pd
19.10.2007, 14:08:20
I am going to be celebrating my 20th Birthday in two days, and what better surprise could I have up my sleeves for you than the RockPatch2 announcement?
Yes, you read right! I have been working on what I call RockPatch2 for a long while already and it is time to let people know about it.
The major questions going through your head right now will probably be "When is it going to be released?" and "What will it feature?"
The purpose of this announcement is to answer these questions - at least partially.
First off, let me make clear that I will not concur with VK's NPatch, that means I will not and did not steal features from his (albeit, code-wise, a few parts are still my) work.
There is no way getting around having the same ideas and of course I will be trying to recreate as many features as possible that existed in - at least my - previous RockPatch versions.
However, I will not do everything VK did for the NPatch and if you need a certain NPatch feature badly, you
will have to use NPatch instead.
RockPatch2 has been created from scratch, which means unlike in NPatch, none of my old code is left.
The purpose of this should be clear: RockPatch2 is to be bug free, and I must say I have done a good job until now for that matter.
So what the hell will it feature?
I could simply give you the full feature list as of now, but instead I will handpick some major features and keep a few surprises for the actual release.
What I would consider a major feature is the recreation of many "old" RockPatch features, of which the better part was bugged.
Custom SuperWeapon cursors might be the best example for that. The limitations in previous RockPatch versions were heavy: no cursor over shrouds, no cursor over the sidebar radar and flickery animations. Forget about all those limits, the custom mouse cursor system has been completely revised and now you can even give any weapon a fresh new attack cursor.
We also have custom colours for special weapon types: Rad Beams, Rad Eruptions, Electric Bolts and now even Magnetic Beams can be given any colour you would like to see!
Additional string tables are now working perfectly as well. They do exactly what they are supposed to do: add new strings, override existing strings.
The advantage of this feature is not the file size (what are 500KB these days?) but the ease of keeping track of your modified strings.
RockPatch2 itself will deliver the "rp.csf" file for various uses.
If you do not like the stringtables at all, maybe because your mod will be English only, why not do it like in TS? The so-called "NOSTRING"-feature allows you to bypass the stringtable modification.
"UIName=NOSTRING:NewUnit", for instance, will make "NewUnit" appear in the game without having added it to the stringtable!
Talking about alternatives, do you hate buildings with rectangular bases? You need to recreate the RA1 repair depot with its cross foundation? Not only can you do that, you can draw your very own foundation in the FoundationMaker tool delivered with RockPatch2 (.NET Framework 2.0 required)!
None of the original foundations will be replaced. Your new foundation can be used independently and will work just fine in the game.
I have attached a few screenshots for some of said features, be sure to check them out!
There is one thing very important to know:
I applied a few changes to the RockPatch concept, which used to say that the game as is will not be touched (i.e. RockPatch is not supposed to be a mod).
I have plans - especially for the sides & countries system - that will break this golden rule and introduce ini sections and tags that are required in order to run the game.
These new sections and tags will be delivered in a modified rulesmd.ini file that modders should use as a new base file for mods.
For people moving their existing mods to RockPatch2, I will add an information file including the new required sections and tags so that they can apply them to their mods.
All the new files will be contained in expandmd02.mix, which should be reserved for RockPatch2.
When will it be released?
RockPatch2 is not going to be "vaporware" like Duke Nukem Forever, but I cannot tell you any release time yet.
The reason is that my working attitude varies extremely and that a lot has still to be done, especially concerning feature recreation from previous RockPatch versions.
When I started working on it in January this year, I was heading towards an early 2008 release, which I am still hoping to stick to.
However, I will not guarantee that.
I will soon ask Renegade to re-enable the RockPatch site and forum so I can post status updates and start discussions about how several features are going to work exactly.
For now, that's it.
Tell me what you think!
Regards,
pd
Yes, you read right! I have been working on what I call RockPatch2 for a long while already and it is time to let people know about it.
The major questions going through your head right now will probably be "When is it going to be released?" and "What will it feature?"
The purpose of this announcement is to answer these questions - at least partially.
First off, let me make clear that I will not concur with VK's NPatch, that means I will not and did not steal features from his (albeit, code-wise, a few parts are still my) work.
There is no way getting around having the same ideas and of course I will be trying to recreate as many features as possible that existed in - at least my - previous RockPatch versions.
However, I will not do everything VK did for the NPatch and if you need a certain NPatch feature badly, you
will have to use NPatch instead.
RockPatch2 has been created from scratch, which means unlike in NPatch, none of my old code is left.
The purpose of this should be clear: RockPatch2 is to be bug free, and I must say I have done a good job until now for that matter.
So what the hell will it feature?
I could simply give you the full feature list as of now, but instead I will handpick some major features and keep a few surprises for the actual release.
What I would consider a major feature is the recreation of many "old" RockPatch features, of which the better part was bugged.
Custom SuperWeapon cursors might be the best example for that. The limitations in previous RockPatch versions were heavy: no cursor over shrouds, no cursor over the sidebar radar and flickery animations. Forget about all those limits, the custom mouse cursor system has been completely revised and now you can even give any weapon a fresh new attack cursor.
We also have custom colours for special weapon types: Rad Beams, Rad Eruptions, Electric Bolts and now even Magnetic Beams can be given any colour you would like to see!
Additional string tables are now working perfectly as well. They do exactly what they are supposed to do: add new strings, override existing strings.
The advantage of this feature is not the file size (what are 500KB these days?) but the ease of keeping track of your modified strings.
RockPatch2 itself will deliver the "rp.csf" file for various uses.
If you do not like the stringtables at all, maybe because your mod will be English only, why not do it like in TS? The so-called "NOSTRING"-feature allows you to bypass the stringtable modification.
"UIName=NOSTRING:NewUnit", for instance, will make "NewUnit" appear in the game without having added it to the stringtable!
Talking about alternatives, do you hate buildings with rectangular bases? You need to recreate the RA1 repair depot with its cross foundation? Not only can you do that, you can draw your very own foundation in the FoundationMaker tool delivered with RockPatch2 (.NET Framework 2.0 required)!
None of the original foundations will be replaced. Your new foundation can be used independently and will work just fine in the game.
I have attached a few screenshots for some of said features, be sure to check them out!
There is one thing very important to know:
I applied a few changes to the RockPatch concept, which used to say that the game as is will not be touched (i.e. RockPatch is not supposed to be a mod).
I have plans - especially for the sides & countries system - that will break this golden rule and introduce ini sections and tags that are required in order to run the game.
These new sections and tags will be delivered in a modified rulesmd.ini file that modders should use as a new base file for mods.
For people moving their existing mods to RockPatch2, I will add an information file including the new required sections and tags so that they can apply them to their mods.
All the new files will be contained in expandmd02.mix, which should be reserved for RockPatch2.
When will it be released?
RockPatch2 is not going to be "vaporware" like Duke Nukem Forever, but I cannot tell you any release time yet.
The reason is that my working attitude varies extremely and that a lot has still to be done, especially concerning feature recreation from previous RockPatch versions.
When I started working on it in January this year, I was heading towards an early 2008 release, which I am still hoping to stick to.
However, I will not guarantee that.
I will soon ask Renegade to re-enable the RockPatch site and forum so I can post status updates and start discussions about how several features are going to work exactly.
For now, that's it.
Tell me what you think!
Regards,
pd
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Renegade
gordon-creAtive
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