EXU2: Batshit Insane - Demo 4 v2.1

[Maxer 64]

I have upgraded the Biohazard Flare. FINALLY.



Oh man. What a major improvement! Outdoors, the gas gets all over the place and kills EVERYTHING (and yes, it does a mixture of shit and corroded damage as you can see by the smoke colors, so Shit or Bio pawns will either heal or take damage depending on how near they are to the their respective types). Well, except for extremely-high-HP targets. But indoors? It will even fuck those up because the gas gets so concentrated. It has a hard time spreading around through hallways and stuff so far, but once I work out the physics a bit better, it should be pretty awesome basically everywhere.

The fog of doom lasts for a good 30 seconds or so, and usually remains slightly more concentrated near the epicenter. This thing wipes the floor with any low-HP horde you can throw at it.

Ohh... I liked the old version... But I think This will be my new favorite flare though!

[Maxer 64]

Hey Waff, not that I'm trying to interview you or something but I'm wondering one thing right now, How did you come up with the shit gun for EXU?

[Buff Skeleton]

Biorifle -> ????????? -> Shitgun

[UBerserker]

LOL I managed to play some of your maps on Coop, myself only. Not as hard as I expected them to be, but quite the BIGASS chaos and definitely more enjoyable than my stuff currently on Coop simply because for the default inventory: starting with 3000+ HP, plus a selection of weapons with loads of ammo. I don't know why I can't get something similar to work on G59, I set up the EXMapInfo correctly; maybe I missed something or it's ECoop related (Core said he'll do updates soon).

For this reason G59 on Coop is generally avoided (aside Map 1) since you start with no weapons and NO Translocator, so something like Map 2 can't be cleared. Nobody so far, including me, managed to beat Map 4 (Perditus Paradisus), that level seriously touched real levels of crazy bullshit in Coop more than I ever thought (Inventory problems still come into play).

[Buff Skeleton]

Yay. After a month-long hiatus due to tendonitis flaring up and then refusing to heal, I finally am able to get back to UED again (albeit with a tendon strap and a wrist brace to be absolutely sure I don't do any new damage). Good stuff.

But uh, yeah. Basically no progress at all over the month of June. That sucked. I've gotten a fair bit done today, though.

[Kew]

Waff, glad to hear you're feeling better. Nasty stuff that tendonitis. Take it easy.

[TheIronKnuckle]

Yeah. Keep up the good work dude. Hopefully you'll be out of that strap and brace soon

[Maxer 64]

For this reason G59 on Coop is generally avoided (aside Map 1) since you start with no weapons and NO Translocator, so something like Map 2 can't be cleared. Nobody so far, including me, managed to beat Map 4 (Perditus Paradisus), that level seriously touched real levels of crazy bullshit in Coop more than I ever thought (Inventory problems still come into play).

Maybe you should make a G59 Coop Edition. More weapons, more monsters, coop checkpoints, Enhanced bosses, ect.
Just for coop.

And Waff, glad to see your better.

[UBerserker]

G59 has already Coop checkpoints and more opposition. Not sure if anybody got the patience to take on Map 4 on Coop because it's surprisingly insane (Highlands-tied insane). It can be played normally on Ecoop + AKCoop server though since you get everything you need there.

Mind you, it's not like EXU2 BI maps are impossible to beat on Coop. Done several of them alone. My stuff are around the same level of difficulty.

[UBerserker]

I almost played every map of yours on the Loathsome's EXU2 Coop server. Probably the closest thing to the SP experience. I have written here some opinions on how they play and how much difficult they are.

Just to let you know, monsters drop shittons of random Flares and weapons like Juggernaut HellGun and the LargeMarge, potentially killing the difficulty of the maps but still making them utterly chaotic.
Last note: my ping is really high in the server, the lag usually screws me up unfortunately.

[1]Damnation
This one is apparently kinda hard because the PiddleDoper is weak and DemonSkaarj are like everywhere. It's short anyway. Hardest part is the last section with all of those Security Brutes - which is all about throwing Flares in the right spots. A Bouncilaser Flare can take down about everything until the laser beams encounter a solid surface that they can't pass through. A DemonBlast Flare can probably kill all non-Demon opposition in the whole map.

[2]Infernal Falls
Good lord that big Pizza Bag almost never dies! I was lucky anyway because a Hyper Flakker was dropped and I used it all against that thing. For the rest: the beginning is rough if you have bad ping, but you can just spam the ShitGun until the way is clear. Since the map is set outside, and monsters are placed in groups found far away from each other, Flares and Barrels don't do much wonders. InfernalFalls is not hard at all, however it's long and stamina-draining so you'll probably die several times, especially against those FuckOff Mercenaries and the myriads of Coop-only enemies.

[3]Shit Storm
This map is all about securing the front gate, which is a really tough thing to do - one of the hardest things of Batshit Insane. UNLESS you manage to get a LargeMarge but it never happened here. The map gets progressively easier once you deal with the Missile Brutes and Demon Pupae, you don't even need to use Flares. One of those SkyRocket Tentacles visually looked totally fucking strange (it was like a triangle blob... with a mouth) and was unkillable.

[4]The Soul Storage
I decided to use PlasmaSprayer Flares for the storage and almost killed everyone in there, except few Gasbags and Pupae, and a Super Charger that I couldn't kill in any way (kept dying by trying to kill him with the Extractor). Outside it's pretty chaotic, you get hit left and right but the enemies end up kill themselves. Died several times due to the Demon Commandos, sneaky Flak Tentacles. Flares are hard to properly use too. The level quickly ends anyway.

[5]Cursed Passage
Started easily, then I made a mistake by throwing a Bouncilaser Flares which owned pretty much everyone Remaining enemies were history shortly after. This was always one of the easiest maps though, anybody with 0 skills online can get good results by throwing random average/high tier Flares randomly.

[6]The Gauntlet
Lag determines the experience. The first wave I died almost always because I was spawned over the big torch, surrounded by lag-invisible enemies and I couldn't do much; so I went away. However another person came in (with a way lower ping) and managed to beat the map. Another time I played this level I was with somebody else, and it was much MUCH easier, hell you could just throw Nuclear Flares and Hyper Grenades from a safe spot and call it a day. Great level though.

[7]Frostclaw Part 1
As easy as in SP. I'm pretty sure a Demonblast Flare can outright kill everybody.

[8]Frostclaw Part 2
Don't use Demonblast Flares unless you want to kill everyone easily. That's the first and only rule. For heavy ping users, Ice orbs are hard to avoid and the Ice Pupae are painful because you still don't have the Hell Gun (random Juggernaut cannons don't help) and you can only kill them with the ShitGun. There are many Flares to get and you can use them to make a short work of the Ice people. Died many times, but still perfectly able to get to the ending

[9]Bitter Bridge
Not sure about this... the shield blocking the exit is already gone and you can end the map quickly. Was it too in SP? Even if I activate the big ambush, I don't think it will pose problems, I always found this map the easiest in BI aside Map 13-14.

[10]The Doom House
Not that hard. People enjoy using Bouncilaser Flares that slaughter about anyone, but one is never enough. It is tough like Frostclaw Outpost, except the selection of enemies is different and what else. Shoot, die, shoot, die, throw loads of Flares. Room done. You just need to know what kind of monsters are placed inside the areas.

[11]Corruption
Unfortunately this is the only map I never played on Coop. It's probably the same sort of thing as DoomHouse until you arrive in the dry valley. Anybody can take on the Archdemon after a few tries.

[12]Doom Arena
Fun, easy, chaotic and straightforward. There isn't a section that really stands out there except the LavaTitan X Demon Skaarj Lord battle at the end. Invisible-Lag bug was there so I decided to spam Contact Beam secondary against the bosses until they were all dead First part should be pretty long though with all of those Gasbags who spawn big Pupae.

[13]Darkness
The easiest map. Of course if you die you'll lose the Searchlight forever, however you can simply spam Hellblasts/CB blasts against everybody and not even get hit. Or use Demonblast Flares and everyone pre-placed should be already dead.

[14]Blackness
Same as Darkness, except if you have tons of Flares and fuck up at the ending... strange stuff happens with Flares exploding on the final checkpoint, killing you the nanosecond you respawn.

[15]Highlands of Despair
DEAR GOD.
Didn't go through this, only part of the beginning and the whole ending section. The rest was all done by another player in two hours or something. Others were all angry at those invincible orbs and were trying to destroy them. Flares are pretty much useless here, however there are chances that the LargeMarge will appear. If you have the LargeMarge, you can surely turn this map into a cakewalk, however there will be always somebody who will kill you. Always. Killing Archdemons with CB+PentaPower is still easy. The map was finished anyway, it's not impossible. Just hard and time-consuming. Everybody needed a break after this as they had enough of all the meteors and pentagram shots.
At least the LargeMarge really helps here, while in G59 Map 4 the Warlords will kill you before you can start decimating everybody with it (hilariously, the LargeMarge only popped up in BI15 and G59-04).

So? Coop works. Really, really well. However the DemonBlast Flares (is the random Flare drop caused by the EXU2Coop gametype or is it server related anyway??!?) do actually kill the fun because they can destroy enemies behind walls.
Man, I just wish some day I could play some EXU2Coop with you Waff :> Now though I have to deal with my own stuff!

[Buff Skeleton]

Very interesting! I'm surprised you found it as fun as you did even in Demo 4, because all the maps have been radically modified for coop since then and are lightyears better. Coop is much improved at this point, and it's way, way better but WAY HARDER. You won't need any monster-spawning mutators anymore, because the maps themselves have that covered. I mean, jesus christ, have you seen THIS video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=votn6hQa ... ture=g-upl

^ This is what coop is like on Unreal difficulty in most maps. Stock. Some maps are even like this in SP now on the hardest level, but the lower levels tend to have few or no respawning enemies. I've also removed a lot of the annoyances and revamped other things, like Doom Orbs being invincible in SP. Instead, they will explode after a while, and the explosion is HUGE and devastating, but you have plenty of time to get the fuck away once they start going critical.

And yeah the weapon/flare drops were from the server; the coop gametype doesn't do anything like that.

I've been slacking too much lately and work is going to be busy for the next week and a half or so, but once all that is out of the way, I am locking myself back down on EXU2 and will try to get something playable out before the end of summer. It's certainly been long enough. Some other things will be happening at that time, too.

[UBerserker]

I'm seriously looking forward to see the new quality level of the BI maps :> Really need to check the quality spread between my stuff and yours (aside the gameplay style which is a different matter altogether).

[MrLoathsome]

Waff is correct. I suspect it would have taken us a LOT longer to beat map 4
on either the EXU server or the Oldskool server. (We might still be playing....)

Ecoop was adding extra guns, and the Spitfire and Rebel pawns, and I also had a
mutator adding a number of flares and guns.
I was pretty much launching the Spitfires and Rebels soon as I could every time
on every respawn. (And I died a lot...)

This stuff is pushing the engine hard, and I like it.
The server, the client and the network crap.

Gives me something to tweak and tinker with.
When me and UB played on the AKcoop/Ecoop server the other day, I had installed a new CPU in the
server about an hour prior, and kept running off to make sure the processor wasn't
melting. And it was close. This was keeping it at 50-90% cpu use, and temps
were pinned at 65-70c, which is just too damn hot.
Either the 3.2ghz Prescott chips just run 15*c hotter than
the 3.0ghz chips, or I got a bad (hotter than average) 3.2ghz cpu...

ATM only the EXU2 server is online. Should have the ECoop servers up and running all
this soon as the good heat sink compound I ordered arrives and I sort out my hardware
issues.

I am going to be messing with raising the maxclientrate variable for all the coop servers
soon as I get things sorted out. Long ago I needed to worry about maxing out the
available bandwidth on my DSL line if too many players were on the various servers.
That is less of an issue these days....

UB suggested turning decals down or off might help, and it did considerably on the EXU2
server I think.
I did put my MoreBlood and MoreGore muts back on the EXU2 server.
Neither of those adds any detectable lag to things.
They were both written so that if 100 pawns die at once, only 1 or 2 of them will attempt
to spawn effects or extra gibs, so no extra huge load on server or replication.

I am also looking forward to the final.

[Buff Skeleton]

Coming early September, EXU2 is going into Open Beta mode!

"The fuck does THAT mean," you ask?

Simple! You get to play the same EXU2 that I do, more or less, and not in months or years! I will be pumping out content as soon as it is beta-worthy, i.e. playable with few issues but not always fully-tested and polished, so that you can help me test and balance things. There will be very frequent updates to maps, assets, code, etc. throughout the Open Beta cycle until the mod is 100% complete. I'll also be recruiting help with specific things I could use extra hands working on, making some of the development more community-assisted. This is a very exiting time for EXU2!

This is a big change from the traditional release-a-demo-every-couple-years cycle, and one I think will suit this particular mod much better. EXU2 is all about expanding on the core concepts continuously rather than delivering a singular, neatly-packaged gameplay experience. Only the campaign, EXU2: Batshit Insane, is anything like a discrete product, but even that is modular, and I will be releasing maps as they are ready instead of just the first fifteen.

This will also open up all sorts of possibilities for custom content made by YOU GUYS, so you can create your own absurd monsters/items/weapons/maps/etc. while helping me design, implement, and test new tools to make EXU2 development even easier. You scratch my back, and I will scratch yours! With plasma, I guess.

Anyway, expect to see new content as soon as I am able to get it out there, which I am hopeful will be right around the beginning of next month. I am still working on the Map 8 revamp, which I definitely must complete first, but any other in-progress stuff can be patched in later. After all, the whole point of Open Beta mode is to get the ball rolling, even if not everything is polished to a shine. I've learned it's much better to release early and often, and it helps build my enthusiasm for the project, which increases development momentum. Besides, at this point, EXU2 is already polished enough to be enjoyed, and it's far nicer-looking and less buggy than Demo 4. So if you liked Demo 4, you are going to absolutely love the Open Beta.

I have an EXU2 subforum operational right now, but it's hidden for the time being as I make info threads and prepare it for use. I'll open that up with the first Open Beta release, and we'll have our own little crazy corner for EXU2 discussion. Feel free to use that forum to your heart's content once it's live. I'll probably lock and move this thread there for archival purposes. UBerserker: if you want to move your G59 thread there too, you are more than welcome!


PREPARE YOURSELVES. SHIT IS GOING DOWN.

[UBerserker]

I approve this. Much easier to check the changes, especially for me because huge amounts of them will probably slow me down a lot (and I'm not that super experienced with development). There will still be the big step with the new EXU2 version which is waaay different than 2.1, but after that everything should go all fine.

And yes, G59 thread can be moved to the new subform when it's possible