Objective 4 (Opening the Hangar Door) is now implemented into the level. There are possible balance issues that will need to be addressed with this objective as it is now. It is too easy for the attackers to rush into the hangar and up to the objective before the defenders have time to get from their spawn. There are two possible ways I see to correct this. 1) I can move the defenders spawn up behind the objective, which could greatly increase the difficulty of completing it or 2) put a delay on the door that opens after objective 3 is complete. This will give the defenders more time to get up to the objective to protect it, but won’t greatly increase the difficulty of the objective. I believe I will try option 2 first.
On another topic, I noticed that the meshes I used for objective 3 (Disable Communications), lose there textures while they are the active objective (but have them otherwise). I am unsure of the cause of this. If worse comes to worse, I can see if another mesh is appropriate and functional.
I have successfully implemented the defender spawn change after objective 2 is complete. This helps make it easier for the defenders to protect objective 3, which has also been implemented. Work on objective 4 will begin soon, which is Opening the Hangar Door.
I have successfully implemented objective 2 (Securing the Weapons Cache) into the level. I have also spent more time experimenting with bot pathing (including scripting behaviors, etc.) and I’m beginning to understand how bot react to certain things. That said, they still occasionally do weird things, so I’ll have to keep playing around with it. On another note, I have decided to move the defenders spawn after the attackers have completed objective 2. It didn’t really make any sense to have both the attacker and defenders moving the same direction to attack/defend objective 3 (and would also make it hard for the defenders to defend it).
I’m going to have to get a move on if I want this to be done in time. No more playing with the bots until I get the objectives into the level (as I had originally stated-alas, I get side-tracked easily).
I haven’t had all that much experience with bot pathing up to this point. I’m only recently started taking a more in-depth look at it. I spent some time today experimenting on the outside portion of my Area 51: Data Storage level and I finally got the attacking team to go after the first objective, but there’s still a great many weird things that the bots are doing. It looks like it’s going to take a lot more trial and error on my part to learn how to get the bots to act right. Anyways… bot support is a secondary objective to getting the level up and ready for human players to test, so I’ll save the bot path learning for later.
I put some elbow grease into the level today, finishing up the terrain both outside the main gate and getting an acceptable terrain (that needs some tweeking) outside the hangar door. I also got the first objective up and functioning as intended along with refining the look of the outside of the base a little bit. Below are some screenshots in game of the outside of the base as of now.
Here’s a few screenshots from the editor of the textures in various places around the level. Now to get started on fixing up the terrain, then he placing of gameplay objects.
I’m currently texturing Area 51: Data Storage and adding extra BSP to do things like making texture changes seem more natural. After this is done, I’m going to go back and refine the terrain that I added earlier and add another terrain in out in front of the hangar door. Once this is done, I’m going to start placing gameplay objects, like spawnpoints, weapons, and objectives. The reason I’m going to get those in before I finish refining and enhancing the look of the level with static meshes is that I want to be able to start testing right away to have time to make game balance changes. Once I get the texturing and terrain done, I’ll put up some pictures so you can see how things are going.
I finished doing the major portion of blocking in the Area 51: Data Storage level last night. This brings me one step closer to being back on schedule after the change of plans. Below is a screenshot of the level in the editor.
Here’s another banner I threw together for the HotH banner contest. It doesn’t fit the desired dimensions, but it’s still pretty cool. It’s based off a banner I did for Clan BlackBlade on Uther a few months back.
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