Posts by SamCom

Woo, WIP! I'm calling it dm_waystation for right now.

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I'll third 4 weeks, that seems about right.

I'm leaning towards the 1024^3, I missed out on the first one. Would the 1024^3 level have to be a deathmatch level?

See, I've had shitty sessions like that too. It just depends. Sometimes the teams get terrible unbalanced, and it's just dying every 30 seconds for the whole round. But when the teams have about the same skill level, and you're with a squad that has at least some idea what they're doing, it's awesome.

I was trying to think, how could they balance the teams? I understand friends and clans want to play together, but there has to be some way to redistribute the players based on skill. Rank isn't a great indicator of skill, more how much time you've put into the game. Maybe offering some sort of temporary bonus to the losing team, like a radar scan or some other subtle advantage to the losing team?

And the 30 yard shotgun kill was probably with slugs, which gives the shotgun crazy damage and accuracy. It's hard to use, I haven't had much luck with it.

I've seen some people rock with the engineer class - the SMGs are really great on the move, and your rocket launcher can be used to take out people behind cover, being a rocket sniper is awesome with destructible cover.

I didn't really think about the clarity of the classes, knowing at a glance what you're facing, that's a good point.

The unlocks could certainly be spaced out more and a little harder to get, I've unlocked almost everything around level 22, but then there'd be complaints of having to grind for weapons.

How was the gameplay more nuanced and expansive in BF2? I'm genuinely curious. Maybe it's all aesthetics, but BC2 feels more... solid. It just feels like I'm in a badass war movie. Hopefully they can at least keep that visceral feel of shooting and running in BF3. Movement and foot combat in BF 2 just felt artificial to me. I know, that's hard to quantify and back up.

Quote from dux

What made BF2 great:Big open maps that could have several combat zones dotted around them, no real linearity.

Playing with friends in a squad THAT'S BIGGER THAN 4.

Taking a buggy and literally going off behind enemy lines.

Being your own unit with a group of friends and being allowed to make a difference by yourselves by capping points.

Lots of classes, none of this condensed and unified rubbish.

No one hit kill knife that doesn't even obey the laws of player visibility.

Anti tank weapons took skill, no auto aim tracer rounds.

Took several shots to die.

No blood obscuring your vision.

Going prone.

No 3d auto spotting.

Reliance on a commander for support that actually mattered.

Hit indicator.

No stupid bodyarmour or magnum rounds for fat noobs.

And the best one of them all; a huge array of choices. A good portion of today's popular mutliplayer games feel too limiting and constrained. Fucking consoles man.

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BC2 has a hit indicator, it takes several shots to die unless you're playing in Hardcore mode, what's bad about the body armor and magnum rounds?

I liked the smaller maps, it meant more time actually fighting and less dicking around hiking to the next point.

The condensed classes is partly a side effect of the smaller squads, but with the customizable kits, I never felt limited by it.

Three other people seems easier to keep track of.

I liked spotting, it's certainly useful.

Commander from BF2 was cool, but if you got a bad one, it fucked everyone on the team.

I'll agree with you on the knife, that's pretty hilarious. I've stabbed dudes through walls before.

Using anti-tank tracers takes some teamwork, although they could probably make it so you can't just fire straight up with a missile and still land hits, even behind cover. It does help to balance out tanks.

I will agree with someone up there that some of the spawns are deathtraps, where a slightly better team can completely bottle up the other team. There's just a few maps like that, but holy hell can that be frustrating.

I'm just not so sure about jets and fast movers. They've always been a part of Battlefield, but my experience with them in BF2 and BF: Vietnam was when someone with any skill got in one, there was no way to touch them. You just got killed over and over again by something you could do almost nothing about.

I dunno, it's just my opinion, I never got into BF2 like I did Bad Company 2. And I'm playing it on the PC. The pacing seems so much better, faster.

I'll second hoping it has an editor, if it plays anything like Bad Company 2. Even though what I really want is an editor for Bad Company 2. Jets just seemed to be a really good way for someone else to kill me, and I'm not a huge fan of having to wait in line for a vehicle. But I still had a lot of fun with all the earlier Battlefields at LAN parties, I'm looking forward to this one.

Update: I've added a section for OWC_Traverse, a level I made for the Half-Life 2 mod Overwatch. It won first place in a contest they were running, so I'm proud of that! No download yet, it's coming in one of the upcoming Overwatch updates, apparently. Let me know how it looks.

I've also fallen for Bad Company 2, the multiplayer anyway. The sounds are amazing, and everything else is really solid. I wish they'd release a level editor for it, it's hard to go back to indestructible environments.

Thank you very much for that feedback, KungFuSquirrel. I switched the HL2 page back to the gallery display, I'd rather the text not be hidden all the way at the bottom. I tweaked the resume a tiny bit so the bullets aren't quite as copy/paste, and I'll be sure to avoid padding. When you're talking about the "whys", do you think I covered that fairly well, or is that something I need more work on?

I guess what's sticking out is relatively bland levels and simple brushwork. I've been trying to work on that, breaking up blocky shapes, using height variations, adding trim and more surface details, but I think some of it is my chosen subject matter, although I assume I should be able to make even an office building look great. I'll pour some more effort into analyzing other levels for help with layouts and detailing. Besides more practice and using photo reference, are there any particular tips?

And 3Dnj, that corner has an uncanny resemblance to a corner in my own office, but it's pretty boring in real life as well. I dropped the screenshot.

Rock Paper Shotgun has a pretty good response: http://%7boption%7d Basically, there's room for thoughtful debate on the subject, but Panorama was not it.

Any other feedback on the content? I'm afraid if it doesn't get much comment on here, good or bad, that's not a good sign. My feelings won't be hurt, I promise. I know I probably need more, and I'm working on it every day.

I really enjoyed Gears of War when I played it a while back, but it was mainly the split screen co-op that was fun.

I fell for the Valve trap and bought Poker Night at the Inventory and Chime. Poker Night is ok, the dialog wears thin really quick and can't be skipped. That and I don't really know Texas Hold-Em, so it's pretty much like random chance for me. It has inspired me to try and find a real human group to play with though.

The Hellingsly dev shots are pretty cool, I haven't seen that very often. Did you have the original reference image you used, so people could compare that to your finished product?

I added a link to my LinkedIn profile and resume on the About page, along with a little bit more of a bio. Thanks!

I would appreciate any more feedback, especially on the quality of the content.

You're right about the resume. The one problem with that is I've just graduated from college and have no professional level design experience. Should I just list the personal projects I've worked on, more of a functional resume?

I switched up the order of the screenshots to show an overview map first. There are a bunch more screenshots besides the first five, but I don't think it's immediately obvious that there are more, which might be a problem. So I switched it to a list view, where all the images are full sized, you just have to scroll down the page. Is a long page of large images better/worse that the single big image and thumbnails?

I'll try my hand at adding some personal insight.

Thanks for the feedback!

This is first attempt at a portfolio. I would appreciate any feedback on the layout as well as the quality of the content. I'm currently looking for a position, and I'm planning on applying to some studios here in Texas, so I need blunt, honest feedback. Lay it on me!

My portfolio

This is a short single player level for Half-Life 2: Episode 2 that I've been working on, and I think I'm about ready to release. You've been separated from your squad, and you have to rejoin with them on the other side of a Combine-infested apartment complex. I'd really appreciate any crits or feedback.

Download Here

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Quote from Sentura

If they corrected the things they did wrong with Fallout 3, then there might yet be hope.

What do you think they did wrong? The dialogue and characters killed it for me, besides the fact that the main story quests felt weak. I didn't feel like it mattered if I found my dad or not. But some of the side quests were a blast, and I thought it was very atmospheric , just wandering through the wastes was pretty fun.