I liked Codename: Envenom and The Ascension Of Vigil!

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Wazat
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Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:50 pm
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I liked Codename: Envenom and The Ascension Of Vigil!

Post by Wazat »

I got to try these two mods finally, and I must say, it was well-worth it!

Codename: Envenom
This was very cool. My friend Abfinz and I both loved it. I never managed to kill the fiend-like mini-boss (is it invulnerable?), and I was frustrated that I couldn't save my game, but I did manage to kill the final boss (the mech), but only after it killed me several times. ;) I found a bug where I got right up close to the mech (a few player widths away), and its attacks missed me, so I was able to kill it at leisure.
I never got medpacks to work, but I liked the weapons. I suggest putting a ! on the player's head when he's aiming at an enemy, so the player knows even when the enemy is off-screen.
I loved the atmosphere. The distant battle sounds, the bodies lying about, the sparkle on important items to pick up, it was all extremely well-done! I was especially impressed with the body hanging from a rope over the stairs! The camera placing was perfect!
There were almost no situations where the camera was a problem. The only place I can think of is the stairs, where it was really hard to get my ally to follow me, and I couldn't see if he was following or stuck. There were two other problems with the camera: When loading a saved game, the camera spawns in a weird place (though you may not have intended for the player to be able to save), and the choppiness of the camera, which I assume is Quake's age-old byte-angle problem. I forgot what the command in DP is to smooth angles out by allowing more than 256 values, but you might ask LH (tell me when you find out, I need it too).
I thought my ally's AI was perfect, until I reached the stairs. For the most part he rarely got stuck, and he was very helpful, until he got stuck on the elevator and I had to shoot him to make the elevator go up. :) I really liked how he makes comments when he's fighting, or lost, etc!
You really did a good job with this mod! I hope you continue to work on it!

The Ascension Of Vigil
This game was way fun! I loved the air combos and attacks! Fighting dogs and knights was fun, and the deathknight battle was awesome. The baron kicked my trash, but Pete (Abfinz) beat him. I thought the controls were very, very good, and I don't think I encountered any problems that I remember. We had some fun with starting air combos. Someday I'd like to see some air-borne enemies, like wizards or horrors. I think your Hell Knight was very cool (especially the way he enters the screen). The spells were very pretty, and the fireball was quite helpful.

Bugs and inconveniences:
When I beat the first level, it just restarted the level, instead of moving onto the next one. I manually visited the other levels.

When I die, I tend to come back to life improperly: I'm invincible, but I might still be able to attack and jump. So, enemies don't attack me and I hop around until I get stuck. :) I think it's because I'm pressing attack? I came back to life properly once (where it reduces lives to 2 and the game continues).

Two of the spells took so long to get started that I was never able to get any effective use them (enemies would attack and break me out of it every time). They were all cool though! When I used the firebeam attack, it drained my mana but killed pretty much every enemy ahead of me up until the deathknight battle. :)

These mods were very, very cool! How DO you find the time? I really hope you'll be continuing them! Save for a few bugs, these are QExpo2005 quality... *hint, hint*
;D
When my computer inevitably explodes and kills me, my cat inherits everything I own. He may be the only one capable of continuing my work.
RenegadeC
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Re: I liked Codename: Envenom and The Ascension Of Vigil!

Post by RenegadeC »

Wazat wrote: Codename: Envenom
This was very cool. My friend Abfinz and I both loved it. I never managed to kill the fiend-like mini-boss (is it invulnerable?), and I was frustrated that I couldn't save my game, but I did manage to kill the final boss (the mech), but only after it killed me several times. ;) I found a bug where I got right up close to the mech (a few player widths away), and its attacks missed me, so I was able to kill it at leisure.
Sadly, I never had time to fully fix the first boss. I agree he's tough as nails but the secret to beating him is to hide till he gives up searching for you, sneak up behind him, nail him with a shotgun blast and then run away and then hide again. Works for me! :) This is how I intend for players to defeat him. Game saving isn't implemented as of yet either, it will obviously be in the full release.
I never got medpacks to work, but I liked the weapons. I suggest putting a ! on the player's head when he's aiming at an enemy, so the player knows even when the enemy is off-screen.
Medpacks are used by holding down the USE button, good suggestion about the ! over Corporal's head; I'll look into adding that feature!
There were almost no situations where the camera was a problem. The only place I can think of is the stairs, where it was really hard to get my ally to follow me, and I couldn't see if he was following or stuck.
The stairs geometry isn't very movetogoal(); friendly, which is why I've allowed soldiers to be able to jump on top of stuff and it seems to help a lot! I'm still obviously perfecting his movement though - especially with elevators as their code for that is incomplete as of now.
The choppiness of the camera, which I assume is Quake's age-old byte-angle problem. I forgot what the command in DP is to smooth angles out by allowing more than 256 values, but you might ask LH (tell me when you find out, I need it too).
Just get the latest DP beta build and it automatically smoothes out camera angles, nxQuake for Dreamcast will also have this feature.
I really liked how he makes comments when he's fighting, or lost, etc! You really did a good job with this mod! I hope you continue to work on it!
That was my voice too. ;) I mainly got this idea from Halo will they verbally react to what's going on around them, works perfectly in Envenom!

The Ascension Of Vigil
Someday I'd like to see some air-borne enemies, like wizards or horrors. I think your Hell Knight was very cool (especially the way he enters the screen). The spells were very pretty, and the fireball was quite helpful.
Air-borne enemies are being added, some will annoy the heck out of you also. Imagine a bat-type creature sitting in the air throwing fireball spells at you till you're able to jump up and kick 'em around! :P
Bugs and inconveniences:
When I beat the first level, it just restarted the level, instead of moving onto the next one. I manually visited the other levels.
Map01 is the only offical finished map as of yet. The rest are works in progress or simply just test map that aren't intended to be the game, mainly AI tests and such.
When I die, I tend to come back to life improperly: I'm invincible, but I might still be able to attack and jump. So, enemies don't attack me and I hop around until I get stuck. :) I think it's because I'm pressing attack? I came back to life properly once (where it reduces lives to 2 and the game continues).
This bug has been fixed in the latest release, I've always had problems with Vigil's death routines for some reason - the code looks perfectly fine but it doesn't act properly in certain circumstances inside the game. I think I've got it fixed finally though.
Two of the spells took so long to get started that I was never able to get any effective use them (enemies would attack and break me out of it every time). They were all cool though! When I used the firebeam attack, it drained my mana but killed pretty much every enemy ahead of me up until the deathknight battle. :)
Some spells have a charge up time which is used to balance them out. Try having the monster noticing you, then backflipping away then casting the spell - works every time.
These mods were very, very cool! How DO you find the time? I really hope you'll be continuing them! Save for a few bugs, these are QExpo2005 quality... *hint, hint*
;D
I don't even know how I get the time, just seems to come to me! :) Quake modding is my #1 hobby also so I suppose that helps.

Thanks for your comments, I'm glad you enjoyed the mods Wazat. Hope to cya in #qc :D
Wazat
Posts: 771
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:50 pm
Location: Middle 'o the desert, USA

Post by Wazat »

Renegade: Would it be OK if I used the models from Envenom, as long as I give proper credit? I could really use that mechanical boss model, for example.
When my computer inevitably explodes and kills me, my cat inherits everything I own. He may be the only one capable of continuing my work.
RenegadeC
Posts: 391
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:19 pm
Location: The freezing hell; Canada
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Post by RenegadeC »

Wazat wrote:Renegade: Would it be OK if I used the models from Envenom, as long as I give proper credit? I could really use that mechanical boss model, for example.
Feel free, Chillo made the models anyways (except for that Robot model, but he reskinned it)
Wazat
Posts: 771
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:50 pm
Location: Middle 'o the desert, USA

Post by Wazat »

Thanks. I'll go by the readme to find out who to give credit to for anything I grab.
When my computer inevitably explodes and kills me, my cat inherits everything I own. He may be the only one capable of continuing my work.
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