WoLD: Gameplay Challenge - T-Willard

[T-Willard]

I ended up with a HUGE setback trying to get cute with vertexes. I was making door frames and window frames, and almost all of them errored out.

To top it off, something happened to my file, corrupting it so that it had a "too long or open string" in it that took me about an hour to figure out how to fix it.

Finally, every time I go to playtest it, instead of loading up L4D2 like it should, it loads up normal L4D2 without letting me playtest my map or just plain crashes to desktop.

Plus, I gotta resize a bunch of the floors of the tetris blocks, since it keeps telling me "Too many light faces on surface XXXX XXXX XXXX" which means that the floor is getting too many separate light sources.

All in all, instead of a good day of finishing up the 1st floor and getting a good start on the second floor, I've ended up with a wasted day, lost all my work that I did today, and now can't test it for the lights and everything.

[Smog]

You still have 11 days at least to fix the level before the deadline. Don't give up and don't get bogged down by all the errors, just try your best to pull through it.

Good luck, T-Willard :-)

[T-Willard]

You still have 11 days at least to fix the level before the deadline. Don't give up and don't get bogged down by all the errors, just try your best to pull through it.

Good luck, T-Willard :-)

Thanks.

As for the "Too many light sources" I came to realize that I'm going to have to slice the bottom of the skybox up into smaller sections in order to keep the problem from happening. (I'm pretty sure that's within the rules...)

As far as the crashing issue...

What I decided to do is turn off each vis-group until I spotted which one was hanging up.

Once I figure it out (I think it's the 1st-Floor-Int props) I'm going to use the cordon tool to figure out exactly where the prop is, rather than just start blanket deleting stuff.

GO GO ENGINEERING DEGREE!

:lol:

[Oilcake]

Yup, that sounds to be about the best way to deal with it. Making mistakes and fixing them is the foundation of learning. Or something! :lol: That's how I've learned this stuff so far, in any case... Good luck! You'll get it!

[T-Willard]

Well, figured it out.

When I had my "Windows" visgroup up, it crashed out.

Turns out I accidently turned a PlayerClip brush into a breakable surface.

KA-RASH!

Tomorrow I can finish with the 1st Floor props and move onto second floor.

And rebuild the annoying lights. FlashA and FlashB suck on the eyes.

[T-Willard]

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS!

I've decided to not only add in the zombies, but maybe some booby traps for the players to contend with. I'll try to figure out how angry the director is getting, and maybe have some of them spawn if the director is seriously angry, and others spawn at random times.

Is it a dirty trick to have a door open, a series of beeps happen, and then a 25 point explosion from behind the door? Should I use env_explosion or propane tanks? Either ones work nicely. With a horde call maybe?

Can I get a pipe-bomb to manifest, bouncing across the road and beeping, TOWARD a specific point? Or maybe in one of the alleys? It would provide temporary fire blockading, and force the players to either wait until the flames died down, or find another track. Combine that with a director call for a horde-spawn, and it might prove exciting? Or maybe too much of a pain in the butt...

Can I get weaponsfire aimed at a certain area, triggered by a proximity trigger? Once to kill any zombies that pop up, once aimed at the characters?

Should I have a gascan spawn, attached to the wall, with a pipebomb "next" to it, that explodes when a door is opened?

Is the cable across the road enough warning that the car the cable disappears under is going to explode?

[T-Willard]

Finally finished 1st floor props all the way, but 1st floor lighting needs work.

Did a quick nav_mesh test.

ZOMBIES! ZOMBIES EVERYWHERE!

LOL

OK, now I gotta fix the explosion triggers or the player can't get to one of the areas.

Plenty of weapons laying around if you look for them, otherwise the player is stuck with the beginning Tier-2 weapons, since there is exactly 1 ammunition reload, and it's hidden pretty well.

The explosives still need work, but I got the door explosion to work right.

But, before I get to the good stuff, I'll do the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floor props, then double-check the routes.

[Oilcake]

Nice! Glad to hear it's going well... Sounds like you're having a ton of fun working out the I/O system and explosions and stuff. This challenge is really making me think about things a lot more. Planning scenes within a map and such...

As for the post above the last, at first I thought that yes, it was a dirty trick t set off explosives like that. But then I thought, no, that's actually kinda cool. I mean, wouldn't we all back off if we opened a door and a sort of countdown-like beeping started?

The pipe-bomb I don't have a clue about. Sounds complicated to me, but hey, it might work! I'm really not that experienced with I/O stuff either, as yet. I would get simpler stuff working first, either way. Triggered weapons fire, I'm also unclear on. I haven't ever heard of this type thing, but I'm thinking it's possible... They've done a lot of neat things in these Source games, that I haven't even thought about trying yet... :P

That gas can/pipe-bomb spawn next to a door, is doable quite easily, I think, but if it's too close to the door, it's kinda unfair to the survivors. There's no way they'll be able to avoid it, which is sucky if it's the only way they can move forward...

Anyway, good luck with all this! Cheers! 8-)

[T-Willard]

That gas can/pipe-bomb spawn next to a door, is doable quite easily, I think, but if it's too close to the door, it's kinda unfair to the survivors. There's no way they'll be able to avoid it, which is sucky if it's the only way they can move forward...

I plan on giving a few seconds for the player to react, closing the door, ducking behind the wall, or stand there screaming like a little girl.

I'm still running into trouble with the gas can spawn. (And spending way to much time messing with it instead of finishing out the props for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors, along with the building edges)

Additionally, with env_explosion the graphics seem to be missing, only rendering the purple squares.

Any hints?

• Thing I learned yesterday: How to use "MARK CLIFF" on the nav mesh to make the edges of the roof more realistic.[/*:m:rl7eyvx7]

Things I've learned today:

• How to make green glows to simulate chemlights.[/*:m:rl7eyvx7]
• How to combine ropes with a dead special infected to make a witch that had been hung by a rope.[/*:m:rl7eyvx7]
• That I need more practice and work with ambient sounds.[/*:m:rl7eyvx7]
• That I need more work with logic triggers and other I/O's to really get my map working nice.[/*:m:rl7eyvx7]
• That I seem to have a thing with every room and building being fully accessible, something I need to cut back on.[/*:m:rl7eyvx7]
• How to make an exploding car.[/*:m:rl7eyvx7]

Let's see what else I learn today!

[Oilcake]

Do you have a fog controller in the map and enabled? That should help the explosion thing, I think...

[T-Willard]

I've been having a LOT of problems with the fog controller, both the in-map one and the Sky Camera setting.

I want a sandy color, to simulate the leading edge of a sandstorm, but so far I haven't been able to find any fog controller tutorials, so I'm kinda feeling my way around it. Right now I have the problem with the far away buildings being highlighted against the sky.

I'm also trying to figure out how to use the wind controller, with no luck.

I figured, since I'm getting frustrated, I might go back to more prop work.

Oh, and tomorrow I've got to get the staples removed from my shoulder, so I probably won't have any updates till Thursday or Friday.



Oh, and a quick question: If I downloaded custom skins for a few objects and the characters, can I pack them with the vpk in such a way that it doesn't interfere with a user's game unless they play the mission, or will it always? I found some nice military uniforms and gear for L4D2 that really fits the mood.

Although Coach in a cop uniform and Nick wearing an FBI uniform is funny.

So, with the new character skins, we've got:

Nick the FBI agent.
Rochelle the combat zone reporter.
Coach the police officer.
Ellis the US Army 11Bangbang.
A gray medikit with US ARMY on it.
An upgraded M-16

It really sets the mood.

Now, if I can just figure out my fog settings and the wind control.

[T-Willard]

OK, screenshots of today's work:


Here's my Far-Z problem.


Where a survivor is making grenades and has weapons and ammo stored.


Hanging a witch to warn others.


A dead survivor. Bathroom isn't fully done, plan to do a little more, but got hung up on fog, wind, and the explosive rooms.


A hanging charger on display as a warning/trophy. Of course, the whole building is slaughtered when the players go through, but at least you know why...

Now, I DID NOT MAKE THESE SKINS, and I'm still getting to asking them if I can include the skins, IF I can figure out a way to pack them in the vpk without screwing up everyone's game.


Officer Coach and War Correspondent Rochelle


GI Ellis.


FBI Special Agent Nick.


SSG Nick. I think I'll use this one.

Hopefully, I can get the props done and start on the last of the decorating and the rest of the controls. No more messing with the traps until the props are done!

[T-Willard]

Thanks to Nexusdog for pointing out where I could find some MW2 and Killing Floor models for the survivors, so poor Rochelle wasn't some unlucky civilian and Coach wasn't some poor cop in the REALLY wrong place.

I'll pick some good skins for them and see what I can do.

[Oilcake]

Haha! I love those skins... Coach is so... Village People!

Very nice. 8-)

[T-Willard]

OK, I got some work done today. Not much since I didn't get home till late afternoon.

Anyway, thanks to Zodd's advice, I got the fire working, it even goes out after a period of time. I think I figured out how to have it grow larger too!


See, in the room. I'm still trying to get the sound to work right to give them a warning. I'm also going to have overlays of "DANGER!" with an arrow pointing at the door as an additional warning.


Here's a noclip view of the crashed helicopter near the saferoom. If I have a chance, I'm going to try to figure out how to have the player hear rotors, maybe see the helicopter in the distance coming in, then using the tanker explosion noise so I have noise that simulates a SAM nailing the rescue chopper. I wanted to use the Chinook, but the area was too small, so I settled for the news chopper. I'm thinking about having it burning too. I also moved the bodies a bit so they fall in different positions.


This is the burning humvee, it goes up right in front of the characters, complete with an explosion noise. I plan on having bodies hurtling away from it if I can figure it out.

Anyway, the majority of my prop work is laid out, now it's time to go through a HUGE list of ones that didn't work right ingame and fixing them.

Then the lighting.

Then the rest of the displacements.

Then the decals and overlays.

Then the sound.