ttt_ldt_nuclear

[FRAG69]

This is a very large thread as it hold's a few months worth of work, If I see you on the other side I thank you very much for getting through all this

O.K so I've worked for a month or two on this map as a small project, it's built using Source SDK and is for the game mode Trouble in Terrorist Town which runs on Garrys Mod.

The LDT in the name is the name of the gaming community I help run.

Anyway, the idea behind this map was to create a fully fleshed out and working nuclear research facility, As most maps on our server are just eye candy and not a lot else so people can get bored easily, I wanted to create a map that kept people entertained but to also create an experience that would keep them coming back.

To start with I looked into Nuclear research facility's

Pool-type reactors, also called swimming pool reactors, are a type of nuclear reactor that has a core immersed in an open pool of water. The reactor core, consisting of the fuel elements and the control rods, is situated in an open water pool. The water acts as neutron moderator, cooling agent and radiation shield. The layer of water directly above the reactor core shields the radiation so completely that operators may work above the reactor safely. This design has two major advantages: the reactor is easily accessible and the whole primary cooling system, i.e. the pool water, is under normal pressure. This avoids the high temperatures and great pressures of nuclear power plants. Pool reactors are used as a source of neutrons and for training, and in rare instances for process heat but not for electrical generation.

After sometime I started to draw up the layout on paper (I have no idea where those plans are now but the layout changed over iterations) and then went into hammer and created this basic layout.





























After some quick play testing with some members of the TTT server I jumped straight back into hammer and removed a few thing's and added some more.

To begin with I re-did the warehouse to make it much more open.



Then I ripped apart the Nuclear testing room and created this.



After some more research and testing I came to my next set of changes which have covered the final look of how things are, My main body of work was done on the Nuclear testing room, I really wanted people to believe they were stood in one, If they took a few seconds on google and looked that this room will like near identical to what they were playing in, I spent a few days getting everything right and came up with this.



My next plan of attack was to finish what I had started in the control building, It was an empty building that was supposed to be a base of operations for the site, luckily I had just done some work on office spaces so the layouts were still fresh in my mind.

My first iteration was a small cubicle work space that looked this this.



However in terms of gameplay it was still effectively a huge empty room so I stripped it out and created this layout.



Finally I had the warehouse to finish, So far it had a few containers in it and a truck or two, so I played around with some models and had this as the end result.




Now in a TTT map, it's always good to have vent's, If you have just killed an innocent as a traitor and your trying to get away from the body before the detective can grab your DNA, Vent's are a great way to get out of there, So I next started linking up the buildings through a vent system.

The Nuclear room has a vent at the bottom of it that you can break through and either head to the warehouse or you can get out here.



This room connects to a pipe room next door.



Which then leads you outside the warehouse.



So now everything was in place, I felt this was a great layout and all buildings fitted in with the map, At this point though I was busy with my final university project and didn't really test the map out with members in the community, I'll get to why that caused problems in a bit.

Now most of the map is dev textured and I don't think I've ever seen a building in the world with dev textures, So this was my next point of call, texturing the map.

Nuclear Research Room


Warehouse


Vent room


Warehouse and Nuclear Research Exterior


Control Center (Half textured here)


Above offices


So I got to this point and remembered that I should be testing this map out with others, It's fine that I love this map but I wasn't making this map for me to play on, I was making it for others to play on as well, I hosted a 15 player server to test it out and there was a problem.

There was too much space outside, you couldn't hide if you were being shot or shooting, it was just too open.

After some quick searching and idea pooling I decided to add in a sort of storage vault for Nuclear waste to be stored in.



After another quick test and some environment models added in, everyone was now happy with the playable space and I stopped the project to get back 100% on my uni project.

Now I finished Uni on Thursday and I've picked this map up again, currently I'm working on the surrounding environment, I have a train system that I'm working on using I/O



I've also linked up cameras to the main screen in the control room and started I/O for control of the control rods being used in the research room.

Any feedback on what you've seen so far would be great and I can't wait to discuss this with you guys.

Again sorry for the huge post

[White Paper Games]

Oh wow, you really did mean a large post right! Lots of cool images in there. I really like how you've fleshed it out.

I think I lot of trouble people have with BSPing a level is how boxy it can get, make sure you stay away from "this is a room, then this is a corridor, then this is another room" try to make it a believable environment to play in. You still have a lot of open spaces which can be filed with some cool level design. Always thing about vertical design. Its the easiest way to add depth to your map. I think you did a good job in fleshing out some of those larger rooms in the game so that they make interesting environments to play in, just make sure you do the same with the outdoors! I think this is a very cool project and its good to see you putting so much in!

Also, might be a complete idiot for asking this, but what is I/O?

[FRAG69]

I/O is Inputs/Outputs, it's the system that links things up in Source, so I say I have a button that opens a door and also turns on a light, I set it up through Outputs from the button targeting my entities which then register through the respected entities Inputs.

And yes It can seem a bit boxy with the BSP, Problem I have here is I can only really stuck to BSP for buildings as I don't have much time to work on any models to use (Plus the pipeline in Source is a little awkward compared to something like UDK) But I will be changing the exterior side of the buildings using BSP to add interesting building shapes.

Vertical design is something I'm taking on board, I started working on stuff high above the player like the crane over the pit, this view from inside the pit shows the crane a bit better.



I've set up that crane to move and lower the container into the pit every 2 minutes when the blast door opens, The reason I've set it to this is because one round of TTT is maxed at 14 minutes, from playing on the server over the past 2 years the average time for rounds to be played out is around 10 minutes (I created an add on system to help mappers better understand what players do on the server)
But yes vertical design is a definite aspect I'm trying to look at, I'm also looking into the 3D skybox around the map to give it more depth, Otherwise it looks like the world only exists in this research facility

Thanks for the feedback WPG

[FRAG69]

Ahhh where have I been for so long, damn day job is killing my time off.

Recently I came back to this map to finish what I started, over the past week I've been cleaning up a lot of the early work and trying to polish things up, The last time I was working on nuclear I had started on the 3D Skybox so that was my first target, I originally wanted to expand the nuclear facility and have the player space fenced off but I gave up on this idea and moved towards cliff faces blocking in the level.

My problem with this was it clashed with "expanding the world" as all the player would look at it is cliffs and nothing more, This led me to creating buildings into the cliffs, this was my first attempt at doing this.





I then created a few displacements to start building up the cliff side and put rock meshes in to break it up.



(Please ignore the smoke in this shot, I've still yet to touch it so it's looking a bit crazy)


I'll hopefully continue working on this a bit more this weekend so I can really get everything looking nice and not so proto messy.

[FRAG69]

So as I stated before I wanted players to take control of the facility, this involves setting up an I/O system that governs all buttons, sounds and functions in the map, last week I opened up my flowchart app and started getting an idea down of what I wanted players to be able to do.

The first flowchart was this:


It outlines what both traitors and innocents can do with the facility and what consequences come from doing each action, after showing this flowchart to a friend he suggested an iteration to scale it down a bit (which would also allow for a few new areas to be implemented) and he came back with this:



A few things remain the same, the goal for the innocents is to enable the core's power which would in turn power up the lab allowing the traitor tester to be used by the detectives, obviously we give traitors the chance to stop this happening by taking out the control rods hydraulic system or by obtaining access to the coolant system which would flood the core room with coolant and injure/kill players.

Of course I had not built in a lab area so I wished to create it at the far end of the core room, this could create an interesting stand off should the traitor trap them in there with a turret, I created a corner corridor so it would not mean insta win should a traitor manage to trap them, I've also started laying out the lab so it doesn't mean innocents start bunching up in corners.

Here is the start of the lab:





And here is the mentioned traitor tester being started on:



I'm continuing work on this today, I hope to have the tester working by tonight and have it plugged into the I/O system

[White Paper Games]

Good planning on those flow charts Olly! It's cool to see.

[FRAG69]

Thanks WPG, today I obtained a pack of new textures so I decided to start applying them to the lab area, might also re-do a few pieces around the map with them.

Hallway into lab (Not final lighting)


Door into lab


New ceiling, wall and glass textures (Not final lighting)


Not final though, still doing some playtesting to see if the textures work or not but it add's a more to it atmospherically I think
(I think though, you all may disagree, if you do, please tell me )

Will update more in the week I hope

[White Paper Games]

Coming together nicely Olly! Only one thing that annoys me are when games have tiled floors and then things placed on top of them that don't seem to fit. That central glass thing on the last image doesn't look like its standing on the floor. Could either make it the same size as the tiles or since people do cut into tiles, maybe have a little trim piece surrounding it or something! Like it though!

[FRAG69]

Thanks WPG, I'm currently creating a blend texture for those sort of pieces, I hate mis-alignment with tile textures too so it's something I'm working on

[FRAG69]

It's been awhile since my last progress post on this map, let's change that then

Over the last few months I've been trying to further my understanding of design processes and player interactivity in level design, I've read (for the 5th time I think) "The hows and whys of Level Design" by Sjoerd De Jong, I've also read a ton of articles on gamasutra and from WOLD itself, the conclusion I came too eventually was the player must enjoy the space they move in, they can't feel like their in no man's land with nothing to do, the game-play has to be varied and exciting but also to keep them immersed, all through the map rules (which is governed by the core rules)

This eventually led me back to this map, I wanted to tell a story and to keep the player entertained but I was failing to do that, I was too focused on completing the map and adding fancy effects to make it look good, so I stopped and re-addressed what I wanted to achieve by creating this check-list.

Nuclear's Check-list

• Tell a story.
• Create map objectives.
• Create a realistic setting and apply multi-player design theories.

Tell a story

This one I had already planned but I wasn't concentrating on enough, how can you tell a story through a multi-player map, personally I had not experienced much maps that did this, usually you play single-player to get the story and the multi-player is set in locations from that story but here I don't have single-player.

Then it dawned on me one night while playing a Black Ops 1 zombie map, this map is telling me a story while I fight against hordes of zombies with friends, In fact it was bending the core game rules to achieve this, you were learning about this whole story while running from zombies or making "crawlers" this was what inspired my story telling in nuclear and also leads me onto the next point.....

Create map objectives

In a BLOPs zombie map, you usually have to find these secret objectives to unlock parts of the story, this way it doesn't interfere with the core gameplay and you can choose to ignore it completely if you really wanted too but it does add another depth to the maps your playing in and this is how I felt I would achieve my first and second points.

Create a realistic setting and apply multi-player design theories.

A lot of maps in this gamemode tend to go with the weird and wacky or scenes from popular movies and games, I wanted to take a different approach by creating a nuclear testing facility that was based on real world locations and then change certain design aspects to work with multi-player level design, it's all good running past a nuclear reactor chamber but if there's only a parking lot outside with a few cars then it can get boring with no places to run, hide and ambush, the player wants a challenge.


So with this check-list in mind and from what I had learned I started working on the "upgrades to this map"

To begin with, when the player spawns in the map, this message appears in the top left corner



The player/s now has the option to either find out what that message is about or to just run around the facility, this allows the map to be played by the core game-play rules or by my map rules.

If the player/s decide to start investigating, how can they know where the first part is? I decided to create red pulsing lights where story clues and hints can be found, here is an in-hammer shot of one.



Typical behaviour for players in TTT is to hit the use key at any control panel/keypad (I did a survey on this about a year ago, If I find my infographic I'll post it)

So once the use key is pressed where the light is, it activates a button that turns off the red light and displays a message, the following is the first story piece.

Log Entry #0657# We appear to be getting a better readout from the power house following our updates to the rod control system, the ###### is now becoming stable, Jackson seems to be scared of our progress but this will be for the good of mankind, I bet he is still in his office, crying like usual

The clue for the next story element is in that Log entry, Jackson is in his office so the next clue is in his office, so once that message has displayed, it unlocks the next button and turns on the next clue light and the trail continues.


Wait a second, your creating all this, how will players know there is a story in the map and not just take the spawn message as just we need to turn the power on?

Well this was something I had to think about at first, why should I waste all this time on something people might not get or understand, this was my solution.

I have a development thread for the map on the community forums where this map will be hosted (It's used for feedback and in-dev screenshot posting) one day last week I made a post that contained the following.

http://db.tt/6M3hJ2c7

The following is what I posted after over 75% of the community had found out what was going on

My first post contained a video and a link in tiny writing.

the link was http://db.tt/6M3hJ2c7 which translated to http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/CMK...JRPB-YHHUR.txt when put into a browser.

It opened up a text document that had the following

#LNT MANAGER DIARY ENTRY 0234#

We have successfully brought the main power online today in the lab, so far all systems check out fine and
the reactor is coping quite well with the increase from #####, we will begin testing ###### as soon as possible
but we are currently waiting for the lab guys to get all their gear down there ready.

I know a few personnel working here have concerns over this new project but I think this will really benefit mankind
as we know it, think of the possibilities if ##### was successful, there's no end to what we could do, as always we
need to be wary this work doesn't fall into the wrong hands, I've been assured that security will be getting tighter
but I don't think it will ever be enough, not when something like ##### is on site.

Please find attached the usual encryption for our photos

68747470733a2f2f646c2e64726f70626f782e636f6d2f752f 32313935353439302f6e75636c6561722e747874

Read through the entry to discover something about the story to this map (remember ages ago I said this map has a story? well this is part of it so ya better read up!)

At the bottom we have an encryption, it's a hexadecimal encryption but it needs to be decoded.

After decoding you will get the following link

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/nuclear.txt

Now in this text file is the following

aHR0cHM6Ly9kbC5kcm9wYm94LmNvbS91LzIxOTU1NDkwL3NvdX JjZV93b3JrL251Y2xlYXIvdGVhc2VyLzIwMTMtMDEtMThfMDAw MDIuanBnDQpodHRwczovL2RsLmRyb3Bib3guY29tL3UvMjE5NT U0OTAvc291cmNlX3dvcmsvbnVjbGVhci90ZWFzZXIvMjAxMy0w MS0xOF8wMDAwNC5qcGcNCmh0dHBzOi8vZGwuZHJvcGJveC5jb2 0vdS8yMTk1NTQ5MC9zb3VyY2Vfd29yay9udWNsZWFyL3RlYXNl ci8yMDEzLTAxLTE4XzAwMDAzLmpwZw0KaHR0cHM6Ly9kbC5kcm 9wYm94LmNvbS91LzIxOTU1NDkwL3NvdXJjZV93b3JrL251Y2xl YXIvdGVhc2VyLzIwMTMtMDEtMThfMDAwMTAuanBnDQpodHRwcz ovL2RsLmRyb3Bib3guY29tL3UvMjE5NTU0OTAvc291cmNlX3dv cmsvbnVjbGVhci90ZWFzZXIvMjAxMy0wMS0xOF8wMDAxMi5qcG cNCmh0dHBzOi8vZGwuZHJvcGJveC5jb20vdS8yMTk1NTQ5MC9z b3VyY2Vfd29yay9udWNsZWFyL3RlYXNlci8yMDEzLTAxLTE4Xz AwMDA1LmpwZw0KaHR0cHM6Ly9kbC5kcm9wYm94LmNvbS91LzIx OTU1NDkwL3NvdXJjZV93b3JrL251Y2xlYXIvdGVhc2VyLzIwMT MtMDEtMThfMDAwMDcuanBnDQpodHRwczovL2RsLmRyb3Bib3gu Y29tL3UvMjE5NTU0OTAvc291cmNlX3dvcmsvbnVjbGVhci90ZW FzZXIvMjAxMy0wMS0xOF8wMDAwOS5qcGcNCmh0dHBzOi8vZGwu ZHJvcGJveC5jb20vdS8yMTk1NTQ5MC9zb3VyY2Vfd29yay9udW NsZWFyL3RlYXNlci8yMDEzLTAxLTE4XzAwMDExLmpwZw0KaHR0 cHM6Ly9kbC5kcm9wYm94LmNvbS91LzIxOTU1NDkwL3NvdXJjZV 93b3JrL251Y2xlYXIvdGVhc2VyLzIwMTMtMDEtMThfMDAwMDYu anBnDQpodHRwczovL2RsLmRyb3Bib3guY29tL3UvMjE5NTU0OT Avc291cmNlX3dvcmsvbnVjbGVhci90ZWFzZXIvMjAxMy0wMS0x OF8wMDAwOC5qcGc=

AHHH WHAT DA FUCK IS THAT?!?

It's a Base64 encryption (remember the video from the first post) and it decrypts to the following shizz

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00002.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00004.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00003.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00010.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00012.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00005.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00007.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00009.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00011.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00006.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21955490/so...1-18_00008.jpg

Anyway, let wrap some image tags around those bad boys and see what we got

#If you feel like looking through all the above riddles they are still all online!#

So the end goal was to show some new screen shots and ultimately get people talking about nuclear, the player base now know there is a story in the map and it's up to them to find it our or not.

One person even said

Frag, I truly hope that there will be an easter egg of sort that is as hard and confusing to figure out like Cod Zombie easter eggs.

#Damn, he's onto me#

Anyway I feel like I should stop there as I think I've started rambling, please feel free to ask any questions If you think I haven't explained something enough (Which I might have and I'm sorry in advanced)

It's great to be back and I hope your all well

[White Paper Games]

Hey Olly,

Good to see you really re-evaluating your design process - very inspiring to see! And you can never stop learning. Sometimes re-reading over content you've read before brings to the front of your mind things you may have forgotten. In fact, I think I'll give that Hows and Whys book another read this evening! That combined with The Level Design Guide by Alex and The Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell is a winning combination!

Didn't realise there were easter eggs in that project. Very cool idea to throw that stuff in! Interesting approach too! Really enjoyed checking out the the thread.. question is, whats next?

[Bubbles]

Greets,

I love this thread. Really nice detailed explanations of what your aims were throughout and some nice eye-candy to inform people of your progress.

As WPG mentioned, it's impressive and encouraging to see you progress to a refreshingly critical view of your own work in light of new theories. Adaptation over time and persistent focus on story and immersion is something I think a lot of designers (even the big studios) sometimes forget to do.

If I were to criticize anything in your overall design it would be the scale of things. I know a nuclear reactor is really damn-hooooge in real-life but it's still just a game and a game is for fun!

There seems to be a lot of 'blank space' simply because it is so large! Yet the detail work you have done is nice and each area does have its own visual identity. I really like a lot of what you have here, I just get an uneasy feeling that its all a bit too big. I've never really dabbled with Gary's Mod or Source Engine online so I might be wrong!

If you didn't rework the geometry to make it more condensed perhaps there is a way to further your aims of adding story and also adding some visual 'litter'.

Corpses of workers? Blood stains, broken lights... stuff like that?

Perhaps you could have a few areas of the building collapsing in on itself?

Adding some bumpy ground, blockages, rubble, etc just to break up some of the openness.

Sometimes it's better to take a few liberties with real-world inspiration and make a judgement call based on what's fun!

I think you're already aware of where/why/how you might improve some parts of your map.

I hope you also already know that what you have so far is very impressive in its own right.

Most importantly, you seem to have learned a few things along the way...

I wish you all the best with your revisions!

Quick Edit:

Just to add to the book shelf... I've been reading these recently and recommend them!

The Computer Game Design Course: Principles, Practices and Techniques for the Aspiring Game Designer by Jim Thompson and Barnaby Berbank-Green - Basic but informative, good to help get a handle on different roles in a company and what the different parts of design actually are. Great pictures and really good for visual reference!

My Rating: 7/10

Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers (14 Sep 2010)

A great book. I can't really fault it!

8/10

Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster (1 Jan 2005)

9/10 - Not so much technical design theory but it's a really insightful and enjoyable read.

[FRAG69]

@WPG, What I plan to do next is publish a paper I've been working on during the course of the last few months on what I've done regarding this map, the theories involved and how I feel I've implemented them.

Then it will be a case of dedicating a lot more time to my new studio

@Bubbles, thank you for your feedback, here is an answer to your question about empty spaces.

The above screenshots are a general overview of the map and yes they do show quite a few empty spaces but some of them are now outdated and will be until the end of the weekend, There is currently a walkway that runs around the area and links up a few buildings along with added environment assets (strewn litter from the garbage tips, dead bodies in the office/control rooms, broken doors where there was sign of resistance)

The map itself is large because the player slots are quite high (24 players in one map!) Some mappers approach this by building vertical but I decided to create a large horizontal environment that also had some vertical game space (Although some of this space is decal)

Thank you very much for the book suggestions, I'm always trying to expand my shelf with new material and will start looking these up tonight