The Dark Mod Grand Christmas FM Contest!

[Baddcog]

Yeah, awesome shot.

 

Patrols are VERY easy. Much the same as dromed, create path_corners (corners seems misleading as the AI don't have to turn there, but I guess you don't have to put them in a straight line ) and link them together.

Even cooler is you can make a spider web out of them and get awesome 'random' patrols real easy.

 

Like link A to B, B to A and the guard will patrol back and forth. Link B to C and the guard will randomly choose to go back to A or on to B. Link C to D to E and E to A and you have 2 loops. Really cool, I set up 5 patrols in about an hour.

 

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I thought I would have a mission done by Thanksgiving, but I have brush cleanup to do, books, goals, skybox.... Got sidetracked by models, clean-ups and am low on motivation. So that missions gonna take longer and I don't think I'll be seeing any progress on an X-Mas one, but do plan on getting this one out before then I hope.

I won't be submitting it though, I had quite a bit of a head start.

[RailGun]

Well after a bit of thinking i decided to enter the contest with a very small mission (rougly 10 rooms), it won't be an architectural marvel but it will pack some interesting gameplay elements

Here is a WIP screenshot

 

[Sonosuke]

I think this looks very good! and playing a small mission can be really nice. My map is small too but i am very slow

[Komag]

I like it! But the light colors should be closer to the same I think, since they are both flames, so probably both more orange/yellowish, rather than that pinkish torchlight

[SiyahParsomen]

building, decoration, lighting 40%

 

AI, objectives, sound, 10%

 

I have been making my new map for the competition since last week. I suspended the previous map that I have worked due to it's potential. That means it'll be a big map later. Anyway, you can consider me in a hopeless stage, but I'm sure that I'll finish it before christmas. It's the smallest one in the competition that's about 9-10 rooms. And the most important thing is I want to prove it myself that it is really possible to do it in about a month.

[Fidcal]

Small is good. Small is do-able. Small can still be a fun game. Look at Thief's Den with only about 4 rooms in the house. We'll all have fun playing your FM and you gain valuable experience you can use on your larger FM. Everyone's a winner.

[Neb]

 

I have been making my new map for the competition since last week. I suspended the previous map that I have worked due to it's potential. That means it'll be a big map later. Anyway, you can consider me in a hopeless stage, but I'm sure that I'll finish it before christmas. It's the smallest one in the competition that's about 9-10 rooms. And the most important thing is I want to prove it myself that it is really possible to do it in about a month.

 

Haha, I'm in just about the same position too. Quite a learning experience.

 

 

 

[SiyahParsomen]

2 weeks remains...

 

no panic!

[aidakeeley]

2 weeks remains

 

Alright okay yeah...

 

But you've got to explain that quote in your sig now, okay?

[Melan]

2 weeks remains...

no panic!

 

No panic, but mine will probably be a late entry. I am defending my PhD on Monday (yeah, yeah), and will still have so much late year work after that that I probably won't finish, and the time after Christmas will be reserved for a Dromed1 speedbuilding project like last year. So, January looks like it. I could just say that I will ship no matter what, but I'd rather not submit something I am not happy with. Plus I need to discover if the performance hit in the central area of the mission is due to hardware, too much detail, internal leaks (probably not) or what.

[Fidcal]

Alright okay yeah...

 

But you've got to explain that quote in your sig now, okay?

When you're free you have decisions to make and challenges to face. Risks may have to be taken and courage may be needed. You have to worry about safety, shelter, food, and many other things. But in chains everything is taken care of. If it's only bread and water once a day then so be it - but there's nothing you can do about anything so let it be.

[Melan]

Maslow would have a field day with that quote.

[Fidcal]

Yes, I was going to write a theory of human motivation myself but when I found Maslow had already done one I thought "nah, what's the point."

[SiyahParsomen]

 

 

@aidakeeley

it's a quote from the trial directed by welles, or you can read its novel by kafka.

 

@fidcal

infact, it's releated with the case of K. but you are close.

 

@melan

so, you have too much things to do in RL like me. I hope there'll be some fms, otherwise there'll be no winner.

[SneaksieDave]

@Melan:

I am defending my PhD on Monday

If it's not too off topic (it is... should probably be a separate OT post I guess) and not too personal (maybe?), what is your field?

 

We certainly have our share of physics PhDs around here (3 I think?), a lawyer I believe, 10+yr devs, and maybe other grad level disciplines, but I'm not sure. I'm just curious. I was going for PhD in chem, but was one year complete before deciding, well, bluntly... "yeah, screw this." For me it was just a matter of (finally) listening to my own desires instead of plodding ahead with what others advised.

[Melan]

Economics / regional studies; more specifically, my dissertation is on the restructuring of industrial regions in Central Europe. It has been a long, long endeavour, and it is finally getting close to its conclusion unless I get hit by a speeding truck over the weekend. Just to be safe, I will be sticking to pedestrian streets for the time being.

 

I am not surprised there is a higher number of PhDs among modders/level builders; while obviously very different, they require similar skills and interests - long-term commitment, an analytical mindset and a good dose of creativity. That, and then there is the geek factor of course.

[SneaksieDave]

Bingo.

[Mortem Desino]

Very cool. My analytical mindset probably comes from my currents studies in (major) Classical Greek, (major) Ancient Hebrew, and (minor) Classical Latin. And my dad's a software engineer.

 

I should probably mention that my FM is around half done (geometry-wise) but I postponed it so I can work jointly with GoldChocobo. Though it is nice to see some pretty pictures come out of the community, I can't wait to see complete little missions (think Thief's Den, Closemouthedshadows size).

[Neb]

Not surprised at any of you.   Only just found my calling and hopefully by next year I'll be studying molecular biology.

 

As for my mission - it's probably going to be delayed until I get off this bloody laptop. I'm finding it too hard to work with unfortunately. For the moment I might have a go at making some prefabs for others (if they turn out any good).

 

 

[HappyCheeze]

Not surprised at any of you. Only just found my calling and hopefully by next year I'll be studying molecular biology.

 

 

 

 

Excellent.

 

I plan on majoring in Biology. I was thinking marine biology, but the more I study bio, the more I want to study all of it

[aidakeeley]

Yes, I was going to write a theory of human motivation myself but when I found Maslow had already done one I thought "nah, what's the point."

 

 

Anyway, I still don't understand why it's in your sig, Siyah. It's certainly not meant as anything but an example of extreme nihilism. Are you a nihilist?

 

You know, though, the safest thing of all is to be dead; then you don't have to worry about much. No 2 weeks to anticipate... no panic at all... sort of bliss... er... eh... um... ?

[Garreth]

damn 2 weeks is not much i am still learning, i want to create a mission that never gets old or unfunny the audio ideas i have in mind are pretty much way over the top, u will see, funny shit good times. Good thing i have some experience with FPS creator, atleast i know what segments and entity's are, it will propably be something for begin next year.

Nice work on all the missions so far, although they are a little to dark, the light should radiate much further, so it is in real life, i hope i can adjust that in the builder.

 

Edit - The darkness was a shader issue i had to put a shader option on fast, since it was not showing any textures outside the light radius of candles and torches, it was pitch black even with brightness and gamma all the way up.

Edited December 5, 2009 by Garreth

[Fidcal]

You can certainly adjust the radii of lights (or should that be radius of lights?) but the reason why most are kept limited is because of performance issues. Try to avoid overlapping lights, especially shadow-casting lights.

[Xonze]

I'm having a small issue at the moment. I started a map on the sixth and it's been working all along. Today I add a few brushes for molding and started to play with AI. Now on loading the mouse pointer appears and the game crashes. I've deleted all AI in the map and it still does it. I've looked at the console and there isn't anything major that I can see besides a couple of warnings, but I might of missed something. I'm at a loss, and kinda annoyed because I've gotten pretty far in 3 days so any help would be appreciated.

 

Other missions work without a problem so it doesn't seem to be a problem with DM. I've also went in and deleted everything from the folder (cm and the like) and that didn't do anything to help.

 

I've attached the Dmap console dump as it's too long to post imo. If there is a way for spoiler tags or something so that it doesn't become super long let me know and I'll post it in that.

 

Thanks

dmap.txt

[Mortem Desino]

I don't see anything wrong with the dmap info (Although it was a good idea to delete the proc, aas, and cm files; sometimes you can get a bogus dmap compile.) Something must be happening at runtime: and that usually means a bad spawnarg, a target problem, or another entity problem.

 

If you don't mind, you can upload your map for one of us to to look at. Sometimes the problem is far from obvious, and another set of eyes is always good.