To bring you some (hopefully) good news and (same here) good time!
A few days ago I finally released a big update to my mod, XDM. You may remember it as it includes collaboration work with people from TWHL.
Release article: http://www.moddb.com/mods/xdm/news/x-half-lifexdm-3038-release-after-two-years
What's unique about this release - is the included single/coop mission: Arctic Incident.
Originally released about two years ago, AI was a small singleplayer mod, but it had a potential of becoming a great multiplayer experience as well. Or so I thought.
The actual work of "converting" sp to coop turned out to be far more complicated than I thought. Technically, I could just place spawn spots and live happily ever after, but the balance, gameplay, map design - everything required deep thinking.More about the CoOp mission with screenshots here: http://imgur.com/gallery/EpAe8
But that's not all. Far from it.
XDM includes other new content such as maps, models, weapons, etc. Old classic maps have also been revisited and updated. The change log is so big I don't even post it anywhere.As a modding platform, XDM gained lots and lots of useful features from simple in-entity scripting to text-based RenderSystem (a simple visual effect generation system, includes particles).
The pseudo-scripting is very simple, yet powerful and universal. Designers may use same commands and syntax from entities AND console. What's more - they can do it TOGETHER.
XDM now also has more security features, such as user rights. Yes, user rights. In a game.
But hey, do you really want some random pranksters interrupting your creation process? I don't think so. So users without explicit "developer" rights won't be able to add/edit/trigger entities right after joining.NOTE: as I don't use Steam, these features are not tested enough. You're welcome to do it. ^_^
Official mod page: http://www.moddb.com/mods/xdm/
And there's also SDK released this time, which includes lots and lots of useful documentation, examples and real-life sources of maps, models, textures and even music!
PS: I personally didn't think I'll be updating this mod, but, well, life decided otherwise
Hope you can fully enjoy playing it or digging into it
