Have you checked that the levels in the resources.pak are not in "read only" or if the archive itself is ? Everything is explained in the readme, you shouldn't have bugs if you follow it, even if I don't understand why you are installing again this first version of the mod which was for you, quote "too much hype and nothing to show". You'd better wait for the next version if you're still interested in it, but be warned that there will still be bugs, as indicated in several of my posts. So I'm not really "hyping" it. :wink:

Hello guys, I've started to work on the levels itself now that I have made some changes on the AI and engine. I have a question, what do you guys think is best : - Keep the same courage for the NPCs from level to level. This will mean that the soldiers, who have a high level of courage, will always be very useful and accurate with their weapons. - Increase the level of courage of the NPCs from level to level to show that your NPCs are becoming more and more courageous as they defeat Things and get trust in you. This will reduce the interest of the soldier class but add an interest in keeping the first NPCs you've met. For instance, Weldon who is a medic who can be scared easily in level 1 would be very courageous if he manages to survive until level 5. The courage stuff is very interesting, almost as much as the trust system, and it is really a shame that they kind of took it away in the final game. This can give very interesting situations, for example, would it be wiser to let a fearful medic behind or to take him with you, knowing that he will not shoot accurately if he encounters Things and could be a hazard rather than an asset ? Basically, he could get some of your men killed. On the other hand, a soldier with a weapon is very accurate and can take a lot before being scared. This means that he will be very accurate most of the times, except if he is surrounded by walkers, for instance. Before these changes, I found the soldier kind of useless. Now he can really make a difference in a fight and you'll probably be happy to have one or two in your group.

I would think the first (- Keep the same courage for the NPCs from level to level) is best. And just a thought: wouldn't engineer be easier to get scared than medic? I would think with their medical background/ training, they are probably used to seeing blood and gore. But then again, I guess walkers and other thing forms aren't really just blood and gore.

Well, I kind of based this on the characters' courage that I've seen. For instance, Weldon, Williams and Falchek are memorable medics with low courage. On the other hand, Dixon or Carter were calmer. But the courage trait will depend of the character, so some engineers will be more fearful than some medics. For instance, Pace will have a low courage trait for an engineer while Reed will have a high courage trait for a medic, so Reed will be more courageous than Pace. The soldiers also have varying levels of courage but are much more courageous than medics and engineers, so they won't be scared easily.

I really like the second idea. The longer the NPC's live and the more they fight, the more courageous they become. It makes them seem more real as they learn more and more how to fight the Thing. Plus it seems like a cool idea to have veteran NPC's and "newbies".

I guess I could use a mix of the two, by allowing a slow increase of courage from level to level and limiting it to a max level which will be the same for medics and engineers but will be higher for soldiers to keep their courage as an advantage.

That sounds like a fun and fair compromise!

Hello guys and sorry for not keeping you up to date for a while. I have a lot of work atm and don't think I'll be able to finish the mod as soon as I hoped so I'll stop giving dates now and will just say "when it's done", it'll be better. On the good thing, I've managed to find a way so that NPCs you run into will be completely randomly infected now, which is cool as I didn't think it was possible. So for instance, when you and your party run into, let's say, Parnevik, he can be a Thing or not, it really depends of the game. This also means that some game can be rather uneven, as there is a risk for every NPC you run into to be Things but at least, I guess it will really make the player paranoid this time. :wink:

That's great news Gary! Thanks for the great work. I will be watching them real close when I am playing.

With my version, yes they can. :)

So I've started working on the levels as planned, I'm not encountering any difficulties for the moment, although the scripted cutscenes will require some work. There are also some levels which kind of worry me, notably the submarine one where there are no waypoints for the NPCs. I'll probably have to create all the waypoints so that this level is fun with NPCs, hope it won't be too long. I've also thought of some other stuff to code in the AI (notably so that NPCs can fight each other and suspect that another NPC is a Thing) but this will take a lot of time to code, so I'd rather keep it for the next version of the mod (the one which does not follow the original story of the game at all). I figure there are enough new stuff in the current version that it is worth releasing and I have to keep some new stuff for the next version. :wink: I'm particulaly happy with the random infection stuff which makes it so that, whenever you start a level, you don't know if the NPCs you are going to run into are Things or not. This adds some interesting choices as it is often wiser not to give a weapon to a NPC you run into before being sure that he is indeed human. And the infected Medic infecting other NPCs when healing them also gave me some good jumps... Seeing your whole team turn into Things because of one of them is particularly scary. :twisted:

Hello, although I'd like to have more time to work on this, I'm still making progress on the game. Two things, if anybody feels up to it (WGT1 maybe ? ;)) : - I've added some unused characters to the game and I need some good names, so if you have any... - I will probably need one or two "beta -*test*-('")ers" to -*test*-('") the levels that are already 90% done (level 1, 2A and 2B). So if anybody feels interested... I still have to figure out how to make the installation simple though, maybe I'll have to use an installer which will modify the original game, add the missing stuff and rename the original files which are replaced by other ones.

Hi Gary, I will be glad to be a beta -*test*-('")er.

Ok WGT1, you will get a pm when I have gathered what you need to -*test*-('") the first levels, in a week I think. I'll try to have a decent readme so that installing the mod isn't too painful. :)