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  #21  
Old 10-11-2012, 04:22 PM
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Originally Posted by --BulletMagnet-- View Post
I've had the privilege of playing the mod for a while now, and I must say... it's absolutely brilliant. Folks, if you haven't tried it yet, you MUST. In terms of working with what you have, it's the best mod for any game that I've ever played.

The environments/maps are perfect and designed with extreme attention to detail. The zombies are believable and behave just as you would expect. Without spoiling too much, I'll just say that you must kill them in the way you would expect to kill zombies, and the runners will scare the **** out of ya. The sounds fit extremely well with the maps and help create a believable apocalypse-type environment. I never played the original NSO mod (big mistake, obviously), so I'm not sure if the weapons are new to this mod or were included with the original NSO, but they're all very fun to control and can be very zombie-effective.

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
I do have a few *minor* complaints. Namely, the flare-throwing zombies make gameplay incredibly difficult in spots, especially since the environments are too dark to spot them. The experience does add to the thrill since you are temporarily blinded, only to have your vision clear up and see a drooling freak right in your face. However, the fact that these affect your health is a bit too much, IMO. I'm tempted to rob the .mis files and remove them myself so I can actually finish a mission (yes, in 2 hours of gameplay, I've yet to finish "First Encounter"). The menu graphics and such are great, but the contrast is hard to make out in some areas (such as the briefings). Finally, I believe the storyline could have used a bit more depth. An instant, city-wide outbreak after a crash and subsequent random herds doesn't interest me as much as a developing storyline.
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***

Overall, the environments, sounds, zombies, etc. all combine to create a thrilling experience that truly leaves you feeling overwhelmed and fighting for survival. I was legitimately scared throughout most of my gameplay.

P.S.: Leave the cars alone.
Really? scared? Wow sounds good, just have to check it out soon but don't want to install TS at the moment because I get editor errors when medp1bck.mis and medp2bck.mis get mixed up, I am still working on a map
in BHD vanilla so when that is done I will go through the process of installing the game again.
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  #22  
Old 10-11-2012, 05:38 PM
Baldo_the_Don is offline Baldo_the_Don
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BulletMagnet has made my entire week. That review has made me very, very happy. From a die-hard DF2 fan, no less.

The map "First Encounter" was created by Getbacjack, and although I have tweaked events and enemies a good amount, I only made two slight but important additions to the actual construction. I'm privileged to be surrounded by creative geniuses, as far as mapping is concerned.

We all want story, especially if it's good, and I hope we can deliver that. That's why we agonized over a release with an unfinished campaign for so long.

The new weapon models are all NSO mod originals, but I've tweaked perfomance on them quite extensively. All the sight targas are made by me, although most are adaptations of ShadowZ's aesthetics. I like greenish luminescent sight highlights, he likes red.

Apropos green/red, I was well aware that the red text themes I wanted for the menus might anger some color-blind players, and the briefing text IS a bit unclear, though I'm used to it by now. Maybe I could make the briefing text a bit brighter? I could wedge a darker background under the text, but I'd hate to obscure that screen background image. Feel free to suggest improvements.

Suggestion: next mission you play in the mod, press F6 to turn on the health bar. I want to know if players like it or not. I love it.

And not just DL missions, I mean ANY mission, I tried quite hard to make the mod compatible with the original BHD and TS campaigns. I think NSO maps should work fine as well. I'd have to check to make sure, though.
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  #23  
Old 10-11-2012, 09:29 PM
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Dear Baldo

Going by that review I'd say the Hair Farmer did a pretty good job (J/K)
I am sure I'll enjoy it and more so if I can map in it successfully, I hope you don't find my comments unfavorable in any way and I apologize if I have offended in any way at all because I clearly understand the effort you would have put into this project and for that I am always grateful (for your continued interest in the series) as will many. I downloaded it the first day by the way but it will have to just wait a little while longer in my case.

Your vast knowledge of the subject is obvious and I am very pleased to have met you here. You have helped and guided myself and others and it is always a pleasure to communicate with you.
Thank You Mate
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  #24  
Old 10-12-2012, 12:12 AM
--BulletMagnet-- is offline --BulletMagnet--
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Baldo, I'll give some more insight/suggestions tomorrow. I keep forgetting this is a beta release and the campaign may not be finished.

Stompem, why not install a second copy of BHD/TS to play the mod? I always do that and keep a vanilla, bare-bones copy for making maps.
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  #25  
Old 10-12-2012, 02:56 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by --BulletMagnet-- View Post
Baldo, I'll give some more insight/suggestions tomorrow. I keep forgetting this is a beta release and the campaign may not be finished.

Stompem, why not install a second copy of BHD/TS to play the mod? I always do that and keep a vanilla, bare-bones copy for making maps.
As far as I know: One install of the program per user is all the license allows and BHDTS must be installed in conjunction with a licensed BHD existing install.
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  #26  
Old 10-12-2012, 05:43 AM
Baldo_the_Don is offline Baldo_the_Don
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stompem View Post
Dear Baldo

Going by that review I'd say the Hair Farmer did a pretty good job (J/K)
I am sure I'll enjoy it and more so if I can map in it successfully, I hope you don't find my comments unfavorable in any way and I apologize if I have offended in any way at all because I clearly understand the effort you would have put into this project and for that I am always grateful (for your continued interest in the series) as will many. I downloaded it the first day by the way but it will have to just wait a little while longer in my case.

Your vast knowledge of the subject is obvious and I am very pleased to have met you here. You have helped and guided myself and others and it is always a pleasure to communicate with you.
Thank You Mate
One thing that's always annoyed me about the MED is the haphazard item names. You open the Insert Items dialog, select Markers and Area Trigger is right there at the top, Waypoint is at the bottom. Select Decorations and the chain link fences are not 8 ft. and 16 ft. sections, they're 8m and 16m. Some effect decorations are invisible in the MED if you don't activate the Collision Models check box. All those items items that have a w at the end of their names. Two Sister Buildings, but which is the PSP? And why are the wall sections scattered all over the list?

I renamed every item in the items.def and they all list a bit more coherently in the MED now. I'll attach some screen shots...

And I honestly can't figure out what you're apologizing for, stomps. I suspect that even if I were a bit more paranoid and egocentric, I could take your comments as at best reserved, at worst skeptical, but offensive?

Tell you this way: since I noticed the misnamed Little Bird while making screen shots to show you the improved MED item listing in the mod, I'm going to add your name to the thanks list screen. That's how much you've offended me, good sir!

May this be a lesson to you on netiquette. Or modiquette.

Have I mentioned I'm a bit insomnial?
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  #27  
Old 10-12-2012, 09:42 AM
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Thank you Baldo and I also propose that these gatherings of ideas and cooperation represent all that is good about what we do.

Last edited by Guest001; 10-12-2012 at 11:05 AM.
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  #28  
Old 10-12-2012, 09:49 AM
--BulletMagnet-- is offline --BulletMagnet--
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@Stompem, can't you simply install BHD, then make another copy of the BHD folder and rename it to something like "BHD - Clean" and use that as your vanilla install? Then, when you install TS and all your mods, they'll default to the original BHD directory and your clean one is left untouched.

@Baldo, would you care to provide a bit of info or an explanation on the flare-throwing zombies? They're currently the only thing still haunting my experience.
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  #29  
Old 10-12-2012, 11:06 AM
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Err, sry, what about the registry or am I missing something
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  #30  
Old 10-12-2012, 01:13 PM
Baldo_the_Don is offline Baldo_the_Don
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Quote:
Originally Posted by --BulletMagnet-- View Post
@Stompem, can't you simply install BHD, then make another copy of the BHD folder and rename it to something like "BHD - Clean" and use that as your vanilla install? Then, when you install TS and all your mods, they'll default to the original BHD directory and your clean one is left untouched.

@Baldo, would you care to provide a bit of info or an explanation on the flare-throwing zombies? They're currently the only thing still haunting my experience.
The important stuff on Flamers:

"DL infected flamer"
hp 333 <- See below.
armor 35 35
ammo_closeattack AMMO_flame_AI
ammo_easyrocket AMMO_flame_AI
ammo_advancedrocket AMMO_flame_AI
ammo_marker3 AMMO_flame_AI
fire_timer 9
max_attack_dist 22
min_engagement_dist 9
max_engagement_dist 99

ammo AMMO_Flame_AI
max_age 1.5
velocity 30 <- That's hand grenade speed.
flag NoGravity <- All AI ammos in mods I work on have no gravity.
secondary_anim 2 <- This makes targets act flash-bangy.
impact_damage 1
kz_damage 4
kz_minradius .1
kz_maxradius .1
impact_AI_damage 1
kz_AI_damage 8 <- AHAH! I believe this should also be 4. My bad.

NSODL mod AI hp values:
Minimal hp for AIs = 100
RAGE AI = 100
Fast zombie = 111
Flamer = 333
Slow and Crawler zombie = 666 hp
Hunter = 999
Infected teammates = 1111
Abomination = 6666

So, Flamers take a lot of damage, and having 35 35 armor means they're immune to other AIs (that are not on emplaced weapons), and are only stunned, not damaged, by the player's flamethrower.

Look at those hp values and know that in this mod, if you are not aiming for the head, you are wasting your ammo.

There's a learning curve. We, the Deadline team, are asking a lot of players and mappers, but there is method to the madness, and I've found the method very rewarding. Punch a slow zombie in the head three times (74 damage each), you'll see what I mean.

WARNING: the knife does 55 damage between .8 and .9m in this mod (zombies' killzone = 16 damage between .8 and .9m), not 300 damage between 1.5 and 2.75m like the original game. My reason for this is simple. The knife's ammo is a killzone, you cannot aim for the head with it, and I don't think forcing players to knife other players twice is too much to demand. CQBs are the only ones that can punch...

I really need to work up a guide, don't I?
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  #31  
Old 10-12-2012, 01:29 PM
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Information overload for me, my learning curve will be a figure of 8
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  #32  
Old 10-13-2012, 09:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by --BulletMagnet-- View Post
@Stompem, can't you simply install BHD, then make another copy of the BHD folder and rename it to something like
"BHD - Clean" and use that as your vanilla install? Then, when you install TS and all your mods, they'll default to the
original BHD directory and your clean one is left untouched.
What if I make 3 shortcuts to the med, each one with a different switch?
Can it run all the products separately or is med.pff in the main folder changed by the installers?
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  #33  
Old 10-13-2012, 09:27 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Baldo_the_Don View Post
One thing that's always annoyed me about the MED is the haphazard item names. You open the Insert Items dialog, select Markers and Area Trigger is right there at the top, Waypoint is at the bottom. Select Decorations and the chain link fences are not 8 ft. and 16 ft. sections, they're 8m and 16m. Some effect decorations are invisible in the MED if you don't activate the Collision Models check box. All those items items that have a w at the end of their names. Two Sister Buildings, but which is the PSP? And why are the wall sections scattered all over the list?

I renamed every item in the items.def and they all list a bit more coherently in the MED now. I'll attach some screen shots...
Will this work for vanilla bhd?
Would I be able to test-drive this editor restructure?
I promise to put my foot down and run it through it's paces.
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  #34  
Old 10-13-2012, 01:50 PM
Baldo_the_Don is offline Baldo_the_Don
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stompem View Post
What if I make 3 shortcuts to the med, each one with a different switch?
Can it run all the products separately or is med.pff in the main folder changed by the installers?
The med.pff is completely untouched by my mods. The various .bin files I edited and the items.def are all contained in the mod .pff, and like the game, will not be accessed without the /mod NSODL tag.

Quote:
Originally Posted by stompem View Post
Will this work for vanilla bhd?
Would I be able to test-drive this editor restructure?
I promise to put my foot down and run it through it's paces.
I'm fairly certain that all NSO and NSODL items are named as such and are easy to avoid when intending to make a vanilla DFBHDTS map. (TS items... I could go through and name them as TS items, but I hadn't though of it yet.)

WARNING: I edited up a new entry for a Little Bird that is NOT NoDie. That IS a mod item, but I forgot to mark it.

There may be issues with the extra waypoint names I added (Able, Baker, Cancer, Dog and Easy) but nothing game crashing, I don't think. I also renamed waypoint "null" to "Unnamed", but I believe a waypoint named "Unnamed" in the MED running any of my mods will either revert to "null" in vanilla DFBHD or simply display nothing.

I went through great lengths to make sure original DFBHD and TS items remained intact, if I didn't improve them, and took much care in choosing item ID numbers.

Personally, I make maps pretty much only in the consumer MED running my mod. I've yet to experience anything too annoying.
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  #35  
Old 10-13-2012, 06:38 PM
--BulletMagnet-- is offline --BulletMagnet--
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FINALLY finished "First Encounter." What a rush!
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  #36  
Old 11-13-2012, 10:30 AM
grenadier501 is offline grenadier501
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The gamefront's file store policy has changed, and due to inactivity the file were removed from gamefront

However the Novahq link is still up

Quote:
Originally Posted by --BulletMagnet-- View Post
FINALLY finished "First Encounter." What a rush!
I can't finish that map due to Sysdump at the middle of the game.
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  #37  
Old 11-13-2012, 07:35 PM
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Originally Posted by grenadier501 View Post
The gamefront's file store policy has changed, and due to inactivity the file were removed from gamefront

However the Novahq link is still up



I can't finish that map due to Sysdump at the middle of the game.
Does Gamefront notify the up-loader of the stored files that they will remove it? Do they have a retrieval system. If not it stinks and nobody should use them.
People should use other services that do not have such arbitrary and disruptive policies.
There are plenty.
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  #38  
Old 11-14-2012, 06:44 AM
Baldo_the_Don is offline Baldo_the_Don
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grenadier501 View Post
The gamefront's file store policy has changed, and due to inactivity the file were removed from gamefront

However the Novahq link is still up

Quote:
Originally Posted by --BulletMagnet-- View Post
FINALLY finished "First Encounter." What a rush!
I can't finish that map due to Sysdump at the middle of the game.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stompem View Post
Does Gamefront notify the up-loader of the stored files that they will remove it? Do they have a retrieval system. If not it stinks and nobody should use them.
People should use other services that do not have such arbitrary and disruptive policies.
There are plenty.
I just checked the GameFront link, I can still access the download. I don't know what happening to you there.

As for the sysdump, can you send me a PM with some details? Maybe I can figure out what's going wrong.

GameFront's upload policy seems cool enough to me. I uploaded the NSODLb_Install.exe as a guest, I have not started an account there. They explain in the GBP* that after (I think) two weeks of constant inactivity, the URL is deactivated, (the upload may be preserved for later claiming or something, I misremember that part) although if I created an account, nothing I upload would be deleted, and I could even submit the mod for promotion by GameFront, if I liked.

I had no intention of keeping GameFront as a download source forever anyway, and if the downloads keep happening, the URL will remain active. What I had hoped would happen - NovaLogic fan sites getting the beta from GameFront and offering it for download themselves - did indeed happen, so that's all fine with me, and no one else on the team's objected to my method of madness.

I'm in the process of decompressing. Getting the NSODL into the shape it's in now was taxing. Strangely, I find editing the NSO, TIO and Deep Jungle mods relaxing. I've done some fun stuff with 'em.

Some bugs I've already addressed in the NSODL. I'm still gathering info on other bugs. I have not yet done what I really need to do, though: Edit the .wac files for the campaign missions and fix the coop maps' .wacs. I get tired just thinking about it.

Tony's been busy with real life, too, but when the stars align, he'll get some maps done, and I'll get some other things done, and we'll be out of beta.



*I can't recall off the top of my head what the Allgemeine Gesch
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  #39  
Old 11-14-2012, 06:45 AM
Baldo_the_Don is offline Baldo_the_Don
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grenadier501 View Post
The gamefront's file store policy has changed, and due to inactivity the file were removed from gamefront

However the Novahq link is still up

Quote:
Originally Posted by --BulletMagnet-- View Post
FINALLY finished "First Encounter." What a rush!
I can't finish that map due to Sysdump at the middle of the game.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stompem View Post
Does Gamefront notify the up-loader of the stored files that they will remove it? Do they have a retrieval system. If not it stinks and nobody should use them.
People should use other services that do not have such arbitrary and disruptive policies.
There are plenty.
I just checked the GameFront link, I can still access the download. I don't know what happening to you there.

As for the sysdump, can you send me a PM with some details? Maybe I can figure out what's going wrong.

GameFront's upload policy seems cool enough to me. I uploaded the NSODLb_Install.exe as a guest, I have not started an account there. They explain in the GBP* that after (I think) two weeks of constant inactivity, the URL is deactivated, (the upload may be preserved for later claiming or something, I misremember that part) although if I created an account, nothing I upload would be deleted, and I could even submit the mod for promotion by GameFront, if I liked.

I had no intention of keeping GameFront as a download source forever anyway, and if the downloads keep happening, the URL will remain active. What I had hoped would happen - NovaLogic fan sites getting the beta from GameFront and offering it for download themselves - did indeed happen, so that's all fine with me, and no one else on the team's objected to my method of madness.

I'm in the process of decompressing. Getting the NSODL into the shape it's in now was taxing. Strangely, I find editing the NSO, TIO and Deep Jungle mods relaxing. I've done some fun stuff with 'em.

Some bugs I've already addressed in the NSODL. I'm still gathering info on other bugs. I have not yet done what I really need to do, though: Edit the .wac files for the campaign missions and fix the coop maps' .wacs. I get tired just thinking about it.

Tony's been busy with real life, too, but when the stars align, he'll get some maps done, and I'll get some other things done, and we'll be out of beta.



*I can't recall off the top of my head what the Allgemeine Geschaeftsbedingungen is called in english, so I'm assuming it's General Business Policy.

Or this: http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/...dingungen.html
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  #40  
Old 11-14-2012, 07:52 AM
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Terms of sale
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