[bullerbullerseven]

im at level 20 now im the high score mode. its getting easier actually. havent been in real trouble in 5 levels now. the hardest level yet was still the level were super pigcops started killing me :S after that it got easier when i got higher levels. all weapons are level 9 now. is level 9 the maximum level for a weapon? hehe i have over 700 armor and 500 hp xD each cola gives over 150 hp o.O

[bullerbullerseven]

arhf sorry double post :S

[Danukem]

Jhect, on Oct 13 2010, 03:05 PM, said:

im at level 20 now im the high score mode. its getting easier actually. havent been in real trouble in 5 levels now. the hardest level yet was still the level were super pigcops started killing me :S after that it got easier when i got higher levels. all weapons are level 9 now. is level 9 the maximum level for a weapon? hehe i have over 700 armor and 500 hp xD each cola gives over 150 hp o.O

It's hard for me to judge the difficulty at those later stages that only occur in high score mode, because I don't play that much myself. The maximum you can ever get from COLA is 100, and the max from SIXPAK is 300. I will probably nerf those values as well as the max health upgrades, but make the nerfing kick in only at high levels. The high score challenge is supposed to keep getting harder until it becomes impossible, so I'll need to add at least one more tougher monster, and make this one ridiculously powerful.

[bullerbullerseven]

DeeperThought, on Oct 14 2010, 02:25 AM, said:

It's hard for me to judge the difficulty at those later stages that only occur in high score mode, because I don't play that much myself. The maximum you can ever get from COLA is 100, and the max from SIXPAK is 300. I will probably nerf those values as well as the max health upgrades, but make the nerfing kick in only at high levels. The high score challenge is supposed to keep getting harder until it becomes impossible, so I'll need to add at least one more tougher monster, and make this one ridiculously powerful.

yea but remember that i saved so i kinda cheated. it should be played wuthout saving right? anyway if anyone are actually able to survive all those super pigcops when they are first shown then i dont think that anything can kill that person. i am a very good player and i were always out of ammo and holoduke were the only thing to save my ass. just ask me if you want to test something i love it hehe

[Forge]

Awesomebob, on Oct 5 2010, 08:26 AM, said:

Crack sprites... I've encountered 2-3 maps in attrition that just use these as decoration. This is a bigger dick move cause this wastes the precious little explosives you get trying to open areas that don't exist. Stack on top of that maps that MIX the elements. Destroyed building, use cracks to show this, player just stops throwing bombs at walls cause they get tired of them not doing anything. Then they have to clip out of the map because back yonder there WAS a working crack that you ignored cause all the rest where decoration. There's a special place in hell for people who do this >.>

It's not that special.

I agree that it's hard to be objective about my own maps because I hate my own work, but yes, I've pulled the dick move and made cracks decorational. Though I would estimate that over 90% of the cracks that do open something up in my maps will have a pipe bomb nearby if there isn't a fire extinguisher already there.


@DT If you're going to make a powerful enemy you could use the scorpion tank, give it mad fire power and health, then make it spawn 6 super pigcops that can heal themselves and a mega-mech armed with an .88 magnum.

I drew up plans in my hydraulics class for a 22 cm auto loading hydraulic cat canon. I don't know what the muzzle velocity would be, but the firing mechanism is rotating at 1500 rpm at around 250 to 300 psi. Go ahead and use it if you want.

[Danukem]

Forge, on Oct 13 2010, 07:23 PM, said:

@DT If you're going to make a powerful enemy you could use the scorpion tank, give it mad fire power and health, then make it spawn 6 super pigcops that can heal themselves and a mega-mech armed with an .88 magnum.

On second thought what I'll do is make Duke age one year per mission (he gets a lot of time off in between).

Assuming that he's 25 in the first mission, he'll be fine for 10 missions or so. Then his speed will start to drop and he will have a stamina bar for running, and the bar will get a little shorter every level. When he takes damage, there is a chance that the injury will be permanent, lowering his max health. Also there will be a random chance of pulling out the wrong weapon as he becomes senile, so you may have to press the number key 3 or 4 times until you get the one you want. When you press space on a babe and he says "You wanna dance?" she will just give him a cold stare, causing Duke to take damage. The good news is, when he uses a toilet he will get 30 health back. The bad news is, he has to sit on the toilet 3 times as long, and doing so will trigger nearby respawns who will shoot him as he's helpless. And if he uses steroids, there is a good chance that he will have a massive heart attack and die right there on the spot.

[Forge]

lmao

[bullerbullerseven]

DeeperThought, on Oct 14 2010, 06:15 AM, said:

On second thought what I'll do is make Duke age one year per mission (he gets a lot of time off in between).

Assuming that he's 25 in the first mission, he'll be fine for 10 missions or so. Then his speed will start to drop and he will have a stamina bar for running, and the bar will get a little shorter every level. When he takes damage, there is a chance that the injury will be permanent, lowering his max health. Also there will be a random chance of pulling out the wrong weapon as he becomes senile, so you may have to press the number key 3 or 4 times until you get the one you want. When you press space on a babe and he says "You wanna dance?" she will just give him a cold stare, causing Duke to take damage. The good news is, when he uses a toilet he will get 30 health back. The bad news is, he has to sit on the toilet 3 times as long, and doing so will trigger nearby respawns who will shoot him as he's helpless. And if he uses steroids, there is a good chance that he will have a massive heart attack and die right there on the spot.

hmm the age thing sounds a bit weird. might give it a try. that pigtank that wasnt used is unfinished. it doesnt have a fire animation right? would be easy to make if you are just a little bit good with photoshop. you could maybe give the new super enemy the unused drone sound. that weird rage sound that doesnt fit a drone at all :S

[Danukem]

I have just uploaded version 1.15 beta 2. This is a full version, not a patch. Differences from beta 1: includes bug fixes, another new map (Crimson Moon, the latest CBP), and a new enemy which is designed to stop players from going on indefinitely in high score mode. I call it the Omega Beast.

I still consider this a beta, because I haven't been able to test the new monster under realistic game conditions. It is only available at the Fissile Materials site.

[Awesomebob]

Hey DT, question for ya: Is there some console codes that could be used for level development? Something like setting your score, setting weapon / inventory levels, etc. Building a map for Attrition, and want to test it on multiple difficulties with varying score totals.

[Danukem]

Awesomebob, on Oct 15 2010, 10:23 AM, said:

Hey DT, question for ya: Is there some console codes that could be used for level development? Something like setting your score, setting weapon / inventory levels, etc. Building a map for Attrition, and want to test it on multiple difficulties with varying score totals.

There are some variables you can set in the console, using the setvar command (for example: setvar randomize 10000). Explaining what they do is a bit involved, though. Setting the score actually does nothing to affect gameplay: the main variables that do that are randomize and rawrandomize. There is nothing special you need to do to make a level for Attrition. Just make a good level that works in the unmodified game, and it will work in Attrition. Whether it is balanced at different stages in the game is my problem. A map that plays well in vanilla Duke is supposed to play well in this mod regardless of when it is reached. I have spent a lot of time tweaking various aspects of the game to make it work smoothly with a wide variety of maps.


_________________________

Tonight I have uploaded what I hope is the final version of Attrition 1.15. I have made some significant balance tweaks and some bug fixes since my last post, so it is worth checking out. If no problems crop up in the next day or so, I will upload it to ModDB.

[Loke]

This mod is too addictive, damn it I can't put it down. I've the played the high score mode for a few days now and I am at level 35 with every weapon except the tripmines maxed out; I've got like 400 hp and over 600 armor points; my Holoduke is like a unstoppable killing machine every time I active it; the Nuke's power is tremendous, utterly annihilating every enemy in sight. Yeah, life's good - massive kudos DT for the mod and giving us with no life another reason not to sleep.

[Danukem]

Loke, on Oct 21 2010, 05:47 PM, said:

This mod is too addictive, damn it I can't put it down. I've the played the high score mode for a few days now and I am at level 35 with every weapon except the tripmines maxed out; I've got like 400 hp and over 600 armor points; my Holoduke is like a unstoppable killing machine every time I active it; the Nuke's power is tremendous, utterly annihilating every enemy in sight. Yeah, life's good - massive kudos DT for the mod and giving us with no life another reason not to sleep.

That's great, I'm glad you like it and it is my goal to make it addictive. However, I've been trying to make the high score mode get increasingly difficult to the point where even a good player will eventually die. Personally I find it boring to be able to keep going indefinitely.

Today I started working on a new type of gameplay which will be the "War of Attrition" episode. It will be the mod in its purest form. You play in DM maps and waves of enemies spawn (like invasion from the UT series). It's still too early to say much more about it, but I'll try to keep it fresh.

If you know of any suitable DM maps for this, or want to make one, let me know. I have found several good ones already, but it doesn't hurt to have more. The best maps are ones where the monsters can get to the player without too much trouble. If they need to use elevators, cross sprite bridges, swim through water or do anything complicated like that it will probably result in monsters getting bunched up and stuck in parts of the map. EDIT: Any monsters or items in the map will be deleted and replaced by me or my code so don't worry about that.

[Loke]

That sounds great, I'm a big fan of Invasion from UT, unfortunately I don't know too many good DM maps (more into SP personally) except my own - they're fairly basic but quite small. My Stadium Redux map (based on the original and the N64 version) is quite decent in size though and has a symmetrical design.
William Gee's large collection of DM maps is also definitely worth checking out if you already haven't.

[Danukem]

I just noticed something that I should have noticed a long time ago, and which I'm guessing many veteran Dukers are already aware of. When liztroops cloak, there is a good chance that they will never uncloak, especially if they walk into a corner while invisible. Kind of hard to finish a wave of enemies if the last one is a permanently invisible liztroop.

You can see why this happens by looking at this snippet of the old CON code:

	ifpdistl 2448
	  ifpdistg 1024
	{
	  ifceilingdistl 48
		break
	  ifp pfacing
		break

	  ifgapzl 64 nullop
	  else
		ifawayfromwall
	  {
		spawn TRANSPORTERSTAR
		action ATROOPREAPPEAR
		move 0
		break
	  }
	}

If the liztroop is close to a wall it will not uncloak, nor will it uncloak if it has gotten itself into a tight space or if the player is not within a certain distance. To fix this I guess I'll force them to uncloak after a certain amount of time has passed whether they like it or not.

[tix]

Hey DT, great job on the mod. If you added up all the hours I've spent playing it, I'm sure it'd amount to at least a week.

I used to know a bunch of DM maps that I always thought, "wouldn't it be great if there was a single player mission to go along with this?" Unfortunately that was back in the late 90's and I just don't remember the names of those maps. One was called either alcatraz or therock...I remember it being particularly large and fun, and it'd definitely be suitable for battles against large hordes of aliens.

The rest I probably wouldn't even be able to describe well enough for anyone to know what I'm talking about.

edit: Found it. There were a bunch of levels with those titles on dukeworld, but here's the one I'm talking about: http://dukeworld.duke4.net/classic%20dukew...-t/the-rock.zip

[Danukem]

tix, on Oct 27 2010, 09:27 AM, said:

edit: Found it. There were a bunch of levels with those titles on dukeworld, but here's the one I'm talking about: http://dukeworld.duke4.net/classic%20dukew...-t/the-rock.zip

I haven't checked that out yet, but I'll look at it before the next update. In the mean time...



War of Attrition 1.20 beta is now available at Fissile Materials.

This version has a whole new game mode. Episode 7 is "War of Attrition", which is the mod in its purest form. You fight wave after wave of enemies in a series of DM maps. The composition of the waves is partially random, and partially specified. I added some new powerup items exclusive to this mode, and some great tracks by Marc Pattison to go with the maps (you might want to turn the music volume slider down, though). I also added some elements into the HUD, including a monster radar of sorts. I fixed many small bugs and made lots of balance adjustments, some of which affect the other game modes as well.

As always, I'm hoping that some people will test this and let me know about any problems before I upload the new version to Mod DB. It's already been tested a lot, though, so I'm hopeful there are no major bugs.


*About the music: I downloaded those Marc Pattison tracks about 10 years ago, at which time he was distributing them for free with no strings attached. I have no idea where one would find them now nor how Marc would feel about them being included in this mod, though I think they fit perfectly. Since he currently sells his albums online, I guess you could say I'm being a dick by just including the tracks without asking, but as the saying goes, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than get permission.

[Danukem]

I discovered that the beta does have a few bugs due to last minute changes that I made, which are making it harder than it's supposed to be (for example, wave 21 has 20 battlelords instead of 8). I'll have it fixed later today.

[E.C.S]

Hey DT, here is E.C.S from Moddb.com. I tested the new beta and the gameplay is AWESOME. This is very funny, every update is different. What AWESOME update will come in the future... we shall see.
This new mode is excellent, specially in multiplayer.
Don't forget to fix the text of the manual jeje.
A bug a founded is the letters sprites, if you touch the video filtering, sometimes the letters sprites transforms to white boxes.

Possible Suggestions:
.Add the dukeplus option: Double Ammo & Monsters, for people who wants a big & suicidal war.
.Modifiable variables to change the initial difficulty of the game manually (like the score system).

[Danukem]

E.C.S, on Nov 3 2010, 12:04 PM, said:

This new mode is excellent, specially in multiplayer.

You tested it in multiplayer? I would expect a lot of problems.


Anyway, I fixed some more bugs, tweaked a few more things and re-uploaded it. Attrition 1.20 is now considered official and I will update it at Mod DB as well.

[Headless_Horseman]

I played the new "War of Attrition" episode and its "invasion" mode. Not my fave playiong style, I must say, as going up and down the same little level several times tends to bore me. However, I think some tweaking are still required, mostly regarding the ammos. Depending on what kind of ammos the level maked has planned to put into the level, you're pretty much screwed if you face certain enemies, especially if they can dodge rockets.
Plus, I faced that freaky assassin robots around wave 16 and they easily mopped the floor with me : aren't they a bit too powerful to face them at that time ? In the random maps episodes you encounter them when you're quite more powerful, if I'm not mistaken.

[Danukem]

Headless_Horseman, on Nov 5 2010, 07:43 AM, said:

I played the new "War of Attrition" episode and its "invasion" mode. Not my fave playiong style, I must say, as going up and down the same little level several times tends to bore me. However, I think some tweaking are still required, mostly regarding the ammos. Depending on what kind of ammos the level maked has planned to put into the level, you're pretty much screwed if you face certain enemies, especially if they can dodge rockets.
Plus, I faced that freaky assassin robots around wave 16 and they easily mopped the floor with me : aren't they a bit too powerful to face them at that time ? In the random maps episodes you encounter them when you're quite more powerful, if I'm not mistaken.

First, I am assuming you are playing the version posted after I said it was official and not the beta. The beta was too difficult because I had changed the drop system but did not compensate for it in other ways. The official version, I believe, is about right.

The mode is meant to be a challenge after you have played some of the random episodes. You may have to play it a few times and become familiar with the waves and levels so you know which weapons to conserve for which waves. I find this mode pretty challenging at times when playing on Come Get Some, but I'm able to beat it. I don't want to make it easier, because I know that myself and some Attrition players can handle it, and it's more fun for us to have a mode that isn't easy. You can always play on Piece of Cake or Let's Rock, you know.

I don't see it as being better than the random missions episodes, and in fact it probably has less replay value. But it's a different kind of gameplay in that you have constant action without worrying about finding a key/button or whatever in a singleplayer user map. I also think some of the battles near the end are quite spectacular.

[Headless_Horseman]

Ok, if it's mean to be difficult, I think it's Ok, but I still have the feeling that you're given too few stuff in some levels.
I downloaded the version I played from Fissile Material after your message about making it "official", so I think it's the right version. But why you didn't add anything about the new episode in the documantation ?

[Danukem]

Headless_Horseman, on Nov 5 2010, 02:25 PM, said:

But why you didn't add anything about the new episode in the documantation ?

I thought I had.

[Headless_Horseman]

Ah, sorry, I see it mentioned only now. And now I understand the changelogs are meant to be read top to bottom, and NOT bottom to top. My bad

[The Commander]

With the new game mode, what is used as the enemy spawner sprites?
Also with the game mode it seems that slimers are not removed from any maps that may include them, but other monsters are.

EDIT: In other words, how can we take some other map and make it usable in War of Attrition?
EDIT 2: Never mind I found tile 5300, problem was I wasn't loading mapster with "-jattrition -hatt_hrp.def" so I couldn't see them tiles.

[Danukem]

The Commander, on Nov 13 2010, 09:30 PM, said:

With the new game mode, what is used as the enemy spawner sprites?
Also with the game mode it seems that slimers are not removed from any maps that may include them, but other monsters are.

EDIT: In other words, how can we take some other map and make it usable in War of Attrition?
EDIT 2: Never mind I found tile 5300, problem was I wasn't loading mapster with "-jattrition -hatt_hrp.def" so I couldn't see them tiles.

You don't need the -hatt_hrp_def part because the tile in question is in an .art file

So yeah, just place some 5300 around the map where you want the monsters to be able to spawn, you don't need to tag them or anything. Slimers staying in the map is a bug. You may also notice that respawns still work for spawning items, but not monsters (if they try to spawn monsters, the teleport effect will appear but no monster will show up).

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I made a movie today showing the new mode: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=rsOx_Gweous

I was lazy and I didn't make a proper trailer; it doesn't even show the new items. The action is good though and it shows what it's all about.

[The Commander]

This map could work for the later levels if you are accepting any more for War of Attrition.
Game play is to slow if it's played to early due to the size of it.

Attached File(s)

•  DukesNightmare_ATT.zip (71.86K)
  Number of downloads: 310

[Mike Norvak]

Dan u are my heroe!!!!!! lol

I had a bad day, then i´m playing the new "War of Attrition" mode of Attrition and the only thing i can say is wooow!!!!, it´s so addictive and much more fun that many "seek and destroy" online games. Well comming back to playing.......

[Forge]

Playing the wat episode on and off.

Every time I load the game, I have to manually shut off the autosave feature. Slight annoyance.

I'm on the sixth map, 3rd or 4th wave, (roch island) and it's getting pretty brutal. Used to be able to run the streets, now I'm in sniper mode since I'm drawing such a large number of aliens (around 50 which is alot considering their advanced fire power and the cramped, half/map).

It's still fun, but not as much, since I'm reduced to camping, and quick runs out into the streets for supplies (<-that part can get exciting when I have 3 or 4 evil dukes, 3 mechs, and a plethora of high powered aliens all trying to vent my skin at the same time)