Swordfighting preview

It's been a long time in the works, involving a whole load of rewritten code in areas we didn't expect, and a complete new version of Moviestorm, but finally the sword fighting pack is ready for release. We're currently in the process of wrapping everything up, sending it to the server, and checking the download, and we'll have it for you some time next week, priced 2000 MSP.

The pack includes two characters, the swordsman and swordswoman, a collection of swords and shields, and a huge collection of animations. And, to recreate that authentic Ren Faire atmosphere, there's a medieval tent and flagpoles.

Here's a first look at what you can do and how to use it.



For best effect, combine it with the medieval packs from Moddingstorm, which include more costumes, hairstyles, beards, horses and a castle. They're available together as the Medieval Addon Collection, which saves you 25% over buying them individually.

New packs for 1.5

A very harried Amos told me earlier today that testing on 1.5 is going well, and we're aiming for a release date "very early in December".  He wouldn't commit himself any further than that, and there's only so much threatening I can do on your behalf from 5000 miles away.

He did, however, let slip that the long awaited sword fighting pack will be released "in time for Christmas", and that before that, there will be an "Indian pack" that's been ready to go for a while, just waiting on some code that's in the new release.  That will include some interior and exterior sets, plus a few costumes - acha hai!

I'll try to get the guys to snap a couple of screenshots of the new stuff when they're not so busy, and we'll post them for you here.

New AddOns in production.

Moving onto the AddOns, we'll be updating the Bonus Content Pack this week to include a cool sniper rifle for all your action movies! This new gun will go very nicely with the crosshair video filters, helping you to create those secret agent scenarios. We also have a set of binoculars coming soon, and some costumes and props that will suit nomadic travellers, biblical characters and those of us who prefer looser fitting robes...
Finally, Ben's putting the finishing touches on the wheelchair (shown in the image top right) so that the characters will be able to get in and out of the chair and propel themselves around the set.

Deflecting lasers

Ben's been playing around with some of the new swordfighting animations and some lasers (with hide). Add in some of the Earcom scifi sounds, and this is what you can do.

Moviestorm: under siege

Here's a first look at what Chris has been doing in his spare time: constructing a castle constructor set. It includes over 100 parts, all customisable and tintable: walls, towers, blocks, steps, flags, roofs, doors, corridors and a rope bridge.

He's hoping to have this finished over the holidays for release early next year, probably around the same time as the swords pack. He also let slip that he's got some peasant costumes in the works, and is planning some jumps and rolls and possibly some horses, though those will probably come later. Combined with squirrelygirl's growing collection of mediaeval mods, this should be enough to open up a whole new genre for Moviestormers.

Let's not fight about this...

A couple of weeks ago, we were planning to ship you the new swords pack in time for Christmas. Sadly, that's not going to happen. We're just in the process of wrapping up the 1.4.1.2 release, and the sword-fighting code didn't pass muster. There are a few bug fixes in 1.4.1.2 that we really want to get out as soon as we can, as they're causing some people real headaches. So, rather than delay everything else for that pack, we decided to ship 1.4.1.2 without the sword-fighting code, and we'll get it out to you after the holidays.

It's nearly there, though, and looking good. We've got a bunch of swords, a whole heap of fighting animations, and Chris made a couple of new swashbuckly costumes.

Stormblades

One of the things we've been dropping occasional hints about for a while now is a sword fighting pack. It's well under way now. We can't actually show you any fighting yet (in Chris's words, "all the Max files are men in their underpants"), but take a look at these little beauties.

They're all one-handed weapons (although yes, some of them would take extraordinary biceps to wield with one hand). We do have some two-handed stances and animations, but those are more poses rather than actual fighting moves. The idea is that the swords will also be tintable, so you can have black blades, silver pommels, or whatever takes your fancy.

That thing on the left, if you hadn't noticed it, is a light saber. (Well, when I say "light saber", I mean "a glowy sword-shaped weapon inspired by a light saber", of course. We don't have a license to do an actual light saber. Phew! The lawyers can stand down now.) Anyways, we're not entirely happy with it yet. We're trying to make it glow properly, but it's not really working as well as we'd like, so that may not make the initial release and may get held over for a later update. We'll see how it goes.

It's going to take a small update to Moviestorm to support all the new sword-fighting stuff, but we're aiming to ship this to you in early December.

En garde!

While the cat's away ...

Most of the Moviestorm team are taking a well-deserved break at the moment, but that doesn't mean the rest of us are sitting on our laurels. Everyone's favourite hard-working art guy, Chris Ollis, has this to share with you all:

Now that the dust has settled on the early access release of version 1.4 I'm taking the liberty to let slip some other stuff that we've been doin

g that should be with you shortly, and some even more exciting things from the future!

First up we've got a new and incredibly useful content pack nearing release. It may not seem like the most exciting thing we've done when you first set eyes on it, but I can guarantee every serious Moviestorm film maker will want it and it should make character driven dialogue sequences all the more impressive.

Looking further in to the future we're tackling some stuff that we've wanted to do since day one. It should also make a fair few users happy, and save a few from having to struggle with their own mods of existing animations.

Yes that's right - we've finally had some fun with swords. While Dave would like us to break this down in to all the different sword types, weights, rules and other professional standards, I'm more keen on just whipping them out and hacking away a bit :D

While on the subject of violent acts, I've also been messing around with similarly unpleasant animations in my spare time, and given a good wind I should start handing out handy little packets of jumps, falls, punches and stabbings to help Moviestorm step up a gear. I know people have been shouting for this for a while, but believe me the video footage I recorded as a template was in the can so long ago I've had to get a cinefilm converter to play it back on :D

Don't bother asking for dates, you should know by now ;P

Chris