Winter II

[Shadowbreaker]

To get into the christmas spirit... (sung to rudolph the rednosed raindeer)

Zenith the emo AI
Had a very sucky life
Piracy for survival...
'Barely even worth the strife

One day he found a Pfhor Scoutship
Heading to an unknown planet
There he found a fortress
He sent you down there to scan it

Deep inside it's research labs, Zenith came to find:
A deadly virus capable of wiping out mankind!

Zenith destroyed the virus
His actions after were untold
But one of the old computers
Told him a city where he'd find gold!

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The fact that I was perfectly capable of announcing this now was distracting me from my studying, so I decided to do so. Too bad I didn't I have some cool announcement poster... that song will have to do.

What is this?
Winter II is a collaborative project, in the same vein of Xmas 1,2 & 3, and Winter I. This picks up where Winter I left off, with Zenith and the rest of his pirates sailing away to an "unknown" destination. Winter I's thread is hanging around somewhere. Last year had 80~ high res textures and 7 levels, and I'm hoping this year will be even bigger.

Why are you announcing this?
Drictelt didn't want to, and most likely won't help this year ;_;. Plus, I kinda became the leader of the project about a few weeks in.

How can I help?
Maps! Anyone can make a map or two for this scenario. My standards aren't that high, at least for the stuff I don't make, so even a new mapper can join in. To make a map, download the shapes file at the bottom of this post.

The texture set replaces the WATER set, and the (rather incomplete) landscape replaces the MOON landscape set. Neither of these sets look remotely similar to what they replace. I really wanted to make their year have some true character to it, not just a bigger or rustier version of an existing set. This set is extremely bold, and most of the textures are dark gray, however there is still a lot of color to be added, IMO, and of course I am willing to change the set around.

This supposedly takes place in an alien city, so I'd recommend not making a very humany one! While there are a few window textures for Skyscrapers, etc. much of the level should focus on dark structures and towers and stuff. But, I suppose it's up to you.

I know, it's a rather specific set, but I want it to look really cool and really original.

So... whats this project about?
While reading terminals in the Vylae science complex, Zenith learned of a city that was ruined by the Vylae-Pfhor conflict, which had a huge vault full of gold, which incidentally is just as valuable to Vylae as it is to humans. It is implied that every organic being died in the city during the battle. And the pfhor decided to follow Zenith there, and with their superior numbers begin to take over the whole city. However, the whole city isn't ripe for the taking! A huge colony of armed robots has inhabited the city since their creators perished, and they aren't willing to give up their gold without a fight.

Armed robots? Do we actually get to fight them?
Because I can't make sprites terribly well myself, and CryoS is busy with other stuff, I decided to use some pre-existing robots.

[attachment=3248:red3.jpg]
[attachment=3249:redtwo.jpg]
[attachment=3250:red4.jpg]

These are known as the "metalloids" from Marathon: RED. However, in this scenario they are much more colorful and about a million times less jacked up and cheap to fight. They are a lot different, but they still look as awesome as ever.

What else did you, uh steal?
Recently I have learned the wonders of borrowing things from other places. As you can tell in those screenshots, I've taken a few things from M1A1 and Rubicon (and RED), and obviously Prime Target too. I'll certainly credit all of the creators of the stuff I am using, but keep in mind that every texture I use, I redo it completely in high-res, so it won't look like I just took stuff from other places in the final product.

Do we still get to fight the Pfhor?
Of course! Infact, all of the unique monsters from last year except the super flickta are here this year, although some had a few color changes to fit the theme.

------------------------------------------------------

Here's the list of unique monsters:




Machinegun Trooper (Security Bob)- Just like last year and the year before, sits and dishes out trooper bullets. They aren't that strong and have dark orange armor.

Flamethrower Hunter (Assimilated Bob)- Shoots lava balls and flamethrower. They have black and fiery looking armor, are a bit stronger than regulars, and always explode upon death.

Seeking Fighter (S'pht'Kr Minor)- Shoots seeking staff bolts and has a bit more health than Blue fighters. They're pretty much just small versions of the bigtime fighters.

Rocket Cyborg (S'pht'Kr Major)- Like last year, shoots weakened missiles. They're orange and much stronger.

SMG Enforcer (Security Vacbob)- Has a smg, drops smg ammo. Last year these guys were a bit cheap; they could kill you in one hit, and it wasn't until the 1.2 update that you could do the same. Now its actually possible to dodge their attack.

Elite Compiler (Assimilated Vacbob)- Continually shoots fast, weak S'pht bolts. They wear black cloaks, and have green eyes and crystals. They are also much stronger than regular compilers to make up for the weakness of their attack.




Small Floater (Minor/Major) (Energy/Oxy Tick)- A bit stronger than major fighters, these guys are the weakest "natives" you will encounter, and only shoot drone bolts.

Electric Floater (Kamakazi Tick)- About as strong as Water Flickta, these guys shoot "regular" fusion bolts at the player.

Large Floater (Minor/Major) (Water/Sewage Flickta)- A bit stronger than troopers. They shoot Sphtkr bolts and little seeking probes that drop to the ground and explode on impact.

Heavy Floater (Lava Flickta)- Very strong and high-hovering robots. They shoot weakened missiles at people and machinegun. Likely that they should be sparsely placed. For some reason, these currently seem to merge into the floor when you fire at them, I'll need to fix that.

Mother of all Floaters (Possessed Drone)- Not as strong as the MOAH or the MOAC, but still incredibly powerful and deadly.

Prime Target BoB (Minor/Major) (First two tiny monster slots)- Painstakenly copied directly from the Prime Target shapes file (I've got the untampered version, too btw) these are heavily armored human pirates, who are actually good at killing things and are on your side! Don't overplace these folks, they might end up doing all of the work for you.

On Demand Boss Monster (Third Tiny Monster Slot)- This slot is reserved for any sort of "Boss" creature that you want to appear specifically in your map.


------------------------------

This year's shape file. Previous years it's been a shapes shuttle, but I'd like to give folks without classic a shot at mapping here too. There are 102 textures in this WATER set, Infinity's water set has 32. Now with two sort of working landscapes!

[attachment=3297:Winter_S...s_update.zip]

This year's physics file. Not definite, certainly, but pretty close. Don't complain about the rocket floaters, I've been having some trouble with them.

[attachment=3251:Winter_2_Physics.zip]

Finally, here's a little demo map, allowing you to test out the new monsters. The orange doors are all floaters, the green are all Pfhor, and the purple is BoBs (they are colored differently so theyed look like pirates!) The switches at the end of the rooms activate all of the doors and the lights. Forge was trippin' on me, so some of the textures are a little weird.

[attachment=3252:Monster_Test.zip]

[ray]

whatevs

[Wrkncacnter]

Most people would post screenshots that look good to get people interested, but this is an interesting strategy as well.

[Shadowbreaker]

I'm not saying those textures are anywhere near completion! Just needed some inspiration. But, break time is over.

[goran]

Good presentation. Unfortunately, I'm busy with Syndicate.

[Kurinn]

What the hell, I'll make a map. How hard could that be?

Ow, I sprained my index finger using Weland... this might be trouble...

[Dugit]

Great

[tehWastedJamacan]

Maybe I can put this map to use... I need fixing first.

[Drictelt]

Great to see that it's going to happen despite me.
When I've got Time again I'll have a look at your shapes (I hope I can finally expand them errorlessly). I hope you did ask for permission for all these sprites though...

Anyway, good luck! And to all mappers lazily wandering around here: Join!

[Dugit]

Could I join, even though I am really quite inexperienced? I could send you the map (after you've detailed me on where it could go) and you could send me feedback, perhaps?

Anyway, even if I'm not included, it would be great to see Winter II released.

Vale,
Dugit

[tehWastedJamacan]

Could I join, even though I am really quite inexperienced? I could send you the map (after you've detailed me on where it could go) and you could send me feedback, perhaps?

Anyway, even if I'm not included, it would be great to see Winter II released.

Vale,
Dugit

Maps! Anyone can make a map or two for this scenario. My standards aren't that high, at least for the stuff I don't make, so even a new mapper can join in. To make a map, download the shapes file at the bottom of this post.

[Kurinn]

Funny, A1 didn't like your scenery for some reason. Forge happily used it, and I was happy enough with it; But, alas, it didn't show up in A1, and so it is missing from these screenshots from A1.

[Dugit]

A couple of those screenshots look a little familiar from Xmas... but still, I like what's happening. Good job, Kurinn!

[Kurinn]

A couple of those screenshots look a little familiar from Xmas... but still, I like what's happening. Good job, Kurinn!

Thanks!

If you can give me more detailed feedback in terms of styling, it would help a lot.

For example, what is it that you like in these screenshots? What is it you don't like?

I'm still in an early stage here, so any opinions you give me will really have an effect at this point.

If you see anything stale in these designs, let me know so I can try other routes!


Update: Added a bit more...

[Dugit]

I still like what I'm seeing- but it seems very cubist. Maybe you could round off some edges where necessary, or at least decasexise them.

[Kurinn]

I still like what I'm seeing- but it seems very cubist. Maybe you could round off some edges where necessary, or at least decasexise them.

Yeah, I had a feeling it was a bit too cubist as well. I'll rework some stuff to make things a little smoother in places. Forge Grid Syndrome, it gets me every time. Maybe I'll go really crazy and make some oval shapes with Chisel. Already did something interesting using the shift function to crank out a respectable quasi-circle thing. You'll see when it's done. I'd hate to spoil that part of the map, even though Goran probably already can tell what I've been up to there considering the one map I ever did for the whole xmas thing way back when.

[Drictelt]

This is all pretty awesome Kurinn. And what's wrong with right angles anyway? Most real buildings have right angles, and these screens really look cool.

[RyokoTK]

The architecture looks really nice (though I do love my right angles), but the texturing is atrocious. There's no rhyme or reason with the color choices.

I don't know who's responsible for it though, Kurinn for texturing poorly or Shadowbreaker for coming up with a schizophrenic texture set.

[irons]

cubist

cubist

[attachment=3275:stever_cubist.jpg]

[RyokoTK]

Picasso would like a word with all of you.

[goran]

Yeah, I had a feeling it was a bit too cubist as well. I'll rework some stuff to make things a little smoother in places. Forge Grid Syndrome, it gets me every time. Maybe I'll go really crazy and make some oval shapes with Chisel. Already did something interesting using the shift function to crank out a respectable quasi-circle thing. You'll see when it's done. I'd hate to spoil that part of the map, even though Goran probably already can tell what I've been up to there considering the one map I ever did for the whole xmas thing way back when.

Are you constructing a toilet again?

[Drictelt]

except for the penultimate screenshot, I think Kurinn made great use of the textures. Also, I don't see what's wrong with the texture set (Although I'm only judging from the screen shots). It's just colorful. Tastes differ.

[Dugit]

I see the fonts as a nice nod in the direction the Trilogy, but some of the illumination panel textures, combined with other, less striking textures makes the wall look a little garish.

[RyokoTK]

except for the penultimate screenshot, I think Kurinn made great use of the textures. Also, I don't see what's wrong with the texture set (Although I'm only judging from the screen shots). It's just colorful. Tastes differ.

I have absolutely no trouble with colorful texture sets, but the colors Kurinn used (in my opinion) clash horribly with each other. Plus most of the textures by themselves are fairly poorly-done palette swaps, which I'm not inherently opposed to, but... yeesh.


I mean, this just looks terrible. By my count, there's neon green, dull green, magenta, orange, piss yellow, and gray in that fairly small space. It looks ridiculous. The dull green and gray textures by themselves are perfectly fine, and even the neon colors would be great for small details, but used in large chunks just looks garish. That yellow texture, however, is really awful.


This one is considerably better; the inoffensive green and gray are used most of the time and the neon green is reduced to a light panel, where it stands out in a good way. That yellow-and-gray texture looks so silly, though it's not Kurinn's fault here; he used it appropriately, it's just bad. And I question the use of bricks in such an environment, but as a student of architecture it just offends my real-world sensibilities, and maybe it looks better in context.

[Dugit]

Now that I look at those neon colors, they remind me of glowsticks sellotaped together.