Experienced Coders Wanted Created 13 years ago2011-04-07 01:34:12 UTC by Dimbeak

I have planned a game with Potatis_Invaldio, along with a sequel. However, since his is to busy to work on this project and he has dreams of making a 2d platform, I ASK YOU, THE PEOPLE OF TWHL!

This game is called Day of Blockade where you can choose to be a Soviet Marine or an American Marine! Both have different areas. The chapters may seem short, but they can be stretched out. The Soviets, however, will have more in the game. Also, the sequel that has been planned would be decent.

I know I'm not known to be popular sofiscitcated on TWHL, but give this a try! I've planned this out! Download the Microsoft Word file here.

You've somehow managed to make an entire 6-page design document and a forum post without once mentioning any of the absolute key points about this game.
For starters: What is it? Is it a mod? What engine does it use? Is it even 3D? How will it play? Why are experienced coders needed? For what?

Then more finicky points:
When is this set?
Why are there Soviets in Australia?
What is the purpose of any of the events you've written?
Why are US Marines using AK-47s?
Radiation beast? What? Why?
Why have you peppered your design document with a meaningless Copyright statement? Read up on what footers are in Word.

This is not a planned out idea. It's more like a series of possible moments in a game which might be cool, but with no greater story or purpose guiding the player, they'll just be confused.

And seriously - I read all 6 pages and I still don't have a clue even remotely what form this might take.

I did however lol at:

Kenyan - Enemy and Friend, depending on which version of the game the player chooses. They are easily startled.

Fists - Found in Chapter One

From the viewpoint of a long-time goldsource player - I can imagine this becoming interesting. Although, the biggest problem is making expansive outdoor maps as indicated in your routes. But I have a few gripes, not general ones like huntey is discussing, but details on each page that I feel should be elucidated.

Page 1

...the red character will be around southwestern Australia, pass through the Indian Ocean, take place around Madagascar, head towards Africa, turn back, and end up in Africa.

Wait, what? He goes towards Africa, turn back and end up in Africa? So he doesn't escape Africa does he? Good ending.

Boarding boats is prolly do-able via a boat chase scene or something. I've seen plenty of chase scenes on trains but not on boats before. However I doubt that anyone is willing to make a boat-chase map that's even half as impressive as the one scene from the dream compo winning entry. A shame.

Implementing the second mode is easily doable: One is the "new game" and the other is the "training". This has been done in residual point, it's cool.

Since they overlap in africa, it is highly favourable to have one or a few maps that are accessed by both the american and the soviet 'marine'. Sorry, I just never seen the words 'soviet marine' used together like that. Looked weird.

Although most of the game looks as if it will be almost completely overseas, there will be areas where the player will rest to see he had advanced for a long amount of time. There could have been certain twists or disasters that the player missed which could be kept a mystery for an amount of time.

This part is too vague. I'm assuming you meant cutscene-game_text combo that furthers storyline. Completely do-able.

I am also confused on why the soviet marines (lol) come from Australia. I'm sure the admin team is going to love this idea.

Page 2 - The NPC list.

1. A typical american marine. surely the hgrunts can do for these guys. I have models of the hgrunts using CS ak-47's and m3 pump shotguns from fpsbanana so no worries.

2. Soviet marines (lol, sorry) - just skin them red with soviet emblems on their shirts. Although, the sledgehammer is a problem. I know a mod that has sledgehammers but there aren't w_models.

3. Boat mechanic - easy. Port the TFC engineer and give him the tfc wrench. Probably act similar to barneys. (except the weapon)

4. Generic wild monster. Easy, any monster using the zombie code will do melee attacks.

5. Generic critter, much like monster_rat. No problem

6. Generic flying critter. Can use flyer flock code for flying, but has a hitbox so it can be killed.

7. Kenyan - well if they are easily startled I guess you mean them to be scientist-like.

8. Beast that triggers your geiger counter - kills player with one bite - this is bad for game play. Never, ever use NPC's that kill in 1 hit. The male assassin with sniper from op4 is supposed to kill in 1 hit, but they only do a measly 15 damage. It's purely for gameplay reasons.

9. Helicopter with nuke. I don't understand how HELICOPTERS can lug a nuke onboard. That will raise eyebrows.

Page 3 - storyline - 7 comprehensible chapters... PER character
that makes 14 chapters total... that's almost nearing the number of chapters in the vanilla Half life. That's a bit overly ambitious. People may not have the effort or the dedication to map for 14 chapters.

Soviet marine chapters (lol, sorry couldn't resist)
1. What was the message? Well anyway a typical intro with early fight (people might not yet be adjusted to the game to be already thrown into a fight)

2. Gets weapon, but no fighting, get knocked out, end up on the island. Ok I guess he can explore the island a bit before he finds the radio tower (placed there by mysterious stranger TM)

3. More menial tasks (possibly puzzles) on ship. Player does not find the horror.

4. Rest on land, ship blows over. Boss battle. Okay.

5. Occurs entirely on high seas. The way I see it, it will be hard to do unless done as a cutscene. And then a helicopter boss battle.

6. Player goes thru African jungles (very hard to map, massive amount of props required), fights some enemy soldiers, and then some bogies. Player is told to escape, not fight. Sounds a wee bit like Predator (the film).

7. The player is killed, after all that trouble.

US marine chapters

1. Chopper ride to africa. Most likely similar to the one in Heart of Evil. Then a boat ride. From North Africa, around the cape and over to madagascar. May take well over 20 maps of boat rides (jk, just compress it into one cutscene)

2. It just occurred to me, why did the US marines take the Atlantic ocean route to madagascar, not the pacific ocean route? Also in the map it looks like they landed near west africa and just took the overland route? I'm confused.

3. Boss battle on the high seas. On the ship.

4. This is most certainly where the overlap maps may occur, if any. A gruntfest chapter.

5. Player gets weapons stripped? after being knocked out, in similar fashion to soviet chapter 2

6. More bosses.

7. You kill the other character you played (the soviet character) cutscenes with text flash up and tell you that you were killed maybe 20 years later right after you retired. Nobody wins.

Final Page - weapons

1. SOVIET WEAPONS

weapon_fists - seen this in plenty of mods. Probably a crowbar replacement with different sounds.

weapon_pistol - replacement for glock. Prolly a stenchkin aps or tokarev.

weapon_mp5 - replacement for the, um, the mp5.

weapon_shotgun - replacement for the gluon gun. Nah just messin' with ya. I mean the shotgun.

weapon_wrench - for consistency, probably from tfc, or op4

weapon_rpg - do I really have to tell you any more

weapon_sledgehammer - Like I said before I've seen this in another mod but in this case op4 pipewrench code will prolly work.

AMERICAN WEAPONS

weapon_fists - same deal.
weapon_mp5 - same deal.
weapon_sledgehammer - dunno american marines had experience using sledgehammers in combat.

weapon_spear - dunno. The only spear I've seen is in Afraid of monsters Director's cut. Not easy to implement. (unless if it's yet another useless crowbar replacement)

weapon_shotgun - not a different deal.
weapon_rpg - not really a different deal.
weapon_chaingun - the peak of American identity. Blasting away with a chaingun. Although TF2 players will agree if this weapon were to be given to the soviets.

©2011 All rights reserved.

SUMMARY

There isn't much in terms of coding... but the maps are a bit vague and, frankly, too much. No one on TWHL (or anywhere, I venture) will dedicate to make 14 chapters worth of maps for a mod like this. However I will tell you how this mod is possible. Once you have made (or have someone else make) the 14-chapters worth of maps, show some aspiring screenshots of said maps, then put it on moddb, rest assured coders will appear sooner or later. As it is now I doubt it will be able to climb out of the cradle. Sorry.

*And it IS possible. People your age have made full mods (Afraid of monsters for instance)

Wait, what? He goes towards Africa, turn back and end up in Africa? So he doesn't escape Africa does he? Good ending.

Note that he never 'entered' Africa therefore how can he 'escape' Africa if he didn't enter it in the first place?

Also is there even such thing as a Soviet Marine? A bit odd wording.

he does. (see soviet chapter 6)

I was just gliding off what was quoted, and in that sentence it never establishes that he entered, only that he was headed towards Africa then turned back.

So long as you portray Australians correctly, this could be fun.

Remember:

• We drive kangaroos more than cars (it's about a 3:1 ratio).
• If we're not working or sleeping, we're barbequing something.
• We love our Soviet motherland Fosters beer.

You're forgetting The Boot.

Is it true you also marry your kangaroos?

My friend kickboxes with his because it's so arrogant, it won't let him sleep anywhere at night.

I knew I forgot something.

You better reserve those rights son! THIS COULD BE HUGE!

Why are there Soviets in Australia?

In Soviet Australia, kangaroo eats YOU!

To be honest your mod is nothing so special in my opinion.
Good luck anyway!

Okay, let me clear things up for you: This is not a mod.
Potatis believes he could code an entire 3D engine, however he is busy. If the people of TWHL come together we could make it work.

If the people of TWHL come together we could make it work.

No, we couldn't.

I'm not being a dick, I'm just letting you know.

Base it on the quake source code, add half-life BSP support, have members make maps.

???

Profit!

Not enough of us model/texture.

make it opensource (gpl) still it is only pure text
i can help a little with coding ;p

Also, for those of you whom are confused about the storyline, the chapters are just a basic jottdown and the encyclopedia isn't completely finished.

EDIT:The encyclopedia has been updated with a bit more story and a concept design of a ship. Download it... shoot, were'd that link go? Oh, haha, there it is. Silly thing.

not a mod? So basically trying to make a fully independent 3D game that sounds a bit like cod2?

Sparkplug studios needs to hire a payroll officer, along with 20-30 odd employees. Good luck.

Sparkplug studios needs to hire a payroll officer, along with 20-30 odd employees. Good luck.

That or you can set a release date at around your 30th birthday.

Try focusing on gameplay mechanics instead of story for your next idea.

Make it a text adventure and voila! No mapping, texturing or modelling needed.

Nobody plays text-bases or MUD games anymore (but I occassionally do, sometimes) and I will soon be working on the mechanics of the games. I'm starting with simple planning while filling you guys in with what is requested.

Try focusing on gameplay mechanics

Okey Dokey.

So basically trying to make a fully independent 3D game that sounds a bit like cod2?

More like a mixture of Crysis and Doom III.

Then yeah, maybe you'll release it when you're around 70.

Why don't you just start with small steps? I've played excellent 2-3 maps mods that, when I come to think of the authors, they probably dedicated a lot of their free time to making them. And they're only a few maps long.

For example, Sebastian or Mission Improbable.

Yeah, start off small, build your skills before you dive into a huge project.
Before they made HL, Gabe and Mike Harrington worked at Microsoft.
(Ok, Bad Analogy)
What I'm trying to get across is everyone has to start somewhere, and in the middle of everything is a bad place to do it.

Actually, Valve had attempted to make several projects before HL, much like Prospero. However, they eventually gave up their projects to work on Half-Life.

No. Prospero was just in the concept stage, they never did anything for it as it was set to be worked on after Half-Life.

@dimbark
u can start off with the irrlicht engine because writing an engine from 0 would be difficult

i'd recommend to drop the whole idea and write something simpler and easier - 2D space shooter with economy, storyline and missions ^^

so i can help a little with c++