Oc Nerv, Revival! <Released>

[MaestraFénix]

Although Dominic is finishing improving the Offices, and I´m on the corridor that is just before the great "open" zone, I considered that it´s time to start thinking about changing the final part.

In case you not longer remember it, the final part is based on the hall seen on the movie The Matrix. The gameplay there is just kill every soldier that you can, and then suddenly, run to the train before the countdown reachs zero:






It´s unoriginal, and over all, boring (for do not talking about how buggy it´s the train). So, in order to give a better final to the map, I propose the following ending part:



An hangar, where the players, as well the friendly npcs that are able to reach the plane, could escape from Nerv.

Red block: Plane
Arrows: Path that the Nerv personnel would have to run in order to board the plane.

1. Original corridor that it leads to the "hall" (The vent would be now solid and unbreakable).
2. Elevator, which it would go up pretty fast, to simulate the players go to the surface.
3. Defense positions (I guess a homemade barricade with tables, chairs and barrels).
4. Zone where the Nerv personnel appears.
5. Enemy soldiers spawn (the red crosses symbolize that those would rappel down from vents).

The gameplay would be the following:

The players, when the elevator finish their ride, they would see the hangar with the plane, with two friendly npcs guarding the zone on the barricades. The players would have then to accomplish two objectives:

• Save all the Nerv personnel as possible (the more npcs reaches the plane, the more points you get).
• Protect the plane from the JSSDF soldiers (if the plane gets destroyed, you lose the game).

This new ending part would grant the following:

• Extend the use of the custom friendly npcs (we only see them briefly at the begining).
• Guarantee the co-op gameplay (the less players defend the plane and the npcs, the less points they will get, and even they can lose the game).
• A better way to win or lose the map (because the actual way sucks hard).
• Continue using the score system.
• Allows to modify the gameplay both for one player or for a team.
• More balanced under Hard mode.

Don´t worry about the plane model. I already found a free to use one (it´s a C130), which I only have to reskin and lower a bit the poligons that it has (20k).


Is true that no one is working at this moment on The Third Impact chapter, but, the sooner we start talking about the gameplay improvements, the better it will be the map.

GIVE ME FEEDBACK

[MaestraFénix]

Due for technical difficulties related with the AMAZING UPDATE TO SOURCE SDK 2007, is taking more time than I thought to show the finished part of the Terminal Dogma chapter, because that is, I finished it, but not at all, since I have to fix some stuff related with the performance.

I only can show a photo of it at this moment, that is the helicopter fight:




Now, for trying to fill this void of pics, I´ll show you some photos that I took, showing what it looks like cut parts/features of the maps:


Missile brush found on the void near the cinema and the LCL lake. Unknown purpose.


Turrets found after the helicopter fight, on the long stair that goes to the radioactive pit. It were supposed to pop-up and shoot the players when climbing down.


Unused left part of the corridor that goes to the first "open space". Maybe FunJob did more rooms and cut them because he didn´t liked the gameplay?


Unused corridor behind a vent. Unknown purpose.


Unused part of the corridor that leads to the second "open space" part. Since it coincides with the actual entrance, it is thought that this was the original entrance, but then FunJob cut it and made the flooded vent duct maze instead.


Also, I´m improving at same time the fixed parts, making new lighting, balancing the weapons...:





Note: I did further modifications at the lighting, such as adding point_spotlights. I´m just I not able to compile again the map.


And as a bonus, a render of the C130 model that it will be used at the new ending (needs to be reskined), thanks WilliamT:




To more information about how is going the project, take a look to the document on Drive: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D0s ... p=drivesdk


Chapter list:

• Central Dogma: Fixed.
• Offices: Only left to finish gameplay improvements (Dominichax).
• Terminal Dogma:
  • LCL Plant: Fixed
  • Vents and corridors: Fixed.
• The Third Impact: Preparing to be worked (me).
• Cinema: Fixed.

Remember to search information about the music. We really appreciate the help.

[MaestraFénix]

While I wait for Dominic to give me the Offices, I can say that the fixing process is going faster than I thought, and if we follow this rhythm, maybe we will have the whole map fixed and running before September. All the stuff made at the "The Third Impact" looks recient, since the brushwork is correctly aligned to the grid, and there's any useless brush. I'm currently reaching the falling elevator.

And we have working again the weapons (not all), now, with new features:

• The Beretta has a better accuracy, but the damage has been lowered.
• The 1911 can shoot as fast as you can, and it deals more damage.
• The MP7 now has the default HL2 model, since their V_ model was broken. It has a great fire rate, but poor accuracy.
• The M4 still being with their original stats, but it not longer uses CS:S stuff.
• The G36 uses now the default OC G36. Their damage has been lowered a lot for avoid the infamous "insta-kill".
• The Remington was in fact the OC one, but with a different name. It uses now the original model.
• The .357 uses the default HL2 model since the custom model was just a mere hexed reskin.
• The MK23 deals now more damage.

The C96 and the MP5n are under tests and maybe can be end removed.


As a last thing, I will left here a couple of photos of the fixed zones. Look on my profile to see more:










Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dfS ... sp=sharing

Chapter list:

• Central Dogma: Fixed.
• Offices: Fixed (Dominichax).
• Terminal Dogma:
  • LCL Plant: Fixed
  • Vents and corridors: Fixed.
• The Third Impact: 45%-50% (me).
• Cinema: Fixed.

[MaestraFénix]

Hello everybody again. This time I bring to you good and bad news. I will start with the bad one:

As I thought, covers and remixes of copyrighted material still being pursued, so we will have no choice but drop the Neon Genesis Evangelion OST. We are searching music in order to replace them, so, if you think you know a song who could fit the theme, and is free to use, post it.


The good news is that finally I got the final version of Offices from Dominichax and added to the main VMF. But the best of all, is that he spent more time on it because he did several improvements that I liked (that will not be showed to keep the surprise):
















And some new photos of the following zones after the flooded conducts (the 2nd and 3rd open spaces, as well as the ducts that leads to the elevator that falls):








In a second order of news, the C96 and the MP5N has been cut, for not being adecuate due their gameplay quality. At this moment I'm working at the flooded corridors that are before the ending.


Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dfS ... sp=sharing

Chapter list:

• Central Dogma: Fixed.
• Offices: Fixed
• Terminal Dogma:
  • LCL Plant: Fixed
  • Vents and corridors: Fixed.
• The Third Impact: 80% (me).
• Cinema: Fixed.

The Rebuild of Nerv:

• Fixes: 80%
• Improvements: 50%?
• Gameplay: 20%?

Thank you Dominichax for your help

[MaestraFénix]

WE FIXED MOST OF NERV (if not all)

It took all this summer, but the hard part is finally done: Nerv has been fixed, and at this moment is fully playable.

Now, it's time to work on the entities, improve the gameplay and add the new final.


Curiosities:

• FunJob said that he needed four hours to compile the map. Although is expected to be a bit more at the final compile, I only needed 25-30 minutes for a full HDR one.
• The map is already touching the limits: 88% of Brushes and 161% on Entdata. We hope we can reduce the last one after improving the entities and removing unused stuff.
• Compared with a modified Nerv map, which has removed some problematic entities that made it crash, there have been a gain of at least 40 FPS. My FPS never drop lower than 45-55, so we can assure now it not longer lags.
• On this moment, without Final compile, cubemaps and embedded stuff, the map has a size of 48MB, and the content weights 182MB. Remember that the new final must to be done, eliminate the redundant/unused stuff, and convert the music/voices from WAV to MP3, but is already lower than the super size that this map has at the beginning.
• Meanwhile we were fixing the map, we could "deduce" what parts were older and what were newer. The Terminal Dogma (beginning) was the oldest (due the texture, lighting and brush errors), and the Flooded Corridors the newest (everything aligned to the grid, nodraw on some faces, near to zero errors). Offices are newer than the LCL lake, which it makes to think that maybe there was another zone, or just the elevator reached directly the lake. The flooded vents and the panel color puzzle are also new, so who knows what was instead before (on previous posts we showed what it looked like cut/old parts of the map).
• This is how it was done the walls of the flooded rooms. Clipping all the way, FunJob!

And that is all for now! I can't give a date for the beta testing because I don't know how many time I will need to do the second and third/last part of this mission, but it should be quickier than fixing all the map.

Again, I wanna thank to everybody who made possible fixing this map during the summer. We could have been faster if we were more people, but at least I recieved help!


Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dfS ... sp=sharing

Chapter list:

• Central Dogma: Fixed.
• Offices: Fixed
• Terminal Dogma:
  • LCL Plant: Fixed
  • Vents and corridors: Fixed.
• The Third Impact: Fixed.
• Cinema: Fixed.

The Rebuild of Nerv:

• Fixes: DONE.
• Improvements: 50%
• Gameplay: 20%

TODAY WE ARE CANCELING THE APOCALYPSE!

[MaestraFénix]

LET THE TESTS BEGIN!

That is, we are done. Although sadly it will not be released before this year ends (I need to make several new models and textures, as well as replace the music), we will able to start testing the map to collect reports about bugs and suggestions, mainly about the gameplay.

The testings will be private, but if you want to test the map, write a pm to me, or call me on Steam.

And now some screenshots as a filler:

[MaestraFénix]

RELEASED

http://obsidianconflict.net/forums/view ... 043#p76043

Congratulations to everyone who made it possible!