From an Elevator to The Blind Monk’s Society

Two mods came to my attention this week: Elevator: Source, a mod built on Garry’s Mod, and The Blind Monk’s Society, a mod for Half Life 2.

Elevator: Source is an elevator simulation by Pixeltail Games.  You get on the elevator, and then wait until it stops on a one of the 28 randomised floors..

First I got to look out into a freezing world.. I wanted to step out and have a look, but there was an invisible wall 🙁

After this, there was a dingy corrridor from which an NPC appeared.. she joined me and waited.. the next stop had the doors open in space, with a strange spinning kaleidoscope pattern.  There is an end-level where you can leave and walk around a games room, play pool and watch TV, but I just didn’t feel like sitting through more floors to get there.

I had the second mod to get to.. Blind Monk’s Society, where you play the part of a blind monk!

The game has no visuals, so to find your way around you have to listen very carefully.  I had read about this game over on Rock, Paper Shotgun and seen a recommendation to shut my eyes.  This actually helped a lot as it removed the distraction of my room and forced me to just listen..

You are greeted by two other monks, who really are channeling Monty Python with some very strange voices, silly singing and random phrases.  I got told off rather a lot as they explained my first task, for not keeping up as they started walking!

The first task is to collect a wind-chime, making your way alongside the river and up to where you can just hear them chiming.  My path up to the chime was extremely hesitant, after I stepped into the river and quickly backpedalled to get out, then didn’t want to end up lost.  The return journey was guided by the ringing of a bell, although I was nearly distracted by a crazy monk chattering about sitting in the grass and getting a wet bum!

I consider my hearing to be poor, so I was surprised to find that on the second mission, I was able to follow the audio cues rather easily, retrieving the second wind-chime and returning rather quickly.

I would have loved to see an overview of the path I’d made afterwards, but as the game was made as a project in navigation, there weren’t any visuals.  I would also rather like to see a horror game using some mechanics like this.. scary as it would be!

More Server Things – Garry’s Mod

When I got my virtual server, the other thing I’d planned was to run a Garry’s Mod server.

In the past we relied on public servers and been at the mercy of whatever admin appearing and deleting our stuff without so much as a word.. somewhat putting me off trying to build anything that takes more than a few minutes.

The first step was installing the Half-Life Dedicated Server Update Tool Setup Program.. what a mouthful 😉

Once installed, it apparently then needs updating (once again I have Tim for an instruction manual).. before running.  Garry’s mod requires the Orange Box, so the tool went off to find that as well..

More fiddling checked the tool had updated, and then the server was started!

As it all worked, there had to be some kind of celebration, right? 😉

Trouble in Terrorist Town

Trouble in Terrorist Town is a mod for Garry’s Mod, with Traitor terrorists hiding amongst Innocent terrorists.  Yes, a mod within a mod, and “innocent” terrorists.. x)

A friend invited me along last night, and I found that while the idea is simple, actually figuring out who is who, and knowing quite what to do, isn’t so easy.. though it is rather exciting when playing as a Traitor! 🙂

Roles are set by the game at the beginning of each round, with a few players being assigned to the Traitor team and the rest to the Innocent team. Traitors can see each other and plot against the Innocent team; their job is to kill off the Innocent team without being caught.  Innocent players don’t know which players are Traitors, and have to rely on what information they can find on corpses.. such as that player’s last words, or the weapon used to kill them.  There are also Detectives amongst the Innocent team.. they have additional information-gathering abilities, though beyond that, I didn’t quite make out.

The first few minutes were just confusing.. I managed to land a Traitor role, but erring on the side of caution I waited a while before attempting to kill anyone, hiding up in a tower where I tried to push somebody off the side of the building, fluffed it, but somehow managed to avoid suspicion.. that time.

Once dead, you can’t communicate, which would have come in handy as I was killed in a tunnel just after calling out who I was with.  Player deaths aren’t announced until somebody discovers the body, so a possibly useful clue.. the name of the player I was with.. went unused that time.

Metro 2033

When I first heard of Metro 2033, all I could think of was how similar it sounded to Fallout.. humanity surviving underground following nuclear devestation, scavenging for survival, mutant creatures.   So, as I loved the Fallout series, I wanted this game from fairly early on.

Friday was launch day, and so I got home, installed the game and started there and then.  Another comparison to the Fallout games?  I found myself playing for a good few hours, barely noticing the time go past.  The atmosphere is amazing, especially in the Metro stations where you can hear everything that’s going on all around you.

On going outside in the polluted air, you need a gasmask.. for which you also need to keep topped up with air filters. How do you know when to change your filter?  Check your wristwatch! 🙂

Wearing the mask for extended periods will also lead it to fog up, making it harder to see.  If you’re fighting while wearing it, you’ll also notice it developing cracks, and eventually breaking..

Once there’s a hole in your mask, you need to change it for a new one (there will be a few laying around in places), or you will start to gasp, wheeze, and eventually keel over and die.

The weapons start off quite weak, especially when using hand-made bullets.  You could use the good, shiny bullets, which are much higher-powered, but since they double as currency, using them might mean you can’t upgrade your weapon at the next station.

In some areas, stealth is the way to go, and here I have to confess to enjoying picking the enemies off with throwing knives. 🙂

In others, the way to go is to simply blow stuff up.. and I just love fire! 🙂

Some of the monsters were frustrating, especially when low on ammo – I’m looking at you, Librarian – but it was nice to be challenged.  All in all, I thought there was a great mix of action and stealth, with a few puzzles and surprises thown in there as well.  I also enjoyed the last section, ‘Ethereal’; running away from the Dark One who wanted to kill me, before finally getting a weapon..  After dealing with him, I had my choice of ending: “If it’s hostile, kill it”, or “find the truth”.

Considering my track record of non-completion, and the fact I spent around twelve hours playing Garry’s mod with friends (I’m blaming the friends for the amount of time there).. I’m quite pleased with myself for completing this in the first weekend!