thirded that^

Abe was not taking hallucinogenic drugs when chanting to see spirals n hippy shit.

The orbs were definitely the way to go. Also I wasnt a huge fan of the temple pieces flying thru the portals. I preferred the original stuff with the light zipping between portal.

The only reason the gamepad controls sucked was because of the deadzone issue, and they fixed it pretty quickly.
The default controls were fine and iirc they were remappable, so I don't really see the problem.

Also I don't mind the portal redesign, the original design wouldn't make sense in a 3D space, hence why they half-arsed the redesign in MO.

To be honest I actually like the new portal designs. Its a bit different, and perhaps doesnt make much sense, but I think it looks pretty nifty.

You know what won't be nifty though?

Trying to figure out the area where blind mudokons can hear you in a NnT style camera ;___;

You know what I think could work for the camera? The same type as NnT's camera, except it's stationary until you move onto what would be considered the next screen, then it quickly zips over. So the gameplay would behave like the originals, but the camera system would be more fluid and less jarring.

Kind of like what happens when you go through a door in Super Metroid but faster and without pausing the game.

I like it how it is.



Also, I want them to test the game. I shouldnt have to jump through hoops to get mudokons to follow me properly.
Its half the reason i dont run 100% anymore.


Just gimme a beta OI. Ill test ur games for free.

That would be the best way to do it really, but when they were working on NnT they said they want a continuous scrolling thing. I mean I hope they went back on it but they almost certainly did it, so at least maybe they'll fix the other stuff that isn't that.

As long as Abe moves more realistically, rather than scatty as fuck in NnT, i'll be happy. Also if Abe moved more realistically, the camera from NnT would work well too, as it wouldn't be so jumpy etc. I'd like it if the camera always had a direct view instead of sometimes leaning to the left/right, as I felt that it kind of spoiled the tension in NnT.

I used the keyboard. It was also remappable, so my issues were more about the way they were integrated with the gameplay (e.g. press jump, then half a second later press the direction; Hold down like three buttons to throw a grenade that will invariably blow up too soon because you were fiddling with all three and couldn't work out which one to press to release it). Also, the process of remapping the gamepad controls was pretty much impossible if you didn't have an Xbox controller. Editing a text file is all very well, but if you don't know which button has what labels, it's simply not going to work.

He moved realistically in NnT, what with there being inertia to his steps and needing to get a running start for things, etc

Theres a difference between a character moving realistically, and a character moving in a way that makes the gameplay not frustrating as fuck though :(

I always thought I did a good job with the Mudokon voice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_m2fcbdh0w), and I made it into the game, but the devs wanted them done in a normal pitch to be sped up at a later date and I could barely tell which Mud I ended up playing :( Without speeding it up, and just doing the voice like in the video above...that would have been better I think :(

In regards to changes I hope to see:

1. A hard mode, with trophy, where you can't Quiksave or you at least have a limited number of Quiksaves per chapter. It makes the game way too easy being able to save whenever, which is one of the problems I had with the original Abe's Exoddus.

2. No visible checkpoints. This is a bit picky, but because there were so many they seemed to plague the landscape.

3. Shadows. Please, oh please, shadows. I remember them saying it's too difficult to implement or something, but I just don't buy this. If they wanted to find a way, they would. Think of the stuff other devs can accomplish (Naughty Dog's games for example). I refuse to believe they can't work out how to implement something like shadow spaces in a 3D world next time around.

4. Tweak the audio mix. Music was never loud or tense enough, and there were FAR too many sound effects. Checkpoint noises, overly loud snoring sligs, incessant Mudokon chatter, that mysterious banging/explosion sound that happens every few minutes for some reason...the list goes on. Less random noise, more focus on music and atmosphere.

5. Fix the lighting and general presentation. Everything is too clean, even the main menu. It's all so bright and pretty. Grime it up a bit and darken the environments - at least in the industrial sections. I can imagine FeeCo just being a vast abyss of bright yellow background fog if done in the style of NnT hahah.

6. Keep Greeters, but implement their security lasers properly. Don't turn them into steam or something. Make it cover the platform, like the motion detectors in NnT, but have it free from the rails.

7. Remove the motion detectors from rails if possible. They were too easy being individual like that.

8. CGI cutscenes (won't happen, but dreaming along with some of the others on here)

9. Keep the humour but balance it out with the darker tone of the story more. NnT never felt like Abe was in a threatening universe. It needs to feel full of danger (where everything wants to eat you ;) )

10. No needless changes. Don't turn Soulstorm Brewery into the bright lights arcade that RuptureFarms became. Re-envision it, sure, but keep it in the same vein as the industrial, bleak and ultimately more realistic version from Exoddus. Same goes for all the major industrial locations.

There's probably more, but I still loved NnT and I don't want it sounding like I hated it. I just don't think it matached AO so hopefully they really seize the opportunity with Soulstorm to learn from what went right, what went wrong and what the Oddworld games should really be about.

CGI cutscenes?

Quiksaves never decreased difficulty. Obnoxious checkpoints only created artificial difficulty by making you frustrated.

I know people talk about how outrageously difficult Oddysee was, but my brother and I managed it and we were young kids at the time. It was hard, but a good run would mean succeeding to the next section. I don't find it artificially difficult; I see it as testing the player's skill over longer, more challenging sections. But that's me. I don't mind it being difficult.

In my experience, Quiksave sort of took away any sense of danger. There's no consequence for messing up right at the end of a sneaking section, say, because you can just Quiksave every step of the way. And I know you could simply not use it or whatever, but being that it's now a click of a button in the middle of the controller...it's almost too easy to do haha. So all I'd like is a mode where Quiksave is either disabled, or you have say only 5 or 10 to use per chapter :)

I think a bone-crushingly hard mode where quick save is disabled would appease everyone. Those who want to use it can, and then there's the option for those who don't.

I'd hope there was still a hard mode with quick save though. Basically the same difficulty setup from new and tasty but with an extra, quick-saveless mode as well. Perhaps unlocked after one run through?

I think invisible checkpoints should be a thing again. If not, then something inanimate like a graffitied Mudokon Smiley or something. Those Sonic The Hedgehog style checkpoints in NnT were not appealing at all.

What was wrong with the diamond sign?

Nothing.

It was too edgy.

On a serious note, if the NnT checkpoints aren't coming back, but the team still wants to use visible checkpoints, what if the diamond sign was carved into a background surface, and lit up when it was activated (not too intrusive, while still fitting the setting)?

I don't have a problem with Quiksave, it was very innovative in my opinion. It took a lot of frustration out of the game and at times made it more enjoyable.

NnT definitely benefitted from Quiksave. Something about the meat grinders, I could never time them properly so I would always Quiksave next to one before rolling, otherwise I'd forever be restarting the section over and over.

My hope for Soulstorm is that it has that dark and twisted environment and overall feel of the originals. IMO NnT didn't really capture that feel. I still thoroughly enjoyed NnT but I'd definitely like to see a return to that dark vibe.

I use Quiksave and Quikload a lot in my speedrun attempts. It really helps especially with parts that are really fast like the meat grinders.

Keep Quiksave please.

If u dont like it, dont use it. Imagine its not there.

I don't want it removed entirely! I'd just like a Classic Hard mode without it, for the players like me who like the original difficulty of AO that was stripped from NnT. Like I said it's always more difficult to not use something like that if it's right at your fingertips. So I'd just like a mode where they disabled it. It surely couldn't be difficult to implement in the slightest :)

They're teaming up with a studio specialized in CG animation, so the high quality cutscenes are back. The quicksave was there in the original AE though, and that game was pretty hard even with it IMO.

If the tone comes close to the ARG it's going to be great, I just hope they're going to be a bit more careful with the technical stuff. They're still going to be using Unity for whatever reason, but maybe the final product won't be as glitchy and unoptimized as NnT, hopefully.

I found Exoddus much, much easier to get the good ending, even as a kid, definitely in part due to Quiksave protecting me as I went. It's just a personal thing I'd like to see implemented as an option, to make up for NnT's insane easiness haha.

Amazing news about the CG stuff. That'll make me very happy. To this day the original cutscenes look amazing to me.

I feel like in AO much of the difficulty was due to the scarceness of checkpoints. As in, it was more tedious than hard, having to redo 5 easy sequences just to get to the hard one. And as you get more and more angry at the game you start to fuck up the easy sequences and UGH

That's a thing I do and most people don't isn't it

I think a lot of people feel the way you do Assassin! I believe I'm in the minority when I say I don't mind those long checkpoints, even if I have to redo an easy part a few times or what have you. But it's each to their own at the end of the day.

To be honest I felt Oddysee was perfect without quicksaving. The checkpoints never bothered me too much. The introduction of quicksaving made NnT MUCH too easy for me; The puzzles were never originally designed with a quicksave in mind, meaning they're simpler/shorter to compensate for that. The quicksave in NnT made them feel even shorter than that (I mean cmon, I 100% that game on Hard in like 2 hours and 30 minutes, I could never do that on Oddysee).

Exoddus, however, has much more complex and lengthy puzzles which take advantage of the fact the player can quicksave to throw more and more traps and things which would have seemed BS in the original if you had to start at a checkpoint, but are perfectly okay in Exoddus where you can quicksave at convenient times.

... Or at least, that's how I always felt haha

There have been times when I've sat down to do a replay of Oddysee, and done the first or 4 or so secrets which take a while, and then died and because I hadn't triggered the next checkpoint yet (because I'd only traversed about the first 5 screens of the main game) it reset all the secrets and I'd just given up because I'd literally have to put another half hour into doing all the secrets again. That's the only time I had a gripe with the sparse checkpoints in AO.

yeah, the checkpoints are the reason I neer finishing AO. I didnt enjoy my time with it, because it didnt have a quiksave, or more frequent checkpoints.

Quiksave isnt a difficulty erasing feature. Having to redo 5 minutes of the same thing over and over is not fun. ur not gonna quiksave after every jump. And quiksaving in the wrong place can make u restart the level if it puts u in a bad spot.


If they want to make a difficulty without quiksave go ahead. Im only going to play the game for about 2 thousand hours anyway, so I probably wont need it. Its a nice safeguard though.

Weird, because your sig says
Lol

@Connel Having a hard mode without quiksave is a dumb idea, either have it or don't. Playing well and being rewarded with the loss of a feature is one of the worst ideas I've seen in this thread.

I can think of so many games that do things like that. Off the top of my head for example many of the Zelda games unlock a mode where you take twice the amount of damage and the AI are stronger on your second play though. It gives you incentive to play again with a twist for those that desire more challenge. Hardly a dumb idea.

It's sort of like "Yeah, you managed to do that? Well try THIS!". I feel like that's quite an Oddworld thing to do as well.

As for me, I always imagined and wanted a hard mode for AO and AE as same old levels but with more sligs/mines/chant disruptors at places, where they weren't etc.
That would make absolutely different way to play old levels - like, normally, in this level, we possess slig, kill all other sligs and blow up ourself with this mine, while on hard mode, we would had to explode mine with rock, killing as much sligs as possible, just to get a slightest chance to run through them without being killed, get a bomb from far-away bomb dispenser and return back to kill every other slig or blow up chant disruptor.
Man, such hard mode would be awesome and really "new 'n' tasty" way to complete your old favorite game.

Ultimately, however they go about it, they should incorporate a higher level of difficulty for those that want it. Be it by disabling Quiksave, lengthening checkpoints or, as ndvr said, mixing up enemy and hazard placements to throw off fans who know the game well. Just something, so that for players like myself who found NnT far too easy can have a more challenging experience akin to the original games.

That's different, I love that sort of stuff. Resident Evil has had that shit since the beginning. It's just pointless to have a no quiksave mode considering you can choose to use it or not. It's like if Dark Souls had a no bonfire mode, pointless. People have done no bonfire runs, they don't need a mode for it.

It's hard to think of how they could tweak Exoddus to be harder than it is. Like, the obvious things like making enemies do more damage is moot in a game where they kill you all in one shot hahaha

Mixing up the levels sounds most logical. Kinda like a Oddworld Master Quest

Sligs don't actually always kill you with their first shot in AE.

I do see your point. I was more envisioning it as one part of a whole mode, E.G with more difficult enemies or whatever, and the quicksave being disabled as part of it. But of course, people simply have the choice.

All Sligs miss twice before killing you, even if they're right in front of you. It's weird.
It's probably more accurate to say that you'll get two free hits, because if there's tones of Sligs on screen they're pretty much going to kill you instantly if they all start firing at the same time.

I dont think running face first into a wall for 20 minutes has anything to do with patience.

Perserverance would be a better word.


But Perserverance is a virtue doesnt have the same ring to it.

Anyway, Lanning will never disable Quiksave:

http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.9/feat/

Huh that's quite an interesting insight!

Okay, for a hard mode then, if they won't disable hard mode, what if; if a mudokon dies, Abe also dies/it goes back to the last quick save

(I actually already do this because I don't let my mudokons die, but hey ho :'D)

Maybe partnered up with alternate locations for mudokons to spawn to mix it up