From gummelt@pegasus.montclair.edu Fri Oct 20 09:33:13 1995
From: Michael Gummelt
To: Eelko de Vos
Subject: Re: ALIENS DOOM 3!
Eelko,
Thanks for responding, sorry I took a little long in writing
back, but I've been so busy working on the game I forgot to check my
e-mail!
Okay, here's what's definitely done:
The player is Ripley. The picture of the player is a woman on the
status bar and in the game itself (seen only in deathmatch). Basically,
the woman is dressed like the marine in Doom, but has Ripley's....
"dimensions". The player wears a helmet but on the status bar, you
see her face. I don't actually have a picture of Ripley to use here,
I could probably get one, but it wouldn't look very good. So I'm
using a female face made by another Doom player. The sound effects
of the player are all Ripley sounds ("Come on!" When you get the loader,
"Get away from her you BITCH!" when you fight her on the Sulaco at
the end, etc...) Even the punch looks like a woman's arms now.
I am using the same animation frames of Ripley for Vasquez (just in a
different color armor).
The other Marines in the game are Sgt. Apone, Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez,
Drake, a Medic (I might make this the woman in Aliens- Dietrich I think?)
and a special hidden surprise (no, not Bishop or Burke, just an in joke
between me and my friends, but it's very funny if you find it).
Yes, it would be cool if I could draw different pictures for each
character and put it in the game, but unfortunately, that just isn't
possible. Doom allows for only so many frames of animation (about 900),
so I have to be a bit conservative. Basically, Hicks, Hudson and Drake
are in green armor like you (but male), Vasquez and the surprise marine
are in grey (one female, one male), the Sarge is in brown armor, and the
Medic (male or female undecided yet) is in red armor. Also, they each
have different weapons (a piston, shotgun, machine gun, grenade launcher,
and flame thrower) and their own unique sound effects ("Let's Rock!",
"Check those corners", "Fuckin A", "Forget em, he's gone", etc...). So
while I can't draw each one individually, I think it will be pretty easy
to tell them apart, and they really do seem unique fromeach other. Also,
there is a generic marine who has no name or specific voice, just there
to add to the feel. Basically, they will not shoot you unless you
shoot them first (even then, It'll just be one shot). They follow you
around, but stay pretty much on the move. They will NOT, however attack
an alien unless it attacks them first (this is because the marines are
really just monsters, so I had some limitations when designing their
behavior). One of their major uses really is for effect and atmosphere.
It's cool to hear them yelling and screaming and shooting during a big
fight, and it's cool to see them nail a facehugger or go toe to toe with
an alien. But they are NOT sidekicks, so don't try to get them to
follow you and help you, they'll mostly just get in the way and get
pissed when you shoot them by accident. In other words, they're for
effect, they're not sidekicks (although they can help out a lot in
situations where there's spitters, face huggers, chestbursters and
against the Queen).
The Queen. I'm still working on her. I'm trying to find a good
animation for her, but the one in Aliens-TC was kinda wierd, the
movements are very unnatural. Most of the graphics for aliens I'm
using come from the other Aliens wads, the 3-D modeled animations
(very cool!) But the Queen in those is kind of unimpressive too.
So unless someone can supply me with some cool animations, I'm
going to have to modify the 3-D one and do my best. The Queen's
bahavior is pretty cool: If she's far away, she runs up to you
and slashes you with her tail, if she's close up, she hits you
really really hard and you go flying backwards and up into the
air! She is immune to fire (that means you're flamer is
practically useless, the flames may keep her at bay, but they won't
actually damage her). She is tough. You can get the loader on the
Sulaco and fight her (try to knock her down into the airlock then
throw the switch! When you defeat her you hear her scream and hear
Bishop say "Not bad.. for a .. human".
The sound in the game is one of the aspects I've been working a lot
on. There are a LOT of sound effects, from aliens screaming and
attacking to marines yelling, to background sounds of machinery
clanging, steam venting, wind blowing to incidental sound effects
like the electrical zappiing sound of a lightbulb you just shot.
There are also various musical cues that sound best when you're
playing the game to the Aliens soundtrack, or even with no music
at all (the sound effects kind of make their own soundtrack).
As for the music in the game, I used the NIN music, which is very
good, but brings a different feel to the game than if you listened
to Aliens or Alien3 (sucky film but great soundtrack!) I plan to
include a list suggesting the best Aliens Soundtrack track to play
for each level.
Okay, back to the monsters:
There is a host! A living host will be coccooned to the wall.
Break through the coccoon in a vain attempt to help him, hear
him begging you to kill him. Watch out or a chestburster might
come out and run around (they're very small and fast, very hard to hit
and they can be quite a nuisance!)
There are of course eggs and facehuggers. There is an Egg Layer alien
that lays egges that hatch facehuggers, there is an alien that shoots
giant acid spitballs at you that track you and leave an acid trail
(okay, I took a little bit of artistic liscence, but they're really
cool!). And there are the standard aliens:
1. A guard, very large black aliens
2. An alien that crawls alon the ceiling and attacks you.
3. Aliens that spit acid at you (they're green), some follow you
(spitters) and soome stay on high ground and pelt you (snipers)
4. Aliens that attack and when killed, spray acid on you (grey)
5. Aliens that run up to you and explode, spraying acid everywhere
and leaving a pool of burning acid (brown).
6. Like th kamikaze aliens in #5, there are two more red aliens that
behave similarly, but these stand up and wait a second before
exploding (Super kamikaze) and the other does the same, but
when it explodes, everything nearby catches on fire (note:
all fires in the game are dangerous- watch out!)
7. Aliens (green) that play dead. Is that a dead alien or is it just
faking it, waiting for me to turn my back on it... a great
paranoia inducer!
In addition to these standard enemies, there are things like specimen
jars with facehuggers in them. Some of them have live facehuggers in them
and if you'renot careful, it mike break out and get you ("I think it likes
you!")
Okay, there's a lot more, but ther's too much to tell, OH! Weapons!
Basically, you have the following:
Your fists, more important than you might think for solving certain puzzles.
Your pistol
Your double barrel shotgun
Your flamethrower (watch out!)
Your smart gun (best all- around weapon, but eats up ammo like crazy! Note
the cool ricochet sounds you sometimes hear).
Your mine layer- this is pretty cool. You set a mine,, it takes a few
seconds to arm- when it does- stay clear! You will see it pulse, and hear
it beep (so you know when you might be getting close to one). They do
quite a bit of damage too. They also double as flares. If you set a mine
then shoot it, it becomes a flare so you can keep track of where you've been.
Finally, there's the Loader which you won't get until the last level on the
Sulaco where you'll use it to fight the queen (if you want).
By the way, I've changed all the cheat codes so people don't ruin all the
work I've done by cheating and walking through my levels unharmed. Of
course, If someone REALLY wanted them and knew enough about aliens, they
may be able to guess them.
Here's a quick run down on the levels I intend to include:
1. Rescue John Hurt (can't remember his character's name right now) from the
alien ship. You have to go into the alien ship and get him in the
hatchery, then get out fast before an army of facehuggers gets you.
All you have is a pistol, so get him and get back to the Nostromo
fast!
2. Kill the chestburster. The level starts out with a chestburster bursting
out of John Hurt. Find it and kill it- not as easy as it seems.
3. Dallas in the air ducts. You are capain Dallas, you have to close off
the air ducts and try to kill the alien- you now have a flame
thrower and a pistol.
These first three levels are going to be deliberately short, to act as a sort
of introduction (each one will have an intro in the documentation).
4. Get to the shuttle. You are Ripley, get to the shuttle and get out
of there, kill the alien, but don't forget Jonesey (you have to find
him before you can get into the shuttle)- and be very grossed out
when you find captain Dallas coccooned!
5. First ALIENS level: secure the base- meet Newt.
6. Locate the colonists- nasty fight! Get to the APC. Then, watch the
dropship crash right in front of you and hear Hudson complain.
7. Escape from Medlabs- just what it says, try to seal off the area from
aliens while trying to get to the air ducts.
8. Ventilation System. Navigate the extensive ventilation system to get
to the second dropship- but don't loose Newt!
9. Rescue Newt. Find Newt, but when you do, you can't go back the way
you came- so you have to take a detour... right into the Queen's
nest! Uh-oh! Get back to the dropship and get the hell out of
there!
10. The Sulaco. The final showdown with the Queen! Show that slimy
alien bitch you mean business! Suit up in the Loader and toss
her out the airlock!
There will be a few bonus levels that are cool but don't fit into the plot.
I have also designed one really cool deathmatch level. Deathmatch with
Aliens should be great- especially with other Amrines walking around that
look like you! Also, with the only source of health being a Medic (that's
right, the Medic Marine restores your health!), a great scenario could be
had where one person tries to hold onto the Medic (you can even get her to
follow you so you can hide her away in a room that only you know of so
only you can use her) and nail the other guys! And, of course, Aliens
Doom 3 will be absolutely amazing in Cooperative mode (especially four
people)!
Also, I'll be including revised versions of the levels in Aliens-TC
So, I hope this is enough to whet the appetites of Aliens and Doom fans
out there, most of the stuff I've mentioned is finished, all I
have to do is make the rest of the levels (I have three done) and make
some bug fixes and cosmetic changes, a little tweaking here and there.
I will be releasing screen shots, but I can't figure out how to do it!
(Doesn't Doom allow you to take a screen shot, or am I insane?) If
anyone can help me with that, I'd love to release screenshots!
Also, I'f anyone has any ideas, questions or suggestions, please please
let me know. I can't say I'll use them (the game engine has definite
limitations that I've pretty muched maxxed out), but I'll try to use
the best ones. I would especially appreciate suggestions on levels-
what would you like to see? I'm doing my best to make this the best
Aliens game and the best Doom add-on EVER! So please let me know
anything you feel like typing up and sending my way (I can't
propmise I'll be able to reply to every one, depending on how
much e-mail I get).
Thanks for you interest,
Michael Gummelt
Montclair State Univeristy
New Jersey, USA
gummelt@pegasus.montclair.edu
October 19, 1995