Access to almost any part of the city Assasin Creed style via rooftop

[someTaff]

Did find out that roofs are quite accessible. So seal roofs or not?

NOTE: its about any regular city mission. NOT Life Of the Party style.

Edited May 28, 2013 by someTaff

[AluminumHaste]

Anyone who says No to this should never play any Thief/Darkmod again. One of the best missions was running across rooftops in Life of the Party.

[someTaff]

Anyone who says No to this should never play any Thief/Darkmod again. One of the best missions was running across rooftops in Life of the Party.

That's the point - Life of the Party IS rooftop mission so its about roofs.

 

The question is however about any regular city mission

[demagogue]

My FM and games like Dishonored have a compromise, where the rooftops are sealed, but there are platforms and roofs on the facades of buildings that allow the player to go vertical, and sometimes smaller foreground buildings you can go completely over, while background roofs still seal.

 

If you do have rooftops you can go completely over, you can also have them very high and have some vertical portals up to the skybox, so you can still close off the leaf on the other side, but if the player did manage to get up there he could cross.

[Sotha]

someTaff,

D3 engine is a big troublesome in doing a city with accessible rooftops. You have to design it very carefully so that you won't kill the performance. In my maps, I've have prevented roof access in city missions because it makes compartmentalization ultra-easy and with that you get good performance.

 

That said, I firmly believe that something like Dishonored *IS* possible with TDM, but only if the mapper uses LOD models and obstructs the vista-points well. It needs a good plan. One day, we will see a mission like that.

 

If you allow rooftop access, be careful with the performance. You also need to make the access meaningful: a decision between risk and benefit. You also need to make it look good. If the player gets to a high point, the world must look like it is there: you need the real 3d skybox thingy.

[jaxa]

If everyone was jumping off the roofs, would you do it?

[Springheel]

Rooftop access is great, but it requires a LOT of planning to do it well. Which means it's not likely to be done unless it is a significant part of the mission.

[ERH+]

One thing about vertical movement: it could be pretty easy in narrow tunnels like chimneys, or even small gaps between buildings. If you can push your back against wall you wouldn't fall, all it need is ladder texture with crawling or "Thief3 gloves"-like sound.

Edited May 28, 2013 by ERH+

[AluminumHaste]

That's the point - Life of the Party IS rooftop mission so its about roofs.

 

The question is however about any regular city mission

 

Well yeah, if you can do it go for it

[demagogue]

I think I would summarize the lesson here, if you want to do it, it's possible, but you need to do it very very carefully and plan it all in advance. I know very well what it's like making city streets and the FPS plunges into the low 20s & teens because it's hard to portal off the side streets and then I had to do serious damage repair. And that was without climbable roofs! You're playing with fire.

 

But if you respect that & plan it very well in advance, you may be able to do it, it will be fun, and you'll get the respect of all mappers. Just think carefully about where you have your portals and how you're going to keep them closed for most of the space (i.e., 2 portals don't line up from any angle). Look at the portal tutorial map and think about how it apply its lessons to rooftops maybe.

[someTaff]

Thanks guys, words of wisdom.

[Melan]

Follow your dreams and plan something you'd like to make. FPS is not everything.

[Sir Taffsalot]

This would be one Hell of a challenge to pull off. I would wait until you've released a couple of FMs first, just so you have a good bit of experience under you belt.

 

The main problem would be mainaining a healthy performance. One thing you could do is have lots of narrow areas the player can navigate through and still create the illusion that they are stil traversing rooftops. Eg create some air vents for the player to crawl through and have some windows that can be opened so the player can walk through peoples attics. Air vents and attics would be easy to visportalise and would break the city area up so all of it is not been rendered at the same time.