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Sotha

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Everything posted by Sotha

  1. Thanks for the feedback! I would be really pleased if you found this useful. In my tests, with the test map, I could see clearly stuff in darkness within 200 units of so (the lamp radius is 400 units.) Thus, I believe it is a monitor brightness thing, and you would probably get a better experience with slightly increased gamma levels, or touching up the darkvision lamp light level a bit in the .map file. Now that I think about it, the Nightvision should be re-calibrated in the TDM gamma-room so that people have matching experience. Monitor brightnesses will vary.
  2. The attached player lamp is low in light intensity that it has no effect on LG, but it is bright enough to light the surroundings visibly.
  3. Implementing Nightvision in your FM is ultra easy. You need: 1) the script given here: void update_player_nightvision() { vector adjusted_origin; adjusted_origin=$player1.getOrigin() + '0 0 64'; //must adjust origin a bit higher so that the light is in the players head. $darkvision.setOrigin(adjusted_origin); } 2) a trigger_timer (start_on 1 ; wait 0.01) 3) a atdm:target_callscriptfunction (call update_player_nightvision) 4) have the trigger_timer to target the atdm:target_callscriptfunction 5) a light called "darkvision" (I used for Coersion version: light_radius 400 400 400 ; noshadows 1 ; texture lights/biground1 ; _color 0.024 0.024 0.059)
  4. Hi! A general issue with mappers is how to use lights. If too strong ambient_world is used, everything is looks washed out and there is little contrast between shadow and lights. On the other hand, if too low ambient_world is used, the light-shadow contrast looks gorgeous, but player has difficulty of seeing the map geometry. Here is an experimental alternative to ambient_world, which hopefully helps mappers to bridge this gap. It works like this: 1) ambient_world is completely removed (it could stay, too, just give it a really low value) 2) ambient light source, a sort of nightvision, is attached to the player, and this light follows the player around The result is that distant shadows look really dark, and nearby shadows are illuminated as the player approaches them, so that the player can see what is in there. Now the AI could hide from the player in distant shadows, too! I made a version or the Coercion mission with this alternative lighting method. Ambient_world method: Nightvision: Ambient_world: Nightvision: I know, it is difficult to see from the screenshots, but try it ingame yourself. Download link for Coercion Nightvision version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwR0ORZU5sraMXlMMDA2MHVFRFk/view?usp=sharing Enjoy! What do you think? Which one is better?
  5. Yay! Not so thick headed after all. This works: $ai.getAttackFlag(COMBAT_MELEE); If the AI has a melee weapon in hand, it returns 1. If no melee weapon, it returns 0. Nice! Thanks for pointing me towards the right direction!
  6. Thanks! I had a look, but it is not clear to me how I inquire this m_weapondrawn via a simple script? Like: $ai.someFunctionThatReturnsOneOrZeroWhetherAiWeaponInHand(); Or do we have a way to ask what the AI has in attachment position "hand_r" at the moment? I searched and found talk about a "GetAttachmentByPosition," which ended in comments that it should work now, but found no reference about it in tdm_events.script so I am not sure how to use it. http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12528-ai-and-lights/?p=257006 Thanks and sorry if I am a bit thick headed. It's been awhile...
  7. I'm thinking of making an AI to have a drink, which the player could poison. This is easy with custom anim and conversation system. The problem is that if the player alerts the AI and he has sword in hand, the drinking will look bad if the AI's hand is already occupied. So, methinks the simplest way to do it would be to run a script when the AI is about to drink: 1) If WEAPON IN HAND, then play sheathe animation to get rid of the weapon. 2) Play anim get drink. Is it possible to a script to inquiry whether the AI has sword in hand or not? Thanks!
  8. Sotha

    Happy Christmas

    Jolly Christmas, people! Let's hope the next year goes better than this one...
  9. About takedowns: it would need some research and development to find out how they could be done in terms of our old-skool skill-based gameplay, rather than boring modern "when near enemy, press TAKEDOWN button to win" -approach. Certainly not something to the core mod, but a fun bonus in a single FM.
  10. I don't think it is just an american feature that in order to unify people, a common enemy is needed. It is common for humanity as a whole. I think there are three requirements for unification: In order to get the whole nation unified behind a leader, you need to have something that is in the common interests of everyone: a big, concrete, simple to understand (more on that below), threat. If you do not have that, everyone are just bickering about their own petty interests, not the greater good. Because appealing to reason is apparently futile when dealing with crowds of people, one must appeal to the feelings. Thus, it is difficult to unify people using difficult arguments about economy, science and numbers. A horrible baby-eating, blood drinking, enemy of the nation is a simple, yet effective method, and has been used a lot in the past, and also currently. (Nazi anti-jew propaganda before WWII, modern day populistic xenophobia in Europe, modern day NATO from the point of view of Russia's media.) The third requirement is exceptional charisma of the leader, but I don't know much about that.
  11. Careful... I think they may disqualify mods that get bogus votes.
  12. @Fieldmedic, Identifying the problem is the first step in solving the problem. But it is only a problem if you think it is a problem. It is good that we have mappers with different philosophies. I try to work in the mode of efficiency. !!! How can I get maximum playability with minimum amount of work? !!! I plan. I experiment with layouts with minimal work (throwing modules around) before committing to build it further (add sealing geometry.) If something is built, it stays. Minor revisions are possible but I avoid rebuilding like the plague, it is very inefficient: work with no benefit. I try to think a purpose for each location: if the location has no purpose, it will not be built. After building the purposeful locations, I add extra connections if possible to break linearity (like the ventilation shafts in Ulysses2.) The mapping process is fun in itself, but most rewarding is getting stuff done.
  13. Nice to see some good people working on some good-looking FMs! Keep up the good work! I'll give an update on my WIP: Geometry and detailing is mostly done. It is an old map, built first with the old technique and then later continued with modular technique. I have devised the plot (an Ulysses assassination job) and started putting AI and patrols in, but was distracted by making some custom animation, because it was a lot of fun. RL has been very busy recently, so I have had very little time to work on it. Initially I thought of getting it released around new year, but at this pace it seems unlikely. Probably before the summer, then?
  14. If the candle uses func_emitter, the particle moves with the object. If the candle used func_smoke, the particle would move on its own and not follow the object. Perhaps you could change it by making a custom candle flame that emits func_smoke instead of func_emitter. func_emitter is used probably because it is more efficient than func_smoke.
  15. I usually work like this: 1) make path_corner and path_wait. Put them next to each other. 2) make path_corner target path_wait 3) select both path_corner and path_wait 4) clone them around and place them where the AI should patrol. Rotate so that the path_wait angle points where you want the AI to look towards 5) fly through the AI patrol path from node to node and always make the previous path_wait of the previous node to the path_corner of the next node. You can do it like this: select previous node's path_wait. Fly to next node path_corner. Select it. Press ctrl+K. Deselect. Choose this node's path_wait and fly to the next node's path_corner & repeat. 6) done! Quick and easy. Bonus1) you could make path_corner->path_anim->path_wait nodes to include some RITs or animations. Bonus2) you could put each patrol route into own layer for clarity.
  16. It is a good point that recent revelations are destroying the people's trust towards the goverment... but it should INCREASE the critical thinking among the people. But looks like people are trusting more even the most outrageous claims as long as it feeds some kind of wild conspiracy theory. It makes no sense to me. Also, marriage/being siblings does not automatically prove that there is a conspiracy going on. People in high places usually hang out with other people in high places and people usually marry people who they happen to hang around with. Imagine a small country like Finland: all the people who are going to be corporate elite graduate from only a few different universities. Generations of future company board members are bound to know each other already from their studying years. It is no surprise the economic elite (or the elite in general) in our country is well connected. Same for the US, right? If you want neutral sources, occasionally check out what the foreign media is broadcasting about you. That is what the Russian minorities in countries neighbouring Russia do when they want to piece together what is really happening, because media is strictly under goverment control in Russia.
  17. @nbohr, I wasn't suggesting the Americans need to prohibit people of low education from voting. I was thinking that maybe the americans need to completely rebuild their education system. Free and high quality science-based education for everybody. Sure, it costs money and would take a generation or two to reap the benefits, but in the end everybody (even other countries!) would win. But that is way too socialist for them, I guess. Or maybe it just won't work for big countries. @Destined, sure. Low education means easier manipulation, but it also means living on a powder keg... @Fake news: High ranking people spread idiot level lies, which people believe without second thought. This suggests that the high ranking people may be incapable of high level consipracies. Thus, is it even worth speculate on high level conspiracies? They do not need to feed complex lies to the people when elementary lies are perfectly enough and sufficient. I mean, I read a journalist report by a finnish reporter who interviewed people in a small american town. The interviewed person casually said, without blink of an eye, that she cannot vote for Clinton because "she has murdered 3 people." The citizen wasn't thinking why Clinton isn't in prison (let alone be allowed to run for president) if she is a murderer? Or think about whether the justice system is corrupted and broken if murderers are not put in prison? She thought everything else except the most likely scenario: that the murder news were fake. It confuses me. In the perfect world: People and news agencies have CREDIBILITY (IMPACT FACTOR for scientific publications). If they publish reliable, confirmed information, their CREDIBILITY goes up a little. If they publish shit, their CREDIBILITY goes down a lot. When CREDIBILITY is low enough, nobody cares anymore what they publish or say. People with low CREDIBILITY do not get voted in a democratic system. Somehow, nowadays, there seems to be no CREDIBILITY loss for publishing shit. Because technology advanced too quickly and people do not have the (critical) media reading skills required for the flood of conflicting information?
  18. Gotta agree with that. That is happening also in Europe. The western civilization is doomed if we go there. Anyone can say anything, science and measurements do not matter. Those who scream the loudest are right. But all large civilizations have eventually crumbled to make room to something new. Perhaps it is this is the beginning of the end of the dominance of the western civilization? I wonder what will come next? I suppose dictatorships or kleptocracies will beat idiocracies any day and in any way. EDIT: now that I think about it, I guess the only way to avoid democracy turning to idiocracy is to make sure the people is EDUCATED as well as possible.
  19. I just read a newpaper item about a pizza restaurant that was attacked by a person who believed false news about Clinton-pedophile ring working in the basement and that future US president's security advisor had to resign because of it. I mean c'mon. This is starting to look like a surreal tragi-comedy. But I do not know whether to cry or laugh. World politics go slapstick? Western civilization flushes itself down the toilet while you hear the studio audience applaud?
  20. Thanks for the reminder! It is done.
  21. What if you make a .pk4. Install it normally. Then when the .pk4 is installed, unpack the .pk4 file into the mission folder and remove the .pk4 file. End result should be fm folder with all the mission files, and no .pk4. Now if you edit any of the files, effects should be immediately visible just by relaunching TDM and the mission.
  22. Methinks all you gotta do is to make a custom soundshader that replaces soundshader called tdm_objectives { description "Made by drewb50" volume 5 looping sound/ambient/ambience/city_streets02_loop.ogg } with your own .ogg. That ought to do it.
  23. A great service to the mod once more, sir! Hopefully the mappers will fully embrace these and the graphical level of mission output will go up one more level. Much appreciated! Thank you!
  24. It is possible and Obstorte worked on it. IIRC, the end result has been that it has not been used much. Stealth game player base are apparently really dependent on the ability to save when they want. Why would a mapper make an ironman mission when some players outright refuse to play it if saves are disabled? Poll and discussion here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/16487-poll-possibility-for-mappers-to-create-missions-where-you-cannot-save-manually-but-use-checkpoints-or-other-systems-instead/?do=findComment&comment=352606 You could always unbind the quick save and load buttons and simply choose not to save... Why is it necessary to have a system to enforce your abstinence from saving? I know the thrill of mortality disabling saves generate, but I think you can get it simply by choosing not to save. Or perhaps a separate ironman-mod: a .pk4 package you install into your tdm folder, which removes saving completely by unbinding quicksave buttons and overriding game save GUI?
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