[Danukem]

You know I think I may have not even checked to see if pressing melee would activate the slide. I would always press crouch first and then press melee, and I assumed that pressing crouch was necessary. Oops.

[Danukem]

I finally finished the LA / alien ship level using Micky and did not run into any other significant issues. It was a lot of fun, and technically very impressive.

I do have one suggestion about the stepping on broken glass sound that I complained about earlier. If you ever want to change it, what I think you should do is make it change the stepping sound instead of playing its own sound. It could work like this: have a few sounds of someone walking on concrete that is covered by broken glass. When the actor is going to play the sound, it doesn't but instead it sets a countdown on a per-player var (it sets the var to 5 or so). Then, in the step sound code, if that var is not 0, it plays a stepping on glass sound instead of whatever surface stepping sound it was going to play.

[Jblade]

I'd have it play alongside the default step sound, if only because there's already like 20 different material types and we're dangerously close to the sound limit as it stands.

[Danukem]

Just started "Big Trouble in Little China" using James. There's a part near the start where it looks like you are supposed to wall kick your way to the top, but I can't do it. I remember something in the tutorial about instantly turning around during a wall kick if you hold down a certain key, so maybe that's relevant.

Picked up the shotgun and did not realize it would not be loaded until I pressed the reload key. So my first experience with it was "click! click!" at the enemy. Sword rampage was fun. Also noticed I can do a funky looking spin kick of some kind if I press back and quick kick. Hard to connect with it, though. Going back into game now...

[Jblade]

There's a barrel nearyby you can use to get up to the statue bits, although it's all secret areas so it's not vital.

[Danukem]

Jblade, on 08 March 2019 - 11:48 PM, said:

There's a barrel nearyby you can use to get up to the statue bits, although it's all secret areas so it's not vital.

Will do.

I have a question about the dynamite: Is it all enemy proximity based? I was trying to get it to blow up a crack with no enemies nearby, and it wouldn't blow unless I shot it. I even tried changing the firing mode to instant detonation, but the dynamite would just sit on the ground near the crack.

[Jblade]

Yeah the tripbomb replacement is purely for taking out enemies - do you feel like they should check for cracks as well?

[Danukem]

Jblade, on 09 March 2019 - 12:11 AM, said:

Yeah the tripbomb replacement is purely for taking out enemies - do you feel like they should check for cracks as well?

Well it feels more like a pipebomb type of weapon, so yeah. I didn't even notice it was on the tripbomb slot. Alternatively, make the two firemodes proximity and non-proximity -- leave a short timer on each of them.

[Danukem]

Trying to finish up the Big China storyline. I've just made it to the hidden base island map. Let me say again: This game is friggin' huge and awesome. One mission is like an entire episode.

A couple of minor things: James' dual SMGs are too close to each other. The gap between them needs to be widened by about 15 rotatesprite units. Right now it looks like the bullets would cross over each other and shoot to the opposite side, and when the guns reload the sprites overlap.

Also an extremely minor thing: the wind chime sound is very loud. It was driving me crazy and I had to hunt down the wind chime sprite and destroy it! Thankfully it's a destructible sprite and not an ambient sound.

Question: when you reenter a completed map from the mission launching world map, is the map supposed to be reset from scratch with all the enemies back etc?

[Jblade]

Yeah - levels are reset once you're done with them. I know it's different to how say Bioware games are done where once a mission is finished it's off the map until next game but the nature of the TC means that everything is persistent across the board (that and the mod pushes the very limits as it is, I think saving hub map states for like 30 levels now would just make everything collapse heh heh)

I've gradually been re-working the weapons in the mod over time, I originally just got carried away with quantity over quality and it shows. Some of my guns were the very first ones made, they will be overhauled in time (hopefully anyway, maps are by far the most time consuming thing to make for this thing)

[Danukem]

Just a few more things as I finish this island base map. The distance for getting in the tank should be increased slightly imo. A couple of times it was very hard to enter the tank, I kept getting bumped to the top of the tank before I could get the activation hand to show up. The tank itself controls very well and feels tanky.

For me, ammo is very tight on this level, maybe because I'm not finding secrets. A couple of times this led me to do cheesy things with the hovercraft, by getting enemies to wake up and then leading them back to where I could use the infinite hovercraft ammo on them.

On the subject of stealing your stuff, I would like to. In particular I'm interested in the shotspark sprite and some of the projectiles and related effects. Possibly also a few of the weapons, if they don't have hands on them and if they have a sci-fi look. I don't imagine you would object since we all borrow from each other, but I'm mentioning it so you aren't surprised if you see some of your sprites in AA in the future.

[Jblade]

I'll tweak the boarding distance - Fox made the tank itself so I can't take credit for it, although I did refine the sounds and weapons a bit.

Trooper Dan, on 09 March 2019 - 12:03 PM, said:

On the subject of stealing your stuff, I would like to. In particular I'm interested in the shotspark sprite and some of the projectiles and related effects. Possibly also a few of the weapons, if they don't have hands on them and if they have a sci-fi look. I don't imagine you would object since we all borrow from each other, but I'm mentioning it so you aren't surprised if you see some of your sprites in AA in the future.

I'd be a big chode if I objected, especially since your code has saved my bacon on numerous occasions

just a reminder btw - certain missions are optional (like Zaxtor's mission) those ones are in a diamond shape on the map rather than square. His maps are extremely hard and time-consuming so if you're short on time I would save them for later (they don't factor into the plot massively, they're just optional super-hard dungeons with some nice loot basically)

[Danukem]

Just finished the island base level. For me, these huge epic levels are fun but exhausting. I have poor locational memory so if I have to find my way back to an earlier part of the level it's often by trial and error. At one point I had made it to the outside of the boss structure where you need C4, and I didn't have it. I fell off a cliff while exploring, then loaded my save, made my way back to the boss structure and this time I had the C4...but I don't know where I got it from lol.

I guess my only real complaint about this level is that ammo seems very tight. At times I had literally nothing but melee. I'm sure this would not be a problem if I had found more secrets.

[Jblade]

Yeah the map is littered with secrets - actually the same goes for all of the China section. Don't worry, the next 2 maps are much smaller and less sprawling.

You're gonna hate episode 3's Egypt bit since it's basically a huge hub map where you need to go back and forth between the 4 levels to collect artifacts - basically a Metroidvania in Duke form

[MajorTom 2417]

Jblade, on 09 March 2019 - 01:20 PM, said:

You're gonna hate episode 3's Egypt bit since it's basically a huge hub map where you need to go back and forth between the 4 levels to collect artifacts - basically a Metroidvania in Duke form

I LOVED the Cairo stuff with the artifacts; it has a little bit to do with the fact that I was obsessed with ancient Egypt when I was a kid, and also in no small part because the level design was awesome.

Oh, and lest anyone think I didn't consider it an honor to voice a certain other character who shall remain nameless in case anyone hasn't played that level yet, it was indeed an honor. Again, to everyone involved with this project, if you need any more voice acting for Episode 4 and any that come after it, feel free to let me know

[Danukem]

I encountered this in Far Mountain Reaches. These elongated sprites appear to be blood or gore, and they are blocking. This happened after killing some enemies with dynamite. And they have shadows (see the one on the left), which is odd.

A couple of other things I'll mention. The sprite that replaces BLOODPOOL sometimes does not fit on the surface it spawns on, and hangs over the edges of small boxes, etc. This happens frequently and is worth fixing.

Another very minor thing is, when killing cultists with an automatic hitscan weapon, they can be locked in the first frame of their death animation. I'm assuming this is a feature, not a bug, but nevertheless it caused me to waste a ton of ammo because I thought they were just getting stun-locked and not dead; I could have just stopped shooting lol.

[TheDragonLiner]

Okay, so I've thought a bunch about the R items, because they kinda all do the same thing (with an exception or two) and just increase speed. Would be nice to have them do some different stuff in order to make more of them really specific to their characters (while keeping the speed boost of course).
I won't talk about James's MJ12 Injection and Highwire's Vodka since they already have their specific effects (Dynamite Punch for one and Constant Healing for the other).

1_ Zaxtor's Turbo Boots. I can't find any special effect for it but maybe you could make it so that they can be visible on Zaxtor's FPS feet, for the duration of either the item, or the current level.

2_ Merlijn's Power Bracers could similarly be visible in FPS view and it would make sense if it increased the power of all his melee weapons instead of only the 0th one.

3_ Sang's Blood Potion. I found 2 ideas. Either you could make it so that it heals you a set ammount of HP upon use. Or you could make it so that we can sacrifice that item in order to unlock Blood Sigil doors without giving HPs away (would be possible only in Egypt so far IIRC)

4_ Rusty's Turbo Caffein. Since focussing was the deal with Rusty in Ep1, why not making it so that this item gives you maximal accuracy for the revolvers or Uzi for the duration of the item ? I had thought of applying it to all weapons but that would be kinda too much.

5_ Geoffrey's Vitamin X. Vitamin = Health right ? So either you could make it give you a set ammount of HP upon use OR you could make it so that it makes you more resistant to dammage for the duration of the item (not applicable to armor, only to HP).

6_ Mikko's Turbo Battery, Since he's a cyborg of sorts, the Turbo should apply to his whole body. Therefore you could increase his fisting speed (similarly to James) BUT ALSO increase the reloading speeds for the duration of the item. The default MSC Pistol tends to be slow to reload as an example but you apply the effect to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th guns.

7_ Unfortunately for Micky I got no idea. For Snowfall I would make the same suggestion as Geoffrey but maybe applied to more elemental attacks like Ice or Fire in order to be temporarily more resitant to them.

[Micky C]

TheDragonLiner, on 25 April 2019 - 10:53 PM, said:

Therefore you could increase his fisting speed (similarly to James)

What the hell are James and Mikko getting up to in their spare time?

[Jblade]

One of my eventual goals is to replace the steroid item completely, similar to how the holoduke is gone, since the addition of sprinting makes it feel much less useful - to be honest it's extremely rare for me ever to use them, both in the mod and in vanilla Duke.

[Loke]

The steroids and Holoduke feels more like it was designed for MP. Same goes for the trip bombs to be honest.

[Flanker15]

Jblade, on 25 April 2019 - 11:16 PM, said:

One of my eventual goals is to replace the steroid item completely, similar to how the holoduke is gone, since the addition of sprinting makes it feel much less useful - to be honest it's extremely rare for me ever to use them, both in the mod and in vanilla Duke.

What if they could be turned on and off and when they were on they stopped stamina loss, not very imaginative but I'd actually use them.

[king karl]

there is so much stuff in this mod i will never know if i've seen all the things i'm supposed to see

so i suggest you add an achievement screen that the player can access from the menu so they can know what they are missing, you know add some trophies just to let the player know "this is a thing"

[Micky C]

We used to have achievements for certain things, but the code was causing more problems than it's worth. Moving forward, developing the core campaign is by far the biggest priority, and where we're going to be putting our time. All the little extra things are there for players to like to explore and flesh things out, but they're still peripheral.

[king karl]

ok that makes sense

there is one thing driving me crazy though, the loadout screen. It could use better descriptions at least

* I can't figure out how to unequip an amulet, or most things really
* when I click a specialty weapon it appears in the bottom window for a second but doesn't stay there and I don't know why
* some items have costs but I can't see my money on this window and if I'm spending money here I should see that
* the help screen says specialty weapons can't be upgraded....but some of them say "can be upgraded"
* the word specialty has a typo in the middle box on the right side of the screen

[king karl]

oh and its hard to know when i find a research project or artifact what it actually is, maybe add a box at the end of a level that goes "here is what you got" and shows me the new item

[StrOf10kBabies]

Not sure if this is a necro bump, but I would suggest a character rework for Merlijn since I really want to enjoy a knight type class but he feels so underwhelming compared to the other classes. Since his class concept is supposed to be a melee tank with limited range support, I'm gonna list a series of suggestions here in numerical order:

• 1

Since from what I gathered that his class is a melee tank with limited range, I'd like to see global hyper armor with his melee attacks (damage reduction). This is only when he goes into a melee attack state but is removed when not attacking. Not referring to the armor shard system that gets depleted with hitscan. Keep the armor shard system but give him hyper armor with melee.

• 2

Less emphasis on swords, more variety in other medieval weapons. I know there are Witchaven sprites with a Halberd, Flail, Spears, etc. I can contribute a Bardiche sprite pack for a little more polearm variety for Ep. 4.

• 3

Increase the amount of throwing daggers he can start out with, or implement a system where he can pick them back up. Perhaps add some throwing axes to add a little more variety to his kit (not sure if he has them already).

• 4

If possible, have a running shield bash that can stun lock enemies (or a shove with polearms) that grants him temporary invulnerability. Make it deplete stamina for the duration of the charge as a drawback.

[Jblade]

Thanks for the suggestions - Merlijn can pick up thrown daggers if they hit an enemy already, just not if they hit a wall; only reason the limit for them is 10 is the daggers do a decent amount of damage but I could buff that limit to 20. I've done some work on him for the future episode since he's a primary character for it; among them is he gets the sideways dash by default now instead of having it unlocked much later in the game (alongside reduced stamina drain) Enemies are now also stunned when hit with his melee weapons. There's also a new research project for him, gained from the Berserker enemy, which will give Merlijn a much stronger edge in fight when he's been hurt, and finally his shields have a wider radius to help protect him. The hyper armour is an interested idea, I'll have to play around with it since there's no stamina drain for his attacks; maybe 50% protection on the first swing only but it resets if an enemy is hit.

We've got an artist onboard who's doing all the weapons for consistency but I appreciate the offer of art regardless.

[TheDragonLiner]

"Enemies are now also stunned when hit with his melee weapons"
" I could buff that limit to 20"

Glad to hear it as these sure will compensate for the nerfing of his weapons.

[Jblade]

his weapons weren't nerfed, they were bugged to do far more damage than intended. They were fixed.

[TheDragonLiner]

Jblade, on 18 August 2020 - 01:17 AM, said:

his weapons weren't nerfed, they were bugged to do far more damage than intended. They were fixed.

SO WHY, the heck, didn't you say this EARLIER !? Because this means, I misinterpreted it. IF YOU HAD TOLD ME EARLIER, I wouldn't have been mislead and I wouldn't have said this.