RPGista

What if instead of a speaker the trigger activates a conversation? If that works, couldnt you have the ai looking at the player, and even play the greeting anim? Never knew you could bind working triggers and speakers to a npc...

Well, Im sure some guys who actually know what they are talking about will answer soon, but one possibility which I used in my own map was the set relations entity (http://wiki.thedarkm...s_%28Editing%29): a ) Neutral NPCs would change to a hostile team if you unlocked (triggered) a certain door next to them (would work the same if you trigger it from a simple or timed trigger); b ) I also wanted certain characters, when fleeing, to actually alert those same neutral NPCs and send them your way (they are friends inside the story, but from different teams); so they also activate the set relations entity when they pass through a trigger (knowing where they had to pass through when fleeing outside), making the NPCs friendly to them (automaticly behaving as allies from then on, answering to the call, etc). It was pretty limited, I remember Sotha (and possibly Fieldmedic) discussing a much broader and complex way to set this up... PS: In this situation, the sound responses will be often highly inconsistent (they'll shout things like "Aha! There you are!" and such inconvinient barks when you suddenly become "visible" to them).

So I was playing the alpha game from the guys that created Penumbra and I noticed they had a neat simple feature in regards to the way ambient light works - like Doom3/TDM, in that game if there are no ambient lights in the map, shadows are pitch black, but there's a radius around the player inside which details start to become visible (around 15-20 meters?) - you start to see things gradually as you aproach a pitch black area (would probably be a simple way of simulating better eye perception at close range). Technically you could say its a very subtle omnidirectional lamp attached to the player, and what is good about it is that you can still see things you need when you are reasonably close to them, but far away areas are hidden from you, keeping their mysteries and surprises. Not only that, but even this simplistic aproach is a lot more realistic than TDM's ambient world light washing over the whole map as far as you can see to infinity, that literally kills the sense of darkness in several overbright missions (not even talking about the way it makes most textures look bad and washed out). I was wondering if this could be added to the mod somehow as an optional feature, or if it could be accomplished by a mapper without needing to edit the engine - I can see many situations where it would be desireable to keep the player immersed in true darkness, but still able to barely see close by things as he investigates them. Its hard to see in this video because there are generally lights around, but its visible in the flare scene, he throws the flare but you can see that the area around him is brighter than the far corners of the room (which are pretty much completely dark): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaXDvR2sw-4

Well, considering Mount and Blade has/had quite the online gaming community, I would say TDM's similar melee combat could be very interesting for a "medieval deathmatch" if they choose to consider that option (though, in that case, I must say that the army battles probably play the larger role in the appeal of the game than the duels themselves). And yes, if you ask me, please no more generic arena shooters... EDIT: Seems they already started it, so probably a lot of planning is in it, discussions and time, pretty unlikely they would change their minds right now. EDIT 2: Actually, here you go, some fps duelling in M&B -

Just sent you a PM.

Thanks a lot for this, was able to use the converter to successfuly import a model into the mod (http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10003-so-what-are-you-working-on-right-now/page__view__findpost__p__288456), kind of a highpoly model, no preparations whatsoever, didnt give me any problems at all, very nice conversion, and also allowed me to skip the whole blender thing compeltely (looking for a script, testing the version, installing an older version, etc). Thumbs up!

So I was able to put that cave model I did into the game, using the most simple method possible. Looks pretty bad, but it is nice walking inside your own model. Stumpy - nice scene, but needs some good dirt scattered around, everything but the models look very clean and crisp! i30817 - Maybe it could work, but in my experience, and considering weeds, mud and water tend to be at specific areas of street geometry in real life, it is necessary to just go in there and place them all by hand, one by one...

Thanks, glad you enjoyed the mission and the little surprise.

Damn, I get tired just by looking at that row of entities and links... Great effort.

Hey, that sounds pretty cool, teaming up with your brother. Im afraid I cant help with none of the model and texture stuff (just getting into 3d game modeling myself), but good luck with your project and be sure to pass by the editors guild forum section if you have any questions regarding TDM own editor, Dark Radiant.

Haha, hate those closed-helmet guys, pretty hard to take down! Awesome work...

I was going to say that the public is different from genre to genre (but then I realised that the mods you mentioned are about the same game). TDM, being inside a very specific niche, cant expect to attract the same mass as other games attract not only because of more popular themes, but also because of association with new, more popular games than doom3 was. The question is more if TDM is being able to attract a big portion of the "sneaker" public, which is the only one it will. More important than that still, IMHO, is how invinting TDM really is to the creative people among those users, who would use it to create missions and express their vision through it. Just read about Greebo - he is a true master, hugely appreciate the work he's done with DR, some of which I witnessed.

Serpentines' blended edges sound pretty sweet... I guess mappers without huge experience in modeling and texturing will have to just keep drooling at the ability to blend and paint textures at will...

Great work.

Hehe, Archicad? Used to work in an office that used it, still havent really moved to BIM myself (if at all), but it is nice seeing someone thinking of using it for level making! Oddly enough, I remember reading somewhere (probably doom3world forums) that there was this guy who made a program that could convert archicad models directly to brushes (Doom's native geometry), kind of a masters thesis thing... I didnt try it at the time, wouldnt expect it to work very well to be sincere, but its an interesting aproach, as you can get buildings geometry done quite fast and precisely in archicad, unlike doing it manually in Dark Radiant (things like windows, slabs, roofs, doors, even details). Im looking into learning Revit instead, have you tried it? Do you have experience with Archicad?

Ahem... I PMed nbohr1more because Im not really participating on the contest; but indeed, congrats Serioustoni and Jysk, nice work!

Read somewhere that more historical studies could be nice, saw that project gutemberg has Vitrivius' Ten Books of Architecture in there, thought people could find some of the pics in there to be interesting. The text is pretty boring and descriptive, but the images are nice and rigorous, some people try their hand at classical architecture around here from time to time, maybe a more accurate reference would help, you'll get the proportions, the column orders and all the fun stuff - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20239/20239-h/29239-h.htm

Yeah, I was thinking, a month and already he's into moddifying materials? Good to hear someone with talent is looking into map making!

Thanks for clearing that up. No point in discussing the system any further as far as Im concerned. But I thought you would come up with some numbers! Those are guys are probably wanting to know by now.

Whoa boys, all I did was ask nbohr1more about something I thought was curious, whoever said the rating has shortcomings, or that it needs revision? Lets not take things too seriously, nor put words in peoples mouths. But yeah, I guess its up to nbohr1more.

Well, unless your talking about pac man or tetris, then sure, its all about the "gameplay", but in this kind of game (TDM), I wouldnt even know how to separate each aspect of the experience? Not going to insist on this as its just a detail, but I dont see why it would matter to anyone but the map creator what aspects of the mission resulted better; I would probably just judge missions as a whole, IMO, thats why I asked.

Yep, Im trying to learn them at the same time, also learning BIM because I cant stand the sight of a cad program anymore... All in a very limited free time slot, so, yeah... Thing about Rhino is that with tsplines and grasshopper, both plugins, it can come up with some amazing geometry - it is however a "dumb" app, you cant adjust things after they are done, there's no history, if you leave a gap or make a mistake, it couldnt care less. It does give you a lot of freedom, and thats enough for my purpouse (Im not a mechanical designer). Thats also something that attracts me to modeling oriented apps like hexagon and modo, they just go for it, unlike a program like 3D studio, say, with the whole stack system, and the absurdly complex UI. Actually, better get some studying done! Thanks for all the tips, looking foward to more tutorials once you find the time! PS: Cool bike seat, you are pretty fast!

Hehe, someone put a lot of thought into this, but Im not sure I understood something - gameplay has the same value as visual and story combined? Jysk and Serioustony do not have the same number of voters (considerable difference) - accounted for Im sure?

Well, if you take dives into proper sewage blackwater, not only would that be extremely traumatic to you, but anyone would be able to smell you from accross the street! I never go through the sewers in any game if I can avoid it because I instinctively think people will be able to realise Im covered in and dripping of the thing, which would definetely decrease my charisma (rpgs) or allow anyone to notice me even in complete darkness (TDM). No Im not advocating for another layer of reality in the mod, but it would be funny to be hiding about fresh out of the sewers and an AI would go "damn, whats that smell?". Nosslak - damn...

Pwl and Midnight - Thanks, nice to know you guys enjoyed it. I like that playstyle, fleeing from the peasants and looking for another way (loading only when you have to) - thats exactly how I play and would suggest everyone who dont to try, it can be great fun and is also the way to witness some unpredictable behaviour from the npcs. What I love about that book I used in the mission (in the library) is that it is so incredibly devastating - "new atheists" writters like Dawkins or Harris nowadays get a mountain of complaints because of how agressive they sound when criticizing belief/religion, but they dont get even close to this intensity of argument, and this was written centuries ago, so I thought it was a very curious book maybe more people would be interested in reading. Like I said elsewhere, architecture is an important element for me, as I believe it has to be detailed and rich, so you can get lost inside it, you can immerse yourself naturally. So it wasnt about wow factor, there are no majestic buildings anywhere, it was mostly about trying to make the world feel like a reasonable place, an ordinary place (which can be quite difficult, as they demand more sense then a totally alien space because we dont expect anything familiar from those). Plus some storytelling in there, with the little I knew of how to control the environment and the npcs.