Need suggestions on a scene [dungeon, WIP]

[windexglow]

This is a WIP scene. To be honest, I don't know how this will import into Fallout3 with CS.

 

General Theme: Abandoned temporary shelter from the war.

The stairs will either be made one way (aka: destroyed) or be destroyed as the player walks over it.

Most rooms will be completely rampaged; however two rooms (the textured ones) will be blocked off, resulting in them being fully (but poorly) stocked. The rooms can be unblocked by using quest-explosives or possibly strong enough melee attack.

 

The level (planned 4 levels of varying size) will be more of a quest dungeon than a rock-it-sock-it dungeon. Basically, a one way in, one way out style.

I'm going to attempt to make it eerie. Enemies will be extremely rare, and often close-quarters, fast paced combat.

Levels will be extended by the use of puzzles, however not to the point where it becomes predictable.

I'm hoping for physic related puzzles; move gas canisters into spot X, turn them on, than light a broken gas main (blowing a weak wall apart)

 

Old total-scene. Some rooms are changed, but for the most part the scene is complete.

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2772/maya2008110420162418ik9.jpg

 

One of the blocked rooms; badly textured.

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/8607/maya2008111122484235qd8.jpg

 

Another blocked room; also badly textured and modeled. This room will contain many skeletons along with a few notes.

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/5105/maya2008111122484990as4.jpg

 

One of the long hallways; currently unused and unconnected besides to entrance room. Planning to connect it to rooms. This also allows me to branch the level out greatly.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/5969/maya2008111122490499qm5.jpg

 

The entrance (missing door)

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/563/maya2008111122492681nh7.jpg

 

Bad angle; basically this room will hold connects to the blocked rooms, the main hallway. Wooden boards are strewn about, wires on ceiling are a mess.

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7297/maya2008111122494271di8.jpg

 

Temporary medic station. This room will be especially stripped; planned scare tactic will be used here (even though it will pose no danger or threat to player)

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9631/maya2008111122495816tk0.jpg

 

Caved in room connecting secondary hallway. There will be a few goodies strewn in the wreckage, but nothing much. Room may be blocked off by rubble, but enter able with a melee weapon.

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5171/maya2008111122501418ki9.jpg

 

Small Generator. This room needs work; generator on prop, wires leading to machine, more advanced piping, possible damage (metal jutting outward from inside explosion?)

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7893/maya2008111122502211ro4.jpg

 

WIP room. This will probably be the boiler room; pipes, machines, ect.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/5349/maya2008111122503305wl5.jpg

 

This room will have a lot of mattresses and beds; notes implying that the survivors fled downward into the deeper mines as rations ran thin. The player at this point will realize the only way to escape is going deeper. Once he jumps down, he will not be able to get back up.

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/8969/ma...22504405ww4.jpg

 

A image showing off the sewer pipe, it's..stuff in it, and so on. You can see the door leading to the next level.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/6702/maya...22505174cq6.jpg

 

There are a few more rooms that weren't featured, but nothign amazing about them.

 

 

 

So, any suggestions on what I should do? Should some rooms be redone? Should I make the level larger (should it be linear, or more free-form?)

The next level I'm planning it being more of a tinned sewer style. Pipes made out of rusting (you can see the cave wall in some places) metal that connect croudly. Almost maze-like. Floor is sometimes solid and sometimes water. Some parts of the level will force the player to go underwater.

[Knut Fritz]

hey rook, respect on your work so far!!! but i cannot say, how to integrate that nice shelter into FO3...maybe anyone here can help better?!

 

:confused:

[nulloperations]

Oh nice. I like the idea of seeing more shelters in the area. The idea of having a shelter in the wilderness mostly covered up by debrie and other objects keeping it hidden for 200 years is kinda nice. I'd imagine such a place would only really be occupied by ghouls and animals though. Ghouls being the survivors who were rad infected during the fallout. Hey if you can figure a way of adding an NPC... you could always add a quest to the place. Say make one of your blocked off rooms have an intelligent ghoul in it. She/he is the last sane survivor in the shelter. Everyone else has become a ghoul or died, but the remaining ghouls have gone feral. Hench why our intelligent friend is in the covered room. She/he had to bury themselves in the room for protection. So how do help them? Well, they need you to kill all the ghouls in the shelter, and then blow the opening to their room. Then, you give the player the choice of either A) helping the ghoul find a new home (paradise falls as a slave, or the underground) or B) just killing the smart ghoul. Either way, you get a key that unlocks a storage room behind the room you freed the ghoul from. Quest reward in terms of supplies, ammo, and some medicine. No guns though, otherwise the ghoul could have just killed the ferals by now.

 

Yeah I know... there's no CS so making that quest right now would either be really hard or impossible, but hey, keep it in mind for when the CS comes out. Maybe build another shelter around the idea.

 

You could always make a series of shelters too. Make up a company name, put the logo on the shelter, and just drop advertisements for "cheap and easy shelters, why spend all the money for Vault access when your own backyard can protect you?"

[windexglow]

There will be a storyline to the place; but won't be geared towards action (aka: killing).

 

Good idea on the shelter; but I'd prefer making different style of dungeons after this. Maybe even a small cave system.

The ghoul idea does sound good; in fact he could become a common occurrence (slipping away into pipes and vents to meet up with you later).

 

But the scenes will often be one way; once you enter a new level, you can't get to the old one again.

[Deleted922044User]

Wow, that's really impressive! I know whose mods to keep an eye out for... :D

 

 

Well, if you're looking for suggestions... What kind of scares are you thinking about? I'm really interested in horror games and I play tons of them. I'd actually love to get into the business some day... Anyhow, if I knew which sort of direction you were coming from, I'd gladly offer a few ideas.

[windexglow]

Scares will mostly involve sounds (as Fallout3 does not offer many perspective changes, such as gamma/perspective).

-Stopping music. I find this can have a great effect, as the player is expecting something to happen.

-Footsteps (both custom and default). Player expects something out there

-Ambient sounds (most well known one out there)

-Brief glimpse of enemy (Penumbra Overture did this great with the first spider. I felt my heart turn solid when I saw it run past)

-Something unnatural (bottle shoots out of door, or simply rolls around. This one was inspired by Stalker SoC's underground)

 

 

All of those would be in vain if there wasn't a surreal environment (I'm heading with the stereotype grudged and ruined one. But an extremely clean one can be just as eerie)

[Deleted922044User]

You've played Penumbra? Oh man, I LOVE that series. I really hope that small company goes on to do even greater things with a real budget some day!

 

 

So, going with mostly audio cues, eh? I think a really fun one would be to have a scripted radio that kicks on once the player enters a room (preferably one of those you mentioned that cannot be backtracked from) and it plays a normal station for a few seconds... Then warps like a bad tape player and starts playing back in a very slow, deep voice. Nothing overtly supernatural, just messing up the way that audio can actually mess up, but make it very creepy sounding and perhaps try and pick a part of a song that sounds particularly sinister or like it's talking to you. >:D

 

As for seeing glimpses of a creature, I really like the idea... I think that could work really well, especially if you spin it in the right way... For instance, you say this is some sort of mining/etc. area. On the higher levels, put in dirty (but still see-out-able) windows that offer a view of the cavern walls. Have your creature at least once, possibly twice, slink past these. Perhaps the first time make it really fast and difficult to see. The next time make it slower, but make the windows extra dirty and have it further in the distance so you can't get a good look at it, and possibly make it stop and peer back through the windows for a bit. That way, at first the player is thinking, "Oh poo! Well... Okay, it's out there so I'm safe..." and then once they reach a point-of-no-return that drops them INTO the cavern/mine area... Paranoia, much?

 

 

Just a few thoughts! I'm really looking forward to this! I love scary games, and the Fallout series as such potential for individual, spooky areas and side-quests!

[Vagrant0]

I hate to break it to you, but most of this probably would not import right into fallout 3 since, I would assume that the CS still uses the seperate mesh pieces to make up the areas, rather than the whole level being a mesh (like those used in the HL engine). Meaning that you would have to probably break things up by room, and replace clutter/feature items with existing meshes found within the game. Any new meshes would, naturally, need to have proper collision settings, which may be rather different from Oblivion, and would probably take a few more months to work out. You may even find that the pieces used for normal interiors just similar enough to what you were aiming for without all the hassle involved with texturing and exporting. But until the CS is released, you really cannot know. Interior generation may even be handled in a totally different way.

[windexglow]

but most of this probably would not import right into fallout 3 since, I would assume that the CS still uses the seperate mesh pieces to make up the areas, rather than the whole level being a mesh

Thank you!! One of the biggest questions of how fallout3 (actually, how oblivion) levels were made has been answered that I had.

But even than, it shouldn't be much of a problem. Rooms are largely rectangular which means I would only need 3 walls (2 walls for each side, and a wall for door opening) for each room at minimum. 4 at max.

I've created model packs that had hundreds of models for Wc3 before (Modern Objects and Lighting had over 900 files) that centered around customization of scenes, rather than templates so I'm used to using pre-built walls.

 

 

 

Meaning that you would have to probably break things up by room, and replace clutter/feature items with existing meshes found within the game.

That's the current plan. The desks are simple templates, nothing else. While I might try my hand at a few custom objects, it won't be much. Gotta keep some flavor of falloutIII :)

 

Any new meshes would, naturally, need to have proper collision settings, which may be rather different from Oblivion, and would probably take a few more months to work out.

This one I don't understand as much. I was under the impression (I have never modded oblivion) that geometry drew it's own barrier, with the option of creating a custom one. I doubt it would take months to work out unless I have to do things by hand.

 

 

You may even find that the pieces used for normal interiors just similar enough to what you were aiming for without all the hassle involved with texturing and exporting.

Eh, creating a dungeon that is limited to what the devs wanted isn't very fun. Besides, I need the experience in texturing.

 

But until the CS is released, you really cannot know. Interior generation may even be handled in a totally different way.

Yup, we'll see what we'll see when it's released. However I doubt it'll be drastically different than oblivion.

[mikekearn]

Wow, this is far beyond what I expected when I opened the thread. Excellent work so far! I really wish I had something constructive to offer, but this sort of thing is way above my level of experience for modding. All I can say is keep up the awesome work, and I can't wait to see what you're able to do when Bethesda releases the CS!