Operation Eisenfaust : Origins

I can relate to everything good that was said here about this review. It's still weird to see "Batman vs. Bane" getting much more positive review.

To each their own.

Interesting reading through all the posts across forums, thanks for the feedback.

While the review does criticise many areas and might give an average impression of my opinion, please don't get me wrong. I consider Origins a great release with high quality content all round and enjoyed it enough to play through. It's because of this, that I wanted to point out the parts which were sour and hopefully provide useful feedback for the team to possibly consider in their next releases and forewarn players this could be a similar case for them. This leads me into the next point;

WolfForever wrote:For example if you think the mod scores about 80 percent overall, then about 80 percent of the text in the review should focus on what's good.

I disagree with this. It's very subjective and dependant on what is actaully being reviewed, but I tend to approach my reviews differently. If any release did score around 80 percent overall, I'd definitely talk about its strengths to a degree. However, I'm also concerned about the remaining 20 percent and wish to provide feedback as to why these are considered weak areas. Not make quick notes, but go indepth with them where possible. There have been a few occasions I've written a review with no major complaints, which then lacked actual opinion. I consider these my weaker reviews (example). There's only so many good things you can say about something before it gets old and drags on. I also say this as a mapper myself.

This is an excellent mod, I really liked sonder and this is nearly as great.

Yo yo, it's Balames style
Long awaited, finally a youtube review.

Hi, I just started playing this mode, because I watched Balames's video I find it very cool, but I think it's really shame, you can't reach the prefect 100% kills
So far, my kill ratio is:
lvl2: 95%
lvl3: 97%
lvl4: 90%
As I read the history in this topic, I found out it's some kind of a bug, so could anyone fix it? It would be great for hadrcore wolfers to achieve 100%

Thank you for your interest in the mod

Yes, Balames wrote to us also regarding this issue.
That might be a bug, and/or some actors that aren't enemies that are counted as such...those might be streetlamps or destructable barrels (?)...any scenery that has "actor" code in it's base.
We are currently discussing that on our dev. forum and are considering fixing that for Balames.
Our coders will try to check the code later today.

Other often complaint is the lack of par times for bonus levels.

I played level 2 today and got everything (I made it so I should know where everything is!) and I only got 95%. When the mod was in it's original incarnation it gave correct stats so for mine it's something in the coding while it was becoming Eisenfaust, it's something thats not a guard being counted as one or included in the stats somehow.
I suspect we will get to the bottom of it and release an updated version but not sure when that will be sorry. Thanks for bringing it to our attention

Andy seem to have found the problem...now we might issue an update/fix.

Problem was indeed solved - it was the patrolling mutants. Killing them didn't update the killcount.

We're not supposed to kill them!
Technically, they were counted towards the killtotal when they shouldn't have been. Killing them has no effect on the killcount, and shouldn't.

Ok, so can I upload the new version Andy?

When it's ready, sure!

doom, you probably solved part of the problem. I'll play through the updated version because I think there is a level or two where the treasure ratio isn't 100%. I checked the maps to find any out of place treasure and didn't find any.

I might be wrong though.

I'm currently in the first secret level and apart from kill ratio, I have everything 100%

doomjedi wrote:"Operation Eisenfaust : Origins" by Team RayCast.

Download:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3751922/OEF_origins.rar

Updated the link with kills % fix (original "Non-XmasPack" version)

Great! I'm actually thinking of making playthrough on youtube

Thanks! You're welcome to

Shit happens

Hi,

I'm on level 12 and really loving this so far, but I just lost multiple saves due to a bug of some kind. I died and went to reload, but every time I try to open either savegame, I get a crash with the following message: "GetNewActor: No free spots in objlist!"

It doesn't look like anyone else is reporting this problem, but does anyone know what I can do to avoid it or how I can get those saves back? Was it maybe just a one-time freak thing?

Thanks.

I usually make a new save game on entering a new map, just to avoid the need to play the whole game over from map 1 when my quick save slot becomes broken. However I don't recall this happening on my play-through of Eisenfaust.

Somehow this feels like a "blast from the past" and I don't know why since it's so new. But I'm thirsty for this mod once again. I remember getting to level 9, then 30 and then just forgetting it all. Gots to get back there... Gots to play it all over again.

Thank you, Thomas. Much preciated.

WolfForever - I've Pmed you in case you didn't notice....

Hey guys, I've finnaly bought new laptop and I'm up to something big! Here's a little sample:

Hi Morris!

Well, it's a camp...
Indeed there has been critisism of the games has too many levels and being too long as a mod. We even agree to it....despite many possible explanations...

Doomjedi wrote:Don't remember the initial reason for large level number...maybe we were just in a different mind back then, and too map amounts from more classic Wolf3D mods where usually there is large map number...but maps there are also easier and faster to map. Or maybe it was to make the large coding and art effort worth....or maybe because we had 2 mappers for this and just wated to make spots for all of them to get their ideas out....or maybe it's because of such a long development (4 years) and mappers wanting something to do and more ideas come in....or maybe we just didn't think of the matter too deeply - like we probably should have.
Our next mods will have less maps.

But we do have different themes in the mod (snow levels are good example, last levels are too...lab levels are as well.....etc)...with different colors and ...well, themes.

And in any case - we have no plans to fix or re-release the mod. But our next in-dev mods have much more themes and less levels in total.

"Eisenfaust" was our first serious mod as a team, and it took us time to find our sync, develop our mod making process, to see what works and what not. The project also extended well beyond our original vision and scope.
We didn't have a clear outline for the mod at first - sure not a clear and finalized level list.
Now, with our current projects, such level list (with details of what each level means by itself and within a plot, what new weapons/enemies and Bosses are introduced (if at all), weather, theme etc....) is one of the first thing we create for a new mod, and sure way before any mapping on the mod starts, so mapping is framed. So we don't just "make levels them ore the better". We prefer now fewer levels with better replay value.
But also, back then it was the only mod we developed. Nowdays we develop number of mods in parallel, so mappers have always work to do for some project, and don't have time or will to just overmap one particular project....there are other projects waiting to be mapped.

doomjedi wrote:..Nowdays we develop number of mods in parallel...

wait for game ?  

Akuul wrote:

doomjedi wrote:..Nowdays we develop number of mods in parallel...

wait for game ?  

Some mods we develop more publically ("No Man's Land" and it's future sequels - and even there we nowdays don't spill out tons of revealing screenshots like in "Eisenfaust" times) - and others under more secrecy - so those will only be announced publically when we'll have a release date set for them, not beforehand.

But indeed we develop more than one mod...won't reveal an exact number or relative status of the projects. Let me just say I'm pleased with the number of mods we manage to develop almost in parallel.

Ladies and gentleman, I'm really proud to present you my first W3D gameplay video:

Thank you very much!
This is great, and so flattering you've chosen our mod for your first video. Good luck with your videos.
Good walkthrough. It's great you also introduced the story in more detail.
Yes, those lamps need to be taken into consideration and are a bit annoying...always wondered why Balames mentioned nothing about those in his videos.
I still think it was worth it. The breaking glass sound and the destruction feeling add alot of grounding realism of the scene, it livens up the camp.
At some point near the release we considered to make simular thing to the red flag, even made a variant with bullet holes for it. But it's good it didn't go in. Lamps add a cool sound, flag would have no sound to balance the added annoyance.

Some notes: 1. game sounds seem to be a bit too weak relative to your voice. 2. Show some more "energy" in your voice, sometimes it feels you're meditating on the game, pass us some of the andrenaline and excitement...it's a game after all

Cool video, I really liked the way you thoroughly explained your strategies, very informative!

Get ready for more action! :3 

Edit: reuploaded in HD

Thanks Will watch it later today

I watched now few levels from beginning till end. Ok i got to ask cause it bothers me for a while now...
5 programmers and bugs like:

- storm lightening inside of room without windows
- rain/snow starting to fall from 1m height
- tiny moon size (i guess it's even smaller on higher resolutions)

some other flaws
- you left the mutant's third hand on stomach with weapon so basically every prisoner is armed
- on level 10 mutant sprite next to snowman has wrong hand color
- tree walls directly next to brick walls
- freezer walls frozen outside ouf room
- snow level mixed with summer level (he runs arround in a room for month or snow started to fall in summer?)
- candles hanging directly under wooden roof (love that one)
- mixed graphics
- whole world became a prison

It has some interesting ideas, features and lots of graphical animations, which is neat but not sticking to details, leaving features unfinished downgrades this mod a lot.

and personal opinion as a girl, color design of status bar is terrible

First, can't say (as my initial first reaction) I got a good vibes from your post, as it seems rather picky and such at places, at least at it's first part. Or maybe you just didn't play too many other Wolf3D mods for comparison.
But I preciate the feedback and interest in our mods, and hope to make you more happy with our future projects   

storm lightening inside of room without windows

I have to say I myself kinda like it. Despite the "relatively obvious" unrealism (and some say I'm too realistic in my mods, heh )
This thing didn't go unnoticed during the development, and at some point we coded in for the engine to recognize indoor/outdoor areas for lighting effect.
At some point or source update this feature got broken or whatever and we didn't bother to code it in again. We did consider to recode it though, but bottom line is - we probably didn't care enough about this particular feature.
The fact that project's source got lost once during the development, and we needed to revert to much earlier version and recode tons of stuff from coder's logs - didn't help this either.
I have to say our future mods try to be more nitpicky about...things. Adds loads of coding tasks to the coder though, and I'm not sure all are justified. One has to find a right balance of project scale, delay, coding weight - to the benefit of actual degree of realism achieved, especially for a Wolf3D engine mod.

- rain/snow starting to fall from 1m height

It's still a wolf3D engine...after 64 pixels - ceiling starts. Even parallax sky - is still a ceiling texture, even if it doesn't look such because of parallax effect. There is nothing higher than a ceiling in Wolf3D engine.
I'm not sure this is different in other Wolf3D mods. Looks again a bit nitpicky remark.

- tiny moon size (i guess it's even smaller on higher resolutions)

Again, quite nitpicky. This is not VSWAP art, it's a standard nightsky effect precoded in ChaosEdit/SDL engine, not something we made or added for particulary for this mod. Moreso - it's the same star sky as in all other Wolf3D mods I know (some are classic and very famous). Yes, I think moon is too small in it. Yes I could insert a star sky into the VSWAP...but we didn't want to add yet another sky (we already have at least 4 skies (normal, rain, snow, final levels), much more than in average Wolf3D mod), if there is a precoded sky we could use.

- you left the mutant's third hand on stomach with weapon so basically every prisoner is armed

We gave an explanation to that. 3rd arm is not yet connected to his brain so he can't use it/control it to shoot. Those are early phase of mutant development..it's not that easy to attach 3rd arm to a human, sure not in WWII times. It's not a copy/paste - simply stitching it to the body won't work.
Not to mention at this early point nazis wouldn't load ammo into such "arms" anyway, till they know mutants can be fully trusted.

- tree walls directly next to brick walls

Relative to Wolf3D engine this looks like nitpicking as well. You gotta suspend your dispelief a bit if you want to enjoy Wolf3D mods. Even Doom mods, heh

- freezer walls frozen outside ouf room

This was my bad judgement (and if done now would be different), but I'm not a mapper, at least not a good one. Those levels were done properly by mappers - and then, much later (long story) I had to remap most of the freezing rooms without mapper's help. Most of wolfers in this room know exactly why and when in was made. I didn't do a perfect job, but most wolfers here know that if not for our initiative with LinuxWolf - this mod might not have ever seen light of day...and that would've been sad.
Partly remapping so much large levels (which are not your maps) is a hard task to do perfectly.
You can see in today's Balames video I just forgot to remap some of the ceiling textures in one room of level 10 as well - from grey to freezing ones. Balames was nice eough not to mention that or to assume it was planned that way...but I noticed.

- snow level mixed with summer level (he runs arround in a room for month or snow started to fall in summer?)

AFAIR is was a secret level or area....and such have less realism obligations. Looks intentional by the mappers, hard to do this by mistake.

- candles hanging directly under wooden roof (love that one)

Heh, this is funny indeed

- whole world became a prison

Well, we didn't claim for our levels to represent a whole world. It's...a really big camp.

It has some interesting ideas, features and lots of graphical animations

Thanks :)I'm sure you'l lenjoy our next projects :)We're working hard on those.
In BvsB sequel we did take some BvsB feedbacks into account.

and personal opinion as a girl, color design of status bar is terrible

Heh...accepted

We hope our next mod will be a bigger hit with out female fans. Thanks Atina!

linuxwolf wrote:We hope our next mod will be a bigger hit with out female fans. Thanks Atina!

Last line can probably be misunderstood by some. As I'm not aware of anything particulary feminine in our next mods (well...at least 2 next mods) - just wanted to say he probably meant for the next mods to be better as mods...which is natural to any modding team. This hopefully should make them bigger hit with fans of any gender, regardless of gender that means.

It's indeed very nice to have female fans Sorry if I was a bit too harsh in my initial reply.

Did somebody mention girls?