Descent 1 1/2

[homeyduh]

Ixion is about 50% done. Just layout and keys of course. I think you guys will like it. Flying through feels very original Descent-ish to me. I finished the pre-key areas and am working on the blue area right now.

[Alter-Fox]

Sounds like it. I've seen what you can do.
Doors on flat walls is the only thing I'm really warning everything about. Parallax never did that save for secret doors and for a very good reason.

[homeyduh]

Doors on flat walls? I'm not sure what you mean, but at every door intersection, I'm having 2 20x20x5 cubes so I can put those lights around the doors. not sure if that's what you mean.

[Xfing]

Doors on flat walls? I'm not sure what you mean, but at every door intersection, I'm having 2 20x20x5 cubes so I can put those lights around the doors. not sure if that's what you mean.

That's more or less what he meant. I've also already placed several of these transition cubes in my Ceres level. It's good to have some indentation there, or at the very least for the door not to be in the same plane as adjacent walls. For most kinds of doors it makes it look as though the door opens into the wall itself, or makes it look like the door's the flat sprite that it happpens to be - something that is generally avoided if you do things right.

[homeyduh]

No problem, I won't have that problem XD the blue area is finished now. just need to do the yellow and red and I'm done. What kind of bots are going to be used by the time they get to my level? because I want to use a super hulk or Fusion hulk at the end of a particular hallway to dissuade players from taking that route until they've taken a flanking route. I really like my map <3 I hope you all do too when it's done.

[Xfing]

Doors on flat walls? I'm not sure what you mean, but at every door intersection, I'm having 2 20x20x5 cubes so I can put those lights around the doors. not sure if that's what you mean.

That's more or less what he meant. I've also already placed several of these transition cubes in my Ceres level. It's good to have some indentation there, or at the very least for the door not to be in the same plane as adjacent walls. For most kinds of doors it makes it look as though the door opens into the wall itself, or makes it look like the door's the flat sprite that it happpens to be - something that is generally avoided if you do things right.

I'd say it's a bit early-ish or about the right time in the mission to start introducing lone Super Hulks (or preferably Lous, who are easier), but Fusion Hulks are out of the question (even more so considering that they drop Fusion, which is supposed to be available only much later in the mission). The mission's difficulty will have to be linear, so the Solar System portion is going to be the easiest. Most of the levels here are going to be no harder than D1's first third, so D1 l 10 (though that level was arguably pretty hard in its own right). We'll try and go for a more linear difficulty curve than both D1 and D2 had - with a few levels breaking the trend and being much more difficult than the rest to turn up the tension. One such level is definitely going to be Eris, with at least one Driller matcen in it, and Sedna with a matcen producing cloaked hulks.

[homeyduh]

ok sounds good. unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the PIG files and all that stuff working so I'm just making the map as if it were just a normal D1 map for now.

[Xfing]

ok sounds good. unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the PIG files and all that stuff working so I'm just making the map as if it were just a normal D1 map for now.

Just make it in D1, it's no problem for me to convert it later.

[Xfing]

Ok, I'm very happy to announce that homeyduh's submission for level 14: Ixion Outpost has been accepted, and this is probably the single best non-Parallax Sol System level I've ever laid my eyes upon. homeyduh has managed to capture the feeling of D1 like no other, all the while maintaining high geometry quality standards, flawless choice of textures and a good flow. The level even looks sweet on the Automap! To top it all off, it's very big, with many things to do and sights to see.

Of course there are still some very minor quirks to iron out, such as the fact that a large number of doors in the mission for some reason seems to be flipped horizontally until shot for the first time, in which case they flip to their correct orientation and remain so thereafter. Some minor texture misalignments are there too, nothing too serious. And we need to take care of the monitors. But that's easy work now that the level's done. Also, we need to bring the cube count from 939 down to 899. Rebirth runs the mission no problem, but it would be cool for nostalgia reasons if we could get vanilla D2 to run it too.

Congratulations on this offering - I'd like at least 3 more levels of your making for the Solar System portion, if you're inclined to make them sometime

[homeyduh]

Thank you for the praise! I'll definitely look into it if I have the time. Currently I've been taking off time from a project with Verran to do this but I'll definitely do this as down time, but it might not be as fast as this one. Ixion, to be honest, is my first attempt at a complete SP map (all my others ended before you could get the blue key lol). I definitely have a lot more to learn, but I need to get as much SP mapping exp for the project Verran, Blarget and I are working on. I'll get back to you on the next map I'll take on. Thank again Xfling!

[Xfing]

Thank you for the praise! I'll definitely look into it if I have the time. Currently I've been taking off time from a project with Verran to do this but I'll definitely do this as down time, but it might not be as fast as this one. Ixion, to be honest, is my first attempt at a complete SP map (all my others ended before you could get the blue key lol). I definitely have a lot more to learn, but I need to get as much SP mapping exp for the project Verran, Blarget and I are working on. I'll get back to you on the next map I'll take on. Thank again Xfling!

Awaiting the finalized version! Just upload it to dropbox - I ran through the latest version you sent me and indeed there are still some things that need doing. Just fix the monitors and I can take care of all those other minor details such as doors, misaligned floor textures etc. To name a few:

- In the area where you emulated the D1 level 7 cross-bar thingy, the floor corresponding to the bar portion isn't aligned
- Behind one secret door you used the secret door texture for a portion of the wall, rather than just the regular door texture
- One secret area has a see-through portion around 2,5 segments long and has the cross grate texture, it's aligned in an opposite way on the two sides, so the truncated part is on the left from one side, and on the right from the other. I suggest changing this texture to another one altogether, maybe that one with those horizontal metal bars with holes at the top and bottom of the wall?
- Several doors still do that weird moving upwards thing before they first open

[homeyduh]

Ok I think I got those minor issues fixed up. Now I just need to do the monitors. I'll get started on them tonight.

[Xfing]

Ok I think I got those minor issues fixed up. Now I just need to do the monitors. I'll get started on them tonight.

Sweet, thanks for that!

I've also been busy today, working on my Ceres level. I've built quite a bit of it, over 400 cubes are done. All I've really got left to do is 3 side areas and the yellow key area, after which I'll hand the level over to Naphtha for the boss arena. It's shaping up to be right up there with the best levels I've made, and it does have that D1 feel to it, even though the theme is altogether different. This week is going to be busy school-wise so I probably won't finish it by Saturday, but chances are I'll do a bit on Monday and maybe have the level ready.

[homeyduh]

Ixion is now completed. I have fixed all monitors and I think i've gotten pretty much everything else good. Just needs to be populated with goodies and baddies and it's done! Glad you guys liked it. I hope to make at least 5 or 6 more at some point in time.

The completed and updated map is on the Dropbox where you guys put my level before.

[Xfing]

Ixion is now completed. I have fixed all monitors and I think i've gotten pretty much everything else good. Just needs to be populated with goodies and baddies and it's done! Glad you guys liked it. I hope to make at least 5 or 6 more at some point in time.

The completed and updated map is on the Dropbox where you guys put my level before.

Thanks for that, and once again, good job! I'll enjoy checking the level out again.

EDIT: Flew through the level again and there is one very important detail missing - there is no matcen scripting! That thing falls on the original designer to do. We will later choose which robots they should spawn, so just put in Class 1 Drones as the placeholder robot type, but the most important thing is to place the triggers.

Also, please work on the file that's on Dropbox now - I've fixed some remaining minor details with texture alignment and monitors that I could find and replaced the file again. Thanks!

[homeyduh]

Fixed the bot makers...and doing so started a chain reaction for me...I HAD to start adding some bots. the initial areas now have some bots (not anything that gives any weapons). I just have fun playing on the map. I don't have any bots in the areas post-blue door, but there are more than enough before then. The thing that gets to me is that they just don't stay in the places I put them and wonder around x.x idk how to deal with that other than to set them to "still" or whatever that option is. Test it out and let me know what you think. Since the map is reddish, I want to use reddish bots as you can see. If you like how I'm going so far, I can continue until the end. I only added some random weapon drops in the beginning because it was a chore playing the map with just vanilla lasers and they won't be featured in the completed version because there's no point since the player will have their own weapons by that time. Since I started running out of energy easily, I see that I need to add another or a few more ECs around the map. Enjoy!

[Xfing]

Fixed the bot makers...and doing so started a chain reaction for me...I HAD to start adding some bots. the initial areas now have some bots (not anything that gives any weapons). I just have fun playing on the map. I don't have any bots in the areas post-blue door, but there are more than enough before then. The thing that gets to me is that they just don't stay in the places I put them and wonder around x.x idk how to deal with that other than to set them to "still" or whatever that option is. Test it out and let me know what you think. Since the map is reddish, I want to use reddish bots as you can see. If you like how I'm going so far, I can continue until the end. I only added some random weapon drops in the beginning because it was a chore playing the map with just vanilla lasers and they won't be featured in the completed version because there's no point since the player will have their own weapons by that time. Since I started running out of energy easily, I see that I need to add another or a few more ECs around the map. Enjoy!

Well we can perhaps keep many of the locations you chose but it's probably too early to populate the level entirely right now. We're postponing that for a reason - to ensure a smooth difficulty curve and the best possible experience. So you might wanna hold off on that.

As for wandering robots - that happens a lot in Descent 1 (not quite sure about 2), especially in large, sprawling levels like yours. If areas aren't separated by doors, the robot will hear you from halfway across the level and either pursue or sneak up behind you (Medium Hulks are especially good at that). And how to prevent it? You probably answered your own question: "Still" means the robot won't move at all, and "Station" will have it move only within a certain radius and go back to its post when it loses track of you.

[homeyduh]

oh ok sounds good then. I was just having a blast flying around my map.

Strange thing is that the room that the bots moved in was in was totally enclosed, but when I opened it, they were in the middle of the room, instead of waiting for an ambush. Maybe I'll set them to station then. I'll just leave the bots as they are right now. Hope you guys like the finished map n.n let me know what else you might want me to start on so I can have something to do when I'm not busy with other things

[Alter-Fox]

[DATA EXPUNGED]

[Xfing]

Hope you guys like the finished map n.n let me know what else you might want me to start on so I can have something to do when I'm not busy with other things

We're good as far as this level goes. As for new ones, pick whatever you like. Your take on the late Solar System is pretty sweet, so maybe something from that part? Just keep in mind that we're aiming to make the levels very different from each other, yet still distinctly D1. First Strike had the problem of the levels looking a lot the same, especially from the Uranus portion onwards. So right now we're going for one mine per system to illustrate the point - if you examine the first 4 levels, they're very different from each other, as will the 5th level be. I would like to see that trend continue throughout all the Solar System - it's simply more interesting that way.

To that end, I suggested themes for planetoids like Makemake and Haumea. The former could make use of the drastically underused pink textures from D1 (the rock was prominent in level 15 and the industrial, metal-like texture received an abundant showing in level 27). Haumea on the other hand has a very high albedo and is considered whiteish, so dominant lunar gray should probably be the way to go here.

Just see whatever strikes your fancy, your contributions are always welcome

[homeyduh]

Alright I'll take Haumea unless there are any objections with that.

[Xfing]

Alright I'll take Haumea unless there are any objections with that.

Very well then! Marking it for you.

[homeyduh]

Haumea is making good progess. I figured I'll do the majority of texturing after I've finished the geometry because I really want to focus on making good geometry. I'm still under 300 segments, but it feels pretty good. Some rooms feel like they're ripped straight out of D1 (of course they're not) but others are made to feel slightly modern. I'm actually designing this one with a metroidvania flow in mind. That's hard to imagine, but the idea is that players will have to fly through the many areas several times over and over to get from one door to another without too much excess backtracking. of course, bot makers will ensure that there are always enemies to challenge the player(s). There are going to be 2 distinct portions of the map: the lab area, and the "outside" gray mine area. In the mine area, I'm putting something that looks like it could be a huge engine or something that powers the lab area. Mining areas will include pre-blue door and yellow door and lab areas will be the blue door and the red door with the exit being in the blue door. Look forward to it!

EDIT:
Upon seeing that Haumea is supposed to be a "collision lab" I decided that I'm going to add something that looks like a Hadron collider in the lab area...it may even even circle around the reactor as if the reactor was actually powering the entire collider. Ah! I'm getting excited thinking about this!

[Xfing]

Haumea is making good progess. I figured I'll do the majority of texturing after I've finished the geometry because I really want to focus on making good geometry. I'm still under 300 segments, but it feels pretty good. Some rooms feel like they're ripped straight out of D1 (of course they're not) but others are made to feel slightly modern. I'm actually designing this one with a metroidvania flow in mind. That's hard to imagine, but the idea is that players will have to fly through the many areas several times over and over to get from one door to another without too much excess backtracking. of course, bot makers will ensure that there are always enemies to challenge the player(s). There are going to be 2 distinct portions of the map: the lab area, and the "outside" gray mine area. In the mine area, I'm putting something that looks like it could be a huge engine or something that powers the lab area. Mining areas will include pre-blue door and yellow door and lab areas will be the blue door and the red door with the exit being in the blue door. Look forward to it!

EDIT:
Upon seeing that Haumea is supposed to be a "collision lab" I decided that I'm going to add something that looks like a Hadron collider in the lab area...it may even even circle around the reactor as if the reactor was actually powering the entire collider. Ah! I'm getting excited thinking about this!

Holy cow, that sounds good! Very happy to have you on this

BTW the "collision" part refers to Haumea's collisional family - many think its elongated shape is due to losing part of its mass in an earlier collision, and the family are other planetoids considered to once have been part of Haumea. This has nothing to do with colliding hadrons, just so you know

[Naphtha]

I do like the idea of a supercollider-like area in the map, though. It'd be really interesting to see it done in a D1-style level...

[homeyduh]

will do my best. basically the lab area will be set up as a huge circle. It won't just be that simple as that. I'll try my best to make it look good though. We could just conveniently have a hadron collider on a collision planetoid lol will try to do my best. I'll let you guys know if it fails lol other than that, the map is looking really sweet with a good balance of ratty tunnels and large open spaces. From this point on, I plan on making metroidvania-esque maps since the project I'm working on is a metroidvania so this will definitely be good practice XD

Curious question though: I know we're going for looking like more traditional map styles and textures, but could I possibly try using transperancy to create the illusion of a window around the reactor or something?

[homeyduh]

ugh...the more I try to manipulate the geometry to create a tube, the more DLE glitches on me x.x I may have to leave the hadron out of it x.x

[Xfing]

No need to mix things up too much, just go for something relatively simple, yet competent looking. You can always see other levels for reference, we've already amassed quite a number

[homeyduh]

sweet. Well I just cut out the collider and going for a more traditional style looking lab setting. I think you guys will like it once it's completed

[Xfing]

sweet. Well I just cut out the collider and going for a more traditional style looking lab setting. I think you guys will like it once it's completed

Thanks for being so invested, this is much appreciated.

[homeyduh]

don't mention it. I just like mapping and I need to practice my SP mapping so I can do best with the flow. This current map isn't as "traditional" style as Ixion, but it definitely has some very traditional style areas in addition to some avant garde areas partly inspired by the Metroid Prime and Megaman Legends series.

[homeyduh]

Using only 644 segments, I've managed to make a pretty nice map that is finish-able and feels enormous and labyrinthine. All I need to do is set up triggers for opening doors, activating bot makers, and fix up many textures, but the geometry layout is finished. Might have a couple tweaks here and there for geometry, but it's 99.9% done. Look forward to the completely finished Haumea Lab

[Xfing]

Using only 644 segments, I've managed to make a pretty nice map that is finish-able and feels enormous and labyrinthine. All I need to do is set up triggers for opening doors, activating bot makers, and fix up many textures, but the geometry layout is finished. Might have a couple tweaks here and there for geometry, but it's 99.9% done. Look forward to the completely finished Haumea Lab

Beautiful! I'm super curious how it'll look. On our end, Naphtha is working on the boss area of the Ceres level and it looks expectedly sweet so far, after that the level will only have to get converted and sorted out texture-wise, which is little work.

[homeyduh]

I think you'll like it. I'll see if I can get a little bit of work done on it tonight. Hopefully it'll be done and converted before the end of the week.

[Xfing]

I think you'll like it. I'll see if I can get a little bit of work done on it tonight. Hopefully it'll be done and converted before the end of the week.

That is cool! Meanwhile I've wrapped up converting Ceres to D2 after Naphtha sent me the done boss area - thanks to Pumo's palette and my sound patch made with Jeff's help there is completely no difference from D1 in terms of how the level looks and plays. Please check it out and give us some feedback (level 5 on Dropbox)

[Alter-Fox]

Except robot AI?

[Xfing]

Except robot AI?

Oh yeah, that. Well, if anything the D2 prediction shooting is a change for the better so I hope not many will complain when the mission's out Like the level?

[homeyduh]

Ceres is pretty sweet. I just get lost in it super easily x.x lol

Haumea update: final D1 texture run complete. Just need to add some consoles, triggers for robot makers/trap doors, add some more secrets, as well as convert to D2.

[Alter-Fox]

Haven't got the chance to try it yet, been too busy writing and trying to keep my mind off how I want the 13th to be NOW.
Will take a look soon.

[Kaizerwolf]

Hey guys! Just fixed up some things with levels 38 and 41, and xfing touched up some texture alignments. If you guys want to give those another run through and let me know if things need changing, or if there are any matcens not working, I'd appreciate that!