Anomalies

[Mortem Desino]

I'll apologize in advance for the aspect ratio of the screenshots. The widescreen option in the display menu was very useful for my monitor. And in the movies, pay no attention to the new, but strangely familiar voice of the guards.

 

Thief's Den was great fun, but since I'm a mapper (HL2) I cannot help but try the strangest combinations of things to try to find a bug, or just something new.

 

Onwards to the fun stuff!

 

Arrow physics: how to make a lamp stand!

 

Gag Candles that never sputter out!

 

The Amazing Flying Man!: The effects of firing arrows into one's shoulders from directly above

Movie 1

Movie 2 (demonstrated without cheats)

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Pic 4

 

Waltzing through a Level: How to block guards inside doorframes

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

 

Waltzing through a Level: How to block guards behind a door

 

Waltzing through a Level: Need to lock a door? (movie)

 

Musician on the Prowl: How to turn a rope arrow into a metronome (movie)

 

Instant Ladder: When there's no hope for a rope arrow above you, plant one below

Movie 1

Movie 2

 

When ropes get stuck in a brush, the protagonist wins the record for long jump! (movie)

 

You're not supposed to see that!: How to have fun with arrows, doors, and visportals

 

Edited October 22, 2008 by Mortem Desino

[SneaksieDave]

The lampstand rocks. :thumb:

 

And actually, the flying man and waltzing might actually be helpful in debugging and fixing.

[HappyCheeze]

Nice avatar. I spent a few years trying to beat Betrayal at Krondor as a kid. Good game and times!

 

I too hail from HL2 mapping background. I think I'll start writing a tutorial for Hammer/worldcraft to Darkradiant transition.

 

Welcome to the forums :-D

[Crispy]

That's a fairly rockin' first post. Welcome to the forums.

 

Ishtvan and greebo spent ages getting that propping-things-up-using-arrows functionality working! Nice to see someone noticed. There's a screenshot floating around our internal forums of a crate tripod along the same lines as your lampstand.

 

Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately?) most of the bugs pictured are already fixed internally. Tels has been working on making candles sputter out when they fall over. Candles do go out when immersed in water if the mapper has set the water up correctly. I fixed the using-moss-to-trap-AI bug some time ago. The Amazing Flying Man has lost his powers. I think the door-blocking thing is probably fixed by the new door handling behaviour, but you'd have to ask angua (who implemented most of it).

 

I have no idea how you managed to do the last one though! Do tell.

[Ishtvan]

Yeah, it's good to know someone is playing around with all the details. Thanks for the interest.

 

There's a screenshot floating around our internal forums of a crate tripod along the same lines as your lampstand.

Yes. First there was cratepod:

 

Who later evolved into crate-saurus:

 

Crate-saurus research was discontinued after some unfortunate fatalities:

[Mortem Desino]

It's a real shame that the flying man lost his powers. If anyone wants to try it for themselves on thief's den: I fired an arrow directly above the guard, and the arrow prop acted like it was parent to the shoulder in terms of movement, but also piercing the torso. When I tried to recreate it, all I got was a guard on rollerskates, not a jetpack.

 

That last one was rather strange; The idea came from the HL2 visleafs/portals.

If I remember right, I planted broadheads in the guard's shoulders and the sides of his feet so that he would have troubles going through the doorway. When the door automatically closed, that guard disappeared into the void and left a glitched visportal inside the door.

 

I'll try to recreate it again and confirm.

 

I'm also impressed to see that rope physics is working so well. I was actually thrown over a wall by the whiplash of a crate+rope arrow tipping over. And before I forget, It was also a really fun challenge to scale a wall by throwing a rope-arrow'd-prop over it.

Edited October 13, 2008 by Mortem Desino

[HappyCheeze]

That last one was rather strange; The idea came from the HL2 visleafs/portals.

If I remember right, I planted broadheads in the guard's shoulders and the sides of his feet so that he would have troubles going through the doorway. When the door automatically closed, that guard disappeared into the void and left a glitched visportal inside the door.

 

Nothing like torturing the AI huh?

 

Remember in hl2, if you shot a crossbow bolt into a heacrab or a zombie and pinned it up in a corner of the ceiling, it would sometimes start spazzing out like it had a seizure?

[DigitalNapalm]

It was also a really fun challenge to scale a wall by throwing a rope-arrow'd-prop over it.

 

Hmmm... Mission ideas popping into my head.

[Mortem Desino]

Remember in hl2, if you shot a crossbow bolt into a heacrab or a zombie and pinned it up in a corner of the ceiling, it would sometimes start spazzing out like it had a seizure?

Yes, the HL2 community now refers to that as the "Black Hole effect" when props try to collide with each other impossibly (func_contraints on opposite faces of two props). Strain the server CPU! Overheat the northbridge! BWAHAHAH!

 

To anyone interested, I've added a few movies, including a demo of the flying man, another "Waltzing", and more fun with rope arrows.

Edited October 13, 2008 by Mortem Desino

[Mortem Desino]

More movies of fun with rope arrows posted above.

 

I'm rather proud of "When ropes get stuck in a brush." I was toying around, and found that with a low ceiling can trap the rope of a rope arrow. I tried it with a crate, hoping to make a pendulum, but instead won the world record for long jump.

[Komag]

Ha ha, those new rope videos are funny with the rope going up!

[SneaksieDave]

"What's that?"

 

Is that Benny?

[Mortem Desino]

Is that Benny?

pay no attention to the new, but strangely familiar voice of the guards.

Yeah, I decided to change all the placeholders to the original thief 2 "Benny" voice. (It took a while to tweak the volume and convert them all to oggs, but it was worth it!)

 

Unfortunately, I'd REALLY have to work splicing something together for AI state: investigate Barrels,curtains,chair,etc.

Edited October 21, 2008 by Mortem Desino