Surface Tension Uncut - Re-Adding Cut Areas/Scenes (Expansion Project)

General Development Source 1
#521

Perhaps some of the information was lost while they were compressing the game files…this is the reason why the male VOX voice is absent after its introduction in We’ve Got Hostiles.

Those pipes in the courtyard are pretty cool looking…it’d be a shame to see them cut because otherwise the courtyard looks pretty plain. Perhaps you can place them toward the edges of the courtyard so you don’t have to deal with the Garg jumping issue. Alternatively, you could raise the height of the pipes.

If you decide to make a video of C2A5I, there are a couple of things that would be nice to see to test out the AI scripting.

  1. After you run out of the tunnel, do NOT run up the airstrike tower. Just stand in the courtyard. Ideally, the Garg should come attack you rather than walk to the tower once he gets out.

  2. Get the Garg to follow you and run around the courtyard a bit before getting into the water. That way you can see if there are any pathing issues. Then, once you’re in the water, see if the Garg follows/watches you and roars.

  3. Get on the airstrike tower and see if he starts shaking it.

  4. Get off the airstrike tower and repeat steps 1-2 to make sure everything is still working. Then get back on the tower to test step 3.

#522

That’s pretty much how I’ve been testing it today while I’ve been working on it.

I wasn’t planning on doing that in the video but that’s actually a very good idea.

The pipes do look cool, I’d like to keep them too. I’ll see if using hint nodes set to jump instead of regular nodes, as well as forcing a connection, does the trick, though I doubt it will. I don’t think the Garg can jump. My other alternative is to bury them under a grate, though it still won’t look good.

#523

Wow, I just found out about your project and I’m stunned by how far you have progressed within a relatively short time. This looks very promising already! I don’t know, how your map looks like right now, since I I’ve only watched the 2 videos and haven’t really followed this thread much.

About the only thing that seemed a little awkward to me was the scene with the sniper, since there is barely any usable cover. Maybe the sniper could be distracted by approaching aliens instead, basically deciding to ignore Freeman to deal with a more immediate threat and allowing you to flee. This would go nicely with the “Forget about Freeman”.

#524

It seems time ran out before release on a few things but knowing full well it was not the final relesse anyway i guess it got pushed through in this state and probably had a hunch their would be community projects to get it fixed up. it was still good but defo needs improvement.

Anyway good luck with this textfamguy it will be good to see what you come up with.

I have a prefab destructible wall i will send it to you later tonight and you can test it out it is quite good it could help perhaps?

#525

They likely ran out of time before they could finish the Entity setup.

The latter option may be the best of the 2 choices, making it patrol near the pools and watch the player would be more intimidating, just be sure to add an alternative rout that the player can go through that the garg can’t (my garg’s fire is set up to deal 10 fire damage per tick, it can kill me quite quickly)

And maybe a series of other nodes to make it patrol the courtyard after a set duration of the player being out of sight?

Keep up the good work, I think I won’t spoil the Garg chase for myself. I’ll refrain from watching the next video when you decide to post. :slight_smile:

#526

So excited about this!!

#527

Try this wall out all you have to do is give the guy credit might need to be made bigger hole too but it looks good.

https://gamebanana.com/css/prefabs/5618

video here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Anu5dbcjEjA

Probably a simple swap for the explosion for a func_dust and func_dustmotes like you did with the Hecu being smashed through the wall by an Agrunt. and have a combination of small and large gibs as you will need to make the hole bigger if you go with this…

And you have a better Garg Entrance IMO

#528

Important Announcement[/size]

Please read the whole thing.

As per the ups and downs of the development world, I have had very slow progress recently. Just moved houses so I haven’t had much time, but I’m settled in now and ready to go again for a bit, though university has gotten pretty busy.

The maps are in what I’d like to call “feature complete” status, where the foundation and some of the detailing has been laid down. If I weren’t a perfectionist, they’d probably be ready for an early alpha release. The only major works left to do is linking the 3 maps together (and then subsequently to the main campaign, which can be done later).

Why am I telling you all this? Because I have an announcement.

I’m setting a provisional alpha release date for Tuesday 6th November. At around 10pm GMT on Tuesday I will send out compiled versions of my maps to select volunteer testers, in addition to another media wave.

Why am I doing this? Motivation. Setting up media releases was my previous motivation for getting the maps to completion previously, and now I need some motivation to get the finishing touches sorted out. A week is a realistic timeframe, I can get a lot of work done in a week if I had some motivation.

Importantly, however, I want everyone to take note of that fact that I’m calling this a provisional date. If I don’t think it’s ready by the 6th for whatever reason I will not release it, and will postpone till a later date, though this scenario seems unlikely. As I’ve already said, a week should be more than enough time given the current state of my maps.

I want everyone to bear in mind that it will be an early alpha release. Do not expect the levels of polish that most areas of Black Mesa had - that’s unrealistic. It will probably not be well optimized either. I ideally want to receive feedback individually from every tester - there’s no point me running an alpha test with no feedback.

Please let me know, either in this thread or via private message, if you’d like to be an alpha tester. You will be added to my list of people which I will private message/e-mail the download link to when the time comes. Your only real obligation as a tester is to play the maps. That’s it really. Although I would like to be able to say that giving me feedback is mandatory, there’s no way for me to enforce that, so let me just strongly request that each tester provides me with detailed feedback, so I can make the next release even better.

I want to get across the fact that this is a “closed” release, I do not want this available to the general public. I will be upset if someone were to “unleash” this on the general public, so to speak, as it will not be representative of what I want the general public to think of my mapping. I’m making this well known here. As I am not an organization or have any power, I cannot punish testers for who they distribute my maps to. But if testers were to “leak” my map I would be seriously upset, possibly enough so to lose enough faith in the community as to keep the final release to myself. It sounds like a threat but it really isn’t. It means a lot to me. I’m very passionate about my mapping, and as my first release I don’t want it to be messed up in anyway. So I implore testers, just keep my release to yourself for testing. Play my map, enjoy it. Break it. Find bugs. Find problems. Let me know. Others can wait, surely a final release is not too far off the horizon. If I do find people have been redistributing my map when I asked not to, or even stealing it (I’ve seen it happen plenty of times), I will be very unhappy. I poured a lot of work into this, so please respect my wishes.

Over and out. I look forward to what the coming weeks bring for this project!

#529

Count me in!

#530

Sign me up!

#531

I’m in. I am very detailist, probaly I can help with feedback

#532

Choose the testers wisely… mostly prefer people around here with some reputation. It’s not like I have any, but count me in ^_ no chance I would steal it, but I will break it in a sense that no bugs&glitches shall be avoided.

#533

Been keeping a close eye on this, gotta say I’m really impressed.
Would love to help road test your maps!

#534

Can you add HECU going to the osprey before it get destroyed by the manta ray in C2A5G?

#535

count me in, I am good at breaking things.

#536

i wish to join.

#537

I would also like to join.

#538

I would be more than happy to test them.
FOR SCIENCE!

#539

Some tips to help you prepare for the alpha

  1. Aside from linking the maps and keeping them separate from BMS proper (at least till the near-final iteration), make sure to revert your skill.cfg back to BMS settings. It’s important to see how the scripted sequences actually pan out with the alien grunts in default mode. Hopefully, all of your layouts and puzzles (especially the furnace one) will be close to finalized by your release date.

  2. Ideally, the alpha should contain at least two difficulty settings, preferably easy and hard. Easy mode is great for script breaking and bug testing. Hard mode is for enemy balance, weapon and health placement, etc. By having these modes, one can also see how the scripted sequences scale up and whether they do so appropriately (e.g. aliens win most engagements).

  3. Your message came at the perfect time as I just finished a playthrough of ST on hard mode. Here are my specs at the time of the .50 cal vort shootout:
    Health: 100 Power: 0
    Weapons (full ammo for both primary and secondary modes unless otherwise specified): Crowbar, Pistol, Mag, MP5, Shotgun, Crossbow, RPG, Tau cannon (60/100), Hivehand, Satchel, Tripmine, Grenades
    Before players get to your C2A5F map, they will have recently passed by an armory, which allows them to have FULL ammo for every weapon. The only weapons that may not have full ammo are either the Tau or RPG because you need one of them to take out an Osprey. All of the other enemies can easily be taken down with the Hivehand. Thus, I recommend using my health and weapon specs for the purposes of testing, as they are the most realistic. Since the player is already loaded by this time, you can be more stingy regarding you own ammo placement, which will add an element of resource budgeting.

  4. Since your scenes have so many scripted events, I recommend the following ammo types be eliminated from GENERAL gameplay in the final iteration of your maps: uranium, RPGs, Satchel, MP5 grenade (keep some uranium or RPGs for the 1st Bradley, some RPGs for the sniper and the satchels for the puzzle though). The player will do fine with just the other ammo types. By getting rid of explosives and energy weapons, this will decrease the chance that players will wreck scripts, thereby allowing the sequences to play out and contribute to the storytelling.

  5. However, for the purposes of alpha testing keep the explosives and uranium in your maps. Make them abundant and clump them together in stashes AWAY from the other ammo types just before the scripted events. That way, players can pick them up to script break or ignore them to test game balance.

  6. For the C2A5G Barney, try to delete the “You’re not trying to kill me, are you?” line. It’s said verbatim by the Barney in the armory.

I’ll be down to map test as well. You can PM the link to this account once you’re ready.

#540

Count me in, please I’ve broken the games i played a lot.
Of course, I have little to no chances of being chosen, since I came out of lurking only now, but it’s worth a shot.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.