[WIP] Blood Tracks

[Collini_neut]

Hello everyone.

I am here to present a campaign I have been working on for a very long time. I started it well over a year ago, and have spent hundreds of hours working on it. Creating this campaign has been a challenge, and soon to be a feat that surpasses anything I have done in the past. All my previous work has been for both Day of Defeat games. Left 4 Dead introduced several new tasks (scripts, NAV mesh, multiple lengthy maps, and several modes) that I have never taken part of before. I respect every mapper out there that has finished a L4D campaign. It has truly been a lot of work.

At this point, I have 3 maps completed. I eventually plan to add more maps, but at this point I am looking forward to an extended break. Every mode will be supported; coop, versus, survival, and scavenge.

A few versions of the campaign have been play tested with close friends. Now, I am looking for just a couple more play testers with some experience to help test the campaign. All my friends are just players. They do not have the keen eye that another mapper can bring to the table. Leave me a message if you are interested.

The campaign is called Blood Tracks.
At this point, you start off in a coal yard and unexpectedly find yourself traversing through a forest. The survivors make their way to train tracks and follow the path to a train yard and eventual rescue.

Now, onto a few goodies.
(Apologies for some of the dark and grainy pictures. I will attempt to have cleaner pictures tomorrow evening)

The Poster

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4728/btload.th.jpg (http://img18.imageshack.us/i/btload.jpg/)

Map 1: The Woods

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/1629/011is.th.jpg (http://img198.imageshack.us/i/011is.jpg/) http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/9013/012aap.th.jpg (http://img816.imageshack.us/i/012aap.jpg/)

Map 2: The Tracks

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/9328/021lk.th.jpg (http://img826.imageshack.us/i/021lk.jpg/) http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/5086/022wk.th.jpg (http://img140.imageshack.us/i/022wk.jpg/)

Map 3: Rescue

http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/1982/031qb.th.jpg (http://img546.imageshack.us/i/031qb.jpg/) http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7374/032ni.th.jpg (http://img62.imageshack.us/i/032ni.jpg/)

One last problem has sprung up.
In regard to vscripts, I want to prohibit the tank.

I am running this script:
Msg("Script fired\n");

DirectorOptions <-
{
// This turns off tanks and witches.
ProhibitBosses = 1
}


I have also used 'true' in place of 1.
I know the script is running because of the text in console.
For coop, this seems to work. I don't think I have encountered a tank while this script is running. Unfortunately, for versus, this is not the case. Sometimes a tank will spawn almost immediately after leaving the safe room.
I am firing the script by a logic_auto directed at the director (on newmap and newmultimap or whatever they are).
I even tried using the c7m1_docks script since I know this successfully prevents a tank.
Please, any advice I will use.


Thanks to:
Hip Shot for Grimmnight skybox
Super Friends Club for testing
Valve (I mooched a few assets and props from L4D and HL2)

[Reebdoog]

The Screenshots are looking good. Keep it up.

[lazychaos13]

Bump!

This campaign is look excellent!

[mAd-]

The Woods's first screenshot, down-left.

How did that 'truck' get there? It looks like that it has been driven there and afterwards blocked.

[Collini_neut]

The Woods's first screenshot, down-left.

How did that 'truck' get there? It looks like that it has been driven there and afterwards blocked.

At this point, it is only a minor detail. The survivors start on the far right in this screen shot, and there is no need to explore down the ramp. Its purpose is mostly to give the special infected a spawn area. With testing though, it seems that people much prefer to get on top of those large buildings. One thing about this campaign is, the sky is very open.

The ramp also may serve a future purpose in the future. My original intention was to have another map or two featuring an underground mine. Currently, if you go down the ramp, the entrance is boarded off. There is also a minor military presence at the start, so use your imagination. ;)

[The_insane_3004]

I will test it for you... will give as much feedback as possible.

[potemkinhr]

Now this is looking very promising. I hope this is a L4D2 campaing, seeing it's in the L4D2 forums (the poster got me a little bit confused).
Make a project profile page on l4dmaps (http://www.l4dmaps.com) so you get more feedback from testers.

[Collini_neut]

This is a L4D2 campaign featuring the original survivors. It wasn't an issue of which survivors I prefer, I just think they are more fitting to the environment of choice.

[Collini_neut]

My 3 Problems

1. Versus Finale Tally
In versus, the survivors reach about 75% by the time the get to the trigger_finale.
The Versus Travel attribute is set to 0.2
How can I fix this? What should I look for?

2. Acid Trip Sky
On the 3rd map only, the sky sometimes goes crazy when the user turns off the flashlight. See the screen shot for the effect.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560905110041079173/0275E2C9C004A2A3BF3D8F747A1FA78E4D23C7E0/

3. The Square
On the first map, there is an odd square that appears when the player fires a weapon. It appears to be in a static location and will only appear on the screen if the player is facing it. As far as I can see, there are no entities there.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/558654597335003998/72BEF43C705BA6796AE1FF3ACC0FBC7F7DBABF39/

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/558654597313436121/24AABE7A9361440F3F52E29BDB41D8CB381AEA34/

[Punishment]

3. Does the square move in relation to the player? For example, if you strafe around it, does it retain its orientation?

[Collini_neut]

3. Does the square move in relation to the player? For example, if you strafe around it, does it retain its orientation?

It appears to act like an env_sprite, always facing the player. So it always looks like a perfect square.

edit - deleted all env_sprites, but the flash persists

[Collini_neut]

Problem 1 (Versus Score) was solved by using a custom script.
Problem 2 was solved by just redoing all the entities.
Problem 3 persists.

[Fi3nD]

I know in cs:s this has happened, in one of my maps. Try turning down shader detail an HDR in your video settings. Not a fix but you could see if thats the problem. An good work. Never made a map in L4d 1/2 but have been thinking about it.

[HellaLouYaah]

For number 3, I had a similar issue but instead it was a random shadow, that would change in relation to the players movement. Anyways, one time I saw it was the shadow (huge) of a car window and then the car model itself. I eventually tracked down the car and saw it that the window model was parented to 2 entities. Fixed that and the shadow error was fixed.

Since it looks like a sprite in your case, check all your sprites, make sure the keyvalues are valid(not too large, ie. scale). If not maybe it's an inverse shadow or something similar.

[Beezy]

It appears to act like an env_sprite, always facing the player. So it always looks like a perfect square.

edit - deleted all env_sprites, but the flash persists

I hope by "deleted" you didn't actually delete them, and instead just turned them off in visgroups and compiled without them.

If you did delete them and had to replace them, then there's a little tip for next time.

[Collini_neut]

I hope by "deleted" you didn't actually delete them, and instead just turned them off in visgroups and compiled without them.

If you did delete them and had to replace them, then there's a little tip for next time.

This is what I did.
Later today I will do a trial error method with all groups.

The problem remains when I just run BSP alone to compile. (No VIS or RAD)

I will check the shader/hdr thing when I get a moment as well.

[Collini_neut]

Solved the 'square' problem.
It was a rogue env_projecttexture

As a note:
All major bugs corrected.
A lot of final touches were taken care of over this last week, including scavenge and survival modes, color correction, and soundscapes.
I will test this version ASAP with friends and volunteers. Most likely over the coming weekend. If all goes well, expect a release soon.
REMEMBER - I AM LOOKING FOR A FEW MORE VOLUNTEERS TO TEST. PM ME!

[Collini_neut]

One last problem has sprung up.
In regard to vscripts, I want to prohibit the tank.

I am running this script:
Msg("Script fired\n");

DirectorOptions <-
{
// This turns off tanks and witches.
ProhibitBosses = 1
}


I have also used 'true' in place of 1.
I know the script is running because of the text in console.
For coop, this seems to work. I don't think I have encountered a tank while this script is running. Unfortunately, for versus, this is not the case. Sometimes a tank will spawn almost immediately after leaving the safe room.
I am firing the script by a logic_auto directed at the director (on newmap and newmultimap or whatever they are).
I even tried using the c7m1_docks script since I know this successfully prevents a tank.
Please, any advice I will use.