First Strike

[XSGamers]

Never knew this existed.

Looking forward to giving in a whirl though

[TALON]

Heh, sorry it took me so long to respond to you, have been snowed under with work this week, if you want to check out First Strike check out the forums at www.fsmod.com get the mod downloaded and have a blast on one of the Community Games held during the weekend on the BI server, they usually get going around 8 or 9 GMT on Saturdays and Sundays, you'll usually catch a good number of people on at that time.

Look forward to seeing you out there.

[TALON]

Here's the latest news from over at First Strike towers, it isn't the best of news, but we're soldiering on.




Greetings Troopers!

It would appear that 2010 has become a year of problems for First Strike, starting off with a considerable downsizing of the team and delays to our next release. Our latest crisis is a big one, and in this news post we'll be requesting your assistance in dealing with it.

As you may well have noticed recently the First Strike Stats server has been down for some time, well this is only the visible tip of an iceberg which represents a far graver problem. Our server has been maliciously hacked, and this has resulted in the corruption and loss of a great deal of First Strike's assets, as the server also housed our FTP resources where our various assets are stored. Typically when this attack occurred the FTP had not been backed up for a while resulting in the loss of a considerable portion of First Strike work. FSDev Imperial who is in charge of running the server has as a result had to foot the bill to have a professional recovery service retrieve the lost data that would have crippled First Strike development had it remained unrecovered. Now he has done so out of his own pocket, and we feel that it is wrong that he should shoulder that financial burden alone, to assist him we are putting together a donation drive to help him recoup at least part of the cost of the recovery which was a staggering $500.

Now we must make it absolutely clear that this donation drive will not result in us making a profit on the modification that is First Strike, as per our agreement with Lucasfilm we are not allowed to do so when producing a product based on the Star Wars franchise. The donations will go towards recouping the costs incurred due to a malicious attack on the First Strike server. We'd like to ask everyone who loves First Strike to donate at least a small amount to this cause.

Here's a link to the news post and donation tab...

http://www.fsmod.com/newsfull-062010-1.htm

Thanks in advance for your continuing support.


On the plus side the Summer has seen the return of a lot of our best veteran devs, so with any luck production should speed up over the next few months, with myself having less commitments for a while to with the teaching done and dusted for the year, it could well be full speed ahead.

[Lt_Red]

Thats really bad news Talon Damned hackers!

[TALON]

Yeah, it is a pain, but at least the data has been successfully retrieved now, so we can get on with working on the mod again. Seems like forever that we've been just on the brink of release. Should be able to knuckle down and get the thing out there now.

[Etek]

Hate to sound like wise ass, you guys don't use a subversion solution for backup and version control?

[TALON]

Don't know to be honest, as I don't deal with the server, but it came down to the server not being backed up in a while and that being the time when the hacker attacked typically. Will be backing up fully on a more regular basis from now on, it is just that there is so much data that it is a big job. We're going to look at making it more secure in future.

[TALON]

Check out the latest news from First Strike, courtesy of your very own friendly neighbourhood Twigsy!



Greetings Troopers!

This news post comes from the pen of FSDev Twigs who'd like to introduce you to his new baby, and to accompany it we have a fantastic screenshot extravaganza which is a feast for the eyes, so read on...



This is my first news post on behalf of the team and I hope it meets your expectations! Our regular readers may recall a strange foot note to a news post:

There is another map...

Well, I'm extremely pleased to give you a little sneak peek at it, but first a little history lesson. The X-Wing series of games was produced under license from LucasArts by Totally Games. Proving extremely popular, the series mixed flight simulator with Star Wars, producing one of the greatest Star Wars flying experiences. The series featured four games in total, two of which could be played online. The first of these, X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter, thrilled players of the day and a clan following soon built up, some of which still continue to play.

My own online gaming experience began with XvT and its sequel, X-Wing Alliance. Like many I longed for another game in the series, one which would couple the unrivalled gameplay with modern graphics and network connections. There would be no sequel though, and ten years on many of us searched for another Star Wars game which could match the realism and thrill we wanted.

First Strike was eventually what I settled on to match the XvT thrill, while not a complete experience, the mod plays in some ways very much like those games. Many of the Dev team had in fact aspired to try and recreate the dogfights experienced in the series. When I gained access to the testing team, many of us would throw ideas around about how we could replicate some of the missions from XvT. Eventually, I learned enough about the mod to be able to do it myself.

So here it is. A homage to X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter. The concept is simple, score the most kills in order to bleed the oppositions tickets. The team that reaches the number of kills first, wins. There are no other objectives to complete, no flags to capture and no capital ships to destroy. Don't think this will be a simple walk in the park though, team work will still be vital. Going alone against a squad of TIE Fighters is suicide, always work with a wingman! Your choice of ship is also a factor, you will need to balance strengths and weaknesses in order to be victorious.

[TALON]

We're sure many fans of the X-Wing series that now play First Strike will enjoy this map, and perhaps even rekindle those memories from the MSN Gaming Zone! Maybe this familiar sight will help. Yes, that is a Virella Systems Cargo Tanker you spy!





In other mod news, work continues to add the final polish, the Sentinel is nearing completion and it's weapon loadout is almost complete. We won't give away the full armament of this impressive ship, but here's a little preview of the devastating fire power she has at her disposal.









1.5 is more than just two maps though, its the things behind the scenes that will help further propel the mod. New member Restnpit has been helping tweak the AI ensuring that Yavin will become more of a challenge as the bots bite back, while automated turrets throughout the mod have also seen a similar performance increase. Balance tweaks, bug fixes and much more all help to enhance the player experience.

Finally, Benu Kenobi has completed his apprenticeship and has now joined the mod team. We hope you'll join us all in congratulating him on his accomplishment. An experienced mapper, we're delighted to welcome him onboard.