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FPSC Classic Product Chat / Some tips for new people making games...

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Paul112
18
Years of Service
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Joined: 1st Jan 2006
Location: UK
Posted: 4th May 2006 21:04
Okay, i realise i've been flaming, which isn't a good thing. So i've decided to help the community a bit...

1. Want rid of that annoying bio-hazzard symbol on the glass? No editing needed,just change the texture path to the first texture in the texturebank/scifi/scenery/windows/win_a folder. It should be called something like 'glass_a_D2'

2. Door frames. Ever just wanted a door frame without a door? Just place the segment, right click on the dynamic door, and click 'delete' on the keyboard.

3. Rotating things. Want that chair on it's side? Use the keypad numbers 1-7 to rotate it on different axis. Dont forget to press enter afterwards to place the object at ground level though.

4. Want a room darker? This can be altered in the global script section of the game builder. It wont be visable during tests, but can be used to add a lower ambient light.

5.SAVE! Always save your work with different names everytime you do something important. FPSC can sometimes crash and its frustrating having to try and do 2+ hours work in 10 minutes!

Good luck people, and im sorry for being a jerk.

Fujitsu-Siemens "Scaleo-P" with Windows XP OS, Pentium 4, 3.2GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, and a 128MB ATI RADEON X300 Graphics card.
KeithC
Senior Moderator
19
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Joined: 27th Oct 2005
Location: Michigan
Posted: 4th May 2006 21:25
That's some great advice there (and useful to me); thanks.

-Keith


op89x
18
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Joined: 28th Feb 2006
Location: Naptown
Posted: 4th May 2006 23:02
Multiplayer Map Suggestions

1. If you want to prevent camping, place items strategically around your map. Don't have loads of ammo sitting right next to the weapon, move the weapon to the other side of the map, or a few rooms over. Map the player travel. But health in places where the player can easily be spotted and shot. Item placement is key to prevent camping.

2. Don't worry about using many flashy effects or putting great detail into textures. Don't use dynamic lighting.

3. Wide open areas and long halls slow down frame rate. Try breaking things up with more rooms and more doorways.

4. Make sure weapons and ammo don't respawn too frequently or not frequently enough.

Avaric Entertainment
Team Leader/Lead Developer
FredP
Retired Moderator
18
Years of Service
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Joined: 27th Feb 2006
Location: Indiana
Posted: 4th May 2006 23:20
You can adjust the ambience aka the light level wwithout having to build the game.You can adjust the setup.fpi file.
Now that I think about it if you fiddle around with anything save a copy of it first so if you make a mistake (not that any of us do...lol) you still have the original.
If you have an error message pop up and FPSC has to close don't panic...unless your pc is on fire...lol.Go back to the last thing you did and undo it.Go backwards like that.
If you're not sure of something look it up on the forums.There is a lot of valuable information here.
Everyone has a manual.It comes with the demo,too.It is located in the FPS Creator\Docs folder.It is in .pdf format which means you need Adobe Acrobat to read it.If you don't have Acrobat it is free to download and you'll need it for other things so you might as well get it.
It is nice to see everybody working together.I hope we keep it up.

FLa
Where you can find my demo:http://www.savefile.com/files/6970524
Tom0001
18
Years of Service
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Joined: 30th Dec 2005
Location:
Posted: 5th May 2006 00:58
THIS POST WILL PROBABLY BE EDITED TO INCLUDE MORE TIPS ETC. SO KEEP CHECKING
I have been flaming waaay too much as well so here I am to try and set things rights. First of all, to try and elaborate more on Paul112's hints, some of which I noticed don't fully explain things. anyway:

1. I didn't know that myself! Thanks Paul112!

2. Cool, I didn't know that either!

3. Sorry to be a perfectionist, but it is 1-6 and pressing enter sometimes places things like a chair halfway through the floor instead of directly on the floor, so use PageUp and PageDown to set this right.

4. To elaborate further: Click File-->Build Game and the build game box will pop up. Click the Level Settings tab and then click the Edit button to the right of the Global Script. Find the Setting named Light Ambience and make it lower to make things darker, or make it larger to make things lighter.

5. DEFFINITELY!

Some Multiplayer Map Suggestions of my own:

1. Set weapons to respawn, but at an appropriate time-you don't want another Player to own everyone else, simply because they have a really good weapon which respawns every few seconds, giving them an unlimited resource of ammo.

2. As opx89 sort of implied, don't use dynamic lights and DON'T use unnecessary dynamic objects. Examples include:
-Dynamic movable terminal
-Dynamic Movable barrels
Etc.

Hope this helps,

Tom

op89x
18
Years of Service
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Joined: 28th Feb 2006
Location: Naptown
Posted: 5th May 2006 03:31
Yes, flamers, redeem!

Avaric Entertainment
Team Leader/Lead Developer
Butter fingers
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 20th Mar 2006
Location: Mecca
Posted: 5th May 2006 05:58
ok, what's useful....here's some level design stuff...it's gonna sound obvious to alot of you, but I think it'll really help some peeps

Play test every room as you create it, and check for slow spots (i mean the F value at the bottom of the screen, that's framerate, should ideally stay above 29). If it doesn't you need to consider reducing the dynamic entities (the ones with the green glow in the editor), decrease the room size, or ensure that the player cannot see too far. This should ensure smooth play.

Too many enemies will kill the speed too. place them wisely. Consider how the player will fight during the game, make sure you provide cover for the player and the enemies.

static objects are loaded before the game starts and don't effect the speed. just so you know.

I'd advise keeping levels themed. Dont throw in every entity in model pack2 just because you can. This will make the loading time really long, try to pick a selection of entities that fit the style of the level. This will make the scene look convincing and keep the load time short.

Enemies placed on floors above or below the player take more processing than enemies on the same floor. Bear this in mind, so dont have 10 guys on a balcony.

I'll add more later but I'm really tired.

"Guns for show, knives for a pro."
FredP
Retired Moderator
18
Years of Service
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Joined: 27th Feb 2006
Location: Indiana
Posted: 5th May 2006 09:31
This might sound crazy but read all of the posts in all of the FPSC forums.It might take a while but you will be surprised at how much you learn.

FLa
Where you can find my demo:http://www.savefile.com/files/6970524
Paul112
18
Years of Service
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Joined: 1st Jan 2006
Location: UK
Posted: 5th May 2006 09:44
Wow, this has turned into a nice topic.
@tom:
DOH! I knew it was 1-6

Oh yes:
If you want an object to be destruactable, but dont want to be able to pick it up and throw it (like a large crate), right click it, give it a health value above 0, make sure it's dynamic, then set isimmobile to yes. Or alternatively, set physics weight to 5000. This option will mean explosions WILL move it, but you can't pick it up!

Nice tips people!

Fujitsu-Siemens "Scaleo-P" with Windows XP OS, Pentium 4, 3.2GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, and a 128MB ATI RADEON X300 Graphics card.

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