A DEMO version of the map U.S.S Leonov - "The Animal" for Elite Force II has been released and is now available through the Download page.

This release marks the return of the map to the Star Trek franchise with the full version currently in development and slated for a 2019 release.

As always, feedback is much appreciated though the well-known channels.

   
   
On this day twenty-five years ago, the game that can be regarded as the origin of all modern FPS games, was released as shareware to the public. While playing this game, my mapping interest began pondering on which kind of maps I could make for the game.

Almost ten years later, while having done a lot of mapping for Doom itself, I decided to take on mapping for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force and began work on what ultimately would become "Asteroid Base". Before any real progress was being made, I decided to port some maps from Doom to Elite Force in order to learn more about the capabilities of the (then named) Quake3-engine.

Due to various obvious reasons, these maps have never been officially released (altough a copy of E1M1 *may* be in possession of certain older Ravenites members, back in the days that Raven still had a message board) and sadly, I have no idea where most of my Doom stuff have gone, apart from "The Underring Halls" available through my website.

Maybe one I can find them again (big archive with lots of floppy's, CD-ROM's and harddrives), so some of my work for Doom may have an actual public release . . .

   
   
   

Currently in development: "The Animal" for Elite Force II. Originally for Elite Force and later for Jedi Academy, the Elite Force II version marks the return of "The Animal" to the Star Trek franchise.

With the help of fellow Elite Force II developers, a demo package featuring an extensiver Deck2 is currently being developed for a possible Christmas release.

   
   

More work in progress screenshots of the map "Asteroid Base" for Elite Force II.

   
   
   
In December 2017, I posted several screenshots of a cancelled pre-TOS project which was intented for an RPG-X release, which was simultaneously developed with the "Normandy" re-do. Since those releases never came to be, at that time I decided just to post the screenshots with the door open for a version for Jedi Academy.

Since then, I had a lot of questions about the availability of the map and where to get it. Sadly and due to events not from my part, the map will never become available in its original form so a Jedi Academy port will remain an option for now.

I decided to finish up some area's (a brush here, a texture there) so I can see where the map is headed and so far the results are stunning. Even so that I have become confident enough that an optimised Jedi Academy version will definitely look better then its original Elite Force counterpart.

The coming months will be used to finishing up area's that are still far from done and touching up area's that are already been established. That in conjecture with the Elite Force II port of "Asteroid Base" and other projects, means that I will pretty busy . . .

 

 

 

The first official work in progress screenshots of the map "Asteroid Base" for Elite Force II.

 
An in-between screenshot taken from the map I had posted shots from last December. The released TLO version also includes this section but lacks in pretty much every department.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in 2011 while still active in RPG-X, I came across a map named "Normandy" made by TLO's in-house mapper Klaw who was, like me, one of the few people still creating content for the RPG-X modification. Altough I like the map very much, I couldn't help noticing from a more professional mappers perspective, that there was a long list of 'issues' that plagued the map.

Especially in the area's of model use, visability and framerate was a lot that could be improved with the proper attention. Since the original release included the *.map file, I began work by starting to re-do several area's and progressed further by improving its general look and feel, while retaining Klaw's original design and premise.

Development of this re-do version ceased a long time ago due to my given status as untermensch by the RPG-X community and in favor of my Jedi Academy projects. The original, somewhat flawed TLO version is still available and has been included in their RPG-XCE project (with the *.map file). The high-quality and sophisticated version is being deemed 'unwanted' and 'undesired' by the same RPG-X community . . .

 

 

 

Before the port to Jedi Academy, Release THREE of Asteriod Base saw its initial development in Elite Force, the game where it all began. A large portion of the map was already done before the port and at that moment, the default executable (stvoyHM.exe) couldn't handle the map anymore (MAX_SHADERS hit).

I decided to port the map towards Jedi Academy for a number of reasons. The first would be the obvious since Jedi Academy has higher limitations, therefor providing me with more room to do things and secondly since Jedi Academy still has an active modding community. Compared to Elite Force's modding community (which is is practicly zero), the choice was once again pretty obvious.

I could've sticked with Elite Force and I could've used an extender such Thilo's efport progress or GSIO01's rpgxEF project in order to make a full, dedicated RPG-X version of "Asteroid Base" but both projects haven't seen any development since 2013 and therefor should be regarded as "abandoned" and "dead". Much unlike Jedi Academy's OpenJK project, which is still going strong.

Happy new year :)