Research for a Vampire Slayer-mod

[monkey]

Hello, long-term Soldat enthusiast here. Lately I've really come to terms with how nice the Soldat 2d-engine is, and how well the 2d shooter parts have been performed. It's obviously up there with Megaman and Contra, if you can make such comparisons... It's because of this that I've determined myself to create a mod, to see if I can dig out something new in the already solid gameplay, and figure out just how flexible soldat really is.

I'm not really a code person, more of the visual type, but Pascal is not too advanced, at least it's not impossible to figure out the basics, and as long it's on a lower level I think I can do what needs to be done. But I'm NOT saying that what I'll be mentioning is on the lower levels, I'm just throwing out the general gameplay ideas. So, before I start I want to know what's possible, and what isn't. My idea is to create a Vampire Slayer modification, and that would mean; two teams with different weapons for each team (Slayers and Vampires,) change the physics for both teams (Vampires; fast and agile, Slayers; slow and weak),  special abilities to the vampires (high jump, leap), weapon racks in the spawn for Slayers (I figure this could be VERY hard to do, but I thought it was a neat idea, and I'm just brain storming), claws as a weapon for the vampires, claws with further reach than the fists and you can't throw them away. It should be played as a Survivalist mod, but I'm not sure if it's possible to make it team death match with team spawns.

So, what do you think, do you think it would work gameplay-wise, and how much coding do you think it'd need?
The visuals and the weapons ain't a problem, I could simply make a weapon mod with "cross"bow, old shotgun (Winchester 12?), holy water, cross, stake and more, but it's not something I'd start a thread for, and certainly nothing I would ask for help about. The weapon mod will be there, but I want to know about the gameplay aspects.

[Lord Frunkamunch]

Different weapons for each teams would be possible, although you might just have to disable a different half of the weapons for each team (which would cut down on your weapon choices somewhat)

You can spawn weapons, although getting them in a weapon rack would probably be too difficult to bother with even if it were possible.

You can't edit physics, the best you can do in the way of speed enhancing is making weapons that boost you forward.

For claws, you could either raise the range of the fists (cons: both teams would have 'claws') or make them a secondary weapon for that team only (cons: can be thrown). Although it might be possible to prevent them from being thrown via scripting...I wouldn't know.

[monkey]

Thank you! The weapon settings turned up to be rather easy, no problems there, if you don't count the vampire claws.

How do you edit the range of the fists? Also, how do you make a weapon boost you forward?

Here is a mock-up screen, if anyone knows how this could be done, please reply. To summarize; one team (the vampires) should have claws, the only weapon they will be able to use and have, they can't throw it, it's range is better than the normal punch, when they "strike" they should boost forward and kill everything they swipe by in that strike. This is the only weapon that will need some actual scripting, and I'm totally lost on that...

If you don't understand, take a look at the mock-up screen. There the player has used the claws three times, this technique would be a faster way to travel across the map, both compared to running and jet-packing.

[Espadon]

No possible way. You're dreaming too much.


First of all, those trail effects aren't possible. Backward speed knife to induce teleport boost doesn't work -- normal shoot doesn't port and thrown just makes the knife fly backwards. Teleporting saw is almost as bad; does nearly no damage [it's a bit more complex than this but I won't discuss it since it'll do you no good anyways]. Checked with various bullet entities.

Bottom line: Try playing with the weapons ini and also take a look at the gfx files you have to work with.

[monkey]

Okay, thank you for the honest answer. That means I'll have to simplify it, and if the mod gets released, and if the concept is sucessful, maybe it will evolve into something more advanced than some gun edits.

[Lord Frunkamunch]

Actually, I think you could do that. Something like aether (from Hexer mod) that spawns flames in your path, maybe.

Could take quite a bit of scripting to perfect, but hey, it's  not impossible.