Re: Rock 24
Posted by Naklajat on
Fri Sep 8th 2006 at 12:59pm
Posted
2006-09-08 12:59pm
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Nov 15th 2004
Occupation: Baron
Location: Austin, Texas
Rock24 is seriously looking very slick. I can't wait to play this, the anticipation is on par with that I had for HL2:Ep1, if not higher. I also downloaded ph_machine and ph_machine_02, quite nifty. Definitely not what you usually see from "learning the tools"-type maps. From what I've seen you show a real propensity for level design, or at least a love of tinkering, keep it up, it's not a common quality, and so it's coveted by developers big and small :wink:
Any estimates other than "soon"?
o
Re: Rock 24
Posted by reaper47 on
Fri Sep 8th 2006 at 5:48pm
2827 posts
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Feb 16th 2005
Location: Austria
It would be nice to have 3 screens or so in your map profile here. It's a barrier if people have to visit a second website to see any. It would be a shame if anyone missed them because of that. I watched the screens and they look beautiful. This really is close to E1 quality!
And something else: Your map is currently listed as a HL1 map here, please edit the settings in the map profile. :smile:
Re: Rock 24
Posted by midkay on
Fri Oct 6th 2006 at 10:50pm
Posted
2006-10-06 10:50pm
midkay
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SmokersCough: Cool, new media. Looking very cool, I just had two thoughts while viewing that second link (the faceposer video).
1) The opening message's lacking a certain comma or other punctuation. :smile: "Aboard the fishing vessel the S.S. Rebellion" - it should read, for example, "Aboard the fishing vessel, the S.S. Rebellion". Very minor things but these are the precise things that totally suck me out of games, articles, wherever I see them.
2) Faceposer work looks good, above average for a third-party mod, but if you wanted to put some more work into it to take it up a notch, I'd suggest working on some of the gestures. A lot of them seem really forced, especially toward the end ("We've already been spotted by scanners" sees the rebel waving his hand across the screen, why?). There's a lot of pointing in particular. I'd suggest trying to make these a bit more natural, smoother and more integrated to the conversation - act this out in front of a mirror and take mental notes about where you'd move your hands and in which way. Again, this already looks good, I'm just picking it apart...
(ir)regardless, this looks very cool all-in-all. Can't wait to play it. Any updates on a release date? :smile:
-- midkay
Re: Rock 24
Posted by SmokersCough on
Sat Oct 7th 2006 at 12:52am
Posted
2006-10-07 12:52am
28 posts
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Registered:
Dec 20th 2005
Hi,
Thanks for the comments, I see what you mean about faceposer, i can porbably make the animations smoohter i'll look into it tomorrow. Also the citizens have very few gesture animations (they are all Gman animations) the other animations are for actual sequences then don't work every well with the talk sequences.
But i agree i'll try and make them run together smoothly. I attempted most of the pointing when he is actually saying "you" and gesturing towards the stern and bow. As for the missing comma, that's easily fixed thanks for pointing it out.
Release date, if we work hard enough this weekend, the release date may be sooner than we think. We need to get our voice actor to record the rest of his lines then we are on the final stretch. Not too long now guys :smile:
Re: Rock 24
Posted by midkay on
Sat Oct 7th 2006 at 5:07am
midkay
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Cool. Yeah, the pointing animation looks fine, and I like the one at the end where he gestures by pointing with his thumb, it looks great.. it just seems like you use some of these too much, if you reduced the number of gestures and varied them up a bit it'd look great. :smile:
Nice to hear progress, can't wait for more. :smile:
-- midkay
Re: Rock 24
Posted by SmokersCough on
Sat Oct 7th 2006 at 1:14pm
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Dec 20th 2005
Hi Midkay,
I made the amendments you mentioned last night, i think it's looking a lot smoother now. Thanks for the ideas. I'll release a small video soon :smile:
Re: Rock 24
Posted by midkay on
Sun Oct 8th 2006 at 8:59pm
midkay
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Yay, cool. That was quick, nice job. :smile: waits to see it patiently
-- midkay
Posted
2006-10-10 11:47am
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Nov 29th 2003
Location: !!EARTH!!
Seems like there has been a delay.
Hope it gets released soon :biggrin:
If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. ~Vincent Van Gogh
Re: Rock 24
Posted by SmokersCough on
Fri Oct 27th 2006 at 10:17am
Posted
2006-10-27 10:17am
28 posts
13 snarkmarks
Registered:
Dec 20th 2005
Hi Guys, yes i know i was lame and didn't post the video of the faceposer stuff. But guess what, all the faceposer stuff is now in game and looking sweet (Hopefully you guys agree). We are now looking at a release for next friday, if nothing goes wrong. I would show you the new faceposer stuff but i'm thinking it might be worth waiting for the release :smile:
Re: Rock 24
Posted by midkay on
Sun Nov 19th 2006 at 12:27am
Posted
2006-11-19 12:27am
midkay
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edit Alright, I've submitted a review, it just needs to be approved.. sorry, I went kinda overboard on it - it's really long. I hope you find it useful. Here's an in-comments rating to reflect my review score, too, so that the score is put towards the overall rating:
Re: Rock 24
Posted by reaper47 on
Mon Nov 20th 2006 at 7:54pm
2827 posts
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Registered:
Feb 16th 2005
Location: Austria
I finally got around playing Rock24 and found it indeed to be the best SP experience since Minerva. There is a great love for detail, interesting twists and a steady flow. I'd even like to write a more extensive review sometime. For now all I can say is: Keep it coming! The HL2 community can need more SP projects of this calibre!
Re: Rock 24
Posted by Kasperg_JM on
Sun Nov 26th 2006 at 8:57pm
66 posts
1589 snarkmarks
Registered:
May 20th 2006
Overall I think this was a very good SP map pack. Most of the level design is good, and the custom scripting, skinning, voice acting etc. made it feel like a fresh experience.
There were a lot of areas I specially liked, like the cell area you wake up in, or the metallic stairs in the cave with the boulder.
My main complaints would be performance (some areas ran very badly compared to the whole HL2 or HL2 Ep1) and I found many displacement surfaces across the maps which looked too pointy and unnatural IMO.
Overall, I give it an 8/10. Without the bugs, it could easily be a 9. And it could be a 10 if It had even more original settings.
Good luck in your next mod!
Re: Rock 24
Posted by amanderino on
Fri Dec 8th 2006 at 9:58am
205 posts
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Registered:
Nov 13th 2006
Location: United States
I got somewhere into the second chapter before I couldn't take it anymore. Everything was too cluttered and a lot of it didn't make any sense...
Also, I noticed a lot of things that shouldn't have been. For example, a lot of props were intersecting walls into another area that was accessible by the player. In my case, it was a sprinkler pipe that ended abruptly.. and even if it were to continue, it would not have made sense being in the middle of the wall. Right before I shut the game down, there was a scanner stuck in-between prison bars. Was the clip texture used often? I got snagged on almost everything and it appears that some of the npcs had the same problem; most likely due to improper placement.
There's a lot more I didn't like, but it's not necessary for me to rant it all out. However, I did like the fact that you had some originality to your work. I'm sure you had even more to show, but honestly, I got so frustrated trying to get to places that I just lost my interest in finishing.
Re: Rock 24
Posted by Stadric on
Fri Jan 12th 2007 at 1:08am
Stadric
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Jun 3rd 2005
Occupation: Slacker
Location: Here
I played this after it was first posted on Halfwit. This is a very good mod, the story is good, the setting is realistic, there were some slow parts, but action prevailed for the most part. I only have gripes about the voice acting, but I dislike almost all voice acting, so don't take it too hard. :P
Re: Rock 24
Posted by midkay on
Mon Jan 22nd 2007 at 1:56pm
midkay
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Rock 24 starts out with Gordon Freeman (who you play) on a fishing vessel, manned by rebels, headed towards an unstable, ready-to-collapse Combine prison facility called "Rock 24". You and the rebels are attempting to rescue a rebel scientist named Richard G. Newell. Very early on, after an encounter with several gunships, you are knocked off the vessel and wake up in a prison cell deep within Rock 24. From here on out you must work together with Richard Newell to help each other reach the surface and escape.
Rock 24, despite being a prison, is loaded with original environments; you'll rarely think "Hey, I saw that in Nova Prospekt" or "This looks a lot City 17". In Rock 24, you'll travel through varying prison environments (cells, control centers, hubs), an elevator shaft system, rock environments and tunnels, and some outdoor areas. Nearly each of Rock 24's six chapters has its own unique feel and style, which is undoubtedly a great thing. Rock 24 has several puzzles for you to solve as well, though one or two have rather cliche setups (such as "run back there and flip that switch for me so that by the time you get back, something will have happened to your return path and you'll have to find an alternate route around"). However, there are only a couple puzzles like this, so they don't feel very annoying or unrealistic at all.
Visually, Rock 24 is great-looking, especially considering the amount of ground you'll cover. There is a lot of attention to detail, including a lot of very nice high-resolution lightmapping and dynamic flickering/toggling lights. Environmental effects abound as well - from lasers to sparks to smoke, everything looks great (kudos to the creators for making great-looking smoke instead of blobby "this is supposed to be smoke, just pretend it is" particles). One thing to note is the presence of several cool physics visual sequences, including a pipe swinging down to break through a thick concrete wall, crumbling rocks falling down around you, and a Combine APC crashing into a pillar (taking a chunk out of it and busting down fences in the process). One thing to note is a frame rate drop in only one or two large areas - nothing worth marking the mod down for. The only other little visual complaint I can come up with is that a tad bit of the animation on characters is a little over-the-top (characters will sometimes make gestures when they probably wouldn't if they were real people) - again, nothing big at all.
And finally, gameplay. Rock 24's gameplay is a lot of fun, with around an average amount of action, but still plenty of it interspersed throughout each level. Despite this, Rock 24 still comes off as being primarily a puzzle/objective-style set of levels than action-oriented ones (your primary goal is to reach the surface, and Combine assault you along the way intermittently - you're always moving up and forward). This is a very welcome break from mods that provide a ton of action and a silly story as an afterthought. A couple notable bits of action include a large-scale battle inside Rock 24's huge, fortified main entrance area, and in particular the ending battle with - literally - nearly a hundred soldiers.
To sum up, Rock 24 is a very professionally-done set of six chapters. The flow is great, gameplay is very good and rarely repetitive, puzzles are generally fun, and Rock 24 looks great to boot - and all of this from a team of two people. Rock 24 is the best "new storyline" HL2 SP mod I've ever played, and for giving the player something new, fun and original - and despite any very small flaws it may have - it deserves a 10/10. We need more mods like this.
Design
Gameplay
Verdict
The best all-new-storyline HL2SP mod I've ever played - great gameplay, visuals, flow and design. Something for everyone.
Pros
Very professional and detailed, long play time (between 1 and 2 hours), original story, lots of fun.
Design
Very little... a couple of the puzzle set-ups, a couple out-of-place animation gestures.
Re: Rock 24
Posted by midkay on
Mon Jan 22nd 2007 at 1:56pm
midkay
member
398 posts
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Registered:
Apr 15th 2005
Location: United States
Rock 24 starts out with Gordon Freeman (who you play) on a fishing vessel, manned by rebels, headed towards an unstable, ready-to-collapse Combine prison facility called "Rock 24". You and the rebels are attempting to rescue a rebel scientist named Richard G. Newell. Very early on, after an encounter with several gunships, you are knocked off the vessel and wake up in a prison cell deep within Rock 24. From here on out you must work together with Richard Newell to help each other reach the surface and escape.
Rock 24, despite being a prison, is loaded with original environments; you'll rarely think "Hey, I saw that in Nova Prospekt" or "This looks a lot City 17". In Rock 24, you'll travel through varying prison environments (cells, control centers, hubs), an elevator shaft system, rock environments and tunnels, and some outdoor areas. Nearly each of Rock 24's six chapters has its own unique feel and style, which is undoubtedly a great thing. Rock 24 has several puzzles for you to solve as well, though one or two have rather cliche setups (such as "run back there and flip that switch for me so that by the time you get back, something will have happened to your return path and you'll have to find an alternate route around"). However, there are only a couple puzzles like this, so they don't feel very annoying or unrealistic at all.
Visually, Rock 24 is great-looking, especially considering the amount of ground you'll cover. There is a lot of attention to detail, including a lot of very nice high-resolution lightmapping and dynamic flickering/toggling lights. Environmental effects abound as well - from lasers to sparks to smoke, everything looks great (kudos to the creators for making great-looking smoke instead of blobby "this is supposed to be smoke, just pretend it is" particles). One thing to note is the presence of several cool physics visual sequences, including a pipe swinging down to break through a thick concrete wall, crumbling rocks falling down around you, and a Combine APC crashing into a pillar (taking a chunk out of it and busting down fences in the process). One thing to note is a frame rate drop in only one or two large areas - nothing worth marking the mod down for. The only other little visual complaint I can come up with is that a tad bit of the animation on characters is a little over-the-top (characters will sometimes make gestures when they probably wouldn't if they were real people) - again, nothing big at all.
And finally, gameplay. Rock 24's gameplay is a lot of fun, with around an average amount of action, but still plenty of it interspersed throughout each level. Despite this, Rock 24 still comes off as being primarily a puzzle/objective-style set of levels than action-oriented ones (your primary goal is to reach the surface, and Combine assault you along the way intermittently - you're always moving up and forward). This is a very welcome break from mods that provide a ton of action and a silly story as an afterthought. A couple notable bits of action include a large-scale battle inside Rock 24's huge, fortified main entrance area, and in particular the ending battle with - literally - nearly a hundred soldiers.
To sum up, Rock 24 is a very professionally-done set of six chapters. The flow is great, gameplay is very good and rarely repetitive, puzzles are generally fun, and Rock 24 looks great to boot - and all of this from a team of two people. Rock 24 is the best "new storyline" HL2 SP mod I've ever played, and for giving the player something new, fun and original - and despite any very small flaws it may have - it deserves a 10/10. We need more mods like this.
Verdict
The best all-new-storyline HL2SP mod I've ever played - great gameplay, visuals, flow and design. Something for everyone.
Re: Rock 24
Posted by Mint_Sauce on
Mon Jan 22nd 2007 at 1:57pm
35 posts
434 snarkmarks
Registered:
Dec 10th 2004
Occupation: Computer Person
Location: UK
Thanks guys, we spent a lot of time on it. Glad to see it's appreciated! :P
Where are screen shots?
I REALLY wanted sparks coming off the elevator as it fell as well but alas they just wouldn't work there either. However, all the logic is there, including the spark entities so perhaps if Valve update the hard coded limit now that PCs are generally more capable, they will spring in to life in that area! It's mostly down to the dustmote brushes and sparks not liking each other.
