D3 Singleplayer level - Almost finished

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:26 am

This isn't just any old D3 SP level... It includes robots from the Mercenary expansion. Unfortunately, the AI for the mercenary robots seems to mess up the AI of any D3 Retribution robot that wasn't in mercenary. I'd suggest you make a separate installation of D3 to play it. I also made an \"easy\" version with only robots from D3 retribution, so people can still play it even if they don't want to make a separate installation of D3. Anyway, I just have to fix the errors - I've found some tutorials that might help with that. I also have to find a site to upload it to; it's too big for my email so I can't get it on PD. The objectives are rather silly, although they were inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog. You have to get a powerup at the end to complete the mission, which takes place in a military base on the planet Electro. In order to get to the end of the level, you have to short circuit the whole base! To make the level challenging, I have huge hordes of robots all through it.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:30 am

screenshots?

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:48 am

I tried, but postimage keeps giving me a gateway timeout.

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:09 pm

www.photobucket.com

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 1:00 pm

Here are the links.
http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... Cannon.jpg

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... RAMMAR.jpg

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... troyed.jpg

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... erView.jpg

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... eepers.jpg

Wheeze87 · Post by **Wheeze87** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:06 pm

it looks very dark...

WillyP · Post by **WillyP** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:55 pm

Alter-Fox wrote:Unfortunately, the AI for the mercenary robots seems to mess up the AI of any D3 Retribution robot that wasn't in mercenary. I'd suggest you make a separate installation of D3 to play it.

I wonder if you could rename the AI dll and use it that way... have you tried?

Alter-Fox wrote:I also have to find a site to upload it to; it's too big for my email so I can't get it on PD.

You are more than welcome to use DescentiaPedia. You can post your screenies there too. You can make a whole page if you want to, like THIS or THIS.

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 12:07 am

It's way too dark.

Pumo · Post by **Pumo** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 12:30 am

Kyouryuu wrote:It's way too dark.

Agreed. I must even add that it's EXTREMELY dark

...

AlphaDoG · Post by **AlphaDoG** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:03 am

Alter-Fox wrote:Here are the links.
http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... Cannon.jpg

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... RAMMAR.jpg

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... troyed.jpg

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... erView.jpg

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh93 ... eepers.jpg

A better way is to use the img tags. That way we don't HAVE to go to another site to see the screenies.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:36 am

It looks dark because in the screenshots, you can't see the strobe lighting. There are only two extremely dark rooms, everywhere else it's about on the same level as Reactor Gamma. The screenshots always look darker when they're pasted into paint, anyway. I would still recommend having your headlight on for the whole mission, however.

WillyP, what exactly do you mean by renaming the AI dll files? I've thought of trying to rename the ones from the D3 hog and put them in my mission, but I haven't tried because I don't want to mess up another D3 installation (I already have two, one of which was messed up by the first level I tried with merc bots.)

How do I make a page on DescentPedia? I tried clicking on my login, and it told me I did not have access to the page.

WillyP · Post by **WillyP** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:30 pm

I assume the bots in Merc use specific dll's and you were using them in your mission, but they had the same name as ones in D3. I haven't checked it out. So, now I am curious how you used the bots from Merc. Since you say it messes up the regular D3 bots.

Sorry about the page on DescentiPedia... I locked the pages due to daily spam. I will add you to Accses Control List... did you sign up as AlterFox?

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:52 am

Yes, I did sign up as AlterFox. As for the merc bots, I did put the dll's in my mission, but I haven't checked out the ones in retribution yet.

WillyP · Post by **WillyP** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:21 pm

Ok, you should be good to go at DescentiaPedia.

Now, I haven't tested this, but it seems to me you should be able to use the Merc dll in a non Merc mission. It's possible, though that there are other considerations I am not aware of. If you put them in the D3M they should not affect any other mission, except for having to restart D3.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:52 pm

be aware of your game type commands.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 4:56 pm

Unfortunately, they have affected all other missions. I repeatedly tried restarting D3, but ended up having to make two installations.

WillyP · Post by **WillyP** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:15 pm

Sorry, I meant MN3.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:32 pm

If I uploaded a file, ignore it. I forgot several things, including to zip it.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 12:17 pm

Okay. I've released the first version of the \"easy mode\" the one without mercenary robots, on my homepage on descentpedia. To download it, go to my homepage (AlterFox), click on file, and then click on the link to download it. (I think... thats what the instructions were at least.)

EDIT: On second thought, here's a download link:

http://www.prepare4descent.net/descenti ... action=get

WillyP · Post by **WillyP** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:14 am

Alter-Fox wrote:It looks dark because in the screenshots, you can't see the strobe lighting. There are only two extremely dark rooms, everywhere else it's about on the same level as Reactor Gamma. The screenshots always look darker when they're pasted into paint, anyway. I would still recommend having your headlight on for the whole mission, however.

It looks dark... because it is dark. Many rooms have no lighting at all, and the strobe effect causes the headlight and flare to strobe. Nearly the entire level is completely or nearly completely dark. It is a good start to a good level, but there are some errors to be fixed, and I think you should add some ambient lighting. Errors include: hall of mirrors effect in the second room, a door room that intrudes into another room.

Other than those minor criticisms, I'd say it was an excellent first release!

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 11:57 am

Will do, when I have time.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 3:20 pm

http://www.irfanview.net/ for TGA saving/altering. Its FREE.

wow. That's not ready for release. And it's a nice practice level; but looong unlit tunnels with huge single square unlit chambers does not a level make.

We all go through this. I did. But frankly, this is a long ways from being a \"quality\" level.

Please align the textures. They were skewed this way and that and stretched horribly in many places. In the tunnels, take the time to hand align the textures. Yeah it sucks, but that's one of the things that confronts D3 level builders. There are tools to do some of it for you but they are not perfect.

What program are you using to try to make a briefing and did you load all the images and texts into the mn3 file? Prolly not if you had no way to deal with tga files.

Its a good start, but go through the D3 level set and notice how they break up long transitional tunnels.

Also, there is a door you use that needs help and i advise not using it.

See how the frame is goofy? The model is bad and is a major pain to fix. There is one door that will not form a portal on one side.

The others are just some textures that need attention.

with lighting, if nothing else, run .2% ambient lights. Otherwise the automap doesn't even work. You're in the middle of large black bricks.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 3:29 pm

You also need to clean up the verts.

Also there were several bots that are placed outside level. They don't need to be right next to the wall. Go ahead and drop them down to mid passage. Can't see them anyways.

WillyP · Post by **WillyP** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 3:38 pm

There is a tutorial on that page on Prepare For Descent that I linked to previously, about fixing errors. the hall of mirrors effect that I saw is caused by 'leaks' in the shell: nonplaner faces, duplicate verts, etc...

And here is a paint program, free, open source, that will save in tga: Paint.Net

Duper wrote:Also there were several bots that are placed outside level.

Actually, this can be kinda fun, if it is done sparingly. The bots being placed outside the level gives them godlike powers to pass through any wall.

A lot of the stock doors in D3 are pretty messed up. Some are easy fixes, some not. Of course, the Outrage levels are not 100% error free, either, so don't feel too bad.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 3:51 pm

Paint.net is good as is Gimp.

Dude, found a serious error. Half of your level is extended out beyond the terrain grid. This is easy to fix, but if you were having trouble with scripting this might be why. It will play fine by yourself but it WILL crash if you try to coop with someone.

BTW, I really like the music. It's not intrusive and is high energy enough with out making you feel like you are at a metal concert.

Did you make that piece?

btw, I didn't play all the way through. It was too frustrating to fight in complete darkness and groping around for a way out of the room. In COD, I have dark areas; even black areas, but they are small and you can see beyond them most of the time. Grab a copy of it off of PD ..oh..heck.. here. C.O.D.

Open it up and extract the briefing and use it as a guild to get your briefing going. I used BreifS32.

I do apologize if I seem harsh. You have a good handle on construction and scripting (which is better than me). When I was building Keg for D3, (thanks to all that helped me!) Zappa and several others did not mince words about what they thought about their favorite D2 level.

While your level is not a port, they're straight forwardness went a long ways to making me a better builder. ... certainly not perfect. and I hated every minute of it! ;D

Willy, I was wondering about that last error in the list. The 5387 invalid verts.... any ideas?

WillyP · Post by **WillyP** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:40 pm

Yes, those are the verts that are outside the area that you can use for multiplayer... ie, under the terrain map. As you pointed out, it's ok for strictly single player, but cannot be used in any server game.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:23 pm

I already have COD. Very nice level. And yes, I did compose the music.

EDIT: It might take a while to get a final version out, because I'm actually working on another level at the same time. I have the second one a little under half done, but I haven't done any scripting yet, and I'm planning to release them together.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:02 pm

I am currently working on another level, and I have a boss level finished. Here are some screenshots:

The robot storm boss:

The other level:

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:24 pm

lookin forward to it!

WillyP · Post by **WillyP** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:56 pm

Me too!

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:27 pm

I'm now also working on a fourth \"normal\" level, and a secret level. I have an idea for another secret level, but I haven't started it yet.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 3:00 pm

I now have levels 1 and 3 almost completely finished (level 3 just needs scripting), and I've got all the other levels at least started, except for secret level 1.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:32 pm

I've decided to put an extra boss on secret level 2, and I'm only going to put the bees from mercenary level 4 on the secret levels. I've always thought there should be a Descent campaign with a robot type that's only on secret levels.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:11 pm

I've started scripting for level 3. (A friend of mine who saw level 3 said it was one of the coolest D3 levels he's seen, and that it had a feel \"like a nightmare.\") I'm trying to make the level set as cool looking as I can, and so far I think I've had great success. I've got a bit more building done on Secret Level 2, although I'm currently giving level 2 and secret level 1 lowest priority, because level 2 will be huge and I'll need more time than I have right now and secret level 1 hasn't been started yet, so I figure I should finish what I've started before moving onto something else.

I'm doing the entire \"easy mode\" first; I have certain robot types in the easy mode that I'll convert to the mercenary robots after.

Sorry for the monologue.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:19 pm

BTW - Is anyone reading my updates, or should I just stop them for a while?

WillyP · Post by **WillyP** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:45 pm

I have been reading them. If it gives you a little motivation boost, then go ahead and post! I'm looking forward to seeing the final product!

Have you had success using the Merc bots yet?

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:44 am

I haven't fixed the problem with the AI yet. If nothing else, you'll just have to make a separate installation of D3 for it. (That's why I would have the easy mode... so people could play it even if they don't want to make a separate installation.) At least you'll be able to face the Merc bots in a custom mission.

Edit: There are some D3 retribution bots that aren't in mercenary but still work with the AI... Namely the Black Pyros, and the Thresher and Tailbot bosses from D3 Retribution level 12. I think the reason the Thresher and Tailbot bosses work is that they have the same AI as the regular Threshers and Tailbots, which are in Mercenary. I can't figure out how the Black Pyros work though.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:59 pm

I've made a preliminary mercenary robot version of level 3, and found out something interesting. Red Stingers and green sickles don't have any AI, even though they're in mercenary. The spyhunter has downgraded AI... it stays still and fires microwave cannon, and doesn't self destruct. The good news... the level as a whole is about as nerve wracking as the beginning of D2 level 22.

EDIT: Instead of making a separate installation of D3 to play the mercenary version, you might consider making the new installation the regular D3, and using the old one for the mercenary robots mission. This is just because autorun will always go to the last installation, and you're probably going to be playing the regular version more.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 3:27 pm

I'm now building more of level 2. Level 2 will probably take the most time, because it's going to be gigantic and need a lot of scripting.

Alter-Fox · Post by **Alter-Fox** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:26 am

Pumo has agreed to make higher quality versions of the music I've composed for my campaign, but he won't be able to until next month, maybe later. It's not like I'll finish the levels before that either, as I have a time limit on the computer at home for anything that's not homework.

I also have another idea for a level, and if it turns out well enough, I'll add it in as level 1, and move all the other levels up one. (So what was level 1 before would be level 2, level 2 would be level 3, and so on, and there'd be a total of 7 levels

)

If I add in another level, I'll have to change the story from my original idea, but that's okay, because I haven't made any briefings yet anyway.

BTW - Duper, the link to the briefing program is broken. Is it possible to link to another site that has it?

D3 Singleplayer level - Almost finished

D3 Singleplayer level - Almost finished

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