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Post by Snarboo on Apr 2, 2014 19:30:17 GMT -5
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Post by Dingo on Apr 2, 2014 23:25:49 GMT -5
That did the trick.
I haven't spent too much time with this yet, but I'm wondering; is there is a way to turn off the forward and backward movement with the mouse? I like having the mouse to turn from side to side and shoot, but the forward movement is driving me crazy.
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Post by Snarboo on Apr 2, 2014 23:30:39 GMT -5
Not that I'm aware of. If you hit capslock, that will enable mouselook, so that might solve the problem?
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Post by Dingo on Apr 3, 2014 14:59:33 GMT -5
That fixed the issue.
I'm actually having an enjoyable time with this, but I do have a few complaints. One is that enemies are perfect shots and can target you from very far off; I also don't like how enemies shooting you when cops are around are free to do so, but trying to defend yourself brings down the wrath of the entire city. I'm also not a fan of how the game controls. Forward and backward movement seems extremely fast, but looking around is fairly slow compared to your forward or backward speed. This could be due to the cycles I have dosbox set to so I'm not sure if this is a legitimate complaint, but the slow speed of looking around leads to me taking a ton of damage while I try to aim at enemies.
Anyway, I found Marty Dollars. I think you can get through his level without having to go to the first stop on the subway. It seems that there are multiples of the keys you need throughout the level (probably because they can be destroyed as Snarboo mentioned). I actually went to the second stop (which is the Green stop on the "You Are Here" map in the subway) and managed to collect both the red and blue keys somehow. I went to the other subway stop (the Yellow location) and found other copies of the keys (some dropped from enemies, others were simply in rooms with enemies).
Also, be wary of those buses at the Yellow stop. There are two, and each one has a gunman on the back. If you hang out at the Yellow stop long enough you can actually watch the buses kill citizens (I assume they can do the same to you). They'll wander out into the road and explode as soon as they're hit.
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Post by Snarboo on Apr 3, 2014 17:20:45 GMT -5
Yeah, Marty Dollar's mission is one of the few where you can find duplicates of the keys! Later missions get a bit stingy with them, only offering one of the keys you need per subway stop.
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Post by Dingo on Apr 3, 2014 20:50:54 GMT -5
Just finished up stage two. I'm wondering if it's possible to beat a level without having Shatner complain about your performance. I know it's based on civilians dying, but they always seem to wander into the line of fire. Anyway, a few tips for stage two (credit goes to sotenga for this). You will eventually come across a room filled with electric force fields; these can be destroyed by shooting them. Near the end of the level you're required to activate a keypad on the back of a desk. Sotenga mentioned he had a lot of trouble activating it, as did I. From what I was able to figure out, the trick is to activate it (Press Spacebar, essentially) as soon as you press crouch (since the keypad is lower to the ground). You have to be right up against the desk, but that seemed to activate it every time when I went about it that way.
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Post by gammaleak on Apr 4, 2014 2:07:52 GMT -5
Hi! I'm new to GC9X, but I've voraciously listened to all the podcasts and I'm eager to jump in. I got TekWar up and mostly working. Anyone else get the cutscenes to work? The play for about 1-2 seconds on mine, before they become really slow and choppy. Not that I think it matters much to the overall gameplay (or even the story).
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Post by Snarboo on Apr 4, 2014 2:28:11 GMT -5
Anyone else get the cutscenes to work? The play for about 1-2 seconds on mine, before they become really slow and choppy. Not that I think it matters much to the overall gameplay (or even the story). Apparently it's a cycles related issue. According to cardinalfang, the cutscenes play fine when DOSBox is run at lower cycles, but at cycles too low to play the game. I'm wondering if they were using some sort of odd feature of DOS that isn't supported in DOSBox?
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Post by derboo on Apr 4, 2014 6:35:04 GMT -5
Is there any option to not mouselook like an airplane?
Is it normal that the cop starts shooting at me when I go to the men's toilet?
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Post by gammaleak on Apr 4, 2014 7:14:44 GMT -5
Apparently it's a cycles related issue. According to cardinalfang, the cutscenes play fine when DOSBox is run at lower cycles, but at cycles too low to play the game. I'm wondering if they were using some sort of odd feature of DOS that isn't supported in DOSBox? That is strange. Reminds me vaguely of the way older DOS games (e.g., Wing Commander) aren't frame-limited and run at unplayable FAST speeds when the cycles are cranked too high. Only this is in reverse or something. Makes you wonder if somehow their video codec software expected some kind of hard-coded upper limit for the CPU clock. Regarding the game itself, I've immediately noticed what Dingo said above, that the enemies never miss you. In addition, they have a very high rate of fire and they can be really hard to see. You have almost no sense of where you're being damaged from. It makes for a very strange game dynamic. On the one hand, the enemies are so punishing that you kind of want to rage-quit. On the other hand, they made up for that by giving you ten times as much health as any other FPS from this era gave you.
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Post by derboo on Apr 4, 2014 8:07:41 GMT -5
The weird thing is, in the version that cardinalfang first linked, the videos seem to play without problem even at max cycles (at least judging by the intro before the main exe is launched).
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Post by Snarboo on Apr 4, 2014 18:08:11 GMT -5
The intro always runs fine oddly! Not sure why that one cinematic plays properly but the others don't. Has anyone tried setting the cycles to a really higher number but not the max to see if the game and cinematics both play properly?
Also as a general warning for those playing this game: the fifth Tek lord's mission takes place in a sewer, the first part of which is a confusing maze filled with enemies. This normally wouldn't be an issue if not for the psychic sniper AI. Be sure to save frequently, and don't give up! The key you need is in there somewhere, even if it's really hard to find.
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Post by Dingo on Apr 4, 2014 18:15:01 GMT -5
I set my cycles to 21000 and everything seems to run fine.
I just finished up the third Tek lord's mission. I really wish they'd make it clear that you have to go to another stop via the subway to find them. I ran around that weird aquarium tower...thing for a good fifteen minutes searching for hidden doors.
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Post by Snarboo on Apr 5, 2014 4:36:13 GMT -5
Just beat TekWar! I'll let everyone else get further before I say more. In any case, after beating the game, I decided to look up what the middle yellow bar on the HUD was. The first meter is clearly health, and the last is ammo, but the middle meter never budged while playing the game. Turns out it's supposed to represent your "consciousness", whatever that means. The manual has this to say about it: Health Meter You have two values representing your physical condition in TekWar: Consciousness and Health. Both enemy attacks and falling remove health and consciousness. If your consciousness reaches zero, you are rendered unconscious. If your health reaches zero, you die. Your remaining health can be displayed in two ways: numerically at the bottom of the screen, or graphically in the Health Meter. The H key toggles between the two display methods.
In the Health Meter, there are three colored bars, a green one, a yellow one, and a blue one. They represent:
Green bar: health Yellow bar: consciousness Blue bar: ammunition
I have no idea if this still has any use in game, or if it was a feature that was completely cut. Also mentioned in the manual were recharging outlets for a few of the weapons, as well as grenades you could throw. These can still be found in game as items on the map, but you can no longer equip them or use them as far as I can tell. Even more curious is how the Matrix seemed to work at one point:
MATEC While in the Matrix, you are subjected to extreme amounts of sensory information. To prevent damage to your nervous system, the Matrix Station will revive you when your energy gets low. The MATEC, or MAtrix Time Energy Continuum display, shows the amount of time/energy remaining before the Matrix Station forcibly ejects you. Standard time is 6 minutes, but this decreases with each energy expenditure, and can be increased with items found in the Matrix. Activate the MATEC by pressing the M key.
It seems that the player may have been able to tap into the Matrix at any time, but their time inside of it would have been limited. The actual Matrix has no such restriction, behaving like a free flying version of the regular maps with trippier visuals. It's pretty clear at this point that this game simply isn't finished, so it makes me wonder why so may features were cut from the game. Then there are things like the Accu Trak, which I have not found a single use for yet. Does anyone know what the deal with that thing is?
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Post by derboo on Apr 5, 2014 5:18:59 GMT -5
That's weird, I don't get the HUD at all. The only thing that's displayed for me is a number for health.
EDIT: Oh, it has to be switched on with buttons. That's... weird.
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