[Wolfenstein: Blade of Agony] Achievement Ideas? (p13)

[Tormentor667]

FOREWORD
Blade of Agony is a story-driven FPS. The project is inspired by WWII shooters from the 90's and early 2000's, like Wolfenstein 3D, Medal of Honor, and Call of Duty, but with faster-paced gameplay in the spirit of Doom! The game can be played standalone using the GZDoom engine as a base.

STORY
It's 1942, and the war approaches its peak. The U.S. has joined the Allied forces, and the Soviets are pushing back the front in the east. The tides of war are turning, and Hitler's victory seems more and more beyond his grasp. But the Nazis, refusing to capitulate, have grown obsessed with human experiments and occult artifacts, in which they see a potential escape from their final Doom. The Allied leaders reject this possibility as nonsense; nonetheless, some still fear what the Führer might be up to. The situation is nebulous, however, and little is certain.

You are Cpt. William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an Allied spy, a fearless risk-taker, and the greatest soldier to ever take up arms in World War II. Your role has changed, though; you've retired from active duty, and now you spearhead operations as a systems analyst. You thought it would be the right choice--leading and motivating instead of doing the dirty work--but lately you've grown restless. At least until a few days ago, when you received an encrypted message from your old friend and comrade Cpt. Douglas Blake, calling you back to duty...

FEATURES
Blade of Agony is much more than just a pastiche of the classic shooters that inspired it; the project will offer a unique experience. It also has many features not often seen in source port projects--Blade of Agony truly pushes GZDoom to its limits.

• 30 playable and unique levels in 3 different chapters (plus secret maps)
• Orchestra-quality game music
• Voice acting and ambient soundscapes
• A combination of low-poly models and hi-resolution sprite assets to create the perfect retro feeling
• Devastating armaments from the battlefields of WWII
• Interactive NPCs that support the twisted plot's progress and help you understand the game
• Improved enemy AI for more dynamic and challenging fights
• Beautiful special effects (weather, elements, explosions, etc.)
• Modern post-processing shaders (motion & effect blur, noise, flares, etc.)
• Much, much more!

COMMIT
If you are interested in helping us improving the game, the easiest way to do so is by making pull requests to the project's GitHub repository. The development repo is public, and we are happy to have any kind of help. We can't promise to implement every public change, but we'll have a thorough look at all of them, and we'll be thankful for any helpful improvements or suggestions.

SCREENSHOTS
Screenshots tell more than words, don't they? Additionally to the shots below, a huge collection can be found on our webpage.

Spoiler

 

VIDEOS
There are numerous videos around the web that already show how Blade of Agony plays. I have added some interesting ones to this thread, more can be seen here or on YouTube - check them out and get psyched!

Spoiler

 

TESTING & IMPROVING
The final release is out, but there is still room for improvements to be done. Are you interested in helping us with these and support the next release of Blade of Agony? Drop us a line and let us know via GitHub issues.

GAMEPLAY/WEAPN MODS & USER ADDONS
You are encouraged to create your own weapon, enemy and gameplay mods, or user addons with new maps and new content. We are happy to place them here and on the official webpage, just let us know what you have prepared. If you want to start developing anything for Blade of Agony, you might want to take a closer look at the editing docs.

OFFICIAL WEBPAGE
You want more? More information? More content? More hype? Check the official webpage under http://boa.realm667.com

 

 

It's done!

 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by Tormentor667
Updated the complete first post.

[Walter confetti]

interesting...

[VGA]

Cool-looking. Maybe you could look at Wolfen3DGE for inspiration and resources.

[SuperCupcakeTactics]

Looks awesome! You could try implementing weapon attachments like silencer for mp40 and some other uses for gold during missions. Sorry just thought that would be neato too >.<

[Tormentor667]

Just to make sure nobody misses something: The development continues in the official thread at ZDoom, so if you have requests, feedback or anything else, please get there :)

[Avoozl]

Why is there a pot from Shadow Warrior in it?

[scifista42]

Avoozl said:

Why is there a pot from Shadow Warrior in it?

Because Tormentor667 has always been like "add details first, ask questions later". :P

[Fuzzball]

LOVE the SBAR stuff, looks very professional!

[Blastfrog]

Is that clip graphic from the Doom alpha? Somehow, that number font looks similar to it as well.

This looks cool so far.

[Cupboard]

Those sure are some graphics. Yes they are. Anyone else wish to confirm my claim?

[CeeJay]

VGA said:

Cool-looking. Maybe you could look at Wolfen3DGE for inspiration and resources.

Doubtful, since Torm seems to use 64x64 sprites and go for the more realistic appearance. The original Wolf-esque sprites (as used in Wolfen3DGE) are more cartoony in comparison.

[Tormentor667]

Gameplay video mission 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKyPReSiYgE

[scifista42]

Tormentor667 said:

Gameplay video mission 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKyPReSiYgE

That actually looks neat! I like it.

[VGA]

Tormentor667 said:

Gameplay video mission 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKyPReSiYgE

Awesome, but aren't the enemies too short?

[esselfortium]

The rocks at the very start look oddly simplistic, especially in the GL setting. The KDiZD rock sprites don't really blend in with their surroundings, and the flat rock walls with simple jaggy trim around the floor doesn't look too convincing or appealing IMO.

The resource kitbashing doesn't always work here IMO, particularly the use of detailed detailed 3D models alongside cartoony Wolfenstein sprites and Doom-resolution textures. The use of 3D models for detail also make it even stranger to see flat textures and sprites used to represent walls with pipes and other depth-having structures on them.

I feel like the interiors would really benefit either from more detailed textures (adding some subtle grit layers so they're less pristine and monochrome) or from more dramatic lighting contrast. Lighting would help the most. GZDoom's lighting can be a bit limiting, especially if you're mostly depending on dynamic lights, but the interior lighting here is very neutral and just sort of "there", which doesn't help the scenery really pop.

Layout-wise I'd love to see more use of vertical space and openness, and less of the corridor->door->room->door->corridor crawling that makes up the majority of the demo. It seems like nearly every area is a roughly 128-wide, 128-tall corridor that's connected to adjacent areas via doors, which all make for pretty monotonous play. The texture theme changes a bit from one area to the next, but the scale and shapes stay very consistent even as you get into the gray basement areas. There are some 3D ledges in one area, but even those are still squared-off, 128-wide, and without any threats coming from any direction other than directly in front of you.

It seems like nearly every fight's optimal solution is to camp around one of the countless doors that serve as bottlenecks between areas. Propping open some of the doors (or better yet, creating openings wider than 64 units) and providing multiple points of immediate entry for each section would allow for much more engaging combat, giving enemies more opportunities to wander around and catch you from behind, rather than always being fed through a single narrow doorway in front of you.

Also, some of the big flaming pots are clipping into nearby walls.

[The Green Herring]

Having watched the whole video, I agree that the gameplay seems little more than a linear series of rooms and corridors, to an extent noticeably worse than The Refinery. The above post otherwise says what I would say.

Also, you might want to make sure you've got your door locks set up properly before making a public demonstration video. Just saying. You might also want to make sure you don't have to use the "resurrect" command to complete your own map. At least use your architecture as cover, for example, rather than just standing there and letting the mad doctor stick you with his syringes. Oh, and this is minor, but if you're going to take the time out to demonstrate the ability to turn the lights on and off, at least make sure the light switches animate. As it is, all of this makes your work look sloppy. Please be more careful.

[Memfis]

It seems like a faithful "fan sequel" to WolfenDoom. Similar design philosophy but nicer looking and with more cool features. A non-centered status bar face feels kind of weird in Doom engine though.

[Cupboard]

Looks kinda neat, except maybe the KDiZD rocks should be recolored a bit to match the rock texture by the beach. And why are the sleeping beds always on the left hand side whenever you enter a room. ;_; And there's always a desk right in the middle.. The room reuse is a little much.

Other than that it looks and sounds pretty fun.

[Tormentor667]

First of all, thanks for your feedback so far, very useful stuff!

@TheCupboarf - Well, it's some kind of barrack/hotel so having rooms with a similar layout made sense to me. For the rocks I will definitely recolor these.

@TheGreenHerring - Thanks for those tipps, it was the very first time that I made a video with Fraps, I definitely need to take care in the future in terms of details. I will fix the switches, everything else is already working. Concerning the linearity of the map: It's the very first mission and I wanted to keep that as simple as possible so there Is enough space to improve from mission to mission.

@esselfortium - Thanks as well, one thing though before I go into detail: My main goal with this project is to carry over the spirit and feel of the original WolfenDoom operations from Laz Rojas. I know that this isn't everyone's taste but it's something I liked a lot and what I want to adapt and improve. Concerning the mixture of low-poly models and sprites/textures from Wolfenstein I don't agree as well. In my eyes the combination worked well in Enjays Burghead and to me it feels good here as well, but maybe thats a question of taste. Though the tipps for the gameplay department are pretty good and I will take care of these in the next mission :)

[Jimmy]

The others all said pretty much what I might say, but I have to add that I'm looking forward to this even if it's not completely my style of gameplay. I hope the later maps are more non-linear and feature some interesting combat setups. It's looking pretty good though. :)

Do make sure everything's balanced nicely though - that surgeon boss had like 3x too much health, heh.

[Tormentor667]

Still going!

Screenshots from WolfenDoom - Blade of Agony - Operaton: Grabräuber

[snapshot]

Tormentor667 said:

Still going!

Screenshots from WolfenDoom - Blade of Agony - Operaton: Grabräuber

Wow , looks more then Great !

[Avoozl]

Looks close enough to RTCW in the ID Tech 1 engine.

[Tormentor667]

Operation: Grabräuber is finished layoutwise!

[mouldy]

Reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Would be amusing to have all the hanging corpse decorations dressed as indiana jones maybe

[cacomonkey]

This looks awesome. You've always been one of my favorite PWAD authors so it can be no less than fantastic when it's finished. Wolfenstein 3D was the first FPS I ever played, on my old Tandy 286, and it led to a life-long love of the genre. Been reading MASTERS OF DOOM so I'm looking to scratch that Doom itch again after taking a break from Doom wads for about a year or two.

[Tormentor667]

Download (updated on May 10th)
The latest beta can be downloaded here (beta v0.95), it's still a work-in-progress release, so we are looking forward to your feedback, suggestions and bugtracks.

"Changelog" - What's new in beta 0.95?

Increased treasure count on all maps (200 - 400 coins)
Fixed non-friendly chars in the intermap
Improved the briefing texts in the intermap
Improved the radio messages in the missions
Jukebox is now controlled via ZSDF
Fixed the "Project Totengräber" blood splat
Increased scaling of nazis (from 1.2 to 1.25)
Removed the "infrared" trivia
Removed the click sounds of radioactive barrels
Darren has now a last name, so does Ryan have a surname.
Improved the menue (moved options around)
Fixed automap overlappings of SBARINFO
Changed drop ratios for weapons in all soldier DECORATE
Changed the Prisoner behaviour in C1M6 a bit (ZSDF)
Toggleable reloading (automatic or manual, boa options)
Scalable recoil (boa options)
Ejecting brass/shells
Added enemy rotations for various actors (attack, pain)
Smoother movement for enemies
Extended map for Operation: Speerspitze (C1M1)
Intermission map dialogues have now mugshots for all NPCs
(special thanks to Ed the Bat for most of the gameplay- and codefixes)

[Tormentor667]

Eherm...

Winter is coming

[Tormentor667]

Simple ingame footage
https://youtu.be/pZ-ZRHjLUtQ

[mouldy]

That looks and sounds pretty damn impressive. One thing I noticed with earphones is the noise of the player footsteps sounds like its coming from someone following a few paces behind you.