Posts by SamCom

  • Star Trek Into Darkness

    I didn't really get this one. Maybe I'm jaded.

    The only point the lens flare bothered me was during the talking scenes. Why can't I see their face?

    The music was really nice, I hummed it for the rest of the evening. And the gun sounds. Just the right amount of pew pew, didn't feel like weak sci-fi lasers you usually get.

  • [CS:GO] de_convention

    Quote from Puddy

    Don't trust bots for shit.

    I'm figuring that one out. It's unfortunate, they could be a really cool tool, but they do some really stupid shit.

    Not saying I could program better bots, but damn.

    No bots, don't worry about defusing the bomb, that's cool, just wander off. Could you watch the bomb sites maybe? No? Ok, I guess that's fine. How about choosing a guy to shoot and sticking with him? Also too hard? Really?

  • [CS:GO] de_convention

    Quote from KungFuSquirrel

    when I look at this I see a Natural Selection-style layout more than I see a CS layout.

    Maybe I should look into mapping for NS2!

    I worked out a new layout tonight, and uploaded it to the workshop.

    Here's the new layout:

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    I pushed both spawns back to give them some breathing room, and fix the awkward approach for the CTs. I also trimmed off a lot of side paths. But that center is going to need some more work.

    I see what you mean about the center and not having great chokepoints - a lot of bot games have ended up with one team not meeting the other until their second loop through the map. I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board and do another revision, I think. The solution's just not coming to me at the moment though.

  • [CS:GO] de_convention

    I've decided to try my hand at a CS:GO map. I've never made a Counter-Strike map of any kind, so I'm not sure how well I'm doing gameplay wise. Obviously it's very early visually, but I'd like to get feedback on how it plays before I start really detailing. I've been testing it most of the afternoon and evening with bots, then jumping back into the editor and making tweaks, keeping in mind that bots don't usually play all that well.

    So I'd really like to get this playtested by actual people.

    I've put up the version I'm calling an alpha here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi…s/?id=146135089

    Give it a look/play, let me know what you think.

    The original idea for a setting was a convention center, although it's mutated a bit since then.

    An overhead: counterterrorists spawn at the top, terrorists at the bottom.

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  • The new X-COM game

    I got some serious Brothers in Arms vibes, although I'm not super excited about what looks like a lot of squadmate micromanagment. Just going by the video, that sort of "move here, shoot here, use special power" commanding your buddies doesn't work so well for me, when I'm also fighting for my life. BiA kept it to broad strokes - move here, follow me - and that seemed to work better. Who knows, it might be awesome in practice, I guess we'll see.

    I'll also second the waist high cover sticking out terribly. At least the player knows what's cover, I guess.

  • [HL2:EP2] Station 51 Sequel (Station 52?) - Looking for Feedback

    The release was a little rushed, it's a case of sitting on it for so long that I just felt like getting it out there. I needed to wait a little longer for feedback.

    You're absolutely right on leading the player, and I do use those tools, but I didn't use them everywhere, which was a mistake. I do try to give the player an end goal with the looming Combine base, and little things like the Combine dude coming out of the rolling doors after the gunship is shot down with a short siren, but I neglected to signpost/breadcrumb all the smaller objectives in between. I need to be more diligent with these.

    But even when I did have those things - like with the button to open the slow gate that you disliked - I had a sign hinting it was a gate override, it had a big red light on it, and it even had a brushwork wire leading back to the gate. That didn't seem to be enough in that case. I even had some crates visible through the gate, so the player thinks that can probably get to them. What can prevent those sorts of situations?

    And for 8, the key before the door bit also makes sense. I think I might try replacing the opaque door with a shield wall linked up to and powered by the tank, so it's more obvious that it's an option for proceeding and link destruction of the tank more clearly to opening the path.

    Also, if anyone is interested, I have a postmortem of sorts posted over on ModDB: http://www.moddb.com/mods/station-5…and-walkthrough It was made before I got OhSnap's playthrough, but it covers the how and why of many of the decisions I made.

  • [HL2:EP2] Station 51 Sequel (Station 52?) - Looking for Feedback

    Quote from OhSnap

    I'm not Sentura, but I have emerged from my Cave of Lurkdom to do a playtest vid as you requested.. Cheers.

    Damn, that was humbling. That did not look or sound like fun, at all. Thank you for sticking with it and putting yourself through that, I feel like I pulled a lot out of it.

    [*]Enemies are dog piling in everywhere, but especially at the ruins and the Combine base entrance. I need to stagger those, badly, and probably have less enemies in general.
    [*]Not enough cover - notably in the Combine base, in the gunship battle and leading up to it.
    [*]Enemy entrances aren't telegraphed nearly enough, or happen not in front of the player, leading to some nasty surprises where you felt jumped, and they did look cheap. Need to make sure the player is looking where I want them to.
    [*]You, and I'm guessing a lot of players, don't like to drop down, at least not the distances I'm asking for. I need to ease the player down after the first bridge, show them it's safe to come down. Same for the Hunter battle arena, the roof in the warehouse, and in the Combine base. I'm just trying to figure out how I'll prevent backtracking in those areas.
    [*]The sawteeth were on purpose, to avoid backtracking.
    [*]Lots of areas were really dark. Ambient light probably needs to be cranked up, and more lights in general.
    [*]Noted on player feedback on damaging the tank - the big flaming chunks shooting out of it are supposed to show it's damaged, but some breakables up there, maybe some barrels, would probably feel better, as you said.
    [*]What happens there at the tank is that the door explodes open - you couldn't go that way until the tank exploding blows it open. I didn't make this clear enough, I need to make sure the door explodes and leaves chunks/debris.
    [*]The weird fence gap was added so you could grab crates and items you left behind in the other areas - without it, you would be able to see crates you missed but not get them. I get that it looks weird, I probably should have tried for a better solution there.
    [*]I'm not sure what else I can be doing to lead the player along, short of having a voice over that says "Hey, you need to go this way." What would you do to make sure the player's moving the right way?
    [*]People do not like to run into spaces they don't know. I need to make sure the player gets to explore the combat spaces first. This is probably related to making sure the player's well within the combat space before they can see enemies, so you don't run into situations like the Combine base interior, where you just hang back on high spaces. I knew this one, I just needed to see it in action.
    [*]I guess that door in the sewers needs a massive flashing light and louder opening sound, because you completely missed it at first.
    [*]Again, in that area where you didn't know where to go, the enemies were misleading, I should have them come from the way you came. I didn't know backtracking was such a taboo, I really didn't expect the frustration there. Were the enemies that much of a false flag?
    [*]Sorry, the breaking floor and crates above the zombies was cheap.
    [*]I like the "give the player more enemies when he's powerful" bit with the rocket launcher, that makes a lot of sense.
    [*]Shitty edges in warehouse office noted, those do need railings and a different trim texture.
    [*]I think I need to place more weapon pickups. Most of those crates have the contents auto-generated, and I don't think that's cutting it. I need manually placed ammo for the more powerful weapons.
    [*]That whole Combine base made me cringe. I flooded way too enemies into that space. More staggering, and just less of them.
    [*]Number of grenades are controllable, I need to tone that down from the defaults.
    [*]More physics objects, ammo, and health. Noted.
    [/list]There's enough actionable stuff I feel like I need to go back and fix it, at least for a patch.

    I wish I'd had that feedback a week ago! Again, thank you for taking the time, I really do appreciate it. I feel "solid" is generous praise considering what you had to go through.

  • [HL2:EP2] Station 51 Sequel (Station 52?) - Looking for Feedback

    I'm afraid you probably won't be too happy with it Sentura, since there weren't super major changes to the first half. But I'd love to know what you think about the new level that makes up the second half. You've been the only person I've heard that feedback from, but that probably makes it more valid, actually.

    I do try to integrate breaks, but it is very combat heavy. I again didn't really do puzzles, and I understand the place those has in Half-Life 2 - they give the player a break and prevent combat from being a grind. But I didn't have any puzzles I really wanted to incorporate, nothing that jumped out at me that would be fun and not derivative of what's already been done puzzle-wise. It's weird, but re-reading your feedback a year later, I do feel like I understand what you mean a little better, and I don't really have purely exploratory spaces. I think I'm a little afraid exploratory sections would feel empty, but I think they would help a lot.

    And the narrative that's there is very subtle (see: nonexistent , and I don't really build up to anything. There isn't a climax. And I think it took putting together something that actually ends to see that.

    I'm going to do a post-mortem of sorts, but the original design was more pockets of action, where the player could drive the airboat through canals and pick and choose their battles, with more of an open world feel. But it felt like I was putting a lot of effort into areas that most players wouldn't even see if they took the shortest path. Those are the areas I love in games.

    What would be awesome would be a demo or video of your first playthrough of the second level, so I can see through your eyes and get a better handle on what you're seeing and where I could improve.

  • [HL2:EP2] Station 51 Redux

    Station 51 is my earlier level, also titled Station 51, tweaked and polished from feedback, along with an entire new level, that I've packaged as a mod.

    It's action focused, so if that's your thing, you should check it out.

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    Download at ModDB

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  • [HL2:EP2] Station 51 Sequel (Station 52?) - Looking for Feedback

    So, making progress on this.

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    Still got a ways to go. More detail and lighting work, with a little bit of scripting left at the end.

  • Bioshock Infinite - Spoilers thread

    Quote from Chimeray

    http://kotaku.com/th...ombat-468530143

    More or less agree with it. Of course there's some pros and cons with every design though, and to be fair... there's plenty things that Bioshock Infinite does right as well! .

    I ran into slightly similar issues: there were quite a few combat spaces where it seemed like the safest option was to hang back at the entrance. I didn't want to risk getting flanked, didn't know the space, and most enemies short of the Handyman couldn't really flush you out of cover. No grenades or any other motivators to leave my hangout, although I guess the Volley Gun sort of worked that way. For example, entering the bank vault for the first time, I barely used any of the combat space. On the way back, I felt more confident running around the space.

    Lots of encounters also started with the player on the low ground, like on the steps up to the Hall of Heroes, which makes it hard to get a lay of the land before the first shots are fired. Actually, the player started on the low ground an awful lot. The exception I can think of is the approach to the police station in Finkton, which was one of my favorite battles. You start high, have widely different paths to approach the target. And using the skylines was essential.