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Not understanding - do you mean the map mechanics?
I had alot of trouble in playtesting with this because to me the idea was straightforward but I didn't take into account signposting well enough to guide the player from the start to the end. The limited texture set and repetition of brush shapes didn't help either - in earlier versions there were no icons on the doors (brushes again) like the arrows, exit and computer texture. Guess I can appreciate the explore mechanic thats been seen in recent Q1 maps and how it was difficult to alter the player's mindset. I tried to use the beep-beep sound to simulate the classic motion tracker sound from aliens (SpaceHulk also has Blip Tokens) but the sound turns on and off, depending on if the player is looking at the centre of the trigger. The map probably breaks down under coop. I experimented with having fiend spawners in the form of either cryo-tubes, blob clusters or holes in the ceilings, but didn't have enough brushes / edicts / any new models. So they just spawn relatively far away, although most of the time from different directions so the player can't just put their back to the wall and blat 200 nails into a conga line of fiends. Originally coop gave each player different weapons (which is why the player spawns first outside the map) with a sargent (+hammer), two regular marines (+grenades) and a heavy weaponeer (LG replaces SNG) but I got rid since I doubt there are any solid 4-player coop matches still running. Ok, I'm justifying the design a bit, maybe I should have pasted the above into the readme. zommgggg weardo map :\ i dont like much fiends... next time use tarbabys hehe
nice map! are you sure that are only 256 brushes? zomggg look much more to me! here it goes my first run! http://trinca.quaddicted.com/temp/hulk.dz For the demo Trinca - see you fell foul of the download thing as well, then the fiend ambush >:)
Think I'll put 'SpaceHulk' in my mod ideas folder . . . A mod could be made, maybe as coop only type of thing, with each player choosing their class and then trying to complete the mission, the game taking care of genestealer / fiend spawning. If the levels stuck to the fairly flat SpaceHulk Layouts (without much in the way of hazards) maybe even bots could be used to fill out the rest of the team.
There are not many coop capable bots in Q1. IIRC Zeusbot is the only contender here... (Frikbot might technically be another one) I tried it once, and I'd recommend to bind a key to whatever the "teleport bot here" impulse was because they like to get stuck and can't handle lifts etc very well... yup, one lift might be enough to throw them off.
They're not very human like either. You'd probably want something that takes waypoints, to better handle sticky situations... Frikbot is made to be plugged into existing mods, however I don't know how good its coop capabilities are... 3zb2 (for example) knows about teamstates, ie it can be follower or leader, and it can either follow a teammate or not... depending on skill flags and circumstances... it checks which weapon teammate has, if he's a flag carrier (in CTF) and decides based on those things... it wouldn't be difficult to implement commands which do nothing else but setting a teamstate... ie "teamstate follower, follow_mate" or something. If the bot HAS teamstates. You could use locfiles to have the teammates report their status... if enough NQ engines support them... then there are problems like the bot taking every ammo box he can get, instead of leaving it for you... and if you implement that (by checking teammate's ammo status?) they might not know when they're SUPPOSED to pick it up... like for example when they have only 5 health and the axe... (other situations might exist) - they're really pretty stupid when it comes to teamplay. Func_actor had the follow / get out out of the way ability, which depended on if the player was looking at the bot and if it was already following - ie. follow became get out of my way. There was 'all follow' as well and when enemies appeared they had the same 'damagegroup' as the player so got angry at the monster, or just got angry on sight of monsters.
That'd be a hell of a lot of code to implement. The ammo thing I'd presonally just sidestep - bots always have ammo and don't pick it up, like the Nehahran NPC's, but maybe after firing for a while they are unable to fire for a short time and go into dodge behaviour. Problem is I've only ever once played Q1 coop, and that was years ago when it wasn't so old hat in mainstream eyes. I'll always be up for a coop session. Only you're pretty far away...
3zb also has the "move out of the way" thing... the angriness is handled by the teamstate, if team leader/mate/flag carrier has an enemy, they'll cover... if in follow mode... not picking up ammo at all makes it easier, but it would be cooler if they did :) and automatically tossed backpack if player in range and player.ammo < bot.ammo... For fun, I tried this map with a few Zeusbots; it doesn't look too convincing, they headbutt and either shotgun or axemurder the fiends, and don't survive for long. ie the team WILL get spread out over the map, because they respawn at the starting position. They don't really do the dodging bit either :-/ also of course they don't work with Quoth. Making a bot lure a fiend in one direction, then strafe in the other, check fiend position, turn around and fire, then repeat until fiend->dead, would be lots of work... plus checking if it's in a corridor, and picking a different tactic... plus checking if and how many other fiends are around... o_O it would be cool to watch though :-) chasecam, hehe... own mod required is, and lots of bothacking. Maybe you could tune the bots for dodging fiends specially. Not simple... something for the list I guess. Teambots for Quake. I reckon there'd be enough work in just setting up all the resources, like the weapons, models and players.
So it'd probably have to support singleplayer primarily but with the same player class system. A bit more run and gun than Trinca's - I thought you were going to get overwhelmed a couple of times.
Made me realise I should have had the eliminators patrolling and had some autokill for the fiend triggers upon returning upstairs. Ah well. did you see this?
http://www.quakeone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2401&page=3 Warp demos in diehard mode. I can get to the lift (almost) doing a Nightmare Speedrun! And I have completed it on skill 3!
Excellent map Ijed! Sielwolf - What's your best time for this mother? let's see your speed demo :) the demos I made during playtesting are still here:
http://www.badongo.com/file/10016583 Skill 3 speedrun *attempt* :)
Havent watched you're "quoth" demo yet, wander if its one demo.... I bet you could speedrun this Sielwolf!
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