Skirmisher Project Description

Skirmisher is a rework of my previous project Halo:Duel Edition. The map/tagset focuses on fantasy themed elements and melee combat. The links to the previous projects and its inspiration can be seen below. As of right now I am looking for input regarding the strengths and weaknesses of previous iterations of Halo:Duel Edition. As of right now most anything is fair game. I have included my previous iterations into this posting as well as linking other community gamenight/review videos.

Halo Duel Edition v1
http://forum.halomaps.org/index.cfm%3Fpage=topic&topicID=18457

Castle 2 Castle
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=438

Halo Duel Edition v1 Download (Slayer only!)
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=3873

Trailer for v1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOaXKVMRZvw

Halo Duel Edition v2 Forum Topic
http://forum.halomaps.org/index.cfm%3Fpage=topic&topicID=33104
Trailer for v2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g11vMnRaGus
The old AI variant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBNrpvIVe5U

From Duel Edition to Skirmisher

After deciding to come back to HCE and work on this project I wanted to see how the community at large (if at all) had played my maps, if they were fun and if there was anything I should have done better. The answer to these questions was a yes on all fronts.

Storm + Crew’s videos are here
https://youtu.be/H1RkIztCCF0
https://youtu.be/5lkRPB8ai3I

SBB Chief’s Montage
https://youtu.be/3ardObnZjKk

Lat3ski’s Play Session
https://youtu.be/6LvYqKwjUl4

PatxiPlays Crag Review
https://youtu.be/HRxFw51yvZw

Lonestar116’s Walkthroughs
https://youtu.be/m8LGWqSSI8g
https://youtu.be/w3AVckTR5QI

Tape_City/Minecraft Transit Authority
https://youtu.be/mgrJNtepWSU

Helldeath360’s Footage
https://youtu.be/0t8dCHZTjV0

A of all things a dance Video
https://youtu.be/TAEvPzQo0qA

After watching these videos and listening to players as they played them it became apparent that a couple aspects of the mod needed to be addressed in a big way. Namely the dodge feature, weapon balancing and sound tag debugging. Also the number of maps released impacted the level of completion for the mod as a whole.

These are detailed more on the blog posting here hceskirmisher.tumblr.com

The Dagger and the Bringer

Spells (Fireball and kill spell)

The Dodge feature

Rod of Ruin

The Assassin’s Fan

Looking to the future, Skirmisher will have two multiplayer maps and a diverse set of melee and ranged weapons. The first map will be geared for bigger team games with the ability to explore the surrounding landscape. The second map will be more of an arena layout to better accommodate competitive play. Any feedback/comments are greatly appreciated. Currently the model for Battlements(the larger of the two) is well underway and almost finished. Thanks and keep it clean out there.

-Dontu

PS.
For a quick link to all the images posted to the blog for the battlements WIP here is the imgur link: http://imgur.com/a/FTTn9




Edited by Dontu on May 6, 2016 at 02:58 PM

U still alive Dontu? O.o

Yep still kicking. I've been around just not doing HCE mostly UDK and UE4.

yesyesyesyesyes

Get someone to do nice animations. I rather liked your maps.

what type of tag set will it have, halo 1 2 3 4 5.

or will you have a new guns, and whatnot.

Maybe it would be in your best interest to read.

themed elements and melee, combat ok so new tag's, well that's something

Edited by DOOM899 on May 6, 2016 at 08:09 PM

You are bad DOOM, seriously.


Edited by MEGASEAN2812 on May 6, 2016 at 08:07 PM

them my bad, we all do it some times,even you
Edited by DOOM899 on May 6, 2016 at 08:09 PM

Thanks for the positive response its been great to go through the videos and read your responses. In regard to the animations, I think that I will be doing most of them. There are going to be some core changes to the gameplay namely to spells, dodging, and weapon strikes so I am really looking for some feedback in those areas as I start to round out the spaces in the map bsp.

Oh wow I'm so hyped for this you don't even know

I've been wondering about it for a while considering those medieval maps, mainly to know what made the sword, axe and zweihänder (probably many more) differentiate themselves from each other in terms of damage and melee time.

I really liked castle 2 castle because of the breakable doors, they provided fun gameplay that wasn't seen in any other map and I would like to see more of original stuff like that. Balance wise it wasn't that great since crossbow was OP and all other weapons took too long to break the doors.

I’d love to know how the doors in Castle2Castle were done. I didn’t spend much time looking into that map as I had little time to complete the mod so I went largely off of my play experience with the weapons and powerups. I would guess its some sort of script that respawns a piece of scenery or biped that syncs, but I'm not sure

Also bellow is small bit detailing melee weapon's and some design ideas that I had about them.

Thematically I wanted to treat the shield differently in melee combat. It’s more of a sign of the player being vulnerable when they have no shield so a lot of the weapons are designed around this concept. In addition to this most weapons were designed to be paired with another weapon ex: Brigner and the swiftblade resulted in an incredibly quick kill time.

Dagger: Quickest melee animation,
No backstab(in testing it was too easy to spam)
Melee damage dealt ignored the target's shield and dealt damage directly to their hp (Meant to finish already wounded targets and skilled players behind overshields)

Swiftblade: Quick melee speed animation
Can backstab,
Melee damage instantly kills unshielded targets and is weaker against shielded ones.

Brigner:
Quick melee speed animation
can backstab
Melee damage instantly depletes a target’s shield and deals weaker damage against unshielded targets.

Mace:
Medium melee speed,
Can backstab,
Melee damage is a mix of the bringer and the swiftblade so it is more of an all around weapon. Considered a power weapon

Gorgon Sledge:
Slow melee speed,
No dodge,
Can backstab,
Melee damage scales from low to instant kill based on your speed when you strike the target and has a little bit of a knockback.
Can’t cast spells
Considered a power weapon

Assassin’s Fan
Quick melee speed animation
No dodge
Primary trigger fired darts to weaken targets from a distance (Meant to be stealth so there isn’t really any external indication fx or sfx wise that its firing.)
Secondary trigger throws a smoke pellet that blinds the target

I liked the dodge move but only really used it to jumping, which was pretty hard with Halo PC warping. Great to hear you're bringing this back.

Hey there everyone! Its been a while, but I am still working away on Skirmisher and the Thwoback map pack. While I am transitioning back to Throwback I have created a design poll that covers some basic points. I am going to be using to help design the next version of Halo:Duel Edition. As of now I do have plans that exist beyond this poll in the for of spreadsheets and stock melee weapon tags using a new melee system and a playable map. I won't be posting anything on those at this time, but I am opening up the design process abit through this post and through the design poll. Additionally I will be leaving a couple weapon slots open for a community weapons to be added to the final mix. This wont happen until the mod has reached the point where the core weapon set is balanced.

The mod has a long road ahead, but this is the chance for you direct the creative process for player encounters and map design so have at it!

The Design Blog is here: http://hceskirmisher.tumblr.com/

The Design Poll is here: https://goo.gl/forms/NApEo160bZ0RGfzx1
Edited by Dontu on Sep 14, 2016 at 12:33 PM

Done.


Edited by Super Flanker on Sep 14, 2016 at 01:26 PM