Ashes Afterglow TC - closing the vault

[Gzegzolka]

Congratulations on releasing Your mod/total conversion, but it feels much more like stand-alone complete game I see great progress, with new gameplay features, bigger levels and even more moody story. I wish it was not free game and I could buy it.

[karry299]

Many thanks for all your work.
However, I think you should have left the link to the original episode 1 alongside the new one. The "Enriched" update is a good cause to replay it, but many textures are changed to be cleaner, brighter, and of higher fidelity, thus IMO the grimy gritty and moody wasteland is lessened when compared to the original release.

[eppiox]

Spoilers about 'Smiley' - maybe a bug?
I freed Smiley but made him wait a bit- if I chat to him he will say 'to get his stash from the lake up north'. My journey says "Free Smiley or not 'Talk to guard'" ... but I have already freed him and the guards don't do anything.

---

The 'S' Rock won't budge - if I clip into the area it will say 'Journal' updated' but won't actually update. I'm guessing I have broken the smiley quest bits somehow.

Edit: Was sneaky and did a 'give JournalPage8' to progress the quest, then walked onto the stash point so all sorted now

Regardless of that - Many thanks for making the game, it's really great and I have enjoyed every moment so far! Some really awesome looking areas and atmosphere !

[irritablerodent]

Firstly, I want to say how much I am in love with this game. There is something special about seeing such highly-detailed, semi-realistic environments rendered in the particular art style that only (gz)doom can deliver. I love discovering how an inventive level designer can extract such plausible and recognisable locations from an inherently limited game engine. For some reason, it really scratches a video gaming itch of mine. But on top of that, Ashes is such an atmospheric experience. I particularly appreciated all the little semi-scripted (an unscripted) moments of suspense, horror, and drama that I really didn't expect to get from a *free* mod for a 20+ year old game. Though, I have played many full priced games with less well conceived story-telling. So, thanks, and I look forward to Episode 3 or any other projects for that matter.

That said, while playing I started keeping notes of some bugs, inconsistencies, nitpicks, and general feedback I had. I was going to post it here, but it's easier if I just link the google doc. Hopefully someone finds it useful. Was going to wait until I had finished my second play-through, but I don't really have time to do that anymore.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nRW ... sp=sharing

[Rex705]

I downloaded the latest version of the enriched episode one and now after a few minutes, it starts stuttering whenever I turn. I tried downloading and getting a fresh copy of GZ but the stutter won't go away

[TheOldKingCole]

So the Episode 1 remaster has a bug where if you use the give all cheat and then press the slot 1 key 3 times to select and deselect melee weapons you lose all weapons and are unable to get them back

[DeWolf]

So is there a current way to play other wads without starting on the 4th level right now or do I have to wait for the weapon/enemies mods to come out first like with chapter 1?

Also I played through ashes enriched dead man walking and found all the secrets which led me to find 308 ammo but not the FAL?

[Atticuszed]

Overwhelmingly kickass title. The settings were gorgeously dystopian, the map design felt consistently tense and explorative, the roster for the various enemy factions complemented eachother splendidly, and the weapon roster almost requires nothing said. Strikes an exceptional balance between stone-cold badass and desperate survivalist. I love the plot threads laying unwound for the next episode - the subtle hints at new factions and deeper lore in the future.

That said, I did come by for what seems to be my one bugbear with the game.

For as terrifying and intimidating as they're built up to be, the Haunts are...really kinda pushovers, ain't they?

Like all throughout the series, they're almost always built up to be this threat that should scare the pants off of you, and they carry themselves as such. Ethereal husks of humans that hurl balls of pure energy at you - so powerful they warp the very fabric of reality and absorb the surrounding light. The way they die is even a haunting reminder of how unnatural to our frame of understanding they are, leaving a fading afterimage as their barely mortal flesh collaspes to the floor.

But after fighting them for a while, you start to realize...they're just kinda flying Hell Barons, ain't they? They become more slippery bullet sponges than anything, and that really deflates the encounters with them when you realize that.

If I could offer a suggestion, I think one change could make a significant difference in their intimidation and challenge factor. Make them and their projectiles radioactive - with the radiation rate ramping up from a couple ticks to dramatic spikes based on how close you are to either. And have the small ticks start from a significant distance away as a sort of early alert. Mechanically, this makes them a much larger threat - you have to respect them and their projectiles, but you still have a little wiggle room and a lot of edge if you hang onto a Purge. From a lore perspective it seems to make a lot of sense since you only ever seem to find them in government facilities, nuclear plants, or other areas with drastic levels of radiation. And from an atmospheric perspective? Hohoh... you only see a small handful throughout any Ashes game, but after your first encounter, you're gonna be on edge every time you hear that Geiger Counter start ticking. Is it just the radiation? Or is it much worse...?

Hell, if you wanna double down on that creeping terror, consider adding a variant for the Haunts. It doesn't have a ranged attack, and doesn't emit radiation levels nearly as deadly as the Haunts, but it slowly and constantly moves towards the player, and it has a melee attack that deals massive damage. The kicker? It's completely invisible, and only has an occasional and very subtle sound cue to indicate its present. Besides that, the only way to figure out where it is and how close you are to it is your Geiger Counter, which ticks ever so slightly faster as you approach. That and the blood spatters if you finally manage to get a bead on it. All you need is to plop one or two in an episode and suddenly your players are jumping at shadows for the whole rest of the game.

Possible tool for the inevitable Episode Three. Maybe you could even go back and sneak them into the previous installments? Or an expansion? But this is all wishful thinking of a masochist. I love the more haunting moments of these games, and I'd love to have them follow me like that.

[Gzegzolka]

Yes, if adding radiation to ghosts would be possible I think it would be awesome and made them even more deadly, but still fair to fight. As for invisible ones it is interesting concept, but I am not sure, would it be too scary? Like ghosts in school in F. E. A. R. 2. Another cool idea would be possibilities for ghosts to reanimate dead bodies and turn them as shields against player, or maybe Doom Eternal metod of ghost ability to possess single random enemy and boost it.

[Ihavequestions]

Any enemy in this game becomes a pushover as soon as you get your hands on the Junker Musket. Even the final boss in Afterglow, and that lady is a real tough cookie otherwise. (I don't know about the length of her history, though.)

[Vostyok]

Apologies for delay. Aiming to release 1.05 update shortly. Will put out a twitter thing and YouTube thing when done, and will change thread title when finished. Testing a lot of the new fixes and this changelog is HUGE so I dont want to miss anything.

With regards to those particularly spoopy enemies you may have encountered, without spoiling anything, they are not intended to be all powerful. In fact, they are already doing all they can to stop you. It's going to get much much worse, however.

Will have a look what might be causing Enriched issues shortly after this, and also will be working on Sterilised and weapons packs this coming week - remember :the current releases are intended to be played alone and not with regular doom maps or mods!

---

Also, can everyone stop calling Athena their waifu. You don't know what she's done.

[Psychodelic]

I already see it coming. Hideous Afterglow.
So now I know what my first YouTube Video is going to be.

[ZikShadow]

---

Also, can everyone stop calling Athena their waifu. You don't know what she's done.

---

If people can make SHODAN their waifu, the possibilities are limitless. Hohoh.

[Vostyok]

....



On second thought... maybe she was right all along.

[Captain J]

---

Yandere.exe