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The maps are finally taking shape, there are only about 5 or so "connections" to fill between the maps, and that will be the environments finished.
Everything else seems to be going swimmingly - and i don't plan on changing finished work for now. But, As with all of my plans, i may get distracted, or bored or grow to hate something, and things may change.
Since a few people asked me already, here's a note on beta testing:
I'm planning on having no more than 5 people hammering away at the maps for about a week or two, and if each person thoroughly plays the game through once in each skill level - that should be enough to get rid of any errors and balance issues.
I decided to Remake the site since the old design did not work in anything apart from IE. Nasty stuff there.
Yes, I'm doing that "code website instead of mapping" thing again. Speaking of mapping, i've been mapping the wrong things. Once again Coil must take a back seat to TWHLmix.
The stagnant two months have passed - Coil is back in full mapping mode.
I'm starting to rediscover the value of remaking finished parts of maps - 3 times out of 5 the results not only look better, but play better too. I don't care much for time anymore - Remake three quarters of all brushwork? Good: More mapping for me :D
Time away from mapping can do wonders for your productivity. In the last week, i've produced come content that i would have in a month before the "break". I'll end up redoing most of it though - i always do.
Expect the Progress bar to move up quite a bit in the next update ;)
Whew! that last update started to stagnate...
After shrinking, Coil has Grown again - I just can't make up my mind. 8 Maps now - 4 of them finished.
I haven't mapped in ages - i'm starting up again - i still have lots of ambitious ideas, but not enough will to make anything.
Lets hope that playing my maps for the first time in 2 months wil do me some good.
With all the hussle and bussle of DSL and frantic downloading i've forgotten about half of my work.
New media coming up - soon.
The last week was a little slow in terms of updates, but the mod has been making huge leaps forward - i might even give a release date...
All the prop models have now been gathered up and put in place. They don't slow down software that much, so they stay.
Broadband in on the horizon, so Steam Compliance here i come!
The obligatory Intro & Disaster map is coming along nicely - No train ride, but lots of funky props that are finding their way into other maps.
I've learnt one thing from drawing concept art, and its the fact that you can't draw out a plan and map from that. Compromises have to be made, things have to be cut, reshaped and improved - you don't get the technical feel of the map when you draw it on a page, BUT you don't feel the same artistic freedom and flow of ideas in a program.
And i've changed the colour scheme of the site a bit - just for some casual change.
Roses are Red, Violets are blue, some things are easy, others are bloody hard!
One of those things is going back to work after a long period of doing something else.
Don't expect to instantly get your motivation back - work little by little, and before you can say "Very vagarious variants of virtually incomprehensible phonetics." you'll be mapping away, and the great ideas will be pouring out of your arse.
This is obvious stuff: but try to keep a balance between puzzles, combat, exploration and story development. A good ratio to use is 2:4:2:1
Having read that, forget it. It's useless. I could talk about scaling, balance, gameplay theory and such - but i'd rather make something fun and play that instead...
I'm off to map.
Updated the Story and preface to explain inconsistencies in gameplay, updated features, and started work on costum weapon skins.
The following two weeks will be dedicated to finishing the plot, polishing off non gameplay related stuff like the models, and anything else that needs work.
I'm starting to realise the benefits of good planning - the hard way. Plan as much as you can initially, it makes no difference if you change your mind half way, the point of planning in detail, is that you have a firm base to start your ideas from. Don't underestimate the value of an A4 page, pencil, and a bit of imaginative mangling of existing concept.
Media Update, Coil expands!
Updated the screenshots, and started work on the ending, and now Coil includes a trip to Xen, but the good kind of Xen, the 'Majestic' variety as opposed to jump-from-rock-to-rock-fall-quicksave-NOO-i-ment-quickload!!! type of Xen.
I'm not sure if its the overall crappyness of my PC, or something else, but working on small props and whole rooms separately, increases productivity.
If you make rooms, props and corridors have commonly styled 'joints' you can have 6 or 7 parts and another 8 or 9 props Instead of a big huge unmanageable map. The bits fit in nicely into scenes - welding them together takes no time at all, and you can rearrange bits to suit gameplay. As demands for detail rise, learning how to Prefab is very useful.
Started including those 'Detail' models - not sure if they will stay there until the end.
If they don't put a huge strain on software, i might keep them, if they do affect speed and game play they will stay as an optional download.
I've rediscovered a past addiction to prefabs and prop construction. So now i plan having as many things you can 'Use' as possible. So now i can cheat my hypocrisy and have as many 'Functional' corridors as a want!
I noticed my laziness creeping in, in the form of sloppy brushwork and crappy loose ends in the overall quality - to solve this i went off and played Urban Chaos, and came back with a Huge appreciation for Half-Life's control system...
And if you haven't realised that gratuitous violence is fun in every half-life map, you need to say hello to my friend, Mr. Crowbartotheknee.
The rest of the Dev. notes have moved, and since i've started locking content in the first two maps, i can put the percentage thing up :P
"Try to keep away from 'corridor maps' ... emphasise function...."
That's me talking through my arse in a rust article, I've just realised that my first map is a set of linked corridors. I did Everyhting i advised not to do.
Note to self:
1. Reduce and convert hypocracy to .map format.
2. Uploading html doesen't work without the internet.
3. Warn neighbours about the chlorene gas.
Coming closer to final versions of the first two maps. Just a few final touches left - this is the closest anything coming so close to being finished since Subzone!
Its doubtful that i'll leave the 'finished' work alone, but at least i can move on to a new environment - the stuff i was working on seems too familiar.
env_sound entities are a bitch to work with, and the crap thing is, the trouble is exactly equal to the return. So the more stress you get out of tweaking those bitches, the more atmospheric you make your maps ;P
Its becoming increasingly hard to make good maps - something that was original and exiting today, sucks tomorrow. Its neccessary to remind one self that as the mapper, one's view of something pre-tainted by the hypercritical nature that's responsible for conceiving most of the work...
Something that's just hit me lately - its so obvious, and yet, there's so little of it in most maps: Life, Imperfect existance, and Death.
The point is, nothing in the real world is perfect, nothing is preset or predetermined, everything influences more than one thing in any given time. In level design, its called Fun - have as many things to play with as you can think of - the more unpredictable your map is, the more interesting and absorbing, the more it brakes away from "conventions" the more original. Today's Heresy is tomorrow's Dogma.
Started A Design Note thingy. This is where i ramble on about how i hate tweaking entity setups and bitch about the shortage of sleep free hours. To waste typing space, i'll be putting in cool mapping tips i've learn while i map
Started A Design Note thingy. This is where i ramble on about how i hate tweaking entity setups and bitch about the shortage of sleep free hours. To waste typing space, i'll be putting in cool mapping tips i've learn while i map. Anyway, on with the rambling:
Mapping is slooow! I spend the best part of the day transferring my (so far) living carcase from room to room, full of great ideas and zero motivation to actually make or do anything.
But at least i can say that the mapping that's being done is up to the set standard. If there's one thing you should learn today, learn how to master info_node entities - those things are priceless for enemy AI.
If you've got free time, experiment with the light_spot entity too, if you get it right, you can really brighten up (pun half intended) an area.
As for all the other stuff, i've added link buttons in the links page, fixed up the site a bit, and i'm pretty sure i slept for a few hours one or two days ago...
Coil began its life known as a humble Hl map that was called Hard Liqueur.
Then along came Issues, and Hard Liqueur became knows as Subzone. Right after Issues (of which Subzone was a part of) was released, Hard liqueur was restarted - Set back to square one, with a fresh story, new ideas and most importantly - a new name: Coil
Then some stuff happened and i left the project to go and help create and destroy 'The Project' (another hl mod)
After that, i got my hands on lots of new textures, articles, reference images, concept and of course, plenty of mp3s and beverages.
With a new lease of life, Coil was Reborn, and quickly evolved into its current form.
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