[RELEASED] RSL's new "S H I N O B I" - now in TRUECOLOR!

[rsl]

Hi all,

here we are again! This time for a new modification I recently released to /IDGames:



S H I N O B I (http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=16423)

This new mod is inspired by various sources - namely, my recent replay of Shadow Warrior, but also oriental-style mods like those by DuduKrazy...
Not to mention the one and only, original "Shinobi" arcade by SEGA!
You get to play as a "modern ninja" - that is, you'll find a couple weapons that are peculiar of this style, but also more classic firearms/sci-fi weapons that are common in a DOOM scenario. The (IMHO great) graphics are from the obscure Shadow Warrior addon "The Last Warrior", about which I got acknowledged only thanks to the excellent resource extraction work made by Zero X Diamond (see his thread here: http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=24465).

Brief detailing of the weapons roster (no reload included this time!):

Tiger Fangs (slot 1): your basic melee weapon. Can be used for quick jab-paw combos, but with berserk, it turns into a powerful flurry attack with final blast.
Katana (slot 1): we couldn't miss this one! Stronger melee weapon, can be used to perform a quick double-slash combo - with the final blade movement, you can decapitate lesser foes (former humans and imps). Replaces chainsaw.
Stalker Darts (slot 2): your base/starting projectile weapon. Not that powerful, but has three advantages: it's silent, it rips through and the darts can be recollected once they hit a wall. Watch out for the rebound animation!
'Oppressor' automatic shotgun (slot 3): a double-barreled, belt-fed automatic shotgun with a large spread. Replaces the shotguns.
'Violator' assault rifle (slot 4): fully-automatic, moderately powerful firearm with an attached grenade launcher. Replaces the chaingun.
'Hunter' heat seeker (slot 5): dual-mode rocket launcher. Fire and hold to force the missile to travel in a straight line, or release the trigger to have it heat-seeking.
Grip Bombs (slot 5): spike-covered bombs you can throw on any surface. Once deployed, they are ready to explode upon first contact with anything that moves (including yourself). Their explosion is effective also against bosses. Harder to collect.
'Ignitor' propane flamethrower (slot 6): powerful close-quarters, rapid-fire weapon - can set to fire all former humans, leaving no resurrectable corpse, and is generally powerful against any opponent. A bit hard to manoeuver, easy to damage yourself. Replaces the plasma rifle.
'Polarizer' experimental lightning cannon (slot 7): slow to charge, fires a powerful stream of electricity that seeks for targets around. Great against packs of enemies. Replaces BFG 9000.
Seppuku Symbol (slot 8): magical, extremely powerful hitscan weapon - sucks your energy when used, but can destroy a Baron Of Hell in one shot. Kill a Spider Mastermind to get one.

This is only a rough outline of the arsenal - a couple more extras are described in the textfile.
The obligatory screenshots roundup (which don't do much justice anyway... Once I find out about a proper way to do it, I'm gonna upload also a video):

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Try it, and let me know what you think about it!

UPDATE (April 28, 2011): bugfixed/improved version uploaded to the IDGames archive (link above), now with TRUECOLOR PNG sprites!

UPDATE (May 11, 2011): another bugfix release uploaded to the IDGames archive (link above).

...

As usual, you can find all of my mods here:

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index. ... asc&page=1

In addition to the above, such list includes these previous titles:

The Rebel
The Prototype: A Tribute Mod
Revenge: a classic DOOM experience
DOOM NG (New Generation DOOM)
RSL's Immoral Conduct Z-Patch
Parallel Forces
She-Redux (AKA The Desperate DOOMwive)
RSL's Agent Diaz Patch

If you care, drop me a line...
Thanks!

[DBThanatos]

Not another gameplay mod! Those are not real mods! No original levels = Not a doom mod D:



Now, being serious, it looks interesting indeed. I should be trying it soon.


EDIT: Ok, i just tried it in a rush, and I must say that the hands look quite good, though, apparently, they're in doom format. If you could have them in PNG with it's own pallete, that'd look great.

And the RL looks weird. Not the weapon itself, but the angle. Comparing it's position with the trajectory the projectile follows, it feels rather unnatural. Moving the graphic more to the center would do the trick.

I'll keep on testing this later on.

[wildweasel]

My complete list of comments on this mod - this is NOT a list of greivances!

1. The fist's animations look really stiff and awkward, not like you're actually punching. Try adding some more "momentum" to them.
2. getting started in some WADs like Ruinbros.wad is very difficult due to the lack of ammo that you start with for the darts, lack of weapons available from dead zombies, and the general lack of potency in the dart and fist weapons.
3. The spent shell casings from the shotgun sound like a castanet band. Try lowering their volume.
4. Add Tag properties to your weapons. I have my copy of ZDoom configured to display weapon names at the bottom when I use the mousewheel to cycle through them, Skulltag-style, and it's difficult to read "RSLSTALKERDARTSTHROWABILITY" versus "STALKER DARTS." Tag is just an ordinary Decorate weapon property like this:

   Code: Select all

   Tag "STALKER DARTS"

5. Why does the flamethrower have recoil?
6. It's a bit hard to read the bar graphs in the fullscreen HUD, and the status bar HUD is too light-colored for my tastes...
7. The lightning gun seems like it'd be better fit with the "STAND BY" voice sample than the "ALL SYSTEMS READY" one. Though you can keep the latter in as an UpSound for when the player draws the weapon.

[amv2k9]

Add Tag properties to your weapons. I have my copy of ZDoom configured to display weapon names at the bottom when I use the mousewheel to cycle through them, Skulltag-style, and it's difficult to read "RSLSTALKERDARTSTHROWABILITY" versus "STALKER DARTS."

Huh. So that's what Tag is for.

[cq75]

I agree with most of what Wildweasel said

A few things I want to mention:

1. The shotgun animation looks like it's done reloading, but it actually isn't, there's a short delay before you get to shoot again, which throws me off
2. As others have mentioned, there's not enough ammo for most maps. The problem is, your starting weapon doesn't use clips, which are scattered throughout the early maps. I would recommend either giving the player a pistol to start out with or replace the clips with stalker dart ammo. It's nearly impossible to get through E4M2 if you happen to die on that map.
3. The rocket launcher is a little off, again, mentioned before. I also find the flamethrower's recoil weird.
4. I think the fist animations look fine
5. I can't really tell what the blue and green bars are for, maybe some sort of label?
6. I kind of missed my single shotgun, sometimes you don't really need both barrels, but this SW addon probably doesn't have a single barrel shotgun, so no big deal.
7. I recommend using PNGs, I can see the gray in your sprite where there should have been colors

I've had a good time playing this so far, I hope you fix some of these bugs and re-release it. I'm not sure where you got your sounds from, but they're cool too.

[Virtue]

where did you get the hud weapon sprites from?

[cq75]

where did you get the hud weapon sprites from?

The (IMHO great) graphics are from the obscure Shadow Warrior addon "The Last Warrior", about which I got acknowledged only thanks to the excellent resource extraction work made by Zero X Diamond (see his thread here: viewtopic.php?f=37&t=23305)

I missed that at first too

[rsl]

Thanks to everybody for trying out the mod and giving useful suggestions!
I'll try to address most of the above points with the next bugfix update. However, there is one that bothers me most (i.e. I don't know how to fix it):

How can I convert the current sprites to PNG with the right palette? I mean, do you know if there's a way to convert the ones I already have in the WAD?
Because they are all trimmed exactly to screen edges, and aligned accordingly. Re-extracting, trimming and aligning the originals once more is an effort that I would not want to reconsider. Maybe there's a smart way of doing everything just by using XWE and the correct palette lump...

I am open to suggestions!
Thanks in advance...

[Zero X. Diamond]

I'll see if I can't handle that task after I get out of work tonight. Should be pretty easy as I've done it before.

[cq75]

How can I convert the current sprites to PNG with the right palette?

.png sprites don't have to be in the doom pallete, in GzDoom they get rendered in full color, that's why .png is recommended

I mean, do you know if there's a way to convert the ones I already have in the WAD?

XWE might be able to do it, but I doubt it, I think the colors not in the doom pallete are lost in the original image if you import a .bmp using XWE (it auto-converts it to the Doom image format when you import it)....

Unless, you used "load raw data", then you might be able to save these sprites

I don't recommend changing the palette, since that would make the standard doom stuff look strange. The best thing to do is import them as .pngs. In GzDoom it will look fine, in software, it will look as it does now, but that's better than having it look inferior in both, right?

Another bug I forgot to mention:



I'm guessing you named your former humans getting electrocuted sprites ELECXX? I made the same mistake

The funny part was when I removed the sprite, my weapon shot techpillars!

Also: you should switch to Slade 3, you'll probably find it a lot easier to work with

[rsl]

Thank you Zero X Diamond and cq75 for your posts! That bug about the electrocuted zombies was a nasty one indeed, it's great that you managed to spot it!
As for the sprites, ARGH! It's my damn fault - I always resorted to vintage .BMP import techniques, and that's what I got at the end...

[amv2k9]

Observations:
-The sprite for the Darts always shows you holding three darts, even when you have only one or two left. An easy fix would be to put two JumpIfInventory calls in the Ready state that check for the player having 2 Dart ammo or 1 Dart ammo, and have them jump to Ready states where the graphic shows you holding 2 darts or 1 dart, respectively. Doing something similar with the belt-fed shotty would be good, too.

Suggestions:
-Altfire for the Darts: Throw three in a spread.
-Altfire for the Grip Bombs: Remote detonation, or remote deactivation so you can pick up and put back into inventory a bomb that no monsters managed to set off.

[cq75]

Showing the correct number of darts in his hand would be nice

Also

- Maybe have the shotgun ammo belt show the correct number of shells left?
- The dart pickups in sets of less than three, sometimes it looks like you're picking up three but you only get one.

I like the remote detonation for the sticky prox mines. Being able to pick them back up would be cool too, but it's not as useful as being able to detonate them remotely.

[inuyasha666]

This mod is really neat, there needs to be more kung-fu themed wads out there! But yeah, try redoing the hands, they look pretty messed up in the palete.

(PS. can i please have my posts approved yet, mods? )

[Sodaholic]

kung-fu

I think ninjistu applies here, not kung-fu.