Hi Feb, what’s up?
So, I just realized that after 31st January comes 1st February. Who knew?
I’ll update this post with a featured image etc, but I’m in a rush ATM.
Please use this post to talk about whatever you want, except maps and mods that are already listed on the site – I’ll delete those comments – you’ve been warned. I’m reminding readers because we have had an influx of new members.
In June 2014, I started to use a poster from a classic Sci-Fi move as the background for the post image.
This month it is from Warning From Space (1956). FO’s are seen around Tokyo. Because they look like giant starfish the aliens cannot approach us without creating panic. Hence one of them sacrifices itself and takes the form of a popular …
THIS HAS TO BE MADE INTO A MODEL FOR A MOD! Please, somebody, just do it!
First day of the month and I lasted three hours in the office before I had to give in. Got a horrendous stomach bug over the weekend.
I would say “Huzzah, I can get some mapping done.” but in all honesty I’m probably just going to sleep until I can keep food down for longer than an hour…
So sorry to hear that. I have a rule: no work – no computer. Hope you get better soon.
Get well – it sounds like something that will not allow you to do anything. And I bet that sucks.
Sounds terrible, hope you get well soon!
I took a stray cat in yesterday because he was so sweet. He’s been fantastic so far and I intend to keep him, though it’s my first pet ever so it’s a little daunting! Never had one as a child because my father wouldn’t allow it, but I had to take this kitty in. So, well, wish me luck!
WOAH, that’s great. Please name him “headcrab”! Hope it works out for you.
If he was a she, she’d be Lamarr, haha! Thanks!
Oh that’s wonderful! 😀 I miss having cats, myself, my landlord is a dick about them. He claims he’s allergic but it’s a known fact that he’s lived in houses with cats most of his life, he just doesn’t LIKE them. 🙁 I’m glad that your little stray will have a welcome home.
Thanks! It certainly deserves so, it’s a sweet little kitty.
Good luck, sir!
You’re for sure an animal person and I bet your name isn’t Calhoun. 😛
It’s 5am in the morning and I’m rushing for deadline. Anyone else?
Not me, I’ve sleeping but unconsciously know I need to get up soon.
So is anyone else hype about Fire Emblem: Fates?
What’s that?
It’s a Japanese RPG series from Nintendo. A series that took a long time to come out of Japan, if I remember correctly. Most people only came to know of it after its characters were in Super Smash Bros.
I haven’t played a JRPG in years, but I still have fond memories of Chrono Trigger.
Adding to what Maki said: it’s a tactical JRPG series which has long been famous (or perhaps infamous) for having permadeath. Meaning that one misjudged move and there goes one of the few characters you have. They’re not nameless pawns either, each character is singular and has conversations with other characters that, while not major to the plot, add a bit of depth to them. So when they die, it means something.
That sounds pretty intense.
Oh, it is. I had Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones for Game Boy Advance as a kid. I restarted whole chapters of the game more times than I can count because I made a small tactical error or RNG screwed me over and all of a sudden I permanently lost a character.
Fates is the newest one. The last one, Awakening for the Nintendo 3DS, was originally to be the last in the series but turned out to be a massive success. This one apparently has three different story branches, but you have to buy(!) each one individually.
Not if you get the special edition like me 😀
As if losing soldiers in XCOM wasn’t bad enough! X)
Yes that is if you are playing classic mode (my preferred mode). There is also casual where units come back after you beat the map they died in or the highly unnecessary phoenix mode that defeats the point of the game by reviving all of your units the round after they die….
It is but that is why it is so fun. The simplest comparison to it is chess… That is a version of chess in which if one of your units die you ether have to deal with the grief of knowing you were why they died or soft reset and restart the map. The deaths are especially hurtful when you are married to them or its your son or daughter, who you are able to fight alongside through time travel mumbo jumbo.
Hey guys, I don’t know about you guys, but i’ve been in a mapping mood lately, all i want to do is Mapp Mapp Mapp!
That’s perfect because all I want to do is play new maps, play new maps, play new maps.
Still doing map work, and I’ve also been getting into music composition lately.
I figure I can make a few short tracks and include them in my map.
Patiently awaiting for cup challenge two!
I was just checking the page for the hammer cup and noticed that the next challenge is scheduled for the 18th. I’m probably wrong but considering chasmville will only be released next weekend it seems a bit short compared to other villes. Is that date final ?
On another note, have you considered some sort of “subscribing” feature to a post, or at least be able to be notified if someone replies to one of your comments ? This is something that I would find extremely useful, especially for modders/mappers who would like to be notified when someone posted a comment on their, now old, mod post. I think it would encourage people to discuss more often and leave comments with questions directed at someone in specific.
I think the idea is that since only your top 3 scores count, a mapper doesn’t have to enter all 5 contests. ChasmVille ended up with 13 entries, which has to be some kind of record, so it’s going to take time for the judges to parse through all that.
You would still want as many entries as possible for every ville challenge. It would be pretty dull to have 13 on the first, then only 2 or 3 on the second. Personally the date that is set right now is as good as any for me, but it might be worth reconsidering if many people find it is too close to the last one.
I personally like that its so close to the last one.
13 entries is awesome!!!
What about AbstractVille. Might be interesting. I myself really love maps like that.
Phillip, I’m not quite sure if this has been talked about before, but I’d like to address the dates at which a mapping competition is streamed and at which it is released. The thing is, if an unreleased mod is streamed before it is made accessible, people have to choose whether they wish to play the mod first and watch the recordings later, or watch the stream live and have the mod spoiled for them. I, along with a few others, am one of those people, and as much as I wish to participate in the streams live, I also wish to play the mods without knowing anything beforehand.
My suggestion is playing only the first few 1-2 minutes of each entry privately just to make sure it works, and then uploading the mod to the site as an ‘Alpha’ version. The chapter and background images remain empty, but the players are able to play each entry without knowing anything. After a few days, you host the stream in which you play the entries as you usually do, and then you announce the winner of the competition, as well as upgrade the mod into its final version, with the chapter and background images included in-game and screenshots uploaded to the site.
This might seem like a lot of extra work, but considering the relatively small quantity of mapping challenges hosted per year, I think it is worth doing. I’ll list a few things that this scheme would improve:
– Players don’t get entries spoiled for them before playing
– They are able to participate in the streams live, watching Phillip’s reaction to things they saw in their own playthrough
– The amount of viewers is increased because players are no longer discouraged from watching the stream if they wish to play the entries blind
– All entries are given a fair chance of being played (since, after watching the stream, certain players skip the entries that they didn’t find interesting enough to play)
I agree with this idea.
Since the winners are not chosen by popular vote anymore I find that this approach really has no drawbacks. There’s not really any extra work on Phillip’s part because he still needs to create the “alpha” version to send to the other judges so it’s really only a matter of creating another post.
It also makes it so that people will tend to leave better reviews on each entry because they played the map blind and went about it in their own way instead of tackling the mod after knowing what’s coming.
I second this, I feel having to wait for phillip to finish his stream playthrough to be kinda needless.
I ‘ve also skipped entries from previous competitions due to seeing them on the stream (spoilers or inferior quality). I’d still watch the stream after completing the mod myself, as seeing others play is very educational and in phillip’s case, entertaining :p
Didn’t manage to finish my Chasmville map in time, the actual chasm area of my map was taking over 30 minutes to compile and I still had so much work to do before it was done. I’m probably going to continue making it though, but with a more sensible chasm-y area.
Aside from that I’ve been doing some mapping for Doom 2 which has been very fun and easy. I’m very much looking forward to the new Doom that’s coming out this year.
I was interested in DOOM for mapping, until I saw their level editor, sure it is great for people getting into the idea of mapping, but it was a complete turn-off for me. Similar to that of Portal 2, in game level editors with limited assets and tools has always frustrated me now that I am use to map making with hammer and similar software.
I’m much the same. I absolutely hate “level editors” with drag and drop set pieces that don’t allow any real degree of freedom with how the map itself is built, just different variations of the same rooms and corridors. Snapmap looks to be just that. From the videos I’ve seen so far all the set pieces just seem to be sci-fi space stationy things anyway.
It’s one of the reasons I like to make maps brush-based games so much, free to make literally whatever I want (within engine limitations).
Here’s a recent write-up on Snapmap:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2016/01/29/doom-snapmap-hands-on.aspx
I appreciate the idea of Snapmap, especially since console users rarely get an opportunity to experience making custom content (assuming it will be available for consoles), but yeah, it does nothing for anyone who is used to being able to create their own structures from scratch and it’s rather disingenuous for them to keep insisting that “Oh, we totally get the modding community” when they clearly don’t.
That said, I think there is a market for this kind of thing. Even I find Super Mario Maker to be a lot of fun, and that’s somewhat limited. Sometimes you have a casual desire to build something, but not a giant project. A kind of instant gratification.
I don’t think Doom 4 is shaping up to be particularly impressive, though. Much like their “understanding” of the mod community, I don’t think they really understand what made the original games fun either. It’s like you explained the concept of Doom to a third party over a telephone and asked them to build it. What makes it painful is that Brutal Doom provided the perfect template for them to follow, and its nearly viral popularity proves this is more along the lines of what the fans want.
Can someone help me , I seem to get a very weird problem with RTSL , first of all when I’m to register I’m only asked for my username and e-mail after that the website doesn’t automatically log me in , so I go to the log in tab where it asks for my password , which I was not asked for , I even tried the recover password , but it’s hopeless . Please help !
Hi Dan, Sorry to hear you are having trouble. Please accept my apologies. We have been having an intermittent issue with membership registrations. From this point forward I will deal directly with you, using the email you used for this comment.
Sorry for the late reply , but thank you a lot for helping me , unlike other websites here people are actually helping me , with all my respect Dan M.
No need to apologize at all. We are all happy to help.
So i tried out Sven Coop yesterday, got into a server, and found out that i have atleast +400 ping playing in literally any server (even my own country).
I guess that’s why i never really bothered played MP games with anyone, because my internet sucks and i can’t afford a better one.
Ah well, might as well repeat a mod for this week, They Hunger sounds tempting.
Either that, or it’s the Timeline series, the Half-Quake series, Riot in Progress, or possibly Cthulhu.
Or i could go STALK-ing again, been too long since i left Chernobyl…
That film of giant starfish looks creepy as hell.
Anyway I shall predict the next four challenges. Odds are all shall be wrong
EnvironmentVille – No weapons, you have to use environment objects in the map to fight or solve puzzles (eg. car trap in ravenholm)
RunThinkShootLiveVilleTwo – As the name describes
CombineBaseVilleTwo – level in a combine base
DefenceVille – Sat in one area with supplies, holding off waves of enemies that increase in difficulty.
I really hope EnvironmentVille will be next , Philip said something about it in one of his latest streams , although it’s kinda hard to come up with new ideas for this topic 🙁
I finally decided to play The Witcher 3. It IS as good as people say it is. No quest so far has been a simple “Kill this” or “Fetch that”. Interesting Characters, top-notch animations and incredible voice acting makes for a perfect game.
Since youtube is being a colossal pain (I am unable to sign into my old account on my new laptop since I was always logged in) I am having to start a new account. It will feature lots of Let’s Plays eventually. Will probably kick it off with G-String Beta…but we’ll see.
Hey Phillip I have idea for a poll question that I’m honestly shocked you haven’t used yet.. I don’t know if you would want to post it here or somewhere else (I’m still a little new :P). Just give me the word and I’ll give it to you. (To be honest you have probably already thought of this so I might just be wasting my time…)
Just use the Contact page. See the full list of first though, just in case I have already asked it.
Not if you get the special edition like me 😀
Boy the Half-Life subreddit sure has been a cesspool since the “leaks” in the Portal VR demo. It’s barely readable at the best of times, but it’s totally shit now.
Yeah, I’m pretty much done with that particular sub. It’s ridiculous. They really need to take all that speculative crap – and that’s what it is, crap – to the actual Half-Life 3 sub. While a game as old as Half-Life may not foster a ton of conversation these days, anything I care about is getting completely drowned out. No matter how hard you try to steer the discussion back to something real, any non-HL3 topics just get suffocated.
Mr Addy’s Prospekt review is rather good…
http://lambdageneration.com/modding/half-life/an-extensive-review-of-prospekt-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/