New Mod RELEASE: Ascent II, Reimagined: Part 1

[Antilles01]

https://www.trescom.org/download/ascent ... ed-part-1/

EDIT: Apparently I had a file name wrong, apologies, I'm linking to the download page on Trescom (which should be fixed) rather than my mediafire link!

Hey folks, my name is Brian and I've been working on a mod for about a year now, and its finally time to release it! It's a reimagining of Ascent 2. I've always thought that was the worst level- the terrain was clunky, exploration was nil, challenges were bland. So I made it more exciting. There's a repeated motif of ascending/descending, climbing up and climbing down, all through the level. Maybe it doesn't even resemble AS2 anymore, but whatever, it's a new mod to play.

So please keep in mind that this is my first release and although I've put a years worth of work into it, I'm releasing it 'unfinished' because I have to continue on other more pressing projects/obligations. Hence the 'Part 1' moniker, a premature ending and some incomplete ideas. If anyone wants to take a crack at finishing/re-doing the second half of the level, by all means, let me know on here and lets see what type of scary mountain climbing you can come up with! While it was neat in 1998, I was never enamored with the bland obstacle course/trail they implemented up the mountain.

I want to give a huge thanks to the guys in Trescom discord for helping me this past year, I leaned on them heavily for guidance, even when I had no idea what I was doing, and even when I probably should have researched more here in the forums. They probably rolled their eyes when I asked sheepishly how to rotate a model in TresEd, hehe. Luckily there are more really nice tutorials now that can help immensely (Thanks Drac).

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A few things to know while playing:

-Certain items in this mod like weapons and important items can change places in different playthroughs, adding to the challenge and replay value.

-The silver desert eagle you've used throughout the game was actually the .357 version. However, this level has the .50 cal version. Boom.

-Most vehicles can be entered/searched, whether their doors are locked or not.

-When you see a vertical rope or cable, it might be possible to cling to it and descend. Pressing forward will keep you stationary on it; letting off the forward button intermittently will let you descend, but beware, *total* concentration will be needed to keep yourself centered or Anne will slip and fall. Climbing is also possible but extremely hard for Anne (especially with a busted arm) - you need to jump repeatedly all while keeping yourself centered and maintaining a balance of "pressure" or forward movement. Major kudos to anyone who can fully ascend a cable or rope.

-SAVE OFTEN! Not only are there many deadly height-related challenges, this level can be physics/graphics intensive and random crashes happen more often than I'd like. Apologies on this front as I haven't been able to do much optimization or track down issues to debug.


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Credits: A huge thank you to all members of the Trescom modding community who have directly and indirectly helped me finish this mod especially you guys on the Trescom discord! I used so many assets from different creators/mods like the Geostern, Pteranodon, aviary research center, black Biosyn jeep, small dino cage, black desert eagle, waterfall texture, many doors/walls and plenty of things I'm forgetting for sure, so THANK YOU to those amazing artists. I did end up making quite a few new models (mp5k PDW, Para Ordinance .45, CANON camera, aviary structures, fences and walkways, green warehouse, optimized crane, and a few more) which are definitely free for anyone to use in the future. In fact I know that user Jurassic Seven is using some of the assets in his new level!



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Instructions:

1.Download the zip and extract the 'AS2R' folder to your mods directory.

2.a. Find 'trespasser.ini' in your main Trespasser directory and change its name to 'trespasser.orig.ini' for safekeeping and backup.
2.b. Find 'trespasser.AS2R.ini' in the AS2R folder and move it to the main Trespasser directory, then rename that to 'trespasser.ini'- these steps essentially replace the trespasser ini to add new dinosaur AI options that greatly enhance the experience and allow 'dual stowing' of items. Note: If you are experienced with modifying the .ini and prefer to use your customized file, or have already changed yours to include dual stow and new dinosaur AI, feel free to skip these steps, just know the experience might differ from what was tested.

3.Utilizing a mod manager or your 'tp-mod.ini' file, activate the AS2R mod.

4.Start Tres and click as2!

Lastly if anyone sees a problem/glitch that needs to be fixed, including basic stuff like file names, please let me know and I can reupload.

Thanks everyone!
Brian W. (Antilles01)

[tatu]

Glad to see this finally getting a release! I will upload this to the main site
I did end up removing the screenshot folder however, to save 20 MB on the download

EDIT: It appears you have included an "as2.wtd" while the level is looking for "as4.wtd", which makes it crash during loading. Is it fine just to rename it, or is the wrong WTD included? It seems to be the right one but with the wrong name, so I've changed it in the modified download on TresCom.

[Antilles01]

Hey Tatu. Thank so you so much for catching all that, like I said im a newb with this stuff! About the as4.wtd, I don't understand why that worked the way it did; it was always as4.wtd and I never risked changing it (even though the naming convention made no sense to me), then last week when I prepared my files for release I put them into a proper mod folder, and all of a sudden it wouldnt recognize as4.wtd, I changed it to as2.wtd and it worked. SO I thought everything was back in its right place, named correctly for people to play, but apparently not. Also lesson learned on screenshots, that snuck in accidentally.

Should I reupload with a correctly named .wtd for ease of use or leave it how you modified?

[tatu]

The level loaded fine when I had the retail levels in the main /data/ folder. However, when I moved them, the level suddenly crashed. But renaming the WTD you included made it load fine. So it may have been some conflict if you have the retail levels in the /data/ folder?

Do whatever you feel like. The one I uploaded on TresCom have the WTD renamed to as4.wtd, with the screenshot folder removed (though I stole some of those images and used them on the download page, and news page )

[Nick3069]

I was wondering when it would be released. I too noticed the WTD mix up and I also noticed the included 2 savegames which crash for me.

It is a very beautiful level, but a bit frustrating. It is very hard to get the key, keycard, and the weapons inside the vehicles. The crane spins way too fast. While the camera was pretty cool, I didn't understand the point of it. The level is unforgiving with many possible instant dead and softlock situations, save often. When you reach the end, AS is loaded, making the game an endless loop.
It's good, but it needs a bit of work. I love seeing the JP3 aviary.

[Antilles01]

Hey thanks for the feedback. Let me respond a bit point by point-Sorry to hear it was frustrating, it was purposefully meant to be difficult to get those things! The crane spinning wildly was the only way i could find to actually make that thing rotate, I myself was frustrated because no amount of modifying the t-script ever changed the speed (it has to do with the location and number of attached 'ladder rung' instances that actually made it spin, not any Drive value). At first I tried to make it controllable, but when that went out the window after months and months of testing, I had to redirect and I added the stuck control stick so it was meant to feel out of control. Simply put it was now a challenge to hit the emergency stop in the right place. The camera was my attempt at an easter egg just to see what I could do with it. Like I mentioned, I have to stop work on the level and released it 'unfinished', the shelves at the end of the level were supposed to have spots for photos of different things in the level. Bit saying it just needs a bit of work is how I got sucked in for a year and why I have to get out. For what its worth, the end was *supposed* to load the summit but apparently I didn't save the T-script after I changed it to sum.scn. Very frustrating for me!

[Draconisaurus]

Drac carefully avoids spoilers.
Hey Antilles! Glad you finally got this one out. Pretty neat level idea.

I played this a bit just now, will return to it later. I cannot figure out how to enter the warehouse...

Spoiler: show

The hammer did not work on the door. Small hint? Also I appreciated the orange keycard reader, didn't think of that missing color... Nice to see the JPDS~plains gate/walls. I had an ooo, ahhh moment at the cliff overlooking distant forest by the Alpha Rex. Was sad that I couldn't explore it. That part of Tres Sorna has always been asking to be explored. At least now it has a bit more detail. Btw, did you create a new water color trigger? It looked nice... Hm thanks for adding damage to the hammer, works very nicely.

[Antilles01]

Hey Drac,

Spoiler: show

The hammer has always been awkward unfortunately, it’ll work but you have to manually swing hard and connect. I’ve had better luck with rebars to be honest, again, manually swing and connect.

EDIT: I forgot three other ways:

Spoiler: show

Copper and lead propelled by gunpowder out of a steel tube, even the impact of an air dart, or get a pipe from the ridge with construction debris and lean it on the crane head, and jump up, avoiding razor wire.

[Nick3069]

Hey thanks for the feedback. Let me respond a bit point by point-Sorry to hear it was frustrating, it was purposefully meant to be difficult to get those things!

I can understand making the things hard to find or having to solve a puzzle, but having to fight against the physics engine to try and squeeze into places is not what I would call good game design.

The crane spinning wildly was the only way i could find to actually make that thing rotate, I myself was frustrated because no amount of modifying the t-script ever changed the speed (it has to do with the location and number of attached 'ladder rung' instances that actually made it spin, not any Drive value). At first I tried to make it controllable, but when that went out the window after months and months of testing, I had to redirect and I added the stuck control stick so it was meant to feel out of control. Simply put it was now a challenge to hit the emergency stop in the right place.

I see, that's unfortunate. I commend you for adapting and salvaging what worked for that puzzle.

Spoiler: show

The hammer did not work on the door. Small hint?

Spoiler: show

The hammer definitely works, the trick I found was to hover the hammer head over the lock and then press the use key to swing the hammer down onto the lock. It might take a few smashes, but it should work.

[Antilles01]

I realize that you need to crawl through so many cars in the level, that must be a nightmare! In my defense I got the idea from some of the tc levels but I probably took it to the extreme!

[TheIdiot]

Well, this came out of nowhere! I can't say I even recall seeing you post before, Antilles01!

I'll put my thoughts in a spoiler as there is a lot to spoil:

Spoiler: show

I gave this a go last night and wow, I am very impressed, especially as this is your first level! I've been wanting to see a functional aviary sequence in Trespasser since I first got into modding it 15 years ago. So that was by far my favourite part, even if it was relatively short - you even included an animated pteranodon attack which I never would have expected in a first level. All of the new models are also great to see, I especially like how you did the river with a higher polycount in order to make it feel like it was really "flowing".
The puzzles you came up with for the opening hangar bit were definitely creative and interesting - I really liked the idea of the crane, though I did have some trouble with it. It spins very fast as others have mentioned, and once I got it lined up how I wanted it, I realised I couldn't actually get to the ladder on the side, and I was just able to abuse the physics to sort of walk along the side of the crane to get back into the cockpit in order to re-align it, which I can see being an issue as it is definitely possible to get soft-locked due to that. I also noticed that upon re-loading my save game after I fell off the crane and died trying to walk along the side of it that the lever you hit to start the crane moving didn't work after I re-loaded my game at all, so I was basically stuck. The puzzle itself was good, just a few minor issues involving soft-locks that would need to be fixed.
The whole hangar bit was cool, though I couldn't actually get Anne to climb the rope as she would just fall right past it and die - I ultimately had to walk along the girders and drop down onto a tall crate (which nearly killed me). I was able to climb back up it though, it's just really hard to get onto from the top of the hanger. Also - I *think* I noticed that when I went over to the control panel to open the hangar door the second time there was a bloody hand-print on it that wasn't there before? That was really interesting, I would definitely like to see more signs that you're not alone if you continue updating the level.
The aviary...wow, that was pretty epic, even if it was rather simplistic in its layout. So much cool detail and visual design going on there, that was probably one of my favourite areas I've played through in any level! The collapsing walkways was fun, walking higher and higher up toward the top really felt sketchy since you never knew when one was going to fall out from beneath you. One thing I'm wondering - were the blocks at the start of the aviary in the pond supposed to be too far apart to actually jump across? I ended up having to go outside the aviary (which was just as foggy as inside - maybe an oversight?) and grab one of those big metal bars that were on the ground and then I used it as a balancing beam to walk across the blocks, and then had to keep transferring it to each successive gap. If that was intentional, it was very intuitive, and something I don't think I've seen anyone do that before.
I'll admit that I don't think I noticed the randomized gun placement, but I did well enough with what I found on my single playthrough. The Jeep in the hangar with the machine gun was neat but it was very hard to use the machine gun from the back seat, especially because the Rex seemed to know to hide just behind the wall and out of my line of sight.

Anyway...in short, this level is really well done. Extremely impressive for your first level, in fact this doesn't even feel like a first level! I'd love to see more if you do continue it...I wonder how you can top that aviary sequence, though, as it is just so awesome. One very minor gripe - if you do update it, I have to suggest changing the loading screen that shows the aviary to something a little bit more mysterious - I had no idea what I was going to see when I first opened up this level, but the loading screen unfortunately gave away the best part.

[Nick3069]

Well, this came out of nowhere! I can't say I even recall seeing you post before, Antilles01!

He was very active on Discord and would often show previews and ask for help on this project, so I've known about it for a while.

Spoiler: show

One thing I'm wondering - were the blocks at the start of the aviary in the pond supposed to be too far apart to actually jump across? I ended up having to go outside the aviary (which was just as foggy as inside - maybe an oversight?) and grab one of those big metal bars that were on the ground and then I used it as a balancing beam to walk across the blocks, and then had to keep transferring it to each successive gap. If that was intentional, it was very intuitive, and something I don't think I've seen anyone do that before.

Spoiler: show

While I can't say for certain, it definitely looks that way to me. At first I tried using the ladder in the back of the Mercedes, which was a hell of job trying to make it fit through the small gate, and then it fell in and sank at the bottom of the water. Then I tried with the wooden plank next to the crates and sawhorse and that worked pretty well.

Oh, I just remembered a few minor complaints I have about the level:

Spoiler: show

The sound the power cell makes is the most unpleasant sound I've heard in a long time and the steps in the stairwell at the end at too big so you have to manually jump into each step instead of walking.

[Antilles01]

Thanks TheIdiot ! It’s true I haven’t posted that much on here. Just checked, 14 posts total, and 7 are from this thread. The other 7 are from 2007-2008 when I didn’t even know modding was a thing, jabbering about random stuff. I’ve been active in the discord group for a year though, that’s where I spent most of my time. Anyway I didn’t think to keep the

Spoiler: show

aviary a surprise really-I like the atmosphere but there’s not a lot of dinos or action in there.

If I make any updates I’ll change it to a pic of the warehouse/ mountainside.

And Nick everything you mentioned is correct, I hate that sound too and tried to get it quieter but no dice, at least it goes away when you walk away. Not too many ambient options for that but getting volume correct on sfx just never worked for me.

I'll respond further to a few of TheIdiot's notes:

Spoiler: show

-I tested the crane so much but I never in fact tested a load game right before. My guess is since there's a lot of Frozen true/false going on with the crane, and bits of that controlled by a start trigger, something messes up when you start from a load game. Sorry!
-I knew that if it the arm was aligned 90 degrees toward the roof the ladder would be hard to reach (but not impossible, you can jump from the cabin or platform to the side of the ladder and continue up. In retrospect I should have just widened the base of the cabin like a running board of a truck so you could scootch along to the ladder or cabin. I made it a little harder than needed. Edit: Also there is one way to slow the crane down and that was having it lower so more friction with the base. When it was slow it was boring and not a challenge to slap that Emergency Stop button.
-Your instincts were correct when you took the girder to crate route. It definitely is possible to drop to the rope from the two nearest girders, in fact on the girder 'facing' it theres a VO of Anne saying 'I can make it'. When i tested, I think one out of every 10 jumps i made would clank off a $ box wrong and I would die . The tall crate you spotted is the only other possible way down, yes you take damage but you survive. Fun fact, I was planning on using a taut 'net' model with location trigger push to slow your descent or bounce you into the other big create. Alas ran out of time, but very possible. At one point the entire aviary was a bounce house using spherical location triggers with Push = 10 while I was testing falling walkways.
-The yellow button and control panel just has the bloody handprint as a texture, no doubt from years ago when Biosyn came in being chased by whatever.
-I positioned the jeep/machinegun like that so that you would have to hold it at an angle and the bullet tracers would be more visible. And yeah the Rex (and Albertosaur) sometimes just stay to the left even though the staynear box is right in front of the damn door. Eh well.
-Yes the blocks were definitely spaced far apart so you HAD to use the board or crates from the outside to cross. They all floated too so that was another option to jump on to get up. The pipes were a last resort of sorts. The ladder, which nobody has mentioned, is for the shed but you might as well ignore that because its the jankiest trick in the level. The fog staying 'on' when outside I just never fixed, just as it technically should have disappeared when you get to the aviary center.

[TheIdiot]

And Nick everything you mentioned is correct, I hate that sound too and tried to get it quieter but no dice, at least it goes away when you walk away. Not too many ambient options for that but getting volume correct on sfx just never worked for me.

I meant to mention that sound too, it was really annoying. Not really your fault at all, I know it's a retail sound. Do you have it playing as an Effect or a Stream sound? You should be able to set the battery as the emitter and that would fix the volume issue.

-I tested the crane so much but I never in fact tested a load game right before. My guess is since there's a lot of Frozen true/false going on with the crane, and bits of that controlled by a start trigger, something messes up when you start from a load game. Sorry!

Might be the Start trigger that's doing it. I'd have to look at it to be sure.

At one point the entire aviary was a bounce house using spherical location triggers with Push = 10 while I was testing falling walkways.

Yeah, I did notice that the stream was one giant series of push triggers. Tedious stuff to set up, but it paid off by feeling realistic and dynamic. I would probably have just gotten lazy and put a kill trigger on it so I am impressed by the way you handled it.

-I positioned the jeep/machinegun like that so that you would have to hold it at an angle and the bullet tracers would be more visible. And yeah the Rex (and Albertosaur) sometimes just stay to the left even though the staynear box is right in front of the damn door. Eh well.

Are the tracers a new effect, by the way? I don't think I've ever noticed tracers in Trespasser before due to guns usually being held to fire away from the player. If so they were very well done, felt like part of the retail game.

The ladder, which nobody has mentioned, is for the shed but you might as well ignore that because its the jankiest trick in the level.

Nick mentioned the ladder. Sounds like I chose correctly by avoiding it, too.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the world-building by the way. You did a really good job of this with very subtle things like the single bit of aviary walkway near the start of the level - thinking about that, it would definitely work better if we didn't know from the loading screen that the aviary is in the level, as you would see that and think, "hmm that's weird, I wonder what that was intended for?".
Also I was just looking at the level in TresEd and discovered the orange key-card which I didn't even notice on my playthrough, as I circumvented the gate by going down the valley. So I guess there are multiple paths as well, even if they're minor - still adds more replayability which is always good.

[Draconisaurus]

Hey Drac,

Spoiler: show

The hammer has always been awkward unfortunately, it’ll work but you have to manually swing hard and connect. I’ve had better luck with rebars to be honest, again, manually swing and connect.

EDIT: I forgot three other ways:

Spoiler: show

Copper and lead propelled by gunpowder out of a steel tube, even the impact of an air dart, or get a pipe from the ridge with construction debris and lean it on the crane head, and jump up, avoiding razor wire.

Hmmm.

Spoiler: show

So I tried the hammer on the back door some more, and rebar. I tried the rebar and tranq pistol on the crane which didn't budge up or down. Erm... Am I supposed to hit a specific part of the door?