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Proto:Daikatana (Windows)/v0.10

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This is a sub-page of Proto:Daikatana (Windows).

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Daikatana v0.10 is a Daikatana prototype compiled on August 21st, 1998, with a secondary executable compiled on August 20th. It was compiled more than a year and a half before the final game was released. Interestingly, it was compiled 6 days away from the day Milestone 2 was compiled a year prior.

This prototype is notable in that it was compiled about a month before the game’s first team resigned. This makes it one of the last glimpses of the game as it was envisioned by the original team.

0.10 shows the game at a much closer state to the final game than it was in Milestone 2. It uses the Quake 2 engine like the final game does. Most of the weapons and enemies from the final game are in this prototype, though many enemies lack textures and cannot be fought in the prototype. A great amount of the art in 0.10 appears in the final game. Many of the levels in the prototype can be found in the final game, but not without alterations. Even a rough version of the final game’s menu system is in place.

There are many signs that the game needed a lot more work done to it before it could be shipped, though. Weapons and enemies are missing sounds, with one enemy still using temporary sounds she were using in Milestone 2. Enemy AI is primitive, and several enemies do not have the unique behaviors they have in the final game. Levels have few enemies, little items, and in some cases, goals for the player to work towards. The AI partners do not appear at all, despite being a core component of the game. Most items, such as many of the armors, are absent. The cutscene system consists of a handful of scripts and temporary sounds instead of anything shippable. To top it off, there are some technical issues that can cause serious problems if the player goes through several unique levels in a row.

Sub-Pages

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Weapons
Hey, why is my shotgun firing lasers?
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Enemies
A lot of familiar faces, but with worse AI and some texture differences.
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Graphics
Featuring a lot of cut 2D images of props and quite a few WIP console background textures.
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Skyboxes
Not only are none of 0.10's skyboxes used in the final game, many of them don't show up in the prototype's levels at all!
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Episode 1 levels
Episode 1, but with simpler levels and a lot less enemies.
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Episode 2 levels
A level cut from the final game and a level compiled in 1997, oh my!
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Episode 3 levels
Episode 3's cut hub level with his friend, Wyndrax's Tower.
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Episode 4 levels
E4M2 gets compressed into one level and E4M5a suffers a naming crisis.
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Sounds
I don't remember hearing any of this in the final game!

General

Glide Renderer

0.10 uses Glide as its renderer. Since Glide is long obsolete, Glide emulators such as nGlide are needed to play it.

A software renderer can be found in the game’s files, but attempting to use it will crash the game.

Executables

The prototype comes with two executables.

The first one, daikatana.exe, was compiled on August 21st, 1998 at 11:44 AM. When loaded, it does not show any font in the console, but the player can still type in commands. Attempting to activate the menu will not work.

When the game is loaded, it behaves like normal, but when the player attempts to call the console or menu, the message “Demo mode: Press F10 to quit” will print on the top left corner of the screen. This makes both the menu and console inaccessible in this executable. As the message says, F10 does indeed quit the game.

What this executable was for is unknown, but based on the error message, it might’ve been used for internal showcase purposes.

The second executable is daikatana2.exe. This one was compiled on August 20th, 1998 at 1:12 PM, making it slightly less than a day older than daikatana.exe.

This executable appears to be fully working compared to daikatana.exe. The console shows text, the menu can be called from the console and in-game, and the console can be summoned properly in-game.

HUD

The prototype uses a completely different HUD, or rather, HUDs. Each episode has its own unique HUD, though the general layout is the same in each one. Each HUD has a “sword level” indicator, presumably for the Daikatana, but since the Daikatana cannot be used nor leveled up, it does nothing.

The HUD design is broken down into three parts. The first part shows the numbers for stats like health and ammo at the bottom of the screen. The second part is the middle, which shows icons representing each stat. The final part shows the player’s stats, with levels in a stat indicated by a glowing box to the right of the box. These parts can be added with the “sizeup” command or removed with the “sizedown” command.

  • Episode 1’s HUD features a dark grey metallic design with green font for numbers. Hiro’s armor is used as the armor graphic, two rockets are used for the ammo indicator.
  • Episode 2’s HUD has an Ancient Greek motif, with pillars between each of the stats. The left and rightmost pillars have skulls on them (similar skulls can be seen on various Episode 2 textures in both the prototype and the final game), while the center one has a statue in the middle of it and a fire at the bottom of it. The font used for numbers is rune-like. The armor icon uses an armor design not seen in either the prototype nor final game, while the ammo icon uses a Discus as its indicator.
  • Episode 3’s HUD has a rusty metal design in the vein of the metal textures seen in Episode 3. The top of the center of the HUD has a metal crucifix seen in the final Episode 3, while the lower center has a skull with horns coming out of it. Numbers use a jagged red font. A generic chainmail armor not seen in the prototype nor final game is used to represent armor, while a quiver of arrows are used to represent ammo.
  • Episode 4’s HUD uses a run-down metal theme. The part of the HUD containing the actual values is rusted and beat down compared to the upper half of the HUD. It uses a grey font for numbers that appears to give the look that someone punched the numbers into metal. An early version of the Kevlar Armor seen in the final game is used to represent armor, while a generic box of pistol ammo that’s open, revealing the ammo inside it and what might be a magazine in front of it are used to represent ammo.

The HUD will not fit properly if the screen is any size beyond 640x480. There will be a significant amount of space between the HUD and the end of the screen on the left and right sides of the screen. This space will print whatever graphics were on it, even if the graphics were removed.

Screenshots from 1998 show all of these HUDs. The graphics for them can still be found in the Mplayer demo released in February 1999, suggesting they managed to survive for a while.

Prototype Final
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Prototype Pre-release Image
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Prototype Pre-release Image
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Prototype Pre-release Image
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Prototype Pre-release Image
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Menu

A proper menu is in this prototype and works, though several features are not functioning.

The design appears to be a very rough version of what would becomes the final’s menu. It uses rusty metal pipes as the frame, and the demon head on the top left corner is completely missing. Selectable options look like rusty metal frames, but spin when selected, lie in the final game. The cursor is a rougher version of the one used in the final game.

When the player is on a screen, a graphic showing the option’s name will appear to flip down. This effect was removed in the final game.

The buttons in each menu is a simple grey gradient that do not exist in the final game.

The “config” option is missing in this prototype.

Several options in 0.10’s menu do not work. They are “Multiplayer”, “Load Game”, “Save Game”, “Sound”, “Joystick”, “Options”, “Advanced”, and “Help”. Attempting to select most of them will give a message that the menu is not implemented. The “Multiplayer” option has simple instructions on how to start a multiplayer game via the console underneath the notice that the menu is not implemented.

The options that do work have several differences as well.

  • The “New Game” option shows a list of levels available in the prototype, including several “zoo” levels that do not exist in the files. It does not allow the player to select what difficulty each level should be played at. Each of the levels are selected by clicking on their buttons.
  • The “Video” screen contains the basics needed to adjust the menu. It uses a sliding bar with a design not seen in the final game.
  • The “Mouse” screen is simply text.
  • The “Controls” option uses an arrow graphic to scroll down that is not used in the final game.
  • The “Demo” option is similar to the “New Game” option, but does not have the “zoo” levels. Clicking on an option will play a demo in that level.

If the game’s rendering size is larger than 640x480, the menu will not expand to fill the entire screen, leaving a white area underneath the menu and a large black area surrounding it.

Prototype Final
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Prototype Final
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Stat System

The stat system is in the game and it partially works. Each stat has five levels, like in the final game.

  • Power and Attack do nothing.
  • Speed does work. It gives a speed boost close to what it does in the final game. The sound that plays when the player starts moving does not exist in the prototype.
  • Acro works as well. It gives a maximum jump height similar to the final, but the game gives the effect that the player is hitting and breaking invisible walls as they jump that the final game does not have.
  • It is unknown if Vitality works because there are no healing items to use to see if it boosts the player’s HP past the 100 limit.

Speed has an unusual effect not seen in the final game. If Speed is raised to any level, the player will take damage when they hit a wall while running, usually if running at an angle. The damage is either one or two hit points, depending on the speed and angle.

Leveling up a skill via the console increases its stat level in the HUD, but does not increase the level stat in the HUD.

AI Partners

AI partners cannot be summoned in this prototype.

Cutscenes

The “cine” folder contains a folder called “scenes” which appears to contain very early test scripts for the cutscene system. They are “att.script”, “hiro.script”, “jake.script”, and “test.script”. Jake.script has a whopping 55 backups, while test.script has 14 and both att.script and hiro.script have 3.

Demos

This prototype comes with demos for each of the levels, which can be accessed from the in-game menu. All of these demos are played slowly, with the player showing off various locations and things that can be done in the levels.

  • The E1M2 demo is mostly a showcase of the Shockwave Cannon. It shows the player kill out the Froginator in the first switch room with the Shockwave cannon, clear out every enemy in the second switch room with a single Shockwave Cannon blast, then fail to kill a Sludgeminion past the second door with it and accidentally commit suicide via the Shockwave Cannon.
  • The E1M3 demo starts with the player opening the door to the first cell block area, then breaking a nearby window to jump directly to the door. He goes through the cell block, getting hit by a Ragemaster in the process. The player then enters the elevator room, gets shot by a Battleboar, rides the elevator up to the point where he can use one of the cut secondary accesses to the path to the switch, flips the switch, enters the hub area, and encounters the Raegmaster guarding the door to the laser room. The demos ends with the player, in a stunning display of incompetence, somehow managing to miss every shot with his Sidewinder to kill a slow-moving Ragemaster before the Ragemaster kills him. As the cherry on top, attempting to load the demo from the menu will cause an error because the menu option was accidentally coded to look for a demo named E1M4 instead of E1M3.
  • The E2M3 demo has the player climb up a ladder from the water-filled start area to reach the bridge area, shoot a Spider with the Eye of Zeus, enter the Griffon’s area, watch the Griffon fly around while the Spider continues to follow the player, go through the building in the Griffon area, get stuck behind the door that leads to the area that contains the building the player starts at in Milestone 2’s E2M3, throws a Sunflare at the advancing Spider, and get killed by the Spider.
  • The E2M6 demo has the player slowly show off the starting courtyard, go through the main doors, use the alternate entrance from the second split path to the rear courtyard while a Spider pursues him, fail to open the door leading to the rear house while pursued by a Spider and Cartyd Column multiple times, finally open it, head to the upper split area, watch the Spider unable to jump down and follow him after jumping off of a railing on the second floor, go into the area containing the entrance to the dungeon and exit of the right path from the second split path, watch a Griffon bug out, get stabbed by a Skeleton as he climbs up a ladder, and watch the Griffon some more before the demo suddenly ends.
  • The E3M4 demo shows the player firing a Ballista arrow at the station above the starting point, waking up every Fletcher nearby. After dodging some Fletcher arrows on the left path from the start, he heads into the dragon statue courtyard and dodges some Fletcher shots while missing a single Ballaista arrow of his own. He then enters the area containing the split that leads to the underwater area, the rest of the town, and the path to the castle. After waking up every enemy he could find and getting hit by a Lycanthir, he heads down the staircase that leads to the underwater area, then changes his mind, and is nearly cornered by enemies. He then heads to the town portion of the level, fires a Ballista at the Fletcher above Nharre’s entrance, gets chased by two Lycanthirs. Satisfied with two Lycanthirs on his tail, he starts to head to the path leading to Stavros’ entrance, but goes to Wyndrax’s after waking up the Lycanthir at the start of the path to Stavros’ entrance. At Wyndrax’s entrance, he messes around with the Fletchers there and dies to one of them.
  • The E4M1b demo starts the player picking up every weapon in the starting area and the cliffside area, except for the Norwegian Flashlight and the Ripgun. He blows up the barrels near the Ripgun before picking up the Novabeam. After snagging the Novabeam, he fires it at a nearby wall while moving to show it off. Once he reaches the cliffside area, he runs for dear life as enemies attack him. Once he gets close to the Rocket Gangster overlooking the cliffside area at the end, he tries to kill the Rocket Gangster with the Slugger, missing every shot in the process. After that stunt, he heads down and tries to open the door to the hidden dock area, but gets a message telling him it won’t open. He tries to jump to the other side of the outer dock area, but misses. As he climbs up the rope, he finds that the Female Gangster from the cliffside run has jumped down from the cliff and is right on top of where the rope ends. He gets off the rope and is killed underwater by a rocket from a Rocket Gangster.
  • The E4M8 demo has the player slowly observe the level’s starting area after picking up the Glock 2020 and magazine for it. He then gets several weapons from the main hall, destroys a piece of glass on the entrance to the museum portion with the Novabeam, and heads to the museum itself while running past the enemies. Once the trap in the museum activates, he uses it as an opportunity to show off the Kineticore’s bouncing projectiles, and tries to kill some nearby Chaingun Gangsters with it. The demo ends after he reflects a full volley of Kineticore projectiles to his own face while trying to kill the enemies with it.

Enemy In-Fighting

Enemies will fight to the death once one of them provokes the other in 0.10. In the final game, the enemy attacked will launch an attack or two at his aggressor, with the aggressor occasionally launching a counter-attack, then will go back to attacking the player.

Dynamic Skyboxes

0.10 does not have dynamic skyboxes like the final game does.

Robot and Skeleton Gibs

Mechanical enemies, such as the Ragemaster, generate organic gibs when blown up. The final game fixes this so that they have their own unique mechanical gibs. The same happens with the Skeleton enemy in Episode 2, who spews bone gibs in the final game, but fleshy ones in 0.10.

Death Camera

In 0.10, the death camera is not letterboxed, does not show the cause of death if self-inflicted or the player is killed by a level hazard, display a “Game over” graphic, and does not pan to an enemy the closest to the player where they died, like in the final game. In addition, if the debug command is set to “1”, the system will print out, among other messages, one stating that “Nelno needs to drop his inventory” and “AmoebaCam activated”.

Prototype Final
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Memory Issues

This prototype has heavy issues with memory. After four unique levels have been loaded, the game will no longer be able to pre-cache weapons in episodes it has not pre-cached before. This will cause a crash if the player attempts to load an Episode 3 level after this error occurs.

After eight unique levels have been loaded, the game will be unable to load levels entirely because of a non-fatal memory allocation error.

Model Format

Models from this prototype can’t be read in model viewers for the final game nor Quake 2.

Texture Format

0.10 uses the standard .wal texture file format used by Quake 2 instead of the modified .wal form seen in the final game.

Player Models

The models for Hiro, Mikiko, and Superfly are split into three chunks; head, torso, and legs. The final game compresses all of the chunks into a single model.

Episode Character Textures

In 0.10’s files are textures copes of Hiro, Mikiko and Superfly’s body and legs textures with the suffixes “e1”, “e2”, “e3” and “e4”. All of these textures are the same as the ones used in the final game, but it does seem to suggest the team had the idea of changing their outfits per episode at one point.

Part of this can still be seen in the final game, as the default body and legs textures for Hiro, Mikiko, and Superfly still have the “e1” suffix on them.

Talk Commands

The “say” and “say_team” commands used to print text messages from players partially works in this prototype.

Attempting to use them via a keybind will not work. However, the commands can be used by inputting them directly from the console. “Say” works like it did in the final game, but “say_team” has the text “FIX SAY_TEAM!!!” where the player’s name should be.

Talk messages are printed with a large green font (the same font used to show the version number in the lower right-hand corner of the console), while the final game uses a different font that is white and larger.

Prototype Final
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Prototype Final
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Screenshots

Screenshots taken from the in-game command “screenshot” are flipped upside-down.

Llama Cheat

Like Milestone 2, 0.10 uses "llama" for its invincibility cheat. The game no longer recognizes "god" as a cheat at all like Milestone 2 did.

Player Name

The player’s default name in 0.10 is “Nelno”, the alias of the main programmer at the time the prototype was compiled.

Items

0.10 contains far fewer items than the final game does. The items listed here are the only ones in the prototype.

All items rotate, unlike the final game.

Episode 1 Health Kit

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The health restoring item in Episode 1 uses a completely different design in Episode 1. It is a shiny metal cylinder with red crosses on its sides and one on top. This design was completely removed in later prototypes and the final game.

Prototype Final
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Ion Blaster Ammo

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Ion Blaster ammo pickups use a different design in 0.10. It is a metal canister with green orbs visible on its sides. There is an arrow pointing up between the orbs with a red label that has illegible text underneath it. There is a green line following the circumference of the top section. This design was cut in the final game.

Prototype Final
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C4 Vizatergo Ammo

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The ammo box for the C4 Vizatergo uses a design that is different from the one in the final game. The 0.10 box is a carton-like object that has a blue top, with very light blue dots on the top. The middle of the design has a light blue line going through it. Above the line is an arrow that has illegible text above it.

Prototype Final
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Shotcycler Ammo

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The Shotcycler ammo pickup is yet another ammo type that uses a very different model in 0.10. It is another metal can, but this one has large red and round red objects on each side of it. The top of the can has several holes in it.

Like all the other Episode 1 ammo models in 0.10, no traces of it can be found in the final game.

Prototype Final
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Sidewinder Ammo

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Sidewinder ammo is the last of the Episode 1 ammo pickups that are completely different from the ones in the final game.

The design is an ammo box laid on its side. The center of it has red or orangish pipes, with each side capped by a worn metal. One side has illegible text on it, while the other has yellow and black stripe following it.

This design was removed in the final game.

Prototype Final
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Shockwave Cannon Ammo

Shockwave ammo is the same as it is in the final game.

Episode 2 Life Jar

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The health pickup for Episode 2, the Life Jar, cannot be found, but its model can be summoned via a developer command.

The Life Jar model uses the same design that the final game uses, but has a very different texture. The jar is a bright yellow with a blue Caduceus logo. The upper part containing the actual water is much smaller than it is in the final design. The texture is overall much rougher than the one in the final game.

Prototype Final
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Silver Armor

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Silver Armor uses a completely different texture than it does in the final design. It keeps the basic idea, but is much more simple-looking. The body of the armor is very plain and is uses a different style compared to the armor in the final game. A mesh of chainmail can be seen in the holes for the arms and neck, which are not in the final design. The skirt has studs that the final game lacks.

Prototype Final
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Prototype Final
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Gold Armor

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Gold Armor uses the same model and texture than the 0.10 Silver Armor, but with the armor part tinted gold instead of silver. The elaborate design seen on the final Gold Armor does not exist.

Prototype Final
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Prototype Final
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Venomous

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0.10’s Venomous ammo pickup is a green, slightly tilted mushroom instead of a metal snake head with green stuff coming out of its mouth. The old design was removed in the final game, but the texture for it is still in the game’s files.

Prototype Final
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Eye of Zeus

Eye of Zeus ammo exists in the prototype, and it’s the same as it is in the final game.

Health Crate

The Health Crate from Episode 3 has a model, but the item itself cannot be found in any levels. It is the same as the design seen in the final game.

Bolter Ammo

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In 0.10, Bolter ammo pickups are represented via a collection of arrows in a thin quiver. The final game uses a box with a large bundle of arrows that can be seen inside it.

Prototype Final
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Stavros Ammo

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The ammo pickup for the Stavos’ Stave uses a different design in 0.10. It consists of a single large and rounded rock with small bits of lava poking out of it. The final game’s version has a rock that is smaller that the one in 0.10 that has very small rocks to its left and right. These rocks have a lot more lava on them than the 0.10 one does and the rock parts of it are much darker as well.

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Prototype Final
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Ballista Ammo

Ballista ammo is the same as it is in the final game.

Episode 4 Health Box

The large version of the health box item seen in Episode 4 can be found as a model, but not as an item in any of the included levels.

Episode 4 Ammo

All Episode 4 ammo items use the same model that they do in the final game.

Cordite Grenades

The Cordite Grenade is the only Episode 4 ammo pickup that does not appear in any levels. Its model is the same as the others, though.

Characters

0.10 has several characters from the final game, but none of them appear in-game.

Superfly Johnson

Superfly Johnson has a full set of textures and models. His head has slightly different shading in 0.10, but his textures are otherwise the same.

Prototype Final
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Mikiko

Mikiko only has textures for her head in this prototype, and they are different from the ones used in the final game. The face appears to have been done by a different artist, while her hair has more lighting baked into it, making it easier to see the strands in her hair. The object holding her hair together appears to be much simpler than the one seen in the final game.

In the prototype, her face is split into three textures; face, ponytail, and other hair. The final game blends all of them into one texture.

The models that make up her body exist, though.

Prototype Final
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Ferryman

The Ferryman uses the same model he had in Milestone 2. However, he lacks textures.

0.10 Milestone 2
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Priest

The Priest has the same model he had in Milestone 2. And, like the Ferryman, he too does not have textures.

0.10 Milestone 2
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