Have you ever wanted to sneak around the Quake universe, pick the right moment to bypass the guards or escape an angry mob trying to find you?

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New Toys

News 11 comments

New Directions

The starting location of the MOD is called "The Temple of Swords" and was designed to be a gentle introduction to the main storyline while giving the player plenty of time to learn the new game play mechanics. Due to my desire to release a demo early for last Christmas, the starting level was changed to include a stealth training area and a bunch of new portals linking the various maps together.

All of these last minute changes created a mess, with the training and portals not accessible from the beginning of the map and the layout lacking focus, the map was not giving the right impression.

The Entrance to Baramous Keep
The central courtyard of Baramous Keep

A new start map called "Baramous Keep" has been created to allow the player quick (via portals) access to other maps, a direct path (at the beginning) to the stealth training area and as always there is a little surprise for any stealth player who like to explore and find keys to locked doors!

Zombie Knights in the Crypt
The Crypt under Baramous Keep

The original start location "The Temple of Swords" has been changed, the training area has been replaced with a dark cavernous chamber, the west chapel now leads to a church interior and the east library now holds a ton more books. These changes to the map will create more unique locations and hopefully prevent the player from getting so lost.

New Enemies

The original Quake monsters were designed for combat only and lacked a lot of extra detail. This MOD requires enemies to have greater immersion in their environment when not fighting and that means plenty of extra animations. Combine this with new (feet, armour and vocal) sounds, extra combat code and the ITS enemies take longer to produce. The plan is to spread out the release of new enemies over time and lightly sprinkle them throughout the existing maps when they are finished.

New Assets
A collection of new enemies and models

To bridge the health/damage gap between the Death Guard and the Death Knight there are going to be two new enemies with different attacks and an unique visual styles. The first up is the Crossbow Knight who can swiftly deliver fiery bolts at the player while strafing from side to side and can absorb more damage due to tougher (chain) armour. The crossbow knight is perfect at being a menace at range and a good compliment to any large group of enemies.

The Crossbow and Fury Knight
New enemies - Crossbow Knight and Fury Knight

The second additions to the death squad is the Fury Knight armed with two large curved swords, plenty of mobility (light chain armour) and several unique range attacks. The Fury Knight has less health than standard knights, but makes up for it with faster movement and plenty of aggressive leap attacks towards the player. The final blow are several magic attacks that encourage the player to keep moving and deal with these agile knights quickly or suffer the consequences.

All armies need formidable captains and ruthless lieutenants and the new Death Sergeant aims to fill that role. Standing tall in demon infused plate armour the blue flail knights are tough opponents with high stamina, ferocious combat prowess and a new magically range attack that will force players to run for cover or learn to dance with fire. Often found in large groups of enemies they will need to be dealt with quickly before they overpower the player with a swarm of fire and steel.

The Zombie and Sergeant Knight
New enemies - Zombie Knight and Sergeant

The final addition to this next release will be the zombie knights which according to lore are the results of lost souls becoming servants to the dark magics. Partly dressed in fragments of their previous armour the zombie knight will swing wildly with their sword while running at an unnatural pace towards the nearest living player. Not really a threat by themselves but when mixed in with larger groups can become a problems with their relentless resistance to weapon fire.

Particle System

The previous system would constantly generate new particle entities when required and the relentless creation process was becoming an unnecessary burden on the engine. The ideal solution was to create a pool of particles that could be allocated as when and needed and recycled when finished. This had the added benefit (for slower system) of being able to limit how many particles are active at once and allow for each map to be fine tuned for what is required.

New Model Particles
New model based particles system active on large flame

Several new enemies and player abilities required new particle effects (explosions) and the existing sprite based (large dots) were not suitable for this so close to the player. The new system has been designed to use sprites or models and offers better visuals for players with more powerful systems. This can be controlled via a new console command and allows the model particles to be scaled easily (different frames) and have a better selection of skins.

Stealth System

The current stealth system is very rough around the edges and can be very unforgiving to new players who are not familiar with how things work. The state of enemies (passive, suspicious and angry) is shown via the stealth eye above their head, but very little feedback (only sound clues) is given to the player when stealth is broken and the player should be looking for cover.

The Shadow Axe
New Shadow Axe in normal state

The first step towards improving this system is the introduction of the Shadow Axe with multiple skins to show what state (disabled, charging, enabled) the stealth system is in. This is tied together with new sounds that highlight the different stages while the start and finish states are accented by particles effects from the blade to remind the player stealth is enabled or disabled.

The existing stealth training area has been moved to the beginning of the new start map and is now isolated from the rest of the map so nothing can interfere with the learning of the stealth systems. The training enemies have additional helpers (circles drawn on the floor around them) to show what angle is safe for back stabs and these helpers can be enabled for the rest of the game if the player chooses.

New Steatlh Training Helpers
New Stealth floor helper around enemy and Shadow Axe in Stealth mode

A large amount of new environmental sounds have been added to the enemies like the scraping of feet, the rustle of leather cloth and the movement of loose metal armour plates. Theses additional clues can give the player a better understanding of where the enemies are and create a better sound scape of each new location when sneaking around in stealth mode.

There are more changes to the MOD but these are the main ones which will make the largest impact to the way the MOD will be played. As more map locations are completed I will post more screenshots to show progress and as always all feedback is welcome, just let me know what you think in the comments.

Winding around the Mountain

Winding around the Mountain

News 11 comments

The onward journey through the realms of stone and fire!

Exit stage left

Exit stage left

News 25 comments

ITS a short journey from the beginning to the end.

Demo V1.1 Released!

Demo V1.1 Released!

News 10 comments

New tutorial and on screen help to understand the stealth game play better.

Demo V1 Released!

Demo V1 Released!

News 6 comments

After months of testing, tweaking, coding, painting and a large spoonful of design I present version 1 of my MOD 'In the Shadows', which features three...

RSS Files
In The Shadows - Demo Version 1.1

In The Shadows - Demo Version 1.1

Demo 15 comments

New tutorial and on screen help to understand the stealth game play better.

In The Shadows - Demo Version 1.0

In The Shadows - Demo Version 1.0

Demo 1 comment

Demo version 1.0 with 3 maps and 2 game play modes.

ITS Gameplay Tricks v1_1

ITS Gameplay Tricks v1_1

Tutorial

A small collection of demo files showing ways to move the monsters around without being detected and how player movement speed is important.

ITS Source Code V1_2

ITS Source Code V1_2

Source Code 1 comment

The QuakeC source code for v1_2, there is no documentation support

ITS Dev Kit V1_1

ITS Dev Kit V1_1

Source Code 5 comments

The DevKit is for demo v1_1, there is no documentation support

ITS Source Code V1_1

ITS Source Code V1_1

Source Code

The QuakeC source code for v1_1, there is no documentation support

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 61)
CopperBoltwire
CopperBoltwire

Maybe one day Sock will come back to this mod and make something grand out of it. But for now, and thanks to Sock for releasing the source. The community can at least expand upon the maps and even add more weapons of their own.

Sock, thank you so very very much for not letting this wonderful and lovely mod die!
It only took 9 years since v1.1 :P

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GolfinhoGTI
GolfinhoGTI

Apologies for a dumb question but I'm a bit confused - with all the great images and videos for the mod available here, the most recent version available for download at ModDB is 1.1 which doesn't seem to be the most recent one and doesn't have a lot of these new developments like Sargeant Knight or Baramous Keep. Is there a place where the most recent version is available? Thank you.

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simonoc Creator
simonoc

Glad to hear you are interested with In The Shadows, unfortunately the information above is for the next version which never got finished or released. The latest version is 1.1.

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Meddi1980
Meddi1980

Is there a way to mod GOG's Quake: The Offering using this build? Thanks in advance.

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BLAZING_DUST
BLAZING_DUST

This mod really stands out from what I've seen speaking of Quake mods. Everything about it is pure perfection. I know you've been asked this a lot but it's been about 5 years since you've pushed out this mod, so... Is development on this halted, or still going?

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gnear
gnear

a brilliant mod! would have loved to see it develop further, but understandable

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StavrosSk
StavrosSk

Great idea, the stealth system is perfectly fitting for the game's medieval fantasy setting and somewhat reminds me of the Thief games. I hope you continue working on this project because it has great potential.

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AcidicVoid
AcidicVoid

Any updates? =/

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simonoc Creator
simonoc

Unfortunately this project is on the backburner until I finish my current projects. This MOD is not dead, just in hibernation for the winter!

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AcidicVoid
AcidicVoid

Well, okay. At least it is not dead. :)

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