Test Facility Map - A few Quake editing questions

[damage_inc]

Hehe, thanks for the "drive by" encouragement Helloween as I NEED it! You see, I'm not a very "creative" person so it's a struggle, but I like trying.

See ya 'round the forums,
- damage_

[MadGypsy]

Not very creative? I am hella creative and I think your room looks great! I like how you mixed up the textures and the overall shape of the volume.

GJ!

[damage_inc]

Not very creative? I am hella creative and I think your room looks great! I like how you mixed up the textures and the overall shape of the volume.

GJ!

Thanks GJ, although I think you are being too kind

I figure that even if it takes me a month or so I'll get it eventually, and it will forever change the Quake community as we know as it will be a revelation in mapping and gaming... errr maybe NOT! Hahahaha

I just have to plow through the first one, I'll be okay.

[damage_inc]

Got a chance to edit a lil' more. Here's the result:

[MadGypsy]

lol, you pin-striped Quake - that's pretty funny. It looks good though, man. Keep it up, bro.

[Syluxguy28O3]

snazzy!

[damage_inc]

Okay maybe someone here can answer this:

How do you put in monsters but not have them attack you on sight? Is it a Quake C kinda thing?

I played a level once where an orge was trapped in a box and I could just go around and look at him. Eventually I hit a button and he was free! Free to KILL that is

I tried a clip brush, nope. Then I made the clip brush a func_wall, ahhh... do not do that :-P Game(DP's) crash. Lastly, I gave the orge a name and assigned a trigger_once his name, yes.. prolly stupid but it sorta works that way for doors!!! I searched google quite a bit but maybe I didn't search with the correct terms.

Anyways, any help out there??? Thanks in advance,
- damage_

[MadGypsy]

ahhh... do not do that :-P

that's funny.

I'm thinking QC is your only hope, unless someone knows a cvar or something.

probably the easiest way would be to set up a TRUE/FALSE switch when you type impulse 13. This switch will set a global var of whether enemies are friendly. You could maybe even link it directly to the ai somewhere to stop it from attacking

...this would probably work (untested speculation):

set up the switch:

at the end of defs.qc

float FRIENDLY = 0;

in weapons QC at line 1242 add

if(self.impulse == 12)
    CycleWeaponReverseCommand();
if(self.impulse == 13)
{
    if(!FRIENDLY)
        FRIENDLY = TRUE;
    else
        FRIENDLY = FALSE;
}
if(self.impulse==255)
    QuadCheat();

and in AI.qc change line 414 to

if(!FRIENDLY)
{
    Foundtarget();
    return TRUE;
}
else
    return FALSE;

I think that will do it bro. I believe that will make it to where, no matter how much enemies find you, they wont do anything about it if FRIENDLY is true. You could set up something in tandem with this for HARMED.

you would have to go to every enemy and set a .max_health field in that enemies self named function.
simply put self.max_health = self.health; right after (ex) self.health = 300; on every monster.

you would also have to add to defs.qc

.float max_health; 
float HARMED = 0;

finally you would change FindTarget to

if(self.health < self.max_health)
    HARMED = TRUE;
if (!FRIENDLY || HARMED)
{
    HARMED = FALSE;
    FoundTarget()
    return TRUE;
}
else
    return FALSE;

this is still all a big guess, but imma say that this will allow monsters to find you even if they are friendly once you have harmed them. You should immediately set HARMED back to 0 (FALSE), so the switch is off for the next monsters you encounter.

[damage_inc]

MadGypsy, thanks for the qC idea but I should have stated this needs to be an "in editor" thing only! I'm trying to only deliver a working .bsp for people load to view their "changed" content! Would be difficult if the user was required to load "my" progs.dat. Sorry 'bout that.

I have saved what you wrote for a possible future mod idea. Now, I did find something that Baker has posted about in several different 'boards. Here it is:

create a room >
divide room in two with a brush(grid 1 thickness) >
turn brush into "func_wall" >
apply a "skip" texture to the side "you" will see through >
add monster to side you are not in >
compile map >
run Tyrann's remove_skip utility on your .bsp >
good to go

Load it up and check it out.

I did a normal brush thickness(16 or 32) and only certain weapons shot through it. But the grid 1 thickness worked good and no matter how I shot at him, he didn't attack. He would approach me close, and I even could hit him with the axe, but he never attacked.

I only did the one test sooo, I don't know of any side effects yet. If so, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it

ALSO, for those who may not know, as I didn't, a "func_wall" can be given an "alpha" key with a value of say ".4" and it will be transparent. At least in Dark Places it is. I read other engines support this as well. Kinda neat.

As far as the level's progress is concerned... I have all working air lifts that carry you to temporary placeholder rooms. I still have a little more design work in the main area before I start texturing and lighting it. Then I'll just "dump" the items into each designated location and see if someone wants to test it out. If all goes well I could see this done in 2, maybe 3, more weeks!

- damage_

[MadGypsy]

viewthing() is another option. sorta. Also, you should use newskip.exe.

[damage_inc]

viewthing() is another option. sorta. Also, you should use newskip.exe.

NOW you tell me And with no link mind you, thanks alot man :-P hehe

Found it:
README
FILE

[MadGypsy]

I just made this mod. I was very close.

[damage_inc]

I was just testing it some more... this is going to flesh out pretty well

You air lift into "The Petting Zoo"... where all the monsters are locked in their "cells", behind forcefields. With you being safe from harm, you can shoot 'em like fish in a barrel. But what fun is that... okay, that would be fun too

But, since you're packing all the heat from the "Heavy Weapons and Ammo" area just next door... there'll be a LIVE DEMONstration area where you can teleport the monsters to and go at it "mano a mano" Now we're talking fun.

How's that sound??? I think it's gonna be really cool when I'm finished. If not, at least I know I did something that was slightly original and maybe helpful too.

- damage_

[damage_inc]

For this update I'll mention that progress is well... once again, a mixed bag!

In the beginning, it's simple! But once you get, roughly, a few thousand solids it gets more interesting... design wise! RULES of map making come into play for sure! So it's been more about research lately for me. On quite a few fronts as well.


This weekend was the first time I used different engines for the "test facility" map... for some reason a couple just outright crashed back to the desktop. I think it was on both OS's but I truly can't remember. I have sooo many Quake directories and custom installations it's hard to remember correctly with all the switching and stuff. The only ones I can truly remember were ezquake and quakespasm, which both did not like with my level at all At first I thought it was the transparent brush and/or skip texture feature but I removed those and it still happened! I'll figure that out later if possible. This is my first level so I'm not gonna scrap it and start over.

EDIT: I just tried several engines again and I guess the latest map build causes no problems! hrmmm... must have been me, such a newbie!

Snag two and three: Only Dark Places let's you shoot through "skip" textured surfaces and the transparent brush work is only a feature in a few engines. I really like the transparency but meh... I can let it go.

MadGypsy tested it out for me so I at least know it plays on someone else's computer just fine That's great to know and now I can move on to easier area's to map out.

No new screenies but, still having a blast making this and I get new idea's for it as I go along, hopefully I'll get this out and it'll be fun just to play around with Quake in a lighthearted check out some stuff type way? If that makes any sense!!!

Until next time*,
- damage_

*when I promise to have awesome stuff to update about, hehe :-P

[damage_inc]

Update, I SUCK at level editing! Here's my "progress", if I can call it that. I'm gonna finish this regardless of time and/or the lack of skill/creativity. I just wanted to post something as it's been over a MONTH, ouch