I Hate Mountains Forums

Rosie the Riveter

Member

Registered: 2010-06-06

Well done

A year and a half of effort and well done from the file release to the gameplay
- smooth release and distribution of campaign to the public
- excellent instructions in the readme AND in the van at the start of the forest level
- enjoyed the Bonus Features on the IHM website

- custom sounds were definitely worth the snd_rebuildaudiocache time
- levels were stunning graphically and in their layouts
- no crashes or dropped clients on our servers (Windows 2003 and only basic [SM])
- levels were dark, atmospheric and scary
- performance was good on my rig. Helicopter sequence jittered once but that was on a LAN host
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz
RAM: OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 Intel® i7 Triple Channel
EVGA GeForce GTX 275 633MHZ 896MB 2.26GHZ DDR3
Windows XP (32 bit) SP3

Comments on Coop Levels
- the arrows, lanterns, flickering lights etc made it easy to navigate the maps
- liked having the choice of permanent alternate routes. I was surprised this morning on Forest to see the route to the firefly bridge closed and bridge house route open so there is dynamic pathing too

- when the director keeps the ci and si spawning in, the levels are challenging even on advanced. It would be nice if there was a way to guarantee at least a minimum density of CI and SI.

- felt that the number of pills, pipe bombs etc along a route might have been too generous. We never felt the desperation of being low on supplies. Perhaps keep the same number of items per map but spread them around off the main path. Players would then have to decide whether it would be worth the risk of searching for supplies or stick to the main path and hope for a stingy director.

- two irksome things were the sticky helicopter debris and the klaxon sounding with fire from gas cans or molotovs but you've heard about those already ad nauseum LOL

Questions, Suggestions
- On forest: What is the purpose of the road veering to the left of the sign at the firefly bridge? Is it part of a dynamic path?

- Placement of mounted MGS
I didn't understand the placement of the MGs outside the Forest saferoom, the Lumberyard road outposts or outside of the lumberyard safe room. However, I did understand the beer outside the Forest saferoom

Manor
I didn't mind the use of pointing arrows in the manor for directions but having 3+ arrows at any one door or opening seemed "ugly" and detracted from the otherwise handsome look of the manor.

Lakeside Finale
Love the plane. Its a very Canadian way to travel in the north.
Would have liked to been able to use the interiors of the other houses, just greedy I guess.
It seems that the tank spawns in the same place each time. Is the tank spawn area director controlled or do you determine where the tank spawns?

Thanks again to you and the IHM team for a very fun campaign

NykO18

Administrator

From: Montréal, QC

Registered: 2010-05-13

Website

Re: Well done

It would be nice if there was a way to guarantee at least a minimum density of CI and SI.

It would be indeed, but this part of the gameplay is entirely left to the director's responsibility. There's nothing we can do because it would interfere with the director's own actions.

felt that the number of pills, pipe bombs etc along a route might have been too generous. We never felt the desperation of being low on supplies. Perhaps keep the same number of items per map but spread them around off the main path. Players would then have to decide whether it would be worth the risk of searching for supplies or stick to the main path and hope for a stingy director.

Yeah, that's probably true, we didn't want to make a particularily difficult campaign. It's kind of aweful to die three, four or five times on the same level when the whole campaign already takes two hours to complete. That's why we've been a bit generous. To avoid pissing off players who don't enjoy that kind of scenario.

On forest: What is the purpose of the road veering to the left of the sign at the firefly bridge? Is it part of a dynamic path?

Not sure what road you're talking about, but if it's what I think it's just the extension of the main road. We had to make it go somewhere and avoid making it a strange dead end in the middle of a forest.

Placement of mounted MGS
I didn't understand the placement of the MGs outside the Forest saferoom, the Lumberyard road outposts or outside of the lumberyard safe room. However, I did understand the beer outside the Forest saferoom

These are part of the environment and the structures built to defend the barricades themselves. They were positioned to prevent infected from entering the safe places. Only problem is, most of the places are not safe anymore, thus, the MGs are a bit useless. It doesn't make any particular sense to use them anymore.

I didn't mind the use of pointing arrows in the manor for directions but having 3+ arrows at any one door or opening seemed "ugly" and detracted from the otherwise handsome look of the manor.

We hated to have to add them to be honest, but this is some of the sacrifices we had to make because of the lack of time/motivation to make something better.

It seems that the tank spawns in the same place each time. Is the tank spawn area director controlled or do you determine where the tank spawns?

It's entirely director controlled, but it doesn't always spawn in the same place, we had it spawn at a lot of different places during our playtests, in the lake, behind the lighthouse, behind the cottage, in the corn field, etc.

Rosie the Riveter

Member

Registered: 2010-06-06

Re: Well done

We hated to have to add them to be honest, but this is some of the sacrifices we had to make because of the lack of time/motivation to make something better.

My apologies, I didn't explain myself well enough
The arrows as a indicator of direction are a sound concept.
It was the number of arrows at each opening. For example:
http://www.sunlitgames.net/images/dodfo … rrrows.jpg
Instead of using the house symbol and three arrows, just use 1 arrow or even just the house.

re: MG placements. I understood why an MG would be where it was for defense in the grand scheme of things.
When I saw the MG, I grabbed it and  waited for the hordes to appear.
The rest of the team had a good laugh when nothing happened

Regardless, IHM is a blast to play and thanks again

moroes

Administrator

From: Vincennes (France)

Registered: 2010-05-13

Website

Re: Well done

Thanks for your feedback and support Rosie You're always there when a modding team need help and support (I think of "Baguet" for example ). Thanks!

NykO18

Administrator

From: Montréal, QC

Registered: 2010-05-13

Website

Re: Well done

Oh well, it's true, there might be a few places where there's too much arrows. These ones are a particular case since their goal is to emphasize this area from the ground, when you're outside the manor. Their number makes it easier to spot the hole in the wall from far away.