DescentBB

Hello, forumgoers! I'm new to the forum and still trying to find my way around after a couple days of lurking, so I hope I didn't miss an introductions thread somehow. I've been playing Descent since I was four and the game was brand new, but I'm really new to actual level design, which I thought I'd try out after conceptualizing a possible mission idea. But aside from difficulty with issues like lighting, I've run into some odd situations which I'm not sure are my mistakes or glitches in either DLE-XP or D1X-Rebirth. If anyone can help me figure out if I'm doing something wrong, I'd really appreciate it.

My mission, "The Outer Reaches," will hopefully be six missions when it's complete, but design-wise, it's currently a work in progress. The first two levels are already finished and playable, and I'm working on designing the third. But there's some minor weirdness that I can't seem to figure out, including the lack of an option to start from the second level when give the game a test-run. I've played through both levels before, but I still can only start from Level 1. Is it just because I'm still editing the mission at this point, or is something else to blame?

Even though I've named both levels in the mission descriptions of the level builder, the level titles do not show up in the automap or at the bonus score screen, so it would only read "Level 1: " and "Level 1 Complete: Destroyed!" I'm not sure what's causing it, because the level names are both saved into the mission description and I'm not sure if they needed to go somewhere else as well. Do they need to be saved to the other file types in the .HOG, or should just the .RDL files being named be enough?

Finally, the exit sequences don't play for some reason, either. It's not that I don't have an exit tunnel or a designated end of the tunnel for both levels, and I don't see it being physically impossible for the ship to fly through either exit to the end. As soon as the ship reaches the exit door, the bonus screen shows up. Did I miss a programming or design step needed to make the exit sequence play properly?

NaphthaTurisas wrote:Hello, forumgoers! I'm new to the forum and still trying to find my way around after a couple days of lurking, so I hope I didn't miss an introductions thread somehow. I've been playing Descent since I was four and the game was brand new, but I'm really new to actual level design, which I thought I'd try out after conceptualizing a possible mission idea. But aside from difficulty with issues like lighting, I've run into some odd situations which I'm not sure are my mistakes or glitches in either DLE-XP or D1X-Rebirth. If anyone can help me figure out if I'm doing something wrong, I'd really appreciate it.

Hi and welcome! It's always good to see new people in such an old (but active) community. And of course it's always good to see new levelsets being made for any of the games. I'll be looking forward to playing your mission (but be warned, with such an old game that has so many levels designed for it, the standards for new missions right now are very high. That being said it's an easy engine to get used to and build stuff for).

My mission, "The Outer Reaches," will hopefully be six missions when it's complete, but design-wise, it's currently a work in progress. The first two levels are already finished and playable, and I'm working on designing the third. But there's some minor weirdness that I can't seem to figure out, including the lack of an option to start from the second level when give the game a test-run. I've played through both levels before, but I still can only start from Level 1. Is it just because I'm still editing the mission at this point, or is something else to blame?

If you make it to level 2, can you start from that level if you haven't made any modifications to the mission in between getting to level 2 and trying to test it? I think that the mission being modified makes the game count it as a new mission, but I'm not sure because when I'm doing this I build each level as a separate mission and combine them when they're all finished.
If you like to do it this way I'd suggest using cheat codes (this is technically what they were intended to do). In level 1 you can type "FarmerJoe" to get a level select (but you might have to type "Gabbagabbahey" to enable cheats first).

Even though I've named both levels in the mission descriptions of the level builder, the level titles do not show up in the automap or at the bonus score screen, so it would only read "Level 1: " and "Level 1 Complete: Destroyed!" I'm not sure what's causing it, because the level names are both saved into the mission description and I'm not sure if they needed to go somewhere else as well. Do they need to be saved to the other file types in the .HOG, or should just the .RDL files being named be enough?

The level filename is not the name that shows up on the automap. You need to define the level title separately in the mission editor pane of DLE-XP, or edit the MSN file directly with a text editor.

Finally, the exit sequences don't play for some reason, either. It's not that I don't have an exit tunnel or a designated end of the tunnel for both levels, and I don't see it being physically impossible for the ship to fly through either exit to the end. As soon as the ship reaches the exit door, the bonus screen shows up. Did I miss a programming or design step needed to make the exit sequence play properly?

Yes. I don't remember exactly how to do it though, I only made one level for D1 with an exit sequence and it was about half a year ago.

Hahah, thanks for the welcome.

Regarding the "no starting later" issue, I sort of had a feeling it was because I've been editing the file over and over, but I wasn't totally sure on that. As far as the titles go, the names are given in the mission tab in the editor for both files, and they are both accepted. The level name is right under where it says "The Outer Reaches" is the mission name, but if that's not where you told me to enter it, then I'm sorry for being a little lost. Thanks for the help so far, though; I really appreciate it.

You need to press accept and then press save for it to actually save the change to the level name.

Actually, I'd already done that prior to even making this topic, so if that's all I should have to do to get the title to show up, I guess it could be some sort of strange bug. If that's the case, has anyone else had this sort of issue?

EDIT: I've just finished a working version of the third level, and the same problems persist. Even after clearing all three, if I go right back in to replay the mission, I can only start from the beginning. I was really hoping I could choose Level 2 or Level 3 as a starting point, and otherwise, the exit and title issues apply to this one as well.

Check if the mission (hog and msn) file name is more than 8 characters. If it is that can cause strange problems.
Also try removing any spaces from the hog and msn filenames. I'm not sure about Descent's engine but I know the Source engine doesn't work if there are spaces in filenames... so I guess it might be worth a shot ???

Well, the three .RDL files all have file names of eight letters or less, with no spaces or special characters, but the .HOG and .MSN were ten letters each. After fixing a lot of other design issues on those three and renaming the .HOG and .MSN down to eight letters, somehow the level warp works, but the titles still don't show up in the game. Is there a chance I'd need to open the .MSN file and edit it to fix some of these problems? I don't even know what program to open that in, since DLE-XP can't seem to get to it.

I'm still trying to figure out the exit issue as well, if anyone can point me towards an answer there. It doesn't work for the third level, either.

You can open the MSN file with notepad or any other text editor. It's basically a playlist that tells Descent what order to play the levels in, but the best part is it's plain text.