[OpenMaw]

The thing with secrets that is interesting to me when looking at Duke3D and Doom is that they do have a major effect on the gameplay in terms of the player's power. In Doom you can pick up the Chaingun and Rocket Launcher much earlier in E1 if you find the secrets. In fact you'll be so flush for ammo by the mid point of the first episode(s) you won't really need to worry about it.

Ion Maiden is actually quite similar to this. The secrets give you a lot of bowling bombs and the early game secret gives you access to the SMG which really helps you tear up some shit early on. So the balance of secrets is important in certain respects.

[Player Lin]

Commando Nukem, on 04 April 2018 - 08:24 AM, said:

Ion Maiden is actually quite similar to this. The secrets give you a lot of bowling bombs and the early game secret gives you access to the SMG which really helps you tear up some shit early on. So the balance of secrets is important in certain respects.

While I like finding secrets and agree this, the only problem is I feel the ammo never run out at all, even I keep wasting them but I still near full on the end of level, not sure why... but I'm sure it won't just because too many secrets.

[Hank]

Forge, on 04 April 2018 - 08:11 AM, said:

google spy & bing spy have the same result as duck.
it defaults to iron maiden, but you can click, "show only 'ion maiden' results"

Shit.
Last stupid suggestion +"Ion" Maiden, both Google and Bing show only Ion Maiden hits.

I guess, the old fashioned search methods are like me - relic of the past.

[necroslut]

Commando Nukem, on 04 April 2018 - 08:24 AM, said:

The thing with secrets that is interesting to me when looking at Duke3D and Doom is that they do have a major effect on the gameplay in terms of the player's power. In Doom you can pick up the Chaingun and Rocket Launcher much earlier in E1 if you find the secrets. In fact you'll be so flush for ammo by the mid point of the first episode(s) you won't really need to worry about it.

Ion Maiden is actually quite similar to this. The secrets give you a lot of bowling bombs and the early game secret gives you access to the SMG which really helps you tear up some shit early on. So the balance of secrets is important in certain respects.

This also gives more of a choice of how you want to play the game. The weapons in Ion Maiden - so far - aren't that interesting, but still... the choice of how you want to tackle the levels (using which weapons) increase replayability.

And even if I don't agree with'im, and I never found AMCTC very enjoyable at all, MickyC brought up some valid points about non-linearity and replayability... But non-linearing shit up will make levels less accessible and less fun the first few times around, so it's not really worth it. Unless you change it up on higher difficulties (sounds like a ton of work for little payoff) or with secrets.

[Hank]

Looking for secrets ...

[OpenMaw]

necroslut, on 04 April 2018 - 11:50 AM, said:

Unless you change it up on higher difficulties (sounds like a ton of work for little payoff) or with secrets.

Indeed. Though just as an aside, Quake actually did something similar depending on difficulty and/or Multiplayer mode being selected (certain walls were flagged to only show up in single player, and thus would open up paths in multiplayer to make the maps flow better.)

So it's not totally unheard of, but yeah it would be a lot of extra work for a marginal difference.

[KaijuTurtle]

Looks like Ion Maiden will be at PAX

I wonder if it’s just the preview campaign or if the convention goers will get an extra taste?

I really want one of those landyards

[TerminX]

There is a bit of extra content in the PAX build that will be released to owners of the game when PAX is over.

[Jblade]

you guys are too good to us

[Forge]

KaijuTurtle, on 04 April 2018 - 07:46 PM, said:

I really want one of those landyards

definitely

[Player Lin]

Hank, on 04 April 2018 - 05:35 PM, said:

*"Press USE to scream" screenshot*

I'm early.
Don't hit me~ hmm, seems put my screenshot(s) in spoiler/using Steam screenshot function(could not display them directly) was bad idea...?

And...oasiz confessed that was his weird idea. lol

oasiz, on 01 March 2018 - 03:11 AM, said:

I think USE to scream was one of my weird ideas

===

Wow, can't wait when the PAX is over and that build releases!

[TerminX]

Jblade, on 04 April 2018 - 09:21 PM, said:

you guys are too good to us

I can't wait to see what kind of crazy mods you guys come up with!

[DavoX]

TerminX, on 05 April 2018 - 02:20 AM, said:

I can't wait to see what kind of crazy mods you guys come up with!

To clarify, the mods thing is for full game. We're not releasing mod tools in this update

[DavoX]

Oh yes


https://twitter.com/...847875620614146

[NNC]

And a John Romero mod for Ion Maiden as the first official add-on pack.

[MusicallyInspired]

Pretty cool.

[KaijuTurtle]

I can't wait to get my hands on that minigun!

[Mike Norvak]

Invation mode in the boss arena, that's gonna be great.

[Player Lin]

Not something I really want to but it looks so cool, still, would like try it!

[axl]

DavoX, on 05 April 2018 - 04:36 AM, said:

Oh yes


https://twitter.com/...847875620614146

Wow. Very nice that Ion Maiden gets appreciation from such a legend.

[Zaxx]

DavoX, on 05 April 2018 - 04:36 AM, said:

Oh yes


https://twitter.com/...847875620614146

God has spoken, now everyone should go and buy the game!

[MusicallyInspired]

That must be an amazing feeling to get endorsed by such a household name.

[Micky C]

MusicallyInspired, on 05 April 2018 - 07:10 AM, said:

Pretty cool.

I suspected it might have been a new game mode. It's great that new modes are coming along; it gives more options and replay value. Plus I imagine they're relatively easy to implement compared to something like adding a new zone.

[MusicallyInspired]

So, question. What exactly is the purpose of "Palette Emulation?" I see that it enriches the colours quite a bit but it also decreases the number of shades in gradients. Does it emulate 256 colours or something? My first guess is no, it looks like way too many colours on the screen for that...I like seeing the extra shades, but the enriched colour with it enabled makes it inarguable to not use.

[Micky C]

https://forums.duke4...post__p__297741

It doesn't necessarily restrict the colours to 8-bit, but it tries as best it can given the limitations.

[TerminX]

The next patch (and the build at PAX) have the shader method working.

[NightFright]

Can you provide some comparison screenshots? If there are any visible differences, I'd like to see what this shader mode looks like.

[Hendricks266]

The shader mode looks the same as with Palette Emulation on, but without the performance and VRAM problems.

[NightFright]

Oh well, that's a good reason to get it, too, of course. I didn't experience considerable performance issues in the preview, but I guess there are enough guys out there that do.

[Danukem]

Hendricks266, on 06 April 2018 - 10:33 AM, said:

The shader mode looks the same as with Palette Emulation on, but without the performance and VRAM problems.

Nice! Has that change made it into synthesis yet?