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Night Terror [Codename]
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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Le Chief on Mon Oct 13th at 8:55am 2008

Quoting Trapt
Are you suggesting that an industrial area is abandoned? And that an abandoned area will not have light simply because no one is there (yet there are still spot lights on lol wat). If you leave your house at night you will notice that it is not pitch black. There is light coming from the moon, and a light blue and low intensity light_environment is perfect for the night setting. Trust me, I've made a lot of night maps. If you want to have dark areas, have a dark ambient and use shadows to your advantage.


There is a light_environment present in the map, at as you suggested, a light blue color (similar to the light_environment in Ravenholm) smiley.

You didn't look at the first bunch of screenshots only did you?, the first few screenshots where taken at a time when the map had no light environment. Most recent shots can be found here.

Edit: Just looked at your snarkpit profile, you have made 3 night maps. Have you made anymore?, do I need to checkout the mapvault on TWHL? smiley

[ Edited by aaron_da_killa on Mon Oct 13th 2008 at 6:29pm - total edits: 1]



Aaron's Stuff



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Le Chief on Mon Oct 13th at 10:00am 2008

Double post smiley.

Just thought I would give you guys an update.

I managed to squeeze in a few hours today to work on the map, I spent most of those few hours planning for the rest of the map, laying out my schemes and plans. This involved doing some concept research, brainstorming and drawing up some floorplans for some new sections.

I did manage to get some mapping done also, so I’ll show you some screenshots of what I have done (all heavy WIP).


This is where the player starts the mission, originally when this map was part of my canceled mod, the player drove the buggy through a bumpy forest road and entered from the fenced off area on the left.


This large pipe used for crude oil transportation runs from this plant, over the Salt Pan Lake to another facility, the pipe fades off into the fog.


Added some more detail to this background, however it’s a little hard to depic with the fog.


I decided to do a slight over haul of this space with a different vision in mind.


Added roofs to the houses.


Sneak peak of one of the new spaces.


Tweaked this train Yard area a bit.


[ Edited by aaron_da_killa on Mon Oct 13th 2008 at 7:32pm - total edits: 1]



Aaron's Stuff



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Trapt on Tue Oct 14th at 5:29am 2008

You're still relying too much on point and spot lighting. Increase your light_env brightness.

Your use of plan white lights is concerning as it does not look particularly interesting. Try warm colours like yellow/orange or cold colours like green/blue. Play some HL2 and you'll see what I'm saying.

Also I made a couple night maps for Dystopia mod before I left the team.



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by haymaker on Tue Oct 14th at 6:43am 2008

Wow how did I miss this thread, this looks stellar Aaron, really makes me want to play it. Is this ep2 engine? Really like the looming volcano shot, it's "dripping" with atmosphere ( sorry :P).

Seeing as you have a cloudy/rainy/moonless sky, I don't think the light levels are all that out of whack. Plenty of times I've walked home and couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Though myself I have to say I prefer game maps that do not rely on darkness as a gameplay mechanic.

I don't know how much activity this place is supposed to be seeing with all the lights on, but sometimes I've driven by big installations at night with cloud cover and there will be enough ambient diffusion from the ground to reflect off the clouds a bit.



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Le Chief on Thu Oct 16th at 9:27am 2008

Quoting haymaker
Really like the looming volcano shot, it's "dripping" with atmosphere (sorry smiley).


smiley

Thanks for your comments mate smiley. This map is for Half-life 2 (episode 1 engine). I am also fussy with darkness as a gameplay mechanic.

There is only one small section that is sort of a "battle" in the dark, however its quite pleasant, although dark, I can still navigate my way through without the flash light, and its fairly short. Other than that, no other encounter or gameplay situation relies on the use of darkness.

Anyway, here is an update of the new space I was working on (refer to my last post).





[ Edited by aaron_da_killa on Thu Oct 16th 2008 at 7:04pm - total edits: 1]



Aaron's Stuff



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by tnkqwe on Sat Oct 18th at 5:20pm 2008

I can see the fast progres.The new erea is awesome!
Just a guestion:is thap one,or are they more then one?


Never think about bad things!
TNKqwe:The New Killer qwe

I am Engineer - Play Free Online Games

Citizen Arms



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Le Chief on Sat Oct 18th at 9:03pm 2008

There will be a whole section in the map with this wooden theme, not just what you see in the screenshot. smiley


Aaron's Stuff



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by RedWood on Mon Oct 20th at 4:02am 2008

Whats with the midget zombie?


Reality has become a commodity.



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Riven on Mon Oct 20th at 6:01am 2008

I think it's an unintentional optical illusion. The floor dips down right before you see that zombie, and because it is farther away, and the textures seem to line up perfectly, it looks smaller, but in reality it's farther away from the camera on a lower plane.


Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Le Chief on Mon Nov 3rd at 10:17am 2008

Night Terror, Singleplayer map for Half-life 2 (Ep1 Engine)

Info:

I have decided to release a little alpha version of Night Terror to the Half-Life community. I had planned to release this on Saturday (today being Monday) as this would have been Halloween in America, but due to a 26.5 hour full visibility compile time and horrible timing, it’s being released two days late.

I would like to give the standard “this map is a heavy WIP” insurance sepal to cover my ass... no just kidding. But yes this map is not finished, there are still spaces that need to be designed (this is roughly 30%-50% of “map” if you know what I mean). All the features that I am especially excited that will make this map ‘unique’ are not implemented, sound design is horribly unfinished and I need to redesign some of the spaces, particular the interior spaces, and gameplay is just rough, and no, Zombies and Headcrabs will not be the only thing you fight as you venture deep inside the facility.

Screenshots:



Story Line:

“You have been assigned on a mission to rescue some battered civilians that fled inside the abandon Lucas Heights Northern Petroleum facility before night fall. The facility is surrounded in monster infested forest. The whole region, including the upper Hexam Highway, the Salt Pan Lake and the railway line used for freight transportation is closed and is dangerous particularly at night time.

Military supplies are tight as securing Hexam City is our first priority, if you get yourself into trouble, you won’t be getting support any time soon. Get yourself inside the facility and meet up with the civilians asap before it’s too late.

Remember, the facility has been abandon for 23 years now, we don’t know what it is like inside. Keep your eyes peeled and ready yourself for possible enemy encounters inside the facility. Good luck.”

Download Link:

Download Here :: 22mb

Aaron's Stuff Night Terror Page

Please tell me what you think smiley.



Aaron's Stuff



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by haymaker on Wed Nov 5th at 1:30am 2008

It's been so long since I've fired up HL2 I almost forgot it was single player. Took a few minutes to get used to the different pace and movement, and started to enjoy what you've done so far, which is very cool in a lot of ways.

I will reiterate my comment about it "dripping" with atmosphere, I didn't have a problem believing i was there, or at least that it was an HL2 adventure. You've packed every corner with some detail or another, got me exploring here and there looking for stuff. Zombies are stupid yet fun to throw junk at, good idea starting out like that. I liked the confined spaces, though I may have changed my mind on "hard" ( the flashlight fights turned out to be hard on the performance but I am unsure if I was running a tweak cfg or not ).

My fav part is the stream and the light shining on it, bravo there. I don't think I've seen many source maps with such convincing water effects. Are we going to the other side of that fence later? Seems like it to me. Now that I think of it I didn't try to prop-jump the fence, Idk if you clipped that or not.

Just a couple other points, I don't get the flourescents at 45 deg in the arch under the train, detracted from realism to me...the white radiator farther on, that and the sawblade are the most lethal props, I was disappointed I could't have it... I am unsure about the corridors at the end, I was waiting for an open-area plan like a warehouse or something.

Great work so far, at roughly an hour per MB compile too.



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Le Chief on Thu Nov 6th at 4:06am 2008

Wow, great feed back man, thanks so much! smiley

Quoting haymaker
that and the sawblade are the most lethal props, I was disappointed I could't have it


Actually there are at least 5 sawblades on that map somewhere, I can't exactly remember where, I think there are a few lurking around the start somewhere, before you go indoors.

Quoting haymaker
Are we going to the other side of that fence later?


No, but seeing as how one of my aims for this map is to make it very non-linear and maximise replayablilty, there is certainly an opportunity for a player to be able to venture down this task to partake in one of the "side missions".



Its a horriable screenshot but when I was running around in Half-Life 2 and I came across this area, I was for some reason really fascinated with what was beyond that fence, I really wanted to venture down that path and see what was there. I hope to emulate that feeling in this particular section when I get the opportunity to go back and really refine the map and redesign the spaces that need to be redesigned.

I have a question for you, that flowing water in the canal, did it seem like the canal was overflowing to you? When I get the chance I want to make some flood sign warnings and "rulers" to make it apparent that the area is subject to flooding and that the canal is overflowing and almost spilling onto the pathways.


Aaron's Stuff



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Riven on Sun Nov 9th at 3:37pm 2008

I've been wanting to give my thoughts about this map for sometime. To make it easier on myself, an you aaron, I've recorded demos for ya that you (and anyone else whose downloaded the mini mod) can watch. You can get the Demos here. I didn't bother writing how to install and watch them, so if you don't know how to, read this: VDC demo_recording/playback instructions.

Now on to my written thoughts:
-The map was highly detailed. Usually a good thing; I didn't see any hit in performance (I didn't check fps or anything) but if there was a change, I didn't notice it.

The level was very large, meaning lots of open spaces (for the outside anyway) The buildings were tall, the windows large, the textures over stretched (most of them) I felt very small, and the level felt like it was built for giants. IMO, I don't like over stretched textures. I understand you don't want them to tile, but this is the Source engine, that's why there are normally three versions of the same texture for tall buildings, one for the base, another for the mid section, and the last on for the top trim. If your buildings are simply too big to not have the textures tile, then that must mean they're mostly uninteresting or too wall-like. This is the Source engine, please don't taunt us with low res textures, keep them at their intended scale and learn to make the geometry 'fit' the textures. It will look better in the end. Believe me, it's noticeable. (I can't say too much, because I am guilty of doing this in my 'machinery' map. It was the last thing I did, and it was super rushed, (did all the texturing in 30 minutes) I had to rush to finish it; that's why it looks sooo bad...

Anyhow, besides the textureing making the map feel like it was built in the land of the giants, there were only a few other unnerving things that bothered me enough to post about. The gameplay...

The gameplay was slow and kinda uninteresting to say the least. I don't like bashing maps, but the zombies lying around in these GREAT EXPANSES of space just doesn't scream 'fun.' I've done it before in much more interesting places. I understand the zombies are there to give logic to the plot and story of things, but this is still a game, and unless you do something creative with them, this map will fail to stick out (even with magnificent visuals). With that being said, the zombies and even the first fast zombies felt a little out-of-place. Kinda felt like they were waiting on you, and that the map was built for you. Instead, it should feel like I am happening to stumble into this place, and these things are already taking place as I come staggering in. =disturbance in SOD (Suspension Of Disbelief). It reminds me that I'm still playing a game, which I don't want to think about; I want to believe I'm really in this place...

The other thing that disturbed me was the lighting... For some reason, there was green lighting in a corner which I never found the reasoning for. Was there something special there that I missed? Why was it green (A color with high contrast compared to the rest of your lighting)? With it being such a dark map and-all, you takes extra patience and time with the lighting to get it just right, because now the lighting becomes much more focused, and the geometry much more defined. While I didn't see too much interestingly built geom. I did see a lot of alpha masked textures (lots of grating and trusses) that help give the level more detail than was actually there. But those kind of textures/details can make the level seem 'too busy' Something that can actually detract from gameplay. However in your map it did not detract from the play. But this is not a good thing, because with so much detail and expansive space you have, I was waiting for something big to happen around the corner. Instead, I get to see all this detail and for what? A couple of zombies and headcrabs? -Aren't you just cheating yourself here? All this means to the player is a strait-up hallway to go through (basically) with a few obstacles (avoidable too) to slow them down. Hardly any of your players will stop to look at the scenery. (except fellow mappers of course, which you notice when watching my playthrough). There is nothing for them to do except pick up a prop and throw it at the closest zombie and move from A to B. =not very exciting, and leads me to my first point. The level is too busy for what seems like a much more exciting place which you clearly discover is not. Not much going on there except for rain and a few zombies. Why include that part of the level at all if all it's meant to do is get you to the inside of the refinery?

Whew, enough ranting already, let me point out the cool things I liked! smiley

The sound... You can't hear it how I did in the demo, but what I did hear was some awesome attention to the audio in the game. You'll notice I like to hang around underneath the onnings in the rain, because I thought the 'water hitting metal) sound as you walked under was perfect! Really helps the atmosphere and SOD of the level. ++ in my book; really great stuff. Also, the music for the autosaves (and the fact that there were autosaves) was quite nice. Please keep that in there. Does this mean there may be some whole custom soundtrack for the map? :dodgy:

The dark room was done pretty nicely. This may be the fault of not having to worry about lighting, but what you have done here was done quite nicely. The initial fast zombie at the door was a surprise and the placement of the zombies was pretty spot-on. Not too many, not too few. The white light in the back kept me in view of my goal, and didn't let me stray into complete darkness =never a good idea. So, that whole sequence/area was done quite nicely. Props to ya for that; my favorite part about the level.

The second outdoor space with the running water was much more believable than the first. While although, I remember catching a few glimpses of over stretched textures, it overall was O.K. The scene beyond the fence was nice too. And helped give me placement in the world. Because it was so dark, it was hard to see beyond the level boundaries.

All-in-all, the level was very nicely made. With attention to the sound and other effects (blinking lights; rain and lighting in general). The level could use a bit of sprucing up as far as gameplay is concerned (leave the first indoor dark room alone, that spot in nice smiley ) Think about the outside some more, and continue manipulating the geometry a little. This will help not make it feel like a corridor and more like the back entrance to a refinery. Add more obstacles and bring the area to life! It feels very 'statiky' (derivative of 'static') right now. Think about your monster placement and approach. This is supposed to be scary (the word 'terror' is in the title!) Make it more scary with the sounds and gameplay. Don't just make these awesome spaces only to populate it was a few zombies like an afterthought. AI isn't everything, give something for them to interact with, or surprise the player with. Use your noodle!

It was a great place to walk through (as a fellow mapper) but an awful place to play in. I know it's in beta, but it won't hit high on many people's lists the way it is now. Fix your monsters and gameplay, and the rest should fall into place. Make a few 'flow' diagrams (the curves that resemble the player's possible path through your level with encounters or obstacles marked out) and evaluate it or compare it to a favorite level of yours which you would like to emulate. Give your player less room to wiggle, and the tension will rise. Plenty of opportunity in this map, you just have to learn to see it.

Don't get me wrong, I may be saying more negative things than good things, but believe me, this is one hell of a good map (especially for a beta) and SP maps are hard to do. I wouldn't be commenting on it as much as I have if I didn't think it was going anywhere. I understand your passion towards the completion of the level, and I look forward to playing it again soon! You have put A LOT of time into the map and it shows, all ya need is to take a step back for a moment and see the bigger picture. Hopefully watching my demo, will help you to see it through another perspective. You'll probably notice things I missed that you might have worked on so much that I completely passed up. It will show you what the player will care about (disregard my venturing outside the intended path; I understand you haven't player-clipped the level yet).

Well, that about wraps it up with all I have to say about the map. Well played my friend! (If you're NOT aaron_da_killa and you HAVE read this far in my post, congratulations! You've just read the longest post I've made on the Pit in the last year and-a-half (excluding images). Take it easy aaron; you have a fine piece of art in the works here, make sure not to stress out over it.

Cheers!
-Riven


Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Le Chief on Mon Nov 10th at 4:32am 2008

Wow, Riven.. that's one hell of a post, thanks man. I got really excited when I saw your post smiley.

Firstly, I gotta say those demo videos where awesome, certainly when I am giving my thoughts on a source map, I will record a video of myself like what you have done, its a really great idea, a day may come where its the norm to do that and the mapper is given all these highly valuable demo videos. I found the videos very interesting and informative.

I agree with you and everybody who has mentioned the gameplay, it is rather dull, and its certainly something that I'm going to improve as the map goes by and the boss battle is placed and such, infact, the current gameplay was just painted into the map with some thought but I haven't reiterated over any of it, not once! But one of the challenges, back when I was coming up with ideas for this map at the end of dm_backwash I knew would be the gameplay, considering all of the "Xen" monsters are technically melee, I knew right away that it would be hard to craft a map with such a limitation, I even at one point considered placing combine npcs into the map.

In regards to the lighting, I have gotten a few comments about the "coloured, illogical, unrealistic" lighting. That's something that you and all the other folks who made like comments have alerted me to and I'll see what I can do about making the lighting more realistic. I'm also hoping to apply a screen overlay to the map to give it a more "Gears of War, ACT III, Downpour" feel which was a major inspiration for this map, but that will be one of the things done at the end.

Quoting Riven
Add more obstacles and bring the area to life! It feels very 'statiky' (derivative of 'static') right now.


I hear ya man and I agree, I noticed in the demo videos you where trying to "use" things that wouldn't use. Interactive objects and such will be something that will be implemented when the maps layout is finished (still lots of spaces to be built).

As for the "dark room", I'm glad you liked it. That fast zombie is actually lurking next to the red light ahead, he is part of a squad to which all zombies in that space are a part of. As soon as you enter one of the zombies feild of view, the fast zombie will come and get ya. As soon as the fast zombie takes damage, there is between a 0-3 second delay (depending on the zombie) before they are woken up, seeing as how they are all part of the same squad, they all home on on your location.

Visually, I am not exactly happy with that area so its something I will be working on. I am also going to expand that area to include a little route that shoots off from the main game. The gameplay mechanics will be much the same, the players will be rewarded at the end of the "route" with the shotgun and ammo (a weapon that is gained if not then, later in the map) and one of the 8 skulls in the map that if all collected and deposited in an unnamed place, a special event will happen.

As for the rain hitting the metal roof sound, I'm glad you liked it, I recorded it myself. I simply went to the kitchen and grabbed a baking trey and held it underneath the shower with the water running slowly smiley, had my laptop and microphone on hand and recorded!

Thanks again mate! smiley . I wanted to finish the map by Christmas time, but if I can get it finished by late January, I'll be happy!


Aaron's Stuff



Quote
 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Le Chief on Sat Nov 15th at 7:22am 2008

Just a little update.

The development of Night Terror is back into full swing after a little cool down period during the pre-alpha. For those of you who played the pre-alpha, you may remember at the end of the map a constantly “descending pathway” overrun by various species of Headcrab. This update, I’m going to explain the purpose of this section and show you some new screenshots of the area.

Basically, the idea is that the player is descending towards a mine that lurks beneath the facility. The ”descending pathway” leads to an elevator which when activated will send the player down to the mine. Here is a quick list of the events that are going to happen:

Player reaches elevator to mine > new weapon: Shotgun > Player restores power to a sector of the facility > Back tracking through the mine (newly spawned enemies ofcourse) > Boss Battle > Player travels back up the elevator > Gains entry to a door that now has power >>

For those of you who have played Half-Life 2 Episode 2, the mine interiors in Night Terror will be similar to the mine interiors in the early parts of Half-Life 2 Episode 2.

The mine will be infested with Antlions so that should be a fresh change to the encounters composed of zombies and Headcrabs present in the gameplay up to this section.

Alrighty, so that’s some background and information about the mine and the gateway to the mine, let’s take a look at the screenshots, as usual, the content you see is still a work in progress and will change!



The majority of the screenshots you see are of the space that the elevator is in. As you might have noticed, there is a dead Antlion to hint of what lies ahead.


Aaron's Stuff



Quote
 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by RedWood on Fri Nov 21st at 3:33am 2008

I download and played your map the day after you posted it. I was going to post some comments but i'v been lazy or tired lately. (not working)

There are a lot of nice things i could say but im to lazy. (it seams to be your usual good work.)

On the down side:
I killed most every zombie before they were activated. I saw all of them. No surprises.

I had plenty of space to move. Witch is normally good, but the zombies are slow and have almost no range on their attacks. Dodging or running was extremely easy, I was never in any danger.

Most of the spaces you have seam like they would be best suited for a mix of zombies and combine and or ant lions.

Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.


Reality has become a commodity.



Quote
 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by Le Chief on Fri Nov 21st at 4:08am 2008

Thanks RedWood, please don't apologize. I'm interested in anything that anybody has to say about the map, and constructive comments are more useful than complements and such.

As I mentioned somewhere earlier, its always going to be somewhat of a challenge to build fun, challenging and interesting encounters with melee monsters such as the array of Zombie and Headcrab species. I don't have any plans to have any live Combine npcs in the map, however later in the map there is an Antlion section aswell as a boss battle that I'm currently working on which will hopefully be pretty fun.

I'm also going to come back and rethink the monster placements that you can seen in the pre-alpha version.


Aaron's Stuff



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 Re: Night Terror [Codename]
Posted by tnkqwe on Sun Dec 21st at 11:16am 2008

Since thre are no surprises,put some water with zombies coming out it.Or maybe radioctive waters like in the end of "Route canal".Don't forget that the head crabs are attacking form the nothing.


Never think about bad things!
TNKqwe:The New Killer qwe

I am Engineer - Play Free Online Games

Citizen Arms




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