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Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by French Toast on Tue Mar 14th at 3:33pm 2006

? quoting Orpheus
It only takes one bad apple to ruin a failed attempt.


So... you'ld succeed? <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">




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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by BlisTer on Tue Mar 14th at 5:25pm 2006

? quoting Reno

Hehe of course Scythe, dunno how I could forget actually <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif"> I think yours was one of the few maps that was actually playable wasn't it? I never really had any joy with it anyways, as any time I shot an alien the build I had crashed


the updated code by Lagrange was actually quite playable m8 <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif"> And we had 5 playable maps: Scythe's was one, then there were 2 of mine, one of gromppp and one from CrackerJack. ah the days <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_wink.gif">


These words are my diaries screaming out loud



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by Captain P on Tue Mar 14th at 7:06pm 2006

I've been (and somehow still are, somehow) part of a few mod teams.

It started with Weirdo Worlds, 2.5 years ago or such. Some people on the VERC boards decided to throw together a mappack with a random, weird theme. I happily jumped in. The teams size crumbled down to 3 fairly quick...
At that time, I was the most experienced guy on the team so that made me sort of the leader. I modelled, created textures, and we actually made some progress, but it lacked overall planning and experience. After some time we decided to stop, happy it was finally over - it got really stressing in the end, the feeling you had to work on it while not being motivated anymore.
Nevertheless, it was a learnsome experience. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">

After that, I've been part of a Dutch map'pack' - together with some guys on my own little forum we made a small map. It never saw daylight, but I think it was a fair attempt.
I think it suffered from a bit unbalanced experience level and perhaps too little trust in each others talents (or so I feel about it now), or perhaps we just had too different styles? Either way, the main thing is probably just motivation. Map parts always took longer to do than planned, and frankly, there wasn't much planning besides a set deadline...
We attempted a HL2 map too, but that one stopped even sooner. Oh well.

I've later been asked to join a friends mod as a modeller. I'm still on the team, though it's been in sleep mode for some while now, there are efforts to get going again. I really hope this mod (Starlabs) is gonna get done, obviously. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">


Then there's the few mods I've been asked for, a Warhammer 40K mod (after one of the members saw my Rust competition entry). Didn't accept that one.
I've been asked to work on Opposing Source, a HL2 mod, which I didn't accept due to time and priority issues. It looked like a fair mod team but two weeks later, the mod was gone.


Recently, I've been asked as a concept artist for an indie game team. I accepted, drew some stuff, and a few weeks later the game was officially dead. The lead programmer stopped before that, so a more aspiring guy took over (he was the one keeping contact with the team and I believe he'd be a good leader). Later, that guy was asked to join an existing and more promising game team. I wouldn't blame him for doing so. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif">

Well, that's it so far. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">


Create-ivity - a game development blog



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by Campaignjunkie on Tue Mar 14th at 10:23pm 2006

Paroxysm: Had potential, but beyond "shooting aliens" the team didn't have a clear concept for the gameplay, which kind of made it difficult to develop maps for. But it was still fun, eh Reno? <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">

Dark Truths: Singleplayer mod. Great team, but nonsensical plot design and weak leadership.

Nightwatch (HL1): Too ambitious. If we cut back the list of things we wanted to do, it could have been finished 1-2 years ago. Instead we just kept piling things on and reassigning work. High staff turnover rate as well, which made it hard to find animators (our bottleneck). I also think, as a team, we were too elitist - there was some great talent there that we neglected. Good luck to the Source team.

Issues: We actually released, which makes me rather happy and already puts it near the top of my proudest achievements. Make sure to keep a lookout for the sequel, Reissues, coming in Summer 2006!

So in general, I think the main problem with most mods is in the design: It isn't solid, or it tries to do too much. The problem is compounded even worse by the current state of most HL2 mods, with teams concentrating on parallax mapping or concept art instead of things that are actually important.



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by ReNo on Tue Mar 14th at 10:50pm 2006

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my current mod, which is my honours project. Currently NPCs are spawned, walk around, carry out locational activities (eg. sit on a bench, stare at this poster), then leave the level. Pure awesome. Hopefully once I've made a bit more progress it should be something to be proud of though - I'm developing a system for background characters to behave in believable ways in social environments, with a focus on making the solution flexible, efficient and data driven in order to empower level designers with the ability to quickly and easily model varied social settings. Not a very exciting game, granted, but it's a fairly interesting project nonetheless <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">

It's my first time programming for an existing game, and I'm enjoying it. I'm considering taking on a solo project after I've completed this one - that way I don't let anybody else down when I get too lazy or distracted to actually work on it :P



Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by rs6 on Tue Mar 14th at 10:55pm 2006

I have never been apart of one. I guess If a promising mod, already started, needed some mappers, I might give it a go.



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by Campaignjunkie on Tue Mar 14th at 11:38pm 2006

Hey Reno, I'd be interested in checking out that mod of your's. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by Loco on Tue Mar 14th at 11:39pm 2006

I started the doomed-from-the-start Omega Project, which was supposed to be a singleplayer mod of warhammer 40k, but it never got off the ground due to a severe lack of modellers and texture artists (not to mention time) and eventually keeled over.


My site



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by ReNo on Wed Mar 15th at 12:32am 2006

Sure thing CJ, but when the time is right <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_wink.gif"> If you looked at it now you'd be all like "so...what have you done?" <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif">



Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by omegaslayer on Wed Mar 15th at 1:36am 2006

Interesting thing. About 6 hours after this thread was made, a fellow "sci-fi" mod bashed us (Eternal-Silence) on their forums. I was told (and agree) not to post on their forums (for bad PR reasons). But I find it halarious that while they say our mod looks like every generic sci-fi movie out there, so does theirs. Jealousy is a truly ugly thing :S.



Posting And You



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by BlisTer on Wed Mar 15th at 11:45am 2006

? quoting Campaignjunkie
Paroxysm: Had potential, but beyond "shooting aliens" the team didn't have a clear concept for the gameplay, which kind of made it difficult to develop maps for.

To me, that was the beauty of it. They implemented an objective system, so that the mappers were free to choose the gameplay. we came up with different concepts that augmented teamplay. The teamleader-concept gave an extra dimension too imo.




These words are my diaries screaming out loud



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by pepper on Wed Mar 15th at 8:52pm 2006

? quoting Captain P

After that, I've been part of a Dutch map'pack' - together with some guys on my own little forum we made a small map. It never saw daylight, but I think it was a fair attempt.
I think it suffered from a bit unbalanced experience level and perhaps too little trust in each others talents (or so I feel about it now), or perhaps we just had too different styles? Either way, the main thing is probably just motivation. Map parts always took longer to do than planned, and frankly, there wasn't much planning besides a set deadline...
We attempted a HL2 map too, but that one stopped even sooner. Oh well.


I'm pretty sure that we can finish of something playeble on that. I mean, we were all so close to finish of(except for Bunneh). Haz like it to as i recall.

Whadaya think about it eh?




RUST Gamedesign
pepper design

The strength of the turbulence is directly proportional to the temperature of your coffee.



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by Captain P on Thu Mar 16th at 10:55am 2006

Well, yeah, I've still got it around somewhere. I think we should then limit it to your, Atoms and my part. If I recall correctly, we all had our parts mostly done but there wasn't really an end to it, right?

Let's discuss on the forum. Might be good to get that thingie done finally. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">


Create-ivity - a game development blog



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by Myrk- on Thu Mar 16th at 5:33pm 2006

Loads of mods, just wrote a huge essay about them all and my part and what happened to them, but accidently pressed the back button on my mouse because my hands are so cold! (Boiler pilot light isn't working, bah!)


-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by pepper on Thu Mar 16th at 9:08pm 2006

Auch, that hurts myrk.

@cp, yeah. Lets fire up the thread again. Didnt seth also contribute a finishd part?




RUST Gamedesign
pepper design

The strength of the turbulence is directly proportional to the temperature of your coffee.



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by Captain P on Thu Mar 16th at 9:47pm 2006

Nope, Seth had work to do on Starlabs back then. Still has, nowadays. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_wink.gif">


Create-ivity - a game development blog



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 Re: Ever Been Part of a HL Modification?
Posted by nooba on Sat Mar 18th at 7:19am 2006

All the mods that I've joined... died... must be a curse or something image I got offered a job on Insurgency (http://www.insmod.net/) a while back... image But I didn't get in, they said I needed more practice image




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