Hello and welcome back to another update of Forgotten Hope. Today we bring you a very fast tank killer and
a first for the FH2 mod team.
First up we have a brand new Allied tank-destroyer for our Normandy maps: The 76mm Gun Motor Carriage M18, or
more commonly, the M18 Hellcat. Production began in July of 1943. Unlike the M10 tank destroyer, which used the
chassis of the M4 Sherman, the M18 was designed completely from scratch to be a tank-destroyer. Its first taste of combat was in Italy,
but the Hellcat also saw action in both north-west Europe, and in the Pacific. However, due to the poor quality of
Japanese armor, the M18 was used in more of a fire support role.
Armed with a 76mm gun and powered by Wright R-975 engine, the Hellcat was the fastest tracked vehicle of World
War II, with top speeds reaching 60 mph (97 kph). This proved especially useful when flanking German tanks, since most had
a fairly slow turret traverse speed. The M18 did have some drawbacks though. Mainly, it had very thin armor and
could not take on the heavier German tanks in head-to-head engagements. Its open top also left the 5-man crew not
only exposed to grenades and shell fragments, but the weather as well. The M18 Hellcat was made by
Pointblank86.
Next up, let us introduce to you what we hope will be a continuing series, the first Forgotten Hope 2 Dev Blog.
Today's update focuses on one of the newer developers, spitfire05 and some of the new features he has coded
for FH2. Enjoy!
Hey there. I'm Spitfire05. I joined the development team one and a half a months ago, and I mainly write python scripts and work on tweaking various code for FH2. I want to start this first dev blog by speaking of two new gameplay features.
Spawnwaves:
With the next patch we'll be introducing a new gameplay change, called Spawnwaves. Originally brought up by
developer Natty Wallo and inspired by the same BF1942 feature, many of our old timers will be familiar with
this new addition. My hope is that this will add another layer of teamwork and immersion to FH2. The idea is to
have the players spawn within the same general time frame and therefore boost the immersion and reinforce the idea
that you're not alone on the battlefield.
The new spawnwave system is very simple. Basically, the server automatically counts down in pre-determined
intervals (set by server admins). When this countdown reaches zero, everyone on your team (who is dead) will be
given a window of 7 seconds to spawn. At which point, another countdown will begin and the process will repeat. In
essence, the player will have to do nothing but wait, and will look 100% identical to the older BF1942 spawnwave
feature.
Team Spawnpoints:
I've been working on another gameplay feature that's been implemented into the next patch. A team-spawnpoint
system, also proposed by Natty Wallo. What this will allow our mappers to do, is to have an easy way to add
spawnpoints usable for only one team, and another set of spawnpoints at that same flag that are only usable by the
other team. A picture is worth a thousand word, so here's a simple demonstrative image.
My hope with this is to cut down on the amount of dummy flags on maps (which had to be used to achieve the same
effect but was a lot more complex) and more importantly reduce the amount of spawn-camping on certain maps.
I hope you've enjoyed reading about these new mod components, and more-so, our first dev blog.
That's all for this week, but be sure to come back next time for another update. Until then, feel free to visit
our IRC channel and our public forums to discuss this update and other news.
