Moonbo

Yeah, some things I would say from my experience on my map is: 1) never use the subtract tool - I had one instance where I used it and it created brushes that caused internal leaks when I tried setting up visportals. 2) If you run into a situation where you have an internal leak (i.e. a leak where the map is compiling but you can't create a working visportal), do your best to narrow down where the hole is by building BSP walls around the suspected spot until your visportal works, and then start peeling back the walls until you find your trouble spot. 3) Like Sotha said, do your very, very best to not visportal angled geometry, I did it in my map and while it was too late for me to change that, it caused a whole mess of problems before I got everything solved.

Thanks Grayman, I'm trying to steer away from scripts, but the workaround I mentioned in my first post (using stim/response to teleport the player onto a trigger which then uses a func_teleport to face the player in the right direction), while a little Rube Goldberg-y, did the trick :-). I actually have another question for you though. I'm using the Builder Ghost that you made for WS1 and I notice that you didn't actually make a new skin but rather just modified some parameters in a .mtr file. I was wondering, is there a way to lower the transparency of the ghost, and also potentially to give the ghost a slight blue color? Thanks :-).

Okay, so here's the issue: it appears that the func_teleport teleports whatever it is that sends the trigger signal. So in my test, I set up a switch that targeted the func_teleport and when I flipped the switch, the switch teleported instead of me. I tried using a trigger relay in between and it was still the switch that teleported. In my particular case I'm using a conversation to trigger a sequence of events, including teleporting the player. When I use a conversation to trigger the func_teleport nothing is happening. I'm pretty sure now that what's going on is that either the conversation entity or the actor in the convo that's triggering the teleport is being teleported instead of me...is there any way to force the func_teleport to target the player instead of the triggering entity? Or alteratively, is there a way to add the player as an actor in a conversation (I tried with player1 but it didn't seem to work). If nothing else works, what I'll do is set up a trigger_once in the exact spot the player will teleport to using the S/R system. That trigger_once will target a func_teleport which will have the angle set and will just move the player's head in the correct direction.

For me, when I rotate things I go to the "Modify" menu and pick the option "Rotate and Scale". This lets you have much more control over the rotation as you can pick which axis to move and by how many degrees. Grayman: let me check that out again and see if I was just doing something wrong.

Hrm, I'm actually using the stim/response system to teleport the player. I tried using the func_teleporter but it didn't work when triggered.

Is there a way (outside of using a script) to force the player to look at a specific entity in a specific direction? I'm teleporting the player using the S/R system and want to make sure he's looking in the right place after the teleport.

Well, with my focus on getting my novella out, there wasn't too much mapping this week. Don't know why but I'm really not happy w/ the area in the last pic...any thoughts on how to spruce it up?

Thanks guys, I flipped him your advice and he changed the font type/size on the authors name. I updated the first post with a link to the now-published ebook. Thanks again for the feedback (and if you see anything weird on the Amazon page, please let me know as this is the first time for me doing this)!

Haha, wow that's huge! Is the whole level to that scale? Since you've already put so much work into it, maybe just work the size into the plot and release it as part of the unusual gameplay contest :-P.

Yeah, I have to confess to building my map section by section, if only because it's easier to know if you're making a mistake. It does make for more linear-ish levels though.

Cool, thanks guys, I'll send him your comments.

So, as some of you know I'm working on a Dark Mod FM that I'll hopefully release in a month or so. The reason I got interested in making a FM is because I've been working on a novella heavily inspired by the Thief universe for the last year or so and ended up playing a lot of Thief 2 FMs while writing it. As I finished writing the novella, I found myself with some free time, and Dark Radiant seemed a lot easier than Dromed :-). I'm just about ready to publish the novella on Amazon now (maybe as soon as tomorrow) and wanted some feedback for my cover. I'm very blessed to have a friend who is a professional concept artist but he's never played Thief before. I'm pretty happy with what he came up with, but since you are all Thief fans I wanted to know what you thought of the final product and if it was worth making any changes before I publish: So, what do you think? You can find more of the artist's work at this link if you're interested too: http://jonone.cghub.com. Edit: so he made the name font monotype and a little bit larger. Thanks for the feedback, book is up now: http://www.amazon.com/Shadowcursed-ebook/dp/B00BYEW02M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363951832&sr=8-1&keywords=shadowcursed .

There are are a few more chandeliers that i know of - several of them aren't entities so you'd have to look in the models section, but there's at least one three-candled chandelier that is an entity. Try looking in the "extinguishable" section of the light entities.

Is it possible to swap out animation sets between AI's? So for instance, is it possible to have a guard use the zombie or werewolf animations?

Hey Capela, Like Badcog said, you can flip through light textures like you would any other texture by putting the "light_texture" spawnarg on a light. You don't need to dmap after switching light textures so it's pretty easy to flip through a couple and see if they work. I'm pretty sure you'll see some that match up with the hanging lights you have as well as the light you have stuck into the wall - if you need me to, I'll see if I can track down their exact names, but it should be easy to spot them. Mess around with light placement and you can get some pretty neat effects.

@ Flanders, thanks for the great advice, I'll do both of those things. @ Sotha, thanks :-). About the ceiling texture, I kind of put myself in a bind where that texture doesn't really seems to fit if you tile it, but I'm hoping it doesn't look *too* stretched in game...I guess we'll see what the beta testers say. @Capella, looks good! Did I ever mention that I got inspired for how part of the church in my map looks like based on your screens? Anyways, you should try using light textures on your lights, hanging ones like that are ideal place for them.

Some more pics on the area I worked on this week, would love to get thoughts on how to get more color variety in the 3rd and last images:

Thanks Grayman, that did the trick.

Thanks Grayman, using tdm_elevator_loop works. Ideally, the file I'd like to use is machine_gears01_loop, but that stops playing after one loop, is there something that needs to be changed in the sound shader to make it loop properly in snd_move?

Thanks guys, I ended up using plain metal bars, but the moving glass patch trick sound like it'd look pretty neat so I'l probably use it a bit later in the level. Here's a simple question: I've got a sliding door that I'm using as an elevator. It looks like from documentation that if I want a sound to be playing while the door is translating up and down I should use the snd_move spawnarg. But when I use this, the sound doesn't loop, it just plays once and then stops...is there another spawnarg I should be using?

Hm, how about a wimpy guy (kind of like the servant from Thief 1).

How about one specifically for mages or inventors?

Thanks Obsttorte, I got it to work. I made the walls into a single func_static (textured w/ the collission texture) and teleported it in upon trigger. Now I just need to make the "visible" part of it. Ideally I'd love for it to be a kind of magical force-field but I don't know of any texture or emitter that would be appropriate...any suggestions would be appreciated :-). Otherwise, I'll just have to make them boring metal bars or something.

Thanks Fidcal, I couldn't get it to work, so I'll just have to not put anything interesting next to those banners and hope the player doesn't notice the clipping issue :-(. In a totally different vein, I'm trying to set up a "trap" for the player. Where they walk into a room and are surrounded by four walls (either metal bars that descend from the ceiling, or via a magic forcefield of some sort). Before I waste a ton of time setting that up, are there any examples of something like that in any released FMs, or is there a pretty straightforward way to do that? I'm thinking the best way would be to teleport in four func_static walls colored with player clip to be the actual walls (or somehow make them solid, but I don't know how to do that) but don't know if that makes any sense.

I think I would be able to submit my map to the contest for sure if it's extended to August (hopefully earlier than that though).