Carnevil

I don't mean to keep bumping this, but I finally got around to making a blog post on a lot of what's been discussed in here. You guys might find it interesting:

http://www.wrackgame.com/blog/2012/05/last-minute-improvements/

Now see how easy that was? The first shot is made so much better just by having a side area. The bridge is another good one.

Phew! I was really worried you weren't gonna take our advice, I'm glad you made these improvements, it's really gonna add an extra dimension to these maps.

i will say the game looks like it's shaping up pretty well. the screens look pretty appealing.

Have you tried asking the GameDev.net forums for help?

Oh, and thanks for fixing the links to Skulltag wiki on the Skulltag front page. Could you also update the Doom Wiki link (now at http://doomwiki.org/) and Freedoom link (now at http://www.nongnu.org/freedoom/) plus remove the dead CTF League link?

EDIT: just noticed there are still a few Skulltag-related outdated links too. Namely, the gameplay modes link (which is now at http://wiki.skulltag.net/Game_Modes), instagib link (now at http://wiki.skulltag.net/Game_Modes#Instagib), buckshot link (now at http://wiki.skulltag.net/Game_Modes#Buckshot) and the FAQ link (now at http://wiki.skulltag.net/FAQ).

Despite the lack of responses in this particular thread, I actually have gotten several responses, and many of them are already trying their hand at modding and mapping for Wrack. So, I'm pretty excited about that! :)

Also, if there's ever a problem with the ST site, just email me. Those issues aren't related to the topic. Plus, I don't check Doomworld all that often (it doesn't help that I never seem to get an email notification when there's new posts in topics I subscribe to), so you're lucky that I saw it all.

In any case, I've fixed the links, but in the future, feel free to let me know more directly.

No such program exists. Even if it did... no.

40oz said:

Can I create doom levels and have someone translate them into Wrack levels? 3D mapping scares me.

You'd still be impaired in the third dimension, unless you took care to sketch the 3d parts.

Damn. I'd love to pick up another job right now, but it's been years since I did any 3D mapping.

Yeah, I can't form much of an opinion from the trailer alone, but I do like a lot of what I see here. Nice job in any case; it seems to have come a long way from those old Project Vega screenshots I remember from a few years ago.

After watching the trailer, I concur with Bank. The game is being different ... in exactly the same way as every other "different" game out there.

The levels seem very plain... Almost SLIGE like. It seems that the game was designed around the graphics engine, with the gameplay thrown in to hold it all together. For an indie project, it REALLY needs to be the other way around.

AndrewB said:

It seems that the game was designed around the graphics engine, with the gameplay thrown in to hold it all together. For an indie project, it REALLY needs to be the other way around.

It has been the other way around. Much of the focus to this point has been on the gameplay. It's been a lot of setting/tweaking properties, working out the mechanics, coming up with attacks and behaviors, doing the level layouts and gameplay (all of episode 1 is all done, but only the first 3 levels are textured), etc. One of the levels actually has a really nifty secret that you can only access if you go to the bonus/secret level. These kinds of things don't really translate well into trailers, but I assure you a LOT of work and thought has gone into the gameplay. Whether it sucks or not is obviously for you all to judge :)

Ah, glad to hear you are going. I was offered the chance to go with some friends, but I don't have the money to contribute in gas or paying for a room.

I wish I had the free time to go to QuakeCon. Or be an artist for a game, for that matter.

Hire 40oz to do the textures for your project.

Carnevil said:

Look, I did say that I want people who are objective.

So being "objective" is being a yes-man who agrees with everyone else's opinion on a certain movie? Oh wait, I thought you didn't want yes-men.

Creaphis said:

Now it sounds like you're just finding ways to discredit what your testers say.

Your aesthetic direction is bland and amateur, the only interesting part in the entire demo is the snowy mountain out the window.

Give it some personality instead of this awful mid-90s looking shit. Think visually because you're certainly not going to win any hyper-realism awards, so why not go ultra-stylized and give the player some really beautiful illustrative visuals instead of gray gray gray boring boring boring. You had a bunch of fun with skulltag, why not this?

Actually, that's the plan! I can only do so much myself, though, and I have zero artistic talent. Once we get some more help, we'll certainly make it a lot more lively and interesting looking.

EDIT: And actually, that's UT2K4 textures that we're using. So it's mid-2000's shit... not mid-90's shit :)

Bucket said:

Any chance we can get our hands on the editor so we can submit a test map for approval?

I third that motion. Of course if we get the map editor we have to have something to test it with ... would that be a problem?

EDIT: had a look at your other blog posts and saw the pic of the editor view. It topdown does look like doombuilder, and the 2 other axes kinda remind me of how radiant was when playing around with it. The complexity of the side views looks a little squished, is there a function to split the level into chunks so the side view only sees 256-512-1024 etc. type of chunks?

I'd love to let you guys take a crack at the editor, but we'd have to release some sort of demo along with it, which we can't do right now. For those of you who are interested in applying, I'd be happy to look at any maps you've made for other games - Doom or otherwise. I'm confident that you'd be able to learn how to make maps with this editor without too much trouble.

ArmouredBlood said:

EDIT: had a look at your other blog posts and saw the pic of the editor view. It topdown does look like doombuilder, and the 2 other axes kinda remind me of how radiant was when playing around with it. The complexity of the side views looks a little squished, is there a function to split the level into chunks so the side view only sees 256-512-1024 etc. type of chunks?

No, but I've thought about implementing something like that, and could do so if needed.

Carnevil said:

I'd love to let you guys take a crack at the editor, but we'd have to release some sort of demo along with it, which we can't do right now.

No, but I've thought about implementing something like that, and could do so if needed.

@ first; heh, too much work? :P Guess the quakecon stuff is horribly outdated then. Or was it a demo for the editor itself? I'll go with that.

@ second; eh I don't think it'd be necessary really, I think I'd just make new parts of the level far enough away diagonally to have both side and front view be clear then move the whole thing to connect it when done. Depending on how easy or hard this is would make how much of a 'meh' or 'thank you god!' type of response I'd have to the function ;)

devblog said:

start actively searching for a publisher

Whoa.

So, like, you're actually going to try to sell this? Are publishers going to pay some development costs?

When i finally get around to learning to use the 3D game making engine i spent £160 and have barely opened since i want to make an FPS that only requires the use of 5 keys and has a very miminal storyline. Just with SOF2 gore. So i wish you luck!

DuckReconMajor said:

Whoa.

So, like, you're actually going to try to sell this? Are publishers going to pay some development costs?

That's the goal! It'd be nice to actually be able to start paying people.

deathbringer said:

How will enemies / objects / weapons etc be created? Or will it be

"Make them in 3Ds Max and import them"
"I haven't got 3Ds Max"
"Torrent it lolz"
?

Only people who doesn't know better use 3d Max for modeling.

And what does people who does know better uses?

For sculpt modeling, Zbrush or Mudbox. (I've only used Mudbox though)

For general all purpose modeling apps, Modo. Lightwave is also good, and from what I understand Silo3d too.

But Modo is really the best since it's got customization coming out of it's ass. The program doesn't tell you how to model. You tell it how you want to model.

As for animation. I really have very limited experience as I've only used 3d studio versions for that so far. But that's where it's strenths are. It's a studio program more than anything. Not a modeling program.

Maya is a program famous mostly for it's powerful animation abilities. But also for it's poor modeling tools. I've yet to actually try it out myself though.

Infinite Ammunition said:

I like the cooler-looking in-game message scrolling, but I HATE the white text in the menus.

heh, the white text is brighter than normal, but it's fixed in the latest version of ZDoom (and thus will be fixed in the next version of Skulltag)

when there are several weapons binded to one key, for example grenade and rocket launcher, it requires too many time to switch to last weapon (in such fast game like doom, especially in ffa with many players). i remember that in other games in similar situations it is possible to hit key twice to switch to second weapon. may be skulltag can also implement this feature?

New thread time, now that 95h is here!