Monster Enhancement 01/08/98 ================================================================ Title : Monster Enhancement v1.03 Author : Roscoe A. Sincero Email Address : legion@keg.zymurgy.org Description : This is basically the same as soldier enhancement but with additional shields for all three types of soldiers, enforcer, berserker, and gunner. These Stroggs are generally too weak. With shielding, they are now tougher. If you don't have the soldier enhancement mod, you can get it at Inside3D. Look for December 25th news in the archive. It is posted on that day. Web site/Home page : NONE News site : Inside3D (http://www.inside3d.com) Additional Credits to : id Software for Quake2, especially Paul Steed of id for giving out the stats for the enemies Matt Barnett for leading target code for Iron Maiden (http://ds.dial.pipex.com/town/terace/qg20). The actual code used is a modified version of his. SumFuka of QDeveLS (http://www.planetquake.com/qdevels) File I/O routine comes from the MOTD tutorial Misc : This replaces m_shield mod (the monster shield enhancement mod). You will need version 3.09 of Quake II. ================================================================ * Play Information * Single Player : yes Deathmatch (2-16) : No New Sounds : No New Graphics : No New Music : No * Construction * Base : Quake2 DLL Source Editor(s) used : Microsoft Visual C++ v4.0 Known Bugs : Who knows. Well, the monsters have a tendency to run up to you and stare at you for a little bit (or run straight at a wall) before finally shooting. Also, when it gets too close to the walls, it can get stuck as usual. That hasn't change. Since the soldiers now move often, you should see this problem a quite a bit more ( unless, of course, you don't move towards the walls at all). Build Time : I don't know. Forgot. * Install Instructions * 1) Make a dir under your quake2 directory (c:\quake2\dmsg) 2) Unzip the gamex86.dll into the dir created in #1 (i.e. C:\quake2\soldier) 3) Run Quake2 with the command line "quake2 +set game dir" where "dir" is the directory where you copied the gamex86.dll (i.e. quake2 +set game soldier) 4) start a new game * Other Info * This is my fourth attempt for this mod which is my very first Quake II mod and my very first C program. Well, it is my "third" Quake II mod if you consider the soldier mod and the m_shield mod as two separate mods. I consider them all the same mod but with different names. It is my "second" C program if you take into account the "Hello World" program I created. I did create a couple of C++ programs using Visual C++ several months ago that calculated equations found in an upcoming Environmental Engineering book. * Version Info * v1.03 (January 08, 1997) - Infantry now can block. Skill 3 and less, absorbs 50% of damage. Skill 4 and higher absorbs 75% of damage. Remember, Infantry can not shoot while blocking nor can they move. Instead of always dodging and absorbing 100% of the damage, they can also choose to block. I didn't think the original blocking frames were very much use until I used this approach. - Brain (the one with the tentacles) now move faster when "running" - A welcome message pops up (a message of the day). Place a "welcome.txt" file in your main Quake2 directory. If no file is found, then a default welcome message will be used. The contents of the message is placed in the center of the screen. - Flyer's "running" speed has been increased by an additional 30%, Flyer can strafe like soldiers a little bit. And, flyers move while firing. Strafing most effective in "melee" situations. - Increased Hover's "running" speed by 100% v1.02 (January 06, 1997) - Fixed it so that shotgun soldiers now spawn when it should instead of Iron Maidens - Stroggs with special ability from the Mega Armor will now disable this ability when player is killed - Iron Maiden will now resurrect and they now have shielding - The shark's swimming speed increased by 1/3rd. Flyer's "running" speed increased by 100%. - Soldier, Mutant, Infantry, Iron Maiden, Gunner, Berserker, Medic, Shark, and Parasite's health is doubled for skill levels greater than 7 (e.g. skill 8 and higher) - Maximum skill setting is 2000 - "Deathmatch items" will not spawn in single-player games for skill levels 3 or less. Unchanged from previous versions but was never mentioned in text. They never RESPAWN in single-player so use your new found ammo and weapons wisely. - "NEARBY" Stroggs are alerted of your presence. - Mega Power Armor makes Stroggs translucent. From a distance, they look invisible. So those of you who like to shoot at Stroggs from a distance will find them a little harder to hit. This is unchanged from previous versions--it is the "secret" new ability I mentioned before. v1.01b (January 03, 1997) - Recompiled for v3.09 of Quake II - Tweaked aiming for leading target. In a certain range, the lead will be reduced by 80%. This is to take into account that players can strafe quickly left and right to trick the Strogg into firing in the wrong direction. With this "tweak", the error will no longer be as large. If the target is far away, no correction is used. If the target is very close, no correction is used. v1.00 (December 31, 1997) Here's a list of things added or changed from the original. The list is not in any typical order. The soldier will display animations normally not seen very often in the original release. The run and shoot as well as duck and shoot animation sequence will be seen more often in this mod. Also the run, shoot, and trip sequence can now be seen. Originally, Quake II did not show this oddity at all. Lower skilled soldiers will trip more often. The "move and fire" sequence comes in two variations--running straight at you (low skill) and strafing (high skill). These two variations are randomly "augmented" with the tripping animation. Some sequences can only be seen at certain skill levels. The trip sequence has been further "augmented" at higher skill levels. It might look like there is a new model involved but trust me, this is all done "in software". The animation frames were originally part of the initial release. At skill setting of three or higher, the Stroggs now have shielding. They are a little tougher with shielding. Gunners, Berserkers, Soldiers, and Infantry are the only Stroggs that have been modified to include shielding. In my previous revisions, the machine gun soldiers were basically the same as id's original release except for ducking more often and shielding. Now, the machine gun soldiers can move and attack at the same time. Unlike the previous two types (light guard and shotgun guard), this soldier will not trip. This means they are tougher than the previous two. At skill 0, you do double the damage if you "surprise" the enemies (all of them, not just the soldiers). Originally, the player does double damage at ALL skill levels. At higher skill, you do not do double damage. At skill 2 and higher, the Stroggs do not attack each other. Originally, the Stroggs will attack each other at all skill levels. New to Quake II is the Mega Power Armor. It is only slightly more effective in reducing damage than the normal shell Power Armor (absorbs 75% vs. 66%). However, the energy consumption of the mega power armor is 250% more efficent than the normal power armor. Only the monsters can use the mega power armor, unfortunately for you. In addition, the armor gives the monsters a new ability. You will have to play the game to find out. The movement code has also been modified. At lower skills, the monster will freely walk off the ledge. In some cases, this might actually make the game a little tougher since they can now "chase" you down from a ledge. However, if you use your brain correctly, you can trick the monsters into falling in areas that will make it more difficult for it to follow you--very effective against Stroggs that have only melee attacks. This is the reason that the higher skilled monsters do not possess this modified movement code. At skill 0, there is a 100% chance it will walk off the ledge. At skill 1, there is a 10% chance. At skill 2, there is a 1.2% chance and at skill 3, there is only a 0.03% chance. At any higher skill, there is no chance. Regardless of skill, they usually do not walk into lava, slime, or water. You might think that the probablity is quite low for skill settings at 2 and 3. Remember, this chance is calculated every time the enemy reaches the ledge. In any given situation, the monster can be repeatedly running to the ledge so this chance is calculated quite often. Smaller numbers, much smaller numbers are required because of this little fact. So do not consider the percentages as a barrier preventing the monster from falling. Consider these percentages as a "delay" factor--the monster will fall but when will it fall is the question. The length of this delay is random so at any given moment, it may appear that the monster can fall off the ledge in no time at all while in other situations, it hesitates for quite a long time. Because I am now using the "move and fire" animation sequence, the combat abilities of the soldiers and gunners are now different. Besides strafing while running towards you, they can also circle strafe when they are close enough to you. Soldiers can now duck and fire. Originally, you have to aim a projectile weapon at their heads for the soldiers to duck and only then there is only a 25% chance that it will actually duck and depending on skill, they can either duck or duck and shoot. Now, it will duck and shoot when it chooses to. The obituary has been modified for new death messages when killing yourself and when a monster kills you. It is not complete. Soldier resurrection has been added. At skill 4, there is a 50% chance that the monster will resurrect. At higher skill, there is a 100% chance. Of course, gibbed Stroggs do not resurrect. The length of time the monsters stay dead is random but they stay dead for at least 2 seconds. At skill 10 and higher, they stay dead for only 2 seconds. At this time, you have just two seconds to gib the dead body or it will be resurrected. Almost forgot, mutants resurrect, too. The Stroggs are actually a little bit more difficult than the original. However, if you want to see actual difficulty, you will need to play a skill setting greater than three. The "hard" level is only at skill 2. If you are a beginner who wish to have a challenge, I recommend skill 6. More skilled players who want a challenge should use skill 15 or higher. Make sure you pick a map with Iron Maidens, Soldiers, Infantry, Mutants, Gunner, and Berserker. These are the Stroggs that have been modified. Soldiers now give out correct pain sounds. This was a bug in the original dll. Iron Maiden will lead target at medium skill and higher. Soldiers will lead target using the same routine as Iron Maiden at skill 5 and higher. At skill levels 1 to 4, the soldiers will lead target plus add some random value to encourage "missing" the target for targets that are moving at a constant speed and constant direction. Type "cmd trailbeam" at the console. This will toggle on/off (default off) for showing the "bread crumb" trails used by the monsters. * Monster AI Correction * v1.00 (December 31, 1997) There was one bug that I found with the monster AI that prevented it from chasing the player effectively. Chasing, in this context, refers to the monster's action when the player is NO LONGER in sight and he/she is running away from the monster. The bug occured when the player creates the trail of points for the monster to follow. The bug causes the player to spawn a bunch of trail points at the same spot. Only a certain number of points can be used--eight. There is a slight improvement on the chasing. Additionally, there was another bug in which the first trail point is not spawned when the player first enters the level. This has been corrected. As far as I can tell, the game play has not been changed in removing this bug. At least, it did not change while playing on BASE1. NOTE: Keep in mind that if you are within the monster's sight, it will not use its chasing routine. This means that the "bread crumbs" will not be used. In general, it will try to run after you using a zig-zag, strafing, or straight line path towards you. * Misc Info * A little side note, the chase AI will *NOT* work in COOP mode. By design, it can not work. So all those COOP patches have Stroggs that are no smarter than Quake I monsters (or DOOM monsters or Wolfenstein enemies). This patch is a beta so I expect features that are supposed to be in the game but for some reason are not working at all or have some other bug that keeps it from working properly. * Legal Stuff * If you want to use this patch in anything that will be redistributed, please e-mail me first. (This excludes CDROM.COM and mirrors which may of course distribute it freely without asking.)