WIP: Bug Hunt

New project that will actually get finished.

Aliens mod for EDGE:





There are mission objectives in each level.


The Smartgun has a tracking crosshair.


The flamethrower, likely to get a graphics change to look more in-theme, generates it's own flickering light.


A thin layer of mist:


Levels are modeling in a Half-Life-esque fashion - small chunks that flow into each other. This is easier on performance - the system would lag with a 2000-plus sector level filled with dynamic lights. The cap for each level is about 500 sectors.

The Aliens are not just pink demons in disguise. They're faster, they pounce, and killing them up close is not advisable. They bleed acid, which eats away at your health fairly quickly. Facehuggers, even from the egg, will jump right up at you.

Some places will not be lit with dynamic lights. They're pretty and all, but it's just not appropriate when you're in a large area with too many enemies. And if you still want dynamic lights there, toss a couple flares.

Five levels are done. I'm planning about fifteen.

This seems very, very intresting and i am looking forward to this. But i have four suggestions:

1) Add more custom textures (some of those Doom textures just don't fit)

2) That flamethrower, or flamecannon as its creator calls it, has to go. It just doesn't blend in with everything else. Too much color.

3) Why are you using the old, old (1995 or older) Alien sprites? They are not very good looking, i recomended you take a look around, there has been plenty of Alien sprites made over the years. I suggest you try a Duke Nukem 3D Aliens mod (don't remeber the name of it), I believe it has some good looking hi-res aliens in it.

And 4) I get a strange feeling like there is supposed to be a hand holding the barrel underneath the Pulse Rifle. I think it would look better. You wouldn't exactly be able to make any accurate shot holding it with one hand.

CeeJay said:

This seems very, very intresting and i am looking forward to this. But i have four suggestions:

1) Add more custom textures (some of those Doom textures just don't fit)

2) That flamethrower, or flamecannon as its creator calls it, has to go. It just doesn't blend in with everything else. Too much color.

3) Why are you using the old, old (1995 or older) Alien sprites? They are not very good looking, i recomended you take a look around, there has been plenty of Alien sprites made over the years. I suggest you try a Duke Nukem 3D Aliens mod (don't remeber the name of it), I believe it has some good looking hi-res aliens in it.

And 4) I get a strange feeling like there is supposed to be a hand holding the barrel underneath the Pulse Rifle. I think it would look better. You wouldn't exactly be able to make any accurate shot holding it with one hand.

1. Computer textures and the TEKWALL textures will be replaced with something more fitting when I find it. Watching Aliens gives me the impression that recreation of that setting is impossible unless you're using something like the Doom 3 engine - even then, the amount of piping, wires, and tech that line the walls of Hadley's Hope is simply overwhelming.

2. Already working on it. I'm trying to fit the Aliens:Online flamethrower in, as with the pulse rifle and smartgun, but it's taking some time because of the way the flamethrower functions - it takes many frames to operate. The weapon moves in a circular motion, spreading the flames out a bit.

3. I've looked through as many other Alien sprites as I could find, including those with the Duke mods alien_dn (circa 1997), Alien versus Predator Duke, and Alienz TC. They may have good quality, but the problem is that the faithful alien sprites have maybe two frames of animation for movement and action with the sprite rotation frames identical between the two. This good sprite is copied throughout the Duke TCs. In Doom, it would look absurd - the forward movement would be frame A, then frame B, the latter being a horizonal flip of frame A. I can't access the Alien Trilogy or (preferably) Aliens: Online sprites. The Queen has been made through model screenshots from the Aliens Versus Predator 2 model. It looks *okay* but I'll likely do it again. I had also planned to do this with the drone, but the graphics came out very bad.

4. That is also planned for the future.

We should have a chat on msn some day about this, i still have alot of matarial from AvP (which im starting again at some point), and being a fellow edge fan i would love to see some completed tc i even go as far as to offer my help.

Looking very good Fiend!

Have you thought about using MD2 models for the aliens instead of sprites? I think it would solve all your problems in this regard: I've got some lying around here on my hard drive if you're interested.

Can't wait to try this out!


BTW, do take Liberation up on his offer: in the beta I tried some time ago he had some great stuff done which I'm sure would come in very handy for your project. Hell, even I'll chip in with some ready-to-go Alien models, all WADed up and ready to go, just to see this get finished!

Thanks guys, but I'm kind of hesitant to use models. I've never thought they looked good in Doom, but I was surprised at how well the EDGE test models looked.

I started using model rips, it was going very well had a few basic states for the marines, aliens and few for the predator. also my pulse rifle had a hand holding the bottom :>!

This looks like quite a prospective project, but be careful not to get Fox'd

Like they'd give a shit about a Doom TC

Also, ]heh

deathbringer said:

Like they'd give a shit about a Doom TC

Also, ]heh

I called it "Bug Hunt" for the sole reason that it might just get fox'd and I didn't want to get caught using the word "Alien" or "Aliens" or anything like that.

I still don't get why Fox would get so upset about it. If anything, this would promote the series and attract some positive attention.
Anyway, it's looking good so far.

Looks awesome,always wondered why no one made anymore aliens TC's.

The name sounds more like Starship Troopers than Aliens.

BJ Blazkowicz said:

The name sounds more like Starship Troopers than Aliens.

If you've seen Aliens recently you should be able to recall that the marines refer to their previous, apparently typical, missions as "bug hunts". One can only speculate in what a "bug hunt" is as this is never explored in the film. But, you're right, bug is much more frequently used in dialog to define the creatures in Starship Troopers, which is what they are based on (various bugs). But i do not remember a single scene where they use the exact phrase "bug hunt" though. But that title could be used just as well in both an Alien and Starship Troopers conversion.

I think that title is very clever, nice with an Aliens themed project without the Alien(s) in the title for a change (ALIEN, ALIENX, ALIENTSN, ALIENS, ETC...).

BJ Blazkowicz said:

The name sounds more like Starship Troopers than Aliens.

From Aliens:

Hudson: Is this going to be a standup fight, sir, or another bughunt?
Gorman: All we know is that there is still is no contact with the colony, and that a xenomorph may be involved.
Frost: Excuse me sir, a, a what?
Gorman: A xenomorph.
Hicks: It's a bughunt.

The name is taken from that quote, basically.

Yeah, though ironically that dialog's making an implicit acknowledgment of influence, as Aliens was made saying more or less "hey man, ever read Starship Troopers? Now imagine what we could do with these cool bug-like xenomorphs!"

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Haloless0320 said:

Looks awesome,always wondered why no one made anymore aliens TC's.

There are plenty.

kristus said:

http://wadsinprogress.info/index.php?a=listwads&wad=1019


There are plenty.

I hadn't seen this before...

I still wonder why people haven't used the Aliens:Online weapons... they've been pretty available online for the last couple of years.

22 meg is a pretty big download for a demo.

EDIT: I just played it. It's very un-Doom.

P.S. Because I feel inadequate, here's a quick screenshot of the Pulse Rifle with a hand on it.