(WIP) The Great War: 1916 [Files Released- Scavenge Away!]

[Dr. Crushcup]

Hmmm, I'm afraid not. Do you think the order in which I listed the skins in MODELDEF might have anything to do with this conundrum?

[LilWhiteMouse]

I couldn't say. I didn't have any luck getting a model into GZDoom so I gave up.

[Dr. Crushcup]

Ah. This is quite a pain. I wouldn't assume skin list order would make a difference, as I got the updated Mk IV to work correctly instantly.


Quick update: I now have the soldiers running for their goals at random, and now I'm working on fully implementing the ironsights for the G98 (hopefully without breaking the gun this time.) Stay tuned.

G98's almost entirely done.

[Dr. Crushcup]

Bump for a crucial question: Would you guys like to see a slow-regenerating health system? I'm imagining something like in the wonderful mod 'Hideous Destructor', where when you aren't in-combat, say, waiting in a trench, your health slowly regenerates (the logic being that you aren't exerting yourself, so your body heals a bit as you psychologically recuperate). Also in the nature of the mod, I plan to make the game's health system not relay your health level in numbers, but in the physical appearance of the 'MugShot' (if the mugshot can be replaced in SBARINFO by anything but a small square graphic).
This is only an idea at the moment, but I was thinking that the player won't have a health count, per se, but as he takes damage he gets a translucent red 'blood' effect around the screen that gets darker and darker with each hit he takes (and honestly, you usually die in one to three hits, though shrapnel from artillery shells can slowly shave off health before you even reach the main combat area.)

Would you like this system, or a system more akin to games like Battlefield '42, where you have to hunt down a medical locker every time you take damage?

[Big C]

Slowly regenerating health. I imagine it'd get difficult to scramble for health every time you got hurt, which in WW1 trenches would probably be often.

Either that or if you don't have health regen, allow the player to carry a limited number of healing items with them.

[Dr. Crushcup]

Alright, good call, I was leaning the same way, I'm just worried about incorporating a feature that people might find 'unfair' (though if health regenerates slow enough, it can hardly be considered unfair.)

I'll also consider adding in health items as a 'quick fix', in case you're so badly hurt that another shrap wound would end you and you're in the middle of a heavy barrage. You probably won't have them at map start, though; I think I'll make it so that if you want them, you have to go get them from the supply depot in the rear lines.

[Big C]

On another note, your project makes me think of this:

http://www.bay12games.com/ww1medic/

[Dr. Crushcup]

Aww, yeah! I love that game. At one point, I remember dying for the millionth time and just giving up and watching the combat play out for a while. I was amazed at how scarred the battlefield became.

[LilWhiteMouse]

How about adding a medic? When your health drops below a certain %, he'll deploy from an aid station and seek you out. Assuming you both survive long enough, he'll patch you up when he reaches you.

[Dr. Crushcup]

Damn, that's a brilliant idea! I have an aid station on each side right now, actually, but somehow that idea never occurred to me. How would I make him deliberately look for me, though? Thing_Goal only works with path nodes, doesn't it? Thing_Hate certainly isn't the right one, either...

EDIT: Actually, that gives me the idea to make the wound state have a chance of making the men drop and wail for help, and to have several medics on each side that go and attend to all of these fallen men. Seems like that would complicate it further, though.

[bwc153]

Well, I had this primitive idea for medics, but the problem is that with it unless someone knew how to prevent it, it would allow medics to resurrect enemy soldiers and turn them friendly, and vice versa...

Basically all it was is that medics act like Arch-Viles (of course having no attack), and when a soldier is killed his body is unresurrectable, but there is a 1/4 or 1/5 chance of his body being replaced with a resurrectable corpse.

BTW, a funny thing about this mod's timing, about a month or 2 ago I Was thinking how cool it would be if someone made some sort of modern (or older) faction for Zdoom Wars, I decided maybe WW1 would be the best. I had the beginnings of a faction tree (for 2 factions) layed out, but considering I did not know how to do anything with ACS scripting, sprite making, decorate, and all the important things to modding (well, except mapping, but I'm still a noob), so I never did anything with it.

[Dr. Crushcup]

Man... Well, I figure if I implement some clever use of ACS' functions, I might be able to make a hacky way of a non-death resurrection system; You see, as it stands, soldiers who get shot but not killed usually go to a wound state, and in that wound state, they have a slight chance of falling and becoming immobile, which would activate their notarget flag (unless the medics would need this flag to remain off... hmmm...), or, if they can still manage to walk, their pathing script will tell them to return to the aid station, as well as setting their Frightened flag (maybe- I don't know how the frightened behavior would affect goal chasing.)

Either way, I think I'm gonna sleep on this one and see if I can't find a better way to go about it.

And I like the idea for the ZDWars factions. They would add yet another element to the game, that's for sure.

[LilWhiteMouse]

Thing_Goal only works with path nodes, doesn't it?

For an unreleased project I had a character follow the player by keeping the path node at the players location.

[Dr. Crushcup]

Aha! Well, that about solves it; next stop, medic station.

...Well, after I fix my damn rifle again. Now it won't fire while in the sight state. Thing is, I haven't touched the code since last night, and it was working perfectly then.

Edit: Nevermind, I got this. Backup saves the day again.

Update: I've now added muzzle climb. When you fire, your gun no longer stays on target (still working out how to set rifle accuracy based on player movement speed, though; with that, if you're moving, you'll be more inaccurate than you would be while standing still.)

[Dr. Crushcup]

Question: How many of you would like to see the more obscure, more varied Ottoman Empire battles, such as Gallipoli? If so, I'll need someone to contribute some Turkish soldier sprites or models to make sprites from, as I have none whatsoever (currently working on nabbing sprites of Germans and British Western Front soldiers at the moment, though.)

I'm finishing up the first map, and plan to begin another soon (possibly a German Spring 1917 Offensive map, where the British start with a bunch of control points and the Germans must try to take the points from the British, trench by trench.)