RPGista
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Posts posted by RPGista
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You should have a "Delete my vote" option... no?
Actually, all I can see is: "You have already voted in this poll"... Looked everywhere, a word search doesnt show anything. Maybe the new layout changed it?
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Hmmm... I made a huge mistake - is it possible to withdraw my vote? I voted 3 stars for "Aesthetics" but I was thinking on the architecture only, which I thought was a bit simple at times, but now that I actually made the effort to READ the rest of the description, I see now that it also includes lights, sounds and mood, what makes my vote pretty damn stupid... How can I change that? I DO want to change that, not just express it here, as it simply doesnt do the mission justice (I'll also blame my mistake on the bright font
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This sure gave me the creeps!
I really like the autumn feel of it, the dead leaves everywhere, falling from the trees... The gradual scripted scenes and small, disturbing sounds are a great way of advancing through the map, I specially liked the windowed hall before getting into the storage area of the house, where the candles fall off, or the sureal skulls that appear and disappear on the plates in the dining room... You are left alone exploring those empty spaces and it sets the mood very well, this sense of lonileness. Buts it's when you go into the well and through the tunnels that this really shines, some brilliant moments of freezing terror, with the first apparition, the angry tremors, and finally the evil spirit itself. When I saw it the first time through the screamings Irealised it was hurting me so I fled like a little kid through the place, blindly looking for the exit (in fact, it's pretty fortunate there's just an obvious single hall as a way out, if it meant running through a sort of maze or black corridors, this would be even scarier).
An awesome display of scripted effects and animations that were as good as some of the best moments in F.E.A.R, makes me think what you could have accomplished with a full blown horror mission, without the time constraint. The only issue for me was the overall architecture, that even with some nice moments (the tower with the chandelier, that windowed hallway, the tree patio area, the crypt), was also a bit too bare and simplistic at times, of course due to the time thing, but that's my only possible criticism. Or maybe another one, even though the overall idea of a strange family that likes doing the occasional profane rituals in the crypts below their house was a nice one, there was barely any texts explaining what they do, why they do it and why it would all go wrong like that (maybe the rituals woke up some entity?). Of course the final part shouldnt be advertised at all, but I think more information on the family and their reasons would be great, it took me a few seconds to realise the dead people were actually them, for example (right?), and not some poor passers-by killed and dragged there, or something like that.
Amazing work, really enjoyed this.
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Thank you. I see now why would a shared layer be useful, hadn't thought about that... I was hoping it could somehow work the way I tried to describe though, but I don't mean to suggest any drastic changes, I'm really glad DR has layers, it's super important, specially because I find the perspective navigation to be very clumsy and do most of my work on the ortho views (which would be nightmare without layers).
Even if you can't know what layers an obect is assigned to, being able to "select all by layer" helps a lot.
Just one more question, is there a way of choosing which layer you want your objects to be created in? Or is it always going to be created in the default layer, needing to be changed manually? (Basicly, a kind of active layer option)
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I don't know if this is important: Imagine I have all structural objects in my building first assigned to a general "structure" layer; I then have added all first floor structures to a "first floor structure", and the second floor ones to "second floor structure". If I turn off "structure" layer, all structure objects should disappear (regardless of the floor). If I turn off only "first floor structure", all first floor objects should disappear, but not the second floor ones, which were left on. I understand there's a problem with my reasoning, if you were to turn off the "structure" layer, all structural objects would disappear but you would still have the "first" and "second floor" layers on, which would be confusing (unless there was some kind of automatic tree structure that would turn off all "added" layers along with the original one)... In the current system, it seems that you would have to turn off both "first floor structure" and the main "structure" for the first floor objects to disappear. If you turn off just one of the layers, there's no effect at all, which is also confusing for me? What would be the point of adding more layers to an object, shouldnt I just create a "first floor structure" and "second floor structure" and forget about the common one?
Also, is there a way to check for what layer is a given object assigned to?
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Radiant for COD has built in blending painting, where you can manually make the transition between any of the game's textures. I think in DOOM3 you can only do that with imported 3d models that were previously painted in a 3d program like Blender or 3D studio. There are a couple of tutorials, but you would need knowledge on those 3d programs:
http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=12067
http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/idtech/vertex-texture-blending-applied-to-models.php
http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=DrVertexBlend_%28tutorial%29
Like the last tutorial says, NHAT3 uses it well to blend the road with the forest, and since you are going for a beach area, you should DEFINETLY check out NHAT2, the first area outside the hotel you begin in is a port/beach area with a huge caravel, complete with wave texture effects.
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Count me in, if I can help in something.
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Some of that architecture looks really good, I specially like some of the broken details and the sewer images. Awesome work guys.
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Hey Thor, welcome and nice to see you are already working on your own maps too. I'm not gonna comment so much on your issues (lets wait for the really experienced guys to come), but just regarding the day light in TDM, I would suggest you take a look at the maps Reap as you sow and Winter harvest. Both of them feature day light (the first even has a neat new system for AI's alertness since you cant hide in the drakness outside, based on restricted areas). Also, take a look at this tutorial, might help:
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To aluminuimhaste and bikerdude - Thanks a lot, but I would be embarassed, it's basicly just a big model of all the spaces I want to create for my first mission. I wanted to do a working model (without texture work, decorations, complex modeling) of the map first to see if I can get everything right before going on for the true architecture creation. I did get sidetracked though on some experimenting like the dome or the interior, but they are not to be explored any further, so there's no point in fixing them, I'm glad I'm getting a lot of things sorted out at this stage. When I get that model ready and a working gameplay experience to speak of, I'll be sure to send it to you guys, if you still want.
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Great work guys. Untill the fix is out, just remember: cold assassination is the way to go!
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Thanks for the answer. It does SEEM to have something to do with either that first beam or the fact it's close to that cut up wall, because I was testing the other beams with a candle and their shadows behave normally. And like I said, I have this WIP dome in the next room that has a lot of patch clipping and I get no problems. Static lights don't seem to be a problem either, I only get that effect when I'm creating dynamic shadows...
The dome with static light
And a dynamic light (no problems)
The same aforementioned room with both static and candles around (but not moving)
Now with dynamic light moving around (I noticed the rest of the beams dont create any problems)
Okay, I'll stop flooding the topic now, it just seems as a strange clipping effect that is harmless, I should probably just be more careful in the future.
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I even blackjack sleeping AIs, because I wouldn't want a noise to wake them up while I'm searching the area for valuables.
Haha, that's just mean...
That's not really a trick, but I always try to thrust the blade right at their faces when they discover me and charge like crazy. It's a pretty neat way of finishing the fight before it even starts, but really hard to get right against armored guys. The chest is usually good too. You can hit them clean when they are about to swing (specially useful on hardest because they are so damn good at blocking and can sometimes be impenetrable) - but if you don't kill him, you are sure to get hit back without being able to block.
I like also throwing small objects to knock down candles instead of arrows when available (thanks, awesome object manipulating system), they have the advantage of not being noticed as a weapon by the guards (but can be quite noisy, depending on which one it is). That can also somtimes work well as a substitute for a noisemaker arrow, throw something into a corner.
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Yes, I had recently inserted two houses in the map kind of violently and there were a bunch of holes between the existing areas and the new buildings, closing the "leaks" seemed to solve the problem (note that they were not real leaks, as there's a bounding sky box sealing everything). Thanks a lot. I also haven't done any visportals or clips yet, I'm basicly just experimenting with geometry, but now I see that even that has to be carefully done...
BTW, since I'm here, is there any particular reason I should be getting this display problem? Noticed in this little house only, I did use a bunch of CSG subtraction operations on the walls, the roof and walls (exterior) have sections covered with modeled patches, and the beams are all non-orthogonal brushes. It doesnt really flickers on "sections" of the wall brush for example, it kind of follows me when I move the candle around. Strangely, there's a room with much more radical patch intersections and I don't get a single issue in there (or the rest of the map, as far as I could see).
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Not really sure if DR specific, but: I'm having problems playing a test map, for the first time. It was mostly a rough layout of a city fragment, basicly boxes that I'm now filling with geometry to practise architecture building in DR. I was loading fine, but in the last couple of days I worked on addind patch details to an existing house, as well as a rather complex dome. I can dmap but when I try to play it it gives me an error message: "1>- MAX_REACH_PER_AREA". Scrolling the dmap report I see that I'm getting a bunch of "nodes without volume" warnings. Is this a common error, what should I look for? I thought it might have something to do with the patches and subdivided them all to the least I could, but it didnt make a difference.
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The problem is, I can't remember the original state they were in when they caused the problem, and it's impossible to know because they now load in different positions all the time. I will then try a few combinations tomorrow with new AI (or the same) and see if I can get some kind of logic going, in my case.
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Went back to this place I was sure the ragdolls were getting mangled. It seems that it has been pretty violent, there were objects on the floor that were standing up normally when last I passed by there, and a close by door was half opened for some reason. There were two bodies there, first time I saw it, both of them had been trhown into the dining room, rolled up. I put them back into the hall between the kitchen and the dining room, many loads later and one of them seem to be behaving noramlly now, but the other is still being thrown around randomly, I took a few pics to illustrate (of how he was placed between immediate load games):
It seems that if the bodies are placed well away from objects or walls, they will behave normally, but it could be only my impression. It does make the mission highly difficult because whenever you leave a body behind, all sort of unpredictable problems might arise...
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I will go with Flood in praising Shadowhide's ambition to create a fantasy tale, which deviates quite a lot from the classical stealth experience and invites you to forget all about the usual way of playing, and just go out and explore the misteries and the adventure.
Like I told Shadowhide, I always thought a game like Thief, or in this case, Dark Mod, could be a great platform for an "action-rpg", because it nails the most difficult part, believeable, intelligent and reasonable AI and overall great game mechanics, all that's missing is some interaction and some exploring/quests. This is exactly what we find here in this experiment.
Regarding version 1 and 2, I would say that one thing I really liked about the first try was that you had this barren, cold world that you had to explore and even though there was that sense of threat with all the darkness, ruins and death, the actual antagonistic moments were very few (2, to be exact), and I really liked that minimalistic choice (though I understand why others would find it uninteresting). Playing a second time, using the v2, I must say that Bikerdude's additions make everything look extremely good, there are a lot more detail, the church and the library in particular got an impressive overhaul, really competent work of improving the existing "feel". I welcomed the additional challenge, specially in the castle halls (QUITE hard to get past the guard post before the tower door), but I still believe the original scale had it's own merit, minimal enemy situations, just threat and exploration the rest of the time.
Like I mentioned before, putting the focus on npc interaction, puzzle solving and the beginnings of a "free roam" mentality in the Dark Mod universe was an intriguing choice and a mostly successful one (even if I agree with some of the criticism here, the interaction specially should be explained in some kind of FAQ included with the mission file, for those not getting it?). Even though the story is very concise and leaves a lot to the imagination, I enjoyed the "pagan lore" feel of it. The interaction system can be very unforgiven (if you miss a word, no way of knowing what to do), I don't remember but I think adding detailed objectives on the list after conversations would be a good way of solving this problem - something like "I think I trust that strange pagan wizard... I should look for the Book of Nature and return it to him (when you have it, 'drop' it in his cell).", just a suggestion).
Anyway, great effort for your first mission!
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I think the fight video might be a bit misleading because it was probably meant to showcase the new sounds and the more fluid, more natural upper body movement only (they are stationary so we can watch them closely?). In the context of the game, fights are generally a lot faster than the one in the video, where the AI seemed to have quite a bit of hitpoints (maybe just my impression). It usually takes me one or two hits to kill an opponent (maybe double that to kill me), and the parrying mechanics being so difficult by itself (to predict the direction of the hit and block it), I understand well why the enemies fight pretty much stationary, so the focus can be the duel of blows coming from all directions, being blocked and countered. Like it was said, the enemies will of course move "after" you, sometimes swinging, sometimes just to get in range again and prepare another attack. It would be great to have the enemies maybe moving around you a bit (and of course, things like dodging or leaping backwards for really elite swordfighters like assassins, etc), but I'm guessing those are, before anything else, artificial intelligence issues.
I really like the way they move in the video Tels linked. Of course it is the kind of acrobatics meant for a melee 3rd person game, and would not work with the heavy armored thief opponents and the complex duel mechanics, but I like the way they react, try to circle you and I think "some" fully animated attacks could potentially bring very interesting strategic depth - a kind of a leaping, full force, telegraphed over the head slash would be a great opportunity for the player to strafe and get a clean hit while the AI is recovering after having hit only the floor (would be unable to react while the animation is playing). But that's all speculations to improve a, in my opinion, already very good system.
BTW, the new animations are looking really good, can't wait to check them in game!
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I'm afraid I also got this problem yesterday, playing Heart of Lone Salvation (what a brilliant mission by the way...). I was sneaking around and saw that one of the noblemen had his sword drawn, but obviously he hadnt seen me yet (for some reason, it didn't tick the "don't get noticed" objective either). I thought that was weird, but then I found the reason, two other noblemen I had knocked out and placed next to the dining room were scattered around, twisted, right out in the open. Answering a few questions here: they were knocked out, not killed; they both had swords attached, and I remember stacking both bodies one over the other more or less. Other corpses seem to be fine, but there arent a lot of them and I'm yet to check all, since the map is so massive.
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You are more advanced than me then.
I'm taking my time trying to master the architectural modeling, specially how to mix brushes and patches to create interesting architectural details. Will probably post about my findings soon. Keep up the good work! -
Amazing work Narrator! Listening to this I couldn't help it but to feel I should probably hide deeper in the shadows of my room, just to be safe.
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I'm using Gensurf 1.9 (the one provided in the tutorial), checked and it seems to be the last updated version. Haven't had time to test the patch terrain or play test it, will do it tonight. Should I post this additional step in the original post?
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Delete
}
//entity 1
{
}
// entity 2
{
"name".......
"classname"......
"origin".....
}
and try importing the map again in DR.
EDIT: I just noticed that in Gensurf there's no option to use patches...I remember there was an option for that before.
Actually, like Grayman suggested, we do need to leave that first curly bracket OUT of the deleted group, it should be the last visible string, and now it works very well, for my latest terrain made with brushes (still going to test the patch version). So what worked for me was deleting:
//entity 1
{
}
// entity 2
{
"name".......
"classname"......
"origin".....
}
Again, leaving the first right curly bracket IN. Thanks a lot Aluminiumhaste and Grayman for all the help, this is brilliant!
Fan Mission:Dragon's Claw by b1k3rdude (31/10/2011) updated
in Fan Missions
Posted
I did get a freeze on the previous version - it lasted like 5 seconds but then I was back and had no more issues, it played normally after that.
Anyway, congrats on the release, you obviously put a lot of work into this!