TresCom Forums

This thread is for discussion and progress reports on Swamplands, part of the expanded level set.
The railroad gets off to a swampy start soon after it sets off into the Isla Sornian wilderness. Broken up by occasional ridges and other land formations, most of the level is a wet, dank, murkey, inhospitable muck of infested swamps and marshes and the primary home of the traditional Sorna swamp trees. As dawn comes to the island and dense fog settles in, Anne follows the rail as far as she can over the swamp. She avoids falling into it well enough for a while until she finds that a section of the rail has sunken into the mud and foliage, where she cannot reach its continuation far above the "ground" level. At this point, she does her best to stay out of the water through a hazardous maze of muddy land sticking up, meeting many unwelcoming inhabitants along the way. Other than that, this level is pretty open... if you consider sinking into pits of muddy muck to be "open." The project leader of Swamplands should be someone who wishes to make the player absolutely hate/him her for the duration of playing it, filling the landscape with as many hazards, mazes, and puzzles as the terrain will fit.

_________________
->Tres2020 Starter Kit

"Well, as long as you're under there, you can check the breakers," Thorne said. ... "There's a box right behind the front bumper. Over on the left."
"I see it." [said Sarah]
...
"The box is in backward. Flip all the switches the other way. Are you dry?"
"No, Doc. I'm soaking wet, lying in the damn mud."
~Michael Crichton

Oooh, this could be my chance! Remember that swamp I was doing Draco? I sent screens and an MSPaint map of it, I'd love to try this out, hell I'd brave the 1-9 fps in TresEd on my own computer whenever I'm not on this one.
I'd love to Team lead this one, but of course I have TSoT to deal with >.> but I want to work on the swamp and besides, if people hate me for this level, they'll re-love me for TSoT!

_________________
~ They told me humans weren't real... I proved them wrong.
Anthropology ~ A beautiful tale.
EpicZen
Carnivores Hub ~ Need the full games without all the hassle of torrents or viruses? Run on over to EpicZen's Carnivores Hub!

Hmmmmmmmm. I was rather liking the look of your lost swamp level. For everyone else, here is what it looked like:





Very sadly, that hard drive was lost. It frustrated Rex quite a bit as I remember. His old level "Swamp" is not quite what SL should be like, but many of the concepts can be carried over.. and he obviously takes swamp environments seriously. Rex, since your ability to work on levels now is somewhat limited, I'd love to put you in charge of SL as long as you can be willing enough to let others' creativity some breathing room on the level, when they work on it. In becoming the project leader, you should make a post which clearly outlines the direction to be taken and various themes you'd like the level to have. I've already got some ideas such as the twisted metal of train tracks sticking up through the murkey water, and very dark, barely transparent water for the swamp itself (including at such places where actual water is used).. As a note, Matt has expressed interest in doing some work on this level, so at some point you'll want to be in contact about it with him. I'll letcha know when I have the initial terrain for this level ready...

_________________
->Tres2020 Starter Kit

"Well, as long as you're under there, you can check the breakers," Thorne said. ... "There's a box right behind the front bumper. Over on the left."
"I see it." [said Sarah]
...
"The box is in backward. Flip all the switches the other way. Are you dry?"
"No, Doc. I'm soaking wet, lying in the damn mud."
~Michael Crichton

I was quite pissed indeed... I loved that level as much as Pine Forest.

Right, that's all fair (so long as I can go in and do some stuff whenever I do have access to a capable computer, otherwise I'd feel like a lazy burden) and sure, I spoke with Matt this morning... I'll be sure to chat with him about it whenever the opportunity arises.
And yesh, please do let me know about the terrain ASAP... it's rather hard to work on anything without being able to see what were working with

_________________
~ They told me humans weren't real... I proved them wrong.
Anthropology ~ A beautiful tale.
EpicZen
Carnivores Hub ~ Need the full games without all the hassle of torrents or viruses? Run on over to EpicZen's Carnivores Hub!

This already sounds like one of my favorite levels! .
It sounds great, IMO! I love fog and dawn! That reminds me of AS, which is one of my favorite levels . Anyway! SL sounds also a bit like The Lagoon, which indeed is a beautiful level, so I'm really looking forward to this.

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Yes, my avatar is indeed a dino cookie.

Ahhh yes The Lagoon.. Quite beautiful, and I'm sure we could do well to take it as a good example when developing this level. One of my primary concerns with the expanded-level-set levels right now is keeping them from getting boring and/or repetitive, so it'd be a good idea to have a few different-looking swamp settings within SL.. Some can look like The Lagoon, some like Rex's swamp, and some totally different.. As long as they don't seem as if they're from different games.

I actually did a bit of inked concept art for SL today at work, though it's nothing spectacular so idk when I'll get around to scanning it.. But, it gave me some ideas for new trees that can be made using original Trespasser swamp tree textures. Also, I think I can manage to make a type of swamp tree which will be like an "impenetrable wall" when lined up with one another, which can be used to form a maze amongst the areas of the swamp.. I'm thinking instead of a typical close-quarters maze, most of the time you won't even realize you're in a maze, but there will be several different areas you may end up in, depending on the path taken.



Hmmmmm... Does anyone want to model dead dinosaurs/bones?

_________________
->Tres2020 Starter Kit

"Well, as long as you're under there, you can check the breakers," Thorne said. ... "There's a box right behind the front bumper. Over on the left."
"I see it." [said Sarah]
...
"The box is in backward. Flip all the switches the other way. Are you dry?"
"No, Doc. I'm soaking wet, lying in the damn mud."
~Michael Crichton

I'd actually prefer to keep away from the Swamp's set up (can we just call my level TM? (The Marsh)) because the main idea was that Anne had to traverse a large area of swamp by jumping and climbing over all kinds of objects while fighting gravity's defiant pull on her.
Here I would actually like to have some... dry areas (well mucky and wet just like the rest of the level, but somewhat safe and solid for Anne's feet) where the player must find a way past all kinds of obstacles.

We also have to realize that this level will seem packed with danger and activities, there are points where we'd have to make sure the player is doing nothing more than walking, to give them a break (both their mind and fingers) because not enough is boring and too much is frustrating.

_________________
~ They told me humans weren't real... I proved them wrong.
Anthropology ~ A beautiful tale.
EpicZen
Carnivores Hub ~ Need the full games without all the hassle of torrents or viruses? Run on over to EpicZen's Carnivores Hub!

Actually, that sounds awesome. I'd like to have some parts of SL be like that....

Of course, there should be lots of that. If you look at the map, the area covered by SL is comparable to PL...

Indeed.

_________________
->Tres2020 Starter Kit

"Well, as long as you're under there, you can check the breakers," Thorne said. ... "There's a box right behind the front bumper. Over on the left."
"I see it." [said Sarah]
...
"The box is in backward. Flip all the switches the other way. Are you dry?"
"No, Doc. I'm soaking wet, lying in the damn mud."
~Michael Crichton

I'm just gonna post a few ideas in here, I'll try not to give away the entire gist of the ideas (ruins gameplay) but I will describe them enough to give you a good mental picture of the scene.

The Bridge:
In the swamp, Anne has traverse quite a bit of terrain, survived the muck and unwelcome inhabitants of the deadly waters and has taken a path that seemed rather easy, being an elevated bridge over the swamp, though rotted and aged, the timber seems sturdy enough. She steps out over the bridge calmly and soon finds it's a little more tricky than she first thought, she has to rebuild portions of the bridge until finally she comes to a section where it's collapse further down, the other side fallen about six feet below. This requires Anne to leap to the next portion in order to progress along this path, but as soon as she lands, the bridge begins falling apart behind her and she has to run ahead of it.

As planks and chips splash into the mucky water below, Anne runs, almost comically, towards what she hopes is safety, leaping over gaps in the timber planks and ducking branches until she sees a sturdy branch extending out low over the bridge, offering her an escape route which she may or may not choose to take.

The Boat:
Anne comes across an expanse of open swamp water, the bridge looks dangerously out of working order and she spots a boat at a rickety dock. She inspects the boat to find that it is still operational and sea-worthy, just that it lacks fuel, so she goes and finds some fuel and fills 'er up before starting her. The boat slowly glides over the water, occasionally a tree limb topples into the water as it breaks or as the boat's backup mast breaks the rotting timber.
Anne then spots the unwelcome inhabitants milling about on the nearby shores, barking and howling at her before taking off to the other side, running through the thick, gnarly foliage to meet her at the other side.

The boat runs ashore and as Anne jumps out, she turns to see the bridge she could have used, collapse into the murky waters, helping her feel a little better about her decision.

The thick canopy above her, she turns and tries to work out where the creatures went.

_________________
~ They told me humans weren't real... I proved them wrong.
Anthropology ~ A beautiful tale.
EpicZen
Carnivores Hub ~ Need the full games without all the hassle of torrents or viruses? Run on over to EpicZen's Carnivores Hub!

Oy, that was MY idea! .

But yeah, the rest sounds good! I like the boat-part

_________________
Yes, my avatar is indeed a dino cookie.

*Stretches after coming out of hibernation* *yawn* wellllll it's been a looong timee...swa-swa-SWAMPS???...screen shots look good, though I think this area would require more fog... hmmm...well I guess Anne would be leaving Isla Sorna with a very rich and impressive mixture of infections and diseases, apart from the many scars from dinosaur battles, poor woman...by the time she gets off i guess she'll really look like how she does in TresEd..

Ahh well I am off to hibernate, wake me up when Trespasser is Reloaded

Lmao, Asjad! xP Nice read-the-thread fail. Those screens are of Rex's lost swamp level, but anyway they may be somewhat of an inspiration for this one..

_________________
->Tres2020 Starter Kit

"Well, as long as you're under there, you can check the breakers," Thorne said. ... "There's a box right behind the front bumper. Over on the left."
"I see it." [said Sarah]
...
"The box is in backward. Flip all the switches the other way. Are you dry?"
"No, Doc. I'm soaking wet, lying in the damn mud."
~Michael Crichton

Oi Draco, I'm back and ready to get some work done on this if you're ready.

_________________
~ They told me humans weren't real... I proved them wrong.
Anthropology ~ A beautiful tale.
EpicZen
Carnivores Hub ~ Need the full games without all the hassle of torrents or viruses? Run on over to EpicZen's Carnivores Hub!

Oye vey. Tres Reloaded is on semi-hold at least for the rest of 2009 - I'd say use the time to work on those utilities instead, as the sooner we have them, the better (I can't stress how important new versions of GeomAdd-type functions would be). I might suggest checking out the thread of that guy who is trying to make a 2D Trespasser game.

_________________
->Tres2020 Starter Kit

"Well, as long as you're under there, you can check the breakers," Thorne said. ... "There's a box right behind the front bumper. Over on the left."
"I see it." [said Sarah]
...
"The box is in backward. Flip all the switches the other way. Are you dry?"
"No, Doc. I'm soaking wet, lying in the damn mud."
~Michael Crichton