A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

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Wises
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A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by Wises »

howdy ,

Didn't really realise that there was a whole world of active developers over here until now.. which is Awesome.

A Long Time Ago I had some Sordid idea on a small Portal Map that would allow players to jump through portals (teleports) into actual servers.

I once played a map where you could see through the portal to the other side and it would like wrap? around so as to give you the effect that it was larger but really it would teleport you from one end of the room to the other. However you could actually see through the portal as if you were just walking through a doorway into the next room. Ok now that sounds weird .. it is , was an awesome map anyway which gave me the idea for a portal map that would like allow players to peer into server's like little windows hehe.. and jump through and join in on the action if they wanted to.

of course in all reality this is probably not feasible however I was thinking .. perhaps some Huge Map with links to like 10,20,30 different servers and like portals everywhere lol.. maybe even some kind of system that shows how many players are in each server ... as you approach them.. anyway yeah just a thought lol.

could have like a lounge area where players are disarmed and can walk around like a little chat room of sorts. Then go out and jump through your favorite portal straight into a game - perhaps even take a couple of players with you from the lounge area lol .

well yeah that's it really ... nothing fantabulous really.

8)

if only I could recall the name of that map... buggar.
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by papercoffee »

As far as I know ...this isn't possible not even in games nowadays.
You can build in UT one Map with many Arenas where you can jump to the arena you like ...but this would be a huge single map ...a very huge one.

But I can be wrong ... let us wait till our coder and script pros answer this.
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by JackGriffin »

I've done this several times for both DM and MH (which requires a special teleporter script, otherwise the server will crash). I've done it as a DM map that players could use to try MH, as a "lounge" of sorts to just relax and chat, and as a portal type map where other portals dotted the map leading to various servers. Overwhelmingly people did not like it, even when it VERY clearly showed what was going to happen by entering the portals. The players felt like it wasn't cool to be moved to another server. Now this was when I was using message triggers and an audio track explaining the portals idea and still most just didn't "get" the idea.

You are welcome to the scripts and maps if you want them. Let me know and I'll send it all to you.
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by Sp0ngeb0b »

You can simply set the URL of a normal teleporter to the Adress of the server you like, so it looks like this: unreal://my.Ip:7777

A warp zone to another server isn't possible, sorry ;)
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by papercoffee »

Sp0ngeb0b wrote: A warp zone to another server isn't possible, sorry ;)
This is what I meant to say... even in games nowadays.
But it would be a cool idea ...something like this cloud gaming thing where you can see in a browser who is playing which game in what kind of way.
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by JackGriffin »

Sure it's possible Sponge. You could even script an actor to return server information via screen mod over the portal. About the only thing I don't see doable is the live camera thing. That's not really a deal killer, you could fake something pretty good and even animate it. You could also fake backdrop the rear of the portal and using multiple skyboxes make something pretty damn cool.

Still in the end players don't like it. Fun to make, useless in real play.
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by papercoffee »

JackGriffin wrote:Sure it's possible Sponge.[...]
But Wises meant a zone-portal where you can see the action actual behind this portal, live on another server ...not datas on a monitor. (what sounds cool too)
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by JackGriffin »

Oh man what I wouldn't give for that possibility. Even a better in-map camera would be so nice to have. About the only one I've ever seen that works well online is Wormbo's redeemer cam so it is possible, just way past anything I can do. I looked at the code to make a static actor camera but his stuff is pretty intense and I get lost fast.

I think part of this discussion should also be "Who is going to run a map that ends up sending players away?" :noidea It would be nice as a clan lounge map.

I even divided DeadCity into clan/non-clan sections trying to wrestle with this concept. The latter was much better received, random public players couldn't enter the member section of the map without knowing the password and even the members themselves had locked houses only they could get into with another password and unlock. There was a gate with a doorbell you could ring and ask for admittance into the members area and switches inside the member area controlled the map from being finished if members chose not to have it end. Now that one the MHM guys played for hours and hours on end, there was stuff all over to do: a sniper range for distance practice, a DM arena for jousting, BT areas for practice, even a flight area for jets. There were lots and lots of secret areas and each map improvement I added more stuff to find. Now that's a project your players would enjoy, it's just labor intensive but ultimately very well received and played.
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by papercoffee »

Show me this map ..... (o___O)´-
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by JackGriffin »

Let me get it from my old computer. It needed a bunch of packages but I think I had everything in a zip. Look, I'm *no* mapper, I'm more an idea guy so don't mock the delivery please. Yes, it's blocky and some spots are poorly done but I was trying to build on a concept. BTW the various cottages cause some horrid BSP errors on rebuild so careful if you go to use the map as a base for something else.
I'm getting ready to leave for work in about an hour but as soon as I get home I'll send you the map package link (if I can't get to it before I leave). I'll PM you the password information for use in the map.

EDIT: found it, uploaded it and I'm PM'ing you now. You are free to take this map and do what you like with it. I think the proper person could make a hugely popular social type map with it. Builder mod is pretty popular in 2k4 and this is kinda like that in that it encourages socializing.
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by FraGnBraG »

erm :) can I have a look too? This all sounds so facinating....
I've linked separate maps teles on the same machine but I'd always thought the "online URL" feature was just a tim sweeny pipe dream that never actually worked for one reason or another ...
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by JackGriffin »

(Just dropped home on lunch) Sure, I'll send you the map. It needs some odd packages to run (I'll include everything) because it was a DM map that showcased what MH was. It has monsters and uses one of my MH controllers so the DM player can see the new HUD and stuff. I thought it was a neat idea but it just confused everyone that tried it.

BTW to clarify this map is different than the one above. The one above has no server portals in it, this one does. If you are going to do a portal map in MH, let me know. It takes a special actor for it to work.

I'll be home in about 4 hours. Look for the linky then.
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by Wises »

Ahh how refreshing , funny that you think to yourself hey .. this would be something new and exciting .. only to find that someone has already had the exact same thought and actually built the foundations for the concept. :)

ok here is the basic thought process for what I had in mind;

imagine you had the resources to host 3-4 even 5 server's on a nice dedi box near you. One (1) Server would be simply setup to be the Portal server which would lead off to anyone of the other 3-4 server's on the box.

the portal server (which is the main hub) would contain a map or 2 depending where you wanted to take this concept.

the map would have a chat area , which would disable all players weapons and head jumps lol (basically damage to other's) within this area. Say the center of the map. Like Diablo in a sense. Once you leave the Gate it is open season and/or you may want to make the whole map weapon free.. as it would be a bit tricky to take any weapons with you into the next server anyway.

so we have a basic box type map for this concept. the four corners have teleporters which lead off to the respective servers..

The large box which is dead center is the lounge area.. where you can talk to other players join teamspeak whatever.

you meet up in this arena which could have some fun things to do , like what you posted little side games etc. whilst entertaining your-self in this area (and others) you ask who wants a game of DM?... 2 or 3 others are kean.. you say follow me. they follow you and you all jump through the DM portal to the DM server ;) ..

now thats a very basic depictation of what could be done and is lacking only one thing... the reversal process . Which is to say that the players or player (singular) wanted to go back to the portal server. For which Iam sure there is many a tallented person who could make a little server-side mod which allows the players to type !home or !portal to return back to the main portal server.

Someone with my ability would most probably install UniversalUnreal which would allow for this until such a mod become available.

Although not well received by your players I do believe that this concept would make an excellent addition to Ut99 and bring back alot of interest in our current times. If you could send through any relevant or information , mods/maps configs etc that I too could have a look at I would greatly appreciate it. I am very kean to actually give this concept a good go.

problems I can see would be that the players/clients would need to be re-assured that the server's you are sending them to are legitimate and of good reputation. However Iam most certain that down here it will be a warm welcome and I can already see a custom map with our logo glowing in the background with little corridors heading off into the abyss hehe.

I am also an ideas man , I will be in touch with you at some point as I have many idea's bursting my braincells outside of the illicit drug arena.
:tu:

ps: why not post the link here for all who are interested in this concept to see ?... I am sure that there are other's that would be interested as this is clearly something unique. actually I would even go so far as to say that the coder for the uscript engine had the very same idea which is why he included the teleport -> url feature in the first place lol. thanks Spongebob for that :)
Last edited by Wises on Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by JackGriffin »

@ Frag: I emailed you the gateway map that has the portals scattered about. The voiceover probably won't make sense unless you remember I was running this DM game with a MonsterHunt controller. There is a switch in the map to generate monsters because I was trying to pull new players into MH from DM games. Spawn an insta or make yourself God because the monsters won't stop. You'll see what the map was intended to do though. Oh and remember EVEN IF you are playing an offline game, if you enter a portal it WILL send you online and to the server. Look at the actors involved and you can see how easily this is done.

@Wises: thanks for being a sport and letting this thread wander a bit. I'm feeling blessed that some work of mine may find other uses, thank you for allowing that.

OK, back to teh OT....What you describe is what I actually did. We used a version of the gateway map to connect 4 different servers I had running on one box and it all worked very well. I did toy with the idea of scripting something like you say where !sendmehome would take you back to the home map but I was going to use a mod I did called SendMePacking. It allowed mutate commands to do the same exact thing, moving you from server to server. There were some different avenues I was going to explore with this but ultimately interest tailed off. Well, that and I can be incredibly hard to work with at times (understatement of the year)... I'm friends with the guy who scripted the original Builder Gun for 2k4 and I even toyed with that idea some as a possibility but you'd need a strong group for all this. You have to remember I was doing it all: texture creation, mapping, scripting, ideas. This needs to be a team effort for sure. It's too much for one guy.

EDIT: I didn't post the links openly because I'm a huge fan of rewarding those who take initiative and ask. Those guys can take a look, decide to accept or pass, and then I'll post it. Since they jumped first I'm gonna reward that.

Second EDIT: Jesus I'm looking at some of your guys webpages and I am light years behind in mapping ability. Please don't judge my maps too harshly. Very often I'll map something simply as a proof of concept and in the end I'm just not very good anyway at it.
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Re: A Portal Map of sorts (just an idea)

Post by Wises »

Not a problem.. understand fully , and from what Ive read there's a lot of people who could/would use sources in harmful ways and or just re label them as their own.

I did not quite understand what you were talking about in this paragraph ;
I'm friends with the guy who scripted the original Builder Gun for 2k4 and I even toyed with that idea some as a possibility but you'd need a strong group for all this.
but do understand what you are saying regarding the 'One Man Band' regard .As Iam also doing all of those things , administering , mapmaking , building and providing servers for our region. aside from scripting which would be the hardest thing to do .. Thank God that over the last 13 years almost every conceivable mod ever thought of has already been made thanks to programmers like yourself :) Which Iam very grateful for.. curiosity is an awesome thing.. it encourages us to pursue the subject more fervently and with passion.. and being assured that someone will be able to help if ever we are lost is also an added bonus to get us to our destination. even if it was just for a self gratifying moment where we could say , well I tried that and although it did-not work I done it!.. mission accomplished , CV updated and on to the next adventure within our un-steady paths.

Adding to this what is ironic is that you may know the concept 'One man's rubbish - is another man's Gold!' > Ebay! lol

this is surely the case here and Iam also jumping in the background.. so if you do find the time to pop through those inks I would like to commence restoration of this concept as well :)

Thank you

will be in touch.

edit: I understand how you feel in regards to map making (building) in fact I myself gave up the map making business after being dissed by someone in this very forum a very long time ago. And after reading through several posts I see a pattern of 'This map sucks' and your lighting abilities are amateur at best .. yada yada.. that in itself does inhibit an upcoming map-builder from ever reaching his/her's true ability's.

you may have seen the first map I ever built (and the only one I ever released publicy) named CTF-Joust][ , based on a ut2k4 map with the same name I found that I was not satisfied with other conversions and liked the concept of the flags spawning at opposite teams flag-bases.

I actually put alot of work into it and was exploring avenues with exploding walls and triggers .. even made a 4 way version which intersected at the water level and after being condoned for bad lighting and other BS didn't really complete it fully. for example I was going to have a pattern for the movers in the water which would open up a secret passage leading to the invisi as well as remove the roof entirely and have a nice skybox with pyramids in the background.. perhaps even a secret teleporter which would take you to one of them.. but I have long since forgotten everything I ever learn't, from sites that have long since vanished and all the reading & studying (tutorials) hours upon hours all long forgotten now. :\

funny thing happened to me actually only a few days ago... I went to a international server and they were playing Gib on my map (above) although designed for nw's in turbo mode ... in the map I built in 2 teleporters (they were not aware of) which allowed you to dodge up the pillons and into the flames which would teleport you to the other teams base and cap in like under 5sec's.. all I noticed was wtf ?... this guys hacking lmao.

I just laughed and allowed them to see the secret which I had built into it many years ago.. I even went so far as to try and make a tunnel between the 2 bases which would be like zoom tubes with a fence like in a real 'Joust' where players could .. well.. joust lol. But that is sitting somewhere under terabytes of crap on one of 49 HDD's scattered about the place heh.

anyway back on track I understand fully and am no judge.. I understand the concept and not being from FOT or any other high poly group can say with all honesty that I like your work and have seen a fair bit of it over the years.

Respect.

there's actually alot of hidden items in the map as basic as it is although not enough ammo .. another thing which needed attention.

Ohh and I did master the glass effect before throwing in teh towel which I may just pickup again , if this Editor would work. tsk tsk

edit: lol just found this via google lmao ... it looks lonely lmao
Last edited by Wises on Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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