Rune of Earth Magic

[golden_boy]

Rune of Earth Magic is a successor project to RemakeQuake.

Its goal is to bring the entire Episode 1 of RMQ to completion.



Currently working on e1m6rq to improve its visuals, finish the missing parts that were rushed for the 2010 demo release (Chthon!!), and tweak the gameplay to be more Quakey. A former RMQ team member has offered help, too.

I've planned this for a while, but now I actually started work.

Ia! Shub-Niggurath!

[ezzetabi]

You want to re-make the whole first episode? It is like Quoth for the first levels?

[Mindf!3ldzX]

woah, did not see this coming. fascinating, so I will get to see more than the preview I played,quite awhile back, good stuff!

[golden_boy]

You want to re-make the whole first episode? It is like Quoth for the first levels?

The levels are actually half done and have been for years. The RemakeQuake project was an attempt to remake all of Quake. It failed for a number of reasons. But I believe 7-8 levels are doable, especially when they're already 50% done.

RMQ gameplay is very different from Quoth, but ROEM gameplay will be closer to Quake. It has new monsters too, but I'm going to tweak them so the difficulty level is more like Quake (the difficulty of Quoth is a lot higher.)

RMQ had a lot of custom map entities, a lot more than Quoth and some quite experimental. The QC code still exists and will serve as a base for this project.

ROEM is only the first episode from the former RMQ project. There were three others, but they weren't done by me. I can't very well finish the entire RMQ project, that would be madness. I'll just finish my episode.

You can see screenshots from the other Episode 1 levels at the ROEM blog. Link in my sig.

[golden_boy]

Don't forget that it is already possible to play the RMQ version of The Door To Chthon as it was released Christmas 2010. It's not on Quaddicted so easy to miss, but it got good ratings in Tronyn's reviews. I'm gonna link it here.



You can download it from here.

Here is a hi-res texture pack for this map that supplies all the modified QRP textures needed. Please install QRP as well if you don't already have it to get 99% hi-res textures in this map. You can install Reforged for hires monster skins if you want. Future ROEM builds will contain all the hi-res textures needed.

Please use the build of the RMQengine that comes in the zip file.

Feel free to tell me what you want changed gameplay-wise. There is a LOT that needs changing! You can post your ideas in this thread.

[golden_boy]

And here's a pre-beta development play-through of that level. Looks completely different today, only the basic layout is similar... This video still has the "one-shot ogre" SSG that we had in RMQ for a while. I'm not sure if it's in the demo. The ending is quite ridiculous as shamblers get quad-gibbed and mini-Chthon looks a bit like a lava lollipop lobster.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6on56rIWO0[/ame]

Has burning ogres, though, so that seems to have been a priority.

[talisa]

just tried it, and the map is interesting


the chton was really easy though...

i just stuck in the corner where the rune was after i first destroyed the boilers
and chton didnt even hit me cuz his fireballs were stopped by the pipes around the corner

[golden_boy]

Yeah, the Chthon fight is pretty horrible. The reason is that, back then, we had to rush it because we wanted to release on Christmas Day.

I just checked it myself. You're correct, the remnants of the boilers block his fireballs... that should not happen. I'll make it so they explode completely.

Obviously he's also missing his animations. And while I take him into Blender, I think I will also make him thicker again so he looks more like the old Chthon.

Thanks for making me aware of that!

[talisa]

yeah i was going to suggest also making the remnants of the boilers dissapear so they dont block his projectiles. this way the fight is way to easy cuz you can just camp in the corner without a care in the world.


hmm i didnt mind the different look for chthon to much personally.
the original chton is a bit meh actually imo, to overly bloated.

you can make him a bit thicker i guess but i really like the snake-like-ish appearance.
i also liked the 4arms you gave him, makes him more otherworldly

your chthon reminds me a bit of this depiction of chthon

which is my fave fan-art depiction of chthon personally. chthon looks just bad-ass in that pic <3

[MadGypsy]

I don't understand what is a remake about it. Granted, I don't have all the quake maps memorized but it seemed like that was pretty much how the level already was. I wont discount the fact that I might be missing something but it just seemed like a mod to me.

a lava fire mod
a sleeping shambler mod
a chthon replacement
a few new sounds
brighter lights

I'm not trying to do or say anything nefarious here. This is my honest take on what I watched. Feel free to school me on whatever I'm missing that makes this a remake.

[golden_boy]

@MG, the levels are remade from scratch and have quite a few new areas added. They also use the QRP textures, which isn't obvious from the video (but from the screenshots), and in places coloured light. Monster behaviour and stats are different across the board (check the code sometime), and new monsters are added. Combat is different. Gameplay has more puzzles and extended movement compared to vanilla, as well as things like Q2-style custom keys. :-)

Remake in my mind, but sure, it's also a Quake mod because it's not standalone. A standalone hi-res hi-poly remake wouldn't be legal because it would violate id's copyright, whereas making new levels and modding Quake is allowed.

Note the project is no longer called "RemakeQuake", either. It's just a custom episode at this point, and I care little if it's seen as a remake or not.

[Mr.Burns]

Hi GB,

I just wanted to wish you the very best with this remake and if you need anyone to play test it or get it on a Euro or American server please let me know. I'll try and find time to D/L it again and play it over the weekend.
Like Mindzy, I've been gently trying to persuade and encourage people to revisit Quake (and hopefully revive the Quake community) for quite some time, and the main niggles seem to be around the quality of graphics. It's hard for Quake to compete graphically with titles such as Battlefield, COD, etc, and I wondered if your plans for RMQ was going to include any graphical updates such as new, more realistic models, Map textures, etc? You've done some excellent work with SJ and it would be interesting to see if there are any similar improvements on the drawing board for RMQ
On a realism theme, which in some ways is a contradiction in terms for Quake, and as you did ask for suggestions is there any possibility you could include something along these lines...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOVEN9D-a5g
...which I believe may have been put together by Cobalt using the DP engine, plus little items that add to mods like blast inertia, bloodskins, Blood trails, etc

Kind regards

Monty

[golden_boy]

@Mr. Burns,

Yes, better looking explosions (e.g. the exploding boilers in e1m6rq) are something I want to do. It's totally possible (the RMQ source includes particle emitters). Just like in the video you linked.

Yes, ROEM already uses the QRP textures (although no normal maps/realtime lights, since this is Quake and not Doom 3) and I plan to use hires monster textures (probably strongly modified Reforged textures.) The monsters will probably gain a few extra polygons just so they can be better animated, and they'll be converted to IQM which will result in no more vertex wobble.

The maps are a lot more detailed than vanilla Quake, anyway.

Here is a QRP addon pack for the custom textures used in e1m6rq; if you install this as well as the QRP, you can play e1m6rq/rmqdemo2 with complete hi-res textures, the way it is supposed to look (the way it looks in the screenshots.)

Blood skins and other things like that are quite possible, too. By blood trails, you mean the player losing blood? Blast inertia is a cool idea.

Thanks for the testing offer! ROEM has no multiplayer component, although it could be added of course (RMQ did have one.) I have several remakes of Quake DM maps including a half-finished DM3 remake.

[Adam]

Hey,

Glad to see you have another project on the go.

Was this based (originally) on the Quake remake that used the Xash3d engine?

I think it was HL (gold source) based. I remember reading about it a couple of years ago.

Have you got a timeframe in mind for completion?
Also what milestones have you set for finishing certain aspects?
(Because, ya know, I will track you down if you go one day over schedule, mister!)

[golden_boy]

Hey Adam.

No, it's not based on the Xash3d engine and never has been. It's from-scratch, originally started in 2007.

Schedule-wise, I'll upload a ROEM build including three or four maps sometime soon, and then upload new builds periodically while I finish it. So, a pretty public schedule, but all of the builds should be understood as alphas until I say otherwise.

I think the project is not big enough to warrant milestones, it's basically just a custom episode for Quake with modified gameplay and higher detail level.

(Because, ya know, I will track you down if you go one day over schedule, mister!)

Then I better get cracking!