Blood2 extra-crispy, new mod

[Tchernobog]

Okay, in case you have not been paying attention (like myself) there have been several new releases of Extra Crispy.

This is the fourth version of my Blood 2 mod which attempts to reiginite the fires of this classic FPS. This fourth version includes everything that was in version 1, version 2, and version 3. So you do not need any files from the previous releases of this mod.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/blood-2-the-c ... crispy-v40

You can really feel the the changes that were done to some of the enemy AI, as the game now seems to be considerably harder and the enemies seem to screw up less and less. They dodge more appropriately, they always reach for their guns, and their aim is a lot better than it used to be. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[dosgamer000]

Thanks for bringing this to attention, Tchernobog. I didn't even know!

I just tried it today and played a little bit of it. One thing I noticed is that Fanatics don't use Automatic Shotguns anymore like in the old version. Each Chosen starts with a different weapon besides a knife (Caleb gets a sawed-off, Ophelia a Beretta, Ishmael an Orb, and Gabby a Vulcan Cannon.) I don't know if the Vulcan is any better because in pretty much all the mods I played, it never felt as strong as it should be. Most of the time you're better off with the M16 for a bullet weapon. The grenade launcher uses 5 units of DieBugDie as opposed the 1 it used to use (at the least the version I had before this.) Not sure if the Enhancer Pack that made the textures look nicer still works with this but I'll probably try it later.

I read a couple of the posts on ModDB and there was talk of RPG elements and character attributes. One person suggested using the Bloodbath Chosen stats for single player (I believe this happens in vanilla Blood 2 as well). The attributes differ among the Chosen and each requiring their own play style for the most part. One thing I would change, however, is that I would take a point from Caleb's strength and put it into his Focus. The way Monolith made him, he was a faster but less resistant version of Gabriella. With 4 Strength and 2 Focus, he'd still be focused on conventional firearms but more balanced toward the arcane. I also read that the certain weapons require a higher Strength stat in the Blood 2 manual, however this feature wasn't used apparently because each Chosen can use every weapon to the same effect. The only thing that differs is the amount of ammo they can carry, how much Focus they have and how fast it recharges.

I also noticed a problem that was apparently missed. Ishmael can never run out of Focus because of the increase in speed and limit of ammo. I fired the Life Leech non-stop and I would never run of ammo. This makes magic weapons in the hands of someone with a high Focus stat unlimited ammo weapons. I don't play much multiplayer and I'm not sure if this mod is intended for multiplayer, but that sounds sorta unfair. I'll give this mod a playthrough in the next couple of days and see if I can report more stuff. From my posts, don't think that I dislike Extra Crispy. In fact, I think it's the best mod that makes the weapons feel as strong as they should of been in original Blood 2.

[Tchernobog]

As Gideon has been making articles for the larger Blood mods, I decided to document Extra Crispy properly on the Wiki:
http://www.blood-wiki.org/index.php/Extra_Crispy

It should tell you just about everything you need to know.

[dosgamer000]

Ah, thanks for the heads-up Tchernobog! The page looks accurate to how the mod plays and what it changes/fixes. I recently finished a vanilla (no mods) playthrough of Blood 2 and I must say I think I prefer Extra Crispy's weapon tweaks. I disliked how the Napalm Cannon and Howitzer couldn't kill lowly cultists and fanatics in one hit which struck me as strange since these are big, powerful explosive weapons. Also, the Combat Shotgun is droppable by Fanatics IRC but what irked me is that Flayer doesn't appear at all. I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to script a chance for a Flayer to drop when you kill a Zealot or maybe a Drudge Priest. I think Life Essence drops are randomized sometimes as well. While we're at it, the Death Ray should appear too (that is unless it was always there and I missed it which I doubt lol). Vulcan Cannon is still too weak for all the bullets it chews up sadly, I remember how hyped this gun was on Planetblood and in the Blood 2 manual.

Still, the flaws seem like human error oversights that could be easily fixed in a new version. It is still the best Blood 2 mod I have played though.

[Tchernobog]

Well, if you really would like him to consider your suggestions, you can post the in the comments section for the mod at ModDB. The guy is still active there.

[dosgamer000]

VGames has posted an update log of what his current progress is with Extra Crispy.

Made a lie flat model for the Combat Shotgun weapon pickup.
Made a lie flat model for the Flayer weapon pickup.
Gave all of the characters a Beretta along with their character specific weapon.
Gave Ophelia a Voodoo Doll for her character specific weapon.
Made Prophets drop a Flayer weapon pickup and Death Ray weapon pickup.
Doubled the Vulcan Cannon's bullet damage
Made Life Leech alt attack burn enemies to death.
Made the Drudge Lord's fireballs slower when flying.
Made more weapons dual wield-able
    Vulcan
    Singularity
    Howitzer
Made Beretta shoot faster
Made draw animation for Flayer weapon
Bodies take forever to disappear
Added new blood splats
Added wanted posters for the chosen that replace posters found in maps
Burning bodies burn for a longer period of time.
Moved several weapons forward to see more of the model
    Beretta
    Mac 10
    Flaregun
    Vulcan
    Lifeleech
Blood splats take forever to disappear
Gibs take forever to disappear
More blood splats allowed at one time
More bullet casings allowed at one time
Bullet casings take longer to disappear
More bullet holes allowed at one time
Bullet holes take longer to disappear
Replaced the default helicopter model with a much better one
Blood 2 Intro video now plays even if you are using the Nightmare Levels Expansion pack

A bunch of discussion is there on the moddb page. I'm glad to see this guy working on Blood 2 again!

Link: http://www.moddb.com/mods/blood-2-the-c ... ne-so-far/

[Tchernobog]

Nice to see him still working; last I heard he was getting a little fed up with the LithTech tools, which based on what I heard from others is understandable.

[dosgamer000]

Nice to see him still working; last I heard he was getting a little fed up with the LithTech tools, which based on what I heard from others is understandable.

Yeah, it is a shame B2 is so hard to mod for. No wonder people only really made BB maps, as the scripting involved in an SP map would probably be unbearable. I tried to touch DEdit (correct name?) and I just gave up seconds later..

[I Live...AGAIN]

Dedit is actually very powerful and real easy to use. It's one of the easier editors out there IMO. The problem is since Blood 2 used very early Lithtech, it's almost impossible to find any documentation out there at all on how to do things. You pretty much have to tinker around and find things out on your own which is extremely frustrating. Basically any documentation that can be found about how to use it pertains to Shogo. Most people just drop it when they find this out.

[dosgamer000]

Dedit is actually very powerful and real easy to use. It's one of the easier editors out there IMO. The problem is since Blood 2 used very early Lithtech, it's almost impossible to find any documentation out there at all on how to do things. You pretty much have to tinker around and find things out on your own which is extremely frustrating. Basically any documentation that can be found about how to use it pertains to Shogo. Most people just drop it when they find this out.

So if I read up on editing tutorials for Shogo, it could be applied to Blood 2? I don't own Shogo: MAD, if that matters.

[N0t_mINe]

@ all the above:

The shogo tutorials themselves are in terrible shape, as they give completely wrong info at times. My last tour of duty with dedit ended with me trying to get b2 doors to function. The shogo tut didn't even mention a door object, which is clearly there. This explains why ILA usually points people to avp2 documentation. I'll probably start from scratch with dedit again someday soon, seeing as I can't even get IwoJima to work in windows 8 x64.

DarkCaleb tried to offer me some help with b2 editing, but I got carried away by shinier objects. I should probably re establish contact with him. Apparently the personal touch is required to really get dedit fully functional. VGames was asking about new maps in a pm just last week so it would keep his mod alive. The next set of changes for release 5.0 are beyond anything he did last time.

I'm starting to think that the Washington state University computer 3d graphics design course that used lithtech was Lith's main income between 1998 and 2000, because they really left nothing for game communities to edit with until NOLF.

[dosgamer000]

@ all the above:

The shogo tutorials themselves are in terrible shape, as they give completely wrong info at times. My last tour of duty with dedit ended with me trying to get b2 doors to function. The shogo tut didn't even mention a door object, which is clearly there. This explains why ILA usually points people to avp2 documentation. I'll probably start from scratch with dedit again someday soon, seeing as I can't even get IwoJima to work in windows 8 x64.

DarkCaleb tried to offer me some help with b2 editing, but I got carried away by shinier objects. I should probably re establish contact with him. Apparently the personal touch is required to really get dedit fully functional. VGames was asking about new maps in a pm just last week so it would keep his mod alive. The next set of changes for release 5.0 are beyond anything he did last time.

I'm starting to think that the Washington state University computer 3d graphics design course that used lithtech was Lith's main income between 1998 and 2000, because they really left nothing for game communities to edit with until NOLF.

So it's not really worth trying to mess with map-making unless you're prepared for a long haul, huh? That's disheartening. But what beats me is how there are like a ton of Bloodbath maps made for Blood 2 yet next to nil SP maps, with the only thing coming to mind being B2K5 (and also something called "Educating Caleb..." by daMann which I assume never happened.) Some of these bb maps were amazing to gawk at and it totally perlexes me how there was no SP map scene. Was DEdit THAT difficult to tinker with to churn out a single, playable map to play in? Blood 2 is the only fps I know that only really has multi-maps.

I talked with VGames a while ago wherein I mentioned Focus points. He wants to take the grenade launcher from Shogo and import it to Blood 2 (replacing the Bug Buster.) I really admire his dedication to this old fps but I everything he has done doesn't enter into the realm of map-making. Just changes/enhancements/ai improvements to better the overall experience (and even that was a pain he says.) New maps too might be asking alot, from what I can gather here.

The hell was that design course building? We need one of those guys right here, RIGHT NOW! This is also the first i'm hearing of this. *strokes chin*

This is stating the obvious, but a good way to increase your game's longevity is by giving players the tools to mod and make their own maps. Yeah, we CAN mod for Blood 2, but it is hardly efficent and hardly sane as well.

[N0t_mINe]

All quotes are from dosgamer000:

So it's not really worth trying to mess with map-making unless you're prepared for a long haul, huh? That's disheartening.

Look, I'm as challenged as they come when it comes to learning new software, yet after only 12 or so hours I was making those *box* maps you saw screen shots of with Gideon chasing Caleb around a maze of textured boxes. Dedit can actually be fun once you begin to intuit a few basic steps to level editing norms, that's actually the hard part- getting a feel for what needs to be done instead of thinking about the steps learned via wrote memorization. 30-40 hours might get you a 'wolfenstein3d style' map if I had the discipline to hang with it and get over the door nonsense. I would suggest you trifle with dedit for a week just to get that nagging curiosity out of the way.

But what beats me is how there are like a ton of Bloodbath maps made for Blood 2 yet next to nil SP maps, with the only thing coming to mind being B2K5 (and also something called "Educating Caleb..." by daMann which I assume never happened.) Some of these bb maps were amazing to gawk at and it totally perlexes me how there was no SP map scene. Was DEdit THAT difficult to tinker with to churn out a single, playable map to play in? Blood 2 is the only fps I know that only really has multi-maps.

It isn't obvious how to make an sp map (You have to name the map subway1 or what ever the first map in b2 is called). Keep in mind that not many people are going to churn out quality maps just to see enemies with awful pathfinding render their work pointless.Also, lots of mappers were trying to puff up their resumes, there weren't a huge number of map editors out there at the time and having a lithtech map was a way to stand out.

Where The hell was that design course building? We need one of those guys right here, RIGHT NOW! This is also the first i'm hearing of this. *strokes chin*

There use to be a copy of a lithtech nda available online that students were expected to sign in order to take a course. Students were given (sold?) the professional dev tools for a certain class. I'm guessing the game tools were runted on purpose to prevent students from completing assignments with a set of free tools available to anyone with an internet connection.

This is stating the obvious, but a good way to increase your game's longevity is by giving players the tools to mod and make their own maps. Yeah, we CAN mod for Blood 2, but it is hardly efficent and hardly sane as well.

By September 98 Monolith knew they had not one, but two dogs on there hands. They scored a little extra time for Microsoft's baby, Riot, but none for the game franchise that built Monolith, Blood. At that point it was all about damage control and focusing everything on rebranding themselves with lithtech 2.0. The 1.5 patch was sold as a seperate engine to 3rd law to gain extra coders and a little cash. They were doing the absolute bare minimum to satisfy license agreements with gt interactive, tools, patches, addons, everything.

[VGames]

Wow it's so cool that my mod is being discussed here. Sorry I haven't seen this here sooner. This place is legendary. I hope you guys are enjoying Extra Crispy. I'm about done with the next release. Just trying to implement a death skins feature where character skins change when they die from gunfire to show damage on their bodies. Just like in the Darkact mod. Thing is I don't know how to get it to work. And I don't have the source for Darkact. If anybody can help please do.

[VGames]

Version 5 is fixing to be released. The features list in the news section of the moddb page has been updated. Its now more then twice as long as it was before. There's a lot going into version 5. Let me know what you guys think.