Eternal-Silence Beta 2

Yeah so some of you might know... ES beta 2 has been released. Go on over and check the website (www.eternal-silence.net) and get the l.atest version. Its 260 MB big this time (30 of them being my map). In any-case we all could sue some more intelligent people on the forums (aka: useful feedback).

And if you were wondering... I did es_asteroid, and did some last minute changes on es_athera.

Download and enjoy :biggrin: .

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Posting And You

I noticed it was out the other day, I'll give it a go tonight. Many servers running?

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Ham and Jam Contributor
http://www.hamandjam.org

'Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!'

When I got it (about 2 hours before the release) there were about 3 servers up and running. We can only hope it'll attract more.

I'll give it a try.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Well I know how I'm spending my lunch break now :smile:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Spent some time with it over my lunch break, and it seems like a polished release. I was in a server with just 6 people at the peak, so it wasn't exactly a fun-filled session given the size of some of the maps, but it was enough to get a feel for the gameplay. Personally I sucked with the spacecraft, which obviously takes a bit of time (and preferrably a joystick) to get used to, and that did hinder my enjoyment of it a bit. I can picture it being a fairly hectic and exciting game with a full server of people who know what they are doing though. Very impressive change in scale between the interiors and exteriors - how did you achieve that?

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Im not familair with the specifics, but the coding masters altered the skybox code, as well as camera/teleportation.

Essentailly the space area is 1/40 of the scale of regualr maps (so
your really flying a 1/40 scale model around in a 1/40 space area.

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Posting And You

Looks pretty good. Haven't had a chance to play online yet, maybe later.

I did have some quick suggestions, things I noticed from a quick run around.

One thing that really felt lacking was ambience. Visually most of the levels are good, yours in particular omega, but they all lack ambient sounds. Sure space is in a vacuum, but the insides of the ships aren't. A low base rumble of engines, machine sounds, klaxons, doors, gas jets, whatever would all make the environments so much more engaging. You guys might also want to consider some music tailored for the environments ala UT. When in space when there are limited sounds a suspensful soundtrack will really heighten the experience.

Also texture wise it might be worthwhile creating some specific sets of textures, rather than using such a jumble. The map other than the two es_ ones in particular felt like it had used a jumble of textures without any consideration for consistency. Actually that map was the one that I felt needs the most work. It needs a lot more detail (particularly ceilings), a lot more consideration for texture usage, and like all the maps ambient noise.

Also the static ship models base texture material needs to be changed to metal. A concrete ship isn't that awesome :smile: .

Otherwise its looking really good, and the scale seems incredible, really well done. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys will achieve in future updates. It seems a lot of core stuff like the coding is well under way, just needs more attention to the other details now.

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Ham and Jam Contributor
http://www.hamandjam.org

'Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!'

Yeah the sounds area of the game has been lacking a bit in terms of
level sounds (it was only 2 weeks before the release we started workign
on them), but we're looking into making a lot of custom soundscapes.

The textures have always been my bane. We have a great deal more now,
but when I started this project I didn't have much to work with (Plus I
was told to use what we had, as to not tie up the already overworked
art department).

Thanks for the feed back, ill be relaying this onward. Any sugestions
on some of the gameplay hang-ups? (aka: hangar congestion?)

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Posting And You

WAAAY back when, when hl2 was announced, but not yet released, and BF 1942 wasn't even in rumors, on #snarkpit I was explaining my multiplayer mod idea.

It was a mod based on ship to ship combat between capital ships, where one ship was sending a boarding party to invade and capture another ship... You were to fly a Troop Transport into the opposing ship and capture areas (starting with the hanger, so you can spawn there instead of in your ship)

Then I see this mod, being endorsed by people of the Snarkpit, so I download it and play it.

And lo and behold, its my idea!

Needless to say, I am quite pissed about this

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Signature? What signature!?

Needless to say, I am quite pissed about this

so....Your gonna sue? heh

The snarkpit had nothing to do with the mod (except KFDM and I were on the dev team) so please dotn think less of the snarkpit.

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Posting And You

No, I'm not going to do anything

Its a great mod, and if they did steal the idea (instead of coincidence) They did it good

Its just... nobody likes having their ideas stolen, ya know?

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Signature? What signature!?

Well f**k me! YOUR the person who
thought up the unthinkable! An idea so obscure, so revolutionary, and
certainly never seen before, that no other person in the history of
time itself could have possibly conceived it without having heard it
from you first!

Get of your high horse mate.

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Ham and Jam Contributor
http://www.hamandjam.org

'Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!'

And you can f**k off

I already said that it might be coincidence

and its the EXACT SAME IDEA

so yes, I'm justified in wondering if it was stolen, I'm justified in being pissed at the possibility, and its all without getting on "my high hourse"

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Signature? What signature!?

Considering omega is looking for useful comments about their mod, I
don't really see how claiming they possibly stole your idea is that
helpful. Not really the place to do it either. If you have a legitimate
issue take it up with the creators on their forums or by email.

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Ham and Jam Contributor
http://www.hamandjam.org

'Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!'

Usefull comments... hmm

The only useful comments I can think of belong in the bug reporting forums

unless you mean comments like 'looks good' I can give those

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Signature? What signature!?

Well not really - useful comments are more along the lines of "The flamethrower was overpowered and made most other weapons redundant", or "With larger player loads this map didn't provide nearly enough ships". Bug reports would no doubt be useful too, but comments on gameplay are, I assume, what Omega was looking for.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

why does it want me to install the base sdk?

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i eat paint

Because, most mods are built on the Base SDK. So you don't need to actually have something like HL2SP or HL2DM installed to play mods. So, for HL2 stuff the mod will use the Base SDK Cache instead.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Because, most mods are built on the Base SDK. So you don't need
to actually have something like HL2SP or HL2DM installed to play mods.
So, for HL2 stuff the mod will use the Base SDK Cache instead.

Bingo!

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Posting And You

making a resident evil mod was actually my idea originally.. =(

<-- cheated

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the players tried to take the field
the marching band refused to yield

well, I wouldn't say the flamethrower is overpowered, a lone guy with a flamethrower dies, but its good for blocking off cooridors and the like

I havn't tried all the weapons so far, but I like the MG > flamethrower, unless I'm stuck defending a node

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Signature? What signature!?

Oh yeah, meant to mention that my example comments were just that - examples. I haven't played the mod enough to give any really detailed balance suggestions like that, so don't actually take them as real comments. I died without killing anybody when I tried the flamethrower...

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Well, I have good practice with the flamethrower

I like to play pyro in TFC :razz:

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Signature? What signature!?

/me downloads, sounds amazing

I thought up this idea where you used a program to organize your music and listen to it in whatever order. I got completely screwed on that one.

Give me a break.

Stealing an idea on simple concepts, that are more of a natural progression of design, is a ridiculous notion. (It so ridiculous that, in fact, if you can prove in a US court that this is the case, the extension would not necessarily be patentable material!)

Making a game with many players in a MP environment is not a unique idea. Nor has it been for the last 30 years. Whether or not it's realistically implementable is a completely different topic.

And as for crying about your mod idea being stolen when it's based on someone else's idea ... that's even more ridiculous.
I've never understood the novelty of needing to associate your idea (which could be completely unrelated besides basis of some aspect) with a well known franchise. The money aspect withstanding, of course.

You should strive to make whatever you're doing unique. You want to know why all Resident Evil mods fail? Because they're associated with a well known product. Try forming your own thing, even if it's almost identical to the RE plot/characters/companies, it will have a unique flare that will put everyone using it on even ground. Not to mention you wouldn't be constrained by a pre-existing universe of characters.

/tangent

I'll grab the mod sometime this weekend if I can. I don't think I'll be able to play it any time soon though.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I found two bugs in es_aertha
There's an exposed bit of nodraw in the space station:
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6196/esaethra0000mc6.jpg
Specific enough for ya?
and once when I flew one of the red cargo ships into the blue docking bay, I went through the walls of the hanger, and ended up outside of the map. My ship's computer told me I was outside of the mission area.

A few times I spawned firing, that's happened to me in Dystopia too.

You guys are probably all over this one already, but you really do need another prop for dropped weapons, something like a satchel.

There was some major bottle-necking in aertha because of the flamethrower,specifically here:
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/9474/esaethra0002kj4.jpg
People would spray the lighter fluid and ignite it, effectively blocking the hallway. Then they kept on doing it. An extra hallway or something would help ease that problem.

I thought the broken font used for the chat was more annoying than anything, the size should be increased, IMO. Text with holes in it works better with bigger text.

I don't have a joystick, so I wasn't able to use the fighters as effectively as I wanted to. Using the mouse with the fighters is pretty bad for turning, and turning up my mouse sensitivity didn't help. Was there another options menu for the ships?

I like the concept of the ion cannon, but the primary fire beam doesn't last long enough. If there's a balance problem with an ion cannon that lasts longer, then you could balance it by decreasing its damage.

Over all the mod looked pretty slick, the concept was nicely executed, the space ship models were great (that transport one looks derived from the Pelican in Halo), except for the bottle necking, the game seemed balanced, and the game was fast enough, but not like a crazy UT deathmatch. That skybox in aertha was incredible, give your texture artists a pat on the back for me.

I played the mod on a populated server, so I can't comment on a lack of sound, I wasn't given an idle moment to listen in.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

someone flew a troop transport into the red team's capital ship in es_aertha (think it was that map)

and I don't mean into the hanger, I mean the crashed into the hull and passed into the exterior

Server went poof D:

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Signature? What signature!?

checked it out offline, so i have no idea as to gameplay but the ships are nearly impossible to fly with a mouse and keyboard
also, there were some texturing problems on es_aertha, it couldn't find the textures for the ramps near the hanger on the red teams ship or something because i was seeing black and purple squares

hmmm - check the console for a "missing material file esmod/bla/blabla.vmt"?

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Posting And You

Is it just me or is the destroyer map full of mapping errors ? I can see the wireframe in the hangar, and the purple/black checker texture is all over.

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

Is it just me or is the destroyer map full of mapping errors ? I can see the wireframe in the hangar, and the purple/black checker texture is all over.

Same goes for me, i stopped after seeing that, but if it's only that map then i might as well check the others.

ps i like the ion gun thing

Lets just say patch 2.1 was....well...rushed. Good news was we got rid
of server crashes, but gained graphical ones (neither are related). Its
merely Hammer beign lame and referencing the incorrect textures (you
may notice the .SVN textres, these are "back-ups" for our version
managing software).

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Posting And You

Subversion can be a pain in the you-know-what when it f**ks up. :smile:

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer