Tremulous Forum

General => Feedback => Topic started by: darklurker on July 24, 2006, 06:03:45 am

Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: darklurker on July 24, 2006, 06:03:45 am
Dunno how do-able this is, but it would be really helpful when wallcrawling if there was a small red arrow somewhere on screen that pointed in the "down" direction.  It would help us dretch-lovers keep some sense of orientation.  In reality, an alien would always know more or less which direction gravity was pulling it, right?

Trem rocks totally.  Love the game.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: kozak6 on July 24, 2006, 10:38:24 am
You could try hitting "Jump".

That way, you just fall straight down, and it makes it even harder for hummies to shoot you.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Norfenstein on July 24, 2006, 07:19:12 pm
Sounds like a good suggestion to me.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: rasz_pl on July 24, 2006, 07:34:42 pm
good? Why?
its IRRELEVANT where up and down is when you are a dretch. Dretch is a 3D creature (like cats) while you are 2D (like dogs). You just have to adopt to the new dimension.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: darklurker on July 24, 2006, 09:18:32 pm
The relevance is knowing BEFOREHAND which way you're going to fall when you let go...
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: SLAVE|Mietz on July 24, 2006, 09:30:25 pm
Quote from: "darklurker"
The relevance is knowing BEFOREHAND which way you're going to fall when you let go...


Thats easy, if gravitation works, you fall DOWN
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Lava Croft on July 25, 2006, 06:08:28 am
Maybe not an arrow, but any visual indication of where the floor is wouldn't be that retarded at all. Just wondering how to implement it...
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: kevlarman on July 25, 2006, 06:14:15 am
i wouldn't mind a translucent sphere with green, blue and red arrows sticking out of it parallel to the x, y, and z axes. that way, not only can you keep track of which way is up, but you can keep track of where you are turning as well. i'd hack it together myself now that you gave me the idea, but i can't find my way around the q3 sources yet.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: rasz_pl on July 25, 2006, 11:49:54 am
I'v got better idea, lets make dretch wallwalk HIGHWAYS, you just press a button, sit back and RELAX while your dretch runs on a ceiling from point A to point B .... RETARDED, either you can wallwalk and do it or LEARN it

PS: Lava that green fish is killin me :]
Title: Re: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Teiman on July 25, 2006, 01:09:07 pm
The mark can be visual AND aural. Different sound at different angle its something very informative, the vision is alredy too busy detecting enemy.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: darklurker on July 25, 2006, 01:52:46 pm
Quote from: "rasz_pl"
I'v got better idea, lets make dretch wallwalk HIGHWAYS, you just press a button, sit back and RELAX while your dretch runs on a ceiling from point A to point B .


Do you really think that's possible?  If so it would be cool, especially if accompanied by a soothing female voice to announce "your dretch is now on autopilot.  the stewardesses will be by momentarily to distribute softdrinks and honey-roasted peanuts.  We hope you enjoy your flight."  And while we're at it, how about giving the dretches gut-bombs - kinda like grenades in their bellies?   Or even better, hack a BFG9000 into the dretch anal cavity so it'll finally have some rear defenses.  And then before we're done, let's hack it up so that humans who are killed more than twice in a 20 second period are spawned wearing nothing but a diaper and carrying a bottle.

Oh, wait, those are RETARD ideas.   Yes, I'm full of RETARD ideas, but I try my damndest to filter them out before I post.

All I suggested originally was a simple navigation aid to replace the loss of a physical sensation (gravity). It could even be turned off (like tutorial mode), so as not to offend the wallcrawling gods who poo-poo such simpleton ideas.
 :)
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: 0z on July 25, 2006, 09:40:56 pm
Quote from: "rasz_pl"

PS: Lava that green fish is killin me :]


Commander Keen rocks ;)
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: PIE on July 25, 2006, 10:16:53 pm
Quote from: "SLAVE|Mietz"
Quote from: "darklurker"
The relevance is knowing BEFOREHAND which way you're going to fall when you let go...


Thats easy, if gravitation works, you fall DOWN


LOL!!!

How about the legs on the wallwalk icon always point down...
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Bajsefar on July 25, 2006, 10:50:46 pm
Quote from: "darklurker"
Quote from: "rasz_pl"
I'v got better idea, lets make dretch wallwalk HIGHWAYS, you just press a button, sit back and RELAX while your dretch runs on a ceiling from point A to point B .


Do you really think that's possible?  If so it would be cool, especially if accompanied by a soothing female voice to announce "your dretch is now on autopilot.  the stewardesses will be by momentarily to distribute softdrinks and honey-roasted peanuts.  We hope you enjoy your flight."  And while we're at it, how about giving the dretches gut-bombs - kinda like grenades in their bellies?   Or even better, hack a BFG9000 into the dretch anal cavity so it'll finally have some rear defenses.  And then before we're done, let's hack it up so that humans who are killed more than twice in a 20 second period are spawned wearing nothing but a diaper and carrying a bottle.

Oh, wait, those are RETARD ideas.   Yes, I'm full of RETARD ideas, but I try my damndest to filter them out before I post.

All I suggested originally was a simple navigation aid to replace the loss of a physical sensation (gravity). It could even be turned off (like tutorial mode), so as not to offend the wallcrawling gods who poo-poo such simpleton ideas.
 :)


I think razs_pl was making some sort of crude attempt at sarcasm, and that it was not a real suggestion. just for information.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: PIE on July 25, 2006, 11:02:06 pm
forget highways... auto-PWN.. press a button to kill all of the enemy team, and destroy their base and get 999 kills in 10 minutes... its better than the aimbot 2030392!
People who get killed in a short period of time wearing diapers.... MY GOD THAT IS GENIOUS!!!.. SOMEONE GET TO WORK ON THAT RIGHT NOW..
the peanut idea was stupid though... they serve pretzels now.. which sucks.. because i don't like pretzels all that much..
EDIT:
Make them wear pretzels NOT diapers..
EDIT AGAIN:
Quote from: "rasz_pl"
I'v got better idea, lets make dretch wallwalk HIGHWAYS, you just press a button, sit back and RELAX while your dretch runs on a ceiling from point A to point B .

Try any of these keys("buttons") :WSAD
.. it basically does what you want..
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: next_ghost on July 26, 2006, 12:15:03 pm
Quote from: "0z"
Quote from: "rasz_pl"

PS: Lava that green fish is killin me :]


Commander Keen rocks ;)


Dopegoon would be great Tremulous mascot. Big green goon with buckteeth and an idiotic face expression, the third dumbest creature in the universe with thought pattern of "pounce pounce hungry, pounce pounce hungry" :D
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: SLAVE|Mietz on July 26, 2006, 12:24:04 pm
Quote from: "next_ghost"
Quote from: "0z"
Quote from: "rasz_pl"

PS: Lava that green fish is killin me :]


Commander Keen rocks ;)


Dopegoon would be great Tremulous mascot. Big green goon with buckteeth and an idiotic face expression, the third dumbest creature in the universe with thought pattern of "pounce pounce hungry, pounce pounce hungry" :D


i want a goon-kitten, wait i can draw that myself

anyone wants to make it an desktop agent?^^
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Lava Croft on July 26, 2006, 12:57:50 pm
Maybe you can let your cat breed with one of the many goons we have in Tremulous:P
Title: Re: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: fourchannel on July 26, 2006, 06:30:16 pm
Quote from: "darklurker"
Dunno how do-able this is, but it would be really helpful when wallcrawling if there was a small red arrow somewhere on screen that pointed in the "down" direction.  It would help us dretch-lovers keep some sense of orientation.  In reality, an alien would always know more or less which direction gravity was pulling it, right?

Trem rocks totally.  Love the game.


I think darklurker has a good idea here. I know I sure as hell could use the dretch with the On-Star package and cupholders. But instead of a sphere with three nodes, I had an idea about using a geometrical shape instead. If you have just a 2D arrow, its hard to discern slight angles and when you're turned the right way it will disappear at times.

So I propose a pyramid. You can make it translucent so that it does not block vision. There are a few advantages for a pyramid. For one, if the pyramid is facing directly at you, or directly away from you, you can still tell because you'll see the point or the base. with a 2D arrow you can't tell. The second is every person's natural ability to quickly discern direction by looking at an object.

If the pyramid is opaque then this won't be a problem, but if it's translucent then the pyramid needs to have a wireframe outline, with an opaque dot on the bottom. That way, when the pyramid is pointed directly at you, you can see the wireframe over the dot, and when it's facing away from you, the wireframe runs under the dot.

Ok I may have gone off on a tangent there, but I think some kind of directional system for aliens would be a nice addition.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: darklurker on July 27, 2006, 02:01:50 pm
I was thinking more along the lines of a 3d arrow kinda like the one in the Spiderman console games from 2 or 3 years ago, that always pointed to where your next objective was.  I think it was Spiderman.  

a 2d arrow (or the claws always pointing down) wouldn't help much in some situations, but it's better than nothing, I guess.

The sphere thing with all 3 axes would confuse my fragile little mind.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Rippy on July 29, 2006, 03:10:02 am
Quote from: "rasz_pl"
I'v got better idea, lets make dretch wallwalk HIGHWAYS, you just press a button, sit back and RELAX while your dretch runs on a ceiling from point A to point B .... RETARDED, either you can wallwalk and do it or LEARN it


rasz is right. If you don't know which way is down, YOU'RE A N00B. In fact, they should remove the whole HUD, because if you can't keep track of your ammo, hp, aim, and radar by yourself, LERN 2 PLAY.

While we're at it, we should just completely remove the graphics from the game. If you can't navigate through the levels by sound alone, YOU'RE A NEWB, RTFM.




Rude sarcasm aside.... seriously. Just go into the options and turn off wallwalk pitching. That way, you're always facing down, and so there are no problems. There, everyone's happy.

Ok, ok, sarcasm aside for real now. I realise that some people want wallwalk pitching on AND want to know which way down is. So add a little yellow arrow to the regular alien radar sphere, that only appears when the player has wallwalking on and is not on level ground. Not hard to implement, wouldn't take up space, could be set in the options... problem solved mb?
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: DevUrandom on August 04, 2006, 01:41:09 pm
I strongly want this, too!

My own suggestion was exactly like Rippy's. Similar to the damage direction indicator.

When I crawl on the wall or ceiling, Tremulous pushes my view around a lot. It automatically moves my view even if I only crawl over a small wall-feature(small pipe, etc).
This disorients me much usually. Sometimes I am not able to find the floor or ceiling anymore, because I sit in a somewhat dark edge (alien  ) and when I move I automatically am "attached" to another wall or small feature and thus only turn around.

And sure you may say that I have to learn it. But I think it is not that easy, especially with all that auto-turnaround, and not very newb friendly either.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: next_ghost on August 04, 2006, 02:30:55 pm
Quote from: "DevUrandom"
I strongly want this, too!

My own suggestion was exactly like Rippy's. Similar to the damage direction indicator.

When I crawl on the wall or ceiling, Tremulous pushes my view around a lot. It automatically moves my view even if I only crawl over a small wall-feature(small pipe, etc).
This disorients me much usually. Sometimes I am not able to find the floor or ceiling anymore, because I sit in a somewhat dark edge (alien  ) and when I move I automatically am "attached" to another wall or small feature and thus only turn around.

And sure you may say that I have to learn it. But I think it is not that easy, especially with all that auto-turnaround, and not very newb friendly either.


/cg_wwFollow 0 will help you keep at least some orientation.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Teiman on August 04, 2006, 03:10:14 pm
UNRELATED:
Dretchs have no walk animation. So move sliding.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Caveman on August 04, 2006, 03:31:20 pm
hmmmm
Since the feel of gravitational pull cant be communicated in a game, why not make it (optionally) so that the View does not spin/rotate and stays level and the player has to move his view manually.

Granted, that would give the vermins an advantage and I can't come up with a reasonable disadvantage... (maybe disable their ingrained radar?)


Edit: Thanks Kevlarman, I wasn't aware of that.Guess I should have read mor carefully here *s*
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: kevlarman on August 04, 2006, 04:27:11 pm
Quote from: "Caveman"
hmmmm
Since the feel of gravitational pull cant be communicated in a game, why not make it (optionally) so that the View does not spin/rotate and stays level and the player has to move his view manually.

Granted, that would give the vermins an advantage and I can't come up with a reasonable disadvantage... (maybe disable their ingrained radar?)

open console and type:
/cg_wwFollow 0
now wallwalking behaves just like you said.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Rippy on August 04, 2006, 04:46:28 pm
Quote from: "Caveman"
hmmmm
Since the feel of gravitational pull cant be communicated in a game, why not make it (optionally) so that the View does not spin/rotate and stays level and the player has to move his view manually.

Granted, that would give the vermins an advantage and I can't come up with a reasonable disadvantage... (maybe disable their ingrained radar?)


Edit: Thanks Kevlarman, I wasn't aware of that.Guess I should have read mor carefully here *s*


1. Go to options
2. Disable automatic wallwalk pitching
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Caveman on August 05, 2006, 01:47:47 am
Like I wrote in the other thread
I was not fully awake and did not read the thread completely but thanks for help guys :)
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: yeye_olive on August 23, 2006, 02:12:03 pm
Hello, I've coded something that might be interesting. It adds a white blip on the alien radar when wallwalking, which indicates the direction of the ground. Add the following snippets of code in the CG_AlienSense function in cgame/cg_scanner.c:

Code: [Select]
 vec3_t  drawOrigin;
  vec3_t  normal, noZnormal;
  vec3_t  view, antiview;
  vec3_t ground = {0.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f}, noZground;
  vec4_t ground_color = { 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.7f };
  vec3_t  up  = { 0.0f, 0.0f,   1.0f };
  vec3_t  top = { 0.0f, -1.0f,  0.0f };
  float product, angle;
  playerState_t *ps = &cg.snap->ps;


after the declaration of variables, and

Code: [Select]
 if( ps->stats[ STAT_STATE ] & SS_WALLCLIMBING )
  {
    if( ps->stats[ STAT_STATE ] & SS_WALLCLIMBINGCEILING )
      VectorSet( normal, 0.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f );
    else
      VectorCopy( ps->grapplePoint, normal );

    AngleVectors( entityPositions.vangles, view, NULL, NULL );

    ProjectPointOnPlane( noZnormal, normal, view );
    VectorNormalize( noZnormal );
    ProjectPointOnPlane( noZground, ground, view );
    VectorNormalize( noZground );

    product = DotProduct( noZground, noZnormal );
    if (product < -1.0f)
      angle = -180.0f;
    else if (product > 1.0f) angle = 0.0f;
    else
    {
      angle = RAD2DEG(acos(product));
      CrossProduct( noZnormal, noZground, antiview );
      VectorNormalize( antiview );

      if (DotProduct(view, antiview) > 0.0f)
        angle = 360.0f - angle;
    }

    RotatePointAroundVector( drawOrigin, up, top, angle );

    trap_R_SetColor( ground_color );
    CG_DrawPic( rect->x + ( rect->w / 2 ) - ( BLIPX2 / 2 ) - drawOrigin[ 0 ] * ( rect->w / 2 ),
                rect->y + ( rect->h / 2 ) - ( BLIPY2 / 2 ) + drawOrigin[ 1 ] * ( rect->h / 2 ),
                BLIPX2, BLIPY2, cgs.media.scannerBlipShader );
    trap_R_SetColor( NULL );
  }


at the end of the function.

EDIT: I had to edit this post with BBCode disabled because it was screwing up my code.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: darklurker on August 23, 2006, 02:48:27 pm
Yeye_olive: dude, you rock.  If I can just figure out how to compile this on my Windblows box, I'll check it out.  It looks awesome cool.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: DevUrandom on August 23, 2006, 03:21:33 pm
From your description that's exactly what I wanted!

I'll try to apply your "patch" and see if it works here. :)
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: yeye_olive on August 23, 2006, 05:26:47 pm
If you need some help to compile the whole thing, I can only explain how to do it under Linux, but maybe someone can explain how to do it under Windows (there might also be some info at http://tremulous.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=587). Here is how to do it under Linux:

1. Unpack tremulous-1.1.0-src.tar.gz and open a terminal in the newly created tremulous-1.1.0-src directory.
2. Modify the source files as you wish.
3. Type 'make' in the terminal you opened at step 1. If there is no error, this should compile everything and create a directory like 'build/release-linux-x86'.
4. Go into 'build/release-linux-x86/base'. There should be a 'vm' directory with files cgame.qvm, game.qvm, ui.qvm and vm.d. Delete vm.d (I am not sure if it is required or not, but it does not harm) and zip the 'vm' directory. Be careful, it is important to zip the directory itself, not the files it contains. Rename the zip file to 'vms-1.1.0.pk3'.
5. In 'build/release-linux-x86', there should be an executable file like 'tremulous.x86'. This is the executable you need to run to start the game. Copy this executable along with the 'base' directory of tremulous (containing a bunch of .pk3 files) in a new directory.
6. In this copy of 'base', overwrite 'vms-1.1.0.pk3' with the one you created at step 4.
7. Run the copy of the executable.

That's it, it is a bit tedious but it works. If you want to make other modifications, just modify the source files, rerun make, rebuild 'vms-1.1.0.pk3', update the copy of the executable and redo steps 6 and 7.

Important notice: this modified 'vms-1.1.0.pk3' will make you an 'unpure client' in Tremulous terminology. You will not be able to connect to most servers, but a few ones like '|SST| Tremulous' accept unpure clients (I guess they are used by mod developers). I found a way to hack the source code which prevents servers to detect that the client is unpure, but it is not really a good idea since the purpose of this mechanism is to ensure that developers can run tests on specific servers before their mods are included in an official release.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: Vector_Matt on August 23, 2006, 06:27:34 pm
Quote from: "yeye_olive"
I found a way to hack the source code which prevents servers to detect that the client is unpure
I figured it wouldn't be long before someone figured out how to do that. But now that poeple know it can be done they may be more allert about strange happenings.
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: DevUrandom on September 01, 2006, 09:07:11 pm
I just tested it and must say that it is reacting quite slow.
When going from wall to wall it is ok. But when going from floor to wall or ceiling to wall the icon jumps around...

And a small white circle is not easy to see. Perhaps something bigger, not white and not in the circle of the other (red/blue) icons?

But the idea is good. Looks like I imagined it when you told me about it. :)
Title: Wallcrawling suggestion
Post by: temple on September 09, 2006, 06:46:46 pm
Hitting C (crouch) already drops the dretch on demand.

A arrow icon would be more confusing than helpful.  Wallclimbing isn't that important or lasting to really matter.  Only 3 aliens can do it and only 1 alien should really need to wallclimb the entire match (adv granger).

I would rather is Crouch be used to drop from walls and Jump be used to jump in the direction of camera.  It would be faux wall jumping (like a Marauder) but really only useful for attacking.  That would slightly make playing a dretch less painful.