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Duke Nukem Boards => Workbench: Classic Duke 3D => 1 Week / 1638 CBP private board => Topic started by: Micky C on 11 July 2012, 12:10:12

Title: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 11 July 2012, 12:10:12
That other thread was getting too long. So here's one specifically for finishing this thing off.

Here's SuperTanker's report of the map:

QuoteHeya;

Unfortunately, I got stuck at the second (or third?) miniboss fight--the one right after the room with the acid and the yellow keycard in the sewers. I had 20 health and zero weaponry  I suck!

Beyond that though, I only noticed a few things:

In Scent 88, there's two misaligned textures: one at the top of the ramp to the top room (the one you jump out of)--around the corner from the flaming pots, one of the silver wall trim textures is stretched. Downstairs, the metal texture in the Duke Burger spawners is a little odd.

At the street ramp that goes down to where you blow open the hole to the sewer, sometimes a liztroop will get "caught" there--I can't shoot him and he can't shoot me unless I go down the ramp. I think there was a similar issue in Parkade on the ramp leading down from the top of the structure...

In the sewer, the door with the already open brown keycard has no sound (?) and has moving tracks on the walls.

Really random, but I tried going back up to the top of the bachelor pad after I had jumped out the window. But the elevator was already in the top position--I couldn't call it down because it triggered the split door in front of the elevator instead. Annoyed, I ran at it (I know, wrong path) and I somehow glitched into the elevator! ooops.

There was an octabrain corpse in the giant water area after you go down the river from the tall tower (with a wave effect on the floor and ladders on either side), and it kept gibbing. I don't know if this was intentional or not. All the other corpses seemed to disappear...

Don't have much else for you unfortunately. The parts I did get to play fairly were very fun, although I'm a sucky Duke player so I had to reload from saves a lot. I liked all the hidden messages and the quirky high-tech atmosphere was VERY neat. I look forward to seeing the completed map!

Also, listening to Duke Nukem II music while playing was fun, and several other of the stock midis (missimp and names) fit nicely.

Cheers,
Supertanker

Sorry, forgot to mention--my nVidia 8800GTS died, so I had to play on the internal nVidia 6150E. Polymer performance with lights off ranged from 30FPS (good areas) down to 12FPS (bad areas) and sometimes went up and down when I turned around, making aiming a real pain in the neck. So I wasted a lot of ammo.  For people with better video cards, it shouldn't be as much of an issue.

I've fixed the fixable things he mentioned, and replaced one of the pipe bomb boxes in the pillar room with an RPG ammo box, then I went on to take all the remaining walls and add one last thing to the map:
(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/mapster322012-07-1119-20-27-33.jpg)(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/mapster322012-07-1119-20-49-47.jpg)

An underwater part to the HUB pool. It's not 100% finished, I still need to tweak texture allignments and things. So is it worth keeping? If so, any suggestions for improvement? Keep in mind the walls are gone. There seems to be a bug at one angle with polymer that I'll take up with plagman. I can delete it in like 5 seconds if people want.

I also tweaked the gameplay in my section so it's closer to what it originally was. And I added some flashing coloured lights to my bachelor pad, but a small amount of the sectors over the bed are flashing differently to the others. Things like this really make me feel like a noob  :-\
Any help there? I promise it's the last thing I'll ask help for  ;D

Please take at least a quick look as this could be the final version of the map (Gambini will probably change that though). I won't be able to work on the map for about 36 hours so I won't be making changes any time soon.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Mister Sinister on 11 July 2012, 19:25:36
It looks good, but is it really neccesery? BTW I think we should add something like a bridge to the tower.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: MikeNorvak on 11 July 2012, 20:47:22
Quote from: Mister Sinister on  11 July 2012, 19:25:36
It looks good, but is it really neccesery? BTW I think we should add something like a bridge to the tower.


This.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 12 July 2012, 03:18:16
Well like I said, we can delete it if people want. It takes up more walls then than its probably worth. I can add a sprite bridge or two though if that's what you mean.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 12 July 2012, 16:59:25
Ok it was very finnicky and awkward to pull this off due to the angles involved, but I think these look decent, just don't inspect them with a magnifying glass or anything because there are probably tiny spaces that most players won't notice. I also fixed a few more allignment issues.

(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/eduke322012-07-1223-41-47-45.jpg)(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/mapster322012-07-1300-24-26-12.jpg)

I really, really don't want to add anything else to this map. I might give it another playtest tomorrow or the day after, then send it to Gambini and SuperTanker again. I don't think there would be many issues left.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 13 July 2012, 07:15:03
I sent this copy to Gambini: http://www.sendspace.com/file/8ed5vt

I closed a door I accidentally left open. Moved the ammo in Cpt. Awesome's pillar room onto the pillar bases because I noticed they disappear below the floor otherwise. Removed the medpack in my area because I thought it was making the map too easy, and replaced it with a +30 kit, as well as adding a +30 and a +10 to the underwater pool in the HUB (added some extra detail there too). Probably did a few other minor things but they're too trivial to remember.

Hopefully the music can be wrapped up by the end of next week.

I've also uploaded the mostly complete .txt file, minus a lot of mapper comments and things like release date and download links.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Mister Sinister on 13 July 2012, 11:06:22
Played it throught. I can't think of anything that must be changed. I didn't find any bugs.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Puritan on 13 July 2012, 11:17:39
@Micky


The txt file: High Treason is spelled Paul Monteray.
And the older Oostrum: Maarten van Oostrum
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: quakis on 13 July 2012, 12:48:20
txt nitpicks;

Drop the subtitle 'Spacecity'. CBP8 is fine and if we want a subtitle, make it sound more interesting than Spacecity!

Spell my name with a lowercase q :P

I'll write up something quick for the txt asap.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 13 July 2012, 15:04:50
@Mister Sinister, that's great news! Hopefully the beta testers feel the same way.

@Puritan, whoops I told myself I was going to check the spelling but I forgot.

@quakis, I'll change the q and add your paragraph when you put it up. As for the subtitle, I thought that since the latest CBPs; Suburban Hive and Crimson Moon got their own special names, we could use one as well to make it stand out from the crowd a bit, and maybe give people an indication of what it's about, considering how consistent the theme turned out. Don't worry I'm aware Spacecity is a lame name and mostly a place holder.

I'll try to think of something better, and ideas are welcome.

Oh, and another thing we need to think of is what pictures we should put up when we advertise the map for download. We don't want to spoil too much, but at the same time we need something juicy to get people's mouths watering.

Ok how about this?: "In a space-city, no one can hear you scream"

(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/eduke322012-07-1322-40-42-84.jpg)
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 13 July 2012, 15:20:23
Text file additions:

Mike Norvak - Started the project at Duke4. Did his part and disappeared. Showed up, made "adjustments" that broke a few people's sections and caused extra work. Disappeared again. Re-appeared with a half done audio file. Disappeared.

Michael "Micky C" Crisp - Co-started the project at CGS. Hogged all the resources and kept adding things like a heroin fiend getting a fix.

Paul "High Treason" Monteray - actually followed the rules of the build

Mister Sinister - wrote some things for the template, got embarrassed even though there was nothing wrong with what he said, ultimately had his comments removed. what a wuss

Merlijn van Oostrum - did his thing, took up William Gee's slack, found one of his old pipes under the couch in the basement, cleaned it out for the resin, showed up afterwards talking backwards and in colors, so we all humored him with chips and mountain dew.

Marteen van Oostrum - made his part then fell in a mob of groupies and hasn't been heard from since.

Captain Awesome - took two weeks to build two days worth of mapping

Forge - made a crappy section, then bitched alot to anyone who would listen

quakis - this guy actually finished something?

William Gee - showed up, took the map for two weeks, gave it back with a few empty rooms. what a guy.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 13 July 2012, 15:31:02
Yep, I loled at some of them. I would have loved to not worry about this project any more and not spend countless hours adding things that in hindsight should not have taken anywhere near as long. I hope I'm not turning into Paul B  :(

Norvak, is there an ETA on the music? The map could potentially be ready for release right now.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 13 July 2012, 15:45:57
These are the kind of quips I liked seeing in some of the previous CBP templates when participants didn't submit their own comments, or volunteered to work on the CBP then bailed without a word. Adds to the history and nostalgia factor. I'm not trying to offend anyone; they're supposed to be slightly humorous and a bit exaggerated.

The screen shot you posted for use during release is a good choice.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Mister Sinister on 13 July 2012, 16:26:01
Micky, the only possible change is to make water in my area still since betatesters complained about it.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: quakis on 13 July 2012, 16:35:51
I don't have much to say;

quakis
Worked on the small urban section in the upper part of the main hub, which includes a police station and EDF mechs. Also did some polishing around the map and made a few additions while doing so, like exterior views (ex: window in Forge's section) and the small room near the manhole cover.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Puritan on 13 July 2012, 16:42:15
Quote from: Micky C on  13 July 2012, 15:04:50

Ok how about this?: "In a space-city, no one can hear you scream"


"Alien" style  ;D
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: MikeNorvak on 13 July 2012, 17:46:19
Quote from: Micky C on  13 July 2012, 15:31:02
Norvak, is there an ETA on the music? The map could potentially be ready for release right now.

No, there isn't, the project is on my HD. And installing the DAW and VSTs in someone's computer would be complicate.

I'm not sure but maybe I can buy a new power supply tomorroy... but I don't want to delay the relese anymore, so why don't using a DN2 song, like Supertanker said?

@Forge: well you could add these lines to the template also: "I built that phallocentric spire raping the space in the middle of the map"

EDIT: I know not everybody likes my remix of Aliens say ur prayers, but why don't using that track?
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: quakis on 13 July 2012, 21:32:18
Subtitle suggestions I've been thinking about. I prefer either one of the last three though, but I'll just dump them all here.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Puritan on 14 July 2012, 02:53:30
^Man, I'm lost for words....
I've been going through all six suggestions and I'm facing a wall.
A wall of uncertainties...
Ok, I'm not a part of this project at all. I've only a citizen on the side path here.
But it's hard to point out a winner.
Good luck guys... ;)
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: High Treason on 14 July 2012, 03:44:10
I've been trying to correct the parallax problem with my section but the problem refuses to go away, I do not wish to hold the project up further so the problem can be left alone...

I am, however, wondering wether it is worth me adding a note to my text in the map template, I finally brought something half decent out not long ago and this has the potential to affect my reputation. I shall edit this post or make a new one when I make my mind up what to have written there.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 14 July 2012, 05:49:29
I'm leaning towards Metropolitan Starlight.

@Norvak, don't worry we won't do anything until Gambini gives his report, and he says he'll play it tomorrow and tonight. I don't think I'll send him the latest copy from the one I sent SuperTanker.

@High Treason, if neccessary I'll post that section to Plagman and see what he has to say about the bug. BTW what are you talking about affecting your reputation? Are you talking about how you think that mini episode you released a while ago is better than this? The only thing I'd bother complaining about your section is that it could use a little trimming, but that's also the case for a few other parts.

SuperTanker played a bit of beta 12:
QuoteI didn't get very far because performance seems even worse now on my ancient video card. Possibly, it's the underwater section, and/or I broke the last eduke build. It's a shame Polymer still has so many issues...

I really like the new underwater section! Only suggestion is to pan the underwater grate texture up/down--it might look better if one of the cross-bars of the texture is level with the surface of the water. Remember, I'm playing with an ancient card right now, so the slightly performance drop will be worth it on modern hardware.

Also, one other thing I noticed. I got to the ledge in the main giant room with the Freezer ammo on it by jumping from the slanted part of the roadway before it goes vertical. For some reason, at the narrowest part, the player gets caught on something unseen if Duke hugs close to the wall.

Found the Shrinker, too. Nice secret area! The switch was a little hard to hit though...

Cheers,
Supertanker

I've updated the map. I fixed a slight gap in one of the bridges, removed the floating water effect in Mr Sinister's section, re-added some sprites that had their sectnum changed in the underwater section, fixed the pulsating lights on the bed in my section, lowered the switch a bit to the shrinker secret so you don't have to jump or kick to use it.

And

As an experiment I added fogpals to the underwater sections. Blue in the main pool, green in captain awesome's slime pool, and green in HT's acid pools (but you can't really notice it here).
Do people like how it looks or is it ugly? It's quick to remove if needed. It feels a bit gimmicky to me..

(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/eduke322012-07-1413-14-22-72.jpg)(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/eduke322012-07-1413-14-30-59.jpg)
(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/eduke322012-07-1413-16-15-82.jpg)(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/eduke322012-07-1413-16-33-23.jpg)

I think the clipping thing SuperTanker talked about in his report on the platform with the freezer ammo is the same problem as that along the edge of the platform in the middle of the pool that the tower is on; there's some kind of overclipping due to the slope of the adjacent sector.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: High Treason on 14 July 2012, 09:22:18
Quote from: Micky C on  14 July 2012, 05:49:29@High Treason, if neccessary I'll post that section to Plagman and see what he has to say about the bug.
I wouldn't worry about it, I don't want to cause further delays. Just chuck it into the "Known bugs" section or with my text in the map template "There is a glitch that causes a parralax sky to draw in the subway sector here, this was caused after I built it, I believe it was an accident. Not my fault."

QuoteBTW what are you talking about affecting your reputation? Are you talking about how you think that mini episode you released a while ago is better than this? The only thing I'd bother complaining about your section is that it could use a little trimming, but that's also the case for a few other parts.
It has the potential to affect my reputation because people will think I put random glitch/badly textured sectors in my levels, my only consolation was that my area at least ran at a decent framerate but that seems to have gone now as well.

You know, I never said I thought my mini-episode was better than this, but I regret ever offering to work on this if I am entirely honest. I'm not pointing the blame at anybody at all, because if I was I'd say who I was blaming. I could go on about what's wrong with stuff all day, but in short what I was implying in my previous post was this (Prepare for wall of text - it's 8AM and I haven't been to sleep - feel free to TL;DR the following) ;

I don't count the NBCBP as anything much as that was a team effort so I take no credit for anything in that.

Prior to the release of my mini-episode, I had released maps designed for Polymer and the HRP which were relatively crappy, I'll still arrogantly state that I created the first real 3D Structures, but they're not worth remembering and they're better off brushed under the carpet. My first map took a year to make and I could probably make it in a day now. As far as I could see, my reputation was heading for one of a guy who made overscaled, broken, unplayable maps with hackish gimmicks. Luckily everyone seemed to have forgotten about my failed attempts at some TCs though, but I was still bitter as I felt that most people had been rather cold and unhelpful towards me.

I decided to rebel against the community and set to work on a Polymer/High-res exclusive mod, good luck finding a copy anywhere. All-in-all that was a collosal failure and I suspect I was probably the only person that saw the potential in the idea though my implementation of it was poor, probably wasn't helping my reputation.

Eventually I decided to try again, taking a different approach, there was one top secret project that I can probably never finish now, it was large-scale and has I have not suffered from hardware failures and lack of money I would have been going public with it by now, I would have likely been approaching 75% completion on that. Alongside this, I began work on my mini-episode, this time I was determined to actually make something worth playing to some extent, probably a one-off because I was using classic textures and shading, I put everything I had into making that and I finally made something that was actually decent, finally I felt I had broken my track record of making unplayable maps and writing awful code, except where it shares code with my old mod.

Now we have this CBP and the TC I am working on, with this CBP I was determined to uphold what I had achieved which was why I had a strong determination to not use TROR and other fancy features, it's likely the last time (at least for a while) that I will use the classic textures and gameplay mechanics, I was quite proud of what I had done, my section was small but it worked, it wasn't easy to make, the map was built at some weird height making it hard to work with and I was met with framerates that made it impossible for me to build anything, did you know I actually had to build my section as a seperate map and merge it? You can immagine how annoyed I was when it got connected to the stacks and messed about with, I saw this as my hard work being undone and it was a bugger to put it right as every time I faced the entrance the framerate crapped itself and there were sectors overlapping everything, I don't know how the heights were achieved on those windows, but I couldn't put them back without using F7 in 2D mode, but due to overlapping sectors I could not do that. Now I test the beta only to discover things have been broken more, given my track record I feel that I am more likely to get the blame than the rest of the team, which I really don't want to do, do you know how long it was before people would even read anything I bloody wrote? I've had to fight to get to where I am (Likely peasent class community member) - there was actually a time when I released something, it got ignored, another guy released the same thing and everyone had to have it, it became a component included in the HRP and my version was never widely used and long forgotten about, just to make it clear, I don't begrudge the bloke for that at all and I will admit that his version was better.

I don't know, is suspect half of this is just my interpretation, but that was what I was implying.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 14 July 2012, 09:45:37
It would have been easy to use F7 on your sectors despite the overlapping, if you used side view mode activated by F3, then rotated the view a bit. Or used ctrl-a to restrict the vertical editing heights. The good news is the problem seems to be gone now in the latest eduke32. I could have sworn I saw one of the train sectors move partly out of the track sector, which would explain the glitch, but I only saw that once.

Does anyone know what these sectors are about?
(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/Untitled-5.jpg)
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Mister Sinister on 14 July 2012, 12:08:56
Those sectors may be mine. As I remember, originally I wanted to make an elevator to the dam roof and the something has gone wrong, I tried to erase them, but instead it erased half of the dam, so I moved them somewhere. Also some of these sectors affected the road part and I moved them to. You can try to delete them, but it can screw up my part. Sorry for this.  :-\
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 14 July 2012, 15:14:50
i've been using the r2752 snapshot. I seen the paralax glitch with the High T subway section using this snapshot (right after quakis added that area outside the window in my section). However the latest map beta does not seem to have the paralax problem and I'm still using the same snapshot. I tried polymer and classic and attempted to look at the subway from every angle, and was not able to re-create the glitch.

I think Micky may be right. something was causing one of the train cars to go rouge, but then something's been done since to keep it under control. If it's still a problem I would suggest widening out the track and re-centering the  SE's just to be sure no cars clip the walls

edit: @High T - if you're having performance issues with mapster you could try changing the render mode. If it's 4 change it to 3.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 14 July 2012, 17:10:03
Quote from: Mister Sinister on  14 July 2012, 12:08:56
Those sectors may be mine. As I remember, originally I wanted to make an elevator to the dam roof and the something has gone wrong, I tried to erase them, but instead it erased half of the dam, so I moved them somewhere. Also some of these sectors affected the road part and I moved them to. You can try to delete them, but it can screw up my part. Sorry for this.  :-\

Ok I got rid of those excess sectors. When I was messing around with TROR in the early days of its release, I had all kinds of sector problems such as this, and gained a lot of experience in fixing them  ;D

Mister Sinister can you just check it yourself and see that nothing is wrong with your section? I had a quick look all around in mapster and it seemed fine but I don't know the area as well as you. Plus it's past midnight and I need some sleep. Oh, and that freed up a bit over 40 walls, and I'm considering adding some kind of pool (you probably won't be able to swim under it) in Mister Sinisters section with fogpal because it looks weird with some of the water glowing blue and the rest of it not. At least now the parts not glowing can look like they're darker because they're under the brick area. It's not finished though. Although actually I might just get rid of the blue fogpal it looks surreal, and use those walls to create shadow under the bridges in the hub.

I also moved the TROR boundary in the drop to HT's section up near the top and retextured to the top bit so that there's no ugly change in texture allignment on the way down.

Gambini has started giving me his report with some useful information, mostly sprites having their hitscan/blocking bit set when they shouldn't be. Apparently he was low on health and ammo by the time he got to the battlelord after the blue keycard, so I'll definitely add a touch of health there (there were a lot of enforcers).
And he couldn't find the manhole to HT's section, which I thought was strange. I've pointed its location out to him and he'll continue the map, but once again I need to sleep now. I'll start fixing Gambini's stuff in maybe 28 hours, after I know Mister Sinister's section is ok; I don't want to waste time making changes only to find the map is broken or corrupt or something.

Everything indicates this map is only days away from release. Hopefully that's enough time for Norvak to finish the music, otherwise we'll release it with the current music, or use another track as per the general consensus.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Mister Sinister on 15 July 2012, 09:49:51
Micky, seems like everything is fine with my area.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 16 July 2012, 05:40:24
Yeah I played it and it seemed ok too. I might actually leave that deep pool in your area (I'll need to touch it up a bit) because I've grown accustomed to it, unless you're personally against it.

BTW, say what you want about the HRP, that skybox looks delicious.

(http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww345/crimic01/eduke322012-07-1523-02-55-06.jpg)
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 17 July 2012, 11:04:05
No I haven't forgotten or given up on this project, I've just been waiting for Gambini to finish playtesting the map. Apparently he got caught up in Deus Ex HR  ::)
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Merlijn on 17 July 2012, 19:16:04
Metropolian starlight sounds cool. Also, if authors don't add their own descriptions, I suggest we use Forges contributions. They're pretty funny.  8)

I played the last version and everything seemed pretty balanced to me. The added devastator ammo made Forges part more fun, mindless violence ftw. :P
The end sequence is very cool now, good job Micky! I also liked the TROR additions, they do compliment the map nicely and the work perfectly fine in classic mode. The fight in the big room with the pillars is also a lot cooler now, the exploding pillars are a nice touch.

There was one small TROR bug though, I'm not sure if it only pops up in classic mode: when going under water in the central spire area, you can see one of the TROR "layers" as a slope with texture 0. See attached screenshot. Not sure if it can be fixed or not.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 18 July 2012, 05:11:38
I'll probably have a mapper's comments section, and a general comments section, which is where I'll put all of Forge's comments, for those who have already said something. And no that can't be fixed in classic. TROR scissoring (which is what that use of TROR is called) is barely even supported at all, that's why enemies get trapped in them and you can't shoot them from the other side.

Gambini still hasn't finished the map, so I went on to start editing it anyway. Apparently the dunce got very frustrated due to repeatedly getting lost. So I put in some extra signs and things to make it more obvious.

Map download: http://www.sendspace.com/file/cytf0p

Photos (slightly outdated):
Upper city sign to Quakis' section.
Obnoxious flashing "reactor core" and "service access" signs to High Treason's section and loop.
Hologram sign directing player to use explosives on the manhole cover. Check the back of this one   :D (it also explodes when you explode the cover  8) )
Small lights to the buttons in Forge's ugly circular section because they're kinda easy to miss in the confusion.

I also did some other changes such as small additions to my section, and fixed up the giant pool in Mister Sinisters section. Added a drowned Overlord and Cycloid Emperor to the floor for lols, but you can only see it in classic, or in polymer if you ramp up the ambient light. The only other thing I could possibly add is an explosion or two to Forge's reactor when you blow it up.


[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 18 July 2012, 14:22:08
Oh BTW I'm going on a short trip, and the earliest I'll be able to work on the map is monday (but university starts then as well). So that's at least 4 days until the map is released, hopefully that's enough time for Norvak to fix his computer and finish the music.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: MikeNorvak on 18 July 2012, 22:08:01
I'm back...
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 21 July 2012, 00:55:25
What do you mean? Are you working on the music? I still won't be back for2-3 days.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: MikeNorvak on 21 July 2012, 19:39:53
Well not really, till now. I mean my computer is already working, god bless the weekend has come and I can work on the music at last. I'll upload the music later.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 22 July 2012, 10:14:58
Ok I'm back now and will finish the template and add some explosions to forge's reactor either tomorrow night or the night after, as I need to unpack and settle in and stuff. I aim to release this map wednesday night as I have wednesday night completely off.

Are you able to finish the music by then Norvak? Roughly 48-64 hours.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: MikeNorvak on 22 July 2012, 18:46:31
Of course, don't worry! :)
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: MikeNorvak on 22 July 2012, 20:22:14
Not that I can't add these things, but since you have the last version Micky and you're gonna add things, there's some stuff that could be changed/fixed:

(15) The metallic beam under the sign disappeared

(16) Maybe an enemy here

(17) This sprite looks so flat, maybe we could add a case.

(18) The I LUV ET sign is glitchy


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Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: MikeNorvak on 22 July 2012, 20:28:18
(19) The transition looks obvious

(20) I didn't die when I felt here, this is supposed to happen?

(21) There should be lots of heavy enemies here after triggering the tower door.

(22) Why this sector is tagged as water? It is supposed to work like that?



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Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 23 July 2012, 04:13:16
Quote from: MikeNorvak on  22 July 2012, 20:28:18
(20) I didn't die when I felt here, this is supposed to happen?

the player is not supposed to die if they fall in either of those sectors. that's why i put in simulated glass floors

as for "the transition looks obvious", it's hard to tell which manhole you are in, the tror or the SE?

not sure what you mean by obvious transition. texture alignment? shading? visual hiccups?

if it's the SE one, i never messed with it after i initially created it and it got changed when HT's section was connected via tror
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 23 July 2012, 11:12:28
I don't think the transition is a problem.

It's tagged as water so the player won't die from falling (it's a huge bummer to die right at the end, as the player doesn't know what to expect). He/she won't notice because of the earthquake and everything.

The other stuff is fixed and I added a few explosions to Forge's reactor.

Ok I made the keypad 3D, fixed some texture oversights in quakis' section, like the lift and a texture zero near the dome, fixed floor allignments in Mister Sinister's section. Added two commanders after the tower unlock near the dome roof, and they hover down as you fight them which is cool, as well as two battlelords at the base of the tower. I've also added lots of RPG & devestator ammo and a jetpack to the end of the hallway on the way back so Duke has more than enough fire power to take them out (I envision Duke flying around pelting the battlelords from above). I also added some troopers to the windows when you hit the nuke button so you can see them die in the explosion. Oh and some RPG shooters to the top of the tower after it's unlocked.

Looks like all the problems have been fixed, all the cool stuff I could think of the past 6 months has been added. I think we're almost good to go  ;D
If any of you haven't played this map for a while, please do so! There's a 99.9% probability that this is the gold version.

Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 24 July 2012, 12:13:16
Here's the updated .txt file. Hopefully all that needs changing is the release date and download links.

High Treason can you post up the text for the .bat file and config file please?

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Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: High Treason on 24 July 2012, 15:54:46
OK, Here's the launcher and config file, I'm not sure how the map will be packaged, so at the moment it just expects all files to be in the EDuke32 directory, I can change it if required.

Hopefully this is not too elaborate for your liking, I can nerf it if people prefer, I might remove that snazzy startup anyway.

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Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: MikeNorvak on 24 July 2012, 20:15:08
Please wait for me about 10 -12 hours for the finished track. I still need to go to school :S
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 25 July 2012, 00:28:05
Ok high treason I'll look at it later.


@Novak, perfect! I'll only be back home in about 8 hours anyway  8)
Looks like the map is belong released today (I assume at least one person has played the latest version and there are no problems).
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 25 July 2012, 09:09:18
I tested out the launcher, and it always seems to launch the map in polymost, which is super glitchy, when using the "play without lights" option, regardless of whether polymer is selected or not. The play with lights option doesn't necessarily force the game to use polymer either.

Can it be fixed so it absolutely always forces the player to use polymer? Edit: Actually, might as well simplify it down a bit so that it always switches off lights, since the map was designed without lights, and they don't really add anything while giving away certain secrets like atomic healths which is a huge spoiler. If people are desperate to use lights, then they can just not use the bat.

Btw it's spelled recommended not reccomended.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Maarten on 25 July 2012, 19:14:08
Hi there, I'm still here! :D

I haven't played a real recent version of this map, but it's OK if you guys release it. I was quite satisfied with my part anyway :)
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: High Treason on 25 July 2012, 19:59:14
Ah, bugger, my launcher  :'(

:D no problem, I'll use it myself for something later, I wrote it to be flexible for future use you see. Here's a simplified one. Unfortunately I can NOT force the game into Polymer mode, something in how EDuke32's startup code works prevents this, no big problem, I just force the setup window and the new launcher tells the player to make sure the box is ticked, if they ignore it, it is their own stupid faults.

The new launcher still expects the same file structure as the other one, in fact it's just a cut up version of the other one.

I was going to make the windo shrink itself down at exit but I thought better of it. ;D

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Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: MikeNorvak on 25 July 2012, 22:13:50
Here's the track. I decided to stick just with one theme without transitions, cos there's the risk they don't fit some gameplay parts and there're were too distracting.

About the template I'm okay with Forge's text, you should include just that, maybe adding something about me disappearing again and coming back with the finished soundtrack and complaining about some map bugs. ;D

BTW some bugs :P :

Duke23: This switch at Maarten's part should be tagged with 10005
Duke24: Don't know if this has been fixed already.

www.mikenorvak.com/audio/CBP8.ogg (http://www.mikenorvak.com/audio/CBP8.ogg)




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Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 26 July 2012, 00:17:26
Ok, I'll try to get everything ready after I get back from uni in about 7 hours. I'll add the tag to that switch, but what's wrong with the second picture? If you're talking about it being one sided, it's intentional.

I'll try to somehow get Puritan to upload it, so that link's ready, then Mikko to upload it, so that link's ready, and then have them both add Mikko's download link after.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: quakis on 26 July 2012, 01:15:15
Quote from: Micky C on  26 July 2012, 00:17:26but what's wrong with the second picture? If you're talking about it being one sided, it's intentional.

Uity > City? :P
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 26 July 2012, 01:32:13
If you post it here and tell Puritan that it's what you want hosted, he'll see it and make it happen
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 26 July 2012, 02:49:13
That's not a u, that's a c rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise! Ok I'll change it..

I still think its best to have the mappers comments as well as forge's comments for those who actually want a serious insight into the mappers' mind at the time of construction.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 26 July 2012, 04:13:47
Nobody's volunteered to do write-ups and scores on the last two 2-hour CBPs, so it wouldn't surprise me if this one also sat around on this site without a review as well.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 26 July 2012, 09:11:42
Ok, I played through it again, and there's a huge problem! By the time I got to the top of the tower, the floor had already exploded, and the activated explosions around the windows had apparently already gone off. I checked the tags and all the masterswitches have a hitag so that can't be the reason. I'm stumped  :( does anyone else have any clues?

One thing that should have been picked up a long time ago was the insane amount of shotgun ammo! You could basically get away with using the shotgun 90% of the time and hardly run out. In order to force weapon diversity, in High Treason's loop, I took out 4 shotguns/ammo, a chaingun, and added 4 freezer ammos and two devestator ammos, as well as an extra shrinker ammo in Forge's secret, because none of the beta testers found it, so if anyone does, I think they deserve to go to town with the shrinker.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 26 July 2012, 10:30:43
Some testing indicates that it's the reactor which sets it off, but that confuses me because it was working before, and the masterswitches still have a hitag :(
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 26 July 2012, 16:36:49
extensive testing indicates that the tag #10315 is the cause. somewhere hidden in the map is a masterswitch with no high tag or a trigger that sets off that tag number.

I deleted all the master switches in the tower area, and the seenine still exploded

I deleted all the sprites from the last area (escape pod) & deleted all the sprites from the tower and surrounding areas (except the seenine), and the seenine still exploded

I segregated one seenine from the rest and put in in a different sector, it still exploded

I took the segregated seenine and re-tagged it to 10400, and it did not explode


btw, one of the floors outside the tower (at the base of it) is low tagged 20. I don't think it affects anything since there's no activator in the sector to make it act like a door

Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 26 July 2012, 17:03:22
double post:

this is going to sound retarded, but this is the problem -

there is a master switch in high treason's subway sector tagged 0,4056. high tagging this switch fixes the problem of the tower going off when the reactor is destroyed
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: High Treason on 26 July 2012, 19:11:44
Oops, I forgot that was there, it was a cheap way of triggering what used to be two seperate wall explosions at once;

A seenine goes off, breaking a crack and causing the next lot of seenine to go off. Still, it's a simple fix.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 27 July 2012, 00:43:24
Ah, that was also partly my fault, I moved one of the explosions to there from a helper sector to save walls. Thanks for the testing Forge, it sounded like a lot of work. I'll make the fix, play through the map one last time with the ammo changes, then release them on the 3 forums. We can worry about reviews and proper hosting after.

The map will be up in an hour  ;D
Edit: Make that an hour and 10 minutes. I really have to go to the toilet  :-[
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 27 July 2012, 01:59:54
I played through it again and it still happened, then I acted on a hunch and found out that it was actually using the red keycard in High Treason's section that sets it off, not the reactor. So I moved the seenine and crack to a different place and it now works properly again.

Also, I think the changes I made to the ammo (removing shotgun and a bit of chaingun, then adding freezer and a bit of devestator) really help to make the map more fun. A pox on ye all for throwing around so much shotgun ammo. I'll write up the post at Duke4.net right now.

High Treason, I did some testing with the launcher, and the game does not go back to enabling lights after the bat is used. This is very bad, can it be fixed?
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: MikeNorvak on 27 July 2012, 03:10:53
I can upload the map to my site temporally until it gets hosted if you don't want to use attachments or hosting sites.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 27 July 2012, 03:12:38
i don't know what the deal is with the bat, but it permanently inserts a r_pr_lighting "0" line into the settings.cfg

it'd probably be easier just to put some instructions about the cfg file at the top of the template about what it's for, renaming old cfgs, dropping this cfg into the duke directory, and then deleting it when they're done
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 27 July 2012, 04:16:52
I did some more testing, and the bat has nothing to do with it sticking to disabled lighting, even just having autoexec.cfg then taking it out, lighting is still set to r_pr_lighting 0. So what I'll do is include autoexec.cb8 and autoexec.cfg. So that when the player is done it'll go back to having lights in polymer. It seems to work. I'll also say that the player can use the console and not bother with the files to keep things cleaner.

I also replaced a shotgun ammo in my section with armour, and I think this makes the start of the map play loads better (before, you started off with a ridiculous amount of it).
To compensate, I placed a shotgun ammo in Captain Awesome's section as well as two freezer ammos. The accumulation of ammo is now smoother.

Time to release baby!
Edit: http://forums.duke4.net/topic/5632-cbp-8-metropolitan-starlight/
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Puritan on 27 July 2012, 08:05:55
Wow, congrats guys. The one week CBP went great  ;D
Will be uploaded tonight (CET).


NB! : I don't have time to play it nor taking screenshots today. So if anybody could provide some screenies the upload would look so much better  ;)
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 27 July 2012, 13:30:59
Ok, so I started playing the map to take photos, but then I forgot what I was doing and just ended up playing the map, haha.

Here's some photos of all the areas, you can choose the best ones.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/jy8ei8

I've already found some tiny things like very tiny texturing issues (especially in my area), not to mention EmericaSkater's comment about the bed and couch is bugging me, but I'm resisting going back and fixing them, unless there's some super game breaking bug, which I doubt. Probably should have spent more time in my section and less time in others'  ::)

I was about to ask where the last secret is, but I found it with the search function in Mister Sinister's section. The ladder is glitchy and I would have liked to make the steps invisible as well  :-\
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: quakis on 27 July 2012, 15:30:50
Good job everyone, especially Forge & Micky C working their butts off solving problems and getting the map polished up!
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Merlijn on 27 July 2012, 16:40:50
Yes, good job everyone! It's nice to see this one released. Don't worry too much about the delay, it always happens with larger projects.
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 27 July 2012, 20:31:00
Quote from: quakis on  27 July 2012, 15:30:50
Good job everyone, especially Forge & Micky C working their butts off solving problems and getting the map polished up!

and good job to you for all that testing, tuning, and the nice touches you added

and to Merlijn for taking up where WG left off
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Micky C on 28 July 2012, 14:49:12
Indeed, people seem to love the map.

I was wondering, how come the suburban hive maps didn't have a CBP # prefix?
Title: Re: Beta testing/final polishing
Post by: Forge on 28 July 2012, 15:22:51
IIRC correctly the first suburban hive was supposed to be called 2HCBP-2, but the project leader and a couple other mappers involved in the project decided that the acronym names were too dull and wouldn't attract players or separate itself from the rest of the CBPs. Eventually they gave it a normal map name, and the second suburban hive map was basically the same people with the same 2 hour limit so they just followed up with the previous title idea.