Finally throwing out Halathon

[thedoctor45]

The multiplayer part of Halathon probably delivers the most complete gameplay experience atm so I was thinking about abandoning the SinglePlayer part as I'm currently not really satisied with it (both level design and gameplay wise) and instead release a Multiplayer only Demo of Halathon sooner rather than later.

What are you guys' thoughts on this issue? Would your rather wait for the completion of the SinglePlayer part (which could take quite some time to be frank) or see this project released earlier as netgame-only version?

[General-RADIX]

If you're truly struggling to get the single-player campaign up to par, releasing a net-only demo seems like a good bet.

Rubicon X has it set up so that entering a net level by yourself spawns enemies and BoBs, so you've got more to do than wander around (not sure if it also does that if you enter with an actual group). Would this Halathon demo do the same?

(Also, sorry if the answer to this is obvious, but is Halathon a straight recreation of Halo: CE in Aleph One, or an original scenario set in the Halo 'verse?)

[thedoctor45]

Rubicon X has it set up so that entering a net level by yourself spawns enemies and BoBs, so you've got more to do than wander around (not sure if it also does that if you enter with an actual group). Would this Halathon demo do the same?

Thanks for the input.
I guess releasing a Multiplayer Demo which allows people to also use the netmaps in Singleplayer "survival style" mode would certainly be a feasible alternative, I think i will stick with that option for now.

(Also, sorry if the answer to this is obvious, but is Halathon a straight recreation of Halo: CE in Aleph One, or an original scenario set in the Halo 'verse?)

The netgame part of Halathon certainly tends more towards an accurate recreation of the original Halo experience both in terms of gameplay and level design. I took some liberties with redesigning a few of the larger outdoor maps which obviously cannot be copied over 1:1 to the AlephOne engine but that's about it.

Regarding the Singleplayer part I was aiming for an original plotline but I have hit several obstacles along the way - the most problematic one being the fact that I'm a horrible writer/storyteller, my english isn't perfect and I also suck at designing singleplayer maps, which have brought me to the point where I'm considering starting over with the entire SP campaign and just do a recreation of the original plot, if not abandon it completely, it's currently just a mess really...

[General-RADIX]

Regarding the Singleplayer part I was aiming for an original plotline but I have hit several obstacles along the way - the most problematic one being the fact that I'm a horrible writer/storyteller, my english isn't perfect and I also suck at designing singleplayer maps, which have brought me to the point where I'm considering starting over with the entire SP campaign and just do a recreation of the original plot, if not abandon it completely, it's currently just a mess really...

Hm...I wanna offer to help with the story, but if the base game can't be salvaged, then I'm not sure how useful any advice I'd have would actually be.

[thedoctor45]

Hm...I wanna offer to help with the story, but if the base game can't be salvaged, then I'm not sure how useful any advice I'd have would actually be.

The biggest deal breaker atm is the quality difference beween the multiplayer and singleplayer campaigns. The netmaps are really detailed and high quality while the solo maps are just regular quality you'd see in most other 3rd party Marathon scenarios.

Editing the solo maps to such an extent that they actually match in terms of quality would simply be too much effort for one person to handle, but releasing anything less would make it look inconsistent which I'm also not happy with, so you can probably see my dilemma. I would need at least one rather experienced mapper to help me overcome this problem or the current SP campain is doomed..

[Wrkncacnter]

Just an outsider's perspective here, but I think you might be worrying a bit too much about the quality difference in netmaps vs solo. If you're actually right about the single player maps being about the same quality as most other 3rd party scenarios, it seems odd to me not to release it. You could release the netmaps as a separate package to help make the quality difference seem like less of an issue.

As you can tell from people's attitudes around here, pretty much no one plays or cares about multiplayer. The people that do basically stick to marathon infinity only, unless they're playing co-op. Therefore, a lot of people may never even look at the multiplayer maps.

[thedoctor45]

The quality difference is just one of several problems the SP campaign has, if probably the most noticable (well, for me at least).

I think I'll just focus on releasing a multiplayer demo to get people interested and see how things go from there, maybe some of the mappers here even want to help out with the SP part once they (hopefully) recognize the potential that Halathon has.

But as you said, even if we can't match quality completely, aiming for a separate SP release will make the difference hardly noticable so that's probably the way to go for the future...

[ukimalefu]

I want the single player!

But if it won't be good enough... maybe just multiplayer is ok. It could make me want to try marathon multiplayer again...

BUT

Is the single player part really not good enough, or you're being too hard on yourself as a creator? that can happen. Have you had other people play the solo levels?

Also, have you done 'blood gulch'? more than play that, I'd love to see 'Red vs Blue' do another time travel bit

[thedoctor45]

Is the single player part really not good enough, or you're being too hard on yourself as a creator? that can happen.

Tbh, I'm a bit of a perfectionist so what might me acceptable for most people will not be acceptable for me - sorry but I can be quite stubborn when it comes to these things.

The first few levels of the current SP campaign will have you run around in a series of corridors onboard a UNSC cruiser (quite similar to the beginning of the original Halo actually, even though it's supposed to be a different ship). They are super detailed and would fit in with the netmaps but are very linear/unspectacular in terms of gameplay.
The other SP maps are located on an alien Planet and are loosely based on the maps Fishman developed before he decided to dump the files here. I added a little more detail and felshed out the storyarch more but it's still not even close to the rest of the maps that I made from scratch, so that's definitely a problem.

Also, have you done 'blood gulch'? more than play that, I'd love to see 'Red vs Blue' do another time travel bit

I tried to do an authentic recreation of blood gulch but the engine couldn't quite handle all the invisible poly edges so it wasn´t really playable - instead, I decided to split the map into smaller chunks and connect them through a series of canyon-like corridors.

[Johnman]

I just want more Marathon. Give more Marathon!

[ukimalefu]

I just want more Marathon. Give more Marathon!

so say we all