What needs doing?
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So... you're interested in helping on the assimsoft trilogy but aren't sure how you'd like to do so? I get many people asking me what they can do and the conversation usually follows a pattern so I decided to write this document showing different ways to help the project and then a quick FAQ at the end. Don't think that because I'm typing this out formally that Assimsoft is a purely mechanistic process: we're a friendly inclusive community and are always having little conversations on MSN Messenger and the forum :D We even have a permanent IRC room, but there isn't much need for it at the moment.

There's a lot more detail then is given in here in the forum, the text documents (available on website and in the game distribution) and the website. If you decide you want to do something you will undoubtedly want much more information on it. Don't be afriad to ask on the forum!

All the jobs here are very important to us, and fairly weighty in stuff to do. If you can help, please do so :)! Its fun...

Mapping/Textures
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This is the big one! We need people to mainly do first person maps using the EFRadiant 3D editor. That is a part of the Elite force GDK and is available from www.effiles.com. You do not need Elite Force to use this tool but it can be a bit fiddly to set up (you need a project file: its located as C:\Program Files\Raven\BaseEf\scripts\EF.qe4). The game doesn't support FPS at the time of writing but I guarantee that before too long, it will, and a fully featured Elite Force map importer will be working (we can already import the .bsp files to an extent).

One important point for mapping is that it is preferred for you to develop each 'room' of the map as a separate file. This is because our engine is a portal engine and this relies on rooms separated like this. It is also a very good way to reuse stuff (one room can be linked in many times to a map).

We cannot use Elite Force textures for obvious copyright reasons. This means we must maintain our own texture library for the maps. We therefore need people to make textures (could be same people as maps). Eventually an official ass engine texture pack will be provided for FPS map development, but until map development increases, there is no pack like this.

CGI Animation
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This requires a lot of skill. We will be choosing a set of ship meshes to be used for the CGI cutscenes for consistency. You need a copy of a animation program such as Lightwave or 3d studio max to do this, and a lot of patience. But if you can do it, you are very much in demand and its something I'd really like to be able to do myself oneday.

Music
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We could use some original mp3 composition for the game. Not just rehashes of the usual themes, but original Star Trek style ambient pieces that are designed to match the atmosphere of certain missions and can loop. We have a large number of mp3s that we may want rehashing into level music also though, and if that is too hard, we having plenty of midi files (a distribution with midi music only will be maintained anyway for those without lots of bandwith).

Vocals
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This is something almost anyone can do! We need a number of short clips performing that will be mixed in space battle mode to form the comm channel. As well as this, we actually need someone to do a very large number of vocals throughout the game (the players voice); this is a position with a lot of responsibility and we need to find the right candidate for it. The player is male (for non sexist reasons: but its way too complex to discuss here) and should have an appropriate accent.

Graphics
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We will need a small number of 2D pictures done from time to time. We actually have all the game menus done and the Space battle HUD, but more will certainly come up, such as sprites.

3D Modelling
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We need things like a captains chair, etc etc. We already have all the ships we need for space battle mode, at least for the moment, so it is almost all FPS mode modelling.

Promotion
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Something for the non-tech/art people here. We need people to know about the project in order to get support to speed up its development. Posting on forums about it (not spamming), writing reviews for trek news sites, and so on, very much needs doing.

Story development
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We have already developed the primary stories but holes are still there. Characterisation, specific details of missions, layout of CGI cutscenes and so on all need plenty of work.

FAQ
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I have web authoring skills: is there someway I can employ these?
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I'm afraid not. The website is a fairly static thing now thanks to our forum (the forum is incredibly useful); almost all the effort goes into planning and development of the games.


For more questions see the main FAQ :)
