12 replies to this topic

[AndY]

Hello all,

The last few months have been quieter than usual, but don't worry, work on Overwatch hasn't stopped!

I want to take a few minutes today to let you know what's been going on, as I'm sure some of you are anxiously waiting for the next update.


⇒ Weekly Community Playtime Events

Our very own community members WAXT and Ranma, now serving as liaisons to the development team, have been organizing and running weekly Community Playtime events. These events have been very successful, and we plan to keep hosting them for the foreseeable future. Be sure to join us!


⇒ Public Access to the Development Build

A few weeks ago, we decided to grant the community access to internal files (via SVN), which will allow you all to play the very latest development build of Overwatch and to download changes as soon as we make them. This way, you can take a look at some of our test maps, play updated versions of our stock levels and try out some of Overwatch's new features, all while hopefully providing us with valuable feedback that will allow us to make improvements before we release updates to the general public.

I was hoping to announce the details of this today, but due to an apparent issue with the SVN Windows binaries (that seems to affect Windows Vista/7), it will have to wait a little while longer. Stay tuned!


⇒ #Overwatch on our IRC Network

In conjunction with the public access to SVN, it is now possible to track Overwatch's development progress live in the #Overwatch IRC channel. Feel free to drop by (instructions on how to join can be found in this thread)!


⇒ Development Progress

Overwatch's development has been progressing at a slow but steady pace. The most notable changes since the last major release:

• Breach's 1st and 2nd sections have had their first texture pass, and work on its 3rd and 4th (finale) sections is continuing,
  
• Crossroads has been updated based on all the feedback we've received, and its overall layout has been tweaked in preparation for its first texture pass,
  
• We've improved various features used in Canals and Crossroads to make the objectives in those maps a bit more obvious,
  
• Various bugs have been squashed.

All of these changes (and more) are available in the development build.


⇒ Community/Contest Maps

For over a month now, we've been working very closely with the contest winners to help them get their maps ready for release. You'll be happy to know that both Traverse and Outbreak are in a final playtesting/tweaking phase and that they will be released alongside the other eight contest entries and community maps which, although incomplete, are sure to provide a nice change of scenery from the stock levels included with Overwatch.

As with the other changes and improvements to Overwatch listed above, contest and community maps will first be available in the development build (this gives community developers the added bonus of being able to very easily playtest their maps with other members of the community).



We've already filed a bug report with the developers of SVN and hope they will be able to resolve the issue soon, but we're also looking into alternatives in case they don't. One way or another, we hope to be able to start rolling out public access to Overwatch's development build within the next week or so.

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know!

[AndY]

On a related note, we won't be posting an Ask the Devs! this month. Feel free to use this thread to post any questions you may have!

[ScrooLewse]

How do you keep getting more awesome with every topic you post?

[AndY]

Kirk wins.

[Yvan]

Nice news !

[Colaman]

So there is ONE big update far away? Or are small ones coming soon?

The development progress seems to focus now on maps, which is not bad, but I just want to know if we could expect the barracks system soon, later or no more?

I hope I won't forget the next playtime. :-)

[AndY]

Hey Colaman,

Excellent questions.

Colaman, on 03 March 2011 - 08:25 AM, said:

So there is ONE big update far away? Or are small ones coming soon?

In the dev build, there are updates almost every day or two.

We're not quite sure yet how this will affect the release schedule of regular Overwatch; it'll mostly depend on how many people switch to using the dev build.

Colaman, on 03 March 2011 - 08:25 AM, said:

The development progress seems to focus now on maps, which is not bad, but I just want to know if we could expect the barracks system soon, later or no more?

Whoever has access to the dev build will be able to test the Barracks system, since it's already implemented. We're hoping to get some feedback on that before we move forward with the feature.

Colaman, on 03 March 2011 - 08:25 AM, said:

I hope I won't forget the next playtime. :-)

Just join the Steam group, you'll get notified!

[AndY]

From IRC:

Quote

04:15:21 < ponpat>
if you install the svn-based version of overwatch, would the mod itself keeps a kind of "compatibility-mode" so that you can play svn and the current version with the same installation in the sourcemods-folder? Or is the svn going to be a kind of officiall release, wich keeps it self up to date after every singel change? (last idea sounds intresting but not good for players imo)

09:35:31 <@AndY>
There is no way to have a compatibility mode
The files just don't match
So you'll have to have 2 separate versions installed

09:38:37 < ponpat>
That sadly was what I believed. but, then there have to be two overwatch folders in the sourcemod folder and two different named overwatchs in steam (like Overwatch-dev or something like that). Or do I have to overwrite the hole folder everytime I want to play with the "old" Version?

09:41:20 <@AndY>
No no, no need to overwrite anything. The folders will be /overwatch and /overwatch-dev
And in Steam, Overwatch and Overwatch (Dev)
And they will each be able to be updated separately using the in-game updater

09:44:39 < ponpat>
okay, nice :) just asked, because I was long time ago a beta tester in a mod and wasn't able to play with all other people owning the "normal" mod and always making copypasta destroyed somehow my fun as a gamer and a game tester :/
So I love you think about such details before you do them and do not rush into a change and cause more mess then improving stuff :)

09:47:13 <@AndY>
Of course, accessibility is important to us
We don't even want users to have to bother figuring out how SVN works
We want to try to make that part entirely automated

[Ranma]

Yea guys, opening the Dev-build is a big deal; You don't have to wait for updates to play the most current version of Overwatch.

[AndY]

Quick update: We should have something ready in the next few days.

[ponpat]

That sounds great Will this include a news-post on moddb as a kind of pr?
News at moddb always works fine to give a mod some new (temporary?) players, even if it is not an update for the mod itself, just a progress-update or something like that. I would love a Community-Playtime with about 4 Servers full xD

Also would there be for the svn-build some kind of weekly community-playsessions? Just every 2 or 4 weeks on the saturday or sunday or something like that?

[AndY]

ponpat, on 09 March 2011 - 08:50 AM, said:

That sounds great Will this include a news-post on moddb as a kind of pr?
News at moddb always works fine to give a mod some new (temporary?) players, even if it is not an update for the mod itself, just a progress-update or something like that. I would love a Community-Playtime with about 4 Servers full xD

Also would there be for the svn-build some kind of weekly community-playsessions? Just every 2 or 4 weeks on the saturday or sunday or something like that?

Once I'm satisfied that all the SVN utilities are working smoothly, then yes, I'll make a post on ModDB.

We'll definitely have playtime events for the dev build, probably at around the same time as the public build.

[AndY]

Another quick update: We're running a few final tests. If everything checks out, I'll be making the post tomorrow.

P.S. I'll be giving early access to anyone on IRC (WebChat) in a few hours.