-NEW mod design doc! critiques wanted!

[Wazz Pants]

ok since HL2 is actually nearing completion i'm starting to get excited about actually modding this game. i have a few ideas i've been kicking around for a mod, but i have one that i actually took the time to write out while we were travelling on family vaction in the spring of this year...
i havent really looked at this doc since i've wrote it up and sent it to a friend to look over, but everything should be fairly well thought out (after spending 50ish hours in a van/plane this is what ive come up with, not working on it for all of those hours but i filled my time fairly well. i'm sure i could structure it even more if i spent a few more hours on it but it's fairly well done right now...)

so there's 2 docs, one is the general overview of what i was envisioning, and the other is an overview of the different armies/races that where planned. the general doc already has comments on it from my friend that are in italic text.
i also had planned stages in which production on this project should basically follow... the mod would start off as a small project then grow to what i have planned here.

i was also thinking that the setting of the mod that i have planned here could be changed to HL2's setting or a HL2ish setting, so we could save alot of production time on art assets, but there would still be alot of coding work to be done... i'm really starting to like the idea of using the HL2 kind of setting... we would still have to add in more characters/units/vehicles... guns and such would be really cool to play with with that kind of game play, but could change the feel to a bit more standoffish gameplay...
hehe kinda thinking out loud there... anyway


so i'm asking if anybody actually reads these documents, to share what they think about them, and if what i have here is a good start to something that they would like to play someday (even if the setting where to be different).
also if there are any ideas that you'd change or would like to share i'd love to hear them.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

You've got some good ideas there - I thought I was going to be the only one doing an RTS mod for Half-Life 2. What's frightening is that, if you were to use City 17 as the basis, your mod would be in direct competition with mine - argh!

Yes, there would be a lot of coding involved in there - I coded something similar for the original Half Life (just to see if it was feasable for HL2), and it took ages just getting movement commands to work. Turned out to be one hell of a lot of fun though. Ohh, and obstacles you never thought you'd face tend to appear - like 'how does a creature know if it's selected', and even stranger things - I remember certain objects in the first HL to only do their Think cycles if they were in a certain range of the player. And the Alien Grunts had the horrid side-effect of being stung by their own wasps.

Whichever path you choose, best of luck, it looks enjoyable.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Wazz Pants]

thanks for the reply angry lawyer. so do you have a web page/design doc for what you're going to be working on?

yeah i'm more of a modeler/technical artist than a coder, but i do have a really good grasp on what would have to be done as a coder.

i may be interested in joining up with somebody if i like what i see

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Well, as it stands, I'm a one-man mod team (I'm a coder/mapper/storyline-writer/modeler/skinner/voice-actor/musician/refreshments manager). It makes it so much easier - I don't have to chase up other members for parts of the mod, or anything. Currently, I'm without a web-page (I don't want to pump my mod before I actually have anything to show for it), but I do have a design document stashed away on a computer somewhere. Eventually I'll probably build a team, but I prefer to have some working code before I start hyping my mod.
But, yeah, when I get around to building a team, I'll see if you're about. Or, if I get bored in my week's absence from work (very likely, as I've finished stripping the wallpaper from my living room), I'll see if I can turn my undecipherable notes into something readable by other folks. You'll be the first to hear from me if I do.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Wrafe]

Wazz Pants...... that name sounds very familiar, didnt you help on Galactic Conquest ? or then called Star Wars: Battlefield ?

(sorry for going OT)

 

[Wazz Pants]

hahahaha yeah, i was one of the guys who started a starwars mod with jaybiggs before the 3 of them merged, i made that republic gunship for battlefield, then i did a bit of whatever... i might even still have a full sized stardestroyer in battlefield somewhere... i also tried to get the stupid at-st to walk as well, ugh that was frusturating, then they just put in what the other guy did anyway.

 

[Wrafe]

You mean me ?

 

[Socketman]

wazz and wrafe, damn glad to see ya both.

Wazz, I seem to recall you from the bf modding days. But iirc you did some good stuff on that engine. I promise to read your doc just as soon as I finish mine Perhaps we can help each other refine our ideas.

Wrafe, also glad to see you. I still talk to several guys from GC but Suge and Jay arent in charge anymore. I left that mod some time ago.

 

[Wrafe]

Yeh i know, Jay still hangs around, and the mod was taken over by some guy called Scott Szier, who, to be fair to him, has brought it a long way.

Im also gonna check out Wazz's mod

 

[MadMechwarrior]

Hey BF reunion, Wazz I think you modelled for my team too, those were the days lol. Now im working on my new mod "sequel" www.eternal-silence.net Wrafe what are you working on. I'll read the doc and give you feedback wazz.

 

[Socketman]

I cant believe eternal silence is still around! I remember when we tried to "borrow" your shield code about 2.5 years ago. In the end we decided it was too buggy

Ive seen the new models for ES. Just one question. How do pilots see over the side of the planes while in cockpit view? Some of the models have the wings spread out on both sides of the cockpit.

 

[Camajlen]

Just had to reply

"Play Style - Hostile Kin is going to be a four player action strategy game similar to the game Sacrifice"

Oooooooooo sacrifice! I loved that game! =D Damnit I hope this game will be made ;P I don't have any skills whatsoever (kind of) so I can't really help... but it sounds goood!

 

[JaegerMaster]

Then dammit guys, do a Starwars for HL2, and no, Starwars Battlefront couldn't hold a candle to it... I'd rather see a desert combat or Vietnam MOD though..lol

 

[Wrafe]

Unfortunately GC seems to have been a one off, i thought about a HL2 mod and actually have a idea for a SP mod with a bunch of MP maps thrown in, but no plans to design it properley yet.

Eternal Silence is looking rather nice i have to say MadMech, much better than it could look on the BF engine.

And as for the Star Wars mod, id love to, but i think people might be boring of it and im not sure i could get the neccessary help to make it.

Who knows

 

[Wazz Pants]

man i havent checked this for a while!
yeah MadMechwarrior ES2 looks freaking amazing already! I've been following it and i'm a fan. Man dete is a wicked artist, too bad we didnt have a good concept guy for ES1 hey? and i was really still learning alot about modeling (i still am right now but have characters down none too bad at all)
I still say that orbital to ground battles would be really freaking wicked for ES2

ahh BF was the good old days, i was even on a mod team with dawdler for a bit for an "official" savage mod that is getting close to being done soon i hope, i still hang around there to do collsion meshes and get stuff exported and working in game properly. i hear that our website for that will be up soooooon, then i'll be under less of an NDA that i am right now.

Anyway back to BF, man that was a fun game to play with, I even had a mod of my own (On if anybody remembers renders that i posted every once in a while) in "internal alpha" stage i could never really get the network scripting or the damage scripting worked out by myself tho, or i didnt want to spend the lots and lots of hours to get it sorted out, and none of my vehicles were textured yet (like 5 or 6 land vehicles and at least 6 air vehicles)... it kinda died over the summer tho (like not this last summer but the summer before) I still like alot of the vehicle concepts that i had for that mod tho...

hey who all wants the cardboard box for HL2?
ahh the funny/sad thing is that sometimes i still get emails from people wondering how to get either that or the republic gunship working in battlefield now...

as for the starwars mod for HL2, yeah starwars battlefront kinda killed off my interest in doing a starwars mod. like total rip off of BF42 but with everything just a little bit worse. the walkers do however look really cool, but everything just feels that bit worse than BF42.

yeah so i really went off on this design doc, maybe i should put togeather a kinda watered down version of it for show to outsiders, then whoever is really interested in it will see the big one.

haha thanks Camajlen. I'm not sure how big of an audience this mod will create, but i think that the audience that it will create, even if it is small, will be awsome.

I kind of have a concept/idea guy i talk to every once in a while right now... let me dig up some of his initial work so far. I absolutely love this first drawing
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/WazzPants/Miko_Pencil.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/WazzPants/masks.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/WazzPants/Infantry.jpg
also one of my friends who is an amazing artist is moving back in december i think and he'll for sure want to help out with concepts and such, its just getting him motivated to do some drawings... maybe i'll con him into it by offering unlimited lan sessions at my house

*edit* i'm totally going to make the cardboard box for HL2, that thing ruled!

 

[pr1est]

While this could be an amazing game Wazz Pants, I read the design document, and this is something that a.) is overly ambitious, or b.) is going to take a dedicated, talented team years to produce.

But hey, I could be wrong, :-p

 

[Wazz Pants]

haha yeah your right, i've got it planned to just start small tho, i had a whole write up of the development steps that we had to go though to get to the stages that I would want the mod at, even if it just ended up with one or two armies i would be extremely happy.

now if i wanted to make it overly ambitious i woulda added in netural cities and civilizations that you could take over, and the need for actual resources for each city, where the inhabitants fulfill their own needs, and i woulda also added in bandit camps that prey on the cities/villagers for their needs ect, ect.
hehe i might have got carried away a little bit with the origional document, but if you dont aim big you won't get big right?

 

[pr1est]

Indeed, see the post in my threaD?