It has taken a long time, but I got around to finding a new theme that works better for this site - it is also easier to read!

This site should now scale well for people with small or huge screen sizes! As you change the resolution of your monitor, you will see more and more of the banner image above!

There is still little content available though, and I don't have the link to the Crusade III craft pack posted, but when I get more time, I will work on it. I also want to post the old Crusade websites, like an archive.
[Submitted by kvgriffin]

I'm going to redo the whole thing
[Submitted by kvgriffin]

If you are interested in playing Crusade, and have XWA, please post on the forum under the topic "Crusade 4 Alpha" if you are interested.

I am expecting to have the Alpha start in November 2008.
[Submitted by kvgriffin]

Planetside 2 is being developed. And you can play it today.

CLICK HERE FOR THE BETA KEY SIGN UP THREAD IN THE AZURE TWILIGHT FORUMS

PLEASE NOTE: THE BELOW WAS INFORMATION POSTED BY Supreme_Commander ON THE PLANETSIDE OFFICIAL FORUMS ON JULY 21st, 2008
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(If you don’t care about the story, read Introduction, What is the game, and How do I get into game, yet there are many more instructions and details in the story, I would advise reading it)

Introduction

Allright, so it’s a bit of a lie, its not called “Planetside 2”, yet it might as well be.

Quite a few months ago I saw a post, as many of you did about a game using the Verant engine (AKA Planetside’s) , this game is called Welkin 4591, and it is being developed by the Chinese.

The Post in question: http://forums.station.sony.com/ps/p..._id=88000015792

Now, I as many of you saw this post, and immediately recognized many of the aspects from the game, such as the trees, the fog, and the movement of the characters, yet, after many hours of trying to figure out how to play it and to download the client, all was unsuccessful.

So, why am I making this post now then?

Fast Forward to June 15th, 2008

One night, after I logged off from playing with my Planetside outfit, I really felt rather bored with the game, and looked through the internet for another “free trial” MMO I could play just to give me a short break from the game, so I could come back and appreciate Planetside again, yet… I found nothing.

Then, I remembered Welkin so, I went to the website, and finally found a way to download the clinet (the biggest problem before), Used google translate to translate all of the website so I knew what it all was, figured out how to make an account… and through EXTREME trial and error, managed to get a CD Key (How I managed to do that is an entirely different story, basically I had to take a test, in chineese, about the game, with info I had to get from the forums, which I couldent read, and I had to get all 10 questions right)

So finally, at 4 AM on June 15th, I downloaded, installed, and patched the game. And so began my first Logon.

It booted up, and played wonderfully, the World was rather small, yet I learned later that is because it was in a phase of beta that had a VERY small portion of the world to play in, it was a weapons test, and they wanted all 3 factions close.

I got onto Azure Twilight teamspeak, and posted in our forums about this game, and the next day we had about 10 AT guys go through the entire procedure to get into this game.

We were all ecstatic, and more and more people were figuring out how to play the game, we got into the games files and managed to translate the entire thing into English, so we knew what everything did, and how to use all of the menus, we now had names for everything… (Thanks Ricos)

We played it for a bit, and realized that this was in fact just a weapons test, that was ending aat the end of june, and we had about 30-40 enemies on the server when were were playing (Note: China is on the other side of the world) Very rarely we would have extreme lag spikes, yet they were only in the sanctuary zone, and in all combat zones the game played perfectly, or at least very close to it.

Now, about a week ago, we finally received an email from the company developing the game, OutPop Digital LLC, They told us, that they might be interested in starting an English server, and use the translations that we made, they would also allow us to forgo the rest of the difficult language barrier process’s for CD keys and downloads.

All they would require are the emails of all people interested in playing this game, the more interest they have from English speaking players, the higher chance an English server would be created.

They also wanted us to note that the game is months away from completion and many features simply are not in game for us to see yet, yet have been in previous betas. (Which we verified via their forums)

What is the Game?

Firstly, some video proof
   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU-pYOOXek0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn3E...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egke...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieF7...feature=related

And now a video of proof that YOU can get into the game and that its not intensely laggy.

This video is of a VERY early beta test. Quite a few things have been added/changed since this video

We have been told that the base you see in this, is in fact a placeholder “tower” and that we have in fact not seen any bases.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9KrL6Ofx18

However, now, the what we know… what we have seen, what we have been told.

Firstly, this game was in fact developed on the Verant (planetsides) engine…

The game is best described as Planetside overall grandiose feel, mixed with Battlefield 2142 art and the feeling of all of the vehicles, with a Tribes combat and Terminal system.

The game is set in the year 4591, on a planet that is not earth, there are three teams, from what we have “translated” they are called Yushan, The Code, Wind… They are designated by the colors, Red, Green, and Blue.

Azure Twilight, in relation to our planetside outfit is playing the “Green” Empire… yet we encourage others to play other empires, so that we have more people to fight.

The thing that I am enjoying most about the game is the world enviroment, the bases are thought out on many of the maps, placed in unique interesting situations, so that there is a mixture of both, bases that vehicles really help on, and some that, they help only minimally. A good example of this would be the concept we have seen… the Sky City.

This as you notice, has a landing pad which you land on, and then proceed to go nside to secure the base, there is apparently a very specific benefit you get with this facility, we haven’t been able to figure out what that is yet…

Yet this, is what im really excited about… this is, in the best way I can describe it, A Titan… These will be controllable on the battlefield, yet you will only be able to get them from extreme backline cities, meaning that it sounds like it will take up to an hour to get these guys to the battle, im also not sure if these are piloted by a player, or in the way a Titan in 2142 is with a Commander…

Oh, and another great fix this game has made to our CR5 system, is only allowing 1 person per zone to be in command of the battlefield, this person, can make “ContAlls” Place empire waypoints, and really be in charge of each battlefield. However, there is still a command rank system, by leading squads you get more “CEP” and the higher that is the higher liklehood you will become the Commander, should you request it… there is also a voting system, for voting in new commanders…

Commanders, also have a unique ability available to them… They have taken away our “CUD” and created a Command Vehicle… This vehicle, once you are inside will have all the power of a current CUD, EMP’s Orbital Strikes, and one more special ability that we have seen The ability to Satellite Uplink, you actually take control of a satellite, and get to use it for imaging, moving it around the battlefield so you have a clear view of what is actually happening, this is a very cool tool if you ask me.

Empire specific weaponry does still exist, yet, something I have found that I don’t like, is that looting does not, the game seems to have taken that out, which makes it more of an FPS, and less an RPG, which this game constantly shows us, we aren’t quite sure how “certifications” work yet, yet there is a system like that.

The big difference between the empires are not their weapons however, it is their special abilities. For simplicites sake, I will put them into categories of Green, Blue, Red

Green, MAX’s can fly, Soldiers have a shield, and “Surge”

Red: Infil suits have Claws, MAX’s and Soldiers can “pounce”, MAX’s can “Lock Down”

Blue: (These guys are SUPER COOL) MAX’s have half the health of other MAX units, yet can transform into either a motorcycle, for “MAX Run” or a stationary Turrent for extreme firepower, we haven’t played as these guys yet, but we cant wait to try them out, apparently they get no buff to regular grunt’s.

And lastly, a picture from inside the game, of the brand new HUD

Theres so much more information available, if you want to know more, just ask… well tell you what we can.

How do I get into the game?

BEFORE YOU ASK THIS QUESTION, YOU MUST NOTE THAT THE GAME YOU WILL BE GOING INTO IS IN A RATHER EARLY PHASE OF BETA, AND MANY FEATURES ARE NOT YET AVAILABLE, THE GAME IS NOT FINISHED.

There are 2 ways to get into the game, the Hard way, that you may do yourself (and trust me its VERY hard and will keep you up until around 6 AM EST… literally) or a much easier way, in which all you must do is register on our website, and provide us with your email address, so we can email you your CD key and client, however we will not begin doing this yet, as we have limited CD keys… Therefore, we will release them in batches…

For the instructions to both steps you must register on the Azure Twilight Forums. Then say "Hello my name is _______" in the Welcome thread.

For instructions on getting a CD KEY from us, Post in the AT forums in both the Welcome thread, and the Sign up for Beta Key thread, stating your interest for the game, we are doing this, as the company has stated if there is enough English speaking interest for the game, they will in fact create a server in the US… this is something we ALL want to happen.

Once you register, you will see to the Welkin forum, and you will have access our US Hosted clients and patches, our English translation language packs, and Manuals on how to apply for a key, or get one yourself…

Our URL

http://www.azuretwilight.org/forum/index.php

Thank you again for reading this post, and I hope the information I shared is helpful for you, I know we’ve all been looking for a Planetside replacement, this very well may be it.
[Submitted by kvgriffin]

Originally Posted by Chris on the XWAUpgrade forum on Tue May 13, 2008 1:30 am

Hello everyone, I am finally releasing the NJO Project's The Invasion Begins for anyone interested in the project. The mod includes the work of 34 voice actors playing 61 roles and features Richard Brookes, Amy Ferrell, Seth Marty, and Cass McPhee. Players can download the mod at http://www.njoproject.com/ along with standalone versions of the game's cutscenes, several behind-the-scenes documents and unimplemented voice work for the curious.

The final version of The Invasion Begins tells an in-depth story about Bryon Tomri, who finds himself entangled in the beginning months of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the Star Wars galaxy, and must choose between duty and his friends. The mod includes 5 missions, 19 skirmish missions that are based on the originally planned 16 missions for the mod, 5 cutscenes, a full voice cast, voiced briefings, new music, and new e-mail messages tailored specifically to the campaign.

The mod also supports multiplayer gaming between users who have The Invasion Begins installed, allowing players to take control of the coralskipper and Chiss claw fighter in head to head combat for the first time.

For more information about The Invasion Begins, visit http://www.njoproject.com/

The website Game trailers has released a video documenting the X-Wing and TIE Fighter series in a very well done video!

To watch this history of the best game series of all time, go to http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33339.html

I was originally going to go with movable type 4; however, there were some complications - I couldn't get the themes to load - so I decided to go with e107. I have used e107 before (over a year ago) and really enjoyed how easy it was to modify it! There was a catch though, the site was very slow. That was on another server though, this doteasy server is very quick, so I do not anticipate the same problems.

If you notice anything wrong - please register and then post in the shout box to the left.

Hope you enjoy the new site - it will take a little while to get it back to where it was, but I am going to be adding a lot more content then before!