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Airship Ballet

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Posts posted by Airship Ballet

  8. Is matching the TDM universe important in mapping?

    in TDM Editors Guild

    Posted

    Do or don't, it's not tremendously important so long as you don't draw attention to the fact that you have or haven't. When people go to great lengths to let the player know they've either fit their location into the canon or distanced it from it, it ends up breaking the fourth wall. "How 'bout that Bridgeport, eh guys? Mandrasola, right?" or "Pfft, Bridgeport? What's that? Never heard of it" are both just immersion shatterers.

  10. Deshtat quick stuff

    in Art Assets

    Posted · Edited by Airship Ballet

    Ship that slightly moves left and right would be movable object?

    No, just things that the player picks up and moves. A bobbing ship would just be a big func_static attached to a func_pendulum.

  14. TTlg: they still need reminding...

    in The Dark Mod

    Posted · Edited by Airship Ballet

    The impression is that we are beging neglected, its that when TDM fan mission's are announced on the ttlg forum there is next to no interest.

    Do a couple vanity searches and you'll find that TDM has reached a very long way. An awful lot of people are avid fans, so don't be surprised that the people at TTLG don't show interest. A lot of people play without posting, and the vast majority aren't signed up to any forum where you'd hear from them without looking. besides I'm not sure why you're surprised given how insular some nostalgic gamers can be

  16. Fan Mission: La Banque Bienveillante by Airship Ballet (2014/11/22)

    in Fan Missions

    Posted

    It's certainly not for everyone! It breaks away from tradition with the new stuff, which is where I think it becomes divisive, but I assure you it doesn't just do it for the sake of it. Since I wanted the campaign to grow exponentially I had to start small otherwise I'd set the bar too high for the next missions, which also means tight corridors and a bank built on a budget. The complaints obviously vary from player to player: most people found it way too easy and short, and several thought that the abundance of loot was refreshing. Really the map started as an exercise in more complex systems with DR entities, and ended up a small map. After that I decided I wanted to do a series of bank missions and turned it into a proper mission. It's cramped, intentionally so, and the small floor space means I was really restricted when pathing the AI. I obviously wasn't going for story because, well, it's a bank job in the vein of earlier T2 missions in which you're stealing for stealing's sake. You don't have a nemesis, nor are you stealing some ancient relic or doing a favor for anyone: the only real focus is the vault and how to get into it. The second mission out addresses pretty much all of the above issues, because most if not all of the issues raised are caused by its size. I could only do so much with the space, so it ends up underwhelming and sometimes frustrating. That said, it's an introduction, and hopefully once the whole thing's finished it'll fit in nicely.

     

    With regards to ambient light I've always been a proponent of darkness. While no ambient light at all is unrealistic, I still like to leave it dark in the dingier, window-less areas. I think too many FM authors have done their work an injustice by cranking up the indoor ambient light and making everything look washed-out, so I want to avoid that and keep it atmospheric. Speaking of atmosphere, the map itself isn't particularly thematic, so I was stumped with regards to ambient sounds. I'll be changing them come the third mission's release because it's a common complaint I forgot about while changing it this time around. I just went for those repetitive drones, which I like but others apparently don't. I'll add some sound wherever I've set it to be silent, too. While it was intentional (and isn't unfinished), it striking you as odd is the last thing I want.

     

    Thanks for taking the time to respond ^_^

    • Like 1

  19. Steam: Greenlight

    in The Dark Mod

    Posted

    there is not a way to store missions as pk4 files (or any files for that matter) on Steam servers and have TDM download it directly from Steam servers.

    I never said there was, that was someone else suggesting to use Steam servers as a mirror, which no, not viable.

  21. Steam: Greenlight

    in The Dark Mod

    Posted

    I already said there is no way to store missions on Steam servers without resorting to Workshop / DLC format (which means you can't use in-game downloader as is).

    But there is. It's entirely possible for it to be released as St Lucia and the training mission. Were somebody to verify their game cache, it would install St Lucia and the training mission. The other option is to include every mission and add new ones via free product updates that change the master copy on Steam for all future installs. Again, very, very simple.

     

    Here's a possible scenario. Game installs with the wonderful, sublime, timeless Quinn Co. campaign. Somebody uses the in-game downloader which will work in tandem with Steam to download the endlessly praised classic that is Exhumed. The copy Steam has only installs Quinn Co, and now you've gone ahead and downloaded another mission it doesn't recognise! What's a Steam client to do?! Nothing. Steam makes sure you have every file on its checklist of the master copy. It does not remove the additional content. Since TDM works by way of plug-ins, nothing would be registered as amiss by Steam were you to add a few more .pk4s via the downloader. If there were edits to the base game, they would be reverted upon either verifying your game's integrity or installing an update.

     

    If you add in a file that isn't part of Steam's master copy it doesn't do a single thing to it when you download an update or verify your game's integrity. If something you do makes a base change to a file included in Steam's master copy, it will revert it back to the copy that it has on file in the event of an update or intentional reversion by the player. Now again: since TDM is plugin-based and reads entirely from the .pk4s you have installed and vanilla assets the map maker used, it's not an issue. Any changes made to the base install as a result of the mission downloader would not even change until an update is released. All that would happen at most is an installed mission needing to be uninstalled and reinstalled to fix any discrepancies an update would cause.

    • Like 3

  22. Steam: Greenlight

    in The Dark Mod

    Posted

    There are a few games with their own login systems and by-pass of Steam's in-app purchase, but those games from top publishers that have special agreements. You can't expect to pop up on Steam and do the same as a few mighty can do.

    :huh: Where on Earth did you get login systems from? We're talking about whether or not to use the current mirrors and risk an overload on release, or use Steam servers and post newly released FMs as updates.

    • Like 1

  23. Steam: Greenlight

    in The Dark Mod

    Posted

    If Steamworkshop was that bad, Valve would have changed it already. But apparently it brought $50M to mod makers already, so...

    I suppose by that logic you're a big fan of Fifty Shades of Grey, too? Loading individual pages to click on a button is just categorically inefficient. If you want to unsubscribe from all your mods, there isn't a button to get rid of them all, and they're not usually all stored in convenient .pk4s for you to just delete. TDM's system is as tidy as TES plugins: there's no need for change to it.

    Anyhow, if TDM devs can make a list of questions / concerns, I'll ask Valve if it's all ok :)

    Already done: they've all been answered. I covered everything both BGS and guys in charge of Greenlight had to ask of one another.

  24. Steam: Greenlight

    in The Dark Mod

    Posted

    Everything that TDM is now is as it should be. Steam isn't being considered in order to change things up, it's just hosting TDM as-is in order to reach a wider audience and give people working on both mod and missions the spotlight they deserve. One concern was, however, that an influx of Steam users would overload the mirrors similar to the period after the mod went Standalone. That would be a reason to include the current mission library in the Steam install, not any sort of problem with the downloader itself. Downloader's fine, works just as well if not better than all level selectors/downloaders in Steam games with level editors. It's sure as shit more efficient than Steam's Workshop: you can select every single FM, go make a coffee and watch some TV and come back with all the game's content on your hard drive, meanwhile on Steam you're having to open and load every single item's page one at a time, clicking subscribe then going back to the list and waiting for it to load all the thumbnails again. Even on fibre it's a nuisance. I'm not saying you ever suggested Steam Workshop, don't get me wrong, I'm just saying that as far as mission downloaders go, TDM has pretty much nailed it.

  25. Steam: Greenlight

    in The Dark Mod

    Posted

    When you're set to release, you'll show up in upcoming for a little while, and also be in new releases for a fair bit afterwards. A lot of people will jump on from that and Greenlight alone, but yeah people who play Thief or Splinter Cell or whatever will end up being recommended TDM, see that it's free and hopefully give it a go!

    • Like 1
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