Coders Feedback

[boing]

Hi everybody,

we are a small Team working on an Adventure for the Source Engine.
Since we have no Coder yet and I have absolutely no clue about programming I would like to get some feedback on some elements I want in the game.

Dynamic Health System
The health bar should dynamically react on the environment
-Darkness, great heights and otherwise dangerous environments will lower the health
-Depending on the health-level the players movement/vision will change
-Health bonus given by an NPC that is near the player.

NPC Interaction
The NPC is the players dog, that usually follows the player wherever he goes.
-Dog runs away –player can call him back (sometimes the dog listens sometimes not)
-Target objects to be retrieved by the dog that were unreachable for the player

Inventory System
There are Objects that need be carried/combined/used on other objects etc therefore we need a small inventory.

Gesture Control
Mouse Gestures control animations.
For Example: To climb over a fence you have to push the right mouse button and move the mouse upwards. While moving the mouse the animation starts, if you stop the mouse movement the animation will reverse back to the starting position (If you ever played Indigo Child/Fahrenheit or Heavy Rain you know what I mean)

Monsters
The enemies can only survive in the dark, therefore the ai needs to avoid light sources. The players flashlight can damage/kill the Monsters

any kind of feedback is greatly apreciated, mostly i need to know how much effort it is to make those things work in the source engine

Thanks!

[zombie@computer]

Hi everybody,

we are a small Team working on an Adventure for the Source Engine.
Since we have no Coder yet and I have absolutely no clue about programming I would like to get some feedback on some elements I want in the game.

Dynamic Health System
The health bar should dynamically react on the environment
-Darkness, great heights and otherwise dangerous environments will lower the health
-Depending on the health-level the players movement/vision will change
-Health bonus given by an NPC that is near the player.

NPC Interaction
The NPC is the players dog, that usually follows the player wherever he goes.
-Dog runs away –player can call him back (sometimes the dog listens sometimes not)
-Target objects to be retrieved by the dog that were unreachable for the player

Inventory System
There are Objects that need be carried/combined/used on other objects etc therefore we need a small inventory.

Gesture Control
Mouse Gestures control animations.
For Example: To climb over a fence you have to push the right mouse button and move the mouse upwards. While moving the mouse the animation starts, if you stop the mouse movement the animation will reverse back to the starting position (If you ever played Indigo Child/Fahrenheit or Heavy Rain you know what I mean)

Monsters
The enemies can only survive in the dark, therefore the ai needs to avoid light sources. The players flashlight can damage/kill the Monsters

any kind of feedback is greatly apreciated, mostly i need to know how much effort it is to make those things work in the source engine

Thanks!

Umm, so you are looking for feasability advice?

1) DHS: Very feasible, perhaps even easy to add by experienced coder. Not sure what you mean by 'the players movement/vision', you mean speed or what? Speedmods are easy. Easy/beginner coding.

2) NPC: Easy, experienced mapper can make it in hammer (aiscripted schedules, etc). The only difficulty i see here is 'Target objects to be retrieved by the dog that were unreachable for the player', where some code is probably required to tag the items that need retrieved. You will also need to add some 'sulking' AI-state or whatever the dog is supposed to do when not listening, i'd say that be advanced coding.

3) INV: theres various tutorials for inventory, pretty easy if you know where to mod the code. Depending on the exact implementation easy - difficult tho.

4) Gesture control. Difficult. You need a gesture-detection piece of code (im sure theres libraries for that, but not sure how well they work with source). The rest of the implementation is not that difficult but requires lots of basic knowledge of the source engine. Advanced coders only.

5) Monsters. Easy to detect lightlevels in a room, so once a coder puts a simple routine somewhere in the monsters' AI you are all set. Easy coding. Flashlight is already a weapon-like item, so adding some damaging functionality (remember in ep1 where Alyx puts her hands hefore her head when you shine your torch at her? Replace that code with something that damages Alyx and you've got a Zombalyx. or whatever. Easy.

[boing]

that was exactly the kind of feedback i needed. thank you very much!

[DonPunch]

All of that sounds correct except for #5.

Checking light levels is not that simple, as there is no 'light' var in source. When you cook a map, you are just making new textures based on the radiosity. All of the light calculations are made there.

I think he is looking for an actual light beam = damage, like any vampire movie you have ever seen, in which case you just need to build that into the map as a trigger_multiple brush.

[boing]

im not looking for lightbeam=damage, what zombie@computer described was exactly what i was thinking of.
I know the light is baked, but it still should be possible to have an object in game that can tell the difference between dark and light areas... at least i hope

[zombie@computer]

All of that sounds correct except for #5.

Checking light levels is not that simple, as there is no 'light' var in source. When you cook a map, you are just making new textures based on the radiosity. All of the light calculations are made there.

I think he is looking for an actual light beam = damage, like any vampire movie you have ever seen, in which case you just need to build that into the map as a trigger_multiple brush.

engine->ComputeLighting() gives you the light level of a certain vector. Exactly what TS needs. Atleast i thought it did. Else theres GetLightForPoint()