So what I was thinking was to have a thread about the mods that people are making for s2 / s3- and post screen shots; explain the ideas and stories that they are coming up with and keeping the rest of the community updated- I hope that this both encourages people to tell us what their up to and get people excited about what is coming down the line.

so...

I'm working on making a larger variation of random encounters. I want to eliminated the repetitive nature of the original game's random encounters. I want to build themed randoms that when replayed are different each time.

I've been doing this through nested variations of templates. In these templates they have joining points that are similar but the layout is different between them. The pics that I'm putting up are three variations of an underground system that is made of three interconnected templates, each one with about 5-9 variations.

Great post, vs!


What ARE you up to, guys...?

Very interesting! Does that mean you can make secret rooms behind the walls? Oh, and great post!

About secret rooms- This brings up one of s2 /s3's biggest flaws to me; no actual exploring; my teem is going into an enemy base with little intelligence, but as soon as the map starts I can look at all levels, parts of the map that are very far from my teem and so on.

So yes you could have 'secret' rooms, but you would just see it on the other side of a wall and would get a 'path not found' message. So you blow a hole in the wall and walk in. Not too secret.

The real problem is that the passages are meant to be underground, but you can blow a hole in the ceiling of them, climb up, and run around in total darkness look:

always more to do

-vs

(it's ok to upload pics isn't it? I'm trying to keep them a small file size.)

Hehe, well, secret rooms on top of the tunnels then . Seriously though, there should have been some sort of Fog Of War. Would have been great!


I didn't think members had the permission to do so. But as long as it works, feel free. We'd like to set up a special "Modders group" so you can at some point.

Heh! So used to playing the game that when I loaded up your little picture, there, vs, I right-clicked on it and tried to rotate it around to get a better look at it!

I'm stupid!



And yeah, there should have been a fog of war of sorts. Something to disallow you from seeing EVERYTHING.

Hey monkey- I had an s2 image for my background for a little and would instinctively try to rotate it- ha ha...me too, needless to say I had to change it.

-vs

'Sorry' but I don't have now much time to write my bad and easily misundestanding english because I have to be a chick (I'm finishing a childrens 2D-chick-character animation work to Finland public television).

Nice work vs! I see you like dungeons (undergrounds rules! Too bad that S^s got no darkelfs or other dungeon 'monsters' but in S^3 there is mining stuffs (walls/objects) so you can make 'real' dungeons not just those industrial-style parts). You know the Min/Max floor properties? :In templates properties window you can give Min-floor and Max-floor values so players can't go/see too low or high. If you build room to floor -2 but give Min-floor value -1 then players can't see that room... until they blow a hole to the floor over it. There might be some problems with it because if I don't remember wrong the unit under Min-floor somehow might come unvisible and player can't select movingpoint if there is floor on the way (but it might work with small rooms)... when I have time I will try it (or you can try it) and post how it is working. Secret rooms are very good idea!

Other way is make a subtemplate :You can place ladder to min-floor and when player squad reach it and click it the game loads a specific subtemplate (which can be a small/big underground part... 1room might be too small because fighting starts right a way). In random encounter maps there can be so many subtemplates as you want but in scenario zone there is limit (was it 3-5 or something...?).

Keep up the good work! (my mod-works and -ambitions are just too (badly)humorous to wide public acceptable use (goddamn realistic-freaks) and if you manage to do such a good work (like straight&serious) I can keep doing my stuff my way without pissing off players and have FUN!) Nice1!

edit+PS: I just realize how to make secret room via script -PlaceTemplate( "####" )- (oh how clever I'm sometimes... not too often but I got my moments... ehem). If you want to read my (crappy english) tutorial how to make it just let me know... otherwise I will steal your idea... hehehe... :rolleyes:

The min max floor iThe min/max floor level won't work for the way I envision the map as a hole- I have this other 'construction' kit of buildings on stilts that connects to the underground part. I'd like to not have to do the templates switching thing- I can't say that I really am 'playing it strait' The maps I'm working on fit into a genre that I've been working in for quite some time- I wont say 'fallout' or 'wasteland' because of the implications- but defiantly some sort of post-apocalyptic setting is what I'm going for- defiantly not ww2.

About dungeons/underground I started the underground kit before I got to any of the sewer or mine missions in s3 (I was replaying s2 as allied). I thought I was doing something new at the time.

If I could talk about the 'kit' idea that I've been working on:

I start by making a bunch of small templates - an 'L' shape for corners, a 'T' intersection, a four way intersection, etc. I then make about ten variations of each, then assemble them into the larger templates that I talked about in my first post. It makes putting together a new map with similar elements exceptionally easy.

secret rooms: I'll try putting things below the min floor today- I'll tell you all how it works out.

KoMik- tell us about your outlandish ideas- they might seem stranger to us than they are because of the language barrier, but I'd still like to know.

-vs

Well, I am currently working on a multiplayer mod from Silent Storm: Sentinels.

Progress is fairly good as I am starting to get to grips a bit more with the games scripting system, but there is still a lot of work to do...

In the mean time - here are a couple of screenshots previewing the squad selection and equipment screens from the S^3 loader that I have designed:




The idea is to have the loader client side so that each player can select and equip their respective squads at the same time (to save a bit of game preparation time).

Then there will be a map selection screen which will in turn fire up the (modified) game with the required squad, inventory and map data

Wow, wow and WOW!!! That is MOD what would be in really big use to me and my friends! Great project! I would like to write more 'glowing' about that (and a little description about my small_mod campaing too) but I have to get back to work (blaaah).

Two questions for you Fry Walker:
-Is that going to be lan, server or hotseat multiplayer game?
-Can we play coop campaings with it? (that would be so great and I'm completely ready to make some!)

To vs:
-Now I get a picture how your random-generator works and it sounds great... truly a RANDOMs!
-I think post-apocalyptic is good 'backgroud' for a game.

Have to go... (all work and no play makes KoMik a dull boy :The Shining)

Okay, topic pinned. Keep up the good work guys!

@vs322: You just let the cat out of the bag! Those keywords is something I've wanted to hear since I first played Silent Storm! DO let us know about the progress on your potential post-apocalyptic work!

@KoMik: Keep us posted on the small_mod and random mod! I am very eager to play

@FryWalker: That sound AWESOME! Keep us posted, and I'd like to know what KoMik asked about as well.

Hmm, I sound like a fan-boy...

Well firstly: my initial idea is to develop the mod for LAN multiplayer as the current design I'm working with requires a lot of data transfer. However I should think that it would be feasible to play online as well if both players have a broadband connection.

I will probably include a hotseat option, but LAN is my priority as I feel that this will add the element of stealth and strategy missing from the original S^2 hotseat play.

As far as COOP is concerned - sure, why not!
There is no specific map requirement and therefore a COOP scripted map should work great

I am not designing any new maps myself atm so for the time being I'm just going to select a few that I believe will work well for multiplayer. Ofc I would welcome any map suggestions or custom maps that you expert mappers may have in development too

Script PlaceTemplate() don't place costructions (walls, floors). Only objects.

Oh... no building pieces? That sucks.Thanks for info Qaz = saved my time. I have used that script only for items (weapons to loot, mine/bomb in sight! Be careful/disarm it or DIE!+game over ), units (reinforcements are behind you ) and objects (there was NOT barricade before when I looked ).

And welcome to the boards (oops... heh... doing one of the Slaughter's & DoomMunky's 'jobs' here :rolleyes: ).

Dammit! Now I can't welcome him!!!


Curse you, KoMik!!

Morjesta pöytään... small_mod (to Sentinels) small description:

Time&World:
After that damn WW2 in small island called Moland which is somewhere between Timbuktu and Rovaniemi (a town in north Finland). Moland succeed to avoid massive militant attacks of WW2 (axis forces actually tried to occupy the island but eventually without resistance they just manned some areas and set up there some kind of military-power-loving reich). Moland is full of peace loving civilians who don't like militant forces but there have been rumours about some organization called "BIG" which is trying to take over the island...

Story:
First you meet Boris, your old war(drinking)buddy and escort him to though some danger areas. Boris will then set up the organization called "small" which main goal is wipe all militant power-lovers out of the Moland. There is still some axis forces and those areas should first occupy back to peace loving civilians. BIG organization seems to come even more dangerous enemy and "small" organization have to fight hard to get rid of those bastards...

Simple isn't? So it is supposed to be. I have thought that end of this campaing isn't happy. After all "small" organization is military-force and they also must be destroyed... there will be chaos in end... that's for sure.

The begin of this campaing is like a single player game (1-3squadmembers and no one can die or it's game over). But when the base become ready to use and you can hire those mercs it will become more available to play with friends as coop (3-3units... which was my main plan: "small_mod must be playable with friends!" ...and we have already played those missions via my computer... and via drunk). Humor has also a small part in my campaing missions (oldschool: find a key and open the door). I'm still looking for scripts which could make individual chaptermap bases, block that exit chapter area and how can I make dialogs.

First I thought that I finish one chaptermap in time and release those as version number "1.chapter = v0.1" but now it seems that H&S will be released soon and I will definitely move to it (as player and modder... and soon there will be that Night Watch too... huh...) so I don't know how much time I can give small_mod to make it 'better' and longer (now there is 22playable maps but in my small_mod database there is still about 30 unscripted (bigger)maps which I would like to add to campaing too). I try to keep it simple because I don't have much freetime to modding but I still would like to make interesting objectives to missions (and I'm learning more and more ways how to do those and I would like to use my 'knowledge' with H&S- and NW-editors too... but with those I will definitely try to make some good-scratchs before I start messing around with new mods). Small_mod will be my first 'mod' (if I don't count some scenario maps what I have made to Combat Mission 2: Barbadossa).

That sound neat! You HAVE to finish it. Can't let all this work go to waste

Regarding H&S, it's being released in Russia now. There are people playing it already

God KoMik, yeah, it sounds really great. Please don't forget that you have some helpers around here if you need some helping hands.