Need some feedback on an idea
BlackPanther
Join Date: 2002-02-11 Member: 197Members
Join Date: 2002-02-11 Member: 197Members
I was diggin through my map folder and i noticed that i started an NS map a while ago and i think im gonna breath some new life into it.
Now, i was thinking of doing something different with this one for the marine start.
When you spawn as a marine, your on a big octogonal platform high up in the clouds (think like City of the clouds from The Empire Strikes Back in Star Wards) and to get down, you have to use a big a$$ elevator. This would go down really far to create the illusion that it's high up.
Now, to keep r_speeds down, i though about making the marines go down for a short amount of time, then a trigger_teleport at one point, teleports them in front of the bottom elevator door. To keep things realistic, i'd make the elevator tube pitch black to keep players from seeing the sudden change... and an ambient_generic "Pssssht!" sound to signal the elevator has stopped and the doors are opening.
Is this wishful thinking.. or am i onto something?
Now, i was thinking of doing something different with this one for the marine start.
When you spawn as a marine, your on a big octogonal platform high up in the clouds (think like City of the clouds from The Empire Strikes Back in Star Wards) and to get down, you have to use a big a$$ elevator. This would go down really far to create the illusion that it's high up.
Now, to keep r_speeds down, i though about making the marines go down for a short amount of time, then a trigger_teleport at one point, teleports them in front of the bottom elevator door. To keep things realistic, i'd make the elevator tube pitch black to keep players from seeing the sudden change... and an ambient_generic "Pssssht!" sound to signal the elevator has stopped and the doors are opening.
Is this wishful thinking.. or am i onto something?
Comments
You might get lots of "Oooh!'s and Ahh!'s" on these forums from a cloud city type theme, but I doubt you'd have any chance at getting it included as an official map. Seems like it'd be way too bright/cheery/fluffy if you ask me. It really wouldn't fit in with what is intended for the level design in the game.
It appears that perhaps you're only planning on doing this at the very beginning of the level, but still... I wouldn't suggest it. Just my opinion, take it for that.
<!--EDIT|ken20banks|May 24 2002,23:37-->
I wouldn't plan on that working unless NS gets a Spirit of Half-Life base which allows trigger_teleports with landmark entities. Otherwise you'd have a bit of a mess on your hands. Also, the height difference could be real hell for commander mode.
When your on the landing pad, you're really high up because transports can't go down due to high winds and stuff.
And it wouldn't be a long ride. At the speed it would go down, it would seem like just a few seconds.
As for the height thing, its no biggy. When the players go through the teleport, i can make them appear anywhere else i want. And yes i'm only planning this to offer something different for a spawn point.
-][Ph34r][- Nephron: A few light fixtures that are turned into func_trains going real fast on the side of the elevator shaft is a good idea to promote the idea of a really fast elevator. Thanks for the suggestion! <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
As for not fitting in the environment... imagine taking an elevator down through the atmosphere, then underground into a subterranean base/mine/whatever. I think it could definitely work.
Yeap.Thats the general idea.
I agree that the teleporter idea now seems too complicated, so i though more about it and came up with this:
You spawn on the platform, go to the elevator, go down, 2 big ### doors block the elevator shaft (to prevent anyone jumping down and ruin the effect) go down a bit through a func_illusionnary that makes the top of the elevator shaft pitch black (so you can't see the 2 big doors), the elevator makes you go into a "medium" section where you see light fixtures swign by real fast, after a few seconds, the elevator goes down again next to the bottom door.
Of course, the elevator then has to be a func_train since it has 2 stops.
Has for creating the illusion that it's high up, well all around the landing platform will be sky brushes with my custom sky i created (just clouds, no land) and a few ambient_generic sounds of high altitude winds. When you reach the bottom, the hallway's ceiling are actually really near the sky brush.
Yep, very correct.
Eh?
The concept of Infantry Portals is explained somewhere in the General Forum (way back)... but basically, the inital infoteamstart spawns are only used at the very beginning of the game (for the marines). After the game starts, all other respawning is done by means of the infantry portal: a pod thing placed by the commander.
S.T.C.
I've also made a custom dropship model made after the dropship from the ALIENS movie.. so yeah it looks bad ### for now! <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
Anyway, i decided to simply the design.
Instead of the marine start, the landing pad is going to be the lobby... where when you join the server, you choose which side you want on.
There will be 2 elevators.
Going to one of them, will put you on the corresponding team.
Now i've made the basic shape of the landing pad (big octogonal pad, with a dropship model i've made up... its cool, but youll have to wait for the screenies, it's not skinned yet) but i need a custom texture for the floor of the pad.
Something with yellow warning stripes and that kinda thing.
But i think you need at least 2 more portals oder Elevators, because atm theres no way to go autoteam or in Spectatormode.
Maybe autoteam if you jump off that landing pad <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
You simply go out of the dropship and go to the big ### antenna array model i've also made to go to specator mode.
As for auto-team... well.. hmmm
I dunno seriously.!
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->This would go down really far to create the illusion that it's high up.
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if you go down really far, isnt the top really high? so wheres the illusion? <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
The elevators are pretty big. They can fit up to 10 poeple without any problem.
I've also added doors coming from the side of the elevator to close it off, to prevent poeple from jumping to their deaths.
When you get on the elevator, you go down like 1 floor, and the elevator door closes. Then i made a func_train that moves lights on the side from slow to REALLY fast to create the illusion that its going down far, and then you join the team.
The whole thing takes about 15 seconds, max.