6-D : A Half-Life Puzzle Mod [WIP] Created 18 years ago2006-07-27 12:16:44 UTC by Rimrook

A bit of some quirkiness in the game has been bothering me lately. Mostly because there are parts of the game that current doesn't blend with the rest of it, albeit most of the puzzle elements in the game. Like I said, just a quirk.

Upon reminiscing, months ago I was playing Myst3 and I asked my roomy if the D'ni created the worlds to be puzzles on purpose, it didn't make any sense whatsoever nor help the story. It then occurred to me that almost any game have these side elements. Things that are in the game that don't detach it from the experience, but instead enforces the game aspect. Leading back to my oldest rule, ultimately its a game, games are meant to be played, and be fun.

An example is Zelda. The temples had no social or ritual features or application other than to supply the player with an intriguing experience to play. Its already known that if Zelda was realistic in the least bit, it would suck tremendously. Although the story would be probably be highly believable with everything being purposeful. But go any further and you have a movie.

The problem lies within that, the balance between game aspect and realism and believability. I could throw all realism out the window, but that wouldn't be intriguing to play with little purpose. I'm shooting for a balance between the two and trying to blend the two together as best I can. So if anyone ever asks "Why would anyone do this to go through a door everyday?" ... because I say so, there level are designed as puzzles on purpose for your entertainment.

Most HL mods don't have to deal with this, most people don't encounter observations like this though. Depending on the project, especially this one, understanding how gameplay and experience drive players really helps to direct the mod. Most mods have a lot of this already in play that the game they are modding has already a balance and no one is questioning such aspects. Like some quirks are good, like there is no human possible way Freeman could carry all of those weapons at the same time; and some bad quirks, like how come Freeman never eats, sleeps, or needs to piss. If these problems were corrected, without justice HL would suck. Its not fun, you might as well go play The Sims.

Learning to control and balance these quirks and aspects is a powerful thing justified by how much game do you want the player to experience. I'm glad that most of it is taking care of by HL already. Trying to design a perfect game from scratch, or near scratch, or even changing the gameplay type would teach you this. Even if its a mod, boil everything down to the minimal that it could possibly be and mod as if no one has ever played a video in their life, even the stuff that is commonly known. This helps to establish the new universe you are creating.

Just an observation.
(and a prewrite, fuh.)

Very interesting.

While writing my games document for my first coursework I had to use a few books as references and one of the books I used is called:

Theoretical Topic II ? Nine Trade-Offs of Game Design by Francois Dominic Laram?e ? Game Design Perspectives: pg. 116

I'll paste in what I wrote at the top:

The theory about the ?Nine Trade-Offs of game Design? by Francois Dominic Laram?e discusses the nine sets of conflicting goals that a game designer has to decide due to tight deadlines or budget limits. He discusses the idea that ?each of us, deep inside, harbours a personal conception of the ?Ultimate Game,? a perfect product capable of satisfying the needs of every player until the end of time.?

These are the titles he discussed:

?Balance versus Enjoyment?
?Realism versus Understandability?
?Structure versus Freedom?
?Mood versus Playability?
?Completeness versus Manageability?
?Innovation versus Familiarity?
?Scope versus Concision?
?Violence versus Isolation?
?Breadth versus Depth versus Pace?

I found it interesting cause the points he makes do open your eyes as to the decisions that have to be made when designing a game...

A lot of work!

Myst 3 is an awesome game. The whole series is.

Myst is awesome for a reason, its good to understand that reason to continue making awesome games. Not all the same I hope, you get my point.

Rimboi, that stuff is gold. Everyone should copy and paste that in to a txt file and save it.

Funny though, I guess I'm during something right if I have a similar understanding as Francois Dominic Laram?e.

Finally understanding this kinda stuff makes me feel good about the project as a whole. Talked to Daubster (literally) and he seems optimistic about the progress and the mod itself. The other day, Grim thought somehow we'll pull this bitch off and make it good.

EDIT: Have to sign up some mappers to do that as mentioned before. I'm going to see if I can set that up ahead of time so after the demo goes public we can hit the ground running.

Grim thought somehow we'll pull this bitch off and make it good.

Damn straight.

I have faith.

There is no spoon.

waitwut?

Kuh-Bewm!!!

small update

Here's Imengo, a commander of the Human detachment of military.The player, yaarr!Same but I didn't finish the coloring. I hate that style anyway but it still looks nice.Decided to change the commander from Seidon to Imengo because the name was no longer fitting his character. However, the head scientist of the civilian science team that's traveling with the military detachment will be named Seidon.

Also, set up the factions correctly. Try to follow along

You Has:

The Player
Navengers
Human Military
Human Science Team
Proving Ground AI

The player is allied with the Navengers and the human science team but nothing else.

The Navengers are allied with only the Player, they hate all humans.

The Human military is allied with only the science team.

The AI is only allied with the science team.

A good conflict is the internal squabbles among the military and science teams on the human's behalf. The player's alliance with the science team upsets the Navengers, which believe all human have the same motive to take over after the military fucked up relations commanded by the arrogant asshole Imengo. And of course, the science team developed the proving ground AI so they have full clearance that the player may use to an advantage.

Setting that up adds a lot to how the player will interact with certain characters. Makes it easier on my part thinking of events and such, getting in to the character's minds a little bit.

That's captain Jack Sparrow to you, sir.

cap'n crunch ___

.no.

But Captain Jack is awesome.

awesome in his own sense but has nothing to do with 6D i assure you.

Fair enough.

The alliance system sounds complex from the players point if view. Can't wait for further updates.

He played an amazing part as Sweeny Todd too.

This is looking good, I can't wait for a demo.

Sweeney Todd was awesome but everyone I know said it sucked and the theatre play was way better.

AS IF I have the time and money to go to a play now o'days.

i supposed it depends largely on your tastes. some people don't like dark slasher-musicals, some people do!

Utterly off topic, but Sweeney Todd was indeed awesome. I'm not normally one for morbid humour, but it was great. Would've been better without the undeniably gay sailor pretending to be in love with Joanna.

Utterly off topic

NO U! my thread, GET OFF MY CLOUD!

I think the gay sailor going after Joanna was a bit of light to an awfully dark ending. The whole thing was morbid enough to end someone's life.

Heh, I just didn't like the actor.

well someone had to suck to make Johnny Depp look better.

Haha. I was keeping quiet about loving the movie but seeing ask you guys are now talking about it...

Saw it in the cinema.
Recommended to everyone.
Bought the soundtrack.
Played soundtrack in car.
Bought DVD.

Rimrook: Is there a Fixed release date? (just for curiosity)

nnnnyeah

G'luck with teh progress...

Status updates??

Not yet, but now that Rim and I are both on break, we're going to kick some 6D asshole.

So... Soon. (and/or -ish)

that's all i wanted to hear

So... Soon. (and/or -ish)

Now. I've already started.

Status: Getting its ass kicked.

All the links to the demo versions seem to be down. Any chance for a mirror?

All the newer stuff seems to be up.
As for older media - go to our Moddb page.

Nothing on the maprookie.com/6d page works, except moddb link, benchmark, and completion chart.

all of which haven't been upkept. once the demo comes out here, i need to finish that bitch up and provide a home for the project. Its started but needs finishing. A LOT of things need finishing... especially the demo.

sorry i haven't posted updates, not really necessary to at this point.

here's a progress note: it looks like it could come out on time.

Also, this is my new homepage for a while.

Hey Rimrook Are you sure the countdown's excact? Or an estimate?

its set for noon on july 13th, so i think its accurate. at least it better be.

That's for the demo then?
@.@ The wait is killing me.

well sorry i put up a timer... be glad i couldn't make the text larger like i wanted to.

the good news is its not that far off, the bad news is its not that far off.

Finally! In years the world waited...the wait is almost over...clock is ticking (tick tock tick tock)...

Its possible I can finish mapping pretty soon here. Its looking like we will really hit that mark.

That actually makes me feel gewd.

hah

hope you guys can handle the r_speeds... 1000-2000 wpolies + prop model epolies ranging to about ~9000.

its all optimized as best it can get of course.

a while back i think it was agreed to go a little above the limits of a standard dm map just for this. can't really remember though.

we can handle r_speeds..(right guys?)

SP maps have much higher r_speed limits anyway. What would lag online with a couple of players aboard (1500-2000 wpolies) runs perfectly in SP. Keep it below 2000 and everything'll be fine. :>

unlike some people, I'm not trying to recreate or even make it look like HL2.

Yes you are! LIAR!

Look at the Hammerhead! Its a complete ripoff of...erm...

Yeah ok.

NOTICE: The timer is not correct! according to that, I would be releasing it at 4 in the morning on monday... I don't know how to fix the timer, but just to let you know, it comes out at noon sunday, July 13th. (noon my time. its 5:51 at the time writing this... so calculate you're own offsets.

sk_apache_health is now 900. You can thank Urb for the brilliant suggestion.

Oh yeah...can't wait