Stealth Mechanics

Posting screenshots is only interesting up to a point, certainly more fun to watch a video of something. A short video showing the basic stealth mechanics of my Quake Mod. All feedback welcome. 

^that's my feedback 

I expected the Ogre to aggro when the eye turned red! Is there some sort of grace period between the eye turning red and the ogre aggro'ing?

Just seemed odd to me.

Aside from that, I loved everything about this :) 

Originally the eye went red when the player was too close, so I moved the colours outwards. green = good, yellow = be careful, red = dangerous, you are very close to being seen. There is like only 30 map units between those boundaries so it can be tricky with the quake movement speed.

The next video will show actual encounters and the AI moving around. This is a training area of the start map with a monster that does not move so people can understand the distance. I was hoping people would also see the pattern on the floor and how that relates to the eye.

The main problem with the video is that it is very long and slow, I think the pacing could be better. Was it too dark or too bright for anyone? 

brightness level was about perfect.

I'm really looking forward to this now, despite feeling 'meh' about the idea of stealthy quake when you first mentioned it. Will that music be playing in the level? Or is that just for the video? I vote no music. Zelda vibes mixed in with the utterly quake looking architecture due to that music and some of the new effects (the eye effect, for some reason).

Anyways, looks amazing, can't wait til it's done! 

This looks good.
I was under the impression using a poison bold made the monster aware of the player and causes it to turn around. Apparently it's much easier. 

Well, the bolts still have limitations, if you shoot a monster in the face they will see you. It is better to turn the monster first with a distraction bolt and then use poison. This video shows the mechanics in a very clinical light, so it might seem easier than a real encounter.

Also the speed of the bolt is designed to be slow, so you can shoot a bolt and have plenty of time to duck behind cover before you are spotted. Also poison cause monsters to in-fight, which you don't really see here but will be more obvious in the next video. 

@Drew, the music in the video is just to give the video something interesting in the background while you are watching. It took me a while to find this music because most creative commons style sites are full of endless happy go lucky trance/techno music!

I don't plan to include any new music (don't know anyone who makes music) with the MOD, just going to use the standard ambient stuff and maybe a couple of new sounds if I have time at the end. 

I listen a loads of free ambient music and generally a lot of different genres primarily free. If you need suggestions, give me a theme or style and I will try to find some.

http://archive.org/details/KLLE-Crawl for example has not been used in a map so far afaik.

http://www.quaddicted.com/stuff/temp/spirit-sleepdrive2_20120429.ogg is an unfinished mix. Check my posts in the Music Thread, I often post ambient. 

Out of interest; will it be possible to play the entire mod being stealthy, avoiding enemies and combat? 

@quakis, yes, there is ways to avoid all combat with the distraction bolt for turning monsters and special stealth alcoves that allow the player to hide from passing patrols. You cannot distract patrolling monsters, only stationary ones. The stealth combat with the backstab / poison combo is for players who want to get all kills. The hardest method is certainly avoidance but it will be possible.

@spirit, wow that is exactly what I need, fantastic stuff. downloading and keeping in a safe place :) Thank you. 

John Carmack's Quakecon 2012 is supposed to happen in 50 minutes after this post.

http://www.quakelive.com/#!stream

Smart people use https://github.com/chrippa/livestreamer (on http://www.own3d.tv/QuakeCon )

WARNING: Currently the stream plays derpstep Shambler would compose if he was not so uptight. 

That is one impressive mod you have so far. I can't wait to give it a whirl! 

Thanks for that link, spirit! Gonna have to check that out. 

Good link, Spirit. 

Damn, that ikblue shot looks fantastic! The video showing stealth mechanics was interesting too - I'm looking forward to seeing some real gameplay. 

is there ay non-live version of the video? It must have been uploaded somewhere on the internet by now, but I can't find it :( 

Your shot doesn't really look much like ikblue now I look at it. Looks really amazing though. Love the white bricks - I would have never thought to put them in like that but it works really well.

Actually, it kind of looks like a misaligned texture, but maybe if you made the white bricks seem even less aligned (on purpose) by having the odd white brick here and there it would probably look nice too. 

Yeah, I know - you don't. But imagine you were to rate SP maps you've played, which aspects would determine your rating and how would you interpret the score options (1 through 5 points)?


Also, go rate maps on Quaddicted, you cumstains! 

Thx for the youtube upload, Spirit. 

Addendum to negke's question: Would less points work for you too? Like 0-3 or 1-3 or something like that? 

Is the original GlQuake a DOS executable or a Windows one? 

Will totally start voting soon. 

Will totally start voting soon. 

Windows. http://web.archive.org/web/19970213062226/http://www.3dfx.com/game_dev/quake_faq.html