I'm making a series of levels. I've talked about it alot and decided to make a showcase thread.

To save space, I'm putting everything on one thread.

Storyline: Several months after the battle between the republic with the jedi and the imperial remnant with their reborn troops, Jan has disappeared.

Kyle, seeking help from Luke, rushed to Yavin IV. He finds Luke behind a forcefield and there are several reborn behind him.....

Pictures will be posted in a moment.

Can't get the picture to load here. Try my
site (http://www.thomasjk2.moonfruit.com)
Check the screenshots, which will be updated over time. The ones at Yavin are number one, which is in beta(available for download there). The ones at Bespin are number 2.

As usual, post any comments according to the pictures here.

Testers, use the beta testing thread in the beta testing forum. I'm much more proud of #2 than #1, but they're both good in my opinion.

Since no one's posting yet, I'll go into extra features that will be implemented for the whole series.

I made the bryar shots green and made the muzzle flash white. I don't remember any orange shots in any of the movie. Other than red, green was most common.(Not including Clone Trooper Rifle's blue shots, but this is forty years later, where I haven't seen a blue blast at all. Correct me if I'm wrong please.)

The sabers were slightly tweaked. I core now has a faint, consistent, color and the glow has more color, but is thinner. This was taken from actual pictures of episode 2.

The force push and pull affects were removed. This was done in weapons upgrade v.2 I think, but I think it makes more sense, so I did it. Not Plagiarism.

I have a custom menu, working objectives, and custom credits.

I wanted to make my first mod big and unique. There it is. On my website, I'll post new pics of the saber and bryar shots. The force push is simple. No gray effect and so I won't be posting those pictures because I want to conserve upload storage (My site's on moonfruit).

uh...yah...i'm trying this and i'm stuck on the room with all the jedi...there's two broken elevators, a busted door, and the elevaTOR i came down on...???

The floor is breakable in a small square to the right of the middle elevator when facing the wall. I think there is a slight crack in it. It takes a LOT of hits though. If there is no visible change, I'll change the texture slightly.

The architecture is far too basic. From what I saw the level was a series of huge connected boxes. In one screenshot there was a room full of turrets in a formation on the floor? IMO that is poor enemy placement. Who would put that many turrets in one room?

I'm upgrading those screenshots as I complete stages of architecture. The extra enemies are to make up for the fact that I haven't strengthened them in the NPCS.cfg, like I did for number one.

I'm also still building the basic architecture. I'm starting with eight rooms. I just added the entities. I'm just getting to the details. Like the door frames, I have these buttress-like things in the corners of each room. I'm going to replace the first shots as I add, but it is currently under construction.

I removed most of the turrets. Now there are just four turrets on the ceiling, shadowtroopers behind the large boxes, and I made force crystals fly out of some of the boxes(that is why they are being guarded). All those blasters and the chunks from the breakables caused the game to crash anyway. Most the turrets are gone now and the remaining are on the ceiling, there are now half as many boxes, and it stopped crashing.

New screenshots. The storage room is now kind of a cellar. There is a water heater and furnace, which has pipes with flames in the back.

Hey man, some sites like geocities and I guess yours don't let you have pictures on them put up somewhere else. On http://massassi.net/) the Editors Corner is one good place to put screen shots, just an idea.

Sounds like yu've got a lot of creative ideas, and are gonna try to put plot elements so they affect the actual levels, rather than just having a stroyline in the readme and then the level having no relation to the story at all, as many levels do. One thing I'd like to suggest: don't try to do too much. I'm not saying don't be creative, innovative and cover new ground if you can, just don't try to do too much. Don't aim for a 5 level mod complete with a 10 page script, because for your first SP level (I think it is right? correct me if I'm wrong) you will probabaly never get that done. A fairly small but well formed level is a lot better than a super ambitious project that is never finished, like so many before. Good luck!

Thanks Kengo. Yup, It's my first level, though I've actually been experimenting since September. That's why I'm being so ambitious. I just wish I could find the thread on dynamic light for gun shots so I can give that person credit like I did you and Rich.

The problem with pictures on moonfruit is that every page has the same URL so I don't know how I would list the addresses of my pictures. Never thought of the editor's corner. Thanks for that too.

http://www.massassi.net/ec/images/10423.jpg)

Put it on the editor's corner. Same storage room, but now a boiler room! Now is it a bunch of huge connected blocks? I got hooked on bending patches :rolleyes:. Any suggestions to improve this room? As stated in my website, every crate (the furnace is NOT a crate) is breakable and some contain items. More pics to come, but this is my most detailed room so far. This is Bespin. Should this be accesed by stairs, or an elevator? I'm using stairs and to me, it just feels right.

the beta map is not so great.the first part felt like a ladder, but there just wasn't enough to it. The storyline isn't too great, and the level's too shortfor anything to really happen. the hole in the floor had way too much HP-I stood there hacking with heavy syance for several minutes just to take out one block. I couldn't tell where the hole really was anyway....it was in the black area around the elevator. suggestions-more cutscenes, maybe a fight to reach the top, then a fight back down. and the 2 stromies at the end-get real! I mean, 15 reborn and shadowtroopers and []i2[/i] stormies!

I agree with all of those, but there really wasn't any way to increase the size. I'll halfen the hp of the breakable and retexture it. Just thought, maybe make you open the hanger door, but I can't think of much else to do.

As for cutscenes, maybe I can have Kyle, the jedi that you start with for #2, and Luke run to the Raven's Claw. Then an action cutscene of Luke and a shadow trooper fighting. As for the odd ratio of stormies to reborn, the last battle of JK2 proved to the imperial remnant the effectiveness of reborn. They actually killed jedi successfully so they increased production of reborn, but I'll add stormies. Cutscenes are hard because I don't have a microphone for the computer, but I could have Kyle use the "it's locked. There must be another way in" sound for him breaking the first tile.

The reason it's so strong is that your cutting through solid floor. It's damaged, but still in okay shape. I'll make the elevator breakable instead of a random piece of flooring and make the drop a cutscene. Kyle can jump up and out and fire the last few shots. A thin prush on top, which, when broken will activate that. Then jump down.

How can I make NPC immune to falling? Like a cushion brush(doesn't effect NPCs). I tried no impact(a scripting command), but that just makes them fall like Kyle when he dies from a fall(stands normal while falling and dies as soon as he hits the ground).

Since Luke's invincible, I can make it so he jumps down into the hangar and fights a shadow trooper, which will be invincible during the fight so you don't kill it. At one point it will die. The 2 jedi will be in the side room.

Thank's for the feedback. I'll get right on it, but remember. It's in beta.

Some of the architecture in that shot is pretty nice, but the texturing in places, for example the roof needs some work, too repetitive.

One very common mistake I've noted in many first time SP levels is the difficult level say WAAAY too high, and generally too many enemies with poor placement. Try to remember that making something so hard that its almost impossible to beat doesn't make it fun, it just makes it frustrating. Also, enemies should be placed as realistically as possible....eg would you really have an army of reborn guarding a room of no obvious significance? Do they travel in groups of 30? Shadowtroopers are super elite, would 10 be in one place at the same time? I'm not leveling these criticisms specifically at your level, I'm just saying these are the kind of extremes I've seen in some first time SP maps, and they are a pain! Try to keep everything realistic and in reasonable amounts. Don't forget also that too many enemies at once will cause serious slowdown, and that drops the fun another couple of notches.

One last thing - sounds like you're including puzzles. Be VERY careful with these. They can be great, but they can be so hard to work out that they go beyong frustrating and onto another level of annoyance. Seriously, some people's minds work like a rubics cube, but not everyones!

These are just general points which may relate to your level, I don't claim to be an expert level editor (much....) but I have played a lot of awful SP levels for JK2 which all displayed these same flaws, all by first time level editors, if you avoid them then you're onto a good thing!

Yeah, Kengo. That's one of the reasons I'm moving the breakable to the lift. I'm taking some enemies and moving them into the new rooms instead of making new ones. I'm also going to set some for different difficulties like some of the bacta and shields and enemies.

Boinga1, thanks for the comments, but please use the beta testing thread.

Just a comment on the pictures. The dots on the right wall are valves. I originally tries to make a round one, but I scaled it down until the curves were 4 sided(weird) and it looks great! I'll try to get a closeup. It could go well as a very very small prefab.

Please, if you test #1, put your name and some feedback on the beta testing thread for the map. I will include as many as I can in the credits, but once I have 12, I'm taking that beta off my site. It takes up alot of my limited site storage space.

No work done today:(. Too much school work. So many 7th grade projects at once (yes, I'm in seventh grade. I'm 13 and I'm probably one of the youngest people here). Many of my peers have never even heard of JK2 other than from me!!! Poor souls.

I went through several trials in my map and script and my camera angle still faces the wrong way. I'm trying to think of how to get this to work. I can't get the side room to look right. My NPC_kyle won't follow orders(won't walk, won't shoot at my command).

AAAAAHHHHHH. So, so, frustrating. I'm tired. I need a break from editing and school. 23 days for the latter:) and editing, well, not too stressful. I enjoy it.

I'll probably be done with the new version by the middle of April. I'll get a lot done during the "Spring Recess". I'll also be more efficient because I'll be well rested. Hopefully my sister will get off of work(she works for visions long island. She lives twenty miles away (big age gap. So big, sibling rivalry never built between us. Maybe for two years, but that's it.) and her office is half a mile from our house, so she works out of my parents/my house) and I'll have the computer to myself:).



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Anyway, away from my complaining, I chose stairs. It is easier, then, to show the pipes going into other rooms.

Yesterday I got the room to look right. I modified the cutscene after the breakable. There is a thin breakable panel outside the brush. When you blow it up and stand there, the cutscene starts. You stand there for a few seconds and an explosion breaks it and you fall into the hangar and see the battle. I also made the side room more similar o the original.

I do have a problem with opening the hangar door. The skybox outside that I put makes it look like it's floating in the sky. I'll need to make a small area with an invisible wall.

Hey the cutscene sounds v nice. Editing sure can be frustrating sometimes, especially when it degenerates into total trial and error, mostly with scripting stuff.

I have a good battle cutscene between Luke and a powerful shadow trooper. It looks pretty cool, but I need to figure out two things. How to use the camera follow command and if I can enable and disable cutscenes in different scripts. I'll post these questions in the mapping forum and give a daily update post.

Almost finished :D. I just need to adjust a counter, fix a weird door problem, and finish the two cutscenes.

The final cutscene looks similar to the one against desann, but better because it is longer and they aren't on a catwalk Aand slowly turn to the end amd jump off. Pure combat. I switched luke to invincible with the script and the shadowtrooper killed him :rolleyes:. Maybe I put the set command in the wrong affect.

Then beta testing? I'd be happy to be one of the testers if you want :)

Kengo, did you dl the first beta?

I'm keeping the whole series in open beta to get more testers and my e-mail is terrible(only 2mb or less attachments)

The original, which has improve a lot only has one cutscene and too many reborn and not enough stormies, but the new version I'm working on adds two cutscenes including Luke's battle, homogenizes the enemies more, adds a room, and makes you open the hangar door.

I need a new sky shader. As I stated before, the current one makes it look like the base floats 20 feet above the ground. I cannot make textures/shaders at all.

If anyone knows of a skybox that matches what I need, please post it here with a link. You'll be shortening construction time and improving #1.

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By the way, Kengo. You were right. A showcase thread is a great source of posts. I was at battle droid rank for three days. lol

http://massassi.net/ec/images/10478.jpg)
See, this is what I want to fix. Kengo, what about the sky Leslie made/ is making for you for Occupance:Ground Assault?

Kengo, one thing. If you want to be mentioned in the credits (you already are for your tutorials, but not as a tester) Post your name and any feedback in the beta testing thread I started. No one has posted there yet.

About the feedback, please be specific in your posts(all of you). "I didn't like it" or "it was great" are not enough. I want to know what you liked and disliked so I can improve for the next version and implement things into the sequel(s).

http://massassi.net/ec/images/10202.jpg)
How about this sky? Who made it? Can I use it?I can make a strip of pavement along the door and surround it with that.

I made that, but it's just a temporary sky. I'm still working on it because I have a little problem with makeing perfectly aligned pics in Bryce at 1024x1024. Sometimes - mostly when I use test scenes which can be rendered in 5 mins - it seems to work. The same setting for the skybox scene not working well, and only two pics takes 3-4 hours to render. So it's a slow process to tune the settings.

Btw. With any skybox it will look like your base is floating in the air. You can't do anything. This is because the sky is drawn infinite far from the player's eyes.

My plan is to try to use the left, right, and front skybox textures for the sides and the actual sky shader for the top. Similar to the way they were used in Kengo's picture. It may not look as good, but it seems my only choice. I don't want it to float 20 ft. in the air.

It seems weird, but the original skies don't perfectly align at the corners anyway. For example, the Yavin sky has some tree branches that suddenly stop at the corners.

Originally posted by master_thomas
My plan is to try to use the left, right, and front skybox textures for the sides and the actual sky shader for the top.

Huh?

One way to get around the floating-in-the-air phenomenon might be to render a skybox with the camera close to the ground. Or, just extend the ground on your map beyond where the player can move.

That's what I meant, but I need a way to make it so either the bottom of the sky brushes aren't visible or make it appear that I'm already at the bottom of the skybox, which can only be done with separate skybox pieces(left, front, right, top). I'll see what happens with the original and post that picture.


How long should the ending cutscene be? It's a fight between Luke and three shadowtroopers.

Ah of course, its open beta. Not sure if theres much point in testing v1 when v2 is practically done then?

As for the skybox stuff, I am a complete novice on skyboxes. Like the guys have said, you'll get these problems with any skybox. What I try to do with open areas is either have walls around the edge that you can't see over, or like Wedge said extend the ground beyond where you can walk.

Final cutscene? Very subjective, matter of preferance. I think people are willing to have the end cutscene the longest as they feel they've 'earned' it by getting to the end, if you want it to be. But it can be nice and short too, whatever you think fits. Just make sure it doesn't get dull, like some of mine!

http://massassi.net/ec/images/10490.jpg)
The hangar from picture two is on the opposite end.
http://massassi.net/ec/images/10489.jpg)
This was my decision. I used gensurf for the ridge and put the trees to make it look like the edge of the forest. The player can not exit through the door.

Basically I used one of the things that all mappers must do. Cheat the player into thinking what is not. There still is a 500 ft. drop to the ground, but the player can't see that.

The cutscene features a 30 second battle between 4 jedi, Luke, and 5 shadowtroopers. I may add kyle into the battle(npc with AI. I hope this works) If so, I'll add another shadow trooper if so to balance it out. The camera focuses on Luke for the entire battle.

After the battle, a flyby of the raven's claw and the xwings in the hangar.

The battle works fine, but I don't know how to properly move models, like the xwings and raven's claw, so the flyby still needs to be done. Expect the new beta a week after I figure this out.

The ones at Yavin are number one, which is in beta(available for download there).

Kengo, didn't you see this?

http://massassi.net/ec/images/10498.jpg)

Lassev requested that the forcefield had emmiters. This is the bottom central one. There are corner ones on the top and bottom.

How do I move the entities through the hangar door? Last I checked, the search function was disabled. I will post this question in the mapping/levels forum when the forums speed up a little.

For some reason, I cannot see that last picture. But I might have still one more suggestion to you. Make the hangar door / last cutscene such that when the battle is over, the player can go and open the doors. But instead of the player just not being (for some unexplained reason) able to go out, make that door opening launch the last cutscene, where Kyle would just walk to Raven's claw, and then fly out of the hangar.

You can make the entities func_static. That is, give them origin brush and a little bit of some other material, like caulk (nodraw might also work), and then put in the key model (or was it model2) to show also Raven's claw or what ever (don't forget clip brushes, if there's still some playing around in the hangar). (So, the func_static is in Radiant nothing but a little piece of origin and some other stuff, the model will only be seen in the game.)

Then just do like with elevators. Mark the path with ref_taqs... And voila! Of course you can also use func_trains, but as I have never used them, I won't say anything more about that. But the good thing is, or course, that they don't need to be solid, when they fly out in a cinematic.

Thanks lassev :D While I waited I started a side project. My own house 'cause it's easy. Whenever I need reference shots, I just look around me ;).

You open the door, which is shown in a cutscene, which plays for a minute and a half and then it ends.

For the picture, you get a white square with a red x in the middle right? Happens to me alot and show picture never seems to do anything, but make the box disappear for a second. It appears for me.

Check the editor's corner at Massassi.

Originally posted by master_thomas
For the picture, you get a white square with a red x in the middle right? Happens to me alot and show picture never seems to do anything, but make the box disappear for a second. It appears for me.

Check the editor's corner at Massassi.

Yeh I get that a lot too...possibly to do with Massassi having a lot of problems with its servers (I can only reach the site about a 1/4 of the times I try if that). The server has been recieving attacks of some kind or something. Bit of a pain...

I know this first level is short, but I'm stuck because I'm basing it on yavin_temple.

Lassev, is that the same as the tutorial at massassi at the scripted elevator thing? I just set the parm's to the names of the ref_tag and move by getting that parm?

I searched for the script that made the garbage hauler enter the bay. The method used there was different and seems less complicated so I'm using this one.

I'm keeping "PARM" out of this. How can I do this? It's not working. My script looks just like their's(except replacing garbage_hauler and scow with claw). I must be missing something in the map. It's a func_static, the model looks fine, I have the ref_tags properly named and placed where I want it to go, what am I missing? I'm guessing that I need to change how the Raven's Claw is targeted.

Can someone please give me the step-by-step process or direct me to a tutorial for doing this? The script and the mapping instructions. Two waypoints(ref_tags). PLEASE!!!

There must be tutorials of this particular issue somewhere, but it has been such a long time, that I truly cannot remember. You know, I've been doing this scripting thing for such a long time, that I never even read Kengo's tutorials, because they weren't written back then and Kengo hadn't even done his prison_escape...

Well, that's enough of nostalgia. The most important things to remember with func_static:

1.Give the func_static an origin brush, and make it the exact size of a ref_taq.
2. Give the func_static a script_targetname instead of a targetname.
3. Give the ref_taqs an ordinary targetname.

And last of all, have a look at the kejim_post map Raven gave out, or cairn_dock. They have elevators a plenty. Yet, most common errors are those three mentioned above, plus scripting errors (they are easy to fix, no map compiling).

2. Give the func_static a script_targetname instead of a targetname.

OF COURSE!!! My lack of experience lead me not to have known of the script targetname.

Thank you!!! Now to try that.

Originally posted by lassev
You know, I've been doing this scripting thing for such a long time, that I never even read Kengo's tutorials, because they weren't written back then and Kengo hadn't even done his prison_escape...

Well, that's enough of nostalgia. The most important things to remember with func_static:


Ah nostalgia...back when we were young and carefree. Not having read my tutorials probabaly helps explain you high level of skill relating to scripting :D

I am waiting for the compile and wanted to say that this method is nearly identical to the camera move command. (move( tag"claw" ORIGIN). The only difference is that this is in an "affect"

Well, the Raven's claw moves. Not where I want it to, though. I'll check my script and ref_tags. Once those are finisished, I'll check for leaks, and then, I will update the credits and release beta build 2.

Hey, I'm a Tusken now. (unenthusiastically)Yay.

The Claw moves but I got the time wrong, so another few seconds will work.

Ah nostalgia...back when we were young and carefree. Not having read my tutorials probabaly helps explain you high level of skill relating to scripting

Well, I would say that only explains why my maps are still not finished. To learn everything by yourself certainly makes sure you actually learn something and not only copy, but on the other hand, and I'm quite sure you, Kengo, will agree with me that it takes too much time, too good nerves and a sturdy screen to survive all fist hits of frustration without splintering...

Your service to the community, Kengo, is great and you can be sure I'll mention your tutorials in the future as often as I've done so far. Even if I haven't read them, I know by other people's posts that they are great and helpful. (But I have visited your site, if that counts!).

Thomas, I'm looking forward to your beta2. With details and cinematics added, it will be a beginning to a great story.

:D:D:D I accomplished two things in one compile. Kyle fights in the battle now. Also, the models move now, but I need to lower the final ref_tags because they move through the wall :rolleyes:.:D:D:D

Well, the xwings move fine, but there is something strange about the Raven's Claw md3. The little box for the model that's used for centering is a foot too low:(. Is there a model without this problem? Expect build 2 soon. :)

http://www.massassi.net/ec/images/10548.jpg)
http://www.massassi.net/ec/images/10549.jpg)
:) These I'm proud of. Kyle in my battle cutscene.
http://www.massassi.net/ec/images/10547.jpg)

Ooops. This, I'm not. This is three X-Wings and the Raven's Claw. I tilted them(too much) and forgot the remove command. This removal has two purposes. High speed and disposal.
From my caption at Massassi

Error reading rotation command because scripter has no idea what he is doing.

I had quite a fright. For awhile, every time I tried to play the map, I got a "This program has generated and will be closed by windows" error and the game crashed.

I've cleared both problems (also the rotation mistake) up. Now, I need your opinion (Poll 2). I get sort of a pause (really just a slightly noticable deceleration to another acceleration) when they bank up.

I've added some rodians and gave them an elevated shooting cover thing. Nice added difficulty. Gravity influenced shots don't hit them, and they have the forward wall. Effective.

The supports inspired me to perhaps make some clone wars prefabs. Mainly, the giant moving turbo lasers that took down the core ships (HUGE spheres). Why prefabs? Because I can't model and they'll want accurate clip brushes anyway.

Poll: Type the poll number, the letter and answer in your posts please. 2 out of 3 (I'm not expecting many votes)
1. Should I release beta 2 now? I finished the cutscenes, added a room, the sniper tower, and the forcefield emitters. I've added stormies and removed some enemy jedi.

a. Yes

b. No

c. More pictures of each first.

d. Other (please specify and give number in consecutive order after d(for more votes)
Response as soon as I read three polls. Your vote will be granted if possible.

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Poll2: Is the pause in flight okay? Looks like they're plotting course or the ships are going into "flight mode".

a.Yes

b. No

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Poll3: How does the battle cutscene look?

a. good

b.great

c.nice

d.bad

e. Why are you asking me? I haven't seen it animated yet! :p

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Hey, I just thought of another caption for the rotation mistake picture.

"Houston, he have partial lift off."

It actually would sort of remind me sort of like the Space Shuttle in silouette (is this correct spelling?) before liftoff. The Raven's Claw's thrusters as the outer thrusters. And that it looks like (but isn't) it's sticking straight up.

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Longest post yet! 2210 characters without this end comment and 2378 with it!