Citadel - System Shock Fan Remake

[6741406f0737cKolya]

That's awesome and exactly the kind of shenanigans I'd expect from LG.

[6741406f07514ZylonBane]

Huh. I always thought the SHODAN face appearing was completely random.

May as well have been really, since you only notice it on screens you're close to anyway.

[6741406f076bbJosiahJack]

I had the same thought since I'm just randomizing my screens.  Maybe some areas were meant to be more open originally?  Makes me wonder what areas you would even be further than 5 grid spaces away and still be able to see static screens.

[6741406f07850Gawain]

That is very cool. Little details like this is what makes System Shock so interesting for me. There are quite a lot of subtle details that you are not aware when playing.
It really shows that the developers were making a game and not just completing task lists.

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=10010.0

[6741406f07955JosiahJack]

Hmmm..seriously considering doing the full automap as a transparent overlay that does NOT pause the game.

[6741406f07a76JosiahJack]

Automap is kind of....well....ridiculous.  Puts the nitty gritty back into pixel crunching.  I hope this doesn't run at 5fps when I test it after writing this massive pile of code.  *fingerscrossed* #codesmell

[6741406f07bb5JosiahJack]

Only this left: 4 sections of cyberspace, 4 cyberspace enemy setups, ice drill bullet reaction, the automap masking and drawing code, automap npc indicators, automap camera indicators, and one known bug.  That's it.

Back to normal work tomorrow....er later today I guess so slowing down to normal pace (covid quarantine's over and all was well).   Welp...it's after midnight here so this hacker's calling it for now.

SOOOO CLOSE!! 

[6741406f07ccahendra]

Oh boy I'm so exited. I follow this project since the beginning, when it was based on Darkplace if I'm not mistaken. It's amazing you're still doing it after all this years, and actually close to finishing it.

[6741406f07e70JML]

Happy to hear of all the progress! What's funny is that you say that the quarantine's over. We are about to have a second lock-down any time now here in Austria.

[6741406f08286JDoran]

JJ, really looking forward to it! It's been mostly a miserable year, so far, but the release of Citadel will be a high point for me, anyway.

Happy to hear of all the progress! What's funny is that you say that the quarantine's over. We are about to have a second lock-down any time now here in Austria.

And in the UK. And I don't want to brag or anything, but our (the British) government's incompetence is much bigger than your government's incompetence. If it wasn't for the USA and Trump (poor USA  ), then us Brits would be the world-leaders in mishandling the pandemic!

[6741406f08580JosiahJack]

Only have the automap to finish now as far as actual items to work on.  The rest is only bugfixing now.

I made it such that the mission timer on difficulty 3 changes depending on what part of the game you are at.  You only have so much time before the laser fires, then it resets when you destroy the laser and you only have so much time before the download is complete, then only so much time before the station is in range of earth for the bridge antenna relay to reach it (reason for self destruct), then only so much time until the bridge separates, then finally only so much time before the biotoxin is released.  This last one I made up...basically all other timer failures are gameover to menu but once you make it to the bridge SHODAN releases a biotoxin after the timer expires and all areas are contaminated plus harder to see.  If you have enough health items you might still be able to finish if you are fast.

I'm debating whether to tie cyberspace access on the bridge into the neural network of the elite guards requiring you to kill them before you can enter cyberspace.  It would hamper speedrunners, but would make more sense, at least on mission difficulties 2 and 3.

Edit: Note that the bridge's antenna doesnpt have enough power once the bridge is separated from the main reactor so that is why that timer can be reset for the next section.  I dunno, I'm trying to make the times make sense.

[6741406f086faJosiahJack]

I think I may have figured out a viable way to do the automap finally.
And then that's it.  Full test mode.  Alpha tests will go out.  Probably have a month or two of bugfixing, hopefully less.  Then full 1.00 release.  Would have loved to be able to do that tonight but life constraints and unexpected bugs were too much.  Probably have the automap finished up by Saturday.

[6741406f08b50ZylonBane]

This last one I made up...basically all other timer failures are gameover to menu but once you make it to the bridge SHODAN releases a biotoxin after the timer expires and all areas are contaminated plus harder to see.

Deadly biotoxin? Sounds a bit too GLaDOS.

[6741406f08c6dJosiahJack]

Oh and after the credits there will be cake.

Seriously though, what do you suggest is more fitting to SHODAN?  Maybe because of your proximity SHODAN hacks your interface and kills you after the time limit runs out?

[6741406f08da0ZylonBane]

Maybe just avoid the word "toxin" and stick with "bio contamination", which the game already uses elsewhere. This could be presented as the biological infestation on the bridge making the environment inhospitable to humans.

Or maybe have SHODAN vent radiation from her central chamber.

[6741406f08ed0JosiahJack]

Automap revealing effect done - way harder than it had any right to be.  Eventually figured out the right camera setup, shader code, and location conversion between 2D to 3D.  I had tried to do an alpha-based fog of war type effect but it had terrible performance compared to tiles.

What's left: add camera and npc indicators t automap, add a simplified biomonitor (Yes, not on previous list. I thought I'd done this already), fix 6 known bugs.

[6741406f09014JosiahJack]

Dang.  They reused frames for portions of the intro and outro videos.  Talk about optimization.  No wonder I've been fussing with the frame timer for an hour to try to align the sound.  Bug squashing.

Also, does anyone have the higher res MAC files for these videos?

EHhhhhhh, might just get them in video format by ripping them from youtube.  Not a fan of the idea.  There was a time I had considered redoing the videos from scratch by modeling and rendering them myself.  I know, I'm kind of crazy.

[6741406f09134JosiahJack]

Feature complete.  Only bugtesting.

Will send out closed test builds with all 3 Win, MAC, Linux tomorrow evening.  I want to polish up a few things first and double check for any gamebreakers tonight and part of tomorrow evening.

[6741406f094d1Kolya]

Also, does anyone have the higher res MAC files for these videos?

Have you tried searching the SS1 General board? Pretty sure they're there. I'm on mobile right now but might add the link later.

[6741406f095e8JosiahJack]

I think I might have found the right one, thanks!
EDIT: Nope, the zip I found had everything except for the intro, win1, and vmails.

[6741406f096ebJosiahJack]

Another testing session down.
Gamebreaking bugs found: 2
Major bugs: 1
Normal bugs: 1
Nitpicks: 98

Good thing most of these are like 10sec fixes lol.

[6741406f0981cJosiahJack]

Which is down now to 11 nitpicks and 2 bugs.  I'm leaving for vacation Wed so won't have much time until the cabin early next week for large uploads.  Lots of driving and sleeping, repeat. Trying my darndest to get any glaring bugs or gamebreakers fixed and sending the test builds out before I leave.

[6741406f09c05Kolya]

I think I might have found the right one, thanks!
EDIT: Nope, the zip I found had everything except for the intro, win1, and vmails.

Did you look into this?
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=30

[6741406f09d43JosiahJack]

No I had found a different incomplete package.  I'll check that one out later once I can extract the img file.