Multiplayer Portal Gun / The Teleportal

[Kate]

I've decided to split this off from the main ZPortal topic so I don't really wind up having to hijack Cutman's topic every time I make an update to my port of the portal gun, so please redirect further posts concerning it to this topic instead. Thanks.

The current version is 3.2/2.7.

!IMPORTANT!
I am moving off of my current ssh server, so all links from this server will no longer function and will in time be replaced. If you find a link that no longer works that used to be hosted on the old server, I already know about it and it will be back up eventually. However, for the time being I am without a server host or space. Thanks.

Changes from the original Portal Gun:

1. Designed for multi-player with up to 8 players, and when the next version of Skulltag is released, I may add support for more as seen fit.
2. New, entirely scripted internal functions keep track of players' portals, which no longer requires the use of monster logic for them, and thus is more stable.
3. Indicators for each player to keep track of the current states of their own portals.
4. Portal guns have limited ammunition with their own type which can be found around clips and ammo boxes.
5. The gun can double as an offensive side-arm: Projectiles do mild to moderate damage, and cause explosion damage (to which the shooter is immune) when they land.
6. New two-color sprites. The ring around a portal indicates it's firing color, and the inside color indicates which player it belongs to.
7. Teleportation is instant, making some forms of velocity tricks possible.
8. A new powerup for Deathmatch and Team-based games: The Portal EMP Device. Emits a powerful electromagnetic pulse that disrupts all of the portals on the level except your own, and damages everyone carrying a portal device in inventory, shaking them up a bit. Beware, for if you're carrying one, it will damage you, too!
9. Portal spawning is done via ACS, meaning the projectile no longer gets stuck in low ceilings anymore, allowing you to fire the weapon in small cramped spaces without problems.
10. (3.x Only) Players can jump into other players' portals to follow them. This means your portals can also teleport other players, so with well-placed portals, traps are also entirely possible.
11. (3.x Only) You can now remove/replace your enemies' portals with your own by firing the opposite color of yours on top of them (Eg. firing your red portal over an enemy's blue portal will vaporize it). It works slightly different than expected: When you fire an opposing portal on top of that of an enemy, it effectively replaces that portal, including assuming it's position, so now it works more like capturing than removing.

Planned changes for future versions:

1. The other two portal guns, and a soon-to-be-revealed fourth weapon. (Currently I need sprites and sounds for them.)
2. Make portals more dynamic in terms of scripting, allow the base library to have exportable functions for controlling portals and teleporting from levels (This will allow levels to come up with their own facilities for portals more easily, and detect teleports by players to act accordingly).

3. Also, to Snowkate... I just noticed one other difference between your versions and Cutty's; Cutman's portals can be destroyed. I was thinking it might be really cool to be able to destroy your opponent's portals in DM. Of course you'd have to raise their HP significantly as they currently blow up with one pistol shot. But maybe if you have to use 5 rockets (~690 health) or two BFGs (~800 health) or something? What do you think?

Player portal colors (by player number):

1. Blue
2. Orange
3. Green
4. Yellow
5. Black
6. White
7. Pink
8. Red

[Ryan Cordell]

Say, will monsters/objects/weaponry/projectiles be able to go through the portals once?

[Tormentor667]

Awesome! Now let's just hope tha Cutty will implement this in his mod as well for complete Skulltag pleasure

[Kate]

Say, will monsters/objects/weaponry/projectiles be able to go through the portals once? ;)

Unfortunately, that still isn't possible since it's under the limits of ACS. But in certain circumstances where one could give monsters or projectiles unique ids that can be referenced from scripts, then yes it would be possible.

Unfortunately, right now that's very 'wfds'.

[Cutmanmike]

Awesome! Now let's just hope tha Cutty will implement this in his mod as well for complete Skulltag pleasure

No because it's a singleplayer mod. If I was going to do anything multiplayer related I would have made it separate, but snowkate has already done it (and done a better job of it I might add)

[Kate]

Updated to 3.2/2.7. Just did some minor tweaking, beside from the only major change. Changes:

Both

1. You can now select the portal gun even if you have no ammo. Even though you can't fire it, this allows you access to the portal remove item which is only present when the weapon is selected.
2. Portal EMPs do a check to make sure you're carrying a portal gun before doing damage.

3.2

1. You can now capture enemies' portals by firing the opposite color of yours over them. Eg. firing your blue portal over a red one will capture it. This also means you can no longer overlap your portals on top of each other, as they will react violently and erase each other.
2. Removed the BFG replacement and copied the blue armor spawner from 2.7 over.

[Kate]

I can easily implement the other two portal gun types into The Teleportal with everything in it's current form, and am actually considering doing so for Deathmatch. The only problem is finding appropriate resources for them...

[Cutmanmike]

I can easily implement the other two portal gun types into The Teleportal with everything in it's current form, and am actually considering doing so for Deathmatch. The only problem is finding appropriate resources for them...

You talking about mine?

[Kate]

Actually no, I was actually thinking of introducing weapon-like devices since they will also double for actual weapons (the mobile portal will actually fire rockets that also serve as teleport points due to a built-in nano-reciever, and the "sticky" portal might wind up becoming more faithful to it's namesake =p)

Oh and there's one more weapon idea that I may include if I can find the sprites for it... Combined with the sticky and mobile portal guns, this gun will make nearly every possible point in a map accessible at any given time.

Also, here's a small clip of a multiplayer map I'm working on, which if I like how this one comes out, then I might go ahead and start some more. Introduced one new, very undocumented feature to the Portal Gun in that level. ;)

[Sticky]

Just wanted to thank you again Kate for all the great work on this.

My uncle, with whom I have played doom for 10+ years, has been getting quite burned out on zdoom lately and it was quite possible that he would stop playing altogether; however, with the advent of this wad, he has new life and is totally inspired to keep DMing with me. Yay! Thanks again.

[Cutmanmike]

I wish I had relatives who played doom

[Sticky]

I wish I had relatives who played doom

Yeah, it's a lovely thing. He corrupted me at a young age, and then for several years footed the long-distance phone bill so that we could play. There was one month, before he switched plans, where he spent like $250 just for long-distance modem usage...Yikes!

Ok, so here's a fun use of the portals (the 2.7 version, where you can only use your portals):
You can essentially change the destination of any teleport pad on a level, on the fly. For instance, if I want to teleport to location x but the teleport pad normally takes you to location A, I just put one portal at x and another one at A. Once I've done that, every time I take that teleporter, I am (almost) instantly portaled to location A. Awesome.

What's even better? It's almost impossible to get telefragged because you portal out of the spot in one tic, which so far has been faster than my reaction times even when watching for the first signs of a teleport while standing one milidick from the teleporter. So fast, in fact, that I see my uncle teleport and before I've even touched my move forward key I see him portal away. That's fast!

[Sticky]

Ok, I found another bug for 2.7. Nothing important, but kind of funny.
The portal EMP says the wrong player triggered it. i.e. when player 1 uses it, it says "player 2 cleared everyone's portals".

I would have found this sooner, but there's no blue armor on the map we usually play, so I hadn't even tried one yet.
No worries, just though you should know.

[Kate]

Edit: n+1! n+1! **knocks head on desk** My mistake.

Anyway I'm working on a 3.3/2.8 to fix other stuff that I found wrong or lacking. Hopefully these will be the final 2.x/3.x versions. Once I finish up with this and it's working properly, I'll move on to 4.x which will have all three weapons.

[DoomDan]

Link Don't Work!!!