Quake: Nexus Aftermath - /me casts Resurrection

[Ghastly]

@Demolisher: I wouldn't be against models, as long as it's an optional add-on (to keep ZDoom compatibility). The main problem is converting the Quake 4 md5 models to md2s.

@ALIENWolve: I've noticed that, too. I just quartered his painchance.

@Blade: It's supposed to take place after Q4, so having some Q4 weapons and Strogg helps the story.

That and the Harvester was too good to pass up .

[Ghastly]

Okay, small update, all weapon imbalances in Deathmatch have been fixed in a way that doesn't change the weapons against monsters. The Rocket and Grenade Launchers now do 150 damage even (shouldn't really change anything against monsters) rather than 120-260, but if that's still too much, I'll make player's immune to the 50 dealt by the projectile itself. The nailgun and lightning gun do more damage, and the super shotgun does less.

I even managed to half the damage done to players by railguns, but because of a small bug fixed around ZDoom revision 670, this fix won't take effect until 97E is out. Now, to another point of discussion: How much damage should be done to players by a railgun, 75 or 100? Unfortunately, the railgun ignores armor, so no amount of armor you have can protect you from it, but stimpacks (2 point health bonus) are very plentiful. Against the soldier class, 75 damage could potentially need 3 shots to kill.

I've also reduced the duration of the power shield powerup to 45 seconds (from an accidental 2 minutes) and made it so it doesn't protect against nails, making the nailgun an even more useful weapon.

[Demolisher]

how bout '90'. (for railgun damage)
It will severely wound a player, but allow him to fight back.

[Blade3327]

You could have action indicators (like in KDiZD). In Q4, when you're near the end of a level, a funky-lookin' arrow appears at the top of the screen with "EXIT" written under it.

Have you ever thought of using slightly higher-res sprites? The creatures are kinda hard to look at. So pixelated... I'd say the only model-ripped sprite that doesn't suffer from this is the Player sprite.

Also, it would be cool to have AI-controlled squads on your side. Every Marine class (chosen at the game's beginning) should have special abilities to help you and the other soldiers... It would really make the gameplay of this mod stand out!

[Ghastly]

Allied marines are basically represented as other players in Skulltag cooperative or survival mode .

[Blade3327]

Make sure to have Techs 'n' Medics that can patch you up! Gameplay would probably sky-rocket after that!

[Ghastly]

It does, tested and works great in Skulltag. Makes things really interesting in Team Last Man Standing .

[Blade3327]

What about in ZDoom and GZDoom?

[Ghastly]

Should work, but I've never been able to test it in (G)ZDoom. It's not like you'll have much oppritunity to heal another player, anyway .

[Blade3327]

Well, other players should heal you! You should definitely be able to heal yourself, otherwise there would be no point in having multiple classes.

[Ghastly]

I've thought of that. Medics can't heal themselves, and Techs can't repair their own armor (otherwise, it might unbalance things in single player), but Medics start with an adrenaline powerup (which fully heals them, once), and in deathmatch mode can use Strogg Health Stations (otherwise, they're useless in DM). Techs start with 25 armor, and can manipulate more things across maps than the other classes.

Techs in Quake 4 are always doing things that other classes don't have the expertise to, like Strauss trying to overload that Tetranode halfway into the game, or Newberry cutting the locks to that one door. An example of how we're using this, in one of the maps I'm working on, Techs will be able to use a console to turn the lights on in a few corridors, to make fighting a few stalkers much easier, will be able to shut down some turrets and even open up a small weapons cache (throughout the map and not from the same console). That capability alone makes them my favourite class .

To make things more balanced for certain game modes, like Last Man Standing and Possession, things like doors that only Techs can open will be permanantly opened. Otherwise a Tech could walk into a room only he can open, and wait there for the rest of the game. Non-critical things like turning on lights (By the way, the lights in that map will be permanant in single player, but only be on for 30 seconds in deathmatch), or permanantly unlocking a door will still be Tech-only.

There will be a small indicator showing what a Tech-only can manipulate, and a few Tech-only things are in the demo map.

The health stations the Medics can use make for interesting gameplay, as well. They can heal a player 10 times in 10 health increments (much like the Doom 3 health stations), but recharge after a minute or so (at which point, they play a sound and go through an animation, indicating they're full again). Since it's so story-unfriendly, it's only for deathmatch modes.

In case you're wondering why anyone would play as a standard Soldier, the Soldier has an extra 50 health and starts with 3 flare powerups. Two Soldiers, a Medic and a Tech make for a really good team.

These classes really made the game a lot more fun, in multiplayer.

[Ghastly]

Okay, because of the unholy slowdown this mod is suffering, in an effort to attract new attention and use the resources Toenail and I spend a year collecting. I put up a poll to decide what sub-mod should be worked on to get more community attention for this.

1): Replacement pack: A pk3 run with most other mods that replaces weapons, monsters and pickups with the ones in Q:NA (with changes to keep balance and so you don't have a Stream Protector stuck half-in a wall). Will also have small patches so it can be played with several popular mods, like KDiZD, ZPack, Delta Invasion, etc. and will have another patch for class-based gameplay

2): Deathmatch/Deul pack: 10-map or so deathmatch pack, with Q:NA's weapons, pickups, textures, decorations, class-specific specials and other Q:NA specific things.

3): CTF pack: 10 or so map CTF pack with full compatibility with Skulltag, 1FCTF and possibly Harvester and Overload. it will also will have the class-specific abilities (tech carrying the flag can seal a door behind him, temporarily, and another tech can open it, for example). If this is chosen, I'll (try to) port over my 3 favourite Quake CTF maps (Stronghold Opposition, Final Strike and Frozen Colors).

4): Keep focusing on the main mod, which is still slowing down...

[Ghastly]

Factoring in the votes on the Skulltag forums, we're at 6/5/2/5.

I'll start working on the replacement pack, in a little while. It'll be a good oppritunity to test everything, as well as trying to get more people to help with Q:NA. I'm glad that was voted in, since it'll be the easiest (no new maps involved), but with all the map packs it can be played with, it'll be the most flexible.

I won't be modifying ammo that much, by the way. One problem with certain replacement mods is that when they replace ammo is that you might not find the ammo for a weapon very easily. For example, a plasma rifle using cells, next to a completely different ammo type replacing a cell pack, when that's the only ammo you'll find for the plasma rifle for a long while. That can be really hurtful in Deathmatch mode.

Edit: Oh, I'll need some beta testers, by the way. Especially for the Delta Invasion and KDiZD replacement patches.

[Orangewaggs]

i can test for kdizd ive been doing that alot for different replacement mods so...

[Ghastly]

Haven't started working on the replacement pack, yet. I'm working on finalizing more graphics and the behaviour and things for some monsters.

I replaced the sprites and added a smoke trail for the nailgun projectiles, and I compeletely revamped the lightning gun, though it'll need some ammo-consumption and vs-monster and vs-player balancing. Since I finally have Quake 4, I'll pick through the models and rip anything we could use as decoration (that wouldn't be redundant), and I'll try to add a melee attack for the Heavy Hovertank and maybe Tactical Transfer.

I'm still looking for someone to help with some gore effects (mostly making/finding/editing the sprites, for them), and new sprites for the Dark Matter Gun and BFG projectiles. I could also use someone to edit some of the music, so it loops better.