Re: (wip) Ashes 2063 TC - THREAD EVACUATION

[Korell]

I just finished it. Wow, it's awesome. I didn't experience any gameplay bugs, and whilst I did get stuck at a couple of points I did eventually work out where I was meant to go, so that's all fine. The final boss was rather tough. I only played on the Normal difficulty, but sometimes he used his alternative attack that pretty much one-shot killed me, so it took me a few attempts (and about 6 medipacks ) to finally kill him. I didn't really feel that there was much of a need to use the traders. In fact, I think I only used one trader in order to get the sniper rifle. On harder difficulties I imagine I'd have bought some ammo, too, but on Normal the ammo situation seemed about right as I wasn't running out but I did have to switch guns now and then to best manage it.

I did spot two typos, though. The one was a use of "too" instead of "to", which I think was Moose as Zan mentioned above, and the other was a map name with the word "Controll" instead of "Control".

Loved seeing some easter eggs in there.

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Snake, The Walking Dead, Lost (the numbers?) and even a mash-up of games consoles as I saw a box that appeared to have a NES on it, with the Xbox logo at the top and (Play)Station underneath it.

[Captain J]

I did spot two typos, though. The one was a use of "too" instead of "to", which I think was Moose as Zan mentioned above, and the other was a map name with the word "Controll" instead of "Control".

Is that a Typo? I thought it was intended. Like, in Pun-sy way.

[Dr_Cosmobyte]

Found the two posters in stage 09. Man, i can't thank you enough for the kindness. I feel very happy for it!

I am at the end of stage 07, so by tomorrow i'll give some detailed feedback (Wife Radio is calling), but so far i can tell one thing: This deserves a shiny golden Cacoaward.

[camper]

Magnificent atmospheric modification. But.
On map03 NPCs with knives can not be killed, is it so conceived?

[Vostyok]

Magnificent atmospheric modification. But.
On map03 NPCs with knives can not be killed, is it so conceived?

I'm pretty sure I left a message about this in the README file. Civilians lack death animations. So they can't be killed.

It's an oversight on my part, but it's something I want to work on later. Just didn't have time.

[Korell]

Just thinking back over my playthrough yesterday and the only criticism I have is around the story at the end of the episode, as it seems to be a little unclear. It may be intentional, though, if later episodes are planned. I'll post it in a spoiler below as obviously it contains spoilers.

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At the end of the game you make your way to the Athena AI. She tells you about a General who visited her three years previously and that he deleted some information from her systems before disappearing. I can only think that he did this because he found out something bad about Athena. Maybe Athena caused the war (which might tie up with the looping system shutdown due to the game (was it Missile Command?) that was still running). Anyway, Athena asks you to help her by opening up the main entrance (not sure why she wants this, I was expecting you to have to reconnect her network). So you go to final room and open the door but it doesn't seem to be an entrance and instead it releases the final boss into the room you are in. Why would Athena want this? And why does the building then collapse after you beat the boss? Also, in that final room is a dead body with a dropped pistol and a warning message written in blood on the wall. Is this the General?

But yes, other than this one aspect of the plot which seems a little unclear, it is a fantastic mod, and I hope that more episodes do get released in due course.

[Vostyok]

I'll send you a PM, buddy. A lot of it is for later, but yeah, a lot is supposed to be inferred rather than spelt out.

[Mr.Enchanter]

I've been waiting a while for this, as I know many others have, it's a wonderful thing you've done here, the enemies are convincing, the settings also convincing. You've built quite a nice little post-apoc world for many tales and adventures.

[PRIMEVAL]

Magnificent... I loved every single minute of this. That last map was really good, too. Certainly proves that you don't need to cram nothing but Revenants in a map to make it intense, just a mere 2 dozen monsters was enough to keep me on my toes with the perfect atmosphere. However the music was horrible...


Speaking of music, check out the full soundtrack here:


It is also available for purchase in the following link. Edited with proper endings with Ambient and Battle themes combined into their respected tracks-per-map.
https://johnsweekley.bandcamp.com/album ... -episode-1

[RTheM]

Pretty sure I've stumbled over a bug or something in the Sub-Cavern's level.

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The bug is involved with a secret inside an another secret, the switch that triggers the hatch to open... I think. Pressing Use on it doesn't elicit any reaction, not even an 'umph' sound when you try to Use a wall or the like.

https://i.imgur.com/l21iB76.png
Link to an screenshot of the secret in question.

[camper]

Let me know what you think.

IMHO pipebombs should not blow up from the blow upon the enemy, they are exploding from the Bickford cord, not the inertial fuse.

And don't run the 2063maps file with other mods. It's broken.

I did dare to launch the Ashes2063Maps.wad with other mods.
1) Immerse and hellscape-navigator work fine and do not annoy.
2) Armory mod ballistics.wad also does not seem to conflict.
3) Tried also with gd2v0.78.pk3, also works. But when I start gaming only wad, some NPCs on Map03 attack immediately. Therefore, it is impossible to avoid a battle.
4) I also to tried mkivvehicledemoqfix.pk3 to see how I can escape from the attacking helicopter on a motorcycle. And here it did not work.

I'm hoping to replace most or all of the original rips with original content, but it's slow going.

Did you see the resources of the games AssaultCube or Sauerbraten? They have many different textures. Or did you watch and they all do not fit the style of the game?

[Zan]

Alright, finished it. As I said it's an amazing work, great level design and aspect in general, music is awesome and gives it a lot of personality, story is simple yet captivating, albeit the game ends in a bit of uncertainty (already waiting for the next chapter ;p ).

Regarding issues so far, I've found a spot where the player can get stuck:
https://postimg.cc/0MNbNnxy

Also a misaligned texture here (one of the barracks from the last level):
https://postimg.cc/fJdkkJ4m

[QuakedoomNukem Cz]

I have gotten stuck behind the toilets in Map 02, I've included a video proof:

[Ma77]

Beat it yesterday. Great mod. I actually was engaged by this story & greatly anticipating what will happen next.

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https://i.imgur.com/LjOArOK.png

That looks oddly foreshadowing

[Vostyok]

Magnificent... I loved every single minute of this. That last map was really good, too. Certainly proves that you don't need to cram nothing but Revenants in a map to make it intense, just a mere 2 dozen monsters was enough to keep me on my toes with the perfect atmosphere. However the music was horrible...

Lol. Couldn't have done it without you buddy. It's a hell of a lot better than what the Ashes alpha was using (shudder). Dark times indeed.

Thanks for the bug reports guys. I'll be posting the weapons only mod and a mod-friendly maps file soon. Also, an updated V1.01 of the maps once I've ironed out the creases. Add in a few things that were cut as well, so you'll have some fun stuff to find. Got a pretty good idea for that locked door in the dam, and some (currently) useless doors in the subway town. Bwahahaha.

Edit: IMPortant I've put a warning in the downloads section. Zdoomer user TDG has reported issues when the maps file is loaded BEFORE the mod file. Apparently the ACS files don't like to be swapped around, especially if you save your game and reload later with a different order.