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Project Xenome : Interloper

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User avatar Diego96
Skaarj Lord Skaarj Lord
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 23 Jul 2017, 23:00

I must be dreaming, dear god.
Time to finish the First Day, though.
M'nali

User avatar salsaSkaarj
Gilded Claw Gilded Claw
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 25 Jul 2017, 21:04

Had a marathon session yesterday and just now finished 4 hours of Interloping. Savegame in ONP-map21NestX.unr.

I am very very very glad that I'm playing on Medium. A first playthrough on Hard would prove that I am very rusty at playing (or just plain bad at Unrealstuff). Seriously ... the architecture, layouts and views are so good that I keep forgetting that there are enemies around (and quite a few times in surprising (not unfair) positions). So damn good that after finishing a level I restart it and ghost all around just for sightseeing (especially the mountanous areas - and the skybox ... wow). First Day had some areas which made me stand still in awe but Interloper beats even that.

I feel there's more variation in the type of fight than in Xenome which is a good thing, but (especially in map21) the big Skaarj cost a lot of ammo and I'm constantly having to save flak, rocket and blades for the surprise and close encounters. In this respect it's a lot harder than Xenome.

The puzzles ... amazing!!! Some might find it predictable: look for pipes and stuff to move from one elevation to another ... but the solution has to be found and it's not always so simple. First Day was really good in this aspect but Interloper beats it hands down. And yeah, in Cobalt I knew what was necessary in order to finish the level but didn't manage to find the way to get there and had to consult the local specialist (thx UB :) but damn it I gave up much too soon. The hint was there, I just didn't pay enough attention. It's only in map21 (my savegame) that I'm completely clueless (for now) on how to progress.

I can understand why UB shows so much praise for Interloper, and yes I agree that currently it could well be the best mappack around.

And damn it, all credits to jazzyB - how on earth do you come up with those ideas and then design it and playtest!! (the vertical mountain with the ice ledges - it's pure genius on how you constructed that and made that inchperfect :tup:

User avatar jazz
Skaarj Assassin Skaarj Assassin
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 25 Jul 2017, 23:01

Thx Salsa.

I was a designer for the oil/gas industry for 12 years (until laid off after it went south!).
So I specialised in solidworks and CAD for pipework,drums,vessels and entire units on a refinery. My design ethos echoed this philosophy; however, i may have gone a bit too far in some respects because as you say, it came predictable.
As far as mapping goes the 'Nest' map was a great achievement for me but at the same time, I screwed up:
If you look at the map in the editor there is a looping effect at the last third where a few pupae are located. It loops back towards that large shield where there is seemingly no way around it.
I meant to extend this loop allowing the player to simply bypass the shield simply by walking through a door at the far end where the big machine is...But!....I ran out of room!
I'd honestly put too much effort into making the map that I ran out of physical space to do anything about it! Call it lazy mapping if you will.

The solution is simple once you know it, as UB mentioned, it is (surprise!) a vent!

► Show Spoiler


The idea for the snow mountain area with the skybox I got from watching a bond movie :lol:
OHMSS to be exact!!!!!!

The rest of the ideas were literally out of the blue, but I did want to change things from first day which was a single theme. I wanted to bring in as many differing locales as I could without breaking the overall flow of the mod.

I think the worst of the bunch was 'Welcome to site B'. I made this map at the same time as my father passing away and losing my job! It was also about this time I contracted a rare blood disorder. As you can imagine I have bad memories with that level and I think it showed. :cry:
It was literally three whole years after this that I opened the editor once again.

User avatar StalwartUK
Skaarj Berserker Skaarj Berserker
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 26 Jul 2017, 03:06

Completed it the other day. Had a blast. It's remarkable that we still get releases like this after all this time.

No major complaints. A few minor things here and there. Some translator messages could with fixing up, for instance.

Can't wait to see part 3 and the end of this saga. :tup:
StalwartUK

User avatar Lightning Hunter
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 26 Jul 2017, 08:47

I am definitely growing more and more excited to play this. I am ashamed to say that I have not played "First Day" all the way through, because I was always kind of waiting for all 3 parts of Xenome to be released (I always wanted to play it as a big mega pack). However, after seeing the compliments about this, I think it might be time that I play through part 1 and 2!

Do you have anything complete with part 3 so far? How many maps do you think will be in part 3? I can't wait to see the whole pack completely done someday!
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User avatar editor Dave
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 26 Jul 2017, 09:33

jazz wrote:I think the worst of the bunch was 'Welcome to site B'. I made this map at the same time as my father passing away and losing my job! It was also about this time I contracted a rare blood disorder. As you can imagine I have bad memories with that level and I think it showed. :cry:
It was literally three whole years after this that I opened the editor once again.

Was that the reason the map ended the way it did or did you have plans for that in mind before your loss? If it is the first, I generally find it mind blowing if authors hide some autobiographic stuff in a seemingly fictional scenario to maybe kind of deal with the issues as do I "break the 4th wall" in a similar fashion in my campaign to come. As long as you as a player wouldnt know, you also wouldnt notice it as it is tied to the story. But if you do know, it is kind of rewarding or giving the scene a new, interesting perspective. Anyway, I am glad you survived all this! And personally, I loved both ice exterior maps. ;)
Prisons of the Unforchers Retold - more info: https://www.unrealsp.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4565

User avatar jazz
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 26 Jul 2017, 13:29

Lightning Hunter wrote:Do you have anything complete with part 3 so far? How many maps do you think will be in part 3? I can't wait to see the whole pack completely done someday!


I'm beginning construction today as I type these words, so! ... Off we go again!

I'm definitely leaning towards less than 10 maps, just to end the saga. It will center around the relationship of the green Skaarj,the player and Liandri corp and why Liandri bought out 'Cobalt inc' in the first place.
The origins of the green Skaarj will be directly linked to the player in a subtle but profound way.
The large Skaarj facility will also be explained as to why it was constructed and it's main purpose.

In Interloper you can almost construct the story by what the Nali have mentioned in their ancient ruins, and why the Nali call the protagonist in a certain way.

editor Dave wrote:Was that the reason the map ended the way it did or did you have plans for that in mind before your loss? If it is the first, I generally find it mind blowing if authors hide some autobiographic stuff in a seemingly fictional scenario to maybe kind of deal with the issues as do I "break the 4th wall" in a similar fashion in my campaign to come. As long as you as a player wouldnt know, you also wouldnt notice it as it is tied to the story. But if you do know, it is kind of rewarding or giving the scene a new, interesting perspective. Anyway, I am glad you survived all this! And personally, I loved both ice exterior maps. ;)


I was'nt conciously aware of anything at the time but I do remember thinking 'I've had it with this shit!' It was a distinct lack of interest at that point about half way through the map. The large terrain brush that incorporates the small Nali settlement was a half assed job imo, with nothing to shout home about.

► Show Spoiler

User avatar salsaSkaarj
Gilded Claw Gilded Claw
Posts: 1862
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 26 Jul 2017, 16:29

jazz wrote:...
The solution is simple once you know it, as UB mentioned, it is (surprise!) a vent!

I was fairly sure that it had to be a vent since I had pressed each button and screen about 20 times already. But I haven't found the vent yet (and I'm not giving up yet so I'm not looking at the spoilers).
BTW it took me quite some time to before I saw a vent up high (reachable only from a bridge/platform-like structure). That was a temporary slowdown - and I even had a thought (after finding the solution) that this waaay a bit too much. BUT!!!, no way this is too much, it's actually another masterpiece, totally unexpected in that location, proving just how important it is to look aound very attentively.

This may come as a surprise ... but I've seen worse maps (and mappacks) :wink:
I certainly hope you find the energy and inspiration to work on Part 3. (I can see UB nodding in approval in the background 8) )

I'm hoping to finish my first run-through of Interloper soon (I'm giving up a few hours af sleep tonight to finish what's left of map21) so that I can start all over again -taking notes this time (I found one area where a player can get in but not get out (a level with an ancient structure and water - easily fixed I think) and a slight HOM (forgot where and it wouldn't surprise me if tryng to get rid of it could cause other problems).

As to the Nali village - yes it's uncharacterically devoid of areas to explore, but the whole of Interloper is so full of magnificent areas that a calm interloper, euh interlude :wink: does no harm.

User avatar salsaSkaarj
Gilded Claw Gilded Claw
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 26 Jul 2017, 22:53

Good news and bad news.
Finished map 21 (Nested) without too many problems. And yeah, I had found the entrance to that vent before, went through it once but apparently missed something. Went on to the next map (Critical Transfer) and noticed that the 2 areas which have to be reached over a long fluorescent bridge had Skaarj guarding the switch panels. Funny, cause in a previous map where those areas can be seen, I had already killed those Skaarj (nice way to increase my killcount 8) ).

Anyway, back on topic. I have a savegame at the start of Critical, beat the map with relative ease and went on to the next map (Powerplay). Took a savegame at the start.
After about half an hour (without much progress) decided to call it a day and wanted to take an extra savegame but the option to save a game was blanked out. No problem I thought.
Just now decided to extend my day with one hour of playing ... but ... the Powerplay savegame (at the start of the map) is a black screen, and so is the savegame of Critical, and all the others (15 in total).
I can start Powerplay with open map, and thank god the weapons are there, unfortunately with very little ammo - I'll probably cheat by summoning the weapons for some extra ammo.

Anyway - this is probably not Xenome-related at all (I've had this problem before - I think it had something to do with the Chaos mutator (which is not installled).
Anyone with ideas on how to recuperate the savegames, if possible? (BTW when I start ONP I can save a game and that savegame can be opened normally).

User avatar Lightning Hunter
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 27 Jul 2017, 00:57

Salsa, try opening UnrealTournament.ini and search for "SavePath" under [Core.System]. It should say "SavePath=..\Save". I remember one time a mutator I had installed had changed this to /Save instead of \save, and this messed everything up. Correct the slash if it isn't already correct.

If this doesn't work, it could be that you have reached the 50-limit max that OldSkool has as far as installed mappacks are concerned. I have this fixed with my own version of Olskool, but the default version has this limit. This will prevent savegames from working after a while. Try uninstalling some mappacks if you have 50 of them installed.
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User avatar salsaSkaarj
Gilded Claw Gilded Claw
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 27 Jul 2017, 17:52

Savepath was correct.
The strange thing is there are 15 savegames in the directory, but I also have ONP, 7B, and Xidia installed, and there are separate headings for those savegames (± another 25) yet I can't find those savegames anywhere (searched for *usa).

I'm not going to waste more time with that and just replace the current UT installment with a new one (and I'll transfer the savegames one by one to see it that works). If it doesn't work I'll just restart from Powerplay.
I'm just irritated that this crops up when I'm nearing the end of Interloper (I'm so curious about the final level!!)

User avatar jazz
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 27 Jul 2017, 22:11

I did a few hours mapping for no.3 last night, the level is WIP but it's a medium Nali village that will play a prominent part of the story.
Lighting needs tweaking and it's only about a quarter complete plus i'm not happy about the music choice so that will have to go.
The geometry is quite basic in contrast to interloper (so far) but it certainly wont be a simple map by any means as there will be things to acheive for the player to progress.



I think i'll go for another mish mash of interlinked levels (Which includes UBs fave 'industrial).
I don't yet know how many levels there will be as i'm still rocking a few ideas.
I'm thinking of opening a new thread in the WIP section to keep everyone abreast of progression.

User avatar Lightning Hunter
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 27 Jul 2017, 23:06

Looks awesome, Jazz! I am sure this will be the best pack ever made for Unreal. :)

Just a request: I don't know if there are any Skaarj base themed levels or not (skaarj.utx), but if not, that is my all-time favorite theme! Of course, if you have other ideas already in mind, I will not complain if there are no Skaarj-themed levels. :)
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User avatar jazz
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 27 Jul 2017, 23:16

There were six Skaarj levels in Interloper, They do use Skaarj.utx but only sparingly.
The main texture pack I meshed together is in 'x-pak6' which itself was taken from ONP if I remember correctly.
This next pack 'Aftermath' may include only one Skaarj level but that is only an estimate for the time being.

UB_
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Subject: Re: Project Xenome : Interloper

Post Posted: 27 Jul 2017, 23:32

European-looking village FeelsGoodMan

Lightning Hunter wrote:Just a request: I don't know if there are any Skaarj base themed levels or not (skaarj.utx), but if not, that is my all-time favorite theme! Of course, if you have other ideas already in mind, I will not complain if there are no Skaarj-themed levels. :)


you're in for a treat in Interloper
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