Looking for play testers

[Theothesnopp]

I've almost completed an fm after all this time and im very excited.

So if there's anyone up for playtesting,

just say so and i will pm you the files

It's a medium sized castle mission

 

Known bugs/faults (that i know of)

 

Briefing won't show up.

 

Sitting ai will when alerted sometimes sit in midair, this goes for one of the sleeping ai.

 

There is one part where you can go through the wall. (rare)

[nbohr1more]

I can help a little. I'm not an expert player like Lowenz or Ithel but I can spot bugs and provide performance feedback. (I've got pretty lowend hardware...P4 3ghz with hd4650 agp) I've got some time on Monday...

[PranQster]

I'll be glad to help.

[Theothesnopp]

great, i'll send u a both a pm,

[Theothesnopp]

and there we go

get back to me once you're done.

[Theothesnopp]

On a side note, anyone know what i might have done wrong with the briefing?

 

here's what i've done

 

maps/houseoftheo/mission_briefing
{
"num_pages": "3"
"page1_body" :
{
"Text""
}

"page2_body" :
{
Text"
}

"page3_body" :
{
"Text"
""
"Text?"
}
}

[PranQster]

Well, that example shows a " missing in page2, but the one you packaged actually had an extra " at the end of one of the pages. But changing that didn't fix it.

I opened your briefing side by side with one of mine and went through line-by-line to make sure the formatting matched and there were no extra quotes and non missing. All brackets in the right place, etc.

It still does not display. I even tried adding the lines near the end to specify a font. Still nothing. That has me stumped. I even added a readme.txt file to the main directory as an experiment to see if that in some weird way influenced it. I looked for typos in the other text files. Nada. I even tried ending the pages with double quotes like ""

You did however have a mis-named maps (was named 'map' instead of 'maps') directory, so after the briefing the options wouldn't load and the mission crashed. After fixing that the objectives load as does the mission.

I'm going to go play-test the mission now and will come back to the briefing mystery later.

Edited November 5, 2011 by PranQster

[PranQster]

I think I figured out the briefing problem, about to go test it.

You had several lines of text within quotes which had been entered onto new lines in the .xd file. Each new line must be contained within quotes. Otherwise you need to make your new sentences all on one line like:

 

"This is a sentence. This is another. And so on, all in one line like this followed by a quote."

 

or (with pressing Enter to form new lines, each in quotes):

"This is a sentence."

"This is another."

"And so on, all in one line like this followed by a quote."

 

but not like (all on new lines, but not each in quotes):

"This is a sentence.

This is another.

And so on, all in one line like this followed by a quote."

 

This last example... each new line gets a backspace up to the previous line, followed by a space after the period... or each line is within quotes.

Edited November 5, 2011 by PranQster

[PranQster]

Yep. That fixed it. Gonna send you a pm.

[PranQster]

Ok. First thing's first. I feel that your ambient audio when the mission loads is way, way too loud. The music drowns out all other sounds. I couldn't hear my own footsteps, AI, door opening, etc.

The setting in DR is currently

s_volume 15

 

I believe the wiki warned about going much above 1 or 2... was that supposed to be 1.5 instead of 15? I did have audio popping noise.

I need to reduce this volume just so I can test the map.

[Theothesnopp]

oops, i have had ambient sound on very low in audio settings all along.

this explains alot.

 

i will have to fix this tommorow as i'm way to tired.

i will send a copy of your link to

nbohr1more

[Theothesnopp]

as to the briefing matter i will have to experiment with that, im not used to writing in "codes" at all.

anyways im of to bed.

 

Thanks for your help

[PranQster]

You're welcome.

There is a similar issue with all readables. None show any text in-game. I mostly only found minor issues and a couple missing textures. Will post screenshots later.

One performance issue happens in the general are where you start, after entering the building. When using the lantern from inventory, there is a drastic reduction in performance... though sometimes only when facing certain directions or crouching. I'll look later to see if any visportals are out of whack there.

Mostly performance was quite good and the overall feel was excellent. I liked the deep shadows. The rays of light coming through windows was a great touch. I need to start making use of moonbeams A thoroughly enjoyable mission, all in all. I only had to

use a couple of the keys since there were alternate ways into many of the rooms.

 

I only played on easy mode since I am addicted to using the blackjack. I did miss a fair amount of loot though. I like that because I am usually quite thorough in my searching and often look in the oddest places. If I don't find all loot, then it is well hidden.

Edited November 5, 2011 by PranQster

[Theothesnopp]

That's odd.

i don't think i have experienced any of the problems you have mentioned, good thing i did not release it then.

so none of the readable show any text?

i did not add any Xdata if that might be the case.

[PranQster]

Yes. There should be an /xdata/houseoftheo.xd with all of the readables text in it. It is easiest to use the readables editor in DR on each of the readable items. Just give each readable item a unique name and saved to /darkmod/xdata/houseoftheo.xd

It's all self-explanatory in the readables editor.

Also, keep in mind to use about 1 line of text less than the readables editor can display. In-game, the readable will have it's last line cut off if you don't.

Edited November 5, 2011 by PranQster

[PranQster]

Working on adding notes to screenshots now. Will post a .zip of them in spoiler brackets when I'm done.

 

 

Ok. Here they are.

 

 

A few things are just me nitpicking and probably can be ignored. But I took screens of anything I found odd.

I just realized I missed something. The very first room you enter has a couple of Black cubes about the size of crates. Not sure if they are crates with missing textures, or if they are missing models. I haven't looked in DR yet to see what they are.

Edited November 5, 2011 by PranQster

[Theothesnopp]

I'm on it.

 

The framerate issue is beyond me. checked the visportals and they all seem fine.

Noticed that if i climb the shelves in the

kitchen with "food" elevator

there is a fps drop.

 

as to the readables i am reading the wiki now, headache :sad:

[Theothesnopp]

The picture starring young skywalker, was that after or before being alerted?

[Theothesnopp]

wow, jusst wasted about an hour trying to create the xdata file, only to find a completed one in the darkmod/xdata folder.

[PranQster]

The picture starring young skywalker, was that after or before being alerted?

Before. I never alerted him.

wow, jusst wasted about an hour trying to create the xdata file, only to find a completed one in the darkmod/xdata folder.

Ahh ok. Well, at least it existed

[Theothesnopp]

ok, i'll take a look at the things mentioned

 

edit: the black boxes you see are moveable crates. are they all missing textures?

[PranQster]

Just the two in the very first room.

[Theothesnopp]

ok. gonna look in to that tommorow

[PranQster]

Those crates are set to:

random_skin -

 

better to get rid of that spawnarg, or set it to brown wood or light wood.

 

No idea about the painting in the bedroom... looks fine in the editor... it must be having a problem defaulting to the picture frame skin though.... maybe change it from "portrait_peasant_woman_torn" to "portrait_peasant_woman"

Edited November 6, 2011 by PranQster

[PranQster]

There is an extra brush clipping into the tower on the left... rectangular... it appears to have the sky texture on the top and bottom surfaces. It appears to be left over from construction and I suggest deleting it.

I have a couple other suggestions too, but need some time tinkering in DR and 2 new screenshots.