mod idea

[kalayq]

Well I went to study after reading some of the posts here this morning,(http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12882) but I couldn't do my work, so instead I thought up an idea for a mod. This concept is open for anyone to take, so please do take. I want to see some of these ideas put into motion.

NOTE: Please read the liked thread to know what I'm talking about!


Islands
General: CTF style with building and islands.
See attached picture.

Description:
Island 1
Size = small-medium
Each team starts off on their own small island. On the island are enough pieces of "trash"(eg. planks of wood, barrels, metal sheets) to build a bridge to the next island, and to make some kind of cover for fighting.

Island 2
Size=small-medium
This island has a small shelter that is open on all of the sides. Just like the last island, there is enough "junk" to build a bridge to the next island and to fortify the building any way they like.

Island 3
Size=Big-Realy big
This island is where the main fighting will happen. The island will be covered with lots of natural barriers(Large rock outcroppings, pits, ponds) to slow down the progress of each team, so no rushing. On this island there will be a lot more "junk" to make whatever kind of fortification that you want to. The "junk" will also be used to get past the natural barriers of the island(eg. plank over a small canyon)

Gameplay
- First to reach the other teams home island.
-On the Large island the junk will be randomly generated, with varying quantities of materials.(Load the models into memory and spawn when map spawns. Have random number generator choose how many of each material to spawn)
-Always spawn on original island(teleporters well worth it)

Classes
Builder class:
Weapon: physgun/gluegun. Also uses a crowbar and a manipulator gun.
Special: Can use pysgun to build structures and to make bridges. Also can build amo refill stations and teleporters(one per island).
The pysgun's glue shots start at 20 and regenerate at a slow rate which will force the builder to think about what they are making.
-Builder can charge gravgun(takes 15 seconds of standing still) to send a heavy object(eg barel) flying in the air to hit the other teams fortifications like a morter or cannonball.
-Only third island will have random amounts of "junk".
-Can build traps on third island.(make a badly built bridge over a chasm so that the next person to use it will fall.

Fighter class:
- Regular range of weaponry.
-One time use per life of a physgun(to move something into place) without the glue option.


things that may or may not work:
-on the large island there will be two paths to take to get across it.
-Make the starting islands large islands and a flag at the back.
-spawning points for junk vs random points(harder to do)

Remember this just a preliminary idea, so please add on new and better ideas. Thanx

 

[MultiVaC]

Sounds like fun There's going to be a mad rush of mods when HL2 comes out.

 

[alphablu]

thats a damn good idea...thinking of the possibilities the physics engine brings is mindboggling...you could make a bob vila mod where two teams compete to build a house faster

 

[D33]

Aye, nice idea - if nothing else it's highly refreshing from a typical "it moved, fire in that general direction until you're out of ammo!!11" fps game.

Mods might be rushing out but that doesn't mean anything, it's quality over speed. Natural Selection was one of the last big mods to come out for the HL Engine and look how popular that is.

It's HL2 mods like Nuclear-Dawn that make me angry. The guy who runs this is an arrogant moron ( Defcon ). He sacked a coder because the coder refused to study the leaked code.

I suggest avoiding Nuclear-Dawn, we certainly won't be giving it any support and at its time of release we'll probably be making a few things public about it as well.

 

[hunteraz]

that sounds sweet

 

[NSPIRE]

D33, I agree with the Nuclear Dawn mod. I also read about Defcon givin' the boot to one of his/her coders because they refused to look at and study the leaked Source Code.

!!! ROCK ON REBEL CODER!!!

 

[kalayq]

here is the quick pick I made of a map. Just to give you guys an idea on how it would look from above.

 

[staddydaddy]

Originally posted by kalayq
here is the quick pick I made of a map. Just to give you guys an idea on how it would look from above.

That's THE best picture I've seen from the beta.

 

[staddydaddy]

Originally posted by D33
Natural Selection was one of the last big mods to come out for the HL Engine and look how popular that is.

Hl-Rally is yet to come out. I bet it will be popular because:
- Racing is popular in general
- Rally Racing is growing in popularity and is fresh
- New type of game play on the hl engine
- New Mod techniques (player shrinking)
- Quality models, textures, effects and physics (for hl1).

 

[NSPIRE]

Wait, so there'd be 5 islands all together? Or just 2 islands, but seperate spawning / fighting areas? *Confused...*

 

[MultiVaC]

Originally posted by NSPIRE
!!! ROCK ON REBEL CODER!!!

It'd be interesting to know who this coder was, that kind of honesty would make him/her a good addition to a mod team.

 

[Chode]

Nice, but just one question:

Will there be any vehicles (boats) or just bridge warfare?

 

[Quixoticism]

Sounds cool. I think I'll make a mod when HL2 come out. Maybe this will be it.

 

[kalayq]

well basically there are 5 islands. each side has one starting island and one secondary island. Then there is the large fighting island in the middle. Spawning happens on your teams starting island. Once your team is able to hold a position then a builder can build a teleporter so that you can travel from the spawn point to the main fight quickly.

No vehicles only bridges, sorry. If you can come up with a good way to implement vehicles please tell me.

 

[NSPIRE]

Elf, I totally agree. I wonder who exactly the guy was. That kind of honesty and loyalty is extremely admirable when it comes to looking into the morrals of a specific human being/person.

 

[MultiVaC]

Re: Re: mod idea

Originally posted by Chode
Nice, but just one question:

Will there be any vehicles (boats) or just bridge warfare?

Well, we could swim or build rafts

 

[NSPIRE]

Kalayq, maybe you could implement vehicles in some sort of fashion like BF1942?? Or, another possible idea would be that you could have some sort of 'air-respawn' and parachute down, like in BF1942, also.

PS - Sorry for all of the BattleField 1942 References... hehe

 

[NSPIRE]

The implementation of some sort of raft building would be awesome.... would also inspire lots of teamwork I'm sure (which was one of the main reasons I loved BattleField 1942... TEAMWORK! )

However, seems like that'd be tricky to code and to get it to actually work correctly as planned... pain in the ass!

 

[kalayq]

The only special coding would be to:
1. fix up the physgun code so that there will be more controll. eg. spining the object while in the air so that it fits better when attaching it to other objects.

2. Random generation of objects. Basically it is easy to spawn in any weapons models or monsters, so just load the objects you want to spawn in to memory just like the other models.

3. ctf code

other then that I can't think of anything else.

 

[MultiVaC]

What I'm thinking in this mod as far as vehicles would go would be to have an "engine entity" that would drag anything welded to it over water in a straight line. It would be a crude short range transport since going island to island would make you an easy target, but it could have it's uses. Also, maybe some buggies on the big island so we could build ramps to launch them off. Remember, if this mod is actually made there will be plenty of versions to get things right.

 

[antistructure]

Originally posted by kalayq
No vehicles only bridges, sorry. If you can come up with a good way to implement vehicles please tell me.

Noway! Boats would be awesome, ok, one boat, dont over do it, but cant you just see it, someone on a boat, laying low, sniping, then someone with a rocket launcher just picking them off!.. might be interesting maybe on one of the islands without a spawn point, that might be a good place to have the boat? : ) just an idea.

 

[NSPIRE]

I agree with the whole 'boats' idea(s).

 

[Nightmare]

Sounds like a mod i would definitly be DLing

I think vehicles would be good but I donno about boats. Whats to stop half a team sneaking up behind the enemys island and grabbing the flag. It could keep the action away from the main island too much.

Just wondering though, what time would it be set in???

 

[Javert]

Originally posted by D33

It's HL2 mods like Nuclear-Dawn that make me angry. The guy who runs this is an arrogant moron ( Defcon ). He sacked a coder because the coder refused to study the leaked code.

I suggest avoiding Nuclear-Dawn, we certainly won't be giving it any support and at its time of release we'll probably be making a few things public about it as well.

I've brought the subject up in our own mod forum @ hl2grounds.com. I commend you for bringing this matter to light.

 

[theGreenBunny]

Very interesting mod idea. A problem I see is the building itself, you need a lot of control over the object you're moving around and the 'attaching' process, while still retaining control over your player movements etc.
But if someone tackles it I'll definitely play it.

 

[\\-shanE]

Neat idea.

What would be cool is that the manipulator can be edited to have the additional features as stated by some (eg, rotating the object in the air), and also to 'weld' the objects together.
Like building a raft for example, I'm pretty sure people would be able to construct a makeshift raft with wood planks and drop it into the water, so a number of players can jump on it and paddle forward. But maybe some stupid ones will use metal pieces to build the raft :cheese:. Or if too many players stand on the raft, they will all sink down with it.

The possibilities are endless, you could take a barrel and a long, thick plank to form a teeterboard which you can use to propel players over to the other side (and take some dmg of course). :dozey:

It would be great if people will work on this, I can offer help in the art/design aspect.

 

[Brian Damage]

Originally posted by \\-shanE
What would be cool is that the manipulator can be edited to have the additional features as stated by some (eg, rotating the object in the air), and also to 'weld' the objects together.

Actually, when welding is mentioned by the people in the know, they're talking about the physgun, which is similar to the manipulator, but different. Just in case you didn't know.:E

 

[\\-shanE]

Originally posted by Brian Damage
Actually, when welding is mentioned by the people in the know, they're talking about the physgun, which is similar to the manipulator, but different. Just in case you didn't know.:E

Yea.. I know about the welding thing.. just that... I can't, or rather, we can't... talk about... you know..:cheese:

 

[Brian Damage]

Aren't there around three posts on it? I think a lot of people know by now...

Oh well.:E

 

[theGreenBunny]

Originally posted by \\-shanE

The possibilities are endless, you could take a barrel and a long, thick plank to form a teeterboard which you can use to propel players over to the other side (and take some dmg of course). :dozey:

It would be great if people will work on this, I can offer help in the art/design aspect.

Hehehe :cheese:, maybe people could climb in trees to jump on the plank and launch the 'victim'

Perhaps we should get a mod team together for this. Would be a shame if such a great idea would go unused.

 

[\\-shanE]

Originally posted by theGreenBunny
Hehehe :cheese:, maybe people could climb in trees to jump on the plank and launch the 'victim'

Perhaps we should get a mod team together for this. Would be a shame if such a great idea would go unused.

Maybe we can start off by gathering people who can offer help? kalayq, any say on this?

 

[gantrithor_5]

well that plank idea took off a teeny-scale medieval war... the catapult takes off, knocks some stones off the enemy castle, while the attackers' arrows don't affect the castle in any way... actually... nah lez stick with the building map

 

[PvtRyan]

Instead of a CTF, you could make some kind of a race mode too, get to OO as fast as you can with your team, by building bridges between islands (the O's). Who gets their ENITRE team there first wins.
You can have a maximum of 2 welders on your team, one heavy assault guy (for instance with an OICW) to remove wrongly welded barrels, one guy with an RPG to destroy the other teams bridges and the rest is infantry.
You start at () with your team.
You will have to get your entire team on the last island, so if one guy remains on the middle island and the bridge is destroyed and the guy isn't a welder, the rest of the team must help him get across. If you get killed but have already touched a flag of some kind on the center island (the OO) you spawn there. You only need to touch the center island flag once, and when the entire team has done that, that team wins.

And you could make variations in maps with heighdifferences, building down and upwards. Up to steep cliffs. Or have native enemy animals spawn on islands.

You can make surprises with having barrels that blow up when hit, but you wouldn't see this on the outside so it's always unsure if your bridge is safe.

And because you can't weld wood, is it possible to make a nail gun that attaches a plank to another object?

I'm willing to do some modeling for a mod like this, and maybe some mapping altough I will have to learn that.

OO_____O_____()
|
|
|
O
|
|
|
()

But this is all assuming there is actually a welding gun of some sort in HL2, is there any confirmation of this? And do you guys think it's possible to make a welder gun if it isn't in HL2?

 

[\\-shanE]

I can do mapping and texturing/skinning, so I can offer help in that area.
The race gametype is interesting. How bout both teams must try to be the first to reach a certain place. That would be fun. Maybe there shouldn't be a focus on "bridges", there can be the need to construct rafts to get past waters. Stack up crates to read the higher places. Or build fortifications to block off your opponents' way and delay them. Sabotage them too? Or launch human cannonballs to knock down whatever they've built. The possibilities are endless.

And it must not necessarily be islands, there can be maps of places in city17 for example, with a little tweaking.

What I don't like is the idea of using guns and other direct damaging weapons (RPGs, Grenade launchers, etc) to blow things up. Maybe use a teetertotter to propel explosives over? Or players can arm themselves with self destruct explosives which players can launch their teammates across and blow them up.

 

[Trigg]

yeah in city 17 on top of big buildings, oke i got a idea to look at the Attach file for info about my idea

 

[kalayq]

Good ideas guys

Wow its looking like maybe things might happen with this mod

anyways here are my thoughts on a few issues brough up.

Just like nightmare said, the boat idea would take gameplay away from the fighting for controll on the main island. Although one could make it a different gameplay mode with different maps. Instead of bridges one could have slow moving boats.

The launching of a player on a catapult like thing is possible I guess, but the only problem it would be a pain to aim it and the player would only land without damage if they landed in the shallows. The charging manipulator could be used to throw a player, but I don't think it should be made into a weapon other than shooting barrels and things.

pvtryan's ideas on rush mode can be another play type, no real coding changes other than adding new class. I really hope that there will be a lot of variation in the maps for the islands. Each new map would totally change the stratagy needed to win.

shane- one would have to build the map differently for you mode because the two starting islands are really far apart. I really like the idea of having no explosive weapons.

Trugg- that would be a cool game mode too. Buildings instead of island, I like it. Although what if one team destroyed all the planks the other team had on a building, they would be stuck while the other team goes on.

 

[D33]

The coder was Onions

 

[PvtRyan]

I agree that the mod would be cooler without conventional weapons such as RPGs, but hard to implement.

Just wondering about this: if you build a raft out of barrels and planks, and you weld a rotating engine on it like the one from the traptown video, and you weld on a wooden plank or a metal one on one of the ends do you suppose the craft will move? I think on solid ground the answer is yes, the plank spinning around makes contact with the floor, it has friction and pushes the craft forward. I've seen it in another physics engine demo. It has a cube with 4 cubes mounted under it that spin and it moves forward, so the more advanced Havok engine could do it too I think? But would that also work in water?

And you could have other means of moving too, like peddling with a wooden plank using the manipulator. I wonder if this is possible without modifying anything.

 

[theGreenBunny]

Peddling should be possible, as objects already automatically float.
Maybe you could even use the to-be-modified physgun to rotate a plank in the water for a more constant movement.

 

[kalayq]

umm combat in a peddle boat? why is everyone so fixated on vehicles?