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RPGista

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Everything posted by RPGista

  1. Welcome aboard - but not nearly large enough! Hopefully people will keep coming, and I suspect the fun part will start soon, when people get a bit more advanced on the geometry part and come back here to discuss how to add some interesting stuff to the missions.
  2. rebb - Thanks, that actually clears up things a lot for me; I was under the impression the patches needed to be "closed" to be casting healthy shadows (with the rudimentary tests I did), but now I see that the important thing is to have the necessary back faces turned to the light source - I tested a floating patch wall I had and the light behind it was casting a perfect shadow over the environment. That's going to save me a lot of work actually, and uneeded patches (no more patch boxes, only needed faces)! Baddcog - I'm still studying your tutorial, now Im going to read you guys wiki page, but I just wanted to say that this is looking tremendous and is a god send for me, in fact it's almost too perfect - the original idea was to have the chapel tower on the skyline to guide the player there, but soon I decided it would simply be impossible, with the whole visportaling thing, and remade the middle of the whole map to hide the tower from any angle, untill you can actually reach it. Seeing now that you explain exactly how to pull it of, it REALLY makes me want to go back to the drawing board and see if I can still get that original effect I wanted haha. Thanks a lot (and nbohr1more too)!
  3. I seriously can't understand what's the beef against this or any other contest - since when are competitions supposed to be the "official" mapmaking of any mod? The way I see it, they are mainly ways of exciting and inspiring people to participate and create something based on interesting rules/themes, that they otherwise wouldnt have thought of, or maybe give people with creativity blocks something to easily aim at, etc. This competition is for first time mappers, but it obviously won't keep anyone else, not participating on it, from working on their own maps regardless, so I dont see what the problem could be... The Mod just had two major updates, people are translating it to other languages to bring it to a broader public, many brilliant missions available, to imply it is dying is absurd, if anything, it seems to be getting ever closer to reaching its full potential. @ brethren - pretty cool man, the more the better!
  4. Baddcog, this is too awesome, thanks a lot for the effort, sure you can try to "reverse engineer" complex maps and try to understand how it all works, but that simple map you provided already cleared a lot of things for me (quite a nice bunch tricks actually), and will help me for sure on this section of the map I have in mind. This topic is proving to be quite useful, some good tips and knowledge... I'll wait patiently for this city street tut, it sounds like exactly what I needed!
  5. Yep, I'm yet to run tests on visportaling myself, so any more info woulndt hurt. I have noticed horizontal portals too, I was wondering how do they work exactly. Could I justt create a visportal plane covering a large area with buildings, and it would effectively hide any objects completely above it (Im guessing the brushwork getting cut wouldnt be affected)? So if someone leaves the door open to a large city area, if you cant actually make visual contact with the horizontal visportal, the top part of the buildings (balconies, details, etc) wouldnt be rendered, right? I was thinking of adding some good amount of detail on some of my buildings, visportaling even by "levels" would be important to keep the map fluid, Im guessing (since Im building it all for the first time, I'll have to try and see how much I can actually get away with as I go).
  6. Thanks for heads up, this will keep me busy for a while, running a couple of map tests. With object awereness and a few triggered routes, this is about as far as I will go in terms of custom complexity on the majority of the map, besides the geometry itself. Then there'll be the last scene, but I'll first get the map complete and working before worrying about that (Springheel has given me a huge help on the first step already). Ungoliant and brethren, come on board already!
  7. I would definetly like to add suspicious objects and doors, is there documentation on them already that could look into?
  8. Severance is a fantastic game, and it's pretty nice to see people still interested and working on this. Wish you guys all the luck. There are a bunch of Doom3 fantasy mods around (specially the Hexen one), dont forget to look for possible contributors over there, it would be really awesome seeing BoD ported to Idtech4...
  9. Congratulation guys, a lot of excellent work... I think Mortem introduced something really unique to TDM here, the win is well deserved!
  10. On the subject of shadows, is there any reason a bunch of (irregularly shaped) brushes won't cast shadows? I was having some problems with a model, made a simpler version of it with brushes, put them all into a func_static, but now they wont cast shadows. I havent changed any parameters of course. And I made sure they are attached to the grid, etc.
  11. If you create patch surfaces around the map, they will not cast shadows correctly over the rest of the environment, though you can see clearly that they will behave normally when its about casting shadows over it's own surfaces. Just not when casting shadows as a true solid surface over whatever is behind them. If I were to thicken these same patches, they are supposed to form an enclosed shape and thus would behave as a normal physical model inside the map. The problem is that it isn't always so - I have created a large patch box that is supposed to cast shadow over another box next to it, and I'm getting glitches on that cast shadow. I thought that light was leaking inside somewhere and thus ruining the whole shadow volume, but I remade the thing and still it isnt behaving correctly. Let me try a couple more tests... EDIT: I was able to correct the problem, now to do it again step by step to see where I went wrong. This is for my opening scene by the way, so I mean to get it right.
  12. At Sotha: Some pretty brilliant ideas over there, that's going to be a perfect reference for this contest! A shame I already had my mission all plotted out, or I would definetly pick up some of those suggestions. I specially liked the hideout idea, and I generally like assassination ones, so I wont complain if someone goes for that. I also agree anyone willing to join anytime is welcomed, as long as they feel they can finish it inside the time frame. Just as a matter of interest, you might want to know that my mission is roughly about finding and breaking into a chapel, though the interesting part is (hopefully) going to be what happens in there (I also plan on making the path worthwhile).
  13. Damn, does anyone knows whats the deal with patches and projected shadows? It seems patch surfaces can catch lights easily enough on their faces, but they can't project shadows themselves, effectively messing up random ammounts of shadow area behind them. I observed that water tight patch volumes will cast shadows as if a normal brush, but appearently not even that is certain as I'm still getting messed up shadows. Is it safe to say that "open" groups of patches will not cast shadows correctly, EVEN when they form a closed volume, when associated with brushes (imagine for example, a sandbox (patches) with brush walls)? PS: By cast shadows correctly I mean as an object casting shadow over the environment, not just receiving light/shadow from other objects, as a terrain patch, which it does correctly.
  14. Another good resource for people looking into patches and their general understanding: http://www.wemakemaps.com/patchmesh.htm A few differences here and there with Dark Radiant, but the general mechanics apply and there's good info in there.
  15. Pretty cool Sixx and Xarg! Yes, I would say I'm in the same situation as Xarg, a few "rooms" that are mostly extras, to add detail to the mission, and then around 8-10 that are in fact the important ones.
  16. Hmmm... Sorry guys, but I did some volume tests for my mission (basicly putting together big blocks to simulate the whole thing) and it is about a 4000 x 4000 area, so I'm afraid I wouldnt be included in that limit... The architecture obvisouly doesnt cover that entire area, the map is basicly in L shape, a long walk before you reach your objective (a bit like Saint Lucia)... Could we make the limit just a suggestion?
  17. I know that Thor is/was messing around and designing his first mission too. This would be a good time for any new mapper out there considering or already experimenting with your first mission to "come out of the closet", I think this would be fun, and having a formal place to come and share experiences/doubts could be a good way to work on this, instead of alone. Like I said before, a time budget is often what you need to produce things without unneeded sidetracking, and we have all seen here in the forums that TDM competitions are friendly and fun gatherings where everyone help and motivate each other, so thats a plus as well. I have my mission all drawn by hand, including main buildings, plans, etc. I strongly suggest anyone to do this, as I found it a great way to advance and organize your efforts. Drawing things by hand is easy and a great guide to constructing it in the editor. I for one have always been unable to create stuff directly in the computer.
  18. I would be certainly willing if there are more interested people! A friendly competition would be a good way for guys like me, creating their first missions, to share information and organize efforts.
  19. I have started mapping more seriously a bunch of weeks ago, I'm still in the beginning of course (around 5%?), taking it slow, but if no one would mind, I would like to be a part of such a competition if/when it arises, I have observed many times that i usually produce more if I have a dead line to guide my progress, otherwise you can get sidetracked with details and take longer than needed. My mission is not big, but a bit ambitious in the sense that there are a few crucial moments that I have no clue how to pull it off, and am counting on the future help from the community when the time comes (wont be bothering people too much untill then).
  20. I too find myself thinking about ways of making the Thief more lethal from time to time. Branding of fallen or found weapons (with different stats than the default short sword), or throwing of objects that do damage (like rocks to KO guards, or daggers to injure them). But I think the thing here is not to make the character another Assassin's Creed, with his arrows and short sword alone he's pretty lethal right now and fights are supposed to be something to avoid in this game (they do ruin your stealth stats, if anything). The stabbing you mentioned can actually be done with the sword and some sneaking - it will kill most of the time, and there's the added feature of being able to aim the direction of the blow according to openings on the guard's armor, which I find to be really cool (you can thrust or hack an unprotected guy, or charge a lateral swing to hit the neck of someone using plates and a helm). Its cool to try to assassinate them and if you miss and hit the shoulder or something, fight it out. The animations have to be like that (only upper torso movements), because the legs are different entities and need to be free so the guards can move them independently. There were requests of animated attack moves before (including by me hehe, things like stepping up and thrust, or powerful leaping overhead blow), not necessarily for aesthetic reasons but mostly for creating a more varied experience, giving the player a chance to strafe and counter an unablanced attacker, for example. But those would have to be agreed upon, balanced inside the existing system, and animated. As for the overhead animation issue, it might have been my impression only. It is certainly different from the original, but I wouldnt actually say misleading, maybe I was just too used to the previous one and am getting fooled by the differences.
  21. Just remembered this while writting another post: + I have observed that AI sometimes naively react to companions getting killed in front of them - basicly they seem to disregard the act of the murder per se and react as if they had just discovered a body - kneeling down and investigating. This is perfect behaviour for when the murder happens out of their sights, but I would suggest a much more urgent reaction to witnessing murder (even though the source (player) is unknown (when killing by arrows is a clear example)) - full alert with possible tendency to fall back and call for support/raise the alarm might be more appropriate.
  22. I havent yet explored as much as I wanted since the latest version came out, I'll just note a few things that stuck with me since the new moddifications (hopefully including good work done on the previous and current AI version): - The enemies seem to be more thorough when alerted and looking for clues of suspicious noises - when I threw a bottle down the hall so I could distract two thugs playing cards (wanted to loot their bet money), they were quite persistent, opening doors, really investigating, just what you would expect in that situation, throwing another object to attract them back (so I could leave through the same hall), and this time their patience was gone and they came fully alert; in another occasion, I threw a bottle again to distract a thug, in one try he was mildly suspecious, curious enough to go out of the room he was in but not really alerted, that gave me time to go past him no problmes; in another try however I threw it too hard and the bottle was hitting all over the place and so the thug came out really stratled, sword in hand. I kept observing him, he eventually calmed down but kept looking, then he found the bottle (evidence) and took his sowrd out again, opening the door to the patio, where after a while he found a body I left there - this was unexpected as I knew no one else had a route that led to this patio, but the investigating AI wondered and found another evidence - to make it short, he immediatly came running past me, alerting everyone upstairs. I thought that insistance and his reaction to be spot on. Overall, their hearing seem more challenging/sensitive, I used to get away with a lot of walking around right next to AI and now they all seem better at hearing me, making the stalking key more useful. Their sight seem to have improved too, specially at noticing menacing items like the arrows - in fact, their alert level seems higher when hearing or seeing an arrow, they become quite agressive, as you would expect. I was also spotted in an area in Score to Settle that I looted quite confortably in my first run, they saw me from a good distance this time, not enough for a full alert, but enough to come investigate, which was cool (but it could also be that I got unlucky). The combat animations are great and there's an added difficulty here as the right and overhead swing look more similar now, so you gotta read those movements more carefully. I still found an instance where a suspicious AI was walking around in a "weapon drawn" stance, but his sword was still on his belt. It hasnt happened in combat yet though, so thats good. Oh, and I'm really liking the fact that you can hardly get away with all the commotion of fighting, as it seems a lot more likely somone will spot/hear it and come back with reinforcements! Im pretty sure I have seen at least two times some AI give up the search and go running after help, which is just what you would expect, first thing one would do if your in your hide out and people start dropping dead, would be to go look for help, the more consequences to your actions, the more challenge! All in all it's hard to tell without a lot more testing (a detailed list of changes would be good too hehe), and I wasnt THAT familiar with the previous AI to begin with, but overall I'm quite happy with what I'm experiencing so far - to top it off, the changes seem to be all for the positive, without any step back as far as I could see, that's pretty good by itself.
  23. The same happened to the portuguese translation, Im afraid... The script thing I mean - there are quite a few instances of missing translated text, a couple of mistakes and display glitches. Many pieces of text are too long and overlap each other or their respective parameters (in the options menu for example), but I expected that as there was no way I could tell it before testing the whole thing in game (made a few notes as to how to really cut them and simplify); to "Quit" the game is translated as "Desistir" for some reason (To give up), I'm pretty sure I had it as "Sair" (to go away/out). Quite a few of the automatic messages like Loading X%, Mission Loaded Please Wait..., the "flavour messages" and tips in the loading screen, are all still in english even though they have translations (everything is translated, apart from a few very specific in-game technical messages); and accents and special letters like "á" or "ç" are not rendered in game (they show as squares, in the HUD). We are almost there, though! It was pretty cool seeing the whole thing in my language.
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