Sotha

Well, actually..... But let's see..

Okay I still do not know how to unlock doors remotely, but it does not matter since the AI door opening problem can be simply solved by adding spawnarg ai_should_not_handle 1 to the door. Phew...

Got some nice suggestions from the beta testers. Got a nice idea for an interesting addition, which I am implementing. I'm running into trouble here with a really simple/stupid problem: *I want to have a door which is locked. And later I want to open the door remotely. *If I simply target the locked door it won't open, because it has the spawnarg "locked 1" *There is no "unlock"-response effect I could use. *I tried Set spawnarg -response effect. So I set the locked property to 0 on the door. This does nothing and the door remains locked. Please help, how can I do this? It's probably dead simple but I can't figure it out. --- Alternatively: Is there any way to make a door absolutely not openable by the AI. At present if I have a nonfrobable not-locked door. AI will mystically open it if I shoot a noisemaker arrow next to the door. The AI looks for the noise source and opens the door, even if it is nonfrobable.

Nope. No such problems here. Sometimes my Muse contacts me during my sleep and provides me with zillions of mission plots. But that is just a creativity surge, no program mechanics.

I was under impression that the verticality comes from the map dimension restrictions. If the map conforms to that, it is 'vertical.' After that it can be evaluated in terms of plot, gameplay and visuals as usual. I have to confess I have great difficulty of assessing 'verticality' as such. I know if a map is good in terms of plot, etc. But it is confusing and arbitrary to evaluate 'good verticality usage.' Whatever the end decision will be I'll need and gladly accept Fidcal's help when my map is released in the next few days.

Thank you very much. It is really nice to see my hard work appreciated. This mission has received so positive feedback that I'm slowly getting more nervous whether or not the sequel (The Glenham Tower) can reach the same kind of reception from the community.

Thanks but I already have the testers I need. You'll get the final version to play quite soon.

Heh. This mission proves it that great complexity is not required for excellence. I wished there was a better skybox and a good looking nightly ocean far down below.. Overall: Simple yet very entertaining and enjoyable mission. Many thanks for the authors!

@Fidcal: But of course if you've been really nice. @Bikerdude: Sure, I don't mind as long as you do not blatantly steal my ideas. Sending links in PM. And please, no spoilers of any kind in this thread. I've now 3 testers and that's all I need. Many thanks for your interest.

I've played this through now a few times. Things seem to work the way I planned. It looks decent and it runs well. I've no idea what to add anymore. I think it is ready! So I suppose it is time to betatest this map, which is my entry for the summer vertical contest. I'd say it is a small/medium sized map, about the size of The Beleaguered Fence. Any volunteers? 2-3 experienced mappers would be nice. Also, Melan.. If you have the time I'd be honoured and really pleased if you helped me out with this one. You did such a thorough work last time that I'm still impressed. I'd also like to the testers pay special attention to the readables. I'm not a native english speaker so I really need help in that area. Thank you very much!

Many thanks! The sitting problem is indeed a general AI bug, which is tracked in the bugtracker.

How does this voting work in practice? A forum poll attached to the FM release thread and the highest percentage of points is selected for the end score calculations or is there a closed distinguished committee evaluating the map or what? Yep. Only a few days to external beta testing. I think I did a pretty good job and the result is better than The Beleaguered Fence. Oh, and if you'd like to call me by title, you can call me master Sotha. Oh well, lord Sotha has a nice ring to it as well. But surely this isn't so serious contest that we should be secretive and be afraid someone steals our ideas. There are no prizes or anything. Beta-testing should not be omitted since it generally increases the overall quality of the map drastically.

Okay I've now found out what was wrong. In my water box, the surfaces (except the air-water -interface surface) are common/clip. When I changed the texture to /common/nodraw the gui works. Thanks for helping out!

Easier question: Is there something wrong with underwater guis? I tried to do as said in the Swimmable Water wiki pages, and made waters with different underwater guis but I seen no difference in any of those. Looks like NONE of them have an underwater gui: I'm just swimming in clear water. Any help?

@Olgeezer

Finance Crisis Strikes The City Watch! Costs were cut by issuing new headgear. Officials claim that new cheaper headgear confers total blackjacking immunity, but some argue that there are unacceptable side-effects...

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Nice suggestions. If the mission is a tad bit more difficult, surely beating the mission is more rewarding? Also if you play it on HARD difficulty, it should be.. well.. hard. If it's too hard, then there are the more easier difficulty-level where you have plenty of money to get good equipment in the beginning. My mapping philosophy is: 1) There will be no mission jamming hunts for keys in illogical places. Do not drag the player through the mission the way mapper intended. Let the player go where he/she wants. 2) All doors should be pickable, but having a key is a nice convenience and rewards the player with much easier and silent access.

Hey! Count me in this contest. My entry for this is soon reaching beta phase.

I'm happy you had fun! In the objectives it says where Lark should be taken. But yes, it is

-Thanks! Found it! The animation is called "zjump_eats_zfat_loop" Too bad it cannot be used: it looks very choppy when the zombie starts the feeding animation and blinks into the eating position. Otherwise it would be ok, but the zombie faces entirely the opposite direction. Shame. Can I play animations backwards in path_anim/path_cycleanim? I mean that *first the zombie to moves to the feeding position. *I play path_anim "zjump_eats_zfat_getup" backwards, so the zombie kneels down to the eating position. *Play path_cycleanim so that zombie eats a while. *play path_anim "zjump_eats_zfat_getup" normally so the zombie gets up. Is there a mystical spawnarg, which plays animations the other way?

Oh and by the way: Does anyone know how do I get a list of animations for a certain AI model? Am I guessing correctly, that the zombies are using basic Doom3 zombie animations? This means that they should have this eat-someone-lying-on-the-ground -animation. I'd love to use it...

Most excellent to see these things progressing! I've played through all the available FM's now and the lack of ladies has indeed been most troubling. Too much testosterone...

Still progressing nicely. Basic geometry is there and I'm adding details as I go. AI placements is also going on. I have crystal clear vision of the objectives, but have not yet implemented them. Nearly all loot is not placed yet. Most of the plot readables are there. Some WIP screenies for your enjoyment. I'm particularily pleased with the vaulting in the above image. Never really thought I could do something looking like that. But I surprised myself! Most of the time went to the constant texture swapping. It was hard to find the nicest textures for the scene. I used this image as an aid. I don't think I'm very far from beta testing phase. A week or three.

Citizens! Please be sure that you take the medication prescribed to you by your mental health professionals. They are for your own good, not to mention this forum. Thank you for your cooperation.

Interesting discussion here. A mapper point of view: if the texture looks horrible, most of the mappers will see and understand this and probably will not use it at all. My point is that really bad textures are probably used relatively rarily. I do not mind slight improvements to textures, but major alterations will probably result in angry mappers when their huge texture alignment efforts go to waste. But yeah, there are some poor textures in TDM and that's why I seem to choose only a few good ones for each materials and stick to them.