Project Xenome : Interloper

[Nalisavior]

I know this has been said many times before but your level design is really top notch Jazz, the replay value is great. Thanks again for creating such a masterpiece and I cant wait for part 3!

[radios]

Thx Jackrabbit for the videos. There were some great exploits in your strategy but you do realise I may have to ‘fill those gaps’ at a later date to make it more interesting, heh.

OMG noooo ?!?.
That settles it: No more mentioning of exploits which could be blocked in future updates

I'm joking of course but still, how do you define an exploit?
Strictly speaking the AI cannot improvise and if the player finds a way to avoid certain death, congrats to the player. Unless it's an error which crept into the implementation of the design, I'ld say leave it as it is.
Take Signs and Portents, on Unreal difficulty I tried to go out into the open but couldn't handle the heat so I made use of the inside mountain area which also has its risks (spashdamage from rockets, Flak and blades) but isn't an exploit. The greatest exploit of all is using knowledge from previous playthroughs (e.g. knowing where the armour and health powerups are and not taking them before you know for sure that the point of no return hasn't been passed (after which those powerups cannot be reached anymore).

I'm probably the player who takes the most time to beat Xenome, and that's because I don't have the reflexes JackRabbit has, nor the automatisms to change weapons that fast (and getting the correct weapon immediately is a problem for me). But I guarantee that my playing pleasure lasted longer and if I hadn't found some of my "exploits" I might have given up (including some foreknowledge without which some fights are almost impossible except for the UB's and JackRabbits).

I'll never complain that an obvious exploit which is so easy to see should be fixed but I didn't encounter any of those (perhaps the trigger exploit in Cobalt with the Spider sisters but even if that is fixed, a rocket or shock jump (thanks UB for teaching me that) can make that part a stroll instead of a fight). I'ld say: leave that for the player to find if the spider fight is too hard at first.

I can only speak for myself but the avoidance actions I undertook, although they could be considered exploits, were the result of actively searching for options and trying various strategies (since my head on strategy didn't work) and are an integral part of the funfactor.

The videos by JackRabbit, and my posts about Xenome (and UB's) may have given the impression that it's an easy pack. It is not an easy pack at all, perhaps not as difficult as Xidia (which is really at the limit on Unreal) or Zephon (first release) which was unfair, and certainly not ... forgot the name, a large pack with crabs and bots, absolutely unplayable even on Easy). Don't make it so that only the special forces can beat the map, some of those special forces had to learn in dangerous situations and actually learned to look for and use exploits.

years ago, and it's possibly still around, there was a site with nice U/UT weapons, one was the nuker, you enter summon nuker.nuker in the console and you get the modified flak gun that shot a nuclear weapon that tracked enemies, no more looking for the best weapon!..

[salsaSkaarj]

years ago, and it's possibly still around, there was a site with nice U/UT weapons, one was the nuker, you enter summon nuker.nuker in the console and you get the modified flak gun that shot a nuclear weapon that tracked enemies, no more looking for the best weapon!..

Summoning a warheadlauncher is always an option but in Xenome that never really crossed my mind (although I once jokingly mentioned it) . Xenome can be played on 4 difficulty levels, and can be beaten without cheating. Of course if your first playthrough is on "Unreal" you'll have no foreknowledge of the map (nor of the enemies) and you'll probably be dying regularly. Only UB's and sorts should try that.
I've played on all difficulty levels and had 4 times the fun (and having to try various strategies, weaponchoices ... is part of the fun)

[salsaSkaarj]

@Sat42
Have you played this yet? *awaiting an answer which will determine whether I'll put you on my Foe list or not *

[Sat42]

@Sat42
Have you played this yet? *awaiting an answer which will determine whether I'll put you on my Foe list or not *

Hehee well uhm I admit I still have it on my to do list *gulp*

Isn't everybody saying this is more or less as good as it gets?

First things first: I must play Project Xenome: First Day.

This may still take some time as I feel these new mappacks with still present authors (like G59) deserve a kind of map-by-map "critique" (or feedback generally speaking) so that 1) the authors can get a feel for the reception of their hard work 2) there's some more advertising for other potential players and 3) this can motivate the authors to make new adventures!

I am getting there I am getting there!!

[salsaSkaarj]

First things first: I must play Project Xenome: First Day.

Just a couple of days ago I restarted First Day, the patched version.
I haven't played Unreal in a long time and it was noticeable. Bad idea to start on Unreal difficulty, having forgotten most of it.
Just reached the area where my 2 waiting marines are blasted to smithereens, and picked up a shockrifle, which unfortunately is functional (it wasn't functional in the original release and I remember commenting about that proposed change and yes I do feel that this change takes away one of the memorable moments: finally getting a strong weapon and finding out it doesn't work: that really made me smile ... and now that moment is gone

[salsaSkaarj]

Finished First Day on Medium (I quit on Unreal 'cuz the heat was getting to me and restarted on Medium) but unfortunately I had forgotten to use UB's oldkool entries + patched last map so the end of First day was effectively The End. I didn't consider it particularly harder than on my previous playthroughs but that's not a fair comparison (thanks to previous knowledge + experience with Interloper). Still there was 1 section (can't remember exactly where but I think it was in the penultimate map) where 2 gunners wielding searching rocketlaunchers come running and firing at you. That was a clear case of them owning me as I was completely unprepared.
It's so pleasing now that I've played Interloper so many times that most of the text messages in First Day now make so much more sense.

Time to let Project Xenome rest again.

[Delacroix]

https://mega.nz/#!eCZTxCJa!trllDtdaW5u3 ... J5IOTsUT6g

Mirrors will surely come. This includes First Day, First Day Patch and Interloper + UB's fix. As a bonus, I also fixed Power Play's coop gametype, effectively eradicating the save bug on the map.

This is the version I intend to play. Also, on my current installation, I don't have ONP installed so I'll see if it is even required at this point...

EDIT: Nope. The system file olextras is included and therefore ONP is not needed for Xenome to run.

[salsaSkaarj]

I finally got down to starting the second version of Xenome: First Day.
Having beaten Interloper on Unreal, what else could I do but play First Day (2) on Unreal also.
Killed around 6 or 7 pupae and then met the first Skaarj and ... well ... had to restart. My god, that bugger is fast. Anyway, now knowing what to expect I got rid of him with minimal health loss. Then on to the Administrator area where 2 Skaarj (they seem stronger than the first one) really tested my limits. It took 3 tries to pass that but only 30 health left. Not a good start. I guess I'm rusty (again) and will probably restart on Medium, perhaps Hard just to get back into the groove.
But damn, the thrill is back and I'm so curious about the changes (On Unreal it certainly feels a lot harder that what I can remember from the original release.)

edit: Jeezes, I just checked and it's about a year and a half ago since I played Interloper. Time flies

2nd edit half a day later: Decided to read through the First Day topic and read that the doors at the end of the level are on a timer. So replayed and yes, now managed to leave the building without health loss, and since I'm going for max kills, exploited the door triggers and finished off those 2 Skaarj. This is what I really like about the whole of Xenome: even when it seems the task is too daunting, there's always a way without having to be UBerserker.

[Yhe1]

Is part 3 of this project still being worked on?

[salsaSkaarj]

Is part 3 of this project still being worked on?

No information about that, but ... Part 2 took a long time due to jazzyb's work/personal situation.
I wouldn't worry. Jazz was quiet all that time and suddenly there was a mappack totally worth the wait. Granted, part 3 is probably going to be smaller but remember: it's a one man job and jazzyb really works the details (not implying other mappers don't).

I will send him a PM though to inform him about the possible closure of unrealsp.org (perhaps others have done that already).

[Dr.Flay]

How about making a thread for this at OldUnreal.
Would be handy to get the DL links into 1 post.

[Dr.Flay]

It would be useful to make a thread at OldUnreal and put the DL links in 1 post.

[Psychomorph]

https://mega.nz/#!eCZTxCJa!trllDtdaW5u3R8YFKNqVj-BVGkAJi2NRQJ5IOTsUT6g

Is it some kind of fixed version of the mappack? Worth playing over the original release?



So I still have two issues with this mappack:

First is that I play this in Infiltration 2.9 co-op and spawns are kind of random and when someone is in one spawn it is hard to spawn there. Often I initially spawn in the right spawn, but get instantly teleported to another. This is possibly an Infiltration issue.
Is there no way to somehow spawn in a specific spawn point? Like through a console command? Or any other solution?


Secondly the fog in this is a total mess. The waterfall in map14 reduces fps to nearly zero. I have a recent processor now and can mostly play in map19, others can't, but the fog is still an issue. Also enemies see you through it and you don't. It's a poor design choice. Great for atmosphere (and the maps are great with it), but very tedious for gameplay.

EDIT: As I suspected, it is an INF issue (or the server hoster side issue). The fog is fine in UT, but in INF it is drawn and redrawn, so that it appears opaque white and hits the performance. I had that issue with my older hardware, Win7 and OpenGL and now with Win10 and Direct3D10.
Maybe you have an idea how to solve this? Perhaps a console command to kill the fog?

[Delacroix]

Yes. It's a fixed ver. Starts out with First Day and carries over to Interloper content in a streamlined fashion as it was meant to. Plus, the save bug on one of the levels is fixed.