Incoming update

[Black_Stormy]

Let's use this forum again, to keep everyone on the same page.

Tomy set me up with the Git so now I can push builds to steam again. I have a bunch of map updates incoming to that branch. In order to use it and check the latest map updates, right click on DA in your steam directory and go:
properties>betas>select the beta you would like to opt into:
and select 'stormy-maps'.

So I am going to fix all of Tomy's map issues on the Git. Most of my VMF's have been worked on a little bit (and there are a few things I want to do) so there will be other minor changes to most of the maps once I have gone through.

I also have a couple of new maps and we still have old classics like doubletrouble and makeouttactics, I was halfway through re-doing Jinkies into a brewery and I can polish that off a bit. Here's my list of maps by time needed:

* da_crosstalk - a week or two worth of polishing and building a token skybox
* da_jinkies - maybe a month or so to get it releasable
* da_makeouttactics - a month or so
* da_highwire - halfway through a major rework. Likely more than a month to get it good
* da_deepfreeze - a bare VMF I inherited with a nice layout that could benefit from a thorough scrubbing. 1 -2 months

Hellu has also been working on a remake of da_megachat which could very well be its own map.

Considering that I'll probably only be around for a month or two for a little sprint of DA development, I want to get two maps out. On the venn diagram of things that DA needs vs things that we can create, maps is a solid overlap. Crosstalk is a given, shouldn't take long, and I have put so so much work into highwire that I really want to get it released already so I can sleep at night. So my plan is to work on those two maps. Mainly skyboxes. My worry is that I'll get halfway through that work and be pulled away by life or w/e and abandon the whole update.

So here's what I'm thinking. Tomy's update is ready to go, I'm just adding maps. I'll get the bugs fixed on all the maps and do some minor work to crosstalk and we'll roll the update with:

1x new map
6x updated maps
bugfixes/balances

It's a chunky enough update that we can do really soon and will leave enough chunk for another update in the indiscernible future. I think given the choice, most of our playerbase would prefer a smaller, sooner, surer update as opposed to a bigger, nicer, mythical one. I'm already working on it. Thoughts?

[Vino]

I wouldn't mind talking dof. We would have to talk about what we want for dof. Here's a draft of a list:

* Power Drink. Offers a health boost and perhaps also a damage upgrade. Player must choose between it and grenades.
* New Weapons. Machine gun could be a thing.
* Weapon Stats System. Go the TF2 route and make weapons have stats and abilities and be swappable with other weapons of the same 'class'.
* Bomber. In my view it's quite a good model but we just couldn't get the rigging right. I'm willing to pay someone to rig her if it means she'll look good animated.
* Achievements.
* Map updates. I see that's going great, I'll leave it to you.

Your thoughts on which of these are good ideas?

If I had to pare that down to the smallest update I would want DOF to be, I would pick power drink and bomber, plus the map updates. I don't think all of that stuff is unreasonable though, I already put a bunch of work into power drink a while ago (in the code under the name 'drugs') so the only real coding work is the weapon stats system. I think I may have a larger threshold than you for how big I'd like the update to be.

[Black_Stormy]

Most of that stuff is half done:

v_drugs (as a can) modeled, textured and animated:

We were originally going to have these in three colors iirc - red for health yellow for style and blue for slowmo. Easy enough to create skins for this model. The idea to have it as a slot replacement for the nades is still good in my book. The animation has you cracking the can, taking a sip and chucking the can. There is a w_ model to spawn when we throw the can as well.

v_pland modeled, textured and animated:

I had this coded in as its own weapon but it was p shit because it was just two shots, even though they are one hit kills. As an accessory it makes more sense and I think we were trying to make you throw your gun away when you press G so it's really a last resort kinda thing.

I hold very little hope for getting bomber onto the DA rig properly without changing the mesh a bunch - the rig really wants broad shouldered burly man models and my attempts at retargeting caused all kinds of issues. I'm not going to have enough time to work on maps and bomber so I'll be happy to hand it off to someone if we ever find anyone experienced in source rigging.

I had already hooked the achievements up and they worked on my build before I broke it. You may want to redo the code but the infrastructure is all there (steamworks stats and achievements) so the legwork is mostly done.

Map updates yeah that's a given.

For DOF I think it's imperative that we have at least:
* first batch of achievements
* One new map (hopefully two or more)
* One new weapon (hopefully two or more)
* Drugs, maybe derringer

Finally, what can be done about cheaters? Anything more? Anything at all? We'll cop flak for updating to DOF without doing something about cheaters.

Aaaaaaand I still say we go with a small update with map fixes. Crosstalk and Highwire can take a bit longer so how about we just push the map fixes as its own update. If/when I get crosstalk and highwire up to spec I can release them by themselves if DOF is still a tiny speck on the horizon.

[Vino]

We were originally going to have these in three colors iirc - red for health yellow for style and blue for slowmo.

I don't recall that but it should be easy enough to playtest.

Just, don't put too much further work into it. It's plenty enough that we can playtest it, after which it might change and I don't want you to have to redo work.

v_pland

Oh shit I had forgotten all about the plan D. I never got in on those playtests, I'd like to have a shot at it later.

Finally, what can be done about cheaters? Anything more? Anything at all? We'll cop flak for updating to DOF without doing something about cheaters.

Gotta talk to Valve and see if they have any new options open.

Aaaaaaand I still say we go with a small update with map fixes. Crosstalk and Highwire can take a bit longer so how about we just push the map fixes as its own update. If/when I get crosstalk and highwire up to spec I can release them by themselves if DOF is still a tiny speck on the horizon.

I want to be careful about putting out too many updates and annoying server operators. Other than that it seems fine to put out a fix patch now ahead of DOF. Coordinate with Tomy who has some other breaking fixes that we can possibly group into one update.

[Black_Stormy]

What's your timeline on DA work? The bugfixes on maps should (hopefully) only take me a few weeks (I just realised that I have to go around and edit all the nav meshes, and cubemaps might be a problem). There's no way we'll manage to add in all this DOF stuff within a month or two so I don't think the updates will be close enough together to annoy anyone. Lets just release a small and certain update and then we can talk DOF.

[Vino]

I won't be able to do any direct work for the next two weeks. After that I'll know more. I don't want to put a time estimate on the remaining work, because who the fuck knows. I'm down with a small and certain update.

[Black_Stormy]

who the fuck knows. I'm down with a small and certain update.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeexactly

[Black_Stormy]

I've been running through the maps doing the updates Tomy has on the git, at the moment I am trying to get all the cubemaps built. You can test my latest version of the maps on the stormy-maps steam build. (Right click DAB in steam library -> properties -> beta tab -> first dropdown box -> stormy-maps)

If anyone gets a chance in the next few days please update to that branch and test for cubemaps. Let me know here if you find something!

[Vino]

Let's do a sanity test this weekend.

[Vino]

I had this coded in as its own weapon but it was p shit because it was just two shots, even though they are one hit kills. As an accessory it makes more sense and I think we were trying to make you throw your gun away when you press G so it's really a last resort kinda thing.

Was thinking about this in the back of my mind and I think it makes a lot of sense as an accessory that damages for maybe 1/4 health, but fills your meter if it lands the killing blow. Then we have an accessory that damages, one that heals, and one that fills the meter, so accessories are all diverse.

[Black_Stormy]

I like it. Let's do that.

[Black_Stormy]

I'm losing wood for DA development guys, can we get these maps sorted out really soon?

Tomy has been testing the cubemaps on the updated maps and he says that if he renames the map it breaks the cubemaps. Thing is, the cubemaps are packed into the .bsp so I think that renaming the map will always break cubemaps no matter what?

In any case, I changed the name on a map with built and working cubemaps and the cubemaps disappeared, but by using mat_specular 1 in console all the cubemaps reappeared.

Tomy can you confirm if these maps are actually broken? I have had some third parties update to the stormy-maps steam branch and they report that the cubemaps work fine (2 different people). If that's the case there's only like a weekends worth of work to get them all ready to push.

pls respond

[Vino]

Sorry I'm still trying to sort out other things in my life before I start focusing on DA stuff. If you're burning out I think you should put it down for a little bit until I can start making a real push.