Paranoid _ _ _ _ _ hot update!

Hi all : )

I have to say that Paranoid is closer than never, this version took me much more time than expected since is a total rework (it deserves it). When I opened the Parnaoid source file in the hammer editor, I couldn’t believe such a bad mapping, so I wanted to rework it all. I had, aswell, crash problems and I put many many things in the new version (I spent a lot of time with this version).

I still dont have a name, so, help me!  what do you think about these?

Suggestions accepted

I have to admit that I was pretty busy 10 days ago with some works or business, so I didn’t work a lot. But now, I’m on full performance again. I already did the difficult/hard/annoying part, and I tested all the modes already (anyway I need a pretty long test for this, I will ask many ppl as possible).

The things to-do in my list are:

- Put the items at 2º labyrinth (just put)
- Put the triggers at 1º and 2º   (just put)
- Put the special special weapons as secrets
- Put the monsters (just put)
- Put the music
- Some extra things I will not put there (easy cake)

I would like to show you some pics that could be interesting. You must know that some things have changed consideraably, these are the next:

 

As you see, I have skill with Paint. The pictures shows the main differences and important gameplay changes:

• The mode selection: 16 modes, just 1 to be selected. Every second, a mode is discarded (breaking the block), and the last one will be selected. The winners can discard the modes they hate with shooting the hated modes, you can do this while there more than 8 modes to be selected. The super winner (only one survivor), can discard at any time.
• There are 4 different zone types: the egypt , Paranoid Ultimate, metal, and wooden zone.  They are very different and the gameplay will be pretty different at each one if Volcano or Vertigo mode is selected, or if you are going at the upper zone.
• First labyrinth has two levels: each zone has two paths, the upper and the lower one. The upper is more secure but no weapons/items are spawned there. If you go through the upper level, you can use the doors like bridges.
• Doors go down and up: instead the instant appear/dissapear, now, doors can be used to go to the upper level, and will not stuck you anymore (anyway the stuck thing is funny).
• Core entrance hold spot: defend time has been increased; the visibility has been increased since now, there are no walls but a very deep precipice. To defend you may use a trap (that works against humans aswell, for fun).  There are 4 trap types: wind push, rotating platform, freezing cube and inclination platform and their effect are short but the cooldown is short aswell.

Well, thats all, sorry for my English; I wrote this pretty fast. I hope you liked. Feel free to opine about this, specially about the paint pictures. Remember that it is not finished yet, and there is no VRAD compile (sucky light in the pics).

I hope to finish the map soon, I need all you to test. Sure you will have fun!

PD: Tony recently talked to me about a crashin problem in Mount Doom. It uses the classname. A fast fix will be published.

PD 2: Last Man Standing still in my mind and heart : )

Minas Tirith v3_3

This is going to be a very short post (I don’t want to push down the Paranoid post)

Final version of Minas Tirith: ze_LOTR_Minas_Tirith_v3_3

Fixes: – Physic glitch could be fixed! – Nazguls get killed after teleportation at stage 1. – Back ladder of zombie ladder can’t be destroyed by zombies. – Barrel is not overpowered.

I’m updating all maps at gamebanana at the moment (it takes a bit of time).

EDIT: Confirmed! Minas Tirith for Counter Strike Soure Zombie Escape has been ultimated!! no more bugs, no more updates, than you very much

Info about Paranoid V11

As promised here is some info about what you can expect on the future Paranoid update.

Here you have an image of the what the final layout will mostly look like. A wall or two may change, but this is the idea. Take in mind that even if is labeled as “Neo Paranoid” we haven’t decided yet upon the new name for the V11

EDIT: I posted first “V12″, but its really the V11. Old (current) version is V10. Still wrong on the image.

Neo Paranoid Map

The teal area (North area) is colored that way so you can see what a side is supposed to be. As always, there are 8 sides on the map, but now all sides are 5×5 cubes in size.
We haven’t decided yet where the Weapon-Rooms will be placed; or even if there will be only one per side (like all previous Paranoid versions) or two instead.

As mentioned, the straight sides (North, South, East and West) are now bigger (5×5 cubes) so they aren’t faster to get to the 2nd Labyrinth compared to the Corner sides. This also breaks the “completely-square” look of the map.

The blue brushes (and the line connecting them) are the new “separation walls“, they separate the different areas on the first labyrinth. Each area will probably have a different look (even if overall similar) by using different detail props (like some older versions of Paranoid used to have).
Also, Paranoid will close areas now depending on the number of players, probably as follows:

- If there are 8 or fewer players, only 1 Side (North for example) will be open, so all players will have to play on the North area. All teleports will lead there, the North-South teleport won’t work, and the blue walls, being closed, won’t allow you to walk to the Northeast nor Northwest sides.
- If there are 9 to 16 players, 2 Sides will be open (North and South following the example). You will be able to use the North-South Teleport, but the walls being closed won’t allow to wander to the other 6 areas of the labyrinth.
- If there are 17-32 players, 4 Sides will be open (North, South, Northeast and Southweast).
- If there are 33 or more players, all 8 sides will be open.

The idea behind this is making the map more playable when there are few players, and making sure that you see other Humans and Zombies while playing on a server that isn’t full.

Finally, the red lines you can see in the map (specially the ones surrounding the 2nd Labyrinth and the Core itself) are “Short Cuts” without random-moving-walls. The idea here is that if there are no Humans to infect (if you are a Zombie for example) on the side you enter, you can move fast to another place to look for them.
One or two of those shortcuts will probably include a trigger that increases movement speed so you can move there in time for some action.

We are thinking about changing the appearing/disappearing walls on the first labyrinth with walls that go down instead; so if you get caught in the middle of them changing, you will now just go up with them instead of being trapped inside.
Also, as mentioned on the description of the image, we will make each of the 8 sides of the 1st labyrinth look somehow different from each other, with different details on their walls and such, like older versions of Paranoid.

On the Spawn, there will be 8 “rooms” to choose from instead of 10. This will give more humans on average per “room“; and because there are only 8 destinations after all (4 of the current “rooms” lead to the same 2 places).

There are new items for both humans and zombies, aswell as Labyrinth events (like Reverse Controls or Fast CTs); but we won’t say wich ones so you discover them all while playing the map. Should be funnier this way.
Also, as mentioned before by Hannibal, now the weapons, zombie items, and even the neutral Labyrinth events will spawn randomly; so you will never know what weapon is on your side of the maze, and a team may even find the same weapon multiple times (like 2 Miniguns or 3 Zombie Jumpers).
Also, most of the old weapons have been reworked. They should look exactly the same and work in the same exact way, but they are cheaper and better done overall.
Special mention to the Minigun, wich uses now a custom real model, and is now a Toggle ON/OFF weapon, instead of being based on pressing the button repeatedly (I bet pros won’t like this change, XD).

As also mentioned before, but just in case you didn’t know, the Crow and the Turtle Launcher are completely gone from Paranoid right now, for obvious reasons.
I may talk Hannibal into the possibility of re-adding the Crow, making it sightly different somehow, and making it unable to go on top of the Zombie Portal nor the Core Elevator. But don’t count on it being there when the V11 is released.

There will be also a couple new modes for Paranoid to choose from; and Hannibal is even working on a system that allows player to “vote” modes that they don’t want to play.
Also, right now we were talking about changing the ending on Silent Hill mode so its more challenging; this would include, apart from changing the layout from a Straight Corridor to something else, not disabling ANY specials there anymore (currently that place disables Human Sprint Weapon, Zombie Boss Extra Speed and Zombie Jumper).

About the Core and the Coliseum… For the moment will remain untouched. But I wouldn’t discard the possibility of them changing on future V11_X versions; I have some nice Coliseum endings in mind myself.

So that’s kinda all I “can” share about Paranoid V11 with you guys right now.
I gave the basic layout to Hannibal already, and since he kinda made all the items and specials already he only needs to place them. Then only the visuals for the mazes will be missing.

About Minas Tirith V3.3, Hannibal worked on it, making the needed fixes and changes.
He also changed a last thing in an attempt to get rid of the physics glitch without having to change the way barricades work; and once more there are big chances that he got rid of it for good. Let’s hope for the best!

Feel free to ask questions about Paranoid on the comments; but I won’t give away none of the new items or powerups, take that in mind!

FFVII Mako Reactor V5.1 – GUIDE!

Hello there folks. Hannibal has been working hard on Paranoid while I have been hardly working.
I bet you never heard that one before! XD

I will write a more detailed rant about Paranoid tomorrow or Monday answering some of the questions you guys have been posting and explaining what can you expect from this upcoming version. I may end including an image of the current layout for you guys to check; its pretty similar but with some minor changes that should improve the gameplay and making straight positions (like North) taking the same time as diagonal positions (like North-East) to reach the center.

Meanwhile feel free to enjoy the newest Tony Montana video-guide, this time on FFVII Mako Reactor V5.1!

If Mako Reactor still hides secrets from you this guide should help you discover them.

Not sure what materias do or where they are? Not a clue what you need to do while facing the Red Bahamuth? What are those cowbells people are talking about? What did just kill you? Watch the video and find answers for all those questions!

Tony Montana also made some time ago a Minas Tirith – Item Guide. If you haven’t seen it yet and you don’t know what all items do, you can found it here: Minas Tirith Item Guide

And talking about Minas Tirith. Hannibal has been mostly doing/changing/improving weapons and powerups for Paranoid; but he should get to fixing it anytime soon while I slack with the visuals of Paranoid (that will buy me some time! XD).

Since V3.2 seems to still glitch the physics by time to time (can someone confirm this?) Hannibal may end replacing the barricade items, making them similar to when you use Earth on Mako or Builder on Paranoid (static props that can float in the air). Probably he will make their HP system like the Soldier Guards, so zombies can hurt them also by touching/pushing them, avoiding and/or fixing the common situations where zombies are just knifing each other while trying to get rid of a Barricade that was placed in a small path or just where they teleport.

So… Paranoid post tomorrow or Monday. Now I’m going to work on it a little. XD

Updates news (Minas Tirith and Paranoid)

Hi all, I noticed that some of you are posting more things about Minas Tirith. I played it many times and I agree that it still needs a small change. Basically, the most important adjustment is the Nazgul at stage 1: I’m gonna totally kill all them after the teleport and make them more weak.

I don’t agree in some things:

- Stage 2 defense: it’s pretty easy defend and retreat.

- Stage 3 falling rocks: the fall because the elevator arrives, and not because someone touches a trigger. Failing horses will not screw the team.

- Meteors: since they are totally visible now, I feel I don’t need to nerf them anymore; they hurt 120 of damage even if you have armor, that means you will survive if you are a flag carrier, if you are casting gandalf and if you wear an armor. I should set the other items to increase your HP.

- Too much defense time in some parts: it’s true, I increased the defense time, but the most of holding spots have a trigger that opens the door in case of zombie flood; that doesn’t mean you let a zombie get inside to continue with the escape, because it’s pretty risky, it is still better to defend.

About Paranoid

I cleaned the map, JEZZ! I feel embarrassed when I see the random names, unused triggers, or just fail of optimizations in items or modes… remember I made that map after Helms Deep, and I was a bit noob… Kaemon told me that is better to ‘re-make’ Paranoid than clean/update the current version, I don’t know if this is true or it’s another of the Kaemon jokes (imo its true), but I’m afraid that Paranoid essence would be negatively altered if I make this, so, for now, Im updating from the last version.

This is the list of things I’m going to make for the version:

- Long black corridor stays: I know you like it, so many ppl going at 200 km/h jumping and remembering that you didn’t buy yet.

- Templating all items: I already templated all items, and, even if you don’t understand the meaning of a template, I can say you that the gameplay and fun will be totally improved, why? because:

· Random items: the place of the items will change! as well as the spawned item itself! This means that you the freezer may appear in the south, west, north… or it can’t appear!

· Repeated items: the spawn system will be totally random, I won’t even check if there is a Builder in the map, you may see 3 builders, or 2 rocket launchers, or 5 chainsaws! This happens aswell with the zombie items; so you may hear the antlion scream more than 1 time. Anyway, some items are obviously overpowered, I will not create more than one of these, some of them are the Minigun, the Titan, the singularity cannon, the annihilator…

· Mad modes: now, I can spawn many items as I want, I may add a mode with 8 pyramid heads to make you pee in your pants, or modes with a lot of the same item to see funny effects.

- Coliseum will not be changed! I will not touch it, literally.

- Increased the number of modes: I added some new modes, I wont tell you about them; well, I wanna advance that one mode spawns 8 monsters of the same type (random selection). Every rounds will be different.

- Added new items:some of them powerful, some of them just stupid or funny

- Upgraded old items: many of the old items were just… made like shit, I say: using 6 pieces to create the minigun body… well, I put a real minigun model (in example), and I changed many particles.

- Deleted items: the black list is for: Turtle Launcher (annoying for zombies, glitch sometimes, expensive item), the crow (glitch item, overpowered, selfish item), teleport zombie (the purple one, bugged, a bit confusing for new players), wall controller (selfish item, make it a bit boring), big wall item (well, it was changed by a ladder item). That’s all (for now).

- Changed design (not sure yet): the visual design of the first labyrinth may change, aswell as the skybox, but this depends a lot from Kaemon since I think is enough with the many gameplay changes.

- Map adjusted to the number of players: Paranoid is the biggest map of ZE, the distance between players is insane, and the gameplay is boring when you play with less than 20 players. I will reduce dynamically the gameplay area.

Thank you very much for the suggestions : ) Let’s make the best Paranoid version ever!

Rezurrection (6/6)

Note: v3_2 Nazguls at stage 1 still difficult… v3_3 may be released after 1 week or. For now, I make a call to all admins to skip the stage 1 at extreme or just remove that entity with the command in rcon or something:      ent_remove item_nazgul_TemplateM

Hi all. After some tests, I finished the final version of Minas Tirith: ze_LOTR_Minas_Tirith_v3_2. I have to say that is not easy to adjust such a huge map like this but at least I fixed/improved some important things:

- Physics bug: Finally! I’m pretty sure that the problem has been fixed and the map should no longer glitch the physics of the server; at least it didn’t do so after more than 15 rounds on one of the stages it used to happen more often.

- Difficulty: The difficulty has been increased overall, but specially in extreme. Don’t worry, the insane hard difficulty of the versions 3 and 3.1  is gone/fixed.
The zombie ratio of the map is now 1/6 instead of 1/8 (1/5 in Extreme) and the spawn time is 12 seconds instead of 15 (6 in Extreme).
White Knight also has been nerfed; his HP is reduced and has now a bigger cooldown on his special move.
There are other changes here and there to make the map overall harder; like making it harder to block some of the Zombie “spawners”, Extreme Meteors being a deadly threat again, or the zombies having some extra paths during the Grond event (to name a few).

I made many changes to improve the gameplay and some glitches have been fixed, I’m sure I forgot some but they may be not very important. The ladder item for zombies has been put it back again (was removed because I believed it to be the one causing the physics to glitch), and overall the zombie gameplay has been improved by getting rid of some cheap strategies against them.
I’m not going to put the list of changes because im tired, but you should notice minor thins in some places, and all the known bugs that could be abused (like stopping a round by blocking an item) have been fixed.

BTW, I noticed at least one “bug” (one of the Ossgiliath Horses having a ladder, lol!) but I won’t make a new version just for it… and I hope there aren’t problems of glitches that require me making a new version at all.

Download from Hannibal’s Dropbox: Minas Tirith v3_2

So, lets finish this “Rezurrection” of mine: the last step, the final map… Paranoid! Yeeeee!

• Map to update: Paranoid
• Objective of the update: Important and minor Glitch Fixes; Remake/Removal/Change of easily abusable items, Increase number of items and modes; Increase fun of the map ; maybe improve visuals (but not sure)
• Approximated release: Next month?

I know many people like this map, and I know many also think that some of the previous versions were better for one or other reason… Im going to try to bring back the essence of randomness of older versions, delete boring things, improve unbalanced modes, etc…

BTW, Kaemon wants me to mention that he had nothing to do with the Minas Tirith update; or any of my LOTR maps. People keep thinking he has helped making those maps; but he wants to point out that he mostly just gave suggestions, support and testing (and two minor models for Minas Tirith); but that if you like/hate those maps, is me (Hannibal) to praise/blame. XD

Also, Kaemon will be helping with the Paranoid remake (like he helped on all previous versions), so I bet he will post about what changes we are aiming for this coming week or so.

Minas Tirith

Hi mates, I just posted this to make the birthday post go lower. I wanna release Minas Tirith today, the final version, the test of i3D went pretty well (we didnt find many bugs), but the map is now freaking difficult so, it needs some adjustments and I have a very good solution for this.

And the next and last map of Rezurrection will be Paranoid after that I will focus on Last Man Standing, and after that I will feel I finished my work in ZE : ) thank you all for following that blog.