Idea - Tutorial Map

[j0g32]

Some recent comments from new players have pointed out that a tutorial would be helpful...

And as you may know I am always keen to start fiddling with a bit of extra flavour to the box-standard C&C gamemode^^

Anyway, I had recently started to recreate the first GDI Mission in Tiberian Dawn, with the intention of including some tutorial objectives, such as capturing a silo, defusing mines such that troops from the beach can advance etc.

However, to get this polished with sound etc. this would probably be too much work just for tutorial...

So, I was thinking of recreating the Tutorial Map of the original Renegade, and I think there was even playable a multiplayer version with a Nod base... somewhere on the internet.

I realise that @TK0104 based his map on this tutorial Map as well, however, without actually any Tutorial functionality.

 

 

 

If I find some screens or download the MP-version of the Tutorial Map somewhere, I will post them here, but the idea would be as follows:

Recreate the tutorial from orig. Renegade, hopefully with some of the old soundfiles, including Bots that the player has to follow and listen to their instructions. (Similar to Black Dawn).

Some of the stuff like key cards, secondary objectives etc. are irrelevant, but (new) features in RenX will have to  be introduced on top of that (capturing tech buildings , buying chars/vehicles, defusing beacons, building health/armour, air strikes...)

The Map would be the MP Version (if I can find it somewhere), which means that after the "basic" field and base instructions are over and the "simulated" Nod attack would start (see orig. Tutorial), the player is just free to go and can continue playing the map as skirmish, ultimately destroying the Nod base.

Some strategic hints can be randomly shown, or location triggered:

Attack the powerplant to disable base defences and increase purchase prices for your enemy.

Destroy the harvester to prevent the enemy from gathering resources.

Capture and hold the Silo to generate additional income for your team.

...

 

Maybe all bots that are not "Tutorial" Characters can just continue playing normal MP C&C in the background.

This map doesn't necessarily have to be balanced for both teams, as it is just to make the player familiar with the gamemode and its features.

It should however resemble a classic multiplayer map in ter  to showcase how the gamemode works, but still there should be enough guidance for the player with some scripting.

 

Does anyone have any experience if something like that might be feasible - and even desirable to develop?

Cheers

[Madkill40]

Remaking the map for a single-player tutorial shouldn't be too difficult as you wouldn't have to worry about balancing issues. the real challenge is the kismet. 

I'd love to do the voice work to make the tutorial more interesting than just having text-blips displayed on the screen. (Can deliver good quality sound for voices and it would be nice to practice the GDI General's voice for Renegade, or just do a few of my own military'type voices for this tutorial)

 

Goodluck!

[Ruud033]

@Henk can you export the mesh from this level as a baseline?

[LavaDr4gon]

On ‎3‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 1:56 PM, Madkill40 said:

(Can deliver good quality sound for voices and it would be nice to practice the GDI General's voice for Renegade, or just do a few of my own military'type voices for this tutorial

Can you provide us some examples?

[Henk]

On 8-3-2017 at 7:42 PM, Ruud033 said:

@Henk can you export the mesh from this level as a baseline?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cygsuaxhnm8q9bi/Renegade Tutorial.FBX?dl=0

[j0g32]

Thanks for your feedback guys.

Yes, obviously it would be great to have sound (but also text boxes to read along), similar to Black Dawn Campaign. In fact, I was thinking of using sound snippets from the original Renegade Tutorial - guess you can extract them with XCC mixer or something like that...

However, some of the bits such as sprinting, tech buildings, airdrops Building Armour vs. Health, etc. are really important for gameplay would have to be recorded anyway.

If all the new features in RenX can be explained comprehensively by a single "Character" in the Tutorial, that would be great.

Yet, it would make much more sense to explain the new features within the same category (where they belong), e.g. Tiberium Si'lo when you go the Refinery, Airdrops when you visit the Weapons Factory, etc.

In such case, we would have to redo the whole dialogs for all characters.

Hence, @Madkill40's acting skills can be employed in any case.

 

Unfortunately, I could not find the overview of this map - although I am 99% I sure, I once found all the SP level overviews (from w3d) and imported it

into the map as an overlay. And the MP version I could not find either...

So I started with a screenshot from the iname "tactical" map to get the dimensions roughly correct.

 

The map will not be a 1:1 copy of the original level, but rather a modern re-interpretation, e.g. the "prison-like" area where you spawn, will be made out of hesco barriers, sandbags and fences (Prefab-Kit *yay*). This should be an area where "new recruits" arrive and have to master an obstacle course. I will probably also add an entrance to this prison

As the barracks in RenX does not have back doors, the shooting range will be turned 180 degrees - this is more sensible in general, because you are not shooting INTO but rather OUT OF the GDI base.

 

Thanks @Henk for the fbx file!

I have never imported FBX before, but it seems to have split up into small bits - I will check later.

 

This tutorial (series) explains some rudimentary AI "Kismetting", but the most interesting bit for me was that it is possible to trigger Animations for Pawns (crouching after being hit)

 

 

 

[Madkill40]

We've got a decent wiki page I can get information from of which I can use for scripting purposes, I'll try out a few things and post some recordings.

[CoreDefender]

The only problem might be that we don't have all the characters used in the Tutorial Mission:

Logan Sheppard, Lieutenant Maus, Dr. Petrova

 

[Madkill40]

I was thinking the voice for this tutorial would be a characterised voice-over (As if coming through a military radio) and there could just be scripted AI patrolling and guarding, as this would probably be much easier than animating mouths and creating new models specifically for the tutorial?

[LavaDr4gon]

If you were to do the voice-over having EVA instructing you would be more appropriate.

[j0g32]

Thanks again @Henk - reimported the original Mesh: just had to tick "Combine Meshes" ^^ Though, I will try to get rid of some of the "cliffs" all around the base.

@CoreDefender yes, we do not have all of the characters, but they could easily be replaced; e.g. a generic GDI Officer instead of Logan could be leading you around the base. Instead of Petrova, an engineer could explain how a powerplant works (would require new sound files). And Lt. Maus only introduces "base destruction", and the simulated "Nod attack", which would be different for this map anyway, so we would not have to worry about her. Yet, we might need someone else to explain more about C&C mode etc. with new soundfiles, obviously.

Initially, I thought of reusing as most of the content/concept as possible from the original Renegade Tutorial - for the sake of nostalgia, but then again, RenX Devs have worked hard to improve on the original's shortcomings. So, I am really excited to see your take on this @Madkill40 

Hm, ... I am not a huge fan of EVA-online instructions. I always felt that following Logan and going back and forth to Gunner to pick up new guns was rather engaging, and I would therefore like to keep it in a similar way.

I will keep you posted!

 

[TK0104]

You can export a lot of conversation sounds out of the original game by using the XCC mod tools. That's how I figured out that the beta tutorial was going to have all the buildings (including CY, CC, Helipad, Repair Facility) and more weapons during weapon training (Grenade Launcher, Chaingun, Flamethrower) and more vehicles during vehicle drive training (recon bike)

[Madkill40]

If I made an EVA I'd have to get an actor friend or deliver a male EVA as well, just sayin'. 

15 minutes ago, TK0104 said:

You can export a lot of conversation sounds out of the original game by using the XCC mod tools. That's how I figured out that the beta tutorial was going to have all the buildings (including CY, CC, Helipad, Repair Facility) and more weapons during weapon training (Grenade Launcher, Chaingun, Flamethrower) and more vehicles during vehicle drive training (recon bike)

Voice acted recordings which also come under copyright laws. Sound effects are one thing (not sure if the original RenX dev's remastered the original sound effects and modified them or made new but similar ones) but to use pre-recorded sounds made by 'Eeel Aroma' and voice actors could stir a whole new hive of potential legal issues, especially if this tutorial level was incorporated into the RenX game as a "Tutorial" option in the menu. (i.e. endorsed)

I wouldn't put it past Electromagnetic Anuses to pull this kind of issue out their ass. 

I should get cracking with writing up lines for each weapon...

[j0g32]

Yep, exactly, maybe there is some snippets from the campaign that might be useful. Guess, I have to reinstall Renegade on my laptop when I get home next week^^

I don't see, why EA and Renegade IP is again a topic here?

Or is intellectual property rights different feom copyright?

Black Dawn uses dialog sounds from orig. Renegade, especially from the tutorial... "Gunner! What you got for me?" etc. 

I would just do it in the same way, and therefore stick to the setup of the original Tutorial

[Ruud033]

On 10-3-2017 at 6:43 PM, Madkill40 said:

We've got a decent wiki page I can get information from of which I can use for scripting purposes, I'll try out a few things and post some recordings.

It'd be better to post a script instead to discuss what lines to use where before you start recording. If you start recording straight away that'll get messy very fast.

@j0g32 I can help you setup this if you like. I already have some idea's on how to do stuff, as already has been said.. we have to tweak the level to match the Renegade-X gameplay a bit more. We also might incorporate vehicle training.. how that'll be implemented is something to discuss before we begin doing it.

The AI kismet is going to be the tricky part

[j0g32]

Thanks, @Ruud033 - any help is greatly appreciated!

As I said, I would start off with the concept from the original Tutorial, as most of the stuff is still very relevant especially for beginners.

In fact, I will try to write a script of the (original, and perhaps some unused) soundfiles. And then we can see which of the phrases we can reuse, or where we might want to cut and glue some of the sound snippets together^^. I will post this separately.

 

Some additional features that can be "easily" incorporated with a simple task for the player, and some more "broad instructions":

• Mines: Let the player mine a tunnel entrance to the base (between the to gates, behind Ref and WF) "Secure the base by using mines to prevent scouts from sneaking around unnoticed. Mine supply on the battlefield is limited - therefore mines should ideally be placed in choke points, such as tunnel or building entrances."
• Airstrike: "We are being sieged by Nod Artillery! Call in airstrikes!"  (aim from the concrete walls next to the gates)
• Tech-Buildings: "We need a stable source of income to purchase and produce weaponry. Capture (and defend!) the silo to generate additional income for your team."
• Q-Talk/Spot: "Give orders by aiming at an objective (or an ally) and pressing Q. Tell the soldier to follow you " ... Later, (after Artillery siege?) call for help to repair damaged buildings, e.g. powerplant.
• Sprint/Stamina: "Practice walking around - meet me in the next section when you are done" - (At the very beginning) Just show a Tooltip to use Sprint, and instruct the player to use a switch to open the door, however it automatically closes after 5 secs. The player can only reach the gate from the switch within those 5secs if they use sprint...
• ...

 

I have adjusted the whole layout to the original mesh, kudos to @Henk And I have started to flesh out the first section, the obstacle course.

The dimensions are the same, but I changed the look and feel of it - a bit inspired by CoD ModernWarfare 2  tutorial level (The Pit). The idea is that Havoc was dropped of by a Chinook (on the helipad in the background), and enters the obstacle course from the fence-gate. The climb-the-ladder and jump-to-the-next-crate challenge is now more difficult: 1) you have to crouch to enter the area, and 2) the jump is more difficult, I barely make it on first attempt.

I have also started fiddling with the dialogues, based on what I could recover from the Black Dawn Kismet scripts: I got to spawn a RenX AI Pawn (named Logan, though I cannot change the character model) and after playing some random dialog cue, the door opens and he runs to another PathNode. However, I cannot get him to stay there even though I froze him... instead he is running back and forth on the walkway, until he gets lost and suicides...

I guess a problem here is that the RenX Pawn AI uses a built in C&C-mode pathfinding algorithm to autonomously buy vehicles, navigate to the enemy base and attack.

Also one thing I was looking forward to, was to use some of the Black Dawn animations from the dialogues, including leaning on rails etc. but this does not yet work. Guess the Kismet node PawnAnim only works for animation sequences that are already assigned to this Pawn class...

 

So, if anyone has some more experience about adding scripted AI, and playing custom animations for pawns - your advice would be highly appreciated  

 

 

After writing the script from the original Renegade tutorial, I could draw the whole thing (plus new features) and storyline on an overview map.

Cheers

[Ruud033]

Getting there!

I think that at this point, its better to write the storyline first and then continue work on the map, as the map will eventually take shape accordingly.

[j0g32]

22 hours ago, Ruud033 said:

I think that at this point, its better to write the storyline first and then continue work on the map, as the map will eventually take shape accordingly.

Yep, I am currently trying to type the script (essentially subtitles) of the original tutorial. Then we can see which character says what and if we could reuse some of the snippets. It appears, that there should already be some kind of script in the game, because without this reference on the wikipage, I wouldn't have known, how to spell "Vervack Commando Elite Falcon Pistol"... http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Falcon_pistol#cite_note-0

 

Anyway, so basically, I imagine a structure very close to the original one (new RenX bits in green)

1. Obstacle course
   • movement: WASD, jump, sprint, (stamina), crouch, ladders
   • communication: interacting with equipment (E),  Q-spotting / short commands (instead of E) ? , CTRL + ALT commands?
   • objectives: from the SP campaign = orders from MP Commander mutator ?
2. Adv. Guard Tower
   • automated defences, i.e. AGT and Obelisk, need energy supply - if PP is destroyed they will shut down ?
   • Health and Armour (personal)
   • engineers/technicians can also heal
   • mention that similarly, buildings have exterior armour and "integrity" (=health), where only armour can be repaired, "but we'll cover it later"
   • Radar (minimap) and Tactical map (M-key), though symbols are different, no indicators for MCTs...
3. Barracks & Firing Range
   • process recruits (= access to infantry classes), Nod has Hand of Nod
   • reticle colouring, dot/crosshair (especially relevant for tanks)vetc.
   • targeting brackets and info
   • headshot multiplier (= more damage)
   • Weapons: pistol (unlimited ammo), sniper (+scoping, but applies to all weapons), automatic rifle, rocket launcher (+ lock on), remote C4 (plant & detonate), Ion Cannon beacon (explain how to disarm enemy ones, also C4)
   • different weapons use different types of ammunition, [optionally] come back later and use the firing range to play around with different weapons on different targets
4. Weapons Factory
   • Vehicle Production (=access to vehicles), Nod: Airstrip
   • if destroyed, only emergency vehicle-airdrops
   • driver & gunner (all others are passengers)
   • controls and test drive around the base: Humvee
   • "squishing", Medium Tank
   • engineers can repair vehicles
5. Refinery
   • Tiberium processing, generates (steady) income
   • Tiberium harvest, (brings in more money when returns from field)
   • TIberium is dangerous to human tissue
   • Tiberium can be stored and enriched in Silos, also generating income (indirectly hints at capturing a silo)
6. Power Plant
   • Base needs to power, otherwise buildings shut down and do not function
   • specifically tell that due to inefficiency production costs for weaponry and vehicles rise, and main automatic base defences are offline
   • keep Powerplant intact
7. Nod Attack
   1. Mobile artilleries approach on a hilltop behind the southern gate and bombard the powerplant
   2. Tell the player to call out that the powerplant needs repairs, and to defend the base (Q-spotting and CTRL + ALT commands)
   3. Player has to defend the base, by attacking from the gate/walls. He will be given binoculars to call in airstrikes and break the siege
   4. Eliminate all remaining Nod infantry, esp. Officers how call in support (outside the base)
8. Base Operations
   • Return to base, and notice that artillery damage was sufficient to break the armour and permanently damage the power plant
   • MCT is the heart of every building, player has to help repair the armour of the powerplant.
   • if a buildings integrity (health) is 0%, it is permanently destroyed and cannot be rebuild, remind to keep building armour intact to prevent permanent damage
   • Player has to secure the base by placing mines into the tunnel (place mines in strategic choke points, such as building and tunnel entrances)
   • mention to watch out for Nod stealth units (which are still detected by automatic base defences though)
9. Economy & Gameplay
   • Goals: defend your base while destroying the enemy base
   • gather (personal!) income (credits) from Tiberium processing and harvest, and from damaging enemy units or repairing allied units
   • credits are used to buy and produce infantry equipment, vehicles, and superweapons at Purchase Terminals
   • coordinate your attacks and prioritise your strategy, e.g. cutting power, vs disabling vehicle support
   • as you gain combat experience on the battlefield you will be promoted, which allows you to deal more damage with higher rate of fire (veterancy system)
   • Now you are good to go !
10. Free Skirmish Play
    • local hints are given when the player reaches certain locations or aims at certain units/buildings, examples
    • Tiberium SIlo: capture to generate additional income
    • communications centre: capture to gain intel on the enemy's positions
    • Back / sneak entrance / tunnel: try to infiltrate the base, use smoke grenades to cover your advance,
    • main entrance: only brute force with heavy armour, vehicles and numbers allows to break through enemy lines
    • preplaced enemy mines: use EMP / repair tools to deactivate
    • Attack the Harvester to weaken Nods income
    • Destroy Powerplant to cut base power, which shuts of Obelisk, and disturbs production by increasing prices
    • Destroy Hand of Nod, to cut Nod supply of advanced infantry equipment including stealth and technicians
    • Destroy Airstrip to cut the supply of Nod vehicles
    • Destory Refinery to weaken Nods economy, no tiberium processing no harvesting
    • Destroy obelisk to allow your teammates to attack the Nod base

[j0g32]

Meh, I couldn't find my Renegade installation CDs at home. Does somebody else have original Renegade installed, and could extract/upload the soundfiles? :-)

 

Perhaps, we could also introduce a "sidekick" character, who follows the player or guide, and explains the new RenX bits where necessary?

What else do you think should be covered in a tutorial?

 

That way we can still reuse the original content/concept.

Since most of what I am having in mind has been done one way or the other (kismet or uscript?) In RenX or Black Dawn, I thought it would be helpful to ask those involved, if they would be able to hint at how these things were done, or which resources they used for learning?

- Scripted AI movement (movetoactor? Lookat? but doesnt seem to work with RenX Bots - different AI ?)

- Spawn specific AI characters

- (Optional: let NPCs do animations)

- Conversation subtitles (i figured how those sounds are played via kismet, but I dont see how the subtitles are displayed?)

- Tooltips (See e.g. kenz's video for custom PurchaseTerminals and Helipads or the one about MCT; is there also a placeable object, or a volume, which allows to show tooltips? Or can they be triggered via Kismet?)

- perhaps, also how to check for mine/beacon placement, e.g. currently you cannot place fake beacons close to your base... this should be disabled, because you are asked to place an ion cannon beacon in the firing range ^^

 

But honestly, that's about it ^^.

As I said, most of it has already been implemented, so it's not rocket since  :-P

Yes the script/story will dictate everything else, but im themeantime I would love to fiddle with the technicalities ;-)

[j0g32]

Update:

I added some more path nodes in the base, and the movement now seems to work better (eventhough I freeze him anyway - perhaps the AI goes mental, if it has no path (in theory) to get to buildings?)

 

Also, I discovered that you can add subtitles for sound cues directly, just open the sound cue editor from the content browser; there are options for subtitles and timing!

Unfortunately, it's the standard UDK/UT3 font, but it's something and better than EVA logs/announcements 

Until i can extract the original soundfiles, i will just audiograb them from a video as placeholders to work with.

[Madkill40]

On 3/24/2017 at 6:50 PM, j0g32 said:

Perhaps, we could also introduce a "sidekick" character, who follows the player or guide, and explains the new RenX bits where necessary?

This would be much easier to voice act as it would open up the freedom to create a character voice rather than to attempt an imitation of pre-existing voices, for example; imitating Havoc's voice would be quite difficult and a poor imitation is worthless as it lowers the quality of the players' experience.

A Nod Rocket Soldier model re-skinned in GDI colours would be a good idea for said sidekick character, simply because there would be no fiddling with mouth animations required.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Madkill40

[j0g32]

8 hours ago, Madkill40 said:

This would be much easier to voice act as it would open up the freedom to create a character voice rather than to attempt an imitation of pre-existing voices, for example; imitating Havoc's voice would be quite difficult and a poor imitation is worthless as it lowers the quality of the players' experience.

A Nod Rocket Soldier model re-skinned in GDI colours would be a good idea for said sidekick character, simply because there would be no fiddling with mouth animations required.

Yes, I agree with you - we could even have multiple sidekicks, but this might get too messy.

How about using Patch for Logan (similar look), and Deadeye as his sidekick. These two characters do not appear in the original tutorial at all, and I don't even know, what Patch's voice sounds like... ^^ Or as I said, use a generic GDI officer for Logan, and a soldier as sidekick. Or while we are talking about reskin, perhaps even Raveshaw - he looks very "General-like"...

 

Also, I wouldn't bother that much about animations to be honest, at least for now.

Firstly, in Black Dawn there are already some conversational animations, which we might use, but I have the feeling that they can only be used on skeletal meshes, not on AI bots directly. Possibly, we have to create custom Pawns for this anyway...

Secondly, looking at the player, or to one another, could be compelling enough for a conversation: e.g. when Logan is talking, Logan himself is looking at the player, and the sidekick is looking at Logan, and vice versa. I think, this is how the conversation between McFarland and the GDI squads is done, after they have secured the beach head and split up to destroy the SAM sites.

 

update: I have "kismetted" the obstacle course with sound and subtitles - maybe I can show you a video soon

cheers

[j0g32]

Yoo, recently, I have been working on some details mostly, changed the shooting range layout a bit, and added tunnels leading to a bunker.

I also changed one of ArabDeco Props Textures in order to use the "linen" market stalls as camo-nettings (TGA texture attached). I think it looks quite cool, and adds to the military camp look.

 

 

As you might have seen, I am also trying to figure out, how to spawn Bots with a specific character class, but no real progress so far...

https://renegade-x.com/forums/topic/75510-how-to-spawnchange-infantry-class-for-bots-in-kismet/

cheers

TX_MarketStalls_CamoNet_D.tga

Edited April 22, 2017 by j0g32

[TK0104]

You should edit the part where you practiced movements (in the original game) with CSG instead of these single meshes.

 

I think you also don't need to put so many characters in. Put only Officers and Soldiers in and put Gunner, Sydney, Hotwire, Mobius, Deadeye (Replacement for Petrova) in the buildings. Replace Logan with McFarland. For Maus...... I have no idea (You'll figure something out )

 

Hint: Disable Weapons of AGT or they will attack enemy bots

 

For the Barracks: You could edit the model in 3ds max by copying over the front and use that as the back aswell so you have a back entrance to the firing range

 

Refinery elevator: Add a door where the elevator is (like in the original) and put a sign with "Out of Order" on it OR make an entrance in the interior for the elevator and create the underground floor with CSG (or 3ds max)

 

I have the original Renegade gate sounds exported to WAV so you can import them in UDK. Maybe for the gates in your map....

gatedwn1.wav

gateup1.wav

 

 

Edited April 22, 2017 by TK0104

[j0g32]

On Sat Apr 22 2017 at 4:49 PM, TK0104 said:

You should edit the part where you practiced movements (in the original game) with CSG instead of these single meshes.

What do you mean? The HESCO barriers?

I know that in orig. Renegade it used to be concrete walls, but to me this would feel more like a prison and not appropriate...

On Sat Apr 22 2017 at 4:49 PM, TK0104 said:

I think you also don't need to put so many characters in. Put only Officers and Soldiers in and put Gunner, Sydney, Hotwire, Mobius, Deadeye (Replacement for Petrova) in the buildings. Replace Logan with McFarland. For Maus...... I have no idea (You'll figure something out )

Yes, for now its just for cosmetics and ambiance (and scale) - these are just skeletal meshes with different poses/anims.

I wanted to recreate some of the feeling of "S.S.D.D." in MW2: 

 

 

Since all other characters are introduced by name, and their names are part of the classes in RenX (hotwire, gunner, sidney) I dont want to choose a "named character" as "Logan Sheppard". This would be confusing.

Instead, Logan could be a generic GDI Officer character, although I was indeed thinking of using McFarland's body skin with the standard officer head and mesh.

 

Along similar lines, a reskin/mash up of sidney and sakura might be a good replacement of Elena Petrova...

(If they are both based on the same body mesh?!)

 

But as long as I cannot set a Bot's class/character, this is not yet important.

And only using skeletal meshes (without HUD / radar Info) for the acting characters again leads to confusion and discontiuity...

On Sat Apr 22 2017 at 4:49 PM, TK0104 said:

Hint: Disable Weapons of AGT or they will attack enemy bots

Yes, in the original tutorial the weapons are disabled as well.

Preferably however, I would not want to change anything related to standard C&C mode and functionality.

The transition from tutorial lessons into freeplay skirmish should be rather seemless.

If possible though, all standard RenX bots (including harvesters) should be deactivated and only swarm out once the tutorial is over...

 

On Sat Apr 22 2017 at 4:49 PM, TK0104 said:

For the Barracks: You could edit the model in 3ds max by copying over the front and use that as the back aswell so you have a back entrance to the firing range

Refinery elevator: Add a door where the elevator is (like in the original) and put a sign with "Out of Order" on it OR make an entrance in the interior for the elevator and create the underground floor with CSG (or 3ds max)

Yes, but why ?!

In orig. Renegade the buildings in the singleplayer campaign had different layouts and a lot of elevators, so its not that a problem that the tutorial buildings and the multiplayer buildings were different.

But in RenX we dont have that, and for the tutorial itself, alterations to the buildings would not add anything. Whenever you move down the elevator you just meet someone to instruct you, who could have also been placed on the ground level instead. Also I am adding a few details inside the refinery, such as tiberium crystals, a fence and warning signs, so that when Mobius talks about Tiberium and its dangers, the player has a visual reference of what he is talking about

 

In my opinion, the firing range makes more sense this way, since you are not shooting INTO the base (orig. Renegade tutorial), but OUT of it. If bullets spread they could not hit anyone who is just minding their base operations business... ^^

And as the player will see the shooting range before getting to the AGT and the Barracks, they will know what Gunner refers to as the "firing range out the back". Plus objective markers would show the way around.

 

On Sat Apr 22 2017 at 4:49 PM, TK0104 said:

I have the original Renegade gate sounds exported to WAV so you can import them in UDK. Maybe for the gates in your map....

gatedwn1.wav

gateup1.wav

Thanks for this, Thommy - greatly appreciated!

I will update it in the building prefab kit, where I also noticed that the Kismet for the gates did not allow harvesters to trigger (player only) - I will fix this in this future...

Cheers

[Madkill40]

On 3/27/2017 at 11:20 AM, j0g32 said:

How about using Patch for Logan (similar look), and Deadeye as his sidekick. These two characters do not appear in the original tutorial at all, and I don't even know, what Patch's voice sounds like

Use Patch and Gunner, I wouldn't mind voicing Patch and Gunner is a cockney geezer anyway.

Edited April 24, 2017 by Madkill40

[Henk]

Gunner is Australian

[j0g32]

51 minutes ago, Henk said:

Gunner is Australian

Nope, got to agree with @Madkill40 - can't get more London East than that^^

 

First attempt of Patch reskin as Logan (sry, for medium detail settings):

I think the tattoo should go over the eyebrow level, and I will probably change the t-shirt colour from blue to olive... but hey - it's something^^

 

[Henk]

oops

[TK0104]

Small concept image of logan

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/cnc/images/f/f4/Logan.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081223140605

 

[j0g32]

Thanks @TK0104 

some progress on the Logan skin:

[DoctorAnubis]

This looks and sounds really good so far

[j0g32]

On ‎25‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 0:46 AM, DoctorAnubis said:

This looks and sounds really good so far

Thanks

Yet, I still have no clear idea how to get Logan (or any existing Character) into the game via Commands/Kismet

 

 

In the meantime, I have been "Kismetting" the PowerUps and radar sequence with Sidney in the AGT - it works quite well now, after a few issues with the sound cues in the dialog and the subtitles, though, but a few restarts of the UDK solved the problem eventually *yay*.

 

Also I have spawned a Nod Chinook, which is flying over the base. This should illustrate radar icons.

Unfortunately, however, the Chinook is not visible on the radar, unless I target it myself.

I tried spawning a bot shooting at the chinook but he does not "spot" it, so it's not highlighted on the radar/map.

The AGT is also firing at it, but it does not spot it either. Actually, I was thinking of adding an ingame camera to the AGT so that the player can watch the AGT shooting at the chopper from inside the AGT (the big black display)  

 

Would anyone have an idea, how to set radar icon visible for a specific player? Or a workaround? Perhaps via the communications centre (at least temporary)?

edit: I captured a communications centre before starting the sequence, but it didn't spot the chopper either.

 

Next, I will be working on the weapons training sequence in the barracks/shooting range.

cheers

Edited April 26, 2017 by j0g32
tested communications centre

[j0g32]

So yeah, small update:

I finally found my old Renegade CDs at home, however, the installation was in German only, so I cannot use the sound files. But I found English cue/bin files online instead, and I have just started looking into the always.dat (where all the textures sounds are stored).

Perhaps, I can use the original Logan texture as a reference for the reskin.

Also, as @TK0104 already mentioned, there is much more content, and many more sound files in these archives than are actually used in-game, such as sneaking and crawling, more weapons, Purchase Terminals. etc.

I will start going through those files and noting down the dialogs - I have a good feeling that a lot of bits can become useful for the tutorial for RenX

cheers.

[TK0104]

37 minutes ago, j0g32 said:

So yeah, small update:

I finally found my old Renegade CDs at home, however, the installation was in German only, so I cannot use the sound files. But I found English cue/bin files online instead, and I have just started looking into the always.dat (where all the textures sounds are stored).

Perhaps, I can use the original Logan texture as a reference for the reskin.

Also, as @TK0104 already mentioned, there is much more content, and many more sound files in these archives than are actually used in-game, such as sneaking and crawling, more weapons, Purchase Terminals. etc.

I will start going through those files and noting down the dialogs - I have a good feeling that a lot of bits can become useful for the tutorial for RenX

cheers.

Yes there are a lot of unused sounds that were supposed to be used for multiplayer

[j0g32]

22 hours ago, TK0104 said:

Yes there are a lot of unused sounds that were supposed to be used for multiplayer

Yep - and this is really cool!

I went through all the tutorial dialog files (as far as I could identify them by their names) and wrote down the text and character for all lines. Also I have added a few notes, whether they were used in the final version of the original renegade, and if they could be used (also partially with cutting/adding words) for Renegade X Tutorial. See the excel file attached.

The major changes I have figured so far (some of which @TK0104 already mentioned):

• Rolling, sneaking, walking and dashing were additional tactical moves (we might recycle some of that)
• Sidney was supposed to be in the Communications Center (separate base building)
• Additional weapons: Grenade launcher, Chaingun, Flamethrower, and a few notes about "different grenades" and other types of C4 (we can use some of the bits perhaps).
• Purchase Terminals are mentioned (that's a must!)
• There is a repair pad in the middle of the base (we could also add that)
• Nod recon bike for vehicle practice.
• A helipad is shortly mentioned (not currently used in RenX MP)
• Protecting // attacking Tiberium Harverster is mentioned by Mobius.
• Lt. Maus is in the construction yard (new building), and there was supposed to be an icon (for attackers?) indicating if a building is being repaired?
• Nod soldiers should be watched placing C4 on the MCT in the barracks.
• the AGT was controllable !  (perhaps recycling some bits for the emplacements)

Feel free to have a look !

cnc_tutorial_scripts.xlsx

Edited May 2, 2017 by j0g32

[TK0104]

I have a Scripted Repair Pad which is destroyable. It still uses kismet but the kismet will de-activate when the building is destroyed.

It's not finished yet so maybe you have to use a regular mesh for now

 

Landing Pad??? Is that the Helicopter Pad?

Edited May 2, 2017 by TK0104

[Madkill40]

On 5/2/2017 at 0:30 PM, j0g32 said:Feel free to have a look !

 

•  

cnc_tutorial_scripts.xlsx

That is very awesome and useful. 

Reduce the characters to just Logan and Gunner. [And Patch if you want an additional] So lines are other characters become Logan's and Gunner's lines.

There are probably a lot of single-player based lines which can be culled so modifying the script to be more accurate to Multiplayer of RenX is at least a little less to do.

Remove Havoc's lines, the player you are doesn't need to speak. (Works for Half-Life)

This is good amount of research work. Very nicely done.

[j0g32]

On ‎02‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 6:31 PM, TK0104 said:

I have a Scripted Repair Pad which is destroyable. It still uses kismet but the kismet will de-activate when the building is destroyed.

It's not finished yet so maybe you have to use a regular mesh for now

Yes, that would be great!  For now we could just add it as a place holder, if it doesn't work properly - is it the one that Henk also used on Reservoir?

 

On ‎02‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 6:31 PM, TK0104 said:

Landing Pad??? Is that the Helicopter Pad?

Yeah, but it is pretty much out of context: "The next platform is a Landing Pad for helicopters and orca strike craft."

and that's all...

 

 

4 hours ago, Madkill40 said:

That is very awesome and useful. 

Reduce the characters to just Logan and Gunner. [And Patch if you want an additional] So lines are other characters become Logan's and Gunner's lines.

There are probably a lot of single-player based lines which can be culled so modifying the script to be more accurate to Multiplayer of RenX is at least a little less to do.

Remove Havoc's lines, the player you are doesn't need to speak. (Works for Half-Life)

This is good amount of research work. Very nicely done.

Thanks

Hmm, I don't know about reducing characters...

I think I would like to keep at least the following characters with their tutorial parts:

1. Logan for basic controls and as a Guide throughout the base.
2. Sidney for health/armour and radar
3. Gunner for infantry & weapons training
4. Hotwire for vehicle production / training (and repairpad)
5. Mobius for Tiberium and Refinery.

Up to here I would like to keep everything close to the original tutorial sequence, perhaps extended and adjusted for RenX (e.g. no security cards, but dashing = sprinting)

Similarly, I don't know about Havoc... I see what you are saying, that since you never feel the presence of your avatar in HL2, it's easier for the player to get immersed and identify themselves with their character. however, some of them only work as a dialog, e.g. Havoc: "What's with these terminals I keep seeing on the walls?" Gunner: "Those are for purchasing items and classes in multiplayer. We won't be needing them here."

Luckily, all of the lines are pretty much separate soundfiles, so we can easily add or skip them in Kismet!

 

Frankly speaking, I feel that it would actually be more work to merge various snippets from the singleplayer campaign in order to use only a few characters in the tutorial. Especially, since we already have the soundfiles (covering most of the essentials) and the corresponding character models from the original tutorial, I think that keeping the main concept and content close to the original makes it much easier for us...

Any nostalgia aside ^^

 

However, Petrova only has minor lines about the PP and base power, and we would need a reskin to introduce her.

Similarly Lt. Maus tells us only a few important bits about MCTs. So, in light of the slightly different gameplay mechanics in Renegade X, I was thinking of replacing these characters and continuing the tutorial as follows:

6. a GDI Engineer (new voice @Madkill40?) awaits in the powerplant and tells about base power, and "how important his maintenance job is". He also explains the effects if the PP shuts down (advanced defences offline, prices more expensive). With Kismet we can quickly show what it looks like if the AGT's weapons is offline - conveniently, the AGT is in sight from inside the PP.

7. Then, suddenly Artillery shells hit the powerplant, the engineer starts repairing; and the player follows Logan to the gate, where they have to defend the base. "We're gonna have some fun". The player will be given an airstrike by the commanding Officer (new voice 2 @Madkill40 ?) at the gate to use it against the artillery. Any remaining Nod forces have to be eliminated by the player & GDI bots or are killed via Kismet. Logan sends Havoc back to the powerplant, says "my job is done here", and stays with the guards at the gate.

8. The artillery bombardment left permanent damage to the PP (adjust with Kismet if necessary), and inside the player will be given a repair tool by the engineer and has to help him repair its armour. "oh darn, the damage to the building internals is permanent, and there's nothing I can do to fix this". The engineer will then tell the player that damage and repairs are more effective if targeted to the buildings core, the MCT. "Once the building integrity reaches zero, it is destroyed, and even I cannot do anything to bring it back to life. That's why we have to keep the armour intact."

9. The Officer awaits outside: "We were taken by surprise with this Nod attack! This cannot happen again - we have to put up more defensive measures! Secure the tunnel entrances." "Come back when you are done." Player goes to the tunnel, and Hotwire comes out of the weapons factory. She drops mines for the player to pick up, but should say something like she is to busy now (all this hinting at the simple fact, that she is only class with mines) - hopefully there are some more bits in the campaign that might be useful. Instead the player has to place 3 mines in each entrance. A soldier (or Patch / Deadeye) (new voice 3 @Madkill40) guarding the tunnel entrance could give further information like: "mines can be used to secure tactical choke points such as tunnel entrances or building entrances. Place enough to block the passage, but don't overdo it - we have limited supply of mines on the battlefield. Three mines should suffice here. The mine limit is on the bottom of your display, if you place mines beyond the maximum the first mine will disappear. Keep an eye on the counter to detect infiltrators."

10. Back at the Officer, general information about the C&C game mode is provided:
"The objective of Command and Conquer is to destroy the enemy base while protecting your own. You can damage enemy buildings from the exterior with heavy weapons and vehicles. You can place and defend superweapon beacons next to buildings, or you can infiltrate buildings and attack the MCT inside. Use credits at purchase terminals to equip infantry classes or buy vehicles. Get in front of a terminal and press [E] to enter the purchase menu. Provided that you have enough credits, you can select a new class to equip for your character, item or vehicle and then click buy. Credits are earned from tiberium harvests and processing. You can increase income from tiberium processing by capturing silos. You can also earn credits for damaging enemy units and buildings or repairing allies. Your experience on the battlefield is also reflected in your veterancy status: combat actions reward you with veterancy points and increase your veterency level. At higher veterancy levels you will deal more damage, fire faster and resist more damage.

If you are eliminated on the battlefield you will respawn in your base, but you will lose your class and equipment. Your credits and veterancy level remain.

Okay you are good to go. Use the GDI Base to your advantage and defend its structures. Find and eliminate all Nod forces and destroy the Nod Base. Good luck!

And then finally Skirmish starts; i.e. Bots spawn and everything that might have been deactivated for the tutorial (PT, gates, AGT etc.) are now functioning normally.

Not everything is explained in detail, but I think the most effective learning derives from actually exploring things yourself. The only addition here would be to have tactical tooltips, which appear throughout the map depending on the situation / location.

cheers

[DoctorAnubis]

I think keeping Havoc voice is a good idea, I assume you will be asked to purchase a certain character at some point in the tutorial however. I don't mind doing a voice-over, very British though, probably wouldn't suit the engineer.

[j0g32]

11 minutes ago, DoctorAnubis said:

I don't mind doing a voice-over, very British though, probably wouldn't suit the engineer.

The engineer could be American, like in Team Fortress 2,

 

or London East End (again^^) like this lovely "plumber"

 

[TK0104]

@j0g32 Yes it's the same repair pad Henk used. (It is officially Henk's version)

[CoreDefender]

On 5/2/2017 at 11:31 AM, TK0104 said:

Landing Pad??? Is that the Helicopter Pad?

10 hours ago, j0g32 said:

Yeah, but it is pretty much out of context: "The next platform is a Landing Pad for helicopters and orca strike craft."

and that's all...

Yes, that's the GDI/Nod Helipad

[j0g32]

2 hours ago, CoreDefender said:

Yes, that's the GDI/Nod Helipad

Thanks - i am familiar with the landing or helipad in C&C

 

It was just interesting to discover that at some point the GDI Helipad was also planned to be part of the tutorial

[Madkill40]

Apologies, there just seemed to be bits in the scripts that may have to have been modified to make sense, a lot of the dialogue is single-player based and I wasn't sure how much of that you wanted to keep in and as such was just offering to re-voice a majority of what would be kept but if you're happy with using the original sound files that is absolutely fine as well.

I am absolutely game for doing voices for the Engineer, the Officer and Patch. 

[j0g32]

On ‎04‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 4:50 PM, Madkill40 said:

Apologies, there just seemed to be bits in the scripts that may have to have been modified to make sense, a lot of the dialogue is single-player based and I wasn't sure how much of that you wanted to keep in and as such was just offering to re-voice a majority of what would be kept but if you're happy with using the original sound files that is absolutely fine as well.

I am absolutely game for doing voices for the Engineer, the Officer and Patch. 

Yes, this is true... however, at the same time there are few lines, which were unused in the final original renegade tutorial, but could be useful for Renegade X multiplayer

Similar to Black Dawn, I think it would be cool if we could give this tutorial as much authenticity as possible, by using the original characters and their voices.

However, as I tried to outline above, a few additional "more generic"  characters could be used to communicate the additional RenX // Multiplayer content.

Please, feel free to write/record some lines for those additional characters - would be great

 

Update:

since I managed to change characters via Kismet...

... I can finally showcase Logan ingame *yay* .

As soon as you activate the trigger in the obstacle course, the player's class is also changed to Havoc (though with standard MP-inventory, but this will be changed to "unarmed" in the future). Logan still needs some UI/HUD info...

To demonstrate the differential effects of damage with or without armour, I had to use tiberium as an armour-penetrating damage type^^. Sidney in the image below is only a Skeletal Mesh, but I will replace her and all the others soon as well.

I think, I now have most of the "essential" building blocks to get going!

The only thing that would come in useful are "Tooltips" (like the ones you see in front of PTs, or Silo MCTs) - I will have to dig a bit more to see if creating placeable actors and/or Kismetting sequence objects would make more sense.

Next up, more dialogue works, merging lines and Kismet scripting.

Cheers

[j0g32]

Heya,

Quick update:

I have adjusted (and almost finalized) the movement course to include sprinting, crouching, brief Q-communication and E-interactions, as well as to reduce bits irrelevant for RenX (imo).

Some of the new snippets sound almost natural others are rather artificial. Most of the Kismet is now leaner/tidier with less object references.

Furthermore, I have added a clumsy take on tooltips, but I had to change the Rx_HUD.uc in order to enable Kismet to "Draw Text" in rx game mode. Using this node seemed most straight forward for Kismet based mission event scripting; but I may rework or drop it entirely...

The bit that is not yet working properly, is "Q-spotting" a friendly bot to "Follow you", and hook this into Kismet; seems to be a problem with cinematic mode.

Hopefully, I can show you a video of the current WIP this weekend.

 

For the other tutorial parts, I won't have to alter/script that much, so implementation should be easier and faster.

Cheers

[j0g32]

Here's the video(s).

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Au2mHmfZkHCtpgaoH4v9m9lbsYmc

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Au2mHmfZkHCtpgf8oLsZw0ASs1U6

The software I downloaded only allows 2min. clips and also adds watermarks, but you will get the idea

Let me know what you think

 

Notes:

• Sorry, for low graphics settings (and occasional lags/jumps), but this is the best I can do atm - suffices for Kismet and sound edits though
• Difficult to "experience" in the video, but the player is "frozen" (cinematic mode) every now and then, when Logan talks (shooting is disabled, but other inputs not)
• So far, only the sound files in the obstacle course are high-quality, which were extracted from the original always.dat and manually cut. The rest at the end needs the same touch-ups/replacements
• The music is way too loud - I am using the standard RenX gamemode with built-in jukebox. I forgot to set all dialogue sound cues to the respective sound channels, don't know if this would help with the balance?
• The current tooltip font (RenxHud.Font.CTextFont_Large) has some ugly artifacts. Don't know if there's a way to better imitate the style of ingame tooltips; the system for tooltips (PTs, MCTs, vehicles etc.) seems to be built in and difficult to assess with Kismet.

Edited May 13, 2017 by j0g32
no embedding with iframe :(

[TK0104]

1 hour ago, j0g32 said:

Here's the video(s).

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Au2mHmfZkHCtpgaoH4v9m9lbsYmc

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Au2mHmfZkHCtpgf8oLsZw0ASs1U6

The software I downloaded only allows 2min. clips and also adds watermarks, but you will get the idea

Let me know what you think

 

Notes:

• Sorry, for low graphics settings (and occasional lags/jumps), but this is the best I can do atm - suffices for Kismet and sound edits though
• Difficult to "experience" in the video, but the player is "frozen" (cinematic mode) every now and then, when Logan talks (shooting is disabled, but other inputs not)
• So far, only the sound files in the obstacle course are high-quality, which were extracted from the original always.dat and manually cut. The rest at the end needs the same touch-ups/replacements
• The music is way too loud - I am using the standard RenX gamemode with built-in jukebox. I forgot to set all dialogue sound cues to the respective sound channels, don't know if this would help with the balance?
• The current tooltip font (RenxHud.Font.CTextFont_Large) has some ugly artifacts. Don't know if there's a way to better imitate the style of ingame tooltips; the system for tooltips (PTs, MCTs, vehicles etc.) seems to be built in and difficult to assess with Kismet.

Could you put the video on Google Drive or youtube? I don't have OneDrive and It's not really necessary to create an account to watch 1 video

 

[j0g32]

1 hour ago, TK0104 said:

Could you put the video on Google Drive or youtube? I don't have OneDrive and It's not really necessary to create an account to watch 1 video

whut?!

yes, of course not  - but, youtube always takes long with compression and verification etc. ...

But that's weird ... - I tried to watch the video in a different browser, where neither my RenX nor Microsoft Account cookies are stored and it worked. Thought that @Schmitzenbergh did the same, but now I see that there is some "authkey" in his URL.

Let me try to fix that - thanks for the heads up!