Hey guys. I'll try to keep this update brief.
Last update i mentioned a bunch of technical issues surrounding the CARNAL 2 game thing i was working on, and have ultimately decided to shelve the entire project, as the problems are completely out of my power to fix, at least for now. I'm quite persistent though.
I'm not a throw in the towel type so I have resurrected an old project that was on an external hard drive, which I called PAGAN at the time. I'm going ahead with that one, and what's cool is that all the engine problems that CARNAL 2 displayed are completely absent with this project, as it uses the Built-in renderer instead of HDRP.
What's a PAGAN?
A pagan is a worshipper of false idols. More specifically related to the game, it's a drug that is giving its users mutant powers and stuff. Problem is it corrupts the DNA over time, turning them into Nephilim monster things. This caused widespread chaos and crime to run rampant in the city of Crystal Falls, the place where the game will take place.
Where CARNAL was inspired by Quake, Redneck Rampage and Zombies Ate My Neighbors, PAGAN is based on ideas from Sin, Kingpin and Soldier of Fortune.
I am gonna try to make an open-worldish setting, where you do missions throughout the city, hopefully with cool stuff and scenarios playing out. As an RDF agent (like in CARNAL) you will side with the city police to try to regain control and wipe out the mutant/criminal threat, along with other weird shit popping up over playtime.
What is certain is that there will be gunfights in the streets with brutal combat. I can promise you that muchːsteamthumbsupː
Feature Goals
- Pretty big city map
- An actual story
- Faction AI and warfare (already working)
- Vehicles, or at least one for the player to use
- Currency and shop for weapons/items/upgrades
- Hopefully some form of cool environment destruction, like in Batman: Arkham Knight
- Player and NPC voice acting
- Secrets and collectables
Some of these are already in place, others still need to get in. None of these things are really difficult to make, I just need to do them in a way that's smart. We'll have to wait and see.
AI
I originally made the project to make my own version of bot matches, like you have in many older games. Difference here is that their navigation is not based on A* or Navmeshes, but honest-to-God old-school object avoidance. They have no knowledge of the environment, and will navigate around like they did in Doom 1993 or classic Build engine games, scanning their surroundings as they go. They literally have dozens of lasers that constantly check surroundings. The AI are like Google cars with guns. This is archaic and no-one really uses that anymore for obvious reasons.
I chose to do it that way to mimic the way AI behaved in the 90's, and I honestly couldn't be happier with results. Combat encounters just play differently and are much more unpredictable. I think Doom is still so popular because of the way enemies move and react to the player. Whether or not this was a good idea remains to be seen lol.
Rendering
PAGAN is going for a 1999-2000 look, so chunky models with lower res bilinear texture filtering. Character style is like a mix between Sin and Kingpin, with the environment taking cues from SoF.
For "cutscenes" I'm gonna have their faces change textures like in Deus Ex and SoF to mimic faces talking :D
All characters have randomized appearances for their respevtive faction. All characters have destructable limbs, being the head, arms and legs, and can be completely gibbed with enough damage to the torso. Not as extreme as the Ghoul-engine, but interesting all the same. Something cool is that if a character gets shot in the head all their dialogue immediately gets cut off, for instance.
With the built-in renderer I can have like 20 AI characters on-screen shooting at each other without a single performance hitch, unlike CARNAL 2's HDRP setup.
Combat
First off; Headshots are instant kills on all humans, except if they are super armored.
Every faction uses different weaponry, and every gun uses one of three or four classes of ammunition. Every gun has different stats, but weapon damage is determined by the type of bullet it uses rather than some arbitrary value (this is already in the game).
Bullets and their damage values:
- Small Rounds, 7 Damage, Yellow Tracer (MP5, P90, Tommygun, etc)
- Medium Rounds, 14 Damage, Green Tracer (G36, M4, Rifles, etc)
- Large Rounds, 50 Damage, Red Tracer (M250, Barret 50, NTW20, Machineguns, etc)
- Explosive Rounds, 75 Damage, Blue Tracer (RPG, Grenade Launchers, etc)
Challenges and Conclusion
There are some challenges outside of making the game. Currently in South Africa we have an energy crisis, and our electricity is turned off nation-wide for upwards of 12 hours a day for the last week. This kind of African nonsense hampers progress like full on war. Nothing I can do about it though, solar is too expensive even for the richest of people here.
All that being said this is what I got so far. Here is a video on how things currently fare, it's just gonna be straight work going forward. Let me know what you dudes think ːsteamthumbsupː
Watch on YouTube