Mapping assistance, please

[Sophisanmus]

I've been working on a map.  It's coming along rather nicely, but there are some issues I'm having.  I have attached a .zip containing the map to this post.  Keep in mind that I have been moving the starting points around for testing purposes.  The issues I am having are:

• I have attempted to make a number of breakable windows for the map.  Firing lines tell me that I can't fire through them, but actual rounds will pass right through.  Only explosive munitions landing nearby will destroy the "glass".  Aliens, unfortunately, do not seem to realize that the windows can be shot through (the windows near the dropship may have random content flags, I was just trying them to see if I could get any to work).
• Some aliens seem to obsess over the map origin, firing manically at it even when a wall, a house, or even the ground is in the way.  I have seen some even ignore my solders to rush the corner and lob grenades at it.
• There seems to be a square of death outside the far building's back corner; aliens will crowd that area, and die quickly once a corner-obsessed alien with a explosives tries firing through the house.
• The pine trees out back, when viewed from the direction of the dropship, appear in proper order.  However, when viewed from the direction of the aliens, the trees stack in the same order (i.e. the farthest tree renders in front of the others, and the closest tree renders behind the rest).  Is there something I can try to remedy this?
• The prefab trees, at least the ones near the dropships, appear to have trap doors in them.  A solider can walk in, from one direction only and then cannot get out.  The Actorclips on the spaces do not seem to help...
• There seems to be a hole in the deck construct behind the first house, in the space occupied by the right half of the grill.  For some reason I cannot discern, the deck floor is not solid there, and actors fall through and become stuck.

Help would me much appreciated. 

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[Mattn]

I have attempted to make a number of breakable windows for the map.  Firing lines tell me that I can't fire through them, but actual rounds will pass right through.  Only explosive munitions landing nearby will destroy the "glass".  Aliens, unfortunately, do not seem to realize that the windows can be shot through (the windows near the dropship may have random content flags, I was just trying them to see if I could get any to work).

are you using latest trunk? this should change as soon as wilminators tracing and pathfinding patch will go into the trunk.

Some aliens seem to obsess over the map origin, firing manically at it even when a wall, a house, or even the ground is in the way.  I have seen some even ignore my solders to rush the corner and lob grenades at it.

Remove that actorclip stuff as border - should no longer be needed. maybe that helps.

There seems to be a square of death outside the far building's back corner; aliens will crowd that area, and die quickly once a corner-obsessed alien with a explosives tries firing through the house.

hm... strange

The pine trees out back, when viewed from the direction of the dropship, appear in proper order.  However, when viewed from the direction of the aliens, the trees stack in the same order (i.e. the farthest tree renders in front of the others, and the closest tree renders behind the rest).  Is there something I can try to remedy this?

yes known, that's the rendering order -  again, which version are you using?

The prefab trees, at least the ones near the dropships, appear to have trap doors in them.  A solider can walk in, from one direction only and then cannot get out.  The Actorclips on the spaces do not seem to help...

also wilminators patch might help here - remove the actorclip and readd it (correctly aligned - see wiki)

There seems to be a hole in the deck construct behind the first house, in the space occupied by the right half of the grill.  For some reason I cannot discern, the deck floor is not solid there, and actors fall through and become stuck.

can you make a screenshot of the exact position please?

btw. your map looks already quite cool (in the editor - haven't had the time to compile it yet)
i will commit this version to data_source/maps/unfinished already - to keep track of the development.

some notes:

• some trees have wrong levelflags
• the streets are a big wide imo
• add phong flag to the headge brushes
• roof textures are not yet aligned

...but i know that this is still work-in-progress - though nice work already

[Sophisanmus]

I downloaded the 2.3 dev + GTK package off the betasite (trunk - rev ~17280 - 2008-06-19).  Hopefully most of the behavioral and rendering issues are with the version and not my map. 

The border stuff will be removed.  I doubt they are related to the AI behavior, as they were added after that fact, but still since they are no longer needed, I'm glad to be done with them. 

The attached screenshot shows the position; it is no longer being a gameplay trap since I stacked a tall Actorclip on the spot, but the space (and the adjacent one which contains the other half of the grill) show the in-game selection box sinking through the deck; it also seems  to do the same thing on the border seating on the other side.  I think this part of the phenomena may be the following: the game recognizes the deck as an elevated platform in most areas, but when objects are place on top occupying sufficient volume, the game instead interprets it as a ground-level obstruction, and so the selection cursor drops to ground level accordingly.  At least that's my theory.  Might be fixed already or something.

Regarding the Trunk, I'm rather inexperienced with regards to it.  Perhaps you could point me to something where I could learn about what it is and how it works?

Tree's flags fixed, streets will probably get some cutting down, I don't see a phong flag with the surface inspector, roofs... improved.

Thank you much for the feedback.

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[Kildor]

you can try http://ufoai.streetofeyes.com/ufoai-2.3-dev-win32.exe

[Mattn]

about the gameplay trap you showed the screenshot for - try to put an actorclip below the floor brush - and make sure that the actorclip is aligned correctly.

[richlv]

heya. for what it's worth, mattn added your map to the svn respository (in data_source/maps/unfinished/suburban.map).
i did some minor cleanup on it, so i'd appreciate if you coudl work on the svn version
anyway, we're on #ufo:ai at freenode, so i'd loke to welcome you there.

[Sophisanmus]

Okay, I'm definitely going to have to figure out how this whole SVN thing works...  I've made a  considerable number of changes to my own copy.  Perhaps PM/IRC/other communication method to help me incorporate these into the map, and incorporate myself into knowing what I'm doing?

I'll be on IRC from time to time, deal with this learning and such there.


(Most recent version attached)

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[richlv]

heh, it looks like you have a very different timezone from what most of us on irc have.
well, at least willminator will have some company ;>
come around on irc now and then, i'm sure you will eventually get to somebody who's awake (you missed me by 10-20 minutes last time )