[Reds Over World] ROWAn - A Reds Over World Addon

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

It would be a good idea to do for doors that are visible through cameras, adding something to make them look distinct that players can recall better where the aforementioned unlocked doors were after the player uses the switch. A poster next to them, a distinct statue, something that's easily recognizable on a low resolution screen.

On that note, would probably be a good idea to move the cameras to areas that the players have previously been before instead of ones that they haven't. Recalled one camera in E6M1 that was pointing at a corridor that the player hasn't seen before, which kinda defeats the purpose of the cameras if they're meant to tell the player where to go next.

Hm, which doors in particular you think should be visible on cameras placed potentially next to switches that open them?

[ZikShadow]

Hmm, I'd have to replay the entire mod again to get a comprehensive list, but it's really cases like these that I'm particularly against.
Here's an example from E1M4. The player so far has only seen the former, but the camera that's next to the switch is inside of the door. How can players tell that this particular door is what opened when they haven't seen what the other side looks like?

Even outside of the gameplay design argument, security areas that have remote access would probably have the camera on the outside so they can see who's trying to get in before allowing them through.

Don't mind the HUD element on the top left, I was running Gun Bonsai.

[skyrish10]

I believe I replaced Hannibal's, the first boss you meet in E3M3, the Chinese lines, American lines (both infantry and gasmasked ones), the Arabic lines, the player (to differentiate it from BoA's), and the STALKER bandit lines used for some of the Soviet soldiers. I would like to have more native language speeches instead of accented English (or shared lines in general) for enemies in other countries like the Romanians, Yugoslavians, North Koreans, and so on, but I currently do not possess the assets for such an endeavor.

Crysis has North Korean voicelines you can get (Fun Fact: Korean speaking enemies are only on the highest difficulty)

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

I believe I replaced Hannibal's, the first boss you meet in E3M3, the Chinese lines, American lines (both infantry and gasmasked ones), the Arabic lines, the player (to differentiate it from BoA's), and the STALKER bandit lines used for some of the Soviet soldiers. I would like to have more native language speeches instead of accented English (or shared lines in general) for enemies in other countries like the Romanians, Yugoslavians, North Koreans, and so on, but I currently do not possess the assets for such an endeavor.

Crysis has North Korean voicelines you can get (Fun Fact: Korean speaking enemies are only on the highest difficulty)

They were my first idea, but I can't find them anywhere online.

[ZikShadow]

Was thinking of playing ROWAn with regular ol' Doom 2 mapsets, so I went and cobbled up some wirejammers. Only works with ROWAn loaded due to the extra code being particularly specific, like redefining the Mounted PKM to not need map ACS-specific scripts. You're not playing vanilla ROW's stuff with these. Works quite nicely to extend the playtime a bit.

Wirejammers!

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

Sorry to wedge into your thread like that with my own stuff, but since it's an update on the making of the official 2.0 version of ROW that relates to issues you brought up here, I think it fits.

Now what could this be...

[ZikShadow]

Oh, nice. A full ammo revamp, hmm? I'll have to make a note of that for when 2.0 rolls around and I have to adapt it for ROWAn.

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

Oh, nice. A full ammo revamp, hmm? I'll have to make a note of that for when 2.0 rolls around and I have to adapt it for ROWAn.

I plan on adding seperate ammo for the guns like you and other people suggested; I realized that this adds a interesting dynamic to the gameplay. The only issue I sill have when it goes to fixing guns is the HUD displaying how much ammo is left before reloading.

[ZikShadow]

ROW got updated again while I wasn't looking, so I'm taking the time to also set up a change that I've been wanting to do for a long time.



During my last replay of 1.1, I've been taking notes on the times where the radio messages convey an objective that is then not really all that clear. Especially since a lot of the times, players solve objectives in the order that might put them as far away as possible from the actual progress. Took the time to sort out the particularly egregious examples:

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1. E1M3. After grabbing all the documents, you're not told that a new door has opened. Had the player pick up the last document in the motorpool, they'll have to run around a lot of empty rooms not knowing where exactly to "kill them all".

2. E3M1. Once you're done planting all explosives, you're not told where the way to the train station is. The pathway is through a random door that opened up in the southern bunker, with no signs or anything to lead the player to even assume that it leads to a railway track.

3. E3M1 again. Reaching the bridge, the radioguy tells you that "blowing it up will be a lot harder". Clarity added so the player'll know to find more explosives somewhere.

4. E4M4. After destroying all satellites, you're not told where to "kill them all". If the player blows up the northern satellite last, they'll be stuck trying to figure out where to go when the actual progress is through the yellow key sector by the tank parking lot.

5. E4M4, again. The camera shows a tunnel, though it's not clarified that a previously seemingly blocked off bit with a large healthkit next to it has actually opened up. There's a few tunnels around the map that the player can think of, so telling them that "one of the blocked ones has opened up" should be enough hint.

6. E5M1. The switch by the window overlooking the limo has nothing telling the player that it opens an entirely different building from the one they're in.

7. E5M3, after rescuing the soldiers. The barricade outside is cleared, but all you're told is that the next set of hostages are held captive in some factory. Some logic to the arbitrariness would be prudent here.

8. E5M5. Finishing off the lead scientist, no info on where to go in order to travel down to the "lowest floor". The actual access is all the way back at the entryway, but again, this is something the player could easily miss due to lack of signposting.

On top of that, I've also made the rocket turrets in E5M4 destroyable. Getting shot by rockets through fog is already annoying, but there's just no info telling the player that they're indestructible. There's practically nothing to differentiate said turrets from regular ones seen in the field aside from sandbags that barely protect regular infantry in all other circumstances. A player could've wasted tons of resources trying to destroy them, thinking that they're just missing their shots, only to find out that they're indestructible. Replacing those for consistency just feels right.

[BLSZDOOM]

i think you should try to make this mod standalone and work without the main mod in other words:without the wirejammers beacuse the mod is like 800 mbs or more wich is rather large for a classic doom mod.although there arent many good mappacks to use with it.

[ZikShadow]

Too much of this mod relies on ROW itself for me to make it standalone. Some of the weapons still straight up use ROW's actors for both ammunition and projectiles fired, for instance.

[BLSZDOOM]

shame

[ZikShadow]

Updated ROWAn again to the following changelog:

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1. Replaced the old TORPEDAL track in this addon, a slowed down version of "Action" from Hitman 2 SA with "Tense Orchestra (Prototype)" from OFF. Was getting tired of listening to that after the (current) 4th replay. Tempted to go through the music list and figure out if any of them are particularly "content id" unfriendly (which might contribute to why people aren't interested in recording vids for it), but I'd have to cobble up a 4 hour video to test the waters. Not in the mood to do that at the moment.
2. Now that I can assuredly confirm that no enemies in ROW actually wields the P90, I can move the deadly gas grenade spawns to the M16's. They rarely drop instead of the M67s. Half thought about doing a similar variant for the Soviets, maybe a molotov or something, but I couldn't be bothered for now. Maybe later when the stars align.
3. I've already had it so you start with the M16A2 in E5M2 instead of being arbitrarily given one right as the meeting goes sour, but missed still being given the old "M16 Carbine" there, breaking the weapon system a bit. Removed the bit in the ACS, shouldn't do that anymore.
4. Finally took the plunge and added enemy fixes that I thought was particularly egregious. I don't know if Humanzee1 was given a small height radius for a reason, but it made fighting them excruciating now that the shooting height's been changed. You have to shoot at their legs if you're playing vanilla, anything higher is missing your shots completely. Also gave the inmates in E6M1 rare chances to drop small bits of ammo. Ammo drops have been maintained from the initial release of ROWAn, mainly 'cause I couldn't be bothered to rebalance the thing around 2.0's new setup. Not that I really want to in the future, since I'm often left with too much ammo for certain weapons and not enough for others in 2.0. Not the design intent I want for ROWAn, personally.
5. Moved lousy cameras in E6M1 and E6M5 that were put in the doors that they open. Kinda defeats the entire purpose of having cameras to diagetically tell the player where to go if you put the camera in awful positions. They are now outside, hopefully facing a somewhat recognizable landmark (red corridor steam for the former and blue intersection door for latter) to remind players where to go.
6. E6M4 still has that softlock when you try to open the wall with the switch, as in the wall not opening, requiring noclip to go through. Was fun rediscovering and then remending the bug. Camera also moved outside.
7. The gear pile in E6M4 is moved to a single line. A player could run to the middle, only pick up some of the supplies instead of all, and end up with not enough ammo when they're teleported away to the boss fight. I'm tempted to move all the gear to the actual arena, but that'll be for when I finally recover my "bother".
8. Rebalanced E6M5Z's finale to be less "die if you stand in the wrong spot" and more "oof ouchie if you stand in the wrong spot".
9. Added Yuri for E6M5. As the saying goes, something-something, do it yourself. Be prepared before entering the last area with the stairs.

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

About that Content ID thing - most of the music should be fine because it comes from old video games, mostly Command & Conquer and Far Cry 1. The only one people might have issues with is the one in E2M3, which is from the soundtrack of Chronicles Of Narnia, which you already replaced (I think...).

[ZikShadow]

You might be surprised on what YT gets on a strop with. Not too long ago I found out that the main menu track was apparently enough to set it off, you can kinda see bits of Icarus' stream that had it muted on YT unlike the Twitch version that kept them intact. Had it replaced on my end as well.