[WIP] Interstellar Enforcer - (Hiatus)

[ReformedJoe]

Now featured on Doom Mod Madness!


Very nice. And...

just checked out the demo, what's there is pretty neat! I like the additional systems and the PDU you've added in; as well as the base at home - definitely getting a Mass Effect vibe from things here. Best of luck making the rest of the project, and looking forward to playing it as well

Thank you as well. I'm a fan of your work.

Now onto business.

So the demo has been out for a few weeks now, and I've gathered a decent amount of feedback from here and other sources.

The primary points which come up are these:
1. Health is too scarce.
2. The size of some areas makes it difficult to respond to enemies, or even notice them before they hit you.
3. Feeding back into 2, the nature of the weapons makes it frustrating to respond at range.
4. Some items are hard to see either because they are too small or they blend into the ground.

So this is good, because none of this is particularly difficult to remedy, and I have a few ways to do this in mind. I'm frankly quite pleased with the feedback I've received, because it was all mechanical stuff like this and not "the entire concept of your mod is trash and you should die".

Of the fixes I have in mind:
1. The implementation of difficulty levels and the shop should take some of the edge off in terms of resource scarcity. More health will be added as a general rule.
2. and 3. These points tie into each other. In some cases, enemies in particularly annoying locations will be moved or cut entirely. I've got plans for a pistol altfire and changes to the rifles alt fire that should help players return fire at greater range. The actual sniper tier weapon should help here as well.
4. This is an art and scaling issue, so pretty simple to resolve.

There are a lot of other smaller issues as well. This feedback will be folded into IE going forward.

Speaking of forward, work on the other planets is chugging along nicely. Here are a few new shots showcasing the first mission of "Frostwall", and the general "feel" I'm going for.

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Yes I fucking love hazard stripes. Fight me.

[Thedarkcube]

I tried to run this on my phone...I had to remove my battery in order to close the app

[Mere_Duke]

Wow. Tried demo (not yet finished) and I'm eager to say that I like it very much!
This has a strong vibe of Temple of the Lizard Men mod.
So far nothing has stopped me from enjoying the game. The only minor issue is probably the mouse sensitivity in HUD menus (it's too high).
Thanks!

[Mere_Duke]

Just finished playing the demo. Wow! It's much cooler than I expected. Reminds me of Temple of the Lizard Men or Mass Effect series.

What I like?
- WolfenDoom-style level progression (base, NPCs, shop, etc.)
- The atmosphere. Stunning! Pyramids, distant planets, jungles, remnants of previous adventurers
- Spookiness. It was eerie at the end of the 2nd mission which I like very much. (I'm eager to face those "flying orbs with hanging spaghetti", if they were shown as a tease for the new monster type )

What would I have changed?
- Add a little more props to the living parts of alien planets - paintings, flowers, chairs etc etc. (Some houses are too big inside, they should be a little smaller. Some are good like the Facility Offices, but they need more decoration. This is my personal opinion cause I compare this mod with a top-notch WolfenDoom )
- Change some water textures (those that are 100% reflective like a mirror what is kinda unrealistic).
- Add more notes and messages (they are very cool to read and dive into the story).

PS: The 1st mission final encounter is epic! ;D

PPS: Where is the Technician?

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I have missed him, but when I returned back to the AI, there was the option to say "Your technician is dead."

[ReformedJoe]

PS: The 1st mission final encounter is epic! ;D

Yes, it truly is one of the toughest fights in the mod

RE the technician:

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That sidequest is half finished. You probably stumbled across the technicians ID card. When you pick that item up, there's no indication (other than examining the item in your inventory) that the item is tied to the quest. It's also kind of lying on the ground with no body or log beside it, so it's easy just to miss it or not even notice you picked it up. Things will be made clearer... eventually.

General status update for other folks is that it's coming along slowly but surely. I just got back from vacation and my blood is still about 50% vodka. More substantial status update coming this weekend. Or maybe not. Who knows? Not me, that's for sure.

I had ambitions at one time of doing a weekly or monthly update, but my work scheme is too sporadic to pull that off.

[TDG]

I tried running the demo but when it is booting up I get the following message before I need to close the window

IEDemo1_v01.pk3:zscript.txt, line 57: Class ActorHeadLight has unknown base class SpotLight
IEDemo1_v01.pk3:zscript.txt, line 103: Attempt to override non-existent virtual function Activate
IEDemo1_v01.pk3:zscript.txt, line 112: Attempt to override non-existent virtual function Deactivate
IEDemo1_v01.pk3:zscript.txt, line 120: Attempt to override non-existent virtual function Tick

[Mere_Duke]

You probably should update your gzdoom, current stable is 3.5.0.

[TDG]

That was indeed the problem. The Demo runs now.

Really big maps so far.

[Enjay]

Played through the demo last night. I found a bit too much wandering back and forth or sometimes thinking "yeah, I remember that I was supposed to do something" or "I remember I saw that thing about 15 minutes ago" but I can't remember what/where and the objectives log isn't really helping me. It's really not a "sit down for 5 minutes and kill some bad guys" kind of game but that's cool.

However, it's very impressive. Very, very nice indeed. The Unreal 1 vibe is really strong and I loved that about it and the completeness of the whole in-game setup plus the semi-out of game stuff like the UI make it feel very much like a game in its own right, rather than merely a Doom mod. I loved the AI character in the base. I thought that really worked. Be nice if it had an actual audible voice.

The only really weak point (IMO) was the enemies. Even though they are custom non-Doom originals, they are based on very familiar sprites. This game would really benefit (IMO) from having it's own bestiary, unique to it and never seen before (either that or from some rarer/more obscure resource). I'm aware that's a tall order, but I think that it really would make a difference if it could be done.

Sorry if any of those points have been mentioned before, I don't have time to read all the posts in the thread again - playing the game took nearly 2.5 hours as it is.

[Mere_Duke]

The only really weak point (IMO) was the enemies.

As for enemes, I think the worst thing is that the little one is just a resized version of the big one. Looks strange.
As for "familiar sprites", I remember the green glove was in RTC-3057

Played through the demo last night. I found a bit too much wandering back and forth or sometimes thinking "yeah, I remember that I was supposed to do something" or "I remember I saw that thing about 15 minutes ago" but I can't remember what/where and the objectives log isn't really helping me. It's really not a "sit down for 5 minutes and kill some bad guys" kind of game but that's cool.

Yes, quest descriptions should be improved (for example, the one where you should find the very first explosives). But as a fan of TES3: Morrowind, I didn't find this to be much confusing

[ReformedJoe]

Totally missed you there Enjay, sorry. Thanks for the kind words.

The only really weak point (IMO) was the enemies. Even though they are custom non-Doom originals, they are based on very familiar sprites. This game would really benefit (IMO) from having it's own bestiary, unique to it and never seen before (either that or from some rarer/more obscure resource). I'm aware that's a tall order, but I think that it really would make a difference if it could be done.

I would dearly love to have original art, or at least good stuff from really obscure sources. But I think most mod authors would. I do have some stuff in the pipe thats "new" to Doom at least, and I'll always try to present old enemies in different ways. Even if its just a palette swap.

As for the "getting lost" bit... well, the mod used to be exponentially more confusing. The maps in the demo all used to have direct transitions between them (you can see the vestiges of this in the roads, and the way they get cut off in certain areas.). It was getting to the point where I was getting lost or forgetting what was next and I made the stupid fucking thing. It's an ongoing struggle to nudge the player in the approximately correct direction.


So, onto business.
So again, a big thank you to the folks who downloaded the demo. There was a good chunk of useful and universally very constructive feedback.

The chief issue reported was the perceived unfair difficulty of the demo. I see where people are coming from, and some changes have been made. The supply scarcity has been reduced, a few encounters had their challenge factor dialed in substantially, and the player will have some new tools to deal with distant enemies. I've also added a new difficulty level that makes enemies a bit more forgiving. This is all wrapped up in an updated demo which you can grab below, or from the OP.

Download:

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http://www.mediafire.com/file/ec0upjem5 ... 2.zip/file

Progress on the first planet has been slowly chugging along, but unfortunately the real world has intervened. C'est la vie and all that. I've also had to re purpose a good chunk of the final mission on planet 1, as it really wasn't working with the lighting conditions which the mission implied. The actual geometry has been salvaged, so this is a case of taking a step back in one area to move forward in another. Some groundwork has also been laid on the other planets, though there isn't a whole lot that I'd feel comfortable showcasing just yet.

Overall progress has been slow.

In any case, here are a few shots for you folks:

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[camper]

Why is this choice of weapon in the game? Personal preferences or a certain concept?

[ReformedJoe]

Why is this choice of weapon in the game? Personal preferences or a certain concept?

There isn't an easily articulated reason.

From a visual and audio perspective, as long as the weapons don't clash visually too much and they sound "punchy", I consider that good. I largely went with "sci-fi" type weapons to fit the feel of the mod.

From a mechanical perspective, the overall lack of hitscans is to encourage the player to close the distance with the enemy, which puts you within their range, which increases tension. I think its also a lot more interesting than just pointing and clicking. You have to lead shots. Also, I find watching tracers fly towards their target to be very cool, visually speaking.

I'm constantly revising and tweaking things but this is the overall "concept" that has emerged so far.

Does that answer your question?

[camper]

From a mechanical perspective, the overall lack of hitscans is to encourage the player to close the distance with the enemy, which puts you within their range, which increases tension. I think its also a lot more interesting than just pointing and clicking. You have to lead shots. Also, I find watching tracers fly towards their target to be very cool, visually speaking.

Yes it's good.


I thought about limiting the range of weapons. I came to the conclusion that can add, in addition to the speed of the projectile, also the effect of gravity and the life time of the projectile.

[ReformedJoe]

So I debated with myself for quite a while before making this post, primarily because I figured the status of the project was self evident after having not posted any updates for a while (damn, it's been that long?). But enough people have approached me through various means asking about the project that I feel I owe them something other then silence.

So here's an official announcement: Interstellar Enforcer is on hiatus.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when authors ghost their projects without so much as a "goodbye", and I realized that I was becoming "That guy". I haven't forgotten about IE and I definitely intend to return to it. However there are massive issues with the project internally that make it an equally massive pain in the ass to work on. Many of these are due to my lack of knowledge at the time, and my habit of brute forcing through problems with ugly workarounds. Such as the horrendous pile of spaghetti the ACS based menu system has become. There are also issues of gameplay and narrative which run deeper.

Anyway, I have a plan to move forward in a more focused manner and to pare down some of the elements of IE that don't work well together.

If you'd like to read a bit of my plan:

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Less narrative:
Initially IE was a more open world. Each of the planets was a hub area where the player could freely traverse. Eventually it became too cumbersome because directing the player was a matter of coming up with narrative justifications in shoving them towards a particular area. This led to the mission/objective based structure where the hub was chopped up into more digestible bites. But the issue still persists in that the players progression is driven by an arbitrary narrative/mission objective reason. Players don't know where they are going or why, other than "text on screen says go here". There are also wider issues, such as: "If I am supposedly a member of a massive military organization, why am I always alone on missions?". The answer is, "Because videogames ".

I plan on returning to the more hub based structure, and stripping out the bulk of the narrative. I am very much on the Carmack side of the story debate and I want to move more towards a gameplay based metroid style progression where the player encounters obstacles and naturally looks for ways to circumvent them. You, the player, should be the one deciding where to go and when, and the game should provide explicit direction only when asked.

Upgrades drive progression:
The system in place atm somehow turned into an afterthought in terms of impact on gameplay. Upgrades and weapons have very little impact on the way the player... plays and progresses through the world. Getting a new weapon or item should feel like an event.

So the plan is to empower weapons and upgrades and give them an appropriate place in the design. Like a metroid game, if you were to restart the game with all upgrades there should be no impediment to your progress. Weapons need to have different strengths and weaknesses, more pronounced then just damage and accuracy. This is likely going to mean fewer, but more distinct weapons. Upgrades will focus primarily on traversal, ie the way the player moves through the world. Things like opening different kinds of doors, reaching higher ledges and crossing wider gaps.

Respecting your intelligence:
Going forward IE is going to assume that you are smart and naturally driven. That you are able to pick up cues and clues on your own, and if you get stuck offer help only when asked. To that end, there are going to be massive map restructures because progression can't feel arbitrary. Things need to flow naturally and the layouts of IE maps don't really support that right now. This means smaller, but denser maps with more interconnections.

TLDR: Think metroid prime 1, but with flashier and less tedious combat.

Otherwise, see you later and apologies to anyone who got their hopes up after seeing me bump this dead-ass thread.