Shadow : Source Announced. - by [NAUC]Chief
Kurgan on 16/4/2006 at 11:09
Quote Posted by Domarius
Cuscenes are an easy problem solved. When one person triggers it, just have EVERYONE see it no matter what they are doing. I've played PC Co-op games where they do this and it's fine.
But one easy way around most of the problems would be to have a zone that doesn't unlock the door in front of you untill all your teammates are present in the zone, and will give you a message saying so, kind of like an air-lock on a spaceship.
Ick. No offense, but as a player that likes realism, I really hate both of those ideas. I suppose they'd get the job done, but it'd be cheesy, and take a lot of the fun out of things. Now, if a triggered event was happening in the distance from where a character was located, it would be cool if he could hear it faintly, and it got loude as he drew close. But forcing it on everyone in the game, even if not present, or not allowing something to trigger unless everyone is there, doesn't sound like much fun.
New Horizon on 16/4/2006 at 14:05
Quote Posted by plebeian
WHat I'd like to know, is who are all these talented artists, modelers, sound guys and coders who are ready and willing to join this new multiplayer Source project, but who have ignored The Dark Mod's requests for the last year and a half?
Thief fans are they?
I'm curious to know this myself.
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If these people joined TDM, we could have the game finished within the year, and then start on multiplayer.
Word.
New Horizon on 16/4/2006 at 14:07
Quote Posted by Kurgan
Ah, but one thing I
could do, if desired, is voice work. I can do quite a few good ones, ranging from some hyperactive top-40 DJ to a deep, rasping Clint Eastwood meets Darth Vader (often comes across as a really pissed-off Optimus Prime for some reason --I think I smoke too much). Heck, I got my nick, Kurgan, because I looked and sounded like him (used to scare people on the street, and didn't undertand why until someone told me to go see my twin in the movie). Of course, that was 20 years ago, and apparently I switched from taking heads to eating them (or so my expanding mid-section implies), but I've still got my voice. :)
Voice work is the one thing not being handled by submission in the project. I'm using professional actors who either live here or are passing through while they work here.
I'll leave this discussion as I don't really think I can add much more to it. I've stated my position on why I feel this is rather counter productive for the community. If people were just willing to help out and get behind a single project, the community could benefit a lot sooner...rather than have to wait another 2 years for us to finish...and another 2 years after that for your project. They could essentially be released simultaneously if forces were to be joined and with zero competition since it would be the same engine.
At any rate, good luck.
Domarius on 16/4/2006 at 15:21
Quote Posted by Kurgan
...doesn't sound like much fun.
By this I assume you've never had it happen.
Where plot is concerned, and especially awesome cinematic sequences which involve, say, the destruction of the entire town, you kinda have to force everyone to stop and watch the movie.
Of course simple conversations can happen in real time. But cinematics are usually some dramatic event, with some outcome, and time passing, eg. a court drama scene, a kidnapping, etc. some essential plot feature that has to happen.
Kurgan on 16/4/2006 at 22:59
Quote Posted by Domarius
By this I assume you've never had it happen.
Dunno. Can't recall for sure. Does anything like that happen in any of the Thievery maps? It seemed a familiar experience, though, even if I can't recall where.
Quote:
Where plot is concerned, and especially awesome cinematic sequences which involve, say, the destruction of the entire town, you kinda have to force everyone to stop and watch the movie.
Of course simple conversations can happen in real time. But cinematics are usually some dramatic event, with some outcome, and time passing, eg. a court drama scene, a kidnapping, etc. some essential plot feature that has to happen.
Oh, I do understand where you're coming from. In certain circumstances it may be unavoidable. I'd prefer to see a workaround, but if that can't be done, and the hamfisted approach is absolutely called-for, then it'd be nice if it was done subtly, to minimize the cheese factor, or was placed so as to make the forced presence of all participants a logical thing within the game.
Kurgan on 16/4/2006 at 23:13
Quote Posted by New Horizon
Voice work is the one thing not being handled by submission in the project. I'm using professional actors who either live here or are passing through while they work here.
No sweat. However, I know a little something about voice acting, so let me share one tidbit with you to put it in perspective. There are three kinds of voice actors: amateur, qualified, and professional. Amateur is just anyone that has a degree of talent, or so they believe, and can do a unique voice or two. They may have the desire to do something with it professionally, but haven't yet tried. Qualified is someone that's got the full ranged talent, has made use of it in the past, and can easily do it as needed and adapt to new situations (and has had some training in various areas to refine the talent). Professional has only one distinction beyond qualified, and that's the mere fact they're getting paid for it at the moment. *chuckle* I dropped off the voice actors list because I was tired of listening to them complain all the time about not finding work, and never actually discussing how to refine or expand the talent (oh, I'm in the "Qualified" category). :)
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..and another 2 years after that for your project.
Just to clarify, I'm not related to the Shadow: Source project. I'm just a site member that came in when the thread caught my eye.
Gestalt on 17/4/2006 at 00:02
Quote Posted by Domarius
But one easy way around most of the problems would be to have a zone that doesn't unlock the door in front of you untill all your teammates are present in the zone, and will give you a message saying so, kind of like an air-lock on a spaceship.
It would be more interesting if you set the hypothetical door up so that it opened when four (or whatever) switches were hit simultaneously. I think some bank vaults open using a system like this, where two keys must be turned at opposite ends of a room in order to open the vault doors. It would encourage teamwork and be less immersion-breaking.
The catch with forcing the players to congregate in one area to progress through the level like that is that if the guards were controlled by players, they'd probably just camp the door.
RE: Shadow: Source: You'd probably have more luck recruiting team members from the HL2 community than the Thief one. Even The Dark Mod has had trouble finding skilled and dedicated team members, and TDM is about as high-profile as you're likely to get. There are a lot of very talented people in this community,
and most of them are probably already working on their own projects. There's a finite number of people out there that can put out high-quality textures and models, and I'm willing to bet that most or all of those people in the Thief community are already occupied with TDM, T3, and Dromed projects.
New Horizon on 17/4/2006 at 01:09
Quote Posted by Kurgan
Just to clarify, I'm not related to the Shadow: Source project. I'm just a site member that came in when the thread caught my eye.
:laff: Sorry about that Kurgan. From the way you were talking, I thought you were a member of the team. So, for any team members out there....take my advice. Ha ha.
Domarius on 17/4/2006 at 03:06
Quote Posted by Gestalt
The catch with forcing the players to congregate in one area to progress through the level like that is that if the guards were controlled by players, they'd probably just camp the door.
Yes, that's a lot more creative, and proportionately more work too. That's why games don't often have good co-op support. Like I said, its harder, and seriously affects level design.
[NAUC]Chief on 17/4/2006 at 08:57
@Gestalt Yeah, we understand that about getting HL2 people, this is why this was an announcement, rather than a 'Help!!!! We need team members' thread ;) Mind you anyone who wishes to join the team, we have a join forum on the site.
Also your idea of two switches, was oddly enough the way I had planned one of the maps....:D (though the way in which I was doing it, would mean camping wouldn't be quite so easy). It's all a matter of balance :cool:
