It’s been a busy time for the team in terms of Real-Life, with some of us in work or education of some sort, but don’t worry! Progress has been made, as you might have seen if you visit the forums.

So, what news do we have for you?

First off, I wish to thank all those that donated to help keep the website and SVN development repositories going! These are the people (forum nicknames) that donated:

Forza
DarkDemi
OldBean
SSJ50000
Skatter

Big thanks go out to them!

Next up, progress news!

Nappa has been going through some final touches, he’s pretty much ready to join the fight. Thanks go out to Blaize and TRL!

Damaera has rigged up those pesky little green men, Saibamen! Modelled by Blaize, and textured by DarkLink, here he is:

Nielsmillikan has helped out by contributing his Chiaotzu character! Here’s the latest WIP screenshot of him:

In other news, lots has been going on with upgrading the visual effects you will witness in the next public beta, thanks to the work of void adding in GLSL support! Check the forums for the lengthy development posts!

Also, JadenKorn our resident Arnold, has been working with the code as well to better organize and keep it up to date with the latest ioquake3 sources. This also means, portability to other machines that are capable of running ioquake3, like Linux, Mac, and also including the Pandora handheld!

Next up, we have a trailer for some of what you’ll see in the next public beta, thanks to Domi! Take note that the melee seen in this video is not the final thing, thats being redone and tuned up! Enjoy:

Now that the summer holidays have officially started for most people on the team, you should see progress increase rapidly across the field.

Stay tuned.

Public Beta 2 is what a lot of people are waiting for, but first an explanation on how it works in terms of development :

The ZEQ2-Lite team is not the sole contributor to the game, anyone can help make content and help out with the code side of things, it is an open project! The more people that help contribute, the faster a Public Beta 2 will come. For example, if you wish to contribute a character or a map, all you need to do is post in the forum that piece of work. If it meets the ZEQ2-Lite’s quality standards, then it can be contributed to the current Team Build (latest version of the game being worked on), and you also get access to the Team Build if you need to fine tune animations or attacks etc.

When it comes to helping out with code development, it would be better to contact the team either through the forums or IRC channel, available from the Chat tab at the top of this blog. This way we can give you access to the latest Team Build source code via SVN, as the source that is available with the Public Beta is, as you can imagine, out of date. The team build source code now has Linux support, so if you’re a Linux developer that wishes to help out that is now available as an option thanks to JadenKorn. Mac OSX builds we are still having problems with, due to the team not having a Mac to develop on. So any Mac developers out there that want to see ZEQ2-Lite running on those machines, contact us!

Lets work together to make a great free game for as many platforms as possible.

Early on in 2010 we will hopefully get the time to write a mapping tutorial for those that wish to help out with that type of content. There is no limit to the content we need! And then later on perhaps a tutorial on how to take your modelled, skinned, rigged and animated character in game.

New things to look out for in the next Public Beta?

• New Skeletal Animation System dubbed zSkeleton
• Raised limit for number of skills per character
• New maps ‘Desert Duel’ and ‘Last Stand’
• New characters ‘Krillin’ ‘Vegeta’ ‘Saibamen’
• Fine tuned and bug fixed Melee and Skills system
• Possibly more content …

A big thank you to everyone on the team for pushing through the tough times!

Domitjen won the ZEQ2-Lite Tournament and managed to get a copy of the Team Build, congrats to him!

Lets have a great year!

Keep in touch on the forums with project discussion, bug reporting, feature suggestions, and more!

Krillin

Krillin joins the fray, with some unique skills that are enough to outwit even the most powerful of warriors in the universe. His skill set includes: Scattering Beam Shot, Kamehameha, Destructo Disk and Solar Flare.

Walking is a type of movement performed while the player is on the ground. While plans exist in the future to extend the maneuver to more dramatic results as well as granting the ability of a mobile form of altering one’s power, it currently is simply used as a defense bonus. Hold Shift while pressing the movement keys when on the ground to perform a walk.

Dashing is the standard movement type while both on the ground and in the air. It provides a moderate movement speed and no particular bonus or defect. Hold the movement keys to dash.

Soaring is a specialized movement type reserved for air movement only. This is the fastest long-distance movement type available. While soaring, your character will have limited maneuvering capabilities and no battle techniques available. As long as your fatigue is above 80%, soaring has no cost. Otherwise, a very rapid rate of fatigue occurs. Hold Space while in the air to enter soar mode. While soaring, the  movement keys slightly effect pitch/yaw. You may tap Q/E to do a spin roll or fly up /fly down for a loop roll.

Jumping provides a means to cover large distances of space while on the ground. It is the only base movement type that is airborne, yet receives the limited lock-on benefits of being on the ground. Jumping is performed by pressing Space while on the ground. Speed Jumps are rapid succession jumps performed by holding a movement key while jumping. They cover very little ground, but do so rapidly at a lesser fatigue cost. Power Jumps are slower, more lofty jump types performed by jumping while holding no movement key. This type of jump covers a large distance at a moderate cost of fatigue.

Zanzoken movement allows the player to cover a small-medium distance at a near instant speed for a moderate fatigue cost. While performing this movement, the player will pass through most objects — although energy attacks can still make impact. The technique is performed by pressing and holding Z.

The sensing area is a region located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. This region gives vague feedback about the position of particular power signatures and how they relate to your own current power capacity.

Energy Markers are indicated in the sensing region by circles. If a character in this area has a lower power level than your current is, he/she may be mostly transparent or not visible at all (concealed). However, when a player has a greater current power level than your own, they will appear as a red circle of varying saturation — bright red meaning MUCH higher.   Use this information to your advantage to target players that are near your power level,  but be wary of those who have masked their true strength.

Surge Indicators will appear in the sensory region if a player exerts a sudden amount of energy — typically by expending energy in a boost or raising his/her power level. These appear as red glows around the existing energy markers.

Threat Indicators within the radius of sensing of your character flash to the screen when a large concentration of energy is being amassed. This usually occurs from a very large energy attack that is being charged. Threat indicators are presented as exclamation points along with an audible danger noise.

Starter Hits trigger when you have successfully engaged your opponent by approaching them close enough while moving forward as long as they are not already engaged with you. Depending on the start type used, various series of events will occur. If you approached normally without pressing boost, a speed melee sequence will occur with drifting in your favor. When the player approaches while holding boost for less than 2.5 seconds, a standard starter hit will occur with results depending on if your opponent blocked/evaded/starter hit back. Finally, if the player holds boost for more than 2.5 seconds prior to engaging an enemy, an automatic knockback hit type will result.

Evasion simply provides the player a means to avoid the enemy’s melee attack entirely, thereby causing additional fatigue to them. To evade attacks, hold back movement while in a melee sequence.

Blocking during a melee sequence is accomplished in the same manner as normal blocking — that is, by holding the Ctrl key. While blocking, the defending player will take reduced damage from all attacks.

Knockback style charged attacks are useful in sending the opposing fighter far into the distance stunned. Pulling off a knockback melee attack is merely a matter of pressing and continuing to hold the right mouse button until it automatically releases. Optionally, you may hold the left or right movement keys or the fly up or fly down movement keys to control the direction of the knockback hit. This attack generates a small amount of fatigue.

Instant Air Brake is only available when you have been knocked back.  Consuming a moderate amount of fatigue, the player can opt to cause the knockback sequence to end instantly by using this technique. To activate this action, press the right mouse button while knocked back.

Block Struggling will result if you are blocking and an attack with a greater power level than your own makes contact. During this time, the character will extend his/her arms and attempt to repel the attack in the direction of the crosshair. As with any struggling type, you may speed up this process by holding boost.

Energy Attack Struggles come about after two energy attacks of high power collide with one another. The attacks will attempt to overpower one another by steadily draining energy. When one attack has a significant lead, the superior attack will begin to drift towards the opposing attack’s source. Any attacks may struggle, but the duration and mechanics depend on the energy type. In beam attacks, you may feed extra energy to the attack before and during it’s struggle to increase it’s power by holding the boost key.

Blocking enemy attacks becomes crucial in moments where you are unable to move or otherwise do not have time to react. While blocking, your character will automatically receive reduced damage. Additionally, if an energy attack is blocked with a much lower power level, it will automatically be swatted away. However, if the attack has a much higher power level, your character will begin a push struggle to attempt to gain control of the situation. Blocking is performed by holding the Ctrl key.

Ball Flips serve as a means of helping the player cover extended distances of ground by using a controlled flip at the end of a jump sequence. While performing this action, the player receives a moderate defense bonus as well as having a much more lofty drop sequence. You may perform a ball flip by holding C while in a jump.

Air-based combat gives the user great flexibility in movement and superior vision coverage over that of ground combat. The Soar movement type and some skills are only usable while in the air. To enter flight mode, press the R key while on the ground.

Ground-based battles offer players a means to escape the clutches of an air pursuer. While on the ground, you have an added defense bonus, access to the jump movement type, and the ability to NOT be targeted by someone in the air. Being as the ground is an impedance, explosions are more of a threat. To descend to the ground while in flight, hold the C key until the character lands. Additionally, the quick-drop approach can be employed for automatic dropping by holding F then pressing the C key while in the air.

Fatigue is a representation of how tired your character has become. As this statistic accrues, your character becomes much less capable. It presently has a direct effect on : zanzoken distance, base defense, damage dealt by energy attacks, rate at which you can power up, and knockback recovery cost. When your fatigue is full, your character will go unconscious for a short period of time. This statistic will gradually diminish over time as long as you aren’t over your limit. This rate of recovery increases by not moving and/or maintaining a low current power level. Fatigue is represented by a silver bar on the HUD, but may overlap as orange or bright red when the character has raised his current power level over the fatigue amount or has suffered both health and fatigue loss. In rare cases, fatigue boundaries may represented by a light orange color when the character’s current power level is raised where there is a loss of both health and fatigue.

Damage simply reflects how much physical trauma has been dealt to the player. When the damage bar reaches full (thus no health), the character dies. Damage is represented on the HUD by a dark red bar normally.

Current power level is the amount of power your character has chosen to appear to others as in regards to sensing. A player’s current power additionally effects the following : zanzoken speed, melee damage, stamina recovery rate, and power level growth rate. This statistic is shown as a blue bar by standard, but may also overlap fatigue as orange or damage as light red. It is additionally represented as the number value displayed on the HUD.

Maximum is an indicator of your character’s overall power capacity. If the player attempts to power beyond his/her maximum power level, it permanently raises slightly while simultaneously generating fatigue.   A glowing yellow marker will appear when exceeding your limit.  This statistic determines all energy costs, scales up all damages, and generally affords more luxuries in capability to the player. As damage is dealt to your character, his/her maximum power level is increased respectively. Visually, your maximum power level is indicated by the highest point on your bar.

Manipulation of one’s current power level is performed by holding the F key and then pressing the respective direction keys to lower or raise it.

Lowering of your power level is accomplished by holding F and pressing the left movement key. Maintaining a low current power level means you will be much more difficult to sense, receive a much better fatigue recovery rate, and receive bonus’ to increasing your maximum power level.

Raising of one’s power level is performed by holding F and pressing the right movement key. Maintaining a high current power level means that your melee damage, zanzoken speed, and other scalar values will be greatly improved. If the player continues to raise his/her power level beyond the maximum, it will increase the stat permanently while also removing some of the damage that has been dealt.

Boosting is a maneuver performed by holding the middle mouse button or holding tab. While boosting, the character will move at an accelerated rate and be able to charge energy attacks more quickly. Boosting generate a steady flow of fatigue at the cost of these gains.

http://zeq2.com/lite/SVN/Build

For those of you unfamiliar with Subversion,  please follow this simple guide.
Be sure to check the link as you should NOT download the files manually in your browser.

NOTE: Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package is required to play the game.

Important : The current build is for sandbox play only — to let the player grasp the core mechanics of the game before game styles/modes are implemented.  There is no scoring/end to matches aside from your own personal agendas and experimenting with reactions.

What ZEQ2-lite Public Beta 1 does not contain :

• A bug-free game. (There are MANY known bugs in the current build that may inhibit the game visually and mechanically.  Please be aware that you ARE playing a BETA as such and that we are very likely aware of apparent flaws in design/presentation.)
• A robust DBZ character roster.
• A plentiful DBZ map set.
• Any AI support.
• Developed game types/modes.
• Fully developed attacksets/skills of each character.
• Finalized control scheme.
• Finalized menu and GUI.
• All planned features of the original ZEQ2 project.
• All intended features/gameplay mechanics.

The first public beta release of ZEQ2-lite does feature the following :

• A completely standalone program based on the ioquake3 engine.
• Fully customizable, custom particle system.
• Fully customizable, custom weapon system .
• Fully customizable, custom weapon graphics system .
• Fully customizable, custom character tier system.
• Stepped-shader support with dynamic over-exposure.
• Wireframe and vertex normal extrusion outline techniques.
• Dynamic music system that adjusts music track playback based on actions/situations.
• Tag-based character-conformed aura.
• Rudimentary power struggling system (any attacks may collide) with visuals in place.
• Turbo and power jumping with ball flip support.
• Free direction and in-place Zanzoken support.
• Full flight Soaring mode with barrel rolls/loops/etc.
• Functional melee system with speed / stun / charge / breaker variations for highly tactical and visually accurate presentation.
• Rich powerlevel system with intricate cross complimenting principles.
• Hard lock-on targeting system.
• 24 specially created music tracks feature original and Bruce Faulconer influences.
• Many signature/unique skills per character.
• Map : Landing
• Character : Goku (with alternate emblem skin)
• Character : Raditz
• Character : Piccolo (non-caped)

Updates for the project will arrive VERY frequently, so be sure to stay focused on the information provided through this blog as additional content/code becomes available.

We have a IRC channel setup at irc.freenode.net #zeq2 . Please visit for finding out how to get connected to servers and any help/information you may need.

Planet Namek

We’ve now got our 4 maps ready for release! In case your wondering what the other 3 are, they are: Desert Duel, Raditz Landing, Last Stand.

Desert Duel is the map seen in the first youtube video showing off ZEQ2Lite. It’s the biggest map possible with the Quake 3 engine, with lots of huge cliffs great for playing hide and seek. This is where Goku and Vegeta fight in the show.
Raditz Landing is the green grassy hills area that Raditz crash lands, and also where he fights.
Last Stand is where Nappa and the Z fighters fight, with grassy plains and some cliff structures.

Stay tuned for more.

Things are going well, although lately we’ve lost some man power from Brad with him focusing on other projects and work. He’s the project manager and founder, and coded in our current melee system and power level mechanics, and lots of other things. Power struggles are very solid now, only a few bugs in the system to squash, but we know where they are and pretty certain on how to squash them. Push struggling is really where the problems are at the moment. Sometimes you can get stuck push struggling an attack that just skimmed past you, and other little oddities. We’ll have lots of media on Power struggling and Push struggling once they are 100% rock solid

But if you want media in some form or another to keep you busy, well here is a little something:

ZEQ2Lite Logo design

The idea with this design is to have something that symbolises DragonBall Z’s main theme of the story. What the heroes try to protect, and where the majority of the fights take place. The text is something that goes against the norm, but somehow I ended up making it look a bit ‘Back to the Future’ looking in style, which wasn’t intended. Using the colors used by the main Dragonball Z logo didn’t help either. Any ideas or suggestions for the text? Make sure to leave comments and for the more adventurous ones out there, even post your own designs

Until next time. – MDave

-ZEQ2 Lite team.