Arkista's Ring - Beta Release

[MObreck]

I decided to check your demo out. I've only made a little progress but I'm having fun with it so far. The theme is a nice change of pace from the usual ZDoom style mods and its the open ended style has been interesting so far. So I just thought I'd drop in a leave a compliment since this mod doesn't seem to be grabbing much attention.

[Ferretmanjcdenton]

Yeah ..you released it ... Awesome ..
I gonna upload a video soon ...

[ImpieTwo]

I decided to check your demo out. I've only made a little progress but I'm having fun with it so far. The theme is a nice change of pace from the usual ZDoom style mods and its the open ended style has been interesting so far. So I just thought I'd drop in a leave a compliment since this mod doesn't seem to be grabbing much attention.

Thanks MO! Appreciate it. This one's become one of my favorites, so it's nice to see people enjoying it despite being a black sheep gameplay-wise.

[twelvenipon]

I like to see HYBRID (PSX) weapons back in action, i try long time ago to use this sprites and i suggest to scale weapons up to make guns bigger cuz its look small

[MObreck]

Finished it. It was a fun little exploration based FPS game. I'd enjoy seeing other projects with a theme like this. I also like how much usage you got out of the 3D floor effect.

I did encounter one bug:

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You can fall and get stuck between the platform that raises to give you access to Arkista's Ring and the wall behind it. I had to use the no clip cheat code to escape. You might make the gap between the two a bit narrower, or make it were you can activate the lift platform from the back side.

Also if you like I could probably set up the stage respawn scripts to be affect by the difficultly level and PM you the modified wad (lower difficultly = longer times before more enemies spawn in)

[ImpieTwo]

Finished it. It was a fun little exploration based FPS game. I'd enjoy seeing other projects with a theme like this. I also like how much usage you got out of the 3D floor effect.

Thanks! I wouldn't mind doing a follow-up at some point. The map design was a lot of fun.

[MObreck]

Well if you decide to do that or a similar project let me know. I can program in ZScript. I could also give it a unique set of enemies, so long as you don't mind pre-rendered models converted to sprites.

A couple of examples of my experiments, taking 3D models from the Unity asset store then remastering them into DOOM/Duke3D format sprites (Converting their skin textures to a 256 style palette then mocapping their animations into sprites):



I've been wanting to make a small scale TC for GZDoom and have a fair number of talents. Map making and story telling are not among them though, so I've been looking for someone to collaborate with.

[ImpieTwo]

Updated to fix an ammo drop bug with the shadow crawlers. They dropped WAY too much ammo...

[Ferretmanjcdenton]

Here like promised ..

An short video

https://youtu.be/9MIip3c5LzA

[Ariasio]

Hope replying after two months from the last post isn't considered necro around here.

I gave the mod a shot and played it for a couple of hours. I'm probably nowhere near finishing it, but even after playing for a couple of hours I think I can already share my initial impressions and constructive criticism of what I've seen so far.

First off, I have to say I'm absolutely in love with the visual style of the game. This kind of strange, sci-fantasy aestethic is something you see very rarely, so it's definitely a breath of fresh air. I really like the protagonist too. You managed to give her a lot of charm and personality with very few voice lines, which is a really commendable achievement. Her kinda airheaded attitude really grew on me (I genuinely chuckled at the "Oooh!" when she picked up the cape on the first map).

The guns feel great as well. None of them feel too weak or useless; there's a purpose and equal amounts of opportunities to use each one. My personal favourite are the pistols after you pick up the second one. They basically turn into a machine gun at that point.

What I also really enjoy about the mod is the fact it's a metroidvania. You don't see many 3D metroidvanias in general, let alone first person ones, so it's really great to see another addition to this genre.

Sadly, that's about where the pros end. Gameplay-wise I enjoyed it at first, but as I went on, the game was becoming more and more tedious. Constantly respawning enemies with attacks that can reach you pretty much from across the entire map, the amounts you have to fight at once that could rival Serious Sam's encounters, and constant lack of direction as to where to go. The last one was especially what turned me off from this mod. I kept just blindly going in random directions, hoping the one I picked would be the right way that leads me to progress. Sometimes it worked, more often it didn't and would chuck me out to a location I've already been to, leaving me with just as much clue as to where to go next. Doesn't help that all keys look the same, yet they somehow only fit certain locks and those locks only. I have one stone mask and 2 triangle things in my inventory, yet none of them fit into any of the two triangular indentations at the harbor, or into the slot for the mask at the entrance to the glacier, which are the only locks left unopened that I know of, so I'm officially lost, confused, and not motivated at all to play this mod any further.

I don't know if that mod simply isn't for me, or maybe it just needs a lot of polish in order to become enjoyable, but one thing is certain - I didn't have a good time with this mod, and it kinda makes me bummed out cause I really wanted to enjoy it. Take that as you will.

[ImpieTwo]

I have one stone mask and 2 triangle things in my inventory, yet none of them fit into any of the two triangular indentations at the harbor, or into the slot for the mask at the entrance to the glacier, which are the only locks left unopened that I know of.

Any Trikey should fit any Trilock, etc. Maybe those locks are a bit finicky somehow, but they should work when you use the keys from the inventory.

I know that some of them do work if you use from the inventory OR the use key if you have the item, and some of them only work if you use from the inventory. No idea why that is, they all look like they're structured the same to me.

[Rachael]

Hope replying after two months from the last post isn't considered necro around here.

No, it's the content of the post that matters.

Your's very much exceeds the quality required to avoid it going off to the Bumps thread.

[Ariasio]

Any Trikey should fit any Trilock, etc. Maybe those locks are a bit finicky somehow, but they should work when you use the keys from the inventory.

I know that some of them do work if you use from the inventory OR the use key if you have the item, and some of them only work if you use from the inventory. No idea why that is, they all look like they're structured the same to me.

I tested that out, and sure enough, it works when you use it from the inventory. Still, that's definitely a bug you should look into fixing, since it's borderline progression-anihillating. Or if you can't/don't know how, at least leave a note somewhere, either in form of a readme file, or on your site's download page for the mod. This will lead to much less confusion from future players.

Right now I'm nearing the end of the game (I'm at the last level) I beat it today, and while I'm glad I could finally make some progress (and so much of it to boot), my complaints still apply. The game feels more like aimless wandering around more than a proper metroidvania. Too many paths are open to you right away, with very little directing the player which causes tedium and frustration cause instead of organic progression, you basically just go through a checklist of locations you haven't been to yet, hoping the next one you go to will be the right one. You have pretty much zero motivation to visit them other than maybe to see what's in them, which is just bad design, plain and simple.

Also, I noticed the glacier seems to be entirely optional. By the time you explore everything besides the glacier thoroughly you have enough masks and triangles to clear out the palace and then proceed to the final two locations without ever visiting the glacier. Basically the only reason to go there is to get the flamethrower. Is that intentional or a design oversight? If the latter, you should definitely put less keys just casually lying around the maps cause there's definitely more of them around than needed. At the final-final level I ended up with one excess triangle and hourglass I didn't know what to do with.

Oh, and do something about those respawning enemies, too. They're really rage-inducing and more often than not feel like cheap shots at the player rather than added challenge, since they tend to respawn either to the side of your position or behind you and kill you in seconds without giving you enough time to even assess the situation, let alone react accordingly.