THE FINALLLL COUNTDOWN!!!

So after a bunch of working on my work, I've found solutions to issues i didn't think i'd have, and was able to achieve what i mainly wanted to do.

KISMET:

My Kismet bring all the boys to the yard, and they're like "hey you can simulate AI!"

In all seriousness though, I was able to take my original problematic and develop an easy to replicate "Hide in Shadows/Cover" system, which WOULD have solved a ton of issues in Aliss, and could possibly make things easier for students doing that project in the future!!

Here it is, i'll explain is step by step!

To Each enemy, i attached a DynamicTriggerVolume to simulate its Field of View, like so:

After that, i made a simple TriggerVolume to represent was was a "safe spot", like so:

 Then i made the Kismet!! No need to try and understand, i'll explain in detail!

Step 1!! Attach the Field of View and the flashlights to each enemy!!

 Then i encountered my big problem, right where i thought i would encounter it. Trying to figure out how to tell the engine to ONLY teleport the player back to the spawn point if he WASN'T in cover. I needed to make it easy though, so it wouldn't look like ... well a Huge disgusting impossible to manage Spiderweb, which Kismet can have quite a tendency to become, if not watched carefully!! I came up with this! (don't worry, i put little explanations of what is what in the images!)

Once i set up seperate branches to manage each of the conditions, i took care of the flashlight part of the kismet, and set it up quite simply like this!
































And now for the final product!!

IT'S TEASERRRRR TIIIIIIMEEEE!!!!

Time for a little bit of teaser!!

This is the stuff I've gotten done so far!

• Guards are animated
• Guards have Flashlights
• Guards have easily adjustable patrol speed, and have been set up to automatically reverse and restart.
• If the Player touches the Trigger volumes (teal lines in the photos) he gets teleported back to the beginning. (Be careful now!!)
• There are obstacles set up at strategic positions throughout the map, and i tweaked the locations to give the player a more streamlined path, without it being obvious.

TEASERRRR TIIIIIMEEEE!!! :D Photos for you!!

top view of the facility

view from the player start position

the air filtration system that i wanted to make in the firstplace

good ol' top view!! :D

Sooooo, what i have left to do.

• Fix up the bomb sequence, and make it go BOOOOOM when the player places the bomb
• Make a second trigger volume and make the player have to be in contact with both triggers to get teleport, so that it simulates the AI!! Let's hope this works :D

A la Prochaine, les amis!! :D

New Problematic

I actually find myself with more than one problematic.

The first (main) one is my Designer Problem that i have to find a way to simulate a smart AI without having any programming knowledge whatsoever, so that upon being spotted, one of the two options mentioned in my last post will happen to the player.

If i can keep a clean kismet, i can make a tutorial on how to do it easily, so that future students can use the ideas and the procedures and tweak them to their needs.

The Second problematic is my Player Problem, and one that we encountered in a BIG way last semester making Aliss. It's the one where i need to make it clear to the player where he's got to go, and what he's got to do.

I may resort to more obvious solutions, such as "MOVE HERE" or *RED POINTING ARROW* lol... we shall see... Maybe a simple camera pan of the area will suffice. Here's hoping!

Remue-Meninges and many changes

So after my meeting with Pierre last week, i've come to the necessary conclusion that i'd need to sincerely expand my idea past the idea of a simple greyboxing.

Originally, i was going to be making a greyboxing of a city, based on the history given in my last post. it was to be a lot bigger than i had previously hoped for, and i knew for a fact that i'd not be able to get it done in a 3 week period.

A whole lot of changes have been brought on, and i will now be doing a lot of things a little differently.

My new Goal, by the end of the 3 weeks:

The player will start by playing 3rd person, with no weapons.
The player will be required to place a bomb at a location which will be indicated by an arrow.
In order to arrive at the required location, the player will be required to avoid patrols and the sight of guards.

Now this is where things get interesting.

If the player gets seen, normally, in-game, he would begin being shot at, and an alarm would go off. To simulate that though, i'll do the following.

If the player is caught in the line of sight of the guards, to simulate the above scenario, the screen will become red for 2 seconds. This would essentially indicate the player has lost. (optionally, i could have the player respawn at the spawn point every time if he is spotted. This would cause the player to want to be more careful where he/she walks.

Once the player has arrived at the location, he/she would automatically place a "bomb", and i haven't chosen between these two options, yet.

1st option: - A cinematic plays of the player running away, and the complex exploding, from a really cool vantage point.

2nd option: - The Player has to make his/her way to the "escape area" which could be the Docking Bay that Taciana is working on, to "escape" the complex before the bomb explodes, at which point, the player would be seen escaping on a helicopter and the complex would explode. (given the time constraints, i would LIKE to do this, but it may not be a possibility. We'll see.)

Teamwork! AW YEAH!

So today, I was discussing my ideas with Taciana and J-F, and we've figured out a way to have my "Drill City" Integrate itself into the Idea for the world that J-F thought up. Since the original idea of my drill colony was that it was a Harvesting colony/town, that built itself around a previously broken piece of equipment, we expanded on not only the idea, but the perimeter of my town/city and the history that comes along it. 

History:
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At it's origin upon being deposited on Gliese 581, this drill colony was just that. A small colony alongside a Large Industrial Drill held by the company DP Industries. Due to a lack of previous research into the planet's mineral composition, industrial drills such as this one were sent in to "harvest" what they could, but met a quick timely demise upon reaching a sheet of minerals much stronger than the diamond tipped drill bits used by DP at the time.

DP Industries Logo

Luckily for DP, further analysis of the environment revealed a mineral composition in the atmosphere at lower altitudes, which seemed to have an even stronger energy output than Solar energy, which at the time was still the strongest and easiest energy source to harness.

A handful of years later from the initial insertion of the drilling colony, DP sent an air refining colony to the location of the previous drill colony, and built around the drill, in order to prevent any further possible damage to the ground around the drill. Thus was born the Fractus-Alpha Drilling Site. Refineries were set up and the harvesting site itself was walled and gated off from the previous inhabitants, who were then given Food and drink to survive, if they stayed to work at the refineries.

Work:
---------------------
I will be doing the Greyboxing for the colony, and will be provided with the silos and facilities for the refinery by Taciana.

Jean-Francois will be making a couple of 1-page designs and a Game Design Doc, if i understood correctly.

Greyboxing Step 1!!!

SOOOOOO, i got the greyboxing started in 3DS MAX. Decided to run some tests in UDK to see if the 96 uu rule still works, so i made a 96uu tall box, and modelled everything to scale, in order to NOT repeat the various issues we got last semester when trying to use Inches and Feet instead... which wasn`t that wise of us...

After a couple of imports and stuff, it works perfectly!!! SOOOOO Modelling time for moi! Going to see what the easiest way of getting the Collisions in UDK will be so that i can import and 1, 2, 3, VOILA without too much trouble.

What would be pretty awesome would be if i can find a way to streamline the process to make my life much less complicated so i dont end up having to change the collision maps on every single object.

*think think think*

Time to get my brain gears in motion!!

Here`s some photos of what i`ve been up to so far.

beginning of the drill layout

Third World Style Marchent booths up top the drill

Decision time

So, after much more thinking, and planning, i will be sticking to making my greyboxing, with placeholders for characters and such. Here's hoping it turns out nicely.

If anyone would like to lend props or graphic effects to make the environment less... grey... you're more than welcome! :D

Day 1!!!

So, after the photo of the fallout-esque scenery was given to us, i decided to start working on sketches of what i could make a greyboxing of!

*sketch sketch sketch*

here are some of the things i came up with. I'm thinking a huge Industrial drill that was in the desert, which was then struck with something/knocked over by some huge something/it fell. A group of nomads, and wanderers, realizing the opportunity and strategic location of the structure, create a drilltop village, containing little shops, and shelter for rent from the strong desert storms/winds.

HELL YES!

basic layout

sefl-explanatory top view

metal beams and support chunk that would be welded on

view from far. Side spikes will not be there