Project 1 Day 2 - Laying Out The Level

Day number two! We're on a roll!

Level 1

Today's work began with a realisation that the existing work was going to be unsuitably large as a single cell (which has the problems of long loading times and sluggish performance). And in order to make it work as two cells I had to first teach myself how to connect one cell to another.

It turns out the process is marvellously easy. All cells are connected by doors, entirely standard doors, which have been set by an option in their Properties window to teleport the player to another door in another cell. So just a quick note of the relevant door's unique ID# from one level, input into the teleport target field for the other level's connecting door and essentially... bingo! Though the arrival point and direction have to be slightly fine tuned.

Level 2

However this wasn't the goal of the day. Recreating the layout of the dungeon known as Khalith's Cell was, so I began with that. A little experimentation and thought showed the Vault (Rusted) tileset was limiting and inappropriate, so I switched to (mostly) the Utility tileset, with a smattering of Underground and Cave.

Toilets were the most diffi... oh, crap, I just noted some missing small rooms on the West side of Level 2. I'll make a note to fix that tomorrow. Anyway, toilets. Using the UtlRm (Utility Room) series didn't seem right. All those thick pipes running vertically in the corners and tubes looping around the ceiling? What toilet has stuff like that? Apparently the ones in Fallout 3's utility tunnels, judging from a little research in Fort Bannister.

Level 3

Transitions from small to big hallways (UtlHallSm and UtlHallBg) were also problematic. Just finding tiles that fit neatly together was a pain, but not nearly as much as with the Vault tileset, one of the reasons I dumped it. Not many different sets fit to many others, but just about everything fits to Utility.

At this early stage there are already things I see that need fixing. Following the original plans to the letter may have been a little reckless. There are far too many long, straight and at least so far featureless corridors and stairways. Even looking forward to their cluttered and combat-prepared state, I can't see them being much fun without serious adjustment. Similarly, there are two large chambers - one on level 2 and one on level 3 - which take a long time to cross and suffer the same problems.

Anyhow... tomorrow, I think I will be adjusting the layout in the mentioned places and adding in ambient testing lighting, the lack of which you can blame for the absence of any actual screenshots.

Adios.

Project 1 Day 1 - Learning the GECK

I said I'd be here today and here I am. Frankly I'm pretty amazed myself. What amazes me even further is that I (gasp, shock, horror) actually did some work.

Once I got the windows arranged nicely and familiarised myself with the major keyboard shortcuts and camera controls, the GECK was quite easy to work with. My one complaint, which may lay in my inexperience with the software is that it is difficult to position items vertically. I would prefer it if new meshes would appear on the same plane as the previously selected item, rather than X many units directly in front of the camera.

So with that done I jumped in with arranging a few rooms along a long corridor (the right hand side of the above image), glancing at Bethedsa's video tutorial when I got a little stuck. I don't like to always follow tutorial through to the letter, rather seeing what I can do along the same theme.

Actually, wait. Backup a little. I actually began with trying to recreate the stretch of cavern that approaches the giant cog doors of a vault. It was perhaps a little difficult to begin with, especially as I couldn't seem to get the meshes to line up right. I suppose I was using mixed sets.

The meshes are the best bit, from a quick-development point of view. The Oblivion/Fallout engine is based around segments of (about) 5 foot cube, each very carefully arranged to fit well with the rest of its set. That measure of 5ft is interesting, echoing the engine's pen-and-paper roleplaying roots. Surely that is how much of the world of Cyrodil was developed: through tabletop gameplay on the grid.

The only other engine I am familiar with as a design student is Unreal 3 and the editor that comes with Unreal Tournament 3. Like Fallout 3, much of that game's level architecture is built from static meshes but comparing the two I now realise how limited UT3's meshes were, designed for very specific uses. The mesh library in GECK feels huge and fairly adaptable. The transition pieces (such as a break in an office wall leading to caves) will be especially useful.

So far I have really just been experimenting, getting a feel for the system. In tomorrow's session I think I might adjust and re-arrange my vault, or even start again, and follow a pre-existing design of mine. This design is actually a Dungeons & Dragons subterranean temple, a favourite of my gaming group, but the layout should transition quite nicely to a vault or similar. Anyhow, we'll see. Same time tomorrow, children!

GECK Wiki
Bethesda GECK Tutorial #1 (YouTube)

Lazarus From The Pitt (And DC)

I'm not even going to look at when my last post was. I've begun a few posts since then, languishing abandoned in some digital vault never to be looked at again.

Speaking of vaults, guess what's been taking up my entertainment schedule for the past many weeks. Yup, Fallout 3, which I've played through in its entirety at least three times now for various reasons within the past couple of months. Let's count them: Retail; retail with no fast-travel; Steam GOTY; Steam GOTY with Fallout Script-Extender enabled... yeah, so that's four. Steam informs me I've played in the irradiated sandbox for almost 100 hours in what can't be longer than three weeks and frankly that can't be healthy. If someone held a Geiger counter to my hands, I fear it would explode with the strain. When Fallout: New Vegas comes out, well, I'm just plain screwed.

I have been thinking about why I enjoy this game so much, why I have spent so many long days and hours and weeks on it to the exclusion of actually doing something productive (which I'll come to later) and I have decided it is because of this: Fallout 3 is my ideal MMO.

A vast open world to explore? Things to collect? Vast range of clothing items and weapons to choose from? Quests by the bucket to complete, or not, at your leisure? A colourful and clearly imagined setting and history? All present and correct. And the best part of it? No other people to spoil it for me.

Anyhow, I could go into this in ridiculous detail but I'm sure you either already know what I'm going to say and think it obvious, know what I'm going to say and think me a fool or don't know what I'm going to say and don't care in any case.

What I am trying to say is I have FINALLY kicked myself into gear (second, perhaps, or bicycle fifth - I don't have a driving license). In preparation for a life and career of games design, and more immediately an internship in the 2011/12 academic year, I will make one significant accomplishment in games design-related projects every day.

And, messily tying the two topics together, my first project will be a location mod for Fallout 3. Starting tomorrow I will work my way around the GECK and arrange a series of rooms and corridors then add mechanic-based items like doors, computers and locks, following with NPCs and such... and so on and so forth. Maybe you'll be interested to read along as I keep this blog updated with my notes and thoughts on my progress and difficulties.

So, I'll see you tomorrow. Night.

What Has Scared You?

"I may be merely generalizing, but there hasn’t truly been a genuine horror experience in video games."

 - Nathan Cheng, Are You Scared Now?

Metro 2033: Ghost of the Metro Trailer

aka 'hey, who remembers Ghostbusters 2?' "Thank you, Lord!" You know your love (your love keeps liftin' me) Keeps on liftin' (your love keeps liftin' me)... *cough* Where was I?

So I've been studiously ignoring the bleat of the Metro 2033 twitter feed and its torrent of trailers for a while now, ever since I first reported the announcement of the post-apocalyptic Russian shooter after I reported its announcement back in October. 


Anyway, long post short: cool new cinematic trailer beneath the cut. Watch it here for full sized HD goodness.

The Revelation: Dragon Age Comic

Here's something non-Valve related for a change of pace. Bioware have released The Revelation, an 8-page online comic for Dragon Age, created by fan Irma Ahmed (aka Aimo) and and Lead Writer David Gaider.

Aimo, as well as being clearly a huge fan of the game, is a very talented artist. Check out her DeviantART pages for various Star Wars, LotR and Dragon Age fan comics/art. Her official site is here.

Thanks to hedjeroo of Ashteroids for the heads-up.

More Portal News

Adam Foster has been confirmed as the creator of (at least part of) the Portal ARG. Also known as: I (and x hundred other people) flippin' called it!

Compare the images below, after the jump. The 1st and 3rd images, the clean ones, are taken from Adam Foster's Robots and Retro flickr set. The 2nd and 4th images, the 'corrupted' ones are two of those derived from the dinosaur sound files.

Portals Within Portals: Valve Releases ARG

It's times like these that make me love the Internet and its people.

As of yesterday (March 1st), Valve gave Portal a minor and cryptic update: 'Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations' along with a new achievement, 'Transmission Received' who's description was merely '?'.

This was just the beginning of a sprawling, exceptionally complicated ARG (nicknamed the Dinosaur Mystery after the name of certain audio files) which the gaming community turned all its power towards solving, with astonishing and ingenious methods. Read below for the full story so far!