I definitely don’t want to test the alpha version^^
That usually means playing an area over and over and over and over, till you get somewhat sick of it.
I do look forward to more media though 
My list has been updated with the large number of people who have signed up for the alpha test. When the time comes I will send private messages with a download link to all those involved. Understand that this is a “selective” process - if I sent out test versions to everyone it may as well be an open alpha. I am, I’m sorry to say, giving preference to those who have contributed a lot to this thread, and those who have already given me useful feedback and ideas. I think you’ll agree this is fair enough, I need people I can trust and who I know also know their shit.
However, nobody is discounted. Nobody.
My list is split into two parts - definite alpha testers, and potential alpha testers. Potential alpha testers are those who have asked to test but haven’t contributed to the thread before this announcement, or are not too “well known” within the community. It seems a bit dickish I know, and I’m sorry for having to do it like this, but, I don’t want a leak, so I’ve gotta be careful. I will decide what exactly to do with potential alpha testers nearer the time. Chances are, you probably will play my maps. I’m just not sure yet.
Hope that’s cleared things up.
I hope to be in the first list:
I stated my desire to test your maps countless times and I reviewed all your videos.
As I said before, I’m ready to do my best to find bugs
That sounds fair enough. If you want to openly announce your list of testers once you’ve selected them it might make it easier on yourself, so you don’t keep receiving PM’s or requests to be a potential tester.
That’s what I did in the past, play the same map over and over and over and … again for U2XMP, BF2142,…
In lambda core there’s a tank that obliterates a door.
Can you use that animation for your TOW scene?
This is a good idea. The list will be published when it is finalized in a couple of days.
I cannot. The model for this is too small for my doors and also has some walls modeled in it, which are totally out of place with my level. Sorry.
I currently have a checklist of things I need to do before alpha release, figure I might as well post it here.
C2A5G Major
Fix those goddamn silo tunnels.
Expand 3d skybox significantly and make it fit!
Dynamic destruction for door deaths.
Signs of prior fighting everywhere please.
CUBEMAPPING.
VISLEAFING.
AREAPORTALING.
LIGHTMAP OPTIMIZATION.
C2A5G Minor
Soundscaping.
Music (??) for Manta scene.
Particle effects for Manta scene.
Make parking garage door exit look better.
Dynamic fights in the distance - dogfights, etc.
Ai debugging.
Use more prop based destruction rather than brush based.
Make the unbreakable windows consistent with BM’s other ones.
Health/HEV/Weapon pickups
Fix map transitions - especially make sure the zombie carries over
C2A5H Major
MAKE A 3D SKYBOX, AND KEEP IT CONSISTENT WITH C2A5G.
Bathroom needs tearing apart and redoing to make it fit with Xenofauna.
Rebuild furnace room puzzle. Turning off gas, satchel charge, close doors, turn on gas, boom could work.
Make the furnace bigger?
Rebuild janitor’s closet in gasworks.
Make the beginning area just better. Need to find a better way to introduce enemies to the battle. Probably requires dynamic destruction revealing the battle.
Improve ending transition room - make it less bare.
Fix Barney’s horrible choreography transitioning.
CUBEMAPPING.
VISLEAFING.
AREAPORTALING.
LIGHTMAP OPTIMIZATION.
AI debugging.
C2A5H Minor
Many general refinements.
Make the tank not turn to face the battle like a retard
Scripted sequence - Sniper aims at you only to be killed by vort? And falls out window?
Destroyed lampost strewn across the streets.
Signs of prior fighting everywhere.
Find a way to make the steam in gasworks less resource intensive but still opaque.
Places need to be much less bare.
Soundscaping.
Give health vort an animation of some sort, or make him talk to his friend.
Add lights to the tunnel running alongside starting area.
Item placement.
Signs giving player hints (such as Lockdown sign by main door).
Health/HEV/Weapon pickups
C2A5I All
Continue to improve the Garg’s entrance, timing is a bit kaput.
Make it so he properly patrols the water’s perimeter when you jump into it - he currently walks 1 length and then runs off to the tower (he doesn’t shake it, but stands by it)
Improve Garg’s pathfinding in courtyard
Either remove pipes or find a way to allow garg to climb over them in courtyard
Not a good idea. If you publicly announce the list players can get harassed by those who want the damn thing and you’ll have a higher chance of a leak.
If I remember correctly, that just uses generic metal gibs.
Edit: And judging by that list, I would say 2 weeks, not one. That is A LOT of work to do.
About the Garg: Have invisible ramps the garg can walk over and the player clip through?
– on-topic: I’ll stick off, as much as I want to test, I would rather not spoil the areas (despite playing Half-Life 1 countless times), on the other I would love to give some constructive feed back to you.
Well just place a new announcement that the testers are chosen wihout saying who’s a tester.
And every person chosen to be a tester is mature enough not spreading the news and just enjoy bughunting on the new maps.
Maybe U can make a forum (temporary) for free somewhere for the chosen testers, where they can evaluate the maps, post bugs, …
It’s not as much work as it may seem. I can do it in a week. Friday is my only busy day, the rest I have relatively free. I’m working on C2A5G at the moment and it’s coming along nicely. Working on the skybox as that’ll be the most rewarding part.
Your idea for the garg is actually a work of inspired genius. I might have to kiss you (no homo).
I will most likely collect alpha test feedback through PMs, it just seems the simplest easiest way to do it.
You’re on it.
But please, no more messages like this, from anyone. You’ll either be on the list or not. It’s not the end of the world - a beta test isn’t too far off either.
I’m trying to figure out what to do with those damn silo doors. They’re a pain in the ass, that’s for sure. I really like the way they look but they look ridiculous free standing. I think I’m going to attach a building to the back of them so it looks less retarded. If anyone has any other inspired ideas for that, please, let me know.
2 doors side by side and 2 roads side by side… This is why the silo looks odd.
Converge 2 roads to become 1 and use the geometry from the door surround from the tow sequence outside the garage. only 1door
…Ooops, Sorry!
MM… about the doors the Garg pops through, why not just have the both of them remain in 1 piece? they don’t have to gib, it’ll save you some work in the long run and will give you 2 pieces of large debris to use as you see fit.
And for the AI: Is there a way to just activate (and deactivate) a certain pack of nodes relative to where the player’s at? I.E. If player gets on the tower the garg will shake it, once the player drops off, the nodes there deactivate, and the original patrol ones in the courtyard activate again. The same case for the pool (and a timer to deactivate them if the player is out of its sight for a long enough time).
Just some food for thought.
I’ve already set it so that nodes the Garg uses to shake the tower are disabled initially, and only enabled when the player reaches the top of the tower. They are immediately disabled when the player jumps off the tower. This stops the garg from constantly shaking the tower. However, it does not seem to prevent him from walking over there and just standing there when the player is out of sight! It’s really aggravating, he does it even when the nodes are disabled. It is undoubtedly better than having him shake the tower when the player isn’t up it but it’s still not that good. I can’t figure out why he wants to go over there so badly, even when there’s no nodes there.
My current patrol method doesn’t use nodes. I use aiscripted_schedule to make him walk along a track made of path_corners. There’s no way to get him to patrol effectively using info_nodes or info_node_hints, as far as I know. If you do know, please share.
After a quick look over, how about a AI Goal (scroll down to the red text) to activate and deactivate at particular points?
It KINDA looks to fit the bill, but I don’t know the first thing about level design. It’s really about the inventive solution. There’s multiple ways to solve the problem.
To add on I think that there may need to be a few more nodes tied to act busy so that it doesn’t default to the tower. It’s just speculation at this point. It needs more than just one thing to do involving nodes, or else you’re going to get a little bit more of an issue. lol
Edit: After a little more research, I noticed that the info nodes are used for navigation, How about setting up a networked graph of particular nodes (or waypoints if you will) that are activated and deactivated at particular points, with an AI_Goal to control the Garg’s movement?
There’s no ai_goal entity appropriate for a garg patrolling an area. I have to use path_corners.
It’s just a case of figuring out why he so desperately wants to go back to the actbusy hint nodes even when they’re disabled and his actbusy goal isn’t running. I can’t add other actbusy hints as an alternative because the only actbusy hint the goal recognizes plays the tower shaking animation. Not good.
In other news, here’s what I’ve done so far for the silo doors. Does this look better? Is it passable (of course the building isn’t properly detailed yet)?
1 door, 1 road to the door, 1 arch = fix
Why is there 2 doors side by side that slide open and would clearly have nowhere to open to except into eachother. Why would you make 2 heavy doors for security making an area harder to secure without a funneling technique
maybe a door will be closed…
Fixed.
How’s this?
I will expand the arch surrounding the silo door a bit later to make it make more sense.
Wait, I didn’t know we could volunteer for an Alpha test? I’m assuming its a little late to volunteer now, correct…?