Mapping updates for this Sunday’s playtest

We’re resuming playtesting again this Sunday with some mayor changes in game play and also the final version of Russia will be played as well. I released images of it a couple of months ago and after a lot of valid critics all around the web about the lighting being off I decided to take a look at what the problem was and I also got help from Robert Briscoe as well getting it back to the original mood and lighting which in the end made a huge impact. The main problem was that the map was made lighting wise on Half-Life² Episode One settings, and to get the lighting to work in Epi1 I had to fake a lot of stuff in order to make it look realistic. Because we did a move to Orange Box in between those settings stayed and they didn’t look the way they did on Epi1. So I basically had to redo the entire lighting of the level with the new options Orange Box had to offer: -StaticPropLighting, -StaticPropPolys and -TextureShadows which makes things look a lot better.

I also added the new game play spawn system which now should make the game action packed from start to finish and give for much more intense battles. I’ll be recording and releasing a video of that soon enough now. This being done I can now focus 100% on Styx again and more of that will be shown soon enough as well.

Here are some quick screenshots of the final Russia level:

And here is the changelist of the final Russia for this Sunday:
- Added a displacement dirt layer on the bottom of the sub dock and also made it less deep
- Added some more cover objects in corridor between medlabs and armory
- Revisited the lighting to be more realistic and more to the original ND version
- Split up submarine dock railings into separate parts for lighting purposes
- Changed seams in submarine model for lighting purposes
- Now compiled entire level with -StaticPropLighting, which has a much more detailed lighting on all props
- Removed all “info_lighting” (faked lighting) props, redundant with the -StaticPropLighting setting
- Removed one sprite per florescent light model, used to be two
- Removed two lights in both Rogue spawns, where left overs from epi1
- Fixed corridor texture alignment between missile silo and armory and added some more detail to it
- Updated spawns with new game play settings
- Updated minimap image for ol_russia, removed the yellow outer overlay as it didn’t look good on the hud
- Updated floor connections between armory and rail tunnel, a bit more detailed
- Updated connections on all 3 sides of the missile silo, made it look that they are 4 blast doors that can seal the area

Styx work in progress video

This video shows the new spawn area with the lobby a bit more in detail. It also give an idea of the mood I’m after. Right now I’m working my way up to the elevated subway station. This is all mainly BSP and few assets, there’s still a lot of polish and tweaking left to do.

The plot thickens

Insomnia, sleeping during the day or whenever I can, working at night, this is what happened after the first two weeks since I started work on Styx again, but no regrets as the progress after this short period is above my expectations. I’ve got the whole level layed out in my mind and it definitely helps when you want to finish something quick and polished at the same time. Since Styx was already made for our alien game play I have huge chunks to work with that I can recycle and also use to speed up the process. I’m also redoing a lot of old materials I made years ago, making them fit more with the overall Off Limits art direction and current quality. So far I have 2 spawn point areas layed out and on my way to the 3rd center spawn which will be an elevated subway station. I worked most of this week on the exterior of the lobby near the Vanguard base spawn, the week before I worked on the actual lobby geometry, which was a bitch to get working as it is placed in a wedge shaped street section. This is a shot of the far corner of the lower floor, you’ll be able to climb up into the elevator shafts leading to the spawn point above, or use it to escape when you’re a cornered Juggernaut.

Today I started working on the elevated train station which will hold the center spawn, below it there will be an underpass for our vehicles to pass.

I will keep using every waking hour I have to get it done asap so we can at least release this mod with 2 fully playable levels worthy of our game play. I’ll post some screenshots and a video somewhere next week where I can hopefully show off more progress.

Off Limits alpha trailer

I just found out this wasn’t on the new site yet! blasphemy! This was recorded back in 2006, it showed some of our maps, ingame menus and had game play footage in it. After making this trailer I always feared the day we would have to make a new one (and I still do) because it will be hard to top this trailer, I still get goosebumps whenever I watch it!! :p

The return of the vehicles

After evaluating the levels we had I saw that my own level Styx would be the fastest to convert to our new game play. Since I’m all alone doing the levels for this bleeping mod I picked this one In order to get a new map done asap, so I put Undersiege on hold because that level requires a lot more work then this one. This level is set in a rainy city scape where you’ll have vehicle support which you can drive into the enemy to add some flair to your (s)kills.