[testing phase] Batman: No Man's Land

http://www.moddb.com/mods/batman-no-mans-land





Discuss and ask questions here...we'll update on the development.

Coder: LinuxWolf
Mapper: Ronwolf
Art: DoomJedi
Music and Sounds: Lozer_42, RonWolf

The mod uses modified art from:
"Operation : BodyCount"
"Blake Stone"

First level is finished by Ron.

Meantime we keep thinking of/adding more cool ideas (which require more art and coding), and so next levels might be delayed (till LinuxWolf does some more coding) - so they won't be in need of revisiting.
New sprites/objects are easy to add, but textures and such make a mess on already mapped maps. So we need to finalize our wallnums...even by putting in placeholders.

This mod will have a VERY different gameplay (and balancing) than the first one, much more "Batman-like" IMHO. We try to tweak and improve almost every aspect of the first mod, to make it more interactive, realistic etc...And sure we take into account feedbacks and "requests" from the first mod. This is a good thing in a trilogy - you can get feedback for next parts.

Overall things will look "less rushed"...We go into details this time.

Also use of Wall Patches (like we extensively used in Sonder) will allow us more texture flexibility.

LinuxWolf tries to find time to code this, and the main "Team RayCast" mod. So he is top busy

The first map will already well-introduce the player to the changes in design and gameplay of this one.

Weapons will be tweaked/improved, every Boss will be given his special attention, and gameplay will be "smarter"/Batman-y....

But meantime LinuxWolf's coding list is scary, and keeps expanding

After seeing the quality of the Sonder trailer and Playing the first Batman mod I can't tell yo how excited I am to get my grubby little paws on this baby.

Per-Scan wrote:After seeing the quality of the Sonder trailer and Playing the first Batman mod I can't tell you how excited I am to get my grubby little paws on this baby.

Oh thanks

Having a capable coder who can code in virtually anything - really boosted our creativity and imagination and freed us from pre-limiting ourselves in what we can dream of, especially now, with no deadline set. This is so fun just think of all you really want for the mod, and knowing there is someone who'll be able to code all that in, just tell him what you want. Never had such a situation before.
LinuxWolf does an amazing job so far, and due to him - we are limited only by our imagination (and we have alot of it ), and it's "modder's Heaven on Earth".
Still, the most critical part will fall on RonWolf's shoulders....as nomatter how cool you make the features and art (all those are mere toys to give mapper's more creative freedom of mapping ideas and possibilities) - you need a GREAT mapping to back it up - to make a great mod. I fully trust RonWolf to keep his current mapping quality, seen in BvsB.

We also are much more "professional" and experienced now in large projects - than we were making Sonder - and so there is really a cool way we plan and outline a project, and then detailing it (and monitoring the process), in a democratic discussion and very creative "team brainstorming" where we keep and keep bouncing ideas one off the other with improvements and fine-tuning (on the private dev. forum). The whole process is everything one can love about modding. It's all "oh, great idea - maybe we can even make it this and this....oh man, great!! Maybe it can also....."...and we are just radiating joy.

The whole "energy" of the team is the best ever, especially after BvsB success. We just are having so much fun with this one.

Each mod of the trilogy, just like Nolan movies, will have a main "Batman-related theme" to it - gameplay-wise, showcasing different side/aspect of Batman character. Art themes will support it as well.
First mod was about direct fighting.

We keep improving every aspect of the first mod. Some ideas that were scrapped from the first part due to time contraints - will go into this one, along with many new ideas (that still keep coming).
We have all Bosses, items and enemies made (and themes are defined) and split in-between the 2 next parts, so it gives us a clear vision and ability to plan the 3rd part in parallel to the 2nd one.
So I can say - each part will take previous one to the next level of detail, interactivity, replay value, features and themes...we don't plan to waste all our great ideas just on the current part.

Just like in BvsB - we don't plan to release any in-work screenshots until quite close to the release date. Sorry
BvsB final screen was made from within the "sequel" (in it's state at that point of time), so you can see a (tiny!) "teaser" in it for this part.

And this is not even the biggest "Team RayCast"'s in-work project, heh.

There's something bigger too?? Wow. Can't wait to hear about that one!

I'm glad your team is having fun making these games. Sometimes I get worried that less and less people enjoy making stuff for this old game. I truly look forward to everything you put out there.

It sounds like your very confident of completing and developing the trilogy. That must be really exciting. I wish I could map or code but I suppose the community needs players too!

Please keep us informed.

Per-Scan wrote:There's something bigger too?? Wow. Can't wait to hear about that one!

Batmods are a "side-project" in their core....though slowly expand beyond that term.
That "main" project has a title (and all the art and story made), but is unannounced, not to over-hype it before we have screens to show.
I mentioned it before in my Dean's blog interview. It was started immidiately after Sonder cancellation....and if not Batmods - would probably get to mapping stage by now, it's just that Batmods distract LinuxWolf from it time after time... When this Batmod part is mapping-ready, LinuxWolf will return coding the main project (and only then return to code the 3rd Batmod part), which is made to be the most advanced Wolf3D engine ever made.

The project is based and much more advanced version of WSJ's TotenKopf engine, and it's about nazis....well...all sorts of nazis, and not only

Oh, you tease!

Nice to hear of a lot of activity.

I remember reading your interview but just forgot about your mentioned project. I think you've picked a good engine to base your project on. Totenkopf is one impressive game. About the only other mod that has impressed as much is Havoc's Absence SDL...

Per-Scan wrote:Oh, you tease!

Oh, don't mention
We still need to release full "SplitWolf" version
So many projects, so little time And only 1 active coder.

I think you've picked a good engine to base your project on.

Indeed WSJ is a God
We added much to it since then ...and much more planned.

Yeah, the community is lucky to have such talent as WSJ and his cohorts (Ack, Havoc, Codetech, AreyeP, you! )

We're a small group of folk in the W3D world but the talent ratio is stupidly high!

Oh...*flush*

We seem to scrap one (made) Boss from the 3d part, and also 1 (made) related enemy.
Sad, but those don't fit our plot well.
Maybe we'll replace them with other enemies/villains, who knows.

Maybe they can be used in some other form in one of your other projects a la the Pacman level of the original game? Just a thought.

Per-Scan wrote:Maybe they can be used in some other form in one of your other projects a la the Pacman level of the original game? Just a thought.

Maybe. But we don't see it in our trilogy.....maybe if we'll make part 4 It's not like we are legally obligated for just 3 parts...who knows.

Currently we consider putting in one of "Batman vs. Bane" villains instead - in a much more scary and challenging version (made the art frames already). It's not a secret many of "Batman vs. Bane" Bosses fights would look very different if we'd have no time contraints on the first part.

The dev. threads are much more active in recent days, we're slowly picking up the pace.
We keep brainstorming great new ideas, and if LinuxWolf will agree to code those in - this is gonna be a much more sophisticated and interactive mod than BvsB.... It will be anyway, but now even more so

To continue the previous post - this sequel will take the player quite some time to learn....to use the different things, to see how to get around and what are the "laws"...to interact...to be more tactical....otherwise it'll be hard

We also make some unique visual changes from previous part

Sounds like you're making yourselfs your very own Guns and Glory 0.5.

No, no projectile bullets in this one
But yes, I understand what you mean

Projectile bullets - No (But why not bat-arangs and that sort of stuff? It IS Batman after all).
New Features never before seen by Wolf Modders the world over - Yes.

Well, I can promice you batarangs in this one
As a general remark - almost all of the features of the first mod will be "improved" - I'll leave the rest to your imagination

And yes, we have at least one "never seen before in a Wolf3D mod" feature But it's a secret

All of mine were until I decided to upload my game and then blurt out to the world what my special features were.

I love special features. They're fun. Secret or not.

Mar joined "Team RayCast" as a coder. Which project will he be assigned - is not yet finally decided. But it'll sure speed up the development.

We all wish him the best of luck

doomjedi wrote:Mar joined "Team RayCast" as a coder. Which project will he be assigned - is not yet finally decided. But it'll sure speed up the development.

We all wish him the best of luck

Mar so far shows very impressive coding adaptation abilities/skills, creative thinking...We are glad we have him onboard.
Now we have 2 capable coders on the project (working parallely on the same source) - I see coding of this mod getting fastly towards a finish line, despite many new cool ideas we keep coming up with (and after that - mapping will start (beyond one map already done) and both coders might move to coding SplitWolf or our main mod)

We're slowly getting out of ObjNums/Actors (taking into account ChaosEdit's limit) - so we need to start stopping the ideas flow....gotta put a "stop" at some point.

I still don't know for sure if LinuxWolf and Mar will keep collaborating on this mod, or will LinuxWolf now move to keep coding our main project.

After a "priorities" discussion we've decided LinuxWolf will make a pause progressing this mod (because of the new "time consuming" coding features we plan for it) - and return progressing our main mod, to get it mapping-ready in the upcoming months.
Then - he'll return to progressing this mod.

I reading now Batman: No Man's Land, and when game is released. Maybe I find the something common with comic book and game .

The overall theme of the mod is quite simular for both next sequels, more or less, and indeed has some general parallels to the comics.
It's hard for me to be more detailed, being not familiar with the comics (beside general plotlines) like Ron does.

P.S. Mars is still helping with the mod, so it's not stalled completely.

Ok, I plan to release a "SplitWolf" beta 2 later today.

But this means this mod is now back in active development by LinuxWolf, who is quite inspired by feedbacks on the first part. First part was planned as a fast mod - this one isn't... wink

Some pics need no additional words...

Is this still a Wolfenstein Mod for SDL, or is this turning into something for Zdoom or GZdoom?

-Also, WOW!

This is a Wolf4SDL mod.

You'll pardon me if I don't believe that right away.

Just, WOW.

Exactly my reaction when I first saw it

Now on Moddb:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/batman-no-mans-land

woah! this looks amazing. You guys are surely going the advanced coding route with your mods over at Team Raycast. I can only hope at some point the team working on FF2 can make something that looks this jaw dropping. My jaw is still on the floor!

Thanks

The engine is pretty much done, at least the main things we wanted for it, the core new features, the complicated ones. Now - mapping, feedbacks....engine tweaks based on that....and again - mapping

In waiting "Batman: No Man's Land", I started to get acquainted with the "source material".. ie comics.
I liked the two issues (series)..

"Batman: Year One" (1987)
"Dark Knight Returns" (1986)

Concise and expressive graphics.. realistic in some episodes.. Wonderful stories.
Now I want to read - "Batman: Black & White" (1996), "Batman: The Killing Joke" (1988), "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" (1989).. "Batman: The Long Halloween" (1996).. etc.

Yeah, those are great comics and great stories.

"Dark Knight Returns" had a very good animated adaptations just recently

I watched those in English over XBMC, but russian sites have it as well (rus)...

http://filmix.net/boeviki/50835-betmen-vozvraschenie-temnogo-rycarya-chast-1-batman-the-dark-knight-returns-part-1-2012.html

http://filmix.net/boeviki/58142-temnyy-rycar-vozrozhdenie-legendy-chast-2-batman-the-dark-knight-returns-part-2-2013.html

Amazing cartoon adaptation....so talented.



Batman Year One has a great cartoon adaptation as well:

http://filmix.net/multfilmy/26925-betmen-god-pervyy-batman-year-one-2011.html

Akuul wrote:In waiting "Batman: No Man's Land"

As I said on the other forum, the mod (and it's sequel) is currently stalled, while we're waiting for WLHack's new lighting engine, as LinuxWolf's one (though looking impressive) is too heavy on harddisk, too costful, and too complicated on mappers who need to manually light their maps appropriately.
WLHack's engine is better on all other areas and it's the one we plan to go with.

Meantime we do work on our other projects....and we do have other projects.

You like Batman cartoons. ... Did you see the March 17th episode of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns is Fruitbatman? He's almost like a comedian impersonating Batman at http://www.hulu.com/search?q=The+Simpsons or http://www.hulu.com/watch/468273#i0,p2,d0 . I think this will stay online until March 31 because it will be 2 weeks after the airing.

No, I didn't

doomjedi wrote:.."Dark Knight Returns" had a very good animated adaptations just recently..

Thanks looked with pleasure. Nice adaptation.. but the graphics on some of the comics is unique.. For example in the comic book "Dark Knight Returns" I really like how television reports are implemented..
I just like minimalism..
ironic ..


..
or dramatic ..

(с) illustrations from "Batman: The Long Halloween"
Continuation this story
in
"Batman: Dark Victory"

.
Actually sometimes it seems that comics about Batman more luck with artists. I feel like saying - the more talented.. However maybe all the easier - the nature of the character gave more reason for experiments.
.

.
The way you like comics - "Batman: Earth One" ?
..
But if we talk about comics in general .. I personally was surprised .. ie I suspect that in the world of comics created a lot of honest, dramatic, interesting stories but I did not expect that they will be very a lot..

Recommend ..
John Arne Sæterøy (alias Jason)..
One of my favorite stories "Why Are You Doing This?"

.
Jonathan Ames - "The Alcoholic"

.
Adam Sacks - "Salmon Doubts"

.
Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura - "I Kill Giants"

.
Shaun Tan - "The Arrival"
.
http://www.shauntan.net/books/the-arrival.html
.

...
Separately recommend the following comics ..
.
Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido - "Blacksad"
While there were four stories in the style of film noir
.

.
Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon- "Pride of Baghdad"
The story is a fictionalized account of the true story of four African lions that escaped from the Baghdad Zoo after an American bombing in 2003
.

The team decided to scrap advanced shading and one other advanced feature.

doomjedi wrote: "Batman: No Man's Land".. This is a Wolf4SDL mod.

 Maybe there is any news? 

Sorry, but no. The mod is ready for mapping (artwise and coding-wise) and just waits for mappers (especially RonWolf) to start mapping for it.

It's just that "Team RayCast" is very busy lately working full-time on other team's project I've hinted of before - which seems (at this point) to be our next project to be released. Currently all team's resources are going to that "other" project/mod.
"No Man's Land" is temporary stalled and doesn't seem to be our next project to release - but has good chances to be released after that "other" mod.
Just to make it clear - the mod is not cancelled - and will definetely be released. We have full intention to finish that one...as the 3rd part of that trilogy as well (artwise all 3 parts are ready). It's just hard to work on 2 mods at once, we gotta make our priorities.

"Team RayCast" is quiet lately here about our mods/works/projects - but do not worry - we work DAILY and very intensively on our mods, to make those to your liking, once released.
I'm forbidden by the team to release any details about our current project.

doomjedi wrote:..The mod is ready for mapping (artwise and coding-wise) and just waits for mappers (especially RonWolf) to start mapping for it...

 Well .. wait ..  

The "Batman vs. Bane " will be transferred to a new engine?

Akuul wrote:The "Batman vs. Bane " will be transferred to a new engine?

Not in any future I can see. The changes I'd like to make for it to make it more consistent with the sequels - would require deep mapping changes. Maybe you underestimate the differences of part 1 and part 2 (and 3). If you examined carefully even only the HUD bar of the Part 2 screenshots we already released to the public - you'd notice new coin system and armor system implemented. This is just one example. I also hinted many times of (now finally) destructible (which means passable) trashcans (and even more than that...if you again examined the screenshots carefully - and they don't really show ALL you can do with trashcans lid). And this is just what we hinted of by our screenshots - imagine how more surprises we have in this

For such remake - you need to make all new maps. I hope you understand it.
And who will make all new maps?

I think simplicity of that mod is kind of it's charm - especially relative to our other projects.
The mod is official part of the trilogy, and it's sequels continue it's plot - from where the last mod ended. We are not rebooting the trilogy, even if next mods are much more advanced. It's good when each mod is more advanced than the previous one, it's still one trilogy.

"Team RayCast" welcomes it's newest member - Metalor
Yes, we "turned him to the Dark Side", heh

This mod is still in active development...just to let people know we didn't forget about it

Just wanted to say this mod is in active development and is in progressive development stages.
There is no doubt it will be released - moreso - we have full intentions/ideas/preparation for part 3 as well.

I'm posting this as guys on moddb started to doubt this project is not dead.
Well...it's VERY not dead.

Updated the screenshots on the moddb page (see first post), as previous ones weren't...representative of the mod anymore, especially after shading method was changed.

Obviously screens are only from first 2 levels and try to avoid spoilers.