Epicenter
From Valve Developer Community
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| Mod Status |
| This third-party mod for the Source engine is currently in the Alpha Development Stage. It is not yet available to the public. |
Epicenter is a Single-Player Mod for Half-Life 2. It will feature a completely immersive storyline, new weapons, new enemies, new allies, etc., etc., etc.
| Table of contents |
"What I Can Tell You About Epicenter"
Even though I am the project lead for Epicenter, there's only so much that I'm allowing myself to say about the game itself. What I can tell you is that we're revisiting the story of Quake. Of course, I know people are going to groan and say, "Oh no, another remake, etc., etc." and stop paying attention. The fact of the matter is that this is not, I repeat, not a remake in any way, shape or form.
We're picking up before the original story began, and we're starting there. So far, we have completely re-written the story. Actually, we've done so much that it will be hard to see how the original story fits in...mainly because it doesn't. We've completely scrapped the idea of the remake and are finally creating something new and something real.
What we have planned:
- A new story...almost a new "reality" so to speak.
- Allies, which will give us a chance to use the squad warfare ideas.
- New weapons...currently there are 3 sets that we're working on.
- A fluid environment...you won't just "show up" somewhere, you'll work to get somewhere and know why.
- Etcetera
...and that's all I can really tell you at this point.
Story : Prologue
Earth, 2072
Things have changed since the beginning of the 21st century. Around 2001, Earth began to see a series of wars, political conflicts, and terrorist attacks that were getting worse as the years progressed. Around 2030, people saw the beginnings of the War to end all Wars when the UN disbanded and 13 smaller organizations formed. In 2034, the war finally came in the form of several well coordinated nuclear attacks on major cities such as New York, Houston, Sydney, London, Moscow, Baghdad, and Tehran. An attack of great magnitude left everyone stunned for a few weeks, as the offended countries built up great armies to attack the culprits. No terrorist organization dared to claim the attacks as theirs, and eventually the attacked countries turned on each other. Iran attacked Iraq, Iraq attacked the US, the US attacked Britain. It became a Total War soon enough, and the population of the world prepared themselves for the End of Days.
23 years later, in 2057, the war ended leaving more than half the worlds' population dead. Civilization was a thing of the past, great cities and structures were now just post apocalyptic ruins, the word civilian was long forgotten. From the dust left from the war emerged several factions of the remaining survivors, each fighting for control of what was left of the dead world. These factions fought for another 15 years, and now there are only 3 powerful factions that control the world and fight for the control of the planet.
God's Warriors believe that the world was destroyed because of the lack of truly devout Christians in the decades leading up to WWIII and that a return to that religion is the only way to bring back peace and prosperity to the lands. Their goal is to unite the people under the word of Christ and the Christian God, and they will use all forces necessary to do so. They’ve moved past the point of merely trying to “save‿ those who do not accept their lord and are now executing those that do not willing submit on the battlefield. All their warriors claim to be holy men, and they act as if they were the hand of God. There are talks of a quiet revolution taking place within the inner-depths of the faction, and dissidents have been reported as disappearing in the middle of the night.
Very little is known about the second faction. They live and hide in the wastelands that are useless to the other two factions. They’re not as centralized as the other two factions, and in fact live in tribes. They’re all still united, but this way they hold control of a greater area of land…and pose a much greater threat than they would have otherwise. Few people have seen them, and even fewer have lived to tell the tale of their encounter. Due to the fact that they live in the area of constant danger, they have adapted to be extremely fast and stealthy, and have been known to be able to get around the best defense systems to assassinate a political leader. No one really knows what they’re called, but the other 2 factions refer to them as the Death Squads.
The third faction, The Forces of Cygon (sometimes just known as Cygon), believes that salvation will be discovered through the use of advanced technology. Named after Arelious Cygon, a great warrior of WWIII, this is the largest faction. Within this faction's control, there are several cities that they have rebuilt for their uses. Their civilization is based around a totalitarian government. People are either in the military, or they work in R&D. Rarely do the two mix, unless the scientists develop a new weapon or something for the grunts to use. This faction has emerged from the armies of the pre-apocalyptic world's nations.
You are a member of that third faction.
History
Thought up by the project lead at a LAN party, Epicenter (originally named Quake:Source) was going to be a complete remake of Quake in the Source engine. However, a couple things changed that. One, a group had already attempted to make a mod called Quake:Source, but was contacted by iD and had to change their name. Two, a remake would be to dull to gather any real following.
And hence, Epicenter was born. We've been actively working on the mod for a couple months now (very early in the production stages, I know), and we have taken a pseudo-release stance on the entire game.
Basically, we aren't telling people the details of the game, and every now and then we'll release a group of screenshots, or some concept art, or even a track off the soundtrack that's in the works. At the moment, we're even putting together an idea of a Tech Demo for the world to look at while we create the real game.
Media
All media mentioned in the last section can currently be found on the official site (http://www.epicentergame.com).
Team
- Stillbored (Whotookthisname) - Team Leader and Lead Designer - Currently writing the story and working on the HUD
- TheDestroyer - Team Co-Lead and Mapper - Currently writing the story, working on the HUD, mapping some of the tech maps, and being an all around good guy.
- G.o.DD. - Mapper, Map Modeler, and Texture Artist - Currently working on the third round of tech maps.
- Rok - Mapper and Writer - Currently writing the story and working on a side project.
- Dactyl - Musician - Currently working on the soundtrack and the side project.
- TheIrishJedi - PR and Legal - Currently waiting for something to do.
- McKiller - Concept Artist - MIA
Help Wanted
We are currently actively looking for people to fill the following positions:
- Concept Artist - Must be pretty flexible, we'll provide you with a story to work with.
- Coders - Must have a very good understanding of C++ and the HL2 SDK.
- Weapon Modelers - Must be pretty flexible and have previous work to show.
- Character Modeler - Ditto.
- Mappers - We are looking for a couple talented mappers to take the workload off of G.o.DD.
Links
- Official Site (http://www.epicentergame.com)
- Site Forums (http://www.slurredreality.com/QS/html/modules.php?name=Forums)
- ModDB Link (http://mods.moddb.com/5027)
