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Things that could be improved


Berny

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It should be possible to replicate the 2D 'shouldered person' images from T1 and T2 (not the 3D hand-holding-body view model, the little pictures of Garrett carrying someone) using the shouldered_icon spawnarg, according to its description. I don't believe anyone has ever yet made extra icons for that, though.

Some things I'm repeatedly thinking about...

 

- louder scream when you're dying

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I was rather not so much thinking about an icon rather than an actual body (part) of the unconscious body that actually hangs in front of you. This would at least reduce the need to create an extra 2D image for every AI anew.

 

Anyway, thanks a lot for the detailed replies, everyone! :) Glad to know that the campaign mode is already in place, hehe.

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I just checked myself and (at least on the homepage), there are only three campaigns so far. But it is a lot of work and many authors prefer to get their missions out there as soon as they are finished and after that are not motivated enough to wrap them up in a campaign (which also requires some work, so I completely understand that).

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There already is an icon. It's a hand icon, and it indicates you're holding something and your hands are occupied.

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Yes, though presumably the spawnarg is there in case a mapper wants to override the default with something else for a given ragdoll.

 

Edit: hmm. I just tried the spawnarg on a ragdoll entity and I'm still seeing the standard hand icon.

 

Edit 2: okay, at some point that spawnarg seems to have become defunct. 'Hand occupied' icons are defined globally in guis/tdm_inv.gui:

windowDef InvOccupiedIconRight
		{
			rect		565, 0, 64, 64
			visible		1
			matcolor	1, 1, 1, "gui::HUD_Opacity"
			background	"guis/assets/hud/inventory_icons/hand_occupied_right"
		}

		windowDef InvOccupiedIconLeft
		{
			rect		15, 0, 64, 64
			noclip		1
			visible		1
			matcolor	1, 1, 1, "gui::HUD_Opacity"
			background	"guis/assets/hud/inventory_icons/hand_occupied_left"
		}
Edited by VanishedOne

Some things I'm repeatedly thinking about...

 

- louder scream when you're dying

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Somebody could experiment with making an AI body (or a copy of it) around the hip or upper-leg area render in front of the player, but maybe somehow nonphysical or outside the world, so it's not actually "there" in that it won't affect movement & always gets rendered on top of world objects, so it works icon-ishly. I don't know if it's a good approach and am not even optimistic, but it'd be interesting to see for fun.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Weapon 'view models' presumably have the non-physical part already. I don't know what it would take to get a 'shouldered body' view model def. looking good.

Making a ragdoll display like an icon might be possible in a GUI renderDef, but I think I saw in an old thread somewhere that one of the reasons we have an icon-based HUD is that you can't specify a skin for display in a renderDef.

 

Edit: I dug up http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/3614-pak-springs-thread/?p=65933on md5s in renderDefs. Apparently there might be fish-eye complications.

Edited by VanishedOne

Some things I'm repeatedly thinking about...

 

- louder scream when you're dying

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Somebody could experiment with making an AI body (or a copy of it) around the hip or upper-leg area render in front of the player, but maybe somehow nonphysical or outside the world, so it's not actually "there" in that it won't affect movement & always gets rendered on top of world objects, so it works icon-ishly. I don't know if it's a good approach and am not even optimistic, but it'd be interesting to see for fun.

 

 

They did this in TDS. I don't think it would be terribly difficult to do--you'd need a specific animation to put the AI in the right pose, and then you def attach it to the player (and probably make it nonsolid).

 

The question is whether it would be desirable in the long run. If the body moves when you turn your view, then you lose the ability to imagine you're turning your head. Like in TDS (and T4), turning your view immediately turns your body as well. If the body doesn't move when you turn your view, you lose the ability to see what's on the right of you.

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That's true, though they're a lot less obtrusive on screen than a body would be.

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We made a mechanic to (sort of) address that with held objects, a delay in their rotation making tham lag behind the view.

 

Edit. And the remaining annoyance to visibility seems fair, considering you're carrying a body.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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If you expect, not to throw the body over your shoulder, but carry it only with one arm over each shoulder (not sure how realistic it actually is, to carry an unconcious body that way), you would not have the problem of blocking one whole side of your field of vision, but could still look over the arms. It would impede vision, but not block everything in one side. Maybe this would be an option?

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If the body moves when you turn your view, then you lose the ability to imagine you're turning your head.

Which player movement should feel like turning the thief's head? When I move the mouse I don't imagine he/she turns the head. If I move the mouse a certain angle and press forward, I walk in this direction. So mouse movement feels more like whole body turning to me.

 

@VanishedOne: How did I deserve this honor? :D

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When I move the mouse I don't imagine he/she turns the head. I

 

 

So when you look behind you on a ladder you imagine that you turn your body all the way around and stand backwards? It's one thing that's always bothered me about full body awareness--you can't just look over your shoulder or glance back and forth without actually turning in place (complete with footstep sounds in T4).

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On a ladder, 'forward' and 'back' become up and down (depending on vertical view orientation); you don't detach from the ladder and move away from it unless you jump. I'd guess I'm supposed to be twisting my torso at least, since a neck doesn't rotate all that far.

 

@VanishedOne: How did I deserve this honor? :D

I was struck by the sinister undertones, I suppose...

Some things I'm repeatedly thinking about...

 

- louder scream when you're dying

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I have two suggestions...

 

I would like to have the option to complete a mission whenever I wish. E.g. In non Dark Mod fms I can complete by using Ctl+Alt+Shift+End.

 

I would also like to be able to write my comments beside each FM, as in Darkloader, where I can see at a glance, my opinions on each FM played

 

I started reading this forum to see if it had been suggested but there are too many pages to scan through, so my apologies if it has been said.

 

Thanks

fosig_zpshhfnjs18.png

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I would also like to be able to write my comments beside each FM, as in Darkloader, where I can see at a glance, my opinions on each FM played

 

 

This is a wuite common suggestion. The Mission Download Menu is currently being redesigned. Maybe you can suggest it in the respective thread: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17332-improved-mission-menu/

I don't know, how the work on that is going though...

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It might be nice to force success of all the objectives so you can see the stats screen even without finishing an FM, eg, if you wanted to confirm you really ghosted it to that point, or any other reason.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Stats are accessible to scripts while the mission is running, so it shouldn't be necessary to meddle with objectives in order to cook up a way to view them mid-mission.

 

"Stats are accessible to scripts" is still a ways from all the information being displaced in a nicely organized table.

 

(Actually I know about them anyway because I did a major rehaul of the stats screen back in the day to get it to look how it looks now to begin with, and I had to track down all the stat info for that. Edit: Well, that was for the sourcecode. It's still good to know we can get that info in-game by script too.)

 

Anyway, I wouldn't be opposed to somebody making a mid-mission stats screen mechanic we can drop into missions for the task.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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