Questions for FM authors

[67414ffecaa3eAurora]

As I am now in the planning stages of creating my own FM, I seek the wisdom of those who have already ventured on this path of creativity and - I am sure - extensive troubleshooting.

• What kind of creative content have you worked on?
• What inspired you?
• What were your goals while working on your project(s)?
• Did you reach said goals, ie. was the end result what you hoped and planned for?
• What are the tools you used?
• How did you learn best to master said tools and or do what you do as a developer?
• What are some things you wish you had known beforehand, that would have spared you from problems during development?
• What are some things you only learned or thought of after the fact, that would have made the end result even better?
• What were some of the most useful resources you had that helped with the project?
• What resources - if any - available now but not back then, would you have been keen to use in your work?
• What kind of things have you received the most positive feedback for?
• What is the worst feedback you have received for your work?
• Would you do it again, in retrospect?

Many thanks for anyone who responds.

[67414ffecae08voodoo47]

a fair bit of recent FM feedback can be found here, and also here. some more quick recommendations:

- you'll probably want to make the choice whether you want to stay with the orig mechanics/gamesys, or whether you want to go for something completely different (Secmod style). pros of the orig - you could actually do without a custom gamesys, so you could piggyback the FM on the SCP gamesys, acquiring not just years of fixes currently there, but all those yet to come. cons - no additional gamesys stuff of yours. going for your own gamesys will allow you to go wild (which people may, or may not like), but you'll be forking the gamesys. either way, you'll probably want to grab the SCP gamesys and resources, and start out with that, as mentioned, it's a couple of years of bugfixing you'll get for free.

-avoid reinventing the wheel/if it ain't broke, don't fix it. there is a good reason for things like bulkhead load zones, and keycards not being an actual inventory item (see the link with the Blind Disposition reports). different doesn't always mean better.

-unless you are planning something completely nonstandard, you will pretty much have to get voiceactors to do logs/emails, and generate audio for any helpful/unhelpful AI you might have. this really kicks immersion up a few notches, and is not that difficult to pull off.

-speaking of voiceovers, no Shodan. there is simply no chance of doing this right, and if it can't be done right, it's better off not being done at all. Minstrel has its own AI, RttUNN manages without one, both are better than having an improperly voiced Shodan.

-this one is purely technical: when making custom resources of any sort, never set them up as replacements for orig resources. if it's something new, it should have a new name, whether it's the model name, or texture name, or whatever. not doing this will considerably lower mod compatibility, and cause pain to anyone who is setting mods up so they would work properly with everything (namely me).

[67414ffecc416Aurora]

a fair bit of recent FM feedback can be found here, and also here.

Thanks - I'll get through all that.

- you'll probably want to make the choice whether you want to stay with the orig mechanics/gamesys, or whether you want to go for something completely different (Secmod style). pros of the orig - you could actually do without a custom gamesys, so you could piggyback the FM on the SCP gamesys, acquiring not just years of fixes currently there, but all those yet to come. cons - no additional gamesys stuff of yours. going for your own gamesys will allow you to go wild (which people may, or may not like), but you'll be forking the gamesys. either way, you'll probably want to grab the SCP gamesys and resources, and start out with that, as mentioned, it's a couple of years of bugfixing you'll get for free.

That's good to know. I will make a shorter mission at first to find my footing, and will probably not do custom gamesys stuff yet. I'll only venture there for the main project.

-avoid reinventing the wheel/if it ain't broke, don't fix it. there is a good reason for things like bulkhead load zones, and keycards not being an actual inventory item (see the link with the Blind Disposition reports). different doesn't always mean better.

I agree; the bulkhead load zones not only let the player(s) know and control when a new level is loaded, but also let you bring around extra stuff with a clearly defined boundary for the room. I am not a huge fan of surprise level changes.

-unless you are planning something completely nonstandard, you will pretty much have to get voiceactors to do logs/emails, and generate audio for any helpful/unhelpful AI you might have. this really kicks immersion up a few notches, and is not that difficult to pull off.

I am actually very excited to do custom audiologs and even video content, though I would hope to manage better VA than in Christine's missions, which are the only ones with VA that I've played so far. I am thinking of C&C style video clips with some costumes, props, sets, etc.

-speaking of voiceovers, no Shodan. there is simply no chance of doing this right, and if it can't be done right, it's better off not being done at all. Minstrel has its own AI, RttUNN manages without one, both are better than having an improperly voiced Shodan.

How about a nice hot bath, human?

-this one is purely technical: when making custom resources of any sort, never set them up as replacements for orig resources. if it's something new, it should have a new name, whether it's the model name, or texture name, or whatever. not doing this will considerably lower mod compatibility, and cause pain to anyone who is setting mods up so they would work properly with everything (namely me).

Thank you for the tip. Doing this probably lessens confusion for all parties including myself, when searching for and accessing said resources.

[67414ffecc5d6voodoo47]

RttUNN voiceacting is quite good mostly, though rough edges can be found (doing a good mutated voice is not easy, apparently). if we take the vanilla clips as 10, I'd place them somewhere between 7-8. not going to rate Minstrel as I was in charge of the audio stuff, but people seem to like the results so far. I believe both are better than voiceacting in Christine's missions (that's why I was saying, no Shodan, unless you are Terri's second cousin or something).

cutscenes shouldn't be a big problem - setting a scene up in the editor, and recording it produces decent results, ones that are aligned with the aesthetics of the actual game. using living actors might prove difficult, as again, they would have to be quite good for the result to be decent. but hey, if you think you can pull it off, go for it.

[67414ffecc72fAurora]

I will be giving RttUNN and Minstrel a try very soon, and I will also give you feedback on how those worked in MP. I have thus not heard the voice acting yet, but if you say it is better, then I am quite excited~

For the cutscenes I was hoping to make them almost completely separate from ingame content, using live actors, sets, props, greenscreening, and self-drawn background art. Not because I need to nor that it would be easy, but something of the likes of that I have always wanted to try and create.

[67414ffecc89dZylonBane]

Just don't try to shove them into the engine at anything higher than 640x480. That's the max resolution it will display.

[67414ffecc995Valet2]

Anyway, shoot, edit and render at higher resolution, then interpolate into 640x480 with some good resampling (lanczos should work well).

[67414ffeceb32Aurora]

Good to know about the resolution. 640x480 will be more than good enough for me.

I have compiled a list of principles that I will aim to apply in my work, conceived by myself or copied from others' notes. The only level design experience on my behalf that I can base it on is regarding Half-Life, but I have aimed to tailor it more towards System Shock 2. Thoughts?

Level Design Principles
11/05/2016

Table of Contents

• 1. You Are Not the Audience
• 2. Flowing Level Layout
• 3. Game Flow and Pacing
• 4. Direction
• 5. Player Satisfaction
• 6. Interactivity, Accessibility, and Functionality
• 7. Style
• 8. Suspension of Disbelief

1. You Are Not the Audience

• Consider yourself the master of your own kingdom; you know your way around like your own pockets.
  
  • You built it; as such you will never get a chance for a first-time, blind playthrough.
  • How will players know and remember where things are, and navigate the level?
  • In what different ways might different players react to traps, enemies, and various events?
  • What will other players want to do in your level?

2. Flowing Level Layout

• Alternate routes between areas.
  
  • Properly flowing connections or 'circuits' between areas ensure that some action will take place inside rooms and larger spaces, rather than mostly at chokepoints in corridors.
  • This will allow NPCs to sneak up behind and or flank the player, and vice versa.
• Make the player revisit areas.
  
  • Reusing the same areas helps the player understand the 3D space of the level, even if they are revisiting a different part of the same area, eg. a bridge they could only pass underneath before, but now can cross over.
  • Reusing and multipurposing areas conserves engine resources especially where limited dimensions are concerned.
• Include loops.
  
  • A loop might be a circuit path throughout an area, where the end goal eg. a locked door is nearby the start of the level, and the middle objective eg. a key to unlock the door is somewhere alongside the other side of the circuit.
  • Looping back to the same area makes the level feel less linear, and once again helps the player familiarise themselves with the level layout.
  • An easy return to the beginning of the loop provides the player with a sense of closure. This might be facilitated by a shortcut through the area, allowing easy access to the beginning from one or various points at the loop.
  • Do NOT use loops if you want to give the player a sense of progression and movement away from the place they're leaving, or if you want an area to have an atmospheric horror element where the player feels trapped deep in a complex.
• Avoid confusing the player.
  
  • Avoid excessive non-linearity. Having too many hubs with too many paths to choose from is confusing. The level should not be a maze unless it is intended to be one.
  • Distinguish between entryways into dead-end standalone rooms, and entryways into further corridors and paths. This helps the player know which doors to go through when they're trying to navigate from one area to another, and conversely which doors to try when exploring rooms for items, logs, etc. or just curiosity.

 
3. Game Flow and Pacing

• Break it up.
  
  • Divide the level into separate playable areas, sectors, or 'chapters'. This helps organise game flow and give the player an indication of progress.
• Distances, routes, and meeting points.
  
  • In what different ways can the player approach an area? Is one way shorter or safer than another?
  • Where and when will the player encounter an NPC that spawns and patrols in area X at time Y? Will there be spots for the player to take cover in?
  • Consider the player's health, inventory, and stats when they reach different points in the level. What will they have collected alongside the route they took?
• Be unpredictable.
  
  • Don't put enemies around every corner, as that would turn the game into a corridor shooter.
  • Don't warn the player before a big fight. Massive ammo and health handouts beforehand are huge warning signs. So are big empty arenas that are waiting for the player to enter, especially if such are always only reserved for boss fights.
• Allow for some rest.
  
  • A 15-minute intense fight against a boss or swarms of enemies ought to be followed by 5 minutes of peaceful exploration or just weak enemies.
• Maintain tension and remove safe spots.
  
  • Play the level, and if you find a spot where you feel safe, perhaps an area unreachable by any threat, then mess it up to make it feel unsafe; reachable by enemies, trapped, atmospherically creepy, etc.
• Use sensible balancing and enemies.
  
  • The difficulty should be adjusted for different player amounts via finite ammo and items, enemy count, shared lives counters, etc.
  • Enemy difficulty shouldn't rely on excessive health nor excessive attack damage. Even in case of a boss enemy, it is often better to have multiple enemies with lower health than a single enemy with excessive health. Splitting the enemy in two makes the fight more challenging, but also provides a better, more even sense of accomplishment and progression when the first enemy is defeated, rather than taking forever to beat a single stronger enemy.
  • Enemy difficulty should rely on dodging attacks, being forced to maneuver constantly, and making every shot count due to finite ammunition.
  • Mix different enemy types together, eg. fast melee enemies with slow long-range enemies. Experiment with different, challenging combinations.
  • Include different types of enemies; some which you never want to get anywhere near to, and some which lure you into overpowering them in melee or close combat.
  • Enemies should never be able to overwhelm the spawn area in a way that you die upon respawning.
• Always provide a backup.
  
  • If the player ends up in an intense fight with very little ammo, or has neglected to do any of the optional quests, or just has very low health, ensure that they will still be able to survive through to the next part of the game. This could mean giving the player a weak weapon with limitless ammunition through recharge stations or collecting ammunition from the corpses of respawning enemies, or a melee weapon, or some other more difficult method to get through the obstacles ahead by using their skill.
  • Be very careful with infinite resources. The player will almost certainly exploit anything that can theoretically function as an infinite ammo dispenser.
• Do not teach with death.
  
  • No inescapable dead-end areas, unless the player is killed quickly.
  • No unfair traps nor enemy placements that would kill an unaware player the first time. You might as well just cause the player to lose health for no reason at all.

4. Direction

• Maintain a focal point.
  
  • The players shouldn't have to guess what they ought to focus on.
  • Clear lines of sight towards the area or object of focus.
  • Unambiguous objectives where game progression is concerned.
  • Lure the player forwards intuitively, eg. show them a key somewhere high up where they cannot access yet, thus showing them that they ought to go higher up the level.
• Ensure that the player is always aware of their main objective(s).
  
  • Ideally the end goal should be so intuitive that it does not even need to be explained, eg. escaping the space station before its self-destruct mechanism activates.
• Provide side quests or objectives.
  
  • Side objectives could help the player's progress towards their goal, as well as enable alternate ways to reach an objective. Ultimately they should be optional, yet aid the player in a useful way.
  • Quests should not be trivial nor crowbarred in. The player should not feel like the town errand boy, doing everybody's bidding in order to reach higher stats or be rewarded with a pass to progress forwards.
  • There should not be too many smaller objectives; they will become a sea of randomness which the player drowns in, leading them to no longer know what to focus on.
• Build anticipation and inform the player of change.
  
  • The player hears a sound effect before they see the train move by.
  • A charge builds up before a massive lightning attack.
  • Some kind of a notification appears when the quest criteria have been fulfilled. Computer screens change from blue to red displays everywhere in the area once you've hacked all four data nodes.

5. Player Satisfaction

• Provide the player with a sense of accomplishment.
  
  • Do not lead; let the player find their own way. Persuade the player to pick a route if you must, using visual cues or other carrots as positive reinforcement, or enemies coming from the opposite way as negative reinforcement, so long as it feels optional.
  • Include multiple intuitive ways and methods to reach the objective, which the player may discover themselves, and thus feel smart.
  • Provide little tasks everywhere; this could include collecting items, and having places and spots where they said items can be utilised. These can even be side quests of sorts, or mere fun, coinciding with the below suggestions regarding 'interactivity'.
• Satisfy the player through weapons.
  
  • Give the player the weapons in a sensible order; from smaller to bigger.
  • The smaller guns should not become redundant towards the end of the game.
  • Provide the player with powerful weapons as rewards, even before they actually need them in boss fights, so they may play around and have fun with them during the game.
  • Lead up to the moment of getting a new weapon; make the player look forward to the new weapon by providing the ammunition for it beforehand.
  • Ideally, give the player the perfect opportunity to use a new weapon right after collecting it.
  • Make weapons satisfying and powerful to use; the player should have a good idea of how many shots it takes to kill a particular enemy with a particular weapon.
  • Have the weapons both look and sound poweful; high recoil, pain animations, gibs and explosions, etc.
  • The same weapons, when wielded by enemies, should also feel powerful in how they damage and impact you. It is the weapons, not the player, that should be powerful.
  • Ramp up the difficulty, and then swamp the player with weak enemies.
  • No over-reliance on a single weapon. The game has a variety of weapons for a reason. Distribute ammunition diversely for different weapons, so that the player can use several of them in balance.
• Reward exploration.
  
  • The player should look forward to rewarding things when exploring. This could be a secret passage, a new weapon, a log entry, or even a trigger to cause an interesting event to occur.
  • Exploring sets of nearly identical rooms for more nanites, ammunition, various items that the player already has in their inventory, and encountering enemies already seen before, is not rewarding. On the contrary, this makes the level boring and causes the player to see little purpose in exploration as there is nothing interesting to discover.
  • It is important to make areas visually distinctive and interesting, but equally important to not rely on sights to drive exploration, lest the game become a sight-seeing tour.
• Have a proper endgame.
  
  • The ending is what the player has fought for and looked forward to for the entire duration of the game. Don't let the player down - make it worth it.
  • Make the ending dramatic and significant. Don't just give the player tons of ammunition and spawn a boss or loads of smaller enemies; that's just a skirmish. The atmosphere counts

6. Interactivity, Accessibility, and Functionality

• Break the looking glass.
  
  • Let the player travel into areas that they can see, even if it is through a secret path.
  • Make everything that looks fun or interesting also be functional. Don't show the player a cake that they cannot eat.
• Add minor tasks for progression.
  
  • Make the player lower a draw bridge, bring up a lift, ram an obstacle with a vehicle, push a box in water to cross a gap, etc.
  • Do NOT add lots of useless menial tasks; the player shouldn't have to search 20 boxes in a room to find a keycard or some other essential item.
• Add secrets.
  
  • Consistently having secrets in the levels encourages exploration.
  • Provide the player with subtle hints that help them find the secrets.
• Make the world come alive.
  
  • Things should happen all the time, even in the player's absence. That could be an aeroplane flying by, NPCs walking about doing things, or various activity in the building's own HVAC or computer systems.
  • Make NPCs and the world react to the player's actions, as well as the world react to the NPCs' actions.
  • Include moving transports that the player can ride on, perhaps even fight enemies while traveling.

7. Style

• Place recognisable landmarks to make the level interesting and easier to navigate.
  
  • Significant landmarks, denoting hubs, junctions, objectives, etc. might be large structures, major geometrical features, or anything otherwise obvious and unusual.
  • Smaller landmarks, distinguishing similar or identical corridors and rooms from one another, could be details such as pipes, windows, alterations in lighting, dirt, decals, colour codes, etc.
• Make sectors themed.
  
  • On a larger scale, distinguish each sector of the level, whether it be differently coloured lighting, a unique architectural style, sounds and music, or even signs and colour codes that literally inform the player which area they're in.
• Distinguish between rooms, corridors, and features in repetitive areas.
  
  • Areas consisting several similar rooms or features, such as flats in a dormitory complex or tables in a mess hall, can benefit even from subtle, unique details to distinguish them. Something like a broken light, rubbish on the floor, a knocked over chair, posters on the wall, a smoking ashtray, a water spillage, a closed window, etc. Better yet if these details are completely unique, ie. do not appear anywhere else and are not too similar with anything else.
• Make everything stand out on its own.
  
  • Aim to make every area memorable. Never create a room merely as a space for an object to exist in, or filler to connect together other areas. Build it, and make it appear as if it has a purpose in real life.
• Include contrast.
  
  • Have a mixture of open and cramped, as well as bright and dark areas.
• Make clever use of lighting.
  
  • Lighten up individual details to make the area look more interesting.
  • Give the atmosphere a tint of colour with a high-range, low-intensity coloured light.
  • Allow individual small light sources shine on their own. If a dominant light brightens up the entire area too much, it will drown the smaller light sources and lessen the variation between light and dark.
  • Darkness mustn't be used excessively, as it only becomes irritating. Players are afraid of what the darkness hides, no the darkness itself. A fear of death, a fear of the unknown, and a sense of vulnerability.
• Highlight the architectural details.
  
  • Use tailor-made textures, strict texture alignment, and clever lighting and shadow effects to bring out the edges and details of architectural geometry - else the details are wasted.
• Conceal blocky geometry where necessary.
  
  • Use rough textures that do not differ too much from one another in brightness and colour with natural or organic things, such as terrain and rock. Like camouflage, try to dissolve the edges and the shapes into the texture's rough details.
• Details matter.
  
  • Be strict about texture alignment, especially at borders.
  • Use borders to separate wall segments, doorways, etc.

8. Suspension of Disbelief

• Make events and behaviour believable and internally consistent.
  
  • Put destructible objects near an explosive object to make the explosion more believable.
  • Make weaker enemies flee when the player gains the upper hand.
  • Friendly NPCs should be calmer and more upbeat when a major threat has been removed.
• Make the environment believable.
  
  • Give a bridge appropriate support structures to make it seem physically viable.
• Make the world seem dynamic by having a lot going on at once.
  
  • Multiple plot points are at the forefront of the narrative experience. For example, Tri-Optimum and the UNN have a rivalry going on between them, all while The Many is slowly taking control of Korenchkin, Diego, and the rest of their respective crews. In the mean time, Dr. Polito opens Pandora's box by downloading Shodan onto the Von Braun, where it immediately begins manipulating the crew by posing as a crew member, and wrestling control of the ship in a race against The Many. In effect there are two simultaneous rivalries going on.

[/list]

[67414ffecece1callum1311]

Based on your design principles and your vision for voice actors and cutscenes, I am very excited about this fan mission.

[67414ffecf049icemann]

One thing I'd say is that there is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with creating a FM aimed at your own target audience. As in, creating one in the style of what you like vs creating something that the main audience will. That said there is no wrong answer to this of which is the better one.

Speaking not just of SS2, but game mods/FMs/TCs/whatever, it's the ones that went for something different that stood out. That said, the ones that go for vanilla style do tend to get more love.

Personally I've always went for making things that I would enjoy as that tends to keep me motivated on it, but everyone's different. Totally up to you though.

C&C style videos: Hmm. This can be REALLY hard to pull off well. In fact, I've never seen it done at all in a mod for any game. Hell even the C&C mods didn't even have those. I look forward to seeing what you create on this aspect. You say C&C style, so I'm assuming that your going for B-Grade cheesy, which is what those were. The Crusader series (of No Remorse + No Regret games) had these in abundance as well.

Design wise, if your going for the super planned out approach then work out your story and game progression plan, THEN make the levels. Whilst I did not do this at all when making my FM (beyond the plan to remake a Doom 2 level I'd done and build apon it), I have taken this approach for all of my games dev projects. Mostly with big todo lists.

In the case of my Shadowrun Returns UGC work, I typed up a HUGE text document outlining what quests I wanted to have, what new features I wanted to add in, the overall mission steps and deviations (since you can have a quest go in different paths based on player actions in that game) etc etc. Very in-depth. Definitely helps in the case of that game as you REALLY need to keep track of things with SRR.

[67414ffecfdd2Aurora]

I am making a shorter practice project first, before embarking on the main project I have on my mind. Having started a few days ago, I am halfway through drawing the plans for said practice project, if anyone wants to see:
http://i.imgur.com/dDO2B5X.jpg (not that it makes sense to anyone else)

One thing I'd say is that there is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with creating a FM aimed at your own target audience. As in, creating one in the style of what you like vs creating something that the main audience will. That said there is no wrong answer to this of which is the better one.

Speaking not just of SS2, but game mods/FMs/TCs/whatever, it's the ones that went for something different that stood out. That said, the ones that go for vanilla style do tend to get more love.

Personally I've always went for making things that I would enjoy as that tends to keep me motivated on it, but everyone's different. Totally up to you though

I agree and believe that an artist ought to pursue his or her own dreams before pleasing others. When the audience becomes large it becomes a grey mass, and as we have gameplay and the average person's likes and dislikes down to a science, tailoring to that grey mass results in everything becoming similar and generic. Perhaps I could have picked better wording; what I actually meant is that the author never has the opportunity to experience his or her own creation for the first time ever, without knowing anything in advance - unless they forget about it for years, and then come back to play it.

C&C style videos: Hmm. This can be REALLY hard to pull off well. In fact, I've never seen it done at all in a mod for any game. Hell even the C&C mods didn't even have those. I look forward to seeing what you create on this aspect. You say C&C style, so I'm assuming that your going for B-Grade cheesy, which is what those were. The Crusader series (of No Remorse + No Regret games) had these in abundance as well.

So far every role is played by myself. This would also make all on-screen characters bear an uncanny resemblance to one another, and be female - highly unlikely in a military installation. I will see if I can find more actors further down the road. If not, I can wear a variety of outfits that cover the face, eg. a cyborg assassin or a grunt with a gas mask.

Design wise, if your going for the super planned out approach then work out your story and game progression plan, THEN make the levels. Whilst I did not do this at all when making my FM (beyond the plan to remake a Doom 2 level I'd done and build apon it), I have taken this approach for all of my games dev projects. Mostly with big todo lists.

In the case of my Shadowrun Returns UGC work, I typed up a HUGE text document outlining what quests I wanted to have, what new features I wanted to add in, the overall mission steps and deviations (since you can have a quest go in different paths based on player actions in that game) etc etc. Very in-depth. Definitely helps in the case of that game as you REALLY need to keep track of things with SRR.

My approach would have been to sketch out the entire world first, then invent the characters and various entities, and finally invent the events that happen between or involving the characters. Now that I think of it, what you are saying makes much more sense than that. So instead I will have a very vague sketch of the world at first, and flesh out a more detailed plan only once I have the game progression or quest tree diagram all written down.

[67414ffecfef1Aurora]

Principles updated.

[67414ffed003evoodoo47]

also, before I forget again, avoid using orig level names (medsci1, eng2 etc) in your FM. you'll still have to have a small earth level to start things up if you want to support multiplayer though - unless you'll use NVscript to initialize things (which you'll be wanting to use anyway).

[67414ffed0211Aurora]

Thank you for the tip. I assume this is what I should be looking at:

NVMultiplayerTrap
System Shock 2 only.

A special level-change script that activates multiplayer mode during the level transition. This can be used to make fan missions multiplayer without using the default Earth / Station game startup. The script also activates the players' HUDs during the level change. As with any other level change marker, the destination level is specified via the Multilevel->Dest Level and Multilevel->DestLoc properties.
This script need only be used once, at the initial transition between the single-player (e.g. character creation) part of the game and the multiplayer section (e.g. the rest of the game). The result of using this script once multiplayer has already been initialised is unknown.

Does this mean I can initialise multiplayer when the first level is being loaded, i.e. when the game is started?

[67414ffed037dvoodoo47]

err.. not really sure, I've only dabbled with the MP stuff very recently. quick recheck of things, I think you still need a small startup level (can be so tiny that to the user, it will only look like a double loading) to make things work, the script will only allow you to skip the full earth+station level setup that would be necessary otherwise.

I'd probably go for a setup that is implemented in the latest RttUNN - a small intro level that starts the story, and also the script in an inconspicuous way. just to make sure you understand - this is not necessary if you don't care about multiplayer.

[67414ffed047bAurora]

Could the topic title be changed back to 'Questions for FM authors'?

Chuckles, would you like to get interviewed about your FM in the form of replying to my OP?

[67414ffed0766chuckles n chestnuts]

Hi Aurora,

Nice to meet you.  An interview on my FM, sure I wouldn't mind at all, but can you tell me who you are in regards to this site?  (i.e. a moderator, admin, long time member..) First.  I would really appreciate it, if you haven't noticed by now, I am very new to this site and fairly new, but a big admirer of the system shock universe.

[67414ffed0886Aurora]

This ought to say enough about me.

[67414ffed0981chuckles n chestnuts]

Ah ok so your new to the site like I am then, sure what would you like to know about my FM?

[67414ffed0a6dAurora]

Just some key questions which I've outlined in my OP, is what I was hoping for.

[67414ffed0ec8chuckles n chestnuts]

Ok Aurora I hope this helps heres what I have answered from your set of interview questions:

What kind of creative content have you worked on?

I’ve done my own custom maps for source (HL2/garrys mod to be specific) for my garrys mod server (which I owned and hosted once upon a time)
As well as my system shock FM ‘blind disposition’ which can be found on this site.

What inspired you?

The desire to create, and the System shock 2 universe and its depth/immersion.

What were your goals while working on your project(s)?

To get the map completed and make sure it was playable as well as have some original flare to it that I didn’t see or experience in the original game.

Did you reach said goals, ie. was the end result what you hoped and planned for?

Yes, for the most part the end results were what I had hoped for especially for a first time project with the dark engine and no help but the internet as I learned the editor from the ground up with no assistance whatsoever.

What are the tools you used?

shockED version 2.12 (the old/outdated version of the engine)

How did you learn best to master said tools and or do what you do as a developer?

Through applying fundamentals of what I already knew about mapping and level editing in general, familiarization of the engine, practice with the functionality of the editor, and lots and lots of copious visual and literary aides both obtained from online sources as well as created by myself. And TONS of trial and error TONS…

What are some things you wish you had known beforehand, that would have spared you from problems during development?

I wish I would’ve known I was using a very out of date editor (shockED version 2.12) and wish I would’ve known about the up-to-date editor shockED version 2.45.  And I wish I would’ve had solid contacts to help me with the project a little more to add some flair and details that I would’ve liked to have had but didn’t have the expertise or resources at the time to pull off.

What are some things you only learned or thought of after the fact, that would have made the end result even better?

I wish I would have made some areas more condensed and I wish I would have been able to implement keycard implementation a little better (although the keycard implementation might have been due in part to the outdated engine, but I have still to look into it)


What were some of the most useful resources you had that helped with the project?

systemshock.org
ttlg.com (through the looking glass/looking glass studios)
sshock2.com
theif.wikia.com (THEIF: the dark wiki)
theifmissions.com

What resources - if any - available now but not back then, would you have been keen to use in your work?

Assistance from other knowledgeable system shock/dark engine mappers/taffers (which I am still trying to find and establish).

What kind of things have you received the most positive feedback for?

Some areas of my level layout and overall level design.

What is the worst feedback you have received for your work?

That it was unplayable. (which was commented by mistake)
Corn (inside joke)

Would you do it again, in retrospect?

Yes, and plan to do it again eventually.

[67414ffed182aAurora]

The desire to create

Ultimately this is what it boils down to for all of us.

To get the map completed and make sure it was playable

Haha. Now those are some sensible if obvious goals, which a lot of content creators surprisingly don't seem to prioritise  judging from the amount of never released projects.

I’ve done my own custom maps for source (HL2/garrys mod to be specific) for my garrys mod server (which I owned and hosted once upon a time)
As well as my system shock FM ‘blind disposition’ which can be found on this site.

Through applying fundamentals of what I already knew about mapping and level editing in general, familiarization of the engine, practice with the functionality of the editor, and lots and lots of copious visual and literary aides both obtained from online sources as well as created by myself. And TONS of trial and error TONS…

That's quite interesting - I'll be sure to play through your FM with my friend in these coming weeks. Where can I find your Source maps? I am also wondering how you found the transition from Source to Dark and from Hammer to DromEd - intuitive and straightforward, or did you have to learn to think in a completely different way?

Some areas of my level layout and overall level design.

What in particular if I can ask more specifically? What areas were they, what kind of praise did you receive for them, and are you happy with them yourself?

I wish I would’ve had solid contacts to help me with the project a little more to add some flair and details that I would’ve liked to have had but didn’t have the expertise or resources at the time to pull off.

What kind of flair and details would you include if you were making the FM now, for example?

I wish I would have made some areas more condensed

By condensed do you mean smaller? Why?

Assistance from other knowledgeable system shock/dark engine mappers/taffers (which I am still trying to find and establish).

It can be difficult to find DromEders who could stay in correspondance for help and advice for such a small game community. I'm also looking towards finding such people I could discuss with over IM.

systemshock.org
ttlg.com (through the looking glass/looking glass studios)
sshock2.com
theif.wikia.com (THEIF: the dark wiki)
theifmissions.com

Thank you - this is good to know.

Yes, and plan to do it again eventually.

Keep up the spirit!

Thank you very much for offering me your insights.

[67414ffed1ce9voodoo47]

I'll be sure to play through your FM with my friend

I don't think the FM is MP enabled.

[67414ffed1fefchuckles n chestnuts]

Well Aurora, thanks for your positive feedback to my answers, now I will answer some of your questions that you mentioned in your reply post:

Where can I find your Source maps? I am also wondering how you found the transition from Source to Dark and from Hammer to DromEd - intuitive and straightforward, or did you have to learn to think in a completely different way?

I have a few different source maps uploaded to garrysmod.org, my considerably best ‘map’ can be found here:  https://garrysmods.org/download/18860/westkillingfloor-revisitedzip  (although download it at your own discretion as I have long since stopped mapping in source and I no longer am actively involved in the garrys mod community, it is also noteworthy that I have playtested this on the new gmod13 (garrys mod 13) and it is slightly buggy and the music is gone due to some presumed different internal workings of the new gmod13 compared to gmod12.

What in particular if I can ask more specifically? What areas were they, what kind of praise did you receive for them, and are you happy with them yourself?

I received praise for my ‘digital’ area as well as the ‘crate’ and ‘secret room’ portions of my FM, and yes I am overall happy with them for the most part.

What kind of flair and details would you include if you were making the FM now, for example?

Audio logs, different cutscenes for ship/level endings, and slightly more detail (although there wasn’t a complaint about lack of detail but I wish I would have added a few more nuances here and there for detail but its only a small addition in retrospect).

By condensed do you mean smaller? Why?

Yes, looking back I wish I would’ve made some parts of the map more small, and the reason being is that sometimes the player feels like there should be more, and also it can be more time consuming to traverse needlessly bigger areas (this was a compaint from other players who played it noteable but I agree also in hindsight of course).

I hope that answers your questions and thank you!