[Danukem]

I just uploaded a new version to Fissile Materials: http://fissile.duke4..._attrition.html

I replaced the laser models with the ones made by Tea Monster for Duke Forces. These are better. Also, I fixed the bug which prevented the game from ending in WoA mode. I probably made a few other small changes, too.

What's left to do before this becomes an official update on Mod DB: I still need to make the radar for WoA mode. Also, I'm hoping that bugs with the latest EDuke32 snapshot are resolved first (there is still a music issue for example). It would be good to give it some more time in case more bugs come up, too.

EDIT: If you downloaded the file before this edit (in the first hour that it was posted), there was a serious mistake...I left in a line of test code which caused all enemies to be blown up if you pressed the spacebar. Line removed and uploading again.

[Shadow Reborn]

Trooper Dan, on 13 September 2016 - 11:45 PM, said:

I just uploaded a new version to Fissile Materials: http://fissile.duke4..._attrition.html

Cool!

Trooper Dan, on 13 September 2016 - 11:45 PM, said:

Also, I fixed the bug which prevented the game from ending in WoA mode.

Ok, so WOA should end now with wave 44?

Trooper Dan, on 13 September 2016 - 11:45 PM, said:

What's left to do before this becomes an official update on Mod DB: I still need to make the radar for WoA mode. Also, I'm hoping that bugs with the latest EDuke32 snapshot are resolved first (there is still a music issue for example).

Yeah, I'm waiting on that radar before I go through WOA again, to get the full experience.
It's been quite a while since EDuke32 introduced the nice midi music issue...

Trooper Dan, on 13 September 2016 - 11:45 PM, said:

EDIT: If you downloaded the file before this edit (in the first hour that it was posted), there was a serious mistake...I left in a line of test code which caused all enemies to be blown up if you pressed the spacebar. Line removed and uploading again.

Would have been fun to try it out. You probably bound the enemy explode code to the Spacebar for WOA testing in order to go through it very fast.

Is there anything in particular you'd like tested, Dan?

[TheDragonLiner]

Shadow Reborn, on 14 September 2016 - 04:09 AM, said:

Would have been fun to try it out. You probably bound the enemy explode code to the Spacebar for WOA testing in order to go through it very fast.

Is there anything in particular you'd like tested, Dan?

Definitely would have been fun to try out !

And yeah if there's anything particular I'll be up for it along with Shadow Reborn, 2 testers is always more valuable than 1 ^^

[Shadow Reborn]

TheDragonLiner, on 14 September 2016 - 04:34 AM, said:

Definitely would have been fun to try out !

And yeah if there's anything particular I'll be up for it along with Shadow Reborn, 2 testers is always more valuable than 1 ^^

Right on!

[Danukem]

I'm going to start a stream on my youtube channel in a few minutes. I was going to use the mike this time, but I can't because of all the people/noise in the living room where my rig is set up. I'll try to get through 2 levels, but I may have to stop early to go to work if I run out of time. This will be the 3rd in a series of me playing through the random missions game on Attrition -- it's a way to test the mod and have fun.

EDIT: LOL that was terrible. I'll delete it and try again some time soon. Internet was shitty due to someone else playing a game at the same time and then I couldn't find the red key.

[Danukem]

An update: I have uploaded Attrition 1.9b4 to Fissile Materials.

In addition to some bug fixes, this version adds a radar display when in WoA mode to replace the shitty pseudo-radar that it had before. I'm not adding any new enemies at this time because of the work involved in adding all of their pal versions with alternate attacks, and the work involved with rebalancing the game and testing it whenever a new enemy is introduced.

EDIT: I'm going to start a stream now on youtube of WoA mode, first time I've played it since adding the radar. It should appear here in about 5 minutes.

EDIT2: Apparently there's a bug which causes more dots to appear on the radar than there are enemies. It's a combination of some dead bodies not getting removed and other non-enemy actors getting included. I think I have fixed it on my end but anyone trying the beta I uploaded will probably see it.

EDIT3: And one. Last. Edit. I have uploaded yet another new version, this one should fix the extra radar blips bug mentioned in my previous edit. It also fixes a couple of display bugs with doubled weapons, and it adds up/down arrows in place of regular blips for enemies that are significantly above/below the player.

[Shadow Reborn]

Trooper Dan, on 18 September 2016 - 05:15 PM, said:

An update: I have uploaded Attrition 1.9b4 to Fissile Materials.

In addition to some bug fixes, this version adds a radar display when in WoA mode to replace the shitty pseudo-radar that it had before. I'm not adding any new enemies at this time because of the work involved in adding all of their pal versions with alternate attacks, and the work involved with rebalancing the game and testing it whenever a new enemy is introduced.

EDIT2: Apparently there's a bug which causes more dots to appear on the radar than there are enemies. It's a combination of some dead bodies not getting removed and other non-enemy actors getting included. I think I have fixed it on my end but anyone trying the beta I uploaded will probably see it.

EDIT3: And one. Last. Edit. I have uploaded yet another new version, this one should fix the extra radar blips bug mentioned in my previous edit. It also fixes a couple of display bugs with doubled weapons, and it adds up/down arrows in place of regular blips for enemies that are significantly above/below the player.

Awesome! Just got it! The radar is awesome, but I already know that from your stream.
I started a WOA play-through. Let's see how it goes!

[Danukem]

Shadow Reborn, on 19 September 2016 - 03:49 AM, said:

Awesome! Just got it! The radar is awesome, but I already know that from your stream.
I started a WOA play-through. Let's see how it goes!

I hope I fixed the bug where the top half of the double-devastator is sometimes shifted to the left, but I'm not sure. If no significant bugs are found in the next day or two I will upload this version to Mod DB and call it official.

[Shadow Reborn]

Trooper Dan, on 19 September 2016 - 11:01 AM, said:

I hope I fixed the bug where the top half of the double-devastator is sometimes shifted to the left, but I'm not sure. If no significant bugs are found in the next day or two I will upload this version to Mod DB and call it official.

I see. I will keep my eyes open. Can you please make the Perk points refundable for the final version because while I'm in a fight and the select Perk Screen pops up when I acquire 20 points I usually insta-click on a wrong Perk. Refundable Perk points or a 1 sec delay before you can pick something added to the select Perk Screen would be awesome!

[DJHellray]

okay so i have ideas for attrion or bug fixes to me its pretty much the same.

- make it so when u kill the ennemies and they become allies that you can shoot through them just like a holoduke instead of shooting them when they are attacking an ennemie that are right onto them or next to them

- some monsters that become your allies still attack you and some of them still damages you like the trooper that shoots mini explosion it still hurts you.

- make it so that your allies dont get sucked in the vortex for the shrinker when its at the level that you can have the vortex so you dont loose your allies immediately.

- when you save manually on the auto save slot it stop auto saving or saves really less frequently, idk what u can do to fix that.

ill add more suggtestions as i find bugs or new ideas.

[Danukem]

DJHellray, on 19 September 2016 - 01:53 PM, said:

- make it so when u kill the ennemies and they become allies that you can shoot through them just like a holoduke instead of shooting them when they are attacking an ennemie that are right onto them or next to them

I can't do that without adding ridiculous and unreliable hacks, because in this game engine, if a sprite is hittable, then it is hittable by anyone. I don't want the monsters to be invincible; also, sometimes it is useful for the player to cull the herd, so I don't want them to not take damage from the player.

DJHellray, on 19 September 2016 - 01:53 PM, said:

- some monsters that become your allies still attack you and some of them still damages you like the trooper that shoots mini explosion it still hurts you.

I was able to fix the specific example you gave just now because I figured out what you meant by "mini explosion". You are referring to the photon torpedo explosion spawned by the photon torpedo which is fired by the new trooper. I had coded the explosion so that it only hurts the player; now, assuming that I fixed it correctly, one fired by an ally will only hurt enemies. There is already code in place to prevent the player from taking friendly fire damage. The reason it doesn't always work is that some weapons (such as the photo torpedo) have secondary effects without an identifiable owner. As for allies actually targeting the player on purpose, I can't find any examples of this and I would need a specific example in order to fix it.

Spoiler

This fix itself is nontrivial, since it involves: (i) setting a player-ally var on the projectile that is fired, (ii) making sure that var gets transferred to the spawned explosion, (iii) creating a branch in the explosion actor code for the player-ally case in which it loops through nearby non-allied enemies and damages them appropriately

DJHellray, on 19 September 2016 - 01:53 PM, said:

- make it so that your allies dont get sucked in the vortex for the shrinker when its at the level that you can have the vortex so you dont loose your allies immediately.

OK, I just changed this. While the player is allowed to kill allies in general (see above reply), this seems like a reasonable exception.

DJHellray, on 19 September 2016 - 01:53 PM, said:

- when you save manually on the auto save slot it stop auto saving or saves really less frequently, idk what u can do to fix that.

Alright, I have just changed it so that any time a saved game is created, it resets the timer on autosave. As with the other changes, you will have to wait until I upload another update in order to see them.

[Shadow Reborn]

Ok. A little delay but I finished the WOA play-through.
Some small notes:

1) After a wave has already ended there was still a monster present even though the next wave was already starting. This did not cause any problems...I killed the monster and proceeded to kill the next wave and the level finished nicely. The BOSS at the end of WOA is insane! It spawned and we had a nice chat.

2) The Evil Dukes can still kill themselves with self-splash damage...most likely with the Devastator.

3) Finishing the final level of a chapter with the Steroids effect still active will cause the main menu to lag because Steroids slow down everything.

4)

Shadow Reborn, on 19 September 2016 - 01:46 PM, said:

Can you please make the Perk points refundable for the final version because while I'm in a fight and the select Perk Screen pops up when I acquire 20 points I usually insta-click on a wrong Perk. Refundable Perk points or a 1 sec delay before you can pick something added to the select Perk Screen would be awesome!

What about this, Dan?

That's about it!
Is the current version on MOD DB a newly uploaded one?

[Danukem]

Shadow Reborn, on 20 September 2016 - 06:23 AM, said:

Is the current version on MOD DB a newly uploaded one?

Yes, and it's the same version on Fissile Materials now.

[Shadow Reborn]

Trooper Dan, on 20 September 2016 - 10:36 AM, said:

Yes, and it's the same version on Fissile Materials now.

BTW the music is completely fucked up in the Original Missions volume. I am guessing this is mostly because you removed the MM episode so the music block corresponding to the volume got messed up.

[Danukem]

Shadow Reborn, on 20 September 2016 - 12:06 PM, said:

BTW the music is completely fucked up in the Original Missions volume. I am guessing this is mostly because you removed the MM episode so the music block corresponding to the volume got messed up.

Damn. But as I'm looking at it, the first two tracks should be correct, at least. Is that true? It's easy to get mixed up with music because the music volume numbers are off by one compared with the level definitions, and the music tracks are just a list separated by spaces and it's hard to see how they correspond to the levels, especially when you get single episodes of 30+ maps. EDIT: I have a fix on my end at least which I haven't tested yet; at least it's not a game-breaker...most people aren't playing this mod for the original episodes anyway.

[Shadow Reborn]

Trooper Dan, on 20 September 2016 - 12:24 PM, said:

Damn. But as I'm looking at it, the first two tracks should be correct, at least. Is that true? It's easy to get mixed up with music because the music volume numbers are off by one compared with the level definitions, and the music tracks are just a list separated by spaces and it's hard to see how they correspond to the levels, especially when you get single episodes of 30+ maps.

Yep, I know how the music defining goes and the first two are correct. pob.mid and onward are wrong and Lunar Reactor and all those after it don't have any more music definitions.

Trooper Dan, on 20 September 2016 - 12:24 PM, said:

EDIT: I have a fix on my end at least which I haven't tested yet; at least it's not a game-breaker...most people aren't playing this mod for the original episodes anyway.

You probably didn't modify the original volume in a while and copying the music definitions for the Original Missions that exist since before you removed MM should do the trick.
Well, I care about the original campaign since it is a long one and I get the chance to have a very strong kit with a progression.

[Danukem]

Shadow Reborn, on 20 September 2016 - 12:30 PM, said:

Yep, I know how the music defining goes and the first two are correct. pob.mid and onward are wrong and Lunar Reactor and all those after it don't have any more music definitions.

OK, good. That means that the fix I just pasted into my code will indeed fix it.

[DJHellray]

Trooper Dan, on 19 September 2016 - 07:48 PM, said:

I can't do that without adding ridiculous and unreliable hacks, because in this game engine, if a sprite is hittable, then it is hittable by anyone. I don't want the monsters to be invincible; also, sometimes it is useful for the player to cull the herd, so I don't want them to not take damage from the player.

okay so some enemies like the battelord that shoots those yellow bullets when hes aiming for the ennemy the yellow bullets attack you but it doesnt damage you.

the other guy said it too the evil duke tends to shoot the wall and kill themselves, just like those protector drones that shoot those green lazers they tend to attack your allies and kill themselves.

thanks for the fixes u did btw

[Danukem]

DJHellray, on 20 September 2016 - 01:58 PM, said:

okay so some enemies like the battelord that shoots those yellow bullets when hes aiming for the ennemy the yellow bullets attack you but it doesnt damage you.

the other guy said it too the evil duke tends to shoot the wall and kill themselves, just like those protector drones that shoot those green lazers they tend to attack your allies and kill themselves.

thanks for the fixes u did btw

Alright, I have a code patch just for you guys on this forum. Here's what it should fix:

• Duke bots (both good and evil) should not be able to harm themselves with their weapons (for real this time)
  
• The music for the original episodes should be correct
  
• Those yellow projectiles should track enemies if they are fired by enemies allies instead of always tracking towards the player

Just unpack the attachment and have that folder replace the attcons folder.

Attached File(s)

•  attcons.rar (204.11K)
  Number of downloads: 152

[DJHellray]

thanks man i really appreciate your work! where im at im level 22 and all i get is those big ass mecha guys haha, i hope ull add more "high tier" monsters to beat when u get higher into the high score mode

(i'm on it's a good day to die btw which is probably why theres so many of those mechas)

[Danukem]

DJHellray, on 21 September 2016 - 12:18 AM, said:

thanks man i really appreciate your work! where im at im level 22 and all i get is those big ass mecha guys haha, i hope ull add more "high tier" monsters to beat when u get higher into the high score mode

You should also be meeting a lot of those crazy protector drones that shoot radiation blasts.

To be honest, I'm not really a "high score mode" player -- every now and then I play through the random missions or WoA, and I usually don't even finish because I find bugs and I want to go back and fix them before I play again. So as a result, I don't really know what it's like beyond a certain point. It may get too easy because the enemies are no longer getting harder but the player is still getting some upgrades. There were a few times when I added higher level enemies and thought "ok this is just going to kill everyone if they get this far" but then no, it turned out you could beat it by stun-locking it or whatever.

I don't really have the patience to balance the game at extreme scores. I'm more likely to just do something nuts so the player has to die. I've thought about making a Supreme Ultimate Octabrain Overlord who can phase right through walls, uses telekinesis to lock you in place up in the air and then rips you apart with no chance to fight back. That would solve the problem of players looking for something to do.

EDIT: Another possibility is I could make the player die of cancer. You know, from all the radiation.

[DJHellray]

Trooper Dan, on 21 September 2016 - 12:28 AM, said:

I don't really have the patience to balance the game at extreme scores. I'm more likely to just do something nuts so the player has to die. I've thought about making a Supreme Ultimate Octabrain Overlord who can phase right through walls, uses telekinesis to lock you in place up in the air and then rips you apart with no chance to fight back. That would solve the problem of players looking for something to do.

EDIT: Another possibility is I could make the player die of cancer. You know, from all the radiation.

i dont think thats a good idea to be honest xD but the idea of new mini bosses sounds really cool, no need for insta kills i think thats kinda boring.

im playing high score mode cause i like leveling up to infinity and never having to end. thats what i love about high score mode! like at this diff where im at i still get killed by those enforcer taht has a chaingun that shoots red bullets really fast and so on.

all im saying is if u ever need ideas for new bosses or higher tier monsters just ask for it im sure allot of people would have cool ideas .

like right now i have all the upgrades and 10 points to spare and even so i still die and still have to save at every corner to be sure i dont die immediatly xD.

i think the upgrade system should have more upgrades i might post a row of ideas for you if u want tbh if i knew how to code i wouldve loved helping you making this mod better xD like im not saying its bad its fantastic but some things to mod alone is hard and long right?

[Danukem]

I appreciate it. If you have ideas for new perks or new enemy variations, go ahead and post them; I might use them. But keep in mind I have considered many ideas before and rejected them for various reasons. In general, if it's a relatively easy to implement idea (i.e. doesn't involve adding new art that I don't have, or changing a lot of code in many different places) that adds something unique and fun to the gameplay without unbalancing the game, then it's good.

[Shadow Reborn]

Trooper Dan, on 20 September 2016 - 09:24 PM, said:

Alright, I have a code patch just for you guys on this forum. Here's what it should fix:

• Duke bots (both good and evil) should not be able to harm themselves with their weapons (for real this time)
  
• The music for the original episodes should be correct
  
• Those yellow projectiles should track enemies if they are fired by enemies allies instead of always tracking towards the player

Just unpack the attachment and have that folder replace the attcons folder.

Thanks for the update, Dan!

Trooper Dan, on 21 September 2016 - 12:28 AM, said:

You should also be meeting a lot of those crazy protector drones that shoot radiation blasts.

To be honest, I'm not really a "high score mode" player -- every now and then I play through the random missions or WoA, and I usually don't even finish because I find bugs and I want to go back and fix them before I play again. So as a result, I don't really know what it's like beyond a certain point. It may get too easy because the enemies are no longer getting harder but the player is still getting some upgrades. There were a few times when I added higher level enemies and thought "ok this is just going to kill everyone if they get this far" but then no, it turned out you could beat it by stun-locking it or whatever.

I don't really have the patience to balance the game at extreme scores. I'm more likely to just do something nuts so the player has to die. I've thought about making a Supreme Ultimate Octabrain Overlord who can phase right through walls, uses telekinesis to lock you in place up in the air and then rips you apart with no chance to fight back. That would solve the problem of players looking for something to do.

Indeed, at higher levels Super Protector Drones with radiation multi-shots and teleport are pretty abundant. So are Mega Enforcers with laser-bullet spam and teleport. I like this challenge! I like the fact that you can get to this point and that somehow it is possible to pass these fearsome enemies if you play your cards right and I don't mean sneaking past them praying the Goggles will work. It is a long journey up until that point but that's the idea of progression. I like a very long chapter but not infinite, I need a finale. That's why I prefer Original Missions. Add in the nostalgia and there we go, perfection.
I think the last difficulty is torturous because things progress way too fast compared to the player and as a consequence you meet the ultimate enemies way earlier. But that's ok, it is the last difficulty after all.

What I want to say is that in the end, if it is still possible and players have fun, you don't need to balance further. Maybe add more ultimate enemies if possible but without any of that guaranteed free-death stuff mentioned above! :P

Trooper Dan, on 21 September 2016 - 12:28 AM, said:

EDIT: Another possibility is I could make the player die of cancer. You know, from all the radiation.

Haha, the amount of radiation that those Super Drones shoved down Duke's throat is enough for him to die of cancer later.
I hope you are happy.

Trooper Dan, on 21 September 2016 - 01:29 AM, said:

I appreciate it. If you have ideas for new perks or new enemy variations, go ahead and post them; I might use them. But keep in mind I have considered many ideas before and rejected them for various reasons. In general, if it's a relatively easy to implement idea (i.e. doesn't involve adding new art that I don't have, or changing a lot of code in many different places) that adds something unique and fun to the gameplay without unbalancing the game, then it's good.

For late game: 1) a Mega Pigcop that fires Vortex of Doom at your feet with a long cooldown. This will only affect you and your allied monsters. It should also fire a shotgun style spread of laser-bullets at you! There is a Pig variation that already does the latter but the combo is devastating.
2) One of the 3 monsters you coded for Jet Nick for his Mod should provide more varied challenge later on. Especially the two headed one! It could also not have any variations...just one overpowered bastard that comes late in game.
3) As a perk suggestion, I always found "Ammo boxes provide 15% more ammo" interesting for late game. It should cost around 20-25 points. It is late game and doesn't unbalance the game. It also promotes the new Doubled Weapons perk more! I don't know if it is particularly tough to implement in Duke's code though.
EDIT: 4) Another perk idea: "Max Nuke energy capacity increased to 200%". 15 points. Three is too much but being able to carry two Nukes makes you a bit more confident to use them more frequently. Right now, I'm waiting a bit too much for the perfect moment to use it, since I only have one.

[UsedC]

Wow, having a blast with your mod. It's awesome.
Have you considered an option to make weapon upgrades random? Like, every playthrough you get different set of uprgrades for same weapon.

[DJHellray]

Trooper Dan, on 20 September 2016 - 09:24 PM, said:

• Those yellow projectiles should track enemies if they are fired by enemies allies instead of always tracking towards the player

Just unpack the attachment and have that folder replace the attcons folder.

this still doesnt work im playing right now and its still aiming at me for some reason i even added the update. thats only when its the battellords that uses it.

also is there a way to make the shield more translucent? cause most of the time i can barely see through since theres alot of dark maps in duke nukem

[Danukem]

Shadow Reborn, on 21 September 2016 - 04:41 AM, said:

2) One of the 3 monsters you coded for Jet Nick for his Mod should provide more varied challenge later on. Especially the two headed one! It could also not have any variations...just one overpowered bastard that comes late in game.

That's a tempting idea, because then I don't have to come up with and code several different variations on the monster, which is the main thing that makes adding a monster lots of work. I'll consider it (by the way I did talk with jet_nick the other day and he gave permission to use it)

UsedC, on 21 September 2016 - 07:49 AM, said:

Wow, having a blast with your mod. It's awesome.
Have you considered an option to make weapon upgrades random? Like, every playthrough you get different set of uprgrades for same weapon.

It would be very hard to do that now, because of the way it's coded. If I had planned it out better back in 2010, then yes it could have worked that way. Also, some of the upgrades assume that you have earlier upgrades.

DJHellray, on 21 September 2016 - 10:24 AM, said:

this still doesnt work im playing right now and its still aiming at me for some reason i even added the update. thats only when its the battellords that uses it.

also is there a way to make the shield more translucent? cause most of the time i can barely see through since theres alot of dark maps in duke nukem

So I tested it out and yes, it was messed up. I fixed it on my end. That is, I set up a test with enemies using it on other enemies, and witnessed the projectile firing correctly and killing the other enemies. Apparently, the only problem was that an incorrect offset was being added to the projectile, putting it way out of position.

[DJHellray]

i've been thinking about it. is there a way to ad a weapon randomiser? like having a diffrent gun skin and sound for ever gun i think i know it would take a while to code but it could be pretty damn cool

- just the skins and sounds that change but the projectiles are the same so you could just get skins from allot of other guns in any duke gamemodes or even doom wads and stuff.

[BoowHow]

DJHellray, on 21 September 2016 - 11:27 AM, said:

i've been thinking about it. is there a way to ad a weapon randomiser? like having a diffrent gun skin and sound for ever gun i think i know it would take a while to code but it could be pretty damn cool

- just the skins and sounds that change but the projectiles are the same so you could just get skins from allot of other guns in any duke gamemodes or even doom wads and stuff.

Wouldn't they still need to be edited to use Duke's hand?

[Shadow Reborn]

Trooper Dan, on 21 September 2016 - 10:50 AM, said:

That's a tempting idea, because then I don't have to come up with and code several different variations on the monster, which is the main thing that makes adding a monster lots of work. I'll consider it (by the way I did talk with jet_nick the other day and he gave permission to use it)

That's awesome! You'll only have to add the double-headed monster in Attrition, give it some crazy powers (no other variations) and make it appear after 600.000 score or something like that.
Model and animations seem to be just fine.