Quake MOD - In The Shadows

[ceriux]

i voted for you =D

[Chip]

I also voted, tweeted and shared on Facebook. Good luck!

[Nahuel]

you have my vote

[sock]

Finally after months of testing, tweaking and huge amounts of coding, drawing and level design I present version 1 of my MOD 'In the Shadows' which features three maps, two game play modes (vanilla/stealth) and a readme file packed full of hints (for daz)

This is not the final release, I do have plans for other maps, but I want to get feedback on what I have created so far and there is a lot of new toys to play with. The MOD is designed to only work with Fitz and Mark V engines because these are the only two I did testing with.

Please take the time to record some demo's with Fitz because this will be the perfect way for me to understand how you played the maps. If there any problems or things you think should be different, please let me know.

Download Link (13.2mb)
Web Page Readme Moddb

Recommended Engines:
Fitz0.85 Mark V

Video's on youtube
Stealth Combat Stealth Mechanics

Screenshots (1024x768)

[mankrip]

Voted!

[scar3crow]

I look forward to giving this a go.
Newsed, along with an encouragement to vote for it!

[sock]

Newsed, along with an encouragement to vote for it!

Thanks, the more votes the merrier! Also some regions don't need to login to vote, not sure why. It certainly will be cool to get a Quake 1 mod into the top 100!

[ceriux]

so in this release is the crossbow thing not included?

[sock]

so in this release is the crossbow thing not included?

The player gets the crossbow during the shadow training (shadow vault) or when they picking up the amulet at the beginning of the maps. The crossbow does not appear in the vanilla gameplay mode because it is designed for stealth. If you have not discovered the crossbow then you need to find the training area (under the large temple room on the start map) Open the shadow vault and get the Amulet. The button to open the shadow vault is hidden unfortunately, so you will have to do some hunting around in the area directly infront of the vault portcullis.

[sock]

** spoiler alert**
If you intend to play the stealth mode of this MOD and want to discover routes for yourself, then avoid watching this video link.
Here is an example of the Avoidance Stealth gameplay on the map 'Stealth Gate'. I don't show everything, but trust me it possible to complete this map without a single kill.

Stealth Avoidance (Youtube Video)

[r00k]

I noticed something small but might be worth checking. I was playing the game thru using chase_active 1, i got 1 ring of shadows and then found another before the 1st ring ran out. Then I went down to the pit of bones and heard the ring run out but my player model stayed as "eyes". So, im not sure if it was because I took two rings or if your not resetting the modelindex_player, or calling player_run(); after the invisible time runs out?

[rebb]

Truely impressive work, and just in time before the world ends too

[sock]

Daz from custom gamer (youtube channel) has posted a couple of video review/playthrough's of the MOD. If you cannot play the mod then these video's should give you a good impression of what it is about, plus they are short enough to watched during a lunch break!

Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcoMu-w1dvE
Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG77nf9QumQ
Part 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RGbxniJz_g

@r00k, I will check the code for the player model problem. I suspect it is something I did with the weapon cycle code. Thanks for the feedback.

[sock]

I am planning to do a new version (in the next couple of weeks) and I have not seen much feedback on this forum. Has anyone played the MOD? Recorded any demos? Found any problems? Got Any feedback?

I know this is primarily a programming forum but I assumed a lot more people would be interested because I re-wrote the AI QC files. This is not a vanilla quake mod, the AI will avoid obstacles, path to the player, trigger different events and even switch combat states based on the environment. I am not saying the AI are super smart but they are certainly not dumb either and I am always looking for feedback on ways to improve them or spot any bugs.

Someone over at func_msgboard asked me the following and I have reposted here because I think you might be interested.

I thought you'd used frik waypoints for the AI, but there's no .way files

I wrote my own version in QC and if you turn on 'dev mode' and restart any of the maps you will see a bunch of rotating cubes everywhere with letters on them.

* There are 4 basic types of node as follows:
* Regular nodes can only have two routes, forward and back. They usually connect rooms together and allow AI to follow a path.
* Switch nodes are like regular nodes except they offer a third route which the AI can switch too. Useful for doors or alternative paths.
* Orphan nodes are used to feed AI back into the node network and are often positioned in dead ends or sections where the AI needs to escape from but not enter. (like water/slime sections)
* Idle nodes are only used after combat for locations where the AI will hang out and make sure the player is still not lurking around. They are useful for thinning out the crowd if a lot of AI are trying to return to what they were doing before.

Most nodes types can have additional functions assigned to them which can be enabled/disabled by other trigger events.

* Disabled, the AI will ignore this route (Generally should be on switches so they can easily ignore the third route) They appear as brown nodes visually.
* Jump, a destination location for a monster to jump at, only works if another node has a target pointing at it. (has a blue marker above the node)
* Range, lets the AI know this is a good location for range attacks and will use this based on skill level percentages. A good thing for AI on ledges because it stops them running around in circles trapped. (has a blue marker above the node)
* Blind, will not do any sight checks while traveling to next node, useful for auto opening doors and other triggers. (the node skin is blue when active)
* Flowreset, makes the AI check if it is going in the right direction by re-checking which routes are the best way to go. (the node skin is pink)
* Volumes, will make yes/no decisions based on XYZ volumes if they should go a certain direction. Useful for fine tuning the node network and making sure AI get to the player faster by ignoring large parts of the map. (has a white marker above the node)

You can see how the nodes are linked together by switching on 'notarget' and touching each node. It will change the skin of all attached nodes around it and draw a letter showing its relationship.

An example screenshot showing the node network ingame (more screenshots below as URL links)


s1m2 Nodes
s1m1 Nodes
s1m1 Nodes Editor

[ceriux]

i didnt really encounter any bugs when playing, id say that even though the maps are really nice they were kinda hard to navigate. i saw in a video the arrows point to the current objective or something. maybe in the beggining of the map you could have a centerprint and some pointing out the initial routes. that way people are aware that they're actually doing this.