HUNT mod on OA

A wish for cooperative gametypes was stated on oa-forums so I remembered good old HUNT for Q3A.

This mod offers two new gametypes that bring coop experience and serious weapon changes. You shouldn't play this alone as it gets way harder then. One gametype is named Save The Universe which is played in normal FFA/TDM/CTF maps that come with Open Arena. The mission is collecting a certain amount of artifacts that are symbolized by the quad powerup.

The second coop gametype is called Escape From Hell and takes place in long, randomized maps where the goal is simply reaching the exit.

Of course both types of play are not easy as players are not alone in the maps and monsters of various sizes and skills try to stop them. That's where cooperative play comes in. There is a certain amount of lives players share for every map and respawn is only possible if at there is at least one player alive and there are enough lives left.

The mod runs out of the box except the default monster models which are set to Quake 3 player models (klesk, tankjr) and have to be changed. This can be done by HUNT options menu or via console. A small config could do this for you. This config is included in a small additional xoa_textures.pk3 file I created to solve a texture missing problem as one of the randomized maps that comes with HUNT uses Q3A textures.

A playable mod with all required files is downloaded when you connect to the running HUNT server if you enable automatic downloading on your client. If you connect a second time sometimes you get disconnected quickly without entering the game. This happens when connecting from standard Open Arena and can be fixed by launching the mod first (via mod menu) and making sure the right monster models are set (eg. '/exec autoexec.cfg' if you already have xoa_textures.pk3 in your HUNT folder) and then connect to the server.

To have a little coop challenge this server creates a HIGHSCORE of each map played. So the fastest missions and the highest scores appear in these tables. I'm curious who will appear there over time. :)

oa_koth2 beta 2 released

My time went into texture editing. After adding leaves to cover the boring walls it's time for some playtesting as much has changed since beta 1.

Download: http://cosmo.spaceboyz.net/openarena/oa_koth2_b2.pk3 (Save target as ...)

Things to come:

• better lighting outdoors
• candleholder mapmodels
• more wall decoration
• more wrackage

oa_koth2

As we were talking about game content creation and which old maps would be a nice remake in Paris we stumbled across good old Transfusion and it's Blood spirit. Back in those days we enjoyed deathmatch in a tower map. OA already has it's CTF bases maps which are inspired by Blood so why missing this one?

Astro had his own idea of it so I didn't go with any of his suggestions. A first unnoticed beta release was done in November. The maps structure and gameplay was too plain. I fear I was not creative enough to use all possibilities the layout gave me.

For next release a lot of changes go into this one:

• chaingun added, 1 railgun removed
• trims, ledges, lots of foilage and details
• possible to reach every level of the tower from the inside
• a ladder and glowing orbs
• 2nd rocket launcher, personal teleporter
• creating lots of new textures

Bots do fine 'cept finding their way out of the void. Map is damn cool in Elimination gametype (8).

New singleplayer campaign release

As Armageddon Man wrote a little background I just felt that OA's singleplayer experience is not an exciting one.

The new singleplayer.pk3 file replaces all tiers with theme matched compositions. Bots are easier and increase in challenging skills as you progress through the tiers. There is a 'tourney' boss fight at the end of each.

As the first editing is done a little testing would be appreciated. The final battle is still missing.

Happy fraggin'

Botskills anyone?

As part of planning a new singleplayer campaign I wrote a little script to get an overview of all the bots of OA. I parse just the main characterfile and not any item or weapon weights files they will look for when traveling through a map.

The most interesting values are listed in this table although I only used the botfiles I found in the SVN. Seems it's not uptodate as bots like assassin are missing. The machinegun as favourite weapon marks more than one weapon as highly skilled.

name	attack skill	aim skill	aim acc	fov	reaction time	alert.	fav Weapon
"Angelyss"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Arachna"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Ayumi"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Beret"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Dark"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Player"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Gargoyle"	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.250	2.00	0.900	BFG10K
"Grism"	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.250	2.00	0.900	BFG10K
"grunt"	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.250	2.00	0.900	BFG10K
"Jenna"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Kyonshi"	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.250	2.00	0.900	BFG10K
"liz"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	2.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Major"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	2.0	0.95	RAILGUN
"Merman"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	LIGHTNING
"Neko"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Penguin"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Rai"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Sarge"	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.250	2.00	0.900	BFG10K
"Sergei"	0.30	0..30	0.30	0.30	1.5	0.5	LIGHTNING
"Skelebot"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Sly"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Tanisha"	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.5	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Tony"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN
"Widowe"	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	3.0	0.5	MACHINEGUN

So what do we learn?

Most of the bots are pretty much the same without any individual character/skills. Most of 'em were created by just copy and paste. For now it doesn't matter which bot will be on what map as there is no difference. A few bots are harder but that's it.

I'm tinkering with a todo list to improve singleplayer further.

Reload and rewrite

I was able to show Astro the last progress of ctf_gate1 which I tested several times but stopped working on as nasty licence issues and bad treatment of talented artists occured. Seems he likes it but had his own oppinion about the pillars. Leaving me thinking about them on my way home. Anyway as I returned from my vacation Gerbil did a run through my last release of this map and gave me several good hints how improvements could be done. I appreatiate that and as leilol asked for an updated singleplayer file I suggested a while ago I knew that release of OA 0.81 will be soon.

Two hours later I fixed things Astro and Gerbil mentioned and retextured the whole map. I'm not so pleased with my outcome as I created everything regarding to the textures I was given and OA lacks versatile and themed textures again after the ban.

I want the map to be in 0.81 and I hope it will be more accepted then my last two ctf maps as it offers a different gameplay. Still I fear it's relies too much on jumping skills. The next one won't I promise. :)

I rearanged the OA singleplayer maps to be more themed in their tiers but there is still work to be done. A lot of finetuning and tourney maps should be part of that.

Texture issues, ctf_inyard updated and new mapmodel

Okay,
time to get some things done. I created a new mapobject helping me to illuminate in blender although I have no map to put it in yet. ;)
I guess Armageddonman does.

TRaKs textures are gone now and lei didn't put the rest of the new additions for OA 0.81 to SVN yet. It's a bit hard for me to use it now.

New fixes on ctf_inyard:
- nailgun and shotgun switched places (I hope it improves balance)
- banned textures replaced
- different lightning parameters for mapcompile.

Updated version will be in OA 0.81

ctf_gate1 beta 4 released

Before I do serious changes and try to remove a bit of the cardbox feeling it's time for the 4th release.

download ctf_gate1_b4.pk3 (save link as ...)

Changelog:
- missionpack gametypes supported
- nailgun added
- simplified pillars, faceremoval
- more detailed walls

Symmetry and Jumping

I cannot deny that my last maps (especially ctf_inyard and ctf_gate1) are jump-intensive as the player has to be able to jump periodical to travel through the map. This can be a problem for new players and it distracts from the main gameplay as you have to concentrate on your movement and less on your foes and you're more prone to railshots as your movement gets more predictable. On the other hand I'm sure it helps improving skills.
Future maps will include less forced jumping.

In ctf_gate1 it seems my pillars are still too heavy in details and are not subtle enough as they are the only thing that catches the eye. I'm thinking about to break this symmetry a bit to have one or two pillars different and to move the top level gateentrance less centered. I shall test this in various ways.

Anyway I added missionpack gametypes support and various items.
Gameplaywise I think those special missionpack items (Guard, Doubler, Speed) are wrong in ctf_gate1. I'm not sure about the nailgun. First I'm going to remove the Speed item.

Texture Issues and Weapon balance

Licence issues killed OA 0.8 and force me to retexture ctf_gate1 and ctf_inyard as I'm using his in the former map exclusively and two of of them in the unreleased improved version of the latter. As I'm not done with all the balancing and missionpack support of both maps I'm trying to give ctf_gate1 an equal look with given OA textures before I'm about to do new ones.
Although I've to state TRaKs texturepack was awesome.

Weapon balance: The nailgun which is typical for missionpack is the most beloved weapon of OA 0.8 but I don't feel good about it as for my taste it's overpowered most times. I need further gametesting on ctf_gate1 to see if I should add it in several gametypes. I shall post my experiences here...

ctf_gate1 increasing gameplay

As the two bases are connected with just one long yard the gameplay is a bit too simple. Thinking about how I solved this didn't make me happy so I choose to change that. Dropping the current flagrooms as they were small, goodlooking because of TRaKs filth textureset and using the opposite ends as new flag bases sounds okay. The blue base is rotated by 180° and connected directly to the red pillar room just having the big wall / new gate between them.

I hope to get a straighter and faster gameplay.

ctf_gate1 beta 2

After reducing details of each pillar and hinting severe spots frames got decent and the map becomes playable. I just mirrored everything and autoreplaced the textures to get a blue base. Additional details are added to the walls, items and powerups changed and constantly tests against bots help me fixing lots of issues.
I discovered another bug in OA 0.8 as I think Double Domination points should not be in the same place where CTF flags are.

The next beta release: ctf_gate1_b2.pk3 (save link as...)

Still things can be improved.
Edittime so far: 10h

ctf_gate1 beta 1

The name is misleading as there is just one base to have some deathmatch in. I want to release this as an early beta as just in this version my pillars keep high detailed. I'm going to simplify them for performance reasons so additional details can be added to the yet plain walls. Deathmatch is playable against bots and map source file is included. Lightning could be a bit brighter in some places. The map is pretty dark themed so the red lights are a bit piercing.

Worktime: 6h (testing requires a lot)

file: ctf_gate1_b1.pk3 (save link as ...)

As this map is a small one and I'm using TRaKs fantastic textures it won't take me long to finish once I fixed performance issues and get a decent balancing done.

Vis and walldecoration

As mentioned in the previous post pillars are not good for blocking vis. Even if the columns are of low detail they will have an impact on framerates. So I'm trying to encapsulate my pillarroom not to be visible from far away. Additional details on my walls increase the amount of faces but don't help preventing other rooms from being rendered.

So I'm trying several layouts to connect rooms flawlessly and get high effectivity on blocking visibility. At the moment passages from one room to another increase in size without the ease I hope to find.

Pillars (part 1)

Pillars in general are nifty elements to place in maps as they may improve gameplay and create something recognizable. Players might dance around and they offer a certain amount of cover and finally pillars help to give a realistic to the map because blocks won't float in space as they rest on tessellated columns.

How pillars may be designed depends on the amount of faces they may require and the available textures. In general it's a good idea to have something that catches the eye on them so the boring rest of it is not recognized. Slight variations of each pillar is possible (e.g. texturewise) but not necessary. Pillars generate a feeling of everything belongs together.

It's good to think about how they will impact on the map: Is the pillar just an obstacle or can it be accessed? Is there an item at the top? How does the player reach it? Can VIS be blocked with it? Do my pillars connect two platforms? Do I have just for decoration reasons? Rooms with blank and plain walls are boring.

My current idea requires several pillars and I'm playing around with a concept I feel comfortable with.

Blog created

For time being I guess it's quiet nice to have a little logging of my progress as there are several maps I'm working on. It should be easier to share stuff I stumble across instead of discussing everything on IRC with lei, kick52 and Andy.