Ashes Afterglow TC - closing the vault

[venividivici]

No worries, I am just giving feedback and also I have finished Afterglow.

I had to look up one and only walkthrough few times because I am not used to Metroidvania aspect that Afterglow has and sometimes its easy to miss something or because its previously locked without some feedback to give away that there is something behind it. Also I have no idea how to access bonus maps nor Deadman Walking along that Anomaly 210 or whatever its called.

In case .30 Carbine was to be introduced then candidates for weapon introduction are Ruger Blackhawk revolver, AMT Automag III pistol and M1 Carbine. Involving .45ACP there is M1911 or AMT Hardballer pistol and M3 Grease or UMP submachine gun. For 5.56 there is FN Minimi / M249 light machine gun and Ruger Mini-14 / AC-556 carbine. As for 7.62 NATO there is M14 battle rifle and M60 general purpose machine gun along M24 sniper rifle.

Key 2) Revolvers ( ??? & Ruger Red Hawk)
Key 3) Pistols (Glock & M1911 / AMT Hardballer aka that 1911 in The Terminator and Hitman series)
Key 4) Submachine Guns (Ingram Mac-10 & M3 Grease / UMP)
Key 5) Carbines (M1 & AC-556)
Key 6) Combat Rifles (M16 & M14)
Key 7) Machine Guns (M249 & M60)
Key 8) Sniper Rifles (Jusker & M24)
Key 9) Explosives (Master Blaster & Mk 153 SMAW)
Key 0) Special Weapons (Worthless P.I.G. & whatever else)

Key G) Grenades (Pipebomb Grenade)

[ZikShadow]

It's definitely a very delicate balance when it comes to adding guns galore. You do not want players cycling through the same slot 5-6 times just to get to the weapon they want. When people talk about unnecessary clutter, they usually mean that.

Having a lot of guns in a mod could work if there's an encumbrance system going ala' Hideous Destructor so you can only carry some instead of everything, at which point then comes the question of what kind of guns would be implemented that'd all still be useful instead of being forgotten the moment you find the new thing that everyone in the map's using. Not to mention the introduction of things like Use-to-Pickup so you wouldn't grab anything that you don't want, and so on, and so forth.

At which point, you might as well save time and just load Ashes with HDest to get the firearms boatload experience. Goodness knows there's enough addons for HDest itself to go around in the weapons department.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... -51-71.mp4

[Vostyok]

Indeed, this has been addressed before. I personally don't like mods that have heaps and heaps of weapons. Even the selection in Afterglow feels a little crowded to m once they are all collected. I appreciate the suggestions, but future changes to the arsenal will focus on removing redundancy, improving options, and having an interesting mix of contemporary firearms, jury-rigged equipment, and stuff that could be considered "experimental".

While I know there are some people who like having games with vast collections of firearms to choose from, I'd rather leave expanded arsenals to people who want to mod this stuff in. Believe me, once the next couple of projects are done, there will be plenty of different weapons scattered across the various episodes should anyone feel they want to own them all at once. Besides, I already have a good idea of what I will be including in the future.

edit: by the way, thanks to all for the continued suggestions and bug reports. I will look into these. Hoping to throw this forum a bone soon on stuff we've been working on, but we're all very busy on separate projects, so I can't.

[Gez]

A vast collection of firearms makes sense for an RPG with inventory management. You can carry just the two or three (or four or five...) guns you may need in combat, and the rest you just offload them in a chest in your player home, or sell them for money. When you find a new one, you can compare stats with what you already have and choose to use it or not.

For a game with Doom-style gameplay where you just get all weapons added to your inventory, it just means you take more time cycling through very similar weapons.

[Vostyok]

Yeah, this is exactly my problem with a lot of mods that don't set up inventory systems. Scrolling through a single hotkey to find that particular assault rifle you want... eurgh.

I did have an idea that involves special "unique weapons", that can be stored in your base when not needed, and can be swapped in exchange for one of your original weapons when you do. They will use the same ammo as the regular line-up, but often have much different appearances and abilities.

But this is still early days yet and not sure I will implement this.

[venividivici]

Just noticed I forgot about shotguns in my previous reply. In case you implement it then please remember my suggestion as M1911, UMP and M3 use .45 too as Revolver. Also AC-556 and M249 use 5.56 as M-16/Military Rifle does.

My point of suggesting .30 Carbine cartridge and M1 Carbine is that it is a notch above MAC-10 and a notch below M-16, also allow Ruger Blackhawk that is equivalent to Python and Automag III that is equivalent to Desert Eagle.

In case M1911 is introduced then AMT Hardballer that would reference both T-800 Terminator and genetically engineered assassin Agent 47.

I apologize for my persistence, this is last time with weapon suggestions from me here.

I need to note that foods should be consumable item that can be sold instead of scavenger eating food moment its picked up, player can already sell medical kits and ammunition in Afterglow. The protagonist is a scavenger after all.

Question to Vostyok, ever considered same area during different times such as day and night with some NPCs being exclusive available during day or night cycle?

[Plasmazippo]

Yeah, this is exactly my problem with a lot of mods that don't set up inventory systems. Scrolling through a single hotkey to find that particular assault rifle you want... eurgh.

I did have an idea that involves special "unique weapons", that can be stored in your base when not needed, and can be swapped in exchange for one of your original weapons when you do. They will use the same ammo as the regular line-up, but often have much different appearances and abilities.

But this is still early days yet and not sure I will implement this.

That sounds like it would take a lot of ZScripting to get right. Far be it from me to tell you how to run your mod's development, but it strikes me as more of an add-on that could be played alongside the base Ashes mod than a base feature.

On the note for hotkeys, I love to death how the military rifle has its own hotkey in the weapons pack. Makes it so handy to access without getting in the way of the junker musket!

[q3cpma]

Recently replayed the first one with the Enriched edition and found a few problems:
* In the level leading to the Temple of the Dollar, I couldn't find a way to reach the normal level end: both the metal doors leading to the remaining area were closed.
* Missing texture in the bar in The City:
http://0x0.st/oPqi.png
http://0x0.st/oPq-.png
* In Damage Control, the bunker's door buttons can be broken (using the pipebomb, at least).

[r&r]

Is there a standalone monster pack of this?

[Plasmazippo]

Not yet, but according to Vostyok's earlier posts, it may be in the works.

[venividivici]

Scavenging in Ashes boils down to spotting junk along destroying boxes and trashcans to see if some junk pops out of it...

There really should be a system to search closets, trunks and what not for junk, ammo and what not. Perhaps having same system as one when chatting with NPCs and just have templates as to how many junk of X value were uncovered.

[Ninlhil]

In Ashes 2063, is there a difference between the shotguns you get off enemies and the shotgun you get from Fortune at the end of the Dam level?

[venividivici]

IIRC its an optional quest/mission and there is no difference. Hence just a way to get shotgun sooner.

[Vostyok]

It has a reduced spread and increased attack speed over the regular shotgun. Not enough to be hugely OP, but just to give you an edge when you don't have a sawed-off in this episode.

[venividivici]

I though in second episode shotgun was rebalanced, but thats why bipedal goldfishes always went down with a single blast in first episode compared to second.

Anyway since sawed-off double barrel shotgun is mentioned, its possible to use it with a single hand as long its as long a single barrel is being fired off and not two at once. So one could have a lattern of flashlight on one hand and sawed-off on other.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/k6kq_dOsvxw