Modern Combat (Company of Heroes Mod)

[MonkeySoldier]

I find the BSS newsbot kinda unpredictable, so I don't even know whether our new overview will be publishes, so here it comes.. Enjoy!

Hello, and welcome back for another monthly overview!

Unfortunately, as you might have noticed, this past week the Black Sand Studios website and forums were taken offline for a prolonged period of time due to server problems. Although we are happy to report that the site is now back online again, our current press release is a little behind schedule, so we'd like to apologise for that.

But enough of that for now... today we have our brand new user interface to show you!

First of all, the Modern Combat main menu, recent recipient of a major makeover!
Behind it, a generic background for use in menus and lobbies. It depicts a stylised map of North-Eastern China, and of the coasts and major cities that border the Bohai Sea. The People's Republic of China will serve as the primary theatre of war within which the battles of Modern Combat are set.

If you look closely, you can also make out the semi-transparent video that overlays the generic background screen:



Up next are pics of the command tree menus, where you can check out the three doctrines available to either faction. And while you're at it, check out the awesome environmental assets in the background!

- U.S.A. (Air Superiority, Close Area Battle, and Armoured Warfare):





- P.L.A. (The Future Is Now, Full Mobilisation, and Asymmetric Warfare):




Last, but not least, the victory and defeat pop-up screens, always there to mark a particularly satisfying victory... or an embarrassing defeat:




That's all for today folks, but don't forget to check our Homepage or Forums for any updates or previous press releases you might have missed!

~ The Modern Combat Team

[Robert-The-Bruce]

is there going to be some kind of public beta in the near future? What are the rough plans of any kind of release? Will you essentially release a finished 1.0 version or are you planning to release a kind of base version and incrementally update?

[MonkeySoldier]

Good news folks. CoH: Modern Combat has caught the attention of Relic, the design team of our loved game Company of Heroes.
They recently have talked to our Mod Leader OnkelSam and posted an interview with him on CoH.com. You'll find a lot of interesting information that you might not have known, yet.

Originally Posted by Thunder - Relic Community Manager

Originally Posted by Thunder@Relic
Towards the end of February of this year a new trailer was released for a Company of Heroes mod that has been in the works for awhile. The new footage showed that not only was the group still working on the mod, but that they were continuing to make some impressive progress. Long time Company of Heroes fans will likely recognize some of the names involved in the project, which include OnkelSam who will soon have two of his maps included in Company of Heroes, the Duclair series.

I dropped OnkelSam a note to see if he'd be able to answer some questions about the mod and give us an idea of what's still to come. This Q&A resulted, we hope that you enjoy it. (...)

Read the full interview on CoH.com and feel free to discuss it on our forums.

See you on moderncombat.blacksandstudio.com

==

Originally Posted by Robert-The-Bruce

is there going to be some kind of public beta in the near future?

Yes, we will. Read the interview for further details.

Originally Posted by Robert-The-Bruce

What are the rough plans of any kind of release? Will you essentially release a finished 1.0 version or are you planning to release a kind of base version and incrementally update?

"You never get a second, first impression" With that in mind, we are careful when we will release the mod to the public. The danger of a beta that isn't completed enough, is that a lot of people don't seem to realize what 'beta' actually means, and what the beta phase is meant for. We're not afraid to release the mod, but we want to do it right, and will release it when we are satisfied enough.

[Robert-The-Bruce]

thanks, its always good to know how things are planned. My worst fear would have been that it will take another 2 years or so until you released a "finished" product.

[MonkeySoldier]

Ok, so a little bit later than scheduled (and we apologise for that), but here we are to serve you up another monthly update!

The Modern Combat team has reached some major milestones throughout the month of May, polishing the mod and bringing it closer and closer to something that resembles a finished product. Some of these milestones include:

• The overhaul and purging of over fifteen thousand existing U.S. speech files. All work on said files is now complete.
• The near-complete implementation of new weapon and vehicle sound effects, all thanks to the hard work of our resident sound engineer, Castus. Also, a heartfelt thankyou to our BF2-modding colleagues at Black Sand Studios, who kindly donated the vast majority of the effects, and without whom the mod wouldn't sound as great as it does!
• The successful coding of a vertical fire mode for the FGM-148 Javelin (which was one hell of a tricky job), courtesy of Darkbladecr.

Due to the nature of these changes, we don't have many pretty screenshots to bombard you with, but we do have a gameplay video instead. Along with the new sound effects and processed speech files, we'd also like to take the chance to show off some in-game footage of our previously re-modelled Bradley (model by DemoSS and Darkblacecr, skin by Chopin) and re-skinned Stryker (Knight of Ammo), as well as provide you with a brief glimpse of the aforementioned Javelin update.

Oh, and we threw in some firefights and explosions too. You guys like that kind of stuff, right?

Trailer 5

So that's it for May, but don't forget to check our Homepage or Forums for any updates or previous press releases you might have missed! See you on moderncombat.blacksandstudio.com

~ The Modern Combat Team

[cyberzomby]

15 THOUSAND? JESUS! Good effort! Pretty good trailer and nice stuff in it

[[R-DEV]AfterDune]

Nice trailer, look forward to playing this!

[sharpie]

Lookin foward to it

Nice trailer.

[[R-DEV]Nosferatu]

Copying my question from RSS news thread: How many maps would be in the initial release?

[MonkeySoldier]

Originally Posted by [R-DEV]Nosferatu

Copying my question from RSS news thread: How many maps would be in the initial release?

Replied in mentioned topic.