That is good to here. Oh, i'm back for a little while... I keep coming back every two months or so just to check up on you guys. Keep up the great work!

I'd predict the end of 2007 - 2008. Is that enough for you, Trashman? For the exact same reasons as Skeeter gave, we can't say 2.10pm on Saturday 8th Decembar 2007 - because we can't predict the future. No one can.

The game is fan-based and so is heavily reliant on people working around their life commitments. Things change, people have crises or get some extra free time on their hands. The game(s) WILL come out though, and you'll certainly be happy if you were to check back with us in 2010.

Is there anything I can do to spped up the process?

Being a experienced modder and all....

Go ask in the relevent forums. State what you can do and experiance.

It depends on what you'd like to do really, Trashman.

If you like writing, you can help me and Winterhawk with the random events. Those are starting to shape up really well now with Winterhawks input, but the more the merrier.

If you like programming, you can always talk to Jig, MStrobel, or Nemitor - they might have something you can do.

If you're good at model making, there's plenty of models that need to be done if you check out the

If you want to help make user interfaces, contact Joel.

If you want to make music, just do it and post a link in the

And if you want to help with translations, help out SirPustekuchen in the

That's all the areas I can think of at the moment, but i'll let you know if I think of more...

I can do allmsot all of the listed, alltough I consider programing boring so I havn't done anything in a long while...

I guess modeling is my forte. Right now I have on my HDD nice models of the Galaxy, Galaxy-X and a klingon futuristic Vor'cha... all below 2000 polys.
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/605/galaxyxvm0.jpg

I just need to know can the engine render properly stuff that has been glued/attached (in other words, intersecting polygons)


As for my credentials:

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9682 ... newlw6.jpg
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/9872 ... ew2my8.jpg
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/860/armorzdu5.jpg
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/957/at ... hedek4.jpg
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/844/ ... 021gc6.jpg
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3244 ... 013ie4.jpg
http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/7716 ... t947cy.jpg
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/7382 ... ndo9ae.jpg
http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/493/ ... ner2yn.jpg
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/80/r ... new5ag.jpg
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5562/paladin0sh.jpg


Hope this is enough.. I got a lot more where that came from..

ok - im impressed.

those model's look awesome.

Wow! I'm certainly impressed, Trashman!

For the actual graphics engines, you'll have to ask the individual programmers themselves - i'm 99% sure that MStrobel hasn't started on the tactical combat engine yet, and i'm not sure about Jig. If anyone has started on one yet, it'll be Jig though, so he'll be the one to ask about it.

We're collecting the models ready for when we're ready to start on making the engines. Doing it this way will save time over making the models only after then engine is finished.

Yeas, I see that.
But you mind end up with a lot of models that won't look good in-game that way (assumoing the engine has problems rendering intersected polygons)

Attaching/gluing certanly has it's advantages - a lot lower polycount.

I'm just curios about one thing - how come the tactical combat engine isn't finished yet? If there were plans to release the demo months ago, then you should have that game aspect ready before you even think of a demo...

Gavin planned on releasing a demo about a year ago. Nobody really knows what he's up to. I've only been working on my BotF2 game since June, and tactical combat will be the last feature I implement (at least a year away, probably).

You should pimp this project(s) a lot more.

I'm frequenting a LOT of modding/gaming forums out there but outside the BOTF forums I havn't heard nay mention of this project.

You can try pimping a bit on HLP (Hard Light Productions) - they got TONS of very, very talented coders, modelers and texturers.

Hi, Malvoisin, we understand your concerns - we have them as well.

The reason for the current lockdown on forum access is because we started getting spam attacks.

Frankly, the forums are woefully out of date - they haven't had any sort of security updates in about 2 years and lets face it - the forums aren't exactly "pretty" are they?

We've got some plans for a pretty major update for the site in the near future, but until then, people are just gonna have to put up with "access denied" messages.

It's annoying, but until the upgrades are in place, this problem is a necessary evil. Could you advise people on the BoTE forums about this? We will let you know when the upgrades are complete. Thanks, Malvoisin.

I'm currently waiting on a few things, but when I get them, the site will be upgraded literally overnight. Unfortunately, I cant even start working until I get those things...

Please check first post in this topic for updates regarding to games being made on these forums and how its progressing per game.

don't know skeeter, maybe it's best to just post the Feb 01 update news in that first post of yours and erase respectively put in "quotes" everything old/outdated there cause ppl might get confused when they read that part about gavin's work and skip the end after they read: "the demo will probably take until next year to arrive" or something like that you wrote there. To me (I mean as a newbie comin in here first time) it'd sound like there's nothing to do in here for now but to wait and come again next year and that'd be certainly a loss..
I mean all developers here need everyone stopping by to test and scour our demos and alphas for errors, balancing, ideas, etc. Sure, it's written all over here that gavin's work is put on ice and we even have now our game in the news & downloads section but still, for the sake of consistency and the fact that over 11000 views already hit this thread (or was it just nem checkin in more often than usual? lol I know that was a bad one .... hehe )

That vaporware statement should IMO be stated directly above at first line so ppl directly know it's old stuff they are gonna read about and can skip that part moving to the real important stuff later on in your text.

I mean since jig erased the main botf2 general request and modding forums, we can close gavin's case files here once and for all. If the guy shows up again (like he did last june but nothing public came out of this "regathering" sadly..) and wants to pursue and develop his game further, well then he gets his forums as we all do or not?

btw. it is called birth of the empires

Thanks for the feedback, post edited.

k no problem

btw. is this gavin guy the same one can google about (gturfrey)? I mean it's no good style to do that but I got curious and well, doesn't look like the guy one finds there lost a friend's mother or somethin like that what MoE speculated on. Well anyway, none of our business here and who says one shouldn't enjoy life when still being young and 23 years old (though I wouldn't go in that case to a swinger club and use certain enlargement tools lol but maybe it was a joke he made for some friends of his or something like that ).

Question (that I am asking very nice) - are we allowed to see the screens of Jig's combat game (or are they secret/already out...)?

Thanks