OSMT Beta Testing

[Nova Silisko]

well, since this has been bumped, hows the save feature coming, Ape?

[outpt.co.uk]

I bet making a save feature is like climbing a mountain...

[Nova Silisko]

no, like climing a mountain with OMFG rockets screaming around you

[SuperApe]

Originally Posted by outpt.co.uk

As I expect physics volumes are rarely used, this is really just a side note.

Blitz tried a coveyor belt in his OSM map about nalicows and had the same problem.

Originally Posted by outpt.co.uk

I bet making a save feature is like climbing a mountain...

Or like running into a brick wall ... repeatedly.
I've let my head recover and I'll hit it again soon. Attempts at using the old skool save feature prove problematic unfortunately. I'm going to try a few other things, getting something workable to work first, then I'll retry the full map save thing again.

[Nova Silisko]

good, i cant finish WW3 without it!

[Blitz]

Originally Posted by SuperApe

Blitz tried a coveyor belt in his OSM map about nalicows and had the same problem.Or like running into a brick wall ... repeatedly.
I've let my head recover and I'll hit it again soon.

I did manage to make that work, actually. Mine was kind of a special case, though because I just wanted my cows to ride the conveyer into a giant meat grinder. I made a "dumb" cow that accounted for the physics volume and just kind of rides along. I never finished the map, but I suppose I could upload it as a beta if you're interested.

[DeadMeatGF]

Originally Posted by outpt.co.uk

Bug: If you die whilst a cut scene is playing.... you're out of the game. "Press fire to view another player". This can occur if a cut scene is triggered after killing a monster, but the monsters last shot is yet to hit you.... in the face.



Work-around: Always ensure the area is clear of monsters before a cut scene starts, or ensure the cut scene is delayed.

On UT, as soon as it cuts to camera and says "You have won/lost the match" projectiles cease to affect you - e.g. a rocket in midflight will still fly and explode, but won't daamge you. Don't know if that's the same in 2k4, but looking at the code might assist.

Also, you might be able to use a version of "killall class" to destroy any weapons fire as the first action of a cutscene. Slightly less realistic, but if it works it'll be less of an issue than dying during a cutscene.

Originally Posted by share_the_pain

If a krall shoots a krall, the second krall gets hurt...But if a krall shoots you WHILE you have the shield gun shield up and running, and you manage to deflect the shot back to hit the krall who originally fired it, it just passes straight through them. I don't know what happens if you manage to hit another krall.

Hitting the other Krall will be the key - if it injures him it'll be the "fire doesn't damage instigator" thing, if not it would suggest that the deflection removes the shot's damage.

[outpt.co.uk]

Originally Posted by Blitz

I did manage to make that work, actually. Mine was kind of a special case, though because I just wanted my cows to ride the conveyor into a giant meat grinder. I made a "dumb" cow that accounted for the physics volume and just kind of rides along. I never finished the map, but I suppose I could upload it as a beta if you're interested.

Nice to see you, Blitz I still have the old beta of BovineSunset you uploaded a long time ago, which I'll check out. I don't think your solution would be ideal, as I'd like a room with a few moving conveyors to battle in.

p.s. Thanks DeadMeatGF - but that was an issue in OSM-Nocturne quite a few months back.

[SuperApe]

I've still got some tweaking to do, but I overhauled much of the OSMT combat AI. Charging, RangedAttack, MeleeAttack, etc., all now flow together more reasonably and some dead features now work much better, such as individual CombatStyle and Aggressiveness. To demonstrate this, I've made a flash movie (3.2MB, thanks again, outpt.co.uk) which shows a few of the improvments.

For this demonstration I use a room from one of the three routes in OSM-Gauntlet, the Krall Shrine, where I've set up fairly elaborate attack/ambush/trap combat behavior. From here, you'll see how the Krall use rudimentary cover better, how some Krall will charge to melee attack while others strafe and fire, and how those behaviors change as they get hurt.

WARNING: Many player characters died in the making of this movie. This represents six or seven tries, and I still die both half way through and at the end. (edited for you, tho) The skill level is set to Masterful, but with AutoAdjustSkill on, it dips after I'm killed by an EliteKrall and raises back up after I kill him. And my combat style in singleplayer is decidedly different than in multiplayer. I'm much less "SuperApe" and much more "ChickenScat", backing up a lot (especially when I'm getting my butt kicked), dodging and ducking behind cover.

That said, what I'm "playing as" is the way I used to play against these creatures: fire, dodge behind a corner and wait for them to conveniently walk around the corner and into my line of fire. Instead, watch here as they peek around just enough to shoot at me, dodge out farther to fire safely or dodge back behind the corner. Notice how some will charge up and strafe enough to flank me, which causes me to divert attention from others firing at me from afar. See how, if I've hurt them, some will decide instead to hang back and use their ranged attack on me. This is an improvement.

If you're unfamiliar with this room from OSM-Gauntlet, here's what is designed to happen: I enter a large shrine and am confronted by a LesserBrute at the other end. He stays put and fires at me to draw me forward. If I kill him, two Krall jump out from flanking positions and attack. If I kill either of them, an EliteKrall emerges to attack. If I kill him, nearly all the remainder of the Krall will attack at once; some using positions of higher elevation to snipe, while others charge. Eventually, all Krall then chase and hunt. (And if you think I just gave away a spoiler, then you haven't played this room all the way through.)

Suffice to say, I'm pleased with the early tests so far. While I still have some tweaks to do and at least one bug to fix in this area, the combat AI is looking much better and will be available in OSMT v1.5, coming soon.

LINK (3.2MB, if you don't have a flash plug-in, right-click and Save As...,flash player required)

[Nova Silisko]

As always ape, that rocks!

[outpt.co.uk]

They look much more skillful! I like.

I don't know if it's just me, but they look much less uniform in their attacks - whereas before they were a little predictable.

Looking forward to it.

[SuperApe]

Originally Posted by outpt.co.uk

...they look much less uniform in their attacks - whereas before they were a little predictable...

Yep, that's the general difference: variety.

[SuperApe]

Whew. Work+Chores+BabyApe = very little time to work on this.

But, I've managed to get the tweaks to the combat code done. Now, I'm concentrating on the Retreating code (specifically, making sure creatures that fear players, keep fearing them and don't get all "uppity"). Then, I'll get back on the Save/Load stuff, which will just take a lot of test, tweak, test, repeat.

I've updated some things on the wiki: I've added a few neat Q's on the OSM Adventure Mapping FAQ and I've added a more complete list of the Miscellaneous extras on the OSMT hub page (HintItem description, Poison system description, etc). As a side note, I've updated the BotMind page to more accurrately reflect what Bots do at different skill levels (I found the Bot code that governs that).

I am planning on releasing an OSMT v1.5 in the next month or so. With a few neat extras that mappers should find useful. (...devious, menacing, low-down, etc.)

[SuperApe]

I've been testing a feature I'm adding in OSMT v1.5: the flashlight system I talk about here. This is a small Flash movie (slideshow, really) of a few OSM Comrades (ScriptedCharacters) who follow me around a test map with their own flashlights.

OSMT v1.5 preview #1

[SargeDavid]

does this mean you are putting the flashlight mod into osmt?
that can make a nice 1 pack combo and add more elements to osm =)