[MAP] WIP : Ishimura

[Moodydata]

Greetings all , I am going summarize quickly what I have done in the way of modding before hand , then get straight to the point.

I have done some Halo modding in the past , load of levels and a mod , done some UT2004 levels , and then moved onto the mod version of Killing Floor before playing with UT3 and Crysis then moving onto Tripwires version of Killing Floor.

Now ... for those familiar with the hint in the title , this is indeed a Dead Space themed map , for those with a love for the games created by EA , then this will be right up your street , I played Dead Space quite alot a while back , did a play through thats on youtube and now after playing it over again decided to do a map/s (if it works good) for Killing Floor.

This map ironically named "Ishimura" will take place onboard the Ishimura, but unlike the game the map obviously wont be as big otherwise it would effect game play , there will be bulk heads that can be welded shut , vents all over the place (for enemys to spawn from) shops located near the tram station and other similar "safe" zones and also the ever annoying slightly loose grav plating on the floor in certain areas.

Here is 2 shots of the shop I have done so far , its still work in progress and of course its in a test map , I was just trying to get the lighting on the shop looking right ingame , at the moment I am trying to get the vents ingame , but its annoying because the editor keeps nulling em for some reason :s.

Anyway , enjoy ...

 

[THEDDLE]

Hey

Hey

Wow. It looks interesting. Keep us notified.

 

[avp2501]

The shop looks great although i'd personally leave the trader out. just have her somewhere else in the map in the backround someplace. It's not like she needs to actually be in the shopping volume.

Great idea by the way. This game is desperate for a futuristic map, i'm also a big fan of dead space - best thing since the old resident evils

 

[Moodydata]

To be honest I only had her in because I didnt know if she had to be in or not , now I know she doesnt have to be in , thats fine , as for the fan I got it ingame , problem is , it wont spin even after I followed a video tutorial on Kactor Motor Hinges which is really annoying , gonna keep on it and see if I can get it working , cause if I can the only mechanic after that to sort out is the grav plating which should just be jump pads with kill volumes above em , then I can start on the level meshes.

 

[avp2501]

Can't wait to see some more screenies of your work.

The map i'm currently working on i left the trader miles away so she was in the map and everyone just went to an empty room and that worked fine.

Not sure she has got to be in the map at all but if she does it doesn't really matter if shes just on the other side of glass or trapped in the broom closet.

I think one of the most important things that made dead space as awesome as it is; is the atmosphere and feel to your surroundings. if you can reproduce that you've already got an awesome map in the works.

 

[Moodydata]

Well heres a screen currently of whats ingame in the test level , taking into account the test level is for major ingame stuff like the shop , vents and grav plating just to test it works , then I will be working on various parts....

I know its not much , but when its all together with the enviroment it should look good. Like i said i still need to get the fan set up and rotating, as for getting the atmosphere right , I did major ammounts of research into horror as a genre and the effects of it on the brain when I was doing another horror map for the modded version of killing floor.

I found that the major scares come from things like ...

-Anticipation

Players anticipating an enemy are more easy to shock especially if its an enemy from behind accompanyed by a very loud sound. Even if your completely heavily armed to the teeth if you get rushed from behind and your not expecting it , that one moment might scare you to death.

-Sound

Music and Sound effects play a key role in Horror , most of the genre likes to pick soft ambient music , then when a key event happens it picks up the pace and volume level to signify the importance of an event and to up the scare factor. Sound effects also play a key role in horror , one sound effect in the distance can completely draw a players attention away from impending near by attacks , especially if the sound itsself sounds very very threatening , the attention will most likely be turned from curious to on alert triggering the "fight or flight" part of the human brain instantly.

-Lighting

As with most horror themed things , the scare comes from what you dont see, things can hide in the dark , move and not be noticed and sneak up on the player when they least expect it , at the same time , you dont want all areas to be dark otherwise the player will complain about having to use the flash light all the time.


-Ammo

When playing a game with hordes of enemys against you , the most worrying thing apart from looking for extra health is a lack of ammo, if your in a fire fight and then suddenly run short , your going to be running for your life if you dont have the correct melee weapon at your disposal , to make the fight more exciting and frightening , try limiting the ammount of ammo in a map so the players only just have enough ammo for say 3 out of 6 people , then it will make things a little interesting .

I will of course be adding effects such as thin fog , flickering lights , and smoke coming from the vents in some areas , and am also at the moment planning to use light rays to get some nice visuals going in certain areas, if I use everything I know to my advantage and use it all well , it will be a great map.

 

[dextronaut]

Can't wait to see some more screenies of your work.

The map i'm currently working on i left the trader miles away so she was in the map and everyone just went to an empty room and that worked fine.

Not sure she has got to be in the map at all but if she does it doesn't really matter if shes just on the other side of glass or trapped in the broom closet.

I think one of the most important things that made dead space as awesome as it is; is the atmosphere and feel to your surroundings. if you can reproduce that you've already got an awesome map in the works.

the trader serves no purpose other than to tell players, "trade here!" because some ppl are that stupid.

 

[Moodydata]

Ok this is annoying me , I have set up the fan following tutorials for movers and its just not working , does it have to be set as a client mover or a normal mover cause normal is what I have at the moment and I have set the frames , put it to loop and yet its not doing anything :/

 

[Murphy]

Set it to ConstantLoop. I ended up making my heli-rotors rotating textures, btw. because I ran into problems with this too and it's not really noticeable anyways, but theoretically it should work with ConstantLoop (if you want to do it with keyframes).

 

[avp2501]

The fan looks great and it shouldn't take you long to get the hang of movers. How many of these fans do you intend to use? They are everywhere in dead space and if you have that many movers in a online multiplayer you may have major lagging issues. It's possible to set the rotating fan as an animation but i don't think an animation can affect light through it or dust etc. Check out Waterworks and Icebreaker since these both make great use of fans and also in icebreaker hes managed to get an animated water outside the ship using the blinds from offices - or at least thats what it looks like. you'd have to ask damdam for more info on that bit

 

[Fel]

Meshes look good. But i hope you have a good layout too.

 

[Moodydata]

^ All above is what i have been experimenting with in my free time , turning some of the meshes into brushes to see if i get better lighting , i have the layout in mind and am working on the tram station now.

 

[avp2501]

Some nice content you got there.

out of interest how do you intend people to shop?

having that phone booth type thing open up is really cool but looks like theres only room for 1. Does this mean you play on having 6 of those?

 

[Moodydata]

Its going to be just like the normal shop , i intend to have rooms to the side just like the normal game , that open up on time and have the shop booths inside , but close to the booth will have an extended area where you will be able to buy things even if your not in the booth itsself.

As for the content , i am still developing it , i should have a small part of the stage ready to go , in a few days , most likely the beginning spawn area constisting of the tram station.

 

[Avager]

Grargh.... I was working on same the thing few months ago, but gave up due to my lack of experience in 3d modeling =/ ... (Actually I wanted to implement maindeck in there... it was pretty... beautiful with it's lightining).

Btw.

What program did you use to extract textures from DS ?
Texmod or something else ?

 

[Moodydata]

I used the D3D Ripper to rip the textures easily , as for experiance with modeling , its a shame no one else has done this before , then again i am happy i get the chance now , it will add to my portfolio.

 

[The Wanderer]

I used the D3D Ripper to rip the textures easily , as for experiance with modeling , its a shame no one else has done this before , then again i am happy i get the chance now , it will add to my portfolio.

just fyi, i wouldn't add someone elses copyrighted materials to your portfolio, when found out it would be pretty bad.

looks good, only thing that bothers me is that the yellow/black texture around the letters "shop" for that shop models look more like artefacts from afar if you get what i mean. For the rest, looking good.

 

[Moodydata]

Oh I do understand the concern about the copyright on the textures , not that they will be part of the portfolio , whats going into that specific section is the models themselfs and also the level.

Unfortunately though the level is on hold until the editor is fixed.

 

[Fel]

So you just ripping the textures and meshes? you didnt make these objects?

 

[myles lambert]

He modelled them, but didn't texture them.