Phocas Island 2.5 (Endurance mode)

[Chopkinsca]

Phocas Island 2.5 Dev thread at zdoom.org

What is endurance mode?

It's a mode focused on killing monsters and nothing else. There are no puzzle elements in this mode. You choose weapon leveling, a skill level, then pick one of the 7 maps to play on. You spawn at a semi-random spot and are given about 1000 health and all weapons (yep, all three). Monsters will be spawning at random. There are 5 phases where the monsters spawn faster and in bigger numbers. Phases change as you kill more monsters. Due to the randomness of endurance mode, each play can be different. It also features a high score display that changes dynamically as you pass high scores. I have to say, it gets tense when you are close to the top high score and have only a little bit of health left.

The question I'm here to ask is should I release endurance mode as a standalone mod? It will be in the final Phocas2.5 release, but as it is, it could standalone. If I release it early, I'll strip down areas that aren't needed. The only spoilers would be being able to see all 7 maps (but missing quite a few cool areas) with no effort.

[kristus]

To me, this sounds boring. But I am sure there's plenty of people around who would prefer this to the standard PI2 game play. Anyway, I am glad you're still working on it.

[gemini09]

I'd work it in to the "adventure" mode of Phocas Island 2

and perhaps arrange the main menu to let you select between Adventure and Endurance, in addition to Load Game, Save, Options and Exit

[Chopkinsca]

kristus said:

To me, this sounds boring.

I can see how it would be boring to some people. I have fun playing it though, so that's all that matters. Adventure mode is still the main focus of the mod. I've added/changed so much that the original Phocas2 seems like shit. For adventure mode, I'm halfway over my biggest obstacle, so that's a relief. No idea on an ETA, but if things go as they are now, I might get it out before the end of summer.

gemini09 said:

I'd work it in to the "adventure" mode of Phocas Island 2

and perhaps arrange the main menu to let you select between Adventure and Endurance, in addition to Load Game, Save, Options and Exit

The mod has an intro/setup map kind of like quake's episode select map. It lets you change settings (hard mode, weapon leveling), and choose which mode you want to play, skill levels, and for endurance, which map.

[Katamori]

I can't finish even the first part... xO

Although a great WAD, I'll definitely try the sequel.

[Chopkinsca]

Katamori said:

I can't finish even the first part... xO

Although a great WAD, I'll definitely try the sequel.

It's not quite a sequel, hence the "2.5". It's more like an expansion pack.

[fullmetalvaran33]

kristus said:

To me, this sounds boring. But I am sure there's plenty of people around who would prefer this to the standard PI2 game play. Anyway, I am glad you're still working on it.

I have to second this opinion. I'm not a big fan of invasion-style maps--I think they're too predictable. I truly enjoyed the puzzle adventures of "Phocas Island 2," and that's why I liked it so much.

But, some people like invasion-style maps, so, hey, it's up to you what you want to release.

[The Lag]

i'd hold off and release it with the entire PI 2.5 mod when it is finished, and, personally, i'd make the endurance mode an unlockable since, as you yourself said, it is an easy way to see all the maps.
nevertheless,
the player shouldn't have to get 100% and the best ending to unlock it, but at least play through the main adventure once with bare minimum requirements to reach an ending.

just my input.
i loved phocas 2. one of my favorite mods for any game.

[Chopkinsca]

The Lag said:

i'd hold off and release it with the entire PI 2.5 mod when it is finished, and, personally, i'd make the endurance mode an unlockable since, as you yourself said, it is an easy way to see all the maps.
nevertheless,

I've decided to wait and release both modes at the same time.

I thought about making it unlockable, but right now, the only way would be to have a code room where you'd input the code to unlock endurance mode. That goes against the idea of getting through the intro room and into the game faster. If only zdoom would implement writing variables to a file (it's my dream feature request).

fullmetalvaran33 said:

I have to second this opinion. I'm not a big fan of invasion-style maps--I think they're too predictable. I truly enjoyed the puzzle adventures of "Phocas Island 2," and that's why I liked it so much.

I haven't played many invasion maps. The endurance mode won't be as predictable, as what spawns and where is mostly random. Also, the maps are bigger than the invasion maps I've played, and here the only way to lose is get killed.

Endurance started out as just a small side-project. I'd just use it to fuck around when I wasn't really in a mood to mod.

Don't worry, I really hope the revamped adventure mode will give you more of what you want.

[Katamori]

chopkinsca said:

It's not quite a sequel, hence the "2.5". It's more like an expansion pack.

Oh yes. Sorry, I just forgot that the previous version was Phocas Island TWO, not just Phocas Island.

[Chopkinsca]

The biggest draw for me to endurance mode is the leveling weapon system. Each weapon has 10 levels (0 - 9). A level 5 weapon is the same as the regular un-levelable weapons. After that, they get much more powerful, especially at level 9. The drawback is that you start out with a greatly underpowered weapon. For example, the level 0 rifle has a 2.5 second delay between shots, and the bullets aren't as strong.

Personally I'm having a lot of fun with endurance mode, putting over 8 hours into the game-mode so far.

[Lorenzo]

Will we have an "open world free roaming" gameplay version in PI2.5?

[Chopkinsca]

Lorenzo said:

Will we have an "open world free roaming" gameplay version in PI2.5?

I'm limited to the map format and the GZDoom engine, and my computer. I've made areas more accessible by adding new paths and such.

I've got rid of all the instant death pits and tried to tone down the jumping puzzles (completely removed the annoying one at the end of map02). Most areas that used to only have one path to, now have more than one way to get to. I've also expanded the forest quite a bit.

[Chopkinsca]

I made a short video which shows endurance mode and weapon leveling (both only to an extent, as I had to keep the video under 15 minutes).

[Khorus]

Looking forward to see it released. :D

[Tango]

endurance mode looks addicting. i think on the whole the community has had a lack of decent invasion-style maps (with a few exceptions in Stronghold, but packs like the Skulltag invasion pack are filled with generally inunspired layouts with relatively flat gameplay) and this sounds like a lot of fun.

watching the video, my only potential fear would be monster count being too few--of course, i've not played it myself, and as you said, the video shows only a limited scope of the whole thing--but it looked mostly like your fights were only between you and 2 or 3 monsters at a time, at most.

who knew it only takes 2 shades of gray to make such incredible looking architecture!

[Chopkinsca]

Tango said:

watching the video, my only potential fear would be monster count being too few--of course, i've not played it myself, and as you said, the video shows only a limited scope of the whole thing--but it looked mostly like your fights were only between you and 2 or 3 monsters at a time, at most.

The nature of my monster spawning scripts make each game different. Also it depends on the map; each one plays differently. I implemented a phase system where when you kill enough monsters, the spawn rate increases. You can get up to phase 4, with the last jump being increasing the spawns the most. In the video I think I only made it to phase 1 or 2.

The monsters are also more aggressive than regular doom 2.

-Demons are faster, more erratic and attack much faster. After an attack, they have a small chance of getting off another attack a few tics later.
-The serpants which are like imps have faster moving fireballs and unleash volleys.
-Centaurs are unpredictable to an extent. Their darts are fast and get thrown quite fast. Their poison dart, while being slow, can black paths behind you if you are in a tight area. The time they keep their shield up is a bit random. I find all monsters that use shields keep them up for the same amount of time which makes it easy to stunlock them.
-Cacofathers shoot quite often. Their fireball is fast and seeks a little bit. They are quite dangerous in tight areas as their fire ball has a small explosion radius.

I'm glad you think this mode will be fun. It's only really a side project to the adventure mode. I have no idea how much time I spent testing endurance mode. It's fun to try and beat my high scores and the leveling weapons are satisfying when you get the highest level weapon.