Ashes Afterglow TC - closing the vault

[D1SoveR]

Having just finished Afterglow, I have to say: this is an astonishing amount of work, and of such high quality that I genuinely pick it over about 95% of all the other games I've played!
I've a question regarding some end-game lore; for anyone that hasn't gotten to the end, do NOT open the spoiler bit!

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When you inquire about who started the war, Athena mentions a K-class scenario, and prevention of something called "The Blooming".
Is this, by any chance, inspired by stuff from SCP wiki? Specifically, either The Bloom from Incident Zero stories, or Lily's SCP-001 proposal?

[CyberneticPhantom]

So I found this missing texture during my playthrough of the Enriched Edition:

And here's where it is:

[Wally Hackenslacker]

Just finished my first play-through a few minutes ago and wow! I'll say once again, honestly, no exaggeration, Afterglow is one of the best games I've ever played. Thank you Vostyok and all the Ashes team.

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It's not just the action and all the plot and top notch world building, but the characters themselves really got me. Having to say goodbye to the people at Michonne Circle actually made me pretty sad. I never expected to get attached to the characters in a Doom engine game, yet here we are.

And personally thank you for your help with the script bug I got in the Junkyard, Vostyok. I actually managed to get the good ending for most things I think! I've got a question though:

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• Who is the scavenger with the "lightning-fast silver blade" who complains a lot mentioned in the ending cutscene? Is that Walker? I can't think of who else it could possibly be, but I don't remember anything that indicated he used a blade or something. Or is that the scavenger with the store in prosperity? I did give him the harmonica and he did mentioned that he would skip town after a little while.

I've got some feedback I'd like to share:

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• The first stretch of Site Sigma, while you're getting to the base on the bike feels very unforgiving to the point of being a bit unfair at some points to me, at least in Apocalypse difficulty. I think I just found 1 health pack in the whole thing and ended up having to fight the 4 destroyers and 2 overseers guarding the "silver?" key with just 4 health points and no armor. Yeah, I'm savescumm
• I found a few places with missing textures, specially in the junkyard. Do you guys have reports of these already or should I upload maps with their location?

Whatever you guys make next, whether it's an Ashes Episode 3 or something else, I'll be on the look out for it.

[Wally Hackenslacker]

I also wanted to discuss these points after thinking a while about the lingering plot points left after the ending of Afterglow. These are mostly head cannons of course, so feel free to ignore me. Industrial-grade spoilers ahead, of course.

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• On the topic of the haunts, my head cannon right now is that they are the result of some demonic influence the US military unleashed into the world after whatever teleporting shenanigans they used on the soviet sub. It would be thematically consistent with Doom at the very least . But for real though. It was either the teleporting of site A-210 or the fallout from the Hellseed missiles what created the haunts. And since the haunts usually appear in Afterglow by teleporting in, my money is on the teleportation business.
• What kinda throws a wrench on this theory for me though is the lone haunt in the secret medical room behind the blue door in the Spire at the end of 2063, with the brain scans on the wall. Before all the plotpoints about A-210 and the Hellseeds, my previous guess about the haunts was that they were the result of unethical military experiments, based on this single haunt alone.
• Given that the Laughing Toms sound like Revenannts, I imagined that that was done on purpose to tie them in to the haunts through the implied demonic influence of the Hellseed missiles and the teleportaion. But given @Vostyok's recent post about how that was just a holdover because the VA didn't pull through on time for release date, I guess that the true nature of the Laughing Toms (whether they are mutated scavengers, related to the haunts, or just plain insane) is still up in the air.
• I suppose that what Athena calls "The Blooming" at the last terminal is the event referred to in the Ruins of the Spire about the "non-viral anomalous disease that spreads through proximity and numbers" iirc. Which I suppose is the same anomaly mentioned in the military bunker at the end of The Array that affected the officer's quarters and "killed" a bunch of people. My guess is they turned into haunts?
• And on that topic, what does it even mean that the anomaly spreads through numbers?! Does that mean that maybe Athena is infected by it? Maybe that's why the New Guard general is so distrustful of her.
• Also if I remember right, the Spire terminal mentions that major US cities were compromised by the anomalies and my guess is that Zeus and Athena got conflicting orders on how to deal with it, then fought about it but Athena won the dispute and decided to nuke everything.

I really want to see where the story goes from here. Are there any plans to make an episode 3 sometime? Or maybe an expansion to Afterglow centered on Porcelain? No pressure though, of course, I'm just curious.

[Miguelvillamizar94]

Hi guys. I just got stuck after getting the seeds and going to talk with the water baron. Its just that by mistake I accessed before getting the seeds there and now I just get a dialogue from the baron but the only option I got is leave . What I can do?

[Cynderstone]

So uhh....

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how do I not die horribly in the ending? I haven't figured out anything else than uploading Athena, but the bunker she sends me to has it's doors broken

Just stay in there. Have faith?

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Doesn't appear to matter how much faith I have, at least in my case....

[Vostyok]

Having just finished Afterglow, I have to say: this is an astonishing amount of work, and of such high quality that I genuinely pick it over about 95% of all the other games I've played!
I've a question regarding some end-game lore; for anyone that hasn't gotten to the end, do NOT open the spoiler bit!

---

When you inquire about who started the war, Athena mentions a K-class scenario, and prevention of something called "The Blooming".
Is this, by any chance, inspired by stuff from SCP wiki? Specifically, either The Bloom from Incident Zero stories, or Lily's SCP-001 proposal?

---

It is somewhat inspired by SCP stories. K-class scenarios traditionally being End-Of-The-World events. Only for the terminology though. The actual cause of the collapse is not based on any specific story, but that should hopefully be revealed in Ep3, whenever we get around to that

Just finished my first play-through a few minutes ago and wow! I'll say once again, honestly, no exaggeration, Afterglow is one of the best games I've ever played. Thank you Vostyok and all the Ashes team.

---

It's not just the action and all the plot and top notch world building, but the characters themselves really got me. Having to say goodbye to the people at Michonne Circle actually made me pretty sad. I never expected to get attached to the characters in a Doom engine game, yet here we are.

And personally thank you for your help with the script bug I got in the Junkyard, Vostyok. I actually managed to get the good ending for most things I think! I've got a question though:

---

• Who is the scavenger with the "lightning-fast silver blade" who complains a lot mentioned in the ending cutscene? Is that Walker? I can't think of who else it could possibly be, but I don't remember anything that indicated he used a blade or something. Or is that the scavenger with the store in prosperity? I did give him the harmonica and he did mentioned that he would skip town after a little while.

I've got some feedback I'd like to share:

---

• The first stretch of Site Sigma, while you're getting to the base on the bike feels very unforgiving to the point of being a bit unfair at some points to me, at least in Apocalypse difficulty. I think I just found 1 health pack in the whole thing and ended up having to fight the 4 destroyers and 2 overseers guarding the "silver?" key with just 4 health points and no armor. Yeah, I'm savescumm
• I found a few places with missing textures, specially in the junkyard. Do you guys have reports of these already or should I upload maps with their location?

Whatever you guys make next, whether it's an Ashes Episode 3 or something else, I'll be on the look out for it.

Thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed it, despite the softlock issues. Hopefully these will all be resolved for the next update.

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The scavenger mentioned in the outro is indeed Silver. I would like to do more with this character, and am planning to give him a bit more to do in upcoming update, but this is time permitting. We're doing a final detail pass on many maps but please upload any missing tex's you've seen in the current build, this is incredibly useful to us.

As for the future, we have a fan-made expansion pack in development and hopefully a stand-alone prequel prequel that will address some of the mysteries behind the story. Aiming to have these feature different characters as well, but this is TBC and depends on whether the authors wish to complete these. We do have plans for an EP3 however, which should wrap things up (although leave plenty of room for future tales).

Hi guys. I just got stuck after getting the seeds and going to talk with the water baron. Its just that by mistake I accessed before getting the seeds there and now I just get a dialogue from the baron but the only option I got is leave . What I can do?

Go back to uptown, find a suitable spot that is clear of obstructions, open the console and type "summon waterbaron" (without quotes). You should now have a chance to speak to the Baron's identical twin who should be more than happy to help you.

[Ihavequestions]

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In the secret Afterglow map that can be reached via that blue exit, only 4 of the 5 reported monsters appeared. (Apocalypse skill level)

[Vostyok]

In the secret Afterglow map that can be reached from ---------, only 4 of the 5 reported monsters appeared. (Apocalypse skill level)

Fixed for newest update. Also, please spoil your posts where relevant, even if most people have already found it.

[Gez]

I absolutely want to avoid what I call Scooby Doo Syndrome, where much like the old cartoons where you could tell which part of the screen the ghost was going to jump out of due to the differences in art style, I don't want people to be able to guess ambush points by seeing which doors are locked and which aren't. Still... maybe that is a survival instinct we should encourage. I don't know. I just make mods.

Ah yes, good old painted backgrounds + cell animation. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... LightPatch

Note that a trick you could use is to change the door texture. Say a door cannot be opened at first: barricade it. Then when the player revisits the area, the door opens for an ambush: the barricade is gone. Maybe spawn some broken planks debris around, too, to make it look like the barricade was actually removed through crowbars and stuff.

[Wally Hackenslacker]

Here are some of the missing textures I found on the Junkyard https://imgur.com/a/hecWE2f, I've got an idea that there may be a fourth one in this map but I'm not sure.

Other than these I also remember finding just one instance of a missing texture in a previous map but I don't remember which one. And I also found a square section in a vent where if you stand up you can no-clip through the ceiling and a graphical glitch happens, but for the life of me I don't remember what map that was, though I have some ideas (spoilered 'cause of the map names, just in case):

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All I remember is that it was either on the Biodome or on any of the maps between Escape from Atlanta and The Array, except for the Stadium map I think.

What I'm almost 100% sure is that this square section is actually visible in the automap as a perfect square cutout in an otherwise unremarkable stretch of a horizontal (not sloped) vent. Don't remember if the vent was north-south or east-west though. If I find it again I'll let you know.

[Ihavequestions]

Fixed for newest update. Also, please spoil your posts where relevant, even if most people have already found it.

Ooops! I'm sorry.
I changed it.

But anyway,

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there is an area on map 19 with an inventory pick up (something neat to inject) that can only be reached by climbing and jumping and therefore should be marked secret but currently isn't.

[Vostyok]

I absolutely want to avoid what I call Scooby Doo Syndrome, where much like the old cartoons where you could tell which part of the screen the ghost was going to jump out of due to the differences in art style, I don't want people to be able to guess ambush points by seeing which doors are locked and which aren't. Still... maybe that is a survival instinct we should encourage. I don't know. I just make mods.

Ah yes, good old painted backgrounds + cell animation. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... LightPatch

Note that a trick you could use is to change the door texture. Say a door cannot be opened at first: barricade it. Then when the player revisits the area, the door opens for an ambush: the barricade is gone. Maybe spawn some broken planks debris around, too, to make it look like the barricade was actually removed through crowbars and stuff.

Yeah, that's a pretty good idea. Hmm... perhaps having a previously boarded up area suddenly un-boarded as you return. Lots of opportunities to play with this.

Here are some of the missing textures I found on the Junkyard https://imgur.com/a/hecWE2f, I've got an idea that there may be a fourth one in this map but I'm not sure.

Other than these I also remember finding just one instance of a missing texture in a previous map but I don't remember which one. And I also found a square section in a vent where if you stand up you can no-clip through the ceiling and a graphical glitch happens, but for the life of me I don't remember what map that was, though I have some ideas (spoilered 'cause of the map names, just in case):

---

All I remember is that it was either on the Biodome or on any of the maps between Escape from Atlanta and The Array, except for the Stadium map I think.

What I'm almost 100% sure is that this square section is actually visible in the automap as a perfect square cutout in an otherwise unremarkable stretch of a horizontal (not sloped) vent. Don't remember if the vent was north-south or east-west though. If I find it again I'll let you know.

I'm doing another problems pass as I go through this again for 1.05. Hopefully I'll find the issue.

Fixed for newest update. Also, please spoil your posts where relevant, even if most people have already found it.

Ooops! I'm sorry.
I changed it.

But anyway,

---

there is an area on map 19 with an inventory pick up (something neat to inject) that can only be reached by climbing and jumping and therefore should be marked secret but currently isn't.

Yeah I don't know why I changed this being marked. Fixed.

[Miguelvillamizar94]

Thanks guys and vostyok for all the help, I've been trying to figure out the old stone wall that we find in the pipeworks i have used all the items i have but no idea how to break it , someone can tell me a hint about it (:

[lumbo7332]

Do you think it would be better if the assault rifle was in the same slot as the SMG? It's quite a stretch to get over to 7, and it feels like more of a main weapon.