Marathon: Phoenix Specialer Edition

[RyokoTK]

How and where did you pull that off?

[mchief111]

It's on Enchanting New Mexico, lol. The game's extremely enjoyable otherwise, though: I'm a big fan of the gameplay and how the weapon balance is set up. (read: always enough fusion batteries!)

[ellio7t]

on page 24 of the walkthrough you have the wrong level name.

[listener]

How is the newest version nearly 30 megs less than the old version?

[Dugit]

Just one more small bug:

The first major battle on Holy Wars, and the Juggernaut and MOAH don't ever engage each other.


I think I've found the problem:

For the Juggernaut, Renegade class ("S'pht'Kr") isn't checked as either a friend or an enemy, so if a Renegade doesn't shoot at him first he'll never attack them.

[RyokoTK]

Just one more small bug:

The first major battle on Holy Wars, and the Juggernaut and MOAH don't ever engage each other.
For the Juggernaut, Renegade class ("S'pht'Kr") isn't checked as either a friend or an enemy, so if a Renegade doesn't shoot at him first he'll never attack them.

Wow! This has been bugging me for some time! Magnanimous thanks.

[Alric]

Just one more small bug:

The first major battle on Holy Wars, and the Juggernaut and MOAH don't ever engage each other.


I think I've found the problem:

For the Juggernaut, Renegade class ("S'pht'Kr") isn't checked as either a friend or an enemy, so if a Renegade doesn't shoot at him first he'll never attack them.

Excuse me since this might not be the right place to ask such a question, but what editor is that in the second screenshot and where can I get it? It doesn't look like PhysicsEditorOneJ to me.

[Dugit]

It's the newest version of Shapefusion.

[listener]

Wow.
Phoenix

[President People]

Misaligned texture on Great Cave Offensive. It's the door on the easternmost shelf in the first battle room. Danged split doors, they never texture right.

[attachment=5535:GCO_Door...tle_Room.png]

[Dugit]

Sanctum Sanctorum.

[listener]

An annoying glitch with the crossbow. When I'm out of ammo and pick some up in battle, i'll switch to it and it will reload and automatically switch to the katar. And won't switch to the crossbow, i have to cycle through all of my weapons to get to it, all the while getting bombarded.

Its killed me several times.
I'll try to post a video of it soon.

[RyokoTK]

Version 1.2.1 is now available!

1.2.1 offers two significant changes over 1.2.0.

First: Weapon upgrades. Several weapons have been changed, mostly in terms of straightforward improvements.

• Fusion Cannon - Now behaves much like the M2 fusion pistol: fires faster, but the shots are weaker. Overall, the DPS is around the same as before. However, the projectiles travel very quickly, and carry some serious knockback. The charged shot remains the same: longer charge time than the M2 pistol, but much higher damage, and with some real knockback indeed. This is a huge upgrade and makes a lot of the earlier and middle levels much easier, as the weapon is easier and more fun to use than before.
• IMPs - Minor change; the shots now have some slight knockback. Not really noticeable until you get really close and start drilling enemies with dual IMPs; then they'll get pushed around a fair bit.
• Fusion Mortar - Formerly the EMP. The only actual change is that the damage type is changed to Fusion, which means organic enemies now take some damage from it. Its functionality hasn't actually changed much though; mechanical enemies take just as much damage as they used to, but now you can do some collateral damage to the Troopers that are standing by all those Hunters.
• N-Cannon - Formerly the Flamethrower. This is sort of a sidegrade; the weapon now behaves basically like a reloadable Alien Gun. It damages all units equally, but the shots are weaker and the weapon fires more slowly than the 1.2.0 Flamethrower. On the other hand, the second trigger fires on a wide spread, and you can use both triggers simultaneously. On the whole, it's just a more efficient and useful weapon than it used to be, especially considering how late in the game you get it.

Second: Pretty crappy color tables!



Ever since the original Phoenix release, Renegade troops have always differentiated themselves from Pfhor troops in terms of their Minor/Major ranks. Basically, "Minor" Renegade troops have always been a little quicker and more aggressive, whereas "Major" troops would be tougher and fight at longer range, and these ranks would not be adjusted by difficulty. In other words, they weren't really minor or major, just different. (Major troops performed more or less the same as standard Pfhor troops.) Anyway, 1.2.1 increases this difference a bit, and adds in new Renegade color tables to help them stand out. It also adds a little visual variance in the endless sea of gray monster blobs. As a standard rule, lighter colors are the speedy, aggressive types, and darker colors are the slower, more defensive types.

There are also some smaller changes. Lots of texture bugs, monster bugs, and other niggling issues have been resolved. Physics models have been more standardized, reducing the amount of pointless variations in monster behavior from level to level. (Most people probably never noticed them.) Some monsters have been buffed or nerfed; for example, Renegade fighters now attack in melee about twice as quickly; getting cornered by white Fighters is a very quick death indeed. Red Defenders have been weakened slightly, Renegade Juggernauts now fire their missiles with a little error, Blue Troopers won't use their machine guns from quite so far away, and so on. All of this pointless cruft can be seen in the Very Specific Changelog included with the download. Also, I think there are no longer any secrets you can screw yourself out of. There are no new levels or any really large changes to the existing levels, though.

TLDR -- Is it worth downloading and upgrading in the middle of a game? Not really. YES OF COURSE. But if you were planning on another playthrough, it is worth it -- for the Fusion Cannon upgrade alone, really.

[CryoS]

Nice to see you are stil lactively tweaking and updating Phoenix Ryoko, best of luck to ya.

[irons]

lactively tweaking and updating Phoenix

[attachment=5786:lactively.jpg]

[caffienemachine]

[attachment=5786:lactively.jpg]

I love you so much.

[geeksan]

Version 1.2.1 is now available!

TLDR -- Is it worth downloading and upgrading in the middle of a game? Not really. YES OF COURSE. But if you were planning on another playthrough, it is worth it -- for the Fusion Cannon upgrade alone, really.

Just finished all 140 skulls and the final terminal. Great job! I know I'm supposa put in some happy-sad putdown, but I really enjoyed the entire scenario. I picked up 1.2.1 in the middle at Sanctum, so I suppose I gotta re-run from Space Marine for best effect.

And I didn't even need cheats this time, so wooooot!

Thanks Ryoko and everyone who made Aleph One etc.

[Xap]

I'd like to thank you Alex for putting together such a long and fun scenario. I appreciate the long hours you put into it, they really show. I know the Marathon community has not grown much since its beginnings, but I think dedicated map makers like you are the glue that holds us together and keeps lurkers like me coming back and posting again. With scenarios like Phoenix, people have something to talk about again, for a while.

I'll post a little list of my favorite levels, for posterity (and if you're curious at all about user favorites).
Enchanting New Mexico - I enjoyed the throwback to What About Bob? as rising lava is a particular favorite mechanic of mine. This level was really fun on cooperative mode for some reason as well. My little sister said it was her favorite, though we only played the first 4 levels before stopping.
The Count of Tuscany - I balked at the increase of difficulty on this one, but it grew on me quickly. Great, unique setpieces, fun battles... just a really impressive level all around.
Pushing Onwards - It may seem weird that an exposition level was one of my favorites... I actually really liked figuring out the secret here. I was really proud to find the secret shot that unlocked the other half of the level.
Neo New Mordor - Great exploration and combat. The level was kind of brutal but that made it all the more endearing.
Something Wicked - This level is just gorgeous. Love the interior area with the Jjaro textures especially.
Into Sandy's City - I've previously mentioned this one as my favorite. I don't know if that still holds, but I still love this level for its compact size, underwater exploration, hilarious terminals, and seriously cool setting.
Dark Pfhorces - For some reason I particularly enjoyed the fights here. The juggers floating around the perimeter were a nice touch. I liked the temple setting a la Ex Cathedra too, it looks good.
Red Eye Express - Red is my favorite color, and this is the best looking phfor ship I've ever seen. I took many screenshots.
Roquefortress - I think this may be my new favorite. The level layout really seemed unique, and the battles were very exciting. It was pretty short and sweet.
Another Dimension - Just for that final battle. Myself fighting it must have been quite the spectacle. I lured all the defenders over to the save point in the second wave, effectively trapping myself, and somehow blew my way out with the fusion mortar. Amazing setup.

Thanks again for making this.

(moved from another thread)

[Eurysilas]

Yeah....You should probably fix this bullshit-

5 seconds to reproduce; all I did was click "alt-fire" (or, as I have it mapped, "mouse2").

[RyokoTK]

I can't believe I didn't notice that pressing alt-fire popped up a huge error message when I released this version two years ago.

(It looks like an error with some other kind of script you're running, because I've never seen that with Phoenix out of the box.)

[Eurysilas]

No scripts are being run, either scenario-specific or globally, when this error occurs. Unless you're trying to argue that scenario-specific scripts _in general_ cause this error, in which case I offer the rebuttal that this scenario isn't even in the Aleph One Hierarchy when this occurs (even if it were, flipping its shit over the mere _presence_ of other scripts elsewhere in the hierarchy would very definitely be a huge bug).

And simply pressing "alt-fire" does not appear to be the issue; rather, you have started the player out in a "no current weapons" stance (whatever the fuck it's called). Pressing alt-fire under those conditions (but _not_ fire!) triggers the bug. Swapping to any actual weapon first, even fists, allows the scenario to continue as normal. From what very little I have played, at any rate.

[Wrkncacnter]

Don't sink to his level and provide actual details. "Fix this bullshit" is all he should have needed to know.

[RyokoTK]

Very interesting.

Yes, starting the player in a Rebellion state, and pressing alt-fire, does generate the bug. Switching weapons to reveal your fists, and pressing alt-fire afterward, does not generate a bug. I don't know if this is new to a recent version of Aleph One or if it's been there the entire time, because neither I nor any of my testers tried to check it.

Thanks for (snidely) providing at least a little bit of detail because I literally did not know what you were trying to convey earlier.

[Eurysilas]

Very interesting.

Yes, starting the player in a Rebellion state, and pressing alt-fire, does generate the bug. Switching weapons to reveal your fists, and pressing alt-fire afterward, does not generate a bug. I don't know if this is new to a recent version of Aleph One or if it's been there the entire time, because neither I nor any of my testers tried to check it.

I'm not sure if I should be flattered I found a bug your bug-testers missed or alarmed that not one of them even _accidentally_ pressed alt-fire at the start of the scenario (just to...uh....fuck around, ya know.....Like I was doing ). Still, the least amount of work in implementing a solution would seem to lay in simply starting The Marine with a weapon (likely dual-fists) already in-hand, would it not?

Though, ignorant as I am of story concerns, perhaps I am very mistaken about this.

[RyokoTK]

Version 1.3 is now available on Simplici7y!

1.3 now incorporates extended AI limits (thus, it no longer requires the Previous AI plugin to function properly) and has a customized Stats plugin to upload Phoenix solo/coop stats to lhowon.org.

Also, new levels!

Over the last couple years I've been idly tooling with a "sequel" or spinoff to Phoenix, but done more in a Doom style -- specifically the Doom game The Plutonia Experiment, which focused on smaller levels and more tightly-designed combat setpieces and no objective other than to reach the exit. Well, I'm pretty much sick and tired of making Marathon maps, so I'm not going to finish it, but I do have the first six levels made, so I figured I'd bundle them in with 1.3 so they can be seen. They can be accessed from the secret exit from Swan Song, or just by using the level skip cheat.

1.3 also has new music harvested from incompetech.com, originally intended for use in the aforementioned spinoff project, but some levels have the new music in them.