Released Daredevil After Dark 1.2.1

Skirmisher submitted a new resource:

Daredevil After Dark - Jump the Vanster at midnight in Ouerbacker's map Mammoth Valley

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Skirmisher updated Daredevil After Dark with a new update entry:

Small update

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Fun little scenario, thanks for making it! Although it never starts by night. I restarted the game, even cleared the cache, but it always start in daylight. Shame, I guess it would be extra challenging by night!

 

Ah, that's unfortunate. Glad you enjoyed it, though!

The scenario has to reference an object in the level that sets the time of day, but in Mammoth Valley, this object isn't explicitly named. The only other option I could find was to use the object's ID number to modify it, but the ID is totally dynamic, so it'll be different based on what's been loaded previously by the player. The TimeOfDay object seemed to have a consistent ID when starting it cold on my machine, so I went with that, but evidently that's not universal (probably something to do with mods or settings). I've messaged Ouerbacker about adding a name in a future release, so hopefully I'll be able to rectify that before long. (Or I find an alternate solution...)

It's trivial to change the time on your own, though, if you're interested:

• press F11 after loading the scenario
• head to the upper-right panel and expand the "MissionGroup" folder
• expand the "tod" folder, and click TimeOfDay
• click the box next to "play", then click it again once it changes to night
• press F11 again to return to the game (you might have to press Esc once or twice afterward too)

 

The Lua function scenetree.findClassObjects will return an array of all objects of a given class in the level. It'll contain the name of an object if it has one, or the id if the object has no name. Use it with the class name "TimeOfDay" to get all TimeOfDay objects. You can then use scenetree.findObject to get the object with the returned value(s) and set its time property.

This way you can reliably set the time using Lua, regardless of whether the TimeOfDay object has a name.

 

Ah, thank you! The couple of nighttime scenarios I examined set the time the same way, so I wasn't sure if there was another method. (Although I guess Random Tour sets it dynamically, so of course there would be a Lua method...)

 

Skirmisher updated Daredevil After Dark with a new update entry:

Scenario time fix

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I enjoyed the scenario and completed it on my third try (only due to your careful instructions). After that I tried quite a few more times and had difficulty. While repeating it over and over I started to find it leaning towards annoying for me because of the disparity between the windup and the critical part. The scenario takes a 35-40s windup in order to get to 20s or less of hardcore/precision driving. Realistically you know whether you can make the jump about 10-15s into that 20s segment! To me anytime a "hardcore" challenge is presented it needs a quick reset available for the player.

I do think I understand why it's setup that way - the concept is a lot more fun with the story attached. Unfortunately I don't really have much constructive advice! :-( I guess at the end of the day my only suggestions would be to break out what you're doing into more than one scenario: hardcore challenges should (IMO) have little to no lead-in/windup, so that's a scenario by itself starting at the hairpin and ending after the landing ramp on the jump. OTOH longer, more scenic / story driven scenarios can work well but without life-or-death type challenges included: the challenges in that type of scenario should primarily affect the total time required to complete the scenario (so mistakes cost you time rather than a restart).

That's all just my 2c and if you tell me to take my own advice I'll agree with you heartily! I intend to change my own scenario pack to use Scepheo's BNSE library to make them less annoying.

 

Glad to hear it c:

That makes a lot of sense, and I did consider that a little bit (but not enough, obviously). To be honest, I started you that far away because I actually tried to place you at the fork originally, but I was worried about not giving you enough distance to accelerate enough, so I left that judgment up to the player >_> (I came up with this scenario whilst meandering in freeroam, and hadn't actually been starting at the fork myself, so I didn't have a clear model.) The nearby houses seemed like a good starting point, and the rest of the story grew from there.

I didn't mind the extra distance myself, since I'm a big fan of aimless driving, but clearly I didn't consider far beyond myself in that aspect, which is the whole reason that part stayed in.

Again, totally understandable! I do have a craving for story-oriented stuff, and since this is my first scenario, I pretty much fell right into that mindset. The focal point of this scenario doesn't mix well with a broader whole, though, so "neat trick I found while puttering about" and "cohesive unit with purpose throughout" are at odds. oops I rhymed

I do really appreciate that you enjoyed the story as much as the challenge (sans extraneous driving)--adding flavor like that is fun, and I get a lot out of the combination of concept and story.

I'm gonna close the lid on this one, and chalk it up as a semi-successful first attempt. For my next project, I've cooked up a pack of three scenarios involving drifting--specifically, donuts. (So, totally different from this.) Expect it in the next day (if not tonight).

Thanks for leaving such detailed feedback! (It...admittedly wasn't what I expected based on the length of your review, but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless!)

I've been thinking about what I might use BNSE for, but half the time I'm like "do I really wanna deal with making people download something else just because I used this feature?" Buuuuut I probably shouldn't think like that. I'll definitely spring for it when I think up something cool to do with it (triggers look mighty tantalizing).

 

You're welcome and I'm glad you understood where I was coming from. I really dislike giving negative feedback, so I almost didn't post - but I wasn't about to leave a 3/5 review without explaining myself. I definitely look forward to your next projects: both the donuts/drifting and any more story-driven stuff you come up with. FWIW the review probably played up the cons more than I intended it to; my intention with the last sentence was to explain my use of the word "arbitrary." Upon re-reading it I think it sounds a bit cutting. :-/

I agree about having requirements for a mod - it's a hard sell for me when a mod requires lots of other things, such as one or more special cars etc. OTOH I feel that BNSE will quickly become a staple. Take a look at the Scenarios by "Download Count" - note that Scepheo commands the field here and all of Scepheo's stuff is being updated to require BNSE. The Shea's Bluff scenario pack will also be updated to require BNSE as soon as the ground model changes stabilize and I'm sure one or two other mod authors will quickly jump on it. In other words... everyone's going to have BNSE installed anyway. So you should go for it!

Also on the topic of mod dependencies, I saw a post tdev made approximately 2 weeks ago which indicated that they were working on putting dependencies into the MODS repo! This is encouraging to me, hopefully it also indicates an intention to put stronger support between the game's mods manager and the Mods DB / repo.

 

Skirmisher updated Daredevil After Dark with a new update entry:

Minor changes

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