[TerminX]

Delete your old cfgs.

[Lunick]

TX, on Jun 26 2010, 10:12 AM, said:

Delete your old cfgs.

Thanks TX

[Mikko]

DeeperThought, on Jun 26 2010, 12:47 AM, said:

• The random mission episodes have been overhauled. Lots of new levels have been added, and now ALL 90 levels are pooled and may come up regardless of which random episode is selected.

What's the point of having random episodes then? At least I'd be turned off from playing another episode if there was a chance of running into levels I have already played.

[William Gee]

Played this for the first time today, really great fun game, played some new map "The way the west was won?" Had excellent gameplay, havent passed it yet though, got up to red keycard and wanted to stop. Anyways great work. (y)

[Danukem]

Mikko_Sandt, on Jun 25 2010, 05:09 PM, said:

What's the point of having random episodes then? At least I'd be turned off from playing another episode if there was a chance of running into levels I have already played.

Currently, there is no point in having them be separate episodes; it might as well all be one random episode. But the way that Duke3D works, I can't define large numbers of episodes without having several episodes, and I can't hide the extra episodes without re-arranging a lot of stuff. In the future, I will at least have different big boss levels at the end, so there will be some difference between the episodes.

Personally, I don't see why you would want to avoid playing a map again, unless you think that the map sucks. Chances are, you will reach that map at a different stage in the game than you did the first time, so the gameplay will be different anyway. And if you hate certain maps, they aren't hard to replace. Just drop a different map in the attmaps folder, and change the corresponding definelevel in ATTDEFS.CON

@WG: Glad you like it! I've included several of your maps with this: WG Space 3, WG City, Ogbb, and WG Space Boss level, which is the grand finale (I wish there were more boss levels, but I haven't found another one yet t that is epic enough).

[Helixhorned]

Great mod, I'm having a lot of fun playing this one! Just a small nitpick: it's not Linux-friendly. In particular, the tiles???.art are present in three lowercase/uppercase combinations, making some of them not load (I guess the Tiles???.art, but maybe also TILES???.ART) and resulting in wrong textures and missing models.

[Danukem]

Helixhorned, on Jun 26 2010, 11:02 AM, said:

Great mod, I'm having a lot of fun playing this one! Just a small nitpick: it's not Linux-friendly. In particular, the tiles???.art are present in three lowercase/uppercase combinations, making some of them not load (I guess the Tiles???.art, but maybe also TILES???.ART) and resulting in wrong textures and missing models.

So which should they be: all upper case or all lower case?

[TerminX]

Either one, though all lowercase is what the code looks for first.

[Mikko]

DeeperThought, on Jun 26 2010, 04:08 AM, said:

Personally, I don't see why you would want to avoid playing a map again, unless you think that the map sucks.

I'm a bit puzzled because of course I would want to avoid playing the same map twice while playing the same mod. (You might as well wonder why The Hangar appears only once in the first episode of Doom.) I don't want to waste my time playing a map I have already played when that time could be spent on playing a map I haven't played. I don't understand why you're trying to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place. This move just doesn't make any sense.

And before someone pops in to say something stupid along the lines of "I wouldn't mind playing the same map twice provided it was good", let me ask would you rather play one good map twice or two good maps once? There clearly is a tradeoff.

[Danukem]

Mikko_Sandt, on Jun 26 2010, 05:02 PM, said:

I'm a bit puzzled because of course I would want to avoid playing the same map twice while playing the same mod. (You might as well wonder why The Hangar appears only once in the first episode of Doom.) I don't want to waste my time playing a map I have already played when that time could be spent on playing a map I haven't played. I don't understand why you're trying to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place. This move just doesn't make any sense.

And before someone pops in to say something stupid along the lines of "I wouldn't mind playing the same map twice provided it was good", let me ask would you rather play one good map twice or two good maps once? There clearly is a tradeoff.

I see your point, but I'm looking at a bigger picture. One thing I want is for the mod to be able to draw from a larger number of maps than can exist in a single episode. This update achieves that. Now that I have that in place, I can add another feature that tracks which maps have been played in previous games, and makes them not get picked again for a while. In the mean time, I think this system is still an improvement, for my tastes at least.

I have found a few bugs and little things that need improvement, so there will be another update before 1.04 becomes official (I should have made clear that what I uploaded was a beta of 1.04). Maybe I can add the tracking system before the official release, if it's not too much trouble.

[king karl]

laser tripbombs are pretty rare, could u add a feature that lets you dissarm them and add them to your ammo, maybe with a 1/3 chance to fail and have it explode in your face to keep it interesting?

and for boss levels i like the idea of converting DM maps by adding alot of monsters, their good arena style maps for the most part

i still think that for a randomized game their just isnt enough variety in the enemies and all the projectiles are from DP and WMD

[Lunick]

king karl, on Jun 27 2010, 05:42 PM, said:

laser tripbombs are pretty rare, could u add a feature that lets you dissarm them and add them to your ammo, maybe with a 1/3 chance to fail and have it explode in your face to keep it interesting?

No, Just NO

[The Commander]

Actually, other than the "maybe with a 1/3 chance to fail and have it explode in your face" that sounds like a rather good idea.

[Forge]

I use trip-bombs. Use them to blow up wall cracks to save on pipe bombs. Also freeze an enemy, then set a trip-bomb or two next to it and walk away.

[Mikko]

The problem with the tripbomb idea is that some maps have been designed so that tripbombs are supposed to block your way. For the same reason DT decided to have your arsenal taken away at the beginning of each level so that you're not able to blow up cracks before the map's author intended you to have explosive weapons.

DeeperThought, on Jun 27 2010, 04:13 AM, said:

One thing I want is for the mod to be able to draw from a larger number of maps than can exist in a single episode. This update achieves that.

But why? With a tracking system the probability of running into any single map remains the same whether you have one episode (which the player plays twice) with a big pool of maps or two episodes with two smaller, distinct pools. And considering that you may run into the same map twice when you wish to play the big-pool episode again the update is not only useless but actually harmful, depending on luck (if you're extremely unlucky, you may end up playing the exactly same set of maps).

[CruX]

Mikko_Sandt, on Jun 27 2010, 06:53 AM, said:

The problem with the tripbomb idea is that some maps have been designed so that tripbombs are supposed to block your way. For the same reason DT decided to have your arsenal taken away at the beginning of each level so that you're not able to blow up cracks before the map's author intended you to have explosive weapons.

Yeah, but I think a quick fix to that would (should) be a check on the trip-bomb's owner. If its owner isn't the player, don't let him disarm it. It's actually a pretty good idea, but like The Commander said, it's totally useless if there's any chance at all it's going to blow up in your face, because I'm pretty sure no one would bother running that risk in exchange for saving one lousy trip bomb.

[Forge]

I meant that I use trip-bombs in general. When I find them I try to find a practical use for them.


This isn't an end-all answer to the same map coming up twice while playing the random episodes, but I usually make a habit of saving right before I finish a map. Then if the a map comes up that I've already completed, I re-load the save, finish, and a different map will come up.

The perfect fix (imo): Each individual episode would have its own directory (or zip file) where its pool of maps are located. It'd give the mod more replay value if the player is able to make their own customized map pak.
I think DT mentioned that this isn't possible with out special coding.

[Danukem]

Hey!

1) I'm currently coding an alt-fire for tripbombs. It will enable the player to stick them directly onto monsters. They will blow up a few seconds later. This should be more useful (and more fun) than putting them on walls in many cases.

2) I have already finished coding a map tracking feature so that maps that have been played recently will not be repeated, even if you start a new game.

These additions will become part of the official version 1.04, to be released shortly.

[Danukem]

All right, here we go. I've spent some more time perfecting this and adding some new stuff. Unless a major bug is found in the next 24 hours or so, I'm going to upload this to Mod DB as the official version 1.04:

1.04 6-27-10
• Attrition now works with the software renderer, so those using non Open-GL devices can play!
• The random mission episodes have been overhauled. Lots of new levels have been added, and now ALL 90 levels are pooled and may come up regardless of which random episode is selected. The levels you have played are kept track of so the same levels should not come up again --even if you start a new game-- until you have played almost all of them.
• The HUD now has better support for widescreen
• Death Rage lasts longer and increases the player’s damage more.
• Cage’s laser pistol art now has a pickup sprite.
• Includes new and improved EDuke32.
• Added new ability to tripbombs: place them directly on monsters!
• Items and monster bodies now float in shallow water (fixes bug in original game)
• Slimers now worth points
• Fixed bug where prematurely detonated pipebombs fail to spawn bomblets
• Fixed bug where explosion sounds did not get quieter with distance
• Other minor tweaks and bug fixes

One thing I'm proud of that I just added last night is a float-on-shallow-water feature that I will put in all my Duke mods. Ever notice that if an item or monster body lands in shallow water (i.e. a water sector that does not have a separate under water part) it disappears? You can still pick the item up, but you can't see it. This is especially annoying in Attrition, because some items are valuable upgrades. With this new feature, the items and monster bodies will float on the surface of the water and gently bob up and down. Hopefully this works well in all shallow water and not just the areas I tested it in.

LINK (same as always): http://fissile.duke4...n/attrition.rar

[KillerBudgie]

Looks like you've outdone yourself once again, DT. Good work!

[djdori11]

DeeperThought, on Jun 27 2010, 04:35 PM, said:

All right, here we go. I've spent some more time perfecting this and adding some new stuff. Unless a major bug is found in the next 24 hours or so, I'm going to upload this to Mod DB as the official version 1.04:

1.04 6-27-10
• Attrition now works with the software renderer, so those using non Open-GL devices can play!
• The random mission episodes have been overhauled. Lots of new levels have been added, and now ALL 90 levels are pooled and may come up regardless of which random episode is selected. The levels you have played are kept track of so the same levels should not come up again --even if you start a new game-- until you have played almost all of them.
• The HUD now has better support for widescreen
• Death Rage lasts longer and increases the player’s damage more.
• Cage’s laser pistol art now has a pickup sprite.
• Includes new and improved EDuke32.
• Added new ability to tripbombs: place them directly on monsters!
• Items and monster bodies now float in shallow water (fixes bug in original game)
• Slimers now worth points
• Fixed bug where prematurely detonated pipebombs fail to spawn bomblets
• Fixed bug where explosion sounds did not get quieter with distance
• Other minor tweaks and bug fixes

One thing I'm proud of that I just added last night is a float-on-shallow-water feature that I will put in all my Duke mods. Ever notice that if an item or monster body lands in shallow water (i.e. a water sector that does not have a separate under water part) it disappears? You can still pick the item up, but you can't see it. This is especially annoying in Attrition, because some items are valuable upgrades. With this new feature, the items and monster bodies will float on the surface of the water and gently bob up and down. Hopefully this works well in all shallow water and not just the areas I tested it in.

LINK (same as always): http://fissile.duke4...n/attrition.rar

very nice! i like this mod!
and the autosave is just awesome and very usefull!
you should put the autosave also in your duke plus mod! its will be very awesome!

[Lunick]

DeeperThought, on Jun 28 2010, 07:45 AM, said:

Hey!

1) I'm currently coding an alt-fire for tripbombs. It will enable the player to stick them directly onto monsters. They will blow up a few seconds later. This should be more useful (and more fun) than putting them on walls in many cases.

I laughed evilly

[t800]

I think that similiar thing was possible in Half-life.

How does autosaving work in Attrition? Is it connected with elapsed time, gameplay situations or selected locations in maps (checkpoints)?
In ProAsm's port of Duke - Duke3dw autosaving is connected with picking up medkits.

[Forge]

I still find auto-save more of a nuisance than anything.

It causes a slight lag in the game. This, in itself, is not such a big deal, but it usually happens at the most in-opportune time (i.e. during a long jump across a pit, or in the midst of battle) and gets me killed on occasion.

[Forge]

Something I noticed on the latest release:

The slimers are worth point
The eggs are worth points
the egg-spawned mini-octabrains are worth points
the egg-spawned mini-newbeasts are NOT worth points

the eduke you released it with can be tempermental. Played an entire random mission episode and everything worked fine until the wg ending map. Pushing the backwards and strafe left button made Duke kick instead of move. I've played the map so many times now, I was still able to beat it by only moving forward and strafing right.

[Danukem]

I included the most recent build of eduke that was available at the time. You should use the latest version from the synthesis folder, not the one included.

[Ryan Cordell]

I'm not sure if this was already mentioned, but flipped maps tend to have the text flipped as well, making it slightly cumbersome to read (but still perfectly manageable). I don't think anything could be done about that, could it?

[Forge]

DeeperThought, on Jul 10 2010, 09:36 AM, said:

I included the most recent build of eduke that was available at the time. You should use the latest version from the synthesis folder, not the one included.

I see they made 1671 an official release. Is attrition good to go with that one?

[Plagman]

Ryan Cordell, on Jul 15 2010, 02:45 AM, said:

I'm not sure if this was already mentioned, but flipped maps tend to have the text flipped as well, making it slightly cumbersome to read (but still perfectly manageable). I don't think anything could be done about that, could it?

It could, but it would require dedicated code to correct it. It would only be a little more involved than the tile flipping ignore-list that DT has put together for tiles that have text in them. I can imagine some cases where a text caption would be pointing at the wrong place as a result, though.

[Danukem]

Plagman, on Jul 15 2010, 01:37 PM, said:

It could, but it would require dedicated code to correct it. It would only be a little more involved than the tile flipping ignore-list that DT has put together for tiles that have text in them. I can imagine some cases where a text caption would be pointing at the wrong place as a result, though.

AFAIK it would be practically impossible. The individual letter sprites need to have their coordinates flipped along with everything else, or they would be left on the other side of the map in completely wrong places. So the letters would all have to be rearranged after the mirroring. But this requires knowing, among other things, which groups of letters are parts of the same message.