Playtesters needed

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:16 pm

Heya,

I need 2 or 3 play testers for my new D2X-XL singleplayer mission. I am not looking for some one who is just eager to see a new mission set, but for people who really want to help testing and tweaking this mission until it is good. That will mean many repetitions of runs through the levels, detecting show stoppers, flaws, weak points like too little or too hard fighting, etc. I am speaking of work, not fun.

Please apply here.

PS: A fast computer and gfx card will be helpful - this mission is pushing the envelope.

=Tempest= · Post by **=Tempest=** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:30 pm

I can. New levels are fun

. I'm off from school this coming week so let the testing begin!

Chaos Death Saurer · Post by **Chaos Death Saurer** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 9:22 pm

I'll give it a go. Sign me up!

Atixtasy · Post by **Atixtasy** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 9:57 pm

ill do it!! i love new levels. not to mention testing new stuff

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:29 am

I'm up for it.

It's friday night here for me.
I have most of the weekend to help ya out.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:22 am

Please send an e-mail address with subject 'level test' and your forum nick name to karx11erx at hotmail dot com. Aus-RED, I should have your e-mail address, but I don't ...

... please send mail, too.

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:44 am

Diedel wrote:Please send an e-mail address with subject 'level test' and your forum nick name to karx11erx at hotmail dot com. Aus-RED, I should have your e-mail address, but I don't ... ... please send mail, too.

Done.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:00 am

E-Mail sent.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:20 am

Give me about a week to get to my home computer of: 2.5 ghz, 1 gig ram, 512mb Nvidia graphics card and I'll be set to play-test your SP set! XD Looking forward to this.

Atixtasy · Post by **Atixtasy** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:38 pm

yea lol I should have a computer that can run D2X-XL. A dual core AMD 4GHZ combined with 2 7900GTX's and 2GB overclocked corsair RAM....Where's the level lol. On the other hand e-mail sent.

Atixtasy · Post by **Atixtasy** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 2:25 pm

ok from what I see there is a grave inconsistency of energy. The first main room has lighting bugs of some kind (it was rendering really weird). This is having everything and i mean EVERYTHING maxed out. OpenGL lighting enabled shadows and smoke maxed out range on everything maxed out. The amount and difficulty of the robots is fantastic I love this level and see great things from it. I didn't get far enough to note anything wrong with the generators or robot triggers though. The textures are fine but with the lighting bugs it was hard for me to determine the correctness of them. The high-res power-ups, courtesy of dizzy

, works fine however all rotating works good. I know that I'm probably not supposed to put bug reports in here but I'll say this the latest version of D2X-XL hangs on loading and upon closing (exiting to windows), either it's a bug or it's taking a really long time to unload everything out of memory. Please respond.

Good level Diedel, Atixtasy

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 2:44 pm

Don't use OpenGL lighting. If you enable it, level loading will take a looooooooong time, too. Energy center added. What level are talking about? The first (Water Works)?

Edit:

I have played myself through the first two and part of the third mission now (on hotshot). I am by no means a good Descent player.

Mission 1: Well feasible, even with a few bad maneuvering mistakes, no problems at all with guided missiles tricks
Mission 2: A breeze (use the cloaks!)
Mission 3: Tough, but feasible so far - you really need to know where to get in what sequence, or you're toast

I have fixed a few texturing problems and changed a few equipment generator settings in level 3 as a result of my playing experience.

@Level testers: New level version is available in the usual location.

Atixtasy · Post by **Atixtasy** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:01 pm

sorry diedel the aformentioned post was refering to the first level.

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:04 pm

Atixtasy wrote:sorry diedel the aformentioned post was refering to the first level.

= "Water Works"

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:44 am

Don't use OpenGL lighting? Are you saying its faulty enough to the point that we should not use it for your mission set? I thought that's why the option for OpenGL lighting was there in the first place, to use it and bask in its sexyness inside Descent 2. So why can't we use it for the mission?

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:35 am

It slows level loading times down, can't you read? As D2X-XL have colored lighting by default, you do not necessarily need OpenGL lighting. The default lighting looks pretty good, imvho.

In case one wants to use it: OpenGL lighting also tends to be darker, so if enabling it increasing light source range might be a good idea.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:57 am

Listen ppl: Level testing involves giving feedback. I am waiting.

Atixtasy · Post by **Atixtasy** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:15 pm

sorry diedel, lol im trying to get past the first part in the first level (i can't figure out where the trigger is to unlock the doors

. So far the amount and configuration of robots is awesome, no real change needed there. The lighting issue that you fixed works better and the other minor tweaks helps a lot. I would ask that a few more puzzles were put in place (please don't ask me for a few as I am a Terrible level builder) just to make it more intersting. Don't get me wrong though the level structure is Amazing and truly something to look at and the robot mehanics are there save for a few bot generators mixed around.

One thing that I did note however was the fact that there were almost no powerups to be heard of in the first level. You had that room full of them yes. But from the start to the time you get to that room it seems kinda empty.

Looking forward to more testing, sorry for the late feedback as I'm still caught up with M$ and trying to be a persuader to alleviate the massive amount of DRM in Vista (I'm a beta tester for them lol)

Chaos Death Saurer · Post by **Chaos Death Saurer** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:55 pm

Full report when I finish.

Atixtasy · Post by **Atixtasy** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:57 pm

lmao...the first boss room in the first level i didn't realize it WAS a boss room......so I ate a smart missle in the face haha. Awesome room for the boss however. Lots and i mean lots of places to duck and evade those $!#& smart missles and their spawn. The level design is very fluent and very thought out. I love the way you feel like your inside the air ducts at one point.

Keep up the good work Diedel!!

Atixtasy

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:03 pm

Ati,

I suppose you solved the puzzles then?

Sparse powerup placement is fully intentional. This will only change in the third level. You are meant to really use your stuff wisely. This level is about survival, not about domination.

CDS,

you want to play through the entire mission before giving any feedback on it? Am I wrong to assume you are not making notes? Dude, I don't want a brief summary, I want detailled reports from every faulty situation you encounter. Otherwise you'd be doing a crappy job. Nobody forced you to do it, but if you do it, please do it right.

Chaos Death Saurer · Post by **Chaos Death Saurer** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:24 pm

Cool your jets, marine. I said I'd give you a full report, and I will. It'll give you everything I can find. Gripes, suggestions, and screenies if it calls for it.

Atixtasy · Post by **Atixtasy** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:52 pm

gotcha and yes i got through them (on my own lol not with DLE-XP). I see what you mean and as it stands with that point it is a very well thought out level and very good. I'm having fun playing it many times!

having a tough time with this boss on first lvl but nothing to major...still very fun.

EDIT: there's still something faulty with the first room I encounter in the first level though. I can see right through a lot of the walls and textures. I have the latest D2X-XL build but i don't think it's that. I have the Open-GL lighting turned off, that helped a very little bit but something is wrong.

I'll post a screenie of what i mean in a little bit.

Chaos Death Saurer · Post by **Chaos Death Saurer** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:36 pm

Atixtasy wrote:gotcha and yes i got through them (on my own lol not with DLE-XP). I see what you mean and as it stands with that point it is a very well thought out level and very good. I'm having fun playing it many times!

having a tough time with this boss on first lvl but nothing to major...still very fun.

EDIT: there's still something faulty with the first room I encounter in the first level though. I can see right through a lot of the walls and textures. I have the latest D2X-XL build but i don't think it's that. I have the Open-GL lighting turned off, that helped a very little bit but something is wrong.

I'll post a screenie of what i mean in a little bit.

Is it at the edges of your screen? I've noticed that sometimes myself. I don't think it's D2X.

Atixtasy · Post by **Atixtasy** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:26 am

this is what I'm seeing....parts of the level that I shouldn't be seeing. I don't know whats going on but I thought you might like to see it. Yes the image is bigg too I play at like 1680x1050. I can scale it down if you need me to. No bugs yet so far on level one the triggers seem to work fine (I'm playing it through many times just to make sure that nothing goes wrong or nothing happens differently that could use some tweaking) all seems well.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:57 am

Chaos Death Saurer wrote:Cool your jets, marine. I said I'd give you a full report, and I will. It'll give you everything I can find. Gripes, suggestions, and screenies if it calls for it.

I don't want a heap of stuff thrown at me. I prefer to get it level by level so that I can put it in. Besides, your procedure makes no sense at all insofar as tweaks and changes incorporated into a level require retesting. I am the project leader, not you.

So please give me level by level reports.

Ati,

sounds very good. I cannot reproduce these see thru bugs though. Did you use hires textures? If yes, try to turn them off. You may also want to try a lower screen res. Screenshots 800x600 max please. Check your detail levels settings in the config menu and make sure everything is set to max.

Btw, I have tweaked the first three missions. You will get a 2nd smart mine pack in level 1, and the Class 1 Drones are more likely to drop energy powerups.

Level 2 is way harder, as each boss has its own quadrant to guard and uses megas now. To balance this, you get more cloaks and shield boosts, and the bosses fire less often.

Level 3 has gotten a lot of fine tuning the equipment generators, a few bigger powerups (to lure you into the traps

), and I have tweaked the robots a little.

I still need to fully test level 3 myself - it took me hours to hack and slash through just the first part of it.

Atixtasy · Post by **Atixtasy** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:57 am

lol yea i thought that res was too high i'll scale it down in the future. All settings are maxed out except for Open-GL lighting (which is what you said to leave off). This didn't happen before with high-rez textures or powerups enabled but when i turned them off nothing really happened. I wish I could tell you more about it but I can't. The only thing I'll say is that i think it might have something to do with the transparency code.....maybe.

Chaos Death Saurer · Post by **Chaos Death Saurer** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:42 am

All right, then, Diedel, I'll send you the stuff for the first two levels. I've cleared them, and send a report after every level.

Still need to find the exit on level 3...

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:11 pm

Cool, thx.

I will upload an update of the mission in a few hours; please d/l it and replay level 3, I tweaked a lot there.

Edit: You may have a buggy version of that level where you cannot find the exit w/o cheating.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:49 pm

Dear playtesters,

I have heard far less from you than I had hoped and expected, so I have tested and balanced the mission myself and released it to the public. Thanks for what you have done.

Cheers

Diedel

Atixtasy · Post by **Atixtasy** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 1:52 am

sorry bout that, didn't have much time to play as i was sick for most of the testings duration. As a level set it feels great, and plays solid. good work diedel.

Chaos Death Saurer · Post by **Chaos Death Saurer** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 12:34 pm

No problem. Still haven't found the exit to level 3, though. Just need to look harder, I guess.

Also, your architecture makes me jealous.

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