Posts by R_Yell

I guess Valve had in mind such kind of split deal for mods from the beginning, at least when people talked about selling Dystopia in Steam if I remember correctly. Just this generation of mods didn't get there.

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This is where Insurgency failed. Ofcourse you will waste huge amounts of time when you try to make a complete game without a design document. What I think Hourences is trying to say is that you shouldn't have done that in the first place, you should have started small and released early and built ontop of that with a release every other month. This way you wouldn't have needed a design doc, you'd change things and test them as you go and spot bad stuff very early.

It's just different development philosophies, and the one behind Insurgency clearly works for some kind of projects which don't want to reinvent anything. In such cases you don't need to release early because you already know if core gameplay works or not. That early release probably would kill the mod rather than helping it.

I'd say the complexity and originality will dictate how much documentation a project needs. Even for a solo mod, the amount of people is secondary to me, having a design doc shouldn't be downplayed. I'd say one the reasons for constant failures in modding scene is such lack of prevision, some people due experience or mental skills may succeed working without a good design doc, but in the end is a recipe for fail.

Thanks Bl1tz, perhaps FoF is a different approach to a traditional idea, and I feel that's a problem in the end. Isn't radically new (and fun), isn't a proved game mechanic neither, something in the uncomfortable middle. If I have a second chance to create another mod, I'd try to avoid that at all cost.

There are many factors to take in consideration: everything has been done twice, unfortunately original ideas don't grow from trees, engines are more complex but kids aren't smarter than 10 or 5 years ago, chemtrails, jews, etc.

sorry if it's not funny but I had to try, nothing personal against the jews just a joke

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If there's any mod that deserves attention, it's Fistful of Frags. No Guns (melee, dynamite, bow only) matches in FoF with friends is some of the best fun I've had multiplayer ever.

Thank you, it's always nice to know people enjoys with FoF

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You got ripped off R_Yell. I would have thought FoF's unique gameplay, regular content updates and continual improvement would make it an obvious choice.

I think, and I'm completely honest here, FoF doesn't have more right to be there than the mods they picked. And I'd pick mods like PVK2 or Empires before FoF, there's a lot of quality out there, and more coming like Offlimits, Neotokyo... And if Valve is interested in singleplayer, The Willows looks like something to look for

I was planning to release FoF 2.0 at the end of this week, ported to OB + many nice additions. Then knew about all these mods coming through Steam pretty much the same day Funny coincidences. But yeah, I hope more people plays mods, outside those behind Valve's umbrella.

Congratulations to everyone involved in these mods, it's a great initiative and I thank Valve for this, never is too late. My only concern is what is going to happen with the already weak Source mod community. I mean if some mods which are already ignored will be even more ignored due the massive media attention will get those spotted mods. Time will tell.

I can see Dukes of Hazard mods flourishing with this new engine.

AI isn't functional, but can be fixed, there you go:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... ultiplayer

I'm pretty sure they tried to plan every possible detail before starting production, because no one wants lose ends in a multi million dollar project. But the creative side of making games isn't a science. Something may look incredible fun on paper and later the players don't understand it or don't find a piece of fun. Or someone may come with a genius idea in later stages. In the end I think common sense dictates what to do. I doubt HL2 would be the same game without the gravity gun.

However I agree such decisions are quite risky and if you aren't Valve probably will derail most game companies

Half Life success was enormous, they wanted to push so much in every direction that it wasn't about making a game anymore, but a worth successor to the most successful first person shooter ever. I guess something similar happened with DNF.

I remember reading something about how they had the physic gun for the last levels, and after some testing in the middle of the development process they decided it had to be a basic weapon from the beginning. Things like that settles the line between industrial and artistic/creative game development process. I'm really glad there exist people with that mentality.

Games are prone to prototyping and early testing, spending many time in features that end user may not see. It can be optimized but not avoided at all, at least if the game is minimally interesting I think Valve did like 1000 levels for HL2 and only a minor part of those went into retail.

Hmm, look the path for the fragments, is "models/..." really needed? Seems like they don't spawn because cannot be found. Here's one of my qc's, works for sure:

$modelname peligro/plank.mdl




$cdmaterials models/elpaso




$surfaceprop "wood"


$scale "1"




$body "studio" "plank.smd"




$keyvalues


{


   "prop_data"


   {


      "base"              "Wooden.large"


	"health"	"50"


   }


}




$collisiontext { 


break { "model" "peligro/plank_frg1" "health" "1" "fadetime" "7" }


break { "model" "peligro/plank_frg2" "health" "1" "fadetime" "7" }


break { "model" "peligro/plank_frg3" "health" "1" "fadetime" "7" }


break { "model" "peligro/plank_frg4" "health" "1" "fadetime" "7" }


break { "model" "peligro/plank_frg5" "health" "1" "fadetime" "7" }


break { "model" "peligro/plank_frg6" "health" "1" "fadetime" "7" }


}




$sequence idle "plank.smd" fps 1




$collisionmodel "plank_phys.smd" {


     $Mass 20


}

I'm interested in this kind of AI related things, I could try to help but can't assure any success heh. I'm experienced enough to give it a try at least, but I'm new to AI as that's not used in FoF. The LOD control should be easy, sure, but I'm not available at this moment. I'm preparing the next update for my mod, after that I should have more free time for other stuff.

Try these places and maybe someone will help you, if that's not the case I should be free in 2 or 3 weeks (not cash involved, just voluntary help)

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/f ... .php?f=195

GameSurge IRC network: #hlcoders

Coders mail list http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders

The modern stuff looks like Bauhaus style, isn't it? Very nice Albatros!

The portfolio is certainly a joke. If the story is real that guy has been plundered and his degree is as worth as toilet paper.

The point of these achievable weapons seems to be just popularize the medic class. Playing a supporting role isn't very rewarding in itself, and TF2's medic is a damn boring example. However that class is key for a team to success in this game, and gameplay is much more fluid when there are medics in your team, you die less times and you feel part of a team. So making the medic class more appealing using achievements and rewards is certainly interesting to me, perhaps not very well executed in this case. Other option would be making medics as fun as they were in TFC.

Hmm, check the path in $cdmaterials is correct.

It's great you don't need it (not everybody has quadcore), but I'm sure it will benefice the whole community once people is aware. It does support compile over any network, mods or people in sites like this one could use the power of its computers to compile large maps in minutes. Well, the problem would be the upstream speed, however it's a good addition and ranting about it is completely useless.

Hey, did someone noticed that distributed compiling tool is available for everybody? Probably the best thing in the November SDK update and seems like nobody talks about it. Just found it by chance

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Vmpi

Anyone tested? I have a second computer, gonna give it a try, maybe I can compile with -final and -StaticPropLighting -StaticPropPolys before the judgment day comes.