Quick Question (on Conquest release)

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Wazat
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Quick Question (on Conquest release)

Post by Wazat »

Should I release the current Conquest version as-is, or should I add some of the features I've been talking about first (descriptions of shields and weapons in shop, etc)?

If I release it as-is, all I can think of that's changed is some new weapons and weapon MODs, and a few new shields. And you go to the town between maps (but you can't choose which map to go to next yet).
Last edited by Wazat on Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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.
Wazat
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Post by Wazat »

I correct myself. More has changed than that:

I've added an ammo system, so you can now pick up ammo for your guns instead of having to go to a shop all the time.

Created several new monsters with some vicious attacks that will make you invest in the right kinds of armor. For example, one type of Hell Knight has an electric attack that acts like a railgun, so you definitely want to invest in armor that's good against heavy hits!
They also have shield setups that will strongly encourage you to come prepared with weapons that can break through efficiently (for example, don't shoot Ogres with nails, instead use rockets; don't blast light knights with electricity, use solid attacks).

Added new weapons and mods:
Omega Machinegun
Attractor (attracts projectiles to it, so you can make all your bullets home in on an enemy, or shoot a wall to redirect bullets away from yourself)
Plasma Arc (and renamed the current Plasma Arc to Plasma Storm, which is now its mod)
The Li'l Ripper's melee attack can pierce shield layers, making it really useful if you can get in close enough
Created a poor faximile of the Town; you will visit it between maps, but you still can't select which map to play (it's linear right now).
Changed shop item prices and the amount of money you get from killing monsters
Added mods to the Crossbow for Fire, Poison, and Piercing arrows. Also gave the crossbow an alt-fire that lets you charge up to 3 arrows to fire at once.
Added two new rocket mods: Heavy Rockets and Guided Rockets (laser-guided, think Half-Life)

Added two new shields to the shop: Plate Shield and Strength Shield

Plate shielding will block 100% of the damage that hits it. Each hit reduces its count by 1, and when its count reaches 0 it goes offline. It also has a slight duration, so if a cluster hits it (like a Flak Cannon) it only loses 1 count. Buying a better type of Plate Shielding provides a better maximum count and a shorter recharge time. It comes in Green, Yellow and Red flavors.

Strength Shield will block 100% damage when it is at 100% health, 80% damage at 80% health, 30% at 30 health, and so on. It takes a certain percent of damage based on what type it is (Red, Yellow or Green). It's really good at first, but as it takes damage it starts getting worthless.

----

So, is that enough for a release?
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Entar
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Post by Entar »

Wow that's quite a list :D

I wouldn't mind if you did it either way - on one hand, you have some good features now, or on the other, you have more features later... :shock:
Tei
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Post by Tei »

Wazat wrote: Created several new monsters with some vicious attacks that will make you invest in the right kinds of armor. For example, one type of Hell Knight has an electric attack that acts like a railgun, so you definitely want to invest in armor that's good against heavy hits!
They also have shield setups that will strongly encourage you to come prepared with weapons that can break through efficiently (for example, don't shoot Ogres with nails, instead use rockets; don't blast light knights with electricity, use solid attacks).
Nice.

You can have volcan caves with vicious dragon childrens (draconians).
Wazat
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Post by Wazat »

Tei: Is there a good model for that?

Entar: I'll think about whether or not to add some more stuff before the release. Maybe I'll just add more of the shields and release it so you guys can try some of the stuff out.
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.
scar3crow
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Post by scar3crow »

The Attractor sounds fucking awesome
as does the increased use of certain weapons against specific enemies, i love that
Wazat
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Post by Wazat »

The attractor is fun; you can even shoot a monster with it and his own bullets will come flying back to hit him... :D

I'll polish up the mod for a release soon.
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.
scar3crow
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Post by scar3crow »

that is something that could easily be overpowered, but oh so fun....

actually, it could lead to some AWESOME puzzle situations...

sticking an attractor to a shootable button, say one with a TON of health, and you have very little ammunition... and then luring a powerful enemy with a missile attack into the area, and goading him into a ranged attack on you, which sends the nuclear missile it keeps as a sidearm flying towards the attractor, triggering the button

or another situation where you need to quickly shoot 2 buttons before they reset (else neither of them completes and you cant progress) so once more...

or you could do something along the lines of tagging a powerful melee enemy with attractors and luring him into an area with ranged enemies.

speaking of which... that could be a way to kill Shub... if he had an accurate enough bounding box you could actually kinda "scale up" him, and move about (all the while avoiding his aggressively maneuvering tentacles) placing attractors on him, as he summons minions to kill you... survive the massive amount of minions while drawing their fire in the direction of the attractors, hoping you have them placed on "vulnerable" spots.

damn... i shouldve learned qc and entered the boss speedmod =)

question: how does an attractor effect a projectile that is not merely flung by a force (zombie gibs, rockets, grenades etc) but controlled by magic/individual will such as the vore ball ?

and how do they affect hitscan weapons ? cause that would visually be VERY mundane to see.
Wazat
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Post by Wazat »

Thanks for the comments!

The attractor actually can't much dent the path of bullets that are moving very fast. If you fire enough of them in one place, their combined force would divert even a fast-moving rocket away from you, but it's unlikely you'll be able to divert tons of rockets toward a target with much accuracy. Some rockets will hit, but those going perpendicular will just curve their path and then keep going. I don't even bother to affect hitscan attacks (shotgun, etc). It would be too difficult to get it working, and it would be rather bland to see.

The attractor mostly works on things like the candent rifle, enemy electric bullets, pulse rifle, slow-moving rockets and nails, grenades, zombie gibs, etc. It's actually awesome with the candent rifle because you can shoot from behind a corner and it curves all the way around to hit the enemy. It's also a good way to get monsters to fight each other, since all their bullets are being drawn in on one target monster, who's not going to appreciate getting shot at. :)

I've also noticed something funny with the flak cannon. If you stick an attractor or two on an enemy and fire the flak cannon at it from a distance, the bullets will spread out like normal, and then come curving back into a tight cluster so they all hit. :)

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), it isn't able to have much effect on homing missiles and vore spikes. It might alter their paths a little bit, but for the most part they seem to fly right past.

The attractor is in serious danger of being over-powered, but it doesn't have a lot of ammo, and it can't affect all weapons, so I should be able to fit it in relatively well.

Thanks for the comments!
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.
scar3crow
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Post by scar3crow »

heh, the flak cannon affect sounds cool... made me think

Come together
Right now
Gib a grunt
*cue McCartney bassline*

Id say it works well enough just having it "tug" on the voreball some... though I think itd be neat where if a voreball passes into the range of an attractor, then it loses its homing ability and merely goes in the direction it was last heading.

Another idea would be similar to an attractor, but more of a distractor. It fires silently, and where ever it impacts, local monsters will think that is where the player is currently at... I think itd be neat, but I dont know how well itd work in normal Quake... simply due to the fact that they dont really "hunt" for players... theyd head in that direction and then just pick random angles... so... itd get their backs turned to you maybe for a whole 8 seconds... though in sneaking by terms that could make a lifetime for you.

All this really makes me wanna just buckle down and gut the ai code and redo it...
scar3crow
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Post by scar3crow »

I hate you Wazat

I had a dream about the attractor

Inconveniently I was facing 3 shamblers, 20 dogs, and 8 vores
which the attractor is useless against

I was running down a modified difficulty setting hallway, towards Hard, and so it made it "hard" by spawning that in... along with giant swinging brushes along the winding stairway to the slipgate

Get out of my head!
Wazat
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Post by Wazat »

lol!

If it makes you feel better, you also have 4 other weapon slots. Remeber you brought your rocketlauncher and sniper rifle! I hope that makes your dreams better. :)

(that's so funny that you had a dream like that. I never remember my dreams so I never know)
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Urre
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Post by Urre »

The Attractor sounds brilliant!

For the longest time I've been wanting to make some form of game in which you don't have any harmful weapons, only weird tools, and having to lure your immensly powerful opponents into traps and whatnot. The Attractor and Airfist (featured in Painkeep) are perfect tools for this kind of game.

I don't mind if someone else goes to make this game, I'd love to play it ;)

A puzzle game with serious action elements :)
I was once a Quake modder
Wazat
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Post by Wazat »

That would actually be pretty cool. Airfist, attractor, maybe some weapon that makes a shield that absorbs damage and then fires bursts to hit enemies or switches.

Another idea would be a teleporter weapon that switches places with an enemy in front of you (I had this in Wazat mod). You could get across gaps with such a weapon.

Ratchet and Clank 1, 2 and 3 had a lot of stuff like this. It'd be cool to make a mod where you had no real weapons, just tools as you said.

---

Oh, by the way, it turns out that the attractor CAN pull in really fast projectiles. The attractor bullets will attract other attractor bullets, so once you've hit a monster with one, you can fire out one or two more and they'll be pulled into the same spot or monster. They all pull together, and by the time you have 2-3 attractors on one enemy, even rockets will fly into him with unerring accuracy. >:D
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Entar
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Post by Entar »

Urre wrote:For the longest time I've been wanting to make some form of game in which you don't have any harmful weapons, only weird tools, and having to lure your immensly powerful opponents into traps and whatnot. The Attractor and Airfist (featured in Painkeep) are perfect tools for this kind of game.

I don't mind if someone else goes to make this game, I'd love to play it ;)
Actually, that's almost exactly like the FPS game I'm making with the Q1 engine. There will be some weapons though, but they'll mostly be for triggering stuff that kills an enemy, or allows you to advance.

Rough Example (off the top of my head):

You have to get across a large chasm, but the only visible means of getting across is a bridge, which is swarming with enemies. So you put a small explosive under the roots of a tree, and it falls over and makes a bridge for you :D

Perhaps you'd like to be an idea man for me?
Urre wrote: A puzzle game with serious action elements :)
Exactly.
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