coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
<post mode="notamapper"> I'm one of those few people who really liked Alien4 - I thought it was a fabulous *pure scifi* movie (whereas the first 3 had been scifi horror, scifi action, and scifi horror respectively). Anyway, one of the best ambience sequences in the movie is when the merc leader is walking down a corridor to pick up a discarded rifle (this is right before the mercs meet their first alien, and then Ripley). He's walking along, and you KNOW something's going to happen... but what happens is that a tube right behind his head bursts and there's this spastic flailing and a REALLY loud hiss. Surprised the hell out of me.
I think it's a great effect, and would be *very* easy to do (well, not the whipping tube, but the hiss of gas). Just make a really strong, short-lived jet of steam, and accompany it with a really loud, explosive hiss. Set the whole thing on a fairly infrequent, random on-off switch, and get ready to make some marines jump. (: It'd be an especially appropriate effect as you get into alien-infested areas, where the station integrity is starting to fail. </post>
<!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo--> Ns_bast has this. I've already been cursed several times for scaring the bajeezus out of people.
As random as a computer can make a pseudo-randomly generated integer. Technically those aren't random, they just appear random. <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
I've seen this effect used in Hera too, it really is atmospheric. It's in danger of become a NS cliché, as it's one of the most obvious things to do with trigger_randoms and particle systems.
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
True dat! Hmm. I'll have to think of some more unique ways to scare people. ^^
Oooo... how about a malfunctioning airlock, that can't be opened or closed by players or commander - it just goes off at random. Comparison - in "Alien: Resurrection" when Call takes control of Father, she slams the door in front of the doctor, and opens the one behind him. Then says "Intruder on level 1, all aliens report to level 1." It can't be a necessary door, obviously, but perhaps one that could be taken advantage of if it opens conveniently.
Here's another one - new twist on environmental hazard! Have a military base (outpost, space station, whatever) in which the station AI has gone homicidal. Think Red Queen from Resident Evil, Deadly Brain from Oni, or System Shock 2. This could result in anything from malfunctioning doors/elevators to automatic defenses (laser tripwires, auto-turrets, etc) to security bots a la Deus Ex. (: My only concern with that one would be frustration at nonfunctional doors/lifts, so maybe not that one. Of course, the computer would attack both sides indiscriminately, and perhaps it could be possible to deactivate it (destroy the generators or something). Environmental hazards are fun! (:
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Another general idea... a large warehouse could be a LOT of fun. Remember the room in HL SP where you open the door and there are crates all over the place, like a maze... and a pair of those assassin-chicks running all over the place? That kind of set up, with a high, open ceiling and limited ground movement because of obstructions. Aliens could run around the walls/ceiling, glide from the rafters, hop along the tops of crates... and the marines would thread their way between the crates, checking corners and ceilings for all they're worth. (:
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
I posted a (IMHO) very cool idea about personnel shuttles in the Ideas forum... <a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=5;t=1658;st=20" target="_blank">here</a> is a link.
Hey, I had the coolest idea for my map, and I thought I'de share it, as I'll probably never get around to finnishing it:
Ok, so the level has a reactor. The reactor is going critical when the round starts. After about 3 minutes, it explodes, killing all in the reactor core room. Now, that triggers the master for a TON of trigger randoms on(you can do masters with trigger_randoms, right?) and so wierd stuff starts happenning all over the level, from doors getting stuck to conduits exploding, etc. Just complete randomness and choas. Definatly would add something.
MouseThe Lighter Side of PessimismJoin Date: 2002-03-02Member: 263Members, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
[rant]in my map i have this geothermal reactor which pumps magma into these 2 round metal plates. between them is filled with an inert gas, which when it gets really hot produces static electricity(the molecules bounce around really fast)and when in between the plates is fully charged, it' gets let out through an electric 'valve'. and when that happens there is a loud bang and a bright light. now this is where the particle system comes into play <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo--> [\rant]
now i'm not sure about if this is correct but anyway
Name: shock Particle source: Sphere Max # of particles: 1000 Particles / sec: 1000 Sprite size: 10 Scale sprite over lifetime: 25 to 30 System lifetime: 1 second Particle lifetime: 5 seconds System starting velocity: 255,255,0,16,32 Use World Gravity: On System starts: On Collision: Off Fade In: Off Fade Out: On
and have it and a bright light triggered every 10 seconds
what this should do is shoot out a shower of sparks every 10 seconds, and look really cool <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
On my idea, the time to reactor meltdown would be set, not random, kinda like "you have x time till stuff starts going wierd". And of course, there would be station alerts and stuff; "Meltdown eminent. 3 minutes to total system failure"
Seems, like this post never ends. So I just screwd it abd jumped to the end. This is the totally kool Idea I have for my map, I beleive breakout was the name of it. (Natural Selection is the ablsolute koolness mod, but there's so very little people I know here so sadly it's not on my top nmake a map for list).
Ok, so as I had it in the description.. a human transfering ship is attacked by aliens. Some of the people escape with the important storage leaving others in the remaining par tof the ship. On the way out one of the guys hits the self destruct button - naturally the marines are doomed to destruction. They have to make it to the hangar (where aliens are). There's a few escape pods in there. They hop into each (and here's a part that I didn't originally include) The escape pods fly into the zone with the trigger that takes players back to the starting area ( beleive I've seen those in tech release). Oh yeah, the ship is totally f-ed in 5-10 minutes, a minute before the destruction the doors leading players to join the human team close, putting more pressure on those who remain. If I ever figure out how to make the human entrances close when there's enough players and not close when there isn't. Probably by using a game_zone_counter in the spawning area.
Anyway the ship is not going to idle in space all that time. Big holes will be blown through the walls. Parts of the craft will solemnly break off and fly into nowhere.
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
I really like the idea of the ship breaking up during the gameplay... I might have to borrow that if I ever make my map, which is a space station in which systems are beginning to fail.
One of the rooms could have a hull breach... I think someone mentioned a func_push or something to that effect to simulate a vacuum, and then you could have a trigger_hurt appear in the room (since there's no air) - anyone in the room is toast as the station AI seals it off to keep the whole station from imploding.
The coolest part, though, is that this could be a way to actually *cut off* parts of the map as the game progresses. I'm reminded of the 2nd level of JK2, in which you walk down a bridge which then explodes behind you, forcing you to find another way.
bah yeah, something I never seen in half life and pretty much any other game (except the very excellent Max Payne, yes the burning kitchen scene) is timed action where you have to know where to run. My very excellent idea here would be a hall that starts exploding as you walk through it. The fire behind you would be forcing you to run without stopping, the objects that fall and break in front of you will make you thing about where to run. And at the end you break through a glass wall and the whole place explodes. This is why i call my map breakout, and it'll hopefully be the final sequence in it, if somebody didn't make it in time <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
ok, I just thought up a really cool particle effect today in math class. It would be like a generator thing and would accualty be a total of 4 particles. There would be slanted pipes sticking up from the ground, 3 of them, shooting different colored partciles into the center. Then in the center there would be a another particle going up or down. It would look cool, I think.. heres a pic of what I mean..
is there anyway to make a particle system generate another particle system when each particle is destroyed? because i had a really good idea todaybut im pretty sure theres no way it would be possible w/o this.
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Someone a while ago mentioned trying to make a wall "pulse" by defining it as water or something like that - ultimately, it was a bad idea because it was then possible to drown in the wall. To pull the idea out of the heap, though... what if you were to put a clip brush directly in front of the "water" wall, to prevent people from actually touching it? That way you could have a pulsating wall that wasn't in danger of drowning anyone.
realityisdeadEmployed by Raven Software after making ns_nothingJoin Date: 2002-01-26Member: 94Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Lol, I did that once... was the freakiest looking thing I've seen... and not in a good way. <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
You could put a clip brush in front of it, yes. But the aliens would not be able to climb that wall then...
Guess it might be something that one would want to give up for the effect, but I wouldn't. Especially considering that the pulsing would probably be something you'd want in your hive rooms... wouldn't want to restrict alien movement there.
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Talked about it a bit in #naturalselection, and people said water only pulses on the top of the brush. So I thought it might work as a floor, with a clip brush occupying the same space (so it doesn't look like people are floating). If you set the wave height really small, it could work maybe...
Another idea for the wall could be to put a partially transparent grating over it; that way bobs could still climb.
realityisdeadEmployed by Raven Software after making ns_nothingJoin Date: 2002-01-26Member: 94Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Oh, sure. A clip would work perfectly fine for a floor.
Not sure why I forgot about it before, but yeah.. a transparent entity would work great for a wall. You could even use the "invisible" texture in the halflife.wad, without having to deal with a grating.
The effect looked bad when I did it, but then again it wasn't set to be very subtle... <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Sooooooooo somebody do it! Make me proud!!! (:
We also brought up the idea of animated, "pulsating" textures; wondered if they could be used in conjunction with the water-ripple effect for extra-ooziness.
Comments
I'm one of those few people who really liked Alien4 - I thought it was a fabulous *pure scifi* movie (whereas the first 3 had been scifi horror, scifi action, and scifi horror respectively). Anyway, one of the best ambience sequences in the movie is when the merc leader is walking down a corridor to pick up a discarded rifle (this is right before the mercs meet their first alien, and then Ripley). He's walking along, and you KNOW something's going to happen... but what happens is that a tube right behind his head bursts and there's this spastic flailing and a REALLY loud hiss. Surprised the hell out of me.
I think it's a great effect, and would be *very* easy to do (well, not the whipping tube, but the hiss of gas). Just make a really strong, short-lived jet of steam, and accompany it with a really loud, explosive hiss. Set the whole thing on a fairly infrequent, random on-off switch, and get ready to make some marines jump. (: It'd be an especially appropriate effect as you get into alien-infested areas, where the station integrity is starting to fail.
</post>
Oooo... how about a malfunctioning airlock, that can't be opened or closed by players or commander - it just goes off at random. Comparison - in "Alien: Resurrection" when Call takes control of Father, she slams the door in front of the doctor, and opens the one behind him. Then says "Intruder on level 1, all aliens report to level 1." It can't be a necessary door, obviously, but perhaps one that could be taken advantage of if it opens conveniently.
Here's another one - new twist on environmental hazard! Have a military base (outpost, space station, whatever) in which the station AI has gone homicidal. Think Red Queen from Resident Evil, Deadly Brain from Oni, or System Shock 2. This could result in anything from malfunctioning doors/elevators to automatic defenses (laser tripwires, auto-turrets, etc) to security bots a la Deus Ex. (: My only concern with that one would be frustration at nonfunctional doors/lifts, so maybe not that one. Of course, the computer would attack both sides indiscriminately, and perhaps it could be possible to deactivate it (destroy the generators or something). Environmental hazards are fun! (:
"Sarg, We lost Private Evinhander! What happened!?"
Sarg: "He stepped through a wall and drown"
"WTF!?"
allright who unstickied it?
Ok, so the level has a reactor. The reactor is going critical when the round starts. After about 3 minutes, it explodes, killing all in the reactor core room. Now, that triggers the master for a TON of trigger randoms on(you can do masters with trigger_randoms, right?) and so wierd stuff starts happenning all over the level, from doors getting stuck to conduits exploding, etc. Just complete randomness and choas. Definatly would add something.
now i'm not sure about if this is correct but anyway
Name: shock
Particle source: Sphere
Max # of particles: 1000
Particles / sec: 1000
Sprite size: 10
Scale sprite over lifetime: 25 to 30
System lifetime: 1 second
Particle lifetime: 5 seconds
System starting velocity: 255,255,0,16,32
Use World Gravity: On
System starts: On
Collision: Off
Fade In: Off
Fade Out: On
and have it and a bright light triggered every 10 seconds
what this should do is shoot out a shower of sparks every 10 seconds, and look really cool <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
Ok, so as I had it in the description.. a human transfering ship is attacked by aliens. Some of the people escape with the important storage leaving others in the remaining par tof the ship. On the way out one of the guys hits the self destruct button - naturally the marines are doomed to destruction. They have to make it to the hangar (where aliens are). There's a few escape pods in there. They hop into each (and here's a part that I didn't originally include) The escape pods fly into the zone with the trigger that takes players back to the starting area ( beleive I've seen those in tech release).
Oh yeah, the ship is totally f-ed in 5-10 minutes, a minute before the destruction the doors leading players to join the human team close, putting more pressure on those who remain. If I ever figure out how to make the human entrances close when there's enough players and not close when there isn't. Probably by using a game_zone_counter in the spawning area.
Anyway the ship is not going to idle in space all that time. Big holes will be blown through the walls. Parts of the craft will solemnly break off and fly into nowhere.
Sorry this message seemed to long I was brushing up my memory. <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo--> And the idea is miinnnnee © <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
One of the rooms could have a hull breach... I think someone mentioned a func_push or something to that effect to simulate a vacuum, and then you could have a trigger_hurt appear in the room (since there's no air) - anyone in the room is toast as the station AI seals it off to keep the whole station from imploding.
The coolest part, though, is that this could be a way to actually *cut off* parts of the map as the game progresses. I'm reminded of the 2nd level of JK2, in which you walk down a bridge which then explodes behind you, forcing you to find another way.
perhaps that would work . . . though it probably couldnt be somewhere the player could get to then . . .
You could put a clip brush in front of it, yes. But the aliens would not be able to climb that wall then...
Guess it might be something that one would want to give up for the effect, but I wouldn't. Especially considering that the pulsing would probably be something you'd want in your hive rooms... wouldn't want to restrict alien movement there.
<!--EDIT|ken20banks|May 12 2002,22:34-->
Another idea for the wall could be to put a partially transparent grating over it; that way bobs could still climb.
Not sure why I forgot about it before, but yeah.. a transparent entity would work great for a wall. You could even use the "invisible" texture in the halflife.wad, without having to deal with a grating.
The effect looked bad when I did it, but then again it wasn't set to be very subtle... <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
Bet it would r0x if done just right.
We also brought up the idea of animated, "pulsating" textures; wondered if they could be used in conjunction with the water-ripple effect for extra-ooziness.