The Ascension Of Vigil

Post by **Tyne** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 2:58 am

Here's a project I'm currently developing! It's called "The Ascension Of Vigil" and is a 3D Side Scrolling Beat 'em Up / Platformer / Fighting game and is continuously in a work in progress until it's completed.

- Fully standalone, Quake is not required! This game extracts into it's own directory
- Fully graphical 2D menus
- An intelligent camera that tracks the action dynamically complete with zooming features and fun camera tricks
- Grab enemies up-close and beat them personally
- Slice enemies right in half with powerful attacks
- Smack your dead opponents around in mid-air
- RPG traits such as a leveling up / experience system
- Blocking & countering, block an enemy attack then deliver your own in return
- Combo Counter, the game tracks how many hits you've successfully performed in a row! battle for who can achieve the highest combo, or rack up even larger combos in multiplayer
- 4 Player Internet / LAN cooperative support
- Evasive maneuvers, double jumping in midair to avoid enemy attacks and recovering from a fall with a backflip
- A magic system rarely seen, featuring 5 devastating and useful spells and is similar to Guardian Heroes system for easy access and casting
- Air combos! A feature never done before in a Quake mod, and on ground combos are included as well .. they're flashy similar to XBox Ninja Gaiden
- 14 enemies, knights, dogs, barons, skeletons, horrors, gaunts, hell knights, arch ghouls, wraiths, electric squids, ghouls, ghosts, archers, gremlins, plus more enemies are being added constantly
- Screen filling special effects and supported transparencies
- A few levels to play around in, more are underway
- Has it's own unique gameplay; fast, skillful and furious
- Story is explained inside the game (leave the title screen waiting until the music is finished playing)
- Use the environment around you, grab ledges and hoist Vigil up similar to Prince of Persia or run along walls and more cool platforming tricks
- Completely redone hit detection system, the Quake engines wasn't good enough so a new one has been written with help from Sajt & LordHavoc using only QuakeC!
- Enemy AI has been written from scratch and they are very smart with support for different enemy behaviors; each enemy has their own strengths and weaknesses!
- Optimized loading times, each level only loads what's necessary cutting down load times

If there's any bugs you discover please post 'em on this forum and I'll fix it immediately; this also works on Dreamcast but I prefer to use the PC Quake engine "Darkplaces" due to it's sheer graphical quality, better sound and more features. - Dreamcast version is no longer available, only way this is coming out is if the mod is cut down substantially; which would happen AFTER the full game is released.

Be sure to open the README.TXT file as it contains information not mentioned here, mostly on how to properly control Vigil including all his special moves and more.

Overall, this is just a constantly improving game for you people to play with, in the end you can expect a game as crazy as Guardian Heroes for Saturn and as fun as any other new-age game while requiring skills for kicking butt! If you're starting out learning you can expect to lose pretty early until you figure out your enemy - it's simply defined as a show of skill, fast reflexes, and prediction on sight .. especially on hard mode.

Downloads:

[WARNING]: Delete older copies of TAoV if it exists instead of overwriting it!

Full Download: *WARNING: BETA VERSION* May contain oddities but nothing major, also includes development files.

http://rennyc.slipgateconstruct.com/TAoV/

(hint: this is where I always upload the latest build of this mod so check back from time to time for updated versions! *if* it's shown just above!)

Watch The Ascension of Vigil in Action

http://youtube.com/profile?user=RenegadeC

RenegadeC / Tyne Interviewed!

http://www.inside3d.com/showarticle.php?id=2

ajay() · Post by **ajay()** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 6:29 am

Very nice, how do you get the time?

I'll try it today.

Moi · Post by **Moi** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 8:12 am

d'loading....
is this the Golden Axe mod you could not get to work with QuakeDC some months ago ?

zero · Post by **zero** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 9:34 am

Wow, looks great.

Post by **Tyne** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 11:05 am

Moi wrote:d'loading....
is this the Golden Axe mod you could not get to work with QuakeDC some months ago ?

It should run on RADQuake, I'm pretty sure QuakeDC messes with the player skin like it does to certain mods such as AirQuake.

Post by **Tyne** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 11:58 am

Fixed the mods name and cleaned up this topic, I also uploaded a newer version with some tweaks and minor bug fixes..

Imerion · Post by **Imerion** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 2:24 pm

Weyhey! Thats neat! I thought I had seen everything when I saw QuakeRally but it seems this engine can be used for everything

Zealous zerotype · Post by **Zealous zerotype** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 7:22 pm

Man that is insane looking
/me drops jaw.

DCmad · Post by **DCmad** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 8:30 pm

Hey tyne, it's smelling sooooooooooo nice eh
please, give it your pro's touch after evenom's completion. it's a way too good idea!
and by what i saw (played only a little) the jump system needs more tweaks, it's hard to platform jump when you can't do a diagonal jump if you're stoped.
the combo is a great thing, i love it.
do you plan to add new weapons and powerups scatered over the stage?
and the magics, think in a rpg style of evolve it, with the cost of MPs to cast them...

sorry if i seem sort of demanding, i really liked your surprise

nice one!

Post by **Tyne** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 9:22 pm

DCMad,

I don't fully understand what you mean.. you want more air control during jumping?

MP will be used, however attacking enemies with melee attacks with your sword and combos will increase your MP! You will start off with every spell available to Vigil at the beginning of the game, however the magic can most likely be upgraded - I'm also thinking of adding an experience and leveling up system. Enemies will also be leveled up as the game continues on!

I'm still adding more air combos.

Alexvrb · Post by **Alexvrb** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 9:38 pm

I think he's planning magic like Golden Axe if there's only a "magic button" and not like a spell list. But I could be wrong. Anyway, looks pretty damn cool.

Post by **Tyne** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 10:32 pm

You'll be able to scroll through different spells and cast them.
Spells will be useful and they'll usually take up the screen and I plan to throw a bunch of flashy effects at once on the screen.. It'll be quite the sight.

DCmad · Post by **DCmad** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 10:43 pm

Tyne wrote:I don't fully understand what you mean.. you want more air control during jumping?

Sorry for not being so clear.
What i say is that you haven't enough air control, like steer vigil in mid air. If you are standing still, you can only jump straigh up, not forward/backwards, and for a diagonal jump forwards, you need to walk first. Understand what mean?
I know it's only a early preview you gave us, but you asked for bug reports, so here i am

-Aside of the jump thing, you can not move in diagonals, only in four way.
-Without a shadow under the vigil's feets, is way too hard to position for a atack, vertically, you have no sense of depth.
-If you are too near a enemy, you cannot hit it, the colision detection seems to be weird.
-Don't know if it is a bug worth of mention in this stage, but only the 2 first soldiers atacked me before entering the cave, and a dog after it. All the others were frozen like training dolls.

Put more fluidity in the jumps and movements and it will rock

NPCs and cities would leave it really RPGistic.
More weapons and exclusive combos to them. Double knives, axe, spear and some sort of bowgun... Nah, i'm demmanding so mutch

Worth of mention is the musics, i loved the choice. Very apropriate.
And for the magic system, now i realize it's more like golden axe. I thought it could be a rpg way of beat'em up. maybe you can have a type of inventory to stock accessories, weapons, magic itens (is it you plan?) and itens (exchange sequences?). Fragger can help you in a menu style of thing i think.

But still is a great thing you are doing, now i'm waiting for 3 mods to come in full bright form: Codename: Evenom, Lunkin's Journey and Ascension of Vigil besides the ultimate thing nxquake

EDIT: i was playing while posting and don't saw your last post

Hooka · Post by **Hooka** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:29 am

Works on gpQuake also but title screen pallette is kinda messed and freezes after 1st level, but a very cool idea!

Post by **Tyne** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 7:54 am

DCmad wrote:What i say is that you haven't enough air control, like steer vigil in mid air.

I'll work on that today, I'll give some mid air control but not too much.

If you are standing still, you can only jump straight up, not forward/backwards, and for a diagonal jump forwards, you need to walk first. Understand what mean?

Got it.

I know it's only a early preview you gave us, but you asked for bug reports, so here i am ;)
-Aside of the jump thing, you can not move in diagonals, only in four way.

4 Way movement is normal for a beat 'em up, you can move right, left, move back and move forward and combine any of these movements together. The movement code when you're on the ground seems fine to me.

-Without a shadow under the vigil's feets, is way too hard to position for a atack, vertically, you have no sense of depth.

I'll try adding a shadow sprite under your feet, I'm not sure how well I can do this though - I tried it once before and I got some weird results but I'll give it another shot.

-If you are too near a enemy, you cannot hit it, the colision detection seems to be weird.

The way it's setup is you cannot hit an enemy if you're inside of it, ofcourse I can change this. It's very hard to do the collision detection of attacks simply because I cannot see the collision radius's being outputted on the screen so it's mostly trial and error guessing. I've talked to LordHavoc though and got an idea as how to check the radius on an attack. (It involves new engine features however such as .scale which simply stretches models/sprites.)

-Don't know if it is a bug worth of mention in this stage, but only the 2 first soldiers atacked me before entering the cave, and a dog after it. All the others were frozen like training dolls.

Hmm, the enemies should not be frozen at all. I've never had this problem except for one time when I spun attack out of being hit, I'll check into their AI though. I'll also add "developer 1" mode so it outputs information to the screen. Thanks.

I'm also gonna add a training mode level where you can simply knock around a dummy training enemy, it'll be good to practice combos and test things out.

Put more fluidity in the jumps and movements and it will rock :)
NPCs and cities would leave it really RPGistic.
More weapons and exclusive combos to them. Double knives, axe, spear and some sort of bowgun... Nah, i'm demmanding so mutch ;)

The games story line is all about the Vol'Brand sword so other weapons are possible but I doubt I'll be adding 'em, it also means that I'd have twice as much work just for adding new weapons since it requires:

A) New animations on Vigil, this takes long to do.. I love animating but at times it can be hard.
B) A decent weapon model that I'd either have to wait for Chillo to make, or finding one from a mod.
C) 2D Sprites, and programming the actual weapons - this is the hardest to do

I do plan some RPG elements though such as leveling up which will increase attack power, health and mana.

Worth of mention is the musics, i loved the choice. Very apropriate. And for the magic system, now i realize it's more like golden axe.

Thanks, the music is from "Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara" - I ripped the music from the Sega Saturn version of the game (which is the exact same as the arcade version). The introduction level music I think is from Breath of Fire 2 - I may have to replace the music as to avoid copyright violations and such.

I thought it could be a rpg way of beat'em up. maybe you can have a type of inventory to stock accessories, weapons, magic itens (is it you plan?) and itens (exchange sequences?). Fragger can help you in a menu style of thing i think.

I doubt I'll have a menu system with an inventory, if I do though that means I've managed to gather more time to work on the mod, I'm
already pretty busy with college and finding a job. :P

But still is a great thing you are doing, now i'm waiting for 3 mods to come in full bright form: Codename: Evenom, Lunkin's Journey and Ascension of Vigil besides the ultimate thing nxquake :D

Thanks and I assure you they'll all be great.

EDIT: i was playing while posting and don't saw your last post ;)

That's okay, remember that I'll keep posting updates version of this mod at the same URL location - I've already noticed a bug when you're dead that you can move your dead body around (oops!).

Post by **Tyne** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 7:58 am

Hooka wrote:Works on gpQuake also but title screen pallette is kinda messed and freezes after 1st level, but a very cool idea!

GpQuake? Never heard of it... is it for the GP32 handheld? Well map01.bsp is only a temporary level and will be completely replaced by map01ad (or was it map01ae?) which a mapper called "RPG" is working on (he's helping a lot with the mod, it's a very nice team effort) - try that map instead even if it's mostly incomplete it still looks better then my map.

It also freezes because there is no map02 as of now, I only added the code to end the level but since there is no actual map02 it just fails and freezes.

Anyone tried it on Dreamcast yet?

DCmad · Post by **DCmad** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 12:46 pm

hey tyne, i understand your effort with this, it's way too good the way you are planning it. thanks for your repply.
ops, i've jjust saw the moving corpse bug you mentioned, weird indeed

DCmad · Post by **DCmad** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 12:45 am

hey tyne, i could not see the "moving corpse" bug anymore. but i've still got the enemies frozen in his places togheter with this message
so i think is it what you are wondering.
also i've noticed (in the first demo, but forgot to mention) that the colision detection is really weird, see how i can move into the platform
maybe quake itself doesn't handle it well...

hey! that map01ae.bsp is looking really good, the woods in the background and the dark atmosphere is fantastic.
i also liked the way enemies now move in the stage, the dogs going far in the beggining of map01ae make them harder enemies.
and yes, the combos are great!

it still misses a kind of shadow, for situation while fighting. and i think it lacks depth in the atacks, like the hits 1 and 2 of the Vigil's Slice Special, they don't hit in the vigil's sides. i got your point with the detection, would be good to have a sort of BBOX (like that on BoR, but 3d in this), but it is a engine thing i think quake doesn't have, and would be way too time consuming to do.

[noob questions]
how can i make it in a pak2.pak? i tried to create a new pak on pakexplorer and copy the Medieval tree inside it, but the sound\player\superstart.wav isn't in 8.3 format and couldn't go inside it. can i rename it and change the references to it? in wich file?
[/noob questions]

a great mod you are doing, good at the best

EDIT: hey, you implemented 8 way movement. it's great man \o/ now you know how to fix the jumping too?

EDIT2: transformed the imgs in links

Post by **Tyne** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 1:09 am

A problem with the collision detection is that you're gonna have to use darkplaces for the time being. Darkplaces handles findradius(); differently from regular quake's and I set up all the radius hit detection values up for darkplaces - I can easily fix this however so it'll work in winquake (I plan to do this too). I only learned about this tonight so now I have to go back and fix it.

By the way, there's now shadows in the latest version, and I fixed
that bug you're showing there in the screenshots, grab the latest.
I'll fix jumping tomorrow!

Forgot to mention: being able to move into that platform is completely intentional, it's called a "jump block" entity and is only solid if you're
above it. Just like 2D platformer games you can jump through it and on top of it - quite a new thing for quake too.

Update:
DCMad's request has been filled and there is now air control, I also modified Vigil's Uppercut Slice and now it moves forward slightly making it easier to use and shadows now flicker at high speed to fake transparency even more (also capcom 2D games did this too, so it's kinda traditional)
Tomorrow I'll make the collision detection for WinQuake!

leileilol · Post by **leileilol** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 9:17 pm

Some odd bug, after fighting for awhile, the knights and dogs further ahead totally deny my presence, they don't even believe i've hit them with my big sword or so.