(wip) Ashes 2063 TC - Back to Work

[Vostyok]

Wow, thank you for your kind words! It really makes this all worth it when you guys give such positive feedback.

You'll happy to know that pretty much all of your points of improvement are being added into episode 2. I'm spending quite a bit of time specifically working on some new ranged enemies, as well as a new way of using the solar lantern. Returning to town is also an option, as the maps are being set up in a hub structure similar to Hexen or Strife.

Some weapons and enemies are getting new mechanics as well, the sawed off shotgun and machine pistol for example are receiving new altfires for added usefulness, and the town's are receiving new things you can spend your junk on.

Lastly, I am honoured you joined just to comment. Christmas has been pretty busy for me, kinda like an actual enforced vacation, but I'm busy working away and will hopefully be posting some news by mid February.

[Gideon020]

Will there be any new kit-bashed weapons in the future?

[Vostyok]

Will there be any new kit-bashed weapons in the future?

Yes and yes.

A couple of new weapons are coming in the next release. One is a pre-war military rifle, as previously requested by pretty much everyone
The other is a bit more... Jury-rigged. I'm not giving anything away about it yet, since I'm still thinking of which of the two designs I'm settling on. To get it, you'll need to find specific junk items and build it yourself. But whichever version I decide on, it will be a godsend for those big mutant hordes you ran into before...

Oh, plus there will be workbenches and purchaseable attachments. So there is that as well.

[RSSwizard]

Just Beat ashes last night and I wanna say DAMN that was fun. I was worried I was going to have to drag that motorcycle everywhere.
Underground Tunnels were EPIC KINO (I wanna replay it now)
Radiated City jumping between ledges was EPIC KINO

I also enjoyed the final boss and the way the .50cal machinegun was actually able to deplete cover. It was a challenging fight, though I think you need to reduce the generals' painchance against shotguns so it only stuns him as much as the master blaster. It was too easy to stun him and interrupt his attacks using the shotgun.

One change id like to suggest is making the Machine Pistol use a different kind of ammunition than the glock Pistol. Kinda like the Pistol uses 9mm but the Machine Pistol uses .380acp. Until I noticed the ammo for the Machine Pistol had the same amount as the glock Pistol I had been assuming that they didnt share ammo and I should use the MP wisely when backed into a corner.
(this idea comes from experience playing Silent Hill 3 and Resident Evil 2. In Silent Hill 3 you get the pistol early on and later in brookhaven you get the Uzi, but they do not use the same ammunition and the only ammo pickups for the Uzi are uzi clips with 32 rounds each, they are kinda rare and you're supposed to use it on the final boss or when you're in real trouble. In Resident Evil 2 the Uzi didn't even have its own ammo, it just came with a percentage rating because its assumed the 2 Slots it takes up are the weapon and its pile of clips)
(having had experience with that, and because this is a harsh survival game, I figured it was to be expected that the Machine Pistol is a rare ammo weapon for emergency uses)

It wouldn't be much work to do it
Take the current bulk pistol ammo pickup and change its ammo type to ".32caliber" or ".380acp" or whatever you want to name it internally.
Give it a sprite like a couple of Uzi magazines.
This makes all bulk pistol ammo pickups now provide ammo for the machine pistol only.
...Now make a new bulk pistol ammo item using its existing sprite that provides glock pistol ammo, and go through the first ~couple maps or so and replace all of the (now MP clips pickups) with the new bulk pistol ammo item so that the player doesnt end up grabbing a bunch of MP ammo too early.

(the "ashes weapons in other games" aspect of the mod can be left unchanged for compatability with other mods and doom maps, this tweak is just for ashes itself)

Generally by the last ~2 levels thugs are going to give you enough glock Pistol ammo to make it usable. Here and there in the later maps you could replace one of the MP ammo pickups with a glock pistol bulk ammo pickup if you wanted that weapon to remain topped off, IMO its only necessary for flavor and consistency not necessarily balance.

Light Pistol is obsolete at that point because its more effective to blow through all 6 of the revolver, then switch to the shotgun. Both guns have 70+ reserve ammo and there are alot of Shotgun Shell Box pickups too so there's no worries dumping it.

Compared to Doom weapon balance I guess its like saying the doom pistol becomes obsolete, but in ashes when it comes to ammo availability by that point you should have more than enough, and the melee options are quite effective and impressive. And there are enough Hard enemies in the maps (ahem, ghosts) that there's nothing bad about skipping enemies and simply avoiding them, in some cases like the Underground Tunnels you will miss enemies regardless because of dropping off a ledge you cant climb back up.

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graphical effect suggestion:
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The "ghosts" or whatever the hell they are shoot those purple psionic orbs.
But the way the orbs are drawn with the tail behind them is abit clunky because there's little variation in it.
The suggestion I have for it is to make it kinda like the Vore Firepods from Quake where the trail is a bunch of little purple sparkles.

Make the trail spawnitem be TNT1A invisible, and for 1 tic all it does is spawn like 3-7 particle objects in a random distribution (x and y).
Each of those objects is just a small sprite with the same colors as the orb.
And during each frame of their decay (4-7 tics long maybe) you can do something like A_SETSCALE(scalex-0.05,scaley-0.05), and A_FADEOUT(0.15)
to make them get smaller and wink out while also fading too.

If you're using native doom assets you could do a TRANSLATE on them to change the colors to match the Orb. The best candidates I think are either the final frame of the Plasma Ball impacts (which is a bright round ball about 7px wide), PUFFA0, or one of the small teleporter twinkles at the end of the teleporter fog animation.
Otherwise you could even repurpose one of the new Bullet Puff frames and shrink it down alot while applying a TRANSLATE.
Or even take the psionic orb sprite itself and shift its scale way down.

[XLightningStormL]

Finally decided to get the patch, and FAL.

Battle Rifle is good stuff, obviously it need's to be balanced more, for it's performance (perfect btw), and the fact that the Machine Pistol is a thing, would be wise to give it a pretty smallish ammo cap, a-la HL2 (20 mag + 60-120 in reserve at most)

[Vostyok]

Just Beat ashes last night and I wanna say DAMN that was fun. I was worried I was going to have to drag that motorcycle everywhere.
Underground Tunnels were EPIC KINO (I wanna replay it now)
Radiated City jumping between ledges was EPIC KINO

Glad you enjoyed it. I'll respond to your ideas in the following spoiler:

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I also enjoyed the final boss and the way the .50cal machinegun was actually able to deplete cover. It was a challenging fight, though I think you need to reduce the generals' painchance against shotguns so it only stuns him as much as the master blaster. It was too easy to stun him and interrupt his attacks using the shotgun.

Yes, the mutant boss does need a bit of tweaking. He also fires a bit high, so you can hide behind low objects and avoid his fire too easily, well, unless his little brother throws a bomb over it at you... Also, this wasn't the general

One change id like to suggest is making the Machine Pistol use a different kind of ammunition than the glock Pistol. Kinda like the Pistol uses 9mm but the Machine Pistol uses .380acp. Until I noticed the ammo for the Machine Pistol had the same amount as the glock Pistol I had been assuming that they didnt share ammo and I should use the MP wisely when backed into a corner.

The Glock pistol will probably have less of a place in the next episode, and I have been thinking of omitting it entirely, since it doesn't really have much to make it stand out. I've been working on the mac10 and making it so you can use it in two different 'methods' to increase or decrease rate of fire. Adding another ammo type is one idea, but would end up just filling your inventory with more stuff to worry about. I will leave it in the code however, so that you can use it still if you really want to. And, as you say, Glock pistol becomes obselete as you aquire the machine pistol.

...in some cases like the Underground Tunnels you will miss enemies regardless because of dropping off a ledge you cant climb back up.

I'm going to be making situations like this a lot more rare, so you can still get 100% completion. Dead Man Walking was really good for this, allowing you to return to parts of the level that were previously inaccessible.

The "ghosts" or whatever the hell they are shoot those purple psionic orbs.
But the way the orbs are drawn with the tail behind them is abit clunky because there's little variation in it.
The suggestion I have for it is to make it kinda like the Vore Firepods from Quake where the trail is a bunch of little purple sparkles.

Yes, this is a good idea. I'll be reworking the haunts' sprites a little as well to give them a bit more character.

Either way, thank you for the feedback. It was very helpful.

Finally decided to get the patch, and FAL.

Battle Rifle is good stuff, obviously it need's to be balanced more, for it's performance (perfect btw), and the fact that the Machine Pistol is a thing, would be wise to give it a pretty smallish ammo cap, a-la HL2 (20 mag + 60-120 in reserve at most)

Yes, the battle rifle was a very cool weapon. I also thought it could have benefitted from a 20 round mag, as is realistic, but this is more TheRailgunner's patch so, I didn't want to touch it. Besides, it has given me some good ideas for the Military Rifle you'll be finding in episode 2. The two weapons will be quite different in their use and advantages, especially when it comes to upgrades or attachments. Of course, I'll keep it so that the battle rifle can still be added in if you want to keep that baby for the next adventure.

[Get Phobo]

I would like the Glock to stay in the game.

The reason: I tend to use the Glock in a complementary fashion for ammo balancing, i.e., in cases where the first shot from a tougher weapon was just a bit to weak to kill the enemy. If conditions allow, I then switch to the Glock and fire it once, which most of the time is sufficient for a kill. That way it is possible to balance consumption of the different ammo types.

[Vostyok]

I'll think about it. We'll be trying out the new machine pistol in the playtest sessions, if it feels like the autopistol still has a valid place within the arsenal, then we will keep it in. Honestly, it'll be a simple change to a single line of code, so you won't have to wait long. But the changes to the machine pistol have made it far more versatile while still giving the option of spray and pray. We'll just have to see what everyone thinks. I've got some upgrade ideas for the pistol if it does stay in, anyway.

In other news, version 3.7.2 of the Gzdoom executible seems to have incorporated the Morph-actor fix. Many thanks to the development team for this speedy solution

Ashes 2063 should now be fully compatible with the newest release.

[SkyBreach]

I'll think about it. We'll be trying out the new machine pistol in the playtest sessions, if it feels like the autopistol still has a valid place within the arsenal, then we will keep it in. Honestly, it'll be a simple change to a single line of code, so you won't have to wait long. But the changes to the machine pistol have made it far more versatile while still giving the option of spray and pray. We'll just have to see what everyone thinks. I've got some upgrade ideas for the pistol if it does stay in, anyway.

In other news, version 3.7.2 of the Gzdoom executible seems to have incorporated the Morph-actor fix. Many thanks to the development team for this speedy solution

Ashes 2063 should now be fully compatible with the newest release.

Hi there, first of all thank you for your hard work and for your great mod, I'm enjoying it a lot those last days, I love your concept idea and how the game feels in general, the weapon handling, monster balance, maps design, plot, ambientation, NPC interaction. Great job so far.

I would like to ask you: Two days ago I tried to play your mod in GZDoom 3.7.1 and I found a problem that completely broke my game: When you find the lamp and pick it up, all your inventory disappears and all your weapons, ammo, and money too. It's like picking up the lamp wipe all your inventory, and another bad thing is that you can not save the lamp either never more. Due this, yesterday I downloaded the GZDoom 3.6.0 as you suggest and give it another try. Fortunately the mod works perfect in 3.6.0 so far, the lamp bug is gone yay! (You have no idea how happy I was when I finally fix this, because I really want to dig into the game because I like it a lot. But reading your last comment, I wonder if this issue was solved and the mod can be played on 3.7.1 and above.

[Vostyok]

Try it with the new 3.7.2 version of Gzdoom. A lot of fixes were introduced. I'll be testing on my end as well.

And happy you liked it! Still have lots of stuff to add in the coming year

[SkyBreach]

And happy you liked it! Still have lots of stuff to add in the coming year

that's great! glad to hear that. I know Ashes is your little baby and you dont let any stranger touch it, but if you need help one day, Im glad to help. I found some misaligned textures, some wrong texture patchs in some stairs and few other little things around while playing, maybe you know about it but if you need it I will take some screenshots of the exact locations for future fixes.

Try it with the new 3.7.2 version of Gzdoom. A lot of fixes were introduced. I'll be testing on my end as well.

Thanks for your answer, I did yesterday, got the 3.7.2 version and indeed Ashes 2063 works fine now, the bug is gone. Thanks for the fix, (specially for the latest GZDoom version which works better on my computer than olders, no idea why, maybe drivers stuff). I was curious about what is causing this bug and I did some experimentation yesterday with 3.7.1, and I found that I was wrong in my first observation, is not the lamp which causes this problem, it is the motorbike. In the second map, if you leave the motorbike and go forward walking the bug doesn't show, but if you take it the bug got you, you can avoid the bug in this map just ignoring the bike, but not in map 4. This is perfectly noticeable on the map 4, where you start driving the chopper and your whole inventory, weapons, money and so on is gone. Fortunately with your last update this issue is fixed so ignore this, Im just experimenting around by curiosity. ^.^

[Wendigo]

i loved the mods gameplay, look, and atmosphere. i just have a few suggestions
-more radioactive areas
-aiming down sights (maybe but maybe not, its just fine without it actually)
-stealth sections/areas you can use stealth with

other than that, its amazing. is there an eta for ep2?

[PoptartNoahh]

im thinking of more ways to apocalypse-ify this, but heres a frankensprite i made out of a gun from this thread https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=37556&start=105

[Vostyok]

@SkyBreach: hey, any help is always appreciated. We're a very small team, heh, if you could even call it that. Oh, and the bug was caused by a problem with the Morph actor functions, specifically the code used by the motorcycle, as you correctly surmised. Thank Graf zahl and the other developers for that fix, all I did was report it.

@wendigo: there will be more radiation in ep2, as you'll be spending a bit more time exploring the city, at least for the first hour or so. Aiming down sights will be used for one weapon, but it doesn't really fit the theme of the mod as a run-and-gun game, so, I will not be overusing this particular mechanic. Also, as previously discussed, I'll be adding bonus effects when using sneak attacks with melee or silenced weapons, as well as limited opportunities in each map to find other routes that allow you to take a stealth approach. Stealth sections are unlikely to feature, more of an occasional player choice, as ReformedJoe used in his Dead Man Walking DLC.

ETA is pretty much tbc at the moment, as there is still a lot to do planning and brainstorming wise. The more open level design I'm going for is demanding a more complex story plan, as well as all the new art for the NPC characters I'll be adding. Also, soundtrack and mapping have yet to be finalised. Hopefully this year, but fingers crossed.

Oh, and welcome to the forums!

@PoptartNoahh: hey, that's pretty cool. We've got an idea for a scrap based SMG already, but it has given me some ideas. I've already repainted some of the original weapon sprites. Hopefully I can get a new video or some screenshots out soon to show them off.



Later, wastelanders.

[PoptartNoahh]

heres something i thought would be cool