Firecult: Quake Mod progression...

[enki]

Hiyas.

I started this about a year and a half ago, and didn't get a chance to work on it again until recently. It's gone from a small map series to a mini-mod. I've got 5 of the maps completed, with a ton of other features, new powerups, models, reskins, and most of the Menu / HUD replacements.

Right now, it's being specifically designed for use w/ DP (don't holler at me!).

Some of the focal points:

Choose your own adventure styled map selection (ie: door 1 / door 2).
Different powerups - A new form of haste weapon cycler, double damage etc.
New Monsters with models - The Fire Knight, Baatezu, Rocket Grunts (I know the rock grunts have been done to death, but they work well with the mod. I made them a little beefier).
Monster reskins for us old guys with incredibly short attention spans. Steampunky weapon skins for people who feel the need to be all cool like that.
Fun with effects (kind of why I'm doing this with DP).
A few slight QC changes. Yeah "slight".
A rampant overuse of sarcastic and anecdotal Center Print and puzzle solving that is only mildly sadistic.

This started off as a small mapping project, but recently, in my struggle with the depression of unemployment, has turned into a mod (I also intend to use it as part of a portfolio).

I don't update my site as much as I'd like to, but screenshots can be found here. Thanks!

[Baker]

It looks cool.

/Don't you mean "Firecult"?

[Seven]

Hi enki,

after looking at your beautiful screenshots, I know why you choose DP engine.
- I saw that you worked on the effectinfo.txt as well. Very nice !
- Pretty water for DP is also there. Always a good choice.
- Very nice fog and lighting.

Arent the weapon skins from plague ?
( I guess you have his permission..)


I like the Level atmosphere very much. This is Quake the way I like it
Very nice fantasy/catacomb/castle stylish.
Gorgeous new textures. Did you make them from scratch ?
Its clearly visible, that you have mapping experience.
Which are your older projects/maps ?

I cant wait to see a playable version.

Very good job enki ! I hope your progress is going well.
Sad to read about your unemployment though. I hope this will change soon.

Best wishes for your project.
Seven

[enki]

It looks cool.

/Don't you mean "Firecult"?

lol this is why you should never make threads when you're that overtired.

[enki]

Arent the weapon skins from plague ?
( I guess you have his permission..)

The MonkeyRat ones aren't getting shipped w/ the mod, they were only in the screenshots because I ported them from one of my other DP folders for testing. I do need new screenshots lol. The ones I'm referring to are the RL, Axe, and some skins for others that will be available.

Gorgeous new textures. Did you make them from scratch ?

Textures are modified from H2 and Dtk3 .wads, several are new. The old Photoshop - Wally combo.

Which are your older projects/maps ?

A few HL mods, some Q3A projects. A cel-shading project from HL& HL Source / DMC Source (that kind of ended up on the back burner).

I'm currently working on a new skin for grunts. they are frustrating because the tris along their helmet suck for blending in either the quake .pal or 24 bit.

[Hazza]

Ooh nice, good to see someone doing an XP-pack/TC MOD!!!!

Could you give us a rundown of your ideas of how the new enemies play (and any new weapons)!?!?

[Baker]

Arent the weapon skins from plague ?
( I guess you have his permission..)

I really doubt Plague would mind if he was credited in the readme.

His weapon models he made targeted towards FuhQuake and FTEQW were, for a while, the weapon models of choice in the entire Quake/Quakeworld community.

The Qrack, for example, comes with them I think.

Plagued MonkeyRat was a great guy. He helped me with md3 to mdl advice at Quakesrc.org, for instance. The chatty Yellow No. 5 talked with MonkeyRat quite a bit, hardly the selfish fellow.

If you credit him in the mod readme, I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

[Seven]

Hello enki,

how is it going ?
It feels like 2 years for me, since you opened your thread
That should give you a feeling of how I impatiently waiting for your superb looking SP mod.

I am happy to hear you found a job already.
But 72 1/2 hours per week sounds quite much though...

Anyway, keep up your great work enki.
Really looking forward.

All the Best.
Seven

[enki]

Hello Seven.

I am really becoming my own worst salesman. Things I need to move from the bottom of the "prioritize this **** list" to the top: 1. Do newer screenshots. 2. POST them and update my damned website. I seem to update the photos folder on facebook with them more often (yeah, I know).

In any case, ECFC4 - The Absu branch map is finally done, with the exception of a few little tweaks (This one I think has taken a few years off my life). I've moved on to the refork maps. A lot of my time has been spent in models / skins / art and code lately. I'm not a modeler by any sense of the word, but am purely doing that portion of the program out of necessity. Code isn't exactly my forte either, but a looking at it you kind of get a common-sense feel for it if you have the attention span of the average ****er spaniel.

Art - A few things: I've decided to not go rogue here, have organized the artwork better for the models and tried to keep a uniform approach to it. This way it looks like it was done by the same artist and not a bunch of random things thrown together (Doing the h_ model skins at the same time as the model skins is a real plus). Anyway, I've got a method now. The artwork now fits the mod more appropriately.

All the weapon skins are now done (Id models) with the exception of the NG and LG. The GL has a new g_ model as well. There are a bunch of new mapobject models and sprites (icicles, candles, assorted flora and statuary, etc).

On the QC side: There are new additions as well. The Knight has been divided up into 2 monsters... knight and fireknight. One of them has a surprise for you when he dies. Guess which one? There is a new Demon model as well - The Tindalos.

A lot of the models including the new ones now have multiskins.

A little side-note: The knight model doesn't like textures... No matter what wonderful things you wrap around it, it still is the most simple model possible and doesn't play well with the rest of the children. I understand that in '95, low-poly was all the vogue, but...

Finally - Something I've tossed around for a bit, since I've done this before in HL: Back to Terragen to make some skies (a little wisdom from Kell about them rendering faster than scrolling Quake skies).

OK, that was my little update of randomness. I guess I can whip up some newer screenshots for postage this afternoon. Thanks for the interest!

-enki

PS: I'm no longer doing that 70+ hour a week contract. That was too insane... even for me.

[Seven]

Hello enki,

thank you for your post.
If I understood you correctly, you are working on new moving skies.
I am not sure, if you followed this thread: darkplaces-hd-remastering-packs
If you start reading from post #31 onwards, you will find VERY interesting
news regarding Darkplaces handling moving High-Res Skies.
Moon[Drunk] himself linked 2 skies (sky1 and sky4) with traditional look.
Jeank made 4 more with another style, which I also like a lot.
It should be easy, once you understand how it works, to make your own.

Hope this helps you a bit.

Seven

[enki]

Actually, static skies - Traditional 6 side cube environment screens via Terragen with pretty scenery... spacey additions via photoshop etc.

If there was a way in DP to do a moving cloudlayer over a .tga skybox effectively, that would be awesome.

[enki]

Monster / Model art. I wanted it to be more DADA than realistic, and I think it really fits the textures I've selected. They're not really fantastic considering how many really amazing skins and models are floating around. The QRP stuff just amazes me, frankly. The problem is that doing that refined of textures, they wouldn't look right in the mod, so here's what I've come up with.

Soldier / Sentinel
Knight
Fireknight
Hellknight
Wizard
Shalrath
Tindalos
Tindalos - Yeti
Zombies

There are more skins for the Soldier / Sentinel and a few more for the Tindalos as well, which is nice because I'm theme-ing the maps a bit and they seem to fit well with them, combined with the per-map effectinfo, texturing, mapobjects etc...

Still working on a few others, and I'd like some of them to be a surprise.

[▫▪☼{~Ĵჶκჳჩ~}☼▪▫]

Nice...

[enki]

Hay guys.

It's been awhile since I've updated this, so let's get right into it:
I've been so ensconced with work that it's put me a few weeks behind schedule on this mod... and I'm making up for it this week because I have been laid off.

What's been done since last update: a shit ton. ECFC4 is done.. new model effects, done, snow, rain, done.... Moved on to "greener" pastures... (you'll get that reference eventually). The reforks go into 2 maps. I'm hoping to get at least 10 maps done.,.. cleanup on sentinel and grunt code to keep them the active partygoers they are (map specific skins are fun... try it sometime).

I'm getting there...there will be closed Beta's soon. Info and screenies can be found at my site, obviously. http://www.thirteenninetythree.com/i.../projects.html

[enki]

Meh... somebody remind me again... why I'm doing this