Hexen: Edge of Chaos Update

[kristus]

carry on up the walkway until myou reach a big wheel with a chain wrapped around it. Hit the lever and then you can access a door in the field area.

There's really no indication what the wheel got to do with that door though.

[Caffeine Freak]

Add that to our list of level design fails we'll fix later.

[Spleen]

This is pretty cool. My main complaint so far is it's too dark. :P

[40oz]

I watched the video. It looks like a pretty faithful game but I can't help but be dissapointed in how the art style doesn't appear to be preserved. I don't really know how I could help provide helpful suggestions but I couldn't help but notice things like how the afrits don't really look like the charred fire breathing gargoyles did in Hexen 1, or how the Ettins split open and their blood and entrails splatter all over the place. This mod certainly does that, but in the manner of sprites, the death dequence is much more lucid while in this Doom 3 mod, the Ettin kinda vanishes in a fog of blurry red blood particles and simply isn't as pleasing to watch. Same with the Afrit which just appears to be a gargoyle skeleton model with an aura of orange flames around it.

Like I said I don't really know what could or should be done but it just doesn't look right to me.

[Quasar]

I think if some actual body part chunks were spawned that stayed around (for a while at least, if having too many models about is a concern) would help a lot. After all quite a few Hexen monsters spawned various gib items - shields, swords, well-hewn limbs, heads even. Would add a nice gory touch to it.

I suggest this mainly because I know animating death sequences is usually one of the most difficult parts of animation. Having the creatures not look like they just flop down on the ground is a challenge, and so, as Raven already did with many enemies, particularly in Heretic, it's often easier to have them explode somehow even when it makes no real sense.

[kristus]

In Doom3 you got ragdolls. They could use those.

[Zeroth]

Dragonsbrethren said:

Has anyone else installed this yet? The screen is entirely black in-game for me. The menus and loading screen show fine, and I know the map definitely loaded since sound is working. Tried out all of the video options, changed resolutions, and nothing seems to have gotten it working.

I wonder if it has something to do with using the Steam release. I have a retail copy, but I don't feel like installing that again just to see if it works.

for anyone else having this problem, the cause is having pk4s from other mods loading. see this thread: http://www.hexenmod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=410

any problems, suggestions, praises, fomplaints, or flames are welcome on those forums.

[Quasar]

Does anybody know a fix for sky issues on ATi Radeon 4850? For me the sky is not pegged properly and so it shifts around and zooms in/out as I look around. I had an identical problem in one level of Resurrection of Evil so I know it's not an issue specific to this mod. It's gotta be something to do with my video card or driver.

[Ichor]

I've noticed a few places around the outside of the port town where you could get completely stuck. How do I know this? Because I've spent the past hour wandering around trying to get inside the place before finally giving up entirely for the time being, and that wheel switch is blocked off.

And I still haven't found the magistrate's key or firestorm, but I've found loads of green and combined mana.

[Caffeine Freak]

There is a chainlink holding the gate shut that blocks the wheel switch. You have to smash it.

[Ichor]

I've smacked at that general area a number of times already, but nothing happened. I guess I must have missed it.

[Quasar]

I'm in the swamp now, explored the port city, and all I found were some boots of speed - wow :/ Every thing I manage to activate only causes another mystery rather than solving anything, so I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. I wandered around just now through the extent of both levels I've been to for about 2 and half hours smacking just about every visible surface and jumping off things in various directions and didn't find a thing.

There's puzzles, and then there's having to give up because you just can't find anything. I mean at this point I can't even be certain the game just hasn't glitched out on me. The crypt with Korax's face and the 3 runes on it opened but there was nothing in there, so that was pointless. I picked up a bunch of "corpse ribs" and nothing happened, nor does there appear to be any obvious thing to do with them.

It needs some more hints, I'm afraid. You don't have to hold the player's hand, but as of right now, I'm completely lost.

[Caffeine Freak]

Yeah, it's just a single chain link, easy to miss. That's my faulty design and thinking, so again, I apologize and take full responsibility for your frustration.

[Caffeine Freak]

I wish our testers had reported these sorts of problems.

Anyways, the bones you find each have to be placed in a clockwise order in the 5 circles of rocks surrounding the stone altar(in the same open area you find them in). The first bone has to be placed in the circle closest to the burning trees, and then place the rest sequentially(again, in a clockwise order.)

But that's weird that crypt didn't have anything, because it's supposed to. Very weird.

[Ichor]

Perhaps a rusty old lock about ready to fall off on its own could be added to make it a bit easier to see.

[Caffeine Freak]

Very true. That will go my list of fixes for the next release.

It seems people are having the most difficulty figuring out the swamps. I need to go easier on the puzzles and such in the future.

[Quasar]

Caffeine Freak said:

I wish our testers had reported these sorts of problems.

Anyways, the bones you find each have to be placed in a clockwise order in the 5 circles of rocks surrounding the stone altar(in the same open area you find them in). The first bone has to be placed in the circle closest to the burning trees, and then place the rest sequentially(again, in a clockwise order.)

But that's weird that crypt didn't have anything, because it's supposed to. Very weird.

OK I'll try it out ;) The crypt may have had a minor item that I already picked up, I can't remember, but I didn't seem to find anything in there that advanced the plot or got me anywhere in terms of progress. If it was supposed to do that, maybe I did hit a glitch? o_O

[Caffeine Freak]

No, it was supposed to be a Krater of Might(a chalice with purple liquid.) Just something that fills up your ammo completely. Not critical to the game. You're talking about the crypt that goes underground, right? With the blue torch?

I put in a ton of secret areas that require investigation to find, but aren't critical to beating the game.

[Ichor]

Well, right now, I'm having trouble finding any keys (crypt, dungeon, and that magistrate key). I only found the barracks key by sheer luck.

[Caffeine Freak]

You get the dungeon key by solving the bone puzzle as described above. The dungeon is in the port town, and has the crypt key. The crypt has the magistrate's key.

[Ichor]

Oh. I thought that bone rib puzzle was to just make it to the ladder without getting skewered (which happened on more than one occasion).

Also, is anyone else having their quartz flasks mysteriously disappearing? I had about a half dozen, but by the time I managed to get inside the port town, I had none left, and I don't believe I used them or needed to do so.

After further examination, it appears to be happening to all of my items. I lost my dragonskin bracers, krater of might, my flechettes, quartz flasks, and I'm down to one or two discs of repulsion, and I know I didn't use any of these.

[Caffeine Freak]

At least several people have reported that so far. I don't know what the deal with that is, but alas, it's beyond my fixing.

[Quasar]

You seem to lose your inventory the first time you visit any level. At least that's what happened to me. When I got to the Upper Echelons I lost everything, including my boots of speed, discs of repulsion, and quartz flasks.

I don't think there's enough health or mana. I was running at near empty on both the entire time after finding the dungeon key. The inventory bug of course isn't helping, but the flasks are few and far between, and in the Echelons the game is even starting to punish you for trying to pick up what few there are. That's something I despised in DOOM 3 - everytime I picked up some health I lost twice as much and it makes it almost worth just avoiding entirely. I'd rather have 24 health than 8 after some jumping monkey thing scratches my face off.

Anyway, my game has come to an abrupt end in the Upper Echelons because I can no longer fire any of my weapons, change weapons, or bring up the journal. I have no idea what caused this but whatever it was, it has saved into my save game. So I'm through, I guess, until this gets debugged some more.

[Caffeine Freak]

That's the first time we've heard of that happening. I don't think any of us had that issue while developing.

[Quasar]

Caffeine Freak said:

That's the first time we've heard of that happening. I don't think any of us had that issue while developing.

Well, I'm happy to say that it went away when I took the portal back to Ravaged City. It seems that my weapon was jammed in a particular state, and that's why it wouldn't fire or bring up a different weapon or even the journal. So if anybody else has this problem, just return to a previous level and it'll go away.

Probably a freak occurrence, and hopefully it won't happen again while I'm playing (would be good if it happened to somebody who could debug it of course ;)

I do have another problem to report though. When I got to the Astronomer's tower, I could hear her talking. However, the closer I got to her, the more quiet her voice seemed to be, and I really couldn't understand what she was trying to tell me by the time I was up there. All I made out was "senate building" so at least I caught enough to know where to go next ;)

Anyway on the whole I am still happy with this - I may have sounded overly bitter in my previous post but I was a bit upset since I thought I lost my save. Keep up the good work :) BTW do you think you guys could maybe release the looping version of the title/menu music you used to have on your webpage? I miss it :P

[Caffeine Freak]

Don't worry about sounding negative, all criticism is welcome. That's how a game grows stronger.

For future reference, if you run into a bug like that, PM Zeroth and ask him if you can e-mail him the save game file. That's the easiest way for these thins to get debugged.

I'll need to work on the ambient sound in the tower, because it's not the first time I've heard of that problem. Subtitles would be another valid route, I think, and I'm kind of surprised none of us thought of that.

Is the music you speak of the same music from the main menu of the game?

[Quasar]

Caffeine Freak said:

Don't worry about sounding negative, all criticism is welcome. That's how a game grows stronger.

For future reference, if you run into a bug like that, PM Zeroth and ask him if you can e-mail him the save game file. That's the easiest way for these thins to get debugged.

I'll need to work on the ambient sound in the tower, because it's not the first time I've heard of that problem. Subtitles would be another valid route, I think, and I'm kind of surprised none of us thought of that.

Is the music you speak of the same music from the main menu of the game?

OK I'll do that should it occur again. And yes, though the version that was on the webpage was a little bit different somehow - at the least, it looped rather than fading out :) Also, is it normal for the main menu music to only play sometimes? Currently I only hear it about a third of the time, and the rest of the time there's only occasional thunder effects and fire ambience.

[kristus]

Ok. I've finished it. I never did find the alchemist's shit though.

Something that thoroughly bugged me as I played this through was how much decore was dedicated to Korax and his brothers. The Korax face icon, and the serpent riders insignia in particular. Wasn't this city built around the watchtower of the astrologer after Korax was defeated? Why would they decorate their civilization with their enemies face and insignia?

Even the astrologer's planetarium thing had an serpent riders trident.

And why are you given green mana when there's no green mana weapon to be found? Or did I just not find it?

[Ichor]

Obviously I'm missing something here, because I haven't been able to find this astronomer's tower. I looked just about everywhere. I saw the senate building out in that rocky area. I saw some kind of fortress with the locked gates. I found a switch that I thought would open the gates, but it opened only one of three bars in front of a door that I don't think I've come across yet. I found two planets so far (which I'm guessing go to the planetarium), and I reeeeally don't want to spend another hour wandering around a now empty city.

[Caffeine Freak]

The alchemist stuff was never incorporated. We need to take that out of the journals. Thank you for mentioning it.

But the Korax insignia is so coool... no, you're right. Logically, it doesn't make much sense. Another aesthetic thing that needs to be worked on.

I was responsible for about 70% of the level design (small parts of the first map, all of the swamp, and everything but the basic layout of the third map) and I tried to use the green mana as seldom as possible. Most of it is in the first map. It's a stupid decision I'll grant, and misleading, but the only real reason I can think of was for variety, I guess. It needs to be replaced with blue mana. The other weapons will definitely be available in the next release, however.

BTW - type NRA in the console for all the weapons. There's still some touching up on them that needs to be done though, so don't be surprised if you find a few things like missing sounds.