Ashes Afterglow TC - closing the vault

[Plasmazippo]

I'll just say here that Vos has the final word, but all these additions you want are cramming too many features into a package that doesn't need them. Not only that, they'd be a pain in the butt to balance.

Rather, why don't you make a weapons pack mod derivative from the standard Ashes one? It can be tailored precisely as you want it, and if people don't like what it adds, well it's a totally optional addition. You obviously have ideas for it!

[Artman2004]

Would a Molotov Cocktail be too out of place in Ashes? I think it could be a great addition to the game.

Also, will the Master Blaster be given any sort of damage over time effect, or would that make it too powerful?

[venividivici]

Plasmazippo, your reply doesn't make sense to me as what I wish are in here provided as suggestions and ideas, not demands or request that can't be refused.

Vostyok could use code already in the game involving NPCs to repurpose such for scavenging through closets, trunks, chests and so on with a dialogue box or just pressing use key on those with text indicating: Scavenger found X junks.

Medical kits are usable item that can be picked up, stored in inventory and used hence same can be applied to foods that are a health type item like medical kits. This above makes sense for a game that takes inspiration from Stalker and Fallout along referencing them. As for weapons, I never made 1st person sprites nor are there resources for Ashes 2063 / Afterglow available such all hands sprites without weapons and if I were to edit original sprites then very likely I could end up buchering line between where hand ends and where weapon behinds. Another that for me its automatically a deal breaker if it would require entirely replacing a weapon and or have randomization as to what weapon is dropped.

Artman2004 suggestion of Molotov cocktail makes sense as there is gasoline and biofuels in Ashes along would be a good second "explosive" besides pipebomb. There is no reason for there not being such lore wise.

Though former and latter should be keyed to key G for grenade and Key 6 used for something else.

[Joey Diamond]

Just finished both episode yesterday. It was a very fun ride. So many memorable moments that stays with me long after.

Overall there's not much else to suggest as the game is solid as it is. But if there's going to be Episode 3 there are something I wanted to see :

-More enemy variations. Specifically, ones that ambushes you in specific place. For example, a deformed, crawling cannibals that can chase you in the vent and cramped space (look up Basket Case horror film). Or some massive mutated catfish/serpent that can be found in the water. There are so many atmospheric places in the game that emits pure danger and anticipation, many of which are air vent and flooded room. But since we already get the theme of our enemy, we just know those rooms are perfectly safe and it cut most of the built up tension.

-More item progression. What I really, really loves about Ashes Afterglow is the fact that I'm not limited to the typical Doom stuff. Where there's only two items you have to look out for: the backpack, and the megaarmor. Now you can have one bandolier, one pouch, an underarmor. And now with the advantage of item slot, we can have even more variety. For example:
Power Armor(AKA Armor++, use no item slot): A hi-tech, pre-war armor made by US military and is currently sitting in some DARPA bunker. Reduces 50% incoming damage by itself just like Doom's Megaarmor but the advance, servo-assisted exoskeleton frame allows the Scav to patch more metals onto the armor without being encumbered, increases max armor to 300.
Military Backpack (AKA Backpack+, Use no item slot) Developed with maximum ergonomic in mind and backed by the biggest slice of government budget, this backpack is on an entire level above its civilian counterpart. Tripled the size of the Scav's ammo pool.
Kevlar Cap(use one item slot, Passive): Another pre-war experimental helmet by the US military, rumoured to be developed as a sister project to a psychic amplifying visor indicated that this piece of technology is paranormal in nature. Designed to be very light and very thin than normally possible and can be worn under other helmet (or hood in Scav's case). Utilizing "smart alloys", these metals works like a reactive armor; countering any incoming kinetic force with its own. Reduces max random roll for all damage by 5.
Pressurized fuel tank(use one item slot, Passive): A jury rigged fuel backpack from an archaic M2 flamethrower with a regulator valve and a hose directly connected to your Master Blaster, consider it the third upgrade. Removes reload system. Increases max capacity by 24 and increases efficiency by 50% (1 glob shot do twice the damage/1 burst produces 12 puffs of flame instead of 8)
Portable Metal Cutter(use one item slot, active/Passive) A sturdy electric circular saw that survived the apocalypse is a semi-key item that allows the Scav to open up some shoddy metal bars and access the goodies and secrets within. The Scav can also use it to cut any metal scraps he found into a more efficient size, metal scraps now gives you 3 armor instead of 2 and can be pick up and stored up to 20 pieces in the inventory if his armor is already at maximum durability.

-Fiend Matriach that follows you like a pet Maybe an option to add a sidecar and have her sitting along.

-More intuitive Weapon slot. For me, this is the only low point of Ashes TC as it makes me very tiring everytime I try to find the right weapon for the situation, only to take unnecessary damage. My suggestion is make grenades the G key and move the 5.56 rifle to the uzi slot instead. They're both rapid-fire weapons and shouldn't be grouped together with a high-powered rifle which has a polar opposite purpose.

[jacktgh]

So after I beat the game for the 2nd time and read the forum, I know that V won't add a crowbar upgrade for he has a surprise for the melee. But as I was reading some upgrade suggestion I
suddenly remembered a melee from CSO (basically Asian P2W CS)
It just a taser attached on a crowbar but it just so in line with Scav craftiness.

[atarumoroboshi18]

I say, you should add a decrepit video store with titles with people's names who worked on the game. 'V for Vostyok', 'GI Joe: Reformed', 'Attack of the Retro Muffin', etc. Just loaded with the names of people who worked on the games mixed with famous movie titles.

[venividivici]

I just hope for there to be more peaceful areas that aren't hubs levels with a only a single settlement and for a chapter of the game being able to visit 2 or 3 settlements instead of one per chapter of story as case with The Last Stop and Prosperity.

Also if we are going to enter buildings then we should able to enter all or most floors, no shame in copy pasting layout and using some trick to seamlessly teleport or have each floor of the building as separate map.

[Vostyok]

Thank you all for the suggestions, but please be aware that not everything can fit in the project and many things are impractical for balance or technical reasons. Again, I am aiming for refining and stripping back concepts as much as I am expanding them. If you are looking for a project that adds multiple different weapons and items, all of which do similar things, and bunched up together on the same weapon keys, I would suggest you look to modding your own additions in. I am more concerned about variety of form and function than realism or irl commonality. While some of the suggestions are indeed very interesting and entertaining, I am going to ask formally, again, that suggestions should be seen as such, and are not an invitation to continue pursuing the issue.

Now, that aside, I am pleased to announce that there will be an update shortly for Episode 1, the weapons pack as well as a release of the mod friendly maps for Afterglow, which will have towns and vehicle sections removed, as well as coop starts added, so you can play them with your own mods. Also, while I am working on other projects at the moment, I will be putting out some news soon on a side project by another author that has seen some progress. It will expand on some of the unanswered questions regarding the major players we have encountered so far. But we're going to need to go back. Way back.

[venividivici]

Issue of multiple weapons being bunched up on a single key can be solved by implementing related features from Hideous Destructor natively, that would improve quality of life of this game.

Or at very least having more key binds for weapons such as 9 and 0 being used, also pipebomb being relegated to key bind G thus freeing up key bind 6, also that super weapon should have been number 5 for heavy class like Master Blaster.

Even then there is issue of people not having ready assets from Ashes to use such as hands to apply weapons they want to see while being inline with art direction of the game.

Finally, instructions for people that may want to make map for Ashes or with assets used by Ashes along basic documentation stating specifications about width and height of doors, ventilation and so forth to be in line with Ashes style.

All of this is only possible by author of this game, otherwise any update could break compatibility or not work in expansion packs nor next episode.

[ZikShadow]

I honestly prefer thrown type weapons being their own thing rather than a keypress thing, got tired of modern games doing that shenanigan, so I'll have to disagree with that "grenade" key.
It's much nicer being able to prep a throw in advance rather than having to hold down a key to holster your gun and end up cooking the nade.

Also, all of those later suggestions could be done without Vostyok's help, really. One could use any image editing software to edit out the hands from existing sprites and staple them over to their own art like what modders did to Doom hands for aeons, mappers could also easily open up Ashes' maps and compare the components themselves. It's thankfully not something like Goldsource mapping where you had to decompile the maps first to pop 'em open in the editor (assuming one gets past the variety of issues thanks to the unpredictable nature of BSP decompilers for GS, atleast last I tried).

Updates break mods all the time, there's no escaping that. Even mods like HDest break addons all the time from all the updates done over the years, and it's not something like Ashes that's got mapping components to consider. The sooner one accepts this, the lesser they'll be disappointed when it inevitably happens. Best anyone can do is update their addons to match or be left in the dust.

[venividivici]

You can't disagree with something I haven't suggested at all in first place as nowhere, absolutely nowhere I suggested what you're asserting and even then any weapon is holstered in Ashes when pressing Keybind 5 in order to use pipebomb.
What I am suggesting is to rebind pipebomb grenade to Key G and also use Key 9 and 0 for which in total would be 11 keys used for weapons out of 12 weapons that are in Ashes Afterglow. Map overlay could be rebind to M and use Tab for Melee.

It is possible without Vostyok's help yet Vostyok can provide art instead of guessing where line of separation is between firearm and hand. Instead of manually scrubbing weapons from hands when Vostyok I assume has assets of hands without guns.
When it comes to mapping, I tried to load resources in map editor, but I don't know for which it is compiled for such as is it Doom II, Strife or something else in order to be able to use textures and prop assets in map editor.

This paragraph doesn't make sense ZikShadow to me at all as what I am suggesting is for feature from Hideous Destructor being implemented natively into Ashes to be a part of the game, those features being at very least involving management of weapons that would solve issue of several weapons being bunched up onto a single weapon key. In first paragraph I suggested a simple solution involving Ashes itself that would solve it. This paragraph is suggests more permanent solution.

The permanent solution would solve issue if developer doesn't want multiple weapons being on a single key thus no need to cut weapons that could carry over such as FAL.
For example could have been used on New Guard to have a heavier grunt rather carrying FAL than just one type that has M16s. Both Deadman Walking and Afterglow have .308 ammunition featured.

[Ninlhil]

Mod is frikkin amazing. Binged both 2063 Enriched and Afterglow in a row.

One thing, just as a suggestion for Chapter 3 or a minor update for Afterglow, I kept finding myself wishing I had a pair of binoculars. Just something to scout ahead a bit more clearly than the Musket Scope.

[RubyEyeShabranigdu]

Mod is frikkin amazing. Binged both 2063 Enriched and Afterglow in a row.

One thing, just as a suggestion for Chapter 3 or a minor update for Afterglow, I kept finding myself wishing I had a pair of binoculars. Just something to scout ahead a bit more clearly than the Musket Scope.

That would be really useful!

[ButtonBoy]

Happy to hear from you Vos, I can't wait to see where the future takes you and what kind of projects you and the team are going to work on, but I'm here along for the ride, you've hooked me with ashes and I can't wait to see what other masterpieces you churn out, thanks for the hours of fun and coop sounds sweet!

[venividivici]

I wonder if expansion pack involving Porcelain has part of Michone circle from first episode that weren't in second one, as too visiting other subway station settlements, perhaps not including north checkpoint if it can be considered a settlement.

Anything that has a scope should have its scope toggle keyed to V and then for example Juskers could be charged up by holding right mouse button then cancelled by releasing it with of course left mouse button in order to shot Juskers.

A flare gun would be nice to have in order to light up small area beyond reach of solar lamp.