Small Mod compilation

[Pringles Man]

Seven, I wonder...is it conceivable for you to extend the SMC to Abyss of Pandemonium? I don't ask for anything too fancy, just maybe particle flames, weather support via ent files, and some small bug fixes (like the new weapons not showing up in the hud or the fact that you can't access any aop map in multiplayer) to make the game a little more nice. Since we now have RTlights and dlits, maybe you can attempt something small to keep this mission pack from fading away? Also AoP uses its own blood effect which looks horrible with HD content enabled, and its own footsteps which are inferior to the SMC ones that already exist now. Although its blood effect of bouncing gibs looks amazing in DP and is strangely identical to the Kleshik one. Speaking of which, both in AoP and in SMC, the footsteps have a glitch where they continue to play after you've beaten a level. Just something you might want to be aware of.

According tot he now-obscure comment left by the people who revived AoP:

"KNOWN PROBLEMS & MINOR THINGS
========================

- No bot support for AoP DM maps
- No laser weapon model from the player view
- In aop1m4, you can stay stuck if you miss the SK
- Rare monsters stuck or spawning behind the player
- Some texture alignments, clipping issues and floating shellboxes"

[Seven]

Hello Blood Vengeance and talisa,

I will not add specific armor models into the smc. There are a lot more models than you mentioned available. You should not forget that you are using replacements that meets your individual personal liking. These may satisfy yourself, but are not the best option for others. Please keep this in mind.

But a feature to be able to use different armor models for different world types is another thing. That is of course possible just like it was done for the health pickups. Next version will have it. OK, noted.




Hello Pringles Man,

Everything you wrote is possible, yes. But the question is, who will use it ?
The problem with Quake is, that nobody plays it.
And even less people participate in threads like these and give feedback or at least say a word of gratitude. Working on the well known Hipnotic or Rogue mission packs is already a niche of Quake and only a very few people use/play these.
Putting a lot of work into someting that only a hand full people would use is not worth the effort I am afraid. For someone with lots of time this would be an interesting thing though, yes.
The source code is always included in the smc. It is just a copy/paste of code lines. I think everybody can do this.

If it is just particle flames or another feature that you want to have, I can quickly compile something for you. The missing "weapon scroll down" function for the additional sub-weapon-system took longer to code for me.




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Dear all,

Today i want to give a sneak preview of the monster types I am currently implementing into the next SMC update v5.30

As many people suggested, the amount of additional monster types can never be enough...
So I chose these 6 types (in order of size and dangerousness (from high to low):

1.) Yakman
My favorite Hexen 2 monster. He has several ranged and melee attacks and is a perfect replacement for the shambler for example (also in size).


2.) Carnevian
Model from Dawn of Darkness Q2 mod. Also a potential shambler, shalrath, ogre or hellknight replacement with several deadly ranged and melee attacks and a huge size.


3.) Reiver
A Hexen 1 monster. Model by Razumen. Perfect replacement for the wizard with a wide varity of attacks including homing ghosts (YES !!), life-leech and many others. My favorite flying monster.


4.) Medusa
A Hexen 2 monster. She would fit perfectly into Rogue mission pack 2. I forgot her abilities in Hexen 2 already, but I want to give her one melee attack and one ranged attack. Medusas in the mythology could stone their enemies, so something like the spiders ranged attack spit would fit well I guess. To temporary make the player not able to move.


5.) Teneb
From the family of the Demon of Quake, with equal abilities. Used in Dawn of Darkness and will be an extended model for the demon, just like the extended dog which is already in the smc. Has different set of animations.


6.) Mercenary
Used in Dawn of Darkness and will be an extended model for the knight (also like the already available extended dog). He is equipped with a sharp axe with which he can do some suprise attacks. New animations and brings a refreshing variety into non-base maps.




To give you a little bit better feeling of how they will look in game, I recorded a small clip. Many things are still Work in Progress of course.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8DrFeIfK_Q[/ame]


If you have some additional suggestions what the monster types should have (ability), please do not hesitate to post them.

Thank you for helping to improve/extend this mod.

Best wishes,
Seven

[jakub1]

hi seven, that's what i call an update. reiver looks fantastic and the teneb fits into quake just right. what i'd like to see in smc are monsters [kona] used in his glory mapping days - modified nehahra barons, upgraded hellknights, ogres with rocket launchers.... i really really really miss you [kona]...
-
as for the monster abilities - you are usually safe in the water. fiend jump into the water occasionally, but he can't swim so in deep water you are ok. and dogs... they just run and bark. how hard would it be to teach fiend to swim?
-
jakub

[Pringles Man]

How about medusa can melt into and out of walls to hide, coming back out of other walls when the player least expects it? And what if you get too close to the reveir, your view gets all messed up, so you want to stay far away. Maybe if you aimed your flashlight at one of the monsters, it could weaken him somehow?

[talisa]

@seven
yes that is what i meant, the ability to use different models in base and medieval maps.

.

looking forward to all the new monsters, they all sound awesome!

that teneb looks awesome, he'll be a perfect optional replacement for fiend!

and the yakman from HeXen II is awesome, he'll make a perfect optional replacement for the shambler!
will you also make the ground tremble when he walks just like with the shambler?

[gdiddy62]

Holy $*** !!

[JDSTONE]

What a grate mix of monsters. it keeps the game fresh having so many different things to kill! i think the only one i have ever played was the yakman in the drake mod. i cant wate to see how you will QC him with all your tricks. i would suggest maybe one more monster would be bones the skeleton solder from Q3 i think. yes he has been in other mods but hes a fun kill. the player is the only one who uses a nail gun and i think bones would be a good one to change that with. he would be good with some custom gibs and everytime you killed him arm bones and what not go flying everywhere. maybe a small explosion when he gibbs like the tarbabby. and a cool effect showing the magic that brought him back to life was destroyed. starting out as dead like the zombie would be cool. maybe something like how the spider pops out of the ground or him being just a pile of bones but when he wakes up they come togeter to make the monster. just an idea to put on the list for some time down the road to check off as done or crossed out as bad. looks like you got a lot of qc work to do already.

i love the gibbing dead monsters mod maybe you could add more pain skins to dead monsters too. i set mine to be gibed with any gun so you cant go wrong with more blood on them or on the floor!

with the head gibb that is always looking at you maybe having it land in random ways like on its side from time to time and roll towards the player to face it and not just turn along with a small cool particle effect showing magic of why the head is still moving may be a good expansion on this mod idea.

keep having fun seven thats what its all about!

[Blood Vengeance]

I like those new monsters since I like Hexen2 a lot, but my favourite in the pack is the Teneb, it's "very quake". If you accept suggestions, Nemesant from quake custom episode Zerstorer would be a great add to the beastiary in my opinion.

[bluntz]

AWESOME!!!!
I only wish I were home to play this.That Gorgon is SEXY
Did you decide what lightning effect you would like for your shambler?
A. jaccobs ladder
B. Plasma ball
C. Other
Like I said before though it may be some time (months)until I get the time.

[Anubis]

And even less people participate in threads like these and give feedback or at least say a word of gratitude. Working on the well known Hipnotic or Rogue mission packs is already a niche of Quake and only a very few people use/play these.

I've been using your SMC ever since you invented it. Good stuff. Thanks.

Edit: You actually taught me a little bit about modding by releasing your sources. Thanks for that too.

[Pringles Man]

Well I forgot my password and it took me a WEEK to get it back thanks to Quakeone being really inconsistent with emails and email links >_>

Either way, I have a MASSIVE list of things to say about the beta which I need to bring to your attention, Seven. And Blood, I will return to your RTlights threads as soon as possible! Thanks for your patience.


OK, so, the first thing I would like to mention is that there is a problem with the vores in general. Their projectiles get stuck EVERYWHERE when the shalrath_shootable_missile autocvar is set to 1. And when this is combined with the vore jumping to the ceiling, then the glitches are even worse. The projectile gets stuck in the vore, and stays there forever. it literally will not explode on contact or with weapons. This is my biggest problem with the new SMC.

The second problem I encountered was models disappearing or being replaced with something else. The enforcer was gone, the ogre was gone, and the grunt was replaced with a low poly version. Even with the multiskin settings put to zero.

I loved the creepy head feature, but it seems like we have a problem when it comes to custom head gibs. The Shambler's Castle wizard's head is 180 degrees away from the player at all times, the spider is OK, but it looks about 30 degrees away from the player, and the Oopee Moo grunt head is about 70 degrees facing away from the player. Another offender is the Shambler's Castle fiend. I don't know any others right now. All ID1 heads seem to work fine though.

Weapon idle animations are broken when quad damage is activated, but not with other powerups. Is this a shader file issue?

Demon heads with triggers (like in e2m7) will not be activated with rockets, and grenades will not bounce off of them. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the grenade bounce off UNTIL the trigger is activated?

When nails bounce off spiders, they bounce off REALLY awkwardly. Why not make them bounce off like the way nails do off walls in kleshik? I feel as though that would be much more realistic.

And I guess I should've mentioned this earlier, but the shambler spiders really love to clip through walls with their feet. Could this be somehow reduced?

Also, another weird problem is that when double-doors share "sounds" "5," only the right door will play the sound. This is not the case for nay other sound.

Other than that, I have a proposition to make. How about when the player picks up health, armor, or ammo, the number quickly scrolls up to match the value of stuff that he picked up instead of the number appearing at once? Not very elaborate, but I think it would look quite nice. I also think it would be cool if nail related guns spitted out casing just like shotguns do now.

[Seven]

Hello and Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions.
Some of them are a bit extreme/extravagant, but most of them are nice and doable.

What I noticed is, that most people like the Teneb the most. I didnt expect that and I was thinking a lot if I should add him to the "ToDo" monsters on my list in first place. But fortunately I did and will for sure pay attention now that he will be integrated in a good way.

The Mercenary got the last attention, so I will maybe skip him completely then.

Some of you also mentioned other existing monsters from Quake mods. I will have to look how they are, as I dont know them yet.


JDSTONER´s idea to add more gore to corpses awaked the idea to create some blood "puddles" beneath the monsters. Blood decals that gets added in a raising scale to make it look like in those movies where the blood comes out of the body and is forming a round shape around the corpse.
I think this is doable and might look good.



Hi bluntz,
No, I didnt look into the thread where we talked about the shambler lamp again yet. I was thinking it was more or less a joke from your side, as these kind of prints are really expensive, no ? And you stay in the US and I stay in a small country far away...
But hey, we can get in contact if you are serious about it



Hello Pringles Man,
First of all, Thank you for your long list and your time writing, it is appreciated. But there seems to be another issue going on and a basic misinterpretation on your side. Some notes:

The "small mod compilation" is not responsible for your replacements. The order of it, the quality of it or the issues you might encounter. You will see that when you put the smc (and only the smc) into a fresh Quake folder. If you want to have replacements and refuse to use the included 'Starter Kit' which was developed especially for this case, then you are on your own and have to do it right.
Many new smc features needs modifications for the monster models. I continuesly work on the 'Starter Kit' to always keep it up-to-date with the new features. I know that you do not use it, as you ask questions in several threads about monster skins, that are all inside the 'Starter Kit' and you didnt notice it... But you are not alone with that. If you are brave enough and open the 'Starter Kit' you will see that it contains 90% of the skins that you use, but I reworked most of them to work flawlessly with the smc and its features.

The "creepy head feature" that you have problems with:
Yes, because you do not use the 'Starter Kit'. I am not responsible for the carelessness of replacement models and reworked all of them in the 'Starter Kit' to work correctly with the smc. All the issues that you described are fixed when you are using the 'Starter Kit'.
I even explained it in my readme.txt right in the 3rd line of it. But as you see, nobody reads readme.txt´s nowadays

No idle weapon animation when having Quad:
I wrote the reason for that in the source code and in this thread at the time where I developed the idle animation. So, it is no bug. It is on purpose.

The evil face should work in all maps (also none id1), that is why it is kept universal. If a trigger is interfering/blocking, then it is as it is. You should not worry about this exception in 1 map. We should on the contrary be happy that the smc features are map independent, no ?! You will also see in rare situation that the tilted torches are not matching 100% the corners. If you really are that picky, then you should not use this mod and use a mod instead that is only working with a handfull of maps and complain that it doesnt work with more maps.

And yes, the shambler-spider is a huge bastard. It uses the same bbox as the shambler though, due to map geometry reasons. Otherwise it would not be able to walk through doors or passages if I would make it bigger. The spiders legs are standing out quite far. You either have to live with it, or make the model smaller, or use the initial spider model for the shambler via this cvar: spider_replace_shambler_large 0

I did not modify any door sounds. Check your replacements for the culprit and see if it is a vanilla Quake issue without using smc.



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Things that happend since last release, for those who are interested:

1.) monster carnivean is done
2.) monster yakman is done (incl. request for optional footstep earth shaking and dust)
3.) additional option for spiders: "Not spawning inside water" (as orig. water is not transparent and they are too small to be seen in shallow water like in e1m3). Thank you JDStoner for that hint.
4.) option to use custom armor model in non-base maps
5.) option to use different armor model icons and key icons for each worldtype in the HUD (orig. Quake allows only 1 armor icon and 1 key icon set). Thank you to Spike and toneddu2000 for their great help with that. Needs small csqc modification for the HUD.
6.) Bugfix for wizards "Vengeance of the deceased" after-death effect: It no longer gets stuck
7.) more progress on the Reiver monster


Best wishes,
Seven

[JH24]

Wow, that looks absolutely amazing! I especially love the Yakman, Carnivean and Teneb, but they look all great.

I feel guilty for not posting in this thread more often. Thank you so much for all your hard work on this amazing mod, Seven.

[JDSTONE]

IS THE SMC STARTING TO USE csqc! GO FOR IT SEVEN!!!! I know a lot of people use a few different csqc set ups but i like the idea of you starting to move that way a bit it could open up a lot of new possible things.

[Seven]

Hello JH24,

No, do not worry. It is never too late to say Hello.
This is an open forum and people can walk in and out as they wish.
It is always good to have some more active people who want to participate.
After all, they can thus influence the development and steer its direction into one or the other direction.



Hello JDSTONER,

Nahh, do not cheer too early. During all these years I could also survive without csqc, as the smc is more or less a *classic* Quake mod which uses some engine extensions on top. And thats it. The idea to make this small detour was because I needed the world.worldtype value carried over. Otherwise it isnt possible to detect in which map type you currently are. I use this small value in a lot of smc features already, but this time I had to change the HUD accordingly. And HUD things are csqc-only territory.

The problem is, that everybody and their mum at quakeone is using Dresk´s custom HUD, that Nahuel modified some years ago to have the inventory on the right side instead of the middle.
And the restrictions for csprogs.dat´s are of course identical to progs.dat´s: You can only use 1 at a time !
So, when I create a new csprogs.dat, it will interfere with many users used one. I am using since a long time a special version, that Nahuel and I created. I also implemented the smc-HUD extension into that one already. The problem is now, that this one might not be accepted by some users...

Anyhow, people can of course disable the additional HUD-icons-thing via cvar, so no csqc modification are necessary at all. Lets see how people react... But that small tiny feature should not be the reason to let the smc drop.


Have a great new week everybody.