Operation Evil Eye 23:57 hrs [Archive]

demonspawn

25th August 2002, 20:56

Message received August 27 1943, 22:13hr
Encryption coded at source.
Deciphered by OAS Ultra department, 22:47hr

Classified TOP SECRET

From:
Nicoli Grevael, Franc-Tireur Partisan Resistance Force
As per your orders I have had my operatives keep close watch on the recent activities at the three concentration camps in question, what I have to report is both puzzling and potentially catastrophic.
Two of the three (codenamed Issimut and Dardium), no longer contain any activity, they have been cleared out; as to where the occupants have gone, it is still as yet, undetermined.
The speed in which this activity occurred is remarkable and I regret to report that I have been unable to determine where they have been taken. I assure you all access points into and out of the area were and have been closely monitored, its like our friends have just disappeared.

Due to this recent activity I have personally taken watch over Kessimit. Although there hasnâ€™t been a mass exodus out of the camp, there has been an increased amount of traffic into the facility. Although I have little information to report as to the activities taking place within the compound I can report the presents of SS-Oberfuhrer Wilhelm Strasse who arrived on the morning of the 3rd. With out any other concrete information to go on I can only add that his presents here doesnâ€™t sit well in my stomach. I feel we must act fast or many more of our friends may be lost.
I await further orders.

demonspawn

26th August 2002, 04:38

Tactical briefing for Operation Evil Eye
September 4, 1942 10:27 hrs

We received the following message earlier this morning:

Message received September 4 1942, 9:22hr
Encryption coded at source.
Deciphered by OAS Ultra department, 9:53hr

Classified TOP SECRET

From:
Francisco Mochas, Franc-Tireur French Partisan Resistance Force
I received an open aired radio message late last night from Nicolas, it wasnâ€™t encoded or secured and didnâ€™t make much sense to me but here it is.

â€œEvil Eye is active in Kessimit. Camps in chaos, nothing but screams. Being followed, canâ€™t shake them, mustâ€¦.â€?

The message was very broken up and sounded as if Nicolas was running, then it was abruptly cut off .
I fear; no I know Nicolas is no longer with us and fear that we have been compromised beyond repair. I have ordered a complete dismantling of our operation from this source.
When all is safe I will contact you.
Francisco

OSA High Command has preempted our initial target launch, and ordered a â€œFull Goâ€?, condition Alpha. Because of these changes we have been unable to acquire the requested ordinance but have substituted what we feel are adequate replacements.
Our latest intelligence has a drop site deep in the heart of the Vercors mountain range, approximately 2.2 Kilometers south of the target.
Our meteorological forecast has a heavy storm front moving into the area.

Here are your final orders Agent Blazkowicz, good luck and God Speed

http://www.fileplanet.com/dl.aspx?/planetwolfenstein/tramdesign/operation_evil_eye.zip

digibob

26th August 2002, 04:50

Knew it had to be building up to soemthing :wink:

demonspawn

26th August 2002, 15:58

It seems that a few people are having a loading delay with "oee" There is quite a bit of unique content that is being pumped in.
So please hang in there, it will get past the loading screen I promise :smile:

Map on

digibob

26th August 2002, 23:04

Yeah, had a small load delay, was an interesting map, a bit tough at teh beginning i thought, getting rather easy at the end, cept for that pesky flametrooper! :smile:

Aside from that, some other things i thought you could improve on were the waterfall, as the texture just looked plain odd there, and the platforms the big guns were sitting on seemed a little too flimsy.

Texturing overall was nicely done, and model placement was done well, lighting was rather dark in the early part of the map, and was annoying that the ai was able to shoot THROUGH the sandbags.

demonspawn

27th August 2002, 01:17

Thanks for testing it out.
The lighting was a challenge, lightJunior's seem to be effected by the lights around them, which as you can see by the layout I didn't have enough sources present.
The flak mounts were originally covered in camo, it increased my poly count way too much so I removed it.
The waterfall was modeled after a waterfall that is close to where I live, Its color is formed by mass amounts of silt in the water. I guess sometimes reality doesn't transfer well to CG. The fact that it was at night too, maybe its too bright?
I've had comments that it was quite short, it was bigger when I drew the preliminary designs but I had to make some changes because of poly count decisions.
I'll fix the errors I've found, (is it normal for a compile to not include a "weaponclip" texture? thats what happened to the sand bags as well as the halftrack)
and start my next map. I really want to get deeper into scripting and creating unique md3 models.
The lighting is something I'm going to leave as-is, I've learned alot about the restrictions imposed by the engine and will avoid/adapt solutions to future maps.

Thanks for playing it and the feedback

Map on

kat

27th August 2002, 02:19

file info?? how big's the download?? me is on lowly 56k..!?

_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-08-27 03:20 ]

demonspawn

27th August 2002, 02:59

Its 9.6 megs

Yea, Iâ€™ve used a whole bunch of custom textures, and adapted many textures to what I needed.

I hope you'll take the time to download it Kat, I'd like your feedback.

Map on

kat

27th August 2002, 12:23

I will now I know how big it is... ooo er misses..!

kat

27th August 2002, 17:39

On 2002-08-27 00:04, djbob wrote:
Yeah, had a small load delay, was an interesting map, a bit tough at teh beginning i thought, getting rather easy at the end, cept for that pesky flametrooper! :smile:

Aside from that, some other things i thought you could improve on were the waterfall, as the texture just looked plain odd there, and the platforms the big guns were sitting on seemed a little too flimsy.

Texturing overall was nicely done, and model placement was done well, lighting was rather dark in the early part of the map, and was annoying that the ai was able to shoot THROUGH the sandbags.

....in addition to bob's comments
: didn't load properly the 1st time... it took ages (longer than the 'warning' you mentioned) and loaded into the default RtCW for some reason? I think it may have some thing to do with the mess my install is in atm..!! When I restarted RtCW it loaded almost straight away..! go figure..!!
: I had to copy/paste my default config file so I had the same keys.... didn't spot this in the readme so it might be worth mentioning that
: one of the bots seemed to get stuck a little bit behind the door on the 1st floor exit of the 'depot' (the door kept opening and closing)
: I'd agree with bob on the gun platforms.. your best bet would be to pull the bases right down into the terrain and make it look like a solid concret block
: a minor note... I don't know if you've done this but I jumped into the water and could only really get out from a crtain angle, try adding some clipsteps just under the water to add getting out... (incidently, there were some interesting 'features' near the base of the damn that I nearly drowned looking at, are they for anything??)
: I got a missing background on the notebook
: you forgot to make the 'warehouse' gate solid... you can walk thru it..!!
: that soldier near the stairs that take you to where the ladder is (to go up into the tower) gets stuck on that corner, he keeps running into it, maybe monster clip it or something (ai_no_touch??)
: got console warning "ai_marker (march7) in solid" make sure you've not got this embeded into a wall or clipbrush..!

: the models seemed a bit dark, even though it's set at night the map itself was quite well lit... have you used any of those 'lightjuniors'??

overall I really enjoyed this (took about 2hrs, can you beleave that..!!), the one thing that did pee me off was getting up that ladder into the tower, for gameplay purposes I'd be tempted to pull the ladder away from the wall and put it on the other side of the opening so it's free standing and you face the soldier as you come up....

can't wait for episode II :cool:

sock

27th August 2002, 20:15

Been away for the weekend and got back to a find a SP map release! w00t

djbob had d/l it already so I loaded it up and had a go. Its a very nice map for a first rtcw release. Here's my list of strange things I've found while playing it ...

* In the top courtyard where you come out from the ladder in the tower the ground of the courtyard has bomb blast textures but they are scaled up too much. Should create a decal of the bomb blast and overlay it instead. Produces better results.

* the button to release the main building is very strange and time related. It would be easier on the player if you cut to a camera sequence the first time showing the door opening so people have got a better idea of where to go.

* The prison section has loads of rooms with cages hanging from the ceiling which generally use are hung outside in the main prison area to serve as a warning to other prisoners. Plus the cells had no detail, like bedframes, bucket, locked door etc just loads of skeltons.

* The flamethrower guy at the top courtyard is mental. I remember from the original SP wolf how tough those creatures are and in open courtyard he just murders to quickly.

* The dynomite objectives do not show on the final exit screen. The guns you destroy early on in the first part of the map.

* The final exit point seems wierd not sure why you would want to exit down a well. But each to their own I suppose.

* I was expecting some camera cinematic at the end or some storyline to explain what happened. It ended very sudden and I was not sure what was going to happen next.

* The front porch area of the first wooden building needs some kind of supports. That balcony if made from wood and would not substain that sort of weight. It needed some square poles underneath on the balcony.

* The long loading time at the beginning is because wolf is re-generating the OEE_B1.RCD file. It looks like it is either corrupt or out of date.

* Some of the bots cannot seem to climb staircases or small amount of steps. I assume you put a slick texture on the steps. (They are the ones in the common folder.) Bots need these texture in order to use stairs correctly.

* The window glass in the first building is too transparent. It also needs a frame of some kind so that you know that there is glass present.

* Some doors in the first building auto close and some seem to be stuck open and cannot be closed again.

* The texture on the telegraph poles is really stretched and looks wierd. I assume these r patches and need a Natural fit texture on them.

* The front gates on the first building where the vechicles are does not have any detail for where the gates are to go. Check the mp_base map for a good example.

* All the germans in the lower section of the final building are just standing around doing nothing. They should be patrolling around or in groups talking or checking things. Maybe a few should be smoking a cigarette or checking some equipment in the rooms.

* The inside metal grate door has no metal_clip to stop people falling through it.

* The prison area doors seem out of scale. nice touch with the one of the cells having a broken wall to get through to the next cell.

* The main metal door next to the prison cells is far too big and needs to be scale. The german next to it looks like a midet compared to the door.

Hope all those comments help.

Sock
3d Brush Monkey

demonspawn

30th August 2002, 03:32

O...My...God!
Thanks you guys.

Kat
I forgot the config file, I noticed that I had to re-set my keys but didn't clue into why. I will make sure I add this to the readme next time.

The flak guns went through several changes. They were an octagon shaped rock block, but as they were the first things I built, I had them embedded into the terrain which was causing major vis problems. I then made them into what they are now but had camo draped off of them but this increased my poly count which I couldn't afford, they ended up as they are. They will go through a redesign when I release map 2.
I need to raise the water level again and rework the foam below the falls. This will fix getting out of the water. The "features" at the base of the dam had a grating over them but it was giving me ghosting nightmares so I removed them.
The notebook (n)? Oops I didn't put the proper scale on the text.
The cellar door was working great, I don't know what happened to it.
I'll be fixing all the AI
I have over 60 light Juniors all over my map....I believe that they work dependent of real light placed by them? I had a hell of a time with the lighting. I've learned alot (what NOT to do) and will be implementing it into the next map.

Ladder guard
"The designer must learn to step back from his work and see it as a player in order to properly judge its effectiveness as an interactive experience"
Guilty! Won't happen again :wink:

Thanks for testing it Kat

Sock

The bomb blast was designed to be geometry but I found that I was too high on my poly count so I scratched them. I should have gone back to square 1 with this element and started again.

Good idea about the camera cut for the door.

Not to take from the story but in the second map you find out what the skeletons are and what's happened to them :smile:

The flamethrower was originally designed to catch himself on fire and fall into the scene but I could get the scripts to do what I wanted so I adjusted his friends to lessen the challenge of the area.
There was originally a whole other battle that was to happen after the 3 soldiers were killed. A trigger volume by the well was to have another attack happen but I scraped it.

The flak guns were removed as an objective as I had the main door to the cellar be a 1-way door which wouldn't allow the player to backtrack to the guns and destroy them should they neglect to blow them up to begin with.

I had a whole other ending planned but couldn't pull it off for this map. I will be placing it as part of map 2. I will work on making this ending more cinematic.

I will make sure way ahead of my release that the loading times are in-order.

I wasn't aware the "slick" texture was needed for the bots. This will be fixed and incorporated into my future maps (thanks :wink:)

I will be focusing on scripting my ai with far greater intelligence for the next map (as well as correcting this map) I felt I needed to move on from this map as I was spinning my wheels on it.
It started as one thing and has ended as a completely different thing. I attribute this to it being my first attempt as radiant/quake mapping and will take everything into account while I paper design the next maps.

Thanks for all the feedback Sock and Kat, every comment has helped me a great deal, as a matter of fact having someone take this kind of time to help me out has stoked my creative juices again and I can't wait to dive into map 2.

Map on.... :smile:

sock

30th August 2002, 09:09

On 2002-08-30 04:32, demonspawn wrote:
The bomb blast was designed to be geometry but I found that I was too high on my poly count so I scratched them. I should have gone back to square 1 with this element and started again.

Decals are not high poly you simply create a brush with one side for the decal texture and the others all "nodraw". The decal is offset via shader so that it appears faded on to the top of existing poly's. If located in the middle of the surface of an existing brush it will not break up the bigger brush into smaller sections. Its sort of like detail brushes so its fine for poly count.

On 2002-08-30 04:32, demonspawn wrote:
Not to take from the story but in the second map you find out what the skeletons are and what's happened to them :smile:

Then that should have been the final cutscene as the camera faded in moving through the prison section and focusing on the skeletons in the cells.

On 2002-08-30 04:32, demonspawn wrote:
I will make sure way ahead of my release that the loading times are in-order.

As I said it was just a simple case of one file being damaged or corrupt, the map will always take a certain amount of time for loading. But if any of those RCD files are damaged or missing the engine will stop loading the map and generate the file. This really kills time and the engine *should* tell people what its doing as suppose to a big blank screen and it looking like its crashed. (Typical coders, always using the force! :wink: )

On 2002-08-30 04:32, demonspawn wrote:
I wasn't aware the "slick" texture was needed for the bots. This will be fixed and incorporated into my future maps (thanks :wink:)

Shame on you! :wink: its in most of the sample maps given away with the editor and pak0 file. Just take a copy of your staircase and paint it all in the relevant slick textures.

btw if you do another map do we get to see an early beta version, it might help to iron out the bugs more.

Sock
3D Brush Monkey

kat

30th August 2002, 12:22

...btw if you do another map do we get to see an early beta version, it might help to iron out the bugs more....

yah, even if it means having it sent privately so as not to fall into enemy hands..!!

_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-08-30 13:22 ]

demonspawn

30th August 2002, 16:28

Thanks again, I'll explain a little bit more.
The bomb blast holes had originally had a German zombie guard housed in each blast hole. They were going to crawl out when commanded by a priestess that appeared in the larger towers open window. She was going to be triggered when the player entered a trigger volume placed by the well.
The sequence was that several flying ghost heads were to rise out of the well and zoom over to each blast hole and then the zombies were going to come out.
I had problems with the ghost heads, (couldn't figure them out) and I couldn't get all the animations I wanted for the priestess to look right as well as I needed to have her shielded so that she couldn't be shot( simple chalk brush) but the bullets looked stupid bouncing off of nothing.

I didn't think about the decal as I assumed that when the zombie's crawled out they couldn't have anything over the area they exited.
I scrapped the whole sequence.

I will add clipboards by each cell to give further info on what (who) the skeletons are and which experiment they were involved in to get then to their present state.
Adding a camera cut would also tie up loose ends for the map. Thanks for the suggestion.

I did look at the official maps and saw the slick textures, but I thought the exact opposite of what they true purpose is.
Slick denotes a surface that is difficult to traverse, not one that directs the AI.
This is somewhat confusing. :smile:
Perhaps a definition sheet of what the common textures purposes would be of great benefit to mappers :wink:
Also when I first started looking at the official maps there was tones of stuff that I didn't know about, so I decided to comb the forums first and learn what I needed instead of following the Dark Side of the force and copy/paste. :smile:

Offering to be apart of a beta test team, well how do I respond to that except...
COOL :smile:
now all I need to do is enlist John Carmack and I'll have the best in the business making sure everything is perfect before I release my maps. :wink:

Thanks for the offers you guys and I'll make sure your the first to see them.

Map on

Ghast

30th August 2002, 21:22

Great Feedback!!

I did look at the official maps and saw the slick textures, but I thought the exact opposite of what they true purpose is.
Slick denotes a surface that is difficult to traverse, not one that directs the AI.
This is somewhat confusing.

Slick on every step! Will do! Thought it was just really really cold in the castle!!! Ice! *LOL*

I was bummed when I saw the door was one way only, wanted so much to panzerfaust the guard at the top of the tower! *G* Why couldn't the door have a door open button on both sides. I too was curious why the objective didn't update, thought I had missed a gun placement?

kat

31st August 2002, 00:05

...I needed to have her shielded so that she couldn't be shot( simple chalk brush) but the bullets looked stupid bouncing off of nothing.....

when she trigger_spawns add this little bit of script to the...

spawn
{
godmode on
}

that way you could actually have her moving about, still being hit by bullets but not being effected (hurt) by them

_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-08-31 01:13 ]

demonspawn

31st August 2002, 00:23

Kat you da man.
Any idea how the ghost heads function?

Ok, I wasn't gonna add her but I can test it out right?..I'll start with her and set-up the zombies now. Then if I get the ghosts, great but if not I'll figure something out.

Thanks Kat
Map on

kat

31st August 2002, 01:01

ghost heads?? not yet no. I've been trying to figure them out myself..!! (btw I managed to get the 'custom' book half working... still looking into it though, I'll let you know what I can find out... may not be for while though..!)

demonspawn

31st August 2002, 01:16

I just cheated with the book.
Basically I can add 3 books my way. The only thing I couldn't figure out was how to change the hint given when you pick it up. "Dr. Zemph's journal". The covers and all content are easly changed.
I'm looking into animations for the priestess and the ghosts right now.
I'll let you know what I find out.

Map on

Ghast

31st August 2002, 01:27

I think if player is a certain distance from zombie, skull attack is default. Getting an invisible zombie to send skulls at a non-player target might occur if invisible zombie sensed am invisible enemy ai there but didn't sense player???

AI can be made invisible by just breaking the name of their skin textures in .ai file! *G*

[ This Message was edited by: Ghast on 2002-08-31 06:12 ]

kat

31st August 2002, 02:50

...AI can be made invisible by just breaking the name of their skin textures in .ai file! *G*

I think you'd get an error doing that "can't find texture blah blah.....", it won't bottom the game out though...!

You'd still have the model physics to contend with as well, the zombie is still 'solid' so it'll attack you in the fistycuffs and head butt fashion if you got to close.

You could script the AI up to 'aviod' the player - the same way it's used on the beer-girl ("please don't hurt me"). It's also worth noting that the zombies do have 'weapons' (the skulls are one) which you can give and take the same way for the Nazis, the default attack being to headbutt and lash out at you (I don't think this can be scripted out)

demonspawn

31st August 2002, 04:14

Yea, I think what I wanted to do won't work.
The spirit heads are used in the final level (end), and from what I can tell they must be being triggered by the zombie there which isn't what I was looking for.
But I did find out more about the priestess. there are some refrences to her and some of the dialog that she uses. One in paticular is a chant that is used in the final stages of summoning Heinrich. Im not sure what the animations looks like for this and I've lost my saves for the official game (re-installed over them :sad: )
I will add the zombie's and see how it plays out.
Thanks for the info Ghast and Kat

Map on

Ghast

31st August 2002, 05:09

It makes sense the skull attack is a weapon! When I put the beast into a test level he started shooting machinegun fire from his hand, now it makes sense! Wasn't there a series of postings about triggering gunfire, mortar explosions etc? This might be possible?

I put the priestess' head on an elite body, sans cape so she would have a bigger range of animations. I too was intrigued by the character, but chose finally to make her non-tattooed! *G* There is a picture of her (damaged) at my site's CAST (http://ghastmanor.fragland.net/cast.html) page, didn't post the nude version *LOL*

[ This Message was edited by: Ghast on 2002-08-31 06:14 ]

kat

31st August 2002, 11:51

to get around the problem of bumping into the invisible man you could 'lock' the bot behind/in a monsterclip brush box, if it was put somewhere obscure the player wouldn't have the problem of bumping into it.. it would mean the skulls appear from one direction only though..!

*G*: machine gun fire..!! that'd give the player a bit of a supprise..!!! hehe

monsterattack1 = fire breather
monsterattack2 = ghost weapon
monsterattack3 = fistycuffs (still not sure about this one) 

_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-08-31 12:54 ]

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-08-31 12:55 ]

Ghast

31st August 2002, 17:20

And instead of invisible, couldn't it be scaled really small, then tucked away out of player view?

kat

31st August 2002, 23:33

On 2002-08-31 12:51, kat wrote:
to get around the problem of bumping into the invisible man you could 'lock' the bot behind/in a monsterclip brush box...

doesn't work to well this... I mean it works ok, the AI stays in place and 'fire' at you but when it dies (after you shoot at it - it wasn't invisible in the test I did, but you could get a sense that players would fire in the general direction of where the skulls were coming from, enough bullit hits would kill the zombie) it falls thru the clipbrush and explodes on impact with the ground, not at all the desired effect..!! Back to the drawing board...
_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-09-01 00:35 ]

Ghast

1st September 2002, 03:51

//md3_weapon2, "acc/shield.md3"
//md3_weapon, "acc/sword.md3"

tag_head,
tag_footleft,
tag_legleft,
tag_footright,
tag_legright,
tag_lbelt,
tag_torso,
tag_bleft,
tag_bright,

u_body,models/players/zombie/zom_body6.tga

playerscale .6 // added, Ghast

This is the body_default.script I use for my pint size zombie homunculi. They are hard to target & even harder to hit. Don't know how small you can go - .1?

demonspawn

1st September 2002, 18:07

I know this is a bit off topic but It would be cool if before you fought Heinrich he spewed a bunch of these "rotgrub" out which swarmed you. The numbers attacking might be an issue, but when they are so small you could easily lower the poly count on them to allow you to maximize their numbers.

Sorry I'll get back to work now!

sock

2nd September 2002, 23:56

Yepheee, first thread over 1 page, I know its a bit sad but still I'm happy. It takes alot to build up a forum and its nice to know a bunch of regulars are turning up here once in a while. :wink:

Anyway been busy doing a small sample map showing a bomb blast brushwork/decal example and how to use the ghosts in RTCW. I did get a bit carried away with the sample map but they don't call me tangent man for nothing!

Link to zip file (http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?/planetquake/simland/spirit_test.zip)

If you have any questions about the sample map or want to tell me I've done it wrong and you wanted something else instead ... then place your paws below.

Sock
3D Brush Monkey

demonspawn

3rd September 2002, 01:03

Sock you Rock....
I've been trying many different thing all weekend long, a script_mover that sinks the zombie into the well with a target_kill. I won't even get into the headache I got from that.
I've also found very few refrences to the High priestess, she isn't an AI driven character only a scripted cinimatic story driver, and their way of triggering her is still beyond me. She dies and is replaced with a femzombie.

Thanks for your effort Sock and congrats on the 2 page thread, I feel honored that I was the one who started it :smile:
I know this is the first of many more to come.
I'll be doing a download now....

Map on

sock

3rd September 2002, 09:10

On 2002-09-03 02:03, demonspawn wrote:
I've also found very few refrences to the High priestess, she isn't an AI driven character only a scripted cinimatic story driver, and their way of triggering her is still beyond me. She dies and is replaced with a femzombie.

The priestess is a "AI_Eliteguard" with a special skin called "priestess". Her voice overs are scripted but she does have a weapon (a pistol I think) and will fight.

She is then changed into a "AI_Zombie" with a special skin called "femzombie".

The trick with all AI creatures is to group them together into teams. Once they belong to the same team they do not start shooting at each other. You need to add an extra key to each AI creature. The value or team number must be unique to "that team".

Key "aiteam", Value [team number]

The link (http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?/planetquake/simland/spirit_test2.zip) to a new sample map with the priestess, ghost and male/female zombies.

Sock
3D Brush Monkey

EDIT: typo heaven

[ This Message was edited by: sock on 2002-09-03 10:14 ]

kat

3rd September 2002, 12:37

...The trick with all AI creatures is to group them together into teams. Once they belong to the same team they do not start shooting at each other. You need to add an extra key to each AI creature. The value or team number must be unique to "that team".

Key "aiteam", Value [team number]

I was gonna ask you about that but you've been pre-emptive again..! I noted that the other way to do this was from the script using the 'ainodamage' key, something that's used quite alot. Using the 'team' key seems to make more sense to me, plus it's easier to set up..!!

heh... it's ironic the topic that has gone over 2 pages is about SP mapping..!!

_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-09-03 13:40 ]

sock

3rd September 2002, 12:56

On 2002-09-03 13:37, kat wrote:
heh... it's ironic the topic that has gone over 2 pages is about SP mapping..!!

Well keep those SP questions coming! :wink: It was nice to see a good SP thread on RTCW and everyone discussing their theories on what to do.

Sock
3D Brush Monkey

kat

3rd September 2002, 13:33

sock, I noticed your placement of the 'props_sparks' entity in the map file but nothing shows up ingame.

I've had problems getting some of those effects to work and I wonder if the sparks is one of the 'dodgy' ones..! Do they show up when you run the level??

_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-09-03 14:34 ]

demonspawn

3rd September 2002, 16:08

Yea I also was looking at the aiteam tag. I was thinking that there should be a way to group the team together inside the AI script so that they would function together as a unit.

Tacticle_Team_1
Guard1
stats and triggers...
Guard2
stats and triggers...
Officer1
stats and triggers...
etc...

Then you could assign specific tactics to that group with accum commands and they would function as a team in their response to situations as well as avoid damaging each other.
I'm not sure of what correlation you can have between the aiteam# key and specific actions for that team in the AI script but It would be cool if you could associate specific "team" triggers.

Thanks for the first spirit_test, I'll be checking out test 2 in moments.

Sock you've already been an immense help, but their is one question thatâ€™s been stumping me every time I go to set-up a new script, and scripting is all I'm going to focus on until I get it.

What are the criteria that define what is needed in a script.script and an AI.script. when a trigger volume activates a specific sequence of events within your map?

Is there an ABC of scripting rules when dealing with specific events like
Adding dialog
Adding cameras
Adding alertentity

By rules I mean
When adding dialog...
First the engine will look in the script.script file for a call event trigger.
Second the engine will find the call event in the AI.script and activate it.
etc..

I hope I've explained this right, I have the problem of having an imagination that far exceeds my abilities at times. I need to get them both on the same playing field :wink:

Thanks again for all the help
Time to download...

Map on

sock

3rd September 2002, 16:33

On 2002-09-03 14:33, kat wrote:
sock, I noticed your placement of the 'props_sparks' entity in the map file but nothing shows up ingame.


Yep it did very little for me as well, just checked with djbob and its certainly not in the MP code. Its also very hungry on EDIT: djbob NETWORK TRAFFIC! (not processor cycles) so prob best to leave it well alone. Recompiled both zips to not include the entities.

Link to spirit_test.zip (http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?/planetquake/simland/spirit_test.zip) - Just bomb damage and ghost sample.
Link ro spirit_test2.zip (http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?/planetquake/simland/spirit_test2.zip) - Priestess, male/female zombies, bomb damage and ghost sample.

Sock
3D Brush Monkey

[ This Message was edited by: djbob on 2002-09-03 18:14 ]

sock

3rd September 2002, 17:02

On 2002-09-03 17:08, demonspawn wrote:
Yea I also was looking at the aiteam tag. I was thinking that there should be a way to group the team together inside the AI script so that they would function together as a unit.

Its certainly possible to write a script that issued commands to several different AI's at the same time but it would be very long and messy. Some AI creatures in the original game seemed to performed in groups but that is mainly because they where spawned in groups.

On 2002-09-03 17:08, demonspawn wrote:
What are the criteria that define what is needed in a script.script and an AI.script. when a trigger volume activates a specific sequence of events within your map?

(map name).script file can be used by almost all entities in a map! The entity must still be active when the map is loaded. (eg. light entities are removed) Also been told that game items can't have scripts connected to them but generally most entities in a map can have a spawn/trigger/death function. There is no perfect list but you can find this out with trial and error on entity types.
(map name).ai file is used for player and AI creatures and SP only.

On 2002-09-03 17:08, demonspawn wrote:
Is there an ABC of scripting rules when dealing with specific events like
Adding dialog
Adding cameras
Adding alertentity

By rules I mean
When adding dialog...
First the engine will look in the script.script file for a call event trigger.
Second the engine will find the call event in the AI.script and activate it.
etc..

Nope and very unlikely to be one because it would take ages to write. Cacabunny from Greymatter has talked about a reference guide for RTCW scripting but has not said when it would be finished.

If I twist my bosses arm to get sticky thread setup maybe we all could write the manual in bits and post comments on commands as when we all discover them. Any thoughts on this idea ?

Sock
3D Brush Monkey
EDIT: suggestion on AI manual

[ This Message was edited by: sock on 2002-09-03 18:10 ]

demonspawn

3rd September 2002, 17:24

I would certainly help in any way I could with a global command list.
I'll keep going over how other people have done their scripts and try to piece mine together, I'm sure its all going to just click in one of these days.

Map on

Ghast

3rd September 2002, 23:17

Yes please sticky! I feel in my gut that RTCW is not going away *G* SP is becoming very important again to gaming and RTCW is one of the only places to practice it!

kat

3rd September 2002, 23:31

On 2002-09-04 00:17, Ghast wrote:
Yes please sticky! I feel in my gut that RTCW is not going away *G* SP is becoming very important again to gaming and RTCW is one of the only places to practice it!

totally agree... on both counts..!

demonspawn

4th September 2002, 18:49

Is there a way to freeze an animation in a specific spot without re-exporting a new animation?
I would like to have the priestess "bow" sequence end before she is slapped sideways?

Is it possible to have the priestess disappear in a puff of smoke the same way she appears? without using a target_kill?

I'm still looking into this but I haven't been able to get the "spirit" chick to show up, all I see is a gray arrow?. Do I have to associate a md3 with the script_mover? I didn't see one in the tutorial map you released.

Still slugging away

demonspawn

5th September 2002, 00:37

Ok I figured out the animation question, it requires you to know how long each animation is. It would be easier if I knew how long animations were without trial and error of adjusting the wait times, O-well it worked.

I got the priestess teleporting away after her chant but I'm running into an issue with the target_smoke generator, it doesn't function as yours does, it constantly streams smoke, where as your is a single "poof" effect then dissipates. Iâ€™ve looked at yours over and over again and unless yours is connected somehow that I can't see, I'm at a loss as to why mine won't work right.

And I still haven't gotten the "spirit" to work, all the path_corners are there and are triggered correctly but all that is visible is an gray arrow that follows each path.

You mentioned in your summation of my map that you felt a "cut camera" would make the secret door button make more sense to the player. I agree but I have had no luck getting a cut camera to work. Every time that I try to trigger a camera after the intro camera sequence (at the beginning of the map before the player spawn) my map crashes.
I've looked at several official maps and haven't been able to find an example of how the "script_camera" entity works, is this a MP entity only?
I live answering my own questions, it makes me feel like I'm starting to get it.
I'll keep trying things and hopefully I'll figure it all out before you have to answer :smile:

Map on

kat

5th September 2002, 01:36

heh..! if it make you feel any better DS, I'm having problem implimenting some of those 'special effects' as well (note that sock/bob took out the 'sparks' effect from the test map for similar reasons??).

I've been finding that triggering events, for some god forsaken reason, works best if your primary trigger is a target_relay (seems to work best using script triggers) which is then linked to the other things you want to happen. Don't target your main events directly but try this indirect method and see what that does....

_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-09-05 02:38 ]

demonspawn

5th September 2002, 05:20

I have many actions being activated from a single trigger volume, that shouldn't be a problem.
I'm not really sure how to set-up my entities to be triggered from a target_relay, I see that the element "spirit" is actually a series of target_relay's... I have to admit I'm a bit unsure as to why that is?? I was hoping that trying a bunch of different set-ups I would get a better grip on in but...It's too late and I've been staring at my monitor for too many hours to count....must sleep.
I'll jump back in tomorrow and try again.

No map on...just sleep :wink:

sock

5th September 2002, 09:16

On 2002-09-05 01:37, demonspawn wrote:
I got the priestess teleporting away after her chant but I'm running into an issue with the target_smoke generator, it doesn't function as yours does, it constantly streams smoke, where as your is a single "poof" effect then dissipates. Iâ€™ve looked at yours over and over again and unless yours is connected somehow that I can't see, I'm at a loss as to why mine won't work right.

Yep had this sometimes as well and it was generally I was triggering the smoke directly. Always shield entities behind target_relays unless script_movers. They just seem to trigger better that way, unless you are talking about func_inv_user entities which seem to have a life all of their own. :wink:

On 2002-09-05 01:37, demonspawn wrote:
And I still haven't gotten the "spirit" to work, all the path_corners are there and are triggered correctly but all that is visible is an gray arrow that follows each path.

Hehe, yep this one had me stumped for sometime as well but it seems the model/skin for the ghosts are in the "ai_boss_heinrich" model. Which is why I included him in the map and just dropped him down the well for the good effect. It also nicely went with the ghost going down the well and screaming.

Sock
3D Brush Monkey

sock

5th September 2002, 10:41

On 2002-09-05 01:37, demonspawn wrote:
You mentioned in your summation of my map that you felt a "cut camera" would make the secret door button make more sense to the player. I agree but I have had no luck getting a cut camera to work. Every time that I try to trigger a camera after the intro camera sequence (at the beginning of the map before the player spawn) my map crashes.
I've looked at several official maps and haven't been able to find an example of how the "script_camera" entity works, is this a MP entity only?

Initially I thought the same and could not remember any SP map which had a cut scene halfway through the map but, BUT, djbob has come to the rescue ... The map boss2 has a cut scene where you find the first super soldier. It pans around the room and then shows you the super soldier appearing from a doorway. Damn groovy cut scene with the white light streaming through the doorway.

Anyway what you need to do is create the camera sequence to run once when you activate the button first time in the script. It can be done very easily with an "accum" variable. (accum 2 abort_if_equal ....) Prob would be nice to see someone go through the door or something in the cut sequence so you know that it's the way to go in the map. Spawn a german solider which specially walks through it and then remove him when the sequence is finished.

On 2002-09-05 01:37, demonspawn wrote:
I love answering my own questions, it makes me feel like I'm starting to get it.
I'll keep trying things and hopefully I'll figure it all out before you have to answer :smile:

Sounds perfect to me, keep up the good work. :wink:

Sock
3D Brush Monkey

demonspawn

5th September 2002, 16:15

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it off to work I go....
Thanks allot you guys.....

AAAaaaa...shretch...fart...coffee..and back to work :smile:

Script on

Ghast

5th September 2002, 16:35

Wonderful! If you get the cutscene bulletproof, do a tut, please!

(And hold off on the farting till AFTER I bring you another cup of coffee?

script on? *G*)

sock

5th September 2002, 16:54

On 2002-09-05 17:35, Ghast wrote:
Wonderful! If you get the cutscene bulletproof, do a tut, please!

Ummm I feel a possible tutorial coming on ... :wink:
Just need to pick a brushwork theme ... /me nudges djbob.

digibob

5th September 2002, 17:52

/me pokes back with a big stick

demonspawn

5th September 2002, 19:36

Very cool morning.
Heinrich did the trick, I didn't alertentity him as I don't want his presence just his spirits. (I sound like I'm working on a Christmas map)
The smoke is still messed up, maybe it is being called to quickly in the script, in your maps you have several talk triggers called before the smoke?? Also your smoke isn't attached to a "target_relay". I'll keep slugging away.
Do you guys know if Doom III using the same scripting engine? I know their lighting system is linked directly to the editor and can be adjusted in run-time, will the scripting engine be able too as well?
I was going to start working on the camera cut, but Sock and djbob, if your willing to make a tutorial, I'll hold off as I would like to try to get a lightning strike to open up a large crack across the courtyard :smile:

OOoooâ€¦I love to play
Thanks for the help

Map on

sock

5th September 2002, 21:24

Ummm just tested the "alertentity" on the smoke effects with and without delay and initially it did not work. All I suggest is that you try a "wait 50" between the two "alertentity" commands.

Prob will get a basic tutorial done this weekend but it depends on workload atm.

A good example of the Lightning effect is in the dark.map. They used a simple func_static entity made up one single brush painted with the lightning texture on one side and nodraw on the others. Then it is switched on/off quickly with an additional dlight entity infront of the lightning for good measures.

Sock
3D Brush Monkey

demonspawn

5th September 2002, 23:17

Smoke works now, it moves away from her though, but I'll fix that. Thanks a bunch
I was originally going to have the lightning be a func_explosive with a mass of 1 and a "nonoise" tag, I'll experiment with it and see how the "dark" map did it.
I'll also work on a cut camera and see how it works out.

I can't wait to see Enemy Territory, if I'm distracting you too much let me know :smile:

Map on

kat

10th September 2002, 02:33

....I assume you put a slick texture on the steps. (They are the ones in the common folder.) Bots need these texture in order to use stairs correctly.....

I've been having problems with me AI's walking on terrained surfaces (uneven and bumpy) when I though I'd try an experiment... I duplicated and then texture all the brushes the AI's walked over with common/slick (this is on a terrain mesh btw so there arn't any 'flat' surfaces) compiled the map and they now seem quite happey to walk where ever they want without doing the bot navigation jigâ„¢, I'm a bit happier now..!

Ghast

18th September 2002, 18:35

kat

23rd September 2002, 02:24

I was just testing the 1st episode of my SP map on a clean install of Wolf when I thought I'd try that *.bat you created to run yours DemonS. You know that really long load time problem you said you had... well it's nothing to do with your map (per say) as I got the same thing when running mine...

...I think the problem has something to do with the fact that the *.bat file bypasses the main interface and loads straight into the game (loading the map up)

_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-09-23 03:25 ]

demonspawn

23rd September 2002, 16:02

Interesting, but I'm not sure because when I did a test compile and run with it everything went smooth.
Testing the 1st episode.... sounds like your close :smile: can't wait to see it.

I've got the in-game camera cut to work, really wasn't as hard as I thought, thanks to Karloff.

map on

kat

23rd September 2002, 17:16

On 2002-09-23 17:02, demonspawn wrote:
Interesting, but I'm not sure because when I did a test compile and run with it everything went smooth.
Testing the 1st episode.... sounds like your close :smile: can't wait to see it.

I've got the in-game camera cut to work, really wasn't as hard as I thought, thanks to Karloff.

map on

yes. getting close.. my co-hort and I are about to tidy the scripting and start the voice work..

as for the menu stuff, we've used a slightly different approach to load the mod that loads into a cutomised main menu.. once we've got it sorted out I'll post the info

demonspawn

23rd September 2002, 17:53

Very cool, can't wait

demonspawn

3rd November 2002, 00:08

Operation Evil Eye is ready for round #2
I'd like to thank Osias for allowing me to use his site (www.screammachines.biz) to store the zip file.
ftp://screams.no-ip.com/
The username is BETA
The password in TEST
It takes a few minuits to down load.
Once again it is a SP map so follow the install instructions carefully.
Enjoy and please tell me what you think.

Play on
Demonspawn

kat

3rd November 2002, 00:51

can you add some file size info?? I'm on 56k still..! I might try and grab it tonight as I'm off to a friends for a SP coding session tomorrow, I'll see if I can grab it for that.

_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright?? oh and rtcw (http://www.cpdt.com/rtcw) is that better??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-11-03 00:53 ]

demonspawn

3rd November 2002, 00:58

14.7 megs
It has a slew of new content, shaders, scripts, textures, rooms and cameras.
It took me 12 minuits to download it and I have a cable conection.
I hope you take the time Kat, you won't be disapointed :wink:

kat

3rd November 2002, 01:43

cheers... I'll try and grab this tommorrow (where I've got possible access to BroadBand) if not asap..!

kat

5th November 2002, 18:00

DS, just got back today so posting this to let you know I'll get this map later tonight..! (couldn't get it at my friends..)

demonspawn

5th November 2002, 21:16

Very Kewl
Let me know what you think.

Ghast

5th November 2002, 22:03

does it need anything from the previous versions/maps??? Don't remember how it works with your SPs and the read_me.txt didn't completely prepare me for placing a folder called Operation Evil Eye there next to my RTCW .exe?

demonspawn

5th November 2002, 23:21

? not sure what you mean
But no you don't need anything from the old map, delete it off your system.
1) save the "Operation Evil Eye.zip" into a temp folder. Unzip it into that same temp folder. You now have an OEE.pk3 and a readme file.
2) Unzip the oee.pk3 into the root RTCW folder. This will create a new folder of "oee" and a directory structure under it.
3) in the oee folder is an "oee.bat", double click that and your in the game.

kat

6th November 2002, 01:05

.....3) in the oee folder is an "oee.bat", double click that and your in the game.

Ghast: I found it handy to right click and 'Create Shortcut (send to desktop)' copy of this .bat file, runs from that ok.

slightly OT, there shouldn't be that keyboard config problem if you got the last beta version but if this is the 1st time you've got this, copy your default wolf config file to the OEE folder it'll save you having to remap your keys

_________________
nothing to add your honour.... except... maybe quake3bits (http://www.quake3bits.co.uk)?? Is that alright?? oh and rtcw (http://www.cpdt.com/rtcw) is that better??

[ This Message was edited by: kat on 2002-11-06 01:07 ]

kat

6th November 2002, 16:28

It might be a good idea to start a new thread on the next beta release..

Finally managed to play thru it. It looks a lot more polished and the new areas and stuff that goes on adds to the way the 'mod' works and progresses.

A couple of things though, the whole thing is actually quite difficult to play as there is a constant FPS hit thru out the map, I'd be tempted to use a lot more structural brushwork here and there (couldn't say where exactly without looking at the map file but you may be able to hide some of the depots innards by making the walls structural..!); I was playing on a 1.3 Athlon, 768MB, 32MB GF2 @ 1024x768 with everything on, my average FPS was around the 20-25 mark.

Wasn't sure of the increased soldier numbers in the inner area (the new section was pretty good..!) and personally I thought the the flame thower guy was out of place (although I know you did want to get him into the map somewhere from the last beta..!) or if you had those numbers you'd need to reposition some of the health and ammo boxes so they were within easy reach during a firefight.

Good to see you got some of the book stuff working, the new cut scenes were very cool and helpful from a gameplay POV (you spent a while sorting those out..!) the Bots seemed to move about ok during those which was good to see..! You might need to check the AI paths in the radio room as the 1st time I played they bunched up running into each other so I guess you've got some AI paths crossing each other there abouts. There was a dissappearing texture under the steps of the 1st gun implacement which I caught by accident (the inner walls of the metal step supports), not sre what's causing that though.

The new end sequence was good (very good actually..!) but 3, yes 3..!!! of those guys with very little player cover?!!!!?!! Joking aside though, it was very difficult as they really hit the FPS esp in such a small area.

Overall, damn nice, it's starting to have a really good 'ambient feel' to it (atmosphere): carry on sargent..!

demonspawn

6th November 2002, 17:05

Thanks for the feedback Kat, there are structural walls throughout the entire map, you aren't the first to get the frame hit, with the exception of the cpu you have a more powerful computer than mine, not sure whats the issue there?
As this was my first quake map there are many things that I did that I wouldn't do again :smile:, I could re-work things but I think in the long run I would completly scrap this map and redo it from scratch.
Building the world wasn't the time consuming part of the construction process and there was some basic flaws in the design/layout of the map that I'd like to correct.
Time to throw out the old and bring in the new and yes that includes this thread :smile:
Thanks for the feedback