Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
For those of you interested in running a server, i've just done some basic checks and in terms of memory footprint, a vanilla ns2 server uses 430mb RAM on my system. A pg server uses 175mb RAM on my system. This is a start-up server at idle after a 10min wait period. As there are no buildings added to the game, the memory usage should be considerably lower than ns2 at all times. With many less lua files in use, and much less simultaneous logic running, I would expect cpu usage to be significantly lower too.
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
Congratulations, this seems so bizarre, as I only moved back to England from Amsterdam in April. I hope to move back to Amsterdam within the next 2 years, if all goes well
Enjoy your new home and take your time settling in
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
The mod has only been tested the last two builds on a listen server by myself. If there are any crashes, can you please post the error log and any other details you have so I can investigate it?
I seem to have an issue and I was wondering if any of you can confirm it as a genuine issue or just something my end. When I start a dedicated server on my machine, and fire up Proving Grounds, I cannot see the server listed in the server browser list. I have confirmed and opened all ports, and indeed, people can connect to my listen servers.
Can you confirm if your servers appear in the browser list? If not, I will have to investigate further, if they do, then there is nothing for me to worry about
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
I was just looking through the NS2 files, and I discovered the sources to all the models!! How did I miss the release of those?
This makes modding much easier, as I can make some alternative texture files to create unique player models for the teams and weapons. This means I can then just use the colored skin mod for things like kill streaks, item carriers, special items etc
Really excited now. How long have the model source files been available in the NS2 directory?
I seem to have an issue and I was wondering if any of you can confirm it as a genuine issue or just something my end. When I start a dedicated server on my machine, and fire up Proving Grounds, I cannot see the server listed in the server browser list. I have confirmed and opened all ports, and indeed, people can connect to my listen servers.
Can you confirm if your servers appear in the browser list? If not, I will have to investigate further, if they do, then there is nothing for me to worry about
McGlaspiewww.team156.comJoin Date: 2010-07-26Member: 73044Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
Forewarning Soul_Rider, making new textures for each team color and model WILL bloat the size of your mod...a LOT. I went through this same problem with MvM Alpha and the uncompressed size was around 220MB. Granted, I don't think you'll be replacing structure textures, but the fundamental problem will still remain.
So, my advice is to use caution. Also, to have team based texture switching will require you have custom shader files for your new material files. These changes would NOT be compatible with the ColoredSkins mod I made. It's also worth mentioning there is now a finite limit on the number of parameters a material can have (8 or 12, I don't recall which). To get decent color balancing, you'd have to replace the emissive, spec, and diffuse maps for each model. To have team colorization you'd need to do that twice (assuming two teams).
I'm not saying this to try and stomp on your idea, but rather to save you the pain and trouble that I went through myself. It took quite a bit of tinkering and experimentation to get it where it is today (the colorskins mod). So, if possible, I would stick with that. Otherwise, I see a LOT of potential complications that will give you quite a few headaches.
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
Thanks for the advice. The way I see it though, when my mod is complete, it will have two unique teams, (unique in design only) and 2 versions of every weapon, one for each team. They will be completely custom non-NS2 players and weaponry. What I am talking about doing here will use exactly the same amount of resources, but will be modified NS2 models for now.
I understand and appreciate what you are saying, but they will all be custom models eventually. So I may as well get used to the filesize.
The other thing is it is much quicker for me to edit a texture, than to create a colormap for the skins mod, as I don't have a clue how they are made, haha.
PG is destined to be a 100% Custom mod, so it will have a lot of it's own stuff, and will without doubt exceed the workshop limits. I have an idea or two to overcome that, and I will be looking into those options a bit nearer the time they are needed...
Whats wrong with having a large mod size? As long as the content is adding to the experience I see no problem. Steam workshop downloads at a rapid rate. Or maybe I'm missing some issues?
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
edited January 2014
There is a max mod size of 100mb compressed in the steam workshop, as it is not meant for full game mods, only cosmetic type mods. Full mods should be added to steam as mods and be available here:
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
We had a very good playtest of the mod today at the end of the SCC session. I got a huge amount of feedback in what was essentially the first big scale playtest. If anyone who was there has anything to add to the points I picked up, I'll add them to the list.
Game-Play issues:
Players are too hard to kill.
Players are too hard to see.
There is insufficient damage feedback when you are hitting a target.
Too hard to see what team you are on.
Bugs:
Two Spawn Points on Scientists team get stuck in the ground.
No delay on grenade fire, so all 8 rounds can be fired as quick as you can click.
Rocket Launcher (grenade launcher model) animations are broken.
Some Player skins cause them to not use the team color system.
Here are some of the solutions I am considering:
Players too hard to kill:
Lowering player health to 100 & returning weapon values to default (I uploaded an old version of the mod and forgot to remove those values again).
This change should resolve most of the issues with things feeling lightweight.
Players are too hard to see:
This is mainly a mapping issue, the lights not giving enough visible difference in the players. I can tweak the skins colors to help with that as well though.
Insufficient feedback when giving damage:
The damage indicator doesn't show enough on hit, players have become used to seeing damage indicators in NS2, so I need to find a way to make damage feedback better, without cluttering up the screen with numbers, as this game will be too visually intense without that.
Too Hard to see what team you are on:
This should be fairly easy to resolve, as I should just be able to edit the marine dds file colors to green and purple to match for each relevant team to solve that until I get view model color skins sorted out.
The bugs will need a solution, but that is code rather than planning.
If anyone else has anything to add, post a reply, and thank you to all who joined in on the playtest and gave feedback
This does greatly increase the health cost of rocket jumping, but the increased range should now mean at the top of the double jump, you catch the edge of your rocket blast, rather than sailing over the top. Although it is pretty cool to kill someone with a rocket to the face while double jumping over their head to avoid the blast yourself
This will all be tweaked later, as the game becomes more feature complete. Enjoy.
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
edited January 2014
Release another quick update, Proving Grounds 1.9.3. I have coded in team player clients and created team huds, so I can make it more visible to the player what team they are on. The code is now in, however all I have done so far in HUD is change the border color:
Team 1 - Engineers - This is your HUD and Team Mates Skins:
Team 2 - Scientists - This is your HUD and Team Mates Skins:
It is very subtle but will have to do for now. Also, please if you are going to play the mod, can you choose the default male marine as your player character. The team colored skins currently only work with that player model.
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
edited January 2014
Hi All,
Due to a number of issue I am going to start Proving Grounds again. In my normal style, I rip the heart out of NS2 to get my lightweight server code, and then add PG on top. Unfortunately this method has caused my mod to not be compatible with Shine admin, I have also removed spectator modes, and various other things that I now want to take advantage of and customize.
I am going to wait until build 263 us released before starting the update, whenever that is due. Hopefully the mod will survive the next update, so you can all continue to play while I re-vamp the mod.
Edit
I got some more feedback, game is too slow. Going to speed up the base movement slightly from 8 to 10.
Going to try and add an extra couple of movement techniques to the mod as well in the rebuild. I am wary though that performance will drop slightly, as I will have more of NS2 operating in the game, although performance should be better overall due to lack of models and AI in the game.
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
Can someone explain to me how this piece of code works?
I have a bug, where the wrong team 'wins' at the end. By this what I mean is the 10 minute timer ends and say team 2 has won, the game end graphic says team2 lost, and vice versa.
I thought I had found the bug in the following function:
/**
* Ends the current game
*/
function NS2Gamerules:EndGame(winningTeam)
if self:GetGameState() == kGameState.Started then
if self.autoTeamBalanceEnabled then
TEST_EVENT("Auto-team balance, game ended")
end
// Set losing team
local losingTeam = nil
if winningTeam == self.team1 then
self:SetGameState(kGameState.Team2Won)
losingTeam = self.team2
PostGameViz("Alien win")
else
self:SetGameState(kGameState.Team1Won)
losingTeam = self.team1
PostGameViz("Marine win")
end
winningTeam:ForEachPlayer(function(player) Server.SendNetworkMessage(player, "GameEnd", { win = true }, true) end)
losingTeam:ForEachPlayer(function(player) Server.SendNetworkMessage(player, "GameEnd", { win = false }, true) end)
self.spectatorTeam:ForEachPlayer(function(player) Server.SendNetworkMessage(player, "GameEnd", { win = losingTeam:GetTeamType() == kAlienTeamType }, true) end)
self.losingTeam = losingTeam
self.team1:ClearRespawnQueue()
self.team2:ClearRespawnQueue()
// Automatically end any performance logging when the round has ended.
Shared.ConsoleCommand("p_endlog")
self.sponitor:OnEndMatch(winningTeam)
self.playerRanking:EndGame(winningTeam)
TournamentModeOnGameEnd()
end
end
Note that:
losing team = team 2 - post game viz, alien win
and
losing team = team 1 - post game vize, marines win.
I thought this was my bug, then realised this is default NS2 code that I haven't altered, and NS2 works correctly. Can someone explain to me what I am missing?
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
edited January 2014
Quick PGMod info update:
When build 263 is released, I shall get Proving Grounds mod working with it, and release a small update which increases base player speed, has a tweaked lighting version of pg_dm6, and alittle tweak to player skins in an attempt to make the purple team lighter.
Proving Grounds Design Overview:
I have spent some time redesigning Proving Grounds, putting some thought into what works and what doesn't, what conflicts and doesn't, and I have settled on a fairly clear design overview, which I'd like to share with you in brief detail, so you can get an understanding of where this mod is heading.
For those who TL:DR the below text - Insane speed through movement, with the odd Matrix move is the order of the day.
Each section is hidden in a spoiler, so you only need to read it if you want, not because it is a spoiler. Beware walls of text lurk beneath every spoiler...
Movement
I have almost entirely settled on the movement abilities that are going to be in the game. Because of conflicts, incompatibilities, and design guidelines I have to remove some of the movement options, this saddens me a little as they are mainly UT type movements that are getting chopped.
Initially, Double-Jump and Dodge are getting the chop. Double jump because it causes too many code headaches when used in tandem with the other planned abilities, and dodge because it doesn't quite fit the gameplay that I am envisioning, however saying that, it is very possible that dodge may need to return, to counter some of the forward momentum created by other players.
Which leads me onto the movement abilities that will be there,..
I plan to make this a very fast paced game, insanely fast, if you are good enough, essentially, I want this game to be as fast as you can get it.*
*Spark Engine limitations may override me on that one..
Bunny-Hopping:
Yes it will be in, yes it will be remarkably similar, if not exactly identical to NS2c implementation, (Thanks @xDragon for allowing me to plagiarize your code, and Maesse for creating the first half-life like movement code implementation.
Chain & Wall Jumping:
But bunny hopping is all well and good, but it is hard to achieve, so what else can I do to improve my speed? How about Marine-Chain Jumping, where jumping from one surface to the other gives a small speed boost, and combine that with wall-jumping.
So if you are good enough, you can bunny-hop, getting an additional speed boost by using chain jumping and wall jumping. Chain jumping will allow you to chain onto the floor and back onto another surface, like with wall-jumping.
All Three:
On landing from a broken chain or wall-jump, or indeed bunny hop, current momentum will not shudder to a normal walking speed halt as in ns2, but will reduce speed to max over a period of half a second or so, giving you a chance to get yourself going again quickly.
The plan is to allow you to use all, or none, or anything in-between of these movement abilities to increase your speed.
Wall-Running
Once your speed has been increased beyond a certain threshold, you will be able to wall-run, which is basically a matrix lobby like run onto the wall in an arc, affected by gravity. Players will be able to jump off the wall, and use that propulsion to kick on the movement speed again, which will have dropped on the wall run.
Dive
The final movement ability will be dive, from the old half-life mod 'The Specialists'. Basically the player will be able to dive in any direction while firing the guns john woo style. This may not totally fit with the frenetic play-style, and yet, it might be cool to dive out of the way of a bunny hopping. wall-jumping madman and kill them as you unload like your in a movie. The plan is to allow dive to carry momentum if you have it in the direction of the dive.
Weapons:
Here is an interactive part for all you out there...
What is your favorite old school FPS weapon? List the weapon AND game it was implemented in. Please do not post a list of all the different guns in CS or BF or COD, I mean gun types. Here are some examples:
Railgun - Q3
Crossbow - Prey
Rocket Launcher - Q3
Pulse Rifle - UT
Flak Cannon - UT
Post your favorites in the thread, and I'll see if I can get some of the most popular ideas in game, or variations of at least..
Also, I loved the Redeemer from UT, so I'll ask this question too, if you could have any 'super weapon' in this game, what would it be?
Each weapon will be dual purpose, this is mainly because 10 weapon slots are standard in this game type, and NS2 only gives us 5. Like the current Shotgun/Grenade Launcher combo (Flak Cannon essentially), primary and secondary weapons will generally be very different.
Pick-Ups:
Weapons will be pick-up items, so rather than spawn with all of them, you need to pick them up over time. Weapons will be as balanced as possible to be roughly equal, so the race isn't always on for the same gun. A super weapon would of course be different, but would be placed hard to get to.
Weapons will have no ammo, so clip size, reload times, and weapon switching times will be all the player has to worry about. Ammo could be added at a later date if needed, but hopefully not.
Weapon Decisions:
FInal weapon choices will come down to what works and what doesn't gameplay wise, I will hopefully get lots of suggestions of weapons from the above section to play and experiment with. For example, the ns2 type of grenade launcher/grenade, does not work in PG game type, a different type of grenade, sticky grenade for example, might fit in.
Explosives Jumping:
Rocket Jump will also feature in the game. Grenade Jumping will be removed unless a new type of grenade is used. I plan to change the grenade to an explode on contact weapon, rather than a bouncing around weapon, so I will need to play with speeds, gravity and trajectories to get the grenade launcher to sit right. Thinking of it more as a mini cannon, than a grenade launcher.
Mapping & Environment:
If there are any artists out there who like drawing environments and feel they could perhaps offer me a design environment or two, feel free to post a pic.... @squeal_like_a_pig huh, what me, no, I didn't say that, but maybe Cory knows someone who can help.... Or anyone else who might happen to read this post...
Mapping Entities:
PGGamerules:
This will be where you specify the game mode etc as required. Initially there will only be TeamDeathMatch, but I will be adding other game modes, and expanding on them publicly, at a later date.
Player Spawns:
PG uses an old school, place a spawn entity in the map editor for each spawn point, method of spawning, this will be converted into a spawn zone, where spawn points are randomly generated from within the space specified by the mapper, ala CS1.6. Mappers will be able to place multiple spawn zones for each team.
Item Spawns:
PG's current spawning system will be turned into an Item Spawning system, and will spawn the weapons or health packs as designated by the mapper. The entity is not likely to come with a world model, to give mappers the freedom to make them how they see fit. This may change over time.
Jump Pads:
As per item spawns, Jump Pads will be place-able in the map, but will not have a world model, this enables the mapper to decorate them any way they want. Jump pads will be customisable and will offer 5 different levels of push. They will also be updated to work on angles, rather than just as currently on flat floors.
Once a final environmental theme is decided on, jump pads etc may be made to fit that theme, but initially these are not planned.
Environmental:
From a design perspective, it is a TV-show, where viewers of the show get to control the battle droids from wherever they are watching, to fight it out with other droids. This leads to bold and bright settings, classically overdone in a TV-Show way, but with lots of different objects around so players can chain jumps, as well as lots of level over level and high spaces for rocket jumping and jump pads. (This also leads to needing a multi-platform engine for the inevitable full sequel, as playing it anywhere means being available on mobile devices too.. hahaha)
Originally, I was planning to go with the first theme being TV's interpretation of Hell/Gothic, but then I got to thinking that it was all a bit cliche.. so as a bonus for reading this far down in the spoiler, if you have an idea for the theme of the sets, for the first update at least, post it in a spoiler of your own in your reply, I'd like to see what you come up with, if anyone reads this far....
Conclusion:
The ideas that I have laid out are what I think will create the game in my head. The design may have to change a lot over it's development, with compromises and sacrifices being made, or changes being needed just to more accurately reflect what I am trying to create. This is an overview of what I will be trying to create from a gameplay perspective, and while not exhaustive, I think it covers most of the important points.
If anyone has any questions or things they'd like to share, let me know..
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
I have decided to suspend work on Proving Grounds for the time being. There are a number of reasons:
Some of the ideas I have for this mod are beyond my current level or programming ability, so I need to practice and learn, and the easiest way for me to do that is through modding other simpler versions.
I haven't finalised enough of the design of Proving Grounds, so currently, there is a lot of things that I want to throw in there, but that won't necessarily be for the best interests of gameplay!! I'd much rather wait until the focus on the game I want to create is there.
I also have felt a lot of the need to create a high speed shooter has been relieved by Skulks With Shotguns. It is certainly filling my needs at the moment, and with the mod scene so small at the moment, it makes sense for me to continue to develop my other Ideas which provide a better variety to the community
With all that said, as I learn things, I will be testing and prototyping, and who knows, I may suddenly realise one day, I have the Proving Grounds I want ready to play
I want to concentrate on the GorgeWorld series of mods now. I'll see if Proving Grounds is ready to be awoken when I've got those 3 finished
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
Don't worry @=Mr.P= it will be back when I am able to code everything and I have the design ideas finalised. I want this to be a very special mod so I am going to take my time over it.
VonDoomKnee deep in the latencyJoin Date: 2009-10-08Member: 68989Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Sad to hear, but on the other hand Its good that you still want to make the mod and hone your programming skills. I'll stille be available to make models and stuff when things get moving again some day.
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
GorgeCraft is finished.
I had announced recently that I would be returning to work on Proving Grounds at this point. I recently began circulating my design document for PG to get some feedback, and I set myself up ready for a return.
There has however, been a development which has made me reconsider PG. I can't make any announcements yet, for things are still in the early days, but I can say that PG is looking more likely to be used as the basis for a new project, rather than being the game it was originally designed as.
I will post more when I can, but the project once confirmed, will warrant a thread of it's own.
Comments
Enjoy your new home and take your time settling in
I seem to have an issue and I was wondering if any of you can confirm it as a genuine issue or just something my end. When I start a dedicated server on my machine, and fire up Proving Grounds, I cannot see the server listed in the server browser list. I have confirmed and opened all ports, and indeed, people can connect to my listen servers.
Can you confirm if your servers appear in the browser list? If not, I will have to investigate further, if they do, then there is nothing for me to worry about
This makes modding much easier, as I can make some alternative texture files to create unique player models for the teams and weapons. This means I can then just use the colored skin mod for things like kill streaks, item carriers, special items etc
Really excited now. How long have the model source files been available in the NS2 directory?
Mine work fine.
So, my advice is to use caution. Also, to have team based texture switching will require you have custom shader files for your new material files. These changes would NOT be compatible with the ColoredSkins mod I made. It's also worth mentioning there is now a finite limit on the number of parameters a material can have (8 or 12, I don't recall which). To get decent color balancing, you'd have to replace the emissive, spec, and diffuse maps for each model. To have team colorization you'd need to do that twice (assuming two teams).
I'm not saying this to try and stomp on your idea, but rather to save you the pain and trouble that I went through myself. It took quite a bit of tinkering and experimentation to get it where it is today (the colorskins mod). So, if possible, I would stick with that. Otherwise, I see a LOT of potential complications that will give you quite a few headaches.
I understand and appreciate what you are saying, but they will all be custom models eventually. So I may as well get used to the filesize.
The other thing is it is much quicker for me to edit a texture, than to create a colormap for the skins mod, as I don't have a clue how they are made, haha.
PG is destined to be a 100% Custom mod, so it will have a lot of it's own stuff, and will without doubt exceed the workshop limits. I have an idea or two to overcome that, and I will be looking into those options a bit nearer the time they are needed...
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?snr=1_4_4__12&term=#category1=997&sort_order=ASC&page=1
Note NS on page 2
This is mainly the issue. Although, if the mods are good enough, the should be able to get Greenlit(?) onto steam as mods.
They have the bonus as showing up as additional content for NS2 in the steam store, and that is all the better.
Game-Play issues:
Players are too hard to kill.
Players are too hard to see.
There is insufficient damage feedback when you are hitting a target.
Too hard to see what team you are on.
Bugs:
Two Spawn Points on Scientists team get stuck in the ground.
No delay on grenade fire, so all 8 rounds can be fired as quick as you can click.
Rocket Launcher (grenade launcher model) animations are broken.
Some Player skins cause them to not use the team color system.
Here are some of the solutions I am considering:
Players too hard to kill:
Lowering player health to 100 & returning weapon values to default (I uploaded an old version of the mod and forgot to remove those values again).
This change should resolve most of the issues with things feeling lightweight.
Players are too hard to see:
This is mainly a mapping issue, the lights not giving enough visible difference in the players. I can tweak the skins colors to help with that as well though.
Insufficient feedback when giving damage:
The damage indicator doesn't show enough on hit, players have become used to seeing damage indicators in NS2, so I need to find a way to make damage feedback better, without cluttering up the screen with numbers, as this game will be too visually intense without that.
Too Hard to see what team you are on:
This should be fairly easy to resolve, as I should just be able to edit the marine dds file colors to green and purple to match for each relevant team to solve that until I get view model color skins sorted out.
The bugs will need a solution, but that is code rather than planning.
If anyone else has anything to add, post a reply, and thank you to all who joined in on the playtest and gave feedback
I have updated weapon damage, to roughly NS2 values, although Grenades and Rockets had to be made up.
I have left health at 150, we'll see how this plays out. Find the new weapon damage details below:
// AVATAR DAMAGE
kRifleDamage = 10
kRifleDamageType = kDamageType.Normal
kRifleClipSize = 50
kRifleMeleeDamage = 25
kRifleMeleeDamageType = kDamageType.Normal
kPistolDamage = 25
kPistolDamageType = kDamageType.Normal
kPistolClipSize = 20
kAxeDamage = 151
kAxeDamageType = kDamageType.Normal
kGrenadeLauncherGrenadeDamage = 65
kGrenadeLauncherGrenadeDamageType = kDamageType.Normal
kGrenadeLauncherClipSize = 4
kGrenadeLauncherGrenadeDamageRadius = 4
kGrenadeLifetime = 2.0
kRocketLauncherRocketDamage = 100
kRocketLauncherRocketDamageType = kDamageType.Normal
kRocketLauncherRocketDamageRadius = 5
kRocketLauncherClipSize = 4
kShotgunDamage = 10
kShotgunDamageType = kDamageType.Normal
kShotgunClipSize = 8
kShotgunBulletsPerShot = 14
This does greatly increase the health cost of rocket jumping, but the increased range should now mean at the top of the double jump, you catch the edge of your rocket blast, rather than sailing over the top. Although it is pretty cool to kill someone with a rocket to the face while double jumping over their head to avoid the blast yourself
This will all be tweaked later, as the game becomes more feature complete. Enjoy.
Team 1 - Engineers - This is your HUD and Team Mates Skins:
Team 2 - Scientists - This is your HUD and Team Mates Skins:
It is very subtle but will have to do for now. Also, please if you are going to play the mod, can you choose the default male marine as your player character. The team colored skins currently only work with that player model.
server# ip: 62.65.106.53:27050
Due to a number of issue I am going to start Proving Grounds again. In my normal style, I rip the heart out of NS2 to get my lightweight server code, and then add PG on top. Unfortunately this method has caused my mod to not be compatible with Shine admin, I have also removed spectator modes, and various other things that I now want to take advantage of and customize.
I am going to wait until build 263 us released before starting the update, whenever that is due. Hopefully the mod will survive the next update, so you can all continue to play while I re-vamp the mod.
Edit
I got some more feedback, game is too slow. Going to speed up the base movement slightly from 8 to 10.
Going to try and add an extra couple of movement techniques to the mod as well in the rebuild. I am wary though that performance will drop slightly, as I will have more of NS2 operating in the game, although performance should be better overall due to lack of models and AI in the game.
I have a bug, where the wrong team 'wins' at the end. By this what I mean is the 10 minute timer ends and say team 2 has won, the game end graphic says team2 lost, and vice versa.
I thought I had found the bug in the following function:
/** * Ends the current game */ function NS2Gamerules:EndGame(winningTeam) if self:GetGameState() == kGameState.Started then if self.autoTeamBalanceEnabled then TEST_EVENT("Auto-team balance, game ended") end // Set losing team local losingTeam = nil if winningTeam == self.team1 then self:SetGameState(kGameState.Team2Won) losingTeam = self.team2 PostGameViz("Alien win") else self:SetGameState(kGameState.Team1Won) losingTeam = self.team1 PostGameViz("Marine win") end winningTeam:ForEachPlayer(function(player) Server.SendNetworkMessage(player, "GameEnd", { win = true }, true) end) losingTeam:ForEachPlayer(function(player) Server.SendNetworkMessage(player, "GameEnd", { win = false }, true) end) self.spectatorTeam:ForEachPlayer(function(player) Server.SendNetworkMessage(player, "GameEnd", { win = losingTeam:GetTeamType() == kAlienTeamType }, true) end) self.losingTeam = losingTeam self.team1:ClearRespawnQueue() self.team2:ClearRespawnQueue() // Automatically end any performance logging when the round has ended. Shared.ConsoleCommand("p_endlog") self.sponitor:OnEndMatch(winningTeam) self.playerRanking:EndGame(winningTeam) TournamentModeOnGameEnd() end endNote that:
losing team = team 2 - post game viz, alien win
and
losing team = team 1 - post game vize, marines win.
I thought this was my bug, then realised this is default NS2 code that I haven't altered, and NS2 works correctly. Can someone explain to me what I am missing?
When build 263 is released, I shall get Proving Grounds mod working with it, and release a small update which increases base player speed, has a tweaked lighting version of pg_dm6, and alittle tweak to player skins in an attempt to make the purple team lighter.
Proving Grounds Design Overview:
I have spent some time redesigning Proving Grounds, putting some thought into what works and what doesn't, what conflicts and doesn't, and I have settled on a fairly clear design overview, which I'd like to share with you in brief detail, so you can get an understanding of where this mod is heading.
For those who TL:DR the below text - Insane speed through movement, with the odd Matrix move is the order of the day.
Each section is hidden in a spoiler, so you only need to read it if you want, not because it is a spoiler. Beware walls of text lurk beneath every spoiler...
Movement
Initially, Double-Jump and Dodge are getting the chop. Double jump because it causes too many code headaches when used in tandem with the other planned abilities, and dodge because it doesn't quite fit the gameplay that I am envisioning, however saying that, it is very possible that dodge may need to return, to counter some of the forward momentum created by other players.
Which leads me onto the movement abilities that will be there,..
I plan to make this a very fast paced game, insanely fast, if you are good enough, essentially, I want this game to be as fast as you can get it.*
*Spark Engine limitations may override me on that one..
Bunny-Hopping:
Yes it will be in, yes it will be remarkably similar, if not exactly identical to NS2c implementation, (Thanks @xDragon for allowing me to plagiarize your code, and Maesse for creating the first half-life like movement code implementation.
Chain & Wall Jumping:
But bunny hopping is all well and good, but it is hard to achieve, so what else can I do to improve my speed? How about Marine-Chain Jumping, where jumping from one surface to the other gives a small speed boost, and combine that with wall-jumping.
So if you are good enough, you can bunny-hop, getting an additional speed boost by using chain jumping and wall jumping. Chain jumping will allow you to chain onto the floor and back onto another surface, like with wall-jumping.
All Three:
On landing from a broken chain or wall-jump, or indeed bunny hop, current momentum will not shudder to a normal walking speed halt as in ns2, but will reduce speed to max over a period of half a second or so, giving you a chance to get yourself going again quickly.
The plan is to allow you to use all, or none, or anything in-between of these movement abilities to increase your speed.
Wall-Running
Once your speed has been increased beyond a certain threshold, you will be able to wall-run, which is basically a matrix lobby like run onto the wall in an arc, affected by gravity. Players will be able to jump off the wall, and use that propulsion to kick on the movement speed again, which will have dropped on the wall run.
Dive
The final movement ability will be dive, from the old half-life mod 'The Specialists'. Basically the player will be able to dive in any direction while firing the guns john woo style. This may not totally fit with the frenetic play-style, and yet, it might be cool to dive out of the way of a bunny hopping. wall-jumping madman and kill them as you unload like your in a movie. The plan is to allow dive to carry momentum if you have it in the direction of the dive.
Weapons:
Here is an interactive part for all you out there...
What is your favorite old school FPS weapon? List the weapon AND game it was implemented in. Please do not post a list of all the different guns in CS or BF or COD, I mean gun types. Here are some examples:
Railgun - Q3
Crossbow - Prey
Rocket Launcher - Q3
Pulse Rifle - UT
Flak Cannon - UT
Post your favorites in the thread, and I'll see if I can get some of the most popular ideas in game, or variations of at least..
Also, I loved the Redeemer from UT, so I'll ask this question too, if you could have any 'super weapon' in this game, what would it be?
Pick-Ups:
Weapons will be pick-up items, so rather than spawn with all of them, you need to pick them up over time. Weapons will be as balanced as possible to be roughly equal, so the race isn't always on for the same gun. A super weapon would of course be different, but would be placed hard to get to.
Weapons will have no ammo, so clip size, reload times, and weapon switching times will be all the player has to worry about. Ammo could be added at a later date if needed, but hopefully not.
Weapon Decisions:
FInal weapon choices will come down to what works and what doesn't gameplay wise, I will hopefully get lots of suggestions of weapons from the above section to play and experiment with. For example, the ns2 type of grenade launcher/grenade, does not work in PG game type, a different type of grenade, sticky grenade for example, might fit in.
Explosives Jumping:
Rocket Jump will also feature in the game. Grenade Jumping will be removed unless a new type of grenade is used. I plan to change the grenade to an explode on contact weapon, rather than a bouncing around weapon, so I will need to play with speeds, gravity and trajectories to get the grenade launcher to sit right. Thinking of it more as a mini cannon, than a grenade launcher.
Mapping & Environment:
If there are any artists out there who like drawing environments and feel they could perhaps offer me a design environment or two, feel free to post a pic.... @squeal_like_a_pig huh, what me, no, I didn't say that, but maybe Cory knows someone who can help.... Or anyone else who might happen to read this post...
PGGamerules:
This will be where you specify the game mode etc as required. Initially there will only be TeamDeathMatch, but I will be adding other game modes, and expanding on them publicly, at a later date.
Player Spawns:
PG uses an old school, place a spawn entity in the map editor for each spawn point, method of spawning, this will be converted into a spawn zone, where spawn points are randomly generated from within the space specified by the mapper, ala CS1.6. Mappers will be able to place multiple spawn zones for each team.
Item Spawns:
PG's current spawning system will be turned into an Item Spawning system, and will spawn the weapons or health packs as designated by the mapper. The entity is not likely to come with a world model, to give mappers the freedom to make them how they see fit. This may change over time.
Jump Pads:
As per item spawns, Jump Pads will be place-able in the map, but will not have a world model, this enables the mapper to decorate them any way they want. Jump pads will be customisable and will offer 5 different levels of push. They will also be updated to work on angles, rather than just as currently on flat floors.
Once a final environmental theme is decided on, jump pads etc may be made to fit that theme, but initially these are not planned.
Environmental:
From a design perspective, it is a TV-show, where viewers of the show get to control the battle droids from wherever they are watching, to fight it out with other droids. This leads to bold and bright settings, classically overdone in a TV-Show way, but with lots of different objects around so players can chain jumps, as well as lots of level over level and high spaces for rocket jumping and jump pads. (This also leads to needing a multi-platform engine for the inevitable full sequel, as playing it anywhere means being available on mobile devices too.. hahaha)
Originally, I was planning to go with the first theme being TV's interpretation of Hell/Gothic, but then I got to thinking that it was all a bit cliche.. so as a bonus for reading this far down in the spoiler, if you have an idea for the theme of the sets, for the first update at least, post it in a spoiler of your own in your reply, I'd like to see what you come up with, if anyone reads this far....
Conclusion:
The ideas that I have laid out are what I think will create the game in my head. The design may have to change a lot over it's development, with compromises and sacrifices being made, or changes being needed just to more accurately reflect what I am trying to create. This is an overview of what I will be trying to create from a gameplay perspective, and while not exhaustive, I think it covers most of the important points.
If anyone has any questions or things they'd like to share, let me know..
Posted a small update to workshop:
Increased base movement speed to 10.
Further amended HUD to reflect team color.
Small tweak to Purple Skins to make them lighter.
pg_dm6 - first pass lighting update.
Some of the ideas I have for this mod are beyond my current level or programming ability, so I need to practice and learn, and the easiest way for me to do that is through modding other simpler versions.
I haven't finalised enough of the design of Proving Grounds, so currently, there is a lot of things that I want to throw in there, but that won't necessarily be for the best interests of gameplay!! I'd much rather wait until the focus on the game I want to create is there.
I also have felt a lot of the need to create a high speed shooter has been relieved by Skulks With Shotguns. It is certainly filling my needs at the moment, and with the mod scene so small at the moment, it makes sense for me to continue to develop my other Ideas which provide a better variety to the community
With all that said, as I learn things, I will be testing and prototyping, and who knows, I may suddenly realise one day, I have the Proving Grounds I want ready to play
I want to concentrate on the GorgeWorld series of mods now. I'll see if Proving Grounds is ready to be awoken when I've got those 3 finished
well best of luck GorgeWorld series
I had announced recently that I would be returning to work on Proving Grounds at this point. I recently began circulating my design document for PG to get some feedback, and I set myself up ready for a return.
There has however, been a development which has made me reconsider PG. I can't make any announcements yet, for things are still in the early days, but I can say that PG is looking more likely to be used as the basis for a new project, rather than being the game it was originally designed as.
I will post more when I can, but the project once confirmed, will warrant a thread of it's own.