FIREFIGHT RELOADED News

Hi everyone,

Today I wanted to inform everyone about how the ENDGAME update is going. The plan is to release the ENDGAME update by the end of this year.

The priority is to:

- Implement a wave-based survival mode that will become the default gameplay standard.
- Re-balance gameplay and removing enemies and weapons that negatively impact gameplay.
- Fix the majority of crashes and issues.
- Implement more mod tools to the modding SDK, such as a workshop uploader.
- Get the mod working on Linux/SteamOS, alongside adding full controller support for Steam Deck.

I want to release this update in a relatively stable state. Due to the amount of projects I had to work on while working on ENDGAME, this significantly slowed down progress of the update, and I lost track of what I was working on when going back to it. This update will NOT be as big as I originally planned on doing it, but I want to provide a very good experience for players. I have streamlined the main focus to the top 5 goals above to make the completion of this update quicker. However, I've had to cancel some changes.

Mapbase is no longer used as it caused issues during development, as well as planned ports to future SDK engine versions. Due to this, the engine itself won't be updated. Any kind of engine update would have increased development time, which I want to avoid with releasing an update that has taken this long to develop. However, changes to the game that were made during the Mapbase engine were moved over (such as the re-addition of gamemodes).

I plan on releasing monthly blog posts about the development leading to ENDGAME's release. I apologize for the severe lack of updates regarding it over the last few years and hopefully this will be one of the first few updates.

If you would like to suggest any ideas, please post in the steam discussions, in the comments to this post, or on the FIREFIGHT RELOADED Discord server. (https://discord.gg/4MfShzF)

Thank you, and I apologize deeply for the long wait.

- Bitl, Bitl Development Studios.

An update for FIREFIGHT RELOADED Snapshot has been released. The update will be applied when you restart FIREFIGHT RELOADED Snapshot.

- Added a setting that allows you to re-enable the "boost" after double jumping.
- Disabled double jumping by default. It can still be turned on in the Advanced Options menu.
- This is to make room for more ways to traverse around the map. Keep your eyes peeled for updates!
- Fixed a bug where g_fr_spawneroldfunctionality didn't work properly.
- Setting this option to 0 would enable gamemodes when it should be set to 1 to enable gamemodes.
- Fixed a crash upon loading the game.
- Increased the air acceleration to 150 for easier bunnyhop control.

Be sure to join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/4MfShzF for more future updates!

An update for FIREFIGHT RELOADED Snapshot has been released. The update will be applied when you restart FIREFIGHT RELOADED Snapshot.

- Fixed the localization text.

Be sure to join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/4MfShzF for more future updates!

An update for FIREFIGHT RELOADED Snapshot has been released. The update will be applied when you restart FIREFIGHT RELOADED Snapshot.

- Added a new option that restores the old spawner functionality.
- Gamemodes have been re-added that support this option when enabled.

Be sure to join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/4MfShzF for more future updates!

Hi everyone, I have decided to make an announcement regarding the reviews on the Steam store page. I mostly look at the reviews on the store page as they give me excellent feedback on the mod, and I want to address the concerns they bring up. As the developer, it's my responsibility to give everyone the best possible experience with the mod, so all of these issues are taken to heart.

Crashes
This is a known issue and it has happened quite a few times on my end. As far as I know, it has something to do with a few enemies that cause issues in the code alongside engine-related bugs that I cannot fix. Fortunately, I have decided to move the mod over to Mapbase as it is a very stable and reliable base for the creation of mods. The amount of crashes should dwindle just from that, but I'm not excusing any crashes caused by the game logic code itself. I hope that this next major update will fix as many issues as possible just with the move to Mapbase alone.

No Challenge/Too much challenge
The ENDGAME update will bring a slew of balance overhauls that will add more balance to the game, such as a more balanced weapon and enemy roster, an overhauled spawn system, and more. Balance is a known issue with the mod, and I definitely plan on overhauling it in this next update.

The spawners act way too much like GMod spawners
Like I stated above, the spawner system will be overhauled. The infinite enemy spawners will be replaced with a more traditional wave-based spawner system seen in many other horde mode games. This way, there can be challenge without the enemy counts feeling overwelming.

Why use HL2DM maps?
I am mainly a programmer. I have tried making maps in Hammer before, but I found that what I made was very mediocre, so I used HL2DM maps instead. Fortunately though, I plan on incorporating more custom-made maps in the future, so there will be more arena variety.

I would like to apologize again for the lack of updates regarding FIREFIGHT RELOADED's development, and would like to thank you all for your patience. I plan on working on FIREFIGHT RELOADED again, and as I want to be more interactive with the fans, I have decided to open up the internal beta branch. As of today, FRIREFIGHT RELOADED's "snapshot" branch contains the latest "cutting edge" version of FIREFIGHT RELOADED. Keep in mind that this is still very much in a pre-alpha state, and this will not represent the final release.

Here's the changelog from the past "Phase 1" version of the snapshot:

- Fixed the version number being wrong.
- Fixed the store menu files being in the wrong directory.
- The Grappling Beam now grapples onto and damages NPCs.
- Fixed a bug where ammo/items couldn't spawn.
- Elite Metrocops can no longer jump.
- When the player dies, they will keep half of the EXP they gained. If the player keeps losing EXP, they'll eventually drop down a level.
- Fixed a bug where the game kept setting the player's Kash to their Starting Kash amount on respawn.
- Removed Multiplayer options from the Main Menu.
- Changed the color of the Ministrider's armor to be the same color as the original Half-Life 2 Episode 1 variant.
- Fixed an issue where the Max Health upgrade only brought you to 300 health. 
- You can now only bunnyhop if you are not double jumping.
- Reduced default player speed from 320 to 280.
- Added a new NPC: npc_player! 
	- These spawn rarely and randomly. You will be notified first hand when these spawn.
	- They have a distinctive blue outline and will follow you if they see you. They dynamically switch weapons depending on how far an enemy is away from them.
- Updated to the latest Source SDK 2013 engine branch.
- Now built off of Mapbase!
- Removed all gamemodes in favor of making FIREFIGHT RUMBLE the default gamemode. (mainly for the wave based stuff I mentioned earlier)
- You can now slice Zombies in half with the Katana.
- Zombies will now have a random chance of burning on fire after an explosion.
dev stuff:
- Rewrote the reward system to use switch statements!! 

Known bugs with this snapshot branch:
- Grappling beam does not currently function.
- Player model animations are very buggy.
- npc_player notifications do not show up.
- the store page/modding page do not show up.

More updates to the snapshot branch will be communicated on this blog. These posts should not be confused with actual updates as they will explicitly state "snapshot" in the name and description. There will also be a new "snapshot discussion" board in the Discussions where you can report bugs and issues with the snapshot.

Thank you all for your feedback, patience, and support. I plan on focusing more on this mod in the near future, so keep your eye peeled for new updates.