BOOSTER PACK *MORE* LIVE PICTURES (DB Areas)

[Chrisax]

Warning! Contains visual spoilers!


OK, now we'll explore a bit some of the new Dust Brigade areas...

(Also see: http://www.athenpaladins.org/forums/vie ... f=2&t=4480 )


Arrival zone... we call this the Darwin gate... or the Trox Shortcut... or Hello Reclaim... uh... whatever...




Area A - The Digging Machine
Lance Corporal DeGeus has told you of a tunneling machine that the Dust Brigade are using to advance within the Neretva Canyons. Your mission is to make your way into Area A and use the Unicorn hacking tool to disrupt the machine, and receive vital information on it's workings.

Find it, tag it... sounds easy... yes yes




Uh?... Let me out please?!




Indeed, the dig site is an impressive area...









Area B - The Fortification
Lance Corporal DeGeus has asked that you disrupt a Dust Brigade depot located within Area B. According to the Lance Corporal the area is heavily secured with a series of shield generating towers which may require a bit of effort to remove. Once you've penetrated the base, DeGeus has asked that you terminate their supply master with extreme prejudice.

Ahhh THAT looks like an easy target, doesn't it?! Hmmm... it got some self defense?! Uh oh... And that's just to switch the defenses off?! Ah... bleh...





Area C - Ancient Shadows
Lance Corporal DeGeus has seen Dust Brigade support craft bringing odd supplies into Area C, carrying what looks to be Xan technology, perhaps even cryochambers of some sort. She's asked that you go into the area and investigate.

In the making at the time of writing.

Area D - Disruption
According to Lance Corporal DeGeus, the Dust Brigade are using Area D as a massive communications grid network, with several comms relay stations located through-out. She has asked that you take an official Unicorn Company Quantum Information Nano Inhibiter Device to the area and utilize it on the various terminals, as to download their databanks and disrupt the network.


Run, hack, run, hack, run... hahahah suicide runs FTW... hmmm wait... why are all these turrets called "Kamizake Dusters" ?!





Area E - Hazard Warning
As part of an attempt to harvest deadly neurotoxins within the outzone, the Dust Brigade have stationed themselves within the hazardous location known as Area E. Lance Corporal DeGeus has requested that you go and kill their chief virologist, but warns you against exposure to the toxins.

You'll hate this one... hate... You need something to survive. And, of course, you don't have enough of it!

EDIT: sector E changed in the final version. Disregard comments above.

In the making at the time of writing.



Area F - Training Grounds
Lance Corporal DeGeus has informed you of an expansive training camp located within the ravines of Area F, used for advanced combat exercises by the Dust Brigade. Your mission is to go in and take down the four Chief Commandos leading the training camp.

Area F is a maze, populated by evil Dust Brigade turrets.



Area X - The 12 people raid zone

You got the rewards from all other areas?... good...
Now...

ENJOY YOUR DEATH

[Grind42]

Lol can't wait

[noobas]

mee too.

I'm not sure what to do though, cuz I'm trying to play the noo toon, not the old one :/

[Elrojo]

Hi Chris,

Not sure if this is something covered or not really something even considered yet but what will the spec req's be for pplz computers in order to run the new engine? I know i lag a bit at the best of times when there are a few pplz around like grid in bor or aliumz. Will i need to have a fairly decent graphocs card or are those pics the "full rez and detail" types? Will i lag if my connection is a bit slower since there is more info needed to pass through the servers?

Also do you know when the pre-order deal kicks in cos i want my hover chair damnit!!

[Rulzern]

what will the spec req's be for pplz computers in order to run the new engine?

Nobody knows yet, but it shouldn't be too bad compared to modern games. If you have a semi-decent graphics card and computer, you should get better performance than currently.

Will i need to have a fairly decent graphocs card or are those pics the "full rez and detail" types?

I assume these screenshots are taken with all features turned to 11, and that these features will be able to be tuned down.

Will i lag if my connection is a bit slower since there is more info needed to pass through the servers?

The bandwith requirements won't change.

[Grind42]

Rojo, Means has said on many occasions that the one reason the booster/ graphics engine has taken so long to implement is that FC realizes that many f their paying customers are running low spec machines.

So here is hoping that it is pretty stable. The bigger the playfield the more cache-ing your machine will need to do so Ram will play apart.

Thats just my 5 cents, & min requirements for the gaphics engine probably wont be available atm.

[Chrisax]

What Grind and Rulzie said is correct.

Not long ago, some FC dev (can't remember who, but it's Means who mentioned it) said that a graphic card of today at 50 US $ would be able to run the new engine correctly. Not sure with what options activated though.

The recommended setup is not yet known.

I'll quote below a few things I wrote in the last months:

The new engine will use DirectX 9. Why not DirectX 10? Because DirectX 10 means Windows Vista and FC wants to keep AO playable by older systems, and not-so-old systems that just use XP (like mine BTW). DirectX 9 is a good piece of code and it has been there for years so almost any computer working at the moment can use it, and probably already does.

Also developing an engine for DirectX 9 and 10 which would really use 10 would be too much of an investment, mostly in time.

AO currently uses DirectX 7, back to 8 years ago. DirectX 7 makes almost no use of what modern graphic cards can offer. Still, a driver issue can make the game freeze!

Most calculations in AO are currently made by the CPU and not by the video card processor. Most of the game stuff, including textures, are currently stored in the RAM of the motherboard and not the video card RAM.

The new engine should prevent slowdowns that are textures-related, and make the game run smoothly.

Any card of today and "yesterday" should be able to run well with the new engine.

The new engine will also (should also) bring us dynamic shadows (that you can see in the videos, the West Athen sunset scene) and possibly (more or less) dynamic lighting (at least for the scenery, not sure for the characters)... for that, better have a strong video card but impossible to say more at the moment.

The new engine is a rendering engine, using the video card. Therefore it is not really concerned by dual or quad cores systems. There is no plans for making a specific use of multi-cores processors in AO at the moment. Note that 99% of the games and software of today, even the new ones, do NOT really use multi-cores to their real power.

Note: all the screenshots above are made with the CURRENT graphic engine, NOT the new one. If they look good, it's because the team put a lot of efforts into those new zones.