Night Terror- PreRelease

for Half-Life 2: Episode One

8th November 2008

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
IMPORTANT AUTHOR’S NOTE

“I have decided to release a little alpha version of Night Terror to the Half-Life community.

I would like to give the standard

Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!

4 recommendations, average score: 3.5 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0.75 (what's that?)
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Phillip says Play It!Maybe?Maybe?Maybe?

25 Comments

  1. MikeS

    After reading the author’s intro, I’ve decided to wait unto the mod is finished. Night Terror sounds like it’s going to be terrific. I sincerely hopes it lives up to its promise.

  2. Kyouryuu

    I posted my thoughts in the Interlopers thread.

    To give a summary, I think this mapper is off to an excellent start. His background seems to be in multiplayer maps, so nailing the enemy placement and gameplay is going to be the crucial test. He has a definite flair for makeshift industrial interiors, as evidenced here and in his other maps.

    Definitely one to keep your eyes on.

  3. aaron_da_killa

    Hehe, thanks 🙂

    What did you think of the map Philip? I see you went through it and took some screenshots :).

    I’d also just like to quickly mention that this map is just for Half-Life 2, Episode 1 is not required.

  4. Phillip says Play It!

    Aaron, I planned to comment as soon as I posted the mod but got delayed and then the site was down. Sorry.

    Personally I think you have released this too early. Even with your stated objective of getting feedback from the community. The reason I say this is that there are plenty of issues that you are very aware of, most of them to do with alignment etc. I believe these should be addressed before release otherwise you are partly wasting the players” time.

    That said I really enjoyed it and feel that this is going to be a really good mod once it’s finished.

    From a gameplay point of view you need to ensure players can’t get to places they can’t get out of. Fopr example, images 7 shows some crates stacked near a fence. It’s easy to jump onto the crates and then over the fence. Once over you are stuck. There are other examples of this I think. The solution may be invisible walls, which I personally hate, or to make sure that exits are always available.

    I would need to play it again to remember any enemy placement points but nothing sticks in my mind as a problem.

    Some things did strike me as odd were the fact that some areas had lights still working. Have they been turned on recently and if so by whom? The rebels, I presume. Perhaps some side quests could be to restart a generator that provides the power and lights to some areas. Maybe the first objective. Anyway, just an idea.

    With regard to the Episode One, I’m not sure where I got that from./ I will remove it from the title now and change the category. I’ll have to edit the image later.

  5. I just checked. In the Interlopers thread you say “Night Terror, Singleplayer map for Half-life 2 (Ep1 Engine)”, so that’s where I got it. Does that means players will need the Orange Box, or have to download the OB SDK? I won’t change anything until I hear back from you.

  6. Seems to be coming along pretty good.One thing I found annoying and am not sure if it was my pc or the mod,was a clicking sound like the flying camera things the combine use.I heard it a number of times and expected a flash but there wasn’t one and I couldn’t see anything flying aroound.

  7. aaron_da_killa

    Thanks guys.

    “there are plenty of issues that you are very aware of, most of them to do with alignment etc.”

    Alignment issues, could ya give me an example?

    In regards to player clipping issues, I haven’t added any mechanics to stop the player going into places where he/she shouldn’t, but I will be adding clips, push effects and things to kill the player on the side if they make it across, depending on the situation, I will use one of the aforementioned techniques (I don’t particularly like clips either).

    The power in the factory was mostly restored when the civilians fled inside the facility. However, there will be a task that requires you to go on a journey to switch on the power to a certain part of the plant.

    As for the Ep1 engine thing.. the Orange Box uses a more advanced version of the Source version, with many new features. When the game was released, valve solved conflicting issues between the two versions of the engine by calling one the Episode 1 Engine (Which is what Half-life 2 and Half-life 2 Episode 1 use) and the Orange Box engine (which is what Half-life 2 Episode 2, Portal… use) and you can either map for the “Episode 1 engine” or “The Orange box engine”. I guess its something that only people involved in the design of these maps/mods and such would know, its not particularly important other wise.

    @ andyb: I’m not aware of any issues regarding the sound you mentioned, how often did it happen?

  8. I didn’t count and it wasn’t in specific area’s>I heard it in lots of differennt spots.I forget the name of the flying things but they usually fly around where combine are and make a clicking noise like a camera.That sound is what I’m hearing.I’m gonna play it on my laptop later and see if I here it on that also.

  9. When I talk about alignment I mean the gaps between the textures on the floor. I didn’t take screenshots but when the mod started I moved up the hill and around the tunnel. None of this area is blocked off from the player and it’s things like that that should be dealt with before release.

  10. Robspace1
    Maybe?

    I’m not sure if I played the whole thing. Maybe some can tell me. Like Phillip said, it’s easy to go in the wrong areas using boards and boxes. I did. I ended up going down a cement walkway indoors and when I came around a corner the walkway just ended at a wall. It looked like the end of the mod as far as it has been made. Is this it or is there something I missed here? I went down the ladder to the bottom of the shaft outside but there was nothing there. I noclipped around to see if I missed anything but failed to see anything else. It’s a good mod and will really be good when finished.

  11. aaron_da_killa

    Phillip said: “When I talk about alignment I mean the gaps between the textures on the floor. I didn’t take screenshots but when the mod started I moved up the hill and around the tunnel. None of this area is blocked off from the player and it’s things like that that should be dealt with before release.”

    Oh right, all issues regarding players being able to get to places where they shouldn’t will be fixed when this map is released. I had considered that I should quickly patch up the areas with a clip brush, but than I figured that most of the people that will be playing this will be other level designers and I was pretty sure that they would assume that something will be there later.

    Robspace1 said`: “I’m not sure if I played the whole thing. Maybe some can tell me. Like Phillip said, it’s easy to go in the wrong areas using boards and boxes. I did. I ended up going down a cement walkway indoors and when I came around a corner the walkway just ended at a wall. It looked like the end of the mod as far as it has been made. Is this it or is there something I missed here? I went down the ladder to the bottom of the shaft outside but there was nothing there. I noclipped around to see if I missed anything but failed to see anything else. it’s a good mod and will really be good when finished.”

    Cheers mate. Yeah, that was the end of the map, as I mentioned somewhere, this is less than 50% of what you see, and everything you see isn’t finished. However, since releasing this, I have worked on this section of the map, you can check it out here. I made a special anchor just for you :). The pictures are at the bottom of this particular news post.

  12. but than I figured that most of the people that will be playing this will be other level designers and I was pretty sure that they would assume that something will be there later.

    I believe that to be a dangerous approach. I could assume things about the map and not tell you, thinking you would fix them. IF that happened you wouldn’t receive any feedback.

    If you release a pre-release map expect comments about every aspect of it. For all I knew you may have never tried to move backwards and were unaware of the issue.

    Lastly, if you are targeting a release for a particular group of people, .i.e. mappers, you should make that clear. I apologize for sounding rude or hard but beta testing should be taken as seriously as all the other aspects of the process. This looks like it is going to be a good map when it is released and I want to help in any way I can.

  13. Robspace 1

    Thanks Aaron, I kind of thought that I had gotten to the end but it was hard to tell because of the other areas that were without borders or left undone. I figured that the elevator was for a future project when I noclipped to the bottom. So, between an old of service elevator and walkways that went nowhere, I firgured this had to be the end of the game. It is unusual to see this much of a mod left undone. You did a good job with the overall look of the insides of the buildings and the way things were layed out. The enemy count was just right and I like rain in these.Hope you can get the rest done and make it a long one. thanks for the peak.

  14. aaron_da_killa

    At Phillip: Yeah mate, totally agree with you. I guess another reason I didn’t add the something to stop the player is because I didn’t want clip brushes or push effects clouding my view in hammer, and I don’t want to add yet another vis group to the map so I can hide em while I’m making the map.

    And I didn’t release this strictly for mappers, but that was the primary target I feel. Ofcourse, I am always interested in what people have to say (there is no such thing as a negative comment) about any of my work at any time, all oppinions no matter who’s or how in deapth they are are taking onboard!

    Anyway, thanks again Phillip and everybody else who commented here. Hopefully I can give something back to you all and release a quality map!

    Edit: Cheers Rob 🙂

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  16. shawn

    I have HL2ep1, downloaded this mod, the mod appears in my X:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\SourceMods folder, I’ve closed and reopened Steam, yet the mod doesn’t appear in the My Games tab. Does anyone have any suggestions?

  17. aaron_da_killa

    Ensure that there is a gameinfo.txt present one “directory” in front of steamapps. So make sure it isn’t “X:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\SourceMods\Night_Terror\Night Terror\gameinfo.txt, it needs to be “X:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\SourceMods\Night Terror\gameinfo.txt”.

    Also ensure that in there is a folder called “maps” in the same directory as the gameinfo.txt and you should be sweet :).

  18. shawn

    Thanks for the reply, aaron. The file is configured the way you advised, and still nothing for Night Terror comes up in the “My games” list in Steam. Two other third-party mods appear there, so I’m still not sure what the problem might be. Any other thoughts/possibilities?

  19. aaron_da_killa

    Hmm, odd, the only thing I can suggest is to delete and re-extract the contents of the rar file and paste it in the Source Mods folder again.

    I guess you could always go into Night Terror/maps and copy 01forest_05.bsp to the folder username\half-life 2\hl2\maps and load up Half-Life 2, than load the map from the console. However, you may notice that some things won’t display correctly such as the rain and lustrous props.

    And there is no need to thank me, I should be thanking you for taking the time to play my map! 🙂

  20. shawn

    I’ll try reloading. By the way, I assumed from the heading to this thread that I only needed HL2ep1. I don’t have HL2 by itself…

  21. aaron_da_killa

    Ah, than you can probably stick the map inside your Half-Life Episode 1 folder. I think that you could probably get away with that. Let me know if it works for ya!

  22. Maybe?

    It’s still in Alpha, so not ready to be enjoyed by all, but if you like to play unfinished maps then this one is for you.

    Plus, I know the guy and he is a very determined individual whom I know is willing to take as much feedback as you can give him! This guy is a very good mapper, and I recommend downloading anything complete he might make in the future!

  23. aaron_da_killa

    Hey, thanks so much for the nice words Riven :).

  24. Vir Kotak

    I guess you could always go into Night Terror/maps and copy 01forest_05.bsp to the folder username\half-life 2\hl2\maps and load up Half-Life 2, than load the map from the console. However, you may notice that some things won’t display correctly such as the rain and lustrous props.

  25. Maybe?

    There is no file to download. Keeps coming up in my search. I’m leaving a review so it no long comes up. No files on Moddb either.

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