Savage Land Demo Released

[Mister_Prophet]

Imagine my surprise when I remembered my old login.

So I've been putting together a Demo for an Unreal SP campaign that I've been picking at for the last...well let's call it a solid decade at this point. It's fairly short and can be run on the following platforms:

-Unreal 277i
-Unreal Gold 227i
-Unreal Tournament 436 with Oldskool

Recently a new patch for UT has surfaced called the 469. The demo should work okay on that, but be advised that we did not test for it and while it is still under development experiences may vary.

Some links:

Moddb page Download: https://www.moddb.com/mods/savage-land/downloads/savageland-demo
MediaFire Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/bebbvxaa3hi4ptx/SavageLand-Demo.zip/file

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Someone told me you release residual decay demo but this is/was a separate project right?

 

[Manticore]

Amazing. Great to see you. Stay safe.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

Someone told me you release residual decay demo but this is/was a separate project right?

Hey Leo! How are you? This is technically the merged remains of RD and BFNP into a new project. I have a pretty in depth FAQ about in the UnrealSP forums. I know you don't post there but I'll quote the important bit for you:

Q: Is this Residual Decay?

A: Yes. And no. Savage Land was to be part one of a planned episodic release of RD (along with Dead Cells and Xidia Black) but at this time only Savage Land will likely see a release. I realized once I set out to do this that it was better to focus on one episode and fit as much of the good stuff in as I could. Savage Land is not merely RD rebranded or downgraded, but rather a new project that appropriates and absorbs much of RD's unrealized content.

Q: So, then what is Savage Land?

A: Savage Land is a classic styled Unreal campaign. It is being designed for simultaneous release on Unreal and UT. It will feature the classic bestiary and inventory. In terms of setting, the stories and themes that shaped Battle For Na Pali are directly influential. This might surprise people, but this is where my head was about ten years ago when I was actively converging Residual Decay and the remnants of BFNP into one project. Savage Land is the best culmination of that effort. As was BFNP's original plan this campaign takes place on a Na Pali set many years after the events of Unreal. To those of you who are familiar with what would have been Team UnrealSP's ill-fated magnum opus, think of Savage Land as a spiritual prequel to BFNP.

Also, hello to you too Manticore! Long time. Hope everything is well with you and yours.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

I didn't try it yet because I have very little time right now, but seeing the screenshots I think this is that map I tested years ago wasn't it? I lost it since since it was on the way old machine.

Sorry for the confusion about the project, I know you started merging bnfp into residual decay at some point, an idea I wasn't much keen on because I saw both projects having different atmosphere and such. But for the people who like unreal atmosphere this might be better because a lot of people didn't like new huds of xidia/seven bullets and the switched weapons order. Still I can't help but feel odd about the changes/reordering of everything but indeed it makes sense now, that this is an episode of what was to be residual decay but not quite.

I still think that RD (no longer residual delay I suppose, sorry but I heard this joke many times before) was better than bnfp because bnfp did have a bit of an aura of too much pretention at one point to me. I was never much fan of unrealsp and its rating system and the way things went internally there as you might know, so that's just how I see it. I think even projects like deja vu were often quite overrated and yet many others were mercilessly criticized for very little reason. It does all depend on someone's taste its just I found the way things go there that if you stand out too much from the general taste/way of things how they go there and it becomes harder if you have objections or even start to actively argue like I used to do and over time it became more and more extreme. Things might go a little different from time to time but as long as some people are still in charge there I don't think there's a possibility of me ever returning. Not to mention the current admin was one of the first guys i ever got into argument with over his apocalypse threat review and all that. I just see positives where others don't, even though I don't think that's the best pack ever, it was innovative for trying to make multiple choices where all the other packs featured just straight line until stuff like legacy came along and this aspect was completely ignored.

As for me personally, I was never good in terms of money and such but recent events have made me go outright starve at times all because of the disproportional measures and ruination of economy and systems. For someone like me its a death sentence worse than any virus or whatever could do. As you might realize there are things that are being closed down that some people can only have their jobs in and this resulted in job losses in my family and what not.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

I didn't try it yet because I have very little time right now, but seeing the screenshots I think this is that map I tested years ago wasn't it? I lost it since since it was on the way old machine.

Sorry for the confusion about the project, I know you started merging bnfp into residual decay at some point, an idea I wasn't much keen on because I saw both projects having different atmosphere and such. But for the people who like unreal atmosphere this might be better because a lot of people didn't like new huds of xidia/seven bullets and the switched weapons order. Still I can't help but feel odd about the changes/reordering of everything but indeed it makes sense now, that this is an episode of what was to be residual decay but not quite.

I still think that RD (no longer residual delay I suppose, sorry but I heard this joke many times before) was better than bnfp because bnfp did have a bit of an aura of too much pretention at one point to me.

I did send some early vanilla versions of map 1 around to some people several years ago, yes. Between 2012-2015 I think. Wasn't quite sure what it was going to be then. Everything else sort of came together slowly. I think the problem with a lot of projects back then (RD especially) was a lot of big headed ideas. All of us being younger probably had more more to do with it too. I know for my part that I wasted a lot of time when I was more active in the community trying to chase certain things that all led to a dead end. I'm pretty happy with how the Demo came out, and for a long time I wasn't happy working on RD so that tells me something. Coming back to Unreal after so many years away and seeing how quickly this new progress has been going has been eye opening. These days I don't have a lot of time for this stuff, so taking a back seat and just trying to let Unreal be Unreal helped make the new levels more enjoyable. Old game is old and all that.

When you do play it, IF you play it, I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

That's a good one "IF" I play it because not long after my post I was thrown out on the streets and nobody wants to give me money, from the state I fall outside of all the known cathegories, where I'm staying I cannot set up my stuff or play Unreal, so "IF I play it" is really good one. I really feel bloody annoyed because I was nearly completing the Zenith COOP version I set out to make for 3's server and we were testing that stuff.

 

[NeoNite]

Hey Mister_Prophet, how are you? Been a long time.
I remember following the RD and bfnp projects. I'll be interested in checking this out.

Btw, wasn't there a project called "amnesia" (?) at one time? I remember this screenshot on unrealsp.org. It showed some sort of military base(?) with plant growth near a window? Textures were really clear. Not sure when that was tbh. Could be ten years ago or more.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

It might have been called amnesiac and was by fashahh or how his name was spelled...I don't recall if anything of that was released. Probably not.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

Hey Mister_Prophet, how are you? Been a long time.
I remember following the RD and bfnp projects. I'll be interested in checking this out.

Btw, wasn't there a project called "amnesia" (?) at one time? I remember this screenshot on unrealsp.org. It showed some sort of military base(?) with plant growth near a window? Textures were really clear. Not sure when that was tbh. Could be ten years ago or more.

Hey NeoNite. Good to hear from you too. Hope you enjoy Savage Land if you do play it, especially if you followed those old projects since it's a little bit of both of those. As mentioned before, you can get it going on UT with the 436 patch or Unreal/Unreal Gold with 227i. Glad to see you still hanging around here.

Leo is right. Amnesiac was a project Fashahh was working on, thought I seem to recall it have a bit of an Urban theme. I know he made a mention of it recently on UnrealSP, so dunno if that one is still getting worked on. He actually released a single map recently called The Vale, which was in my opinion the best finished level from Battle for Na Pali. He released it as a standalone SP level.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

I recall urban theme too honestly.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

As stated on the home forums, feedback from the demo has prompted some reworks of the inventory system and a bunch of touchups on the old inventory.

Development Diary wrote:

-Forcefields now stackable, up to 5 can be carried at a time.
-Kinetic Accelerator added. Boosts damage to non-energy weapons.
-Flares updated. They last three times longer and no longer explode when spent.
-Pathfinder Seeds added. Glow where tossed, used as minimal light source and as breadcrumbs.
-Rifle now has increased Stagger on enemies.
-New Razorjack in early testing, guidable alt firing enabled similar to redeemer cam.
-Guerilla Vest and Sash added to inventory, pending new models/skins/icons

 

[Mister_Prophet]

Been posting some updates periodically on our home threads at UnrealSP.Org and its Discord server (I'm usually on the Unreal Discords these days). Here's some updates on a few of the newer things that have been added to the game.

-Survivalist Satchel added. Allows single pickup of many items (or a select few).
-Bleak Seeds added. Turn into Null Fruit Trees, which cure Poison status.
-Poison damage type officially added. Players suffer slow health loss and other impairments over time, until cured.
-Toxin Suit updated to provide Poison Immunity.
-Activated Canvas and Plate Fittings added. Offer small repairs to worn Suit and Armor respectively.
-Flashlight update! Now stackable, finding more than one scavenges batteries.
-Heat Proxies added. You can set fires with Flares as a lighting and heat source.

 

[Manticore]

Bump this for it being real news.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

Here is a larger update on stuff we've shown since the last heads up.

April Updates
-HUD updates. Color tones tested for "Heat" colors. Special Event Broadcast messages given new font. The Killcounter Skull has been replaced for a Key Item that can be set with a unique Icon in a level actor placement, Mappers can then set a .unr with a specific Key system that will be represented on screen with any custom Icon they wish.
-New subclasses being explored. Critter types, such as the Devilfish, being re-approached to be more interesting to combat.
-Armor and Suit swapping implemented. Players can replace types upon touch and reacquire old suits and armor later. Example, in Map 2 of the demo you can swap a Kevlar Suit with an Asbestos to explore the steam and the Kevlar will sit in place of where you found the Asbestos until the player chooses to return and swap back.
-Stinger Ammo Swapping issue fixed, rapid swapping no longer effected by holding the reload/Bextra3 button.
-Resurgence Slithling added to the enemy pool.

May Updates
-Voice Trap added. Proximity bomb will detonate and destroy lured enemies, unless snuffed out by smarter enemies. Risky tool to use with conditional results.
-Variants of the Squid, Devilfish, Slithling, and Gas Bag subclasses being tested.
-HUD updated with better font colors.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

OK I played through the demo finally after not being able to run unreal stuff for months....

and I have to say the first map is excellent, it is something that I would have expected a genuine expansion pack to have. This is the most Unreal-like red nemesis stuff honestly.
The skaarj with the reversed hands surprised me a couple times. The second map experience wasn't as great, mostly hunting down those cores all around and it had some cheap deaths like the crates falling on me or the final boss fight which I think should have been turned down a notch, but well to each his own. I am not going to complain about gameplay balance because that's part of one's work and experience.

I didn't yet replay the pack in that extra mode, is that where the crossbow is? If not then I missed it on the first playthrough. I like the idea of replaying it but honestly i think a mutator would have done that would get automatically activated (its possible to do this) that would change things up in those maps, a copy of each map seems a little unecessary but might be the prefered option for coop.

I also found some areas in the second map too dark and found myself annoyed so I spawned a searchlight to aid me lol, as the flashlights were running out quickly.

Otherwise it is quite solid experience but after those two maps i hope you get to see the outside areas then. Because this was indoors only experience. Still, this is much better and much unreal like than xidia or seven bullets were. Especially the first map.

I also remember indeed playing it years ago(the first map only) when i tested it for you but I think you made some changes since so it was still a fresh experience.

EDIT: I remember there was a slight issue with the explosive tarydium shards, they do travel through doors even outside of online play. While this might not matter in practice in the situations it seems a little weird.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

Hey Leo! Thanks for trying it out! A few things I can respond to:

-The Driftwood Crossbow is found in the Unlisted Cabin in Map 1, after you defeat the area boss you can backtrack up some crates in the back of the room to re-explore the level. There is a keycard you find in that Locker Room area that allows you to access the Doctor's cabin also. It appears again in NG+ and also frequently on COOP.

-New Game plus is an idea I liked doing for the Demo, but if we tried something like this again in the final release we would have to explore a mutator option, yeah. It would be preferable to doubling the package size for duplicate .unrs.

-Map 2 has undergone some radical changes since the initial release in February. Based on feedback and the many SP and COOP streams I sat in watching others play, most of the criticisms of the Demo come down to finding all six nodes. I had intended for them to be optional (you only need four to complete the level) and open up some ideas for COOP and general asymmetric gameplay. While people liked the idea, I had a lot of comments on the way certain things went down. Specifically the Jump Boot puzzle and the dark vent duct search, were not popular. Even though there are several flashlights and a Searchlight available in the Demo, people had trouble even finding these. The good news is that the feedback has prompted a complete redesign of a lot of these sections, as well as some heavy adjustments to the Flashlight item and the inclusion of Pathfinder Seeds. I posted some pics, but the player can now "stack" flashlight batteries to make the item last longer.

-The difficulty of these two levels was boosted for the Demo, and many later campaign pawns appeared earlier. Normally you only find weapons 1-4 here.

-Most of the levels in the campaign will either be outdoor locations, ruins/derelict places, and Nali locations. In fact the two levels on the Vortex Hibernia are the only human levels in the campaign.

Leo, I'm glad you gave it a shot. Thanks for the feedback! I know you don't post on the forums at USP, but I maintain an active Dev Diary thread there that lists most of the general updates. I will continue to post the same info to other threads on other forums as well. In fact, I'm due for an update on the Moddb page.

Here's some recent shots of WIP outdoor sections and the Na Pali Wolf

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Well there's of course another option than mutator still for the replay and that is make it something like unreal evolution did, introduce new "filter" options by having it tied to a flag/difficulty option that carries over for the replay or use a combination with a mutator that enables the flag and so that the monsters don't get destroyed. I know unreal evolution is a bit of a sensitive topic around these parts, but it did have an actor that destroyed all the monsters it was tagged/listed in it, unless difficulty 4 5 6 was played, so that it introduces more actual difficulty options to the gameplay. Similar thing could be executed here, just giving ideas.

That nali wolf, it looks way more strange than i remember on the concept art, kind of reminds me of some quake 2 stuff.
EDIT:
As for Map2, I hope those heavy changes didn't turn into outright handholding but at least you have option to use or not use those. I haven't found that searchlight anywhere, even if there was one, if I did i wouldn't have way much trouble. I believe I might have not found one of the power nodes, possibly the one involving the jumpboots because i didn't get to use them much.
Because I remember last one didn't insert but I thought it was bug and that I found all. Didn't realize it was only 4 that were needed. I suppose I found 5.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

I haven't played or downloaded Unreal Evolution but I'd be okay simply having a mutator option for 227 and even UT that "unlocks" a harder set of enemy/inventory parameters. I even thought about adding special actors into the maps that might only activate under certain conditions. But considering that the map size isn't yet final this will probably be a late stage decision. The NG+ mode in the Demo is a bit tough for the single player and was mostly added for the sadists and the COOPers.

As for the Nali Wolf, still early but we have him added and fighting in the levels at least. My hope is to use them to replace any need for adding the RTNP predators, which is one pawn I'm not keen on using. Right now they are very similar to Firestorm's Daz creatures.

On Map2. Most people seemed to skip the vents altogether. The Jump Boot puzzle was also just confusing, I think. People would find them but would not follow the log/level hints to find out where to use them. In the current version the Jump Boots no longer appear there at all and there is a puzzle to open the service lift directly to get to the upper area where the sixth node is. In general, the map is just easier to navigate with more detectable landmarks, especially if the player chooses to explore the vents.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

I don't know any Daz creatures from Firestorm I only know the Reapers from the old versions if they are the same thing basically.

I did explore vents but I was confused what the hint meant at the messages. It talked about one guy using it to grab stuff from one of the levels. But i was not sure where I was to use them still, where this stuff is meant to go to. And before I knew it they expired.