Alright! The wheels are finally moving forward. The level construction is finally 100% complete on all fronts and its battle design is underway. It is also being playtested as we speak. And that, brings us to a whole bunch of good news (and just news) and i am looking forward to share. In the end, i decided to leave this article within a narrower posting circle, since there is a lot of info that is highly specific and people who don't know what Legend-9 is, will simply not know what i'm talking about. Maybe i am wrong, yet be as it may - i decided to go with that. Next one, i'll make of a more general nature and publish as an official article. But, let's not digress too far. This time it's eye candy first, and text later :-) There is quite a lot to tell.
Here we go: Darkmere, the starting area. You emerge from that crypt in the distance, center right. No, not quite like Caleb - this crypt is bigger, and has enemies in it. But, the idea certainly came from there...
The Gauntlet area. There is quite a nasty ambush toward the exit, involving a squad of Stalker leaders, a Fire Mage and a Dark Serpent...not to mention that it flows into another ambush...
Ah...yeah, here it is, - almost as pretty as the Overgrown Castle! The part of the level inspired by Faithless Trilogy. All resources modded by me, from scratch. It actually takes about 25% of the level. So, definitely expect to fight here. Although, it is rather mild, compared to the other stuff in this new Darkmere.
The thick clouds of mist at The Cabin segment, coupled with the visual changes - create a haunting atmosphere. From here, you also have a branching path to The Lake, which carries the style further.
The Starting Area branches to the left - to the Abandoned Ruins, and to the right - where you find the remnants of a broken harbor with those strange things... A shortcut to...mushrooms?! 
Now, we get to the progress details per se:
1) It is time to put the cards on the table, even though it is somewhat spoiler-ish. From the beginning of the second hub - the rest of the new enemies begin to appear more frequently. To remind, Legend-9 has 4 new enemies: The Minotaur, (which was a staple even in the old 8.33), the Dark Serpent, - which encounters enough times in the Legend-9-demo; The Golem/Zombie - a much more dangerous version of its Heretic analogue and The Fire Mage, - a renegade sorcerer who joined the ranks of Korax's army. All the new enemies, as you had the chance to find out first hand - are extremely deadly (and are much harder to kill), but the last two - easily take the cake. No one in Hexen (except Korax - and i do mean Legend-9 version) can reduce a careless player to a pile of gibs, - faster than these two.
2) Major spoiler here: the trio of Dark Serpent, Golem and the Fire Mage - are MODS. That's right. They are mods of existing enemies. After all, Legend-9 is being made by a non-programmer, so no truly "new" stuff that would require programming skills. These three are modifications of Traductus, Zedek and Menelkir. Fortunately, Doomsday is the only engine that allows (and always has done so) to modify things based on logic and the thorough knowledge of the game. No C++/whatsoever required. Why am i telling you this? Because, in the full version - there is no fight against Zedek/Traductus/Menelkir - as these dudes were converted into standard enemies with different attacks and all. Frankly, i have set the sights on doing that already for a long time. I always considered those 3 a wasted potential and nothing but a nuisance, so the idea of modding them into something better - existed since the times when i announced "Deathkings: The Return" mod, so these dudes are old news to me, but now - it's out in the open.
3) Battle-testing showed that Baratus the Warrior - not only has a lot of issues facing the new enemies, - because of his melee focus, but is pretty much getting an ass whooping every time green mana is in short supply. Not to mention that it becomes exceedingly boring to have just a single truly viable ranged weapon in an arsenal that consists of merely four weapons to begin with. I could understand the original's logic, that Warrior has 2 melee weapons, Cleric has 1 and the Mage has all weapons ranged. Well...we'll leave this kind of logic to the sleepy world of "Chicken (raven?) Software", where you had to wake the monsters up first, feed them some oatmeal gruel, then smack them on the head with something allegedly heavy (and boring) once or twice, - so they would return to their sleep-state. Permanently.
But, this kind of nonsense does not fly in Legend 9. Legend 9 has almost the entire enemy cast consisting of ranged enemies, each with unique style of attack, very aggressive; with at least 3 of them - able to fire around your cover. So, this issue with Baratus needed an immediate intervention.
4) So, i have restructured Baratus' arsenal: now EVERY CHARACTER in Legend-9 (including current and future DLC's) - starts with a melee weapon, has two ranged weapons and an ultimate weapon, which is of course - also ranged. Many characters (The Warrior in particular) have weapons that are both melee and ranged at the same time. So everyone has enough tools that are adequate to deal with any enemy.
The changes to Baratus' weapons are as follows:
- The Storm Gauntlets now have ranged capabilities, as well as melee. It has two modes of attack, chosen depending on the distance to target (reminder: Legend-9 does not have alt-fire). The Gauntlets are now the MORE powerful ranged weapon among the two main ones. And, they are also the more expensive one: 4 mana pts per shot.
- Dragonstaff - now has an increased rate of fire, however - the fragmentation effect for its projectiles has been removed.
- The Fire Sword - has received a major boost in its melee stopping power. Now Baratus can use it to cut through quite a few enemies with relative ease, provided the player can move around well enough.
5) Overall, Baratus is now a force to be reckoned with, even against the new enemies. I am currently rebalancing the levels to fit his new abilities. I had several variants of what to go with, but in the end - most were either less attractive, or less practical - or simply not possible to be implemented by a non-programmer, be it due to Doomsday bugs, its limitations or both.
6) Having tried a number of available options, i have brainstormed the issue and found nothing better: thus, until there is a superior solution - Baratus will use the Fire Sword graphics for his ultimate weapon as well, albeit with an added extra visual effect.
7) Last but not least, regarding Baratus: i have slightly altered the dual-spell action of the Fire Sword, in order to circumvent the currently existing bug with damage received / red flash not being active. This bug is present in the demo, but now this issue has been bypassed.
8) On the other end of the mod: it may come as a surprise (or not, for those with a keen eye...or ear), that i do not like the music in Hexen. So, i am currently compiling an external music pack to be used with Legend-9 (obviously compatible with vanilla Hexen as well). Most of it comes from the same composer, since the stylistics of all of his later (and better) works are very close to those of Hexen II, which shows. Who knows, maybe he was simply incapable of doing anything else - or was aiming to perfect this singular element. Whichever it is, - such music pack will be available for download. It is, of course, optional. I will not be dealing with MIDI files anymore, they will stay exactly as they were passed down from version 8.33
9) Finally, since we are moving forward with level testing and polish, - the construction of the new Darkmere took 4.5 months. So the envisioned ETA of the full game remake is tentatively August 2023. The nearest two months will provide a better idea regarding the accuracy of this. If i see within these two months that everything is on schedule - then i will proceed as is and finally launch the game in August. If i see that my estimations are not accurate and will require additional time, then i will release a second demo (cause this one is quite outdated already, compared to the version i am working with) and then resume the development with the extra time taken.
Stay tuned,
~HS
