Forum posts

Oh, thought that the weapon problem should be interesting, I mean, the weapon can cause a malfunction to an entity that is not suposed to be affected by a weapon. Also, there´s the turret issue, that causes the same problem when shooting at npcs. I posted every information I have, what happen, and also the code, and (of course) what did I try to fix it (Except Solokiller´s last advices, of course). I saw other people asking for problems like this, but if I did wrong I will delete it ASAP Shepard. ;), thanks for the advice

Oh, wow, that´s coding in god mode. I will try to make it via mapping hacks, limiting the maxlivechildren and giving some time (delay) between spawns (actually some of them are set to -1 or instant). Thank you so much!, you saved me a lot of hours trying to find a solution! As always, both you are the best

BTW: I did take a look in the Github's page where people write about HL issues, and I want to post this monstermaker's issue because I did not found nothing similar in the post I did read. Will it be a good idea?

Nevermind, I did post the issue.

Sorry, I used the wrong word, I mean monsters of course. I will look forward another function more suitable to do what I need.

Ehmmm... I know this could be a matter of very basic C++ knowledge, but, how can UTIL_FindEntityByClassname be used to return the number of entities (by class name, of course) and then compare this number to a fixed int to start/stop the makemonster function?.

This will be in every monstermaker, so the MM will check this number individually each time the makemonster function is started.

Hi again. I have found this on the "makemonster" part:

[quote] CBaseEntity *pList[2];

int count = UTIL_EntitiesInBox( pList, 2, mins, maxs, FL_MONSTER ); //

if ( count )
{
	// don't build a stack of monsters! //
	UTIL_ClientPrintAll( HUD_PRINTNOTIFY, "count limit reached!! \n");//NEW, I want to know if this work...
	return;
}

[/quote]

Could this be modified to, lets say, control the entities (monsters) and if the numbre is more than "x" make the makemonster part return 0?

Oh thanks!, as always, Solokiller and Shepard to the rescue!. Solokiller is right, because the FEMP weapon cause the monstermakers to start spawning all the monsters without restrictions, I need something that prevent this to happen and controls all the spawned monsters. Also, I have found that the turrets caused this same problem when killing sentinels. For one reason that I don't know, the bullets fired by the turrets and the blast from the FEMP weapon destroy the maxlivechildren and the delay flag of the monstermakers...

Can´t believe that is what is failing this last two months!!! :(, I feel SO stupid...

BTW: I tested it and... well, the monstermakers still spit all theyr children alltogehter. . Again, I am sure I did something wrong, or ALL wrong. You told me something like making incremental check of monsters created.

m_cSpawnedChildren should be incremented later in the method to track monster spawns.

You mean something like this?

[quote] m_cSpawnedChildren = 0;

for ( i = 0; i < m_cSpawnedChildren; i++ )[/quote]

and something after it, so if "i" equals or is more than, lets say, 100, it "returns;" directly, I am not sure what to write there but, is this what you say I need?

Hi Solokiller. Tried (after many months) to re-add the code you provided , I did use a lot of combinations, but with no luck. I did not say anything before because I prefer to try until surrender before bothering you again. The fact is that after a bunch of tries I still get two errors:

-------------------Configuration: hl - Win32 Release-------------------
Compiling...
monstermaker.cpp
C:\DevZWC20\Elementos\Single-Player Source\dlls\monstermaker.cpp(251) : error C2059: syntax error : ')'
C:\DevZWC20\Elementos\Single-Player Source\dlls\monstermaker.cpp(252) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '{'
Error executing cl.exe.

hl.dll - 2 error(s), 0 warning(s)

The code is as follows:

Under

#define SF_MONSTERMAKER_MONSTERCLIP 8 // Children are blocked by monsterclip

I put:

//=========================================================
// SOlokillers Spawn LIMITER
//=========================================================
#define SF_MONSTERMAKER_GROUPED
//=========================================================

Then into:

class CMonsterMaker : public CBaseMonster

I put:

int m_cSpawnedChildren;// SOlokillers Spawn LIMITER

And then into:

void CMonsterMaker::MakeMonster( void )

I put:

[quote]//====================================================================

// Solokillers Monstermaker LIMITER
//====================================================================
if (m_iMaxLiveChildren > 0)
{
	if(FBitSet(pev->spawnflags, SF_MONSTERMAKER_GROUPED ))
	{
		if(m_cSpawnedChildren>=m_iMaxLiveChildren)
		{
			if(m_cLiveChildren>0)
			{
				return;
			}

		}
	m_cSpawnedChildren = 0;
	}
}
if(m_cLiveChildren >=m_iMaxLiveChildren)
{
	return;
}

//======================================================================

//======================================================================[/quote]

What´s wrong?, afaik i did not make any mistakes this time...

I remember me playing atari's pong...

43, I´m old, I know it...

So, she really motivates me for some reason O_O

You´re very fortunate, don´t let anyone say the opposite. And I am so glad that you are happy!!, not everyone can say that, and, plus, she can map!!, who among us can say that?, I´m serious about that.

(correction: imaginary girlfriend)

"Her" movie!! XD

Anyway, something that motivates a lot is when people see/play your work and encourages you to continue.

The next vital part to succeeding is obviously: music!

For all gods new and old, listen to Admer456 he´s sooooooo right, music will inspire you!!

I felt like you years ago when I abbandoned EVERY and EACH of the projects about HL I was doing ( the mod Zion Warcry, a total converion about HP Lovecraft´s universe called Phelan´s Journey, and a map of the old town of my city, Caceres ).

What I did need to motivate myself was gather all the work I have already done an then took a look at all what I had done and all what is left undone.

I, as Highlander, found myself in serious trouble with issues I was not able to fix, and after a lot of trying to fix all them, I did surrender.

But when I saw all as a whole, and realized that all that was a working piece of art (what we do is ART, never forget it), I did start to try to bypass those problems with sometimes ugly hacks, and most of the times re-doing all from scratch (as I did with Zion Warcry), re studying the notes I wrote, the concept art I draw and the books I did print about HL.

As things get done and work as intended, you will find yourself asking for more challenges, and because some of those things will be the ones that were screwing you, you will feel better about yourself (important) more self confident about your skills (encouraging), and will enjoy your work seeing how beautyful are the things when they work as intended (this is the best).

After a few sessions, take a look again at what you are doing, and you will see not a bunch of things undone and a bunch of troubles, but a few steps left to finish what you can consider your art work.

If that don´t motivate you... nah!, I´m sure of THAT will motivate you

Because I am rather old, I have thought a lot about this. I have seen plenty of info about the Deathmatch games and all pointed to the first Doom (1993) to be the "creator" of this type of game genre.

But in my mind was planted images of a comic, Strontium Dog of Ezquerra with Alan Grant's script, Ezquerra was also author of the Juzge Dredd character, on "Carnage" I did read a history called "Carnage" or "Matanza" in spanish. There you can see ALL elements of modern deathmach games, bizarre characters ,special weapons, the first healthkit, the final prize, the special weapon, a limited space where you must fight on, RULES, ALL we actually know about was there... in 1987, six years before what is claimed the father of the genre.

I encourage you to read it, so you can see it with your own eyes. I don't know if there's someghing similar out there, the most similar thing I have read was on Jack Vance's 1969 novel "The Dirdir", but the story, if you read it, is more a history with the presence of Predators, even some aspects of the Dirdir aliens was exact as the 1987's Yautjas.

In justice, I think Ezquerra and Grant deserves the fatherhood of the Deathmach games.

I like the look of Halo weapons and also District9 weapons. weapon design must be a consequence of the shape of the hand, arm and elbow of the alien, and also how many fingers-tentacles it has. Some weapons will require a grip, a pistol grip or even never require a grip and be part of the arm or tentacle. I have also keep this in mind when designing weaponry.

Don´t be discouraged!!, and about hte "outdated" theme of your mod, look, my mod is based on a movie 14 years old and also considered the worst movie of its saga... am I discouraged?, no, apart of being kinda mulish, I think that a mod is like a painting, someone will say that it looks outdated, but it is your artwork, your opera prima, and, most important, is your hobby and I´m sure many people will like it! (I am sure mine likes to all fans of the saga ).

Hi!! Let´s see:

ill make this mod by myself. smile -

Iron balls, that´s what you have man! I am a solo developer too and I can only say that it is a very complex thing, imagine, there are mods that are developed by three, five and even more persons that do very different things coordinated so things go faster; a solo team is composed by a person who can code, model, skin, map, create scripted sequences, write a history, edit sounds, edit digital images, etc, etc, etc. As I said, Iron Balls!! XD

i wonder why noisy cricket is fail

For its size It have to perform a true nightmare instead of that big blast, that could have been the most funny part of the movie and it was wasted.

and whats wrong with dildolikes?

Nothing personal , it´s just that even I like pulp, I don´t think alien weaponry could look like that. Even the Scorn´s game weapon look more like an alien weapon than that. Stylish weapons like that, as the ones of Star Trek make me laugh a bit (sorry Trekkies, no offense please) and makes me think about in what are the owners of alien weapon industry was thinking about when they put that lot of little knobs, buttons, shiny bars on a weapon. For crom´s sake!!, a weapon is a tool for killing someone, not for accesorize a Victoria´s Secret top model.

i was thinking prehistoric fishes as a aquatic monsters, but i dont know is it posible to stich this idea to plot.

Aliens could hide in sewers, for example

i dont heard about act_thingy thing i know i need to read much more tuts.

Essential to make NPCs AI, together with schedules and tasks

no i hate experience system

Mmmm, I thought that a so long gameplay could benefit from it. :/

there should be some mods using overheating, didnt you find any codes? what do you want. i dont know, it seems too easy. before replying this i made a sample code for that took few minutes but needs to be polished, but too lazy about this, and i dont know how to initialize in hud. perhaps my code will work with visual appearance of the gun and animation. im not gonna show barrel heat in hud.

No, Apart from Gunman Chronicles, there is no GS mod (afaik) that uses this feature, I have tried to do it but was a total failure (the gun remained overheated and only let me fire in semi, the hud bar never decreased also). If you did a working code in 5 minutes I envy you, I swear, It took me more than two days of trial error sessions.

about the the thing and transformation stuff, i guess i need different things i cant go with them, they would be much dark and heavy, i prefer more casual and cliche ideas,

Believe me. Gore wins!!, Brutal Half-Life, Brutal Doom, Doom4, etc, etc. just as an example. Oh!!, if you can code something similar to the Ghoul system (Soldier of Fortune), the battles against aliens could be as funny as to see the scene where K blows alien heads as a punishment just to see them grow again.

Well, time to see your artwork!.

There is a npc called "light" in xen that turns on and off, don´t know if it is what you need. :/

The first word that came up to my mind is:

AMBITIOUS!!

Anyway, will the mod be developed by a team or is it a "solo" team? :/ If the last option is yours´ it could be more than a hobby but a true 8-hour-a-day work!!.

As a idea, more than landing UFOs, why not Alien war machines that, at a certain time, exit from the ground because they were waiting for milenia to the right time to do so and kill all humanity?, your mision will be to locate the war-machines nests and destroy them, the NPCS like Citizens,Conspiracy theorist freaks,believers, etc.will point you to the right spot and you can go there and start kicking grey-assed bugs with lots of weapons.

The weaponry should be original, but, please, don´t go "MIB" crazy and start doing dildo-like weapons like in that movie, please, even the "noisy cricket" (at least here in Spain was called that way, "grillo ruidoso") was a fail. It could be nice to see something "serious", something similar to P90s, Kriss Vector, UTG 15s, or Kel-Tecs, of course modified to avoid (c) issues

The animals could act normally sometimes, and sometimes be like the ones of "The Thing" of John Carpenter´s 1982 film (you must see it). They will wander here and there but, near the war-machines nests, some of they will act like non-friendly NPCs and transform into ugly mo****f***s and try to stop you or your team (cooperative game style could be COOL), something like the girl called Katie in the 2011´s film "The Thing" (again), where she passes from beauty to "yuck!!" in a blink and start killing her friends.

Also, there will be farms or rural places where normal buidings and structures will turn into alien npcs, some mixture of biological matter and mechanical parts, imagine a light post that transforms itself into something similar to a "stick insect" when alien tissue was excreted by soil under it... This also will happen to barrels, cars, or even a DEN!!! (FINAL BOSS?). Oh, avoid snake-like ones, it is a pain in the ass to animate, believe me... The transformation could be stopped if you destroy the alien goo, as an example, or freeze it, or burn it with something (you, know, throw a barrel, hit the sucker, fire the barrel, "boom", damage inflicted, etc.)

Also there will be war machines protected by aquatic monsters in DAMs... a submarine gameplay, imagine you fighting underwater while your friends in coop mode help you firing a M134 minigun from a boat or a chopper, yesh!! (vehicle code here).

Normal people also could transform themselves !! (creepy... XD )so you cannot say if a person will help you or try to eat you (alive), or dissolve you(the weirdest), dismember you(the meanest), smash you (the bigger), or mate with you (if you are from europe it is not unusual to see this in games) and try then to kill you (cultist?), etc,etc.

Probably the major problem will be animate the transforming NPCs, it will be complicated because the main mesh have to be built in a manner that it should contain the "normal" and "m****rf*****r" version all together and be animated as a whole, and make its AI so it act ok in each version of the NPC (lots of ACT_ thingy in the qc file).

Thirdperson should be a MUST toggleable option (Gears of War-like, please )

Experience system could be cool.

Overheat for weapons should be also a MUST (so you can use special rail guns to kill bigger monsters without going trigger-crazy). Ps: if you do so, share the code if the MOD is for GS!! (profiteer mode:ON) XD

Pfew!!!, hope this is not so much feedback!!!

Good luck!, looks promising

Just do a mod, just this, a simple room, a monster, a weapon, you (the player) and start from that point. Then you can add things. Give us a looksy to what you´ve already done

Of course I want to profit, but I won't be selling it. The thing I want is people to download it and actually like it (thats the profit I have in mind)

That´s not illegal, that´s good!!

The menu, however, looks disgusting (the WON version of Half-Life). I'm going to have to change those...

Your menu will look like this with Xash3D:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/zion-warcry/videos/finally-the-reload-call-works#imagebox

No if you try to make very complex maps with lots of enemies and effects... sadly. Anyway, what you have to have in mind to keep yourself far from trouble is "no profit, no felony".

Nope. Only you will get in trouble if you want to greenlight your mod on Steam. You can do the mod to be used with steam, and then run it under Xash3D, that is not illegal!, imho. I was worried about it too but troubles will cone if you want to publish the mod on steam, not if you release it and recommend it to be used under Xash3D. Of course ther will be differences, but all related to how much stuff can handle each engine (Xash3D > Won or Steam ).

Also you can use this tutorial:

http://articles.thewavelength.net/266/

The SDK for MSVC++ 6.0 if you have it, if not, is expensive...

http://www.moddb.com/games/half-life/downloads/half-life-sdk-23

The SDK for MSVC++ 2008

http://www.moddb.com/games/half-life/downloads/half-life-sdk-v23-for-visual-studio-2008

The compiler which is free

https://www.microsoft.com/es-es/download/details.aspx?id=29

The C++ handbook, if you are as new as me

http://www.cplusplus.com/files/tutorial.pdf

The map editor

http://gamebanana.com/tools/5538

Another map editor

http://quark.sourceforge.net

The python files needed to make Quark work

https://www.python.org/download/releases/2.7/

The tools for compiling maps for both Hammer and Quark

http://gamebanana.com/tools/5391

The model editor

http://www.milkshape3d.com

The Gfx editor for textures, etc

http://www.gimp.org.es

The model compiler tools

http://www.moddb.com/games/half-life/downloads/gui-studiomdl

The UV mapper for models

http://www.geeks3d.com/20090303/lithunwrap-free-uv-mapper-for-windows/

The sound editor

https://www.goldwave.com

The tools for sprites and for making the cached.wad (console backgrounds) are included in the HL SDK.

The alternative engine, which is what I am using to run HL mods

http://www.moddb.com/engines/xash3d-engine

I think I did not forget anything...

what kind of a kind person is it? and where did you find it?

Hehe, that is a little secret I must keep for now, enough to say that It is a very kind person, well a pair of very kind persons indeed.

you completed coding in 12years? wow. when did you started and how old were you back then? now i get it i thought you worked 6 years straight. but you did 12 years with 6years active right?

Well, it took about 5 years to make the v1.0, I was younger then. Don't think you are younger or older, this is a hobby!!, there are 50 year old people that are still making games

From 2003 to 2008 i did coding (sort of), modelling (the most) and mapping (also the most). Then I have stopped until the year 2014; that is when I started to write little notes about new concepts for the things I was unable to do in the v 1.0. In 20015, I have restarted ALL models and the zion map from scratch, all models except some little parts of the bridges and the zion dock's platforms, and the apu mech. Zion map was fully re done.It was not until this year that I focused my efforts on coding.

Well, I am ripping a lot of secrets about the development of my mod!!, hehe.

The basic cinematics were done using trigger_auto entities and very basic effects. There's a very basic thing that I must have done... read the TWHL HL's entity list.

http://twhl.info/wiki.php?sub=1

And the tutorial list! read the six parts of the "In the beggining" tuts. That is what i did use to make the actual cinematics of the zion map.

One thing I did was opening the maps on which I found the basic cinematics I wanted with the map editor, that is, I have opened the bsp files with Quark and make a kind of manual of entities involved in, let's say, a button that activates a door, the chicken of cs_italy, etc. I did make a ten pages manual of those little effects. It was very useful, now I use ten times less entities for the effects thanks to the experience. Keep this in mind

Well, enough for today!.

i realized i was ignorent and i figured i wasnt know much about programming,modeling,mapping

I am (still) in this stage about coding, a bit less in mapping, imho. XD Don´t worry, everything will come with experience.

even i was making complex brushes with carving grin - and trying to code visual effects for half-life in serverside grin - what a stupid.

The visual effects is more a matter of choosing the right entity, and, in this case, some essays before getting the desired effect.

Using complex brushes through carving is... evil. Too many compiling problems will occur because of it. Also, if it is used for a few structures is fine, but always if it goes toghether with the func_detail entity. But also you have to be careful because tiny brushes will ruin your map ald let it un compilable. The compiling tools (HLCSG,HLBSP,HLVIS and HLRAD) also have a limited number of brushes with which you can "play" to make a map, more than that limit, and the compiler will crash.

eventually when i started to learn making real mod, i started to feel desperate and dismotivated.

Yes, creativity is often causing this kind of feelings, but, as I did say, relax!, everything comes out better when you take a little time ("A little time" Helloween. The Keeper of the Seven Keys vol.1 XD ) and think slowly on how to do things.

Let me give you an example:

For my mod I needed:

-4 teams
-4 type of weapons that don´t use clips or magazines
-Players in the shape of a robot.
-Turrets that behave as friendly machinery
-Flying monster that surrounds me and after a time attacks me.
-Flying monster that act suicidical and try to kill me exploding itself.
-Some way to call another npc to give me ammo
-A special weapon that kills any monster in a certain radius

Well, in my first attempts, I did only managed to make the 4 teams part and the weapons. I did study the SDK and luckily found the right tutorial for the Team system, with little modifications I reached my objective..

I was playing with HL just to see what could be the flying-suicidal monster, no one seemed to be useable: the leech did not fly, the zombie either, the snarks just jump and run, and were too stupid for me because they "hit" you and then return to run and jump and attack until they explode... and the ones that fly were the aflock (an ornamental monster) and the controller, but this last did not suicide, thy try to "suicide" you!. But, playing on and on, one day I was surrounded by Alien Grunts, and realized (stupid me for not seeing it before) that the little hornets only needed to have a proper model to be the monster I wanted, also a little modifications to show a white trail behind them instead of a red one and it was done!!. I´m sure you guessed what is it: the TOW Bombs (I am almost sure that this name is (c) me ).

The turret friendly monster was easy as cake. I will not enter here too much...

The "surrounder" monster was also a headache, three weeks of useless work and trial-error before I find the solution. I find that solution after trying to make the leech monster fly. I was able to do it, but this little sucker just felt to the ground and start spinning like a drill, nothing menacing or useful. Tired of that I continued playing searching for candidates. One afternoon, in the dam, I felt to the water were I have had to fight against the Ichtyosaur (I usually did kill it with a satchel or a bunch of grenades from the top of the dam), and saw that its behaviour was EXACTLY what I wanted!! (again, stupid me). After goofing with the code I managed to make it fly and discover that the monster worked exactly as the sentinels of the movie!!. Another success, as I did say, coding is good when things go right... but then started the troubles...

The FEMP countermeasure was a pain in the ass. Yes, I did code the function that hurts and kill the surrounding enemies, also, I did make the secondary fire that heals you. But the blast shockwave was a true nightmare. Of course you guessed that the Houndeye blast shockwave was the code to use, but, no matter how I tried to implement it in the code, I make the game crash on and on. I decided, jest before releasing the v1.0 of the mod, to left this undone. A pity. It was 8 years after thet I discover how to make it work, just in an hour one afternoon that I was goofing again with the code. Believe me, I was not kidding with the "take a deep breath, relax, take a little time, and you´ll see that things will go better."

The reload call was like writing in chinese for me. I did have a slight ide of how it should work, but my concept was so wrong that I did not write a single line of code for it since the year 2007. In 2015, I started again to make little things for the mod, basically trying to start in the point at where I did stop. And think about something that activates other thing from the distance, you are thinking in the same as me, right?, the satchel charge. Well, I think to make a new weapon that when fired calls (Activate) the reloaders, in this case the monstemakers that "create" the npc. But it was not that easy. I wanted the reload could be used anytime, not choosing another weapon, which is slow and will cause problems. I asked for help and made a first attempt using again the RELOAD capability of every weapon, but with no success, then I needed more help, with no luck in making it work, and finally, after full desperation, a kind person spoonfeeded me with the working code. I only have had to add a little part of code to make it work 100% right (the piece of code that I found playing again with the game and looking how semi-automatic weapons work). The result?. After 12 years the mod is done in what coding means (well, I want to add two little things).

Well, tomorrow I will tell you what happened with the maps and the cinematics, that is another history.

I hope you did pass that exam with a "cum laude" !
Time to relax and make some mods, then.
Good luck and keep us informed.

You can just set a black-matted texture to additive to achieve that glowing effect,

Something like the decal textures but with the white part painted in red, right?

Oh, the pictures look so gorgeous that I thought it was something related with advanced entity placement or similar. Anyway, I think it is done with a texlight and a func_wall, am I right?. :/

The little red + rotates on the health station, haven't got round to making the graphics for the suit station.

I wonder how you did that!! O_o

I want that for my map (tutorial. please).

Keep it up with your exams!!, real life must be your priority my friend

Also, there are somethig every newbie modder must have in consideration.

A mod is the alteration of content from a video game in order to make it operate in a manner different from its original version. For example: Even if they were launched as standalone games, Opposing Force and Blue Shift could be considered as mods, they are games that add new enemies, maps, sounds, weapons, etc. to an already existant story, adding new situations ALL related to the original game. Is like the chapters of a story, in HL the starring was Freeman, in Opposing Force was Sheppard, and in Blue Shift was Barney (was he?).

Mods that add whole new content and create an entirely new game are called total conversions. This is a more risky option, but gives you more freedom to create things without being restricted to the original storyline and characters of the game of which you are making the mod. But, WARNING!!, making a movie-based mod is a task very hard if you are a newbie like me, it will break your poor skull many times and only few of this mods have seen the light since 1999, when I have started modding (making counter-strike maps mainly).

Also a very important thing is to use the information of sites like The Snarkpit, TWHL, etc. to gain knowledge about the making of a mod. Remember that surely many of the things you want to do have been already done by someone, and probably the "how to" is reflected on some tutorial or on a Thread in those site´s forums. To make my mod I have used several tutorials, modified to fit my mod´s specifications. The ones I used are as follows:

[blue]-Team System with VGUI menu © BigGuy. (Modified)

-Team Spawn Points Fix © Put Put Cars

-Clientside radar © Botman. (Modified)

-Thirdperson camera © The "Future Wars" MOD Author & Mr. T. (Modified)

-Infrared-Nightvision © Xeno. (Modified)

-Muzzleflashes that Also Light Up World Brushes © Mazor (Modified)

-Automatically set collision Box by Model © Omega.

-Radio Commands © CidHighwind. (Modified)

-Hud Health Bars © Lord Draco. (Modified)

-Adding Full Weapons to Half-Life © Persuter.

Freezing players while shooting © -=ArcAdian=. (Modified)

-Spectator-Observer mode © The Wavelenght Snippets Database ( Unknown Author ). (Modified)

-VGUI Scope © Pongles. (Modified)

-Bot#10 © Botman (Modified)[/blue]

The rest of code was done by the WORST way of coding in the world, the "trial-error" method. Please, give a favor to yourself and LEARN WELL C++, or at least at some degree, before attempting to make a total conversion. I did not and I discover that coding is grateful when things go fine, no matter how many tries you compile the hl.dd and the client.dll, and a pain in the ass when you can not figure how to do things...

A good idea is to have a printed copy of those tutorials, and also of the files of the SDK that you think you will need to modify. I have some of those books bound by myself, among them the vol1 and 2 of the SDK (server and client side), the "all monsters handbook" the "all weapons handbook" and an unvaluable "HL Entities" vol 1 and 2 taken from TWHL.

Also, in the case of movie-based mods, and thanks to companies like McFarlane toys, HotToys and Threeezero, you can (must) acquire some "real" figures to help you make the models or, why not, motivate you!(I have three APU mechs and a sentinel).

As a good start in the modding hobby, there are, imho, three things with which you should start:

First: start your learning of the mapping program (Hammer or Quark that is what I use) making a simple box, enough big for the player, a pair of boxes and a npc or monster.

Second: after choosing a code editor (msvc+, Mingwc, etc) start making two basic modifications to a weapon, a monster and the player. I.e: health, damage inflicted, and other aspect like the speed, name, etc.

Third: with a modelling program do a basic modification of the skin, just to see how this work, in further stages you can try to decompile it, modify its mesh, and do a basic animation change.

This way you will have done...Your first mod!!!

But, for now, keep studying and we will talk later...

Changing attachments, position of the model, and even the eye position on the fly using the mouse (drag and drop) will be an incredible feature!. =p

I did work on my mod for 6 years, with a halt of 6 because I was unable to continue because of my lack of skills and because I could not find the solution for certain problems I have with the development. After that rest I did restart from zero, and the results worth the effort. Fortunately I have had unvaluable help here.

My mod have reached this numbers:

Downloads: 6553 and growing
Views: more than 95000
It is present in the MatrixWikia page.

And many other things that made it, until now, unique. It is my second creative big work apart of a comic I´m working on since the year 2003 (that´s other history).

Maybe it is not Counter-Strike in terms of success, but I´m very happy with what I have reached.

The trick about making a mod is, know the game on which is based as if you have made it, know every monster, its behaviour, how every entity work, and don´t hesitate in learn the programming language with which it is written.Be patient, start from simple and add details as you go on. Don´t pretend to overpass what is already done until you master every part of the development tools.

Ask for help, but providing as much info as you can, and if you can not progress at all, ask for a more strong help, spoonfeeding must not ashame you, it is a step that many of us modders have done at least one time while making a mod. And, most important of all, be grateful and give ALL and DESERVED credit to the ones that helped you.

And if you get stuck, don´t worry, take a rest, do other things, and restart from where you stopped, i will grant you more fun and satisfaction with your work. Believe me, It will makes you work faster and better, here´s an example of what´ll be on the v1.0 of your mod and in the v2.0:To avoid loosing time and efforts make things as tidy and clean as possible, make as many backups you need and don´t forget to write on paper any new ideas you will have. We are all busy people, and sometimes we forget that genial idea.

And, also important, BE PERFECTIONIST!!, don´t pretend someone that have played games for at least 5 years will like your work if he/she sees the same HL default models with only the skin changed, and things like that... Remember what has been done in Paranoia, Arrangement, Bid for Power, and, why not, Counter-Strike, for example...

Ok. I will test it tonight.

Hi Solokiller (Always to the rescue), should it be something like this:

[quote]

if ( bitsDamageType & (DMG_BLAST|DMG_BULLET) )
{
	UTIL_Sparks( ptr->vecEndPos );

return;

}

[/quote]

The UTIL_Sparks is present in every npc of the mod...

Nevermind. Close/Delete this thread. I have asked for the problem before and never received an answer.

Thanks and sorry for using TWHL´s web space!

I did it in the qc file with no luck, maybe the turret code should have the attachmets on which the muzzleflashes will be shown defined, as in the apache monster, something like getattachment or stuff like that; I don't have the code here right now, sorry. Of course, if it is there, I wouldn't be able to use that code to make things work, haha!!

Hi Solokiller!. The muzzleflashes worked fine in normal HL, is in Xash3D where they don´t work, but I was told that there´s a fix on route for December the 13th.

BTW: how can I make so the turrets use all four attachments to show muzzleflashes instead of only one?. Of course I have done a perfect QC file for the turret monster.

Did it!. No luck. Sure my fault. :/ I have asked Uncle Mike for it, I´m awaiting the answer. Cross fingers.

Yes. I was frustrated because of that until I discover the trick of using several "bodies" for the reference.smd ^^ Now I have models with more than 6000 vertexes (and one npc with near 16000 !!...well, it is still wip, but it will have a huge amount of them )

Oh!, I will take a look to XashXT, but, will those models be compatible with "normal" Half-Life?. I have seen Xash move my maps an models more smoothly than the original HL, so I am a bit afraid of original HL will crash or something (I want the mod be accesible to WON users).

Btw: I still have to try the v-sync thing...

Well, after some months making things under Xash3D I have noticed that the muzzleflashes of the player´s weapon and even the muzzleflashes of other model´s weapon does not show properly. I saw this when I changed from the HL version of my mod to the Xash3D version last night. In Xash3D muzzleflashes for the turrets did not appear, while in HL yes, also it happened with the muzzleflash of the gunner infantry, even when it is properly done in the qc and in the source code, the muzzleflashes for the player´s weapon in thirdperson view sometimes appeared, SOMETIMES, but the most part of the time they don´t or appeared flickering and in a strange way. I also think that is me that touched something and screwed it,but I wish to ask you if you have noticed similar behaviour with a mod or map or model made by you.

Thanks in anticipation!!

I have had problems like that the firs times I compiled a model, years ago fortunately, and I have spent hours and hours trying to fix it; with more luck than talent I found that the qc file also searched for the smds in the directory on which it was generated, thus the compiler throwed the "could not find smd file" message continuously.