Please use this thread to ask any questions or concerns about material related to the actual game. If you are un-sure of something just post it here and it will be answered and added to the main post, which will later be moved over to the official site under the 'FAQ" section!

So here are a few that are already answered:

What is Incoming (Source) and how is it related to Orion?
Incoming was the original "idea". 10 years ago I started designing a game. It was in the middle of development when Valve had released its newer engine, the Source engine. We started our game port over to the Source engine and re-branded the game with the name 'Incoming Source'.

Over the course of development we had taken in a lot of community feedback as well as making development decisions regarding game play mechanics and other aspects. To say the least, the game at the core (and even visually) had changed quite a bit. It had become a different game entirely. This deserved a name change as well which is when the name Orion was brought on-board.

Why is it taking so long to release the first public beta?
We originally started development on the Episode 1 engine. We built the game and added features and were about 40-50% complete when Valve had released there newer engine, the Orange Box engine. The Orange Box engine is a much more powerful and capable engine with a list of promising features that will help Orion in the long run. Adding things such as dynamic shadows, updated detail system, larger and more accessible outdoor areas. It had to be done.

However, the port to the Orange Box engine had caused much more damage than we had anticipated. It's an extremely messy process. During its port quite a few huge aspects of the game had gone broken. This included the entire weapon database systems, the muzzle flashes for weapons, weapon audio, the vehicles, as well as all of the nature elements (detail system). We have spent the last few months (almost a year) repairing the damages and almost building the game from ground up again.

When is the official release date?
It is currently scheduled for some time in October of this year.

About how often do you add people into the beta?
Once every week.

How many testers are in the beta?
28

Who is the composer?
We have several. Ben Gaskell, Marcus Zuhr and Uncle Bob.

Is the multiplayer Co-Op like Left 4 Dead?
There will be no Co-Op in the first public beta. That will be releasing via a "Content Update" some time next year. It will be more like Gears of War 2's 'Horde' mode where its you and a team of people staying alive against hordes of enemies that progressively get more difficult and challenging.

Don't you guys have ANY questions?

Yes, what entities do I need to have in my map for it to not crash?

I was just working on a little something today but when I went to go test it, it crashed

info_player_carrier = carrier spawn point
info_player_altair = alien spawn point

ctf_flag (x2 - one per team) = flag (must choose the team owner)

Off the top of my head.. linking Ezekel (lead level designer) to this thread now.

at a minimum you need the at least 1 spawn point for each team and 1 flag for each team.

of course there are other niceties, like health/shield chargers and ammo dispensers. but you don't HAVE to have them if you don't want to

Alright, I had those but it still gave me an error, I think the info player spawn was messing it up I'll remove that! Thanks for the fast help guys

Yeah removing the info_player_start seemed to work!

Thanks once again guys!

Don't thank me.. show me what you're working on.. I want to see!

:p

I'll post some screens up tomorrow or so

I wanna do a bit more than what I have now

can't wait