Marathon Chronicles
I'm really enjoying this art (and that thing with the background you posted on the MSF, too).
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Thanks, man.Pfhorrest wrote:I'm really enjoying this art (and that thing with the background you posted on the MSF, too).
welcome to the scene of the crash
That’s absolutely beautiful.
I think a lot of it should be fairly doable – it most likely depends primarily upon good scenery objects, which I’m sure you’re capable of creating. Pfh’Joueur has a lot of beautiful plant scenery, as does Tempus. For that matter, I suspect it’s possible to learn something from the vegetation on Pfhor Prime in Rubicon, even though it’s coloured differently.
The other challenge at replicating a sketch like that would be creating circular architecture. I experimented with that in one level using Chisel many years ago, but I never came up with something I was satisfied with, so I haven’t posted videos of the level - it was shameful next to C Lund’s many gorgeous Salinger levels. I suspect that by now someone’s created a Weland plugin to create circles, though I haven’t looked for it yet. It’d be a lot easier if I could preview the shapes I was setting out without having to guess at the coordinates.
I don’t think I can replicate that design 100% in A1 though – in particular, it doesn’t do bridges, so I probably won’t be able to replicate the odd features of the building like the – fin, I guess you’d call it? – and the diagonal support columns. I’ll have to think on how else I’d make the structures look alien.
ETA: hope you feel better, BTW.
I think a lot of it should be fairly doable – it most likely depends primarily upon good scenery objects, which I’m sure you’re capable of creating. Pfh’Joueur has a lot of beautiful plant scenery, as does Tempus. For that matter, I suspect it’s possible to learn something from the vegetation on Pfhor Prime in Rubicon, even though it’s coloured differently.
The other challenge at replicating a sketch like that would be creating circular architecture. I experimented with that in one level using Chisel many years ago, but I never came up with something I was satisfied with, so I haven’t posted videos of the level - it was shameful next to C Lund’s many gorgeous Salinger levels. I suspect that by now someone’s created a Weland plugin to create circles, though I haven’t looked for it yet. It’d be a lot easier if I could preview the shapes I was setting out without having to guess at the coordinates.
I don’t think I can replicate that design 100% in A1 though – in particular, it doesn’t do bridges, so I probably won’t be able to replicate the odd features of the building like the – fin, I guess you’d call it? – and the diagonal support columns. I’ll have to think on how else I’d make the structures look alien.
ETA: hope you feel better, BTW.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
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I do feel better thanI did the other day. ^^
wrt: the towers, I would suggest having them be part of the skybox if replicating them properly proves too fiddly, but that wouldn't work if there's any levels where the player has to enter one from the outside...
I'll keep those in mind when I get around to drawing some scenery objects. (A heads-up: I'm not super-knowledgeable about the technical side of things yet, so all I'd be able to provide is transparent .PNGs)The Man wrote:I think a lot of it should be fairly doable – it most likely depends primarily upon good scenery objects, which I’m sure you’re capable of creating. Pfh’Joueur has a lot of beautiful plant scenery, as does Tempus. For that matter, I suspect it’s possible to learn something from the vegetation on Pfhor Prime in Rubicon, even though it’s coloured differently.
wrt: the towers, I would suggest having them be part of the skybox if replicating them properly proves too fiddly, but that wouldn't work if there's any levels where the player has to enter one from the outside...
welcome to the scene of the crash
skybox = background/landscape textures, I presume?
In any case, I could also create a deal like the structure in “In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion” that’s just so utterly giant that you can’t really see the ceiling.
Also, as promised, here’s the circular level that I took out of the released version of the game: Wheeling Hubcap Factory. It’s a fun level, but it’s so utterly plain visually, and I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. Then again, maybe I was second-guessing myself too much; sometimes simplicity is the best way to go. In either case, I couldn’t figure out where to take the mission from there; large segments aren’t populated (though that’s nothing new for Chronicles) and the mission only requires the exploration of a very small portion of the level.
More to come later, including some stuff RADIX and I haven’t brought into this thread yet and just random other thoughts. I’ve had one hell of a week and I’m too drained too add more right now. It wasn’t a bad week, just a really tiring one.
In any case, I could also create a deal like the structure in “In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion” that’s just so utterly giant that you can’t really see the ceiling.
Also, as promised, here’s the circular level that I took out of the released version of the game: Wheeling Hubcap Factory. It’s a fun level, but it’s so utterly plain visually, and I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. Then again, maybe I was second-guessing myself too much; sometimes simplicity is the best way to go. In either case, I couldn’t figure out where to take the mission from there; large segments aren’t populated (though that’s nothing new for Chronicles) and the mission only requires the exploration of a very small portion of the level.
More to come later, including some stuff RADIX and I haven’t brought into this thread yet and just random other thoughts. I’ve had one hell of a week and I’m too drained too add more right now. It wasn’t a bad week, just a really tiring one.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
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That's what I was thinking of, yeah.The Man wrote:skybox = background/landscape textures, I presume?
wrt: Wheeling Hubcap Factory--while watching that, I imagined certain walls in the outer hallway sliding around when out of view to reveal or hide stuff, as if you're going to a different corridor every time you pass through the central room. Could disorient the heck out of the player (in a good way, hopefully?) when they realize that they're not traveling through 5D space.
Should hopefully have this next bit of art done by the time you're able to write another post.
welcome to the scene of the crash
Sounds good.
After the night-and-day differences seen in the Eternal thread resulting from changing the miner’s lamp setting, I am now messing about with the settings in Chronicles. I’ve already determined that I’m not going to reduce it to 0 for every level; too much of the scenario relies upon 0% lighting for dramatic effect, and it would be unplayable if I were to change the setting throughout (unless the player just relied on the automap, I guess, but the player shouldn’t have to do that). I think I’m going to vary it by level. Part of me want to use 0 for every dream level, but I already know that’s not possible; “Entangled” is one of the levels that would probably be rendered unplayable by such a setting, and I’m not going to change the lighting from 0% on that; it’s too dramatic. I think I might be able to get away with reducing it to, say, 0.21 on that level. (I think I’m going to use either 0, 0.21, or 0.42 on most levels – 21 and 42 because 7·3 and 7·3·2, plus the latter is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.)
I’m also toying with the idea of varying the setting based on whether a level is a flashback or a present-day level. I’m leaning towards making it brighter in the modern-day levels, based on the idea that memories get less vivid as time passes.
At the same time, I almost think “Wheeling Hubcap Factory”, which I’m currently intending as a modern-day level, should also have a setting of 0, depending upon whether that makes it unplayable. (I’m thinking of putting it back into the scenario; it’s a lot more fun than I remembered). So maybe I’ll just vary it based on what looks good.
I’m probably putting too much thought into this.
And yes, I definitely wanted “Wheeling Hubcap Factory” to be a disorienting level. I definitely like the idea of closing off/opening up passages depending upon the player’s progression through the level, but that does have the possibility of messing up co-op games if players are in the wrong place. I suspect that could probably be averted with Lua somehow, but it’d be a colossal headache to map out and debug if I wanted it to do it properly, but the easiest way would probably be just to write a script that disables the “closing off passages” aspect altogether completely in co-op games, and I suspect that would be a lot easier (just script it to set certain platforms to “activates only once” in co-op). I’m also tempted to use a lot of sliding textures just for added dramatic effect. I’ll play around with it more.
ETA: BTW, if Wrk and/or TL are reading this thread: is it possible to alter the miner’s light settings with Lua, or is that currently something that can only be controlled in MML? I was thinking I might want to change it alongside the fog settings in “Idol of Our Fear”, but I don’t see anything in the documentation about it. I might be searching for the wrong term, though; I just searched for “light”, and everything that came up looked like it was about the level’s lighting data, not the global miner’s light setting. If it’s not implemented in Lua yet, that might be something nice to add in a future A1 release at some point.
After the night-and-day differences seen in the Eternal thread resulting from changing the miner’s lamp setting, I am now messing about with the settings in Chronicles. I’ve already determined that I’m not going to reduce it to 0 for every level; too much of the scenario relies upon 0% lighting for dramatic effect, and it would be unplayable if I were to change the setting throughout (unless the player just relied on the automap, I guess, but the player shouldn’t have to do that). I think I’m going to vary it by level. Part of me want to use 0 for every dream level, but I already know that’s not possible; “Entangled” is one of the levels that would probably be rendered unplayable by such a setting, and I’m not going to change the lighting from 0% on that; it’s too dramatic. I think I might be able to get away with reducing it to, say, 0.21 on that level. (I think I’m going to use either 0, 0.21, or 0.42 on most levels – 21 and 42 because 7·3 and 7·3·2, plus the latter is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.)
I’m also toying with the idea of varying the setting based on whether a level is a flashback or a present-day level. I’m leaning towards making it brighter in the modern-day levels, based on the idea that memories get less vivid as time passes.
At the same time, I almost think “Wheeling Hubcap Factory”, which I’m currently intending as a modern-day level, should also have a setting of 0, depending upon whether that makes it unplayable. (I’m thinking of putting it back into the scenario; it’s a lot more fun than I remembered). So maybe I’ll just vary it based on what looks good.
I’m probably putting too much thought into this.
And yes, I definitely wanted “Wheeling Hubcap Factory” to be a disorienting level. I definitely like the idea of closing off/opening up passages depending upon the player’s progression through the level, but that does have the possibility of messing up co-op games if players are in the wrong place. I suspect that could probably be averted with Lua somehow, but it’d be a colossal headache to map out and debug if I wanted it to do it properly, but the easiest way would probably be just to write a script that disables the “closing off passages” aspect altogether completely in co-op games, and I suspect that would be a lot easier (just script it to set certain platforms to “activates only once” in co-op). I’m also tempted to use a lot of sliding textures just for added dramatic effect. I’ll play around with it more.
ETA: BTW, if Wrk and/or TL are reading this thread: is it possible to alter the miner’s light settings with Lua, or is that currently something that can only be controlled in MML? I was thinking I might want to change it alongside the fog settings in “Idol of Our Fear”, but I don’t see anything in the documentation about it. I might be searching for the wrong term, though; I just searched for “light”, and everything that came up looked like it was about the level’s lighting data, not the global miner’s light setting. If it’s not implemented in Lua yet, that might be something nice to add in a future A1 release at some point.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
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The Man gave me the go-ahead to summarize some later discussions. Looking over those, a good bit of it has already been shown in this thread (mostly concept art), pretty much leaving something which could go into spoilers. So, under a spoiler it goes for now; hopefully should be okay. I have some relevant art, but I'd like to hold off on posting it here until The Man has shared his thoughts on the below stuff publicly.
Spoiler:
welcome to the scene of the crash
I’ve already written about some of this in our messages, but I’m in a rather bizarre state of mind at the moment and having a difficult time thinking in a linear fashion, which is posing me challenges in summarising my contributions to the conversation. I’ll attempt to do this later today, maybe, if you don’t get to it first. At present, I feel compelled to explore my thoughts on the structure of the scenario. So… spoilers ahead.
ETA: oh, here’s a gameplay video of “Slaughterhouse-One” (fka “naked lunch one”) and “The Dream’s Dream” with the miner’s lamp turned to 0. I think it looks a lot better. I can’t do this with all the dream levels, though – in fact I had to turn it back up for “Supper’s Ready” (I’d put it down to 0.21) because it rendered one of the dark parts in “Lover’s Leap” borderline impossible to climb, and it made it almost impossible to see any ammo at the start. I suspect if I redo the lighting in that one, it’d undo some of the problems, but I don’t know how much of it I want to undo, because the opening looks so cool right now. I’ll think about it. “Entangled” would also probably be completely unplayable with the miner’s lamp off unless I turned the lighting up, and I definitely don’t want to do that.
I used a different strategy to kill the last Juggernaut with the staff. It’s a lot less elegant than the one in the previous video, but it’s also a lot easier to replicate. There was a fair amount of luck involved in producing the previous video, but in the immortal words of Jason Jones, I hope everyone agrees after watching it that luck played no part in this replay.
Spoiler:
I used a different strategy to kill the last Juggernaut with the staff. It’s a lot less elegant than the one in the previous video, but it’s also a lot easier to replicate. There was a fair amount of luck involved in producing the previous video, but in the immortal words of Jason Jones, I hope everyone agrees after watching it that luck played no part in this replay.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
Short on time but just to answer Eternal questions: the Roland Beowulf thing in Eternal is a metaphorical dreamlike interpretation of a memory / vision shared by Marcus and Hathor about events in their subjective future that is actually the distant past, the events of ch5. Nobody is literally reincarnated but time runs around in circles so it’s like living life after life in the same pattern always manipulated into the same conclusion.
And Hathor isn’t made crazy by the W’rk, she just hates humanity for their constant use of her as a tool even after multiple deaths, and then gets even angrier still when Marcus, her only potential ally, won’t side with her quest for vengeance; and then add several more deaths atop that at Marcus’ hands driving her into a mad fury and then give her Jjaro technology and she BECOMES a W’rk, since the W’rk are just mad Jjaro.
And Hathor isn’t made crazy by the W’rk, she just hates humanity for their constant use of her as a tool even after multiple deaths, and then gets even angrier still when Marcus, her only potential ally, won’t side with her quest for vengeance; and then add several more deaths atop that at Marcus’ hands driving her into a mad fury and then give her Jjaro technology and she BECOMES a W’rk, since the W’rk are just mad Jjaro.
Thanks for the quick explanations; it’d probably been years since I’d last played the levels that explained those parts of the story. The “mad Jjaro” thing is a really cool idea. Am I right in remembering that you’d written the Jjaro as basically being ascended members of other species, or am I thinking of some other scenario? (I can’t think of which other scenario that’d be, though.)
I guess it’s not literally reincarnation as we typically think of it, though in a way being brought back to experience the same chain of events seems like it would be its own kind of special hell. In any case, I’ll have to think about whether I want to diverge by introducing literal reincarnation into the setting. Pathways had a sort of nothingness after death, if I’m remembering correctly, which sounds pretty awful to experience, but if I’m getting into reincarnation territory anyway, I could always make changing that a central focus of the story.
IDK. Lot to think about. Thanks for the insight.
I guess it’s not literally reincarnation as we typically think of it, though in a way being brought back to experience the same chain of events seems like it would be its own kind of special hell. In any case, I’ll have to think about whether I want to diverge by introducing literal reincarnation into the setting. Pathways had a sort of nothingness after death, if I’m remembering correctly, which sounds pretty awful to experience, but if I’m getting into reincarnation territory anyway, I could always make changing that a central focus of the story.
IDK. Lot to think about. Thanks for the insight.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
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wrt: the latest vid, it definitely looks pretty good with the miner's light shut off. (Maybe it was in the previous vid on these levels and I just didn't see it, but I also really like that effect with the sky at around 6:39)
--
Art and ramblings below. Spoilers, obviously.
(edit: also--happy birthday, The Man!)
--
Art and ramblings below. Spoilers, obviously.
Spoiler:
welcome to the scene of the crash
“Jjaro” in Eternal means three different things: the ancient civilization of humans from the future; the society of AIs and such which was spawned by and survived those humans but later came to include other such beings (which is how S’bhuth is a “failed Jjaro”); and those of such beings from that society and others who escaped Outside and became basically gods. The W’rk are the same type of being as the last, just with a different agenda.
RADIX: There’s a lot to think about there, and I’ll probably have more to say in a couple of days when I’ve thought about it. (Not likely tomorrow – work will probably exhaust me.) First off, though, thanks for the birthday wishes. I had about as good a day as could’ve been expected without 45 being frogmarched out of Bedminster or wherever he is rn in handcuffs, so. (And to be clear, that wasn’t something I expected.)
One thing I will note: I think I want to leave the relationship between Durandal and Marcus at least somewhat up to interpretation. I kind of want people to be able to read whatever subtext or lack thereof they see into their interactions without explicitly stating anything one way or the other, much like the original game (and some fan scenarios) do. In other words, I’m fairly sure I’m not going to explicitly say it’s A Relationship, but I’m also fairly sure I’m not going to explicitly say it’s not. One of the things I like about the original trilogy (and Rubicon and various other fan scenarios) is that not every bit of character development or plot is spelt out, and while there are some gaps in the timeline and characterisation that I intend to fill in, I don’t want to change that aspect of the writing overall.
I should note that I think you can probably also bring in most aspects you want of Vince’s characterisation for the most part, as long as it doesn’t flagrantly contradict Eternal, Rubicon, or Phoenix (and even then, for that matter, because again, I’m toying with the idea that all continuities in Marathon fan scenario affect the Chronicles timeline somehow, even if simply as failed timelines). The main thing is just that I think I want to leave the nature of Marcus/Durandal up to interpretation.
I’ve definitely toyed with the idea of bringing characters like Hathor (and Kate and whomever else) into the dream levels as physical presences. I was actually thinking about how I’d like to bring NPCs as physical presences literally today, actually. Another thing I was thinking of is that I’d actually like the later missions to involve some sort of cooperation with those NPCs, to make them a sort of team effort so that the SO isn’t just pulling off all of these missions on their own (or with the Bobs’/allied S’pht’s/allied Pfhor’s incidental help). Unfortunately, I’m not sure how I’d actually implement them, though. Marathon’s monster AI is really crude, and I’m not well versed enough in game theory to write a better AI in Lua or whatever.
The sky effect I think you’re referring to is something I did within the past week or so. Before then, that room just had a plain ceiling texture. I’m glad you liked it; I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me to do something like that in a dream level before. It was probably in the video immediately preceding this one, but it definitely wasn’t in the first several videos of the level. I think I did it in the same revision where I changed all the sewage to water (and put in that cool water effect for that matter).
Pfhorrest: Thanks again for the clarification. I can definitely work with those definitions. I don’t think I’d even have to change anything I’ve planned for the Jjaro arc (or anything that RADIX has written for that matter).
One thing I will note: I think I want to leave the relationship between Durandal and Marcus at least somewhat up to interpretation. I kind of want people to be able to read whatever subtext or lack thereof they see into their interactions without explicitly stating anything one way or the other, much like the original game (and some fan scenarios) do. In other words, I’m fairly sure I’m not going to explicitly say it’s A Relationship, but I’m also fairly sure I’m not going to explicitly say it’s not. One of the things I like about the original trilogy (and Rubicon and various other fan scenarios) is that not every bit of character development or plot is spelt out, and while there are some gaps in the timeline and characterisation that I intend to fill in, I don’t want to change that aspect of the writing overall.
I should note that I think you can probably also bring in most aspects you want of Vince’s characterisation for the most part, as long as it doesn’t flagrantly contradict Eternal, Rubicon, or Phoenix (and even then, for that matter, because again, I’m toying with the idea that all continuities in Marathon fan scenario affect the Chronicles timeline somehow, even if simply as failed timelines). The main thing is just that I think I want to leave the nature of Marcus/Durandal up to interpretation.
I’ve definitely toyed with the idea of bringing characters like Hathor (and Kate and whomever else) into the dream levels as physical presences. I was actually thinking about how I’d like to bring NPCs as physical presences literally today, actually. Another thing I was thinking of is that I’d actually like the later missions to involve some sort of cooperation with those NPCs, to make them a sort of team effort so that the SO isn’t just pulling off all of these missions on their own (or with the Bobs’/allied S’pht’s/allied Pfhor’s incidental help). Unfortunately, I’m not sure how I’d actually implement them, though. Marathon’s monster AI is really crude, and I’m not well versed enough in game theory to write a better AI in Lua or whatever.
The sky effect I think you’re referring to is something I did within the past week or so. Before then, that room just had a plain ceiling texture. I’m glad you liked it; I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me to do something like that in a dream level before. It was probably in the video immediately preceding this one, but it definitely wasn’t in the first several videos of the level. I think I did it in the same revision where I changed all the sewage to water (and put in that cool water effect for that matter).
Pfhorrest: Thanks again for the clarification. I can definitely work with those definitions. I don’t think I’d even have to change anything I’ve planned for the Jjaro arc (or anything that RADIX has written for that matter).
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
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Alright (and you're welcome)! In the meantime:The Man wrote:There’s a lot to think about there, and I’ll probably have more to say in a couple of days when I’ve thought about it. (Not likely tomorrow – work will probably exhaust me.)
Got some plants (and some fungi) done. (Obviously these are meant to be separated; I can do that myself if you need me to. Hopefully they'll all integrate into the shapes file without too much hassle) If I need to do any more, lemme know.
welcome to the scene of the crash
Those look great. I do have a few concerns, which may or may not actually end up being relevant, and I probably should’ve brought the third and fourth up in advance:
A few new videos:
“Slaughterhouse-Two” & “Entangled” – nothing radically different here except the miner’s lamp setting in “Slaughterhouse-Two” is now 0. I experimented with putting the miner’s lamp at 0.21 for “Entangled” and “Supper’s Ready”, but it was impossible to see weapons, ammo, & powerups, plus it became frustrating to climb a particular segment in “Supper’s Ready”. It still is slightly darker than it was in previous videos, because I changed the global setting to 0.42 (it was previously the default, which I believe is 0.5).
“Slaughterhouse-Three” & “Biblical Candy Machines” – fists & staff only. Again, no major changes to the later level; miner’s lamp to 0 in “Slaughterhouse-Three”. I think I might’ve also overwritten the terminal in “Slaughterhouse-Three” with the one that used to be in “Slaughterhouse-Four”.
“Slaughterhouse-Four” & “Supper’s Ready” – miner’s lamp to 0 in “Slaughterhouse-Four”; its terminals were probably from “Slaughterhouse-Five” previously. Fists & staff only. I kill all enemies, including the Juggernauts. There’s one close shave where I get knocked into the lava during the “Apocalypse in 9/8” segment and use a Fighter projectile to get myself out. I escape with about 0.3x shields, retreat, and go back to kill the remaining enemies (unfortunately I’ve lost the alien weapon ammo from the Enforcer by that point). Killing the Juggernauts probably added about 20 minutes to the video. You could listen to all of “Supper’s Ready” twice during this video’s running time, which I encourage people to do.
“Slaughterhouse-Five” & “Nightmare Heaven” – fists & staff only; both have miner’s lamp at 0. Observant viewers may notice that I overwrote “naked lunch five” with “naked lunch six”, then renamed the levels. “naked lunch six”, meanwhile, was replaced with “Wheeling Hubcap Factory”. I’m getting a lot better at “Nightmare Heaven”; I only used half of the available recharge cans. Either that or I was just lucky this time around.
More TK, including a few additional videos and my own thoughts on my levels & strategy from an email exchange with Dr Sumner. I have to leave for now, though.
ETA: “Wheeling Hubcap Factory” – now put in as a secret level; miner’s lamp to 0. I don’t think I’ve made any other changes to it yet (one of the first things I need to do is to remove the Chamberlains’ immunity to fists), and I will very likely put it into the main continuity at some point, probably before “Motherfucker=Redeemer”.
I don’t consider this level in anywhere near a final state yet, but I do want to try what RADIX and I had discussed above about making it as disorienting as possible. I have a few ideas about Lua scripts to use for this purpose, but I haven’t begun coding them yet, and I don’t know how much of what I want to do is even possible. In any case, with Aleph One removing limits on viewing distance & number of transparent sides, I can now expand the outer structure a lot further than I previously had.
From a mapmaker’s technical standpoint, it’s worth noting that there is a colossal amount of 5D space involved in the exterior views. In fact, if memory serves, there are three separate copies of the same space: one visible from the central hub where the player starts; a second from the bottom floor; and a third from the top. This’ll make it a pain to add to them, but I think I can manage it. I had to use three different copies of this space because of the lack of bridges in Marathon. The level’s geometry makes it impossible to see one window from any of the other windows. I do seem to have shrewdly used slightly different elevations for each space so that I could more easily add to them if necessary (however, unpacking which elevation belongs to which space will be a chore), and I also placed the central point of each exterior at a different location. None of this is at all apparent to the player; if you go into Vasara you’ll see some of it, though.
I think I only excluded this level from the initial alpha 3 release because I started out this map wanting to create a Salinger-like level, and it didn’t turn into one. But it’s still pretty cool for what it is.
From a gameplay standpoint, this is a much shorter video than my previous one. The level is currently both an extermination and an exploration level. I believe Marathon actually allows you to leave a few enemies alive in such levels, but you have to kill most of them. It’s necessary to walk on the polygon 180° from the door in each of the outer rings. I’ll probably change the mission in the final version.
“Dream Brother”. No changes to this one, but I made a new video because I’ve removed “naked lunch six”. I did much better against the S’pht’Wr this time, too.
Lastly, a couple of lengthy excerpts I wrote to Dr Sumner, which I’m going to place under spoiler tags due to their length. The first is on the feasibility of clearing out each level beginning with “Cut Their Grain and Place Fire Therein” using only fists & staff, though also incorporating some of my thoughts about my own mapmaking abilities and so forth:
The second is on when I use fists & when I use the staff.
Edit 2: BTW, what do people who have played “Pleiades’ Dust” think of its difficulty? It’s the first time the player encounters Chronicles’ beefed up Fighters as enemies, and they may be more challenging for an unaccustomed player to fight in that level’s narrow corridors than I’d realised. I think I’m probably going to add another level that uses them as enemies before “Pleiades’ Dust”, so this might not be a big deal in the long run, but Dr Sumner was actually having trouble with the projectile fighters, so I’m thinking it might be too difficult for such an early level right now - I don’t expect there’s a better Marathon player on the planet, unless someone has a massive library of fists-only TC films that they haven’t released publicly (not entirely impossible, since Dr Sumner hadn’t released a lot of his until a few months ago).
- Perhaps the mushrooms should have more of a gradient. I’ll have to see how they’d look within the game, though – it might not matter. It might also not matter depending upon how the Antichthon textures end up looking. They’d be jarring next to Lh’owon’s artwork, but if the rest of Antichthon looks artistically similar, it’d be fine. (ETA: I actually really like the idea of having discrete artistic styles for separate environments after thinking about it more; it would probably tie in well with the themes of the game. The mushrooms might be fine as they are.)
- The third shape from the right (or fifth from the left) is so wide that it might look a bit strange in the game, because Marathon tends to use the same shape at all angles for scenery objects. One possibility would be to render it from several different angles. I think there’s the possibility to display shapes from four, five, and eight angles, though I’ll have to look in Anvil and/or SF to make sure of this. It’s definitely possible to use multiple angles for scenery objects, though; the weird, colour-shifting chair in “Supper’s Ready” is such an object.
- Have you made larger renders of these? If not, it again may not end up being a big deal for most people. I tend to play on a 2560x1600 Retina display, so I’m seeing Marathon in much higher resolution than most people will, at least until 4K displays become standard. On the other hand, I almost want Chronicles’ graphics to use higher-res than is standard, since it could end up saving additional work down the line. If I’d saved my own textures in 1024x1024 resolution with 32-bit colour depth, they wouldn’t need to be redone now.
- Lastly, there’s the issue of converting these to Marathon 2’s original 256-colour CLUT. I don’t know if anyone still plays without OpenGL these days, but we should probably accommodate them just in case. I’ll try to find the CLUT at some point and upload it here. I also might be able to convert these myself; I’m not completely hopeless with Photoshop, after all.
A few new videos:
“Slaughterhouse-Two” & “Entangled” – nothing radically different here except the miner’s lamp setting in “Slaughterhouse-Two” is now 0. I experimented with putting the miner’s lamp at 0.21 for “Entangled” and “Supper’s Ready”, but it was impossible to see weapons, ammo, & powerups, plus it became frustrating to climb a particular segment in “Supper’s Ready”. It still is slightly darker than it was in previous videos, because I changed the global setting to 0.42 (it was previously the default, which I believe is 0.5).
“Slaughterhouse-Three” & “Biblical Candy Machines” – fists & staff only. Again, no major changes to the later level; miner’s lamp to 0 in “Slaughterhouse-Three”. I think I might’ve also overwritten the terminal in “Slaughterhouse-Three” with the one that used to be in “Slaughterhouse-Four”.
“Slaughterhouse-Four” & “Supper’s Ready” – miner’s lamp to 0 in “Slaughterhouse-Four”; its terminals were probably from “Slaughterhouse-Five” previously. Fists & staff only. I kill all enemies, including the Juggernauts. There’s one close shave where I get knocked into the lava during the “Apocalypse in 9/8” segment and use a Fighter projectile to get myself out. I escape with about 0.3x shields, retreat, and go back to kill the remaining enemies (unfortunately I’ve lost the alien weapon ammo from the Enforcer by that point). Killing the Juggernauts probably added about 20 minutes to the video. You could listen to all of “Supper’s Ready” twice during this video’s running time, which I encourage people to do.
“Slaughterhouse-Five” & “Nightmare Heaven” – fists & staff only; both have miner’s lamp at 0. Observant viewers may notice that I overwrote “naked lunch five” with “naked lunch six”, then renamed the levels. “naked lunch six”, meanwhile, was replaced with “Wheeling Hubcap Factory”. I’m getting a lot better at “Nightmare Heaven”; I only used half of the available recharge cans. Either that or I was just lucky this time around.
More TK, including a few additional videos and my own thoughts on my levels & strategy from an email exchange with Dr Sumner. I have to leave for now, though.
ETA: “Wheeling Hubcap Factory” – now put in as a secret level; miner’s lamp to 0. I don’t think I’ve made any other changes to it yet (one of the first things I need to do is to remove the Chamberlains’ immunity to fists), and I will very likely put it into the main continuity at some point, probably before “Motherfucker=Redeemer”.
I don’t consider this level in anywhere near a final state yet, but I do want to try what RADIX and I had discussed above about making it as disorienting as possible. I have a few ideas about Lua scripts to use for this purpose, but I haven’t begun coding them yet, and I don’t know how much of what I want to do is even possible. In any case, with Aleph One removing limits on viewing distance & number of transparent sides, I can now expand the outer structure a lot further than I previously had.
From a mapmaker’s technical standpoint, it’s worth noting that there is a colossal amount of 5D space involved in the exterior views. In fact, if memory serves, there are three separate copies of the same space: one visible from the central hub where the player starts; a second from the bottom floor; and a third from the top. This’ll make it a pain to add to them, but I think I can manage it. I had to use three different copies of this space because of the lack of bridges in Marathon. The level’s geometry makes it impossible to see one window from any of the other windows. I do seem to have shrewdly used slightly different elevations for each space so that I could more easily add to them if necessary (however, unpacking which elevation belongs to which space will be a chore), and I also placed the central point of each exterior at a different location. None of this is at all apparent to the player; if you go into Vasara you’ll see some of it, though.
I think I only excluded this level from the initial alpha 3 release because I started out this map wanting to create a Salinger-like level, and it didn’t turn into one. But it’s still pretty cool for what it is.
From a gameplay standpoint, this is a much shorter video than my previous one. The level is currently both an extermination and an exploration level. I believe Marathon actually allows you to leave a few enemies alive in such levels, but you have to kill most of them. It’s necessary to walk on the polygon 180° from the door in each of the outer rings. I’ll probably change the mission in the final version.
“Dream Brother”. No changes to this one, but I made a new video because I’ve removed “naked lunch six”. I did much better against the S’pht’Wr this time, too.
Lastly, a couple of lengthy excerpts I wrote to Dr Sumner, which I’m going to place under spoiler tags due to their length. The first is on the feasibility of clearing out each level beginning with “Cut Their Grain and Place Fire Therein” using only fists & staff, though also incorporating some of my thoughts about my own mapmaking abilities and so forth:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Edit 2: BTW, what do people who have played “Pleiades’ Dust” think of its difficulty? It’s the first time the player encounters Chronicles’ beefed up Fighters as enemies, and they may be more challenging for an unaccustomed player to fight in that level’s narrow corridors than I’d realised. I think I’m probably going to add another level that uses them as enemies before “Pleiades’ Dust”, so this might not be a big deal in the long run, but Dr Sumner was actually having trouble with the projectile fighters, so I’m thinking it might be too difficult for such an early level right now - I don’t expect there’s a better Marathon player on the planet, unless someone has a massive library of fists-only TC films that they haven’t released publicly (not entirely impossible, since Dr Sumner hadn’t released a lot of his until a few months ago).
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
- General-RADIX
- Cyborg
- Posts: 300
- Joined: Aug 8th '16, 15:02
Regarding question 3: I don't have larger renders of these; they were drawn to be in scale with the normal Security Officer sprite. Really hope they don't end up clashing with the higher-rez textures...
welcome to the scene of the crash
It's probably fine. Come to think of it, I don't think any of the other scenery objects are any higher resolution than those. Might be worth rendering future items in higher resolution, though, if possible.
I might add more later when I can use a real keyboard. My internet is being dumb and I'm only able to post from my phone.
I might add more later when I can use a real keyboard. My internet is being dumb and I'm only able to post from my phone.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
- General-RADIX
- Cyborg
- Posts: 300
- Joined: Aug 8th '16, 15:02
Will keep that in mind!The Man wrote:It's probably fine. Come to think of it, I don't think any of the other scenery objects are any higher resolution than those. Might be worth rendering future items in higher resolution, though, if possible.
--
Unrelated:
Half conceptual thing, half just trying something new art-wise. Also serves as a height comparison between Hathor (roughly 6'3") and Marcus (5'9").
Regarding the background, one idea I've had knocking around is that most of Marcus's dream-level conversations with Hathor (and maybe the ghosts of other people Marcus knew in the past?) take place in Carroll Street Station. Not the Infinity level, an actual subway station that may have existed on Mars and had some significance to Marcus. It was always kinda grungy and run-down, but in dreams it feels like it's at the bottom of a void. If this would end up significantly lengthening development time, though, I guess these conversations could take place somewhere else.
(Bonus, specific-to-Inmortalitas ramblings that may not have any bearing on Chronicles since it could hose things up backstory-wise, but someone might want to read 'em:)
Spoiler:
welcome to the scene of the crash
I like that pic. (And the scenery from earlier too).
You know that Carroll Street Station IS an actual subway station in NYC, right?
You know that Carroll Street Station IS an actual subway station in NYC, right?
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Thanks. ^^Pfhorrest wrote:I like that pic. (And the scenery from earlier too).
You know that Carroll Street Station IS an actual subway station in NYC, right?
I did know that Carroll Street Station is a real place; just couldn't remember that it was in NYC.
welcome to the scene of the crash
That looks cool, too. Of course, we’re not going to use Marcus’ face in Chronicles (or probably, for that matter, Hathor’s), but it’s a nice guide to how they look, which might actually help me in writing. I like the idea of Hathor being 6” taller than Marcus, though that’s probably partially because, since I’m roughly 5’5”, my romantic partners are often taller than I am. There isn’t much representation for taller woman/shorter man relationships in media.
Regarding the spoiler-tagged text:
Regarding the non-spoiler-tagged text, I haven’t yet constructed a level that could stand in for Carroll Street Station, but I can do so, and it probably won’t lengthen development time, since I already knew I needed at least one more dream level; “Dream Brother” isn’t really good enough to go in the main game, and “Biblical Candy Machines” isn’t really a dream level. If I use it as a hub, that might mean I have to use more than one dream level beyond each “Slaughterhouse” level in some sequences, but that’s probably fine, too, since Rubicon already has two dream levels in a row (beyond “Things May Happen”) in one segment in the Salinger plank. (“People Under the Stairs” to “Comfortably Numb”, I think.)
For now, it occurs to me that “Another One in the Dark” might be a more suitable dream level than “Biblical Candy Machines”. I’m actually thinking of reordering the levels, but if anyone has gotten that far in the game, that would mess up their progression through the levels, so maybe I’ll wait until later in development. (“Another One in the Dark” needs a complete overhaul, anyway; it won’t work in co-op right now if one of the players dies.)
(also, since there isn’t really anywhere else to put this, and post flood control sucks, R.I.P. Queen of Soul )
Regarding the spoiler-tagged text:
Spoiler:
For now, it occurs to me that “Another One in the Dark” might be a more suitable dream level than “Biblical Candy Machines”. I’m actually thinking of reordering the levels, but if anyone has gotten that far in the game, that would mess up their progression through the levels, so maybe I’ll wait until later in development. (“Another One in the Dark” needs a complete overhaul, anyway; it won’t work in co-op right now if one of the players dies.)
(also, since there isn’t really anywhere else to put this, and post flood control sucks, R.I.P. Queen of Soul )
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
It’s probably at least a month out of date; I just went ahead and uploaded my latest map merge here. That’s odd that Github’s not working. I’ve made a handful of other changes to other files, too, but I don’t think any of them significantly affect gameplay right now.
Enjoy, BTW, and be sure to let me know what you think – particularly if any parts are too easy/hard/frustrating & how to fix them.
Enjoy, BTW, and be sure to let me know what you think – particularly if any parts are too easy/hard/frustrating & how to fix them.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
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'twas thinking about Yrro and Pharos lately, so art:
Inm!Yrro is as intelligent as any other bio-engineer, but he's not very good at handling problems that can't be taken care of physically (I mean, he canonically left Lh'owon out of grief after Pthia died, rather than stay put and continue looking after the S'pht...though I suspect the Pfhor would've enslaved them either way). Maybe in Chronicles, he's focused on taking out the current administration so that people more knowledgeable about politics (i.e. Ryu'toth) can start on the slow, hard healing process sooner.
(Wonder if he and Marcus would bond over their shared "felt like they'd failed their loved ones" thing...)
Pharos is the kind of person who wants to do good, but his idea of "good" seems to be pretty short on civil liberties (at least where the Jjaro are concerned; his created species isn't nearly as restricted) and doesn't take basic psychology into account. He's also rather arrogant and unable to accept that certain things are his fault until it's completely, irreparably collapsed around him (sometimes not even then).
--
Also, an idea I had for Leela's appearance in Chronicles:
Comes in blue and green versions (I usually depict her as the former, but Chronicles might follow Eternal in leaving her green).
Inm!Yrro is as intelligent as any other bio-engineer, but he's not very good at handling problems that can't be taken care of physically (I mean, he canonically left Lh'owon out of grief after Pthia died, rather than stay put and continue looking after the S'pht...though I suspect the Pfhor would've enslaved them either way). Maybe in Chronicles, he's focused on taking out the current administration so that people more knowledgeable about politics (i.e. Ryu'toth) can start on the slow, hard healing process sooner.
(Wonder if he and Marcus would bond over their shared "felt like they'd failed their loved ones" thing...)
Pharos is the kind of person who wants to do good, but his idea of "good" seems to be pretty short on civil liberties (at least where the Jjaro are concerned; his created species isn't nearly as restricted) and doesn't take basic psychology into account. He's also rather arrogant and unable to accept that certain things are his fault until it's completely, irreparably collapsed around him (sometimes not even then).
--
Also, an idea I had for Leela's appearance in Chronicles:
Comes in blue and green versions (I usually depict her as the former, but Chronicles might follow Eternal in leaving her green).
welcome to the scene of the crash