Comments

Commented 16 years ago2008-08-30 17:05:31 UTC in journal: #5318 Comment #40763
"as well as it can export image files in DWG and other vector types"
Sounds awesome, anyway.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-25 16:01:33 UTC in journal: #5307 Comment #53726
Ditto.

Slipknot blows.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-25 14:08:07 UTC in news: TWHL servers are up! Comment #98712
London(?), UK.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-25 12:46:19 UTC in news: TWHL servers are up! Comment #98710
TF2 gets updates?
Oh, and fuck yeah, your first newspost in TWHL3. ;>
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-19 14:02:37 UTC in journal: #5279 Comment #48503
Electricity is witchcraft of capitalist westerners. Communism runs on will and strong beliefs.
.. or at least that's what my village high priest tells me. :<
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-19 08:08:23 UTC in journal: #5279 Comment #48502
20? Senstam.. ;>
Su gimtadieniu!
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-18 13:41:55 UTC in wiki page: Goldsource Error: Can't Select 3D Window Comment #101181
Done :>
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-18 12:27:05 UTC in journal: #5276 Comment #52310
Woah, 2nd one today, and if I'm not mistaken - kol was born Aug 18th aswell.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-18 09:18:48 UTC in journal: #5274 Comment #40750
Hah, promise well-kept. :)
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-15 03:18:04 UTC in journal: #5258 Comment #40738
So you went Steam, finally. :>
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-13 16:22:33 UTC in journal: #5252 Comment #44258
Aw. Cute.
To think they were part of the argument resulting in Rowley leaving. ;<
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-12 14:46:48 UTC in vault item: Aim_testlab Comment #12300
Go for Lithuanian next time, Striker. :P
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-12 04:51:34 UTC in vault item: Aim_testlab Comment #12298
MuzzleFlash teisingai sake del teksturu, beje. Ta sutvarkyti tikrai reikia.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-11 05:52:11 UTC in journal: #5248 Comment #50252
k
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-11 05:01:00 UTC in vault item: Aim_testlab Comment #12294
Sveikas atvykes!
Mazesniu mapu neapsimoka i koki rapidshare det, gali juk cia hostint iki 2Mb. Idejau mapa cia, taip visiem sutaupysi laiko be tu rapidshare nesamoniu. ;>

Del pacio mapo, wadincludink lietuva.wad ir betkokius kitus nestandartinius naudotus. Errorus meto.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-09 04:43:00 UTC in journal: #5244 Comment #59326
Looks like 2D Gmod to me. Neat.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-08 17:58:03 UTC in vault item: ctf_outset Comment #12311
Very nice.

Architecture, texturing and lighting I have no complaints about. Clean, cartoony, yet distinct from other TF2 maps - this really blooms amongst the default stuff.
Gameplay I can't really comment on properly, though the layout somewhat resembles de_mon to me. There's almost no strict paths to the objectives, plus pretty much every corner of the map is accessible making way for some nice and original gameplay. This does, however, look like a sniper-dominant map, unless your playtests show otherwise.

There were some problems, though, mostly because of the ability to access every corner of the map. You could mostly get to places you shouldn't be getting to, exposing some rendering issues, etc. You probably know of those spots, though just in case, here's some screenies:

Clicky
Clicky 2

Making those places inaccessible or adding some scenery would fix that.
Ambience was completely left out, too. Some soft wind, birds/animal, or wave sounds wouldn't hurt at all. :<

Overall - very nice, but still begging for improvements. 4* for now.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-08 17:34:37 UTC in vault item: 1214 (for Flat-Life) Comment #16786
Wow, I loved it. The detail, architecture, texturing and overall visuals were absolutely jaw-dropping.

I loved the huge variety of scenery, even for a mappack this short. All those mobile parts, plus ambience really made everything feel 'alive', not to mention real.
My fav. part was that X-Ray chamber. Absolutely beautiful and creative - I loved it.

This, with all the careful work and attention, really felt like taken from some of the old platformers.

My only complaint would be that the gameplay was really way too hard in some places. Take that underwater section with those fans & explosive barrels. Took me a good 15 tries to pass it, due to the fact that the barrels explode/fans suck you in if you come like 2 meters near em'. :<
Also, the last level had far too many enemies/obstacles, imo. Dealing with that many barnies and barrels at once without enough healthkits was too hard for this pansy.
I've run into a bug, too, where if you save after having left the X-Ray tube and quickload afterwards, you still see your skeleton, not yourself.

Overall - a charming little experience. I wanted to give it 4* for difficulty issues, but what the hell - it's just way too polished/beautiful to deserve anything lower than 5*. ;>
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-08 10:28:35 UTC in journal: #5241 Comment #59833
Word 'round the campfire (#twhl3 @ irc.gamesurge.com) is that it sux0red maj0r gay 4nus L0L.

Missed it myself.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-07 14:12:47 UTC in journal: #5239 Comment #38214
.. okay. Your choice, of course. A weird one, but nonetheless.
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-04 08:09:36 UTC in news: New Moderator! Comment #98695
Hahah. Shotbox mods. That'd pwn. xD
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-04 05:37:53 UTC in vault item: Cs_Canbunk Comment #12346
Indeed, and the map is nowhere to be found on the internets. :<
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-02 07:00:21 UTC in journal: #5222 Comment #50563
Cheers right back at ya' and chin up.
Nothing like a pint of your favourite to brighten things up. ;)
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-01 12:18:18 UTC in journal: #5222 Comment #50562
Pretty win day here, too.
Just found out I'll be working for another week, meaning even moar cash.

What's the problem?
Commented 16 years ago2008-08-01 00:00:00 UTC in vault item: Detritus Comment #32806
4.0/10
Architecture — 4.9
Texturing — 4.9
Ambience — 0.7
Lighting — 5
Gameplay — 4.5

Review

Avid gamer, skilled mapper, thirty-something-year-old and father aren't words you'd often use together to describe a single person, yet Satchmo of TWHL is just that. Being one of my most respected people in this community, ironically, he could also be dubbed as the king of dead-horse-beating. He has single-handedly adapted, remade and re-released almost every one of his creations for any game mode or mod possible. For example: Justice (http://www.twhl.co.za/vault.php?map=3586), Justice (http://www.twhl.co.za/vault.php?map=3507), Justice (http://www.twhl.co.za/vault.php?map=3358) and, oh, don't forget, Justice (http://www.twhl.co.za/vault.php?map=2557). Now even given that, you can't really hate the guy for doing so; Justice was actually good. And Detritus? Not quite.Loading finishes. You spawn in an unfamiliar bland and dim-lit room with no weapons to be found.. or roof. You look around and advance. Before making it 'round the first corner, you're ambushed with your pants down by a bunch of headcrabs. You rush outside to find even more monsters and even more average visuals. You get a crowbar from a dead citizen. You crowbar your way to the gravity gun. Gravity gun + loads of handy disassembled car motors and propane tanks = godmode on. You kill everything.. What now? Is that it?Whoopdee-fucking-doo.The only word that comes to mind when describing the gameplay is "meh." Being a single small arena filled with zombies and powerful weapons - wiping every single enemy in the level takes you from about ten (first try) to less than three minutes. So even if to some extent challenging at first when you still don't know where the heavy artillery's stored, it's all baby mode afterwards. Sure, stuffing some spectacular combat into such a small layout isn't quite easy, but then why try doing that in the first place? The first version of the map was obviously not designed for single-player.Another large problem was the complete absence of any kind of background story; not even a simple env_message-powered briefing or readme with some basic information. As I mentioned before, killing everything that moves in the level triggers absolutely nothing, so after your epic crusade, which could be metaphorically compared to a war where one side has nukes and the other is limited to butter knives & teacosies, you're left unaware of whether you should just quit right now or go through the tedious process of exploring your surroundings. I chose the latter, yet searching every corner of the map for an exit or a monster I may have missed and even piling stuff to get over the large fence proved completely fruitless. Even if that somewhat serves the player right, considering the low difficulty level (after all, you don't pat your kids on the back for roasting an anthill with a flamethrower), it's still one big disappointment in the end... but what's this? There was actually more to it? Hunter's video review reveals the secret of an almost impossible-to-find hidden button in the underground part (should've been somehow highlighted; even a cheesy glow sprite over it would've been great!) Filled with hope, I rush off to detritus once again, find the button.. and am rewarded with a whopping extra minute of gameplay involving a couple of zombies and a very dry fade-to-black ending. Again, it was unclear what to do next after pressing the secret button and took me quite a while till' I figured it out, thanks to, again, the absence of story.I suppose now that I've officially finished it, I can actually wrap up the gameplay part. So in conclusion, due to there being nothing new or original, due to combat being dry and mostly too easy and due to there being absolutely no given reason or explanation for your actions, my initial point stands: "meh." Period.Continuing with the negative stuff, ambience was more-or-less left out. Having only a couple of extremely silent background sounds, it was absolutely inaudible most of the time. Something like the occasional wind howl, a buzzing sound for those spotlights scattered all over the level or an engine sound for the generator in the gravity gun room would've improved things a bit.Architecture and texturing too weren't special or somehow interesting in any way, yet did their job for most of the time. Simple architecture with little to no detail, all wrapped up in a default array of Half-Life 2 textures. No serious alignment flaws, no bigger problems and pretty much nothing interesting about it. Most buildings, even if having a trim or two really lacked prop-detail, which is mandatory in Source mapping. Also, the facades of some smaller buildings were unusually varied in depth, while the larger ones were left perfectly flat. Another thing bugging me was the absence of a roof on the building you spawn in. A collapsed roof I'd understand, but with all the supports left perfectly intact, it looks like some magic hurricane's blown off every single tile and taken them all somewhere beyond the area you can access in detritus. And finally, probably the most noticeable logical fault was how the underground section was laid out. Looking like nothing more than a small sewer-like support corridor, it was connected to the surface with two vast staircases you'd normally expect to find leading to a subway station or something. Such weird architectural design, even if somewhat spicing up the looks really makes the setting far less believable.Lighting was adequate, yet still very bland and not suited for such a setting at all. With a few more yellow areas in the interior, outside areas were all lit with a a florescent white coming from numerous spotlights spread throughout the level. Such bright lighting did a great job ruining the atmosphere, killing whatever is left of its scariness. Natural bluish night tint broken up by the occasional small yellowish flickering street light would have worked so much better in my opinion.

Bottom Line

Overall detritus is really far from properly showing Satchmo's real skills. Bland, rushed and in no way special, this is something you can pass. Instead, give good ol' Justice a try. You won't regret it.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-31 01:32:53 UTC in journal: #1 Comment #32904
So this is how it started. ^^
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-30 08:21:21 UTC in news: New Moderator! Comment #98675
/me hands Grim his new, shiny Mod Powers Abuse hat.
May it guide thee well and pwn random nubcaeks.
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-30 01:28:26 UTC in news: New Tutorial Abound! Comment #98673
Deathan: Nah, it's just a user level bug in the news page. Still Forum Moderator in my profile/everywhere else. ;>
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-29 16:10:47 UTC in news: New Tutorial Abound! Comment #98670
I need to wash my adorable paws. :<
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-29 14:26:18 UTC in wiki page: Tutorial: Modelling for Goldsource with Gmax Comment #100866
Our most extensive tutorial so far?
Great job, this should've been done sooner. :>
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-29 09:40:54 UTC in news: TWHL is Shutting Down Comment #98665
60 comments? O_o
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-29 01:01:48 UTC in journal: #5217 Comment #39342
Hahah. Change the date and it's set! ;D
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-29 01:00:51 UTC in journal: #5216 Comment #59389
Poetry. Beautiful.
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-28 03:35:38 UTC in journal: #5213 Comment #38207
Happy 11001th(?) birthday.

void CMuzzleFlash::Birthday (void) {
CBaseEntity *Muzz = UTIL_FindEntityByClassname(NULL, "func_muzz");

if (!Muzz) { //this shouldn't happen.. unless.. he died in the process? D:
ALERT(at_console, "R.I.P MuzzleFlash. 2003 - %f \n", gpGlobals->time);
return;
}

if (Muzz->pev->state != STATE_DRUNK_SHITLESS) {
SetThink(Muzz, GetDrunk);
SetNextThink(0);
}

else if ( FClassNameIs(UTIL_FindEntityInSphere(Muzz, Muzz->pev->origin, 10ft), func_woman) && Muzz->pev->state == STATE_SHITLESS_DRUNK ) {
SetThink(Muzz, GetLaid);
SetNextThink(0);
}

else {
SetThink(Muzz, Sleep);
SetNextThink(0);
}
}

Execute this function every 5 minutes to profit from birthday, k?
Have fun! :>
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-28 01:36:31 UTC in journal: #5214 Comment #34689
Happy cakeday! Get wasted within logical bounds this time, k?
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-25 01:13:59 UTC in news: TWHL is Shutting Down Comment #98629
Premium account users will have the ability to post completed maps, as well as four new types of forum bbcode (bbcode can also be obtained separately - 5.65$ per code).
If you have any questions, contact our support:

support@twhl.gamespy.com
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-24 16:06:26 UTC in journal: #5208 Comment #53701
A TWHL reunion in Scotland and no drunk pix with both of you drowning in whiskey?!
Come fucking on!
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-20 06:47:54 UTC in vault item: aim_trainingarea Comment #16778
Spraying skills improvement? Oh yeah..
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-19 05:36:22 UTC in journal: #5201 Comment #34679
Badass. :o
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-19 04:07:03 UTC in vault item: RollerBall-b1 Comment #16775
Sounds like a fun concept, though it could've been executed better graphically.
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-19 03:54:46 UTC in journal: #5200 Comment #58707
Congratz0rz! :>
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-15 20:52:10 UTC in vault item: c25 entry: StarCraft Comment #15820
Also, if you're running high on clipnodes, you may want to consider using BEVEL instead of NULL. Same effect, plus less clipnodes.

Read up:
BEVEL
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-15 14:41:47 UTC in wiki page: Tutorial: Pointfiles Comment #100813
Very well-written, great stuff. :>
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-14 15:02:21 UTC in journal: #5193 Comment #59422
Strideh's was better. ;>
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-13 13:00:15 UTC in vault item: c25 entry: StarCraft Comment #16121
Sweet Jesus-on-a-stick, I love Starcraft and loved this even more.
What I found awkward were terran SCVs, they looked more like autobots from Transformers than space construction vehicles. ;>
As for protoss - nearly flawless re-creation. I wish their turrets were made operational though. ;>

Overall - amazing stuff. Quite a spectacular feeling to see my favourite RTS on my favourite FPS.
Enabled ratings so I could give this 5 well-deserved stars (disable if you -really- want to ;< )

Oh, and a zerg-like HEADCRAB RUSH?! DO FUCKING WANT! :o
Commented 16 years ago2008-07-11 07:24:32 UTC in journal: #5187 Comment #36028
And?