Release Notes from Human Head Studios

Mon - Mar 19, 2001

More Details on Rune Expanion Pack

posted: 07:02 pm by: admin
Tim Gerritsen posted the following today in the forums:

Ok, Gathering jumped the gun...and released an early and incomplete bit of info before it was time, so, until the actual, official press release comes out explaining everything, let us give you a few details about what is really going on with Halls of Valhalla.

First What the hell is it?

Rune- Halls of Valhalla is the expansion pack we've been hinting at for several weeks now. It's a hybrid package that is both a stand alone AND an expansion game for Rune. If you have Rune, it adds lots of new maps, characters and new modes to the game. If you don't have Rune, you get to take part in all multiplayer action from the expansion and the original game.

What's the cost?

$19.99 is the MSRP- that's what's suggested, but your street price will vary.

What's included?

Lots of new characters- all the original sark characters (including Conrack and Ragnar- but no worries- they will be non-cheater versions), the Dwarf, Swashbuckler, Mongol Warrior, Syrian Warrior, two Roman Gladiators, a Snake Beserker, and three new female warriors. That's 15 new characters if you're keeping score, plus all the old ones you could play in the original game.

Lots of new maps- 33 in all, including the 7 contest winners. There are new maps in all modes.

New modes-
Arena- Which is not just your basic honor match. We created all new code for this that makes arena a blast, even for hard core ffa players. First, you can play 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 matches (4v4 rules!), there's a cue system so that you can explore around and play with the interactive gems we've placed around the arena edges, and you can spectate the matches themselves. If that isn't enough, a couple of the maps allow you to interact with the combatants from the cue zone.

HeadBall- This is a wicked game where up to four teams compete to take trophies from their opponents and toss them into goals for points. The team at the end of the game with the most points wins, but it's not that simple. You simply have to see it to believe it.

We also improved the netcode so that you can play in high-ping situations (no more jiggy players).

There are more little details, lots of shots of characters and levels that we will be releasing in the coming weeks, but those are the basics for now. For $20 you get a lot of extra hardcore action, or new hardcore action for your system.

We'll be doing the patch- before- the expansion comes out, and it will be free, as always. It will include the net code improvements, as well as the combat improvements we mentioned in the patch update, as well as one of the female characters from the expansion, Jun the Viking.

Rune- Halls of Valhalla will hit shelves in April for the PC, with a Mac port coming a few weeks later via Westlake. The PC version will be in stores everywhere, while the Mac version will be available via online Mac outlets. No word yet on translated versions (we're still working out details with our publisher) but the US version WILL work with all foreign versions of the game.

Hopefully that will keep you going for now. We wanted to fill you in on the basics and stop the speculation based on 1 shot of a box cover with few supporting details.
· View the thread here

Fri - Mar 02, 2001

Update on Next Rune Patch

posted: 02:01 am by: admin
"Hey all -

As Tim G mentioned recently, the patch is very close, we're still going through rounds of testing it, though. A LOT of bugs have been squashed, but I still have a few new ones that cropped up on my list to fix, as well as doing some stuff that will help improve networking performance. Enclosed is a list of stuff we've added, fixed, and tweaked.

Sit tight...we're working hard on getting this patch done as soon and as bug-free as possible.

Chris Rhinehart

---------
NEW STUFF:
- ModMenu (thanks to Rus 'Nurial' Clark for this)
- GameType list in Multiplayer Join Menu
- Shields block thrown weapons
- Attacking can block a thrown weapon
- Climbing out of water retrieves previously stowed weapon automatically
- SarkRagnar added back to the multiplayer select screen (cheating problems fixed)
- New female model, Jun.
- SubstituteMesh system which will make adding new meshes much easier (more on this later when the patch is released)
- Player can shield defend much faster
- Added functionality to allow head to operate like other weapons (in that you can pick them up after first bounce)
- Limb severing can now be enabled/disabled

BUG FIXES:
- Powerups don't affect players in NeutralZones
- Avalanche doesn't do any damage bug
- Empathy versus Empathy infinite recursion bug
- Fixed infinite spirit powerup cheat
- Fixed infinite bloodlust cheat
- TrialPit slowdown bug
- Large Sark arms when chopped off in multiplayer
- TownRagnar and ShipWreckRagnar start now with proper health levels
- Taunt while selecting items bug
- Dropping MagicShield bug
- Draw weapons while going underwater
- Can't break shields in neutralzones
- Don't hurt teammates shields, in team DM
- ReadSCM problem in Win98 [for importing skeletal meshes]
- Fixed team deathmatch startspot bug
- SarkConrack arm chop bug

GAME BALANCING:
- Lighting attack - Does less damage, doesn't last quite as long
- TrialPitMace - Powerup does less damage, doesn't last as long
- EarthAttack - Powerup doesn't last as long
- DwarfBattleSword - Powerup doesn't last as long
- GoblinAxe - Powerup doesn't last as long
- RuneOfStrengthRefill - Gives you more bloodlust (50%)."

Thu - Jan 04, 2001

Message to Rune Fans

posted: 04:01 am by: admin
By Tim Gerritsen
Business Director

I want to respond to the fans out there by stating that we are definitely supporting the game. We are currently working with Chris Burke to have him support our scm files so that people can import their own characters and animations. In addition, we are working on the net code ourselves, while also giving a few of the people who wrote us a crack at it so that we can improve the speed. It will not be easy, as our game sends considerably more information than a standard shooter over the net, though we hope to make significant improvements.

Internally, Dave and Mick have both released maps publicly. They did this on their own time, in addition to the other work they have here from day to day. We will continue to do so, and both employees will continue to support mappers by providing helpful hints and additional documentation, as they have done so far.

I wish to point to all the naysayers whining about us not being at their beck and call day to day, hour to hour in the manner they would wish. Unless I am living in a fantasy world, Rune has been out only 60 days on the PC, and less than 30 on the Mac. In that time, we have released half a dozen new maps, a US patch and the Mac version, as well as foreign language versions for the German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian markets. This is painstaking work, and requires additional testing and multiplayer code work to make sure that each language region can play with the other regions.

During this time, it has also been the holiday period here in the US, so we have lost down time due to Thanskgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Due to an illness of one of our founders who is also a key programmer, much of the final game was coded by just two coders, who were responsible for everything from the menu system, to net code to AI. To have these guys work week after week with less than four hours of sleep per night, and then turn around and tell them to work on new game support in addition to all the other work we had to do in translations was simply too much to ask, and yet they have still come through with support for new maps and working on patches.

Paul MacArthur finally left on a much needed vacation, while Chris Rhinehart has yet to take his full vacation. In the meantime we have added programming staff to cover the slack, and will be ramping up our efforts over the next month, though having over three feet of snow dumped on us in December didn't help matters any, as there were a few days we had to shut down the offices because people couldn't make it in!

I would like to tell those people who feel we haven't personally responded to their individual needs to relax and be patient. With a total staff of a dozen people working on Rune, it is not as if we can just wave a magic wand and fix your particular problem, or change the netcode overnight to match your particular system's setup.

Many problems are unique to a particular setup, and need to be reproduced in order to fix them. Other reported problems do not occur at all on our systems and leave us stymied. I can tell you that on systems with as little as 64MB of RAM and a 333Mhz processor, we have gotten the game to run consistently in the 20fps range in D3D. On faster machines with more memory, if you are getting less that 30fps in D3D at 640x480, there is something wrong and it probably can be fixed with some simple tweaking. I play the game with all visuals turned to maximum character shadows set to projected and actor shadows set to blob on a PII 450Mhz with 256MB of RAM and a TNT video card set to 800x600 D3D 32-bit mode, and my framerates are consistently in the 24+ fps range at the lowest, and on average in the 35fps range and peaking in the low 50's. If you are getting lesser performance, there is something that needs to be tweaked on your system, and hopefully, if you provide enough information, we can help you out.

The more information you can provide us the better, as the messages that say, 'This don't work, dude' really don't give us enough information to diagnose or fix your problems. We will attempt to cure any problems we can find, but the vast majority of problems come down to people having old drivers or not reading the lengthy Release Notes file that comes with the game. For other people who need assistance, there is a fairly lengthy tweak and troubleshooting guide over at http://www.3dspotlight.com/tweaks/rune/index.shtml (thanks, guys!!).

We feel that we have given the game support from day one, and will continue to do so as we go forward. Just because we are not on the board daily touting what we are working on to a few loud-mouthed complainers does not mean we are ignoring the fan community and not working on further support. We do read your messages, and are working on the game, but it is ridiculous in the extreme to expect us to respond to everyone personally on a daily basis. There are hundreds of messages each day on the boards, and we simply do not have time to respond to all of the requests. We respond when we can and when we have definite information to help you out with. We also try to respond with more public messages like this one.

To those fans who have remained patient, we thank you. In the next month, we will be releasing a new patch (either 1.03 or 1.04 depending on testing), as well as the aforementioned flat polygon mesh layouts so that people can create their own skins and incorporate them into the game. The new bug fix should address problems connecting between differing versions of the game on multi-player servers, as well as other small problems reported on various systems.

The really big news however, is that we have finally gotten approval from Gathering of Developers on a Rune Add-On pack,. I can't release a lot of details at the moment, but the Add-On pack will be multiplayer focused only, and will include some new modes and maps for the Rune community that we have created ourselves, as well as a couple of new multiplayer characters (including, finally, a really good female character or two). The pack will be out in spring of 2001,, and we hope to release details soon. It will be a commercial add-on, but at a reasonable price available in all outlets.

We also have some REALLY big news for Rune that we hope to announce very soon, so watch the board for a big annoucement concerning Rune in the next month or two. We can't say anything now, but we are really chomping at the bit to do so and give you lots of details when we finally are allowed to make the announcement.

In the meantime, look for continued support on the message boards and answers to your questions as we have time to do so.
· The RuneGame Forums

Tue - Jan 02, 2001

Patch and Other Rune Updates

posted: 02:02 am by: admin
By Chris Rhinehart
Programmer

What has Human Head been doing since Rune was released?

Since Rune was released, we have continued to work to support the product.

Almost immediately after the game was released we put out a patch to resolve some outstanding bugs that slipped past QA. Additionally, we have been working on the foreign language versions of the game. Rune had to be translated into eight different languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Korean. As far as other outstanding bugs, we have been working on them as well and hope to have a patch out relatively soon to resolve these issues. In between working on this stuff, the members of the Rune team have been taking much needed vacations.

Patches and foreign language translations are somewhat mundane, so to combat that, we have also been working on additional content to support the game.

Some of the new stuff coming down the pipe is as follows:
- New DeathMatch maps, some exploring some old favorite game techniques, and others exploiting some interesting abilities of the game to make the experience unique. We will be releasing some of these maps in the very near future.
- Our modelers have been working on some new models/skins for the game, specifically more female models for multiplay. Additionally, we will release information on how the mod community can use their own models and skins in the game.
- We plan on having a public release to unlock the ability to play as the Sark in multiplayer (which can already be hacked into the game as is, but we will unlock the ability for everyone. This does NOT include SarkRagnar, who is considered a cheat character, and was disabled in the 1.01 patch).

What's up with the next Rune Patch? As I mentioned, we have been working on various bug fixes as well as some multiplayer balance tweaks for the next patch. This patch is essentially done, but is currently being tested. If any issues arise during the testing process, we will have to fix those problems, and re-test the game and multiplayer. Trust me, we want to get this patch out as soon as possible, but not as the expense of rushing it out and potentially causing more problems than we have fixed.

How is Human Head supporting the mod community? Many skin artists have requested the original flatted polygon textures that our skin artists utilized to create the textures in the game. We will be releasing these template textures to the community for use in creating new skins for multiplayer and for mods. Initially, we will only release the templates for all characters in multiplayer. If people require the templates for in-game creatures, we can supply that at a later date. These template textures will most likely be finished within the next few days and we will send them out to the various Rune Fan sites.

Quite a few people have requested the original meshes and animations in the game. We do not have plans to release the original mesh/animation files, but we will release the specs for the format so that any mod tool builders out there who have build meshviews/exporters will be able to support the Rune SCM format. If you are interested in obtaining this information, e-mail me and add the subject line "SCM SPECS."
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