Samsara - No longer under active development.

[TerminusEst13]

Here's a question I'd like to ask you guys.
One of the bigger questions I've been asked is equivalents for the Skulltag unique weapons. Some of the much more popular mapsets used with Samsara are Skulltag maps, and thus use Skulltag weapons. At the moment, they're just replaced with their corresponding slot number, but I'm curious if more weapons for each of the different Heroes is something to consider.
Obvious pros is, well, more weapon slots means more chances to include weapons from their games. Parias could get the Arc of Death, Duke could get more Duke 64 weapons or the Expander, Ranger could get the Super Nailgun, etc.
Obvious cons is not everyone has unused weapons. Corvus, for example, already has a filled-out arsenal. What would his railgun be? Add onto that Skulltag is dead, so chances of additional map packs coming out that use these weapons are...low.
Still, I'd like to run the options by you guys and see what you think.

[Ivan]

You can always keep those weapons to replace a weapon of similar ammo type with a % chance on spawn as well as replacing it's Skulltag equivalent. 1 new weapon for each class would not be bad and would get a different, maybe an even better state of balance.

[Aqua Kitty]

Skulltag weapons for certain classes would certainly be nice, it would definitely give more options for characters like Parias and Duke, Chexter could run off the Skulltag Chex pack, Corvus' ST weapons could be various inventory items from Heretic, and BJ could intentionally lack ST weapons like his lack of Slot 3 as a weakness. Hell maybe Master Chief and Arbiter could benefit from Skulltag Weapon replacements; they'd definitely have unused weapons in regular play and the Fury Nuke-in-a-football could be Chief's BFG10K, Halo 3/Reach turrets could replace the minigun, Reach Grenade Launcher and Concussion Rifle for Grenade Launcher, Focus Rifle for Arbiter's railgun (Better damage against armor than "life"). The possibilities are endless for Skulltag replacements.

[Death Egg]

I once again bring up the possibility of Chexter using the zorcher made up for that stolen version of Chex Quest 3. Also would be nice to see more of the prototype zorchers made.

[Ijon Tichy]

I vote no on the poll because I'm a huge faggot and my opinion totally matters on this.

[President People]

I voted yes, because I really would like to see Skulltag weapon replacements eventually. Not demanding them RITE NAO, but eventually.

I'm sure ijon will love this idea: If a server host decides the Skulltag weapons are imbalanced, how about a server variable to toggle their appearance/lower-tier replacements? Love you too, ijon :P

[roman6a]

i vote yes.

CHEX RAILGUN
PARIAS RAILGUN
SO' RAILGUN.....
BJ' RAILGUN!!1111!!!111!

YUS.

all asides from the epic hype, id think its a good idea.

suddently delta inv server, everyone goes ranger with super nailguns and railguns.

[The Toxic Avenger]

You also have classes where there's no real viable weapon(s) replacement(s) for them.

- Corvus has nothing to utilize for the minigun, grenade launcher, railgun, or 10K.
- Chex has the Chexpack, as well as the old SSG for the railgun.
- Parias has nothing basically (without giving him a ton of range-based moves, breaking his role).
- Duke has a fair amount to work with (though you'd have to dive into other Duke games, like Zero Hour, at the least).
- Quakeguy would need the Super Nailgun as well as Quake 2 weapons to be thrown into the mix.
- BJ has nothing basically.
- Doomguy is really obvious in where he stands with this.
- Security Officer....I dunno.

Also keep in mind that a lot of wads don't actually utilize these weapons. There are a fair amount that do, but the majority don't, so I don't see a huge need for them at this point.

[zdude]

I think it should stay as is. While the maps in question may have the Skulltag weapons in mind for the design, I don't think any map out there demands that the Skulltag weapons are required. If they are created, add them as an optional add-on just in case there are people who don't want Skulltag weapon equivalents.

Speaking of optional add-ons....... New version of the Heretic/Hexen translation patches! This will make Samsara appear prettier in Heretic and Hexen in Software mode also thanks to the addition of PLAYPAL and COLORMAP lumps in each patch file that corresponds to each game.

[Death Egg]

For Heretic and Hexen, you could always check Realm667's armory.

[The Toxic Avenger]

Having to make weapons rather than use weapons from the source is something I'd rather see Samsara avoid completely. Chexguy's original SSG was custom, but AFAIK that was a prototype (Terminus would have to confirm this).

[TerminusEst13]

Chexguy's original SSG was custom, but AFAIK that was a prototype (Terminus would have to confirm this).

Yup.

The Super Large Zorcher is probably the closest to "completely original" out of all the weapons, since it was supposed to (but never did) appear in Chex Quest 3. Even so, though, I talked to Jacobi about a non-SSG-esque function and design for it.
The Spear of Destiny is from the Wolfenstein RPG, with design from the Wolfenstein: Spear of Destiny box art and function from the unused retro BFG.
The Explosive Shotgun is (brutally nerfed) from Duke Nukem 64.
The Wave Motion Cannon's sprites from an early alpha of Marathon 2, and function from Oni's/Halo's shout-outs to Marathon.

All of the more unique weapons are still firmly based in their origin game(s).

For Heretic

Corvus' Tome of Power is actually based on its Heretic II implementation. One could assume I could also nick weapons from there, but that doesn't solve the conundrum of B.J. or Chex Warrior.

[Death Egg]

For B.J., maybe take some ideas from the design document of the cancelled Wolfenstein 3D sequel that eventually became Rise of the Triad? (Found here.) Specifically, these sprites:





They'd probably need a little editing to match the original sprites, and most of the new weapons don't have sprites for first person view, but it's a start.

[Aqua Kitty]

Chex Quest has a Skulltag pack, with Skulltag-esque zorch weapons like Super Rapid Zorcher for minigun, Zorch Launcher for grenade, a Rail zorcher, and a Ghettoblaster (BFG10K?).

[MarkuzESP]

Here's a question I'd like to ask you guys.
One of the bigger questions I've been asked is equivalents for the Skulltag unique weapons. Some of the much more popular mapsets used with Samsara are Skulltag maps, and thus use Skulltag weapons. At the moment, they're just replaced with their corresponding slot number, but I'm curious if more weapons for each of the different Heroes is something to consider.
Obvious pros is, well, more weapon slots means more chances to include weapons from their games. Parias could get the Arc of Death, Duke could get more Duke 64 weapons or the Expander, Ranger could get the Super Nailgun, etc.
Obvious cons is not everyone has unused weapons. Corvus, for example, already has a filled-out arsenal. What would his railgun be? Add onto that Skulltag is dead, so chances of additional map packs coming out that use these weapons are...low.
Still, I'd like to run the options by you guys and see what you think.

I do think that the Skulltag-like weapons should be added. As you say, some of the most popular mods that samsara runs with use the Skulltag weaponset. I only have experience with coop addons : invasion addons like Armaggedon, Alpha and Delta or UTNT make a big use of Skulltag weaponsets.

The bad point is that most likely you will have to look at other games to find the weapons if someone like Corvus has his full arsenal available.
That, or making you your own.

[TerminusEst13]

Right, it's been about five days.

ZDoom forumers voted No 17 times, Yes 13 times. Zandronum forumers voted No 9 times, Yes 12 times.
All together, that's 26 No and 25 Yes.

Whoof. That's incredibly, incredibly close. This is definitely not the cut-and-dry issue I thought it'd be.
Still, thank you to everyone who voted.

(inb4 zdoom forum votes shouldn't count)

[President People]

[Triple S]

Right, it's been about five days.

ZDoom forumers voted No 17 times, Yes 13 times. Zandronum forumers voted No 9 times, Yes 12 times.
All together, that's 26 No and 25 Yes.

Whoof. That's incredibly, incredibly close. This is definitely not the cut-and-dry issue I thought it'd be.
Still, thank you to everyone who voted.

(inb4 zdoom forum votes shouldn't count)

I kind of figured this is how it would go. Personally, I think you guys should go for it anyway (after all, roughly half of those who voted wanted it), but not make it a priority. If nothing else, you could release it as a sort of expansion to demonstrate how people can add their own classes and weapons to Samsara's system.

EDIT: Also, any ideas on a release date for Quake Guy? I'm getting antsy <w<

[Ijon Tichy]

uuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
by wednesday?

yeah we gotta sort out the whole super nailgun issue, then do final polishing, with a last-minute bugtest session followed by frantic fixing of the 500 things that will inevitably break

also ijon confirmed for ninth hero :D

[TerminusEst13]

Note that he didn't say which Wednesday, mind~