It’s been just over two weeks since we released GoldenEye: Source 5.0 and we’ve been overwhelmed with the amazing response the mod has had. It’s hard to overstate how blown away we are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E4XtdEnWx4

Our Trailer got over a million views in less than a week and the mod’s install has been downloaded over 400,000 times!


Server Patch 5.0.1 & Linux Server (Beta)

Over the last few weeks there have been some minor bugs discovered, and we don’t want them to go unaddressed until our next major release. We also have a test build of our Linux server!

If you’re a server host then head on over to our downloads page, and apply the patch straight over the 5.0 server install.

Here’s a list of the 5.0.1 changes.
http://wiki.geshl2.com/v5.0.1_changelog


Standard Vote Kicking
Among the various fixes we’re also rolling out a standard vote kick feature to give players a way to rid themselves of unanimously unwanted players.
Typing one of the following commands into the game’s chat (not the console) will initiate a kick vote.

!gevotekickid number

!gevotekick name

Type “status” in the console which will print out a list of connected players names and ID numbers.

The first number on a line is the player’s id number to be used with the !gevotekickid command. For the !gevotekick command an exact match of the player’s name is required.

Servers are free to disable and replace this feature with one of their own, but we felt that this was a necessary out-of-the-box feature that all servers should have the option of using.


Full Soundtrack Release

During our week of media releases we released a limited selection of our soundtrack containing all of the new tracks with 5.0. Now we are releasing our full and comprehensive OST with every track that’s been made over the mod’s development.

You can listen to the full soundtrack on our OST channel on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRpTWRIokbPvC_BJCsXDS6A

Or alternatively download the full soundtrack.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/goldeneye-source/downloads/the-goldeneye-source-collection-2016-ost


Community Support

This release turned out bigger than we ever could have imagined, and would not have been successful if so many people had not stepped up to help us out. Here are only a few of the awesome community members who helped make this release as great as it was:

Jordan from NFO Servers

Provided us countless servers for the release, starting with a respectable amount but increasing it more and more as demand continued to increase. So many people would have been unable to play the game on release night without his help. He also offered his download site, Krazehost, when he realized we could still use more mirrors.

Daniel from GameStand.com

One of the first to step up to offer a download mirror, he ultimately had nearly 20,000 downloads from his site. That’s close to 40 terabytes of data! He’s also planning on helping us out with a Linux server manager once we get the binaries ready.

Jest Servers

Jest has been offering servers for GE:S for years, and stepped up this release to provide quite a few more. Jest has been a reliable and generous server host and has been a large part of this mod’s history.

We would also like to thank everyone else who hosted servers for GE:S 5.0, such as Gamersexile.com who had 6 servers up and running before release. Without all of you we would have been woefully over capacity with all the players we’ve been getting.

We’d also like to thank all of our awesome download mirrors. Llama052 provided us with the Owncloud download mirror, which had 12TB worth of downloads. MadMakz was responsible for the GetsIO mirror, which distributed over 4TB of data. A big thanks to both of them for helping distribute the game.

Obviously a huge shoutout to ModDB.com, which took a good chunk of our download traffic that amounted to over 400TB of data altogether. It’s no surprise they were “8000mb/s” over capacity at one point.

And of course, everyone who helped seed the torrents. We had many people providing seedboxes and whatever else they could to keep the torrents as fast as they could be, and it really showed.


GoldenEye: Source On Mac

Here’s a guide to setting up GoldenEye: Source to run on OSX, thanks to lazdzx for writing this.
http://wiki.geshl2.com/mac_installation

Keep in mind this runs through Wine and we do not officially support Mac. If you have any technical problems with this we can’t offer assistance.


5.0 Launch Event Is Nearly Over

http://i.imgur.com/wWvIpaw.jpg

Don’t forget to play online before the end of the month and receive this skin!

Community:

Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/goldeneyesource
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GoldenEyeSource
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/GoldenEyeSource
Twitter https://twitter.com/goldeneyesource


Team GoldenEye: Source

Without further ado, here it is!

GoldenEye: Source 5.0
Download now from ModDB!
More download options are available on our official downloads page[www.geshl2.com]!

While you download we figured it would be a good time to inform you of some important details:
GES 5.0 is a FULL installer only.
If you have any custom maps or files, you NEED to back them up before installing! The installer will remove them upon installation!

For those of you into the minutia of change, why not take a stroll over to our newly redone Wiki[wiki.goldeneyesource.net] and have a look. Gorge on the details!


5.0 Launch Event

One of our goals with 5.0 was to put considerable effort into maintaining a steady playerbase so that people can always find others to play with. One of many approaches we are taking to achieve this is by hosting community events and offering exclusive cosmetic skins as rewards to players that participate.

For 5.0’s release we’re offering an exclusive cosmetic weapon skin, the Ivory DD44.


Bunker

Bunker is another map that has been in production for many, many years and passed between developers but never quite made it to a releasable state. Finally this hallmark map of the original game is now finished thanks to the efforts of Luchador.


“Bunker was a map that seemed to be in perpetual development almost since the mod was founded. Nobody seemed to be able to finish it. Finally Fourtecks stepped up and did the main control room. He payed exquisite attention to the movie to get all the details just right. Then I decided to create the rest of the map. I blocked out then refined the layout based on playtests. Made lots of custom art assets. It was with Bunker that I really started to push the limitations of the Source Engine. Indeed, content had to be cut just to get the map to run. Nevertheless, I did the best that I could under the memory restrictions and I'm still proud of the amount of detail I was able to put into the map.”
- Luchador, Lead Artist


Caverns

Today we’re featuring not one, but two maps! Caverns was another map that underwent a complete remake for 5.0 and actually very almost didn’t make it because of time constraints.

Our lead artist Luchador’s turn around time on this map during the wrap up stages of development was astounding and nothing is skimped on, it’s one of the prettiest maps we have.


“In 2006 I made a version of Caverns for GE:S Alpha 1. It was the first map I released for GE:S and it was very rough! Ten years later, we found ourselves needing to replace the Caverns map made by another developer. I took on the challenge, along with the help of other team members, to make a new map from scratch that matched the quality of the other maps in GE:S. In a sense, things have come full circle!”
- Luchador, Lead Artist


Russian Soldier and Infantry

With the new release, we are happy to show off the new Russian Soldier and Infantry character models, created by Dr. Dean! These hardened warriors are a worthy addition to the GE:S roster and sure to represent the Russian army in the best way possible!


Grenade Launcher

One last thing before jumping into the mayhem, a preview of the new Grenade Launcher. Devastating at short range, just as deadly at long range in the right hands.
https://sketchfab.com/models/b7a95c2a3a1b40758c84c08c7cb2b600


One Last Thing

From all of us at GoldenEye: Source, we’d like to thank you for all your support. This is a project made by fans, for fans. Whether you want to reminisce in some of your fondest console memories, or team up against your best friends all over again, we hope that GoldenEye: Source provides you the means to do so.

GoldenEye: Source has always been a not-for-profit modification, and we’ve relied on the generous support of you: our great community. If you would like to help us with mirror hosting or game servers, or want to get involved, do not hesitate to join the community and drop us a line!

“When we first started work on GE:S again, I was aiming for a quick content patch to fix some long standing issues and stir up some interest in the game again. Somewhere along the way to that objective, however, I realized that there was no way this team was going to settle for anything less than the biggest release this project has seen, and I knew we could get there. After tens of thousands of man hours and many unforeseen hurdles to overcome, we did it. GE:S 5.0 is here and I could not be prouder of all the people who came together and put aside their differences to make it happen.

There is more work to be done, and will no doubt be more unseen hurdles, but with GE:S 5.0 I am confident we're starting things on the right foot. We look forward to finally playing with the community and getting their thoughts on all of our hard work.

With all of that out of the way, I'm proud to start the release of GE:S 5.0 with the same phrase I would start each of our tests with:

This is good, kill each other.” - E-S, Managing Director & Lead Programmer

Community:

Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/goldeneyesource
Discord https://discord.gg/MTwT3Ch
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GoldenEyeSource
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/GoldenEyeSource
Twitter https://twitter.com/goldeneyesource

-Team GoldenEye: Source

Now we’re only 24 hours away from releasing 5.0, and it’s time to show more than still images. Here is our official trailer for the new version of GoldenEye: Source!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E4XtdEnWx4

Special thanks goes to our Lead Musician GoldenZen for his incredible music track used in the trailer, and also to our Beta Tester Graslu for producing this amazing trailer for us, as well as everybody on the team involved in the making of it.


Dam

Dam is one of the most iconic levels from GoldenEye 007 and has been among our most anticipated maps for years. For 5.0 one of our beta testers, Torn, stepped up and took on bringing it from a pipe dream to a playable and fully arted up multiplayer level, swiftly becoming a part of our development team as a Level Designer.


"Dam has always been one of my favorite levels from GoldenEye 007, and I was excited about the idea of it becoming a playable multiplayer map in GE:S. It was definitely a challenge that I initially underestimated. In the original game the map was very, very linear. Run from point A to point B. Not a lot to work with as far as multiplayer gameplay is concerned. Originally blocked out using the classic layout as a reference, it took far too long to traverse from one end of the map to the other. This design resulted in some rather boring multiplayer matches, with a lot of time spent simply trying to find an opponent.

The layout of the map had to be altered to allow for more interesting and engaging gameplay, while also staying true to the original. One example of how this was achieved was by creating an entirely new sewer system that creates a path between the front and back sides of the map. It was important to give people a choice on where to go, and not force them to go in any one specific direction.

Creating Dam was both a challenging and rewarding experience, and I couldn’t have accomplished it without support of all the talented people on our development team. After almost 2 years in the making, and a few hundred cups of coffee later, I’m proud to say it has made its debut in GoldenEye: Source. I hope everyone enjoys playing it as much as I enjoyed creating it."
- Torn, Level Designer


New Achievements

In addition to all of 5.0’s other enhancements, we’ve expanded our achievement roster from 80 to 120! If you’ve previously played GE:S, you will have the option of keeping your previously unlocked achievements when you install 5.0.


Reimagining Weapons

Whilst most of the weapons in GoldenEye were based on real world counterparts, some of them were a little more ambiguous or generic. These weapons required some re-imagining to fully realize a design faithful to the original game. Two such weapons are the Automatic Shotgun and Sniper Rifle.

In 5.0 the Automatic Shotgun has been reimagined to be a shotgun kitted out with after-market parts to be more like a knock-off imitation of the real life SPAS-12.


Here you can see the finalized model in all its glory:

https://sketchfab.com/models/9c273a5feb45461ca358dfb5421240dd


Attention All Server Owners

If you currently run a 4.2 server, please email us at contact@goldeneyesource.net with the name of the server you run. We want to make sure you have enough time to properly set up your server for the release, and will give you everything you need to get started. We will also answer any questions you may have about what needs to be updated/changed.


Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/goldeneyesource
Discord https://discord.gg/MTwT3Ch
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GoldenEyeSource
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/GoldenEyeSource
Twitter https://twitter.com/goldeneyesource

-Team GoldenEye: Source

Amidst all the changes that 5.0 brings, they are not all visual. Our newest member of the team Tweaklab has been hard at work on new musical beats that are sure to bring out the 007 in anyone.

Track: “Dam (Tweaklab)”
https://soundcloud.com/goldeneyesource/dam-tweaklab/s-QfVuE

“I’m a computer based producer with some electric guitars and a DMG-01 Gameboy thrown in the mix. I started writing beats in the early 00’s and in recent years have had some success with my original music being used in Australian TV and Film (Housos, Fat Pizza, Bogan Hunters).

My love of video games started at a young age thanks to my older brother introducing me to the Commodore 64, a love that continued through to the Nintendo 64 and is just as powerful today. RARE have made some of my all time favourite video games and soundtracks including Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark and of course GoldenEye 007;
I remember spending weeks beating all the levels on 00 Agent and unlocking all the cheats!

With the reboot of Killer Instinct and it’s excellent soundtrack by Mick Gordon, Celldweller and Atlas Plug I was inspired to apply to the GoldenEye: Source team in hopes of fulfilling my dream of writing music for video games, having been a fan of the MOD since 2007. (I actually bought my retail Half-Life 2 Game of the Year Edition for $90 AUD especially to play Source MODs!)

After a successful trial, more than a year’s hard work and the amazing support of the GoldenEye: Source team, this soundtrack is easily the best thing I have ever done and I can’t wait for people to hear it.”
-Tweaklab, Musician

OST Additions

Today we’re releasing our roster of 25 new tracks made for 5.0 by featured artists GoldenZen and Tweaklab.
You can listen to the OST on:
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMVoUs8cW4JoQuV03zy2vEzPnbciWK43W
SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/goldeneyesource

Or Download it from:
Torrent - http://goldeneyesource.s3.amazonaws.com/release/5.0/GES_5.0_OST.torrent
ModDb - http://www.moddb.com/mods/goldeneye-source/downloads/goldeneye-source-50-ost1
MegaFileUpload - http://www.megafileupload.com/o64K/GES_5.0_OST.zip


Album art credit: Brasskeleton http://brasskeleton.tumblr.com/

Our FULL soundtrack will be released separately sometime in the next few weeks.


Runway

Today we’re showing off another one of our reworked maps, Runway. Overhauled since 4.2 by Luchador, this new Runway elicits more of the movie inspired art style we strive for.

“The challenge was to make a map that was reminiscent of the original game, but also had improved gameplay. The old Runway had so many additions added over the years that it became pretty convoluted. New runway was also difficult because there's no getting around the amount of geometry that had to be rendered, so I spent a lot of time tweaking the level of detail, trying to optimize the map as much as possible.”
Luchador, Lead Artist


Sound Effects

For 5.0 we’ve done a big overhaul of our audio mix, and nowhere is this more noticeable than with our improved weapon sound effects. In the past not a great amount of focus went into this side of the mod but for this release developer Mangley took the reins and has brought the combat sound design to a whole new level.

“My goal for sound in 5.0 was to make all of our weapons and various other sounds as reminiscent to the original game as possible whilst still possessing the crisp fidelity you would expect from a modern video game.

I was able to source a handful of audio samples used to mix the sound effects in the original game, and through trial and error reconstruct several effects to very closely resemble what you hear on the N64 title, except many magnitudes better in terms of quality.

With most effects this approach couldn’t be taken, but the target was still to get the effect sounding like a modern reimagining of the sound whilst still retaining the core characteristics of what GoldenEye sounded like. I can’t wait for people to hear the new Rocket Launcher!”
-Mangley, Artist


Map Overhauls Part 2

Along with Runway, today we’re showing off 3 more screenshots of updated maps in 5.0:


New Gamemodes

Joining the roster of game modes with 5.0 is “A View to a Kill” and “Gun Trade”. Bringing the total count to 10.

A View to a Kill:
Objective: Stay alive! You are scored on time spent alive rather than kills. Killing a player adds 50% of their current “time alive” to yours. Dying will reset your timer.
Notes:
Killing someone with the slapper will reward you with 75% of their currently accrued time, rather than the standard 50%
Current time leaders will be highlighted with red markers, making them alluring targets for others.

Gun Trade:
Objective: Each player is randomly assigned a weapon. Killing, or being killed by another player will trade weapons between you and that player. The player with the most kills at the end of the round wins.
Notes:
Killing someone with the slapper will remove their weapon from circulation and assign you with a new weapon that is not currently being used. A great solution for getting rid of a weapon you don’t want!

In addition to new modes, we have also streamlined a few of our older game modes. One example is “Capture the Key” has had some changes to it’s gameplay based off player feedback and now become the more traditional “Capture the Flag”.


Community Discord Channel
We’re pleased to announce our community discord channel, a place to meet other GoldenEye: Source players, chat, and organize matches. You may even see some of the developers hanging out there!

If you’re not familiar with the new craze that is Discord, it’s basically like IRC and Teamspeak rolled into one with a slick UI. Here’s the invite link which will connect you through your browser, but we recommend once you get going with it that you download the Discord client so you can idle in there like a pro.
https://discord.gg/MTwT3Ch


Truck Off
Today we’re showing off Luchador’s Ural 375 Truck model, a versatile prop that makes an appearance in a number of our new and updated maps:

< SketchFab embeded Truck>
https://sketchfab.com/models/1851077d88784c71a491fb592ae4fc9d

Community:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GoldenEyeSource
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/GoldenEyeSource
Twitter https://twitter.com/goldeneyesource
Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/goldeneyesource


-Team GoldenEye: Source

Today we’re going to be covering some significant improvements we’ve made to gameplay. Whilst we have always received praise on our faithful recreation of iconic elements of GoldenEye, we’ve always recognized that there was room for improvement. Our biggest priority with this version of the game was finally nailing down all the shortcomings of our previous core gameplay to give a more engaging and fun experience that rewards multiple playstyles.

5.0 brings so many gameplay improvements. It would be exhaustive to list them all, but today we will talk about the ones we think everybody should be excited for:


Better Invulnerability

The first of the mechanics we took a long hard look at was invulnerability. There were some positive effects it had on gameplay as a mechanic based off of the original game, but the implementation in past versions of the mod limited the amount of viable strategies in a firefight, took depth away from the game, and could make players not aware of it feel that the hit registration was poor and unresponsive.

For these reasons we have reworked the mechanic extensively. It is no longer the defining combat mechanic it was in in past versions of the game. The new implementation of invulnerability now only limits the damage that a given weapon can deal per 0.5 seconds capping out at its original damage values. This means weapon balance is mostly unchanged, however, automatics now reward careful aiming much more than before. Invulnerability still protects you in cases where multiple people target you at once which was it’s original intention.


Strafe Running

Another big gameplay change in 5.0 is to player movement. For a long time we had always wanted to depart from Half-Life’s movement and give it a more unique and enjoyable feel. For 5.0 not only have we increased player speed significantly; but we have also once again taken inspiration from GoldenEye and have brought strafe running into the mod as a movement mechanic.

Faithful to the original game, strafe running allows you to run 40% faster while moving diagonally. To perform a strafe run you need to maintain diagonal movement to accelerate to top speed. If you turn too sharply you will lose momentum and return to your regular speed.


Depot

With those new gameplay elements implemented, it would be best if you were able to test them out in a new location. Nowhere in the world showcases these changes better than a disused military depot.

In development for many years, Depot had been passed between multiple level designers before Adrian, starting from scratch, finally brought the map to life.


“Reinventing Depot as a successful multiplayer arena for the game proved to be quite a challenge, but it’s my pleasure to finally unveil it. I was fascinated with re-imagining the ominous Janus base of operations in St. Petersburg and fleshing out the details of the place. Many of the iconic locations make a welcome return, including their weapons cache that could outfit a small army and their makeshift server farm.

As with all of our neo maps, changes to the layout were in order for a suitable multiplayer environment. Most notably you’ll find an open rail line that now runs through the middle of the map. This was originally just a small fenced in yard with dead-end alleys in-between the warehouses. By opening this up, it introduced more interesting gameplay opportunities and additional escape routes from intense firefights.

Rather than sticking with a labyrinth of empty warehouses, I took the liberty of transforming warehouses into something more sensible, including repair bays, train sheds, an expanded server farm and so forth. Additionally, the final section from the original level has seen a complete overhaul. I chose to swap out yet another warehouse for a large fuel depot, and what used to be a decorative but useless cabin is now a security checkpoint.

Conquering this beast of a level was truly a rewarding and enriching experience. I hope you enjoy your stay as much as I enjoyed working on it!”
-Adrian, Level Designer


Weapon Overhaul

While gameplay has been changed to feel even better, the weapons have also received a significant overhaul both visually and functionally. Almost all have received a full update including new models, sound effects, animations and particle effects.

One of the big issues in the past was that weapons were all very similar mechanically. With all guns the ideal strategy was to fire short bursts and always aim for headshots, but in 5.0 we have given each weapon it’s own niché.

Here’s a brief list of key changes to weapons we think have really pushed the gunplay to the next level:

-Weapons will now dryfire when attempting to shoot after the magazine runs out causing careless shooters to be punished with a delay before reloading.
-Primed Hand Grenades will now drop if a player is killed after they pull the pin.
-Players can now walk or crouch past Proximity Mines to avoid triggering them.
-Mounted shotgun shells now accurately represent your reserve ammunition.
-Throwing Knife and Slapper hit detection has been rewritten to be completely reliable.
-Automatic weapons now reward run-and-gun gameplay so long as you can sustain fire on targets.
-All melee weapons have had a damage increase and players will no longer spawn with the Hunting Knife, it is now a weapon that must be picked up.
-Silver and Gold PP7 now use Magnum and Golden ammo respectively for higher ammo scarcity.



D5k Deutche
Last but not least, today’s model featurette is the D5k Deutche, based on it’s real-world counterpart, the MP5k:

https://sketchfab.com/models/6d1505d1d8874e608a6594b11343413f


Community:
Website http://www.goldeneyesource.net
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GoldenEyeSource
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/GoldenEyeSource
Twitter https://twitter.com/goldeneyesource
Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/goldeneyesource


Team GoldenEye: Source