Darwinia

[Ben_Impinge]

Hey I'm building a new mod called WWW (World Wide Web), you take the role of the NADED clan/tribe fighting off the DUCOS clan/tribe in your effort to break Sepulveda's firewall and populate the internet.

Its goin to be a very long mod hopefully as I have many ideas involving storyline etc. Anyone interesting in testing for me? Need people to play and generally give me feedback etc.

If so mission it over to http://wwwmod.impinge.co.uk

Thanks a lot!

-Ben

[xander]

I am perfectly willing to help out a bit (in my oh so ubiquitos free time...); post an archive here, I will play through, and offer comments here. Does that work for you?

xander

[jaysc]

I'll help. It will give me some things to do.

Jaysc

[martin]

I'll help. I'll magically produce some more spare time to fill.

[Ben_Impinge]

Ok atm you can get the intro and an EARLY first level, I just wanted to see if you liked the story and my level design so far.
I only did it today so there are stupid n00b spelling mistakes
Oh and on Prep create an engineer, I made those too.
This is my first mod ever so any comments would be great

You can dl it here: http://wwwmod.impinge.co.uk/WWWAlpha01.zip

[xander]

A few comments right off the bat:

1) Spelling and grammar. Not a big deal, as the mod isn't even finished, but you may want to keep on top of spelling and grammar starting now, so that you don't have to go through 1000 lines of text fixing errors.

e) In the script revolution_intro.txt, you never reset the camera. The player is left orbitting Darwinia forever. It requires a restart to regain camera control. Put a CamReset command in at the end.

pi) There is an unlinked ControlTower in Prep. When the player captures it, it will cause Darwinia to crash. You probably want to fix that.

4) Team 0 (green, or blue in your mod) DGs have no weapons at the beginning. This may be what you intended, but (in my not so humble opinion) it is a bad idea to place SpawnPoints in a level when your DGs can't kill them. If it were me, I would give the player controlled DGs lasers, so that they can take the SpawnPoints, and defend them, without depending upon Squads. That, however, is a personal choice.

5) You need to through some strings into strings_default.txt for the primary objective in Prep. Right now, the objective is ERROR(null) because you are not refering it to any strings. Also, you should probably include a script that explains the objective (other than the intro script), so that people can click on the objective and see the script.

6) While the large fractal trees are nice, they tend to bog down many machines. I would suggest keeping them to 6 or fewwer itterations, and using them sparingly.

7) You don't need to include the languages/ directory. Darwinia will grab what it needs out of language.dat.

8) I notice that you are using several strings from Insurrection in strings_default.txt (the research strings, for instance; or the one Outroduction string). I know this seems petty, and it is only a minor thing, but if you are going to use my strings, please attribute them to me. You can do that by adding a commented line near the strings from Insurrection that reads something like "This text is (c) Alexander M. Henderson 2006" or some such. Again, I know it seems like a minor thing, but I feel that the research strings, while not part of the story, add to the general feeling of Insurrection. Rather than Dr. S telling you that he is upgrading a program, the computer is telling you that it is being upgraded. I think that it is a significant enough change to warrent credit (at least, if you are using the same strings).

9) I don't know if you plan to do this in the end, but Prep should probably not be available until after the player has hit Revolution. Put a SetMission line in the intro script, and you should be okay.

xander

[The GoldFish]

xander wrote:

8) I notice that you are using several strings from Insurrection

Interestingly, I have never found anyone using the strings file from Stricken. Ever. I'm not sure what to take from that, really!

Also; Might want to make that safe area at the end of prep global, and link that control tower to the one next to the starting trunk port (conviniently links it to something that it won't have any effect on so it won't crash)

Also

Consider actually supplying the water texture for prep with the package, as my original install from the CD doesn't include the demo2 water textures which you're using (They are included in the steam version, which I presume you're using then?)

That and what xander said.

[Ben_Impinge]

Can't reply with a decent reply yet as I've got to go out, thanks a lot for your comments. there's loads wrong with Prep its just the intro I wanted to know about really but what do you think of the level as it will be?

Any opinions on the story?

Damn! Forgot to take that out haha, I just used the insurection one as a quick template to do mine, I'm not using any of your stuff promise!

Thanks guys, will post up a newer version once Prep is done.

-Ben

[jaysc]

i know prep hasn't been finished yet but when i entered it, it crashed me out for no reason.

[The GoldFish]

that crash is caused by use of the demo2 water, hence my comments to it.

[thefrogger]

The story premise sounds promising. I hope you continue with it.

For anyone crashing on Prep due to the missing water texture, this is how you can get around it if you have Demo2 installed.

In the Demo2 directory, make a copy of main.dat and rename it main.rar. Now you can open the file as a RAR archive and grab the water_launchpad.bmp file from it. (I also grabbed waves_launchpad.bmp, but am not sure if it is needed).

Go to your Darwinia folder and make a "data" directory if there is not one already. Inside data, make a "terrain" folder. Copy the water file[s] into this folder, and Prep should run.

Is the objective in Prep completable? I could never get it to complete no matter how many DGs were around the trunk port, nor would the trunkport objective show complete even though all control towers except the one that crashes have been programmed.

BTW, there's little point in having a numbered DG objective in a level where spawn points continue to produce DGs. Obviously no skill involved in achieving a high number of them, so you might as well just make the objective to "get there".

I don't know if Control is supposed to be operational, or if it relies on completing Prep. It's empty when I go in there.

[xander]

thefrogger wrote:

Is the objective in Prep completable? I could never get it to complete no matter how many DGs were around the trunk port, nor would the trunkport objective show complete even though all control towers except the one that crashes have been programmed.

At the moment, no, you cannot complete the objective, because the SafeArea is not global. If the SafeArea is not global, it will not trigger scripts from game.txt or mission objectives.

thefrogger wrote:

BTW, there's little point in having a numbered DG objective in a level where spawn points continue to produce DGs. Obviously no skill involved in achieving a high number of them, so you might as well just make the objective to "get there".

Agreed.

xander

[Ben_Impinge]

Thanks a lot for your comments Frogger, sorry it is incredibly basic atm!

I've included the launchpad water textures that were missing in the newest version, and sorted out all the objectives.
I've also removed the control tower I placed by accident and reduced the trees some what.

As for the 350 Darwinians objective, I'm trying to limit the amount spawned at the spawn points to 300 overall, so that you must retain at least 50 from the beginning fights and souls collected. I may increase this to 400, so you have to retain 100, or even 450, what do you guys think?

Control is supposed to be blank, I have it planned on paper but just created it to link the trunkport on Prep for the time being.

I have the next level 'Alpha Hub' planned also, and an attack from Sepulveda which is prooving quite interesting. The dialogue between Mosian and Sepulveda is going nicely.

I think I have enough story to make a mod as long as the original game, with a plot that's good enough to keep you interested - twist(s) promised!

To Xander's post:
1) Spelling and grammar - fixed.
e) In the script revolution_intro.txt, you never reset the camera - fixed.
pi) There is an unlinked ControlTower in Prep - fixed.
4) Team 0 (green, or blue in your mod) DGs have no weapons at the beginning - fixed.
5) You need to through some strings into strings_default.txt - fixed.
6) While the large fractal trees are nice, they tend to bog down many machines - fixed.
7) You don't need to include the languages/ directory - fixed.
I notice that you are using several strings from Insurrection in strings_default.txt - sorted.
9) I don't know if you plan to do this in the end, but Prep should probably not be available until after the player has hit Revolution - fixed.
Thanks for those comments!!


I plan to release a quick second version of Prep for you to try, plus an improved introductory sequence with music tonight. If not I'll have it this weekend at some point.

Thanks again for all your comments!! Can't wait to hear what you think of the next version.

-Ben