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RPGista

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Everything posted by RPGista

  1. Cmon guys, the lightgem is cool I guess when you are starting, but how long have you been playing Thief/TDM? We all know quite well when a place offers good shadow cover, or when it provides very little. We learn that by the way AI react. Same for the sound meter discussion. Cant even remember the last time I had the lightgem on. It makes the game that much more fun to play when you cant know for sure how safe you are when walking around.
  2. I think it would be great if we could take up on Petike's offer and let him have a crack at fleshing out the channel. Adjustments could easily be done by someone on the team afterwards, and any improvements that might come from it would be welcomed, and wouldnt hurt. What do you guys say?
  3. Sure thing man, I messed up the link, it should work ok now. Happy mapping. https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al4XNpzYMsVvb_9QYeKX43jkh_c
  4. Glad to hear it my friend. Thats bascily what would be needed, IMO. Sorting things into collections or playlists, linking to relevant videos and other channels. We definitely dont need an all encompassing list of every darkmod video out there, just the most important ones we feel an official channel should point players/would be mappers to. In my eyes, the official trailers, some quality reviews, and the meat of TDM, the tutorial series. If we are getting ambitious, links to the various lets play series around. Its just that if you go on youtube and search for darkmod, even darkmod tutorial or some such generic query, you get a lot of random lets play videos, a bunch of scattered tutorials, unrelated stuff, and it would be nice to have a channel there that lists all the essential material the community would want to showcase. As for your concerns, Anderson, I dont really see a reason for it to be the exclusive job of a team member, the access could be open for anyone in the community, and while the channel could be managed mainly by someone knowledgeable like Petike, as a volunteer, pretty much anyone could step up in the future and it could be a bit of a wikipedia page, where people can go and tidy it up if they feel its needed. Even if it is to remain exclusive to the team, once the main work is done, we would already have a very good source of material set up for the future, despite members moving on or occasional updates taking longer to happen.
  5. Sorry if this is already a thing, but I was wondering if we have a DarkMod official youtube channel (or if we could have one) where we can collect not only trailers and stuff, but more importantly, all the video tutorial series we have from people like Springheel, Sotha, Obs, Komag, Bikerdude, etc. It would be pretty sweet to have those playlisted or linked or something like that - Im not really knowledgeable of youtube stuff. Basicly, having all that valuable info collected in a single place.
  6. ERH - Very creative, love that outdoors, and the diving helmet idea... Goldwell - Indeed, grreat use of lighting. Are you per chance using Rich's color grading program? I noticed the blue shadows. Or is it a fog? Either way, great work boys.
  7. Hey guys, I was able to convert this cool lion statue model for TDM. Im not sure I got the textures right, I had to do a bit of editting on the uvs and a bit of texture painting and come up with some simple normals and speculars. I tested it in a map and it looks good enough I guess, still a bit plasticy, maybe the speculars should be toned down even more, but anyone can go into the file and edit the pictures in gimp and the model will be updated next time you play the map. I'll look at it later and will update the link in case I make more adjustments. Its about 4800 tris, about 900 tris for the shadow mesh plus 160 for the base (theres a no base version as well). If anyone can test it in game, let me know. Unfortunately there are some small UV sort of bleeding issues on the very botton of the meshes, but its hardly noticeable from a normal walking distance. Credit goes to farly, from blendswap, for the model "Lion", released under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Downloaded from http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/70444. (I should go there and send him a thanks). Anyway, have fun. https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al4XNpzYMsVvbvzLXioB5-9cXu4
  8. Please do. I have two new short sword models here that were supposed to be released as new "plug and play" HUD weapons for missions. It would obviously be a great help to have a packaged custom weapon I can use as reference! (By that I mean the pk4 package, with all the needed defs and stuff like that).
  9. I'll keep bugging you though - make you character carry 2, 3 weapons tops. Make it part of his body/armor. And make it really special, like megaman's hand cannon that can fire charged attacks and is always changing projectiles. Something you can rely on to give the player what he wants whithout the need to design and keep track of tons of hud models. IMHO, its better to give your player a cool pair of wolverine claws or that black blade in the new deusex than to have to import and animate several melee weapons he might find lying around (that would greatly increase your work load). You know, like MDK. Now thats a cool looking design. Simple and creative.
  10. It is actually pretty awesome to see new weapons being added to the game like that. Maybe people are not feeling it because of the sci fi backdrop, but being allowed to put new weapons in a TDM mission would open possibilities for new narratives. Way to go man... Congrats for all the hard work!
  11. Thats brilliant work man, its a shame I cant seem to find any time to work on blender these past few months. Any help with setting up materials is such a blessing, its the single most annoying aspect of modeling for me, all the paths and materials and placing the textures here and there...
  12. Oh man, I cant believe this... Many moons ago, while I was still living in London, I got to meet both Bikerdude and Gary on a friendly get together at biker's place. We had a fun time and I remember the conversation we had on the way back, sitting side by side on the train. He was a nice, shy person, who obviously had a lot of creativity in him. This left me very depressed. The world is a rough place indeed, we should always remember to seek other people's warmth and support, while we can.
  13. Very cool. Will study these. If I get that far, I shall ask for more info on the defs and how to setup the weapons and stuff like that! Thanks for taking the time.
  14. Would it be too much to ask for a tutorial on how to do this particular process, Mircea? I cant think of a single document where you get the whole step by step from how to set up the animations (not how to animate, but steps to be aware of when animating for HUD view), how to export and how to implement it in game (not only importing, but replacing or adding a selectable weapon, what should be edited and where so the player can customize it, etc). It just seems like an awesome avenue not really explored in TDM before. Obs has kindly voluntereed to help me get some new weapons I was working on in game, but I got sidetracked by RL. Still, it could be something for the community. I could try and help you out with modeling work on the bow, if you want, something to help you out in return.
  15. I see, my friend. Thanks for the explanation. They do raise a few questions though: I see an amazing amount of work done already. It would be a shame to see it being wasted or not finalized because of excess of work. I would urge you to simplify the game, the setting and the map(s) to its minimal, optimal essentials. What do I mean by that? Though several arrows and plus a lot of modern weapons sound good, and thats the staple for scifi shooters, that just seems like a daunting task, not only to implement, but also to balance, since you are getting more and more into game design territory (as farther away you get from the stabilished tdm engine). You could argue that you could use Doom 3 mechanics, rescue them and reimplement, thus saving you a lot of the trouble, but one would have to discuss if even that game had a good shooting mechanics in itself. Not only that but doom AI lacks things we need in a modern shooter, specially since they are human and not monsters - taking cover and different firing animations/strategies for example. As far as player weapons go, I think you could solve a lot of the problem and actually further your idea if you were to make the player stick with only hisunique weapons (and not be able to use others). You could make them a part of the player, like megaman. Or they are the only weapons he uses, his special, custom made weapons that hold everything he needs. This way you can have the enemies carrying generic guns and not worry how to implement loads of different weapon and animations to your game. The player weapon should then be extra special and cool to carry the whole game on their own. As for the AI, you could salvage some of the simplistic behaviours in the doom 3 soldiers, and then make it a matter of map design. You would need to create maps where the player is never against a bunch of soldiers in full frontal battles (where you would expect them to take cover, flank you and the like). It should always be about lone enemies, small spaces, being taken down by the player by surprise. Im not saying you need to take these suggestions in, or limit your vision. Im just saying that by making strong design decisions like these you will be able to focus solely on what you would need to make the experience work, giving yourself a much more realistic workload...
  16. Im very interested in taking a look at this new hud weapon, thats certainly amazing work from you Mircea! How do you plan on making it work in game, design wise? Will it be the main weapon, have different arrow types and the like?
  17. After reading Springheel's remarks, Im now happy I passed on watching this on the cinema. Sure, I might catch the movie sometime on netflix or something, but unlike most of you, I was already pretty disappointed with episode 7, and had no intention on keep following the series anymore. The new triology came up with a lot of potential, and indeed the visual part of it is very good. The actors were fine, I like Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver a lot (they are both on Inside Lewin Davis, brilliant film, watch that. Oscar Isaac is also acting alongside Domhnall Gleeson on Ex-Machina, very good film, watch that one as well)... Anyway, they somehow revived the original cast, a lot of money behind it, a lot of possibilities for new talent and new directions now that George Lucas was not hogging it. But instead of going wild and being cool, they blow it big time, pathetically choosing to do a blatant remake of the original film at the same time as presenting a convulated sequel to the classic triology. That was too bizarre for me. They did the same with Terminator, a mix of remake and sequel in a single movie. Jurassic world was in the same vein, it takes place after the original and references it, at the same time it "reimagines" it in absurd ways. All of them resulted in rushed and ridiculous pieces of film, compared the original material they were taking their stuff from. Im not even being the "get off my lawn" old guy, that likes his things the way he remembers them - with todays talent and computer technology, theres so much potential for reimiagining inspirational works of the past. Its just that the market wont allow it, I guess. The positive part of episode 7 were the new storylines introduced, like Rey looking for a mentor in Luke, the new villains, how they were going to clash with the new (and old) good guys. But appearently they didnt really take advantage of what they had to work with, based on the viewer reviews Ive been reading. So I guess I'll comment more when I see this on a friends house or cable tv. They sure wont miss my puny reais (the currency here). They are doing better than ever. For the record Im not a big star wars fan nowadays but I do still enjoy the fantasy setting quite a lot. I liked Rogue One, specially the vader scene at the end. They even realeased a Darth Vader limited series on comicbooks that I felt really captured the spirit of the character (I was really surprised, most if not all star wars comicbooks I had perused seemed like complete crap). The art alone is worth checking out an issue or two. It was done by Gillen (writter) and Larroca (artist). It gets a bit colorful during the run but the tone of it still managed to remain respectful and accurate to the character, at least in my view. It goes from 1 to around 25 issues. In case anyone missed that and is looking for something star wars that is recent and still cool.
  18. I shall test this my friend, havent used lwo before (usually stick to ase), so this sounds pretty good.
  19. Could you please say more about this project? Its the same engine Motorstep was working on, isnt it? Wheres he anyway? Ive been out of the loop.
  20. Quality of the models is amazing, fantastic work as always Epi. I think people are finding it harder to see them blending in game because they are in their gray form, but when fully textured Im sure they would fit right in, specially considering how good a texturer Epi is. Glad you beat me to it. I particularly like the second one, even though the first is awesome and a lot more complex. Its just that Im a minimalist. Like simple designs more.
  21. You could make the player character have some sort of "superhero" code in the way he wont use firearms (like batman) and has mastered the use of the bow (like the green arrow). This could be a way to portray him as someone who despite his surroundings, basicly uses the same tool set as the thief guy. You could also conceive of a much more advanced steampunk scenario, where its a high tech future but for cultural reasons people still prefer to wield some medieval inspired weapons, like the lords still carry cerimonial swords, and the police still use them instead of clubs, etc. If you plan this right, you could have a very limited array of modern weapons to deal with, basicly what you want the guards to be carrying, they could be limited to the type of mechanics doom3 had, and cut back on the amount of new animations you would need, as well as new art. It does feel a bit odd to load up TDM, with its antique look and menu design, to play futuristic missions. I think that would be okay for your proof of concept, but if you plan on having a few more missions based on your future setting, you would probably benefit greatly from "forking" a TDM with your own custom menus, help page, loading screens and the like.
  22. Whoa, thats stunning! Love the haze, the lighting... Amazing to see something like thqt in Tdm.
  23. Like Demagogue says, its crucial to have a vision. Not your average dystopian setting with the usual bad guys and sci fi aesthetics, but rather a strong and unique take that can be easily adpated to what the TDM engine can do well. I mean, look at this video Lowenz just posted, look at the amount of work that goes into imagining the scenario and its parts. And thats mostly only concept art, imagine the amount of work needed to bring that to life. Specially nowadays, with games like the new deus ex and others, that offer a playing environment that is far more detailed and rich thananything a non professional project can hope to achieve. What can a fan mod with a crew of one or a handful of people do then, in a futuristic environment, where you need to create a living city scape, consider vehicles, complex interfaces, a lot of new graphical elements (explosions, new particles, etc), provide a good ballistic mechanics for firearms, new AI routines, etc, etc? Well, you have to plan it very carefully. Its good Demagogue pointed out Snatcher. I would also take a look at the old adventure Blade Runner game. Its that sort of inspiration that could actually help you coming up with a set of missions that feel rich, but are actually extremely self contained and thus possible to be managed by a small team of creators. Look into adventure games. You could see TDM as an adventure game, that doesnt confine you to rails, but actually gives you freedom to explore and interact. Dont try to match the scale in modern sci fi games, you simply cant. Come up with a strong, minimalistic story that needs to take place in contained, dense little spots of gameplay. Put effort on physical storytelling (not so much texts), on interaction, less on open world chaos, cutscenes and the like. Thats possibly a way of advancing your project, and inspiring others to help.
  24. Sorry to be a bit of a downer about this, always loved the blade runner movie since my teens, but Im not one of those die hard fans that worship something. I was very open to this new one, I like a lot of Villeneuve works, Rayn Gosling is a pretty cool guy and talented actor, so I thought this could be great. And it is great, in way, as an art direction feat. The aesthetics is definitely on par with the first. The cinematography is amazing. A lot of attention to detail. The story itself had potential. And thats basicly where it failed for me. You see, unlike a lot of people, I didnt miss harrison fords character at all. In fact, whenever the movie went too much into self reference, bringing back old characters and architecture, it felt wrong and unnecessary. When harrison shows up and the movie focus shifts from the main character to his story, it felt too much like pandering, to the fan base. Its not like the ending wasnt ok, its that there was a blade runner movie that could have been done, but was cut short in order to focus on what happened to an old character. Its a classic case of answering questions that shouldnt be answered, that should be left to the viewers imagination. It would be the same as trying to explain the replicants "origin story", from the first film. The whole thing just felt like a wasted opportunity to me, because it tried too hard to be a sequel. When in blade runner, its not really the characters we wanna know about, its the questions raised by that vision of the future that should be the focus.
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