EXU2: Batshit Insane - Demo 4 v2.1

[Jigoku]

Oooooh.

[Nelsona]

Yea, dammit, is need to use the same engine to replace the mess from itself and a bunch of others, creating a hard load in executing everything. My "last attack" was to suppress I mean to ruin something like "Error - use Creature Factory to spawn pawns", this is delivered I think after some whisky because is just a log not really an error but is spaming console too ugly anouncing a shit spawned - you know already what we have spawned - a classic crap. This worked in a reduced number of maps not all. I don't know to deal with some variables or is not possible, even in console I can manually ruin more stupidities. Whatever I do in console seemes to be hard to do directly in codes.

[Buff Skeleton]

Soon...



Video playthrough of this map.

[Jigoku]

What is THAT?

[Buff Skeleton]

TECHNICAL UPDATE

Here's a quick preview of some of the fun tools EXU2 has in store for modders, focusing mainly on EXUScriptedPawn capabilities at the moment:



(Note that I added values to the AdvancedCreatureFactory just for the sake of display; the defaults are all blank/zero, of course)


These parameters can produce some very interesting effects. For example, by tweaking the ProjectilesPerShot and RangedAccuracy values of a Lavatitan, we get things like this:



That's a Lava Titan firing ten meteors per throw with a RangedAccuracy value of 10,000. Zero = perfect aim, and 65536 is the maximum (which basically means fire in all directions - see BrokenSuperTurboMercenary and ShitFountainMercenary in Demo 4 for an example of how hilarious that is). The normal default is 400.

These variables should be pretty intuitive and easy to modify, but I've been documenting code as well. Most variables have code comments describing what does what, especially those in EXUScriptedPawn and other frequenly-used actors (such as new enemy generator systems I haven't shown yet).

Further, anyone wanting to make their own EXUScriptedPawns will find a lot of useful stuff in the code, like the function ExtraDeathStuff() that permits customized death behaviors (example: EXU2's Queens and Slith use this now instead of the horror shit-show that's currently in Demo 4). Projectiles have been cleaned up across the board, and as of now, there are barely any non-EXU projectiles left in the code base, and they will be converted over to the EXUGenericProjectiles system before the final. Tons of code has been improved or rewritten from scratch and further optimized.


This week has been good. I just got done adding the Piddledoper Mercenary's multiple-projectiles-at-once code to EXUScriptedPawn GLOBALLY (as you can see above), which makes a lot of things much simpler and makes mutator possibilities much more interesting. I also added the RangedAccuracy variable, giving modders (and myself) far more control over pawns' accuracy values. Another thing I added to EXUScriptedPawn this week was a more flexible and precise projectile firing system for all of EXU2's pawns. I painstakingly went through each pawn, figuring out exact locations of where projectiles should spawn according to the animation currently in play and muzzle location on the pawn itself, such as Brutes and Mercenaries. I also tied in a new muzzle flash system with this, and it can be overridden or customized in a number of ways, both through public variables and through UScript. The end result is more convincing fire locations with optional muzzle flash effects, making some pawns look really cool when they shoot at you.

I've had a lot of fun with code this month. And maps. Soon, I'll show you what's new on the mapping front. Some of the things you'll see in the new video are mentioned here, and some are things I've started doing to several campaign maps, not just the one I'm going to show off. Oh, and this map isn't in any of the Demos, so prepare to be surprised


Anyway, my goal is to make EXU2 not only as fun as possible, but as open and flexible as possible for modders to play with. I'm probably going to make some small arena-style maps as well, designed solely for opening up and fragging for 10-15 minutes at a time (or however long you want) before quitting. No commitments necessary. Full weapon loadouts, tons of enemies, infinite spawners, etc. Just load it and go nuts. A lot of the tools I've built over the past few months have made maps like these VERY easy to make and set up. CreatureFactories will seem like a joke compared to some of the new features. I can't wait till I can release this stuff, but I still have TONS to do (mostly campaign maps). But just so you all know, I haven't been wasting my time

[Frieza]

Inquiring minds would like to know, bFuckerMode does what exactly?

[Buff Skeleton]

I'm not revealing that shit yet! (It's not even implemented yet)

[jaypeezy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTv2hK-oevc
There's this mod for HL called Sven Coop, which is pretty much what Monster Hunt is to UT. One of the most played maps is Stadium3, pictured here. It's fairly simple in construction - a cube in a cube, the inner-cube sectioned off (the "stadium"). But, the catch here is the section of buttons that allows a player to spawn friendly/evil monsters among other things. There's even a destroy all button, and a guided missile panel on the other side of the map.

Why I'm mentioning this? Haha, I heard what you said about making non-commit maps for fragging fun and figured I might post this as a possible source for inspiration. I myself am such a scatter-head that I can never stick to a mapping project, but all the stuff you've been mentioning about customization and flexibility are making me want to be otherwise.

[TheIronKnuckle]

Looking forward to this. Not gonna be another tool who asks when's it going to finish, but roughly how many maps do you have left to work on in the core campaign? What do you predict to be the scale/difficulty to build of these maps. Is it even worth giving a prediction at all?

Also, what's the deal with that hellbase I saw a couple of pages back.

These images probably won't remain active for long since they're just WIP shots buuuut...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/w ... ower01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/w ... ower02.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/w ... ower03.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/w ... ower04.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/w ... ower05.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/w ... ower06.jpg

Got some pretty awesome stuff done today. The old control tower (seen in the shots in the original post) has been junked and other less-demonic-looking structures will probably be redesigned as well in the near future

I remember it looking bloody amazing (shots are dead now). Is it in the campaign yet?/how goes progress on that particular map?

Also, lol@bFuckerMode

[Buff Skeleton]

The air base will be in, but it's a late-game map and I can't say much more about it than that. It's not complete. I still have about 10-15 more maps to make. Some are already near completion, but are still in progress.

I have been focusing a lot less on maps and more on core gameplay design and features for almost the entire year. Once everything is suitably ironed out, I can see the maps progressing a lot faster, especially now that I've made so many advances like SpawnWhenTriggered and AdvancedCreatureFactory and other things to make enemy load generation way easier to manage. Other than that, I really don't know. I know when I'd LIKE to be done, but mentioning any sort of date at all is a bad idea for a developer of any project, so I'll just say "later"

There's still some shots of that map on the ModDB page, which I haven't updated in like 4 months. I've been too busy with the actual mod to focus on PR, so be glad I've been sorta quiet until recently!

[UB_]

I'm ready for Horrormode, Fuckermode and Extremetrees mode!!!

Currently, it feels like I'm looking forward to the new tools, properties and upgrades for the editor rather than the playable maps themselves. Making stuff under the EXU gametype gives me that effect.

[TheIronKnuckle]

@waff: great that it's a late game map. It's the sort of map which would make for an epic climax.

[Legendslayer222]

I don't know if this is a bug or an annoying feature, but when I'm playing Demo 4's campaign, while I swim I can't use the jump button to float upwards. I'm forced to look up and press the forwards key to go up.
I don't think this happened on my first playthrough of EXU2, but I can't really remember because that was a while ago.

[UB_]

You probably had some armor items (Heavy Bapes or Heavy ShieldBelt) that increased your mass.

[Legendslayer222]

You probably had some armor items (Heavy Bapes or Heavy ShieldBelt) that increased your mass.

I think I do, actually. Thanks for sorting that out!