Dark Prophecy - new screens and info

[SallazarSpellcaster]

Greetings.

A combination of both systems may be the best, in my opinion. Some items, the more powerful ones such as invulnerability stuffs and the like can be one use only, while others with less pronounced effects could drain power.

[ramon.dexter]

Peace to all.

Week came to week, month to month, and I'm starting to feel like I want to share some new goodies I made while slowly enjoying starting spring.

So, whats new:
- I have lowered the total amount of weapons. From 22 weapons, we have now 12 weapons divided into 4 slots/classes. One mace, one crossbow, two types of tech staves, one immolator, 3 spells and three magical staves. And one old oil lantern to illuminate your journey. But I this I'm starting to need somebody who could help me with weapon differentiation. I'm feeling like the weapons are little bit boring.
So anyone who could help me is welcome.

- I have made the first puzzle in Derteon, following design style stated by Raven in hexen. Pretty neat, I think. Do you want to see a playthrough video?
One puzzle has to be done yet. So there will be total of two big puzzles. But nothing too complicated, like combination lock, or like. Only hexen style swicth puzzles. On the other side, I have some ideas how to make interesting puzzles, but I'm pretty lazy right now and the ideas include lots of work (like custom textures for combination locks and stuff around).

- I am stuck on conversations. Like, I'm individual person, and the amount of individual conversations I can create is pretty limited. And in hand with that is my not good knowledge of english (basically meaning that all characters sound the same, written by one person). So I really need help with writing conversations.
For anyone interested, I don't need any special code, I can handle the coding myself. But I need some variety.
So anyone intersted in writing some dialogue lines is greatly welcome, I will credit you and maybe send you some beer (you know, I'm from Pilsen after all)

So, I need help with conversations and weapons variation. So this is anyone with decorate knowledge (OR zcript. I have zero knowledge or zscript), and anyone with good imagination, who could imagine a simple dialogue.

So, now for the screens:

Map03, Derteon. An elder underground city built by the Arvedans. They built superb city, but fled it in fear of Khar the Demon's armies. They sealed the city with powerful spells and traps, and it became an attraction for adventurers and alike.

What do you say? Do you like it?

---

The entrance.


And the welcome staff.


The inhabiated places. Old temples, now bases for various factions. Friendly factions.


Wielder base, player's faction. This guy is frankensprite of zrrion's cyber civilians (head) and translated sprite civilian. Pretty neat, I got around 10 civilian variants and 4 beggar variants.


Also, the trader, in 4 variants.


Some repair stuff. Sorry, not interactive. I'll maybe add some comment messages, and maybe some simple crafting, but nothing else. I don't want to bother players with weapon degradation and stuff like that.


Ans some scenery. My first plan with this map was to make it a lot bigger, with more ground based locations and maybe some quests. But then I dropped the idea - after all, this map is about what is underground and thats the main.


And the journey underground begins here. No scripting involved, just simple invisible 3d floors and ladder texture (basically a bars texture, tilted to the side). I'm finding the scripted ladder little but cumbersome to use - and yet my type of ladder cannot be used for tall ladders - 128 points is the max. So I need to battle that.


And some small crusher. This is a basterd, hard to go through. Even for me, who know the timing. Little bastard. And pretty impossible to return through, so this one is one - way through.


Some lava to heat your frozen toes.


The first puzzle. Includes some switch switching, water basin filling and rusted gear finding. Something like in hexen. I wanted to keep to the roots.


I wanted to have player be able to easily indentify where he is, so this one of four different, yet identical rooms. With some enemy surprises and basic scripting.


Yep, as I said, enemies are here.


"Second Seal: A red horse appears, whose rider is granted a "great sword" to take peace from the earth."


Die, you two-headed abominations!


The player will need to fill the basin in order to reach the gearbox, and find the missing gear. The first puzzle.


And image from completely new map. With deep chasms, lava...


...some jumping...


...and some nice woodland sceneries. This map will be a sort of intermission map with one or two map restricted quests.


What do we got here? A silent forest Pub.


With a good people inside, indeed.


Also, here are some nice sceneries with streams and trees...


...old castles inhabited by monsters...


...and silent little hamlets...


...with nice and peaceful field filled with crops...


...and tidy homes.




Is this the end?


Or not?


One question: why this happens? It happens randomly in random places. The see-through triangle. I think it has something to do with the bsp vuilder, but I'm not sure how to properly avoid this.

[Vostyok]

Freakin' amazed at how much you've made in this short time... as usual

Good idea cutting weapons.

"Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away" - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I would concentrate on making each weapon have a particular role, or effect to be exploited by the player. You've got the full array of technology and magical arts at your disposal - goddamn use them. Poison clouds for area denial, flame waves for groups, charging laser shots, homing attacks for aerial threats - this is just a handful of ideas. Try and make each weapon an example of something you would love to find in an FPS game. Harder than it sounds, I imagine you've realised, but then Doom II managed to make the bare minimum feel like all bases were covered.

PM me if you need more advice.

[ramon.dexter]

I would concentrate on making each weapon have a particular role, or effect to be exploited by the player. You've got the full array of technology and magical arts at your disposal - goddamn use them. Poison clouds for area denial, flame waves for groups, charging laser shots, homing attacks for aerial threats - this is just a handful of ideas. Try and make each weapon an example of something you would love to find in an FPS game. Harder than it sounds, I imagine you've realised, but then Doom II managed to make the bare minimum feel like all bases were covered.

yeah, that's what I wanted to hear. Yeah, nice ideas, I will think about it

[Thimz]

I've tried out your demo and I'm quite impressed at what you've made so far! I've been trying out GZDoom Builder myself for a about a week. I figured out how to import own textures after I digged a bit in the PK3 included. I'm still nowhere near on creating own Weapons and such things, which is something I hope one day to be able to.

Keep up the good work!

[ramon.dexter]

Week came to week and I again have the feeling to show you what I've done.
Also, I want to notice a slight change in this project.

So, for the change: I'm leaving the concept of one big story driven game. I have decided that it means a lot of work for a single person, and I don't want to dump this becuase I'll be tired of it. So, the concept of this project is being changed to a one-map, episodic content. So one map, one story, no transition between maps (not a strict rule, but I want to keep it sane). Also, this concept would allow me to have more variety in game types. And a menu to choose what you want to play with episode picture and stuff is planned - I just need to learn how to make episode(level) selection menu.

Also, with help of fellow Vostyok, I have refined some of my weapons, mainly the spells and the blaster staves. I have made better effects and I think that I made the weapons little bit interesting to use.

Some of the inventory items (mainly powerups like jetpack, nightvision and protective suit) can be activated and de-activated. The jetpack and nightvision draws power (presented by invenotyr items - batteries) with different drain - yeah, jetpack takes a lot of power, while the nightvison takes only a bit. The item's battery drain are using ACS, but I'm thinking about remaking these items in ACS, so I won't need the ACS support. But it works quite well.

So, now for some screens:
The player begins in his house. The computer on the table serves the purpose of informations kiosk, with info about weapons and items, game mechanics, etc.


The town of Willkish. The building in the center is local Wielder outpost, serving as player's base (he will be able to buy ammunition here). Notice the voxel lights, made out of some Quarantine sprites.


Local doctor. Has some nice things. I am actually thinking about adding some 'cybernetic implants' into the game - maybe sort of poermanent powerups. What do you think about it?


Your supreme, local Wielder chief, and the supplier, side-by-side. As always.


Local vendor, with some interesting stuff.


Food and snacks vendor.


Entrygate to town of Willkish.


Some forest parts...


...and some fields parts.


And hidden in the fields of corn (children of the corn? Maybe ? ) is a village of Malitz.


Pretty peaceful place.


Dog and a cat. Does any of you posses a functional animated (I mean walking at least) sprite of a dog? I have a cat, but the dogs are only stationary. Oh, not the MBF one, or wolfenstein one - these dogs have angry face...


Malitz have a good tavern.


A blacksmith, also.


And a city guard post.


The irrigation device.


Tesla tower gizmo, working as a defense against monsters. Voxel model. The MagicaVoxel is sweet, allows me to make wonderful things The arc effects is randomized fastprojectile with limited lifespan. Pretty nice hack, I think.



I have not yet decided what this will actually do. Maybe sort of item spawner.


And some nice overlook on the fields and irrigation pipes.


This is the powerplant. Will be involved as a main quest for this map (and some cultist, monsters and stuff).


Powerplant entrance hall.


And here comes the swamps. I would like to have some advice from you. The swamp environments are pretty hard to make. What would you advice me?




And the weapons with new effects:
The Blaster Staff. Now with new projectile effect.


The upgraded Staff. Only the primary fire...I was not able to cpature the secondary fire


The fireblast spell replaced the stock Hexen hands of fire.


And the lightning strike spell. Primary fire launches homing electric ball,


The secondary effects fires mayhem of lightnings in front of player, but with pretty limited range (around 192 units, hard to measure).


And crossbow with two types of arrows, switched by altfire button.



And that's all for today, folks!

[MrDowntempo]

I'm really excited to see how this develops!

[Vostyok]

Looking really polished now. Really happy to see perihelion sprites getting more love haha.

I think you are on to a real winner here. As always, keep in touch if you need any help/advice

[Blue Shadow]

So, now for some screens:

Could you shrink the screenshots down or link to them instead?

[Bael]

Does it have an inventory system in which you can equip different armors?

[PRIMEVAL]

So... this is basically just an 80's power metal album cover come to life. I love it. Keep it up! I'll be playing the demo soon.

Also, if you need help with music, I'm more than happy to assist.

[ramon.dexter]

Hi guys, sorry to say, but this project is dead.
No backstory, no real concept. Just a bunch of maps and ideas, basically an excercise.
I've already cannibalized most of the resources.