[Zaxx]

I was messing around with the new beta on Steam and I had a crash at the subway tunnel with the following error message: "Too many sprites spawned."

Apart from this (and I should really set that crash apart since it's a beta) I like the new changes:

- The machine gun enemies got a lot more visible and the glowing red eyes is a nice touch. They feel more characteristic now.

- The shotgun shells got recolored to a more even red: I don't think it was necessary but it increases ammo visibility so cool.

- I noticed some new enemy placements though I may be mistaken.

- The AI seems a bit better. I can't put my finger around it exactly but enemies seem to react better overall and sound seems to affect them more too.

[cybdmn]

 Hank, on 23 July 2018 - 02:17 PM, said:

You wont' be charged for it until it ships, sometimes in early 2019; at least by using PayPal, or so I understand the message from PayPal.

This is how i understand that too. And at the moment nothing's charged, but i have to look tomorrow or so again. Normally it needs up until a complete day before i can see it on my bank account.

[xMobilemux]

 Hank, on 23 July 2018 - 02:17 PM, said:

You wont' be charged for it until it ships, sometimes in early 2019; at least by using PayPal, or so I understand the message from PayPal.

I payed by PayPal and I was charged. I have the order details saved though in case they charge me again.

[Never Forgotten]

I haven't been charged yet, but I transferred money from savings just in case.

[High Treason]

Didn't find the discount thing, but when it's $100 already, $10 doesn't seem like a huge difference and anyway, it's fine as I'm sure it will help the game and the people behind it towards their rightful place at the top. My only concern is that I might not live at the same address by the time it ships, but I've kept records of my order number and everything, so I shall simply be in touch with 3DR if my address does change prior to shipping next year.

[necroslut]

 Zaxx, on 23 July 2018 - 06:07 PM, said:

I was messing around with the new beta on Steam and I had a crash at the subway tunnel with the following error message: "Too many sprites spawned."

Apart from this (and I should really set that crash apart since it's a beta) I like the new changes:

- The machine gun enemies got a lot more visible and the glowing red eyes is a nice touch. They feel more characteristic now.

- The shotgun shells got recolored to a more even red: I don't think it was necessary but it increases ammo visibility so cool.

- I noticed some new enemy placements though I may be mistaken.

- The AI seems a bit better. I can't put my finger around it exactly but enemies seem to react better overall and sound seems to affect them more too.

Didn't have any crashes, but I agree about the rest. Combat flows better now, it seems.

[Echelon5]

Gotta question! The blurb on the Steam page says "7 exciting zones." Are the zones going to act similarly to episodes in Duke? I thought as much since the preview campaign is called Crisis In Columbia. Was just curious. Also, I had a suggestion for sound effects. The shotgun pump seems to get used a LOT. The aforementioned pump, reloading the SMG, and some of the grunts load their guns before letting off a volley, including when you pick up SMG ammo. It's not itself a problem, but it does mean that you end up hearing that same sound a lot more than some of the others. Definitely suggest giving the smg reload its own unique sound!

[Fox]

The preview campaign is a single zone. The full version is planned to have 7 zones of similar or greater scale.

[NNC]

I'm still confused by the plans, how will "Crisis in Columbia" appear in the final game? Some said it's levels will be separated and will be added to new zones or whatever. IMHO it looks a good, compact mission on its own.

[Fox]

Imagine if the shareware version of Duke 3D were random maps from the 3 episodes, although you still play them in order.

[Echelon5]

Oh neat, I was under the impression that Crisis in Columbia was made specifically for the preview campaign, but that's cool we'll get to play through them again in a way in the final game. Dope!

[Phredreeke]

That sounds like it would make quite an interesting mod Could imagine instead of going to Death Row Duke uses a teleporter at the end of Red Light District to teleport to Lunar Apocalypse. then he uses an escape pod which crashes in Flood Zone...

[Micky C]

 Phredreeke, on 26 July 2018 - 11:56 AM, said:

That sounds like it would make quite an interesting mod Could imagine instead of going to Death Row Duke uses a teleporter at the end of Red Light District to teleport to Lunar Apocalypse. then he uses an escape pod which crashes in Flood Zone...

This mod shall be called... the user map menu option

[Forge]

 Fox, on 26 July 2018 - 11:02 AM, said:

Imagine if the shareware version of Duke 3D were random maps from the 3 episodes, although you still play them in order.

[Phredreeke]

Micky C, on 26 July 2018 - 02:57 PM, said:

This mod shall be called... the user map menu option

Thinking about it, it should be trivial to accomplish through editing the USER.CON file (though there wouldn't be any in-game explanation for the change of setting)

[Fox]

Of course the maps in IM were edited so they can be linked together.

[MrFlibble]

Nancsi, on 26 July 2018 - 06:28 AM, said:

I'm still confused by the plans, how will "Crisis in Columbia" appear in the final game? Some said it's levels will be separated and will be added to new zones or whatever. IMHO it looks a good, compact mission on its own.

Echelon5, on 26 July 2018 - 11:46 AM, said:

Oh neat, I was under the impression that Crisis in Columbia was made specifically for the preview campaign, but that's cool we'll get to play through them again in a way in the final game. Dope!

TBH I also had the impression that the Preview Campaign features completely unique content, probably based on what TerminX said:

TerminX, on 06 December 2016 - 12:09 PM, said:

The demo is more like Half-Life: Uplink, but yeah, the content is more or less unique from the full version. At the very least it's assembled completely differently.

Although looking at this now, it makes sense as referring to edited levels from the full game reassembled in a different order.

However on a related note, I vaguely remember someone from the team mentioning plans for a demo that would be different from the preview campaign, or am I making things up here?

[DavoX]

Its been confusing yeah. Probably still is, even internally. But all I know is that I'm using my own portions of the preview for my full game parts, definitely. There's a high chance others will do so too.

[Hendricks266]

MrFlibble, on 27 July 2018 - 12:33 PM, said:

However on a related note, I vaguely remember someone from the team mentioning plans for a demo that would be different from the preview campaign, or am I making things up here?

We're not planning any kind of demo beyond what full game purchasers have received as the Preview Campaign. In the age of Steam's instant purchases, downloads, and refunds, the Shareware Model is fully obsolete.

[MrFlibble]

Hendricks266, on 27 July 2018 - 06:25 PM, said:

In the age of Steam's instant purchases, downloads, and refunds, the Shareware Model is fully obsolete.

That's somewhat of a pity, but come to think of it, I guess my initial hopes of a unique episode in the vein of ROTT or HL: Uplink were highly unrealistic in the first place, considering the amount of effort put into every location — my only excuse is that I wasn't fully aware of the scope of the levels when asking that question back then

On a related note though, can you tell how much Ion Maiden's levels change during their development? I mean, once a level is in a more or less finished state, do major changes occur, or is it mostly tweaking? In other words, has it happened that a level started as one thing but then evolved into something else altogether? (Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm completely unfamiliar with how level design goes for FPS games.)

And on an unrelated note, I keep forgetting to ask who that officer (?) in spectacles is whose portrait can be found in the GDF HQ?

[Micky C]

I bet there’ll be some interest in some kind of “the making of Ion Maiden” documentary.

[oasiz]

If it ever comes to that, we have a lot of material dating back to 2015.

[Fox]

MrFlibble, on 28 July 2018 - 01:50 AM, said:

And on an unrelated note, I keep forgetting to ask who that officer (?) in spectacles is whose portrait can be found in the GDF HQ?

[Master O]

Fox, on 28 July 2018 - 07:59 PM, said:

Kinda looks like Dr. Proton from Duke Nukem.

[Fox]

MrFlibble, on 28 July 2018 - 01:50 AM, said:

On a related note though, can you tell how much Ion Maiden's levels change during their development? I mean, once a level is in a more or less finished state, do major changes occur, or is it mostly tweaking? In other words, has it happened that a level started as one thing but then evolved into something else altogether? (Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm completely unfamiliar with how level design goes for FPS games.)

This is an old, unreleased screenshot/mock-up:

[Micky C]

Very nice. I'm looking forward to playing through some large outdoor city areas.

I have a feeling the arena at the end of the preview is part of a bigger playable level. If you clip outside the playable area, there's an end-of-level trigger near the tunnel thing.

Master O, on 28 July 2018 - 08:30 PM, said:

Kinda looks like Dr. Proton from Duke Nukem.

That's the bad guy in Bombshell, Heskell or something. Several elements of the game are a pretty blatant rip off of the Duke Universe, such as the GDF instead of EDF etc, owing to the game literally starting off as a Duke game before the law suit. The Doctor Proton vibe is certainly intentional.

[Phredreeke]

Will there be a Lame Maiden released at the anniversary of the game's final release?

[Forge]

Will there be a dedicated multiplayer server, it will it be only through steam?


Also a request to create a branch of this forum dedicated specifically to Ion Maiden (with someone generously posting direct downloads for the maps in the steam workshop that those of us who purchased through 3DRealm can't access).

[Fox]

We haven't decided on anything about multiplayer yet.

Phredreeke, on 29 July 2018 - 05:08 AM, said:

Will there be a Lame Maiden released at the anniversary of the game's final release?

Maybe. Btw, the production title of the game was Project Washington.

[Fox]