[WIP] Malice - Version 1.0pre5 [BURNING MELEE!]

[iWonder]

That's an impressive loadout, prolly gonna be my go-to weapon mod for anything really

One thing that's bugging me is the recoil on some of the weps, personally I've never been a big fan of it and hate when some1 makes an amazing weapon pack but instantly ruins it by shoving modern recoil management into it. It doesn't require skill it's just plain annoying having to constantly move my mouse downward while doing everything else.

I really do hope you implement a cvar to just completely disable recoil or at least make it so that aim automatically returns to a starting point.

[PatCatz2004]

I WANNA BE A PLAYTESTER!

[TheRailgunner]

I WANNA BE A PLAYTESTER!

I'll send you a link sometime soon if you're interested.

That's an impressive loadout, prolly gonna be my go-to weapon mod for anything really

One thing that's bugging me is the recoil on some of the weps, personally I've never been a big fan of it and hate when some1 makes an amazing weapon pack but instantly ruins it by shoving modern recoil management into it. It doesn't require skill it's just plain annoying having to constantly move my mouse downward while doing everything else.

I really do hope you implement a cvar to just completely disable recoil or at least make it so that aim automatically returns to a starting point.

I've significantly reduced the recoil across the board as a response to this - it's barely noticeable on most weapons, with the CFG's recoil being mostly aesthetic and lacking any real aim shifting.

Anyway, I've decided to replace the Nishimura Eight Sniper Rifle with the Nishimura Twelve Railgun:



It fulfills much the same role in combat, but generally deals more damage, as well as having a minor explosive effect upon impact owing to the impact velocity (at least in terms of lore). For practical purposes, it's a beefier sniper rifle that takes about a third of a second to charge before firing. It has an 8 round magazine and the same magnification options as the N8.

Lore-wise, the N12 was the last man-portable weapon fielded to Legion personnel to follow the "Nishimura # [weapon type]" naming scheme - the N13 Assault Rifle was a one-off prototype, and the N7 Mark III was replaced with the AN-08 Machine Gun and AN-09 Automatic Rifle (itself summarily replaced with the Type 5B Phaser Rifle - for reference, Malice's N7 is a Mark I).

EDIT: Originally named the N12 as "Nishimura Thirteen", but remembered that I already gave that designation to a different weapon design - essentially a non-bullpup N7 with a Hyperspace Mag. I decided to go with 12 since I haven't used it yet, and spat out a little bit of Legion lore because the spirit moved me, or some shit like that.

[Linz]

Can't wait for Malice to come out Railgunner,looks cool

[Ferretmanjcdenton]

That looks amazing ...

Will it work with other monster mods ?

[TheRailgunner]

That looks amazing ...

Will it work with other monster mods ?

Malice is compatible with any mod that doesn't replace the player or weapons, so monster mods are compatible with it.

Anyway, here's an update on Malice's progress - it's somewhat uneven, mostly because I'm testing out some effects on the N7 and N12's animations and haven't got around to doing the same for the other weapons:


Note that I haven't fixed the pickup messages for the N12 - they still refer to the Nishimura Eight (which the N12 replaces/is built on in terms of the code and sprites). I am also aware that the transparency of the N12's scope needs to be increased.

Speaking of the animations, this other video is basically centered around testing the new animations, as well as the current state of the CFG:


I still have to mess with the sounds and such, but I'm also hoping that I've "normalized" the volume on the weapons and effects compared to The Trooper.

[Captain J]

This is big and beautiful. Also that BFG is so destructive, it chews off the framerate

[TheRailgunner]

This is big and beautiful. Also that BFG is so destructive, it chews off the framerate

Why, thank you!

Yeah, I've gotta fix that before release. I have a similar problem with effects and collisions with moving platforms in general (usually substantially worse), so I feel like I'm gonna have to tone down the effects a good bit before release. That said, I've finished tweaking the N7's sprite set, and now I'm gonna knock out melee before moving on to the rest of the weapons.

[TheRailgunner]

Progress update:

*Work on animations is complete, barring a part of the N4's reload and another part of the N10's reload. I can remedy the former with an extra frame and minor timing adjustments, while the N10's problem is gonna require a transition state.
*Pulled in a motley of new sounds (some haven't been implemented or replaced yet, mostly due to my own carelessness) - pickups and the like.
*Fancy effects for the Legion Personal Combat Shield. It has a two-second delay before recharging now, though picking up armor jump-starts the process (this is only relevant for armor bonuses, as other forms of armor give more than the recharge limit of 25 armor). In its current form, it's somewhat buggy - some animations get interrupted and sounds sometimes don't play - but I'm still strangely proud of it. I'll probably port all of that to scripts to make it function more smoothly. Fixed this as of 11:35 PM CST - moving everything to ACS made it a lot smoother.
*Status effect indicators for powerups.
*Replaced the Invulnerability Sphere with the Pentagram of Protection.

I'm honestly really pleased with the way this is coming out - I consider it bad luck to set a deadline or release date, but Malice will be out soon.

Things that remain:

*Help screen
*Logo
*Fonts (I have numbers for one at the moment - for some reason SLADE crashes if it so much as touches a FON2 file)
*Player sprites
*Chainsaw replacement (got an idea for this one, but I'll take suggestions)

I gotta say, I don't think I've enjoyed modding this much in a very long time.

[Linz]

Glad to hear you're having fun dude

Can't wait for this to come out

[ValeriePalerie]

This is looking nice! It brings back very fond memories of Project MSX for me, looking forward to giving it a spin

[Captain J]

Gotta have fast yet satisfying quick melee!

[TheRailgunner]

So, I feel like I'm approaching a point where I can start preparing to send a version of Malice out to playtesters. A few issues still need to be worked out, but expect playtesting to open sometime within the next week or three. If that sounds even remotely interesting, feel free to send me a PM.

Gotta have fast yet satisfying quick melee!

You're goddamn right we do.

At any rate, I've sorted out all just about all of the shield system's bugs - I may tweak a few things (the way recharge animations are structured in ACS, the sprites for the shields themselves, move the shields behind the HUD elements), but it's entirely functional, considering that it started as an incredulously buggy SBARINFO/PlayerPawn pain state concept, became six separate ACS scripts, then consolidated to a mere four (one for the passive shield glow, one for pain, failure, and regeneration, and two that are functionally obsolete, as their functions have been absorbed by the second script - their original purpose was to prevent elements of other scripts from repeating, such as a looping shield damage or regeneration animation).

Also, I messed with some other things:

*The N12's projectiles are much more resource-friendly. Also, adjusted the radius of its contact explosions - they shouldn't appear disconnected from the path of the projectile.
*The K-JACK's projectiles have also been tweaked - they now accelerate continuously after launch, and seeking torpedoes have improved tracking both aesthetically and functionally. I've also added a third, rarer torpedo - the Legion Tri-Heavy, which launches super slowly but accelerates far more quickly than the other two varieties. It also deals a metric fuckload of damage, approaching that of the BFG 9000.
*K-JACK will now have the option to use Torpedo Burst (basically Dispersal Pattern Sierra) - fires a burst of five torpedoes in one second, 7 tics apart. I really wanted to beef up the K-JACK because, quite frankly, the N12 was making it look underpowered for a RL-replacement.

I'll probably put up another video showcasing the improved shields - if only I could figure out a way to make IDFA/IDKFA give a specific armor type (it would make testing easier - right now shields have 100% damage absorption, but IDKFA seems to give vanilla Megaarmor, which absorbs a miserable 50%).

EDIT: So, I've got fonts done and a logo, leaving basically the Help screen on the main to-do before release. Other things are somewhat optional or can be done shortly afterward, but I'm probably gonna get the remaining smoothness fixes done before just to be safe. I still have to finish up the Chainsaw replacement, though.

EDIT 2: Basic help screen is 95% done.



It's pretty barebones, and I left out the Slot 1 weapon, but I'm probably gonna make an extra page or two. Depending on how much tedium I feel like going through, I might make an in-game credits list, but if not, I'll just put it in a text file and on this thread. Also gonna throw in a guide to the HUD.

[NullWire]

I need to see another type of shotgun on this..

[AstartesCitizen]

Glad you are getting it closer to a release and more over by the effort you have put into this can tell you're having a blast making it. Will this work in the latest LZDoom? I am very interested to be a playtester