Citadel - System Shock Fan Remake

[674537f261edeJosiahJack]

Also the past few months have been kind of a whirlwind.  New car, sold old car, phone going out, computer wasn't working for a week, taxes, kids' birthday party (3 and 2 now, that was quick!) with people staying over, training new people at work, working late to meet some deadlines, and found out my wife is pregnant due in Sept.

[674537f262256JosiahJack]

Well, I remember a release deadline given...8 years ago haha. Most likely just a gross overestimation on JJ's part....

Scope creep as a result of having a new engine to support the full vision that was the result of changing to Unity due to gamebreaking engine physics bugs in DarkPlaces, then wrestling engine physics bugs that Unity has, even still to this day.

[674537f262693Xkilljoy98]

JosiahJackI do want to ask something, is there are more up to date version that we can play, as what I download at github is very incomplete when compared to screenshots and video so I assume it hasn't been released yet or I am downloading the wrong version.

[674537f262869JosiahJack]

Yeah that's a bit behind.  I forget the last time I had CI do a build.  The current bugs are rather bad so I haven't had the heart to have it run new builds yet.  I should probably just have the builds run automatically now.  That said, there may still be some issues with the docker image I'm using.  Need to do a more recent comparison between what I build locally and what the remote runner builds.  Last time I checked it was matching and looked ok, but that was back in November.  I went ahead and triggered another build.  Getting all the right dependencies in order can be a pain, but the hope behind it is to have the system run builds so I can keep fixing stuff.  Link to the action that's building it: https://github.com/JosiahJack/Citadel/actions/runs/4380028010

[674537f262b68Xkilljoy98]

JosiahJackSo when I try to download what is at https://github.com/JosiahJack/Citadel

I get this: (see picture)

Is it supposed to look like that?, cause I try and download it every so often and it always looks like that

[674537f262d2eJosiahJack]

No, that's not right.  What's your GPU and driver version?  I think what you are seeing might be a result of running on older fallback graphics API or older hardware that doesn't support texture arrays.  Do you have Vulkan, Direct3D 11+, or OpenGL 3.0 support or higher?  Also, what's your video card's memory?  Is it at least 1GB?  It could very well be that my fallbacks in my shaders aren't set up properly to have low-end (aka pre 2009 ish) hardware support, or that falling back doesn't occure when necessary for low memory cards.

Could also be that my runner doesn't have that graphics support or isn't including it due to some other issue with the dockerimage I'm using.  I'll provide a local build that I know looks fine for me and see if that makes a difference

[674537f2630a0Xkilljoy98]

No, that's not right.  What's your GPU and driver version?  I think what you are seeing might be a result of running on older fallback graphics API or older hardware that doesn't support texture arrays.  Do you have Vulkan, Direct3D 11+, or OpenGL 3.0 support or higher?  Also, what's your video card's memory?  Is it at least 1GB?  It could very well be that my fallbacks in my shaders aren't set up properly to have low-end (aka pre 2009 ish) hardware support, or that falling back doesn't occure when necessary for low memory cards.

Could also be that my runner doesn't have that graphics support or isn't including it due to some other issue with the dockerimage I'm using.  I'll provide a local build that I know looks fine for me and see if that makes a difference

I didn't think graphics was an issue, my pc is a few years old but it still runs most games ok. I am in need of a new one sometime soon, but given the look of the game I figured I could run it fine

All I did was download what was on github and opened it in unity and that is what I got

[674537f2631d6JosiahJack]

Thanks, your probably fine.  That should run it no problem.  It's likely a build error.  Unless for some reason it is trying to run off the intel 530.

[674537f263460Xkilljoy98]

Thanks, your probably fine.  That should run it no problem.  It's likely a build error.  Unless for some reason it is trying to run off the intel 530.

Ok, all I am doing is downloading the build that is on github, and for some reason it seems to lack assets

[674537f263686sgupta]

Hey there, 

Very cool project.  I wanted to give this a shot but for some reason, when I start it up, it finds the music and such fine, menus work fine, etc.  But when i start the game, aside from the HUD/Hacker interface which appears all there, everything is black, like there's no lighting.  The only things I can see are the words "Neurosurgery" on the would-be-wall and the data pads that have the hacker info about the surgery on them.  I can move around in relation to those object, so it's working - there's just no lighting.  Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?  Thanks.

[674537f263a04sverXRazum]

sgupta
I also have the same problem. Turns out prefabs missed all meshes because... they all gone for some reason? All I know that if you try replace meshes by hand in the editor it only allow you to pick out of default rocks and stones (⛏). I tried "reimport all" button, reopening project, redownloading and reexctractng project (with 7z), redownloading and reinstaling unity but none of these worked. I assume it's compability issue or something, though can't say from where it goes, the project itself or just unity being unity.

[674537f263b1cJosiahJack]

You need blender installed to import all the .blend files. (And on the system PATH)

[674537f263c13JosiahJack]

Uploading a build now...

[674537f263da1JosiahJack]

Citadel Beta v0.99.0 (increasing chances of these crashing and burning by versioning them haha)
Linux 64bit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ckcMXYAOOsyGIc68Ge3YxA6lSMaa3707/view?usp=drivesdk

Windows 64bit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cZOXMEUQsJ-PAjU9IJh0Zsp-M1zsVFOm/view?usp=drivesdk

Let me know how these work out.  Min specs:
3gb RAM, 512mb VRAM, support for at least DirectX 12, or at least OpenGL3.0, or Vulkan. Win7 or newer, Tested on Ubuntu 20.04.

Keep expectations low at this point, but any testing is appreciated.

[674537f264156Berathraben]

@JosiahJack

Thanks for uploading a new build. I just tested out a bit of it.

I might be blind but I dont see a toggle option anywhere for the full HUD. So, it is probably not in the game yet?
The mini map defaults to the right side even when I select for it to be on the left. I do not see a way to play or view the audio log text. The toggles do not seem to be there. Addendum: I figured out why the audio logs would not play. The audio log interface augment was not in the brief case the first time around. Just the log. But in the second try it was there. So, hopefully just a one off bug and not some illusive transient one that is hard to duplicate.
 I also got caught on the medical cyber space geometry when going through the opening of the second tunnel. After a while I managed to get through.

Performance and movement is much better than before. It feels nice to play. Turning on shadows still caused some slowdown though. So, I left it off. Cyber Space looks really damn good and plays a lot better except for that one tunnel issue.

I did try to record the game with the windows built in software but it only exited out of the game and then my desktop froze completely and I had to do a hard shutdown. Checked my GPU log files and Citadel crashed my gpu driver when I tried to record the game.

Over all the game is coming along nicely and has improved since the last time.

Further addendum. As soon as I picked up the sense around I notice that all these red dots appeared on the mini map. And there were a lot of them.  Usually this would indicate areas of importance. IE: cameras or enemies. But none of the red dots point to anything. The locations I went to do not have any thing there.

There are also two ramps that the player has collision with when moving up them. One in the cryo suit going up to the charge station. As soon as you get to the top the player cannot continue unless you jump.
The other is near the bay door to the elevator when you go right and to the spot under the floor. When you climb back up the ramp the player moves really slowly and the same thing happens at the top near the door. You get stuck .

Named save files also turn blank when you go back to load them when in game. And when you go to load them from the menu they are not blank but give a Null reference in a developer console notification.

That is all I have played so far. If I find anything more I will post about it here.

[674537f26425esgupta]

This build worked great - thanks!  Quite awesome!

[674537f264685sverXRazum]

So. I played Citadel.

Firstly, I want to talk about bugs. There are many things broken but not really critical. Although I write this after I got a crash after I entered radiactive zone with envirosuit equiped, only saw something about envirosuit working and instantly got onto main menu. As @Berathraben mentioned save files doesn't work properly, so I played until level 5 in one session (kind of).

Not going to turn this into a bug report but... a lot of Hardwares just don't work. Like ones that I managed to pick up are System Analyzer, Target Identifier, Enviromental Protection Suit (as said before) and Turbo Motion Booster System, which kind of work by adding some inertia but nothing more. Tranq darts with Stungun also don't work but I guess nobody cares about them. Energy/Projectile Shield is... strange but I talk about it later.

Now about things that are broken (oh boy, there are a lot). I played on default difficulty because game doesn't care about HARD(3) but care about NONE(0) for some reason. Cyborg Drones act fine until they take damage after which they juxt freeze indefinitely. Some floor hitboxes are a bit raised while they aren't. There some holes in the levels with the one where you can fall down through on level 4 (I suppose, didn't checked).Text often doesn't match with the item you pick up. Enemy corpses sometimes fall through the floor which is good because some enemies have a large corpse hitbox (or they just doesn't remove from living one). Middle part of the UI starts rappidly flashing which disable your weapon fuctionality (LMB don't work).

Of course there is more bugs but... no. Besides the last one (and a crash) none of them actually were really bothering. But I have 2 more things worth mentioning.
1. Energy consumpsion.
I'm ok with unability to pick desired energy setting because I will still be using highest one and overload is still avaliable. But energy consumption on Hardware Attachments is just too much. I don't know if it's suppose to be like that but 50 JPM on BioMonitor makes it look ridiculous. Also Energy Shield now works passively and takes up energy only when you get hit and again... consuming half out of full energy bar from one hit is more painful then just taking this hit without shield.
2. Repulsion Lifts.
I'm also ok with them but only if you stand still. The amount of uncontrollable inertia just makes every use of them frusrating. Especially if you going to jump from them like at level 4. Where I just "spiderman'ed" up walls. (Also did this at "Nice Jump" section because Turbo doesn't work) Overall, they just feel slow and unreliable.

BUT. Even with all of mentioned (and unmentioned) above I really enjoyed playing Citadel. I feels like it could be a superior verison of the original making it more accessible for people who couldn't get used to Enhanced Edition while desire to expirience it before the official remake. Controls are responsive and easy to use, item physics and overall amount of new enviromental details makes it better version of the same game. I'm not sure if I could help you but I sure wish you strength and time to finish this project. I will try to beat this version on these days and maybe will write something new.

[674537f26497eJosiahJack]

Official dicial mirror for those who haven't downloaded it yet: https://github.com/JosiahJack/Citadel/releases/tag/v0.99

I've already fixed a few bugs but will take me a bit to get the next version up.  This one is the same as the google drive version linked a few posts back.  Apparently there are some saving bugs that occur partway through the game so anyone who has saves that fail, please share.  Also if you can provide the Player.log file that would be helpful.  It's generally in the (annoyingly) hidden folder "C:/Users/<username>/AppData/LocalLow/Trioptimum Corporation/Citadel"
I'll probably add a thing that copies this log to the Citadel_v##_Data/StreamingAssets folder where the saves and config is stored.

I have it such that if you delete your config or other files in that directory, they recover themselves automatically. Would like for someone to test that functionality for me if you get the chance, but make a backup first.  Trust but verify

[674537f264da5ZylonBane]

/Trioptimum Corporation/

This unnecessarily-long folder name with a space in it surely won't cause any problems ever.

[674537f26507aRobonos]

JosiahJack
Hey i just came to see your project once again after years of getting excited of those early builds, it was a nice surprise to see you are still working on it, hope every works out for you and your dedication is impressive

[674537f265193Xkilljoy98]

I also noticed that some of the difficulty options don't seem to work, I tried to use 0/0/0/0 to explore the levels but it didn't work

[674537f26530eJosiahJack]

Ok.  For now to recreate 0/0/0/0, you can use the following cheat codes:
notarget       (enemies can't see you)
god                (can't be hurt)(optional)
iamshodan   (nothing will be locked or blocked)

 Cheat codes are entered by hitting `  tilde key to bring up console and enter a single command, press enter, text in the center will say the result, successful or otherwise.

There's also 'load #' and 'loadarsenal #' cheats to put you on particular levels and dump a pile of what you would likely have acquired by that point at your feet. Eg. 'load 6' replacing # with the level you want, 1 thru 9, or r for reactor or g1, g2, etc. for groves.

[674537f265bb0JosiahJack]

...I got a crash after I entered radiactive zone with envirosuit equiped, only saw something about envirosuit working and instantly got onto main menu. As @Berathraben mentioned save files doesn't work properly, so I played until level 5 in one session (kind of).

Can you please provide the crash dump(s)?  They should be in your (hidden unfortunately) C:\<user>\AppData\LocalLow\Trioptimum Corporation\Citadel\Crashes folder.

Not going to turn this into a bug report but...

Please do 

[674537f265cb6JosiahJack]

Fixed quite a few bugs and plan to have next patched version ready soon where, as far as I can tell, saving should be fixed.