Duke Nukem: Weapon of Mass Destruction 1.0 Released!

[Zaero]

Originally Posted by DeeperThought

I'm thinking about changing some of the weapons. One idea would be to add charge-up attacks, where the power and ammo usage of the shot increases the longer you hold down the button, then it fires when you release. It would only be for certain weapon modes, of course:

Alt-fire shotgun: holding it longer will make you shoot a larger number of fiery globs. The weakest shot will be very quick with only one glob.

Alt-fire shrinker: The nova bomb thing could be weaker or stronger depending on how long you hold it. That way you could use the weakest on a pigcop to preserve ammo, but save up a massive shot for a battlelord.

Regular fire freezer: Weak shots would be like the regular freezer, stronger shots would be larger freezeblasts that release smaller freezeblasts and freezing waves.

Thoughts? I'm open to making other changes as well.

The most important thing is to fix those coins flying around. Sometimes it's annoying to run for them, especially when they're flying in space or some other unreachable place. May you made them drop in some sort of piles?

Another fix: When you have level statistics displayed on hud, it lays on the stamina/weight bars.

Also I don't think the charging attack is a good idea - I like the weapons the way they are. Charging = less quick, less dynamic to me..

EDIT: One more thing.. what do you think about "throw item" feature? For ex. you select kick weapon, then "throw weapon" key throws away selected item.

EDIT2: I have found 4 bugs:
-Sometimes I can see the eggs that should only be visible in dimension X (probably becouse of a tweaked monster swapping).
-On "Derelict" map some cranes have moved after I nuked the area. This made them unuseable!
-Holobot walks underwater instead of swimming.
-Looks like the missile protection combo cannot be activated (I upgraded combos up to the 4, so it's not the case)

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Zaero

The most important thing is to fix those coins flying around. Sometimes it's annoying to run for them, especially when they're flying in space or some other unreachable place. May you made them drop in some sort of piles?

Another fix: When you have level statistics displayed on hud, it lays on the stamina/weight bars.

Also I don't think the charging attack is a good idea - I like the weapons the way they are. Charging = less quick, less dynamic to me..

One more thing.. what do you think about "throw item" feature? For ex. you select kick weapon, then "throw weapon" key throws away selected item.

I love seeing the coins fly off in different directions when a monster dies, so there's no way I'm getting rid of that, no matter how annoying it is to track them down.

I don't know of another good place to put the bars, and the level statistics are an optional and unimportant display (in fact, they are a cheat).

I'm not sure about the charging. I'll think about it.

Why would you want to throw items other than the weapons?

[Zaero]

Originally Posted by DeeperThought

Why would you want to throw items other than the weapons?

To get rid of them quickly and be able to pick them up and use later.

[Shadow Master]

Quick question: Do I need the HRP to play this mod?

[Zaero]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

Quick question: Do I need the HRP to play this mod?

No, but it's recommended.

[Dopefish7590]

could always convert the models into voxels and the textures into an art file

i would if i knew but i dont

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

Quick question: Do I need the HRP to play this mod?

Not at all. I have included a .bat for running it with the HRP, and a .bat for running it without.

[Shadow Master]

Ah, excellent, I can't wait to get home!

[Zaero]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

Ah, excellent, I can't wait to get home!

Well you should.. It's DeeperThought's masterpiece!

[oak man]

Question. Will I need the HRP with this?

[Zaero]

Originally Posted by oak man

Question. Will I need the HRP with this?

Already answered above.

[Shadow Master]

It seems that the connection was stuck yesterday. I've downloaded it just now, actually.

So, this contains Roch maps. With Pascal's permission?

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

It seems that the connection was stuck yesterday. I've downloaded it just now, actually.

So, this contains Roch maps. With Pascal's permission?

I e-mailed him about it last year and even got him to play an early version of the mod (which reminds me, I should let him know that it's pretty much finished). Since his maps have not been modified and his readmes are included, I don't see why I would need his permission anyway.

[Shadow Master]

Well, I always wanted to play those maps in an episode manner.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

Well, I always wanted to play those maps in an episode manner.

Since you are new to the mod, I suggest starting with an easier episode, though. Episodes 1, 2 and 7 start off pretty slow. The others throw you right into the action, which can be difficult if you aren't familiar with all the new stuff.

[C. M. Dratz]

Originally Posted by DeeperThought

[...]

Alt-fire shrinker: The nova bomb thing could be weaker or stronger depending on how long you hold it. That way you could use the weakest on a pigcop to preserve ammo, but save up a massive shot for a battlelord.

Regular fire freezer: Weak shots would be like the regular freezer, stronger shots would be larger freezeblasts that release smaller freezeblasts and freezing waves.

Thoughts? I'm open to making other changes as well.

I feel that using charge attacks for energy weapons makes sense, but that the shotgun should stay the same. In fact I really like your idea for the Alt-fire shrinker, however I feel that the freezer should retain the rapid-fire-on-shoot-hold behavior for primary fire. A weird idea would be to gradually increase the speed of the freezer primary fire projectiles as the button is held down so that when you are firing at a distant target they tend to form a burst because of the accelerating speed. You could then have the projectiles do something special that gradually increases in intensity with the number of projectiles that are in closer proximity to eachother than they would be without the acceleration. Another thing I recommend is having the smaller freeze projectiles shoot in a dispersion when the primary freezer projectiles hit a wall or enemy in addition to the regular bounce or freeze damage, and more intensely when the primary freezer projectiles hit eachother (one hits a wall and bounces back hitting the second one coming at it, creating a moderately-sized dispersion of smaller freezer projectiles while the two primary projectiles pass through eachother). That way you have a rapid response, yet you also have the potential for build-up. It would just be outside of the gun where the player can see it and it is immediately useful. It would show up the devestator, too.

[DeeperThought]

You have some interesting suggestions, but I'm trying to decide if anything like that is worth the effort. When I play, I seldom use the freezethrower, and when I do, I use it mostly for the alt-fire (lightning gun). One reason for this is the lack of ammo in most maps. That should be remedied. One incredibly obvious thing that I should have done a long time ago is make the freezer shooting lizard men drop freezethrowers when they die, instead of dropping chainguns

But a bigger issue is, there are so many weapons and weapon modes (9 weapons, each with an alt-fire, plus the special kicks, plus the special ammo = about 27 different ways of attacking) that some of them are bound to be neglected. For example, who uses tripbombs? It's a pain in the ass to set up a kill with one, and it's usually not worth the effort -- you'd really have to be desperately short on equipment to even consider it in most cases. Regular pipebombs seem rather pointless too, if you have other choices. I do enjoy it when I'm forced to use a weapon I don't normally use, but that happens very rarely. At one point I thought about making monsters that were vulnerable to certain weapons (and really strong against the others) but I couldn't think of a way of doing it that wouldn't be cheesy, contrived, arbitrary, and generally annoying.

So, I'm going to put aside the question of the freezer for now, and consider something more radical: what if there were character classes? That is, what if, when you started a game, you could choose a class that would determine various things about how the weapons worked and the effects of upgrades from that point forward? This might mean getting rid of alt-fire altogether, and splitting up the various weapon modes amongst the different classes, then adding some new ones to round it out. What I have in mind is not full-blown classes in the rpg sense, but something more like the choices the player makes at the beginning of some of those old 2d shooters, like the Gradius series, where you would choose the shield type, option type, etc.

[Shadow Master]

Problems.

In Linux, I can't run EDuke32 with 32-bit Polymost because there are no proper drivers for my video *ahem* card. However, WMD runs fine (except that instead of displaying high-res stuff, EDuke32 displays strange grids).

In Windows, I can run EDuk32 with 32-bit Polymost, *with* the HRP, at an acceptable performace one all textures are initialized. And it doesn't crash.

However, if I try to run WMD WITH 32-bit Polymost, EDuke32 crashes immediately, even if I don't load the HRP or SD_Duke mods.

This is the only mod that causes me this problem in Windows. Any ideas? (I tried with the included EDuke32 version and an older one that I had).

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

Problems.

In Linux, I can't run EDuke32 with 32-bit Polymost because there are no proper drivers for my video *ahem* card. However, WMD runs fine (except that instead of displaying high-res stuff, EDuke32 displays strange grids).

In Windows, I can run EDuk32 with 32-bit Polymost, *with* the HRP, at an acceptable performace one all textures are initialized. And it doesn't crash.

However, if I try to run WMD WITH 32-bit Polymost, EDuke32 crashes immediately, even if I don't load the HRP or SD_Duke mods.

This is the only mod that causes me this problem in Windows. Any ideas? (I tried with the included EDuke32 version and an older one that I had).

If you run it without polymost, then the models and hires graphics for the mod won't appear. I would have to do A LOT of work for 8-bit compatibility to fix that, which isn't going to happen.

Don't try to use a version of EDuke32 earlier than the one it comes with; chances are, it either won't run at all or certain things won't work right. Also, SD_Duke is a separate mod -- you can't use both at once (this isn't like UT where you can pick several different mutators)

And now for the real issue: After it crashes, take a look at eduke32.log and see what it says. Better yet, just post the log here. There's probably nothing I'll be able to do about it myself, but perhaps TerminX will be able to identify the problem given some more information.

[Shadow Master]

Is it OK to post it here or I should send it to TX?

EDuke32 1.4.0 svn (Apr 30 2007 21:37:32)
Copyright (c) 1996, 2003 3D Realms Entertainment
Copyright (c) 2007 EDuke32 team
Using DEF file: DT.def.
Using CON file 'DTGAME.con'.
addsearchpath(): Added C:/dosroot/dnwmd/
update: gethostbyname() error in getversionfromwebsite() (11004)
update: failed to check for updates
Initialising Windows DirectX/GDI system interface
OS: Windows XP (Version 5.1.2600)
  - Service Pack 2
Loading OPENGL32.DLL
Loading GLU32.DLL
Initialising DirectDraw...
  - Loading DDRAW.DLL
  - Enumerating display devices
    * Controlador de pantalla primaria
  - Creating DirectDraw object
  - Checking capabilities
Detecting video modes:
  - 640x480 8-bit fullscreen
  - 800x480 8-bit fullscreen
  - 800x600 8-bit fullscreen
  - 1024x768 8-bit fullscreen
  - 1280x768 8-bit fullscreen
  - 1280x1024 8-bit fullscreen
  - 480x800 8-bit fullscreen
  - 600x800 8-bit fullscreen
  - 768x1024 8-bit fullscreen
  - 768x1280 8-bit fullscreen
  - 1024x1280 8-bit fullscreen
  - 640x480 16-bit fullscreen
  - 800x480 16-bit fullscreen
  - 800x600 16-bit fullscreen
  - 1024x768 16-bit fullscreen
  - 1280x768 16-bit fullscreen
  - 1280x1024 16-bit fullscreen
  - 640x480 32-bit fullscreen
  - 800x480 32-bit fullscreen
  - 800x600 32-bit fullscreen
  - 1024x768 32-bit fullscreen
  - 1280x768 32-bit fullscreen
  - 1280x1024 32-bit fullscreen
  - 480x800 16-bit fullscreen
  - 600x800 16-bit fullscreen
  - 768x1024 16-bit fullscreen
  - 768x1280 16-bit fullscreen
  - 1024x1280 16-bit fullscreen
  - 480x800 32-bit fullscreen
  - 600x800 32-bit fullscreen
  - 768x1024 32-bit fullscreen
  - 768x1280 32-bit fullscreen
  - 1024x1280 32-bit fullscreen
  - 1152x864 8-bit windowed
  - 1024x768 8-bit windowed
  - 800x600 8-bit windowed
  - 640x480 8-bit windowed
  - 640x400 8-bit windowed
  - 512x384 8-bit windowed
  - 480x360 8-bit windowed
  - 400x300 8-bit windowed
  - 320x240 8-bit windowed
  - 320x200 8-bit windowed
  - 1152x864 32-bit windowed
  - 1024x768 32-bit windowed
  - 800x600 32-bit windowed
  - 640x480 32-bit windowed
  - 640x400 32-bit windowed
  - 512x384 32-bit windowed
  - 480x360 32-bit windowed
  - 400x300 32-bit windowed
  - 320x240 32-bit windowed
  - 320x200 32-bit windowed
Using config file 'duke3d.cfg'.
Scanning for GRP files...
Using group file 'duke3d.grp' as main group file.

Compiling: DTGAME.con (325571 bytes)
Including: DTDEFS.CON (42193 bytes)
Including: DTUSER.CON (52974 bytes)
Duke Nukem 3D v1.4+ style CON files detected.
Including: DTPROJECTILES.CON (29774 bytes)
Including: DTVARS.CON (9943 bytes)
Including: DTGORE.CON (12856 bytes)
Including: DTstatesevents.con (125781 bytes)

Compiled code size: 60577/98304 bytes
2587/11264 labels, 481/2048 variables
23 event definitions, 296 defined actors

Initialising DirectInput...
  - Loading DINPUT.DLL
  - Creating DirectInput object
  - Enumerating attached input devices
    * MOUSE: Mouse
    * KEYBOARD: Teclado
    * OTHER:  2400 Series
    * OTHER: ?
    * OTHER: ?
    * OTHER: ?
    * OTHER: ?
    * OTHER: ?
  - Creating keyboard device
  - Creating mouse device
Initialising mouse
CONTROL_Startup: Mouse Present
Loading art header...
initcache(): Initialised with 33554432 bytes
Loading palette/lookups...
mmulti: This machine's IP is 127.0.0.1
Definitions file 'DT.def' loaded.
RTS Manager Started.
    Adding DUKE.RTS.
Using .RTS file 'DUKE.RTS'
Initializing OSD...
Setting video mode 1280x1024 (8-bit fullscreen)
  - Creating primary surface
  - Getting back buffer
  - Allocating offscreen buffer
  - Creating palette
Checking music inits...
Checking sound inits...
Initializing MultiVoc...
  - Maximum voices: 32
  - Using 1280 byte mixing buffers
Initializing DirectSound...
  - Loading DSOUND.DLL
  - Creating DirectSound object
  - Creating primary buffer
  - Setting primary buffer format
      Channels:    2
      Sample rate: 44100Hz
      Sample size: 16 bits
  - Creating secondary buffer
Demo demo1.dmo is of an incompatible version (117).
fatal error: default processing: prev inst: 280, curr inst: 458, next inst: 280
current actor: 0 (1820)
Uninitializing MultiVoc...
DirectSound: Waiting for sound thread to exit
DirectSound: Sound thread has exited
Uninitializing DirectSound...
  - Releasing secondary buffer
  - Releasing primary buffer
  - Releasing DirectSound object
  - Unloading DSOUND.DLL
Uninitialising DirectDraw...
  - Releasing palette
  - Releasing back-buffer surface
  - Releasing primary surface
  - Freeing offscreen buffer
  - Releasing DirectDraw object
  - Unloading DDRAW.DLL
Uninitialising DirectInput...
  - Releasing keyboard device
  - Releasing mouse device
  - Releasing DirectInput object
  - Unloading DINPUT.DLL

[C. M. Dratz]

May I make one suggestion? If you do go for a class system, I feel it would serve as a balance to make the limited attributes within that class readjustable. For example, I can reduce my speed attribute points to increase my power attribute points at any time, and so on.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

fatal error: default processing: prev inst: 280, curr inst: 458, next inst: 280
current actor: 0 (1820)

All I can tell from that is it has something to do with code that is processed on sprite 0, which happened to be an Octabrain. Since I don't have the error, and I don't even have a linux system, and I can't debug EDuke32, there's really nothing I can do about it.

[DeeperThought]

I think I'm going to add at least one enemy and tweak some of the existing ones. I was playing the other day and it seemed to me that the game actually got easier after 10000 points or so because by then you have a lot of upgrades, but the monsters aren't getting any harder.


EDIT: Thanks to Quakis for putting the GIF together.

[C. M. Dratz]

It is the alpha decepticon. Good thing it has its little red gear mud flap...fortunate for us for a variety of reasons; and it keeps little rocks from getting stuck in there.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by C. M. Dratz

It is the alpha decepticon. Good thing it has its little red gear mud flap...fortunate for us for a variety of reasons

Yes, because...it has enough weapons already. Last thing we need is another one jutting out of there. It would make it easier for it to hit low targets, though.

[Blade Nightflame]

Heh, got that from Strife, DeeperThought?

[Hellbound]

That walking animation is very strange. I bet that you messed up those frames.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Blade Nightflame

Heh, got that from Strife, DeeperThought?

I found it in an old TC called "Duke Terminator" which I downloaded from Puritan's web site. I'll take your word for it when you say it was originally ripped from Strife. Many of the tiles had some kind of writing across them, which I had to remove in Editart.

Originally Posted by Hellbound

That walking animation is very strange. I bet that you messed up those frames.

I think the gif is missing the middle frames of the walking animation.

[The Commander]

Originally Posted by DeeperThought

I think I'm going to add at least one enemy and tweak some of the existing ones. I was playing the other day and it seemed to me that the game actually got easier after 10000 points or so because by then you have a lot of upgrades, but the monsters aren't getting any harder.


EDIT: Thanks to Quakis for putting the GIF together.

Im sure I said that... A holobot with basicly 9999 health is almost impossible to stop

[Shadow Master]

About my problems, DT, it was my mistake, it seems.
I tried to play some of the included maps in the original Duke3D, but it replies to me with an error message "map not found". If I try to open them in Build, it says "it is not a valid file".

It seems that the archive I downloaded, somehow got corrupted, so most likely the CON files are damaged, thus crashing EDuke32.

Thanks anyway.

BTW. I have played the mod in 8-bit classic mode... just for fun, I know, new enemies don't display, etc.

Anyway, where did you get the idea for those evil mini-Dukes? It's the most original idea I've ever seen!

BTW2: you didn't even need Linux for that... I got the error in windows.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

Anyway, where did you get the idea for those evil mini-Dukes? It's the most original idea I've ever seen!

They were sort of inspired by those mini-Ashes from one of the Evil Dead movies.

I'll have a new version out pretty soon.

[Shadow Master]

Could you (or someone who has this mod's package correctly downloaded) provide me a MD5 checksum of the package (or something) so that I can be sure I didn't download a corrupted file again? Please...

[DeeperThought]

Try downloading it from the second download link. The first link goes to a free web hosting site that is sometimes unreliable. I don't have a copy of the one I uploaded, since I have made changes since then.

[Shadow Master]

2nd link... good idea...
File not found it says.
More ideas?

BTW, I think I downloaded it originally from the third link.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

2nd link... good idea...
File not found it says.
More ideas?

BTW, I think I downloaded it originally from the third link.

Go to the doc for DNWMD which is linked to by my signature. From there, try the second download link. The file is still there, I just checked.

If you are trying to download from any links other than the ones in the online documentation, then the files may be outdated or nonexistent.

[Shadow Master]

Thanks, I was trying to use the second link provided at the start of this topic. :P

[Shadow Master]

I downloaded it from the second link provided in the readme, but it still crashes Eduke32 in windows.

However, I managed to enable (build the driver) 3D acceleration on Linux, and it does run in 32-bit polymost in there, with no issues, even with the HRP. There's still one problem, some models of the new enemies (i.e. mech) are displayed as bad sprites using bad textures (i.e. the "user art" texture).

Is it just me, or do I have to get the models of these enemies somewhere else? (Note, these are the only models that don't display properly)

Anyway, I just want to say... COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL mod! I guess I won't be able to play classic DN3D again. I'm still in E3L5 btw.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

I downloaded it from the second link provided in the readme, but it still crashes Eduke32 in windows.

However, I managed to enable (build the driver) 3D acceleration on Linux, and it does run in 32-bit polymost in there, with no issues, even with the HRP. There's still one problem, some models of the new enemies (i.e. mech) are displayed as bad sprites using bad textures (i.e. the "user art" texture).

Is it just me, or do I have to get the models of these enemies somewhere else? (Note, these are the only models that don't display properly)

Anyway, I just want to say... COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL mod! I guess I won't be able to play classic DN3D again. I'm still in E3L5 btw.

There is no model for the Mech; it is composed of 8-bit art tiles. Same goes for the Robotech-ish enemy. All the custom 8-bit tiles are located in the files TILES015.art and TILES021.art which come with the mod. It sounds like those files are failing to load for some reason. If so, then that's messing up a lot of things, many of which you aren't noticing because you aren't familiar with the mod yet. Anyway, I'm glad you like it and I hope you can get this problem sorted out.

EDIT: Do make sure that the .art files are located at the root level the directory. If they are inside of a zip then tiles can fail to load, even if the zip is being loaded.

[DeeperThought]

Well, I'm getting closer to the final, ultimate version of this mod. I just uploaded the official version 1.01 of DNWMD.

Download links are in the online documentation.

Let's see if I can remember what has changed since the last version:

• The eggs in DimensionX (damn it's embarrassing to type that) now spawn spiders instead of slimers. Like slimers, the spiders can move on both floors and ceilings (and drop on you). They come in four flavors, each with a different kind of spit. They flip over onto their backs and squirm when shot a few times -- one more shot to put them away.
• There's now a big robot that can spawn when you reach 10000 points. (It's that one from Strife with the gif some posts back; the spider art is from Strife also).
• Shell casings land on the ground and roll to a stop instead of just disappearing (monsters spawn casings when they shoot too).
• A couple of the more powerful enemies now have the ability to teleport to a random location behind the player as a defensive move (no, they don't teleport inside of walls or anything stupid like that)
• Various adjustments and tweaks. For example, the cost of the 'Roid Rage combo increases if you have low health, and the force shield now starts at a cost of 3 coins and gets more expensive with upgrades.
• Some bugfixes that aren't worth listing.

I've tested each of the new additions individually as best I could, but I haven't playtested the whole package yet. Should be fun

[Jblade]

Cool, gonna check this The spider enemy definitly sounds interesting, as well as the teleporting ability.