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fllood

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_ATTI_ resumed the work on his abandoned map "Setting the Scene"

Edited by fllood
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"To rush is without doubt the most important enemy of joy" ~ Thieves Saying

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What about YOU, ST? Why not take it on? Youve done work for a hotel of sorts, a tavern and its guests. ;) Are you resting on your laurels, because you won that contest there like it says on top of your avatar? :D

 

Exactly. :D

"Einen giftigen Trank aus Kräutern und Wurzeln für die närrischen Städter wollen wir brauen." - Text aus einem verlassenen Heidenlager

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  • 11 months later...

Hey all. I'm a noob mapper and the thing I get stuck with is visualising how I'd like my maps to look. WRH looks absolutely fantastic, and while I have no intention of working on it as a new project, having the files to examine and look over would be pretty educational.

 

Any chance I can get a copy of the files for WRH?

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WRH is a massive map that is actually quite confusing to try and visualize from the map file. You'd be much better off with a smaller map, like the majority of the released missions.

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WRH is a massive map that is actually quite confusing to try and visualize from the map file. You'd be much better off with a smaller map, like the majority of the released missions.

Seconded, this really isn't a map for a new mapper. The original author Skacky was a senior Dromeder before making this map, Springheel and myself have both done work on this map and IMHO it need 2x seniors mappers working on it for 6 months to do it justice.

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WRH must be terribly confusing to try to look at or make sense of. But that's exactly why I want to look at the files. The best way to learn is to look at the work of a professional, and see how they work. Who better to learn from than the combined work of Skacky, Springheel and Bikerdude?

 

Being told how to use patches, split brushes, align textures etc is all good and well, but actually seeing it in action is another thing - and seeing the nuts and bolts behind it is even better!

 

I don't presume to be experienced enough to use the map itself, but just to see the behind-the-scenes work would be immensely helpful.

 

So, may I please take a look at the files for WRH?

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Just look at a complex completed FM like Behind Closed Doors, which is just as complex, more up to date in techniques, and freely downloadable.

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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  • 11 months later...

hello anyone know how it is that saccade get this affect becauses he not reply for a long time on discussion and not on steam for many months now. Thank you. Also blog with code is 403. so idk how to remake many thing that he made like camera or motion senser or these thing. Also channel is empty and so only link to videos work now. it is annoying. Like barks gone funny in video xD

Edited by pariah
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Make a list of things that you need / problems that you are having and I will update the blog with the information that you require in sequence. Sorry, i didn't update the permissions - that will explain the denied you've been getting.


If you search the forums, eg, the last post I made, you can find that there is a condition to be set so that the movers cause damage (cover with a brush/mesh) - it is a lot of rebuilding and going over the whole thing, I think, isn't worth the hassle and increases entity count two-fold. Easier to rebuild and incorporate this in first instance.


It'd be easier to simply rebuild the thing from scratch to ensure that all parts do the things they need.


As for the "motion detector" and cameras and stuff - they don't need scripts. The script to which you refer is simply to move the "camera" which is the only "scrying mirror/nodraw surface" in the mission (like the game we were playing with headshotting people by using the nodraw surface, over the massive wall) - the AI sees through this hole in the void and - if it spots the player, the behaviour is set to push the button to trigger the alarm, fail the secret objective and rotate the symmetrical rooms so that the player's path is forced along the "higher alert" route.

If you want multiple cameras, you have to shutter one at a time - this can be tied to a red/green light on the "camera" to indicated to the player if it is active or not. Limitation of nodraw surface - idk maybe it is possible to have unlimited and have a remote control room. Never tried it yet because there's the issue of line of sight through the void for the AI:


If the AI in the box room with the button is moved so that it isn't at the right angle to "see" the nodraw surfaces that comprise his "monitor" and the "camera" then the AI will not be able to see the area that under surveillance.


Similarly, the motion detector - it needs no script, idk why that script is there and I've pretty much forgotten what it was for but... it's simply a small sound tunnel (like in the false noise maze, or how the bathroom can hear the garden of that house, despite there being 12 visportals and a great distance between) to a room that contains an AI who, upon hearing the player's footsteps, pushes the button that sounds an alarm, opens a door to let out a few guards and rotates the subsequent symmetry room so that the doors the player can open lead down the "even higher alert" pathway.


If the player creeps and is not heard (eg, moves very slowly - which is why there are no moss arrows before that section, so as to stop the player from cheating and simply mossing the floor to run past), it simulates a motion detector in that the player must move very slowly...


It's not complicated - it's simply a trick using the game mechanics, bypassing the visportal's/doors sound dampening in order to present the illusion that "fast motion causes alarm" - it's actually the sound that triggers the uber-sensitive AI to become alerted, not movement or sight. blocking that tiny gap into the void tunnel that bypasses all the visportals totally negates the trap, as the AI can no longer hear the player's footsteps as if they are in teh same room. It's nothing but a mechanical trick with a bunch of wiring.


Same with the lighting in the crypt as above - that has a problem, however. It's an old animation technique that has been used since victorian times - simply set a rotator with a spiral so that it times with a strobe and it appears that whatever is on this spiral is moving in a linear fashion.


The problem lies in the fact that it only works at the same frequency as the refresh of the player's monitor. If it is set to 30fps, then it may appear disjointed. @60fps, it works perfectly. @45-50 is a good compromise, but the effect was one that was considered to be no good as - like with Farcry2 - the rendering of the game can mess up the visual and AI and makes the effect look a bit lame. Also not everyone has a shit-hot PC and when running it on the older laptop, it would lag incredibly due to all the flying shadows and stuff...


The "3D effects" come from the lighting, Cyan and magenta. These lights must be positioned accurately in order to present the correct stereoscopic effect. If they are moved or their intensity changed, it can break it - this is where the seeded loot issue came into play, as a floating coin could spam shadows all over the place and completely destroy the surprise. It has to be subtle and accentuate the shadows and lighting that are already present, else it simply looks like you've slammed some pink and green lights into a room for "spooky".


The rest of that section was merely intersecting shadows presenting a false sense of depth, messing with scale and a bunch of crap I can barely remember.


The area in which contained the alternative route through the bar, whereby it was possible to drop the package, "to mathilda" on her head from the roof-space to knock her out, rather than garner a higher stealth score by running up and bonking her on the head, or risk an alarm if the player was unlucky with timing - the shadow intersections there played a very important part, which is why the objects and lights were arranged at such scale (eg, the bonsai collection). While it would be possible, if the AI turned head, to time a sneak past to the doorway to the room which contained the high-value ring behind the railing that was accessible only through the crawlspace, dropping behind the stage - having only one lockpick at that point meant it was impossible to proceed that way (forcing player to rethink strategy and notice that there was an alternative route (now glaring obvious from their new position) on the way back out...
A more experienced player might have noticed it from the start.


This is what I meant about using tools and a player's exploration to restrict advancement and to turn a non-critical "objective" into a meta-objective. Who the fuck needs that ring, when they've already 10x the loot required to finish the mission? I do, because I want it because I can't get to it and I'm going to go crazy if I can't find it, or use that stick to drag it through the railings if I didn't move those boxes to find the way into the green room (or pick up the 2nd lockpick to get in).


As for the collapsing tunnel and climbing the falling blocks section - idk what to do about that. If the player had not reclaimed their rope arrow, then they're screwed - which is unfair. Plus, the walls simply stop when they hit the player rather than crush them as was intended in the trash compactor.


Pitfall traps and spear traps, timed scythe corridors and the like on the low alarm section need to be entirely rebuilt from scratch to ensure that - if a player is caught by one - they cause some wound/damage (and to AI, which is why the idea of invisible stims came in, which would also require going back over every inch - easier to rebuild to ensure it was included).


Without this, there is no way to get past the haunts since the logical way to deal with those bastards is to lure them into one of the spinning blades of death or whatever those things were, have found and saved the fire arrows from the warehouse/miser's area, or to avoid them entirely since the tome or interruption was not an actual objective, but a meta-game (or run away and climb back out into the city hub).


These areas were meant to be accessible only to players who wanted to explore or who had the tenacity or skill to reach them.


There was no difficulty setting - they were all the same (except loot required, all found in hub or by taking the optional jobs from the board, picking up the reward from the boxes that would be unlocked upon completion of the optional objectives.


As far as the mission goes, it doesn't require much scripting at all - it's mostly simply mechanical solutions to achieve the goals.


Heh, you might be interested in a video I made of a TDM mission in which I was able to rope arrow out of the world and bypass about 60% of the level.
I'll upload it next time I'm using premiere.



I'd be interested to see what you've done and been up to so far, so copy the .map into a text file and email it - I hope you haven't fucked with the meshes, because they took donkeys (ears = years = ages).


However, please be aware that real life is proving to be a bit of a drag and that there are obligations to which I must attend before returning to games (which is why I haven't been playing so many lately, except for QC or getting farcry2 to work on a 980ti without AI bugs).


I'm happy to help, but I can't commit until ... mid March, perhaps.


Hope you understand all this - sorry I've been ignoring emails, but I was in hospital for a while, doped up to the eyeballs with crap the quacks give you, and then had to go to Buenos Aires and now I've got some shit to do here before being at liberty to spend a few months on not being paid again.


There's a few new textures I've taken with the 35mm that look ok for this game, packaged DDS if you want them (walls, cobbles, plaster, wood, etc... perks of living in a 600 year old, rat-infested shit-hole), but the idea was to use everything stock for this project. Thing is - TDM moves faster than it's possible to keep up unless you're simply building a mansion mission or rely on narrative to build a story rather than choice and consequence.



Please - just give me some time, ok?

Pete

(pps, I can't reply to your comment on the front page of the forums, but I'm up for a game of RO2 sometime - maybe Sunday?).

Edited by Bikerdude
TLDR - the post was too long so put it in spoiler tags
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Hey guys i was playing around with darkmod and made a small test map, there's not much there and i really mean it, there's no history, objectives or anything, it was just me playing around with TDM tools, engine scripting and assets, because of lack of time i stop working on it but would be a petty if it went to the trash and perhaps it could be useful for someone, i'm releasing this as is, with no guaranty, i don't even know if it will work on your PC, if it blows up don't complain to me. ;P

 

I tried to make it into a mission to be easy to try. (worked on my PC)

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_xD8k_3dkNpandJLXEtX3BrYWc/view?usp=sharing

 

Hope it is of some use.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 10 months later...

This thread should be stickied.

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I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Flood, I wont be working on these mission any more so please put them up for adoption.

As flood dosen't seem to be around come one please take a copy of the above files before they are gone.

Edited by Bikerdude
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  • 2 months later...

Fidcal has offered up Manor Royale from the Crucible Campaign for adoption. Sounds like it is nearly completed. Details below:

 

Manor Royale:

This level is effectively at beta.

Here is the latest alpha. Note that this has a meaningless placeholder briefing ripped out of Heart: http://www.fidcal.co...yale_alpha3.pk4 I stopped developing the briefing when this campaign project was on the horizon as the story might be changed.

Essentially it compromises a city section at south east by Squill and a large tudor mansion and edge of a moor section at north west. No particular location on the Dark Mod universe map.

Existing story summary: Far off prince faces revolution stores his crown jewels with Lord Thaskbury who won't give them back because he has debts. Prince indirectly gets you to retrieve them.

If there is a powerful reason for doing so the above story can be completely changed. But it needs a good reason because obviously it is loss of a *lot* of work and then it needs a lot more work. The map is essentially streets > manor > moor and could be anything.

Likely need to disable player notes to be consistent with other levels. Probably need to improve quality of some caulk areas findable on climbs in the city.

Exit is across the moor. This currently has a huge invisible barrier that is removed when other objectives are completed. I have no problem with this. If it is a serious problem then I have no idea how to fix it. A giant 50 foot wall across the moor with a gate that opens at the end is not really feasible.

 

Let me know if you're interested.

 

 

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Wrecker's Reach, from the Crucible Campaign, is up for adoption.

 

Description. A pirate-themed map. "has a fully done port city section that's good, and another half that'd need work."

 

(It's possible this map may not run under the current TDM version, as it may reference out of date assets.)

 

See map overview below:

 

 

 

post-9-0-15958700-1530733929_thumb.jpg

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About Manor Royale, there was an earlier stand-alone working version. I searched my old (crashed) PC last night but couldn't find it. I mean, it went through beta testing. I just searched here at the forums but couldn't find it. Didn't we once use a separate forum (a non Dark Mod forum) for beta? I'm just wondering if someone else still has a copy of that old pk4 and if the final beta postings could be found then that might be an easier start point for anyone who takes it up. I'm guessing here because my memory is hazy.

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About Manor Royale, there was an earlier stand-alone working version. I searched my old (crashed) PC last night but couldn't find it. I mean, it went through beta testing. I just searched here at the forums but couldn't find it. Didn't we once use a separate forum (a non Dark Mod forum) for beta? I'm just wondering if someone else still has a copy of that old pk4 and if the final beta postings could be found then that might be an easier start point for anyone who takes it up. I'm guessing here because my memory is hazy.

 

Do you mean this? http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12208-manor-royale/

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