I'm seriously considering making a spiritual successor.

[TheOysterHippopotami]

Apolgies for the resurrection post.

Also apologies for disappearing.

I was still very green when I made this topic. Somewhat in denial of my lack of capabilities and jumped the gun on posting here and showing you guys.

It's been an even longer time now and I really have no clue on the state of MS:C, MS:S and any other projects going on. I've since started leading software projects and have become a very experienced software engineer.

I also have no idea who is still around in terms of programmers and content creators.

I still think about this game would love to see a resurgence. Is there anyway I can actually help?

Hello! We could really use any help we can get at the moment to get the next patch out. Can you script, code, animate or model monsters (not weapons)? Maps are always welcome too but are not essential to get the patch out because we have quite a few maps that are being sat on.

 

[Thothie]

It's been an even longer time now and I really have no clue on the state of MS:C, MS:S and any other projects going on.

MSC is crawling along, on the floor, slowly but desperately reaching for its goal. Several developers are active, mostly being held up by me. Taking steps to improve that situation, and make sure MiB can do a release without me, if need be. Really not much left to do for a release, but seems anything larger than a flea becomes a mountain these days.

MSS nearly always seems cryogenically frozen, but @WHITE-LION is currently heading up the project. Ya can see what they're up to yonder, and they are also active on the Discord. (@PY004 Just noticed we lost our Discord plugin in the forum update.)

No other projects of consequence that I'm aware of - think maybe some Minecraft and Scrap Mechanic creations, and an Unturned map, but that's about it.

 

[Xeropace]

I can do very basic modelling, better at unwrapping and texturing though.

My main skill is programming, been doing it professionally for 7 years now. Mainly C like (but not C) languages. Anywhere from maintaining 20 year old projects, to leading greenfield stuff with new tech.

And Thothie I hope you're okay, seen some stuff about on the forums. If I can share the burden in anyway, I'm listening.

 

[Thothie]

Well, we do have a rather extensive code task list which MiB managed to cut in half in less than a month. I don't think any of what's left is absolutely patch critical, but some of the more complex tasks would go a long way to making the game more viable.

Modeling is a department we are sorely lacking in. At the moment, the primary concern is weapon conversion/placement, which doesn't involve anything as complicated as UV wrapping/texturing - though I suppose we do need some of that too, just not as patch critical, unless Father Brandon finishes his map before we get the patch up (which, at this rate, he might).

I'll see if I can figure how to add you to the dev group and then getting you various materials (though today is kinda done for me, and tomorrow is occupied, so may take a bit).

edit: Ye should be able to see the Developer's Corner now. The code nightmares are yonder. You'll need VS2003 and the code source before you can start playing with that (again, maybe by Monday), but you can at least get some idea of what yer up against.

 

[WHITE-LION]

@Thothie I should tell you that Supersoup has taken control of MSS, he shares no news of progress with me. I was exploring different game engines to find the perfect one to make a game inspired by msc or an outright continuation and I had found the cafu engine which is able to import GoldSrc assets so I started working on a port of msc to cafu but I have recently become employed and now I no longer have the time to finish any of my projects. Cafu is 100% open source and able to have gigantic game worlds. Cafu showed real potential even with its short-comings.
https://www.cafu.de/
Pretty much all of the msc assets can be ported to cafu so the work to do is not so much as starting from scratch.

 

[Thothie]

That's a shame... Guess MSS is fully cryogenic again, given that supersoup already gave up once. :\ Still, he had more zeal than some of our previous MSS leads. Not looked into Cafu, but I've looked into a half dozen others and have yet to find an alternative Gldsrc engine that can actually run MSC, aside from older variants of Svencoop, which we'll probably wind up migrating to. Most of the others are spawned out of old WON builds, which seems to be the core of the problem.

 

[WHITE-LION]

Cafu has Lua script built into itself most of the game logic can be made with Lua and Lua script s can call function s in the engine API.

 

[Thothie]

Well, all the MSC assets could be ported to Source as well (quite easily, in most cases), it's just the result is ugly as hell and makes it not really worth it. As I said years ago in this same thread, something I'd only do if Svencoop wasn't available, and some Half-Life1 update killed the game completely.

 

[WHITE-LION]

Well, all the MSC assets could be ported to Source as well (quite easily, in most cases), it's just the result is ugly as hell and makes it not really worth it. As I said years ago in this same thread, something I'd only do, if Svencoop wasn't available, and some Half-Life1 update killed the game completely.

I think you should look into cafu and consider it as a possibility.

 

[Thothie]

Meh, no Steam interface, so we couldn't use it for MSC... Maybe a viable alternative for MSS though (aside from the obvious abbreviation conflict). But it looks nifty.

 

[WHITE-LION]

A steam interface can be added and any game on cafu would be 100% independent

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

@WHITE-LION

Not looked into Cafu, but I've looked into a half dozen others and have yet to find an alternative Gldsrc engine that can actually run MSC, aside from older variants of Svencoop, which we'll probably wind up migrating to. Most of the others are spawned out of old WON builds, which seems to be the core of the problem.

GET THIS INTO YOUR HEAD.

 

[Thothie]

Bleh, take a hit Luci. People always get hung up on the new engine they discover and start pushing it like mad, but to be honest, this looks more viable than most of the ones I've had thrown at me. It's obviously not plugin and go like our current MSC Svencoop would be though. Think the only issues we've run into with that is a slightly different model collision calculation (only an issue if you're crawling on a env_model without a clip brush), and we've not really tested if the DS is going to play nice. Also seems the expanded map size thing isn't going to work for us - which is a shame, but it still is much faster and much more stable than the current Goldsrc, without the limits that are currently hobbling us. (Weapon mods, and anything else that bloats the base scripts, are out until we migrate.)

Only reason we're doing a final Goldsrc release at this point, really, is we want to be able to differentiate between what issues are arising from the new engine, and which are our own darn fault.

 

[WHITE-LION]

Bleh, take a hit Luci. People always get hung up on the new engine they discover and start pushing it like mad, but to be honest, this looks more viable than most of the ones I've had thrown at me. It's obviously not plugin and go like our current MSC Svencoop would be though. Think the only issues we've run into with that is a slightly different model collision calculation (only an issue if you're crawling on a env_model without a clip brush), and we've not really tested if the DS is going to play nice. Also seems the expanded map size thing isn't going to work for us - which is a shame, but it still is much faster and much more stable than the current Goldsrc, without the limits that are currently hobbling us. (Weapon mods, and anything else that bloats the base scripts, are out until we migrate.)

Only reason we're doing a final Goldsrc release at this point, really, is we want to be able to differentiate between what issues are arising from the new engine, and which are our own darn fault.

What do you mean the map size isn't going to work? I was working on a demo map of what msc could be like in cafu and it was 'working out' for as much work I put into it. I even made a video:

The map was generated by a terrain generator program (L3DT).

 

[The Man In Black]

He was referring to sven, and likely to how our maps are so packed with entities that just because the coordinate system is larger doesn't mean that maps will remain stable if we keep the same density

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

We cannot migrate to cafu for numerous reasons that Stoned and I have already discussed (maps dont port entities or textures, for example)

He was referring to sven, and likely to how our maps are so packed with entities that just because the coordinate system is larger doesn't mean that maps will remain stable if we keep the same density

If this is the only problem with the map size limit then the new spawn system that is coming out next patch will actually solve this issue if it is used cleverly, since it can immensely reduce the amount of entities needed in a map, at least as far as monsters are concerned.

 

[Thothie]

He was referring to sven, and likely to how our maps are so packed with entities that just because the coordinate system is larger doesn't mean that maps will remain stable if we keep the same density

Yeah... Still be nice if it worked though. We could, for instance do Kray Eldorad freaking huge, without cutting it into multiple maps, since most of the NPCs would be simple and static. Two major issues are that mobs cannot cross various coordinate lines and their navigation goes to heck, other issue is that the game can't seem to figure where to place sounds (so everything is direct to the HUD and sounds like crap). The system has to be enabled in the listlib.gam, and when so enabled, causes those same issues on every map - seems one can't turn it off or on for specific maps.

 

[Xeropace]

Okay, I'm back at my PC for a couple days now.

Where can I help immediately? Is the mod source/version controlled anywhere? A Todo list for the next patch? Etc.

 

[Thothie]

We have repos for both the code and scripts now. If ya have a Github account, might be wise to bring it up in a Secret Chat thread. Currently kicking it into high gear (a thread title which needs a sarcasm tag), is where most of the exchanges regarding the latest tasks are taking place. The code task list is linked above, though by no means complete, the latest chatter regarding that tending to be in the quick reference sticky.

 

[Myrlance]

For a while I tried to convince Oyster and actually succeeded, for repositories to hold his quest progress in the new system created by Rex/Greatguys1. It's sitting still right now as I am considering helping make quests for him or not.

Github is wonderful from my experience, glad that you guys have repositories for them.

 

[Thothie]

Oh, he's succeeding. Sometimes not an easy thing on yours truly, but he's definitely succeeding.

Github was always a security risk, in a game so vulnerable, plus we've rarely had more than two people in the scripts/code at a time, so while we took some stabs at it, there was no real reason for it. Indeed, so far, it's caused a lot more headaches than it's solved, but it's not been without its upsides, and I'm sure we'll appreciate it more, once we've ironed out all the migraines.

 

[Myrlance]

This is what I have on github for MSC so far, a repo I put up for Oyster and I forwarded him the use of Github Desktop, although it may not have it's uses for him, this repo is public (there's another private one for oyster's internal work) - so if anyone is feeling thrifty and may want to write quests for MSC using greatguys1' system, then here you are.

MSC-Quest-PublicDev

 

[Thothie]

Yeah, those scripts have evolved a whole lot since then... Indeed, did quite a bit of unnatural selection on them today, even if it cut into other things.

 

[The Man In Black]

Indeed, so far, it's caused a lot more headaches than it's solved

Disagree, at least from my side. It's been a godsend, even with the hiccups.

 

[Thothie]

Ya didn't have it fry your VCProj's and delete your entire code base, several times. (Almost lost a whole drive due to a typo - barely caught that).

Does save you from having to write up those tedious RTFs though, and my demonstrating my unerring ability to fail to follow instructions, like unto Spiderman taking a multiple choice quiz.