Please tell us what you think of this luminescent, murmuring mucousy fetid feature!

Looks really cool and the way it moves is really natural, good job!

Can't wait to see how the infestation element affects gameplay

It looks awesome. I particularly love the tendrils that snake out ahead of the main mass. Nice touch.

could be very interesting to see how it could affect gameplay. like if an area gets too heavily infested, maybe make it impossible to phase there? or have gorges enhance the infestation so much it changes the hallway into a crawl space?

I really enjoyed the NS1 atmosphere and one thing that really sticks in my head is that the infestation in some maps would only partially cover objects. I.E. Pipes and grating. I'm sure you know what im talking about. Now I know your work on this is just starting, but will the infestation completely cover everything? I think a 100% covered area would look rather bland (the infestation does look awesome though) with out some non-infested areas.

I totally guessed it was going to be like the creep from starcraft, sweet. Can't wait to see what this adds to gameplay.

EDIT:

I can already imagine big battles with the creep going forward and back along with lights flickering on and off as it recedes\advances.

I put it on reddit: http://programming.reddit.com/info/t7cm/comments vote it up.

Wow it looks great! I really hope it has an awesome squelchy noise when you walk over it too!

excellent work

But will it always spread so fast? It just seemed too quickly moving to me. Just my opinion but i think it should have a creeping feel to it, but it didn't feel that way because it was rushing forward and changing too fast.

Absolutely fantastic!!!!! Is this the bus? Hey Charlie, so is this going to creep with the help of gorgies, or is this all automatic? Also, can marines say... burn part of the area away? What if they wanted to clear this stuff out of a room and used a few flamethrowers (should they ever appear *wishes*)?

It is really really great to see dynamic environments, dynamic game play elements, and far more involving and immersing elements being put into the game. Congrats, and btw the hype bus just ignited its nitro.

No kidding, I can't even think of a FPS game that would have something like this. I think the hypemeter just exploded haha.

Wow...that looks freakin amazing.

I wonder how it scales though. It seems like a whole lot of those meshes will be created in a typical game - wouldn't that hurt performance?

Also, the bumpiness should be more random. I'm going to assume that the creep will grow radially (rather than directionally as depicted in the video), and that would result in very bumpy terrain - imagine trying to wallclimb on that.

That is awesome.

I'm impressed. I never liked the static infestation in maps. Well I did in my maps, but I always felt it was poorly done most of the time. I like this.

It does look pretty sweet, but as a mapper I'd like to be able to either place it directly, or control where it does or doesn't appear and the rate at which it does so. My main reasoning for that is aesthetic; while it does look pretty damn awesome, there are some cases where you won't want the entire room coated in it. On a related note; I'm not sure on the feasibility, but it would be cool if it avoided self illuminated portions of textures.

Just make the light shine through the infestation like a transparency, or make it change the texture to an off light with maybe a nice dimming effect .

Damn, that looked so good.

Saves time for the mappers and adds gameplay elements, very nice idea. I had no idea you could do something like that on the Source engine.

I am sure this is just the beginning of the innovative ideas for NS2.

Looks pretty nice. Everyone should watch the full version of it instead of the youtube. The quality really shows there.

How will the infestation affect a player who happens to be standing in it's path? Will it fuse a marine to the floor or simply push him upwards on top of it so he doesn't get stuck?

Personally I think the edge of the infestation should be feathered more. The way it is currently reminds me of painting with a custom brush in photoshop. But that could just be because of the speed of it. I always pictured it as a wider slower infestation.


Totally offtopic but the RSS feed for RSS 2.0 isn't updating properly but the atom 1.0 is . The 2.0 feed is still showing the Max intro while the atom one shows the current infestation one.

that is pretty impressive

Might could use some kind of nobuild type texture to define a line that it can't grow over.

Just noticed, the first "blog entry" should be deleted, only leaving the hyperlink named that.

My first thought was a point entity that inhibits/promotes infestation growth within a radius. But you can also select individual faces in Hammer via an entity now, so you could do it that way.

Looks like a gameplay changing feature, I can't wait for it to be joined with a sort of "nanonetwork" limiting how marines and alien build territory wise.

this looks really exciting

Awe. Some.

Sexy.

Though I hope the infestation doesn't affect the layout. With loads of dynamic infestation it's bound to create loads of frustrating sticky spots. We may as well be playing Natural Selection: Mr Ben (ho ho).

Love the idea of the infestation affecting technology, though.

I was so hoping for this, but never expected to see it so nicely done!

There's various different approaches to this that I'm sure you're exploring, but I want to touch on as I think about it.

- focal point expansion vs directional tendrils
- specific or all chambers/towers/hives as focal/starting points, allowing some control over the infestation by the players
- if tendrils, possible random sub tendrils breaking off and ending after a random distance
- grenades and/or other weapons (eg flamethrower) pushing back/destroying infestation (see antlion exploding particle effects ala episode two)
- the obvious -- allow chambers on creep only; in this case resource chambers and/or hives can be a focal/starting point and possibly other chambers help expansion
- moving doors offer a possible issue, perhaps it'll open the door after detecting movement and stay that way until the infestation is cleared.
- moving platforms would probably just have to stop working
- gorge flux -- offering the gorge to spray where he wants a tendril to infest next.
- allow the infestation to drip, drop, or droop to the floor when it's on the ceiling, possibly creating a stalagtite and/or stalagmite. (is most interesting if it clips)
- make skulks ultra-clingy to infestation, riding the bumps with ease (if it clips)
- make cloaking work better or only in front of infestation
- increase movement speeds over infestation
- make sure that infestation doesn't block hallways for onos (if it clips)

Maybe that will ignite some more discussion.

i should think that since the infested material is goopy, there should be a fair bit of "wiggle" room heh thus there should be far less conflict than one should think. Who knows, maybe collisions will cause problems or maybe there is a min collision area set for them such that it wont cause problems unless it is generated while you are nearby (eg: you are in a corner while the infestation moves in and you get pinned heh.

I think it's safe to assume this is a demonstration of the technology and their accomplishment, rather than a demonstration of exactly how it will appear in its final incarnation.

Looks really good and I can't wait to see some of the cool stuff like infestation affecting lighting etc. ingame. Dynamic environments are great.

Awesome !

That would be funny if the gorge could draw the infestation, or add some "touch" here and there
Regarding the infestation, some kind of aliens's lianas hanging from the ceiling would be cool.

very cool

Looks amazing ! Thanks for the updates and especially in deciding to "really "open the kimono"".

Looking great!

Would be cool if the infestation had a more pulsating expansion rate, like a life-form. Would be cool if there were some slow, slow movement going on as well so it looks like as if the infestation is alive.


Will the infestation clip? If so; won't this create problems when it comes to where it's possible and not to drop buildings?

Dude, awesome. Like, woha!!!! I cant wait to see that in-game!

Looks really good! It would be cool if Infestation could lock specific parts of a room/map so Marines have to destroy it before beeing able to move on.

good job

If rines drop structures in a room full of infestation and don;t build it in time, the structure is taken over by the infestation and becomes unbuildable until the room is cleared with.... dare I say, a flamethrower?

we dont know what is the new gameplay (units, aliens and stuff)
So we cant say anything it works, BUT it looks amazing and real, no bullish its looks realy cool, the slime, and the thing under the surface looks so fantastic.

I think it looks like a living organism, and i hope it dont need to many peformence but i think the levels looks cool with it.
I hope the marines cant build on it , or loose energy
Watch my sig, im bad in english so i cant say what i realy mean.
Hope, we see more cool things.


Question:
Can any new or old creature burrow/dig in this infestation?

That, is AMAZING!

Well done Max, you really have outdone yourself. Can't wait to get it in my map

Lol, tunneling in infestations, The aliens could create an underground network and hide the hive in there

I dont know what to say beside AWESOME.

Oh, wow...

This is the kind of feature which adds a lot to the game. It gives many great ideas and makes the game more unique.

For example, imagine a cloaked alien sitting in a marine base, inspecting their movements while remaining perfectly hidden. Then after some time, the ground beneath the alien slowly starts to get infected by the bacteria, making a visible infestation. It gives away the cloaked alien's location to the marines, who come double-time to the spot, blastin' their pieces.

I'm sure the infestation advances a lot slower in the finished game, but the current speed would be just as horrifying. If I were being chased down the cramped hallways by such a greenish vomit -coloured slimy, living, speedcrawling goo, I'd panic like a cat in a washing machine.

" - It coming for us! Everybody run for their lives!"
" - Oh god, it's already here..."

Oh dear god this game looks so good already.

you could really make this into something great.
i would like to see the rooms get really dark and have to make use of the flash lights.

also i hope you dont make this stuff grow toooo fast D:

This is amazing, It totally caught me off guard this morning when I was drinking my morning coffee before class. Great work guys your making source look like the correct choice.

And I am pretty sure this is the first of many fantastic features to come.

awesome. i knew this would be in the game, but didn't dream it would look this great! now what to call it ingame... 'goo'? 'fest? (inFestation) bird flu slime? gorgey poo?

i like the ideas:
- map triggers based on goo
- flamethrower barbequeing the goo
- gorges directing goo
- goo affects abilities/structures

I think it's fine to call it 'Dynamic Infestation' or DI for short, but if there were to be a more casual term for it, then I think 'creep' is perfect.

Yeh, bring on the creep.

Looking good, especially for an initial working concept. Can't wait till the NS2TR gets released so we can have a play with this and it's effects..

NS2 LIVES!

Amazing work, cant wait to see DI fully realized. How will this affect game play though? Will it block vents and doorways? Can it be destroyed? Either by shooting it directly or killing the "root" i.e chambers, hive, RT. What happens if theres a player/object in the way?