Comments on: Poll Question 140 – How did you play Strider Mountain?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:04:30 +0000

I turned 60 years old this year and finished this in two sittings, so I’m guessing around 16 hours ish. It’s like taking a trip somewhere and you don’t want to stop until you reach the destination. It helps to be on the obsessive-compulsive side of the spectrum too . It’s a real drag to get off the train (which is how HL2 started anyway).

What kept things moving was the consistently decent framerate, and the also decent load times for levels. Either of these being poorly designed might have caused me to stand up and walk away for a bit.

[ Side note: I can imagine a sequel to this where all the remaining striders gang up in an epic finale, and of course get exterminated if all goes well. ]

By: SPY-maps

SPY-maps — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:31:52 +0000

i hardly ever, or better say never play on Hard, for me its always Normal, (easy is way to easy). and i don’t know why but i never thought about playing my own maps on hard.
just today i have started playing SM on hard, to see how that is and it amazes me that it isn’t even that hard, (although i don’t play these maps ofcourse for the first time, by now i know each npc’s to find blindly).

thanks for the nice comments!

leon

By: jjawin118

jjawin118 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:08:58 +0000

I played it as a free time diversion for my “down time”.I work on average,60-70 hrs. a week and often travel in the course of my work too.White slavery is very real my friends.
Had I been able,I probably would have sat and knocked in out in 3 sittings.I really enjoy getting caught up in the atmosphere and storyline (which were both done well in the mod) same as in a good book.
I’m currently having a second run on hard and it’s still working for me.Kudos to the entire team!Great Mod!

By: Sirocco

Sirocco — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:06:58 +0000

A lot of players have bagged SM for having more combat than they prefer. That’s fine, it’s individual preference after all. For me, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I played it on normal first time in about 4 or 5 long sittings depending on the time I had available. I would make sure I had at least 2 or more hours to play each time. I would play each map or level and get inevitably get killed a few times while working out the layout and best path to take or best strategy for getting through with maximum health and energy remaining. I got thru the first 5 maps fairly quickly as I had played them when they were released a few months ago and knew where to go and what to do. That didn’t detract from the experience at all. The anticipation of what was to follow kept me interested.
As I am a part time mapper as well as a player, I always like to check out the construction of the maps and the elements used to create the scripted sequences so tend to linger when something grabs my attention. I like Leons maps for the detail and efficient use of space.
I will play it again on hard sometime in the near future when I get time. The only problem will be that Assassins Creed Two will be out in November when I foresee having some spare time.

By: SPY-maps

SPY-maps — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:58:43 +0000

let me start with telling that i am o so glad that this question is the poll this time ! because ofcourse are we too interested in this, i know i am for sure. when my brother tested SM (he played about 12 maps while i did sit next to him) it took him around 6+ hours to play 5 maps. based on that i always counted on that it would take around 20+ hours raughly for someone to play SM for the first time on setting Normal. as allready is said above is the amount of time needed different when you play on Easy or Hard.
i too do believe that gameplay of a game or mod will indeed decide how long and often you will need to finish a game or mod. above is suggested by some that because of the lack of many puzzels in SM they couldn’t play many hours after each other. personaly as you now probebly will well know do i not like puzzels, should i therefore play a mod with many in them i too wouldn’t play many hours behind each other.

i play about 2 to 5 hours each day i guess, during the day a bit, and late at night before bedtime i like to play for another 2 hours in generel. for those late night hours i always save a special game or mod. there are games that are ‘just’ ok to play, and there are that are really liked very much by the player. these last game sort i keep for late at night, i then like to sit behind a screen in a fully dark room to enjoy it at the most. after 2+ hours i always notice that the fun starts to go a bit away, the fun is not that big anymore as it was in the first hour. then is stop, because i don’t like to rush through a mod or game that i do like very much.

thanks for this poll Phillip and Stuart C. Wardlaw’s !
the outcome till now of this poll is what i raughly expected would be the case, although it does really surprice me that there are still so many people that do play it in one take !!

leon

By: Da Fat Cat

Da Fat Cat — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:31:21 +0000

I didn’t finish it and I dont plan to. It isn’t a very good mod.

By: Armageddon

Armageddon — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:28:09 +0000

This mod wasn’t very good. The pictures looked better. But in-game it was crap. And the FPSBanana content was even worse… It was to long. That’s why I didn’t finish it.

By: paddyL

paddyL — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:39:05 +0000

I stayed up late to download it and then fell asleep playing the first level
Played in approx. 2/3 hour sessions over a week. Used the walkthrough on three occasions though two of them I shouldn’t have needed to – it was obvious when I saw it. Did anyone else use the walkthrough?
My divorce papers are in the mail.

By: AnonEntity

AnonEntity — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:32:08 +0000

It was just a hang. Loaded PROPAGANDA correctly today.

By: TB Biggs

TB Biggs — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:21:28 +0000

@ Robspace1. ***semi-spoiler***

We decided not to “rob” anyone if map16 told them they had missed an Easter Egg. So we decided at the last minute to unlock chapter17 once the player had completed map16.
Just go to menu, New Game, and look through the chapters to the last one, the bonus map. You will see that map 17 is now ‘open’. Just double click on it and 17 will start.

By: Robspace1

Robspace1 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:20:27 +0000

I played SM in fairly short sessions. With a game this big, there’s no reason to rush it. I treated it like any other full length game. I take a week or more to go through it. In this one I made a mistake and forgot to download one of the portals and now I need to start it over. I made it to the end just to be told I cannot play the bonus without the missing download. Fine-I can handle going through it again. It’s a great game!

By: Robspace1

Robspace1 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:16:19 +0000

Hey Rolando-Try installing this free program to your computer. It shuts down background programs while you play games and diverts all resources to your game-
http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

By: C:16937 » Podcast17

C:16937 » Podcast17 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:23:41 +0000

[...] How did you play Strider Mountain? Click here to read the post at PlanetPhillip and vote. [...]

By: AnonEntity

AnonEntity — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:31:15 +0000

Does SM end with the KeyCard?
If yes, then I’ve completed it. Otherwise…????
No crosshair though!

By: staberas

staberas — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:08:43 +0000

i didnt finished , i closed it after the second level , very low fps for me.It needed more optimization

By: Fred Carver

Fred Carver — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:31:44 +0000

Very good English except replace

I didn’t played it…

with

I didn’t play it…

By: Fred Carver

Fred Carver — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:29:43 +0000

I checked my save game folder to see the stats.

1-2 hours a night except for two nights with no playtime at all.

prerelease was played on 2/20, 2/22-23.

Started on remainder on 9/12 and ended on 9/23.

Also checked Offshore and found I took the same number of days.

By: TB Biggs

TB Biggs — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:38:22 +0000

Barnz played SM in one setting and posted quite a detailed review as well.

By: planetphillip

planetphillip — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:39:46 +0000

WOW, can you remember how many hours it was?

By: Barnz

Barnz — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:57:50 +0000

One sitting. What can I say, it was a long day.

By: Armageddon

Armageddon — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:50:14 +0000

Too many to count. I still haven’t finished it…

By: planetphillip

planetphillip — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:59:19 +0000

That’s surprising because if your PC runs HL2 then it should run SM.

By: Rolando

Rolando — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:52:29 +0000

I didn’t played it because my computer can’t handle it. But if I would have played it, I would have chosen the first or second option. Do I speak a good English?

By: Badfrog

Badfrog — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:08:18 +0000

I found the beta to be just another very large map, then I started to play this final version. Although it’s not really different yet (I’m past the gravel dump), I’m beginning to grasp the atmosphere. I’m enjoying it much more this time. Will it last with what comes next ?

Nothing to say about the realisation: plain perfect. just a locking bug in the red corridor. Disappears if you restart and stay clear of the walls when saving.

By: Jasper

Jasper — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:14:09 +0000

In easy about 10 sittings. It’s important to get the geography sorted and start thinking about your strategy for the next skill.
About the same in normal when you have to nail your tactics down and glad I did because:
In Hard – wow. About 5 sessions in about 5 hours and I’ve only just arrived at Propaganda!
This is going to take a while.

By: planetphillip

planetphillip — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:29:55 +0000

That’s a very good point; the type of gameplay effects how long we play it.

By: planetphillip

planetphillip — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:26:17 +0000

Yeah, me too, but how you play has probably already been fixed.

By: planetphillip

planetphillip — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:24:40 +0000

Use the last option. I can’t claim credit for the poll idea, it was Stuart C. Wardlaw’s suggestion.

By: Mel

Mel — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:22:25 +0000

I have learnt to play through Leon’s mods first time on easy mode, so saving more intense harder onslaughts for future repeat plays having first learnt the terrain.

I am not one of those players that are easy put-off by the longevity of a game, if it keeps me entertained then the longer the better. I prefer to play an hour or two a night always saving something for tomorrow night, so this mod match my playing likes exactly keeping me enthralled for a week of more, an experience not encounter much of late with the now common trend of short sharp release being the norm.

By: Grey Acumen

Grey Acumen — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:20:30 +0000

hrmm.. I thought Phillip was essentially asking what is our focus of gameplay, but boiling it down to simple how much time per session would give an answer of about 1-5 hours per session with an amount of break time following it of correlating amount.

1 hour gaming = 15 mins to 1 hour break.
2 hour gaming = 30 mins to 2 hour break
3 hour = 90 min to 3 hour break
etc.
This also depends on how well paced the mod itself is. I can play through a mod like Research and Development beginning to end without stopping just simply because of the variety of puzzles and even how combat took place. Playing Strider Mountain for an equal amount of time would require numerous breaks due to how (sorry) monotonous all the combat is and the lack of any noncombat gameplay to break things up.