0m1n0u5@Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 11:24 am :
First I would like to say that there is a thread named like that allready. However I chose not to use it, as it has nothing to do with what I have to show here. I hope that won't be a problem.

This is a Reboot of sort, of my Doom3 (D3 1.3.1 only) modification "Wrathchild".
It is a plot oriented, postapocaliptic, cyber-punk, nonlinear, RPG/FPS-adventure/survival-horror ( in smaller words- Deus Ex/System Shock2 wana-be :) ). What I did was take the atmosphere of the forsaken Von Braun and the plots surrounding JC Denton, most of the gameplay features of both games, and got Wrathchild. A futuristic thriller with many plot twists and atmosphere to, well- to die from. These are big promises, I know, but all of it is done at concept level allready, and some on practice.

THE GAME IS RELEASED

- WRATHCHILD WITH PATCH v1.01:

http://files.filefront.com/Wrathchild+A ... einfo.html


- ONLY PATCH v1.01:

http://files.filefront.com/Wrathchild+A ... einfo.html


Story Overview:

You Are Alexander M. Goodman and nothing depends on you. You are noone, a pawn in a game of chess in which the players are so far away you can't even think about them, because you don't know they exist. This is the world of Wrathchild, politically incorrect because there isn't any politics left. A world torn apart by internal struggles and forcefully brought together to ensure survival. It is a world where you are free in only one place- Anarchia. Being one of the four cities left on Earth, Anarchia is a paradise for free spirited, murderous or suicidal individuals. It is ironic that in this place we start our journey with the Pawn. Alex, as friends call him, is a Free Agent. An individual, that for the right price will do almost anything. What started out as a group of daredevils stalking the ice fields of northern Europe, the deserts of Asia, and the wastelands of Northern America they are now the sole dirty-work caste behind the Big Eleven. Maybe free once, now they are anything but that. Pawns, obeying every command, and in turn earning gratitude. This is what they have become. Maybe the time for a change has come. Maybe it has come and gone, and maybe in this world where survival is a fact of life, you need not care for mankind, but only for yourself.

Changes:

A completely new, combined hud/pda system.
Complex dialogues.(unfortunetly all in text only)
New gameplay element called Energy, it is much like the same in Deus Ex.
Non-linear passages from level to level.
Good/Bad system, leading to different endings.
Complex quests.
Voice over for the main characters naratives.
New textures.(Aproximately 80mb and increasing)
New sounds.(Aproximately 20mb and increasing)
Music.(Aproximately 40mb and increasing)
New GUIs, Assets.(Aproximately 40mb and increasing)
New npcs skins.

Alot, and I mean alot of other changes that you may or may not notice.

Progress:

The game is complete.

Act1
Shadows

Intro:Complete
Travel1:Complete
Training1:Complete
Training2:Complete
Travel2:Complete

-Weapons
Many little tweaks. Some obvious, some not so much, but all made with balance and mostly realism in mind. Few of the weapons you won't even recognise when you start shooting. I haven't used some weapons at all. This is the final weapons list: Fists, Pistol, Shotgun, Jackhammer, Machinegun, Plasma Rifle, Grenades, BFG, Chainsaw, Flashlight: A total of ten weapons. You can't carry them all at once.

Connections:

For the Hud/Pda:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20274

Website:
None for the moment, or the close future.

Screenshots:
-10.05.2008:

-10.11.2008

-10.20.2008

Release Date:
16-th of November!



der_ton@Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 8:49 pm :
That sounds very interesting and ambitious for a one-man-project!
Looking forward to the first screenshots. :)
Although for a mod like this, the gameplay change is probably going to be the most interesting aspect.



6th Venom@Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:00 am :
der_ton wrote:
Although for a mod like this, the gameplay change is probably going to be the most interesting aspect.

Yep, this one sound so.
But that's bad that even if you tweaked D3 weapons to death, seeing the same old model over and over is no more attracting to the public.

But who give a flootz about the public, right? :D



0m1n0u5@Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 2:27 pm :
-I wan't to say thank you for the replies. :)

-I wish to assure everyone having doubts, that I am indeed taking this project very serious. Ambitious as it is with hard work everything can be achieved.

-To make things clearer, weapons DO NOT have new models, but changes in them,although small, are alot. Also I did understand it would be difficult to ask the player to believe he is not in D3 with the old weapon models, so I did alot of work on the atmosphere and the game story. I hope these will take away atention away from the weapons.

-I did some tests on the maps, some time ago, and I found myself playing the game just as it isn't mine, and It felt strange. Infact gameplay changes are very sensible, there are complex tasks, merchants, lots of dialogs and atmosphere-related texts to read, not to mention the much more interactive surrounding. I don't wan't this to sound like pointless bragging. Every single aspect of the ones mentioned is in the game and working, as well as many more. For instance the nonlinear transition is now a major aspect of gameplay. Basically going through an area may forbid access to another one, thus denying items ammo armor etc. But enough of that.

-As I promised - screenshots are now available at imageshack. They are all of the Intro level. Keep in mind that in this level there is nothing much to do as it's purpose is to give text information, background for (some) of the main characters and of the world they're in. Enjoy:

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0m1n0u5@Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 2:02 pm :
-Another week has passed, I finally finished "Tutorial1" which was a real pain. Now I'm focusing on "Tutorial2" where the virtual reality aspect of the game is first mentioned and experienced. "Tut1" is the closest to a hub level you will see at this stage of the game. It is huge, gave me hell of alot of problems with optimization, and needed an incredible amount of beer (!) to finish it but it's done now. Next week I'll post some area screens of it.

-"Travel1" is the route to you'r pilot's hangar. There are two variants by the metro or by taxi. The taxi section needs some fine tuning so I'm not ready to show it yet.

-The first two screenshots are from the metro section of the "Travel1" map:

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-The last three are from the streets of the "Tutorial1" level:

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See you next week.



Douglas Quaid@Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 3:43 pm :
I really like the look of this, and as you are working alone, I think it deserves more credit than what people give team based projects. The GUI interactions are a nice touch and the city skybox reminds me of Max Payne :D Keep it up man!



Speedy@Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 12:07 am :
looks interesting, I hope you release it to play, even if there are only a couple of maps. I`d hate to see it postponed for years and then cancelled like many ambitions mods



0m1n0u5@Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:40 pm :
- I thank again for the encouragment ( starting to repeat myself, but who cares when it's for a good thing ). It's good to see people do care for your work :) .

- Busy, busy, busy. Not with the mod unfortunetly...

- Ok - news. The Training 2 map is almost done. It's been almost done for five days now but I'm busy with other... engagements so the mod had to wait. Don't warry, though, the release date is still within the first week of November. The truth is I sat on my hairy ass and got so much work done on Training 2 a week ago, that I got incredibly ahead of schedule. The good thing is I got work unrelated to the mod done, the bad one is I got extremely distracted and I've been getting back on tracks since yesterday. I guess it's plain lazyness showing...

- Don't misunderstand me - as I said - the game will be out in 15 or so days.

- I changed the first post so now it represents my current progress.

- Now for the screenshots. They are all taken from distinct areas of Training 1. I'm sorry for bragging with it so much, it's just that I'm so damn proud of how it turned out :D . Here you will see the Clear Sky Bar, and it's VIP lounge, the Black Market, and some alleys.

- On a sidenote, I have to appologise for the graphical artifacts you will see in some of the pictures, those are my video card's fault and NOT ingame bugs.

- Clear Sky Bar's ... bar:
ImageImage

- Clear Sky Bar's VIP lounge:
ImageImage

- The Weapon's Dealer at the Black Market:
ImageImage

- Part of the Black Market:
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- ... Another part of the Black Market :D :
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- ... And here we see an urban hunter and his prey:
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- Homeless guy, or a victim of progress... :
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0m1n0u5@Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 9:30 am :
-Hey guys I have some internet difficulties, so I can't really post from home, ergo no screenshots. However work is still progressing. Actually after last evening's mammoth push the mod is 99.9% done. I still have some things to polish, but they are minimal, so the mod is moving on scedule. Anyway, sorry, but I don't have time for long posts.

-It's official. The release date is 16-th of november!



Tetzlaff@Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 10:56 am :
I´m looking forward to it!



BloodRayne@Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 5:53 pm :
This sounds like a really cool project, I'll be sure to check it out!

Grats! :)



0m1n0u5@Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 12:08 am :
-Finally, it's done... What am I saying - IT'S DONE! :D The Wrathchild Act I is finally out. I'm horibly tired when I'm writing this so I'll be brief.

-First thing is- thank you to everyone who supported me in any way. Secondly- please, enjoy the mod as much as I enjoyed doing it. Oh and one more thing... technically it's the 17-th allready, but I didn't go to sleep, so for me it's still the 16-th :roll: .

-And finally- here is the download link: http://files.filefront.com/Wrathchild+A ... einfo.html

-Enjoy and give me your feedback as soon as possible.

P.S. Ominous, SpiritusSanctus and thebeastwithin are all my nicknames.



Neurological@Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 12:56 am :
Downloading :), and if you want I can provide an addictional mirror on http://www.doomitalia.it :D.



Hexen Terzo@Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:06 pm :
how istall the new HUD? :cry:



0m1n0u5@Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:18 pm :
-Neurological, that is a great idea and I would be very gratefull if you help me with that, please pm me so we could arange something.

-Hexen Terzo, the hud, is included in the game pack, and is suppose to work with the game if you installed it as it says in the readme. Maybe you are asking, because you installed the game and got no hud in the first map - if thats the situation - don't warry that's on purpose :) you will get the pda/hud as you proceed to the second map. If that is not the case, please explain yourself better.

-Finally, I forgot to make a point of something that may be very important- the mod has relatively high system requirements, so it would be better, for people with older pc's to disable bloom (that will happen when you type "r_bloom 0" in the console) or some of the eye candy. On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend a resolutions less that 1024x768.



Tetzlaff@Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:44 pm :
I just started playing it, and so far I am really impressed! This starts at the new main menu graphics, which (for the first time in a Doom3 mod, I might add) don´t look like an amateurish photoshop, but has all new graphics that fit the Cyberpunk theme. The intro felt quite professional as well, the Anarchia skyline has a cool, slightly anime inspired look. Fitting sound track. The apartment you start in looks spot on as well.

But I am confused about the interface and wanted to ask before I continue playing: the mouse cursor is stuck in the upper left corner of the screen. I don´t think it´s intended to be like that? It changes from arrow to hand icon when you move arround, but is stuck all the time in the corner of the screen. Shouldn´t the cursor be in the center of the screen, or completely invisble?



0m1n0u5@Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:14 pm :
- EDIT -

- HUD CURSOR IN THE UPPER LEFT FIXED IN v1.01 -



Tetzlaff@Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:23 pm :
Ah okay. I imagined that and continued playing while I ignored the cursor.

I talked with the player character´s buddy, the NPC dialogue interface works well (though the upper border of the interface is a bit up too high, I almost looked to the ceiling when following the dialogue). But I don´t know how to continue, it´s a bit obscure. I also tried to leave the room but it´s not clear how to achieve this, the door seems to be non-interactive.

Edit: Played a bit further, but now I got stuck in the desk chair. Is there something I should do with the computer interface to get un-stuck? It´s a bit obscure. Also the interface there is barely readable, because the font is yellow and much of the background white (because of that white bird logo).


0m1n0u5 wrote:
The problem is that I need the pda to have a mouse cursor, but still have a hud without cursor.


Would it be possible to have a regular interactive crosshair/mouse cursor in the center of the screen, right from the start? This would also make it a lot easier to decide which parts of the environment are interactive. Classic adventure games also often have an interactive cursor to make the gameplay more accessible.



Baal@Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:40 pm :
It looks interesting so far but I want to see the rest of the act before commenting on it. How do I leave the appartment? There is more than one map file so I assume there's more to play.



0m1n0u5@Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:54 pm :
I imagined it would be a little hard to understand what to do next, so here's a walkthrough. After you speak with your agent, you speak on the phone with Peter and you tell him, you will send him the briefing over the internet, then you must interact with the desktop monitor which seats and locks you, you must send the file through the network folder, then press the turn off button. That will take you out of the chair and free, after which nothing is stopping you from just going to the door and moving to the next level. You will do that by going to the door and pressing the attack button when aimed at it.

I understand it might be a little difficult to see every one of these actions but, every single one gives you a hint leading to the next one, and I believe it is fairly logical. Keep in mind that this mod is not a no brainer, it will require some thought to move through. It has a lot of text, some just for fun, some with vital info, the trick is - you don't really know which is and which is not :twisted: .

- EDIT -

- UNREADABLE BLOOMED TEXT FIXED IN v1.01 -

Further in the game there are indicators of which is interactable and which is not.