Morganan

More updates...

We figured out how to do one of our 2 types of panic events. We can set it up so you have to activate a console to open a locked door, but doing so sets off an alarm that draws in the horde. That horde wont stop coming until you traverse a section and work another console that turns off the alarm that is drawing the horde. This one probably wont make it into map#1, but it looks very promising to be able to put more urgency to the survivors.

The other type of crescendo event we havent quite figured out how to make the gates close after a certain period of time being open, but hopefully we can crack this nut in the next few days so testing of our map can begin.

Our nav file (nav files are what controls bot AI, where infected can spawn not including the tank and witch) is working flawlessly so even without the panic events in the map yet the map still can be played. We've settled on leaving 3 possible ammo caches, 2 places where an extra pistol can spawn, and 4 pill spawning locations with a total of 12 chances maximum to spawn pills. We are also hoping to figure out how to hack the director properly so no pills are converted to medpacks no matter how the dedicated server is configured but that is something we are less worried about presently as we can address it down the road. I dont think we will be placing any molly or pipe bomb spawns initially and using propane tanks and gas cans instead although this along with all other pick-up items are issues we wont finalize our decisions on until we get some public testing going.

We aren't going to mess with area portals to make the map run smoother until after the initial balance/bug testing is completed, but so far the map is running pretty damned smoothly so it's most defintely testable. Cubemaps are another thing that wont be done until we have settled any issues that crop up balance-wise or bug-wise, they add to the compile time quite a bit. (cubemaps are added to make reflective surfaces react properly to light and areaportals are added to improve performance on older machines by limiting what the engine has to draw to a short area outside of line of sight for those who dont know)

I dont want to make any promises as to when exactly map1 will be ready for serious testing, but the way things have been going it *should* be before the 21st. We will probably have a video up of the map before or right around the same time we are ready for testing.

WhiskeySix

I get a little giddy every time I see this post pop up in the new posts list

sounds great morgan! let us know when you're ready, and we'll set aside a server for it - if you'd like.

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Morganan

That's totally up to you, but I wont say no.

I could really just send anyone interested in checking it out in sp a copy of the .bsp file and a copy of the nav file and they could check it out specifically looking for places the survivors can get to they probably shouldnt, and bugs we have missed with the survivor bots. At this point our only remaining tasks for this map are as follows:

1) Getting the end crescendo events to work properly.
2) Populating the "crescendo corrals" with props. (No point in doing the props when the event they support doesnt work correctly yet)
3) fixing a few placeholder textures. Currently we have some pink+black textures and orange and grey dev textures as placeholders, not many yet, but still a few and they all should be at the outdoors area. (they had better only be outside!)
4) Lighting, cubemaps, area portals. Cubemaps and area portals would take maybe 10 minutes to do, but they add considerably to the compile time. The lighting adds heavily to the compile time as well, but we are doing lighting in sections to avoid going from 4 minute compile time to 2 hours in 1 editing session.
5) normal ground clutter, the loose papers, dead bodies, crushed boxes, broken coffee cups, etc that would be littered around the place. We aren't at the stage where it's worth the time to place all these things. This is far and away the easiest part, yet also the most time consuming part to get the clutter just right. I could teach someone with no prior experience with hammer how to do this stuff in no lie under 20 minutes but it takes hours to get this stuff just right. Is everything touching the ground? Is it instead half buried in the ground? Is the clutter spread out just right so it doesnt look like crap you just placed there? Bleh
6) fixing the hole in the ceiling with the breakable wall prop. (does that make it a breakable ceiling prop?)
7) doing the sound work and placing the props to allow the survivors to interact with the radios and our custom messages. More last version stuff, not important right now. Nobody but people who know there is supposed to be radios with a person on the other end giving you instructions/annoying you spread out across the levels will even miss the fact they aren't there.

Anyone who is willing to look past the afore mentioned things to do yet and is willing to accept this is still a work in progress could gladly help us test today for issues with the bots (so long as you dont confuse "issues" with the normal bots stupidity, I cant do anything about that) The quicker any potential issues with the bots ai are worked out, the quicker we can concern ourselves with the other facets that still require work. I *think* we have a solid nav mesh right now, but the more people that check it out the quicker any issues with it can be found and corrected.