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peter_spy

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Status Replies posted by peter_spy

  1. I think I just saw a quote I once made for one of Peter_Spy's texture projects, in the mission "A Night in Altham".

    The quote ends with "He does watch thee and give thee ordeals of his tasks".

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      Long time ago, I presented a POC of reworking the loot items first, but it was rejected by TDM team on grounds that "it would make original assets look bad". A total conversion project would be way too much work to do IMO, even for several people.

    2. (See 4 other replies to this status update)

  2. I think I just saw a quote I once made for one of Peter_Spy's texture projects, in the mission "A Night in Altham".

    The quote ends with "He does watch thee and give thee ordeals of his tasks".

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      They have different art style, and typically they're using all 3 major texture slots (diffuse, normal specular, while most TDM assets use only diffuse and normal), and textures were fairly hi-res (1k-2k) in comparison to stock assets.

    2. (See 4 other replies to this status update)

  3. I think I just saw a quote I once made for one of Peter_Spy's texture projects, in the mission "A Night in Altham".

    The quote ends with "He does watch thee and give thee ordeals of his tasks".

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      Was it the marble inscription model from the Builders set I made some time ago? Those don't look good with stock assets, I'm afraid.

    2. (See 4 other replies to this status update)

  4. I don't think The Last of Us part I is a good game; it is something else in terms of pure audio-visual experience though. The attention to detail is insane, especially in sound and animation.

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      IMO game isn't really geared towards that; it's a set of small to medium-sized arenas stringed by corridors, where you eliminate enemies quietly, one by one, until everybody's dead and you can loot the area. Maybe there's an NG+ or something like that, where you can ignore gathering resources, but not so much when it's your 1st play-through.

    2. (See 6 other replies to this status update)

  5. I don't think The Last of Us part I is a good game; it is something else in terms of pure audio-visual experience though. The attention to detail is insane, especially in sound and animation.

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      @STiFU For me that ride was quite there, in the beginning, but the more I progress, the more Joel talks like some passive-aggressive kid from high school. At the same time, he can casually mention that he "misses drinking coffee", after breaking dozens of necks, and leaving people dying in pools of their own blood just a few minutes prior. It's not like games didn't have LND problem before (e.g. Bioshock Infinite suffered from it a lot), but in that regard Joel sounds like a psychopath to me :D

    2. (See 6 other replies to this status update)

  6. Sorry for my absence. I am recovering from a recent Covid infection. Dr told me I can return to work ( wfh ) Sunday. Not sure about that timetable…

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      That sucks, been there earlier this year. Constant fatigue and other symptoms might last another few months, but it does get better, eventually. Long walks and exercises help a bit.

    2. (See 11 other replies to this status update)

  7. Perhaps an unpopular opinion: TDM team might benefit from someone with actual QA experience; someone with naturally and professionally developed curiosity, who is interested in how and why things work, how they break :D At least to me it's kind of mind-boggling how untested some rather important features are (first the absence alert feature for items, now the rope +body carry behavior).

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      Yup, that's why I was thinking of someone who isn't a developer, but still a part of the team? Hope that makes sense somehow. We (community members) are not that reliable, because our spare time is usually limited.

    2. (See 3 other replies to this status update)

  8. It's funny how perception changes over the years. I've been replaying Bioshock in its Remastered version, and I'm surprised how bad the level design actually is. It's just a series of abstract corridor mazes that you can't really map out in your head. There's nothing that would ground them in any kind of reality, fictional or otherwise, no sense of place people could live in. It's almost like Wolfenstein 3d with cool art deco assets.

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      Quote

      What kind of level design should new Bioshock franchise invent? Open, connected world?

      I don't think it has to invent anything, just use human architecture as a reference, and create places that look like they are lived-in. First Bioshiock was released early in X360 lifecycle, so that might explain abstract levels, but the technology is definitely there now :)

      I guess one of the explanations for large blocky layouts could also be that there had to be a sufficient space for Big Daddies to navigate and fight.

    2. (See 8 other replies to this status update)

  9. It's funny how perception changes over the years. I've been replaying Bioshock in its Remastered version, and I'm surprised how bad the level design actually is. It's just a series of abstract corridor mazes that you can't really map out in your head. There's nothing that would ground them in any kind of reality, fictional or otherwise, no sense of place people could live in. It's almost like Wolfenstein 3d with cool art deco assets.

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      @STiFU I guess analyzing level design is one thing, but we also got spoiled by better games later down the line. If I remember correctly, Bioshock 2 had similar problem; blocky map design with great setpieces that doesn't really stay in your memory.

      Bioshock Infinite had amazing story, for both Lutece twins and Elisabeth. Even more so, if you count the two-part DLC (which to me was much better than the base game). But level design-wise, I remember it as a collection of shooting galleries, museum tours, and sort of far-right Sunday fairs gone wrong, more than anything else. What stayed in my mind was the opening scene (the song, the christening), and the last scene, from both base game, and the painful sequence from DLC.

      @madtafferI guess it would be something that facilitates gameplay, basic movement, stealth, combat, or otherwise, and doesn't make you reach for the map every few minutes or seconds. Fallout 3 from Bioshoshock contemporaries, where I used the map only to fast travel. Dark Souls games, which are vast and sprawling, but don't have a map at all. In terms of more abstract spaces, the space station from Prey 2016, very clear and distinctive design.

    2. (See 8 other replies to this status update)

  10. Spiritfarer

    What a lovely game, perfect way to relax before sleep.

  11. Deathloop – what a mess of a game. I'd love to see a post-mortem on it some day. I hope Arkane is doing okay though.

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      Quote

      Peter, the game was definitely inferiour to Mooncrash as far as immersive-simyness and rogue-iness is concerned, but Mooncrash was definitely inferiour as far as multiplayerness is concerned. ;D

      I have no doubt about that! :D I wanted to try multiplayer on several occasions, but gave up after 5 minutes of waiting in the lobby each time. I was invaded several times, but Juliana is seriously under-powered by the fact that she doesn't have the reprise ability. Most people tried to snipe me from very far away, but once I pinpointed their location, it was more or less over for them. Also, once someone has connected, the game became very choppy on my end. Not sure whether it's it's my connection or poor netcode.

      But yeah, as you can see above, my gripes are exclusively single-player related. Guessing the only valid way to get rid of all targets was a major letdown for me since Arkane devs were always advocates of leaving room for player expression. More focus on the story would also be nice, since the endings don't give a sense of closure. That said, I liked the "friendly" banter between Colt and Juliana, I don't think they ever repeated themselves during my playthrough.

      I also think the game could be shorter, maybe with fewer targets and quests, and not marketed as full AAA title. For a stealth playthrough I needed over almost 30 hours, which is way too much for just 4 maps, IMO. Sometimes devs have weird expectations on the content vs. playtime ratio (I still think Darkest Dungeon is the weirdest example I've ever seen). In this case, to get some perspective, 30 hours is half Dark Souls, and this game has nowhere near that much to explore.

    2. (See 26 other replies to this status update)

  12. Deathloop – what a mess of a game. I'd love to see a post-mortem on it some day. I hope Arkane is doing okay though.

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      My perspective comes from having played Prey: Mooncrash, which I've heard was developed independently of Arkane Lyon's Deathloop. The two studio branches came up with sort of similar ideas separately, but given the chronology of releases, you could think that Deathloop was trying to build on the ideas set in Mooncrash, but failed to understand what actually made Mooncrash great. It's probably also a reason why Mooncrash players like me or Wellcrab don't find Deathloop brilliant.

      The critical reception is something that confused me, I must say. While IGN has been game journalism laughingstock for decades now, and for some reason they gave it a 10, but it also got Game Awards (Cringey Jeff's Oscars) for art direction.

      Still, I was interested enough to finish Deathloop, I don't consider it a time wasted, but I do find it inferior to Mooncrash. And since Mooncrash was a critically acclaimed Prey DLC almost noone played, I am naturally worried that Deathloop will be somewhere in that department.

    2. (See 26 other replies to this status update)

  13. Deathloop – what a mess of a game. I'd love to see a post-mortem on it some day. I hope Arkane is doing okay though.

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      No need to get so defensive about it STiFU. The metacritic or any other rating doesn't mean much – average out of multiple people's taste will be... well, average. Not something to boast about, really.

      Not to mention the whole "not your type of game" or "just enjoy it for what it is" kind of narrative, which is really a cheap move. I didn't have any expectations about the game, since I didn't know what Arkane was going for – I couldn't read much from the trailers, apart from copypasted Dishonored 2 assets and powers.

      And for the question on me being critical, I could respond with similar question: why do you/this community has to be "The Care Bears" about everything, all the time? Is it really so hard to grasp that you can love the subject you write about, AND be critical about it? Maybe because you like it so much, that you'd love to see it improve? Is it like with the Anita Sarkeesian videos, where she had to put a disclaimer before each show that criticizing the medium you love is a normal thing, to avoid the flak (which she received anyway)? Didn't you ever see an example from other media or areas of the culture where it happens repeatedly and it is considered normal?

    2. (See 26 other replies to this status update)

  14. Deathloop – what a mess of a game. I'd love to see a post-mortem on it some day. I hope Arkane is doing okay though.

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      As for im-sim stuff, it's hard for me to say how much of it is still here. You can still play stealthily, or go guns blazing, or switch between the two on the fly, and the game will react accordingly. Devs somehow managed to gate AIs in their sections of the map better, so I never had a situation where I'd alert all AIs and make them chase me across the map. Perhaps it's kinda tied to the lore, as these guys are constantly high and drunk, in this groundhog day kind of party, so they're not super bright.

      The complexity you mentioned is more due to a kind of "choose your own adventure" type of things. You have 4 maps and 4 times of day, but obviously it doesn't make it 16 maps in terms of variety. Guard placement changes, some locations open, others close, guard and turret placement is slightly different, etc. And you can do thing X in the morning, so it causes Y appear later in the day elsewhere, or in another map. It does get old though, because you need to repeat the loop so many times to get things done, or get pieces of information that will help you later on.

      Also, I've never seen a game that would recycle assets from other games so much. Player character movement model, footstep sounds, and abilities are taken straight from Dishonored 2. Most of the environment assets are from Dishonored 2, perhaps with some furniture and smaller props from Prey 2017. I get it, covid, cut funds, etc., but it's super obvious. You'd hope that at least devs would have more time to spend on game or level design, or story.

      Well, I'm not really sure about that. The map design is solid, but most intriguing parts of the story are scattered in readables. Nothing is solved, not even partially, during the final section. It felt really empty and unrewarding to me.

      The whole progression is kind of like in RPGs, where you have a main quest and some subquests which all have their stages. Here you have things happening in a few places at once, so you skip time and jump from map to map to get to a certain stage of a quest and finish it, so you get the information needed to advance your main quest.

      But again, the question of content variety vs. game length is a big problem. The way all these quests are padded out between maps and times of day almost feels desperate. E.g. your escape from this island is not only gated off by the death of 7 villains, but also by like 4 passwords you have to find across the island. To get 2 certain villains to meet in one place you have to hunt for 4 passwords in a different map to open it. Some quests have the longest time windows between the stages, so one part of the clue is accessible in the morning, the other one at midnight, etc.

      IMO it's not fun to work your way through 4 maps only, so many times, to finish the game. The ideas and the whole premise are interesting, but the scope should be more like Prey: Mooncrash, or a smaller game in general. And I suspect Arkane devs had somethng like that in mind originally. But perhaps at some point business stepped in and said something like "Nah, we need a full-blown AAA title from that. Chop, chop, boys, you only have 3 months left." So they increased the number of villains from 4 to 8, doubled the number of keys required for keyhunts, etc., etc.

    2. (See 26 other replies to this status update)

  15. Be honest: Who of you have actually finished Cuphead? This game is freaking tough! It might even be harder than Sekiro. Dark Souls is a joke in comparison to Cuphead! :-D 

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      I stopped playing games like these, because if my wrists and tendons are going to hurt, I'd rather use them for developing more useful skill ;)

    2. (See 7 other replies to this status update)

  16. Testing status updates.

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      Oh, and apparently you can like status updates and comments too. Cool.

    2. (See 3 other replies to this status update)

  17. I succesfully downloaded our wiki for offline use. 1,17 gb in 4 hours. more info see topic TDM collection dvd

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      You could do the same with ModWiki, which has more technical information on idtech4.

    2. (See 1 other reply to this status update)

  18. The Playing Field is going to be streaming himself developing a map for the Dark Mod every Sunday:

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      He is, he had a WIP thread for a map that wasn't very good, and IIRC he somehow got a job in game industry shortly afterward.

    2. (See 10 other replies to this status update)

  19. Damn, Sekiro is way too addicting! :D Hopefully, I'll be done with it by the end of the week! ^^

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      The price is too steep for me atm, but I'd love to try it, especially as a long-time Souls player. It would be interesting to see how they did a game that requires you to completely forgot what you've learnt in DS.

    2. (See 14 other replies to this status update)

  20. Getting back to my lighthouse mission. Wish me luck.

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      Simple patrols and loot objectives will be fine :)

    2. (See 7 other replies to this status update)

  21. Sad day for content creators and internet users as the EU parlament just passed the higly controversal copy right reform :/ https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2019/03/eus-parliament-signs-disastrous-internet-law-what-happens-next

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      It's not that much about the pirates though. On YT, people abuse copyright system to stifle critique and videos they don't like, since the system is automated, and they don't even have to have a valid reason for copyright strike (or be a certain legal entity). People who got a copyright strike need to explain themselves first, not the one who's making a claim.

    2. (See 16 other replies to this status update)

  22. Sad day for content creators and internet users as the EU parlament just passed the higly controversal copy right reform :/ https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2019/03/eus-parliament-signs-disastrous-internet-law-what-happens-next

    1. peter_spy

      peter_spy

      This ensures poor systems like YT copyright strikes will be exploited even further, and used to stifle smaller entities and individuals even harder.

    2. (See 16 other replies to this status update)

  23. I finally managed to put my foot in the door and switch careers. That means no more pressure of getting into game industry and steady work on models and maps for TDM! :)

  24. I finally managed to put my foot in the door and switch careers. That means no more pressure of getting into game industry and steady work on models and maps for TDM! :)

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