[SHELVED] Ascension Revolution (RPG TC)

[XCVG]

Alpha 1 is released: Download

It features two (mostly) playable chapters, mostly working RPG mechanics, a few items and enemies, and a whole lot of small changes. Still nowhere near complete, but it's tangibly something.

[XCVG]

With exams almost done, I've started to work on this again. Not much progress so far, obviously, but I'm working on it again. I did a bit more mapping and refactored some of the ACS.

You can download the latest development build here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/idx8t87ynifi1 ... 0140421.7z. The format is slightly different- you'll need to extract the archive into a working GZDoom install and run with dysbase.wad as IWAD and dysgame.pk3 as a PWAD/file.

I've also toyed with trying to get a more "retro" or "classic" look out of the game. Disabled all texture filtering, trying various resolutions. Unfortunately the software renderer really doesn't like a lot of my map geometry, which is no surprise considering that I'm pushing limits (yes, really). Pictures inside spoiler.

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Last but not least, I've completely reworked the organization of my project folders, moved to a proper pk3-template folder structure, and placed the whole thing under source control. The Git repository isn't public yet but I may make it public in the future.

As an aside, I have been working on the overall verse. The latest collection of notes can be downloaded here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/601 ... en_pre5.7z.

[XCVG]

The result of playing with settings. You can also see some of the progress here.



Honestly, not sure if I want to continue. It's slow going, and there's no end in sight. Is anyone even interested?

[samtam90]

I'm definately interested (I've been silently following this for quite a while, actually). I've always wanted to see a RPG-styled wad for zdoom like this, so please don't abandon it!

[XCVG]

I've officially abandoned the morality system. Instead, there will be a politics system, which works the same way but is defined in terms of your political leanings rather than your personal traits. It has three axes like the morality system did. They are Autocratic<>Democratic, Authoritarian<>Libertarian, and Capitalist<>Socialist.

Originally, it was going to have both systems. I'm lazy and I don't want to code both, but more seriously it would be much more difficult to balance and maintain both. I feel that keeping only the politics system fits the cynical tone of the game and the recurring themes of relative, loosely defined morality.

Your choices affect your politics stats, which affects options later in the game and will affect the ending.

Since this game is very WIP, this is not set in stone. However, the Bastille Day demo will likely be released with this system.

[Arthropleura]

This looks awesome! It's everything i hoped strife was! a real open world RPG on the doom engine! Gonna fire it up and try it out now.

[Edit] Okay I've played up until after the prison escape. I'm not sure why but the stone floors in that area seem to be damaging floors. And after i jumped in the well nat started attacking me. Is this a bug in the alpha1 release or is it because i'm not using GZdoom?

[XCVG]

The stone floors aren't damaging floors. There's something shooting at you, and for the life of me I can't figure out what it is. There aren't any ranged monsters placed on the map. I'm going to recheck the world spawning scripts, but I haven't got to it yet.

Not sure why Nat is attacking you. She's marked as friendly and I've never had her attack me. With that said, friendly monsters sometimes try to shoot through you, which is impossible. What exactly did you do?

[Arthropleura]

I dont think it was an enemy shooting me, the damage only occured when i was standing on the stoop of the tavern and the lip of the well, and it did so in regular intervals. Nat only attacked me after i had jumped into the well. I did try to play through the prolouge. I got past the gas portion but died at the elite guard. after that i started a new game and skipped straight to the prison break. ( love the truck drive sequence BTW ) Maybe it has something to do with that. I'll start it up again and try from the prison sequence without the prolouge this time. See if that solves the problem.

[Arthropleura]

Revelation! It was indeed some far off enemy ( a bandit ) I think that might also be why nat was shooting me. ( to stupid to know not to shoot through me ) This does highlight some not often seen issues with the hitscan enemies. I'm not sure if it's possible to give them a maximum engagement distance so they don't fire at enemies a mile off. I do remember rerading that you can give a cutoff for hitscan range. But i would much prefer the fastprojectile route instead as it allows for more realistic ballistics while letting you know if there's some guy a mile off taking potshots at you. I'm sure as the enemy mechanics are refined and the levels take further shape ( more cover ) That the issue will melt away but as is it's very confusing and difficult. I did notice some minor UI issues such as items appearing above the inventory boxes instead of in them. I also noticed some companion ai issues. Nat seemed to keep marching off to the sea then teleporting back to me ( is the teleporting intentional? Seems like it is ) Graphic glitches seem to be limited to hall of mirrors small portions of the sky box but you did say that software support was unintentional at best.

[XCVG]

It is possible to limit hitscan and sight ranges and they're supposed to be limited. I'll look into the DECORATE code; I might have missed something. I'm leery of fastprojectile since I've heard it has performance issues. I might just remove the gun bandit from the random spawn list- an archer bandit is more plausible anyway.

I haven't touched the UI coding at all. For now the official recommendation is to use the alternate HUD.

Companion AI is garbage. The built-in AI is not the best and I'm not very good at the DECORATE magic needed to improve it. It will improve, but not for a while. Teleporting is intentional, since companions are terrible at following you.

I'm honestly surprised the software renderer works at all for you. For me, it's been unusably crashy. Looking at the sky causes the game to crash and sometimes it just crashes randomly. I no longer recommend even trying the software renderer.

[Arthropleura]

On companions, I know brutal doom had some half decent companions, but Sgt. Mk II is infamous for his spaghetti code. And the software renderer is pretty stable unless you start looking at the hall of mirrors in the sky. and I would love to use GZdoom but my computer cant seem to handle it. I might be getting some better hardware in october but until then i'm stuck with software.

[Arthropleura]

If your looking for someone to do some spritework marlboro mikes got some interesting work. His current offerings don't really fit the theme being mostly urban themed and he has a very distinct style so it might be an all or nothing proposition there. But he doesn't seem to be otherwise engaged 99% of his post being on the spriting carnival. So if you dont mind having one guy doing all the spritework you might drop him a line. Just thinking here.

[XCVG]

Finally, I'm to the stage where it's something resembling playable. Nowhere near finished, of course, but there's actual gameplay and not just a bunch of disjointed scenes.



Slated release for the beta/demo is Bastille Day. This will be the first chapter of the game. It will not be polished. It will still be full of placeholders and bugs and glitches. But it will be playable.

[samtam90]

Looking forward to it!

In the video, there's a question you can ask to the NPC regarding your reputation: how does that system work? Does it affect quests you can get and/or NPC reactions?

[Arthropleura]

Absolutely fantastic progress! Cant wait for the beta!