Darwinia

[Nuick]

Okay, this is a short campaign I've created. It may be slightly buggy as it hasn't been tested by anyone other than me but not many mods are around so I’d thought I’d release it now. I haven't tried it on Mac or Linux so I don't know if it will run but it is pretty processor light. Feel free to tell me about any problems if you play it and I’ll try and fix them.


I've had to upload it on Rapidshare as I don’t have any web space myself and didn't want to email it to NextGame until some other people had played it and identified any problems.

Colour

Edit: Reuploaded to make it actually playable.

Last edited by Nuick on Fri Jul 01, 2005 12:49 pm; edited 2 times in total

[trickfred]

Well, right off the bat, you can skip the 2nd and 3rd islands in the 1st level, and dish to the second last island.

Edit: How come I'm getting yelled at for just doing what I was told? :)

Edit2: The Eng, I understand, but why start the user off with squads in level 2 if they have access to a control tower?

Edit3: You could probably put a whole lot more enemies in level 2.

Edit4: Your SafeArea is set to InvalidType, not Engineer, and you should probably have it encompass the whole generator, not just the control tower next to it.

Edit5: Dude, you've got to spell/punctuation/grammar check. Also, probably not a good idea to split up your sentences and have a CamMove 10 in between parts. Just feels a little disjointed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm liking it so far, just... as TGF would (and will probably) say, 'Polish, polish!'

[xander]

I was going to post, but trickfred got just about everything. Screenshot (in case you care).

trickfred wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I'm liking it so far, just... as TGF would (and will probably) say, 'Polish, polish!'

Polish polish? What does an eastern European country have to do with Darwinia?

xander

EDIT: In encampment, the red DGs have 'nades and lasers, while the green DGs have nothing (as far as I know, there is no way to take the lasers and 'nades away) This means that by the time an officer can get there from the other side of the map, too many DGs are dead. I have tried going directly there with a squad, killing nothing on the way, and I tried engineer fishing to get the research to get the DGs to safety. What I have discovered is that about the only way to finish the level is to get a squad over there, grab the research cube, reset the level, start over by immediately moving the green DGs away, and then start moving them over with a squad escort. Is this the way that you intended people to play the level?

Last edited by xander on Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:09 pm; edited 1 time in total

[xyzyxx]

xander wrote:

I was going to post, but trickfred got just about everything. Screenshot (in case you care). trickfred wrote: Don't get me wrong, I'm liking it so far, just... as TGF would (and will probably) say, 'Polish, polish!' Polish polish? What does an eastern European country have to do with Darwinia? xander

*shakes head in disappointment*

[trickfred]

xander: BOO.

Yeah, so, level 4, again, skip 2 islands with dish.

Edit: What an atypical ending. Nice, short mod.

[redcords]

hmm on level 3 - backup i reprogrammed the control tower next to the generator with the starting engineer before i got the engineer program (which was a secondary objective). was i supposed to reprogram it with 3 engineers at once or am i missing something obvious? seems like i have to start again.

[trickfred]

redcords wrote:

hmm on level 3 - backup i reprogrammed the control tower next to the generator with the starting engineer before i got the engineer program (which was a secondary objective). was i supposed to reprogram it with 3 engineers at once or am i missing something obvious? seems like i have to start again.

trickfred wrote:

Edit4: Your SafeArea is set to InvalidType, not Engineer, and you should probably have it encompass the whole generator, not just the control tower next to it.

What you needed to do, was have 3 Engineers within a SafeArea around the Control Tower next to the Generator - but the SafeArea was improperly set up - if you know how to use the Map Editor, go in and fix it yourself, then you can finish the mod.

[redcords]

thanks trickfred, i'd seen those comments but didn't realise the implication.

nice ending.

[Nuick]

Thanks for the replies people.

I thought it was pointless trying to get other people to test secretly as not many people will play the mod anyway so I thought I'd just throw it open. You're right about polish, but you become immune to bugs the more you play a level and become kind of blind to them.

The dishes in the first level I knew were a bit dodgy but it's difficult to orientate them perfectly in such a small map with so many dish so I thought I'd let people skip the islands if they want. I figured if people want to play the mod they won't try and use shortcuts as they will be playing for enjoyment. Thanks for spotting it though.

The safe area in Backup was working for me. I don't know what's happened there. Originally getting an engineer to the control tower completed the level but you needed an engineer to get the research cube therefore negating the need for the research.

I've completed level three numerous times without cheating. You won't get there before the ambush but due to AITargets it takes ages for them to reduce the remaining Darwinians below 40. It's best to take five squad around the islands from the beginning.

I'll have a look at the grammar and the problems a bit later see where I've gone wrong. Cheers.

Edit: Your totally right about the SafeArea. It's strange because I've completed the level numerous times. Either I accidentally changed it or Darwinia's messing with my mind.

[trickfred]

Nuick wrote:

Thanks for the replies people. I thought it was pointless trying to get other people to test secretly as not many people will play the mod anyway so I thought I'd just throw it open. You're right about polish, but you become immune to bugs the more you play a level and become kind of blind to them.

I hear you about the 'blind to bugs' part. And if you ever want someone to have a go at your mod[s], if I'm around and have time, I volunteer. I've run through a few now for people, just helping them catch stuff they may have missed, and I'm definitely having someone go through my next 2 mods. :)

Nuick wrote:

The dishes in the first level I knew were a bit dodgy but it's difficult to orientate them perfectly in such a small map with so many dish so I thought I'd let people skip the islands if they want. I figured if people want to play the mod they won't try and use shortcuts as they will be playing for enjoyment. Thanks for spotting it though.

My philosophy in life, and in gaming, is that if there are two ways to do something, and the results are the same, always pick the easier way. :) Just drop a land tile in the path of the Radar Dishes on the 1st and 4th islands; make sure it's tall enough to hinder a beam.

Nuick wrote:

I've completed level three numerous times without cheating. You won't get there before the ambush but due to AITargets it takes ages for them to reduce the remaining Darwinians below 40. It's best to take five squad around the islands from the beginning.

I also got there lightning fast with one Squad, and only had lost a few DGs by the time I got there. Getting them all back in one piece was a pain in the ass though; the hardest part of the mod. :)

Nuick wrote:

I'll have a look at the grammar and the problems a bit later see where I've gone wrong. Cheers.

Easy way: Word processor with Spell/Grammar checker. Or some Grammar Nazi on the forums may help you with it if you ask nicely. :)

Nuick wrote:

Edit: Your totally right about the SafeArea. Can you complete the level with it set as InvalidType? I have completed the level numerous times so either its changed to InvalidType without me realising or it's always been set to InvalidType and I've just missed it.

Well, I was confused as to what to do at the end of that level - the description could use a little fine-tuning - adding some help to that objective would be good too - so I popped into the level editor to see what you had wanted me to do, and saw the SafeArea was wrong. It won't finish as InvalidType; I had 2 Engs by the Tower before I went into the Map Editor, and the objective count still read 0.

Good mod though - are you planning on continuing it? DGs abroad in the unknown void - cool premise. :)

Last edited by trickfred on Fri Jul 01, 2005 11:15 am; edited 1 time in total

[redcords]

Nuick wrote:

Edit: Your totally right about the SafeArea. Can you complete the level with it set as InvalidType? I have completed the level numerous times so either its changed to InvalidType without me realising or it's always been set to InvalidType and I've just missed it.

i couldn't i'd guess it was accidentally changed at some point and not played through after that.

overall i enjoyed it, imo you could've put 2-3 times number of virii/spiders/etc on most of the levels (basically those without triffids).

also i thought there were a number of camera angles/movements in the intros and the end that were well done.

edit:
xander said encampment was tricky but i had no problems, got there in plenty of time and got 92 back to the trunk port.

Last edited by redcords on Fri Jul 01, 2005 11:18 am; edited 1 time in total

[trickfred]

redcords wrote:

also i thought there were a number of camera angles/movements in the intros and the end that were well done.

I should have mentioned that too. Sounds like I was just picking on you. Your cutscenes were awesome. :) And the end was very mixed-feeling.

[Nuick]

Hey don't worry about criticising it. That's the whole point.

I bought the game when it came out and have occasionally been using the editor since then to test things out and mess about. Due to the lack of mods about and a bit of free time I'd thought I'd tie together the levels and release it as a mod with a storyline. I've had a quick peak at the other mods and they're mighty impressive but I've never been a fan of Psychedelic lighting or epic battles so I tried to do something a bit different. You can actually tell that the levels were actually just part of learning to use different parts of the editor.

I absolutely detest the backup level. It seemed like a good idea but it wasn't and that's probably why its a mess and light on enemies. Encampment is the only level which is a challenge partly because I have a slow computer so didn't want to cripple it with too many enemies.

I've checked the grammar quite a few times and the only dodgy bits I've been able to find is misspelling defences once and using the word renderers. There aren't meant to be fullstops apart from at the end of speech, if there are any more which I've over looked please tell me. I've got blind to the script and animations which is probably why you find them choppy and I didn't notice.

I'm sure you can tell the ending is a stripped down version of the Siege Mod. It was originally just a test to see how the Green Darwinians react and spread out when attacked.

If anyone finds anymore problems please post them. I'll probably update it once to try and iron out a few of the bugs (especially the Engineers) and then let it be.

[xander]

Okay, I just suck at encampment... I think part of the problem that I was having was due to low framerates -- big levels with lots of AIs tend to bog the Mac down quite a bit.

:P

xander

[hitm4n]

Was this mod ever fixed ? Did Nuick or someone else do it, and has anyone got it to send me ?? Thanks if you can help.