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Hiya, I'm pleased to come to you with some really, really big announcements for this edition of Not-So-Weekly. Just a lot of awesome stuff to cover from new custom clothing options, more vehicles, and some shots of the map made by our incredible resident mapper, EnvyDemon. That said, I want to say before we get into it: Thank you so much for hanging in there with all of what's been going on over the course of the past few months, and that we're really excited to see what each of you will end up planning for next lore. Anyways ... Let's get into it, beginning with our biggest announcement.
The next main lore, Ties That Bind: City of Angels will receive a full lore summary come the end of What We Become. However, we do have details to share as well as information to confirm all in order to help you begin your plans for characters. Any questions you have about our main lore I will answer within reason, understand, there are some things I am not at liberty to speak about at this point in time. That said, I will make an effort, so shoot your shot.
Ties That Bind: City of Angels will be set in Los Angeles, California; Early 2000.
It will be accompanied with an estimated month-long prequel mini-lore modeled off of our endeavors with Lines We Cross: Survivor Stories. That announcement can be found below.
Ties That Bind: What Lies Beneath will be our official introduction to the world of our mainline lore, set a year before the events of City of Angels.
Research Outpost Hadley, Wilkes Land, Antarctica; September, 1999.
What had you signed up for? As the rear hatch of the ghostly gray plane locked up, you found yourself awash with questions about what you were really doing and your new home. Expedition, see the world, new experiences, it all seemed so exciting. Only when the doors closed did the degree of isolation you faced really sink in. No family, no friends, no contact with the outside world for the next three months. Only those aboard the plane with you; total and absolute strangers. And yet, you still signed that dotted line. Was it for money? Were you running away from something? Risk it all on something greater, something more exciting? That was the question.
Maybe if you’d heard the stories you would’ve reconsidered. Veterans of these expeditions and the returning summer crew rattled the nerves of the fresh meat with urban legends and disturbed rumblings. Sightings of ghost people amidst heavy snow storms, hysteria and delirium from the isolation, or mysterious government suits appearing at the facility for reasons unknown. Surely, these were mere stories, meant to scare the newbies, but even you couldn’t escape that sickening ‘what if’... what if they weren’t just stories? Is it possible a place as desolate, alien, and empty as Antarctica could hold something sinister beneath its unforgiving surface?
And despite it all, you still penned your name on the contract. To serve as part of the project to save the ever-changing climate. At least you have that to ease your concerns. After all, what’s more important than protecting the ice caps and the future for other people? Nothing, of course. Mind your nerves, and stay warm. There’s work to be done.
Like with City of Angels, I will be answering any, and all questions I'm able to answer pertaining to What Lies Beneath. Ask what you want and I'll answer within reason.
Showcase - Map Stuff
Now that we have gotten all of that out of the way, I'd like to spend the rest of this article showing off the progress made across the board. This section will be dedicated to mapping stuff made for both City of Angels, as well as What Lies Beneath. They will each be flagged for the chapter they will be used in! We hope you like what you see, and remember: Everything shown off here is still in active development, and may be subject to change before release.
We'll begin with our pre-lore, What Lies Beneath:
Here we have the REC Room in Outpost Hadley, which should serve as a centralized social hub and meeting area.
The radio room for Outpost Hadley.
Ditto.
One of our fully furnished lab rooms, where research characters can come to conduct roleplay. It is complete with a controlled temperature room.
A dorm room at Outpost Hadley; there are several different variations of this offering some unique styles. Each one will house two people.
The garage of Outpost Hadley, which will come fit with two snowcats.
The next half of this section will be exclusively dedicated to the Los Angeles map, and we have quite a few new updates. I'm really excited to show you a lot of this, I will also link the last edition of Not-So-Weekly here so you can peruse the images last shared with the public for an expanded look at the map. Insert Link Here.
We'll begin with what I consider one of the coolest POIs for our Los Angeles map; Dodger Stadium. The scope of this is absolutely insane.
An entrance to Dodger Stadium.
The field of Dodger Stadium.
L.A. patterned in the grass.
A first-look at one of our POIs; Gateway Mall. It'll be located in the western-most district of Hollywood/Beverly Hills! Enjoy some of these pretty awesome interior shots.
Development on the Gateway Mall is still underway, I'm personally super excited to see how it comes out. We're really excited for Hollywood period.
This is Venice Beach! This is complete with beach-side homes, and some really cool palm tree sprites you might've noticed in our last showcase. Really cool stuff.
More of Venice Beach.
Ditto.
Ditto.
An interior shot of one of the buildings.
To end our map showcase, we have some stuff to show from the still very much WIP Compton. A lot of stuff here is obviously subject to change, but still, it's worth sharing.
Showcase - Other Stuff
Outside of our mapping stuff, I have some cool stuff to show you pertaining to our endeavors with custom items and whatnot. I'm aware in our last thread we showed off the "SNN News Van", as well as some of our custom items. We'll be showing off some of that stuff again, here, paired with a lot of our new stuff too. Check it out! Me and Max have been really hard at work on all of this. Starting off, we'll show something to ease you in -- Generic NPC sprites which will be used as set-dressing, and in our turn-base combat system.
This roster will likely be expanded with more variety as development continues, and in addition to that: you may be seeing some of these templates used on mechanical zombies during events. We've uncovered how to add custom outfits to zombies, as well as add them to the new horde manager tool. With this, we can create unique zombies either belonging to individual characters, or simply just designs. The clothing colors may be randomized a bit, but hey, it will absolutely help capture the theme during events.
Here are a few other generic NPCs you might find either as zombies, or populating the background. Aptly named in the files as Angelica, Durst and Kurt.
Next up, our clothing retextures/mods. Here we go:
This will be our standard, de-facto LAPD uniform as well as a cameo by a S.W.A.T. baseball cap. We're about to see a lot of dittos, 'cause I'm pretty excited about how much variation we have with this
Note: The cruiser is not made by us, and is a third-party modification.
Ditto; open jacket
Ditto; closed jacket, rolled sleeves.
Ditto; basic shirt.
Ditto; LAPD Police Armor included.
This outfit is part of our S.W.A.T. package -- Bottoms to the uniform, as well as a causal plain T-Shirt for times when full combat armor isn't appropriate.
A custom re-texture of Shark's S.W.A.T. uniform included in the Law Enforcement pack. This comes included with authentic badges belonging to the actual department.
Ditto; it also opens and has rolled sleeves.
Fully armored up.
Custom LAPD variant of Shark's Tactical Vest.
An alternate variant of the LAPD uniform.
Ditto; comes with alternating sleeves too.
A rear shot.
Just some world models for all the items.
Don't worry! We haven't only been working on LAPD/S.W.A.T. uniforms. In addition to all of this, as previously mentioned, we have been working on in-universe merchandising to add some flavor to your character customization. Here's what we have so far.
Some nice shirts Pika made. Related to the in-universe clothing brand: "MaxCore"
Fan merchandise for the in-universe TV/Movie franchise, What We Become. This includes some stuff made by members of the staff, as well as real actual advertisement stuff we used on the original website for Part 1. Almost all of the designs can be found on my photoshop artwork page on the forums.
Fan merchandise for its sequel, What We Become, Part II: What Remains. This includes a logo shirt, as well as some fan-artwork made by me. If for some reason you are interested in having your own fan artwork turned into shirts for next lore, let us know. You'll receive full credit on the website somewhere, somehow as well as receive a Discord role.
Some more in-universe brands. Two of which belong to wrestling promotions who will be competing in LA at the time of the lore; ECPW Hardcore TV, as well as PWF (Pacific Wrestling Federation). There may or may not be some side events based around those. In addition to that, we have a "The Road Ahead" shirt in too, another in-universe TV series. The other is just a misc design.
Last up, I want to show our current vehicles additions. We're planning on doing a bunch more now that some of our logo designs are done for factions, and other in-universe brands. We'll share those the next time we do one of these Not-So-Weekly's.
Here we have the new Saxon News van (and a unique variant for set design), our stand-in for Fox news ... And, I suppose our first announced actual background characters for the lore, if you squint and read that texture on the side of the van. In addition to all of that, we have the already showcased SNN News van.
PLAYER SUGGESTIONS
Do you have any suggestions or ideas regarding these announcements? If so, feel free to hit me up with them! I’m willing to hear anything you have out in full, but I cannot promise these things will be implemented.
PLAYER Q&A
If you have any questions, drop them here! I will make it my priority to answer them with whatever information I can currently give. Any questions asked will be added here, as will the response to make it easier for other readers to see.
In Closing
The entire team is ecstatic for next lore, and we really hope our excitement shows. This is a genuine passion project for each and everyone of us, and we cannot wait until we're able to get on the server and experience Ties That Bind: City of Angels & Ties That Bind: What Lies Beneath which each of you. I'm excited to see what you do for your characters, and so on. Let us hear your feedback. Thanks for reading this issue of Not-So-Weekly.
... Also, for our lore after TTB. Here you go, shadow announcement.
In all seriousness. Big genuine thanks to all of you.
The next main lore, Ties That Bind: City of Angels will receive a full lore summary come the end of What We Become. However, we do have details to share as well as information to confirm all in order to help you begin your plans for characters. Any questions you have about our main lore I will answer within reason, understand, there are some things I am not at liberty to speak about at this point in time. That said, I will make an effort, so shoot your shot.
Ties That Bind: City of Angels will be set in Los Angeles, California; Early 2000.
It will be accompanied with an estimated month-long prequel mini-lore modeled off of our endeavors with Lines We Cross: Survivor Stories. That announcement can be found below.
Research Outpost Hadley, Wilkes Land, Antarctica; September, 1999.
What had you signed up for? As the rear hatch of the ghostly gray plane locked up, you found yourself awash with questions about what you were really doing and your new home. Expedition, see the world, new experiences, it all seemed so exciting. Only when the doors closed did the degree of isolation you faced really sink in. No family, no friends, no contact with the outside world for the next three months. Only those aboard the plane with you; total and absolute strangers. And yet, you still signed that dotted line. Was it for money? Were you running away from something? Risk it all on something greater, something more exciting? That was the question.
Maybe if you’d heard the stories you would’ve reconsidered. Veterans of these expeditions and the returning summer crew rattled the nerves of the fresh meat with urban legends and disturbed rumblings. Sightings of ghost people amidst heavy snow storms, hysteria and delirium from the isolation, or mysterious government suits appearing at the facility for reasons unknown. Surely, these were mere stories, meant to scare the newbies, but even you couldn’t escape that sickening ‘what if’... what if they weren’t just stories? Is it possible a place as desolate, alien, and empty as Antarctica could hold something sinister beneath its unforgiving surface?
And despite it all, you still penned your name on the contract. To serve as part of the project to save the ever-changing climate. At least you have that to ease your concerns. After all, what’s more important than protecting the ice caps and the future for other people? Nothing, of course. Mind your nerves, and stay warm. There’s work to be done.
Like with City of Angels, I will be answering any, and all questions I'm able to answer pertaining to What Lies Beneath. Ask what you want and I'll answer within reason.
Now that we have gotten all of that out of the way, I'd like to spend the rest of this article showing off the progress made across the board. This section will be dedicated to mapping stuff made for both City of Angels, as well as What Lies Beneath. They will each be flagged for the chapter they will be used in! We hope you like what you see, and remember: Everything shown off here is still in active development, and may be subject to change before release.
We'll begin with our pre-lore, What Lies Beneath:
Here we have the REC Room in Outpost Hadley, which should serve as a centralized social hub and meeting area.
The radio room for Outpost Hadley.
Ditto.
One of our fully furnished lab rooms, where research characters can come to conduct roleplay. It is complete with a controlled temperature room.
A dorm room at Outpost Hadley; there are several different variations of this offering some unique styles. Each one will house two people.
The garage of Outpost Hadley, which will come fit with two snowcats.
The next half of this section will be exclusively dedicated to the Los Angeles map, and we have quite a few new updates. I'm really excited to show you a lot of this, I will also link the last edition of Not-So-Weekly here so you can peruse the images last shared with the public for an expanded look at the map. Insert Link Here.
We'll begin with what I consider one of the coolest POIs for our Los Angeles map; Dodger Stadium. The scope of this is absolutely insane.
An entrance to Dodger Stadium.
The field of Dodger Stadium.
L.A. patterned in the grass.
A first-look at one of our POIs; Gateway Mall. It'll be located in the western-most district of Hollywood/Beverly Hills! Enjoy some of these pretty awesome interior shots.
Development on the Gateway Mall is still underway, I'm personally super excited to see how it comes out. We're really excited for Hollywood period.
This is Venice Beach! This is complete with beach-side homes, and some really cool palm tree sprites you might've noticed in our last showcase. Really cool stuff.
More of Venice Beach.
Ditto.
Ditto.
An interior shot of one of the buildings.
To end our map showcase, we have some stuff to show from the still very much WIP Compton. A lot of stuff here is obviously subject to change, but still, it's worth sharing.
Showcase - Other Stuff
Outside of our mapping stuff, I have some cool stuff to show you pertaining to our endeavors with custom items and whatnot. I'm aware in our last thread we showed off the "SNN News Van", as well as some of our custom items. We'll be showing off some of that stuff again, here, paired with a lot of our new stuff too. Check it out! Me and Max have been really hard at work on all of this. Starting off, we'll show something to ease you in -- Generic NPC sprites which will be used as set-dressing, and in our turn-base combat system.
This roster will likely be expanded with more variety as development continues, and in addition to that: you may be seeing some of these templates used on mechanical zombies during events. We've uncovered how to add custom outfits to zombies, as well as add them to the new horde manager tool. With this, we can create unique zombies either belonging to individual characters, or simply just designs. The clothing colors may be randomized a bit, but hey, it will absolutely help capture the theme during events.
Here are a few other generic NPCs you might find either as zombies, or populating the background. Aptly named in the files as Angelica, Durst and Kurt.
Next up, our clothing retextures/mods. Here we go:
This will be our standard, de-facto LAPD uniform as well as a cameo by a S.W.A.T. baseball cap. We're about to see a lot of dittos, 'cause I'm pretty excited about how much variation we have with this
Note: The cruiser is not made by us, and is a third-party modification.
Ditto; open jacket
Ditto; closed jacket, rolled sleeves.
Ditto; basic shirt.
Ditto; LAPD Police Armor included.
This outfit is part of our S.W.A.T. package -- Bottoms to the uniform, as well as a causal plain T-Shirt for times when full combat armor isn't appropriate.
A custom re-texture of Shark's S.W.A.T. uniform included in the Law Enforcement pack. This comes included with authentic badges belonging to the actual department.
Ditto; it also opens and has rolled sleeves.
Fully armored up.
Custom LAPD variant of Shark's Tactical Vest.
An alternate variant of the LAPD uniform.
Ditto; comes with alternating sleeves too.
A rear shot.
Just some world models for all the items.
Don't worry! We haven't only been working on LAPD/S.W.A.T. uniforms. In addition to all of this, as previously mentioned, we have been working on in-universe merchandising to add some flavor to your character customization. Here's what we have so far.
Some nice shirts Pika made. Related to the in-universe clothing brand: "MaxCore"
Fan merchandise for the in-universe TV/Movie franchise, What We Become. This includes some stuff made by members of the staff, as well as real actual advertisement stuff we used on the original website for Part 1. Almost all of the designs can be found on my photoshop artwork page on the forums.
Fan merchandise for its sequel, What We Become, Part II: What Remains. This includes a logo shirt, as well as some fan-artwork made by me. If for some reason you are interested in having your own fan artwork turned into shirts for next lore, let us know. You'll receive full credit on the website somewhere, somehow as well as receive a Discord role.
Some more in-universe brands. Two of which belong to wrestling promotions who will be competing in LA at the time of the lore; ECPW Hardcore TV, as well as PWF (Pacific Wrestling Federation). There may or may not be some side events based around those. In addition to that, we have a "The Road Ahead" shirt in too, another in-universe TV series. The other is just a misc design.
Last up, I want to show our current vehicles additions. We're planning on doing a bunch more now that some of our logo designs are done for factions, and other in-universe brands. We'll share those the next time we do one of these Not-So-Weekly's.
Here we have the new Saxon News van (and a unique variant for set design), our stand-in for Fox news ... And, I suppose our first announced actual background characters for the lore, if you squint and read that texture on the side of the van. In addition to all of that, we have the already showcased SNN News van.
PLAYER SUGGESTIONS
Do you have any suggestions or ideas regarding these announcements? If so, feel free to hit me up with them! I’m willing to hear anything you have out in full, but I cannot promise these things will be implemented.
PLAYER Q&A
If you have any questions, drop them here! I will make it my priority to answer them with whatever information I can currently give. Any questions asked will be added here, as will the response to make it easier for other readers to see.
In Closing
The entire team is ecstatic for next lore, and we really hope our excitement shows. This is a genuine passion project for each and everyone of us, and we cannot wait until we're able to get on the server and experience Ties That Bind: City of Angels & Ties That Bind: What Lies Beneath which each of you. I'm excited to see what you do for your characters, and so on. Let us hear your feedback. Thanks for reading this issue of Not-So-Weekly.
... Also, for our lore after TTB. Here you go, shadow announcement.
In all seriousness. Big genuine thanks to all of you.
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