[slow WIP] Shadows of Apocalypse - BETA public DEMO

[ramon.dexter]

Back from the dead, again.

Need to note that I've finished qeusting in the first town and started working on the transition area between first and second city. It's finally coming together.

Also, major changes happened beneath the surface. With the help of mister Jarewill I"ve implemented some new mechanics, namely the weight of items and player stamina. So, I've stopped using the old way of defining amount of items and just left it all on max weight limit. Also, I've learnt a lot of zscript during that process, so I changed a lot of background scripting from acs to pure zscript. And yes, I've learned how to make zscript menus, so no need to bother with acs 'menus' built with hudmessages. Oh lord, how I hate this stuff!

[m1lk]

WOW!

[ramon.dexter]

Almost had a hearthstroke yesterday, due to my trashy mapping habits. I just have to remember that making a huge sctor, filled with smaller sectors, but not divided by any will cause big issues as the map grows bigger and bigger. Simply said, took me around a day to figure out why parts of the map lacks actors, why there are invisible walls and why I'm falling into voidspace... I just had to manually divide the huge sectors into smaller ones and then carefully check the nodebuilder for errors...

At least I learned something new

[Captain J]

Oh dear, it's indeed a big and large project. Take it easy and take your time!

[ramon.dexter]

Allright, let's cut the talk...

Here is new gameplay video, recorded today, to showcase what I've yet implemented ingame.



For what's going on in the video:
I'm showcasing the non combat quests based in the first town, the Scrapyard. Some background info here:

---

The Scrapyard.
A small hole that the locals call home. The Scrapyard was founded about 50 years after The War by a group of traders. In 2065, a small group of traders settled on the edge of the Zone. They set up a small station here, offering supplies and water to everyone passing through the Zone.
Over the years, the small station became a small town as the newcomers settled in.
In 2073, rangers come to the town and set up a small outpost with a radio transmitter so they can monitor the local region. Due to the remoteness and complicated supply lines, only one man is stationed here, so the rangers are not a significant force here.
Now the Scrapyard is a commercial hub for the immediate and wider area. It is still an important caravan hub, but it is also a sovereign town with all that goes with it. The town is headed by a mayor. The first mayor and founder of the town was Tomas Neuwirth. His successors continued his legacy and helped the city grow. Currently, Jiří Krejčí is the head of the town. Outwardly he appears as an honest and incorruptible man, but everyone knows that the opposite is true.
The locals make their living mainly from agriculture. It's still a more stable way of earning an income than barter and trade in general. Around the town, but also in the city, you can find many fields where the locals grow their crops. In addition to farmers, there are also many traders in Smeštisht. It can be said that almost anything can be found here. Of course, at the right price.
The town is relatively orderly. There is no permanent police force, but the local gangs maintain order and fight petty crime. The kind they don't organize themselves. The gangs collect the usual ransom from local merchants to protect them from themselves.

Sorry for making teh video in czech - I'm designing it in czech, and haven't yet translated it. This is the major work, that I'm doing before public release. Buut, I've got a new friend to help me with this task, hehe. This friend is called DeepL, an AI translator. Works quite good, much better than google translte. This text about the town is actually direct output from the DeepL with minimal manual touch. Quite a good job, I say.

So, the first quest is simple. Owner of one pub wants players help with the competing pub in the southern part of the town. The task includes blowing up the southern pub's stills.
The second job is much simpler job, player is asked to deliver a food to a local too interested in his job. Easy task with small outcome, but it lets player to meet the locals and speak with them.

Also, when the player looks at the blue bus and the carts behind the market stalls, lease note that these object are not made with map sectors. Not anymore. Because of the complicated process of making such objects, I've actually moved to 3D models for such objects. So, from now on, most of cars, buses, and other objects in map will be represented by 3D models. I would love to include the zscript 3D model collision code, but it doesnt work with the rest of my zscript...so I've got to figure out what causes the issue. Eight now, collision is done by invisible bridges...Pretty dirty, involves multiple actors per model, but hey, it works for now!

Also, I'm showing this and there (I think before the first quest) the new status screen and main map screen, using the new zsrcipt statusbar code. Hell, the zscript is magical thing, allows me to make wonderful things.

And the end of the video shows the new camping gear, with brand new zscript zforms powered menu. So, the sleeping is right now purely visual. I mean, the screen just darkens, without any touch on sectorsor anything else. I still cannot decide if I want to control this aspect with ACS, or should I learn how to touch levels through zscript. So, this yet to be decided.

Also, you can note that when sprinting, the hand goes away. I must thank mr. Jarewill for teaching me this method. So, now running and shooting around. When you want to shoot, you have to stop. Also, running drains stamina. You want to replnish stamina? Stop and take a few breaths, it will recover quickly. The stamina is fixed value, but I can make some stims to boost it. And also, the sprinting stamina is raised when the strife stamina raises. Pretty simple trick with great outcome.

But for now, relax and watch.

PS: Also, I have to note that I've stopped using the 1.2 pixel ratio, so the graphics look little bit weird (at least to me ).

[Ghost Prototype]

Keep up the good work!

[Captain J]

As always, the quality you give to each map is astonishing. You're doing super great!

[Deon]

Hello Ramon.

I am working on my own little mod in Shadowrun universe following the Genesis/Sega version of the game.
Your mod has a couple of textures (like tools on the wall, bedsheet and a few others) which would save me a lot of headache so I dont have to make them separately (I am a terrible artist TBH).
Do you have credits for textures in the folder SoA and do you mind me cannibalizing a couple of vending machine/wall textures for specific furniture on my map?

[ramon.dexter]

Cannibalize anything you like. The credits are problematic ,since I really dont remember where I took em. Mostly from realm667.

[wisezombiekiller]

I don't know why, but the game refuses to let me edit the compass or the enemy hp bar, it just says "Unknown script "PrintEnemyHPSwitch"" and "Unknown script "compassComplete""

[ramon.dexter]

Yeah, these are partly removed remnants of older technology.

[Ihavequestions]

Hey, I like this, even though the world history was a bit of a stretch.

Anyway, I found this weird room in the Dead City (see attachment), there were those missing assets (marked by question marks), and the enemies there did not attack me. What is that?

And one thing bothered me. It is almost impossible to read the messages in the upper left corner on that bright border background.

[ButtonBoy]

Wow, this looks amazing, I just got off the ashes afterglow hype train, and I'm a sucker for anything post apocalypse so this looks right up my alley, what I gather is this set in a Russian/Czech post apocalypse? Also the demo kinda seems a bit outdated what is the latest demo/build?, I really hope this project isn't dead because it looks awesome keep up the great work and may 2022 bring you great fortune also I've heard that you need strife to run this, not doom, is there anything else I need to run this

[ramon.dexter]

Well, honestly, I havent touched it since summer. Things in map02 (the dead city and Khlumetz village) are completely outdated and not updated.

Honestly, I'm still trying to find motivation to work on this project. Ashes Afterglow has everything I wanted to put in, so I'm evaluating if I even want to finish this, when there is so superior competitor...

edit: I don't want to scare anyone. I'm not dropping this project. It's just on on hold status in present time, as I have more motivation to work on my strife project. When I get some post-apocalyptic mood, I will work on SoA. I just don't wan t to spend my time in the wasteland, not now.

[ButtonBoy]

Well, honestly, I havent touched it since summer. Things in map02 (the dead city and Khlumetz village) are completely outdated and not updated.

Honestly, I'm still trying to find motivation to work on this project. Ashes Afterglow has everything I wanted to put in, so I'm evaluating if I even want to finish this, when there is so superior competitor...

edit: I don't want to scare anyone. I'm not dropping this project. It's just on on hold status in present time, as I have more motivation to work on my strife project. When I get some post-apocalyptic mood, I will work on SoA. I just don't wan t to spend my time in the wasteland, not now.

Please don't be intimidated by ashes, personally I feel like your project has so much potential, it certainly looks awesome right now, and its still only in beta, even ashes didn't look this good when it first came out, so take your time, don't worry, and don't despair/give up, and take as long or as short of amount of time you need, its not a race or a competition, this is a labour of love on your part, it doesn't have to meet any standards but your own, so theirs no pressure, remember that you have to learn to walk before you can learn to run