Testers needed for Private Beta (Transmissions : Element 120)

[onebit]

Great flow, great visuals, great mod.

I'd really like to have used the gun in the final boss fight. How about some flying enemies? Those would probably be challenging to shoot with the orbs.

Edited March 17, 2015 by onebit

[Shokunin]

Thanks Onebit!

 

I've considered the same thing. I may ultimately change it to include the manhacks (flying enemies) since the majority of people who've played so far think that last combat is too easy. At the very least it may be a change in a later version.

[Klems]

The modified gravity gun is so powerful and spammable, the only incentive not to use it everytime and everywhere is the annoying screen deformation effect. Not that it didn't stopped me, mind you. You should just remove the other weapons, they're completely useless in this current state.

As for the weapon itself, it's basically an unlimited ammo rocket launcher with no self damage, kinda absurd when you think about it. I like the fact that you can rocket jump. As a Quake player I used this everywhere I could. I probably skipped a third of the content because of this.

 

I think you can make something more elegant with this. Less combats, more puzzles, more plateforming. It looks like you weren't sure where you were going. Maybe do something with the secondary fire, like bouncing orbs, I dunno.

 

I have mixed feelings about the last part. It was fun because it was so open, you could jump anywhere and blow shit apart. It was also extremely bland and boring to play as you could just jump on a roof and bomb everyone on the ground. Strider aren't really fun to fight, especially with a weapon like this. I wish I had the time to explore the last part and explode everything by myself, this would have been way funnier than this.

At least in the zombie assault I had an incentive to rocket jump around, zombies are close range so you have to keep moving. I almost got caught at some point. It was a bit chaotic.

 

Some weapons are so powerful even throwing a bazillion of ennemies at you doesn't change anything. This is the case here.

 

I wasn't sure what I had to do in some part, like the hidden switch for instance. The only reason I found it was because I resorted to spamming my use key everywhere. Also the zombies in the next part, why do you need to put so many of them? The same result could be achieved with only 3 or 4. I got through that part because the zombies glitched and stopped moving.

And dear god change your generator looping sound.

 

Apart from the gameplay and gimmicky mechanics, the rest is really good. The maps are really pretty and the engine modifications are impressive.

Also I see what you did there

Edited March 19, 2015 by Klems

[Shokunin]

Hello Klem, I appreciate your honesty & critisicm.

 

I originally wanted to have more puzzles, there was one just before the final combat. I had to cut it due to time & engine constraints. The final map pushes the limits of the engine in just about every category and I just ran into limits (max bsp, max models, max props, max entities, etc.). I couldn't easily push it into the previous map either due to the layout and logical flow of things. On time, well this project has taken a ton of my personal time and has been a real challenge getting it this far. To make changes big enough to fit a puzzle into the pervious map was just be too much of a set back.

 

Here's a video of the block-in for that puzzle if you're interested:

http://youtu.be/qXW4D2fGVKA

 

If I get the opportunity to pull off a sequel in some way I definitely want more puzzles. Maybe someday with a newer engine hopefully.

 

As for the weapon being over powered, I'm definitely going to think on that and make some changes. Several people have said the same thing.

 

There's been quite a few people getting stuck or confused in the set of challenges before the lab. I'm making some changes to help address that.

 

Good job finding the original reference for the courtyard!  It's a fairly famous abandoned building so I figured it would be found, but not this quick! Usually when I use photo reference I take bits and pieces, that building was so interesting and unique I just wanted re-create it as is.

 

Thanks again! I appreciate your feedback.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Shokunin

[Squeebo]

Might give this a try in a bit! Definitely great visuals, judging by the screenshots; will have to wait to comment on the gameplay.

[Shokunin]

Hello everyone,

 

I've uploaded what I hope is the press release build. It's got a few updates that you can read in the changelist below. I'm looking for anyone, previous testers or new, to play through and confirm completion of the game.

 

You guys will also be the first to preview the launch trailer. Feedback is appreciated and please do not share this link outside of mapcore:

(720p - 32mb)

(1680x1050 - 98mb) - My monitor can't go any higher!

 

Thanks again everyone, I appreciate everyones feedback and help.

 

The build is located here in zip or exe form along with install instructions (again, please do not share this link outside mapcore):

http://1drv.ms/1OyARWi

 

Changelist:

• The zero point energy projector (ZEP) overheat mechanic & energy needs have been tied to suit power (the same power used for sprint).

• ZEP overheat parameters were increased slightly & there is an exponential increase in wait time up to 4 seconds. Delay between shots increases faster in hard mode and recovery decay is much slower, this makes the large zombie battle very intereting!

• ZEP overheat & energy dependency is represented by the suit power hud element and its also been added to the crosshair quickinfo hud element.

• Striders no longer take damage from the ZEP. Before you could slowly kill Striders, now required to use the RPG.

• The radar now flashes when passing near radiation.

• Hints now appear on how to read QR codes for every code in chapter 1 until a QR code is succesfully read.

• Fixed bug with rendering of some water in chapter 3.
• Replaced annoying generator sound.

• Fixed bug with a gnome occasionally spawning twice.

There are a few known issues that I haven't been able to reproduce or resolve that I hope to fix in a later build, but until I can figure them out they will remain.

• Very very rare crash occurs when using the special weapon to shoot certain physics objects in chapter 3.
• Performance in final chapter is occasionally extremely poor (less than 10 fps) but fixed after restart.
• Lighting sometimes twitches on physics objects in a section of chapter 3.

• Reports that wheel in zombie pit in chapter 1 sometimes does not open door.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Shokunin

[Mark C.]

Just wanted to report a bug that may or may not be repeatable which prohibited me from continuing the mod beyond the very beginning of chapter 3.

 

After triggering the load in the tube which I assume lead to the beginning of chapter 3, at the end of which you had to break a barrier previously blocking your passage before you acquired the ZEP, I was spawned without any weapons. I proceeded to walk back along and reload the previous section, seemingly overwriting my save in which I had any weapons.

 

A factor that may have caused this is the fact that in the previous traversal of that area without the weapon, I had went along that corridor before continuing on the intended route although I cannot remember if there was a level load there at the time. Another factor was that I *might* have ABH'd* into the load trigger, prompted by the long corridor 

 

*ABHing being an exploit in the post-orange box version of the engine which is used to gain a high velocity in a short amount of time.

 

This bug occurred in the previous build of the mod a few days or so ago so I might be missing some info.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Mark C.

[Shokunin]

Thanks Mark, I'll investigate. Sounds very strange.

[ESToomere]

Any other site than OneDrive? I'd love to get onboard.

[Shokunin]

Does the onedrive link not work for you? I'll be posting it in more places soon, but for onedrive you shouldn't have to log-in or anything to download.

[ESToomere]

Does the onedrive link not work for you? I'll be posting it in more places soon, but for onedrive you shouldn't have to log-in or anything to download.

Yeah, asks to log in. Can't be bothered to make a Microsoft account for that.

[Shokunin]

Strange, those downloads should work without a login, sorry. I'll be setting up more hosts soon.

[Shokunin]

Here's a couple more links to download for those having trouble with onedrive. Hope you all like the game

http://amzn.to/1EOc34M (zip)

http://amzn.to/1a3LoJF (exe)

http://bit.ly/1BGBkwJ (zip or exe)

Edited March 29, 2015 by Shokunin

[ESToomere]

Oh wow. That blew me away. That was AMAZING.

 

However, the ZEP is too powerful, I only used the crowbar and RPG. I'd be totally happy to only have the ZEP, even if it's toned down a bit.

[Shokunin]

Thanks ESToomere! Many of the people here agree its too OP. I think I will make the overheat settings on hard the default on normal.

 

BTW, everyone, I setup a steam greenlight page for the game. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416311927

 

Please go and vote yes if you can, and post comments if you like! This will help me to setup a nice easy install for everyone.

 

Thanks again everyone for helping test the game.