gamophyte on 21/4/2020 at 16:41
Quote Posted by Phantom
Glad you are still working on this. I know projects with this many custom assets take a long time and a lot of work.
I'm almost done finalizing all my files from various places migrated to my new PC. Lots of dup file finding and what-not, because so much shotgun copy-and-paste moving from PC to PC. I mentioned this before but I have to do this before anything else, just in case a HD fails shortly after.
Once that's done I'll have my tools installed and I'll be back on it. I'm really glad I had most of the chateau brushes done, free from issues, as something to come back to. Plus Pukey Brunster's interview about morbid got me inspired again. The gallery in Morbid always was something I would have done myself to try out building different environments or themes, which is related to Buried Deed, so listening to that helped.
gamophyte on 11/5/2020 at 14:55
[video=youtube_share;904CCsVJZQQ]https://youtu.be/904CCsVJZQQ[/video]
Textures are mostly placeholders, final retexturing to come. Lighting is for showcasing and not final as well.
The purpose of the video is to get myself amped-up again by looking at all that I build after taking a break.
Low brightness is intentional as to not show a very unfinished mission's details in the distance.
vfig on 11/5/2020 at 16:03
This is looking superb! Or at least, what I could see of it in the really low light :cheeky: The chateau is a really great piece of architecture to source from, and your construction of it looks really great. Is it too much to hope for lots of nonlinear, unconventional (climbing, jumping, ropes) navigation around the ruins?
gamophyte on 11/5/2020 at 16:21
Quote Posted by vfig
This is looking superb! Or at least, what I could see of it in the really low light :cheeky: The chateau is a really great piece of architecture to source from, and your construction of it looks really great. Is it too much to hope for lots of nonlinear, unconventional (climbing, jumping, ropes) navigation around the ruins?
The idea will be that the place is a giant jungle gym. You can take what ever route you want in any direction, and climbing will be highly encouraged. The player may not want to confront some of the entities lurking on the ground level, and so it's a necessity for those players.
For this reason I am going to ensure climbing is easy and try to soften the frustration of some of thief's shortcomings when it come to parkour game-play. Example, an author can greatly influence a players ability to easily mount a climbable surface and NOT jump fall backwards trying to mantel off onto the upper level, and, NOT fall to their death climbing back down.
I myself end up adding an hour or two of extra play time in FMs just climbing, and get so annoyed that a FM could have made it out of beta testing with a climbing portion that just doesn't work.
That said this does not mean I'm holding the players hand. If the player sees loot in a hard to reach/climb area - they may be quick loading a lot. What I'm trying to do is take care of the common sense stuff.
All said, this avoidance of the ground in favor of climbing might make someone think that my mission will go by fast, but not so; there will be things the player will do that extend the game-play heavily. Not only that, but when you do end up jumping around in here, hopefully there will be so much greenery that it will add that sense of volume that is much needed compared to the video.
Finally, another rewarding aspect to the climbing is that sense of history and immersion in what you find, because these used to be floors after all. Like hiding out in a cubby three stories up, and then turning towards the dark wall to your right and seeing a Victorian top tank toilet and think, oh yeah, this was a bathroom.
Edit: Rambled so much I forgot to say thank you!
Edit2: Oh yeah, I wanted to say that the real world greenery growing on the tops of the walls is a happy accident for game-play in that you can rope arrow them.
howeird on 11/5/2020 at 16:44
The first thing i thought of when i watch this video was that the back drop would make a good spooky Thief FM. If the lady floating on the lake would fit into yours that would be cool. It's creepy every time i watch it and it would be creepy in a FM as well.
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMFdboqL42I) girl in red - kate's not here
gamophyte on 11/5/2020 at 16:57
Quote Posted by howeird
The first thing i thought of when i watch this video was that the back drop would make a good spooky Thief FM. If the lady floating on the lake would fit into yours that would be cool. It's creepy every time i watch it and it would be creepy in a FM as well.
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMFdboqL42I) girl in red - kate's not here
Great song. Reminds me of the indie rock mixed with shoe gaze.
Yeah the moat will be used my friend, already ahead of you on that ;)
vfig on 11/5/2020 at 20:40
Quote Posted by gamophyte
For this reason I am going to ensure climbing is easy and try to soften the frustration of some of thief's shortcomings when it come to parkour game-play. Example, an author can greatly influence a players ability to easily mount a climbable surface and NOT jump fall backwards trying to mantel off onto the upper level, and, NOT fall to their death climbing back down.
I cannot tell you how happy this makes me!
Basso The Boxman on 11/5/2020 at 21:36
This looks fantastic!! Release ETA? [emoji6][emoji1]
gamophyte on 11/5/2020 at 22:04
Fair Warning: I go heavily into brainstorming below about game play mechanics for a better ladder. You may want to skip it if this isn't your thing.
On mounting a ladder to go down a wall; I think it will be fine if you just change the height of the ladder object physics prop (not scale) so you for-sure hit it, being slightly higher. Versus, having it flush with the wall you're standing on, thus you have to creep out onto it.
That is speculation though, I've not tested yet. If for some reason that isn't so, or aesthetics demand it to be flush, I thought about a trick to try; have a invisible object as a barrier to prevent you from running off the ledge that destroys on bumping into it, so it doesn't persist in the world and confuse the player. IE it will last just long enough to ensure connection to ladder.
It should be out far enough from the ladder as to slightly bounce you back to the ladder at such a small distance it should be unnoticeable by the player. As well, it shouldn't impede the player when coming back up the ladder. If there is such a fine tuned position, this can also serve to prevent jumping backward to your death.
Finally, it should be low enough for players who may want to intentionally jump over the ladder but still catch them if they're flat walking off the ledge. This self-destroying-on-bump object hack will come back after a short cool off period to protect future times.
If I'm wrong about such a perfect position to satisfy these cases, and not alert the player to its existence, I may have to move it in toward the ladder after all. In that case not stop the player on the way up from the bottom, I'll have a kick-plate version of it below that syncs with the top object hack, so that both destroy from the world. With this setup and even the vanilla solution to start, I should still have another further out, to stop the player from back-jumping that maybe comes into existence with bottom trigger.
The only issue I can see with this, is that the player could happen to hit it when jumping to the ladder from a place higher up from it. They would be suddenly blocked and fall to their death, or do a odd 1 second mantel then fall. I will end up testing all mentioned though, and report back. Maybe you can have the bump/collision only work from one side? That would solve everything.
gamophyte on 11/5/2020 at 22:18
Quote Posted by Basso The Boxman
This looks fantastic!! Release ETA? [emoji6][emoji1]
No release ETA at the moment. This is the farthest I've gotten on a project and I can't get a feel yet for how long it will take. Especially with this when I'm making just about everything custom, and taking breaks to prevent burn out.
I am also not sure what ideas I will have to cut. If it turns out I have to do multi-mission because of resource constraints I may have a mission 1, released sooner. I want to release something by this time next year, but can't be sure yet.
Since I'm doing so much by myself I may reach out more for help if this slogs on. I do have Phantom helping with AI thank gawd. It also helps having a new PC.
It's like a tell myself if I'm excited for something to release, there will be other things to play until then. I see at least 3 missions incoming from other authors, so FMs are still happening. I also think about if there is one released in 2030 I'll still be happy to play it then.