Gimmickry

Okay, this update is going to look like I've just been adding a bunch of gimmicks to my map, but seriously that's all that makes for good screenshots. So check it out guys!!

TURRETS!


REFLECTY WATER!!


DUDES CLIMBING UP LADDERS!


DUDES JUMPING DOWN OFF OF THINGS!

And here's what that room looks like after you've had god mode on for a while, chasing the AI around to see what they'll do...

Really, what I've been up to, what the screenshots can't show, is setting up the enemy encounters and just generally learning a lot about AI Spawners, triggering events, the quirks of WorldEdit's scripting language, intricacies of AINavMeshLinks (note: positioning an AINavMeshLinkJump or AINavMeshLinkClimb plane at a perfectly vertical 90 degree angle will make your computer hard lock and have to be reset when you encounter an enemy nearby!) model attachments, and so forth. It's been a process of attempting to script an encounter, testing it, banging out why it's not working, refining the scripting setup, testing, why the fuck isn't this working right, trying something new, testing, what is going on here, asking on a forum or two, trying some more stuff, and finally it all comes together and the encounter works just how I planned and it's fun and satisfying! Phew.

I spent probably a combined 12-16 hours on this map over the weekend, and I loved it, and I'm looking forward to working out the rest ASAP. I've gotten past the initial laying out of the space, and am at a stage which is much more gameplay design than environment design, and it's awesome. I've been way more eager to hammer away at this AI scripting and play design stage than the stage where I was physically setting up the playspace. It's really fulfilling to make the game do what you want it to. I wish I could stay home from my job and work on this instead.