1. The RTS overhead view with HUD
The hud you see in the magazine is in fact a draft interface of the final, however, the functionality you see on the hud is fully implemented and functional. The reason for the concept art overlay is that the elements and features shown on the hud are constantly evolving and expanding. The current implementation of the hud is meant to be functional, easily expandable, and most importantly, suited for play testing and development, not to be pretty eye candy. Effekted from splash damage spent a weekend building the magazine version of the hud from what was at the time, our hud concept. We used the GUI concepts because we want to convey to our fans the feel and layout of the game as it will be when it is finished. We do not want to confuse them with a wholly utilitarian developer’s interface.
2. The image of firing the weapon at three enemies
These are shots of the first “outside” area of Nuclear Dawn. The map was built during the two week period before the magazine deadline in March. All props and components of the scene were developed by Sa74n, PhilipK, and SJ during this short period. The troopers were in fact placed because there wasn’t adequate time to compile the player models into the game and arrange the scene in a testing session; however, the models are in fact real and they are currently in-game, animated and playing as they are seen in the magazine screen shot.
3. The image of the non-commander HUD
We refer to the RTS HUD explanation. Aesthetically pleasing user interfaces will be implemented during the last development spiral before release.
4. "And the fact of the matter is a great deal of the art you see was made by team members who have long since realized this truth and left the team long ago."
Not one artist has left the Nuclear Dawn team since January 2006. Although an animator has and thus we have been actively been recruiting for an animator since 20th May 2006.
As a team, we sincerely apologize to anyone who felt their heart sink upon reading these accusations or who may feel betrayed as a result of this whole ordeal. We are devoted to our fans and the mod community in general. Our intentions steadfastly remain: to release a ground breaking and freely accessible mod of the highest quality. Accusations like this only further cement our sentiments.
It seems that the accusations launched at Nuclear Dawn were not only true, but completely acknowledged by one of the mod's leaders. It would also appear this act on the mod's part was done in order to create the illusion of progress for the magazine Computer Gaming World. What message will this send to the Half Life 2 community?
Hey, a magazine offered them to get the word on their mod out. They didn't have a whole lot placed in stone, what are they going to do? Tell the magazine to wait a few months? No. Things in mods, especially alpha mods, change.
I really don't know what the blogger was trying to bring about, and since he refuses to come out and say who he is, I'm expecting some jealous former-modder or rival
ND has been in the playtesting/alpha stage for a while, they have shots to prove it
