Recent News
Here it is.
This release took over 40 days and nights because practically every aspect of the game has been changed or tweaked. This is a brand new game you have here. If there was something you didn't like about previous versions check this one out.
First of all the whole movement system has been changed. I have closely watched parkour and tried to get that feeling of free urban running into Link-Dead. I'm sure this game beats Mirror's Edge 2D in this aspect alone. There are lots of new animations and moves. But what is most important is that they are really easy to do. You just need to know how to jump [SPACE] and point your mouse at the direction you want to go.
This is explained in this video tutorial "Moving over or under obstacles".
The second cool thing is melee weapons. There are new animations for handling them, like striking, blocking and THROWING! You can play with two new weapons: the Spear of Destiny and a mining Pickaxe. Impaling a dude against a wall with the spear was the thing I was so excited about a couple weeks ago. There is no game of this kind that allows you to do this.
Watch this video to see how the Spear works (you might need to watch in fullscreen to see the full effect):
Third thing is I added... 
lots of cool little things you can do that me and other players love. You can customize your avatar. Not only can you change the color of your clothes, skin and hair but you can also change the hair style, attach a cool waist chain, cape and different styles of helmets!
Next thing that personalizes your gameplay are HUMILIATIONS.
You can now piss on your enemy.
Imagine him dying in agony on the floor, screaming for help. You step in front of him and take a leak on his head. You have to play the game to see this.
The other humiliation is HEAD COLLECTING. No further explanations, see this on the video below:
Other things worth mentioning are:
- New inventory system with much larger icons; allowing to put armor on any limb you want
- New weapon, the classic old AK-47!
- Interface improvements (eg. HUD clip and nade icons)
- Hotkeys to quickly patch or turn on cloak
- New unarmored Einheriar soldier
- Self-Destruction device
- A new animated, much easier to use, hacking-style Main Menu
- New in-game help with map collision help (press [F1]!)
- New map Nuclear Plant (click for overview)
Have fun!
PS. If you still haven't got access to play the Link-Dead Alpha version just head over here now. Click the PayPal button and pay me whatever you feel you want to pay me for it.
Last but not least, here is the complete changelog. Especially read the [movement] section as it explains all the changes in controls.
Changes 1922-1969:
[general]
- Mutant Men are now known as Wasteminers
- Ubermen are now known as Einheriar
- new unarmored Einheriar character
- upgraded Irrlicht to version 1.7.2 (fixed some image memory issues)
[maps]
- added new map Nuclear Plant
- added destructible glass wall effect
- more lighting and shading on Warehouse map
[gameplay]
- added droppable physics weapons and grenades
- added gun falls out of hands on death
- gun in hand is collidable with bullets & explosions
- gun can be shot out of hands if soldier is tired (high fatigue)
- if out of ammo gun becomes melee weapon
- added pickup time for every pickable item
- picking/disarming laser/sticky grenade takes up to 3 seconds
- picking items from soldier takes longer (over a second; more if soldier is alive)
- added Humiliations: acid piss for Wasteminers & head trophy for Einheriar (use action menu [E])
- soldier attachments and hanging parts (cape, hair) are loadable from inventory
- armor falls off when damaged entirely
- stuff can be picked up while jumping or climbing (not just standing)
- added resting gun against obstacle to reduce recoil
- both teams have the same weight class thresholds
- remote detonator has 1 sec activation time after falling
- laser tripwire does not activate on all Wasteminers
- fatigue is calculated now from actual movement displacement
- soldier gun collides now with other soldiers
- wound effect is calculated using lowest health limb instead of average of limb healths
[balance]
- armor takes 25% less damage from non-piercing projectiles
- IED is 10% stronger
- Baldr sniper rifle is 200% weaker
[visuals]
- fixed gun angles on leg, holster and back
- fixed grenade placement on hip
- fixed small sprite glitches and limb placements on mutant and ubermen
- fixed back elbow visuals
- smoothened jump forces
- new jump up animation
- changed fall animation
- modified stand animations
- added empty clip falls down when reloading gun
- clip is drawn on "clip-in" sound
- added flying garbage on explosion
- larger fatigue and energy indicators
- Beast Friend is smaller
- more blood on shot
- bullet graphics is much brighter
- added laser blink effect
- changed plazma spawn graphic
- armor in HUD uses more intense blue
- particles are brighter on shaders on
[interface]
- added hotkeys for backpack items [1,2,3,4]
- new main menu and context menus look & behaviour
- remote IED's are detonated from nade pick menu now
- up/down movement arrow is displayed below player
- stance icons are displayed also below player
- map help lines are drawn when tutorial is shown [F1]
- added (blue) ladder lines to map help lines drawing
- only one option to heal ALL with medkit (via hotkey)
- right mouse button now removes item from inventory
- rearranged inventory and item sizes
- added context key help messages (on/off [F1])
- energy bar outlines if energy is being used
- pie menu always starts at middle of screen
- darker pie menu background
- HUD isn't drawn when pie menu is open
- item attachments are drawn as icons in pie menus
- added fist icon to change weapon menu
- new (placeholder) team pick art
- added team descriptions on team pick menu
- added radio commands in action menu
- added clip & nade icons to HUD
[bugs]
- fixed collision on edges made on half-tile space (many Warehouse map bugs)
- fixed item scavenging ranges
- fixed stall on first use of ladder
- fixed fall hands animation
- fixed weapon positions being at death position not in in corpse
- fixed going upstairs when pointing down
- fixed double medkit in Mutant inventory shop
- fixed "MEDIC!" text appearing even after patching
- fixed backpack items not being counted in soldier weight
- fixed not able to detonate remote when carrying no grenades
- fixed explosion penetrating walls
- bot paths always generate now without need to delete file
- fixed grenade passing stairs
- fixed smoke not being emitted from grenade with other attachments
- fixed IED laser being seen on top of FOV
- fixed infinite healing bug
- fixed cloak affecting other sprite rendering
- fixed bone breaking in ragdoll
[effects]
- added hands grab ledge sound
- different louder ladder sounds
- new ladder and wall sliding sounds
- added climbing sounds (when not sneaking)
- added falling death scream
- particle sounds added (eg. shell sounds, wall parts)
- step sounds are heavier & there's more walking dust on heavier weight classes
- fall sound uses ground material sound
[inventory]
- new Wasteminer weapon AK-47
- added self-destruct device for Einheriar (detonates owner and his inventory)
- added Wasteminer mullet & fringe
- added Wasteminer chain accessory
- added color pickers in inventory
- Einheriar armor is fully optional
- added 5 new helmet types for Einheriar
[configs]
- config file for GUI "Base/GUI/gui.cfg"
- renamed inventory_subtype to inventory_id in config items
- armor hit spark color is configurable in armor config
[other]
- optimized sending floats over network (half size)
- optimized map line drawing
- bots now aim when shooting
- bots now run by default
- improved ragdoll collisions
- limited ragdoll speed on death
[movement]
- rolling on landing prevents fall damage
- possible to drop down platform when reloading/changing weapon
- gravity is 40% lower
- increased jump forces
- dropping down from platform or stairs is immediate
- climb on platform is performed using [left or right]+[up] keys (previously just [jump])
- platform or ledge is grabbed by tapping [up] key
- increased air control force
- side jump can be performed immediately after side jump land when holding [jump]
- can climb up without waiting for grab animation to end
- faster stand/run change
- fall damage height is larger
- climbing speed when walking is 2x faster (still slower than normal cause it is stealth)
- dropped 10-20% of useless frames in climb animations (makes climbing faster)
- added sliding against wall (hold [left] or [right] when falling against wall)
- jump force from ladder or wall is 2x stronger
- jumping off ladder is done with [jump] key
- jump forces for weight classes are more differentiated
- turning in air is not delayed
- new fast climb animations over 2-3 tiles height (for light & medium class)
- jump on cliffs/ledge climbs over
- sliding down corner works independently of facing direction
- added backflip when ran onto big slope
- ascending ladder move is faster
- added running up wall (pointing mouse above)
[editor]
- fixed sketchmap load crash
- fixed menu item placement bugs
I’ve just made the most brutal and fun thing ever made in a computer game. At least that’s what I feel like. I’m not telling what it is. I’ll just say I’m making melee combat and incorporating elements that were supposed to be in Berserker.
January 19th 2011
A common question I get “where do I get sounds for my games?”. For example here: http://www.freesound.org. Today I started work by listening to psychotic people laughing.
January 20th 2011
I made rolling like in Soldat. It’s an excellent move and one thing that makes Soldat the game it is.
January 24th 2011
The next LD release will be a different game. Even if there are things to fix & tweak it will be a much better one. I remade the controls and movement to something that is much easier and automatic. At first I wanted the movement to be something the player must tackle and learn. But the results are too determined and even if you learn the controls they sometimes distract from elements in the game that are much more fun. I’m not a fan of making it easy for the player, but having fun is most important. So if you played the game and didn’t like the controls wait for the next release. It will be much easier + it will still have the mastering element because it will allow for learning cool tricks with the use of rolls, flips and wall jumps.
One of the fun things about the alpha version is that nothing is fixed yet. When you pay to play and participate in the game testing you can actively develop the game with me. Many things being implemented right now are ideas we talk about on the message forums. When the beta is out it will be a near finished product and new ideas won’t be so easily added.
January 25th 2011
I improved the code that manages hanging stuff on the soldier. Currently there is a cape and fringe. Today I added a chain attached to the waste for mutants and a mullet. Eventually I want these to be an option that you can choose to wear or not. For Ubermen I added… a hanging head. This will be part of the trophy collecting system, were you walk up to a corpse and cut off its head or rip the heart out and then wear it as an ornament.
January 26th 2011
I just made an animation called bPissAnimation. Also downloaded sounds of piss hitting concrete and gargling. It’s so much fun making this game lately. I’m really thinking of finishing Berserker just for the fun of developing it (or making LD a bit like it).
January 26th 2011
Just watched again this old Berserker preview. Funny thing is it’s my most popular game video on Youtube. People really want this game. If you wonder what happened to this project – it’s officially on hold because I am making Link-Dead.
January 28th 2011
Introducing Gay Mutant with Pickaxe!
January 31st 2011
You might have guessed from the last news that I’ve just finished player coloring. This is an awesome feature that will allow to add more personality into the sprites. Right now mutants can color their pants, skin color and hair.January 31st 2011
Some of the upcoming features:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuWQWNnCSBI
I compressed time and did a lot in just 3 days. First of all I addressed some bugs that caused the server to restart, second I fixed a lot of annoying bugs that happened in the last release. What is most cool though is I finally added a REMOTE DETONATOR for Mutants! I can't wait to blow someone up with this baby. But that's not all, I made a BOOBY TRAP attachment for the IED. So when an unsuspecting Ubermen tries to disarm a grenade KABOOM!!!
Last but not least the Scram Cannon works a bit differently now because it causes fatal wounds to the victim. So he starts bleeding to death if he doesn't patch himself up. Fatal wounds can also occur from other weapons and explosives. Have fun.
Changes 1919-1922:
- added booby trap IED attachment (explodes when disarmed or picked up)
- added remote detonator IED attachment (detonate with action menu [E])
- added FOV option for 360 degrees view - added improvements on ragdoll collision - added fatal wounds which make you slowly die if not patched
- added separate cursor for pickup/drop item menus
- chat.txt is now timestamped
- fixed disconnection happening when ragdoll was missing
- player dies when fallen out of map bounds
- spectator camera can be moven with left mouse and zoomed with right
- map uses smooth again by default
- moved FOV origin higher
- disabled arrow in heartbeat detector
- modified spawn points on Warehouse (UM spawn only outside of interiors)
- fixed some collision bugs and map boundaries on Warehouse
- fixed parallax rendering on minimalist preset
- fixed grenade throwing out of hip
- fixed crash on inventory item drop
[weapons]
- Scram cannon is now a fast shooting rifle that causes fatal wounds
- 7% less damage on Nailer
- lots of more smoke on smoke grenades
Grab the first update of 2011. It will automatically download once you start LD.exe. If you don't have Link-Dead yet, go here.
What's new? I made a new map! I called it simply Warehouse and it is set in the same industrial setting as the Factory map. From gameplay perspective it is very different from the 1st map. It is more square-shaped, fights occur mostly inside the warehouse/factory. There are no mutant undergrounds and everyone spawns all over the place like in a deathmatch game. I want to try how this will work out. Playing with bots is much more satisfying on a map like this.
That's right I've made bots. Unfortunately they aren't a perfect opponent. I didn't have time to code any objectives for the bots. So they usually just sit and wait, enjoying a smoke or whatever bots do in their free time. To have fun with them you'll have to engage them yourself. Don't post any bot related errors cause I don't plan on working on them more, it takes too much time.
To play with the bots on localhost or on your server you must either generate bot paths in the editor or download these bot paths and unzip them into LD/Cache. Sorry about this, it will be automatic next time.
Pie menus are perfect now IMO. They don't interfere with the weapon aim anymore because they have their own separate cursor. This works really good.
Notice how the explosions look different now. I fixed the smoke so that now you can clearly see how the "dust processor" works. Smoke will only appear in the region the explosion occured, realistically floating under the ceiling, flowing out of windows etc.
I made even more optimizations for speed. Most noticeably I disabled the shadows for map lights. Sorry but it takes too much GPU power. If I find a way to really speed it up I will reintroduce this feature.
Last but not least: Field-Of-View. Many people complained about the lack of it. Some feel it is necessary, some feel it should not be there. Let's decide in this version. I made it a server-side option so we can test it (editable in Rules/Huntdown/huntdown.cfg).
Have fun & I'll meet you on the servers!
Changes 1880-1919:
[game & maps]
- added new map "Warehouse 1"
- added server-side option for Field-Of-View
- added bots
- new respawn points on Factory map
- new ambient lighting and fog on Factory map
- added breathing sound effect
- can aim now when climbing tiles of height 2
- intro music doesn't play if ESC is pressed on start
[bugs]
- fixed not able to unjam when no clips available
- fixed crash that happened after many hours of server uptime
- fixed winning team message
- fixed 2 possible causes of immortality bug
- fixed not respawning after match ended with no units left
- fixed climbing into small area and getting stuck
- fixes in player-map collision
- fixed ambient occlusion rendering
- fixed shadows becoming messed up sometimes
- fixed Ubermen armor hit effect
- fixed explosions to not hit beyond walls
- fixed head collision with ceiling
- fixed picking item from menu stopped player
- fixed rats getting lost outside of map
- fixed drill making a shitload of dust
[optimizations]
- optimized offscreen animations
- dedicated server doesn't process sprites
- disabled shadows on map light for performance boost
- optimized visible objects for FOV
- added dust processor optimization for screen bounds
- decreased by 50% all dust and smoke
- optimized offscreen decal painting
- optimized netobjects that aren't updated
[interface]
- holding crouch longer and then releasing returns to stand position
- menu cursors are now disconnected from aim cursor
- changed font of loading messages
- added loading bar instead of message were appropriate
[other]
- added map file compression (now 90% smaller)
- crashrpt adds current used config files to report
- added command \restartround
- added command \get [filename] (in server Base directory domain)
- added file downloading with display
- added auto adding bots on server (1 bot is added when there is less than 4 players)
- camera stops in place on death
[network]
- all network data is now compressed resulting in 0-50% less bandwidth usage
[visual]
- new attachment icons (thanks to whitebear)
- increased visibility of dust and smoke
- map isn't smoothened by default for more crisp look (smoothed only zoom)
- fixed explosions smoke to not get beyond walls
[editor]
- added zoom / unzoom (can't show whole map just part)
- modified collision edge grid is 2x smaller
- fixed new map rendering speed
- fixed brushes next button popping
- fixed brushes saving wrong noise
- fixed brush mirror and flip
- ambient map and fog isn't shown on tile edit
- added menu item for generating bot paths
- fixed reloaded texture not being saved
[balance]
- added 40% more breath/fatigue sway on all weapons
- increased max distance of heartbeat detector by 30%
- added arrow indicating direction in heartbeat detector
- scram cannon reload is faster by 1 second
- fixed reloaded texture not being saved
