to some of the new content you can expect to get your grubby little mitts on, in today's article we'll reveal to you the names of the new maps and the background stories that go with them.
Following a critical victory for the Rebellion, Alliance forces have captured a key Imperial advanced starfighter research station at Parmel. The occupying force must now capitalize on their good fortune by securing all the data they can regarding the facilities advanced starfighter program. Unfortunately an Imperial carrier group patrolling the sector has been diverted to the system to investigate after receiving a distress call from the station. Now the Alliance forces must defend the installation until they've completed their mission, and on seeing multiple landing craft launching, prepare for boarders.  Alliance Intelligence has received information regarding an Imperial prison complex on the shadowy remote world of Dathomir. Following some less than successful engagements with the Empire, a large number of Rebel freedom fighters have been captured. The Alliance's network of spies has it on good authority that this is the place to which they have been incarcerated. A small, but crack squad of Rebel Pathfinder operatives has been tasked with infiltrating the Imperial installation and freeing those Rebels held within. Silver Station, an important Alliance supply depot protected by stolen Imperial technology finds itself under attack. The heavy Imperial bombardment sends a power surge through the defence net scrambling the automated sensors and creating targets on both sides. Suddenly new signals appear on the sensor scopes as both Alliance and Imperial ships respond to the growing distress calls. This region of space now faces a new threat, one that takes no sides... Imperial Intelligence has received a number of reports regarding an agricultural settlement known as Nesmazzda, situated on the remote world of Dantooine. The reports suggest that the colony may be providing food and medical supplies to local Rebel cells. As a result the ISB Sector Chief has dispatched a small unit to the colony to gather intel on the ground and take appropriate action should their suspicions prove true. Unfortunately for the colonists, just as the Imperial forces arrive, a Rebel convoy shows up to take delivery of the supplies. The Imperial troops' course of action is now clear. So we have a nice collection of new maps that we have been working on for some time. The new Parmel map features the long desired boarding action which will really help show the versatility of the mod as you fight for control of a space station as either infantry, starfighter pilots or commanders of massive capital ships. Dathomir is another map long in development featuring a new location to battle in complete with some exciting new assets. Silver Station gives us another unique take on the space map by bringing us a conquest style map in space with CPs that must be captured to gain victory, and a few nasty surprises lying in wait. And finally Nesmazzda brings you a community map created several years ago by community mapper Thomazz, it is a really solid map making unique and interesting use of some of our already existing assets to create a really fresh and enjoyable map, and we thought it was high time this community map got the wider exposure it deserves. Hope you're still about to enjoy the fruits of your labour Thomazz. In addition to this you'll find tweaks to co-op and singleplayer gameplay, not to mention the addition of a few new maps to the co-op/singleplayer experience, so look out for those. Finally I know what you're all thinking. "What, no Hoth?" It is on its way, but unfortunately not with this release, still some work to be done on that, but look out for an update on our progress on the Battle of Hoth map soon as well. That's all from us for now, hope we can count on your votes for this year's MOTY, and we look forward to seeing you for the release of First Strike 1.6! Until next time, See you on the Battlefield Troopers! | |
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Closed Alpha Test & Deth..
