Spamocalypse: Respawn mechanism and NPC models

Another update to Spamocalypse. This time, I’ve added a respawn mechanism for the spammers. They will respawn after a 30 second delay, which will remain constant across all difficulties.

My experience of stealth games has mainly been shaped by Thief and Thief 2. In those games, killing people is discouraged – in fact, on expert difficulty killing people is forbidden. On the lower difficulties, it is generally allowed (though Thief 2 has a few missions where it has to be kept to a minimum for the sake of the plot), but it is discouraged by the fact that you have to hide bodies, and that does include removing their blood stains. I don’t have those in Spamocalypse, so I’ve added the respawn mechanism as an alternative to that.

What happens is that when an enemy is killed, the Level Manager will wait thirty seconds and respawn them in the same spot. If this happens too often, they will be come suspicious and start searching around them. The criteria for “too often” will depend on the NPC type – spambots require about 20 deaths to realise that something is wrong, regular spammers will cop on at about 5 deaths, and Moderators will realise this after 3 deaths. In the meantime, other NPCs who find their corpse will trigger an alert.

I also have some NPC models! These haven’t gone into a build yet, as I’ve only just finished the Moderator. However, they are textured and, after following this tutorial, they are animated.

Spambot/Dumbbot
The Spambot/Dumbbot is the stupidest weapon available to the Word of Turscar. It trundles around blaring out Turscarite propaganda (i.e. spamming loudly) and launching cans of spam at anyone who gets in the way. They were designed to be mass-produced and deployed en masse for assaults on target Sites, and have not been programmed to account for Sockpuppet during their sales attempts.

Not very bright, but it doesn't need to be. This is what I imagine spambots look like.
Not very bright, but it doesn’t need to be. This is what I imagine spambots look like.

Regular
These two show a regular spammer, which is really just a zombie that vomits spam. Excessive exposure to spam may result in conversion. They can use whatever humanity they have left to identify a Sockpuppet, and will search nearby when they recognise one.

Spammer1
If they’re idle, it’s because they need to take a break. Hence the preference for bots during attacks.
Spammer1 Attacking
Achoo! It’s supposed to be vomiting spam rather than sneezing, but I haven’t got that far yet.

Moderator
The Order of the Hammer of Moderation is an order that is pledged to protect Sites from Turscarites, Trolls and other degenerates of the Nett. Any Moderator (or Hammerite) that is caught by the Turscarites can expect a long, slow and painful process of conversion. When the process is finished, they are no longer human, and serve the Word of Turscar with the same fanaticism with which they once opposed it. They still retain their abilities, including that of tracing a Sockpuppet’s launch position.

I did originally plan to give them a muzzle-loading air rifle for ranged attacks, or possibly a wheel-lock pistol like in Dishonored, but I decided that would take too much time. Instead, I just went with the hammer.

I art bored, brethren.
Guard duty art tedious, brethren.
To arms, brethren!
To arms, brethren!

So, my artwork isn’t great at the moment. However, the regular spammer and the moderator are the first two humanoid characters I’ve ever animated, so I think they can be excused. 3D modelling of characters was the last major development hurdle for Spamocalypse…at least, until the bugs and Gremlins turn up.


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