Komag on 24/2/2005 at 07:34
I was just thinking, instead of us all looking forward to making bigger missions with no load zones, why not think about making FRICKIN HUGE campaigns with TONS of load zones?!
We could make campaigns like System Shock 2, where you can back to earlier sections, and have this huge interactive world where everything is dynamic depending on events that have taken place and what you've done so far. Basically, we could make something like the city in TDS, but with 20 or 40 zones, instead of 5 or 6 or whatever.
That might be a more constructive way to look at zones instead of just being "anti-loading-zones".
David on 24/2/2005 at 07:37
Yeah, and you can turn that damn fog off too.
Twist on 24/2/2005 at 07:39
Excellent idea!
But I'll worry about making a decent three-room mission first. :o :thumb:
And Komag: I noticed you already announced the first contest involving the new editor. That's great, of course, but I hope you'll still hold Dromed-oriented contests, too. :)
Forje on 24/2/2005 at 13:20
Quote Posted by Komag
I was just thinking, instead of us all looking forward to making bigger missions with no load zones, why not think about making FRICKIN HUGE campaigns with TONS of load zones?!
Yes, exactly! Thank you!
I've never quite had a full understanding of the load zone hatred. Sure, the "swirling mists" are pretty goofy to look at, (Is that what you mean by "fog", David? If that can be turned off, that's a big part of the issue solved) but, to me, load zones are pretty much like hitting "Esc" to pause, save or reload the game. You gotta get up to pee or eat or answer the phone
sometime, eh? Now if we can only get aggressive AI's to not be waiting for you at the zone when you come back through...
Besides, breaking missions/campaigns into smaller chunks this way will help those of us with 'puters that can only
passably play the T3 OMs, right?
sterlino on 24/2/2005 at 15:48
and may be a possible link with different missions made from different autors or not ?
In other words: for example a streetsign where you read: to The sevent crystal, to calendra city, etc... etc...
:D
Dark Arrow on 24/2/2005 at 16:13
[Big city idea]...which is exactly the reason why I was thinking of making a huge SS2 campaing a few months back. Multilevel system...*drool*
deadman on 24/2/2005 at 16:22
Quote Posted by Komag
We could make campaigns like System Shock 2, where you can back to earlier sections, and have this huge interactive world where everything is dynamic depending on events that have taken place and what you've done so far. Basically, we could make something like the city in TDS, but with 20 or 40 zones, instead of 5 or 6 or whatever.
The obvious problem I see with this is the same that would've applied could newcomers to DromEd actually carry out their too-ambitious FM ideas. Remember how just about all of us, at one time or another, dreamt up such amazingly vast and complex worlds, only to be brought back down to earth in the worst way imaginable (freefall without parachute :joke:) when we saw the limits, and quirks, of DromEd?
Anyway, something on the massive scale that you mention (I have only played a friend's copy of SS for a few minutes; I'm assuming this is similar to Half-Life with map chunks and load zones) would take much planning and development. It'd be somewhat of a damper on our 'parade' if we had to wait a few
years before getting any playable FMs (other than betatesters, who'd get to/have to run through these things countless times). My personal idea on the fog and load zones is that I'd rather get rid of the fog and keep the dialog; while Half-Life
1 doesn't present a problem (loading takes 5 seconds for each zone), sometimes I wish there were some indication or dialog for the second in the series, like Thief 3, so I wouldn't have to sit there and twiddle my thumbs over two minutes each time. It's just a b!tch to 'accidentally' walk through the entrance to a load zone when there was more stuff to explore, and 'now I don't want to go back because of those long loading times, guess I'll have to forget about it'.
Quote Posted by sterlino
and may be a possible link with different missions made from different autors or not ?
In other words: for example a streetsign where you read: to The sevent crystal, to calendra city, etc... etc...
This implies first that we either convert these missions first or recreate them from scratch, which is more-than-likely what we have to do, as I just can't see any way to come up with an automatic conversion, and all download them (don't know yet how big we can expect Thief 3 FM sizes, in megabyte, to be) along with the mission that serves as the 'portal'. You probably already knew this, but yes, I'm reminding you how much time this might take ;)
*wow, there's a Thief 3 Editor's Guild already up*
deadman.
stephenuk on 24/2/2005 at 16:34
its annoying having these zones, u piss off a guard and he can't chase you through to the next, reminds me abit of the inability for ai to climb ladders or you stand on a table or even a flower pot lol and they don't seem to be able to reach you, in the original thief series.
ZylonBane on 24/2/2005 at 16:40
So, two big questions:
Can the confirmation dialog be killed?
Is there any way to have objects carry over between maps, a la SS2, HL, and any other game that handles load zones properly?
Hogwash on 24/2/2005 at 16:47
I agree with deadman about the load zones. Having 'seamless' loads in the style of HL would be annoying for the majority of TDS users because it takes upwards of 30 seconds to load and would thus be annoying to stumble into.
That said, removing the purpley-blue fog would look better, but without any indication or dialogue you wouldn't know if a doorway was just a doorway or a loadzone. This didn't matter in HL because you could backtrack very quickly.
