Alrighty..

Well, I have just completed a system depends the difficulty on the amount of people at the server, which is checked every wave. Me and Kane are hoping to set up the server this weekend and keep it up during Halloween. I might have to get Kane to teach me about the server things so we may even get two servers up. Currently, I'm working on a multiplayer public test map and I'm gonna download Synegry, the mod that we will use to play the map and the one we will run our server on. So be ready!

Update on the Gamemode mechanics

Well, I have recently found out that my good friend Kane is able to effectively host a 14 slot server on Synegry, which means that I will first be making ant_gamemode for multiplayer. This is actually very good for me because I am now able to: 1.Test my maps with the gaming community 2.Not worry too much about fun issue, as multiplayer is always fun, amiright? and 3.Not worry about the difficulty issue, maybe even make it harder (the antlion spawn numbers per each level) . But I may have to learn how to use the game_(entity name) entities, as the more players join, the higher the antlion spawn number is. Maybe not... Well see :)

No vid this weekend...

Yeah, I was at a friends house and didn't get a lot of work done, but i finished the game logic:

Update

No comment

So here's a picture of the setup with the added indicator lights.

You can see parts of the test nodegraph as well, the hints being jump points.

Progress

Well, I've got the indicator lights working, but after setting up some test node-graph, even with the combine guns, I was having trouble getting through only the second wave. This means I have to lower the antlion numbers, or I could do one of three things:
a.)I could add, in the middle where you will be defending, say, a turret that aids you, or a very strategic spot that will protect you.
b.)I may have the same setup as in Half Life 2 Episode 2, where those two citizens and the place able turrets defend some of the tunnels more.
c.)I could just have one tunnel, but this will be very unlikely.
d.)The one I fear the most: making it a multiplayer gamemode. This is least likely because this will probably require more logic setup than just the gamemode. It will need to correctly accommodate many people and, as this gamemode is based on invasion and no safe spots, players will always find a way. And I'm not gonna be organizing any groups.
I'm not sure which one to do myself, and I'm looking into the first option already, but it makes things altogether too easy. I created a combine cannon like the one in HL2EP2, but that solved waves pretty easily, so a possible idea is having only one of them in a three spawner map, and two in a four or five spawner map.
I actually should look into the second idea, but the third option will have to be a very small map, more of an antlion caves type map. The fourth, if decided to be used, will probably have to be organized through a steam group, possibly through The Sickle and Hammer Cooperative, but that only has three people, including myself, one of them being a total gamer, the other more of a peoples person, but still a gamer. The other may have a better chance at organization, But I doubt he would want to do it.
If anyone has better options, or just wants to suggest something, comment here.
Thanks!
New video Sunday (I hope, ive got a lot of homework...)
~Denis

History of Ant_gamemode

Because I'm much to lazy to type up something new, I'm gonna use this chat with Mr.Walrus to explain history. It brings up more things then i would mention myself in the text:

TheFish [☭]: btw

TheFish [☭]: did i tell you my whole plan with this?

TheFish [☭]: how its a gamemode?

TheFish [☭]: and everythign

TheFish [☭]: histroy of it?

Mr.Walrus: ooh

Mr.Walrus: no, you havent

TheFish [☭]: would you care to find out?

TheFish [☭]: ?

Mr.Walrus: ofc, I'd love to :D

TheFish [☭]: Would i care to explain? XD

Mr.Walrus: XD would you?

TheFish [☭]: kiddin

TheFish [☭]: yes

TheFish [☭]: i would

TheFish [☭]: okay

TheFish [☭]: first off

TheFish [☭]: the begining of this year, spring\winter

TheFish [☭]: more still winterish

TheFish [☭]: febuary

TheFish [☭]: ish

TheFish [☭]: i made a map

TheFish [☭]: of which i made a video

TheFish [☭]: which is here

TheFish [☭]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6NSu983bnc

TheFish [☭]: then

TheFish [☭]: in that map

TheFish [☭]: there are these laser relays

TheFish [☭]: whcih were gonna be part of a gamemode where

TheFish [☭]: combine had relays throughout map

TheFish [☭]: and there were five

TheFish [☭]: and you had to destroy each

TheFish [☭]: when all were destroyed, you win

TheFish [☭]: and the cool thing was

TheFish [☭]: that when one was destroyed

TheFish [☭]: they all shut off for a moment

TheFish [☭]: and then the ones that were still working would connect

TheFish [☭]: btu this had a large amount of entity linkage involoved

TheFish [☭]: which i was scared to make because

TheFish [☭]: eventually

TheFish [☭]: id get lost in all the work if i did something wrong

TheFish [☭]: at this poin

TheFish [☭]: any comments?

Mr.Walrus: hmm well the gamemode certainly sounds interesting

Mr.Walrus: would it be open to MP?

TheFish [☭]: i guess it coulda been

TheFish [☭]: if i cared to make it XD

Mr.Walrus: xD

TheFish [☭]: ant_gamemode may also be

TheFish [☭]: who knows?

TheFish [☭]: anyway, anything else?

Mr.Walrus: it would certainly be a lot of fun by the look of things

TheFish [☭]: well, it wasnt meant to be cinematic/gameplay

TheFish [☭]: not much detail

TheFish [☭]: in brushs

TheFish [☭]: but alot in actual entities

TheFish [☭]: so

Mr.Walrus: I see

TheFish [☭]: then i made that big showcase map

TheFish [☭]: which i later sent you

TheFish [☭]: remember?

TheFish [☭]: it had that little power thing

Mr.Walrus: yeah

TheFish [☭]: you had to press a button

Mr.Walrus: I loved those xD

TheFish [☭]: things went greyscale

TheFish [☭]: you shoot some things

Mr.Walrus: yes

TheFish [☭]: kk

TheFish [☭]: so that was based off of this gamemode

TheFish [☭]: then i got kinda bored with that

Mr.Walrus: the bane of modding :l

TheFish [☭]: lol

TheFish [☭]: so i took a look at my AI map

TheFish [☭]: and decided that it needed antlions

TheFish [☭]: not the sort when you spam everything everywhere

TheFish [☭]: like zombies, just plain zombies

TheFish [☭]: but more a controlled system

TheFish [☭]: and so, ant_gamemode was thought of

Mr.Walrus: hmm thats an interesting concept antlions have never really been used that way

TheFish [☭]: well, they kinda have

TheFish [☭]: hl2 ep2 map

TheFish [☭]: i think it was the chapter

TheFish [☭]: "this vortal coil"

Mr.Walrus: sort of

TheFish [☭]: i loved that map

TheFish [☭]: it looked awesome

Mr.Walrus: Indeed

Mr.Walrus: the scenery was all very well made :D

TheFish [☭]: yeah

TheFish [☭]: i loved looking up toward those overhanging builtings

Mr.Walrus: they kind of tempted you, didnt they? Of the world above

TheFish [☭]: i actually made a small cave map with that sort of thing, so yeah, they did

TheFish [☭]: like a hole up

TheFish [☭]: and a building

Mr.Walrus: hmm

TheFish [☭]: so

TheFish [☭]: yeah

Mr.Walrus: very nice :D

TheFish [☭]: i always thought it would be good in a gamemode

Mr.Walrus: yeah

Mr.Walrus: it would certainly be interesting

Mr.Walrus: a sort of "survival" gamemode in certain aspects

TheFish [☭]: yeah

Mr.Walrus: which Ive always wanted

Mr.Walrus: just holding out against endless waves of enemies :D

TheFish [☭]: i was thinking earlier in the year of a money system in which you but guns, but that would be difficult to balance

Mr.Walrus: thats ture

Mr.Walrus: true*

TheFish [☭]: plus, it wouldnt be very half life twoy

TheFish [☭]: so yeah

TheFish [☭]: ehh

Mr.Walrus: yeah

TheFish [☭]: i set some of the stuff up earlier in the year

TheFish [☭]: then forgot about it as i was focusing more on mapping for you

TheFish [☭]: and only now

TheFish [☭]: i took a look back to the original only spawner i made

TheFish [☭]: no entities other than it

TheFish [☭]: and started drawing things out

TheFish [☭]: how it would work, difficulty, etc.

TheFish [☭]: and now i made the spawner

TheFish [☭]: thats pretty much it for history

Mr.Walrus: I see

Mr.Walrus: Do you intend to continue?

TheFish [☭]: i suppose

TheFish [☭]: im scared ill lose inspiration

TheFish [☭]: but actually

Mr.Walrus: well

Mr.Walrus: Ive had that problem a lot

TheFish [☭]: thing that inspired me the most is one of my gym coaches leaving

TheFish [☭]: he was 21

Mr.Walrus: what I find that works best while trying to not lose inspiration is constantly continue forward not entirely knowing what youre going to do :D

TheFish [☭]: ahh

TheFish [☭]: well

TheFish [☭]: so this gym coach was coachiign as a job, but he was also learning sound/audio engineering

TheFish [☭]: and last thursday, he moved to jew york

TheFish [☭]: because he was gonna continue his career there.

TheFish [☭]: and he was one of the people who would listen when i talked about my maps

TheFish [☭]: and i toild him it'd mean a lot to me if he took a look at my vids

TheFish [☭]: i also explained that ant_gamemode to him

TheFish [☭]: and he said hed like to take a look at a vid of it

TheFish [☭]: so i sayz to him

TheFish [☭]: ill upload one this weekend

TheFish [☭]: and i did

TheFish [☭]: i hope he sees

Mr.Walrus: same here

TheFish [☭]: and i dont have any form of communicatign with here

Mr.Walrus: those people are always awesome

Mr.Walrus: that actually seem to give a shit about modding

TheFish [☭]: because he wouldnt ever tell any of us

TheFish [☭]: his last name

TheFish [☭]: yeah

Mr.Walrus: lolol why?

TheFish [☭]: he was awesome

TheFish [☭]: idk

TheFish [☭]: he probably didnt want us interfereing in his personal life

Mr.Walrus: yeah :/

TheFish [☭]: anyway

TheFish [☭]: anything else youd like to know?

TheFish [☭]: setup?

Mr.Walrus: hmm well

Mr.Walrus: would it only be antlions?

TheFish [☭]: it can techinaclly be anyone

TheFish [☭]: as instead of amount of npcs in the spawner

TheFish [☭]: i used an outside math_counter

TheFish [☭]: to count npcs

TheFish [☭]: as it works better

TheFish [☭]: so yeah

Mr.Walrus: I see

TheFish [☭]: it would take very little tweaking

TheFish [☭]: brb

TheFish [☭]: baffwoom

Mr.Walrus: kk

TheFish [☭]: back

TheFish [☭]: so

TheFish [☭]: did you say you wanna know setup of entities?

TheFish [☭]: or no?

Mr.Walrus: hmm well actaully I would

Mr.Walrus: it sounds quite complex

TheFish [☭]: not really

TheFish [☭]: okay

TheFish [☭]: so

TheFish [☭]: first you knead to know

TheFish [☭]: there are two logic_relays

TheFish [☭]: one is for sounds for before the wave starts

Mr.Walrus: ok

TheFish [☭]: other is for setting up entities and starting them

TheFish [☭]: now

TheFish [☭]: there are two spawners

TheFish [☭]: 1 and 2

TheFish [☭]: every time they spawn one, they add to their own counter

TheFish [☭]: when a counter reachs the number of antlions we want to spawn that wave, it tells its logic branch to set itself to true

TheFish [☭]: logic branch is a bool entity

TheFish [☭]: now

TheFish [☭]: when both branches are set to true

TheFish [☭]: there is a branch_lisstener who looks at them and say

TheFish [☭]: sets them back to zero

TheFish [☭]: sets the antlions counters to zero

TheFish [☭]: and says YES

TheFish [☭]: this yes means nothing yet, its a placeholder

TheFish [☭]: i said this because there is another part of the setup i have to explain first

TheFish [☭]: before i go on

TheFish [☭]: so

Mr.Walrus: ok

TheFish [☭]: when the spawners are activated

TheFish [☭]: a logic timer is activated

TheFish [☭]: every 60 seconds it adds one to another math_counter

TheFish [☭]: now when yes is said to this counter

TheFish [☭]: the timer stops

TheFish [☭]: and the counter gives its value to a logic case and sets itself back to minimum

TheFish [☭]: for next wave

TheFish [☭]: the logic case then looks at the value

TheFish [☭]: there are three possibilities

TheFish [☭]: 1. if the timer didnt add anything to the counter, the wave has been completed in less than a minute

TheFish [☭]: in which case the spawners spawn 21 each

TheFish [☭]: instead of old amout

TheFish [☭]: 2. if the timer added once, the wave was completed in a minute, but less than 2 minutes

TheFish [☭]: so the spawner sets antlion amout to 16

TheFish [☭]: 3. if the timer added more than 2, or more than tow minutes were neeeded to complete wave

TheFish [☭]: the difficulty is set to lowest

TheFish [☭]: where the spawner spawns 11

TheFish [☭]: you get it right?

Mr.Walrus: heh

Mr.Walrus: all I can say is

Mr.Walrus: if you call that "not really" when asked whether its complex or not

Mr.Walrus: You have one hell of a mind xD

Mr.Walrus: I could never figure that out

TheFish [☭]: ehh

TheFish [☭]: its perspective

TheFish [☭]: i guess

Mr.Walrus: perhaps

Mr.Walrus: and er

TheFish [☭]: if you look at the problem from  acertan angle...

Mr.Walrus: Im actually about to go watch 30 rock with the rest of the family if thats alright xD

TheFish [☭]: ew

Mr.Walrus: and I guess

TheFish [☭]: sure

Mr.Walrus: hehe

TheFish [☭]: well, i g2g sleep anyway

TheFish [☭]: so

Mr.Walrus: alright, night :D

TheFish [☭]: cya

Mr.Walrus: interesting idea, I hope you carry it out

TheFish [☭]: ill try

Mr.Walrus is now Offline.

Mappers log, 10/11/10 10:34

Well, I've been thinking about blogging for quite some time now. Sadly, I've got nothing to say other than to expect Ant_Gamemode stuff in the near future. Meanwhile, here is a video of an antlion spawner