Mideast Crisis 2

Have you seen our past screenshots and said: "Mr.Stop doesn't fit in with the mod!" or: "Why have bright neon occupation points?"

In-game you're seeing everything through Augmented Reality. Imagine you are the commander at a remote location, viewing the map on a monitor. Above the map exists the hud, as well as digital overlaid elements to aid your efforts...things like the occupation points. Your units in combat don't lift up their headsets and see magical green objects, those objects don't exist in the real world. The same goes for Mr.Stop. Without your commander's hud...you would only see affected units as if they were stopping.

Really though, we use Augmented Reality to plausibly explain the 'game-y' aspects of the mod. We decided to make them brighter colored and more cartoony so they offer a nice visual contrast.

Screenshots!

Throughout MEC2's lifespan, we've been constantly updating our maps. The latest pass at the maps has been done to differentiate them from each other better in both look and feel. The first two screens here are from Small Town Israel, our 2-player map. This map tends to be brighter, more colorful and more cheerful than our others. Additionally, its the only map that will have MC Burger Kong on it, and it will also have billboards and signs.

In the screen below you'll see all of that, plus if you have a keen eye you may also have noticed that the SLINGS on the occupation points look different from the one in the parking lot. Something we added a couple weeks ago, was the ability to merge the SLING and the Mechanic Drone together, to enable the SLING to rapidly self-repair. This makes it a much more effective unit for scouting, and holding occupation points without additional support.

http://www.isotx.com/~users/smurfbizkit/mec2/news/aug08_screen1_s.jpg

Something else that we haven't mentioned before is just how we're going to make it easy to find tech buildings. MEC2 has a lot of them, and its important for players to know at a glance which they can capture. Our solution? Huge, floating, bouncing green arrows above them. If it has the GOI emblem, it means its a GOI-only tech object (such as the Wireless Tower and Town Hall). These arrows go away when captured.

For a quick comparison of how the map's overall look has changed you can see the same area of the map in this older screen.

http://www.isotx.com/~users/smurfbizkit/mec2/news/aug08_screen2_s.jpg

The following screen is from the updated Highway of Death 4-player map, which we've been changing from its previous style to have a mood a bit more befitting to its name. You'll also notice that we've implemented groundbreaking new AI for the civilian cars...so they now understand that they should drive between the lines of the road not on them.

As you see, we use Augmented Reality on this map in other ways as well this time with the "No Fire Zone" warning and the helpful Weather/Traffic status sign. Both of these aren't there for pure decoration, they serve a use...which we'll be discussing in future updates.

You can also see part of our ingame interface, most notably the minimap which helpfully points out where the occupation points and fuel buildings are located.

http://www.isotx.com/~users/smurfbizkit/mec2/news/aug08_screen3_s.jpg