Duke4.net Forums: AMC TC ideas and suggestions - Duke4.net Forums

I wanted to do a small list of suggestions but my wisdom teeth removal made me forgotten most of it


I'd suggest for Ep3 (or a future patch) :

_Make it so that Merlijn's shield doesn't get reset to 100 when in a streak of level such as Ep2's Hon Kong missions or such as some EDF missions like Daikarin or Lost Highway.

_Translate the Lost Highway's secret level name.

_Maybe perhaps having some sort of secondary AMC base in Africa (since Ep3 will be themed in Egypt) from which you could access specific missions you wouldn't access in the one on Garmid. Side missions I mean (like Repent Base or Zeta Base) since it would be too inconvenient not to access the main plotted missions from the original base. And so the briefings of some of Ep3's missions would take place in a tent there, that would be original ^^


I forgot the other ideas I had ...

BTW may I report a small bug ?
Ever since I had selected Rusty's silver bayonet for his FG42 the text remains in blue no matter what, meaning I never know which bayonet is selected between the regular one and the silver one :/

thedrawliner, on 25 June 2015 - 11:12 AM, said:

Secret level? Damn... never heard of it. I guess I played through the... 'mission/episode' way too quick.

thedrawliner, on 25 June 2015 - 11:12 AM, said:

Original without a doubt. I know that having an 'AMC Base #1' in Garmid leads to wish for more bases throughout the galaxy but I'm not sure it's doable.
Anyway... we'll have to wait for EP3 and, in the mean time, keep enjoying the masterpiece that EP2 is.

I built a large chunk of a new, WIP base for the Squad early on in the development of Episode 2. This base should make an appearance in Episode 3.

The reason why we didn't put it in Episode 2 is because it will pretty much serve the same purpose as the original base, so there's really no need for it. The base is still on Earth and you'll probably be able to move between the two bases through Mission Command or something. As such there was no reason to put in the effort to finish and polish it. It also has a similar layout with a bit of a Micky C twist on things. I'm pushing for the base to be designed by my in-game engineer character as well

Episode 3 may introduce new character(s), and this new base will house the quarters of those characters rather than try to pack them all into the old base where there's not much room. I'll finally have a big fancy room to myself rather than living in a tiny renovated storage room

Besides the bases, there are other sorts of Hub maps. For instance there's that moon thing where you can walk around and talk to people. There may be something new like that, or at least a small temporary outpost for Episode 3.

Yes Rhai there is a secret level in Lost Highway, it's in level 4 I think (Dark Tunnel), at the end after the big pond of water and the 3 eggs there's a wall on the left that can be destroyed but don't go too far or else you'll end the level ^_-
Technically if you bomb the trooper in that corridor without leaving him time to move the wall should explode with it.

I see, sounds like you're having tons of ideas to put in that new base then Micky ^^
I understand why you didn't put it in Ep2 indeed it would have been of no real use but the theme in Africa is a good occasion for it ^^


BTW new suggestions I have remembered :

_Grenade equivalents (slot 6) should equally destroy objects with every characters, for example in ABBA the small organic wall after the blue keycard cannot be destroyed by Merlijn's grenades and so does the tomb that ends the level "Noldor's Castle" in Daikarin. Sang's TNTs are also problematic in that extent.

_Why not have one or some of the regular characters as an AI just like John is ? For instance we could play an OC and temporarily have another one by our sides for example we play as James and are accompanied with Highwire and such you see ? and the AI would have his default slot 4 weapon to use but slightly weaker than normal in order not to be abusive.

_To keep having missions like ABBA and "City Under Siege" where our character speaks things like "Roger", "Thanks" ... At least that makes ALL the OCs speak even those who never act in cutscenes like Geoffrey for instance. But that would be slightly extended to "I'm on my way" or anything like it ^^

_Maybe add a secondary horizontal slash attack for Merlijn's default battle axe for aesthetic/diversity reasons ?

_I was also thinking about adding a temporary weapon that would have a bayonet such as the FAMAS which would have the same accuracy as the M-16 but more stable but less power and the bayonet would compensate all that. But then maybe that would be a bit abusive since I've seen with Rusty that it helps us save A LOT of ammo but at least it makes taking risks rewarding if done well.

_Have a level or two done majorly underwater with extensive or semi-extensive use of the dart gun temporary weapon and its micro-torpedos alt ammo. For the time being that gun is just pointless, except for the ponds in Zeta Base and yet these are slightly too small and short to make it express its full potential and I like the originality in a dart/harpoon gun (rarely seen in video games).

_Perhaps have the armor piercing charges for the GP30 as a research project ? the M203 has like 5 different grenades to chose from whereas the GP30 only has one, and the secondary ammo for it can only be found in levels I think it would be interesting to have them as a research. Pretty much the same story as with the Magnum shells.

_ Also maybe have the plasma grenades available to be found in levels but in secret areas since these are very special grenades which research project isn't that easy to get if not told. And obviously finding them wouldn't allow them to be researched.

_Why not have Zaxtor's Muddlelizer from Oblivion back ? You know the weapon that confuses enemies allowing us to beat them without them retaliating and also allow us to be temporarily invulnerable if hit thanks to a mirror ? And so in order to differentiate it from his current Shrinker (with a green dish) and Expander (with a red dish) it would have a yellowish (dish).

_Maybe allow Merlijn's compound bow (only) to fire silver bolts ? I know bolts are meant for crossbows but I suppose the powerfulness of his compound bow in comparison to his regular one would make it able to launch them, don't you think ? (just suggesting)

_Finally maybe having golden alternate shotgun shells available only from the loadout screen after having conducted a research project acquired by beating Ep3 on Expert ?

We can add the thing so during music change in diff part of level and boss when we save and reload it doesn't restore to "Default music".

Zaxtor, on 28 June 2015 - 08:38 AM, said:

The problem is that it will restart the track from the beginning upon load. Instead EDuke32 needs an update to save the current music in savegames.

Hendricks266, on 28 June 2015 - 08:52 AM, said:

Well is a penalty.

The update can be a good idea so it restart to the part of the music.

I have one suggestion. Why not put Pascal Rouaud's Roch Series into the TC? It still remains one of my favourite user map episodes.

Those maps expressely forbid any kind of modifications to them IIRC, and also Pascal moved them off the default Build grid - whilst it's trivial to edit them now with the extended build limits, the intentions were pretty clear that he didn't want any changes made to his maps.

Oh too bad I was expecting them to be included at some point

At least there must be some space/moon maps you could include, we only got VOA for the time being :/

BTW why not maps by MCRK ?
I think there was one called "Spiegul" or something (it was in an older version of Attrition)

Jblade, on 05 August 2015 - 10:25 AM, said:

Would it be worth emailing him asking permission to use the maps? I imagine a lot of time has passed since the maps were released and he may think differently these days. We don't have anything to lose.

Nah, I doubt he'd agree and to be honest I don't feel they're a good fit for the TC anyway. I'd much rather add more individual maps with areas for the TC specific stuff to fit in (and the authors are alright with modifications)

EDIT: ck3d's maps are much the same, he prefers vanilla Duke stuff and isn't really interested in TCs so I doubt he would give permission - like the roch series I don't feel they really fit the TC's style either.

I'm sure you guys will make the right choices ^_-


BTW there's an idea that has been in my head for a while I'd like to share it right nao ...

You know when we look for upgrades Sang says that if only he had his spell book he could conjure up weapons ... well then why not making a slot 7 spell book replacement that would conjure the slot 4 weapon to fire slot 2 sparkles along with normal bullets just like the old alt fire of Ep1 ?
That would leave room for 2 functioning, One where the regular one would conjure up to fire blue sparkles and the the alternate on would fire golden sparkles and/or One where the regular one would fire sparkles matching the currently equipped slot 2 weapon and then the alternate one would grant infinite ammo; all that for a limited period of time obviously and ammo would be around 5 normal and 2 alternate. As for the fact the conjured weapon would draw ammo from the slot 2 weapon like in Ep1 I imagine making it NOT draw ammo would be a bit abusive but after all slot 7 is for powerful weapons so why not. And if need be you could even make some slot 4 weapons incompatible with it justifying that by the fact they're "too technologically advanced" for the spell to work.

Sounds a bit complex but that would be original ^^

I've been digging this, just started playing, really impressive stuff all around!

A couple suggestions, it would be cool to be able to disable the tactical roll move with James. I'd prefer to be able to strafe run a bit, or run backwards. And in general because of the screen rolling I'd rather just not have the roll happen. Or have an option to do it without the screen rolling, like GTA5 has in the options for example.

It would also be good to see your keycards on the HUD, like eduke does by default in the small hud. I noticed watching a vid of an earlier version of AMC that it did used to show your keycards on the HUD.

Also would be cool to have descriptions of the amulets and whatnot in the game. I also just looked at the wiki, and I see Minerva's amulet doesn't have a page.

I love the slow-motion bullet time effect that happens, really awesome. One random idea, I'd love a Max Payne / Action Half-Life style dive move. For me that would be more fun than rolling around. Also, I loved it when I got akimbo SMGs, would be sweet to have akimbo glocks as well. Though I'm sure at least one of the other characters probably has dual pistols.

Anyways, this TC is incredible! Too many impressive thingies to even list.

Most characters have a keycard display, only Rusty doesn't so far, and none display keys and access cards.

As for akimbo Glocks it is already in it with James, just got to find a second weapon of the same type just like with his MP9.

thedrawliner, on 12 August 2015 - 11:22 AM, said:

Neato on the akimbo thing, would be sweet if you could upgrade it to start akimbo on a mission. James doesn't show keycards on the HUD though, at least for me. In the first mission, where you find dark red and blue keys etc, they didn't appear on my HUD. I had to look in the PDA inventory to see the card I have.

Look closely on the bottom left hand corner, you will see that some marks are added accordingly on the HUD, it is the same system for Highwire.

Take a look at that screen cap :


As for the other OCs it is either a more classic display (Zaxtor, Merlijn and Sang) or something different : Geoffrey has big dots, Mikko has big squares, Micky has floppy disk icon.

You can start a mission with akimbo pistols but only if there's already a pistol on the starting point or near it and if your OC is able to (for instance Highwire cannot have akimbo pistols).

thedrawliner, on 12 August 2015 - 11:51 AM, said:

Cool, I didn't notice that. Thanks

Thanks for the feedback - strafe sprinting isn't possible in the TC as I wanted to balance sprinting so it wasn't just a 'hold to move faster in all circumstances' button. Tying the roll function to that felt the most intuitive - a dive function would be nice but I think it wouldn't have much utility due to the fairly primitive way that 2.5D games handle hitboxes. You'd be no harder to hit...of course I won't rule it out forever though.

you can hold right-click on an item to get a description of it

Would it be possible to add a feature of doubling initial temporary weapons ammo (or getting a new one in mid-mission through the supply-drop) at the cost of credits or resources? I know James is working on 'updating' every temporary weapon so I don't know if, in the end, it would be profitable or not. In any case, as they are now, I always end with a surplus of ammo when choosing the 'Riot Gun Minigun' (for example) whereas the 'GDF Plasma Gun' ammuniton (I'm not planning on using it when my loadout terminal is finally filled with all the weapons, but still...) tends to run out pretty quick.
I'm aware the nature of both weapons used as examples is quite different, but their contradistinction gave me this idea and here I am, posting it, lol.
Anyway, it's just a suggestion to give more uses to credits/resources.

I agree that some temp weapons start off with not enough ammo such as the Green Laser Gun, Riot Gun, and those Rhai mentionned, his idea is interesting mostly since you could ask to have another weapon of the same kind in a supply drop and therefore keep your current weapon if you think it's more adapted to what's to come, it would also compensate for the unstackable weapons but I think JBlade said he'd make them stackable again but still ...


BTW a suggestion would be to have the possibility to have the Super Armor as a piece of equipment but as a trade-off it would not only be very expensive but it would also for instance half your starting amount of ammo or something. But since it would be abusive it would be prefered to be unlocked as a reward for having done things like beating all levels on Armagedon or found an extremely secret research ...
But that sort of thing should be considered for the very end of the story, not for Ep3 :/

And as we said it would be nice to have more Space or Moon EDF Missions since we only got ONE for the time being whereas we had something like 5 in V1 IIRC ...


EDIT : I meant Super Armor as in starting with 200 NORMAL armor points and 0 of the other kinds, I don't mean Super Armor as in 200 or everything.

Hey I've had a few ideas that I would like to suggest to you guys ^^

1_ I've been thinking, since the MIA shells are supposed make you feel less constrainted to using the MIA Gun then why not have a similar system for the Mini-Shrinker by implementing "Shrinking Shells" which would act just like the "MIA Shells" but with shrinking effect instead and just like with the "MIA Shells" you would get only 5 of those (AKA half the ammount of shots you would have with the Shrinker) ?

2_ I've been re-watching Zaxtor's playthrough Oblivion and so you may already guess what I would suggest : Why not have his "Sonic Tripbombs" back just like I suggested with his Mudlelizer ? And he would get to carry only 5 of those (AKA half the normal ammount of tripbomb equivalents). However this might be hard to code in I don't know but still, or maybe it might be too abusive because it could fully clear an outdoor area like in "The Beach" (even though we're not supposed to have some at that point in the level but you see what I mean).

3_ I had suggested "Golden Shells" for SGs but I had this idea : Why not introduce "Golden Slugs" for GP20/30 fitted guns like the AK-103 or James' AN-94 ? It would have a power in-between the regular Caseless Grenades and the AP-Slugs in order not to make AP-Slugs redondant but would be effective against all enemies although, just like I suggested with "Golden Shells", you would obtain them only from loadout and for hefty cost and not in levels. And you would get a limited amount as well, for "Golden Shells" I had suggested 5 (AKA half of what you get for other shell types) but since here it would be something like 3.

4_ James had had the idea of making something like Zaxtor's Galil's ZML (Zilla Missile Launcher) for some of the other OCs. I had suggested (and so I put it here as a reminder or something) that it would be possible to implement a piece of equipment that would allow the player, using a gun fitted with an M203 GL, to replace the underslung GL with the ZML from Zaxtor's Galil or something equivalent to it by using the Alt-Ammo/Alt-Fire sub-menu. BUT this would imply using slot 6 grenades as ammo for it which could make them redundant just like in Ep1 before the appearance of 40mm grenades, so in order to avoid that this would require a new alt-ammo specific to it but then this would make Zaxtor's Galil either less likely to be used or the only exception to the rule which is nice but weird at the same time. Either way that would be very hard to code in BUT it's clearly easier than the other solution I thought of which is to propose a new speciality replacement that copies an already existing gun fitted with a GL but with the ZML but that would stuff up the Loadout Editor like crazy ! and it would not solve the problem of wether it would use a new alt-ammo or slot 6 weapons as ammo ...

5_ I also thought about adding in the EDF Missions "Crimson Moon", I have good memories on that map in Attrition. And maybe bring back "Hadesca" or "Martian Train".
(BTW I would like to know if old usermaps from Ep1 are compatible with Ep2 ?)

(aborted idea)_ I had an idea of Golden Bayonnet for Rusty's guns but that would make the Silver Bayonnet redundant ... either that or it would be weaker than the Silver one and would feel too much of a gadget to be worth the trouble :/

thedrawliner, on 16 November 2015 - 10:22 AM, said:

I can definitely see that happening. Would like to as well. Crushing a Commander under your foot is always satisfying.

thedrawliner, on 16 November 2015 - 10:22 AM, said:

To be honest, the Super Galil (along with the D2 Firestorm) made me pick Zaxtor more often. IMO, there are some enemies that require a crapload of damage to die and Zaxtor's weaponry -that is, basically, the same Duke Nukem uses in the original game- sometimes feels a bit underpowered (I don't like his Slot-7 weapon being, basically, the Shrinker/Expander. The rest of OCs have a badass weapon in that slot. Yeah, yeah... his Slot-0 weapon is almost an instakill, but still...) What I mean is that his weaponry doesn't resemble the one of any other character and the ZML of the Super Galil is a nice distinctive touch that I would like to be of his alone (I still haven't been able to fire one DUP missile using the ZML though... damn bug).

In any case, I disliked James' AUG since EP1, but the new LR-300 + M203 (add some HE 40mm shells to the recipe) is... well, my favorite weapon. So, maybe, EP3's new weaponry surprises me for good.

All in all this is just my opinion, and we all have one.

Firstly, I apologize for the 'double post'.

Secondly, I have some more suggestions...

Once, while I was playing as James - in invurban.map presumably, I killed a frozen enemy and he taunted him with "Hasta la vista, baby". My guess is that this taunt only occurs when you kill a frozen enemy so my suggestion is, given the fact that James is unable to freeze an enemy with his military weaponry, add a temporal freezethrower (similar to the flamethrower) and/or freezing shotgun shells and/or freezing 40mm caseless grenades. The freezing shotgun shells could shoot five of the vanilla duke sparks that, while advancing, left a trial of snowflakes. Of course, the closer these were shot the more accurate they would be. The freezing 40mm caseless grenades, on the other hand, could be similar to Merlijn's ice spell sword (shooting three of Sang's ice spell freezing balls). These should be shot in a way that make them closer between them and should be strong enough to freeze a Mamano in two shots (or three, if you want them to be weaker than the HE, in which case they loadout cost should be way inferior to these).

Two more ideas came to my mind this morning while brushing my teeth.

• Make arms dealer prices fluctuate according to the time of the day: weapons would be cheaper during the twilight (the shortest part of the day) and more expensive during the night whereas during the day they would maintain their normal price. (I'm talking about a -5%/+5%)
  
• Code a new artifact to obtain more budget from killing enemies/adding a chance for them of dropping treasure. It could be called Thief Glove, or Thief Talisman. Whenever we play missions or user maps with the aim to increase our budget it would come in handy. Especially knowing that the new golden weapons will be SMGs.

Why do rescued babes from user maps drop rewards whereas rescued babes from maps of the main campaign don't? There's even an achievement that make their drop chance increase, so I don't know why you are not making them drop rewards. If you change this, you could consider adding trasure to their drop rewards.

Some good ideas! Cryo-rounds were in my head, alongside Dragon's breath rounds I do want to make more caseless 40mm rounds since they are a bit sub-par at the minute compared to cased rounds. I'm also planning to introduce a buildable workshop that you can then upgrade loadout stuff with. The system needs a bit of a re-balance, I'll make a topic when the time comes for suggestions about that.

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Hmm....that's quite a nifty idea. I would think of a way to tie it into gameplay mechanics instead so maybe fighting in a region where the weapon was created would reduce the prices for a while? So for example if you fight on Mars the weapons developed on Mars would take a price hit whereas playing levels in Russia/eastern europe would make the russian weapons a bit cheaper.

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The luck talismen do increase the chance of a drop, maybe a small mini-map where you can actually turn them into proper magical artifacts that do have a BIG luck bonus?

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They should drop rewards all the time...I'll double check the code but I don't believe I put any limits to them dropping rewards during the main levels.

Jblade, on 24 November 2015 - 06:40 AM, said:

I always get at least 2 amulets and a ton of spirit/fire armor when playing 'Pipe Dream' - sometimes even the 'double-armor' and there are... 8 babes at most. In 'The Compound' -the second map of 'The Final Confrontation'- there's an underwater room with, IIRC, 5 babes. None of them has ever dropped anything.

It's true that I myself actually forgot that babes drop items upon saving before playing Snowfall's levels O_o
It must be a glitvh or a small blank in coding :/

Jblade, on 24 November 2015 - 06:40 AM, said:

I forgot to suggest this yesterday, but as you mentioned a buildable workshop... I'll take advantage of it as well. What about a counterpart of the Mind Shield for non-supernatural characters? IIRC, in IW James' got the Power Vest before the fight with Exerferd, it could work like that - or even be called the same. If you add it as a research project... adding 3 levels of research (like the Mind Shield -5, 10, 20-) that unlock via shooting blasts of the MIA gun at armored enemies could be interesting. On the other hand, if you add it as an equipment... it could be very much the same: it could start regenerating armor up to 5 and, as you upgrade it via the buildable workshop, it would surpass that amount - and take more loadout points to equip it as well.

IMO, this piece of research/equipment wouldn't unbalance the game because most important enemies punch through body armor.

Ah! My guess is that thedrawliner had already reported this in his extensive bug-report posts, but as of late I'm playing as Merlijn (he plays as him way more than me) and I realized that when he picks up the golden sword it sounds like a weapon. Adding a proper swordish sound would be nice.

BTW, reading the wiki I realized there's a research called Cybertaur Sheathing. Is it available in EP2? Never heard of it.

Cybertaur Sheathing is present in Ep2, all you have to do is ^_-

I would like to see the level where AMC Base will be under attack.