[RELEASE 1+] That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

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rsl
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[RELEASE 1+] That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by rsl »

Hi all,

here you go with a new weapons/gameplay modification:

Image

'That Amazing Space Amazon'

Work on this somehow started by chance, when I was provided with a set of Strife-based resources that I liked and then wanted to use.
I tried once again to limit myself to a minimalistic-yet-versatile arsenal that mostly revives the traditional DOOM weapon canons, albeit with a few peculiar variations - and a couple totally unorthodox entries. ;-)

So let's step into the shoes of UAC 'Space Amazon' Sheila Doe, and see what she got in her handbag: :-)


- classic arsenal reimplementation -

slot 1) 'TazerFang': the game's melee weapon. In your right hand, a knife that you can slash and stab with - using a one-two movement - that gets dramatically powered by berserk. But most of all, a handheld hidden tazer device in your left hand: approach an enemy and electrocute it to gain a little time lapse to finish it with your blade while it stays paralyzed. >-D Mind you, the tazer is fed by an auto-recharging battery - if you try to use it without enough power, you'll get the shock handed back to you.

slot 3) 'Hydra': a pump-action shotgun that you can load with up to three shells at once. You might enjoy the dismembering effect that a fully-charged blast can produce on your enemies.

slot 4) 'Manticore': this Nordenfelt-style machinegun rapidly fires its three barrels in varied combinations, thus dynamically determining ammo consumption and damage dealt with each round. With the launcher attached underneath, it can also propel Torpedo missiles (special terrain-sensing missiles that avoid accidental collisions with floor or ceiling, as long as their trajectory pitch permits).

slot 6) 'Gryphon': if you like plasma rifles and BFGs, you'll be happy to know that this is a combination of both. The rapid plasma stream is faster than average, and compensates for its small windup time; the BFG-style blast is smaller and less damaging, but also faster and delay-free, thus making this one the most powerful weapon in the set.


- weird new entries -

slot 2) 'Phoenix': this energy rifle feeds upon the same autorechargeable battery mentioned above, and can either prove very weak (and safe) or very strong (and dangerous) depending on the use you make of it. Its primary firing function lets you torment the opponent with high-rate, weak shocking bursts that keep the enemy paralyzed, and can terminate it after many rounds. On the other hand, its alternate fire mode sucks up all battery energy at once - and a few health points from the wielder, too - to create a devastating lightning ball that is capable of clearing the surrounding area - player included. In short, it's great for quick-poking enemies when you prefer to spare bigger ammo (primary), but also to get rid of a group if you can fire and then escape to search for cover (secondary).

or (with addon)

'Unicorn': a new assault rifle that uses the same projectiles of 'Manticore'. It cannot autofire, but each round is roughly two times powerful; but most of all, it has an altfire mode based on a refillable mini acid tank (you spend one gyroscopic grenade to replenish it after 4 rounds), that allows you to fire streaks of acid vapor - very effective on former humans.

slot 5) 'Basilisk': if Torpedo missiles were not explosive enough, this rotor-based grenade launcher gives you Gyroscopic grenades: these can bounce around forever like crazy - dealing damage and leaving a gas trail behind - before exploding into a cloud of acid gas. And if you get tired of playing pinball with monsters as bumpers, you can always detonate them before time with your secondary trigger...


The mod contains a couple other niceties that I'm not spoiling here, but you might notice around in the screenshots:
Spoiler:
Spoiler: Old downloads
IDGames release 1+! (June 14, 2013)

Download here

Have fun :!:
And check the preliminary credits list to see if your stuff is uncredited - we're still in time to fix that, I hope! :)
Spoiler:
Last edited by rsl on Fri Jun 14, 2013 1:03 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by Matt »

Can you please optimize your screenshots? They're all just under 1 megabyte each as non-lossy truecolour PNGs and this page is probably bigger than the mod itself!

EDIT: Okay, just IDFA'd through Map02.

+ definitely liking some of these weapons, though
- the shotgun feels terribly sluggish.
- the gryphon needs an ammo counter on the left (also the selected-weapon ammo counter could definitely do with a bigger font).
+ love that phoenix effect!
+ i really like how fast the gibs and debris move. haven't really noticed any obvious repeat bits either, at least nothing close enough to be really jarring to someone not specifically looking for repeats.
? any real reason why the gryphon can't just shoot the long shot as main and BFG shot as altfire?
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by rsl »

Fixed the shots! Thanks for the heads-up. :)

And thanks for trying out the mod! A couple comments point by point:
Vaecrius wrote:+ definitely liking some of these weapons, though
Thanks! :D
- the shotgun feels terribly sluggish.
Eh, if you refer to fully-loading with altfire... That's somehow intended as atradeoff for power. But if you keep using the primary trigger only, firing/pumping sequences should be quicker and more efficient. :wink:
- the gryphon needs an ammo counter on the left (also the selected-weapon ammo counter could definitely do with a bigger font).
Yeah, for the moment I preferred to expose a special purpose indicator that is different for each weapon. But that's a good point, I could definitely try to add a left counter...
+ love that phoenix effect!
I must honestly credit Zygo and his "POSSEST" mod for that. I used and tweaked his effect DECORATE-wise, and modified all of the involved graphics with added blurs and overlays to improve the effect.
+ i really like how fast the gibs and debris move. haven't really noticed any obvious repeat bits either, at least nothing close enough to be really jarring to someone not specifically looking for repeats.
The resulting gib/death system you see is a composite combination of several source one, that I tried to tweak for this mod in a unique way. It cost me a bit of work, but I guess it's been worth it! :) Credit for the original systems is given in the lumps, and shall obviously be reported in the release textfile.
? any real reason why the gryphon can't just shoot the long shot as main and BFG shot as altfire?
Well, I just wanted to differentiate it from Manticore... :wink:



Thanks for trying it out, and... Keep them coming! :!:
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by Mav3rick »

Tested and look very nice :)

Yet as Vaecrius said shotgun way to slow to use in hard moments or kick kills
like the weapons funtions but... 2 weapons Phoenix and Gryphon use cells and some maps are none or in later levels wich make them no too useful on some maps
like the new hub

keep the good work

oh and great touch with the bloody rain ;)
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by Ed the Bat »

Another mod already! You work fast. :)

From the screenshots, it looks like more of the quality work I've come to expect from you. I'll give this a whirl later today. And as always, if something pops up in the code that you need or want help with, I'm always eager to lend a hand.

Keep up the good work! :D
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by rsl »

@Mav3rick: Thank you! :D
Mav3rick wrote:Yet as Vaecrius said shotgun way to slow to use in hard moments or kick kills
Hmmm... I wonder if this could be solved by speeding up even more the rearm animation in case of single shell shots. Or were you referring to the 2-stage and 3-stage reload times :?: I'm open to suggestions! :)
like the weapons funtions but... 2 weapons Phoenix and Gryphon use cells and some maps are none or in later levels wich make them no too useful on some maps like the new hub
Yet consider that Phoenix relies on auto-regenerating ammo (often replaces Chainsaw), while Gryphon relies on cells (often replaces Plasma Rifle and BFG9000). Phoenix has the potential of working as anti-panic weapon/slow room clearer even in early levels (with its secondary fire), but you must be willing to recharge the battery enough while dodging attacks, and spend a bit of health when using altfire, so it's there for mostly extreme situations... :wink:

@Ed the Bat: Thank you! And glad to have you here again! :D
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by DoomNukem »

Awesome stuff, the new hands look amazing, drawing weapons feels a bit sluggish as do shooting some of the weapons, mostly the shotgun as the others mentioned, the gore is sick always a plus.
just one thing, the vents on the shotguns heatshield shouldn't flare up as there is a barrel underneath them, I mean it looks badass if not a tad weird, also really like the od pump.
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by Ed the Bat »

I've taken a few minutes to try this out (haven't done what I'd consider a thorough analysis yet, of course), and a couple things come to mind.

1) I notice that, when the Hydra is empty, hitting primary or secondary fire will have the same effect, except the alt-fire is much slower. Since they're doing the same thing, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I'm cool with the alt-fire being slow when adding a second or third shell, but I'd recommend making it quicker on the first one, to match the primary fire's pump motion.
2) The words and numbers (mainly the smaller ones, such as ammo counters) on the statusbar are hard for me to read, because the colors blend together. I actually spent a good five minutes or so staring at my HUD, trying to figure out if the carry capacity for shotgun shells was 50 or 60.
3) Picking up dropped shotgun shells from dead sergeants seems to only give one or two shells, but the picture still looks like a set of four, and the message even still says I got 4 shells.
4) This one's just an opinion, so don't take it to heart if you don't want to, but I am really not a fan of the gore. There's so much blood and so many severed heads and body parts all over the place after just a small firefight, that I can barely see what's going on or where I am. I feel like I'm wading aimlessly through a garbage dump full of heads and red goo. Not to mention the tremendous slowdown when I hit a particularly juicy enemy and he spawns about a thousand gobs of blood. Again, just an opinion; I'd wager that most people disagree, so if you're shooting for what's popular with the audience, I guess you did fine.

If anything else jumps out at me, I'll be sure to let you know.
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by CruX »

I've had a lot of fun with this so far. Love the ole' one-two move with the fists and I appear to be the only person so far that hasn't really had a problem with the hydra, though in terms of weapons, I think this'd benefit from a more stock-type of assault rifle (the phoenix is a bit funky to use). Also, the amazon's sounds are...kinda annoying. Any specific reason you're using that particular sound set? If anything, the interaction and thud sounds could be a little less dramatic.
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by JimmyJ »

I really enjoy the slow feel of the shotgun. Manually cycling shells makes each blast extra satisfying, and blasting into a swarm of imps with three rounds at once never gets old.
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by ArchXeno »

JimmyJ wrote:I really enjoy the slow feel of the shotgun. Manually cycling shells makes each blast extra satisfying, and blasting into a swarm of imps with three rounds at once never gets old.
I agree, but the gibs can be OTT. Blood and guts are good, but not to the point of a framerate drop because I shot 3 zombiemen. Also, dismembering a shotgun guy with the hydra can result in two separate torsos. The Cacodemon death frames are also a bit choppy. Heavy Weapons Guy gibs waaay to easily.

I honestly think this is the best weapon mod rsl has done so far. The weapons feel satisfying as hell to use. However, the gameplay can feel a tad too easy at times, though I have not tried it with UV fastmonsters yet.
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by Mav3rick »

rsl wrote: Hmmm... I wonder if this could be solved by speeding up even more the rearm animation in case of single shell shots. Or were you referring to the 2-stage and 3-stage reload times :?: I'm open to suggestions! :)
"the rearm animation in case of single shell shots" yup make it more faster the 2 and 3 stage are very well it make the shotgun feel powerful ;)
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by rsl »

First off, thanks to you all for the good feedback! I appreciate a lot the fact that you found the mod mostly satisfying! :D
As for the suggestions, let me discuss them one by one:
DoomNukem wrote:(...) just one thing, the vents on the shotguns heatshield shouldn't flare up as there is a barrel underneath them, I mean it looks badass if not a tad weird (...)
Good point! I'm not really a real world weapons expert, so this one really got overlooked. Shouldn't be too hard to correct, either.
Ed the Bat wrote:1) I notice that, when the Hydra is empty, hitting primary or secondary fire will have the same effect, except the alt-fire is much slower. Since they're doing the same thing, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I'm cool with the alt-fire being slow when adding a second or third shell, but I'd recommend making it quicker on the first one, to match the primary fire's pump motion.
This really makes sense! I shall add this in the next update of the mod.
2) The words and numbers (mainly the smaller ones, such as ammo counters) on the statusbar are hard for me to read, because the colors blend together. I actually spent a good five minutes or so staring at my HUD, trying to figure out if the carry capacity for shotgun shells was 50 or 60.
I have to agree :) and therefore I shall change te color to better contrast for next version.
3) Picking up dropped shotgun shells from dead sergeants seems to only give one or two shells, but the picture still looks like a set of four, and the message even still says I got 4 shells.
Yeah, this is due to me still opting to use two default ammo types (clips and shells) that do not incorporate +IGNORESKILL in their definition. It would be probably better to redefine them.
4) This one's just an opinion, so don't take it to heart if you don't want to, but I am really not a fan of the gore. (...)
I understand your point. Sometimes I happened to notice a bit of slowdown too, due to the abundance of gore; and I admit that ludicrous gibbing is a bit deliberate on many weak enemies. However, since others seem to appreciate the overloaded gore system anyway, I guess that the best option now would be to distribute a "gore tamer" addon together with the main modification, so that if you apply it, you'll get a (moderate? heavy?) reduction of gore effects. What do you think? :)
Globe wrote:(...) in terms of weapons, I think this'd benefit from a more stock-type of assault rifle (the phoenix is a bit funky to use).
Heh :) I actually already discussed this subject with my friend Chronoteeth (the one providing me with the starting Strife-style spriteset BTW), and while I was opting for a conceptual limitation of the arsenal, he wanted me to add more weapons and go for a more traditional setup. I have to think about this... :roll:
Also, the amazon's sounds are...kinda annoying. Any specific reason you're using that particular sound set? If anything, the interaction and thud sounds could be a little less dramatic.
To be honest, I also suspected they sounded a bit... Disturbing. Gotta change that!! :oops:
BTW, they are from Tekken 3's Julia (albeit altered).
ArchXeno wrote:(...) dismembering a shotgun guy with the hydra can result in two separate torsos.(...)
ARGH!! I swear I did everything to avoid this. Gotta go back and check the XDeath sequence definition... Thanks for pointing out! :)

BOTTOM LINE: thaks everybody for trying this out - and helping me fix it :!: I'm also going to add preliminary credit information in the OP, so that if you notice something missing, we can add that in time :wink:
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by twinkieman93 »

Don't change the shotgun sprite simply because it's unrealistic, especially if you think the flames coming out of the vents looks cool. You know, Rule of Cool and all that.
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Re: That Amazing Space Amazon... (by RSL)

Post by Ed the Bat »

If you added a patch to reduce gore, that would be fantastic. Either that, or move the gore itself into a patch -- not sure which one would be simpler from a coding standpoint. Or maybe even make it a toggle via user-defined key/button? That would probably be the most complex...

Either way, making it optional means people on both sides of the opinion can get what they want, which is always excellent! :D
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