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Lately, I've been analyzing unused assets in the editor, and experimented with joining rooms together to better understand what whole sections of certain missions could have been had the original concepts for Death to Spies 3 been kept. In particular, I've been joining sections of the cut subway section meant for Kovalev's gameplay mechanics together to figure out what works, and what could be used for Fan Missions and improvements to the final cut of Check and Mate.

Yesterday, I started making a template of the subway section, and attempted to recreate some rooms based on early screenshots and what very few Environment Samples and Lightmaps are still present. I've attached the first version of the template. This is NOT a playable Fan Mission.

Some notes:
  • The subway station rooms are joined together, but level07_metro_entrance02.smf and level07_metro_entrance03.smf have open doorways, and I'm not sure what sort of rooms they're meant to be connected to, if any.
  • I don't understand where level07_metro_sign03.smf would have been used.
  • Not all the available tunnel sections connect to each other without cloning or rotating them to fit.
  • The hardest section I find understanding is the aircor section. Eight rooms are present in the game files. There's a screenshot on Unseen64 which shows that level07_metro_aircor08.smf and level07_pod_kor11.smf were originally connected via a hole. However, level07_pod_kor11.smf has since been redesigned and the original is not in the game files. The floor and ceiling of the respective rooms are still in the files however, and three versions of each were created. So, the best model to use for the ceiling is level07_metro_aircor08_p01.smf.
  • level07_metro_aircor08.smf also has an open doorway, however there aren't any other rooms to fit said doorway due to it being smaller.

Alexey, can you please take a look at what I've done so far and maybe give feedback on what rooms were intended for what purpose? Also, how much of Kovalev's section of Check and Mate was completed before being scrapped?
(10-20-2019 02:49 PM)Liz Shaw Wrote: [ -> ]Lately, I've been analyzing unused assets in the editor, and experimented with joining rooms together to better understand what whole sections of certain missions could have been had the original concepts for Death to Spies 3 been kept.

Alexey, can you please take a look at what I've done so far and maybe give feedback on what rooms were intended for what purpose? Also, how much of Kovalev's section of Check and Mate was completed before being scrapped?

Yes, it's close. Here is old version of the level that i found, don't know though if it will work or crash in game, but at least it's working in editor.
(10-21-2019 12:22 PM)Alexey Wrote: [ -> ]Yes, it's close. Here is old version of the level that i found, don't know though if it will work or crash in game, but at least it's working in editor.

Well, this confirms my suspicions about the rooms. From what I can gather so far, it seems like Kovalev has to infiltrate the police station via the subway and sabotage a generator in the basement. And also, when looking at the "hole" in the room meant to be linked to the air corridors rather than the pump station, it seems like Strogov was meant to extract Gorlov to this spot rather than assassinate him as an objective in the E3 2010 Demo suggests (though in the DtS3 Demo's files, Gorlov's Actor Template has his Nation set to "Friend" which implies otherwise). I guess this became the basis for extracting Pearson in the final version.

Also, I can't see any spawn points for Olga, so this means either her objectives weren't implemented or she was never meant to be in this level. Thanks for giving us new insights into what the level could have been, Alexey.
(10-21-2019 03:00 PM)Liz Shaw Wrote: [ -> ]From what I can gather so far, it seems like Kovalev has to infiltrate the police station via the subway and sabotage a generator in the basement.

Yes. His task was to make it to police station basement (blow up hole from subway room to police basement) and turn electricity off in the right moment.
(10-21-2019 05:49 PM)Alexey Wrote: [ -> ]
(10-21-2019 03:00 PM)Liz Shaw Wrote: [ -> ]From what I can gather so far, it seems like Kovalev has to infiltrate the police station via the subway and sabotage a generator in the basement.

Yes. His task was to make it to police station basement (blow up hole from subway room to police basement) and turn electricity off in the right moment.

So that's how the lights on the third floor were supposed to be turned off.
I've decided I'll work on a new Fan Mission where Strogov starts off at the metro station and needs to infiltrate the police station to assassinate Gorlov in the cell blocks, plus eliminate one other target on the third floor (I'm thinking of Rachinskiy (Terrance Shaw)). My plan is this:
  • You'll infiltrate the police station via the pump station, which is the reverse of Check and Mate where you leave via the pump station.
  • I'm going to experiment with a different layout for the police station. There are at least a couple of unused rooms for the police station I could use.

The reason why I've decided to do this now is because my current planned second Fan Mission, Would You Kindly, is taking way too long (nearly two years) to get done, and I'm nowhere near finished because I still haven't figured out the overall level design. I won't start right away because Alexey's return has coincided with the release of the next DLC for The Elder Scrolls Online, Dragonhold. Once I get through the questline (which normally takes a few days), I'll start the process.
(10-22-2019 03:30 AM)Liz Shaw Wrote: [ -> ]I've decided I'll work on a new Fan Mission where Strogov starts off at the metro station and needs to infiltrate the police station to assassinate Gorlov in the cell blocks, plus eliminate one other target on the third floor (I'm thinking of Rachinskiy (Terrance Shaw)).
Good luck, Liz. Then why don't try to make mission with 2 playable chatacters?

Me, personally, I've been thinking on concept of mission on soviet submarine. Sth regarding to "Hunt for Red October". Models from Dogs of War can be used.
(10-22-2019 04:03 PM)Du_Serpent Wrote: [ -> ]Good luck, Liz. Then why don't try to make mission with 2 playable chatacters?

I don't think it's possible, there may be some complications in the exe which prevent players from doing so. Also, the portraits for each of these characters used in the character selection menu have since been replaced with sprites for guns introduced after the DtS3 Demo (they're still in the demo's files though).

But I'm going to compensate for this by having more NPCs in the subway than what Kovalev's gameplay would allow (civilians interacting with police in ticket booths, waiting for their train to prepare to depart etc).
I've prepared a bare bones draft of the final level design for my upcoming Fan Mission, so I don't get stumped trying to make rooms properly fit due to sandwiching. Again, this is NOT a playable Fan Mission. I've divided some sections into layers for easier viewing.

Some notes:
  • level07_pod_stair03.smf is an early version of the cargo lift room, and it's lower in height compared to the final room. The VisArea for level07_pod_stair03.smf is still in the game's files as it's used for the lift room's VisArea, but make sure you raise the top corners of the PolyShape so they cover the whole room (it's easier to just save the VisArea entry from the final Check and Mate SLP as an object and load it into your custom SLP).
  • level07_floor01_kor01.smf is an early version of level07_floor01_kor02.smf (the room connecting the dispatch room to the basement and second floor stairways). Interestingly, level07_floor01_kor02.smf wasn't going to have a basement stairway connected to it, but was redesigned so Strogov has a stealthier way out of the prison in the final game. So level07_floor01_kor01.smf can pass for the second room's original design, and the VisArea PolyShape for level07_floor01_kor02.smf should be suitable. There's a non-existant NormalMap attached to the model, but it can easily be replaced.
  • My idea for the extra basement and third floor rooms in my Fan Mission is to lock them with an alarm (like the basement in Omerta).

Feel free to post your thoughts on this draft. I'm actually almost finished with the subway sections in my main Fan Mission SLP.
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