Perch

CaptainPoopface · Post by **CaptainPoopface** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:35 am

Here is a deceptively simple mod for Foundation. It doesn't razzle-dazzle at first glance, but I put considerable thought into the addition and placement of objects. It plays more like Hang 'Em High / Tombstone now. I've added some machs and blocs to greatly increase the variety of options. There are now four strata instead of the usual two, and you can easily navigate between them and across the level. Additional cover makes the bunker strategically viable instead of being a worthless death trap. Asymmetry is in effect. I think a hallmark of solid level design is that there are at least two paths to any point on the level, so I've done my best to follow that guideline. For example, if you see someone running behind wall 3, you can now run in front of wall 3 on a little ledge and surprise him at the other end with a shotgun sandwich; you can get from one of the metal ledges to any of the others without walking the long way around or having to drop to the ground and go up the stairs or air lifts to get back up. You can knock over brace bridges to get to the roof, or use another method that is quicker and easier but less sexy (if you figure it out, bully for you, but I won't mention it here). Actually, I'll give you a clue, and some advice for life, at the same time: Sometimes you have to take a step back in order to take two steps forward. That was Montel's Final Thought from 4/17/94.

To prevent cheap sniping from the roof, Containment cores spawn near the center of the donut up top. This means a complacent sniper spending too much time in the middle can easily be killed from the ground. There are safe places to snipe on top, but the many access points to the roof mean that you can't stay there for long.

I had more ideas for this mod but it was starting to get very buggy. I inadvertently used the netgame equipment to spawn a couple of machs, a mistake I won't repeat in the future. The sounds for the brace bridge and expelled cores got corrupted somehow, unfortunately. I wanted to include more cover and change the spawn points, maybe barricade the rooms entirely in order to force the action outside (I get tired of rattling people out of those darned rooms). But I was running low on patience and RAM, so here it is.

"But my hero CaptainPoopface, there's no skin blah blah skin blah blah blah skin." Skinning is not my thing. I can't be bothered to do it at all. Too much time for too little payoff. Gameplay is what I'm about. I've played so many mods that are just polished turds. I'll take a default skin that's fun to play over a beautiful boring level. Daddy loves his ugly baby.

Give it a try. Out of the many mods I've played, there are fewer than 25 maps in my mainmenu, including the clean ones, because I don't like sifting past crap maps to get to the ones I want to play. And this map is now among them.

Enjoy.

* Not tested for system link compatibility

Thanks to:
-P8ntballer for the ingenius idea of using the brace bridge to reach the roof.
-Entity 1.6, the makers and testers. The BSP Viewer is a monstrous pain in the keester sometimes but sure beats the old guess-and-check.
-Serenity
-The modding community in general, for figuring out how to add tremendous replay value to the game, and teaching me how to do it.

Xiion · Post by **Xiion** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:55 am

Xiion wrote:can we just like, post about the mod, and not about what i had to say? sure, you may want to put your 2 cents in to go against me, and you have every right to do so, i just don't feel it necessary for the community to flame me. just post about the mod, and ignore what i said.

koekoek · Post by **koekoek** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:57 am

Hey man don't be so hard on this guy he appears from out of nowhere and brings us ideas and discoveries wich are very very ingenious this mod is pretty nice so give the guy some change would ya

CaptainPoopface · Post by **CaptainPoopface** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 1:08 am

Xiion wrote:stupid, dumb, all you did was add [Mach]'s to it. where's the fun in that?

Have you tried playing it? I know it doesn't look hard. The effort was in coming up with what to add and figuring out where to put it, in a way that was balanced and provided a multitude of different new options, enabled new strategy, discouraged cheapness, and expanded the complexity in such a way as to make the level exciting again (for the first time).

People tend to give too much credit for work, and not enough for ingenuity.

It's like freakin' Picasso.

Xiion · Post by **Xiion** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 1:42 am

Delete this post please.

Xiion

DrXThirst · Post by **DrXThirst** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 2:38 am

I like it.

koekoek · Post by **koekoek** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:03 am

I'm telling ya this man is a genious you just don't see it because you're to idel

g----13 · Post by **g----13** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:14 am

I agree with Xiion he just placed a bunch of random objects. I like original map. but I also agree with koekoek, new Ideas are great, they help progress modding.

dec1234 · Post by **dec1234** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:48 am

koekoek wrote:I'm telling ya this man is a genious you just don't see it because you're to idel

HAHAAHAAHAHA

LOLZ

This map could be better if you gave it a theme for the machs to be in, such as the mach hanging off the bottom of a ship were you battle and its hard to stay on...

Crappy idea but it could bea better first mod.

killarzachary · Post by **killarzachary** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:51 am

Xiion wrote:no. you DON'T get it obviously. this mod is pointless. we mod because it's an art form, it's a way to express how we would change the game, not by adding in random useless crap everywhere that it doesn't belong. go to the outstanding mods section, and look at a few of GreenNC's work. his stuff is why we mod. as well as Zenon, and ScottyGEE.

Modding isn't only art, modding can be almost anything you want. I kind of like it. This mod is the kind of thing that brings others ideas of what they could use to improve their mods. And then coming up with what to place and where, thats not easy.

Tural · Post by **Tural** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:55 am

Xiion, you don't decide who gets to mod what. So what if it's not "an art form." I must have missed the rule that said you can't make mods that you like to play, and that you're only allowed to make mods that are "art." You say "we" do it to "change the game." Are you implying that this mod would, in no way, alter the gameplay on the map? That's a completely false argument to make. Please, tone down the arrogance. Be more constructive in your criticism. All you're doing right now is attacking his mod with no basis other than you acting as if you're the sole judge of what's allowed in a mod and what isn't.

DJ_Gnomey · Post by **DJ_Gnomey** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:22 am

I agree with Tural. Also Xiion, I haven't seen any mods from you lately.....

The mod is pretty good. Just add a theme, skin the level, change the ltmp to match the machs with the surroundings, and then add some more features to make it as enjoyable as possible.

koekoek · Post by **koekoek** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:39 am

What do you mean with "We haven't seen any mods of you lately" is that aimed towards me or him???

Tural · Post by **Tural** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:51 am

koekoek wrote:What do you mean with "We haven't seen any mods of you lately" is that aimed towards me or him???

DJ_Gnomey wrote:Also Xiion, I haven't seen any mods from you lately

Cough.

DJ_Gnomey, movie critics don't make movies. He doesn't have to make mods to criticize them, but he really should avoid "criticizing" like he did in those posts.

Zone 117 · Post by **Zone 117** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 8:30 am

Looks fun

Try doing some of the tutorials in the tutorial section, like AI in MP and SP to MP.
Good luck.

CaptainPoopface · Post by **CaptainPoopface** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 8:39 am

I assure you, NOTHING is random about the placement of the objects. That assertion is a perfect inversion of the truth. The machs were chosen for their dimensions, functionality, and their effect on the gameplay, which is why there is a mix of Covenant and human things. I don't care if, for example, there's no thematic justification for the presence of the hanging beams. They are there because they are narrow platforms to run along, skill is required to stay on them while shooting someone, they were not there before, and their addition brings a new element to the strategy for the level.

Believe me, I have scoured the internet for outstanding mods. Luckily the very good ones are usually easy to find. Despite my diligent searching, and the vast number of mods that other people would call outstanding, there are fewer than 25 maps in my heavy rotation, as I stated above.

Obviously there's some difference of opinion here, and that's cool, but try to keep an open mind, and be respectful. To me, almost anything related to skins, lightmaps, weather, skies, fog, etc. is like building a ship in a bottle. It takes skill and concentration, and congratulations if you do it well, but in terms of practical function, it doesn't change my world at all. It is only valuable as a token of the effort put in. It is an art form, I agree, and to the people who enjoy it, power to them. But to me, the only question that matters is, how fun is it to play? If the base map is fundamentally uninteresting to me, I don't care what fancy clothes you dress it up in. A bum in expensive new clothes is still a bum.

MrMurder's Nightwinder 2 is a good example. It's a phenomenal mod, very well done. And I'm never going to play it, because I just don't like Containment.

I think there is far, far too much emphasis in the modding community on cosmetic changes. How many mods have you played that substantially alter the gameplay? Mods that make the map almost a new level entirely, in terms of how it plays, not how it looks. Darkness in the Mist is a good one. I never play Backwash, but I do play Darkness in the Mist, because it changes the gameplay in a way that makes that level enticing. Altitude is a good mod, because it's a brand new level and a pretty fun one at that. South Side is a good mod that gets a lot of mileage with my crowd, even though "all he did was randomly put cars everywhere." To me, that is what makes a successful mod: it adds value to the game and makes me play it more than I otherwise would. THAT'S what modding is about in my book. I wish more people in the modding community would focus on gameplay instead of graphics.

You are welcome to disagree. I mod for my enjoyment, not for accolades or glory or respect. If I come up with a mod that I enjoy, as I have here, then I choose to share it so that other people can have a good time with it if it's up their alley. If you don't like it, that's fine, but let's just say it won't keep me up at night.

Kochon le best · Post by **Kochon le best** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:10 am

drxthirst2 wrote:I like it.

Same here, it could use some more skinning or more stuff, but it is a great idea

JacksonCougAr · Post by **JacksonCougAr** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:30 am

Although Xiion probably did not mean to come across as arrogant, it was that attitude that I got from his post. Modding is a personal thing. We all mod for our own reason's, and with different techniques. I see this map and I can imagine its potential. Sure some things look like horribly jarring placements, and others seem to have no use, and there was not too much time spent on "pretty-ing" up the level but you know what? not everyone is an artists! It took more than artists to build Rome ^_^

xheadshotmastax · Post by **xheadshotmastax** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:31 am

Tural wrote:Xiion, you don't decide who gets to mod what. So what if it's not "an art form." I must have missed the rule that said you can't make mods that you like to play, and that you're only allowed to make mods that are "art." You say "we" do it to "change the game." Are you implying that this mod would, in no way, alter the gameplay on the map? That's a completely false argument to make. Please, tone down the arrogance. Be more constructive in your criticism. All you're doing right now is attacking his mod with no basis other than you acting as if you're the sole judge of what's allowed in a mod and what isn't.

Tural, youre a King.
________________

Good beginners mod keep it up playing around with Machines and mb u get
something like this as your final product!

DJ_Gnomey · Post by **DJ_Gnomey** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:50 am

Tural wrote:
koekoek wrote:What do you mean with "We haven't seen any mods of you lately" is that aimed towards me or him???
DJ_Gnomey wrote:Also Xiion, I haven't seen any mods from you lately
Cough.

DJ_Gnomey, movie critics don't make movies. He doesn't have to make mods to criticize them, but he really should avoid "criticizing" like he did in those posts.

He hasn't made any mods to my knowledge in which he can't say what goes and what doesn't. He obviously has limited knowledge in what is fun to play in Halo 2 modifications....