As of now, Astroid Base - Release ONE is available for the public. You can download the map from the Download page.

There comes a time that nothing more can be done on something you have been working on and for "Asteroid Base", that time has come . . .

After nearly two years of development, it's time to release it to the general public. Release ONE will be released on Friday December 10th, 2004 at 6:00 am CET.

Well, this is it. There is no way back now . . .

Asteroid Base - Beta THREE has been released. You can download either the Full version, Playable version or the Split-up version from the Download page. I hope that you enjoy the map as much as I enjoyed making it.

With only ten hours to go, I can say that the packages are finished. Beta THREE will be released in three packages and the filesizes are as following:

• Full version: 10,20 MB
• Playable version: 6,56 MB
• Core file: 1,32 MB
• BSP file: 5,24 MB

You'll probably notice that there isn't a music file anymore. This is partly true: there is now a common file that can be used for all prior and future versions of the map. Basicly it saves HDD space and one less file to worry about.

If you're looking at this, that means that you are viewing this page from the new location. Yippeeyahoo !!!

Anyway, to tell the story short: When the Apache software was installed, we discovered that Thirza was unable to display the pages or any HTML page properly. Reason: Zonealarm that intervened with the default port setting which we need because the DOT.TK forward system doesn't support ports in the URL. A little tweaking in ZA's settings was sufficient for Thirza to display the pages normally.

Also, you may experience some downtime on November 1st, which is due to an upgrade in the connection on this end. We're getting a higher upload and that means that we have to do a reboot and a reset of the cablemodem in order to process the upgrade. Downtime will happen somewhere late in the afternoon (around 17.00 hours CET) and will probably take around 15 minutes before Thirza is ready to go. After the upgrade, you should be able to download faster then 40 KB/sec for a single user.

New screenshots of Beta THREE are now available from the Screenshots page.

With only eleven days to go before the release of Beta THREE, things are getting a little hectic around here but nothing to get worried about . . .

Simmo is still working on some LCARS textures for several area's at once, so that will boost things up (that reminds me, I still have to submit some area's to him). The Alpha testers are still hunting down bugs and I'm still fixing some issues and adding some small things. All and all, it goes pretty well . . .

As a sidenote: the Screenshots page has been updated and contains some screenshots of the upcomming Beta THREE. Also, the page has been modified to reflect both image and advertising instead of a cut-off screenshot.

Hehe hehe hehe, did I say September ?? Hehe hehe hehe . . .

Anyway, due to some circumstances early September, I was unable to continue with the map, but I can say that the mapping is done (except for some small things). Everything that I wanted to include, has been included and what's missing now are some panels and LCARS textures. Simmo is working on them for some area's and they will be included within Beta THREE. I already saw a quick sample and as always, his work is of outstanding quality. Far better then I can, but then again that's why I asked him . . .

There is a lot more about Beta THREE, but that is not important right now. Yesterday, a quick Alpha build was completed and sended towards the Alpha testers which included the latest shaderscripts and modified textures and with the help from some people on Map-Center.com, I was able to successfully include an eye candy.

Beta THREE will be released on Monday November 1st, 2004. That way, Simmo is able to work on some more LCARS textures without any additional pressure (if textures aren't finished, they will be included in the next release), the Alphatesters have more time to hunt down any bugs (there are some nasty ones that not everyone is getting) and I have sufficient time to implement some changes.

Beta THREE is comming along nicely. Around 90% of the mapping is finished and item placements is for a good 60% done. All Alpha testers have recieved a copy of the latest build and the first feedback has reached its destination.

Beta THREE will feature both new area's as well as updated area's. If all goes well, Beta THREE will be released somewhere in September.

In other news: Beta THREE will be the last Beta build of the map. After release, there will be a one to two week beta period in which the last issues will be resolved. After that time, RELEASE ONE will be compiled and released publicly (i.e: submitting to EF community based websites).

It's summer and I have to say, it's been a very hectic summer over here. Here is a small list of updates on current issues:

Server:
The past two months, I was experiencing several software difficulties, including Elite Force and Windows itself. Due to this, the server was unable to run stable. I've managed to install a stable version again of several software that I am using for the server (I'm using Windows 2000 and I must say, it's been stable eversince I've began using it, but most of the problem lies within third party software).

Website:
Due to earlier mention problems, I wasn't able to install the Apache server. There isn't much need for it when you were facing with aspects of an operating system which crashes once every hour or so . . .

Asteroid Base:
Beta THREE is comming along nicely. Due to earlier mentioned problems, I wasn't been able to continue mapping and I did run out of idea's for sometime. Anyway, a few days ago I've installed both Radiant & the Ydnar compiler and I have resumed mapping. The Screenshots features some of the latest screenshots.

Not entirely related to the site or any of the projects, but by the time you read this I've been gone on a very deserved holiday and probably I'm lying somewhere with a beer in the hand. Only setback is that everything is put on-hold for the moment, but that is only temporary and most of you are probably doing something similair. Have fun . . .

Currently there are difficulties that prevents both web and game server from running. Until this is resolved, the webserver is taken to the backup location while the game server may experience erratic performance or a complete downtime.

The Elite Force server has recieved a map update today. New to the map rotation are the following maps:

• CTF Bajor
• CTF Mansion
• Stukton_v2
• CTF Singularity
• CTF Geothermal
• Celestial Temple

You can download them from the server, but I wouldn't recommend it. Download mirrors are provided on the Server page. Happy fragging!

An update for Beta TWO has been released today. The update will fix a bug which prevented Beta TWO to start from the menu. You can download the 3 kB large update from the Download page.

If I was consistent then Beta THREE would be released this Friday, only I'm not consistent so the release is postponed.

The main reason for the delay is that I'm currently remapping the Shuttlebay and some area's surrounding it. Since Beta ONE, I've recieved some remarks on that and I wasn't fond of the way it looked. The new Shuttlebay (or bays) will look better and will be more consistent with the rest of the map.

Oops. With all the Half-Life 2's E3 violence, I completely forget to make a newspost to announce that Asteroid Base - Beta TWO has been released. Anyway, go to the download page and start downloading. Feedback can be given by the means specified in the readme. Have fun.

Screenshots from the upcomming Beta TWO are now available on the Screenshots page.

Also, the file sizes for Beta TWO are known:

• Full version: 8,84 MB
• Playable version: 5,20 MB
• Core file: 888 kB
• BSP file: 4,34 MB
• Music file: 3,64 MB

Beta TWO will be released this Friday (May 14th) at 0:00 CET. The release will be the same as Beta ONE, thus in several downloadable packages, more info on that will appear here in the next few days.

For Beta TWO, Paracyte and some other has made several suggestions in which I'm currently implementing within the map and I wasn't happy with some area's. How this works out, I don't know yet but we shall see.

There was a bug in the full & playable version of the map Asteroid Base that prevented people from seeing the skybox. The .PK3 file that contained the skybox was accedently in the AB .PK3 files instead of in the .ZIP files. This error has been corrected and both version have been updated.

For those of you who download the files prior to 20:00 CET, you can either extract the skybox from the .PK3 file or download the CORE file and extract the skybox into the BaseEF folder.

Well, the moment you've all been waiting for. Asteroid Base - Beta ONE has been released !!! Go to the download page and start downloading. Feedback can be given by the means specified in the readme. Have fun.

With only 12 hours before release, time is ticking slowly away. All the Beta ONE packages are ready and filesizes are known and mirrors are up and running. All alpha testers have recieved their packages, so they don't have to wait until tomorrow for downloading and play.

The file sizes for Beta ONE:

• Full version: 8,60 MB
• Playable version: 4,96 MB
• Core file: 857 kB
• BSP file: 4,13 MB
• Music file: 3,64 MB

The release will be on 30.04.2004 at 00:00 CET.

 

Screenshots from the upcomming Beta ONE are now available on the Screenshots page. Furthermore, since I don't have any more ideas to implement into the map, I'm anouncing that Beta ONE will be released on April 30th, 2004 with time schedules to be announced.

With the release, there are some missing content like LCARS textures. I've asked Simmo666 to do this and currently he's working on them. This doesn't mean that he has to haste in order to finish them. What is complete is complete and everything that isn't completed before next friday will be added later.

Due to server maintainance and other long overdue stuff, the webserver will be down for the comming days. It's content has been transfered to the old Lycos location, which will now serve as remote location. Any update will be featured there. If all goes well, you should be able to see this message on the temporary location already.

Both beta and final releases of AB will be in the following form:

Full version
This version will contain all the nessacery files such as textures, music and scripts which are required to play the map. This file will be the largest and we recommend a broadband connection to download this or a lot of patience.

Playable version
This version is almost identical to the full version, only the background music and custom sounds (if used) aren’t included.

Split-up version
For 56K modem users, the Split-up version will exist out of four (4) files.

- AB_Core
This file will contain all custom textures, shader scripts and additional info.
- AB_BSP
The .bsp file will be contained in this file.
- AB_Music
This file is optional and will only contain the background music.
- AB_Sounds
This optional file will only contain the used custom sounds, if custom sounds are being used.

For the moment, file sizes are unknown.

I'm sorry to say that the release date for Béta ONE will be delayed to a later announced date.

The nessacery LCARS textures that are being created by Simmo666 aren't complete yet. He's currently wrapped up in schoolwork and when that's done, he is able to continue. Due to this, the final release date that I had planned will also be pushed back later this summer.

As of today, I would like to welcome merlinlake78 as a moderator to the boards.

Merlin has helped me with the Alpha testing of the map "Asteroid Base" and he provided much needed feedback. He will be assisting me in the béta testing stage of the map by moderating the "Asteroid Base" area of this board, while I'm implementing changes and bugfixes in the map.

A temporary message board is up and running. Click on "Board" in the menu left and you will be taken there. There are still some tweaking to do and I'm open for any suggestions you might have.

For now, it's running and since it was the last thing on the "to do" list, the road is open to commence béta testing.

Well it seems that an own board isn't going to work for the time being. Something just seriously screwed up here in my Windows installation that probably will require a re-install in order to fix it. Doesn't matter anyway, Windows is already in need for a re-installalation.

As a temporary "fix", an "outside" board will be created which can be used while I make the nessecery adjustments. It's not a solution that I'm happy with, but since AB is going into béta within a few weeks, I feel it's nessecery to have some place to recieve feedback.

The new official site for the map "Asteroid Base" is as of today online! Most content from the original site has been transfered to this site, but you may experience technical difficulties as missing images and/or content that doesn't work but that will be resolved within the next week or so.