Good news and some bad news, my friends...
The bad news is, that it's kinda obvious that i didn't deliver the demo as originally intended - by the end of this June. The good news is that i am VERY close. Continuing to pour all my free time into finalizing the demo in preparations for the release, - the improvements keep on coming. Suffice to say that i am no longer dealing with any crashes of any kind. That's all in the past. Now i am in the polishing stage.
Here is the summary of my latest efforts:
- Partially streamlined the Guardian of Steel (unfortunately had to revert back to the original names - synchronicity issues came up that i could not resolve). Raven Software decided to make the player do the exact same thing FOUR times...well, i say that twice is quite enough. So the switches do a better job of unlocking the passages, - no need to run around so much. Also done away with the bothersome polyobjects in the level.
- Some small parts of the levels had to be cut or toned down, in order to accommodate other, more important details. Since Legend-9 is more than twice the length of the original Hexen, that's no big deal. Example: In the Winnowing Hall, - there are less breakable windows, and some windows now will not break at all. In the Guardian of Ice, - some sections also have been streamlined, - so it does not feel like a chore.
- Improved stylistics, detail and thematic color design in Bright Crucible. Now it appears much more synchronous in the classic oldschool brown palette and is perfectly to my liking. The level is much bigger than the screenshots show, but the snapshots i took are predominantly of the new/remade parts.
In the gameplay department:
- Imported my Fire Flechette graphics mod from the Mercenary DLC, for better effect synchronization, - and because it looks tenfold better than the lazy vanilla.
- Increased explosive potential of the Mage's Flechette. Don't stand next to it :-)
- Improved (and altered) Corvus' Flechette effect: in addition to the classic stun effect (which is now generated by a magic sphere and not by a poison cloud), the sphere also continuously shoots fire shards in multiple directions, making this sub-weapon even more destructive. If i find it too powerful during tests, i'll just reduce its supplies, but surely not gonna change it - cause it's cool AF. The fire shards cannot hit the player, but if you get too close - you will still suffer poison damage as in the vanilla.
- visually enhanced Weredragon's fireballs: so they don't look like vanilla Chaos Serpent projectiles. Managed to implement a trail effect, - similar to the one found in the creature's original in Heretic. Also modified the projectile and explosion. Added that same trail effect to one of the attacks for the Wraiths. Looks very fitting and cool, so why the Hell not.
- Made a proper animated icon for Mage's Shock Lance weapon.
- Remade the poison mushroom into a fire mushroom (i do love fire effects, don't i), - this one will no longer poison you, but explode with fire. New animation has been made for it.
The testing continues. Stay tuned. I am very close to finalizing this demo. And i deleted all the old screenshots (such as 8.33 and interim 8.43) and started to post some proper Legend 9 screens. Also used the double of my usual resolution for that, this time, lol. It's about time that the half-baked Legend 8.33 has buggered off and any trace of it deleted from memory. The time of the true Hexen upgrade is coming.
