Left4Dead Style Complete Modification

by s3ntry_Designs on 02/22/2011 00:21, 73 messages, last message: 04/28/2011 20:42, 43100 views, last view: 05/18/2024 20:36

Hello everyone! I am looking for a team to develop a mod for Sauerbraten in which Players must survive a Zombie Outbreak.

The mod would be very similar to Left 4 Dead, where players must all reach a point on a map to progress, or kill every enemy on the playing field.

The Sauerbraten engine is by far probably the most fitting for this type of game and also one of the best to design it on. I am very interested in starting this project as soon as possible!

Please post back here if you are interested! We are accepting any members who will help ON A REGULAR BASIS! Please contact me here, or by email! Thank you!

Current Positions To Be Filled (More than one person can apply and work in a specific field)
------------------------------

Lead Designer - s3ntry_Designs

Lead Animator -

Lead Level Design -

Model Designer -

Sounds - s3ntry_designs

Coder -

Story Designer -

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#1: ..

by tempest on 02/22/2011 00:58

Sorry, but:
http://cube.wikispaces.com/How+not+to+start+a+mod

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#2: ..

by tman elite on 02/22/2011 01:05

Just out of curiosity, what does "Lead Designer" even do? It looks to me like you're looking for people to create zombie models, animate them, design levels for them to be placed in, and code all the engine changes necessary. It seems like the role of "Lead Designer" doesn't do anything.

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#3: Re: ..

by Bosurgi725 on 02/22/2011 01:18, refers to #2

I think the lead designer comes behind everybody and says to "add more sparklies" and "ooh, maybe it needs longer teeth" and buys the pizza when he slavers the other workers into 20 hour work days, or something. Maybe that was a dream I had.

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#4: THE NUMBER ONE RULE!

by |ice|sub-zero|L on 02/22/2011 02:55

the number one rule of modding game is you have to expect to do the mod mostly or entirely yourself.to put this in an exmple for you, chances are, if this mod is made, you can expect:

Lead Designer - s3ntry_Designs

Lead Animator - s3ntry_Designs

Lead Level Design - s3ntry_Designs

Model Designer - s3ntry_Designs

Sounds - s3ntry_designs

Coder - s3ntry_Designs

Story Designer - s3ntry_Designs

how does that sound old chap?

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#5: Re: THE NUMBER ONE RULE!

by tman elite on 02/22/2011 03:46, refers to #4

I wouldn't even go that far. If you had, for example, a story in mind, if you were willing to design the levels and sounds, and you were just looking for someone to make some models/animations, I'd consider this a valid project. Or if you wanted someone to write the story and help with level design, that would be understandable.

The problem is that you're expecting to be the "Lead Designer," which does basically nothing, and "Sounds" which is such a minuscule part of a game. You can possibly get some people to help out with one or two aspects, but not all of them.

Besides, another rule of modding: always go in with something already done, so that you can present your work, rather than just talk about it.

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#6: ..

by s3ntry_Designs on 02/22/2011 06:15

Sorry guys, I think I was misunderstood when I posted earlier. A "Lead Designer" would take the role of director in the case of development. Yes the lead designer would stand behind everyone and say, "Add more of this, or that..." and yes, I do plan on creating a story, characters, sounds, and levels.

However, I am not skilled in everything, so, as Aardappel and eihrul both say, I am seeking someone who is more knowledgable than me to help me along the way with those areas of development.

So, to answer everyone's questions, I do agree with all of your suggestions. I have made levels and tested a workable theory for the game as it is, I just need a team of people to show it to who are willing to help.

|ice|sub-zero|L - That sounds brilliant, and I would love to do everything myself, if I could. But sadly, I can't. I would even like to have my foot in each area of development, as I have designated myself the "Lead Designer". Doing nothing isn't my plan, although it seems that might have been the way I presented my idea. Sorry about that...

tman elite - I have a story in mind, although it's not too far off from what you'd think when you hear the Left4Dead name. Survivors, killing hundreds of zombies to make it in their abandoned city.

"The mod would be very similar to Left 4 Dead, where players must all reach a point on a map to progress, or kill every enemy on the playing field.
"

I am in fact asking people to "help" me, not do everything for me and I take the credit. I apologize if that's what you thought I meant.

I hope that clears some things up, and helps give everyone an idea of what I'm planning to do here. Thanks guys for replying too!

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#7: ..

by s3ntry_Designs on 02/22/2011 06:19

Also, the major problem I'm running into here, which tman elite I believe you've addressed a while back, is getting monsters to work in a multiplayer environment.

Bots I know are workable creatures, but they are only player type characters aren't they? I would need an enemy type creature to be available...

I tested out the theory of a hundred monsters on a PACKED map as it is, and the game suffered no stress. I'll upload the map with the monsters on it to explain further.

If anyone is willing to discuss the possibilities of tweaking the engine to get monsters on multiplayer please address the issue.

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#8: Re: ..

by |ice|sub-zero|L on 02/22/2011 06:29, refers to #7

you can tweak a work around for bots as zombies. And add a new color skin (simple as that)

@tman: i would go as far as to say that because you don't just need a foot in everything, most of it (especially C++ for the source of the mod). modeling as i have shown above is not as big a problem since you can just mod the skin (good god, that's a scary thought).

@the game mod

the biggest problem your facing is the coding, which granted, you may find some help for, but you yourself will need to know since you WILL have to do the majority of it.

animator goes with model design (which as i said there is no need for, so there's two things off your list)

but add some "custom" music (this is even music you can find off newgrounds) and look for map makers, but also expect to have to tweak the maps for your mod too, since not everyone will know how to.

like i said in my first post, expect to do most, if not all the work yourself.

and tman, one other small thing. i know how mods on sauer work, i have seen quite a bit of them come and gone, sink or swim. expect someone with experience (like windecker or skiingpenguins, or quin, or eihrul) to know. even I, only a four year player knows what will make a mod swim. and so yes, when i say something, sure, i am still wrong a bit of the time. but less than i was when i first started.

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#9: ..

by s3ntry_Designs on 02/22/2011 07:09

Got ya! I can produce a soundtrack for the mod myself, so I think I have that covered, along with some free sounds I can find or create for guns, hurt noises, and monsters. And yeah, coding is going to be a huge problem. I was just looking at some intro C++ stuff and it'd be a hell of a time doing this myself.

As for the bots as zombies, don't the bots need paths to walk on? I wouldn't want them doing a pre-destined walk around the map, but to swarm you as hellpigs do in the example I have posted below... I would also want to make a zombie model to replace with the hellpig model, if that's possible?

Example of Survival type game. Please Run it in SP, not DMSP. Load from Level 9 or Lost map.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2010/12/30/3048567//MonstersInSuburbs.ogz.zip

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#10: Re: ..

by tman elite on 02/22/2011 07:35, refers to #8

@subzero: I wasn't trying to say that you were wrong, I was just trying to be supportive. If someone came to me with a story, models, updated source code, sounds, etc. and asked me to just do some level designs, or if they had everything else done and wanted help writing a storyline, I'd help them out. If you have a significant amount of quality work already done, something you're proud to show off, you're a lot more likely to get help with one or two aspects of your project.

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#11: Re: ..

by |ice|sub-zero|L on 02/22/2011 08:12, refers to #9

you can type /sp "map"

secondly, the bots can use .wpt files (waypoint) but by default, they just run at you. you never HAVE to use waypoints, its just preferred because that way your bot will have no trouble jumping a pit, or knowing where is dangerous to run or not. pretty much the waypoints are used to tell it where to go, however for any kinda of randomness, you can make them run into lava pits, or over or into a pit, ect, ect.

secondly, i do not recommend replacing a model for another model. however it is possible to replace the the model with your own model. but still, like i said, it would be smarter to either add a new monster, that or just use the bots.

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#12: ..

by tman elite on 02/22/2011 08:22

If you don't want to use waypoints but still want to prevent your ai from jumping into a pit of lava (not sure why there'd be lava in a desolate old city) you can use aiclip (or I guess it's called gameclip now). It stops mosnters but won't affect players, bullets, etc. Visually, though, the monsters will still look like they're running into a wall.

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#13: Re: ..

by |ice|sub-zero|L on 02/22/2011 08:39, refers to #12

granted, however its not quite as effective as waypoints (which is why as i said, they are preferred)

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#14: Re: ..

by suicizer01 on 02/22/2011 10:26, refers to #6

You can only be a proper lead designer if you have knowledge about everything what takes part in making mods.

Why do you think a chef is able to command cooks? Since he was once one of them and knows how to aproach them.

In other words, your mod would fail instantly...

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#15: ..

by Razgriz on 02/22/2011 10:31

truth is that i skipped what most people here said, its early in the morning for all this text. so i'll get to the chase.

you can follow tempest's advise on #1

apart from that, you probably fail to see the apparent problem of this mod, that is, assuming you know eihrul is the only actual remaining developer, the rest being "donations" from the community. if we HAD the extra people required to do all the stuff you need for you to get the credits for releasing this mod (hah), chances are that they would be too busy on their own with many other projects, because people who do this kind of stuff for free are few.

In any case, you might want to check in with CubeCreate irc.freenode.net #cubecreate and see if it would better suit you since its all done in python.

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#16: Re: ..

by suicizer01 on 02/22/2011 12:23, refers to #8

By only changing the skin of the playermodels would make them very unrealistic.
You can better ask if you can use the playermodels of Assaultcube and import them into sauerbraten (good luck wich that tough), then change their skin.

If your unable to do such thing, try to get permission of geartrooper to modified the playermodels of sauerbraten into zombies, like the model frenchbadping once made (even tough he didn't had any permission to make such thing).

Good luck...

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#17: Re: ..

by |ice|sub-zero|L on 02/22/2011 17:45, refers to #16

oops, my bad, i didn't think of this second thing, changing the bots playermodels makes every playermodel change if you have "force teamskin" on. my bad. lol ^.^

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#18: ..

by s3ntry_Designs on 02/22/2011 23:43

Hrm, yeah I think, even though it's apparently going to be hell, I'm going to have to find a way to get monsters in multiplayer mode.

I wouldn't want the player characters to show up as zombies too. :/

Razgriz - I understand that many, especially coders, wouldn't be willing to help for free. But to those who are, and who can, most likely will. I'm willing to put time into this, so I don't see why others who are looking to see the same result as I am wouldn't be willing to. I'm not forcing anyone to help, I'm simply asking for it. :]

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#19: Re: ..

by tman elite on 02/23/2011 00:26, refers to #18

Right now the player gets to choose what he looks like from a few player models. What you could do is have one "player model" that is not available to the player, and change his texture/model to look like a zombie. Then you'd have to modify the source so that all bots use this model.

This player model system seems to work pretty well with what you want also. For example, the different models could be different characters for each player to choose from. I don't know if you'd want to make it so that each character can only be used once though, as this would require modification.

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#20: ..

by SheeEttin on 02/23/2011 01:28

Note that there's also Red Eclipse, which already has zombies.

Unfortunately, while its predecessor, Blood Frontier, was single-player zombie-oriented, Red Eclipse seems to be more oriented towards varied multiplayer environments.

Red Eclipse is probably pretty much dead now that Quin's dropped off the face of the earth, though. (There is apparently some kind of development going on, but I don't know anything about it.)

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