-The story behind:
This project started life as a mere map-pack for my previous "Aliens: Colonial Marines" TC some years ago.
But I soon realized that while ACM was a fun TC, I never felt fully satisfied with it so my quest for a "perfect" TC based on Aliens pushed me to tirelessly work on a new project from scratch.
This new TC has been under development since late 2015 and has went under many revisitions, different weapons/enemies mods and sourced material, but it is starting to take form and become something solid.
-Project Concept:
At the moment the plans are to feature two distinct episodes: one will be the adaptation of the Aliens movie, and the other a new story-driven episode set on a different location.
Episode 1 "ALIENS":
Back to LV-426. But this time, the REAL Hadley's Hope Colony. Yes, the real one!
Not any imagined/based-on/slightly similar colony seen in my previous maps.
After a lot of research, I collected a huge amount of data concerning the colony as seen in the movie: maps, blueprints, specs...
A less than a 10% of the whole complex was seen in movie, so I had to imagine and create from scratch the rest of the unseen colony; allways with a glimpse of realism and functionalism for what is supposed to be a real Colony.
Similar to "Colonial Marines" TC, this time you will reprise the role of Corporal Dwayne Hicks again, experiencing the whole Aliens movie through his perspective.
Every map will represent a different scene as the movie goes, but as you will play as Hicks and not as Ripley, you are not going to act as her on her scenes; but going to play a different action representing what Hicks would have done while we are not seeing him on screen.
The whole Hadley's Colony is faithfully recreated this time, but the map is too damn big that is nearly impossible to play due to heavy lag and sound effects being disabled on most on the map because the high amount of actors placed on it.
My original idea was to have the whole Colony at the disposal of the player in a sandbox style, with missions that granted acces to different parts of the big complex as they were completed; such missions were to be given by your allies (Ripley, Hudson, Bishop etc) that had to be located on the Operations block.
Since the map is unplayable as it is, this idea has been discarded.
The plans are to have every building separated into a map and use the whole exterior of the Colony to acces them all in a HUB system.
At the moment, the map list is planed as this:
1-"USS Sulaco": Attend the briefing, get your equipation and prepare to descent to LV-426.
2-"Main Colony Complex": Explore the desolated complex with your squad.
3-"Operations Block": Explore the desolated Operations Block with your squad.
3-"Atmosphere Processor": Explore the hive and get out of it alive.
4-"Hadley's Hope Colony": This time, explore the WHOLE colony conected as a HUB system to secure an escape plan. There will be a possibility to discover an optional map.
5-"Atmosphere Processor": Although badly injured, descent again to the lower levels of the nuclear reactor while Ripley is rescuing Newt to help them both.
6-"Mining Complex" (optional)
Episode 2 "Dead On Arrival" (WIP name):
This is going to be a not so large episode with a different story and a more lineal and basic layout:
As the only survivor of a USCM squad sent to investigate the distress signal of a Weyland-Yutani Orbital Station your goal will be to scape the station to the Colony on the planet beneath where a functioning freighter lies abandoned on the infested spaceport.
There are a pair of levels in progress although development of this episode was halted long time ago until the main one is finished.
For now, the planed map list is as follows (subject to changes):
1-"USS Erebus": The station that orbits LV-A7 and serves as both command platform and station for transport vessels.
2-"LV-A7 Colony": A remake of the second map of the classic AvPvT TC.
3-"Nuclear Power Plant"
4-"Toxin Refinery": A remake of the classic Ultimate Doom E1M3 map.
5-"Landing Pads": A remake of the first map of the classic Aliens TC by Justin Fisher.
It will be an homage to some TCs and games that had a huge impact on me. I am even thinking to add a pair of Alien Trilogy map remakes on the episode.
Contrary to my previous TC that was heavily inspired by the first AvP game from 1999, this time I am drawing all inspiration from the Dead Space franchise.
I am trying to capture the terrorific sci-fi ambientation and environments of such games, and perhaps the gameplay style will be similar.
But of course there will be many nods to the franchise, such as similar situations, sounds and music.
So now you can have a clue of how the game will work. I'm open to opinions and suggestions so feel free to comment!
-Resources/Who's helping me?:
For now I am still alone and in charge of this project. However the talented Ozymandias81 (a BoA development team member) is actively helping and contributing on the project providing 3D models, clean ups and revisitions.
DISCLAIMER: Although he used a very old version of the "Hadley's Hope Colony" map to make a promotional video for his mod, I am NOT related to Kontra Kommando or any of his mods; neither is this TC related to him in any way. We talked years ago to make a team and a project together but he "dissapeared" and communication ceased from his part long before we could do anything together. It is important to note that as his video featuring my map is still floating on YouTube and I want to make clear to everyone to who belongs it.
Textures:
I am still using the old AvP2 texture pack made by Limes Zen Sky that I previously used on "Colonial Marines" TC.
However this time I am extensively using a lot of neatly adapted textures from Doom 3 + new others that are phasing out the old texture pack in most areas.
Brightmaps and animated textures will be present everywhere, giving a unique feeling to the maps; they no longer look sterile Doom maps, but a real, living place.
3D Models:
An extensive pack of 3D models has been introduced this time: vehicles, furniture, structures... even the vehicles from the Alien universe are present this time!
Weapons and enemies:
I have permission from Willkuer to use his USCM weapons mod though it is still an ongoing mod in progress. Regarding the Xenomorphs, my intention is to use the ones from Alien Trilogy. I always loved this sprites and they perfectly fit with the TC.
Sounds:
Still using many of the previous sounds from "Colonial Marines" TC that came from AvP. But I am adding some sounds from Doom 3 and Dead Space for a better and more immersive dark ambientation.
Music:
This time the soundtrack for the TC will be composed by music of the original Aliens OST and Dead Space franchise.
-Pictures:
-When to be released?:
It will probably take a few years, although I must say that the first episode is nearly finished and a DEMO is coming soon!
