Oh. Gawd.
We’re going to be launching that rocket into an electrical storm, aren’t we? The skys will be full of cranes! Next thing we know the entire office complex will be electrified… and full of cranes.
Joking aside, my only suggestions at this point for the latter half of Uncut would be to make sure that the levels don’t transition until the blast doors are closed. If that means disabling the trigger until the door reaches the shut state, then so be it. The reason being that it will be odd to see a door completely open/in the process of shutting and then we hit a level load and it’s suddenly closed.
I don’t know if this is currently the case, but it is something that occurred to me recently.
Another thing I wanted to comment on: when I first enter the train yard in B2, the music starts playing (and it’s glorious), but then if I die, it loads the autosave (which is placed right when I exit the warehouse). The thing is, when the autosave loads, the song is no longer playing… It doesn’t start over or anything.
Now, I know that songs actually pick up where they where on saves made on vanilla maps… but it doesn’t on B2.
If you can’t make the song pick up where it left off, then could you possibly make the song trigger after the save trigger? Maybe that’d fix it so it’d just start over after the save is loaded. …Just a thought.
One last thing (Sorry I keep on posting ideas and suggestions… I have a few months of feedback backlog I’m working though. This is probably the last one before Beta feedback!)
Is it possible (with brush/entity limits being what they are) to extend the sections of track where we commandeer the enemy tram? I feel like I barely have enough time to get off my tram, shoot the grunts, and get onto theirs (the few props on the “island” between the rails get in the way sometimes too.) I dunno, maybe I’m just bad at it and I’m the only one with this problem, but I wanted to bring it up.
I remember in Text’s video for that section, where he demonstrated taking control of the enemy tram, even he seemed to be really pushing to acquire it on time. There was only a split-second in which he was able to get onto it. It didn’t feel like something that most players would consider doing without being explicitly told that it was possible, first-timers would probably have to replay the area and plan their takeover.
So instead, why not make it so that the enemy tram slows down to a complete stop? Doing this would immediately tell the player that the enemy tram can (and probably should) be used, and it also gives the player more time to take out the two soldiers. (if they haven’t been killed already before the tram stops — I’m speaking from pure memory here)
Hint: You DON’T HAVE TO switch trams. First timers are neither expected nor even supposed to know. Neither you’re supposed to easily avoid the left track. Get it?[/SIZE]
I’ve already done a fair bit to try and direct the player to that area. There’s a very fine line between player direction, and handholding. I feel like having a Zombie pounding the door there is handholding. Wait and see if my current solution is adequate. If enough people feel it isn’t, I can always change it up!
The only map where that’s a problem currently is from B1 to B2, which will be fixed for beta, don’t worry.
It should be working fine as it did when I tested that, but I’ll look into it.
But that’s the point. It’s challenging. It’s difficult. Not even a veteran can do it perfectly every time. That’s what makes it fun.
And you know what? That makes it exciting. That makes it satisfying. It deserves a small reward for being able to do it.
I’m not going to make that bit any easier, definitely not. I feel its at just the right amount of difficulty as it stands. If the tram were to come to a complete stop, where’s the fun and excitement in that? The player wouldn’t feel like they’ve just been a badass action hero and jumped on the enemy tram after quickly killing the two dudes, they’d feel like it was given to them by a level designer who pities their lack of skill.
Remember how that scene was designed in HL1. It was only slightly easier than it is here, but if you missed the HECU tram you got screwed right over. You’d have to go to the dynamite guy, and then WALK all the way round the HUGE LOOP to get to the turntable room, and you’d then have no tram.
My design is far more forgiving and “obvious”. Firstly, even if you don’t get the enemy tram, you still have your own tram which leads to the turntable room, which isn’t far away anyway, so no long walks either. Secondly, on your tracks (which was visible from the security switch) is a jammed, sparking door which has a huge alarm sound and a flashing red light above it. It should be fairly obvious to the player at that point what the ideal course of action is, it’s just a case of whether they can pull it off or not. If they can, great, they have a slightly nicer time of the turntable room! If not, they don’t suffer hard, their only real hardship is facing one additional sentry. If you roll up to the turntable room on the original tram you still end up next to your 50 Cal emplacement, so it really isn’t that bad at all.
The only thing I’ll change is I’ll try to make the HECU tram less buggy in the run-up to the takeover, as it doesn’t work very well currently. That’s it though. I really like that scene the way it is now.
What about there nbeing only 1 soldier like in half life? It would also imply its the same tram that kills the security guard and lessen the difficulty by a bit
Fair enough, I can accept it as a challenge. Admittedly I remember nothing about the original HL1 encounter. But do consider Swaggless’ feedback (#1931) as well, maybe that stretch separating the two trams could use a little finetuning/cleaning up. Anything that can minimize the chance of a player feeling like they’re simply bad at the game — The player will never be as perceptive as the designer.
Had a pretty good day today. By turning the tunnel braces on B1 into models, I’ve saved on a lot of brushes, which has allowed me to add a few little side areas to the first room of the Mat Trans system on B1. It’s looking a helluva lot better than before, I promise you that. I wasn’t expecting to improve it this much, I have to admit.
This is something I can consider - though the implication was never really that it was the same Marine that kills the guard. That was more speculation on the part of the community - it was never a link I had intended, or thought of, I have to admit. But it’s a cool idea, and could tie the map together nicely.
I quite like having the two Marines on the tram though, again, it makes it feel more rewarding and like a challenge.
But it is something I’ll consider, depending on how the community feels about it. Would you guys prefer it if there were only 1 Marine on the tram you have to commandeer, like HL1?
While I like the idea of tieing the 2 encounters together… Yeah… You should keep both of the marines.
I still do think the stretch should be a touch longer… I’m all for challanges and rewarding the player for succeeding, but just barely missing it over and over, then finally getting it makes me feel more like I just got lucky, and less like I accomplished something…
Not complaining, though! We just have differing opinions on game design.
Does Source make it possible to alter the number of marines that you encounter on the Tram with difficulty settings? Like some sort of “Enemy only appears on Hard” flag, so that Easy/Medium-level players could get a single marine while Hard-level players get two.
At the moment, no. That isn’t built into the game itself. Even then the maps inside of this and the rest of the game would need to be modified to accept the new script vars.
I’m not sure if it’s easily doable (I think it is if you’ve got the right know-how).
Edit: If you’ve got problems with the turn table room, move for the staircase nearest to the MG on the ground and head to your left. There’s a turret you can turn on the grunts on your left flank on the walk way, you’ll take a little bit of damage and some grunts’ll get in your way but I found that’s the best place to camp after you initially take out the few of them closest to you.
I play on a modded far higher difficulty setting than what most casual players do FYI.
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