To ease the workload and get better focus, we've decided to release Violation Flemoid in a series of five episodes. The first episode will be called the Combat Release.
The Combat Release will not have any storyline at all, but will instead focus on the combat system by allowing the player to fight through an endless hoard of Flemoids that, over time, get progressively harder to beat. Gameplay is the key to this release, and there will be tons of action packed fun.
Starting at the second release though, the focus will be on telling the story. With the core gameplay out of the way in the first release, the focus can be on creating maps, more enemies, more weapons, and the story. At this point, it's projected that there will be five releases including the Combat Release.
Here's what you've got to look forward to in the Combat Release:
3 Unique Weapons
- BootSpoon (of justice) - This weapon plays a larger roll in your survival than you'd think. It's your trusty Spoon that never leaves your side.
- Mini Zorcher - Semi-automatic pistol with all of its wonderful flashy glory.
- Rapid Zorcher - Fully-automatic rifle. It kicks trash... nuff said.
4 Very Different Enemies
- Flemoidus Commonus - As its name implies, it's the basic enemy of VioFlem. No arms or legs, but super nasty up close.
- Flemoidus Bipedicus - This sucker has two "legs", so therefore faster, and its big arm makes it a serious threat when in range. From a distance, it can hurtle balls of snot at extreme velocities. Not someone I'd like to meet in a dark alley.
- Flemoidus Calamus - A bird-like Flemoid that will fly high above you, then swoop down and shoot balls of slime at you from its snout as if it were a WW2 fighter plane.
- Flemoidus Barnicus - This little guy is not a threat alone. He's stuck to whatever surface he's on and can't move. In large groups they'd do some damage, but alone he's just cute.
1 Large Map
- The map will have different elements and obstacles across its large area to foster fun gameplay. Taking advantage of RAGE's huge maps, it's not a map that will get old very fast.
and of course
The Combat System
The Combat System will entirely rework the idea of a Third-Person Shooter into something that's never been done before. It boasts fresh and fast gameplay, catering to those who like to run 'n gun as well as those who like to plan things out a bit more. It also will introduce an impressive combo system to compliment the fast gameplay. More info about the combat system will be released as time goes on.
We're excited to be working on this mod so early. Our goal is to get a story driven mod out the door early so people don't have to wait 3+ years after RAGE's release. Also as promised, here's some concept art of LeeliX and Chexter, as well as an untextured Hi-Res render of the Bipedicus. All three were made by Jerick.
Enjoy!
-Wiweeyum
This looks great, Chex quest was the first FPS I played and it was so much fun. I'd love to see this when it's done.
Best of luck and keep going.
John Carmack said that RAGE would be too complicated for user mods. Are you still planning on trying?
Kotaku.com
Sure am. The beauty of starting VioFlem before the game's even out is that the ideas are inherently going to be theoretical. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since it seems to me that most people start modding huge projects without the initial planning. If enough planning and prototyping is done before the engine even comes out, then the game is made in its entirety on paper, and if the prototyping was done correctly, then that paper is more than just a bunch of fancy ideas. Our planning at this point hasn't been engine specific, which makes sense... I really don't know any more about RAGE than anyone else does.
Because the planning has been focused on the gameplay, storyline, visual style, audio style, etc. instead of creating engine specific media, there's a lot more flexibility than you'd think. We're working toward RAGE because I know how the id tech engines have worked in the past. I also really want to mess with the tools. They look great.
If push comes to shove though, we're not locked down and have the flexibility to move to a different engine if need be. It's still too early to tell.
Kind of early to be modding RAGE, but it looks like a great game to mod. I highly doubt the game is "too complicated to mod", even if Carmack said it.
Why would modders HAVE to make a 128kx128k texture maps for the environments? I don't understand why we can't just texture things conventionally. I'm pretty sure all the texture files are still located in DEF files, and have their own set resolution by whatever you saved it as in Photoshop.
Err, I guess I can't say "I'm sure". I just highly doubt they changed this system, other than maybe adding a nice GUI system for artists instead of making them work text files.
Sure, the download might be big (depending on how large you make your textures), but this is the age of broadband, and I don't care.
Still, I think it's a little early to be developing a mod for the game. Err, I mean, it's a little early for a ModDB announcement and web page maybe.
Whatever though, best of luck.
By the way, if anyone wants to figure out how .mega files work, I suggest looking at the modding files for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, it has an early version of Megatexture. Then again, so does Doom 3, but that's a really early version of Megatexture.
Forgot to add this in:
But in the case of RAGE, I suppose .mega files could be different. I really hope id software does their best to support modding. I've always loved modding id titles because of how they at least often release the source code to their tools, like their exporters. I HATE trying to get models and/or animations into a game when the game's exporter isn't compatible with my version of Maya or something of that nature. For example, in Doom 3's case, id software release their exporters, then released the source code to the exporters. They did this so the community could make their own exporters; this lead to exporters available for Blender, 3dsmax, ligthwave, and more. (The original exporters were only available for certain versions of Maya.)
The following comes from this page.
Gamasutra.com
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"Unfortunately, Rage is going to be more difficult to mod," said Willits, primarily because of the complexity of the game's vaunted megatexture system, which stores the texture data for levels as one huge texture map that streams in, rather than many smaller textures.
The megatexture issue aside, Willits said other aspects of the game will actually be easier to work with than the company's prior titles. "The description languages and the tools are a lot easier to use than the things we've done in the past," he explained.
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So I guess it's a waiting game to see what can and "can't" be done with id's engine. I don't think Carmack would have taken no for an answer though. :D We'll see.
I like this comment a little bit further down the page.
"We already had this same issue with Quake 1 and the long map vising and lighting baking. id had custom SG boxes to compile it or something?
The community coped, and desktop hardware got faster."
Let's hope for the good. Anyway you will have the next Wolfenstein just in case which feature megatexture too, but in the Quake Wars fashion.
I dont doubt that Id will make something interesting for us, but I really doubt that we gona touch that 128k sweet images, unless intel/AMD release those news 80Core processors.
By the way, great concepts, and the model is great. Nice work.
Thanks. ;)