On this day, fifteen years ago, the first version of Obsidian Conflict was released to the public. It all began when the original founders Skidz and Hyperjag3 wanted to create a co-op mode for Missing Information, which quickly turned into its own project, Obsidian Conflict.
Since then, several versions ensued, each one fixing previous bugs and creating new features. People came and went, the engine got game-breaking updates and new challenges were faced, but the spirit of playing together with your friends remained constant. In case you are interested about the mod’s origins, you can read the original article written for the 7th anniversary here.
Freezing Point, 2006
Deadland, 2006
While development has been quite bumpy in recent years (including a development pause between 2015 and 2017), we keep working hard for our fans and in our compromise to finish what our founders intended: releasing on Steam.
Development remains slow as our team keeps being tied up with real life events, but even with such reduced speed, progress is being made. So far, testing on Steam has drastically improved the ability to test, and finishing the new content mounting system is the last bottleneck that impedes us before we can begin with the closed beta. We are still confident that we can get started with it this year, and if everything goes well, maybe even release, but time will tell.
Stitches 2, 2021
Diving, 2021
As a closure, we are still accepting new team members. We are also seeking to expand our moderator team in preparation for the closed beta and the release. Of course, contributors are also welcomed as well if you prefer to help out without being anchored to the mod for extended periods of time. If you are interested, please apply using our new application form.
2020 winter update
So, 2020.
There’s not much that needs to be said about how this year turned out and why. It is very jarring in comparison with our last article done at the beginning of February, where we were optimistic. In case you haven’t seen it on our Discord server, we must give you bad news:
Obsidian Conflict has been delayed to an unknown date in 2021.
We know that we promised the closed beta to start by the end of this year and then release the mod after, but a multitude of events have occurred to the team in real life due to or during the pandemic, going as bad as even losing jobs and having mental breakdowns, and as such, the work on the mod has been inevitably affected. However, while the working speed has been slowed down to a crawl, development is still ongoing.
Let’s go then for a small recap of what happened this year since the last article, shall we?
Metrocops can use shotguns now, AR2 and grenades
Improved Ichthyosaur model
Half-Life: Resized Maps
Known previously as Half-Life: Source Unified, this collaboration between the Half-Life: Co-op and Obsidian Conflict teams eventually saw the light in July. From the initial tram ride to the final choice, the whole game has been reworked and improved into a seamless, map-bug free experience. Here are the links for Gmod, HL:S and the main project page. Obsidian Conflict will ship with these, and as seen in current internal testing, it’s a pleasure playing them in co-op, unlike the original HL:S maps (in which the main issue was the size of the maps, as they are so small that by the time a player finished loading one, the server had already switched to the next). The mapadds for the vanilla HL:S maps will remain in the mod for legacy support anyway, just in case.
Hazard Course
Surface Tension
Further fixes and improvements
While we worked on the HLRM project, the rest of the mod received some love too: code bugs were squashed, maps were updated and improved, weapons are being rebalanced, models and textures getting an art pass...
We don’t want to show all the work done yet, but we can unveil some nice details, like the sniper rifle now using a 5-shot energy cell, as a way to set it apart from the 357 or the Crossbow. An improved UI and fleshed out HUD details, fixed graphical issues when playing HL2: Lost Coast with multiple players (like broken occluders or wrong lighting settings on models that only have been possible to fix via Lump editing) as well as SLAMs/Tripmines not exploding if the surface they were attached to broke apart.
5-Shot Sniper Rifle (OSR)
UI changes
HL1 Tripmines
Lost Coast
Steamworks, Diving and others
We also started working on the first Steamworks elements like the Workshop. While considerable time and effort is needed, the results are starting to show, and we are sure they will be a great addition for everybody to enjoy.
Meanwhile, in late April, Whomobile dedicated one of his “Weird Maps” videos to Diving, a famous community-made map done back in 2010 by Beanbrains. The video was so popular that Beanbrains himself returned and gave us the VMFs for the latest unfinished version of it. And as such, we are currently finishing and adjusting the map, so we can officially ship it with the mod at release. Yes, you read that right, Diving is now part of the official map list.
Our Steam store page was also unveiled, so feel free to follow our community hub on Steam for news as well!
Current test items at the Workshop
Diving starting point
Steam Store page
In closing
To finish this article, we would like to share with you the new viewmodels for the HL2 weapons, based on the models made by Juniez and modified and animated by Troop (Work In Progress):
Remember that we are still looking for mappers to give us a hand with updating the maps, but we also need a dedicated 2D Artist now as well, as we have to deal with some stuff like Library banners, achievement icons, possible new sprays and other sooner or later. Our Trello is up as well to check the possible “job offerings”.
Have a happy New Year, see you in 2021!
New Decade, New Article
After the summer media update, we kept working on the internals of the mod and at this point, almost all the big bugs like game crashes are gone. With the only remaining bugs being some smaller ones, we are once again able to focus on improvements and new features.
For those who haven't seen the news on our Discord back in the day, we began beta testing on Steam directly in late October 2019. This is a small but important step for us, as we have finally surpassed all the progress we did since back in 2013. This event is another milestone of our work and further proof we are drawing close to the release.
You might remember that in our last media update, we announced the collaboration between Obsidian Conflict and Half-Life: Co-op.
It's time to reveal some of the fruits from it:
Originally made by Mr. Lazy for Half-Life: Co-op, the maps are undergoing extensive overhaul by our teams, notably solving some long-standing HL:S and HL1 problems, restoring the original GoldSrc lighting, optimizing the maps, porting and fixing the correct textures and much more, with the planned addition of the PS2 map improvements.
Thanks to Slartibarty's compile tools, there are several new VRAD options that allow us to produce results closer to their original appearance in the GoldSrc engine, such as issues with Software rendering overbright lighting.
Right now, adapting the PS2 Half-Life maps is planned, but not in progress. The PS2 maps provide a few improvements, such as improved brushwork or using models instead of BSP. Those specific improvements may come post release for the time being, while we finish other more pressing tasks.
These enhanced maps, together with their VMFs and the special lights.rad files will be released once completed and made available both for Half-Life: Co-op, Obsidian Conflict and Half-Life: Source itself.
As our current efforts are focused on polishing the code and on the HL:S maps, we are looking for mappers to aid us in updating and improving our remaining official maps that still require improvement.
To help us coordinate work on pending tasks we've made a Trello board available. Now people who want to help us can easily pick, request and check tasks that best suit their skill set. As they say - divide and conquer!
And before you ask - you don't have to jump through the hoops of joining the team to help us out. Just contact us on Discord - every last bit of help is appreciated!
Even if you don't see a certain task listed, feel free to ask, as there are always different ways to help!
Here are some of the most recent community additions that made it into the mod:
TOZ-34 Annabelle replacement, by AsG_Alligator and Nicole Vlodhammer
Compact loading bar config, by D4 / Jai the (Perth) Fox
New “HL2 Houndeye” skin, by Shift and Cvoxalury
HD HL1 Crosshairs, by MrFloyd
Improved character models, by Jesse "V92" Vanover
Conclusion
As a final note, this time there isn't a new DevBlog video. A lot of changes can only be appreciated while playing, and it didn't feel right to record only new / improved models and animations.
Thank you once again for your support, we will see you soon!
