This is a test. Test! Consider yourself tested.

25/05/2015 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Each week a single map is discussed here in detail.

Moderators: Semfry, Sat42, Jigoku, UB_

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
Posts: 7960
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 21:00

Subject: 25/05/2015 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Post Posted: 25 May 2015, 13:37

Map Title: The Ghost of Oraghar
Author: Will-"Mr.Prophet"-Drekker
From: 7 Bullets
Filename: Jones-09-Scar.unr
Music Files: 7B-Forlorn.umx, UneternalSLeep.umx, 7B-Reflection.umx



Video Playthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8_9u1g6dWM

Synopsis: Jones versus The Scarred One. No talking, straight to the point.

Discuss!

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
Posts: 7960
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 21:00

Subject: Re: 25/05/2015 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Post Posted: 25 May 2015, 13:39

OBLIGATORY POST ABOUT WHERE THE HELL THIS ARENA IS ACTUALLY LOCATED AND HOW JONES ENDS UP THERE

And

-------------------------
[9] "The Ghost of Oraghar
-------------------------

* Mr.Prophet:

Map 9 is pretty straightforward; you grab some items and fight until one of you dies. The final arena isn't one of the most flashy showdown locations ever made but it serves its purpose. Making the place was simple, a few subtractions, a few added prefabs and presto! Easy bake map. There wasn't a whole lot of time put into this one, the longest thing was preparing the cutscenes the way I wanted them. This one isn't about pretty map stuff, just the fight. I like the way the map blends into the end sequence that loads after, that shift really works nicely.

Personally, I'm least proud of this Boss fight segment than the others. The first two Scarred One encounters were more interesting, and the other boss creatures/characters were much more menacing. At this point the Scarred One has really spent all the scariness and is now just a loose end. I originally intended for this map to take place in the rain but that proved impossible. Just was a disaster with playability.

I think of the previous fight with Drago as the end to the Xidia style of 7 Bullets and the fight in this map as the end of the Unreal bit. At the heart of 7 Bullets, that is what Drago and the Scarred One represented, they were the symbols of each heritage forced into a sort of fusion.

There are a few references in 7 Bullets to the Scarred One being rather demonic, like a undead killing machine. This explains why he had to die with decapitation, everyone knows you can only stop an immortal by removing the head.

The original last cam shot was different. In the concept of 7 Bullet's original story document The Scarred One doesn't die. After you "defeat" him, a cutscene would show Jones collapse due to a combination of exhaustion and injury, in a pile of all his spent ammo. The Scarred One then turned and left Jones to bleed to death in his spent casings. Then of course the Rescue ending picked up where that left off. The idea behind this ending was that the Scarred One at first was too cool for me to kill off. I was going to have the whole cyborg Skaarj play out a lot more but that didn't happen. Also, if you wanna look in terms of story, Jones losing to the Scarred One was going to tie into a scene that originally appeared in the intro concept where Jones is dying and recites the first 7 Bullets narration before the intro credits role and then starts the game. This was changed in the final version to the intro scene showing bits of the Ending sequence after Jones is healed and makes the final reflection with his 7 Bullets atonement. I chose to go with the final version for three reasons. One, the original idea was way too dramatic for a video game that I had not the talent to pull off with the available tools. Two, It damages the whole video game idea to deny the player a satisfying last duel victory. Three, The final version is a better hybrid of both ideas, the player gets their last kill and the reflection scene plays out in a way that is easier to swallow without rolling your eyes. That and I decided that I wanted to show the USM Ice Raven and a rescue team in the extro to fill up the lacking buddysoldier trend that would have been much weaker without it...and the fact that it allowed for an Unrealish ending.
ImageImage

User avatar Mister_Prophet
Red Nemesis Leader Red Nemesis Leader
Posts: 3098
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 23:30
Location: Lost in Oraghar

Subject: Re: 25/05/2015 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Post Posted: 25 May 2015, 18:52

In regards to the "how in the hell did I get here?" thing, I've stated before in the past that there is no direct time correlation between this map and the one previous. It's not intended to take place immediately after the previous level's conclusion, though the repercussions explain the setting. There's no indication of a rescue team coming for Jones or the other marines in a timely fashion like Xidia, so I left it up to the player to deduce what happens in between levels. Eventually, Jones and the Scarred One come across each other in the rubble and have this battle.

That's the final product answer anyway. Development wise, a scrapped level is to blame that would have the Bloodpack raiding the Human outpost, seeking revenge for the blitz in the beginning of the campaign. You'd back track through the roof battle segment through some new areas and eventually arrive here after a Warlord battle. This never got past paper for the most part, and what level stuff I started I shelved. I don't think the team even knew about it and we were pretty much ready to wrap it up after the Drago battle testing and some other last minute bug fixes with earlier levels. In the end fixing those buggy maps took the last of the team's enthusiasm away so I opted for a quicker resolution.

My feelings on the map are more or less unchanged from what is said in the commentary, though if I had to do it again I would have ended with a character death ending and Killed off Jones.

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
Posts: 7960
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 21:00

Subject: Re: 25/05/2015 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Post Posted: 26 May 2015, 00:57

Mister_Prophet wrote:I would have ended with a character death ending and Killed off Jones.


I read this as "Residual Decay should have really never been a thing".

This scrapped level info sounds new to me, the only other thing I know that got cut from 7B was The Pit which you totally never see in the campaign, not even an entrance or something.

Scarred One is hilarious jumping 6 meters in the air when he runs on any sort of raised floor lol. Unreal AI is so bad at this.
ImageImage

User avatar Mister_Prophet
Red Nemesis Leader Red Nemesis Leader
Posts: 3098
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 23:30
Location: Lost in Oraghar

Subject: Re: 25/05/2015 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Post Posted: 26 May 2015, 07:47

UBerserker wrote:
I read this as "Residual Decay should have really never been a thing".


It's not that. I think it's more that I probably should have killed him in Seven Bullets and started RD from the get go with the intention of following Unreal's style of a selectable protagonist. This is currently my preference. A lot of the the reason I kept him around was community obligation.

UBerserker wrote:This scrapped level info sounds new to me, the only other thing I know that got cut from 7B w
as The Pit which you totally never see in the campaign, not even an entrance or something.

Scarred One is hilarious jumping 6 meters in the air when he runs on any sort of raised floor lol. Unreal AI is so bad at this.


The Pit, the return of the Skaarj at the end of the campaign, and a bunch of little story things that became simplified or turned into other things. Of these, the Pit was the closest to being a thing.

I find that changing anything movement/speed related with Unreal enemies results in pretty funny and unintentional results. Some of it stems from the fact that animations never sync the way I want, so I often use that for a barometer to determine when I've tweaked them too far. For me it becomes about finding a balance and doing your best to amp an enemy without making them look silly. Sadly, it seems the Unreal bestiary was not meant to be messed with in this way so much. I like to think I usually do it right though.

User avatar Semfry
Trustee Member Trustee Member
Posts: 2068
Joined: 12 Nov 2007, 02:43
Location: UK
Contact:

Subject: Re: 25/05/2015 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Post Posted: 26 May 2015, 16:56

While you can infer what happened the sudden setting change along with The Scarred One being a pretty typical Skaarj fight ends up making this feel a little anti-climatic to me. In some way it does kind of work though, as, at least the first time, Drago was brutal, so the Scarred One being simpler does work as kind of a winding down, but it feels like something is missing. Then again, checking the old MOTW thread on this level basically confirms that more on The Scarred One will be coming in Residual Decay.

On that note:

Mister_Prophet wrote:My feelings on the map are more or less unchanged from what is said in the commentary, though if I had to do it again I would have ended with a character death ending and Killed off Jones.


RD foreshadowing :P ? Not that it would be much of a surprise with the nature of what plot details there are so far.
Formerly Mman

User avatar AlCapowned
Skaarj Elder Skaarj Elder
Posts: 1175
Joined: 19 Dec 2009, 22:25

Subject: Re: 25/05/2015 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Post Posted: 26 May 2015, 19:47

I liked the disconnect between this map and the previous one. It left a lot to the imagination, especially with the Nali there.

Looking at the textures, the Scarred One has a high res skin that doesn't look super pixelated or anything. Did someone make a whole new skin, or was some Photoshop magic involved?

User avatar Mister_Prophet
Red Nemesis Leader Red Nemesis Leader
Posts: 3098
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 23:30
Location: Lost in Oraghar

Subject: Re: 25/05/2015 - "The Ghost of Oraghar" by Mr.Prophet

Post Posted: 26 May 2015, 20:41

Semfry wrote:
RD foreshadowing :P ? Not that it would be much of a surprise with the nature of what plot details there are so far.


RD's story is not what it was in 2006. It was changed in 2008/2009 and changed again in 2013 when I turned my attention to more of a episodic direction. The original concept was very different and took place immediately after the the battle in this map but finished before the ending sequence to 7 Bullets concluded (weird, I know). Most people think of the story as it was last posted on the RN website before it went down, before the 2013 refocusing.

Alcapowned wrote:Looking at the textures, the Scarred One has a high res skin that doesn't look super pixelated or anything. Did someone make a whole new skin, or was some Photoshop magic involved?


The skin was made by UArchitect I believe, but it has been years and I may be miss-mentioning someone. It should say in the ending credits. But the skin was custom and made high res. I may be thinking of UA because he was working on a secondary skin that would have made the eye glow in the dark but it could not be added in time (static lens flares were used instead for the Scarred One's still moments).


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests

Copyright © 2001-2024 UnrealSP.org

Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited