[v7.2] G59

[Diego96]

Alright, I made it this time. I even got the useless flare and everything
I'll be waiting till Ep. 2.

[UBerserker]

Cool I hope you enjoyed the enhanced Tonatiuh experience
Also finally posted some screenshots of the EP1 maps at the end of the first post.

Patch 7.1 that has been released for EXU2 won't impact G59 in any way. It also comes with Ultrabag code fixes! This means that one day I can apply those fixes too to the Gatekeepers so they'll stop with their annoyingly erratic attack behavior.

Bunch of stuff that I didn't mention because too spoilery:

► Show Spoiler

• A lot of location names and map titles have been changed for overall consistency, fitting more with sci-fi/myth themes.
• Void, previously known as Voidness, NO MORE comes after Map 1, which you may have noticed by playing Episode 1. The level will now appear in Episode 2, which is the Shadow related episode, so I put all that stuff in one block. While Shadows do appear in BI too, the gameplay in their maps is different from the rest of EXU2 and it did break the flow of the first few G59 maps. This is likely the biggest change in the campaign, alongside something else that will be seen in the very late game.
• Bosses will now have unique nametags with specific colors; this applies to the health bars themselves as well. Various other major bosses that didn't have a health bar (e.g. Moowis) will now have one. Naberius and Tsathoggua are no more, they'll be now regular monsters: Gatekeepers were already ones in the previous versions but now they took over in Limbo too and you'll fight THREE OF THEM; for Tsathoggua you will meet wingless Shadow Warlords, that's it.
• All Sin Pillars are gone. They were awkward and awfully broken, terrible shit. Secrets that were related to them have been either completely removed, or their areas have been repurposed (current Neonlights is an example, and the Magatsu foreshadow has been redone from scratch). Overall there will be hardly any secrets anymore, with the treasure hunt in Tonatiuh being the biggest one there's in the campaign.
• As per stated above, Neonlights has now a complete set of entrance areas, which includes the Watcher of the skies' terrain (originally was going to be used for Tonatiuh but I wanted to show the desert territory being extended to the Boundary too).
• Lots of other stuff will be likely removed from the main package, like some textures and items (the water speed booster, as the Manitou aka Cryox won't have underwater action except the end). I want the inventory to be as clear as possible instead of cycling throughout million of items.
• This will be also true for some enemies. EXU2 v7 comes with improved Demon pawns, which makes those enhanced Krall/Skaarj fully pointless; the critters in Tonatiuh are also gone, so will be the red shadows that add absolutely nothing to the pack. Royal pawns will remain however, due to story reasons.
• While the Clusterfucker is still obtained in Tonatiuh, you won't have the Tachyon and the RFPC in the first few levels of G59. This is because I wanted more focus on the EAR and especially on the Hellgun, which got suddenly figured out to be very strong thanks to the damage stacking (and that includes all your other Hell damage sources!). The RFPC will still appear in the Void, and that's episode 2 content now; for the Tachyon everything is undecided yet. Shotty, SK6 and LRPC are untouched, as well as the Screamer (as in zero appearances). Resources will be more scarce overall, similar to BI.
• While items might be removed, there are instead new armor items. One has been introduced, the red Demonlord's Vest which has 3500 points of charge, high armor priority and almost maxed out damage absorption. And you can also have it with the EXUArmor, the Frost Armor and the Magnificent Armor!
• Last thing, I will do my best to push all the G59 levels to the possible limits in terms of unique features. Each one is aimed to be a satisfying memorable experience.

[Diego96]

Will the items carry over or will it be a fresh start?

[UBerserker]

Will the items carry over or will it be a fresh start?

It's one whole campaign always, basically the roadblocks to the exit points get removed. Yes, this means you would have to ghost through that locked door, since the entrance corridor and exit point are already there working. Next time I'll probably don't put those roadblocks anymore.

[UBerserker]

Updated the first post with the music credits in the information section (spoilerbox) for what has been decided so far.

Also the overhaul on Map 4, the Manitou (formerly EMD, last reminder), is doing great. Just finished working on the geometry for the first part of the level, the one prior to the original entrance area of Cryox.

Pic below - what it is now vs what it was before


Hitting quite a high amount of nodes and there are a lot of other new areas I have planned for the map. Hopefully I'll stay away from the node limit as much as possible since I'll be getting rid of some useless and especially unstable areas of the original level.

[UBerserker]

Great news! The Manitou overhaul is finally done and will be tested once a bunch of more other maps will be revamped.

This was the old piece of shit


How it is now


Has become one of the biggest EXU2 behemoths ever made. Of the original Cryox there's nothing much left aside the general layout and the ending underwater part - there are new sectors, no more tiny narrow underwater pipes, no more portals (instead there are quick teleport pods that take you back to the entrance area), a second floor and all the pre-existing areas have been totally overhauled, especially the section where the Commander resides. The assassin creature got also a minor but unexpected visual change. An ambient song by Xenofish will also play after the Demon ambush showdown which is brilliant.

[Diego96]

Nice. I'm playing BI right now and learning a bunch of stuff. Just one question: Do you have any other threads lying around UT99, OldUnreal or Moddb?

[UBerserker]

Nice. I'm playing BI right now and learning a bunch of stuff. Just one question: Do you have any other threads lying around UT99, OldUnreal or Moddb?

Only here.

[UBerserker]

Taking a mini-break and in the meantime I've already done the ultra-quick changes to the first episode's maps for when episode 2 will be released:

• GENERAL CHANGES - The Magatsu texture packs have been removed.
• Desperate Dystopia - Slightly less enemies now appear on Easy difficulty.
• The Limbo - All DemonFuckers and DemonWarlords are filtered off from Easy difficulty.
• The Limbo - Removed a group of Coop-only DemonPupae.
• The Limbo - Removed an unused thing factory with its spawnpoint.
• The Limbo - Added one more ClusterShockFlare in the final valley.
• The Limbo - Gatekeepers didn't have applied sounds for their attacks. It's fixed now.
• The Limbo - Added a Coop-only Translocator for the second checkpoint area.
• Chemical Purifier Boundary - Removed the hidden Magatsu textures.
• Chemical Purifier Boundary - Removed the EXUThighPads in the Boundary's Edge area.
• God of the Sun - The ExcessiveBioTentacles in the storage now appear on Hard/Unreal only.

That's it. The released levels are already fleshed out as much as I can and no more major changes will be planned for them. This will be the same for the rest of the campaign.

About the Magatsu texture packages: don't get rid of them now because map 2 requires them to run (and this is why I made the change above). Once episode 2 is out, feel free to get rid of G59MG_Queen.utx and G59MG_Skaarj.utx from your textures folder. They are going out of commission.

Finally, don't expect Episode 2 any time soon. Once that's done I'll stop touching G59 for a while; haven't decided yet if the second half of the campaign should be released in one go or in two separate episodes (I'm probably going with the former). The first half of G59 is really good enough anyway, so it can stay like that for months after Ep2 is live!

[Sat42]

Looking great UB!

► Show Spoiler

Will only be able to play after the 10th of January. Anyway, question: why the change of name from EMD to Manitou? Any specific reference/reason? The map looks intimidating by the way

[UBerserker]

Looking great UB!

► Show Spoiler

Will only be able to play after the 10th of January. Anyway, question: why the change of name from EMD to Manitou? Any specific reference/reason? The map looks intimidating by the way

The mostly "joke" names have been changed to serious ones for consistency.

[UBerserker]

First pic of 2018

[FXANBSS]

HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE

[UBerserker]

G59's entire new GST is now listed in the mainpage's spoilerbox in respect to the three involved artists.
35 tracks, 666 MB, almost five hours of length, extremely thought-out choices - probably the strongest custom track selection for any Unreal mod ever. The songs play a big part in G59 since most of the level design is influenced after them.
All the listed songs are, once again, all downloadable for free from the respective album releases or websites, and I added the links to them too.

As for the next episode, things are looking great and release might be just way before the end of January. Balance testing will be the toughest part since as many people know, it's about a group of levels with very unusual gameplay.

[Diego96]

Gonna go with Fxanbss and say
HYPE