Commented 1 year ago2023-01-30 06:57:57 UTC
in vault item: Die-Way 2 demo2.0Comment #105037
I am not the best reviewer but I'll try. I am also not the best gamer. I played this on hard and it was... Hard.
The first arena looks pretty nice. I like how you can open the shutters and see what you're going to have to deal with, the brick building looks good and you have a goal set with the explosive box in the container.
This is where the skill issue comes in. The amount of soldiers for what you have feels a little much, especially when I think they can all throw grenades. I found it quite tough to get outside because grenades kept being thrown at the door. The explosive "detonator" also doesn't look too special. It does have the cable running to it and is connected to the, electricity tech thing? But there isn't a button or display that makes it look different from the normal crate. I was clicking e around it thinking it would have something to do with it but I didn't actually know what I had interacted with. After (what I found to be) a hard fight you're very quickly thrown into another without many recovery items. I ended up having to hide and just take potshots for a while.
After you go through the container there's another large group of aliens and because I was already quite low this was actually really hard, even with the turret. And again it doesn't feel like you get much back in the way of health or armour.
From the first level, you can see the hallway inside get cut off and the light levels noticeably change when transitioning into the second level. The hallway is really tight and the soldiers can still throw grenades, so I found myself dying to that quite a bit. There also appears to be a soldier behind the turret indicating that he's controlling it, but you can't actually hit him as there seems to be an invisible wall?
I like the little elevator climb and how you can hear combat from above. The goop room is a nice little change of scenery even if it is only for the ending.
I think the map looks pretty decent but I feel like it could be a tad more balanced. Hopefully this doesn't seem too negative! I did enjoy it, just found it quite hard.
I think we might be in the presence of a modern day John Carmack here. This sounds like incredible progress man, and certainly something I'm going to be keeping an eye on. I've been fortunate enough to work within the indie games industry for the last couple of years, but to be able to make something of my own from the ground up is enticing to say the least. Just need to get my neurodivergent brain in line so that I can actually knuckle down and put the work in.
It manages to run on my 2012 Fujitsu S792 (Intel HD Graphics 4000 + mobile Intel Core i5 + 4 GB RAM) at about 15fps, which isn't too far off from what I expected, though NGL I kinda was hoping for 30fps... oh well, that's what I get for using Vulkan on hardware older than the API itself.
Now, I'm most likely not touching this thing until March, because February will be full of exams.
Thank you!!! I feel like the past 2 years (turning idTech 3 into GoldSRC, enhancing idTech 4, writing an engine from scratch) were more or less a preparation for this thing. Designing systems, understanding how my motivation works, keeping track of things via Trello and getting them done etc.
Also I forgot to mention this in the journal, but once summer's here, I will likely be looking for volunteers, mainly mappers and programmers. We'll have to see though! From experience I know stuff gets delayed, so that might as well be in autumn.
Elegy sounds like exactly the thing to get me to try Godot. This is a super ambitious project but I know from your previous stuff and watching your tutorials that you're capable of doing it!
Your third map does not include a trigger_changelevel back to the second. Even if you do not intend for the player to go back to the previous map, you must include the trigger to go there. Make it use only and keep it out of the way somewhere.
Commented 1 year ago2023-01-26 01:25:29 UTC
in vault item: CutsceneComment #105030
How were you able to make the player invisible? I'm looking for a way to disable that so that Gordon could be at least visible to the camera. (Nevermind, I kinda fixed it, but I had to remove some things)
Yea I mean I never taking seriously because I'm getting crazy about it. Anyway the moderator remove my last Day of this journal due to piracy issue even though I'm basically Tell anyone how Terrible Visiting Those Website so people don't ended up like me
I'd like to add that step 4 can be skipped by reversing the layer order, i.e. place the scaled lowres layer on top of the original and applying the blend mode to this. This produces the exact same result but without a colour invert step.
It does not seem like Paint.NET 5.0 natively has the Grain Extract blend mode. It's possible there might be a plugin for it but I haven't checked. GIMP is another free image editor that does have Grain Extract blend mode and so I would suggest using that instead.
Commented 1 year ago2023-01-18 02:54:15 UTC
in journal: Little thoughts. Comment #105005
I totally understand the first point, feeling like mapping takes a looong time, even to do basic rooms. I often struggle with this as well. In fact, it's something I've been dwelling on more recently, in regards to work and my level design side job. Even when I'm working on a map, which I thoroughly enjoy doing, my focus isn't quite 100% or I find ways to procrastinate.
I've been working with Hammer / JACK for 20+ years and TrenchBroom (for work) for around 2 years and I'm pretty familiar with the ins and outs of the software. Still, things seem to take me much longer than other people in the modding community or working on the same project at work.
I've since reached out to my GP about possible undiagnosed ADHD and I'm awaiting a response from a consultant.
This could be a possible explanation and might even be a factor with your second point: Retaining the information that you're taking in while playing official maps for inspiration.
I am more accepting of blockouts these days since I HAVE to do them for work. I can appreciate that it's difficult to get a feel for the map while working with a blockout since I felt the same way initially and I just couldn't make it work. Now however, I think I will be blocking out all of my future levels. Blockouts mean that you can nail down the basic layout and gameplay for your map, and can make adjustments very quickly.
In the past I would just make areas look as nice as possible and then shoehorn gameplay into them, often having to move around a lot of small details where the gameplay demanded it. So my maps looked nice but played poorly. The one exception to this was Bridge the Gap, which I blocked out until I was happy with the gameplay, then textured and lit. The outcome was... a pretty ugly map that played OK. Then I made Bridge the Gap 2.0 based on the first map and put in more effort detailing. So I think blockouts can be tricky to get to grips with at first, but once you realise their true purpose (super basic gameplay focused template which can be quickly edited and compiled) they really do help.
Commented 1 year ago2023-01-17 12:00:07 UTC
in journal: Little thoughts. Comment #105003
I gave it a go just doing Quake stuff and uhm. I think I'll keep trying for a little bit, seeing as I just started using it. But so far I'm actually finding it really hard and annoying to use. Probably just me being used to Jack though...
Commented 1 year ago2023-01-17 06:46:44 UTC
in journal: Little thoughts. Comment #105002
You should try out Trenchbroom and watch Dumptruck_ds's videos, its a lot faster to work with than JACK. Though it doesn't really fully support half life it is still has some support and you can just import the map file to jack, export the jmf as a map and import that to trenchbroom, vice versa.
Whenever I make maps, I just go from one room to the next, not really planning a head too much (even if I have a general idea as to what I'm building) I just stick to one thing and then move on to the next, room to room and box to box. I've gotten used to JACK now but I do remember trenchbroom being better to actually make maps with.
Commented 1 year ago2023-01-14 19:35:32 UTC
in vault item: GemeraldComment #105001
First of all, I'm sure that this is referencing a franchise that I am not familiar with so I can't really comment on that side of things. I'm going into this totally blind.
From the perspective of a Half-Life mod and as a map pack, this is a strange one with some room for improvement. A series of incredibly short maps, some which feature action and some which do not. There is very little plot to guide the player, but basically when the action kicks off the mod is a grunt fest. On the hardest difficulty there isn't a lot of health for the player. I was stuck with 6HP for the last couple of fights (which included assassins) which quickly devolved into corner peaking, shotgun blasting tedium.
From a mapping point of view, there are a lot of little niggles throughout that make it obvious that the grid was either disabled or set really low in the editor. There are a ton of single unit gaps or lips on brushes which you can sometimes get snagged on as well as causing some ugly lighting issues.
Overall I would say this one is an oddity, maybe worth checking out but with a number of issues that can cause frustration.
Commented 1 year ago2023-01-13 23:39:56 UTC
in vault item: Memes.WADComment #104998
Download and use wadmaker, it will take no time at all to make textures with it. I assume you used something like walley or a photo editing software so this took you a while longer to make than it should have.
Commented 1 year ago2023-01-12 12:54:08 UTC
in vault item: Landmine exampleComment #104994
Hi double M. Still want to talk to someone? I'm afraid I've found out something about that. It's not because of hate, it's because no one trusts one another. You can't trust them unless you can see their eyes.
I could have said this in a fitting place but I couldn't find one in my mind.
Commented 1 year ago2023-01-07 16:54:29 UTC
in vault item: OutbreakComment #104989
I can't judge the map too harshly as you said yourself that it is unfinished. However, what is there is pretty nicely detailed and textured. The major issue is the gameplay. Fighting zombies with a crowbar, especially on Hard is not really entertaining. On top of that, when I eventually found the pistol, I was forced into an unskippable cutscene and was killed by zombies. I assume this was the end of the map.
One small note, the plants in the park area block player movement... That's annoying.
I like everything except the shotgun. The rack on top gives it a massive difference between the V model and the p model. I also don't really like the reload animation, the way Gordon is holding the shells looks weird. You can't even see the shells. I do really like that we now have a detailed tip of the crowbar, though, I've been looking for that. The new sound for pulling the pin out of the grenade is really satisfying, and so is the new draw animation. Reminds me of the way he bounces it in Black Mesa. I also like how you have three different clips for the pistol, depending on if it's a partial or a full reload. Super good. My only suggestion would be to alter the shotgun model. Otherwise, good job.
I am also not the best gamer. I played this on hard and it was... Hard.
The first arena looks pretty nice. I like how you can open the shutters and see what you're going to have to deal with, the brick building looks good and you have a goal set with the explosive box in the container.
This is where the skill issue comes in. The amount of soldiers for what you have feels a little much, especially when I think they can all throw grenades. I found it quite tough to get outside because grenades kept being thrown at the door.
The explosive "detonator" also doesn't look too special. It does have the cable running to it and is connected to the, electricity tech thing? But there isn't a button or display that makes it look different from the normal crate. I was clicking e around it thinking it would have something to do with it but I didn't actually know what I had interacted with.
After (what I found to be) a hard fight you're very quickly thrown into another without many recovery items. I ended up having to hide and just take potshots for a while.
After you go through the container there's another large group of aliens and because I was already quite low this was actually really hard, even with the turret. And again it doesn't feel like you get much back in the way of health or armour.
From the first level, you can see the hallway inside get cut off and the light levels noticeably change when transitioning into the second level.
The hallway is really tight and the soldiers can still throw grenades, so I found myself dying to that quite a bit. There also appears to be a soldier behind the turret indicating that he's controlling it, but you can't actually hit him as there seems to be an invisible wall?
I like the little elevator climb and how you can hear combat from above.
The goop room is a nice little change of scenery even if it is only for the ending.
I think the map looks pretty decent but I feel like it could be a tad more balanced.
Hopefully this doesn't seem too negative! I did enjoy it, just found it quite hard.
Now, I'm most likely not touching this thing until March, because February will be full of exams.
I feel like the past 2 years (turning idTech 3 into GoldSRC, enhancing idTech 4, writing an engine from scratch) were more or less a preparation for this thing. Designing systems, understanding how my motivation works, keeping track of things via Trello and getting them done etc.
Also I forgot to mention this in the journal, but once summer's here, I will likely be looking for volunteers, mainly mappers and programmers. We'll have to see though! From experience I know stuff gets delayed, so that might as well be in autumn.
(Nevermind, fixed the issue)
(Nevermind, I kinda fixed it, but I had to remove some things)
I recommend using other file hoster, like imgur or ImgBB
This produces the exact same result but without a colour invert step.
GIMP is another free image editor that does have Grain Extract blend mode and so I would suggest using that instead.
I've been working with Hammer / JACK for 20+ years and TrenchBroom (for work) for around 2 years and I'm pretty familiar with the ins and outs of the software. Still, things seem to take me much longer than other people in the modding community or working on the same project at work.
I've since reached out to my GP about possible undiagnosed ADHD and I'm awaiting a response from a consultant.
This could be a possible explanation and might even be a factor with your second point: Retaining the information that you're taking in while playing official maps for inspiration.
I am more accepting of blockouts these days since I HAVE to do them for work. I can appreciate that it's difficult to get a feel for the map while working with a blockout since I felt the same way initially and I just couldn't make it work. Now however, I think I will be blocking out all of my future levels. Blockouts mean that you can nail down the basic layout and gameplay for your map, and can make adjustments very quickly.
In the past I would just make areas look as nice as possible and then shoehorn gameplay into them, often having to move around a lot of small details where the gameplay demanded it. So my maps looked nice but played poorly. The one exception to this was Bridge the Gap, which I blocked out until I was happy with the gameplay, then textured and lit. The outcome was... a pretty ugly map that played OK. Then I made Bridge the Gap 2.0 based on the first map and put in more effort detailing. So I think blockouts can be tricky to get to grips with at first, but once you realise their true purpose (super basic gameplay focused template which can be quickly edited and compiled) they really do help.
Whenever I make maps, I just go from one room to the next, not really planning a head too much (even if I have a general idea as to what I'm building) I just stick to one thing and then move on to the next, room to room and box to box. I've gotten used to JACK now but I do remember trenchbroom being better to actually make maps with.
From the perspective of a Half-Life mod and as a map pack, this is a strange one with some room for improvement. A series of incredibly short maps, some which feature action and some which do not. There is very little plot to guide the player, but basically when the action kicks off the mod is a grunt fest. On the hardest difficulty there isn't a lot of health for the player. I was stuck with 6HP for the last couple of fights (which included assassins) which quickly devolved into corner peaking, shotgun blasting tedium.
From a mapping point of view, there are a lot of little niggles throughout that make it obvious that the grid was either disabled or set really low in the editor. There are a ton of single unit gaps or lips on brushes which you can sometimes get snagged on as well as causing some ugly lighting issues.
Overall I would say this one is an oddity, maybe worth checking out but with a number of issues that can cause frustration.
If someone's interested in knowing a bit about the game.
I could have said this in a fitting place but I couldn't find one in my mind.
One small note, the plants in the park area block player movement... That's annoying.