Cathedral Map

[sparhawk]

I'm not sure wether to put this in Concepts or in Level editing, but since we didn't create this map, I put it here, and we can always move it over in case.

I was just browsing the Final Maps section on D3world and found this thread Cathedral Map which features a very cool cathedral (hence the naame). There is no gameplay in it, it's just an empty map, but I think it doesn't look so bad. It's based on a real cathedral and looks a bit doomish IMO, but I think it's a cool base nevertheless. Can one of our mappers take a look at it and see if we can use it? We can always ask the author if he agrees if you think this map is good enough. I think some of the lighting is a bit extrem bright (or are the textures like this?) so it would need some reworking, but still I liked it nevertheless.

[Dram]

Downloading... will have a look etc. gimme sec, back in about 10min

[Dram]

Back. Just tried it, i must say it looks excellent in game. It is of high quality so i think we could use it somewhere, though its just the main hall. I think its worth asking though. If we fix it up with our textures ettc it could be real nifty

[Macsen]

Could you post up some larger screens? The Imperium team is debating whether to switch over to Dark Mod, and since that campaign is all about big cathedrals it'd be nice for the team to have a good look at what Doom 3 can do in that department.

[Subjective Effect]

Really? The Hammerite Imperium is considering switching to TDM? Wowzers!

 

Is this good or bad news? I'm sure it would look even more awesome in TDM, and it would certainly mean that upon release there is a lot to play, but are they ready for this? There are certain elements within the Thief community that will pour hella pots of scorn on the HI team if they do this. Me? I say go for it. I just hate that fact that TDM is so far away.

[pakmannen]

There are larger screens if you follow the link. Here.

[New Horizon]

It's pretty cool to look at alright but needs some stained glass windows and proper textures to spruce it up. It's all a bit bland right now.

[Dram]

yeah, but i think it would only take at most 5 min to DarkModerize.

 

I think it's worth asking the author, he'd be happy anyway, that his work is appreciated that is.

 

About HI, man, that sounds cool! That would rule if they switched to us, though yeah, it'd take a while for dm to come out. Either way, TDM is getting more and more popular

[Macsen]

There are certain elements within the Thief community that will pour hella pots of scorn on the HI team if they do this.

 

I don't think we're that popular with the TTLG community anyway. Many of the moderators there don't seem to like HI or the Dark Mod.

 

Anyway, we're only considering an engine switch. Don't get too excited. Not everyone on the HI team can even run Doom 3.

[SneaksieDave]

The Imperium team is debating whether to switch over to Dark Mod

Oh dear god, please don't. We (some of us) have waited, drooling, forever for this thing, and are dying to see it and play it in Thief. After that's done and in the can, Imperium2 can be TDM.

 

Also, Fingernail (I believe) posted this link long ago - surprised no one checked it out. It's quite inspiring.

[Macsen]

Oh dear god, please don't. We (some of us) have waited, drooling, forever for this thing, and are dying to see it and play it in Thief. After that's done and in the can, Imperium2 can be TDM.

 

Don't worry, at least the first mission of the Imperium will be in Thief, and probably a few more. But by the time we completed the whole of HI there would only be about 3 T2 fans still around to play it.

[Fingernail]

This Cathedral map is OK - not the pinnacle of what is possible, though.

[sparhawk]

Really? The Hammerite Imperium is considering switching to TDM? Wowzers!

 

Is this good or bad news? I'm sure it would look even more awesome in TDM, and it would certainly mean that upon release there is a lot to play, but are they ready for this? There are certain elements within the Thief community that will pour hella pots of scorn on the HI team if they do this. Me? I say go for it. I just hate that fact that TDM is so far away.

 

Who cares really? If they reall switch over to TDM it will give us a big boost IMO. Both in moral as well as in acceptance. And't it's their choice. It's not as if they will come out next week with their campaign, and they can already build a lot with out current implementation. Since Soundprop is pretty finished, and the rope arrow also we can start working on the AI pretty soon. So I guess if they switch now and create the maps, as the beta mappers do, then it would certainly benefit us a lot, and they may not have such a big disadvantage either. If we can keep up the pace, that is.

[sparhawk]

I don't think we're that popular with the TTLG community anyway. Many of the moderators there don't seem to like HI or the Dark Mod.

 

Most of the moderators are pretty concerned whenever somthing threatens their pretty TDS.

 

Not to start it again, but I saw some other posters also multipostings. This is the horrible think that was SO bad that it got me banned for a week because it is such a horrible thing to do. Funnily enough the posters that I noticed were not even told, much less warned or anything.

I guess there are posters and posters, and some of the moderators are so well balanced that they tend to favour some posters more than others.

[_Atti_]

great map..and its awsome how smooth doom3 handles all that detail

[Macsen]

I tried the cathedral map. Much too shiny... but it shows the ease with which the engine can show so much on screen at once. A cathedral that big with so many pillars would have crippled the Dark Engine. If I put some gritty medieval stone textures in and add some icy blue light it'd look marvelous.

[sparhawk]

I also thought that either the textures or the lights are to bright, but on the other hand, it's consistent throughout the map and gives it a kind of cold clinical overbright artistic look. That's why I still like it. If there were only one or two cases like this, I would have said this was sloppy mapping, but I think he did this on purpose.

[Macsen]

Yes I realise that this is the look the author was going for. But it was a Doom 3 cathedral rather than a Dark Mod cathedral (or at least an Imperium cathedral).

 

I just have a different taste in cathedrals. I like them dank and eerie. That's why I like the Dark Mod rather than The Shiny Mod.

[Darkness_Falls]

I liked it. Looked good. Of course it could use some work, but it was nice to see. I enjoyed launching fire arrows down the long hall, too. I tried to take a fraps video to post here, but after a few attempts, the smallest I could get it was 18MB. I give up. I'll just make a super short vid next time I try to capture (which I thought I was already doing... but I guess even shorter)

 

HI switching to TDM would be cool; a good boost in getting people excited and involved with our toolset. I must admit, however, I'd also be a bit bummed to not see the T2 engine used. I still like that engine. Breaking MI up to have the first mission (or two or three) to be in T2's engine and then switching over to TDM for the rest would be a nice transition.

 

But by the time we completed the whole of HI there would only be about 3 T2 fans still around to play it.

Yeah, right... I have a feeling that engine will be used and appreciated for a long time to come.

[Subjective Effect]

Don't worry, at least the first mission of the Imperium will be in Thief, and probably a few more. But by the time we completed the whole of HI there would only be about 3 T2 fans still around to play it.

I don't get this. Are you saying that it will be quicker to do in TDM?

 

sparhawk, I actually think it would be a good thing for HI to switch to TDM. It would be a great thing in fact. But since TDM wont be out until at least the end of 2006 (according to New Horizon) will that delay the release of HI?

 

If HI switches to TDM it would, imo, be silly to release some missions in T2 and some in TDM. For people eager to play more FMs it would be good of course, but it will look rather sloppy otherwise.

 

I've just realised something. There is a lot of animosity between TDM and TTLG but when TD is released they will in all likelyhood have a TDM forum. What does everyone think of that? TTLG is THE Thief forum, of the English speaking world anyway, and it's likely that more people will go there to find out about TDM, ironically. Of course these forums could become like the BCG forums.

 

That also makes me thing about something else. Thievery is by BCG, T2X is by The Dark Engineering Guild, who are we? Just the TDM "team"? Fingernails Bad Boys? The Anti-T3Ed Crew? TFAKOT3E (Team For Ass Kicking Of T3Ed)? Oh, I can do those all day But seriously?

[sparhawk]

I don't get this. Are you saying that it will be quicker to do in TDM?

 

Maybe not quicker, but in all likelyhood not much slower either. It depends...

 

I've just realised something. There is a lot of animosity between TDM and TTLG but when TD is released they will in all likelyhood have a TDM forum.

 

Don't know why though. My only guess is that some of the diehard Thief fans think that anything not made by a "professional" game developer company, like ION (LOL) is not Real Thief . Or maybe because we can't feature Garrett to avoid copyright issues.

 

What does everyone think of that? TTLG is THE Thief forum, of the English speaking world anyway, and it's likely that more people will go there to find out about TDM, ironically. Of course these forums could become like the BCG forums.

 

I certainly wont mind a forum on TTLG, but for now we have this one, and that's just fine as well.

 

That also makes me thing about something else. Thievery is by BCG, T2X is by The Dark Engineering Guild, who are we? Just the TDM "team"? Fingernails Bad Boys? The Anti-T3Ed Crew? TFAKOT3E (Team For Ass Kicking Of T3Ed)? Oh, I can do those all day But seriously?

 

We should find a name for our team.

[Subjective Effect]

To be honest sparhawk the reason the mods and admins got annoyed with TDM was that there were a few posts where you guys (before I joined) came and told people how TDM was going to be better than T3Ed. And I think some of them were before T3Ed was even released.

 

That annoyed me, as one of the 2 campaign runners/organisers/coders, too since anyone involved in organising the release could have seen those posts and thought "screw them then if they think they can do better".

 

And then there are posts from TDM team members in threads that are asking about T3Ed, post-release, that are off topic and just promoting TDM.

 

The TTLG admins and mods had T3Ed before anyone else and worked pretty hard to get ot know it and use it so that, like DromEd, it could be shown to be functional and usable by fans. At that time TDM was still years away from release and even though anyone can see that D3 is better engine for Thief FMs (and look who is saying that in this post after all!) TDM was still vapourware.

 

T3Ed has never been vapourware and so to people trying to get it released the situation was always one where an editor existed and we wanted it, whilst at the same time a bunch of guys had decided to do their own thing that may never see the light of day and yet were ragging on the editor we wanted.

 

For hardcore Thief fans, such as everyone on this team, can you not see how that might annoy people? It has nothing to do with professionalism and when TDM comes out you just know that GBM and crew will love it AND use it.

 

As to the team name - The Dark Mod. That should be the team name too. We ARE The Dark Mod. Or The Dark Modifiers. Hmmm, that's too much like Dark Engineering Guild. . .

[Macsen]

I understand what you're on about there, Subjective Effect. But they don't like the Imperium either, and we haven't done anything of the sort. Face it, we're just not part of their clique.

 

Change to DarkMod is winning 6-2 in the polls at the moment, though a Henry Fonda might raise his head. But its worth noting that about 4 of those votes are from Dark Mod members. We're not deciding anything until the first mission is out, but it'd probably be best if we arranged an IRC meeting between the two teams. A lot of Imperium members know little about the Dark Mod.

[Fingernail]

I felt bad about voting Dark Mod in that poll.

 

But I did it anyway

[New Horizon]

A lot of Imperium members know little about the Dark Mod.

 

Yes, I think an IRC meeting would be great.

 

As different as the two projects are, there is going to be a lot of shared assets between the two that can no doubt help each team move things along a little faster.

 

Since we're not focussing solely on our campaign at the moment we're definately short on textures and static meshes. I think we're going to need a good repository of meshes to ship with our toolset...things like stairs, doors, windows...all the things that make building in T3Ed so fast. We can really help each other in that aspect.