kyyrma
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Posts posted by kyyrma
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but the main elements of combat in TDM right now are simply blocking and attacking. Combatants can swing in four directions, and block in four directions. It's sort of like a fast paced game of Rock Paper Scissors.
Then there is the environment and footwork, however in both the AI is terribly disadvantaged.
Now a lot of you have been saying that the combat experience really comes in two extremes. The first bunch of players find it way too hard, and end up avoiding combat altogether for that reason. The other group finds it too easy, which can break the tension of the level.
Now what if there was a third element to it? What I'm proposing is parrying. Parrying, as opposed to blocking, would push the attacker off balance and leave a clear opening for a counter-attack. Parry could simply be a perfectly timed block: block just as the enemy's sword connects and you not only deflect the strike but push the enemy off balance. This should also be shown clearly through animation, with the enemy staggering and dropping guard.
To emphasize the importance of timing, enemies could be made much faster and accurate in deflecting oncoming blows. That would make parrying the best method for finding an opening to attack. The player would also be pushed off balance by striking at an enemy at the wrong time, which would leave him unable to act for a few moments and maybe shift the camera around a bit to visualize how the characer staggers.
This already exists to an extent - enemies that have been succesfully blocked are "flat-footed" which means they will not chase after the player. I feel that this is not communicated well enough through visual ques. I personally only learned about it by reading about combat on the wiki. If not for parrying or other sort of improvements to combat, I'd at least suggest that the flat-footed state should be more clearly animated on the enemy NPCs.
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Actually I had the opposite reaction...
That is a slight illogicality, now that you mention it. However the person who wrote the letter in the maid's room didn't see exactly what Ferryham was stashing there, so I guess its still acceptable.
When building a level its really hard to try and put yourself in the shoes of all the different players out there. It's really interesting to hear all the different ways people play through the level, and in what order they pick up readables an such. I'm hoping to learn as much as possible from player feedback, and use that when the time comes to make another FM.
I know there are a few people out there who do Let's Plays of FMs. If at some point somebody would be willing to do one of In A Time Of Need, that would be really fascinating to watch.
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Played on easy and was impressed for a first mission.
Now playing on medium and the differences are interesting.
OK completed on medium and hardest and I couldn't see much difference between the two harder levels bar the increased loot requirement - am I missing something
To summarise a very nice compact mission which is very suitable for a new player as the readables give detailed hints to find the hidden loot
Thanks for the impressions!
Regarding the difficulty, there is a change in the map when going from Normal to higher difficulties. The only difference between Hard and Expert is the loot limit however. I'm sorry if I worded that wrong in the OP post.
An enjoyable first mission! It was solid in all respects, with enough loot-hunting, secrets, AI and well-written readables to feel fun throughout.
I'm glad to hear someone appreciated the readables. I tried to add a bunch of mood-setting stuff despite the small scope of the level, just for the sake of immersion. My own favorite is the book that describes the various safe uses of spice.
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For those of you who have already had the chance to play the mission on both Normal and Hard / Expert:
I was hoping to give the player a little Huh? moment when you open the hidden safe and expect the spice to be stashed there
Did I get you or was it too obvious?
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Since you type dmap whatever and map a lot, I do it a little differently, I just make the folder "t", so I "dmap t/mapname". Less typing, and when it's all done can rename "t" to be the mission name or whatever.
Also you can up arrow in the console to get the previous command back. So dmap, then up arrow, home and delete the d for map ...
Because you will be doing it a lot you might also consider adding something like
bind "F9" "dmap maps/mymap/mapname"
bind "F10" "map maps/mymap/mapname"
in Darkmod.cfg located in the root folder.
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What a warm welcome! Thanks everyone!
If you'll kindly supply a direct link to the actual pk4 I will remove my dropbox mirror and it will work in the mission downloader tool.
Biker will need to update the mirrors
Updated the OP post with correct links, thanks for pointing this out and taking the time to add it there!
Makes me wanna make my first mission just a bit more.
It's a lot of hard work and not quite as much fun at times as you would expect (think leaks, visportaling, monsterclipping...) but I still can't recommend it enough. Not many things beat how satisfying it is to finally release your own level
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Show spoiler for screenshots:
Map: In A Time Of Need
Version: 1.00
Released: 2013/11/12
Theme: Mansion
Author: kyyrma
Testing: Bridge, 161803398874989
In A Time Of Need is small-sized mansion level in which the player is tasked with stealing a cache of spice from the house of a seafaring merchant. It is my first and (at the time of writing) only FM.
The difficulty level is low to moderate, and the mission is well suited for new players accustoming to the world of TDM. For players looking for more challenge I suggest ghosting, as the level has been designed to lend itself well for that kind of playstyle.
The map and objective layout change slightly between "Normal" and "Hard" / "Expert" difficulty levels. If you want to experience all the content the level has to offer, I suggest you start by playing the map through on Normal and then move on to higher difficulties.
Download links:
Installation:
- Drop timeofneed.pk4 in you darkmod/fms/ folder
- Run TDM and select New Mission. In A Time Of Need should now appear on the list of downloaded missions.
- Install and play.
Known issues:
- AI pathfinding can be slightly erratic at times
- Outdoors can cause performance issues on low-end hardware
- Sleeping AI can glitch through the bed if KO'd or killed
Thanks:
- My testers Bridge and 161803398874989 whose input helped me shape the map into what it is today.
- All the TDM devs for creating such a great game
- Fidcal for creating the A-Z guide for beginners
- All the people who contributed to my thread at the Editor's Guild
Finally, my hat off to the community that has produced so many high-quality missions and made TDM thrive. The bar has been set frighteningly high!
I'm really not one for numerical scores or polls, so I decided not have any for my thread. However I would appreciate any criticism, comments and feedback you may provide. Leave me a message in this thread :-)
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tbh, it took me a while to learn as well.
once it clicks with you, taking out guards is almost too easy.
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So, I've been getting into using patches lately. I completely rebuilt the balcony railing using patches for trimmings and other decorative detail, and also merged a big number of brushes.
I now get better FPS with full shadows on the railing than I used to get without shadows. Check it out.
I think the benefits of using patches should be emphasized even more to new users. Maybe the patch tutorial could be integrated into the A-Z one instead of just having a link to it?
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Those skulls each look different, so Im guessing they are real
Yeah, its real alright. Mainly victims of the black plague and the Hussite wars.
Here is a video of the place: http://youtu.be/LM0DdWxWtQA
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So, Numbers and Bridge came back with their first findings on the level.
Now I've got about 40 issues listed up that need to be looked into. Fun!
If you want a fancier icon image, you can define this spawnarg on your map entity:"inv_icon" "guis/assets/game_maps/map_of_whatever.tga"
Then you need to provide the file guis/assets/game_maps/map_of_whatever.tga".
I've tried both supplying a new icon and using the one from starpack, but for whatever reason both still fail to load in-game. I'll try to check the console for errors if that could tip me off on what is going wrong.
I'm using the map entity from startpack, but I'll make one from scratch if all else fails.
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For those looking for inspiration for a haunt, what would be better than the Chapel of Sedlec, where all the decor and furniture is assembled from the bones of 40,000 people?
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Wow this looks really cool! Look forward to giving it a play through
Thanks!
Make sure that guis/assets/game_maps/map_of_icon.tga is present.So the file should be kept named map_of_icon.tga instead of changing it to map_of_whatever_icon.tga?
Evening, drop me a PM if yoiu want a hand with the perfing..Appreciate it! I'll get in touch once I've finished the first playtesting round with Bridge and Numbers.
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Bridge, Numbers! Check your inboxes, I've sent you the beta and some instructions on what kind of stuff I'd like to hear from you guys. Get back to me if you have any trouble setting up the mission
You are welcome, it is nice to help newbies out, especially because they are sustaining steady outflow of new FMs, which is the lifeblood of the mod.
Anyhow, don't make the objects into too large func_static clumps, but group them into rational sizes. One func_static per one object is a good rule of a thumb...
I've func_staticed most of the external architecture now. Let's see how well it does performance-wise with testers, my own performance seems much more stable now at least.
Another problem though: I can't get the icon for my map entity to show.
I've named the .tga files as follows.
guis/assets/game_maps/map_of_ferryham.tga
guis/assets/game_maps/map_of_ferryham_icon.tga
And set the paths similarly in the map entity. The map works just fine (shows the map image when used) but for some reason the inventory icon doesn't show up.
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Another simple optimization is to make sure too many light volumes do not overlap. Maximum of three. For a large exterior area, it might be good to stick with completely non-overlapping lights.
Imagine an object consisting of 1000 tris. If it is hit by 1 light, it produces 1000 tris + 1000 shadow tris. If two lights, it is 1000 + 2000. If three it is 1000 + 3000. A crude example, but you get the idea, right?
I moved the yard lights around a bit and tweaked with size with this in mind and found a considerable increase in performance. Very solid advice, thank you. Next I'll look into converting stuff into func_statics - I've done some in the past, but I've got pretty mixed results performance wise. Is is better to make multiple individual func_statics, or try to lump objects together into one big entity? I understand that if the entity becomes so big it crosses visportals, that will be unefficient, but what about outside where I currently have no portals in place?
Sorry about all the questions! I'm sure I could find this stuff out just by reading more into old threads / the wiki, but nothing beats the convenience of asking from those who know better
Well, I've never tested before, but I am decently good at finding all sorts of shenanigans in videogames. So if you'll have me, I'll help you test.
I'd love to test it.
Fantastic! One of your jobs will be to try and break the level as bad as you can, so being adept at shenanigans is exactly what it takes. I'll do one more pass on the map and then pack it up for you guys, expect something in your PM boxes within... let's say 24 hours.
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When you can't get visportals to close the natural way, you can instead use func_portals that can be triggered by distance checks, scripts, etc to
close them on your terms... Yes, Biker can also offer some advice.
Been looking into this some. So far I've got some crude LOD going on with the city facade outside the mansion walls. I haven't yet started working with scripting and triggering scripts, but that would definitely be one way to optimize the outdoors area.
If using externally triggered func_portals, does normal visportal limitations apply? e.g. does it need to be surrounded by brush, or can it just float anywhere?
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Welcome! Those screenshots look rather good!
Thanks. The biggest problem is the framerate outside. Visportaling an open outdoor area turns out to be a major pain - thus far I've just made sure that the interior areas are well portaled so that they aren't rendered when you are outside, but I haven't found a way to visportal even a portion of the outdoor area. At lowest my rig hits about 40FPS in the front yard, but I'm on a fairly high-end machine.
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Yay! Another finnish mapper.
Very promising-looking screenshots over there!
Thanks! The Finns online presence always catches me off guard. No matter where you go, we are everywhere.
I've played and enjoyed quite a few of your maps, very impressive.
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Hi everyone,
Long story short: I jumped into TDM upon 2.0 but got terribly distracted by Dark Radiant and ended up working tirelessly on a tiny fan mission instead. I call the mission In A Time Of Need (subject to change) and you could say It's like my Thieves' Den (massive thanks to Fidcal for the A-Z guide, I'd never gotten anywhere without it!).
The map is now a very rough beta, and I'm going to try and take a week or so break from mapping. In the meantime I'd like to have some people help me test my map.
If you would be willing to waste some of your time and braincells to help me fix my baby, I would be forever thankful. In addition to finding bugs, I'm looking for suggestions to level flow, objectives and most importantly the lighting. I've been mapping on an old flatscreen that has terrible gamma settings, and I'm afraid the level is either way too dark or way too bright.
Just drop a message in this thread and I'll PM you a link to the full mission. Thanks in advance and nice meeting you all!
In A Time Of Need
Mission briefing
Word is that a small-time merchant named Ferryham has hit big selling a load of smuggled spice. It seems the coin has made Ferryham fancy himself a part of the better folk, and recently he had his house renovated to suit his newfound wealth. I would usually not bother myself with this kind of small fry, but the slim pickings of late have left me more desperate for a decent score than I would like to admit. And throwing around money like that definitely puts Ferryham on my map.
I have scouted the house from the outside and found the perfect spot for entry. The old barn leaves an opening in the yard walls and the rotten wood will be easy work for a saw. Inside I should expect three guards on duty and possibly some servants staying the night. Ferryham himself is out of town. The house and yard are cramped so there will be few places to hide once within the walls. But as long as I keep my wits about casing the joint should be a breeze
Screenshots
Features
- tons of badly written readables
- different objectives for normal / hard + expert
- electric lighting with switches
- glitchy pathfinding
- massive FPS drops
- inefficient use of brushes
- bad lighting and wonky gamma
- z-fighting
- unintuitive level design
- too well hidden secrets
- a rat in a closet
- a spooky basement
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- tons of badly written readables
Fan Mission: In A Time Of Need by kyyrma (2013/11/12)
in Fan Missions
Posted · Edited by kyyrma
Thanks, I really appreciate this coming from you Sotha. Some previous experience in programming has taught me that being too ambitious when still learning the ropes is a recipe for failure, so I'm glad I managed to restrain myself when building my first FM. I had quite a few features planned for the level which I decided to cut in favor of a smaller polished level.
Because the average playthrough is quite short, most players probably won't notice but there is some degree of randomness to the NPCs (I picked up this trick from something you had added to the wiki). In the kitchen, the guards will either have something to eat or go take a break outside. Upstairs, the guard may or may not stop to look out from the window. Outside, the guard going around the house can walk by the balcony, or walk around the tree and flowers instead.
Also, the guards inherit each others patrol routes (to sort of simulate them looking for missing comrades). So you knock out the guard outside, the balcony guard picks up his patrol route. Knock out the guard inside, one of the outside guards picks up his route etc. It's based on hidden objectives, and once again one of your old forum posts describing this method
I agree on difficulty. Of course the TDM community is a tough crowd, as most here are pretty much stealth gaming veterans
Originally I had planned that on Expert Ferryham and his guards would return to the house either after the player has picked up the Spice or after a certain amount of time. This is one of the features that ended up getting cut however, first because hiding/showing characters through paths doesn't really work well in TDM and didn't want to put in the effort to learn how to spawn them through script, and second, because adding any more guards in the level simply made pathfinding look really awkward (guards kept bumping into each other, opening doors on each others faces etc.)
Also, about getting out of bounds. Man, that is some determination. When I noticed that pile of furniture there on the balcony I just burst out laughing. This is simply the kind of antics that the engine allows you to do, I friggen' love it. I haven't had this much fun with gaming since I dunno' - Arx Fatalis maybe?