Kindle-ing

[MortalPlague]

"Orbiting a dying star, bathing in the cinders of the red giant, this world's days are numbered. The government is not content to twiddle their thumbs and hope the traitor Gorge will die in the supernova. They're sending you."

The map is nearing completion, but there are a few things keeping Kindle from its public release. The intro and outro matinees both need to be put in. The objectives need a bit of work, mostly smoothing their presentation (and making it so that killing Gorge wins the level). Other than those minor issues, the whole map is fully playable; you can duke your way through it and kill Gorge. It's a tough slog through the skaarj, but it's a lot of fun.

I'm looking for gameplay feedback, visual feedback, and pretty much any comments you guys see fit to send my way. Just because Kindle is nearly finished doesn't mean I can't tweak it. If anyone would like to help with the matinee, such help would be appreciated. Just let me know via PM, and I'll let you know what I had in mind for them. Nothing complicated, but nothing I want to spend a whole lot of time on.


Download (http://www.unrealplayground.com/download.php?mapid=11732) OSM-Kindle-beta.

[SuperApe]

WooHOO! :rockon:

...there are a few things...The intro and outro matinees...making it so that killing Gorge wins the level. I'm looking for gameplay feedback, visual feedback, and pretty much any comments you guys see fit to send my way.I'll PM you re:Matinees. :)
Setting up Gorge to end the map upon death is fairly easy. The basic idea is to match the Event on Gorge to the Tag the end game stuff. While you could just match it to the Tag of an OSMEndGameTrigger, like I did with the Warlord in OSM-PeakPerformance a while back, that is not really desirable for a couple reasons. Instead, you could have Gorge's Event trigger the final Objective on the OSMObjectiveManager to give the Player some Score aware, start a matinee, etc. I have a few specific ideas for that, which would depend on your outtro and make it so that it ends the game at the right time, etc. Once an outtro is set up, we can add these little things as polish, to make it all online compatible.
(....Maybe even Coop compatible?)

I'll download and post any general comments, but from what I've seen, it's great! :D

[Lord_Simeon]

D/Ling right now:)

I'm off for a few days now, so i can do some testing and mapping :)

[MortalPlague]

(....Maybe even Coop compatible?)

This would be a good map for coop compatibility, I think. Lots of vicious firefights. :)

[SuperApe]

This would be a good map for coop compatibilityI agree.

Some first impression notes:

- Gameplay-wise, this is a fairly straightforward player vs monster setup, with the exception of the platforming bit, which I like. I'd like to see a little more variety here, maybe the broken platform trap idea LS gave a while back. Maybe a little more puzzle action, a little harder than the first gate button. Otherwise, this is fine.
- Visually, I think this map is way ahead of the curve. Very good visuals, nice variety, good sounds, nice music. With the exception of one particle steam emitter I saw, everything looks great here. All within the theme, all well done.
- Story-wise, I'd like to see more. And by this I mean the main goal should be clear, not just in the map description, but in the intro cutscene. The player must go kill Gorge because he's a traitor. Great, then show Gorge being a traitor so we have some reaction to him and want to go kill him. Maybe he's simply seen giving orders to some monsters. Along those same lines, I'd like to see Gorge's involvement (or some detectable sign of Gorge) elsewhere in the adventure, not just the end. Perhaps he's seen on the video monitor "rallying the monster troops". Maybe he actually shows up about 2/3 through the adventure, really messing with the Player, before retreating to the final battle area. Finally, to help the Player feel like they're Playing the story, I'd make sure your objectives start slow and simple and display a marked progression, getting harder and faster-paced. Right up until the battle with Gorge becomes the most difficult. This should help sell the Beginning, Middle and End of the story you want the Player to play.

Those are the bigger, more general notes. I have some specifics too:

- The default player Character is forced to be Jakob. It should probably be left to the Player to decide. This means the OSMObjectiveManager.DefaultCharacter should be left blank.
- Gorge is huge. I don't think you want that, do you? I don't quite get it. If you do, we'll have to do something tricky, like subclass him, because just making his DisplayScale big will cause a problem with the collision cylinder and he walks through the floor. (You found the second thing I'd fix in the next OSMT version.)
- The Gorge battle wasn't too difficult. I can think of ways to make him pretty tough (give him a turret against you, have bodyguards for him, etc.)
- I'd like to see that window I mentioned earlier next to the MG Turret.
- You might give the Player some weapons by default, like the Rocket Launcher and Minigun, since you give it at the start. That's set in OSMObjectiveManager.DefaultEquipment.
- Saw a few dead ends about 2/3's through the adventure. Something should be done with them, deco-wise at least.

[MortalPlague]

- Gorge is huge. I don't think you want that, do you? I don't quite get it. If you do, we'll have to do something tricky, like subclass him, because making him will cause a problem with the collision cylinder and he walks through the floor. (You found the second thing I'd fix in the next OSMT version.)

This was, actually, intentional. Gorge looked like a shrimp in that room before I beefed him up, and at double the size, he's a veritable monster of a man. It also gives the player a clear visual indication that he's a harder than average juggernaut.

- The Gorge battle wasn't too difficult. I can think of ways to make him pretty tough (give him a turret against you, have bodyguards for him, etc.)

I was hoping that wasn't the case. I'll admit, in my playtesting, I usually got killed right before Gorge by the Skaarj and brutes up top. I'm not very good against those skaarj. :p