Gamedev

Hey all, Just wanted to post a quick update to let everyone know that Team Momentum is not dead, we are all alive and well! Things have been slowing down for the development team ever since university started again in August, but we’ve been still working hard on the mod in whatever free time we have.  Here’s a quick preview of what we’ve been working on 2D/3D Artist 3dfix has been hard at work on the models and animations for our guns. We plan to add guns for each class of weapon used in CS:S, as a way to support older maps that contain shoot-boosts (such as bhop_badges). ...

The development team has been hard at work on the biggest update yet: pre-alpha 0.4.0. This update is split into four sections: replays, comparisons, accurate timer, and map finished UI screen. By far the largest addition is replays, which automatically record for every run and allow the player to watch their run or share it with others. In a future update we will upload these files to our global leaderboards to allow easy watching of any replay, as well as downloading from the in-game leaderboards. ...

As many bhoppers and surfers are aware, the smallest interval of time that can be calculated by a Source Engine server is the interval between two ticks, proportional to the tickrate set by the server owner. The server tickrate is just the server’s ”framerate” for simulating movement, physics, and other game logic. Note: bhop and kz servers use 100 tickrate, and surf servers use 66 tickrate. This means every tick takes 0.01 seconds. On a 66 tick server, this “interval per tick” is 0.015 seconds.  ...

Our website has finally been updated, and the frontend is now no longer just a placeholder! We’ve switched from the Javascript-based blog template to a lightweight and modern bootstrap frontend, complete with comprehensive mobile support. This update required us to completely re-write all the HTML and CSS for the frontend, as well as make many changes to the underlying Python/Flask backend.  However, the new website makes effective use of Jinja2 ′s in-HTML python interpreter, which allows us to extend the layout easily and create new pages quickly, as well as control the content inside a single HTML document. The backend was also overhauled to make management easier, with essential text controlled by the database rather than baked inside the HTML, allowing admins to make changes easily and quickly.  ...

We are pleased to announce that today we have begun development of a standalone mod based on Momentum called Shooty-Gun-Mod, or SGM for short. Shooty-Gun is based on the unique gameplay of terrorists fighting counter-terrorists, in order to plant and explode a bomb or prevent hostages from being rescued.  We're excited to bring the key aspects of Momentum into the ground warfare of terrorists versus justice, and this new mod will be focusing primarily on combat rather than movement mechanics. But don't fret! We'll also try to include some (albeit limited) bunnyhopping in the maps that we're making for the mod! We are considering basing a lot of the counter-terrorism units off of ones found worldwide, with the different uniforms, guns, and of course, accents. In addition, we're excited to convert some existing bunnyhop and surf maps into Shooty-Gun levels, such as bhop_aztec and surf_dust! we feel that the authors of these levels have carefully crafted a theme that we would like to emulate when creating SGM levels. Here’s a very early development screenshot of SGM! ...

Just a quick update, we released a new version, 0.2.0 prealpha, which you can try for yourself here. Instructions for installing the mod are on the docs section of the main website, which you can find here.  The changes include full support for scroll gamemodes, including the stamina system from CS:S. Currently, the “legit” scroll/stamina gamemode is automatically applied if a map with the kz_ prefix is loaded. In the future, you will be able to select the gamemode from the map selector screen. ...

We’ve finished adding a fix for bhop blocks made using func_door and func_button entities, commonly found in older maps.  Similar to the mpbhops plugin for CS:S/CS:GO servers, our system finds bhop blocks made using func_door or func_button entities, and then locks them from moving. We then check the time that the player is touching the entity, and teleport them if they are touching the bhop block for too long. This fix prevents the doors from boosting the player’s height or slowing the player randomly as they move.  ...

Yesterday the team finished our transition from SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer to SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer, marking a major checkpoint in the mod’s development. We can now put our entire focus on adding new features such as individual player and run statistics, replays, and more. Momentum was envisioned as a Singleplayer mod with added in Multiplayer features such as global IRC chat, ghosts of other networked players on the same map, and leaderboards. The reasoning for this was such that players could play maps at their own pace and not have to worry about whether the server was going to switch maps, or if the map they wanted to play was currently being played on a public server. ...