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Weapon Tweaks : Shooting Range

5/31/2012

I built everything to scale so I could measure accuracy and distance precisely.

As of recently I been tweaking the stats of a few weapons for our current project. One problem I came across was that I couldn't accurately measure distance and range while I was just firing random shots in my level. I decided to quickly hop into 3Ds Max and make a shooting range.

It was pretty simple to build. Basically I made a range that was 2048 x 512 generic units big. That translates to 128ft X 32 ft. I set up a few man sized target (6 ft tall 2 ft wide) at 6ft, 8ft, 16ft, 32ft, 64ft and 128ft. I made sure they had collision and I imported it into UDK.

Th target in the back is set at 128ft. So far the only weapons that can hit it accurately is the rocket launcher and the sniper rifle.

Once inside UDK I set up the range on a test map with all the weapons. The game features a wide variety of weapons. We have pistols, machine guns and a sniper rifle just to name a few.

The targets need t have collision because if the targets did not the bullets would just fly through. I need to be able to see where the bullets make impact so I can properly tweak the weapons.

TMP at the shooting range.

The shooting range helped me with tweaks to a few of the weapons in the game. The power of the weapons has more or less stayed the same but the shooting range has made making tweaks to accuracy and range a whole lot easier.

Update: June 24th, 2012

I made a new shooting range that is much bigger. It is 2048 x 4096 (128ft x 256ft). I made the change because the smaller shooting range from before made it difficult to balance and tweak long range weapons such as the sniper rifle and rocket launcher. The targets are now as close as 6ft away to the furthest at 256ft down range.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Multiplayer Level Blockout : Third Pass - "Emperor's Square"

5/27/2012

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After a few iterations last week I decided to work with the 4th iteration which I dubbed "Emperor's Square". The blockout was solid but I still needed to nail a few things down. The map was lacking focus and the scale needed to be bumped to improve the flow.

April 23rd, 2012

The first thing I did was add another level below the raised area. This new area added more room for the player to run around. I also added a small flight of stairs to allow the player to get from the newly added level to the raised sections.

The main stairs leading to the courtyard was on a small section isolated by itself. I expanded it left and right so that it isn't just a separate part of the map.

Expanding it out I connected the map altogether. The stairs which were bottlenecks are now optional. Overall the flow in this section was greatly improved.

I set some rulers down in the courtyard so I can adjust the size of the courtyard. To add an emphasis to the level I came up with the idea of adding a house in the center of the courtyard. This house would draw the players from every corner of the map do do battle in the center.

The center of the courtyard now features a square with a house built on top of it. The idea with the center house is that the center house will feature a watch tower like structure that will give the player a huge advantage. From that watch tower the player is capable of seeing every angle of the map. The downside of being in this tower is that the tower is very exposed and the player in the tower can be hit from all sides.

April 24th, 2012

The map was feeling cramped and the flow needed to be improved. I split the map apart and added a 512 gap. I intended on adding another section to this gap but for now I had to get back to the central point of the map.

I added some stairs around the center of the house so the player can access it easier.

Added four sets of stairs and a few walls around the center house.

April 25th, 2012

The gap was going to be filled with a covered house area that would provide the player with a safe area for them to move around without them being in the open area of the high walls. It would also act as a way for the player to get the high walls and the courtyard quickly.

Top view of W.I.P level.

I started blocking in the ground floor for the covered house. I wanted there to be enough room for players to be able to engage enemies. I wanted it to also provide a covered route for players wanting to go down to the courtyard.

Progress on the covered house. It was coming along great. I added a large window to the front of it and a window on either side.

April 26th, 2012

I began to flesh out the bunker area more. I moved the ground down further to allow for the stairs

The covered house area is done. The next day would revolve around fixing the center house and building the tower.

April 27th, 2012

To break up lines of sight I added a roofed area to the high walled areas.

April 28th, 2012

I began to add and expand to the center house. I wanted it to be the main focus of the map. It needed to bring the players toward it. I intend for the center house to be a place where players will compete with one another for dominance.

I designed the second and third floors to be very open. I wanted it to be fairly easy for players to toss grenades to those floors and I wanted the tower to be a "risk/reward" scenario for the player. The reward would be an amazing vantage point. The risk would be being completely vulnerable from all sides as well as the climb up the tower leaving the player exposed.

The finished tower was looking pretty good. I began to add some cover sparingly around the second and third floors. The only major problem was that the tower was designed with ladders in mind. Ladders were great because it left the player exposed while they tried to make their way to the top. The reason why the ladders were bad was because the Ai can't climb ladders.

The complete center house and watch tower.

April 29th, 2012

I spent the day importing from 3Ds max into UDK. The models themselves imported without incident and I quickly began testing. A few area gave me a bit of trouble. Pylons wouldn't read the second floor of the covered house and the center house. The courtyard and the walls proved to have some good flow but overall a lot of the areas need to be expanded upon to improve flow. These are issues I will take care of on my next pass.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Multiplayer Level Blockout: Second Pass

5/16/2012

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This is my second attempt at designing a multiplayer map for our currently unannounced project. The first pass went well enough but there were a few problems. It has a decent enough flow but the map itself was huge. This is a problem because the bots the player would be playing against could easily lose the player. Also from an art standpoint the level asked for too much work to be done. We're on a tight schedule so a scaled down version would be ideal.

I spent this week scaling down the level and reiterating the overall design of the map. The problem with the first map was that I spent a week designing a map that needed to be scaled down. This week I would be spending my time throwing some ideas around and seeing what I come up with.

April 16th, 2012

On the first day I quickly scaled down the level. I kept the ramp on the left of the house and I duplicated on the other side to give it more of a symmetrical feel. The jungle area in back mostly stayed intact. The inside of the house didn't change at all.

The flow of the level stayed the same for the most part. The map was scaled down to about a third of what it had been. This design allowed for the bots to travel across the map much more efficiently.

Iteration-1 features the house, the balcony, courtyard and the jungle area.

April 17th, 2012

The second iteration was basically a retreading of the first idea. Scale down the massive level and make it more accessible. What I was aiming to do in this version of the map was to improve the flow even more. I was thinking that by adding this ramp on the side it would give players another option on where to go on the map.

The balcony area is awesome because it gave players an advantage but it is also very exposed. It has enough spots for the player in the balcony to be rushed. In case players get pinned down in the courtyard I wanted them to be able to fall back to these steps. The steps would lead onto a ramp that placed them right next to the house and only a few seconds away from the jungle.

Iteration-2 features the house, the balcony, courtyard, jungle and ramp area.

This iteration was pretty good. I liked where the flow was going but I also felt that it wasn't going to be able to support the many different game modes we had planned for the game. Also size was still an issue. Bots would end up spending a lot of time chasing the player rather than engaging them in a firefight.

April 18th -19th, 2012

The third iteration was basically an all new idea. It was a map that was specifically designed for capture the flag. The map is symmetrical and features three main routes for the players to utilize. The middle route is the fastest, allowing players to reach their opponents doorstep.

Top down view.

The side paths took the player down into a courtyard which was divided by a river. The bridges on the sides of the river are short and allows for easy access. The middle bridge would be the opposite, it would be broken and falling apart. Forcing players going the direct route to watch their step.

Iteration-3

April 21st - 22nd, 2012

The fourth iteration was something completely new. I had come to realize that a courtyard was a perfect balance of cover and mobility.

I wanted the level to be symmetrical with a bit of verticality to it. When designing the level I took into consideration the height of the walls compared to the courtyard. They needed to be high but not so high that it made traversing the map difficult.

I wanted to make the courtyard walls accessible. I made sure to have stairs at either side that allowed for players to easily move from courtyard to wall.

I duplicate one side and copy it over to make a perfectly symmetrical level.

The flow of the map was pretty solid. There was a lot of room for big firefights in the center of the courtyard and the high walls allowed for vantage points for snipers.

The walls of the courtyard allows for small arms fires. The stairways would make natural bottlenecks for the players to exploit.

Iteration-4 Emperor's Square.

The fourth and most unique iteration proved to be the best choice. The next step was to work on a strong focal point to draw the players in. What was this map's hook? Was it just a square? Or did it have something else going on?

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Freeze-E Frosty's : Boss Fight Time Lapse Video

5/1/2012

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I wanted to post a time lapse video from my time developing the boss fight for Freeze-E Frosty's. The video shows everything from early design and ideas to the finished boss fight.

Freeze-E Frosty's - Time Lapse from Danny Quesada on Vimeo.

0:00 - 0:53 - This was the first part of the boss fight. Originally it was just going to be very simple. You walk into a room and the T-rex attacks you. This was scrapped because it felt excruciatingly boring, we knew we could do more. We were on a tight deadline but we didn't want to settle on a mediocre experience.

0:54 - 1:14 - This is week 2 of development. I started nailing out the scale of the boss battle level. The first idea was just the room, or "Ice Cave". So from here I started conceptualizing a bigger environment to mess around with.

1:15 - 2:08 - Week 4 of development the first and second phase of the boss fight are complete. We wanted there to be three phases (following the video game rule of 3), but with time running out. We still wanted a third phase but I designed the boss battled to end at the second one just in case.

Fun Fact: The exploding and sinking of the T-Rex is an obscure reference to Turok 2 : Seeds of Evil (Gameboy Color). We didn't have any animation for the T-rex dying at this point and with the way the game was coming along we had to have something that read as "Boss has been defeated". I remembered how every boss in that game just sank into the floor and exploded.

2:09 - 3:01 - I made a quick change and deciding to flesh out the second phase of the boss fight. We were finally starting to get animations in. Getting those animations really helped to bring the game to life. At this point we were able to add a "Charge" attack to the T-rex.

3:02 - 3:55 - This was week 7, by this time the boss fight had phase 1 and 2 basically done. It was in a state where I could properly run in and play. So at this point I started messing with the HP (hit points). Tweaking this stat is always tricky. I spent the week messing around with HP and refining the kismet.

3:56 - 4:16 - All the kismet for phase 1 of the boss fight.

4:16 - 4:29 - All of the kismet for phase 2 of the boss fight.

4:30 - 4:47 - All of the kismet for phase 3 of the boss fight.

4:48 - 4:49 - All of the kismet for the ending cinematic after completing the boss fight.

4:50 - 5:43 - The finalized boss level running in real time inside of UDK.

5:49 - 6:42 - The final and complete version of the first phase of the boss fight running in real time.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Weapon Tweaks : Shooting Range

Update: June 24th, 2012

Multiplayer Level Blockout : Third Pass - "Emperor's Square"

April 23rd, 2012

April 24th, 2012

April 25th, 2012

April 26th, 2012

April 27th, 2012

April 28th, 2012

April 29th, 2012

Multiplayer Level Blockout: Second Pass

April 16th, 2012

April 17th, 2012

April 18th -19th, 2012

April 21st - 22nd, 2012

Freeze-E Frosty's : Boss Fight Time Lapse Video

Dannylv100

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