Dead Echo - WIP L4D Campaign

[Valar]

cheers.
however that area is quite different now, there's a light source on the left in that ss and cubemap only few inches to the left from where my hand is.

[Valar]

Hey everybody,


In my Finale i'm using the APC from Blood Harvest pretty much as is including it's point_viewcontrol_multiplayer (Cam).
My problem is that the animation isn't really working with what i'm trying to do.
1) over 50% of its course is going right into a solid i have in the laylout (and even if i choose to redesign that area i'd still be left with...see #2)
2) an aleady done outro where the APC drives over that bump in the dirt and then fadout.

what i would really want to do is for the camera to follow the APC in a crane shot slowly aligning itself to its course from a birdseye pov then as the APC drives away the camera follows it while craning down to the height of the bumper then stops...by doing so...giving a nice cinematic view of the drive away THE END shot. just like a movie.
I can't model but i understand this is a rather simple bone animation.

takers?

The campaign is looking very nice at this point and i'd would love it to have a proper ending. something that stays with you.

thx
val

[Valar]

Currently in BETA however i've decided to release it to the public so i can start getting feedback and build a bug list.

Check out the Dead Echo page on L4DMODS.COM

More Screenshots and videos are on their way. so for now, download the campaign and start playing. hope you enjoy.
Downloads available HERE

I've requested from Valve that they'll provide the community with hi-res gallery of the original actors for both games and was told this will be added to the SDK. when, i do not know but i'm sure they'll do their best to deliver.
here's the current state of the poster for what its worth

cheers,
val

[Phott]

Wow man, really nice job, gonna try this out.

[trcc]

Looks amazing, very professionnal look . You've got some great lighting skills and texturing. I wish I had those skills.

[Valar]

thanks a lot. i'll be waiting for feedbacks and bugs.

- - - - - - -

Few notes to help you go through the campaign:

1) There are a few known bugs at this point and i will lay them out:
* Survivor bots may act up at times. not want to jump on the lift, not want to stand where they should, follow you, etc. i strongly recommend everyone to play this beta with live human beings as oppose to bots. so they can enjoy the game and get a real sense of the flow of the levels.

* Few bugs here and there i'm aware of:
- Coming out of the beginning Saferoom there is an alarm door. it's buggy and may show up as jittering or break and fail to open.

- a Tank may spawn right behind the main drainage gate, right before the crescendo.

- Witches may spawn outside of the survivors path. some may like the idea but it's not by design lol.

- In the Hotel crescendo, the janitor's lift may not work for some odd reason i'm still looking into this. (in all my playtests it's worked fine but i've received feedbacks from few people who said it didn't. they may have been running on a modded server but anyway...)

- Playing on modded servers or with strange cheats / hacks / rates abnormalities is out of my range and i cannot guaranty the campaign will perform as it should. i also don't intend to. I don't see why people should use buggy mods and plugins on an already perfectly balanced game. I'm aware not everyone share my view on this but in any event, any and all mods used these days in L4D are buggy and are not recommended or supported by Valve. If you are running a modded server or playing on one - be warned. the game may be off.

- You may occasionally find the off zombie not being able to go through an opening, a door, window, etc. - please be kind and take a screenshot of the area where you saw the bug happen. same goes for any other bugs you may encounter.

- Visuals: You may see at times a strange flickering or disappearing elements in the map. They are known and i'm working to sort them all out as soon as i can.

- Versus and Survival aren't yet fixed. Please be patient, they'll come.

2) Until proper Instructor messages are added (in upcoming update) i will explain the Finale:

You arrive at the generator area. start it. it will fail after 2 min, start it again and then run over to the HQ shack (green shack) where the radio is. call the APC and defend yourself until you HEAR the APC arrive (motor roaring, skid sounds and of course, the Horn). it will park and wait for you right by the generator forcing you to run back there.

I've planned it this way because there are enough campaigns out there where you can simply sit and camp the entire Finale waiting for the rescue to arrive. i find it boring and i'm not the only one. Without a proper way of implementing real gauntlets in L4D1 this is the best i could come up with. I'd like to think it's more challenging and rewarding. and more fun than the usual "camp-holdout" Finales.

With much respect to other community mappers i would argue that as we can all see in L4D2, this idea is already the current standard anyway in Valve's campaigns. Listen to the commentary around the crescendo as well as in the Finale in The Parish.

That being said, i'm very open to ideas and any inputs - please share your thoughts and comments. it will only make Dead Echo better.

thanks,
val

[Vilham]

Next time, though, I would suggest not using the [IMG] tags if you have this many pictures as it makes viewing the for the first time difficult.

what is the alternative?

Theres a gallery thingy you can use on here. Can't remember what it is, but take a look around at some other threads with loads of pics.

[ErikKiller]

Holy shit the emptiness looks so fucking scary :O

[Valar]

emptiness

?

[trcc]

emptiness

?

Maybe the fact that none of your screenshots have zombies is the emptiness hes referring to.

[AIR]

Awesome map Mr V .... Art man ..Art!

[Valar]

Hi everybody,

I've released a 2nd beta tonight.

Download it here

IMPORTANT!

In one instance i've notice a bug may occur where map #5 spawns without the weapons in the saferoom. If this should happen in your playtest please go back to Lobby and have the Lobby leader choose to start from map #5.

This happened once out of 5 playtests i've run, this will be fix in a day or two.

All other reported bugs were fixed AFAIK.

FINALE UPDATE:
You now need to start the generator twice to power up the base. once you do, the radio will be operational. ONLY ONCE YOU PRESS IT WILL THE FINALE START. The APC will arrive after 15 min, just like in Blood Harvest. Since the generator bit has been taken out from the Finale and more items were added around the Finale area i've decided to go this route, feeling things are now move balanced for a full 15 min Finale.

In addition, Campaign beginning starts with full Tire1 weapons to compensate the crescendo right outside the saferoom per players' requests.

Please let me know if you're having any issues and your comments are as always most welcome.

Thanks,

val

[Valar]

Dead Echo finally released - Download here
for L4D2 only and not Survival mode but co-op and vs are full and it's out.
L4DMODS.COM announcement

Steam forums announcement

hope ppl enjoy this work for ever what time is left for this game

All my thanks and praise go to 1SG.Heartless who is solely responsible for this campaign releasing at all. the man rocks. srsly.

[mrfranswa]

To be completely honest I didn't really like the first version, however the update looks really fantastic. I'm glad you've kept up with the project man!

(just needs to find time to actually "play" a game lately...)

[trcc]

I downloaded, Will give it a try sooner or later!