40K Source

It's been a pretty busy time in RL since Xmas, but we've still managed to make a few additions and adjustments to EX.   The most significant of these are the addition of two new wargear options for the specialist, the incendiary Flamer and the hard hitting Plasmagun.

Download 7.26 (9,962 KB)
40ksource.com (http://40ksource.com/files/ex_alpha_patch_7.26.zip)
chromeangel.co.uk (http://www.chromeangel.co.uk/Exterminatus/Downloads/ex_alpha_patch_7.26.zip)

[edit]19:30PM GMT[/edit]
Stahl pointed out the wrong flamer effect is being used, looks like Vman sent us a bad manifest, this B patch should fix it.

Download 7.26B (1 KB)
40ksource.com (http://40ksource.com/files/ex_alpha_patch_7.26b.zip)

Installation instructions

• If you already have a copy of the EX alpha, delete it.
• If you don't already have Beta 7.25 download and install it as normal.
• Copy your sourcemods/ex folder containing beta 7.25 to sourcemods/ex_alpha (so you can still play the beta version too).
• Extract the 7.26 patch to your sourcemods folder ( they should overwrite files in the ex_alpha folder ).
• Restart Steam.

You should now see both the Exterminatus Beta 7.0 and Exterminatus Alpha listed in your library.

If you have problems installing or running this patch visit the Steam Community Game Group, chat room on Steam.  I'll be there to offer advice during testing times (please be patient, I will be in-game, participating in the test at the same time).

Features

• New Flamer wargear for the weapons Specialist class (replaces the meltagun), model by Farseer and Stahlhagel, animation, coding and textures by ChromeAngel, effects by The VMan
• New Plasmagun wargear for the weapons Specialist class (replaces the meltagun), models by Konstantin Georgeevich, animation, coding and textures by ChromeAngel, effects by The VMan
• New ex_obj_ console variables for tweaking the size and visibility of the HUD objective icons
• Many new particle effects (not all in-game yet) by The VMan

Balance

• Nerfed Stealers by increasing the time between leaps
• Buffed the Assault Marine by reducing his cost from 75 points to 50

Tweaks

• New tracer and impact effects for Bolt weapons by The VMan
• New Venom Cannon impact by The VMan
• New Warp Blast effect by The VMan
• Performance tweaks for the Venom Cannon and Carnifex models

Future
Look forward to more balance and performance (flamer i'm looking at you) improvements in coming weeks as well as atmospheric improvements to the maps coming form all the new effects.  An ammo dispensing "shrine" entity is also on the cards, so there is more good stuff yet to come from the EX team.

After Action Report 7.26
That seemed to go pretty well given all the new stuff that went in.  Team stacking in favour of the boys with the toys made it a bit hard to judge the balance, but there is plenty of time for that.

The biggest problems were with the flamer.  It looks like only the user of the weapon can see the particle effect (and he is getting CPU/GPU lag from it).  Sounds emitted from the flame bursts are erratic and generally too quiet.  Wondering if I can get burst to emit dynamic lighting, so they can light up tarsis caves.  Often the first notice of being flame'd was when the player caught fire.  Damage per burst is a bit high, reducing it down from 30 to 20 is the 1st step.

The Plasmagun is probably on par with the Meltagun, which is good.   It's very similar to the Warp bolt, except that it does more damage per bolt and needs to be reloaded.  Probably need to be made 100% accurate like the warp bolt.  I suspect others will ask for more buffs, but I want to tread lightly as this one feels close to being balanced to me.

Many players complaining about CPU/GPU lag and blaming the particle systems.  I'm considering a "lo-fi" set of particles for people who get their graphics cards from charity shops :P

vman will look into the particles, but he pointed out the flamer might be code wise causing the lag, spawning way too  many particles.
i  have barely an idea about the gameplay, we need some more proper rounds to see whats good or not,
but so far there are some things i didnt like at all.

plasma gun:

- the plasmagun model nqss gave us from that guy looks awful, that thing will be replaced as soon as i get the time to model again

- plasma gun muzzle seems to be broken, it doesnt show the flash properly but the electricity is all over the place

-increase plasma projectile velocity by 25%

- reduce clip to 10 shots

-make reloading take 3-4  times longer

- the plasma gun is not working how its supposed to be. it should be a downscaled venom cannon without the splash and with more accuracy. buff damage to 70 -80, compensate with the fire rate accordingly. again i dont want another lore fuckup like the plasma pistol is


flamer:


- flamer seems to be a bit tiny somehow compared to the other weapons. could you stretch it so it looks a bit more in line with the other stuff? a size increase by 20% and some tingling with the sizes should do it

- lacks normal maps like the bolter and ml have

- flamer texture not detailed enough. add some wear to the edges, and a flame to the ignition pipe at the muzzle

-flamer needs some custom animations, currently its using the bolter ones. a stream of promethium doest make your weapon jump like it has hickup. also atm  the melta sound makes for a better flamer sound i think.

- increase flamer projectile velocity by 40%

- increase number of projectiles shot, doubble it. that should make for a smoother more realistic flame stream

- reduce damage to 8 per shot

- eventually increase the range ( wait for that one a bit, need more balance testing)



-

other balance stuff:

venom cannon

- reduce rate of fire by 30%

- reduce explosion radius by 20%

- reduce damage done by the explosion by 15%

- make it sliiightly more accurate maybe (depending on how much impact the other nerfs have)

- make the range inline with the heavy bolter


thrope:

- increase thrope bolt velocity to plasma pistol level ( or even higher)

- nerf the damage to 30

- make the bolts cost more energy to prevent constant spamming

- make them pinpoint accurate

- reduce rate of fire by 20%


stealer:

- increase claw attack rate a bit

- buff standard movement speed by 15%

warrior:

- increase the deathspitter projectile velocity by 30%

- increase accuracy by 20%

- reduce rate of fire by 25%

that should cover all the problems with the nids so far.

marine changes:

termie:

- increase survivability agains vc projectile. make him survive 4 direct hits

- decrease stormbolter accuracy to pre 7.25 level

- make the stormbolter have the ROF of 2 combined bolters instead of having it act like a shotgun, like its supposed to work

- increase power fist range by 20 %

- buff power fist damage by 10 %

meltagun:

- a slight range buff might do it good. having such a short range has been hurting it due to the ranged nid firepower, yet that one is optional.

EDIT:  buff stealer claw range by 20%

what the heck is that?
you said its good
YOU
SAID
IT IS REALLY GOOD
what the heck?

go on. download the newest alpha, look at it ingame and tell me if its good. it looks shit, i have no clue why.

its even the high poly model.

you surprise me
you are pretty grown up and skilled modeller , so might noticed that texture ruins the model
and now you are trying to convince me that model suck , when you complemented this model ALOT before
model haven't been changed , like , AT ALL

i wish it was only the texture. like i said ill make a proper one... that actually not as thick as a cardboard.

also chrome will rework the textures on the new stuff properly, hes been in a rush lately so i guess he didnt have the time to give them a nice finish.

The mistake Konstantin made with the plasmagun model is quite understandable and the same one I made with the pistol version.  He spent a lot of the polygon budget on detailing the plasmagun's characteristic muzzle/ side vents, which are barely even visible in the 1st person view.  This must have left him short for the polygon hungry top of the weapon (which is right in the FPS players face).

funny , why didn't i have that info before?
so much time passed and only when this appears in game , everypone opened their eyes????

did you bother checking it ? if no why are you wondering? its not a big deal it will be replaced and thats it.

end of the story.

i dont know how to get proper check
i gave it to both of you and you both said that models are fine

stop this guilty throwing back and forward
it all could be fixed about 4 month before

i wasnt throwing guilt at you, but rather you at me lol. like i said it doesnt matter, it will be fixed anyway.

I didn't even spot anything wring when I was texturing and rigging it, getting it in-game was the time when I noticed it.  Personally I think it's fine, it's just another style of plasmagun from what you might expect.

Can you help me guys? I can't launch alpha. I've installed it like it's descripted on website, and while Beta 7.25 launches and plays normally, the alpha doesnt. When i try to launch it, only thing I get is standard HL2 loading intro and menu background, and after 2-3s it just magically disappears. No errors, anything. Did I do domething wrong, or it's on your side?
Cheers!

It's unlikely to be at our end, but this sounds like what happens if you extract the patch without copying the ex folder first.  I suggest you delete your ex_alpha folder then follow the installation instructions again from scratch.  It's surprising how many times that works, even when you think you did it right the first time.

Ok, I didn't had a copy before, so I guess I'll have to skip this one.
    Did it.
   This is where problems begin - since I didn't had alpha before, I don't have such folder. Tried to create one, and follow instruction - gave me the issue I described before.
   This is ok, I was able to see both of them, but only Beta worked.

Please, don't tell me to follow instructions again, as I did it like 20 times ;d Could it come from lack of previous alpha versions/Source SDK 2007? <or was it 2005? the older one, the newer one I have works with beta but not alpha>

This is indeed where our problems started.  The EX alpha uses most of the same files as the EX beta, so you need to take a copy the Sourcemods/ex (beta folder) and all of it's contents and rename that copy to be sourcemods/ex_alpha.

In windows explorer (my computer):

• Navigate to your "Sourcemods" folder (usually "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\sourcemods\")
• Select your "ex" folder (where the beta is installed)
• Copy your "ex" folder (CTRL+C)
• Paste your "ex" folder (CTRL+V), windows will warn you that "ex" already exists and ask you if you want  to make a copy, say yes.
• You should now have an "ex" folder and a "copy of ex" folder
• Right click on the copy and select "Rename", enter the new name as "ex_alpha"
• You should now have an "ex" folder and a "ex_alpha" folder with identical contents.
• Extracting the alpha patch to your sourcemods folder should override some of the files in the ex_alpha folder, upgrading it from beta to alpha.

Did these steps, and now it works flawlessly. The instruction was bit confusing though - I thought I was supposed to move whole ex folder into ex_alpha one, not just the contents :P
Anyways, thanks and see you on the battlefield brother :P