Small visceral single player mod

[dancar]

Hi,
I'm writing here because I want to present a small mod I've done for myself, but first I want to talk briefly about Quake's gameplay.

I think that Quake's gameplay is one of, if not the most, more visceral experience ever. His insane mix of twisted monsters and architecture is unmatched between FPS, but I also think that with some touches it can be better.
On the other side modding the single player Quake experience is really hard, IMHO, because it's easy to break the balance of his gameplay, a gameplay that is intense but also fast and crazy.

Returning to the mod, I've mixed a bunch of tiny mods, and I believe that the result is simple but really good (sorry, for the arrogance) and I hope that one day some coder wil adopte it.

The question is: if I will upload it, will there be some volunteer that will try a run (or more) on Hard difficulty and maybe write his impressions with an english better than mine? (It's not difficult)
The file is a pak file, you can just drop it in a subfolder or id1 folder.

As I said the changes are simple, but IMHO fun, I still use it to play normal Quake maps and I believe that also others could have fun with him.

The changes are:

1) Nails bounce against obstacles.
2) Grenades (also Ogre's ones) eject nails.
3) Melee weapon can gib zombies and kill easily other stronger monsters.
4) Zombie's gibs randomly explode (depend on skill settings)
5) Ogres shoot rockets when they're distant from player, if not, they shoot grenades (that eject
nails as I said)
6)Dead Knight has different arrays for his shoots (circular or straight)
7) Knight is faster.
Shambler has a random powerful attack (depend on skill settings)
9) Vore's spiked ball ejects nails during explosion.
10) Spawn is slower and weaker but ejects nails when explodes.

That's all, I will like adding other changes, but it's beyond my skill (example:
making "shootable" the vore's spiked ball).

I think if you make a run in some standard maps (Hard setting), the experience should be good also for a veteran. (e2m4 I suggest for start)

Thank you if you read until here.

[gdiddy62]

I'd try to help you out if you'd like.

[Seven]

That's all, I will like adding other changes, but it's beyond my skill (example:
making "shootable" the vore's spiked ball).

Hello dancar,

Thank you for your thread and sharing your ideas and work.

If you have specific QC questions, feel free to ask them in the inside3d forum.
Your chance to get an answer is much higher there, because very experienced people are there.


My QC knowledge is not very good, but I would like to help you with your shootable Vore�s missile idea. A very good idea indeed.

1.) Go into shalrath.qc
2.) change these things inside ShalMissile ():
A) increase the missile bbox from '0 0 0', '0 0 0' to something like '-8 -8 -8', '8 8 8'
(so that you have something to shoot at)
B) give your missile health
(if you want to make it explode with 1 shot, try "5". Otherwise give more.)
C) Make your missile damagable
(missile.takedamage = DAMAGE_YES; )
D) add a "missile.th_die" line, to do something when it "dies".
(example: missile.th_die = v_spike_die; )
E) add the function for "v_spike_die ()" right before ShalMissile ().
(add all the things you want to happen in v_spike_die (), like:
- spawn a nice Radius_Damage
- spawn TE_EXPLOSION effect (with a sound)
- in the end: remove(self); )
F) OPTIONALLY: add a "missile.th_pain" line
(example: missile.th_pain = v_spike_pain;
You could raise its health and the "v_spike_pain ()" function will be called everytime you shoot it:
- so that the spike will change its flying direction for a short time for example
- or any other crazy idea you might have)

I did not try this, but this should work.
Try another missile.solid if necessary.

Best wishes,
Seven

[dancar]

I'd try to help you out if you'd like.

Well, thank you.
Here's a link for start:

Download pak9.pak from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

It's small *.pak file, 726 kb, inside there's a short dumb demo (the first), a (messy) progs.dat and some sounds.

I suggest a "shotgun start" on e2m4 on Hard or Nightmare settings, if someone want to try it.

P.S. I 'd like to remember that melee weapon is stronger (maybe too much, consider a beta) you can gib zombies.

[dancar]

Hello dancar,

Thank you for your thread and sharing your ideas and work.

If you have specific QC questions, feel free to ask them in the inside3d forum.
Your chance to get an answer is much higher there, because very experienced people are there.


My QC knowledge is not very good, but I would like to help you with your shootable Vore�s missile idea. A very good idea indeed.

cut

Best wishes,
Seven

Many thanks,
if I go to Inside3d forum, I will start to ask like a kid "how you do this, how you that, why everything so hard..." they will kick me out after two days.

A real coder that will adopt these ideas will be much better, but I must say thank for "vore's ball coding". I will try.

I have other (small) ideas, and I will be curious to know some opinions about, but I will write them later, like later I will discuss credits (I've done very few about this mod).

[Seven]

Hello dancar,

Why you think like this ?
If you ask your specific questions, people will be happy to help at inside3d.
Just dont start to ask:"How does QuakeC works ?"
There are millions of source codes and tutorials available, which are perfect for learnig.
The knowledge that is concentrated at inside3d is simply unbelievable.
Simply by reading through the forum threads you will learn...


Regarding your download link above:
Haha ! Where is the source ?
Without your source nobody can look into it.

I wish you best of luck with your mod.
Seven

[dancar]

Hello dancar,

cut


Regarding your download link above:
Haha ! Where is the source ?
Without your source nobody can look into it.

I wish you best of luck with your mod.
Seven

Thanks, below there's a link for a *.rar package with quake code (player.qc, ogre.qc, spikes.qc etc.)

Download visceral code.rar from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

[gdiddy62]

I've had a chance to play with this briefly today and have to say I love the ogres ability to fire rockets from a distance! The grenades exploding nails is also a great feature. I enjoy and it has changed the way I have to play the game on hard setting. I'll have a chance to play some more and add to this as soon as I can.
Good work dancar!

edit: This has very interesting gameplay and is actually quite fun. The only thing I'm not sure I like personally is the attack of the scrag has nails, the deathknights projectile attack has nails, there are too many attacks with the nails. Just a personal preference. The deathknights speed is a good addition. I really enjoy being able to gib zombies with the axe! Some really cool gameplay and adds a different quality to the game. I wasn't able to see the different Shambler attacks so I'll have to play on a different skill next time.

[dancar]

cut

edit: This has very interesting gameplay and is actually quite fun. The only thing I'm not sure I like personally is the attack of the scrag has nails, the deathknights projectile attack has nails, there are too many attacks with the nails. Just a personal preference.

Indeed it wasn't planned, adding the code "nails" changed attacks of
deathknights and scrags.

I wasn't able to see the different Shambler attacks so I'll have to play on a different skill next time.

The shambler ramdomly charges a sort of fire ball, you have 3 seconds to hide yourself or:

you are fragged.
you make a giant jump (if you have full health and armor).

[dancar]

Hello dancar,

cut

My QC knowledge is not very good, but I would like to help you with your shootable Vore�s missile idea. A very good idea indeed.

1.) Go into shalrath.qc
2.) change these things inside ShalMissile ():
A) increase the missile bbox from '0 0 0', '0 0 0' to something like '-8 -8 -8', '8 8 8'
(so that you have something to shoot at)
B) give your missile health
(if you want to make it explode with 1 shot, try "5". Otherwise give more.)

cut

Best wishes,
Seven

I looked the shalrath.qc, about "missile_bbox" I found only:
missile.solid = SOLID_BBOX

no values like '0 0 0', '0 0 0'

[Baker]

Many thanks,
if I go to Inside3d forum, I will start to ask like a kid "how you do this, how you that, why everything so hard..." they will kick me out after two days.

That wouldn't happen. Not by a long shot.

[Seven]

I looked the shalrath.qc, about "missile_bbox" I found only:
missile.solid = SOLID_BBOX

no values like '0 0 0', '0 0 0'

Hello dancar,

you are VERY close
Please look code 2 lines below, and you will find the "setsize" line,
which sets the bbox size.
There you will find the '0 0 0', '0 0 0', that you want to increase.

Have fun.

Best wishes,
Seven