[Trooper Dan]

Hey everyone, in case you haven't heard, Alien Armageddon is this mod released in late August: https://www.moddb.co...lien-armageddon

We are recruiting level designers for the next phase of the project. Our immediate need is for some new Capture the Flag maps. This game type would be played offline with the human player leading a team of EDF troops versus a team of aliens. While still in development, CTF is already playable. If anyone is interested in making a map, PM me and I can help you get started. Or, if you have any questions, you can ask in this thread and I will provide detailed answers.

General requirements:

-maps can use the original Duke 3D tileset, or any of the new textures or voxels in AA.
-maps should have exactly two base areas, one for EDF and one for the aliens
-be prepared to compromise on design elements in order to make the map bot-friendly (e.g. don't require the player to hop across moving platforms)

We also need new mappers to make a new story campaign. This will require more experience than making CTF maps, and if you are interested, please let me know.

[Micky C]

Actually, I’ve got an unreleased map based on DNF’s Sausage Factory map, which was built for Capture the Babe. It might as well be used here since I can’t think of another good use for it beyond simple dukematch.

I won’t have much time to work on it, although the map itself is 90% finished, probably more like 98% finished if I leave out some of the fancy gameplay ideas I had in mind that wouldn’t be relevant to CTF.

I assume you could implement the CTF gameplay yourself?

[Trooper Dan]

Micky C, on 11 October 2018 - 12:31 AM, said:

I assume you could implement the CTF gameplay yourself?

Yeah that part is easy. Does your map use vanilla textures?

[Micky C]

Yep. I can send you the map a bit later, and possibly make some tweaks if you have minor suggestions. Some of the gameplay area is based on spritework which may or may not work with your bots depending on how sophisticated they are. If you have any kind of waypoint system, then I assume that it would play a lot nicer with spritework.

[Trooper Dan]

Yeah, it uses waypoints. I'll take this opportunity to explain the pathing system a bit. As can be seen in the screen above, there are navigation sprites placed around the map. For the most part, these don't need to be tagged in any way, you just place a bunch of them around the map, and then all the actors can figure out where to go.

The navsprites are not like locators because there is no particular order in which they have to be traversed. Think of them as "known valid destinations". From any given navsprite, an actor could go to any other navsprite that meets certain requirements -- in some cases the actor might have a dozen different destinations it could choose from. Typically, though, it will go to a nearby navsprite that it can see from the current navsprite.

In CTF, actors will typically be going towards either a flag (which perhaps is being carried) or a base. Each navsprite currently has 4 channels of value, representing those targets:
-blue base value
-blue flag value
-red base value
-red flag value

When an actor is deciding where to go, it looks at the accessible navsprites from its location and it checks the values it is interested in. It will go to a destination that has a higher (relevant) value than its current location. Not necessarily the highest possible value, though, since some randomization is good to keep the bots from always following the same path. The values on all the navsprites are set by an iterative process which starts from the goal sprites (the actual flags and bases). The goal sprites look around and set value for their respective channels on the navsprites that are accessible from them. The amount of value will depend on distance. Then, the affected navsprites will perform a similar operation, sending value down the line to other navsprites. Eventually, all the navsprites which should have nonzero value will get nonzero value. The values handed out in each iteration will be lower than the last, and such that an actor following a path of higher value will be lead from any place in the map to the goal(s). For goals that can move around the map, the value streams must be continuously updated to that assigned values will accurately lead to the goal. I had some problems early on due to feedback loops, but those have been sorted out now and it works well.

[Micky C]

So I've dug up the map. It's more finished than I thought, only lacking pickups really. I'll take some time to apply the ExtCLUT lighting to it to make it jump out of the screen more, but it should be more or less exactly what you're looking for. Here's a sneak peak:

[Trooper Dan]

That should work great! Looks really nice.

What is that chamber in the middle for? The bots can be made to open unlocked doors, but they do not know how to use buttons (and I don't want to teach them).

[Forge]

Micky C, on 11 October 2018 - 04:03 AM, said:

So I've dug up the map. It's more finished than I thought, only lacking pickups really.

looks like a james bond villain volcano base

[Trooper Dan]

Well I can't complain about getting a really good map from creating this thread. Thanks Micky! I can't wait to see the map.

However, we are still looking for mappers, so if there's anyone out there who wants to make new maps, let us know.

[Micky C]

No problem, the map would have just collected dust on my hard drive anyway. Perhaps I could also send a vanilla version of it for the StrikerDM mod if he's willing to do the pickups himself (I wouldn't be very good at balancing it).

Trooper Dan, on 11 October 2018 - 10:27 AM, said:

That should work great! Looks really nice.

What is that chamber in the middle for? The bots can be made to open unlocked doors, but they do not know how to use buttons (and I don't want to teach them).

As with the DNF version of Sausage Factory, I made it so if you stand in the chamber and hit the button, you get shrunk, which allows you to go up a pipe and get a goodie like an atomic health. I'll get rid of that feature for the version I'll send you. There's also a vent access area or two which you may also want to have removed, since it's unlikely the bots can access it, and it doesn't suit the fast-paced goal-oriented nature of CTF.

[eGraphics]

I'm interested in making some maps. But I'll need to come up with something first. Though after looking at my old mod. I have a copy of Temple from Goldeneye I was going to add TROR to.

[Micky C]

Keep in mind that any maps should be fully compatible in both classic and polymost. TROR doesn’t play too well in polymost other than in very specific circumstances.

[Trooper Dan]

Micky C, on 11 October 2018 - 11:36 PM, said:

Keep in mind that any maps should be fully compatible in both classic and polymost. TROR doesn’t play too well in polymost other than in very specific circumstances.

Yeah, that's a good point. We're trying to keep AA renderer neutral. So far, all the content works with all renderers.

I seem to remember an old CTF mod that had a version of Facing Worlds (the classic UT CTF map). Am I crazy or did that happen? In any case, I would love to have a map of that style.

[eGraphics]

Okay. I'll finish my work on Temple and post it in a new topic. Then I'll recreate the map without TROR and see what you guys think.

[Trooper Dan]

Here's some CTF using Micky's map.

[Forge]

the map looks like it works well for that mod.

[Micky C]

Nice to see it in action!

Took a few extra hours to get the lighting and everything right, but it seems to have paid off

[Forge]

Micky C, on 20 October 2018 - 10:51 PM, said:

Nice to see it in action!

Took a few extra hours to get the lighting and everything right, but it seems to have paid off

You did a nice job with the detailing and ambience.
Be nice if it inspired a couple good mappers in the community to make a few more levels for this. Base vs. base maps aren't too complicated or extremely large.

[Trooper Dan]

We need an urban themed CTF map with opposing stripper bars. I'm not saying that some of the participants would be strippers...but they could be.

[Sanek]

You can take the existing map from the TC, edit it a little bit and turn it CTF map as the result (like, the city maps will have the new border as the the result of earthquake or something).

[Trooper Dan]

Sanek, on 21 October 2018 - 10:27 AM, said:

You can take the existing map from the TC, edit it a little bit and turn it CTF map as the result (like, the city maps will have the new border as the the result of earthquake or something).

You don't know how bad my map editing skills are. But yeah, in theory it's pretty simple. Find a chunk of a singlepayer map, cut it out and then duplicate it to create symmetry, paste it to the other side.

[Maisth]

I wouldn't mind making maps, but what type of maps are you exactly looking for? city ones? space theme ones?

[Mark]

I don't think I've ever played a CTF map in any game. Are they usually symmetrical maps as previously mentioned?

[Trooper Dan]

Maisth, on 21 October 2018 - 10:34 AM, said:

I wouldn't mind making maps, but what type of maps are you exactly looking for? city ones? space theme ones?

An urban CTF map where the bases are opposing stripper bars. There should be multiple paths and it should take about 30 seconds for a player to go from one side of the map to the other.