Serpent: Resurrection released

[The Ultimate DooMer]

After 5-3/4 years in development, the Hexen project known as Serpent: Resurrection has been released. A brief description of the project:

• 25 fantasy-themed maps.
• A scripted RPG system.
• New weapons, monsters and items.
• Partially dynamic gameplay.

A more detailed description (plus screenshots) can be found here. The project can be downloaded here, /idgames link coming soon. It requires GZDoom 1.5.03 or better, but was tested with 1.5.03.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Lag patch - download if you have major lag issues in the volcano map or indeed in the fire village or main island map.

idgames link up now too

[Cupboard]

Awesomely.

[punnyone]

This is one of the few wads where I really got truly immersed in the environment and setting as the game progressed. I'm glad so see it's finished now!

[Chopkinsca]

I really want to play through this but the number of hotkeys to bind overwhelms me.

[Ismaele]

How come he can post news about his own projects, against the rules, whereas other people cannot?!

[The Ultimate DooMer]

I followed the posting rules, as described here.

(btw you don't need that many hotkeys to actually play, just the weapon keys...you can use altfire to access the rpg menu and the inventory keys for everything else)

[Gez]

The "no self-promotion" rule has been canceled several years ago already.

[Alfonzo]

Gez said:

The "no self-promotion" rule has been canceled several years ago already.

‘Chivalry is dead!’, cried Lateena, as the postured man careered past her doorway. ‘You know you’ll never leave me!’.
The man trotted to a halt by the stairwell, and brushed a few morsels from his neckerchief. Then, with a dignity so profound, he let slip a note from between his forefingers, his back still turned to better hide his growing complacency. He had no intention of offending the poor girl. Slowly, he turned his head such that his eyes, a played though deceiving sorrow etched across his brow, met with hers... And then he spoke. And his words were of melting silk.
‘I’m sorry Lateena... I thought you were from Iran.’
And with that, he was gone.
She slid to the ground, her fingers griping strongly the doorframe, heedless of the splinters, and began to weep.
A strong gust of wind blew through the open window from down the corridor, picking up her dress and sending the note flying; spinning through the air, to land gently by her side. As the melancholic blur washed from her eyes, she turned her gaze downward to read upon its print, rivulets of sodden ink smearing the freshly cast words. This is what it said:

“Dearest Laveena. I’ve booked you in with Dr. Dowerhurst on Thursday morning. Don’t forget your insurance forms this time, and bring your birth certificate. The dress is on the table by the door. Pay the valet when you leave. Hope you liked the cheese!
Yours impartially,
Smit."

--an extract from Squirrels in the Larder, the latest, most riveting novel by st.alfonzo yet. Readers are calling it:

"A triumph!" -- Ralphis, IDL Reader's Digest.

"I couldn't put it down! except for when I had finished reading." -- Hellbent, Woman's Weekly

"I actually thought it was rather bad, to be honest." -- Csonicgo

"I really couldn't put it down; the book was glued to my hand!!!" -- Nixot

The Ultimate Doomer said:

(btw you don't need that many hotkeys to actually play, just the weapon keys...you can use altfire to access the rpg menu and the inventory keys for everything else)

It's the "inventory keys for everything else" that's the problem, I think. Unless there's some means of binding those without cluttering up the keyboard, it can become quite difficult having to cycle through such a huge range of items!

Loving it all the same, anyway. Brilliant work! I'm hooked.

[Ralphis]

A triumph!

[PaganRaven]

A new epic Hexen mod? This is awesome news!
*is incredibly tired of waiting for edge of chaos and thinks it will probably be a disappointment compared to this anyway.*

[Epyo]

holy crap didn't know you were still mappin'

[Craigs]

Once you actually get to the island and start the real game it's pretty fun, but the town's side quests are pretty dull and easily broken, one example being the side quest where you load barrels onto one of the boats. It's a pretty boring job and if one of the barrels falls into the water, it can't be completed. The boat ride drags on way too long as well.

[40oz]

There's some good looking shots but a lot of the screenies are really bleghhhh

[xmblolpp]

Very cool wad, only problem is the main island area is far too big and causes giant lag. I started as the mage but I can't seem to get around anywhere with just a staff to wack stuff with, where are the damn weapons?

[Craigs]

Yeah weapons seem to be another problem, especially for the mage. If he still had his wand instead he might be a little more useful but with nothing but a staff he's kind of pathetic with his low health and all.

[xmblolpp]

Is there any good way to get my framerate up a bit in those super huge super detailed outside areas?

[Graf Zahl]

Get better hardware?

Sorry, with these maps there's not much that can be done. What kind of system do you have?

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Weapons are in the main island map, it just takes a little exploration...in the meantime if you're a mage use spells and items to kill stuff or use the nice big open spaces to evade them altogether. (there's a hints file plus in-game help features if you need them)

40oz said:

There's some good looking shots but a lot of the screenies are really bleghhhh

I've deliberately not shown off the best-looking areas yet, so as not to spoil everything before you get there.

[DemilinX]

I'm stoked to play this. Congratulations on the release!

[xmblolpp]

Graf Zahl said:

Get better hardware?

Sorry, with these maps there's not much that can be done. What kind of system do you have?

I got a crappy system (512MB VGA card, 2.4GHz CPU, 2GB RAM), but when I first entered the main island of Caldera it wasn't that bad, but when I started finding keys and I entered a small forest area to find the first weapon the lag was unbearable after that. I think some script is running that should have terminated but keeps running again every time I reenter the main island area. Are there any GZDoom options I can tweak to get a better framerate?

[Graf Zahl]

xmblolpp said:

(512MB VGA card

That's saying nothing. The rest of what you have sounds fine but what type of graphics card do you have? It can make a huge difference.

[xmblolpp]

Graf Zahl said:

That's saying nothing. The rest of what you have sounds fine but what type of graphics card do you have? It can make a huge difference.

Geforce 7600 GS VGA 512MB, I figured it was the processor, but I did some testing turning off all the background programs and lowering the resolution and it didn't make a difference.

[Graf Zahl]

One thing you can try is turn off the dynamic lights. I'm not sure if it helps much but it definitely reduces the processing overhead

[The Ultimate DooMer]

The only issue with that is that he'd need to turn them back on whenever he lights up a torch.

[xmblolpp]

Yea I managed to get through the first hub since you didn't have to be in the crossroads area much but I just got to the Volcano area after the marshes and I'm getting 2 FPS rofl. I turned off all the lighting options after entering the volcano area thinking the crazy lighting was the problem but it wasn't, it must be a giant area. I can't even see any huge area I have no idea why the volcano is so much worse, guess I'm done thanks anyway. I still got like 8-18 FPS in the island hub area but in the volcano it's absolutely unplayable 1-5 FPS tops.

Excellent work though, maybe I'll pick it up again when I buy a better computer.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Someone over at ZDoom was kind enough to make a patch to resolve the volcano lag issue, 2nd post updated with link.

[xmblolpp]

The Ultimate DooMer said:

Someone over at ZDoom was kind enough to make a patch to resolve the volcano lag issue, 2nd post updated with link.

It seemed to help when I first loaded the game but as soon as I entered the first room the FPS dropped back down to a certain point and stayed there (3-8 FPS). I don't know if there is some sort of scripting error but I think the exploding lava balls that come out of every patch of lava is overdoing it as well.

[PaganRaven]

The sound doesn't work when I start this. Why?

[xmblolpp]

PaganRaven said:

The sound doesn't work when I start this. Why?

There's no music on the main menu, start the game to hear the sound.