Alright, so the beta release didn't happen as I hoped it would - stuff incredibly just keeps piling up. I'm planning on creating a thorough to-do list with a priority on everything that I can keep updating so you guys know quite literally how close I am..

In the meantime it's time for a screenshot update.

Screen 1, a look at the hallway of the corner residential building - now there's a mysterious path leading downwards. :smile:
Screen 2, at the bottom of that mysterious path's steps.
Screen 3, opposite end of the walkway in screenshot 2, looking into...:
Screen 4, the underground parking lot. I thought I had a screenshot of this but I guess it's for the best that you don't see it very well, it's very unfinished.
Screen 5, pulling back a bit, some scaffolding I'm working on :wink: Also unfinished but nearly done.
Screen 6, moving on to a different area. Last night I did all of this, I began to work away from basement-ish walls in here and I'm going towards making this look like it was at one point an apartment building of some sort.
Screen 7, looking in from the corner hole.
Screen 8, looking down from the very top level (which is still dark-walled and attic-y - not sure where I'll go with that area.

There you guys go, tear it apart with your critique please. Be gentle though :wink:

Coolness.

Things are moving along well. I'll get around to the new interior or two I'll need to do today. Vvis was just cut down another 10-15 minutes by some more vacuum-packing of buildings (rather than boxes on the street, stretching the walls down to the under-the-hill NODRAW brush so no leaves are created in that inaccessible space around the interior).

Time to test it...

I'd be available. I'm home now, but won't be for too long. I'm leaving for Bermuda in about a week. So if you can get a betatest together before then, I'd be happy to play it with you and some others.

Just a quick update to let you guys know how I'm feeling about residential right now...

I was just a few minutes ago thinking about it, and I've realized something major: I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to consider the layout done. Still a few things left to do in that aspect but I see a beta coming in the near future. A lot of details to work on, but I feel like maybe 90% of the flow/design is there.

Quick to-do list for the playability aspect:

• Slightly reduce map size. Cut off a bit of unused area around a couple buildings, maybe even cut off one building entirely.
• One more interior (?) - connected to the newer crossbow spot near the hotel.
• maybe a bit more interior to the hotel, connecting it to another building or something.
• Flesh out the corner building.

Really not much. I can't think of anything else at the moment, just little tweaks probably. Speaking of little tweaks:

• Some architectural work on the corner building. Doors are on the top of the list. Doorframes. Decals. Details.
• More realistic destruction all over (rough edges are there, mostly just need some debris props/chunks).
• Some more plausibility tweaks, like the destroyed building's interior.

Honestly, I'm running out of things to worry about. That's reassuring. :smile:

I have the next few days or so free to do all the work I want, I'll map like hell and - don't hold me to this - I'd really like to maybe release a beta by then and potentially hold a large-ish playtest event with anyone around who could join. I'd come up with more details soon and probably a news post, but just a quick ask: anyone available for such an event in the next few days, were I to be ready for it?

Thanks for reading. More screens very soon.

Yeah, I'll have to come up with something.. it is quite large and I certainly don't want players running all over. Hrm-ness. I'll keep thinking about it while I construct it...

Ok, simple idea version 2: 90% of the parking lot are cut of by a fence.

I just really think that a whole parking lot could become too empty if it's too big.

Haha, agreed - but the "mostly" part is important. :smile: Is this a joke?! :biggrin:

If not - how do you justify building an underground lot for six cars? Hell, the entrance would take up more room than the lot itself. :biggrin:

Make it a small, private parking lot for only 6 cars or so. SImple ideas work best, mostly :wink:

Alright, here's what I'm going to do. I'll have a crater in the parking lot that leads to this underground lot whose entrance is in an unreachable part of the map (so like it's an underground lot that happens to stretch over to under the map's parking lot, and you get in from the other side along some other street). I also think I'll tie this in with the corner building - so like somebody would come along the far-off street, drive in, and park their car underground, get out and walk to the door that leads into the corner building; and the reverse if he wants to leave. There'll be a rubble pile that will let you get in and out of the area from the parking lot as well, and maybe I'll place a weapon and/or ammo and/or health in here for some more incentive for players to come on down.

I only really need a way to kind of block off the underground area so it's not needlessly large as it would be in real life.. I was/am doing a very wide pile of cars but that is of course very unrealistic.. any ideas? I dunno about a pile of rubble, that seems too cliche...

Hmm, so I'm actually kind of pressed for space to put the ramp yet leave room for cars to move around well. This kind of left me with the idea of creating a parking garage (like a several-stories-tall concrete structure)... Hmm.