I'm currently rebuilding some of the power station items and buildings in blender as these will be far less of an issue like sketchup models have been. as you can see in the pictures, tower on the right i'm currently building in blender and the other 3 towers are from sketchup. I am still mega noob at blender but slowly getting to the point using it over sketchup isn't so bad but I do have a couple questions if anyone can help? like can I use modifiers like Subdivision surface on static objects or shade smooth?
What do you mean? You can do both. Unless you're talking about game time, in which you'll need to apply the modifiers before exporting. Just to be safe duplicate the model with ctrl+d and apply the modifiers on that. I"d also assume Beam has LODs, so you can just apply the subsurf at different levels for different LODs. I would also otherwise assume that Beam has smooth shading in the game engine, or it would look rather blocky. If you're looking for the subsurf and other modifiers, it's in the right panel under the wrench icon. The shade smooth is now under the "object" menu at the top left.
Then no, Blender doesn't export the modifiers. They need to be applied before exporting. The game should have the smooth shading option.
Nah he's still around, just taking a break most likely, or perhaps has been making progress and isn't ready to show it.
Seeing from most Stages being 100% done i think in Summer this Year the Mod might release, i have no idea doe and thats just a random guess. So please dont get yall Hopes up because of me.