Things that could be improved

[Wallace]

Has anyone considered making the zoom function of the bow optional? Maybe the right click could zoom if/when the player wanted it to.

[demagogue]

Re AI & ropes, pathfinding isn't going to work with it. An AI would have to include all walls and ceilings and ropes in the pathfinding, and somehow link them to floors at different levels, then handle and animate the rope climbing and jumping. That sounds nightmarish to code.

 

What a mapper might try is rope arrow sequences that are specifically scripted, like nodes triggering a rope arrow animation or jumping onto an existing rope, and animate climbing it to a prearranged place to jump off.

 

A more realistic project would be AI climbing ladders.

[Hecateus]

Somehow the game Aliens Vs Predator from waaaay back in 1999 managed to do it....and for it's immediate sequel. And that also got modded extensively. So it is doable...perhaps for a TDM 3.0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dItKT7q8ybo

 

edit: incidently source code for AVP is in the wild iirc.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Hecateus

[rich_is_bored]

Got a video where an AI does that? All I see is a player crawling around on walls and ceilings.

 

I like the idea of giving spiders the ability to navigate on all surfaces. It would help operatively differentiate them from other enemies. But that's a huge task when you consider spiders would be the only capable AI and the bar has moved quite a bit since 1999.

 

Path finding is one huge problem. Natural movement is equally as difficult. I imagine you'd have to gut and replace so much AI and animation related code you might as well tackle flying birds and swimming fish. It's as cool as it is unlikely. Maybe you can talk a computer science department at a university into using TDM as a platform for student research projects.

[demagogue]

And it'd be so much easier to just attach them to a nurb and fake it for a one-shot set piece.

[stumpy]

the avp game uses a volume pathfinding system, so each room/corridor is a path volume and all the ai move through those volumes with flags on the volumes depending on how an AI goes through that volume, so the alien doesn't stick to the walls it sticks to the inner side of the pathfinding volume.

a bit like the sound propagation system in the dark project engine, t1 and t2.

[Airship Ballet]

volume

[stumpy]

volume

(ˈvɒljuːm) n1. (Units) the magnitude of the three-dimensional space enclosed within or occupied by an object, geometric solid

[Airship Ballet]

...and now it doesn't look like a real word.

[demagogue]

Just so you know, none of them are real.

We just all agree that this arbitrary combination of letters means this or that.

 

Edit. Wait a second, the German word for volume is Volumen? (￢￢)

[demagogue]

But for the record, volume pathfinding with the kinds of searching algorithms our AI do sounds devilishly perverse! Could you imagine the hellish existence of a spider searching 3D space for the player, throwing up their cords all over in a frantic scurry to fish the player out of empty air? Why would we torture them like that?! XD

[Hecateus]

Got a video where an AI does that? All I see is a player crawling around on walls and ceilings.

 

https://youtu.be/BsLPOiYzFPA?t=270 shortly after this point. They are clearly moving on walls, though the Aliens prefer to stay on the same orientation as the player.

[Springheel]

What's with the giant signature Dem?

[demagogue]

That giant signature has to be a bug in the forum code. It inexplicably pops up every 20th post or so. But when I make a new post it often reverts back to the proper one (I think, let's see now).

 

I don't know why it's just mine & not others. It's not my doing, that's for sure!

[Springheel]

At the moment all your sig images are a large dolphin pic. Wasn't like that yesterday.

[demagogue]

We might move this detour. But for the record, below is a screenshot of what I see now. My normal sig.

 

The thing is I know exactly which giant dolphin sig you mean because I've seen it before. The first time it gliched I asked about it. I thought someone was playing a prank on me. But then it was gone the next day. The fact that you see it now & I don't adds to the mystery. It's something fishy.

 

Edit. I found it. This is the first post I noticed it and commented about it:

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/14802-tdm-is-frequently-crashing-on-intel-hd-4000/?p=370581

 

Edit2. If I had to bet on the problem, my only guess is something in the retrieval code sometimes glitches and it sends the wrong request out, and that dolphin sig just coincidentally has the number or place in memory that it finds there.

 

[Springheel]

Huh. That's bizarre. Anyone else see it or is it only me?

[Destined]

I only see his normal sig image

[SteveL]

Same here. I see the tiny sig.

[Hecateus]

I saw the dolphin pic while I was at work...working...mostly.

 

I don't see it now...just the small "Free Radio Dem" thing.

 

edit...Both using Chrome btw. Although at home I run a large amount (too much) of ad blockers. Work just has an above average firewall...where I 'work' =D

Edited July 1, 2015 by Hecateus

[Destined]

I use Firefox with AdBlock Plus and NoScript

[Springheel]

Now it's back to normal.

[SteveL]

Most weird! I'd love to know what happened.

[Bikerdude]

Same here. I see the tiny sig.

+3

[RPGista]

Yeah, I get the dolphin pic as well, been seeing it for a while, thought it was deliberate all along. Kinda weird, but I had seen worse forum'ing around.