Wrack launches on Steam!

splatterhouse said:

I'm not homophobic at all. I actually have gay friends and support gay rights. It's just a word, FAG! haha

Well... that escalated quickly.

In regards to the physics issue, I'll get it fixed ASAP. The whole system got rewritten a few weeks ago in an attempt to optimize and fix a few other equally serious bugs, so there was bound to still be an issue or two. One of the joys of being in beta! :)

Oh, and by the way, I think the Pulsar is horribly overpowered or something. It has a knack for making extra short work of things that have lots of HP... like bosses. The level 5 boss just sort of jumped from 8000HP or so remaining to 0 in the blink of an eye, which proooobably wasn't intended to happen. It wracks the (useless) giant robots, too.


...Seriously, what's up with those robots? It's like you combined the worst parts of a baron (loads of health without being very threatening) with a pinky demon (extremely limited melee attack that is super easy to bait).

There's definitely some sort of bug with that. I think I know what's causing it, and it'll be fixed next update.

I view the crushers as more like stone imps that have been in some Doom mods. Slow moving, but really do serious damage if they hit you. Plus, their size makes them capable of cutting off escape routes and stuff making you think about how you're moving. Depending on how they're used, you sometimes have to deal with them just being there while you fight off everything else, and that can induce great wetting of the pants.

splatterhouse said:

^ HA! What a fag! Go develop your own awesome DOOM-inspired game, then maybe one person might take lame comments like that seriously!

Get out of my dreams an into my Hard Drive you sexy pile of ones and zeros.

splatterhouse said:

Hell yes! I'm buying this right away.

ClonedPickle said:

Oh, and by the way, I think the Pulsar is horribly overpowered or something. It has a knack for making extra short work of things that have lots of HP... like bosses. The level 5 boss just sort of jumped from 8000HP or so remaining to 0 in the blink of an eye, which proooobably wasn't intended to happen. It wracks the (useless) giant robots, too.


...Seriously, what's up with those robots? It's like you combined the worst parts of a baron (loads of health without being very threatening) with a pinky demon (extremely limited melee attack that is super easy to bait).

Yeah I'm not a fan of the giant robots either or the enemies. Especially the spiders. Don't really need to kill them, they don't do much. The giant robots should probably do some long range damage instead of just lumber over to you and try to smash you.

Bought it on day one and loving it.

Those big robots could be dangerous if used correctly. Like a hell baron, they could be terrifying if you got trapped in a small closet with them, or perhaps a long narrow hallway with a bunch of them barreling down and backing you into a corner.

if theres no shortage of ideas for new enemies, with more dynamic attacks then I dont see it as something that needs to be removed

... Ya fags

I agree that the robots could be used more effectively. They are harmless on their own and in large arenas, but if they pushed on you in a small room with a bunch of spiders to run around and slow you down, they would become much more threatening. With that said I'm only maybe half way through the episode so maybe this starts happening eventually

Yep robots right after you open a door or fall down a pit. Also, now that I'm playing again, I'm not really using anything but shotgun. Just makes me want to play Doom.

Yeah, early on, they're just in their own little arenas as sort of a "Here are these guys! Here's what they do!" sort of thing. It's meant to be introductory, and yet you'd still be surprised at how many people get hit by them even at that point. When they're introduced on the left side of E1L2, I actually had to change the damaging floors from lava to nukage, since too many people were getting whacked right into the lava and dying.

As far an example of their usage at a higher level, there's a spot on E1L6 where you're locked into a room with one, some kamikazes, and some Arcs up on a ledge shooting at you. You've really got to deal with the other monsters first before you can take on the crusher, so you just have to deal with it being there - staying away from it while also dodging the projectiles of the other monsters.

Glad you all are enjoying the game, though! :D It's certainly come a long way, and will continue to improve.

Carnevil said:

It's meant to be introductory, and yet you'd still be surprised at how many people get hit by them even at that point.

Yeah, to be fair, as Doom veterans we tend to look at these things through different glasses than "most people." I still remember playing Doom for the first times and never moving while shooting at enemies. :P

Happy to have the first of our biweekly updates out there! We wanted to get some of these bugs and other issues resolved as quickly as possible, so this update is out a bit early. The next update is still scheduled for Dec. 9th.

Here's what's new:

• Fixed numerous bugs! Several crashes and physics glitches have been fixed.
  
• Added three new featured maps! Two of them are speedrun maps, and one is a slaughterfest map. These are accessible through "Featured Maps".
  
• Wrack is now more fast-paced at all difficulty levels (except the last one)! This affects Time Attack and Score Attack as well.
  
• Remade the main font so that it's larger and more colorful.
  
• Improved the speaker colors, and gave Fabian his own color.
  
• Updated the splash screen.
  
• Made several changes to the menu system, including adding "Credits" to the main menu, and adding the "NEW!" indicator.
  
• Crawlers now gib when struck with the Hyperblade.
  
• The numpad keys now work properly when used in key bindings.
  
• Freshened several E1L2/E1L3 textures to make them more consistent with the rest.
  
• Changed up the quit screen. Check back later, folks! :)

Enjoy! :)

But does this mean you aren't doing a GoG version of the game?

I think we'll be on GoG at some point. We're just not on there yet. If you'd like a DRM-free version of the game, you can get it on Desura. I'll be working this week on getting the GamersGate version up to snuff as well.

I'm not racist.... I have a black friend.

Wrack could have a hockey mask and a baseball bat. Make it $5 DLC and turn everything into Zombies.

By the way, someone has (inevitably) started on a Doom -> Wrack map converter! \o/ There's still a ways to go of course, but as of last night it's producing tangible results. More on that here, and I'm sure a Quake one will come at some point too.

Screenshot:

I'd rather see Wrack move away from Doom.

geo said:

I'd rather see Wrack move away from Doom.

Me too. We've really got to play up the comic/arcade angle WAAAAAAAAAY more. The things that set Wrack apart from other shooters are too nuanced (but definitely there) right now, and I'd like them to be... well, much less so.

For better or worse, I've been a big critic of Wrack for its similarities to Doom (or Skulltag), since its a modified Doom engine (or Skulltag). It has its own art style and a jump button yes, but it doesn't feel like its own game.

Duke Nukem felt like its own game. Quake felt like its own game. Chex Quest did not.

Also, what makes any FPS arcadey? I've heard that term given to driving games and I understand that reasoning. Is it arcadey because there is health packs instead of regenerating health? Or because you die every 5 seconds ala arcade beat-em-ups?

Sorry to be so critical about things. I am happy for you and its great to see another Doomunity member flourish in such a great way. But as a stand alone game, I just want it to stand alone more.

geo said:

For better or worse, I've been a big critic of Wrack for its similarities to Doom (or Skulltag), since its a modified Doom engine (or Skulltag).

Nope. It's not based on the Doom engine, nor on Skulltag. Just because there's the same developer behind both Wrack and Skulltag doesn't mean the codebase is the same.

(Besides, if it were based on Skulltag, it'd be violating the license terms under which most of Skulltag's code is available.)

Woops. My bad. Cheerfully retracted.

geo said:

Also, what makes any FPS arcadey? I've heard that term given to driving games and I understand that reasoning. Is it arcadey because there is health packs instead of regenerating health? Or because you die every 5 seconds ala arcade beat-em-ups?

Well, if you're dying every 5 seconds, you may need to tone the difficulty down :P But in terms of what makes it arcadey, I'd say that a lot of it boils down to:

• Fast-paced, with an emphasis on action
  
• Colorful, eye-catching visuals
  
• Chains and combos, encouraging momentum, and for you to get out there instead of creeping around
  
• Battling lots of monsters, with bosses
  
• Quickly getting back into the action if you die (thus the lives system)

... and certainly there's more. Doom isn't even terribly arcadey to me. Certainly with things like slaughterfest maps, it can be, but vanilla feels more like a hybrid of arcadey and the sort of creeping around horrorfest that is Doom 3. Wrack is a full-blown arcade-style FPS.

geo said:

But as a stand alone game, I just want it to stand alone more.

Again, these elements need to be played up more than they are now. That'll be a big part of the focus going forward. They're certainly there, though.

The 5 seconds thing was more a statement about arcade games :-) To get your quarters :-) mmmm nom nom go the quarters. The Splatterhouse bat & hockey mask DLC was a joke too.

>> ideas for emphasis on combos

Anyway, I suppose to put more of a focus on scoring points and combos would be death arenas (which you have) that will only let you out when you score X amount of points or combos and the enemies keep respawning. But that might be too forced in the actual single player without some 'overseer' enemy forcing the player to do this.

Or just prevent the player from going to the next level if they didn't do X number of per level achievements ala Tony Hawk games. Like get X amount of points, get a X kill combo, find X amount of secrets, get through the level with X amount of damage, complete the level under X amount of time, get X amount of kills with your shotgun and if you do 3 out of 6 you earn the next level. Anyway, just throwing out ideas, there is probably a better way to implement things.

>> ideas on enemies

A wider array of enemy models wouldn't hurt either. There are standard soldiers with pallet swaps and different behaviors, but they need to look different. Maybe longer horns on their head, or helmets or just a unique model entirely. Its all up to you and maybe that's intended for further in development. I think pallet swaps worked better in an older era.

What about a shorter enemy that fires a spray at your legs requiring you to jump instead of strafe? Basically the same thing you did for the first boss, but one radial blast instead of several bullets.

The crawlers (or different enemy) could release a poison gas for 5 seconds that stays after they are defeated. Or of course if they stood at a distance shooting projectiles that explode into a poison gas. The exploding spiders is a nice touch, good for blowing up other enemies for the laughs :-)

Hovering rocket enemies might be beneficial too. I would say projectile horving enemies, but splash damage seems to have a higher provability to hit the player. If we're going the Contra FPS route, they could even be kneeling grenade throwing soldiers instead of hovering enemies.

>> ideas on speed

To put an accent on speed and accuracy, have something chasing the player in certain sections. Not fast enough is death. Either explosions or spike walls or poison gas that drains your health. Run run run. Just down a hallway and not an entire level. Catch is switches need to be shot to open doors or you'll die. There can even be a climb level as lava or acid rises. Speed my man.

These ideas might be a pain to certain players, but again, just ideas.

Hey Carn, I suppose you've seen this article. What do you think of its criticism and advice?

Gez said:

Hey Carn, I suppose you've seen this article. What do you think of its criticism and advice?

Well, considering I responded in the comments and already put out an update that makes the changes he suggested... I'd say it's valid! :) Was, anyway.

@geo: New trooper model is on the way.

Thanks bro. :-)