[Danukem]

For the last few days I have been working on a new mod that I call "Hypercore" (nevermind why it's called that, the name might change later).

This mod contains only a single CON file. It has no art, no sounds, no models, no def files, just a GAME.CON and that's it. So to "install", all you do is put that file in your EDuke32 folder. It's never going to be anything more than a single script file, because that's the challenge I set for myself and it fills a different niche from other, bigger mods and TCs.

What it does: The single biggest feature so far is that it makes the game run at twice the normal rate, but creates a partial illusion that the game is running normally. The advantage of this is a lot of things are faster while still remaining smooth. For example, enemies have faster reflexes, movement and shots, with some adjustments for balance so they aren't too hard. The player's movement and weapons seem to be normal, but then you use steroids you can fire at twice the normal rate while still displaying all of the weapon animations (Hendricks266 weapons.con was helpful for coding that). Subway cars move at twice their normal rate, but most doors and other moving sectors travel normally.

There are also a lot of little additions, some of which I grabbed from my other mods (e.g. the oxygen meter when you go under water). I made the HoloDuke work much better; it distracts the monsters so badly that they will swarm on it and generally ignore you.

The sped up monsters make the game harder, so to balance it I had to give the player something special. There are enhanced firing modes for every weapon. You pick up coins to power it, then hold open and press fire to toggle the enhanced firing mode. Be sure to check out the one for the freezer, it's pretty hilarious.

Update 3/16/12: Added special monster types, some visual effects, lots of other small changes and bug fixes. I'm hoping to get some feedback for this open beta. There's also a big feature that is disabled in this public version. If you know what it is, please don't tell people about it.

Update 3/04/13: Wow it is been about two years... I decided to expose the hidden feature mentioned above. The jetpack works as a gravity reverser. Just activate it and everything turns upside down. The player starts with the jetpack and it recharges when not in use.

Attached File(s)

•  GAME.zip (52.45K)
  Number of downloads: 445

[Micky C]

It's a neat little mod. The enemy AI's are predictable enough even at double speed that it didn't make things much harder (didn't use the shield all that much but I imagine I would if I was up against more enemies than I had been when I tried it, or if I was low on health.)

Of course that might be because I played on piece of cake (don't judge me) for the first two and a half levels of episode one. The pipe bomb does its bounces at double speed which was a bit weird.

[Danukem]

Micky C, on 14 February 2012 - 09:27 PM, said:

Of course that might be because I played on piece of cake (don't judge me) for the first two and a half levels of episode one. The pipe bomb does its bounces at double speed which was a bit weird.

OK, but, they call it "piece of cake" for a reason.

I have a question maybe you could help with. You may have noticed that in E1L2, the building drops at double the normal rate of speed, even though the timed explosions go off with normal delays (i.e. the building drops at normal speed and the explosions use double delays). I tried making the code divide the lotags on the GPSPEEDs in two for the building, but it didn't work correctly. It did make the building drop at half speed, but unfortunately it never reached the ground. So I had to forego modifying the GPSPEED in cases like that, so that the levels would still work. So my question is, do you know why the building doesn't drop all the way if the speed is halved? It's not like it's on a timer. It's supposed to go down all the way regardless of the speed.

[Hendricks266]

I'm glad to see weapons.con.sample put to good use.

DeeperThought, on 14 February 2012 - 09:47 PM, said:

It did make the building drop at half speed, but unfortunately it never reached the ground.

That sounds oddly hilarious. Are you sure you didn't fuck up and keep dividing by two, meaning the building only approaches the ground asymptotically? That would be really funny.

On a more serious note, the game probably precalculates the distance instead of continually comparing it, or something like that.

[Micky C]

I took a look at the map to see what effect it used, and to my surprise it was an SE 13, I had no idea you could control the speed of destruction like that. Whatever the case you'd think it'd end up destroyed like it should be, because it's already destroyed in mapster. Perhaps there's some kind of maximum amount of time the effect can take to finish, and that it ends prematurely if it reaches that limit, of course that's a wild guess. SE 13's used to slowly move sectors vertically would be very rare (there are so many other ways to do it) so it's not something to worry a huge amount about as long as it works.

Edit: wow, hendricks posted while I was writing, five minutes ago

[Danukem]

Hendricks266, on 14 February 2012 - 09:54 PM, said:

I'm glad to see weapons.con.sample put to good use.


That sounds oddly hilarious. Are you sure you didn't fuck up and keep dividing by two, meaning the building only approaches the ground asymptotically? That would be really funny.

On a more serious note, the engine probably precalculates the distance instead of continually comparing it, or something like that.

The lotags of the GPSPEEDs are modified once, in EVENT_LOADACTOR.

So what you are suggesting is that the game calculates how many tics it will take for the floor to come down, saves that value somewhere, and then uses it without actually checking to see if the floor arrived at the correct height. That's possible, but it would be a strange way of coding it. The other GPSPEED effects don't work that way (e.g. for swing doors). Also, it would be simpler to just store the destination floor height, since that requires no calculation and the information is readily available.

Micky C, on 14 February 2012 - 09:59 PM, said:

I took a look at the map to see what effect it used, and to my surprise it was an SE 13, I had no idea you could control the speed of destruction like that. Whatever the case you'd think it'd end up destroyed like it should be, because it's already destroyed in mapster. Perhaps there's some kind of maximum amount of time the effect can take to finish, and that it ends prematurely if it reaches that limit, of course that's a wild guess. SE 13's used to slowly move sectors vertically would be very rare (there are so many other ways to do it) so it's not something to worry a huge amount about as long as it works.

That's not a bad theory, except that the amount of time involved here is less than 10 seconds, and I have seen many delays for other effects which are longer than that. And unfortunately I have to worry about it, or I can't make all the maps work correctly in the mod. I guess I could have a special hack just for that one map, but I'd rather not go there.

[Hendricks266]

I'm probably talking out my ass. I forgot about this:

Micky C, on 14 February 2012 - 09:59 PM, said:

Whatever the case you'd think it'd end up destroyed like it should be, because it's already destroyed in mapster.

[Jimmy]

A possible, yet strange way of coding something... That means it's all the more likely how it was done. Hahahah.

EDIT: Don't want to bloat DT's thread, but seriously, why a downvote? This is one reason I don't dig the system. No rebuttal or explanation for downvoting a joke about Replogle's noted strangeness/laziness in coding? You make bad votes and you should feel bad.

[Danukem]

So does anyone have an interest in a relatively light, code only mod these days? It seems to me that mods lately have tended to get bigger and less frequent. I thought maybe that people would like something that wasn't such a big production and closer to the original game. I have heard complaints from players about some mods being bloated or too complicated.

In any event, I'll probably do something more with this mod, even if no one plays it. I'd like to think of one more original feature that will add to its uniqueness, as well as adding some more little features.

[LeoD]

DeeperThought, on 15 February 2012 - 04:29 PM, said:

So does anyone have an interest in a relatively light, code only mod these days? It seems to me that mods lately have tended to get bigger and less frequent. I thought maybe that people would like something that wasn't such a big production and closer to the original game. I have heard complaints from players about some mods being bloated or too complicated.

A monster like AMC_TC is indeed too complex to chew for mostly casual dukers like me. I haven't got very far yet. Maybe once I can spare a whole weekend for that...

DeeperThought, on 15 February 2012 - 04:29 PM, said:

In any event, I'll probably do something more with this mod, even if no one plays it. I'd like to think of one more original feature that will add to its uniqueness, as well as adding some more little features.

I like it so far.
Here comes the inevitable DukePlus fanboy question: can it be put into DukePlus as an additional gameplay option?

[Danukem]

LeoD, on 15 February 2012 - 05:49 PM, said:

I like it so far.
Here comes the inevitable DukePlus fanboy question: can it be put into DukePlus as an additional gameplay option?

Not unless you pay me at least $2000. The signature feature of Hypercore is the doubled game tics. That affects all aspects of the game and requires many adjustments. Trying to add that in to DukePlus at this stage would take an enormous amount of tedious work, and make a mess of the code.

[Fox]

Cool stuff.

I noticed a problem with disappearing gibs, which I speculate is a problem with their assigned sector.

[Danukem]

Fox, on 16 February 2012 - 06:42 PM, said:

Cool stuff.

I noticed a problem with disappearing gibs, which I speculate is a problem with their assigned sector.

What was the problem?

By the way, I started working on an update tonight. I came up with a really cool alternative to the liztroops getting up from playing dead.

[ReaperMan]

DeeperThought, on 14 February 2012 - 08:26 PM, said:

For the last few days I have been working on a new mod that I call "Hypercore" (nevermind why it's called that, the name might change later).

Why did you call it Hypercore?

[Danukem]

ReaperMan, on 16 February 2012 - 09:11 PM, said:

Why did you call it Hypercore?

"hyper" refers to the speed boost caused by running the game at 2X speed.

"core" because it has a nuclear connotation (as in "reactor core"), and also because this mod sticks pretty closely to the core gameplay/look of Duke 3D.

[ReaperMan]

Now the mystery is solved.

[Danukem]

This is what I was talking about regarding the replacement for troopers playing dead:



They are bloody and making a desperate kamikaze attempt to kill you; their jetpack is malfunctioning, which is why they are smoking and why they explode.

I'm not really doing "releases" for this mod, it's just for shits and giggles, so I'll update the first post with the latest code right now.

[Micky C]

DeeperThought, on 16 February 2012 - 09:15 PM, said:

"core" because it has a nuclear connotation (as in "reactor core")

idk, there's also "apple core"

I tried out hollywood holocaust with the new code on come get some, and I like the laser pointer on the pistol, but I noticed that crosshairs are missing for all weapons. I thought that perhaps it was because you removed them on higher difficulties but they're also missing from piece of cake. Is there a reason for that? I would have thought at least piece of cake would have them.

About the exploding troopers, they make things a lot harder. There were several instances where they came back to life literally right next to me and instantly exploded, which is not very fun at all. Also it seems the percentage of troopers that come back to life is too high imo. There was also a case in the arcade that they got stuck behind the arcade sign. Perhaps there should be a maximum amount of time they can last before their jetpack explodes by itself? I also could have sworn there were times where I left a room, came back a while later and one or more troopers came back to life and exploded. If I remember correctly and that is the case, then I feel compelled to say that it isn't very fun or even realistic for that to happen.

Edit: I realized I came off as a bit negative about the kamikaze troopers, but besides those little things I mentioned they're definitely an innovative feature that adds freshness to the game.

[necroslut]

Player through the first three levels with it. At first I though it was too hard, but then I remembered the shield which instead made it too easy. With an unlimited one-way shield you're practically immortal unless you're being attacked from several directions, which makes it kinda boring in the end, at least to me.
I really liked the laser sights and the kamikaze troopers though, and I think you should include them in DukePlus as well. The laser sights also give the pistol a whole new level of usefulness when you're playing without crosshair as I usually do. I also think I liked this laser effect even more than the lasers in DP.

Also a bug report (I think): I noticed some enemies were missing, most notably the "guard" pigcop in the booth at the start of Death Row, I'm pretty sure there were others missing as well. Not sure if this might have been intentional, but I couldn't find anything about it in this thread, so I thought I'd mention it.

[Danukem]

@necroslut: There shouldn't be missing enemies, because I didn't change anything that would cause that. Maybe you were playing it on an easier difficulty than usual. I'm probably going to get rid of the shield eventually. I don't like it because it's something that requires explanation or the player won't know about it. I'm trying to avoid that in this mod; I want it to be a mod that needs no instructions.

@Micky: Most of that stuff you mentioned is just trivial little things that happen when you post code the minute you write it instead of doing a proper release. The crosshairs, for example: I just cancelled crosshairs on all weapons for the time being until I figure out what I will end up doing with them. So I do appreciate your feedback, but keep in mind that I'll be posting my code for this as WIP snapshots and I'm not even pretending that it's finished at this point.

The laser site was a spur of the moment feature. I was looking through the tiles and I noticed one labeled "LASERSITE" which AFAIK is not used in the game anywhere. It looked like it was intended as a laser site for the pistol, so I just whipped up some code for it and put it in the game.

[Hank]

DeeperThought, on 16 February 2012 - 11:08 PM, said:

I'm not really doing "releases" for this mod, it's just for shits and giggles, so I'll update the first post with the latest code right now.

Well, I ain't laughing. Your 'shits and giggles' are quite educational for myself. Just saying.

[TerminX]

Yeah, the pistol used to have a laser site. It's in some old screenshots and I think it's present in LameDuke.

[The Commander]

DeeperThought, on 15 February 2012 - 04:29 PM, said:

So does anyone have an interest in a relatively light, code only mod these days? It seems to me that mods lately have tended to get bigger and less frequent. I thought maybe that people would like something that wasn't such a big production and closer to the original game. I have heard complaints from players about some mods being bloated or too complicated.

In any event, I'll probably do something more with this mod, even if no one plays it. I'd like to think of one more original feature that will add to its uniqueness, as well as adding some more little features.

I still remember when you first joined 3DR forum and your first work was a simple con mod, how the times have changed.
I still think it might exist on the site possibly.

[necroslut]

DeeperThought, on 17 February 2012 - 08:18 AM, said:

@necroslut: There shouldn't be missing enemies, because I didn't change anything that would cause that. Maybe you were playing it on an easier difficulty than usual. I'm probably going to get rid of the shield eventually. I don't like it because it's something that requires explanation or the player won't know about it. I'm trying to avoid that in this mod; I want it to be a mod that needs no instructions.

Yeah it seems to be unrelated to this mod but something to do with the DNSKILL code messing up.

[Jimmy]

Very clever usage of the death animation.

[Danukem]

Cody, on 17 February 2012 - 09:54 AM, said:

I still remember when you first joined 3DR forum and your first work was a simple con mod, how the times have changed.
I still think it might exist on the site possibly.

Yeah, that was in April of 2006 when I started that. I was in a stressful patch of RL, kind of like I am now, and it was a nice creative outlet. That CON mod ultimately became DNWMD, which was a big production. This mod will definitely not evolve in that way, it will remain a code only mod, because I need that limitation to keep me focused on what I like to do, and also because I already have big mods with new graphics and stuff.

[Hendricks266]

DeeperThought, on 17 February 2012 - 08:18 AM, said:

I was looking through the tiles and I noticed one labeled "LASERSITE" which AFAIK is not used in the game anywhere.

Fun fact: The laser site tile is actually identical to the bottom part of the exclamation point in the v1.3D redfont.

DeeperThought, on 17 February 2012 - 11:44 AM, said:

Yeah, that was in April of 2006 when I started that.

DT and I were contemporaries for being new on the scene of CON coding.

[zykov eddy]

This mod is just crazy!
I like it. It reminds me of the days when I tried to make a decent con changes without using new textures and sprites.

[Kyanos]

Well done. I love the purity of this! It's extremely challenging. Did you do any testing with the HRP? I played using it and all looked well from my 30 mins of playing so far. I also tried Mickys 1 1/2 hr map, Mickys Quikie, I didn't beat it, this mod is tough.

[Danukem]

Drek, on 19 February 2012 - 07:02 PM, said:

Well done. I love the purity of this! It's extremely challenging. Did you do any testing with the HRP? I played using it and all looked well from my 30 mins of playing so far. I also tried Mickys 1 1/2 hr map, Mickys Quikie, I didn't beat it, this mod is tough.

I have not tested it with the HRP but it seems to me that the kamikaze trooper will look ridiculous that way, because it uses a frame of the trooper death animation. In the HRP, model animation is defined over each frame, so if you display any one frame from an animation sequence, it will display the entire sequence. So, I think the zombie trooper will look like a liztroop model repeatedly falling on his face instead of running at you.

I have been working on an update today. The shield will be gone, but something way more cool is being added.