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Alien Armageddon [RELEASE]  "showcasing sebabdukeboss20 characters with some enhancements"

User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#481

View PostCommando Nukem, on 11 December 2018 - 07:30 PM, said:

He's holding two of em, broski.


Don't give him any ideas...I'm way behind on coding his creations as it is.
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User is offline   OpenMaw 

  • Judge Mental

#482

View PostTrooper Dan, on 11 December 2018 - 10:43 PM, said:

Don't give him any ideas...I'm way behind on coding his creations as it is.


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User is offline   Marya 

#483

View PostTrooper Dan, on 11 December 2018 - 10:43 PM, said:

Don't give him any ideas...I'm way behind on coding his creations as it is.
How much does he have planned for this update?

This post has been edited by Marya: 12 December 2018 - 07:57 PM

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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#484

View PostMarya, on 12 December 2018 - 07:57 PM, said:

How much does he have planned for this update?


Dukeboss' plan is to release a major content update in 2019, around the end of the first quarter. There will be lots of new enemies, NPCs, and weapons. There will be a Duke it Out in DC remix with completely redesigned gameplay, full of AA content added in. There will also be a new episode, called "Gladiator". It has a story told mostly in cutscenes, but the gameplay consists of DM, invasion, and CTF matches pitting captured humans against aliens. I'm spoiling this now because if I say there is a new single player episode, then some people may be disappointed to find out it is fake multiplayer. However, I'm pretty excited about it. There WILL be another true single player episode, but that will not be ready until after the next release.

We've added about 2000 art tiles worth of enemies, NPCs, weapons and so on since the initial release of AA.
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User is offline   Marya 

#485

View PostTrooper Dan, on 12 December 2018 - 08:46 PM, said:

Dukeboss' plan is to release a major content update in 2019, around the end of the first quarter. There will be lots of new enemies, NPCs, and weapons. There will be a Duke it Out in DC remix with completely redesigned gameplay, full of AA content added in. There will also be a new episode, called "Gladiator". It has a story told mostly in cutscenes, but the gameplay consists of DM, invasion, and CTF matches pitting captured humans against aliens. I'm spoiling this now because if I say there is a new single player episode, then some people may be disappointed to find out it is fake multiplayer. However, I'm pretty excited about it. There WILL be another true single player episode, but that will not be ready until after the next release.

We've added about 2000 art tiles worth of enemies, NPCs, weapons and so on since the initial release of AA.
I found a program that let's me see .Art files so yeah i've seen a lot of the art, that was as far as i know not present in the added episode.
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User is offline   Forge 

  • Speaker of the Outhouse

#486

View PostMarya, on 12 December 2018 - 09:04 PM, said:

I found a program that let's me see .Art files so yeah i've seen a lot of the art, that was as far as i know not present in the added episode.

There was a lot of unused art that came with the original release, but I think Dan is implying that almost 2000 more tiles have been added since then.
I could be wrong though & he might also be including the unused ones.
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User is offline   Marya 

#487

View PostForge, on 12 December 2018 - 09:22 PM, said:

There was a lot of unused art that came with the original release, but I think Dan is implying that almost 2000 more tiles have been added since then.
I could be wrong though & he might also be including the unused ones.
Close enough :) there are lkike about 5 or so more .art files i've never seen (and i've seen up to 0015) so yeah that's a lot of new tiles.

This post has been edited by Marya: 13 December 2018 - 05:19 AM

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#488

Forgot to upload this earlier:

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User is offline   OpenMaw 

  • Judge Mental

#489

You're doing God's Duke's work!
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User is offline   Marya 

#490

View Postsebabdukeboss20, on 13 December 2018 - 06:38 AM, said:

Forgot to upload this earlier:

https://i.imgur.com/oVAKA0S.png
I suppose you'll be doing the same for life's a beach and Nuclear winter?
awesome work as always Sebab

This post has been edited by Marya: 13 December 2018 - 08:49 AM

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#491

Some more Smithsonian shots:

Posted Image
Security guards

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A sneak peak at a new exhibit

This post has been edited by sebabdukeboss20: 03 January 2019 - 10:07 AM

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User is offline   darkcaleb 

#492

View Postsebabdukeboss20, on 03 January 2019 - 10:06 AM, said:

Some more Smithsonian shots:

Posted Image
Security guards

Posted Image
A sneak peak at a new exhibit



Look promising! Those guys could be even used on the streets as cops! Any new releases coming up soon?
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User is offline   Marya 

#493

View Postdarkcaleb, on 03 January 2019 - 04:02 PM, said:

Look promising! Those guys could be even used on the streets as cops! Any new releases coming up soon?
do i see a bombshell poster?
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User is offline   Forge 

  • Speaker of the Outhouse

#494

View PostMarya, on 03 January 2019 - 04:38 PM, said:

do i see a bombshell poster?

I see Bombshell in at least three posters - which one are you referring to?
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User is offline   Romulus 

#495

Yeah, the second picture on the far right has a Bombshell movie poster.

This post has been edited by Romulus: 03 January 2019 - 04:53 PM

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User is offline   Forge 

  • Speaker of the Outhouse

#496

View PostRomulus, on 03 January 2019 - 04:53 PM, said:

Yeah, the second picture on the far right has a Bombshell movie poster.

Bombshell is also in the Duke -Last Awesome Hero poster, & in the poster inside the display case

This post has been edited by Forge: 03 January 2019 - 04:58 PM

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User is offline   Marya 

#497

View PostForge, on 03 January 2019 - 04:46 PM, said:

I see Bombshell in at least three posters - which one are you referring to?
the one barley visiable on the right side of the second picture. looks like a bombshell version of the Ulitimate warrior Duke poster from the 4th episode.

This post has been edited by Marya: 03 January 2019 - 05:16 PM

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User is offline   Forge 

  • Speaker of the Outhouse

#498

View PostMarya, on 03 January 2019 - 05:14 PM, said:

the one barley visiable on the right side of the second picture. looks like a bombshell version of the Ulitimate warrior Duke poster from the 4th episode.

I agree.
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#499

View Postdarkcaleb, on 03 January 2019 - 04:02 PM, said:

Look promising! Those guys could be even used on the streets as cops! Any new releases coming up soon?


We haven't settled on a specific date, but soonish.
EDIT: Also, I'm going to assume the downvote you got was accidental because the same member also upvoted another of your recent posts.

This post has been edited by Trooper Dan: 03 January 2019 - 11:09 PM

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User is offline   Forge 

  • Speaker of the Outhouse

#500

View PostTrooper Dan, on 03 January 2019 - 11:07 PM, said:

EDIT: Also, I'm going to assume the downvote you got was accidental because the same member also upvoted another of your recent posts.

or the person downvoted the post because there was a rather unnecessary pic-including-quote immediately after the original post & the down-voter got down-voted by sebab before for doing the same thing.
Thus the down-voter took it upon themselves to start policing this thread.

just an observation

This post has been edited by Forge: 04 January 2019 - 12:39 PM

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#501

Those support guys are intended to be meet only at the the Smithsonian level as museum Security or they are the White House/Washington Police? I'd like to fight some transformed guards with that uniform, secondly I think the aliens would prefer to changing the officers that are already there to not waste time instead of totally transport/teleport all the changed LARD cops from Los Angeles.
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User is offline   Forge 

  • Speaker of the Outhouse

#502

still my favorite picture is the NPC woman standing in a blazing building, smoking a cigarette

Posted Image
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#503

So I finally got around to play this, having lots of fun!

All new art fits seamlessly with the original assets, you did a a great job at this. (I wonder what it would look if the sprites were at a higher resolution, I remember possible plans for this being mentioned somewhere here?) Love the NPCs' behaviours and animations (as Forge said above, the smoking idle animation is hilarious).

I got through the first two levels of the new episode. I must say the layout sometimes confused me, especially in the first level. I found all the secret areas while circling around in the search for at least any key, because I overlooked the sewer passageway leading to the red key. The area with the boxes you get to either through the manhole or one of the buildings is very dark and the passageway is easy to miss. I also did not exactly like that some parts of the level were at some point shut off with the Battlelord face doors, and after using the yellow key I had to circle around trying to find the way to the newly opened entrance in the area that got shut off.

Personally I have nothing against changing pathways through a level as the player progresses through it, but in this case it felt very confusing, and not exactly motivated. For example I did not really understand what happened when I used the yellow key, except that the Pig Cop boss apparently emerged from somewhere while some further destruction was done to the city. But there was no vantage point from which to observe this, especially since I had to take cover from the Octabrains that spawned with the boss.

The first level is generally very large and saturated with content. At times it almost felt like the size was still not enough to put in everything the authors intended, making it feel like a theme park ride, rather than a city invaded by aliens. I think this could have been easily split into two levels, with more balance between portraying half-ruined cityscape and some gimmick areas.

I did like the use of railgun snipers on top of the buildings, and the ability to sneak up behind them. If only the city streets were more spacious and less mazelike. I liked the starting pool area, the video game store, the gun shop, the motel interior and the tennis court area, and of course the bar and the square in front of it. But again as I said this abundance of content could have been easily split into several levels.

I didn't get the reference with the purple clad woman in the secret room on the roof with pipes (I actually reached it by jumping on palm trees in the courtyard). And are these supposed to be StarCraft Confederate Marine Armour suits?
Spoiler

The second level has a strong Shadow Warrior vibe to it, I guess it's no coincidence that the Sushi bar contains an SW reference. I didn't understand why the only way to get into the building from the helicopter pad was by breaking the window — I expected the doors to open. The flooded city is pretty creepy. I like the layout however it does not lend itself to easy exploration because everything is rather dark and you can only hold your breath for a limited time.

I was also able to populate the city with some underwater people by shooting down troopers that spawned in the air after I picked the jetpack:
Spoiler

Yeah that guy is smoking.

The sushi bar is great but the Battlelord encounter is kinda odd. It spawns pretty much off-screen and while this gives you a good cover the battle is much less dramatic. I just fired a few RPG rounds at him while taking cover behind the wall, and then tossed an auto-turret to do the rest. Actually, Bombshell's arsenal generally feels way more powerful than that of Duke.

Scuba troopers are cool but underwater fights are a bit clumsy in software mode. The air bubble mechanic is quite neat, I appreciate it as a nod to Powerslave.

Loved the area with the Pig Cop jeeps, it had a very strong feeling of something that came directly from a 1997 game or so. The fights themselves were kinda easy as the jeeps travel a predesigned path and I could stay out of their range while firing RPG rounds. For comparison the multiple boss battle closer to the end of the first level was pretty unforgiving.

As for the character swapping mechanic, the AI sidekick seems to tend to run in on the enemy and kick it while firing. It may be a good player strategy but in this scenario it increases the risk of friendly fire. I was also a bit disappointed that when you swap characters you swap all stats too. I was hoping that if the sidekick is on low health you could swicth to him/her and pick some medikits if the AI can't do that.
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#504

View PostMrFlibble, on 06 January 2019 - 05:59 AM, said:

I didn't get the reference with the purple clad woman in the secret room on the roof with pipes (I actually reached it by jumping on palm trees in the courtyard).


Metroid, Justin Bailey.
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#505

View PostMrFlibble, on 06 January 2019 - 05:59 AM, said:

I was also able to populate the city with some underwater people by shooting down troopers that spawned in the air after I picked the jetpack:


You must have used the Babifier (expander) to shoot the troopers down. The Babifier causes a random civilian to spawn (usually a babe) to take the place of the enemy. Since the civilians don't have any code to make them drown, you can get civilians living under water. So, I guess the only bug here is that they are not programmed to drown. I can add that feature easily enough.
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#506


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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#507

View PostTrooper Dan, on 06 January 2019 - 01:25 PM, said:

You must have used the Babifier (expander) to shoot the troopers down. The Babifier causes a random civilian to spawn (usually a babe) to take the place of the enemy. Since the civilians don't have any code to make them drown, you can get civilians living under water. So, I guess the only bug here is that they are not programmed to drown. I can add that feature easily enough.

Yes, I forgot to mention that I used exactly this weapon, because I thought it was self-explanatory. In fact I intended to check if the spawned civilians would survive underwater or not, it just didn't occur to me to use it on the underwater enemies right away.

I also found it a bit disturbing that if you have a group of enemies and use the Babifier, the morphing explosion apparently damages monsters but kills civilians right away. So for example I had two troopers on that rooftop in the second level, morphed one and then another, with the latter explosion dealing away with the first babe. This, in addition with the chance of the spawned civilians to get caught in a crossfire, makes this weapon only useful against lone enemies.

In the meantime I completed the third level and went further into Area 59. The level 3 boss battle was pretty long, I wonder if you could add a boss health meter? Also despite the boss's size I found it hard to hit with an RPG playing as Bombshell. Also I didn't immediately realise that you could surface up in the exit area, because it's so dark and the rocky ceiling is not very different from the water surface. In fact I had to use the night vision goggles before I realised that the underwater section was over. BTW, I really felt the need for the night vision goggles over the first three levels, especially since two of them happen to be full of pretty dark, underwater areas. Maybe you could add more of these pickups? Especially level 3 is very dark, making it hard to explore (I also couldn't find the chasm that leads to the flooded restaurant right away).

On the AI sidekick, apart from the suicidal run-in-and-kick-the-enemy behaviour mentioned above (gets very annoying on level 4 where these new Metroid ball aliens are introduced), I realised that I had very little incentive to swap characters, if only for fanciful reasons. Because you keep your health and armour when switching, there can't be a situation when you have to switch from an injured character to a healthy one. This is also compounded by the fact that both somehow have a shared pool of ammo even if the weapons differ (e.g. the Devastator and its Bombshell's equivalent) or they have different ammo carrying capacity for the same weapon (like 50 shotgun shells by Duke, 60 by Shelly). I hope you find a way to completely separate the two characters' stats and inventories.

I was thinking about how playing both characters could be changed into a viable mechanic rather than a gimmick, and it seems like the only way to do it is to give them complementary skills, like in the Lost Vikings or military tactical shooters. I'm thinking that the obvious way to do this would be to split the arsenal between the two. Let's say Duke gets the shotgun and Shelly the automatic rifle, and I think only one character should have the sniper railgun rifle. If possible, split some of the items too, e.g. only one carries the portable medkit but can use it on both characters?

This could be complemented by level design where different characters would have to go different routes on a map, for example to simultaneously hit switches in different locations, or something like that. Maybe Shelly would be able to slip into places like narrow ducts where Duke wouldn't fit? (I'm trying not to think of possible double entendres here, no matter how crude) Different movement speed and jump height would also allow for such teamwork. I noticed that Shelly cannot kick vent grates open, meaning she has less attack strength with the kick? but not sure about movement speed or jumping. BTW, I figured out how to do Shelly's sliding kick but never tested how it works against enemies.

I also believe that it would be useful to default sidekick behaviour to hold position when switching characters, that would allow the two to operate more or less independently in different areas of the map. For now I had to mostly resort to ordering the sidekick to hold position while getting through the levels on my own.

Yeah, one more thing: am I right that there are some new Duke's lines? If yes then my compliments to the VA for the very convincing impression of Jon St John :)

This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 07 January 2019 - 03:57 AM

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User is offline   Jblade 

#508

Nah they're taken from the PSX Duke games (there's tons of lines in those games that could be used for all kinds of cool things)
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User is offline   Forge 

  • Speaker of the Outhouse

#509

If the characters didn't share ammo & health then you have one of two primary problems - Both create balance issues.
Only one character gets ammo on pick-ups - eventually the bot will have nothing to fight with other than kicking & it'll die quickly. A lot. And waste a lot of health if you want to try to keep it alive (and having two live characters is required in at least one map)
The other would be having pick-ups for each character - now you've doubled all the ammo and health in a map. Doubling enemies would take away from the rest of the level's interaction, as it would be almost constant fighting. That would get boring af after a couple maps.

This post has been edited by Forge: 07 January 2019 - 07:49 AM

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User is offline   necroslut 

#510

View PostForge, on 07 January 2019 - 07:48 AM, said:

If the characters didn't share ammo & health then you have one of two primary problems - Both create balance issues.
Only one character gets ammo on pick-ups - eventually the bot will have nothing to fight with other than kicking & it'll die quickly. A lot. And waste a lot of health if you want to try to keep it alive (and having two live characters is required in at least one map)
The other would be having pick-ups for each character - now you've doubled all the ammo and health in a map. Doubling enemies would take away from the rest of the level's interaction, as it would be almost constant fighting. That would get boring af after a couple maps.

You could possibly do the multiplayer route of giving one pickup for each "player", but reduce the amount they give to keep balance. Not sure it's worth it though, and you don't really want to add a tedious element of inventory management.

If the mod was only meant to be used on maps made exclusively for it I guess you could add Duke-only and Bombshell-only pickups, but it's not.

This post has been edited by necroslut: 07 January 2019 - 08:20 AM

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