Bastoc
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Posts posted by Bastoc
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Considering what has been said, and as a noobie mapper, I think if it's going to be a "noobie DR tryout" contest, it has to :
-be a contest (not plain community work) : more challenge, more motivation
-have a deadline: else it will take too long, never be good enough, and therefore never released
-have a simple scope/theme: those who don't have any ideas for now can use it as inspiration, and those who feel creative will find a way to meet the requirements anyway. I think the build a house (not necessarily yours) scope is good enough for me, and I think kyyrma's idea of making a community FM out of them after is great. You can also add focuses: architecture, atmosphere, AI (RITs), graphical storytelling, scripting... so that people who are slow can do that first and then improve the rest if possible. A theme could be "The underside of Christmas" for instance: snow, gifts, gold, family, decoration showoff, plotting... Just replace Jesus by the Builder, and it's good to go
. You plunder the houses, read people's notes, find about dissensions, creepy secrets, unlock bonus quests. Since TDM is kind of dark fantasy, it makes sense, and as you may know people go crazy for Christmas in real life sometimes!My two cents.
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CSG subtract works well for rectangular/square-shaped objects when all is on the grid.
Yes, I think it screwed up because I used it to cut a door opening that needed grid 1 adjustments. And then went back to grid 16 and used CSG substract, hence the splinters grayman talked about I guess.
If you are going to use it to split angular objects, then I suggest to convert to func_static after doing the subtraction, then convert that to .ase and use it as a model.
What do you mean by splitting angular objects?
(BTW: didn't know you can convert func_static to .ase, this can be useful if you use the same prefab many times to save drawcalls, right?)
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Looks neat. Know about FMs that use SEED and/or LOD bias?
EDIT: so that I (and who's willing to) can get some clues about good practices.
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Just finished this FM. I have mixed feelings about it.
On the one hand I loved the dreamlike atmosphere, the lights/fog, the sounds, the mysterious story. There were also some really interesting pieces of gameplay I have not seen before.
On the other hand, the whole thing made little sense to me. I don't think the story is really consistent but that's kind of part of the atmosphere so okay with it. What really bugged me was the linear and hardly guided plot that resulted in poor gameplay flow. While I like to play puzzle games, it didn't really felt like it. More like, as I read above, "key hunting". The few hints I could get made little sense to me, and often I would end up roaming everywhere to test all keys/items combinations (killed all the guards for my patience's sake) and frobbing around randomly hoping to open the (n+1)th (secret) door. I was stuck countless times, and probably would have given up without walkthrough. However, I believe it would take only a few readables to make it coherent.
To conclude, logically I shouldn't rate this FM more than Good. But even though I felt like I was playing something created by a fan of Myst series on drugs, I think the fancy atmosphere and original gameplay are unique so I'll remember it as Very Good
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Ahah, I almost spoiled myself before realising this is about Old Habit 2! (thought it was a sequel).
I really liked Old Habit 1, anyway.
Very good flow, i was always able to plan my next moves. Inspiring.
Some really exciting parts.
2nd floor: armored guard with torch and timed lockpicking. Hardcore! Attic: armored guard with torch, crates, beams, what else? God I failed so many times there
But it was great. Yard: nice climbing path. The light from the window killed me!While the main story plot is fine but a little classical, I loved the small "side" plots.
The story of the new guard and the key in the jacks. The captain's diary mentionned the new guard, the rats and shovel, and for some reason I found the bloke hilarious
The servant and his mom's letter. Not sure if it is worth mentionning but I saw this guy sitting on thin air (no chair), and then he went to bed, woke up and fall through. "See you in the afterlife, man." Saw the note of the cook's friend also, that was justifying some loot positionning.Found the whole place very good looking. For what my aesthetic assesment is worth...
That's it. Congrats ! Got to play the V2.
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I have been using clipper and CSG substract lately and sometimes I have weird (internal) leaks, with the pointfile going right through some walls. The walls have solid textures except on the edges which were calked or nodrawed. But edges should not be an issue right? And maybe my walls were a bit overlapping each other as I had been messing around with them a lot, and that was the issue. Ultimately I destroyed everything and cut my openings properly, and now it works. I am not sure about clipper, but I read in Fidcal's A-Z guide that CSG substract is hated by some mappers, guess that is the reason! However, any advice would be greatly appreciated
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Amazing FM, I was very impressed. I especially liked the optional objective.
At first I was worried that my idea of taking the crystal to the acid near the start of the level wouldn't work (since it was a little elaborate), but you didn't disappoint. Props for the whole collapsible structure gimmick, it was very interesting although it basically forces the player to quick save constantly (which I luckily did). You may have wanted to design it so that the player didn't have to die if he made a mistake even though you did give a warning.
Anyway, this mission has very few flaws apart from that in my opinion.
Yep, one of my favourite missions, even among Sotha's Thomas Porter series which is a set of top FMs. And the optional task is one reason indeed, I think the flaw you mentionned is not really one though (see below).
I liked the events with the collapses, and if I remember well when it collapses you don't lose health, you merely fall into water, so you can keep on and it's actually more interesting that way I think.
I also thought it was really smart to make a such an important & challenging objective optional, because it got me more involved doing it somehow, and also for the sequels. And anyway, most players would like to accomplish it
Also, what is worth noticing is that, despite the linearity of the plot (linear, but original since the climax is at the bottom, not the top as one would expect hearing the title), the story and the flow keep you thrilled.However, I pulled two levers, one well hidden outside the tower, and the other somewhere inside, but I couldn't find what they were for !
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Fabulous mission ! Here's a short review.
About plot flow : excellent apart from two things IMO.
You have the map so logically you should aim for 2nd's floor bedroom. If you go to library first, you find the diary first then you get a confirmation, and a lot hints about the next steps, and it's perfect. If you rush to the bedroom, maybe it is a little less clear, but the library should be the second place to go anyway and since you know it exists and finding it is an objective, it's all right. Finding the ingredients is quite natural, apart from blood bottle which is a bit confuing unless she uses it as a soap
. Then comes the canon, and sorry to say, I found this part puzzling. First thing, it could have been loaded, I did not think I needed powder and a ball at first. Second thing, why would they be ontop of a turret, moreover in a locked chest ? The armory, or a storeroom would have been logical. You could also say that it's quite coherent to have cannons ontop of turrets to defend a castle, right. But unfortunately I went to the top of the other one only to find a storytelling book so it was misleading about the function of the other turret, and since I'm not the kind who likes to wander about to find all the loot, I didn't go there. I was lucky enough to find the matches, but I don't remember where. Maybe I am thinking the wrong way, but I believe this is a flaw. However, it's not a big deal, I'm just pointing this out because it contrasts with the smoothness of the rest. From there, it was very clear thanks to the diary, the objectives, and Thomas comments. So all together, very good flow.About gameplay: excellent level design, really fun special part, but stlll one thing I didn't like.
- Good amount of "tricky" light sources (in crossroads and corners), which is well done
- Good AI, the revenants lighting again doused lights make it really challenging, especially 2nd floor.
- Like in The Phrase Book, good idea to put the ingredient scroll in a natural but a little unsual place (gameplay wise), I like searching !
- Amazing gameplay with the Shadows!
- Liked the deadly gaps in the ground, it adds a touch of danger.
- Parts to make special arrows useful like the hole in tower with the crate (rope) and the revenant guard in front (noise) of the marble stair (moss) to the Shadows. It is satisfying feeling your situational gear proves useful.
- Fine with the canon, but it was weird to drop stuff in the cauldron since you cannot really see inside, and you have to tilt the bottle. It was a bit frustrating here, while in Glenham Tower it was smooth and nice. Okay though.
- Here is the hitch. I almost went crazy with the matches. Maybe it's a language problem, but I thought you had to rub matches against a special surface to light them up first, not directly to the wick ! I tried nonetheless to do it 4-5 times and nothing hapenned. So I tried to go light it with a fire source but it doesn't work. Eventually I watched the matching part (no pun intended) of Let's Play the Dark Mod and went back to rubbing randomly the damn match against the wick
Took some time, but I managed... somehow !About feeling/atmosphere:
- A lot a speeches, which makes the atmosphere more oppressive and adds a lot to the story. However, I would have loved subtitles there: I'm not a native speaker and the "revenant way of speaking" was really hard to get and even struggling I missed a lot. Still, I got that the revenants didn't like the Queen and tried to bypass a kind of curse she had casted on them, and didn't seem unhappy about Thomas destroying her. It really made the story much more interesting !
- A lot of visual details : ruined walls, skeletons, planks, stains, burning pit...
- The Shadows ! Really scary with the SFX, and uncomplete shape.
- i was especially impressed by the death effect of the Queen
- The cave river is nice
About objectives: really motivating set of objectives
- I liked the thought of learning the Lich secrets in order to destroy her
- The canon objective was an awesome idea, really like those parts when you need to break in/out in a spectacular and chaotic way
- Chasing the ingredients seemed legitimate, and I liked it (and it's not so often !)
- Assassination is always nice, especially since she's our worst ennemy, and she's quite ugly
She slept longer than expected, in my playtrough.To conclude, it's an excellent mission to play, and a good end to the Thomas Porter vs Lich plot (which is amazing as a whole).Hurray!
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As for FMs, I had your thought in reverse, as I tend to be motivated to map driven by bringing a story to life. So had the thought once I finished with my current endeavors, that I might request stories from those less inclined to build themselves.
Ahah, that's good, maybe we would be a fine team then ! But I have some stuff to learn first !
Although I've read about translations/localization in the wiki/forum, I don't fully understand it, it sounds like item names are replace with codes, so there can be a mail merge like file, or something like that. It seems most don't take advantage of the system currently. It also sounds like it should be changed so item names could be the codes, eliminating the need to go through trying to find every time and change it's name to a code.
Yes, had a glimpse about a i18n stuff if I remember well, I will read more about that later.
Welcome Bastoc!
My recommendation is to take a few days to explore the community; poke around in the forums, see what kinds of things are being discussed, check out the wiki and bugtracker. Going through the A to Z guide and making a tiny mission is also a great way to see how things work behind the curtain, and is probably a prerequisite to tackling anything on the code side. Once you've done those things you'll have a much better idea of where you might be able to help out.
Right, will do !
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Hello guys,
I think this is not a bad place to introduce myself, so here I go.
I discovered TDM a few days ago, and I have to say the game is excellent and many missions are amazing. But moreover, I think the potential is tremendous, with so many passionate and skillful people. Could be the best stealth game ever, and make up for the trend of mainstream commercial stealth games that has been spreading lately.
So I want to contribute. However, I am kind of lost in here.
I know C++, but I never worked on practical projects (nor games) so I have no idea of how this works. I think AI is crucial and takes alot of work, so if I can help I will try. I had a look at the Coding wiki but the articles look too specific, where should I start ?
I would love to work on FMs, possibly with others. Especially on plots since I used to write scenarii for pen & paper RPG, but I am also interested in level design. I guess I should start with the A-Z doc on DarkRadiant, right ?
I can also translate into French. How does that work ? What about the readables in FMs ?
Thanks for your help.
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TDM Universe / Setting
in The Dark Mod
Posted
Greetings dear fellows,
Although it is great that mappers can be creative and do pretty much anything in their FMs, since TDM has got its own universe, I think it is better if the design and story fit in the picture. Since I did not find a topic to discuss that, and people ideas, and I have some questions, here it goes.