feat: Payload gamemode post (#17)

Adds post about the Payload gamemode as well as adding Zanieon to the author list

Co-authored-by: Zanieon <william-millennium@hotmail.com>

_data/authors.yml

@@ -33,3 +33,17 @@ GeckoEidechse:
     - label: "Twitter"
       icon: "fab fa-fw fa-twitter-square"
       url: "https://twitter.com/GeckoEidechse"
+
+Zanieon:
+  name     : "Zanieon"
+  avatar   : "/assets/images/zanieon-profile.jpeg"
+  bio      : "Just some level designer around."
+  location : "Troy"
+  email    :
+  links:
+      - label: "Website"
+        icon: "fas fa-fw fa-link"
+        url: "https://www.artstation.com/zanieon"
+      - label: "GitHub"
+        icon: "fab fa-fw fa-github-square"
+        url: "https://github.com/Zanieon"

_posts/2024-08-26-payload-gamemode.md

@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+---
+title: "Payload gamemode"
+header:
+  image: /assets/images/page-header-image.jpg
+  og_image: /assets/images/page-header-image.jpg
+tags:
+  - Gamemode
+author: Zanieon
+last_modified_at: 2024-08-26T13:24:00-01:00
+---
+
+Ayo! I am Zanieon and I have a funny and interesting story to tell about a custom gamemode for Northstar.
+
+## How everything started
+
+> "Payload? What's that Zanieon?".
+
+So for those you actually never played the other TF2 
+([Team Fortress 2](https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Payload)) or
+[Overwatch](https://overwatch-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Payload)
+for the matter, both games have this gamemode of same name in which one team prevents the
+other team from pushing a vehicle to its final destination.
+
+This mode has been proven very interesting in both of those games due to the way its main
+objective works and how it creates a specific dynamism in gameplay. However, Titanfall never
+had said gamemode, no cut content or anything of the kind, zero clues in regards to that.
+
+There have been previous attempts to make this mode in Titanfall.
+Another contributor, named [*cat_or_not*](https://github.com/catornot), tried to make it around 2022
+but back at that year, the navmeshes of the maps in Northstar were very broken and many times, the NPCs
+would fail to path properly.
+Ever since I joined (in February 2023), my main focus was entirely on the Frontier Defense gamemode,
+because my real motivation to join as a contributor was to make Frontier Defense work properly
+on Northstar, which back then wasn't also working as intended due the same reason of navmeshes and
+other issues.
+
+## Payload coming to reality
+
+So, due to me dedicating an entire year of my life into making Frontier Defense work, fixing up
+all problems with it and gaining experience in coding content for the game, I finally came into
+realization that I could probably attempt myself at doing such Payload gamemode because I've
+always had interest in playing said mode, despite never playing Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch
+in my life.
+
+Case in point, at a random day, I consulted *cat_or_not* to see how far he went with his own
+version of the mode before starting anything on my own — if there was anything I could start
+from — but the code wasn't touched ever since he lost motivation to work on it due to broken
+navmeshes. It was extremely bare-bones so starting from that code or building an entire new
+one from scratch would take equally long.
+
+## Speedrunning the code
+
+A couple days after I did this consult, I decided to start writing the gamemode entirely from
+zero pratically. I had a very clear vision of what this gamemode should be and how it could be
+played with its own spice of Titanfall 2 on it; so I began writing the scripts, and here comes the
+funny part:
+
+> <u>I was so hyped to see this thing working that I wrote the entire server and client
+logic within only 2 days non-stop!</u>
+
+Yes! Non-stop, meaning I also haven’t slept between both days while I did that, only taking the
+normal breaks any person would do (toilet, eat and drink).
+
+That was actually only possible due to the entire work I did on Frontier Defense, as a
+lot of functions and code was adapted from there, alongside some logic from Amped Hardpoint
+gamemode too, with everything working on the basic level the way I conceptualized this mode
+with the touch of Titanfall 2 over it; it even attracted the attention of the Competitive players
+whose only gamemode to play is Capture The Flag.
+
+Pretty much on the week that followed that happening, I did some rebalances and touches
+here and there and bam, there’s this fully brand new gamemode that never existed into the
+game actually fully functional now with the way it could play in Titanfall 2’s gameplay terms.
+This was probably my quickest speedrun of coding anything for Northstar project given the 2 day
+timespan, one does not simply drop a whole brand new gamemode that easily, but well, it was
+fun doing that.
+
+## The gamemode
+
+The objective for the attacking team is to lead a Nuclear titan to the Harvester of the opposing
+team, to hopefully destroy it; the defending team must prevent this happening to secure the win!
+Like Team Fortress and Overwatch, the more attacking players around the Titan, the faster it is.
+
+<img src="{{ 'assets/images/posts/payload/defense.png' | relative_url }}" alt="Pilots hide behind a shield from attackers and incoming Titan" />
+
+Now for the Titanfall touch:
+* defending team can steal batteries from the Titan to reinforce their harvester's shield (meaning
+it won't necessarily be destroyed if the Titan reaches it and triggers its nuclear explosion!);
+* attackers can use batteries on the Titan to shield it; while it is shielded, the Titan moves
+automatically, even without players being around;
+* both Titan and harvester shields can be damaged with conventional weapons.
+
+### Media
+
+<style>
+.video_legend {
+  font-size: 0.8em;
+  font-style: italic;
+  text-align: center;
+}
+</style>
+
+<video autoplay muted loop style="max-width: 100%">
+    <source src="{{ 'assets/video/posts/payload/titan_stops.webm' | relative_url }}"
+            type="video/webm"
+    >
+    Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.
+</video>
+<p class="video_legend">
+  The Titan payload automatically moves towards the enemy harvester... as long as there
+  are allied pilots around it.
+</p>
+
+<video autoplay muted loop style="max-width: 100%">
+    <source src="{{ 'assets/video/posts/payload/harvester_battery.webm' | relative_url }}"
+            type="video/webm"
+    >
+    Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.
+</video>
+<p class="video_legend">
+  Defending team can steal batteries from the Titan to shield their harvester (and hopefully
+  make it survive any nuclear explosion).
+</p>
+
+---
+
+Payload is playable **now**, you can install it using your favorite mod manager or [download it
+from Thunderstore](https://thunderstore.io/c/northstar/p/Zanieon/PayloadGamemode/).
+
+That’s it folks! It was fun writing this piece of story!