DataDyne Water Treatment Facility Beta Screenshot Feedback.

Post screenshots here of the maps!

ok so i went through the first version twice
like i already mentioned to you, the water cuts framerate by about half for me, i didn't notice an issues with the skybox showing, and i got a few screenshots of some specifics that i noticed.


I noticed that this steam looked a little out of place just coming out of the wall an all, that's right at the very beginning on the wall behind the spawn point


Not exactly sure if this is me or not, but i'll mention it just in case it isnt. this looks a bit odd on the metal grating over the water and it's kinda annoying, but like you just told me, maybe lower quality water wont produce the same odd reflection all along the grating.


I saw this and instantly thought, if you could activate that or replace it wiht an active metal detector to make sort of a forced horde fight, that would be awesome. also right around here is a security camera that made me think if you could make customized blood textures then you could add like a resident evil sorta thing with "the red queen is watching" in blood or something


this sort of dead end would be a lot more interesting if you hid pills or a weapons stash here or maybe even just a few dead bodies to liven it up a bit, like some poor souls tried to go that way but found it was a dead end


i like the idea of the different colored water, but it's just a bit too bright of a green, or if you wanna leave it that color you could try to make it look more dangerous, like some steam or something so that it looks more like toxic substance.


this place seems like a great place to fight a tank or two, but i think you mentioned this was the place for the finale so thats a great place for that too


these guys are a bit of a problem; it seems like they're raised up a bit too high because they create an invisible wall that's hard to jump over if not impossible. so it can kind of affect the path zombies or players take since theyre out in the open and are hard to get over.


this beginning area seems like it could use more protection for the player especially if we're playing on expert. the zombies seem a bit closer than is really safe for the beginning of the level, like if you were to crash or something then that leaves a horde of zombies right away. maybe a small room could protect the players until they're ready to leave safety. maybe on the wall to the left of the path so they can't pick off zombies from the room.

also one last thing, i thought i got a shot of it but apparently i didnt, you might add rails on the path around the water cuz if the zombies spawn at an angle from the player like in the shot about, they ignore the water's danger and run right into it, plus getting hit by a boomers explosion is bound to send a player into the water or a smoker's tongue.

hope this helps

Thanks, Syzgy! That's totally the feedback I'm looking for!

Hm, that's actually a really good idea of the Metal Detector. I'll see what I can do with that..

Thanks for the bug screenies! I'll get on them.

round two and i found an issue :O


ok so i was looking at the textures and i know you had to change them due to resource issues but if it's possible you might try using a more plain texture for hte walls and ceiling especially in this room because it gets a bit...hynotizing looking at the walls and ceiling


and here's the problem, i'll explain my finding momentarily.


more of it


these bodies block, with an invisible wall sorta thing, almost the entire path through this room


no bill! yes he is the problem and how he acts when zombies fall into the water.


when a zombie jumps into the water near that door, bill shoots it then jumps in after it in which he would usually die if i didnt have god mode on, zoey then follows him in and francis will also jump after awhile if he isnt kept busy with zombies, so this place may need railing. ive played through it three times and bill jumps in after zombies everytime with the others following.




the deep end of the problem hehe this is after i jumped in with the others




francis eventually falls in


the npcs end up continuously getting way too close to this edge and if they dont jump they fall over the edge


the respawn point when theyre pulled up is hit and miss, sometimesthey spawn again in the water or just move over a foot or so like in this shot after i rescued francis he fell right back in before i finally got him out for good.

Hey Syzgy this is really good what you have done so far keep it up.
I hope to try it all out myself tomorrow.

DD Water Treatment Facility Beta v. 0.3 review begin



so this room seems a bit open, like the developers for hl2 episode 1 mentioned their difficulties with the final train station area; they said when it was too open and linear, like you can always see your objective, it loses some of its reward. so you might move the big tanks around a bit so they're going more across the map so it creates more of a maze/ s shape room so the door cant be seen from the other side of the room. also as one of the shots show, when the zombie zerg comes, the opennes makes it easy to just run away cuz you wont hit anything plus you can pick them off from across the room.


i like the smoke coming off the water now but you gotta jump up to see it since the wall is blocking it, you might change the wall so it's easier to see through, like the grating you used later on so the perty toxic water can actually be seen cuz otherwise it's just killing framerates without being appreiciated.


i got hit by a zerg here, but it seemed to easy cuz theyre running down a wide open hall, if you can add big or small doors here, it might make it a bit more interesting. and if that isnt possible you could make it go straight for a bit then it makes a quick but really short turn to the right then straightens out again to go to the other room, atleast that way you dont always have a clear view. the devs for l4d also addressed this when dealing with tanks, like they dont want tanks to be out in the open too much cuz the player can down a tank if theyre out in the open for a long time before the tank ever reaches the player.


this room is really great because it's big and wide open but you manage to mkae it more close quarters by making it more mazelike so you never have a clear view of the other side of the room so it makes for more interesting zergs and what not. also if it's possible you might consider making stairs or a ramp going down to the ground with a maze sorta thing there where a couple tanks can spawn itll be really fun to fight tanks in a maze.


this thing is kinda just floating there >.>


i noticed this sweet weapons cache later on, but there arent any other lvl 1 weapons at the beginning of the lvl other than the pistol that spawned for me nor any health so you havent added them at the beginning, you might want to since that main first room has a lot of zerg spawn points

hope this helps

Yeah, that tank thing is floating because I had to remove the water texture to fix crashing, but I've fixed that now.
Thanks for the feedback on the starting bit. I'll see what I can do.

also i remember you saying you added zombies to the water, but the wall istoo high for them to get out, plus i jumped in and found out why they cant get out: a) it's too high b) it isnt possible to jump in deep water

v0.4 pre-release

i think im starting to run out of things to say here


gun is kinda in this dude's leg i suppose it could be more near his hand to make it look like he got pwnt and dropped it




some rather troubling lighting issues in the final room


it seemed to me that the first room and the hallway was more laggy than usual, especially the area in the screenshot, it didnt seem like it was the steam or the boilers because my framerate would start to go back up as i approached them >.> but the first two areas just seemed a bit more choppy. but i definitely like the added level of chaos in this room. forgot to mention i think the lag may have something to do with the flashy light i nthe shot


and zombies still can't seem to find their way out of the water.

Don't worry, I'll have a loooot more for you to test on monday because I'll have the whole weekend to do the underwater thing.

I think I should of fixed that lighting issues, can you tell me how you came about it? I mean, did you walk up to that area, or just saw it from the distance, or?

Hmm... I guess I could remove some steam effects, see if that helps with FPS.

usually as i was walking toward the area the lighting problems occurred then they would sometimes flicker and few times as i got to them then they would usually stay until i left that spot. then another would happen a few feet later

v0.4

im definitely getting no lag in that first room now and no probs with zombies getting out of the water now


on both sides of this walkway in the room after the hallway, the wall is a bit messed up. like you see it ends there, but there is a small invisible wall that expends out perpendicular to that end that blocks about a foot of the pathway on either side.



this wall has a bit of trouble rendering. as you see, in one shot it's not there and the other it is there.


the main tunnel is great with glass, but the parts that narrow it are a bit hard to see at times, at the right angle you almost can't see them. so you might add some blood or some other simple texture that acts as a warning that there is a wall there. the blood on the ground gives a general path but when being chased by a tank, it might get overlooked when the ground is covered with blood from killing a horde.


still having some rendering/lighting issues in this room. when entering the room and turning down the right path, the lights are a bit messed up and take a few seconds to come on properly.


when the horde is coming in the tunnel, it's really easy to just camp near the exit and pick off all the enemies before htey even reach half way into the tunnel, you might change it so it looks like this:
|
--
| EDIT: forums wont lemme do the shape i want so just imagine this fake tunnel going straight then turns a quick right or left then straight again


you might really consider putting a sort of roundabout in this tunnel because there is only one entrance and the tank barrels through that leaving all the survivors trapped waiting to be hit with no way to avoid the tank long enough to survive. at the very least, one player will have to die while the others use the distraction to run back out of the tunnel. as you see in this shot the tank caught me at the end of the tunnel and then it's all over. you could even take the previous suggestion and make the one entrance, but make the tunnel temporarily split in two and make a square before reconnecting with the one path, that way it keeps players able to fight the tank cuz they have an exit while it enters and the horde cant be sniped from the end of the tunnel

hope this helps

Hm. I think the light rending might be because of too many reflecting textures. If I remove the class on the flooring around there, that might work.
And I see what you mean about the tunnel. I might be able to find some props to put in there. Kind of "get in the way" ones so you have to run around them.

Thanks! (plus i'll get working on that radio thing)

Btw Wes. Not sure if you have said this yet. But you thought of a name for your map yet?

Cable wrote:

Btw Wes. Not sure if you have said this yet. But you thought of a name for your map yet?

I'd be the name of the map.

v0.5

like i told you earlier, the darkness does a great job of making everything seem more confined even though it's a huge room and it is kinda nice catching a glimpse of a hunter or smoker silhouetted by steam


since the room is gone here, these patches of painted wall look a bit out of place on the rest of the wall that has a different texture


also i was standing on sort of an invisible wall/step thing on the train and a tank managed to hit me behind the train, can't shoot from back there or get out of it.
also the spawn for the tanks seems a bit too "oh hai thar" in your face sorta thing cuz if youre in the evac room they barrel around the corner and are inthe room with you in just a second or so

What I might do is make that room smaller, and them blockers block stuff until 5mins I think? Or so many spawns have gone, then it lets you enter/move around it.
But that's okay, only take 5 secs to fix that. The only annoying bit will be I'll have to edit the navs again.

But thanks for the feedback!

Oh, and as well. Sadly, I have no control over spawns. It's down to Left4Dead 'Director.' so I guess, he's finding the most near spot whats the
seating room, and sticking him in there. Only way I could kinda fix that, would be to change the whole Over-Cross. But that'd be a shame.

Edit: Hmm. I thought I removed that room.

Noticed here some zombies floating to the top and couldn't get out because of the glass in the way lol.



Also found this funny though sure it's deliberate zombies walking up top then falling to their death lol.

Oh another thing to say... The music you have picked is very good for the map you have done.

oh my, you picked music? guess i need to run the map with my music off nexttime

Yeah, don't worry. The whole them getting stuck in the glass, and them falling off top. I did it to give it 'the dumb Zombie' thing.
Like the way they fall out of the Plane in Resident Evil Movie thing. Same as they die in the water, the float to the top. Just really for effect.
And that's the normal in-game music. I did want to do my own, but I'd need to make a trigger with logic relay in every room you went in, then
it'd not go 100%. Then I'd need to add in Dynamic props, IE: doors, ect. To trigger them off. I will do it at somepoint. But I want to get all the main
bugs out of the way before I attempt something like that. Because if it doesn't work/breaks something. It'll be harder for me to track the issue down.

The fps was no issue for me whats so ever in any of the rooms. One thing I will say though is I was noticing some issues when walking in certain rooms it was like a piece of the floor would all of a sudden appear on top left or right of my screen etc when I wasn't even looking at the floor. Hard to describe what I mean. I will try to get a screenshot of it.

I'm going to be locking this now. Thank you for such awesome feedback. Unless you make maps, ect. You really don't know how much you've helped and
made it more easy for me to track down bugs.

Topic has been unlocked again for any last minute screenshots you would like to send.