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Games, eh? |
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Andrew Poole |
Message #104713, posted by andypoole at 10:53, 11/10/2007, in reply to message #104705 |
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Hot piss!
I managed to complete a Portal challenge using *less* portals than were required for the Gold medal. 
Which one? |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104714, posted by Phlamethrower at 11:49, 11/10/2007, in reply to message #104713 |
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Level 18 - I managed to do it with 15 portals, but it only needed 16
But, to be honest, that's the one you're most likely to complete with less portals, since the others seem to have really small targets like 2 or 4.
I'll have to see if I can remember how I did it tonight  |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104726, posted by Phlamethrower at 19:20, 11/10/2007, in reply to message #104714 |
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I did it again. Huzzah!
The first time I tried I used 16 portals - so obviously did it the way most people are meant to. But then I remembered/rediscovered the little trick I used to shave off that extra portal 
*prepares to upload video proof* |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104727, posted by Phlamethrower at 20:18, 11/10/2007, in reply to message #104726 |
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http://www.phlamethrower.co.uk/misc2/portal.mpg
SPOILERS, obviously.
I did try making a higher-res video (so you can actually see where I'm shooting), but after spending 20 minutes encoding it it produced a corrupt MPG file that was over twice the size I intended it to be 
So I just redid it at low-res but with a decent bitrate, and found it doesn't look too bad.
The sound will go out of sync a bit at the end - that's where I rather hastily edited out the bits where I died |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #104729, posted by rich at 20:48, 11/10/2007, in reply to message #104727 |
 Dictator for life
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Portal was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be - mostly due to the script and voices to be honest. The sentry guns were a lot of fun.
Not sure I'm all that bothered about going through and re-doing levels with extra hardness and/or least time/portals/etc. but this Orange Box malarky at least got me playing something I probably wouldn't have bothered with otherwise.
The cake is a lie
________
 Cheers,
Rich.
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104730, posted by Phlamethrower at 21:06, 11/10/2007, in reply to message #104729 |
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Hot piss!
I just completed another one with less portals than needed!
13 portals on level 15 instead of 14. I also learnt a new trick using the portal gun (which you will need to know if you want to get gold on that level). Because of this I'm not entirely sure where I skipped out one portal - but I have my suspicions.
Portal was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be - mostly due to the script and voices to be honest. The sentry guns were a lot of fun. Yes - somewhat of a System Shock vibe, being forced to do things by a computer of questionable sanity
Not sure I'm all that bothered about going through and re-doing levels with extra hardness and/or least time/portals/etc. It's fun! After seeing how quickly I went through the first 15 levels, I was getting a bit worried that Portal was going to be too short/easy. But the last few levels were significantly longer and included some neat tricks with the portal gun that resulted in the game getting my seal of approval. And judging by the things I've had to do so far for the challenges, completing the challenges will teach you lots of new ways of using the portal gun that aren't touched upon in the main gameplay.
*goes back to wondering how the hell he's meant to complete level 17 using only two portals* |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104731, posted by Phlamethrower at 22:49, 11/10/2007, in reply to message #104730 |
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*goes back to wondering how the hell he's meant to complete level 17 using only two portals* Ah. Turns out I had to do the exact same thing as before, just using one less portal Strange that I didn't notice earlier that it was possible that way - I almost get the feeling they cheated and changed the way the sphere launchers work |
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Andrew Poole |
Message #104742, posted by andypoole at 21:04, 12/10/2007, in reply to message #104731 |
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Flash, 2D Portal |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #104743, posted by rich at 21:12, 12/10/2007, in reply to message #104730 |
Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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somewhat of a System Shock vibe, being forced to do things by a computer of questionable sanity I was thinking more Metal Gear Solid 2 while I was playing it - the playful way the designers played with your expectations, telling you that the game was over and that you that you weren't real.
Not sure I'm all that bothered about going through and re-doing levels with extra hardness and/or least time/portals/etc. It's fun!
I think we have different definitions of 'fun' It seems very much like going back over old ground. But then, the most fun I had was killing the turrets, and they're caged in some of the rehashed levels.
Probably one of the most humourous games I've played though, pitched really well.
________
Cheers,
Rich.
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104746, posted by Phlamethrower at 23:49, 12/10/2007, in reply to message #104743 |
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It seems very much like going back over old ground. Well, yes. But it's also about improving your skill at the game - teaching you to look at old levels in new ways. But if you enjoyed killing the turrets more than the puzzle solving aspect then maybe it isn't your thing after all 
But then, the most fun I had was killing the turrets, and they're caged in some of the rehashed levels. I found killing the turrets boring. Usually just a case of dropping them through a portal, or dropping something ontop of them.
And it's only one level where they're in cages |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104832, posted by Phlamethrower at 19:11, 16/10/2007, in reply to message #104746 |
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Hmm, the Portal and Ep 2 achievement stats have sneakily made their way online
*looks at Poolie's stats*
*sniggers* |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #104835, posted by rich at 19:30, 16/10/2007, in reply to message #104746 |
Dictator for life
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I found killing the turrets boring. Usually just a case of dropping them through a portal, or dropping something ontop of them. It's not how you do it, it's how they react ("I don't blame you."). And it's much easier to portal in behind them and pick them up on the later levels.
And it's only one level where they're in cages That's still 33.3'% of the levels I've replayed
________
Cheers,
Rich.
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104847, posted by Phlamethrower at 18:37, 17/10/2007, in reply to message #104835 |
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Posts: 15100
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Hellgate: London gone gold. Woo!
A single-player demo will be available starting tomorrow over at GameDaily. Double Woo! |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104860, posted by Phlamethrower at 17:59, 18/10/2007, in reply to message #104847 |
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Posts: 15100
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Start your downloads!!!1.1321.3123,12312 etc. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104861, posted by Phlamethrower at 18:06, 18/10/2007, in reply to message #104860 |
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Hmm, FilePlanet appear to have the "exclusive" demo as well. And since it's only downloading from gamedaily at 100k/sec, that gives me plenty of time to find out which one is the fastest |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104866, posted by Phlamethrower at 22:25, 18/10/2007, in reply to message #104861 |
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Menus that look incredibly blurry at 1280x1024 because it looks like they were designed for 640x480 and then scaled up: check
Get spammed by tutorial messages at the start of the game: check
Low-quality graphics because it's an MMORPG (and using dynamically generated levels): check
Initial "ew" factor of having people talk to you via text instead of speech: check
Text being displayed to you one sentence at a time, inside a much larger text box capable of holding several sentences at once: check
People speaking irrelevent comments to you (via audio) as you start/stop talking with them: check
Gameplay focused around cowardice (i.e. you get given devices to teleport you back to the safe areas): check
Quests to kill random demons and collect items from them: check
Quest progress indicators saying things like "2 of 8 capacitors collected from any demon in <whatever place that was>": check (With my discontent obviously being centered on the "any demon" part)
Inability to collect quest items which are lying on the floor right infront of you once you have collected all the items required for your present quest: check
Giant magnet that sucks money from the corpses of demons straight into your pocket: check
Demons that carry money and items, even the braindead ones and the tiny squirrel-size ones lacking proper hands/pockets: check
Crouching being a skill that you must learn: check
Being too damn quiet: check
Not always loading character models: check (Yay, magical floating textureless human head giving me orders)
Ability to walk straight through some/all NPCs: check
Gameplay advice drip-fed to you via hints on loading screens instead of just getting you to RTFM: check
Crashing when trying to equip items: check
Non-functional automatic error reporter thing: check
And, of course:
In-game advertising: check
Of course, the crash occured just as things were potentially starting to get interesting, and just as I was starting to adjust to the game and start to enjoy it. And since I've had enough of the crashing malarky with STALKER (and the immersion-breaking-ness of using text to talk to NPCs instead of audio, yet at the same time having the NPCs make audio comments during our conversations), this doesn't exactly fill me with a burning desire to try the demo again. Especially since I'm not even sure if autosave is enabled/possible in the demo.
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 23:29, 18/10/2007]
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 23:33, 18/10/2007] |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #104899, posted by rich at 18:28, 21/10/2007, in reply to message #104866 |
Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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I've downloaded the Hellgate demo and have played it until my character is level 5, but there doesn't seem to be any point to it - I've got an encrypted card, but can no longer talk to anyone, and although I've unlocked the Covent Garden parts and wandered around killing things, don't seem to be able to progress any further (even if "progress" is actually "end the demo").
Am I missing something, or did they just remove something vital to make it a demo?
________
Cheers,
Rich.
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104902, posted by Phlamethrower at 18:54, 21/10/2007, in reply to message #104899 |
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Am I missing something, or did they just remove something vital to make it a demo? Yes. They removed 99% of the game and forgot to put a "demo complete!" screen in at the end Judging by what you've said, you are at the end of the demo. Once you've completed all the missions in Holborn station there's nothing else to do except bash monsters until you reach the level cap for the demo.
After having another go with the demo today, it seems that:
Menus that look incredibly blurry at 1280x1024 because it looks like they were designed for 640x480 and then scaled up: check The in-game menus seem fine; I think it was mostly the title screen and intro screens that looked dodgy.
Gameplay focused around cowardice (i.e. you get given devices to teleport you back to the safe areas): check The "personal relocation devices" are two-way links, so you can easily go back and forth as many times as you want between your last station and wherever you opened the teleporter. However, if you do what I did and get stuck inbetween two cars while wandering along ontop of them, the teleporter will be useless since it opens a portal several feet infront of you (i.e. outside of your reach). It also seems to fail to open if there's no clear space directly infront of you.
Ability to walk straight through some/all NPCs: check Add to this the ability to walk through some floors, and the ability to stick your head through the ceiling if you jump in a low corridor.
Crashing when trying to equip items: check It didn't crash this time, but it did seem a bit uneasy at times. Maybe the full game won't be so bad.
Especially since I'm not even sure if autosave is enabled/possible in the demo. At a rough guess, I'd say that it saves your progress every time you change map. And since it is aimed as more of a massively-multiplayer than a singleplayer game, you do only have one savegame (per character), and no direct control over when/where saves occur. This also means there's no save scumming (unless you resort to pulling the power lead or something). However I have discovered that when you die, you can opt to resurrect yourself immediately at the cost of some of your money. I'm getting the feeling that they aren't seeing death as being a major contributor to gameplay.
However, I have a gun that sets people on fire, so I am happy.
[edit]
HOWEVER however, it seems that they've gone with a rather strict character class/faction system, so weapons/armour for one faction simply cannot be used with any other faction. This seems a bit of a shame (especially if you keep collecting things for the wrong faction), but I guess balancing 3 factions with 3 classes each is a lot easier than balancing one uber-faction which is able to use 6 different types of weapon/armour/skill.
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 20:02, 21/10/2007] |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #104903, posted by rich at 20:05, 21/10/2007, in reply to message #104902 |
Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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Am I missing something, or did they just remove something vital to make it a demo? Yes. They removed 99% of the game and forgot to put a "demo complete!" screen in at the end Judging by what you've said, you are at the end of the demo.
So great advert for the game then - you wander around aimlessly with no help from anyone, until you get bored and give up.
________
Cheers,
Rich.
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104932, posted by Phlamethrower at 19:24, 23/10/2007, in reply to message #104903 |
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Posts: 15100
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So, apart from me and presumably/possibly Rich, who else will be going to London next Friday? |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104975, posted by Phlamethrower at 08:24, 27/10/2007, in reply to message #104932 |
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Crysis demo |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #104980, posted by Phlamethrower at 13:24, 27/10/2007, in reply to message #104975 |
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...and it's just crashed. Hurrah!
For some reason it auto-detected my system as requiring the lowest possible quality settings on everything. Which did give me a nice framerate, but results in the game essentially looking worse than Hellgate: London. Including some really horrible pop-up as items appear and dissappear from view. Why couldn't they just fade them in and out like in Half-Life 2?
Also, the keys sometimes stick, leaving you wandering sideways off of cliffs, or out into the open to be mowed down by enemy fire. The un-sticking procedure seems to be completely random as well.
Sound-wise, you can shoot an enemy straight through the head without him making a single sound. Then about 10-20 seconds later he lets off a death cry. Which must be somewhat impressive to do for someone who's just had his brains mangled.
And shooting-wise, there is a very annoying boat which has a super-high accuracy gun attached to it. This is made more annoying by the fact that, as soon as you enter a vehicle, you instantly become 10,000 times easier to spot. Even if the vehicle isn't moving. Even if you're sat cloaked in the driver's seat so no-one can see you anyway.
Also, enemies wearing helmets have some magical force field active, meaning that even if you aim at their exposed face instead of the helmet, you do practically no damage whatsoever.
Also also, you sometimes lose vision for several seconds when you get shot (presumably in the face). This is a bit annoying, especially if it's the super-high-accuracy boat shooting you from miles away, while you are lying down surrounded by large amounts of long grass. And possibly having your forward movement prevented by an empty plastic bottle.
But on the plus side, this is the only FPS I can remember playing where you can actually see your feet!
[edit]
Running everything (except texture quality) on Medium looks a lot better. But then I reached the end of the demo
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 15:49, 27/10/2007] |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #104987, posted by rich at 18:11, 27/10/2007, in reply to message #104975 |
Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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Crysis demo /me 'splodes.
Although, fileplanet requires an account to do anything, whereas downloading it from NVidia doesn't, and allows you to upgrade your video drivers at the same time. Which I'd already done today, for the (decidedly average) TimeShi[f]t demo.
________
Cheers,
Rich.
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #105190, posted by Phlamethrower at 19:24, 10/11/2007, in reply to message #104987 |
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Posts: 15100
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I've made a cube level with a moving room. Hurrah!
http://www.phlamethrower.co.uk/misc/cube4.zip
* Works with vanilla HL2. So drop it into <foo>:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\<username>\half-life 2\hl2\maps\ and it should work.
* Doesn't support HDR, since the textures I used for the cube walls don't seem to have HDR variants. I haven't checked, but if you try running the map with HDR enabled then it *should* revert to non-HDR.
* Don't try and save the game - there are too many entities (1000+) for the game to write a proper savefile.
* I'll tell you that the exit room is in the "top right" of the level, and to get to it you'll have to pass through the moving room.
* The moving room (of which there is only 1) only moves through 5 different locations, so you shouldn't have to wait more than a few minutes for it to arrive if it isn't where you need it to be.
* The map is still a bit buggy. 99% of the time moving between rooms seems to be OK, but sometimes it does mess up. Also the moving room needs a bit more work, as if you move into/out of the room just as the moving room moves then it is likely to break horribly (I have a solution for this, but can't be bothered recompiling the map to add it ). Also, climbing out the top of the map is not advised, as the door will close behind you and you won't be able to get back in. And (if you hadn't worked it out yet) you'll be able to see the secret of how the map works
* The map isn't designed to be "fun", more an experiment to see if such a map would be fun, and whether such a map is even possible. So don't blame me if you don't enjoy the experience
* To reach the doors in the ceiling (or the ones at the side, for that matter), you'll have to climb the wall. You can climb up all the ladder-like bits; when you reach the ceiling, you should be able to turn 180 degrees and walk back towards the center of the room (as if you were hanging onto the ladder bits which run across the ceiling). Really all that's happening is that you're walking across a #-shaped piece of invisible floor. The center of the # (i.e. directly under the ceiling door) has been filled in, so you can walk there as well. To actually climb up through the door, you'll have to climb up the edge opposite to which the door opens. But the ladder there seems a bit dodgy, so make sure you're looking straight up otherwise you may fall down after reaching the top.
There's a picture of the map here. Just imagine that room, but repeated 17576 times and in different colours, and you'll get the idea |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #105191, posted by Phlamethrower at 19:59, 10/11/2007, in reply to message #105190 |
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And here is a short video for those that can't/shan't download the map, or are incapable of working out how the ladders work.
[edit]
Determined not to abandon my abuse of the HL2 engine, I'm now trying to determine how I can reduce the 1000+ entities to a much more manageable number (i.e. one that doesn't result in a "(2015.0%) VERY FULL!" message in the compiler output). Basically this involves translating the C program that plans the map into a series of entities, so that the planning algorithm runs each time you change room
Surprisingly, it looks like it will be quite easy once I get a seedable random number generator implemented, since the hardest part of the algorithm (factoring prime numbers) can just be done using a lookup table.
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 21:32, 10/11/2007] |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #105210, posted by Phlamethrower at 22:32, 11/11/2007, in reply to message #105191 |
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Posts: 15100
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I've decided I don't like math_counter.
I'm trying to do the fancy runtime cube algorithm, which involves multiple modulo operations. math_counter doesn't support modulo, so I'm trying to emulate it using divisions. This would be fine, if the note about math_counters only storing ints was true. It seems that the Divide operation can produce a non-integer result, and that that result can be passed onto further math_counters via SetValueNoFire. However, if you then Multiply that number, then the result appears to be rounded to the nearest integer. Madness!
Also the FireUserN inputs don't work if you give them a parameter (such as will be the case if you're trying to trigger it from an OutValue output, which gets fired whenever the math_counter value changes, and will contain the value of the counter). So instead of firing a user input of itself (to allow other outputs to be triggered without worrying about the OutValue parameter override), I've instead got to trigger a seperate entity. The Trigger input, of course, doesn't complain if you decide to give it a parameter.
Once I recover from my BLINDING RAGE I may report these problems. And then go and sit in the corner and cry while I try to work out how to get around the Divide problem without making the event flow even more confusing. |
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Tony Haines |
Message #105211, posted by Loris at 23:58, 11/11/2007, in reply to message #105210 |
 Ha ha, me mine, mwahahahaha
Posts: 1025
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Multiply by one? |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #105212, posted by Phlamethrower at 00:22, 12/11/2007, in reply to message #105211 |
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Nope, that won't work. I've checked the source code, and the only time math_counter uses an int is when it spawns and sets the initial value. Everything else is done using floats (Which does make me wonder why the multiplication seemed to make it revert to an integer. Maybe the debug output was wrong, or I've misread something).
Anyway, I think I've found a solution to the problem. Unfortunately it will involve using a loop, which has the potential to make things a bit slow. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #105261, posted by Phlamethrower at 20:04, 13/11/2007, in reply to message #105212 |
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http://kotaku.com/gaming/clips/portal-18-minute-speed-run-321879.php
Well, I think that's my time beat. By about 1 or 2 hours. Major hax! |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #105264, posted by rich at 21:26, 13/11/2007, in reply to message #105261 |
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Posts: 6828
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Well, I think that's my time beat. By about 1 or 2 hours. There's less than 2 hours play in it - I just recorded the whole thing, and it's just under two hours (1:58?) with: load times (up to a minute sometimes); at least two rooms where I'd forgotten how to solve them; five or six deaths; standing still to listen to all the announcements; most of the security cameras destroyed; and listening to all the music at the end. Plus, I'm not particularly good at it, or taking it very seriously.
But 18 minutes is very good!
________
Cheers,
Rich.
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