Bruno Mattei, on 08 May 2018 - 10:00 PM, said:
I'm going to be that guy. I know it's a free mod but that doesn't hand waive any issues one might encounter.
I'm playing through the first episode, I pick Rusty Nails because I'm a huge fan of Blood. Mod gets its first red flag with the beginning with a 5 minute unskippable cut-scene. It's very impressive what the makers were able to achieve in Eduke but that kind of shit should always, always, always be skippable. Maybe there is a way to skip it that I'm unaware of like Conker's Bad Fur Day? Because I hit Escape and it just pauses. I hit E. Nothing. I hit Enter. Nothing. I hit every possible key and it will not let me skip the cut-scene.
There is definitely a bug here. While the intro cutscene didn't do this for me, I managed to get the first level cutscene to become unskippable on several occasions.
Also, so far, the cutscene where the ship gets shot down has always been unskippable for me.
What's funny though is that you can always skip individual parts of every cutscene using the alt-fire key, even the ones you can't skip with the use button for some reason.
As for what causes it, I've noticed that when this happens, the player appears to still be in control of the character he's chosen, and can thus look and walk around, probably in some box far off the cutscene itself.
In the first level cutscene, you can actually hear your character walk around and make noise in the background.
Bruno Mattei, on 08 May 2018 - 10:00 PM, said:
Second red flag is that when you can finally play the game you have to find an NPC that allows you to select mission and then you finally get to play. Firstly, the elevator is not obvious in the slightest. For one, the platform is down on the first floor and there's no obvious button that lets you know that it's an elevator that you can call. Your natural instinct is not to run to that un-obvious elevator and call it. Instead you look around and try to find a way to finally fucking play the fucking game. You waste some time with some dead ends until finally you realize that was an elevator you could call. Wasting about 10 minutes of my time.
Funnily enough, I have the opposite problem with that elevator; I keep carelessly falling down and taking damage because it starts in a lowered position.
But given that it's lowered already, how come you got stuck there and never thought of actually jumping down? There's also a wide open balcony you could've jumped down from...
Bruno Mattei, on 08 May 2018 - 10:00 PM, said:
So I take the elevator, go to the NPC, go through the training (which was fine and well done) and finally start the first mission. I'm going through it, it's all well and good if a bit too easy on Normal difficulty for my taste. But I assume on harder difficulties that the hitscan enemies can perfectly hit you from a mile away and do tons of damage. I get through the level, I get a little lost looking for the zipline. But then I get the part with the Pigcop in a tank.
I kill the Pigcop, kill a couple of enemies, explore the buildings and get stumped. I destroy a brain and use a key card to get to that reactor. I'm like, "Okay, this is fine." I get to the part with the Radiation suit and as soon as you put the thing on, hit the switch so you can enter, you are greeted with a Trooper. So, I try to use my guns and can't. So I run back, the Trooper gets inside the tiny room, I switch out of the suit and now I'm allowed to kill the Trooper. That was pretty bad enemy placement. But I move ahead and get stuck again. I use the PDA and it tells me to weld a crack. I get to the crack, I look for the key to use the weld and there's nothing. Instead I have to get right next to the crack and just fire at it. I'm not sure if that welded the crack or not, it's not made obvious, but I explore and now I'm allowed to go into the next room. Only to deal with aliens with the shrink ray. I admit I did not use the PDA to scan the one's just standing there. I rush through this part, hit the switch, run back, and I still don't know where to go.
So I wander about and discover the vent near the top of the building that leads to the scientists trapped behind the force field. So I get to the spot where I can run and jump up to that side of the building, I hit space and nothing. It just doesn't let me do it from that particular spot. I save at that spot and load state a few times until it finally just lets me run and jump. I destroy the vent, rescue the hostages and now I'm stuck. I use the PDA's scan feature and nothing. I hit E on the shelf and nothing. I hit E on the force field. Nothing. I start firing at random shit. Nothing. I throw dynamite at the force field. Nothing.
That was the third Red Flag and I'm done. Maybe there's bugs when you pick Rusty Nails? Maybe there's an oversight by the creator's where you can get stuck down there? Maybe there's just some obscure solution I just didn't see?
It's a very impressive mod on a technical level. But as far as gameplay goes there's definitely some big issues. Classic example of just because you can do it doesn't mean you should.
The Trooper is definitely an oversight, he's not supposed to get in there.
As for the forcefield, there's supposed to be a switch right next to the scientist you can talk to, see attachment.
Edit:
I don't think you should focus on the shared-universe aspect when advertising the mod. It's really not that big of a deal, and some people may even be put off by it.
What's in the mod can really stand on its own, the shared universe aspect is just another bonus for fans of retro shooters and Duke mods. The thing I said about rebranding was just a joke