Just a quick update, I know I haven’t posted much in a while, been busy with the mod beleive it or not, lot of internal mechanics that aren’t very showworthy. Oh and moving. I am back in Duluth at least for a little while.
Because I’m lazy: (copied from a post I made on Crymod)
I’ve been hard at work designing the gameplay flow of the level, I actually kinda restarted from scratch in terms of the actual level (same basic concepts are going into it though)
It is based of a 1 sq km heightmap of Gooseberry Falls in Minnesota, 2030s or so, after an economic collapse which resulted in a destabilization of the U.S. A faction of hostile occupiers called the Federate have established a training camp and research facility at the former State Park.
The player is a member of a Resistance group native to the area. They lack the numbers of the occupiers but use guerrilla tactics, and have been able to stay competitive technology wise, mainly through theft of advanced technology developed by the Federate.
A new prototype weapon (Gauss Rifle) is being developed at the research facility. It could further tip the odds against the Resistance once introduced to the battlefield in the hands of the Federate. The mission is to get into the research facility and retrieve the prototype and return to one of the Resistance science labs for analysis and reverse engineering.
The player starts out by infiltrating the base through the outer walls, then makes his/her way through the camp towards the facility on the inner base. The player retrieves the weapon and then has to get out… The ending will have a twist leaving it open for a sequel.
Other features:
Since half of the base is actually a training camp I have worked on things to bring that atmosphere out.
Running to Cadence: I have a couple of patrols running around paths running to cadence.
If you guys are fans of The Unit you’ll recognize it. It is the actual cadence version of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCzx4rp2ZZI
Firing Ranges: federate troops are training on firing ranges
Other Things like hurdles and obstacle courses are tenative, if the animations are done and I can do it with smartobjects etc then I will put these in, haven’t gotten to that yet.
Stealth gameplay: The whole level is actually designed so it’s possible to play through without killing anyone, as that’s the best way to infiltrate a base. Of course I am designing multiple approaches and paths so that if you want to shoot up everything in the base you can.
One of the interesting mechanics I’ve just gotten functional is jumping down from a ledge onto the cargo bed of a moving truck in order to get into the inner walls via a checkpoint.
Also I’m spending a pretty good amount of time on the nature aspect, it is in a former state park after all. Also Minnesota is rarely if ever represented in games. But, I was impressed by how easily I was able to adapt to it with CryEngine 2.
Here is a screenshot comparison of the falls in RL vs Crysis. Obviously different TOD and season (Uprise is set in late winter/ early spring) Also the rocks and stuff around the river and falls are WIP, I just very briefly touched up the area after I made the falls.
Also kind of ironic and weird but I didnt look at that specific RL pic as a reference, I made the area from memory after the heightmap import (it’s a few miles away from me). I found the ref pic shortly before making this post.
