2007 #4 Player’s Choice Best Upcoming Mod
2008 Honorable Mention Player’s Choice Best Upcoming Mod
2009 Editor’s Choice Multiplayer Mod of the Year
2009 Player’s Choice Mod of the Year
2010 Honorable Mention Mod of the Year

Answer: Winning again with 2011 Honorable Mention Mod of the Year.

Thanks to our community, MechWarrior: Living Legends has once again earned a worthy mention in the ModDB.com Mod of the Year competition for a 6th year straight.  We are very proud of this accomplishment and hope that you will celebrate with us as we enter into our 7th year of development.

Discuss in our forums!

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We are looking to extend our team and need to fill a key position. If you are interested contact: ingrater@mechlivinglegends.net or kingleeruk@mechlivinglegends.net

Public Relations Manager Position

Requirements & Resposibilities:

• Fluent English in both written and verbal and able to present themselves and the project professionally
• Advertise the game on Forums and Gaming Magazines
• Create artwork (screenshots, banners) for use in promotional features, news postings, media releases
• Create promotional videos using screencapture software and editing techniques for release on YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
• Maintain content and comments on YouTube, Moddb.com, Twitter, Facebook, Crymod, etc.
• Compose news postings about ongoing development and upcoming releases
• Recruitment of new developers by posting to various Game Modding, Programming and Art Forums
• Onboarding of approved developers by handling legal (NDA/Contributor Agreement), forum permissions and SVN access (training will be provided)
• Limited community management on MWLL forums
• Maintaining familiarity with the MWLL project
• Meeting with Project Directors once a week
• Non-biased approach to responsibilities, team and community
• Crysis Wars installed
• Sufficient hard drive space for MWLL development build (~50GB)

Plusses:

• Knowledge of Sandbox2 editor for asset placement, scene composition
• Previous experience with Trac/SVN build management systems
• Sufficient time to dedicate to the project (3-4 hours / week)
• Previous public relations and/or community management
• Knowledge of the MechWarrior/BattleTech franchises
• At least 18 years of age

What you get:

• Working in a established and award-winning team with industry contacts
• Being part of the team behind the biggest total conversion modification for Crysis Wars
• Recognition in game credits
• Benefit from our contacts into the gaming industry, especially with Crytek

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If you’re searching for a great way to get started developing with the CryENGINE3, look no further! Crytek developers Dan Tracy and Sean Tracy, whom you may know better as two of the project founders behind our very own MechWarrior: Living Legends mod for Crysis, have just released their new CryENGINE3 cookbook, dedicated to creating AAA quality content using the engine.

Book Overview

Here’s a list of some of the topics covered in the book, which contains sharp insight Crytek’s own developers. Who better to learn the engine from?

• Navigate and interface within the CryENGINE Sandbox, the tool used to create AAA games like Crysis 2.
• Create your own levels and even entire worlds using recipes for sculpting and molding terrain.
• Model with the integrated tools available to designers and artists in the CryENGINE3 Sandbox.
• Use the cutting edge real time lighting technology of the CryENGINE to bring light to your worlds and explore the use of atmospherics and effects used for today’s newest games.
• Create and animate AAA characters and other objects for use with the CryENGINE Sandbox.
• Manipulate the advanced AI available to game designers in the CryENGINE3.
• Create your own cut scenes and videos using the power of the CryENGINE3 engine to maximize the output.
• Optimize your creations for optimal performance with maximum visual impact.
• Have fun following interesting game changing physical simulation recipes that can add unique game play opportunities to your levels.
• Use visual scripting to create amazingly complex events as seen in Crysis2.

The Brief

As described by the writers themselves.

Purchase

The book is currently available for purchase on Amazon in paperback format and from Packt Publishing as both a physical and digital product.

And of course, congratulations and many thanks to Dan and Sean for taking the time to write this! This book is aimed at both junior developers and experienced professionals alike with access to the CryENGINE3 SDK, coming to the public later this year.

Please note that this news posting is not meant to state or imply any intention to migrater the MechWarrior: Living Legends project to the CryEngine3 platform.  This information is for those seeking an understanding of the latest version of Crytek’s impressive game engine.

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As some of you may know, Doorknob from the MWLL community has been producing quality video tutorials and news udpates about MechWarrior: Living Legends on a regular basis. KingLeerUK (Project Director) and Ingrater (Lead Programmer) recently had an opportunity to speak with him for an extended session which was recorded. This resulted in an entertaining and informative interview and we like to promote it more widely to our community to let everyone know what we’ve been working on and our plans for the future.

The video is presented in 3 parts.  For those viewing from the EU, parts 1 & 3 contain some musical overlays that may prevent you from watching them.  As such, Doorknob has graciously provided re-edits of these parts that omit the music.

Part 1 (without music )
Part 2
Part 3 ( without music )

There are many interresting facts and a few sneak peeks of our upcoming development, so be sure to watch them and give feedback comments.  Also be sure check out >>>Doorknobs tutorial series<<<

Discuss this post on our forums: Link

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Project Directors

The Project Director team sets the overall priorities for the development team and governs the balance and features that are implemented into the game for each release.  Project Directors also manage the team as a whole by conducting the weekly team scrum meetings, organising developer teams and tester teams towards specific objectives.  Among some of the other responsibilities that PD’s carry are the interviewing and onboarding of new developers, managing public relations and news releases, managing the legal and licensing side of our project and coordinating with other MW/BT community organisations.

KingLeerUK – Project Director / Lead Audio Developer / Public Relations
KingLeerUK manages the day-to-day development of the MWLL project and also is the primary public relations contact and recruiter.  He also is repsonsible for setting release date intervals and defining the feature set targets for each major MWLL release.  In addition to his project director duties, ‘Leer is the only continuously active audio developer for the project and has created many of the audio elements for the game. ‘Leer also maintains the MWLL moddb.com and Crymod.com profiles for the project and produces media and press releases for distribution to the community.  KingLeerUK is also involved in the gameplay design of the project by authoring multiple design documents, maintaining balance tables and reconciling implemented design to planned targets.

Seraph – Project Director / Server Operations & Build Management
Seraph creates and maintains many of our project build management tools and administers the various servers that provide a home to the development repository, download and distribution servers and the community website and forums.  Seraph was also integral in the development of our remote control services for our 0.4.0 League Mode enhancement.  Seraph is sometimes called upon to cast a deciding opinion on some development decisions but is generally left to his servers and his boxed wine.

Toth – Project Director / Technical Manager
Toth is an essential technical resource for the MWLL project and provides critical information about CryEngine2 to the rest of the development team.  Formerly the Lead Programmer on the project, Toth continues to contribute to the MWLL codebase with features like the heatsink damage system and the upcoming C-Bill transfer and banking revisions.  Toth was also the programmer who was able to finally get ‘Mechs walking in Crysis which was the single biggest obstacle to the initial release of MWLL.  Since the mid-summer of 2010 Toth has been employed by Crytek and he now resides in Frankfurt, Germany.  Toth was a programmer on the recent Crysis 2 release.

Team Code Monkeys

Our programming team makes possible everything that Crysis Wars cannot do on its own (and then some).  Custom game types, scoring systems, ranking, launchers and actionmappers, cheat protection and hundreds of other little features that seem so natural within the context of a MechWarrior game would not be possible without these guys.

Ingrater – Lead Programmer
Ingrater is responsible for code oversight and managing the Code Monkeys team assignments.  He also is the primary developer of all of MWLL’s custom game modes as implemented in LUA script.  Being at the top means he often gets all the tasks that fall to the bottom of the barrel.  Many of the hard fixes end up falling to him.  Among the many nasty fixes that he has accomplished: lasers shooting through walls/objects, vehicle selling, custom flowgraph nodes for mappers, repair bay code.  Ingrater is also responsible for creating and maintaining many of our internal development tools like the enhanced debug logging features.

Apriori – Programmer/Flash Programming
Our resident “Flash hater” has quixotically been the man behind the move from the Crysis to Crysis Wars Flash codebase and the subsequent re-addition of the map auto-downloader feature.  He’s also been working on new spectator modes to improve cinematic opportunities with MWLL.  Despite his current Flash-centric taskings he is a C++ programmer by trade and contributes towards that end when needed.

Aurailius – Designer
Aurailius is responsible for implementing the control and configuration attributes for MWLL vehicles and weapons.  Most of the settings for the playable assets within CryEngine2 are configured using XML scripts that define nearly every aspect of an asset that isn’t modeled geometry.  Working closely with the programming team and under the purview of the Project Directors, Aurailius implements changes to features and balance.  Occassionally left to his own devices he also experiments with variations to create new weapon types for consideration by the team.

Bluesoma – Programmer
Bluesoma has been with the team for some time now with his involvement varying based on his real-life workload.  He has been heavily involved in supporting much of the custom audio control code development for MWLL, including the Betty audio queueing system and the upcoming class-based audio channel conservation enhancement (included with 0.5.0).  He was also responsible for implementing a working fix for reliable aerospace landing.

CapperDeluxe – Actionmapper Programmer
CapperDeluxe was assimilated by the MWLL team after demonstrating his outstanding Actionmapper utility as a community contribution over a year ago.  He continues to maintain and improve the Actionmapper as new control features are added.  If you use a joystick with MWLL, give thanks to this man.

Cygma – Programmer
Cygma has taken ownership of the custom MWLL cheat protection system and made numerous improvements.  He has also extended the chainfire system to allow it to apply to all weapon groups and improved the kill-sharing award logic.  He contributes other fixes to the overall code effort and is the man behind much of our precision testing.

Deathshade – Designer/Programmer
Deathshade helps bridge the gap between the underlying game C++ logic and the Flash HUD interactivity as well as doing some C++ feature coding.  He is responsible for the scoring and ranking changes that have been made to the stock Crysis Flash HUD and is working with Apriori on a complete replacement of all of the stock menu systems to make them unique to MWLL.

Siilk – Programmer
Has recently fixed some quirks with the AECM system and the coolant refill feature that will be released with 0.5.0.  Siiilk is also one of the more prominent contributors of the programming team to the MWLL Community forums providing feedback on requested features and community bug reports.

ShdNx – Launcher Programmer
ShdNx developed and continues to maintain our Alpha and Beta launcher applications which should be a cause for celebration for any gamer who has struggled trying to assemble the correct shortcut with command-line switches to launch a custom mod.  Recent changes to the Alpha/Beta launcher include complete removal of all legacy Crysis support (only Wars now) and better actionmap and profile management for Alpha Testers and Developers when using a shared Alpha/Release environment.

Threesan – Programmer
Threesan has recently fixed frame-dependent aiming and has a working fix for the vertical reticule aiming getting stuck on tracked vehicles that will be deployed with 0.5.0. He has also implemented improved joystick support (cl_turretjoystickcuve, cl_sensitivity) and improved ‘Mech controls (removed throttle reset on landing, speed correction during turns, etc.)

Team Drawing Skills

Our art team creates the BattleTech universe for MechWarrior: Living Legends from scratch using CBT line art concepts that have no place living in a 3D world.  The process of taking a blank canvas and turning it into a hulking war machine within the game world is a tall order, and these guys deliver.

Defender – Co-Lead Art Team (Design)
Defender has been with the MWLL project since the very early days and continues to contribute now by directing the art team in a shared role with Sturmadler.  Defender manages the art team meetings and conducts peer review of assets in progress for both geometry and aesthetic design.  Defender has recently completed all of the modeling requirements for the Inner Sphere Fafnir assault ‘Mech and you might recognise one of his previous assets, the Thor Clan heavy ’Mech.

Sturmadler – Co-Lead Art Team (Technical)
Sturmadler is responsible for maintaining art team standards, peer review of assets in progress, exporting assets into the game engine and going through the infuriating trial-and-error that is necessary to make vehicles possible within CryEngine2.  Being a 3D modeling instructor in real-life translates into Sturm being a natural teacher for our team artists and a go-to reference for modeling techniques.  Sturmadler made the Morrigu possible for 0.4.0 by digging through the complex vehicle implementation requirements for CE2.  He also contributes textures and models to the MWLL project.

Caribcanuk – Lead Modeler
Caribcanuck provides modeling oversight for other artists as well as contributing his own models and even animations.  He recently completed the single bay ‘Mech hangar asset for our upcoming Solaris Arena game mode and its accompanying single bay animated hangar doors.  His current project is to put the finishing touches on the Epona hovercraft to allow for engine import.

Criminal – Subject Matter Expert/Project Founder
Criminal’s responsibilities at Crytek have necessitated a lessened involvement with the MWLL project but he still drops by to bestow priceless training on our team as well as contribute critical assets as he is able.  Criminal is also our primary liason to the Crytek team when we have technical questions or insurmountable challenges that we can’t find answers to ourselves.  His expertise with animations within CryEngine2 has also been invaluable.

Cujo – Modeler
Cujo carries the dubious distinction of never having had one of his major assets for MWLL released to the public (yet).  Cujo was behind the very impressive Clan Ares medium tank and the Clan Epona medium hovercraft.  He has continued to work on new assets including an unreleased and unmentioned ’Mech and a shiny new Phalanx IS battle armour which is planned for release at an unspecified future date.  You can find some of his work in your MWLL game right now; the TC marker beacon, Hellgiver turret and Sentinel turrets are his creations.

DieByZero – Apprentice Modeler/Animator
DieByZero is ramping up to be an additional animator on the team after initially joining as a 3D modeler.

DisplacedBob – Apprentice Modeler
DisplacedBob has been working on an as-yet unannounced Clan Light ‘Mech that is sure to be a formidable rival for every other light ‘Mech currently in the game.

FlyingDebris – Contributing Concept Artist
FlyingDebris has contributed numerous visual concepts for various MWLL features including the Battle Armour HUD that was premiered in 0.4.0 and many of the internal cockpit stylings for our ‘Mechs.

KitLightning – Contributing Modeler
KitLighting has been working on a refactoring of unreleased tracked assets and is also an active forum moderator for the MWLL community.

Neolight – Texture Artist
A relative new addition to the MWLL team, Neolight has set right to work producing textures for the Fafnir and contributing 2D art towards the Solaris Arena game mode maps.  He has also been doing some re-work on the Clan Huit to improve its performance in-engine.

Pentence - Modeler
Pentence has been creating revised (and new) small arms for our battle armour and working closely with Cujo to move the Phalanx BA model and animations forward.

Siege – Lead Texture Artist
Siege takes 3D geometry and paints it in a 2D realm to create the realistic metal beasts that dominate the landscape of MechWarrior: Living Legends.  His contributions are not limited to ‘Mechs and vehicles, as he also paints many of the environmental assets and props that our level designers make use of.  Siege started on the MWLL team as an Alpha Tester and then made the mistake of telling us he could texture 3D assets, oops.   He now leads the texture side of the art team.  His past contributions include intermediate release textures for the Thor, Morrigu and Hephaestus.  He occassionally has other useful ideas that combined with his texturing contributions make him tolerable to keep around.

Tigerija – Animator
Tigerija started as a modeler on the team, but as soon as we found out he could animate his modeling days were OVER.  Has been working on an animation set for a previously announced, but as yet unfeatured, ‘Mech (to be revealed Soon™) and will then be turning his attentions toward animating the Inner Sphere Fafnir assault ‘Mech.  Before we found out that Tigerija could animate he had nearly completed a model of the Chevalier Inner Sphere light tank which will eventually make an appearance in MWLL.

TOMTOM – Modeler
TOMTOM joined the team on the strengths of his Inner Sphere Avatar heavy ‘Mech which has subsequently been marched at gunpoint into the MWLL project.  He and Vlaad (mentioned below) have formed an indomitable team that creates assets at a rate never before seen on the MWLL team.  TOMTOM has recently completed final revisions on the Clan Xerxes assault aerospace which has been turned over for textures and per last update has an eye on the Corsair fighter next.

Vlaad – Modeler
Vlaad loves to model and his output after joining the MWLL team defies belief.  Between himself and TOMTOM they have 6 ‘Mechs and 2 vehicles at varying stages of completion.  Vlaad has also produced some additional weapons pods for our ‘Mechs that have been long outstanding.  And if that wasn’t enough, Vlaad also UV-unwraps and textures his assets and has started dipping his toes into animations and the XML configuration of vehicles.  One of the hardest parts of working with Vlaad is even knowing what he’s working on for a given day!

Wolf-in-Exile – Modeler/Texture Artist
Wolf-in-Exile is another recent addition to the MWLL team and has been contributing textures towards our vehicle assets.

Team Cartography

Kagoshima, Clearcut, Thunder Rift, Death Valley… formerly just names, the MWLL level design team turns these into places where battles are decided, legends are made and the scrap yards of 3067 get their raw materials.  Of all the disciplines present on the MWLL team, the mappers have shown just how far CryEngine2 can push things visually.

Wilson – Lead Level Designer
Wilson is The Man. (literally, check his profile)  Wilson is the glue that holds the level design team together and and the steady hand on the tiller that keeps them on task and on course.  Wilson is quite possibly one of the hardest working members of the MWLL team, consistently turning out high levels of commits every week and exceeding expectations of quality.  Beyond being a mentor for the other level designers he has recently completed a major performance overhaul for our premiere 0.4.0 map; Death Valley.  Not content with just mapping, Wilson also does some modeling of environmental assets for use in our maps, including the destructible tree assets that are featured on Kagoshima and TC_Marshes.

It is worth special mention that Wilson being based in Australia means that he wakes up at 3am every Monday morning (his time) be at our weekly Sunday scrum meetings which can last up to 5 hours.  THAT is dedication.

Deathbane – Level Designer
Deathbane has been working in parallel with Wilson and Sesambrot to detail Terrain Control maps and has more recently been working on a mysterious and chilly Solaris Arena map…  Deathbane was responsible for much of the base detailing on TC_DeathValley for the 0.4.0 release.  Recently he has been working with Shadowkiller to oversee further improvemetns on the aforementioned SA map and is confident that the entire community will enjoy what lies in store for them.  When he is not in the editor or otherwise working, he can often be found on #mwll or daydreaming about his truly implausible mapping projects.

eRkkituo – Apprentice Level Designer
eRk’s story is rather unique in that he started on the team as a C++ programmer and somehow transitioned to the Level Design team.  He was finding that the demands of his schooling were not a good match for the attention necessary to produce programming features but felt he could still contribute to the MWLL effort as a level designer.  Under the tutelage of Wilson he has born that out and has made valuable contributions to several in-progress maps, most notably base detailing on the upcoming TC_Sandblasted.

Sannyassi – Senior Level Designer
Sannyassi has been with the MWLL team now for over 2 years and was a major contributor of many fan favourite maps including TSA_Marshes, TC_Kagoshima and both versions of ThunderRift.  His involvement for the 0.5.0 cycle has been lowered due to his ongoing personal project, but he has found time to work on a new map for our upcoming Solaris Arena game mode.

Sesambrot – Level Designer
Similar to Deathbane, Sesambrot was a major contributor to detailing and performance refinement of our 0.4.0 release Terrain Control maps.  For the 0.5.0 release Sesambrot has been heavily invested in SA map development and rumour has it that he’s a legend with the monkeys…  Not so long ago Sesambrot gave us an amusing reminder of the power of a single checkbox by leaving a heat trigger bound to ALL PLAYERS on a level, and then someone walked into a volcano.

Shadowkiller – Senior Level Designer
Shadowkiller is a long-standing member of the MWLL team whose skills reach beyond level design.  Shadowkiller is the resident GeoControl expert for terrain generation and his use of this technology has resulted in maps like DeathValley being so enjoyable.  Outside of mapping, Shadowkiller is responsible for much of the custom particle development for MechWarrior: Living Legends and also creates a number of custom textures for use on map terrain.

Team Soundwave

Jazz – Apprentice Audio Developer
Jazz has been a part of the MWLL team for nearly a year and contributes whenever his studies in music allow him.  His previous contribution included all of the BA footstep variations.  He has recently returned from a long hiatus to work on additional audio events for weapon impacts.

Team Alpha Testers

 Our Alpha Testers participate in organised playtests of new features and to help evaluate planned balance changes internally.  This group gets to experience the latest version of MWLL which often involves walking around in circles trying to reproduce a crash from a BA footstep particle effect.  A hearty salute to our currently active Alpha Tester list: OCmathew100, sandman, Blueorb, ratbuddy, zathrus, AAA, Thani, Frosted, leeko, Spyro, Deity, Amarus, Incibus, Striker, Poldi, Merf, Ad_Hominem, Ragor, Hawk, ALDI.

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If you’ve gotten this far we hope that you have a greater appreciation for the MechWarrior: Living Legends development team and have enjoyed the tidbits of in-development assets and features that will be coming with MWLL 0.5.0 and future planned releases.

Thank you for your continued support of MechWarrior: Living Legends!

Discuss this news release in our forums!

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We’ll see you on the other side.

with cake

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We are currently seeking qualified candidates for the following positions:

Texture Artists

Our primary need is for hard surface textures – principally for ‘Mechs, vehicles and buildings – although we do have some occasional need for organic and environmental art as well.

Above and beyond basic familiarity with texturing in general, applicants will be familiar with:

• 3dsMax (you need to be able to open and view models, materials and unwraps; Maya might be acceptable, but Max is our standard)
• Photoshop or other image editor (CS2 or better is prefered)
• Working knowledge of at least one UVW Unwrapping method
• Ability to create Normal and Specular maps
• Experience with CryEngine2 and its Sandbox2 editor

Given a recent expansion in our modeling department and the number and quality of models they are creating, our current texturing staff has been nearly overwhelmed with the number of pending assets in our pipeline, what with being volunteers and all… but hey, we love what we do, and we think you will too. If you’ve got what it takes, and you’d like the chance to lovingly stroke your brush across our gorgeous assets head over to our Join the Team forum and tender an application.

Level Designers

Battles don’t happen in a vacuum (unless you’re on Extremity) and our Level Design team is seeking talented multiplayer Level Designers to bring more arenas to the MWLL maps list.  We are looking for developers who can bring an attention to detail and dedication to see a level through to completion, all the while maintaining the high standards and using internal performance profiling tools to make sure that maps play as good as they look.  MWLL maps push the boundaries of what is possible in CryEngine2, if you’ve got what it takes to find the edge of the map we want to hear from you!

Requirements:

• Good working knowledge of the Sandbox2 editor (Specializing is ok in certain areas of the SB2 editor)
• Ability to work with a team of level designers on one map
• Teamwork skills and the ability to finish work in a reasonable amount of time
• Motivation to learn new techniques that will speed up the process and quality of contributed work

Recommended:

• Past experience with a mod group as a level designer
• Texturing skills with Photoshop to create your own environmental tiling textures
• Understanding of good level design layout
• Willing to learn Geocontrol 2′s terrain generation software
• Understanding of the needs of a gamemode to influence overall level design

Flash Programmers

The MechWarrior: Living Legends team is seeking a Flash Programmer to assist our existing Flash and Programming developers with implementing several new interactive HUD and Menu systems.  This individual will need to be well versed in Flash Actionscript 2 and ideally have worked within a Crysis modification project previously.  Many of our HUD and Menu functions have strong ties to the underlying C++ game code so knowledge of this language or previous experience working closely with games programmers is highly desired.

Think you have what it takes to fill a pair of these shoes?  If so, head over to our recruitment forum and tender an application post!

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We are currently charting the release of MechWarrior: Living Legends 0.5.0 open beta for some time in late March or early April, with the primary feature being the new Solaris Arena game mode.  If you have not already purchased Crysis Wars (available as part of the Crysis Maximum Edition and Crysis: Warhead products) then we highly recommend doing so before our next major release.

Thank you to our community for your continued support of MechWarrior: Living Legends!

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Click here to visit the MWLL Community Wiki – Lead DEV Interview page.

(discussion page)

Some subsequent questions and follow-up can be found in the relevant forum thread.

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Please note that this invitation goes out to everyone who has skills that might be useful when it comes to creating a total conversion modification. However, please also understand that certain limitations we installed earlier remain in effect: we are still NOT looking for consultants, writers, advisers or testers with this call and applications for any of these or similar positions will simply be ignored.

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