Recent Posts

1

Gaming / Re: Post what you're currently playing! [Screenshots] [56k is a JPEG saved in paint]

« Last post by Trilkin on July 19, 2019, 07:07:31 PM »

Concluding this expansion with the "Dogs of War." The player faction in this campaign is the Black Dogs, the black ops unit I mentioned in a previous post.


The story takes place some time after the Chinese campaign. The Black Dogs make fast enemies with the Chinese Red Army. With the CCA long driven off of Ganymede, the two armies fight for supremacy over Ganymede and the gate to a newly discovered Chthonian world, Elysium.

I was a bit underwhelmed, really. The Dogs of War did not properly build the hype or excitement the Black Dogs needed. The Black Dogs are a highly plot-critical faction in both Battlezone games, so I was fairly disappointed with how by-the-numbers the campaign was. It felt like the designers were trying to make the game super tough rather than expand on the story.


At the wheel of a Black Dog Grizzly, engaging a Chinese Yeren walker with double SP-Stabbers.


Shelling a Chinese base with my Grizzly's Pop Gun Mortar. Each shell has limited onboard guidance, so if you hurl it in the general ballpark, it will more often than not home in. Its damage is rather low, but it has a high refire rate and a mild AOE, making it an incredibly effective troll weapon.


Putting the smack dab on the ass of a CRA Recycler.


The boring-as-shit final mission of the "Dogs of War," 'The Best Laid Plans." The mission is this - the Chinese are trying to escape to a launch pad. Chase 'em down and kill 'em. That's it, really. Pretty fucking boring.

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Work In Progress / Re: Having more than 32 weapons in Half-Life mod?

« Last post by Solokiller on July 19, 2019, 09:52:33 AM »

You'll need to remove the dependency on pev->weapons altogether for actual weapons. The suit can be left there, you'll just have to modify the client to track which weapons were added and removed:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/halflife/blob/c7240b965743a53a29491dd49320c88eecf6257b/cl_dll/ammo.cpp#L351-L367

This relies on the weapon bits so it needs to depend solely on the weapon list that the engine passes to the client in HUD_WeaponsPostThink:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/halflife/blob/c7240b965743a53a29491dd49320c88eecf6257b/cl_dll/hl/hl_weapons.cpp#L660-L1041

You can tell if the player has a weapon by checking if the m_iId variable in weapon_data_t for the weapon is non-zero. So you'd check it like this:

Code: [Select]

if( from->weapondata[ WEAPON_MP5 ].m_iId != 0 )
{
    //Player has the MP5
}

The simplest solution is to modify the code in that function so that the client side CBasePlayer instance also keeps the list of weapons just like the server does. So if from->weapondata says the player has the weapon and the player does not have the weapon in their inventory then add it, conversely if it says they do not and it's in the inventory remove it.

Then in CHudAmmo::Think you can just check which weapons the player has and make sure they've been added to the hud list.

You'll also need to force cl_lw on because otherwise the weapon data list won't be sent to clients.

It's not the cleanest solution, but since GoldSource lacks proper networking for stuff like this this is the best solution you can go for.

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Releases / Re: [HL2 MMod] [SMG1/AR2] NIA ACR-E

« Last post by The ghost of Cliffmas FALs on July 17, 2019, 04:24:40 AM »

Models, textures: Toadie2k, Valve Software, -Rusty-

Animations, compiles: Toadie2k, Cliffton_Vlodhammer

Sound: Navaro

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

DOWNLOAD AR2 HERE

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Releases / [HL2 MMod] [SMG1/AR2] NIA ACR-E

« Last post by The ghost of Cliffmas FALs on July 17, 2019, 04:15:12 AM »

Models, textures: Toadie2k, Valve Software

Animations, compiles: Toadie2k, Cliffton_Vlodhammer

Sound: Navaro

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

DOWNLOAD SMG1 HERE

5

Remods and Mod Specific Model Packs / Re: [Invasion] Remod

« Last post by AleKK on July 07, 2019, 07:18:56 AM »

I really didn't want to bring back a two-years-old topic, and didn't want to be a turbo-nerd here, but Invasion rifle isn't PGM either. They do look similar, sure, but what Invasion really uses, is EDM Arms Windrunner or Nemesis Arms Vanquish. Both are available in .338, and both have features of Invasion rifle, like collapsing stock and bipods under receiver's front

This one here is Windrunner, for example:


Furthermore, Windrunner rifle was later used as a base for M200 Intervention, so Norman's original choice and KcholoStrike's suggestion weren't too wrong either

As for 5-rounds capacity... Well, Invasion wasn't exactly the most accurate mod. They had Beretta the size of Desert Eagle. Although, there is 12-rounds Beretta 96 for .40 S&W

Not that this forum is still being active, so i don't think this would really bother anyone. By the way, the IR pistol is MK23, but with USP textures

6

Work In Progress / Having more than 32 weapons in Half-Life mod?

« Last post by Napoleon on July 06, 2019, 11:16:53 PM »

Hello All, I hope the old crew is doing good those days.

I know it's more than 20 year old engine, but still It never gets old if you know what I mean.
So I started again with one of my coding projects for Half-Life - it's arena mod with intended more than 32 weapons. The original idea was to have around 40 different weapons, unfortunately I guess I hit a roadblock...

I have the following issue:

Having more than 32 weapons in Half-Life mod.

For quite some time I was trying to incorporate more than 32 weapon in my Half-Life mod. I noticed there's a dependency between the number of "WEAPON_SUIT" and the number of allowed weapons on the mod.

For example by default the number of the suit is 31:

.\dlls\weapons.h

Code: [Select]

#define WEAPON_SUIT 31 // ?????
.\common\cdll_dll.h

Code: [Select]

#define WEAPON_SUIT 31
Note that I already have the Max_WEAPONS redefined as 64 defined (I know that the hard limit for max weapons in the engine is actually 64:

Code: [Select]

#define MAX_WEAPONS 64[/code]

The definition for all weapons is the following:

Code: [Select]

#define WEAPON_ALLWEAPONS (~(1<<WEAPON_SUIT))
So we're dependent on the number of the WEAPON_SUIT. If I try to add weapon with number above 32, I get the game to crash/freeze. I have double checked and it's not with the weapon code or with the definitions for that specific weapon (I obviously commented out another weapon and placed my code over that weapon's place and it all worked fine).
If I add weapon beyond 32, I don't get errors in the compiler and the "client" and "server" library compile well. So I started playing around with the definitions.

If I put WEAPON_SUIT to greater value than 31, (example 64, 128 or 256; I tested other values from 33 to 256 - the result is the same).
I can define more than 32 weapons for the mod, however there are other issues arising after that...

1. I get the following warnings when I compile:

1>d:\sdk_\dlls\player.cpp(761): warning C4293: '<<' : shift count negative or too big, undefined behavior
1>d:\sdk_\dlls\items.cpp(188): warning C4293: '<<' : shift count negative or too big, undefined behavior
1>d:\sdk_\dlls\healthkit.cpp(199): warning C4293: '<<' : shift count negative or too big, undefined behavior
1>d:\sdk_\dlls\h_battery.cpp(121): warning C4293: '<<' : shift count negative or too big, undefined behavior
1>d:\sdk_\dlls\bot.cpp(882): warning C4293: '<<' : shift count negative or too big, undefined behavior

Those warnings are related to lines containing

Code: [Select]

pev->weapons & (1<<WEAPON_SUIT) or

Code: [Select]

pev->weapons &= ~WEAPON_ALLWEAPONS;
So clearly changing the number of WEAPON_SUIT is the issue here.

2. When I start a game with the compiled libraries (with more than 32 weapons defined), I observe stage behaviors with the weapons above 32:

a) game crashing / freezing upon spawning / getting that weapon.
b) game working OK, however the gun has no animations, sprites and sounds.
c) game working, but with no sprites for the game in general.

So I guess the current definition does not support more than 32 (32-1).
I've searched everywhere for example on how to change the definitions properly to support more than 32 bytes (including based on warning C4293) and I'm unable to find a solution or workaround.

I know there are mods out there that have the functionality implemented - I've seen it in HL Weapon's Edition, XASH, Half-Life: Enhanced and few others; and I was wondering did anyone faced the same issue like me?
Have you been able to find a workaround for this one?

Any inside on this would be greatly appreciated.

7

Gaming / Re: Post what you're currently playing! [Screenshots] [56k is a JPEG saved in paint]

« Last post by Trilkin on July 06, 2019, 06:14:41 AM »

Playing the expansion of BZ 98, the Red Odyssey. To be as true as possible to the title, I played (and just now finished) the Chinese campaign "The Red Storm" first. The Chinese player character is unnamed, but of quite high rank - a Major. This makes him the highest ranked player character in BZ1 as a whole. The only player character that rivals him is the protagonist of BZ2, Major John Cooke.

Anyway, the Red Storm campaign. True to the name, it's very Maoist-Red, very much a Storm of fake difficulty and very stereotypically Chinese - up to and including really overdone and cheesy Chinese accents...including your construction rig saying the always, ALWAYS unfunny "oh sorry Charriy" line. That said, the Chinese CRA is a solid faction. Their vehicles are fairly lacking in sturdiness. To make up for their somewhat low survivability, they have excellent weaponry and use ambushes, trickery and high tech to get the upper hand. They possess a unique ability to cloak nearly all of their combat vehicles. They are quite similar to the Brotherhood of Nod in many regards.

The original game has two upgrades that do this to some extent, but they are flawed.
The Phantom VIR cloaks you visually and cancels your image signature from Shadower im-rec missiles, but you still emit a radar return, a heat signature and your thrusters still kick up dust. Real players will easily see through the trick, AI will not be fooled in any way and either way you are still mincemeat for Hornet heatseekers and regular weapons.
Its counterpart the RED Field is somewhat more useful. It cancels out your radar return, so you can close in stealthily, but you are still visible.
The Chinese cloaker is nearly perfect, concealing you in almost every regard. However, you cannot fire your weapons. Since BZ has no detector units to speak of, it can still be abused rather obscenely with a "flick and fire" approach - holding down the fire trigger, flipping the cloak off, firing a shot, cloaking again. That said, cloaking most useful against the AI; your vehicle thrusters still kick up dust, so real players will still notice if they look hard enough. It's still a drastic improvement from the Phantom VIR and RED Field, though, since it denies image-locking for Shadower im-rec missiles and a heat trail for Hornet heatseekers.

The Soviet CCA are the only opposing faction in the campaign, but they are quite enough. You are always outnumbered. While Uncle Vanya has only average weapons, they always attack in massive numbers, sometimes attack in 3-1 strength! This campaign absolutely does not fuck around.


I really wasn't clowning when I said this expansion doesn't fuck around. The first Chinese mission makes you conduct the entire mission on foot!
Here I'm smashing a Soviet compound with a Day Wrecker, which (for this mission only, naturally) is MUCH more powerful than normal. Bring on the fireworks!


At the helm of the Yeti, the CRA faction's main battle tank. Its armor seems a bit weaker than the Grizzly and Czar, but it's quite speedy and sports a cloaker and its main gun is a variant of the SP-Stabber (in gameplay anyway; story-wise, it's a weaker variant of the CP-Stabber mentioned later in my post).


For giggles, I'm attacking two Soviet Golem walkers with a Yeren, a shameless CRA ripoff. It's identical in every way, save its colors and its cloaking ability. The cloak is not very useful since all walkers move maddeningly slow. Hilariously, all walkers have the ability to bunnyhop and fairly efficiently to boot. It looks pretty ridiculous, but the extra speed is worth it.


Back in a Yeti, dropping my cloak to ambush two Stoli light tanks.


The Emperor heavy tank, the most heavily armored tank in the game and also the most miserable to handle. Its speed is barely any different from the Golem, which can't even hover!
It sport 2 disgustingly powerful cannons called Cupric Pulse Stabbers/CP-Stabbers. Unlike the downgraded version on the Yeti, this gun can erase pretty much anything it's pointed at, but at a price - see below...


At the helm of the Emperor, showing off its hilarious overpowered CP-Stabber. No joke, it's able to chew up a Golem walker in 3-4 shots. The downside is the ammo pool is horrendously low, allowing for only 6 volleys.

8

Tools and Utilities / Re: Map2Curve

« Last post by The303 on June 29, 2019, 05:58:55 PM »

http://gibshooter.com/2019/06/22/map2curve-v0-4-released/

New update

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Tools and Utilities / Re: New 3DSMAX SMD Tools (2014 to 2020)

« Last post by The303 on June 25, 2019, 09:18:32 PM »

With the end of facepunch the new home for this tool is here:
https://knockout.chat/thread/806/1

The old thread is here on archive.org https://web.archive.org/web/20190612005828/https://forum.facepunch.com/dev/qxgb/3DS-Max-SMD-Plugins/1/

10

Gaming / Re: Post what you're currently playing! [Screenshots] [56k is a JPEG saved in paint]

« Last post by Trilkin on June 23, 2019, 06:33:38 PM »

I just finished with the NSDF campaign, which is much longer than the CCA. The CCA has only 6 missions, but the NSDF has 17!

Even though the briefing for CCA mission one says the Red Brigade campaign is for "the experienced commander," I find the NSDF to be a lot harder. It is rather easy early on, but the difficulty cranks up quickly within a few missions. The last three missions are very difficult.

Look out, spoilers inbound.

Here you play as NSDF Commander Jason Bates AKA Grizzly One. The campaign has little narrations by him during the loading screens, filling in little plot details.
As stated in the previous post. The tech in the game is all derived from "Biometal" which was created and perfected by a long-extinct race called the Chthonians. No, not those worm monsters from the Lovecraftian mythos. The word originally referred to ancient Greek deities, specifically those tied to the earth and the underworld.

In Battlezone, the Chthonians were a race that had advanced to such a high level that it might as well have been magic. They visited Earth and the Greeks many times, teaching them many secrets and performing acts that later inspired the legends. A plot point sort of like Assassin's Creed, but presented in a way that's not nearly so far up its own ass.

Anyway, the Cthonians vanished long ago and both armies in the game are fighting to gain control of relics they left behind. It all eventually leads to relics of a type of superweapon called the Fury.

Eventually the CCA builds mass numbers of them, but it turns out the craft are sentient and they violently rebel, attacking the CCA and anyone else they come across.
It's later learned from the ancient records that the Furies did precisely the same thing to the Chthonians, who were forced in desperation to destroy their own homeworld to stop the cancer they created from spreading. History repeating itself.

The last arc of the game deals with destroying the Furies and ending their menace for good. The Furies themselves come in two forms, the Fury Tank and the Fury Flier.
They are the nastiest and most obnoxious foes in the game. They wield disgustingly powerful lightning weapons as well as guided missiles called Wasps. Their lightning shots are nearly impossible to dodge. The Wasp can be interdicted, but the player still needs to stay back because it explodes with a moderate AOE.
Neither are fun to fight, but the Flier is especially unpleasant.

The Tank is exactly what it's name implies. A sentient hovering tank-like vehicle that only sports moderate speed, but they usually travel in groups of two or three. It's fairly durable, but it's low speed can be exploited by long range weapons.
The Flier is very similar, but looks more like UFO saucer and is slightly more fragile. It's lower durability is more than made up for with an utterly obnoxious vertical lift jump that allows to escape your shots and then drop down and hit you from behind.

Though very frustrating, the last three missions are quite epic.


Attacking a Soviet Unit Factory with a platoon of Bobcats (NSDF Light Tanks).


The Thunderbolt Bomber, sports very powerful weapons and is incredibly fast for such a large vehicle, but its turning speed is a pain to work with. Still worth it if you need big guns.


Engaging a Fury Tank with the heavy weapons of the Thunderbolt.


Lobbing rockets at a target building and getting jumped by 4 Fury Tanks. Surprisingly, I was somehow able to destroy all of them and not lose my bomber.


Splash one Fury Tank!


Smashing the Furies' assembly plants with a big-ass bomb launched from the mobile Armory, appropriately called the Day Wrecker.