Vicarious Traumatization WIP thread

[MaestraFénix]

W.I.P. Thread

That is. I´m inaugurating this thread for my campaign. Here you can talk about bugs and suggestions, as well as seeing the progress that are made.


I started to work on the second chapter between the breaks of fixing Nerv. Our brave squad of H.E.C.U. soldiers will made getting inside Black Mesa, where they must head to the Lambda Complex:





But before they reach the station where the trams waits, they must move first through some tunnels, used for moving the cargo that comes to Black Mesa. The fact that there are dead soldiers and the emergency lights are turned on makes one realize about the hell that had suffered Johnson and their platoon when escaping from inside...:





Zombie H.E.C.U. model made by SoJa from Romka´s Hgrunt model.


And now, the discussion part:

I´m playing with the idea of having "survival moments" (Lives gamemode on X moments). At this moment, it would be used when you reach the door inside the tunnel to open, but fails, spawing the zombies. The players would have to search two batteries, and use a crank to open it (forcing a player staying at the door, and another player defending/healing him/her). If the players get open the door, the "survival moment" would end, returning to normal gameplay, and spawning all the dead players. What do you think?.

The design of the front entrance at the beginning. I don´t like it much, but I´m unable to think another idea (tried with making more brushwork, but it would affect the duct).

The lighting at the tunnels. I liked it dark, but not much, just the needed to give a feeling of "insecurity". What do you think?.



BONUS: Vicarious Traumatization alpha and beta images

Some people told me if I was able to work on a proyect without showing it, and my response was that I showed the map indirectly. As you can see, most of the photos are from the alpha, before I decided to redo everything from scratch.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=14373385
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=14373375
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8015/80618577.jpg (Close up of the alpha rocket launcher prototype, when I thought I can made a custom rocket weapon).
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=14373229
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=14373228

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=14372913 (Beta entrance).
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=14372682 (Testing npc_launcher).
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=14372920 (Beta right path, zombie storage).
(Some time before the second private test, "beta").
(Beta Johnson, when I had the fresh idea of an H.E.C.U. Otis).
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg27 ... _00001.jpg (Beta Johnson and early "old storage" exit door).
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=73751618 (Beta icky room).
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=84308550 (Cut cutscene. It was going to appear between chapter one and two as a filler, as a Sweet Half-Life easter egg).




There were more images, but those are in Gyazo, and since I can´t see them (very stupid is this for forcing the people buying the premium version), we can consider them as lost.

[Umbrae]

I like the lighting, I would just be sure to be extra precise about the colors. Choose colors that you feel add onto what "statement" you want the map to make. If it doesn't feel right, then rework it. Maybe one shade of one color is too light, maybe it's too dark. It doesn't sound like much, but personally I feel like the color of the light in a map really can add or subtract from the overall feeling. I really like the red you have, the yellow is ok.

[MaestraFénix]

Alright, I finished the first part of the map:





I got working the particle, so now I can show the damaged part of the tunnels. Also, I removed the yellow lights and added "homemade" (brush) flares, being double useful for the players (it lights the zone and burn the zombies).

But what I really liked is the "survival moments", that their gameplay works as I wanted. The players will really have to cooperate in order to move forward (is not really hard, only with a player defending another player is enough).

The only "bad" thing is the performance: Between 65 and 120 FPS on this part, probably due the dynamic lights and the particles (although I´ll see this with more detail on the future).


Now, the tram part.

[SANICADVENTURE2]

Looks too much hl2 with hl2 textures. More custom stuff (BM:S textures are ok) should made the map more fresh!

[MaestraFénix]

Looks too much hl2 with hl2 textures. More custom stuff (BM:S textures are ok) should made the map more fresh!

You want to sit and wait during 5 minutes or more?

[SANICADVENTURE2]

[BBvideo 478,678][/BBvideo]

Adding 2 or 3 new textures or models shouldn't make the map too big.

Source stuff compreses well.

[MaestraFénix]

Adding 2 or 3 new textures or models shouldn't make the map too big.
Source stuff compreses well.

Anyway remember this is W.I.P. I left those stuff to the end. What I want to avoid that the players gets bored while downloading files, that is the problem of Nerv and Moe GlaDOS factory. They have around 400mb or more (and only the first chapter of my campaign is 211mb D: ).

[MaestraFénix]

Well, it's me again. I don't wanna show exact parts of the new chapter, because I'm focusing on the gameplay rather than the visuals at this moment (once I get everything planned, it will be easy to make it look decent).

I continue working on this, at the same time I did with Nerv and Nacht Der Undertoten, and I think that the actual state of the second chapter is 6 of 8 parts done. The first chapter is being worked too, being updated, fixed and improved.

Today, after the lastest push to the map, I decided to fully compile it to check their stats. Surprisingly, they are fine and inside the normal values (even the entdata doesn't reach the 70%!!!). Is even better when you look at the size:




If you are sharp enough, maybe you should be able to see the start and the tunnel zombie zone.


I will drop more information about how is going the entire campaign when I get more stuff to show, I promise.

[SANICADVENTURE2]

good to see your progress in your map, I hope to see it in oc servers soon!