Forum posts

Woohoo, that's my weekend sorted then. Saturday 31st - celebrating my niece's birthday, Sunday 1st - Downloading, playing and reviewing Half-Rats: A Fever Dream. (I had started writing a preview of sorts based on the demo. Might finish that this weekend)

...and then it's the week long wait for Fallout 4

Very exciting stuff.

"28 Days Later" Soundtrack - In The House, In A Heartbeat by John Murphy
Some good, British horror.

Can you not set the volume to 0.25? Though, I honestly don't know without testing...

Acceptably post-apocalyptic, if a little empty.

Based on one of the very, VERY, early Worldcraft tutorials, I believe enemies were intended to "roam" between info nodes before being engaged by the player.

It's a cool idea, but I can see how it would be a pain when trying to plan out gameplay, since the enemies would be in different places each time. This flag may have been to keep certain enemies in place until the player saw them.

You know you're mapping good stuff when you get Urby's attention.

Heh, I'm just a sucker for classic Half-Life.

So what's this mod Doc.O? Is it on Moddb at all? Is it your mod or are you just mapping for it? I'm interested.

Been playing more Skyrim, recorded for the Rimming The Sky series with Nord Casserole.

I thought it was common knowledge that units in hammer are equal to pixels in textures that haven't been scaled. Archie definitely did a video on texturing for hammer geometry.

Also, pretty certain that Tetsu0 used inches when making a model for goldsource and it matches perfectly with the hammer grid.

Why do I not remember Loony Park...?

Got a good classic look. I like, I like.

I assume you will update the map on the left with an updated version once your layout is done?

I took a 64X64 block, and put a 64X64 texture on it, and it fit perfectly with no resizing.

I uhm... Yeah...

Cool! I reckon he might be playing The Core by the time he's in college...

...maybe

My Windows 10 installation is ready to go. Just haven't pushed the button yet.

I don't believe there is a simple solution to UV mapping. It's usually the stage where I would give up.

I'm certainly not a leader, so if I can pull it off, I'm sure you can.

As I said, it likely won't be a direct sequel, but another linked map project with a little more freedom. I really like the idea of several maps focused on ascending / descending.

Having said that, my primary focus for now is The Core though I will occasionally apply some polish to TWHL tower for a final release.

Anyone else is welcome to kick off a new joint project like this. It's nice to get everyone excited and talking about maps every once in a while... you know... on a mapping community website.

Has anyone ever tried this.

I know some people like to draw out their maps by hand before working on them, but in the case of single player maps, has anyone ever written out their plan instead? I guess it would be more useful for single player maps, so that you can help direct scenes.

The player enters a dimly lit boiler room, an old rusted boiler hisses away while several copper pipes of various condition twist and bend, disappearing into various sections of the walls.

Heading out of the other site, the player ends up in a hallway, again dimly lit and narrow, not intended for heavy traffic. Likely only one or two maintenance workers would be in here at any one time. A couple of the copper pipes from the boiler room emerge from the wall and lead off in opposite directions. A damaged crate containing some outdated piece of machinery has been wedged into the doorway at one end, left there by some disgruntled worker. The other way leads out to the main warehouse.

The warehouse itself is well lit, and somewhat cleaner than the previous two areas. This place is obviously seen regularly by the general work force, so management likes to keep it clean. The reinforced metal walls and ceiling give the place a feeling of security, while at the same time the fans and vents leading to the clear blue sky fill the room with crisp outside air. For such a large space, the place is fairly tidy, only a few crates stacked away to one side to be distributed around the complex later. A truck is parked in one of the three loading bays, engine still idling and the back doors open, revealing several crates ready for unloading. Nearby, a forklift truck sits in its designated bay.

...and so on. I know that had no examples of scripted scenes in it, but it helps give a few elements a little back story, which a lot of maps lack I find.

...Anyone wanna map that?

Gotta say Chi, you have quite the view at night.

Yeah, cleared out a load of files while restarting my website... I assumed everyone would have it by now.

Downloaded the update last night. Not installing yet as I have little faith in Microsoft early releases.

Worst case scenario, if you can't toggle them, kill them. Pretty sure killing something will remove it, regardless of what it is. Even func_ladders (Don't hold me to that without testing, but I'm pretty sure)

Yeah, basically what Dr.Orange said. I don't know if you've played the Poke646 mod for half-life, but they did the same thing for screens and notes. The note was just a big texture in a hidden room somewhere in the map and then there was a simply a trigger_cammera looking at the wall with the texture on it.

The player could 'read' the note by placing a piece of paper that was a func_button which then triggered the camera.

You'd have to do the same thing.

Yeah, Valve did it around 2003/2004. The entity you're looking for is prop_static

Oh you.

Forgive my jaded Core companion. Alas, there has been no code released for the standard GoldSource engine to have models behave in this way. You'd need to look at Xash3D for that kind of thing at the moment.

Yes... I saw you promoting his... "wares"

Is this getting a little too in-jokey?

No true Australian would put Foster's on their car. Not even for a joke!

But a Scotsman might... and did.

It's a good livery. Faithful to SnC colours and lots of SnC Games in-jokes / references in the sponsors.

It's a common thing in my line of work, to rack your brains for hours on end, only to come in the following day and solve the issue in a matter of seconds.

...I mean, basically that, but a little more varied and not shit.

You can flesh out the floors a little, as long as the player is heading down in the long run. Elevators, ladders, stairs, falling, swimming.

Not likely to fall in with your plan of limited space Jessie but I already have an idea for another TWHL team project.

The focus would be on descending, but there would be no size limitations, no logical restrictions like "You are in a tower."

As long as your map focuses on heading downward, it's all good.

But alas, this comes first, then The Core.

Maybe in a few years.

Well, I know some things about Source, and I can map for it, but regarding interchangeability between versions and general SDK brokenness I'm pretty clueless.

Surely, at the end of the day, it only matters what version you're running Ghost? Since you'll need to do all the final compiles.

If somebody doesn't own Ep2, they can map with Ep1 or HL2 and send you their map. The original entities will still work in Ep2 right?

A lot of people in the GS version didn't have Spirit, but it's a spirit mod because I compiled them all with it.

I dunno anything about Source though, so I could be wrong.

Also, I'm not taking part in this one, just because of The Core, TWHL Tower and my general disliking of the Source tools.

That was like, the 3rd or 4th hour I think. I don't think I've got any footage of it though because I quickly learned to keep away from that corner.

I still say the noob cannon should have been worth 0 points. I liked that rule.

Cheers Ant.

Finally got around to editing more of the masses and masses of footage. Here are the highlights (believe it or not) from the second hour.

Hmmm... nah, I could do that again.

I've seen the maps, so I'll say it again... Jessie hasn't broken the rules in any way.

I've not actually made any changes to your map other than the keycard triggers so I dunno why the compile broke them so bad...

Thanks for the feedback guys. There's a few things here for me to work through with regards to fixes. I'm aware some of you may have made your maps using the standard entities, which I then compiled using Spirit of Half-Life. I went through Dr.Orange's map with a fine tooth comb and worked out the bugs that came about from this, but I will admit that not everybody's got the same degree of testing.

Some of the points like the beams not damaging the player appears to be a coding issue in the latest version of spirit. After testing my own map again yesterday it seems that you can just run through that corridor and most of the time will take no damage...

I know my lobby and roof maps need finishing, mostly sorting out scripting and so on.

Though most maps have been received rather well, one of the major complaints is the gameplay in Malle's floor. Not sure how to tackle this one as it seems unfair to deem it unwelcome and strip it out. I will think of something, though if you have any ideas Malle then feel free to post here or PM me.

so was the valve/models folder copy pasted into the twhltower folder, and replaced the v_models with the Blue Shift ones? Waste of space in the rar.

Done to ensure that HD model settings don't override the LD ones. Potentially breaking animation sequences.

I think putting the name of the floor and the maker on the outside of the floor would help identify the maps greatly

Ok. Wanna play the mod again? You'll see I've put them in now? No need to download again. It's magic.

Becuase obvious trigger_teleport usage?

Having seen the VMF I can confirm that there isn't a single teleport in Jessie's map. It all takes place within the restrictions detailed at the start of the challenge. She would have been disqualified otherwise.

I wonder how much cooler and kick ass it can be if there's ever such a thing for the Source Engine (which I'd gladly take part in if ever).

Would definitely be awesome to see that happen. Wouldn't be anything to do with me though. I'm not a Source mapper.

@Jessie I'm pretty sure using teleporters counts as cheating. We were limited to a 1024x1024 area.

Not sure why you even brought that up...

...his floors are all really solid.

A good characteristic for a floor to have, I find.

The jumping tile puzzle in the riddlers room is too sensitive, especially considering there's a low doorway leading into it

For the record, this has actually been edited already, as Malle's original submission had the first tile even further away from the door...

ALPHA RELEASE!
Grab the alpha version here (38.8MB ZIP archive download) for testing and feedback!

Things to check for:

• Issues running the mod at all
• Map errors (ability to break map. etc)
• Gameplay suckiness (Any area that isn't fun / isn't clear / has no place in the final release)
• Any other complaints, praise or feedback

Things I'm aware of

• No official intro yet. Urby is in the lobby but does nothing, kinda like in real life.
• The final map doesn't end yet. Figured I'd get feedback before scripting the outro.

Where possible, I will ask the mapper to come back to me with an updated version, otherwise I will make the changes myself.

Heh, not quite. I gave everybody an excessive amount of time as it is. I just didn't expect my free time to get screwed the way it has.

What happened to progressive learning/difficulty and "teaching without teaching" with the new gen games?

One of my favourite YouTube videos actually touches on this very issue, using Mega Man X on SNES as the example. I'd say it's worth a watch if you haven't seen it already: Clicky!

I figured I'd mix things up a little. We all list our favourite games from time to time, favourite soundtracks and movies as well. However, what you should do in this thread, is to list some of your favourite games with your least favourite part(s) and feature(s)

Half-Life - GoldSource titles

Island hopping in Xen. Some sections of Xen were great and Blue-Shift showed how Xen could be done really really well. The original title and Opposing Force however, went way overboard with the moving platform / floaty island navigation.

Half-Life - Source titles

Manhacks - Thankfully more rare in the episodes, these are one of the most irritating enemies in any game I've ever played.

Airboat / Buggy sequence - Episode 2 got vehicles right, and a good job too consider a large chunk of that game is spent in the muscle car. The original HL2 however did not fare so well in my eyes. Both the buggy and the airboat sections really irritated me.

Fallout 3

Metro tunnels - I love open world games. The things you can stumble across by chance are a good distraction when it seems as though nothing is really going on. However, the metro tunnels are way too linear and overused to be fun. The first time they can be tricky to navigate and you can still find hidden caches, bits of lore and occasional frantic close quarters combat. However, when you're ducking back into a tunnel to get from point A to point B and you've already cleared it out, it essentially becomes a ten minute loading screen that you can't walk away from. New Vegas did away with these thankfully.

Skyrim

The Main Questline - This one is quite a glaring issue. It's probably only an issue if you were to play Skyrim and for some reason were determined to avoid all side quests or exploration. That is not the best way to experience an open world game at all, especially Skyrim. The main questline is simply really dull. I'd have to do a main story quest, then take a break and explore for a bit, or deal with some of the many, far more interesting side quests.

Right, house move is almost done. Intending to set up the study this week at some point. The roof is basically done other than some scripting work and the actual ending credits, but I might wait for your guys feedback before going ahead with end credits.

I'll upload it to unfinished stuff ASAP for testing and feedback.

FALLOUT 4 and BATTLEFRONT are all I'm taking away from E3 this year.

FALLOUT 4: YES, YES, YES! ALL OF THIS IN MY FACE NOW. It's everything I love and more. Open world, fully customisable weapons / armour / play style. That base building / defence stuff is a massive complicated feature, but if you don't want to do it, don't. Simple.

BATTLEFRONT is Battlefield: Star Wars edition. Two of my favourite things in one game! Not to mention it looks TITS! I would not be surprised if the release was one big fuck up however.

Uncharted 4 looks great and Final Fantasy 7 was one of my all time favourite games. That said, I'm not shelling out for a PS4 for two games. I'd rather upgrade the faithful rig.

Spirit of Half Life is still gold source, it's just got a load of new entity options. You just install it like a regular mod, then edit / mod it to suit you.

Some of the standard features are pretty cool though. You can set the models used by individual npcs, so you can have soldier and barney zombies or clean suit scientists without having to code anything. Hell, you can even add Otis by using barney as a base (You can also set what voices some npcs use, and barney can be set to use .357 rounds)

It also streamlines certain things. Making a locked door open with a key for example. Create the key as a button and set the door "master" to the button. That way, the door won't open unless the "key" button is active. No relay entities or any of that crap. You can also use an entity called the env_warpball which creates the full alien teleport effect, beams, sprite, sound effect, without having to time a load of separate entities manually.

Sounds fair. I'm working at the moment but my Steam username is Urbanebula, though I may be listed currently as: the inner-most wee guy