Updates... updates everywhere. Also regression but that's fine too

So Randy updated zdoom about a week ago, but slowpoke me just now downloaded it.

Good news--everything still works fine.

Bad news--when I unzipped it, I replaced the zdoom.pk3 file. Now that might not mean much to you, but it means that I lost most of the text strings *(addendum: Fixed and tested all text strings) AND the ability to just play straight raridoom (now the engine thinks it's a PWAD for chex3, not an IWAD). This brings up another problem I've foreseen--someone trying to play this wad in something other than zdoom. Some people prefer Zandronum, or even Vavoom for their dooming needs. That's cool, except I dunno if it'll play on those ports automatically. I would like it to, but I don't know if it will. *(addendum: So far, it looks like zdoom will play it straight with the modified pk3, but for other engines you might have to download Chex Quest 3 and play it as a mod)

So the project is a little behind. That's not including the fact that I still need to
1) sprite the pain elementals
2) finish the updated trixieling sprites
3) finish the Rarity sprites
4) draw the intermission pictures
5) code in the intermission pictures
6) make sure that everything I changed in zdoom.pk3 gets modified in rarity.wad
7) update the coverart (so far just a sketch) and other information slides
8) figure out what the heck to do about the weapons because I hate the long black bar thingy
...dang, I'm behind.

But since I hate being the bearer of bad news, here's some good news to balance it out.

I've been making some of the levels look prettier, and I think it really adds to the game. Jadwick made me a map (and it is a real challenge!) and it inspired me to add more little things. I know my mapmaking skills are not on his level yet, but I'm feeling proud of them.

Also! This part I think is really cool. When you're in a FPS, there are a few questions that flow through your mind. 1) Where is more ammo? and 2) What is this thing and how long until it dies?!?

I can't answer number one. But I can answer number two. I've bound the S key (for scanning haha I'm so clever!) to a pointer that brings back what you're looking at, how much health it started with, and how much health it has now.

Also notice the improved mugshots, and the skybox that actually looks somewhat like a skybox now.
Oh gosh looking back open beta 1 embarrasses me...

So yeah. That's about it for now.

No door here...

So I hopped on youtube this morning, wondering if there was anything good on.

There was.

There was this.



xXSoundspeedXx did a let's play of Open Beta 1. He crashed and burned on Map 3, but other than that (actually, including that, as he's quite a funny guy even when he's dying) it was quite amusing.

Also those freaking awful mugshots can't believe I released those what was I thinking

Open Beta 2 will drop sometime this month, with more enemies and (somewhat) less crappily-textured maps!

Level-building video...

And my microphone is working again! And then I decided not to post it... yet... Just click the page break, I explain it better there.

Microphone troubles...

...so no video just yet. :-/

Have a slightly relevant picture for now.

Also, I feel bad that it's been like a year since I started and we're still on Open Beta 1. I was tempted to just release episode one (like the shareware version of Doom I) but I've been promising a lot and delivering a little, so I dunno.

Motherbu-

Not a mother's day post; though I do love her, she doesn't know I like ponies.

So I've received a few offers of help from various people, and I realized I never asked for what I needed (if you know what you're doing, I didn't add any textures to the open beta wad except for a few more posters, so you can use those assets or wait until I finish Open Beta 2 for the updated wad, then just send me the map in a wad just like it's a doomII mod wad, and SLADE lets me just copy-paste it over). But for the majority of people who don't, I decided I should do a walkthrough of how I build a map from scratch paper to finish.

Well, my browser decided to crash as I was writing the blog (complete with screenshots). That's fine, I still have them saved. Then Doom Builder decided to crash. That was not fine, as I hadn't saved my map yet (it takes forever to save and I'm fairly impatient, because the program decides to rewrite the entire file every time you save instead of just rewriting the parts that changed, and the .mp3s in the wad really make it huge).

So map-making insider's look comes... later. When I'm not annoyed with technology.

Miniscule Update, 18 Apr 2013

Not even a break, that's how small this one is. Only a few things to mention.

First off, my latest task is redoing the Trixieling sprites. The 3/4 views looked really bad. Actually, I'd hope you aren't seeing too many Trixielings anyway. They can really sap your health. Also, I noticed that their shots can hurt other changelings. Slime attacks don't affect other changelings, but Trixielings' attacks do. So remember that in E1M7.

And sprint. Do a lot of sprinting.

The second thing is, I could use some help finding music. I really liked the music I chose for the first few levels, but I could really use some more ideas for the other levels (I'm going to have at least 27 levels, after all). Finding new music is great. For example, I had originally decided to write my own parody to "Livin' La Vida Loca" for the Changeling Pie level (you met her in the ending room of Open Beta 1, E2M2), but then I found this song and I think I'm going to try and use it instead. And make the level darker, with more flickering lights.

That's another thing. If you want to help with maps, even if it's just a pencil sketch, I'd take it. That's really what's been holding me back.

Also spriting. But I digress.

Semester ends next week so expect good updates within the month.

F'naaaaaaa

Nothing like life to give you a nice, swift kick in the teeth. Semester ending happened much sooner than expected, so I had a bunch of projects for school that I needed to finish because I'm lazy and put them all off. Kindof like what I'm doing with raridoom...
Anyway! Ramblings after the break. Not much going on here, check out the "help out" page if you want. As soon as I get around to making it, that is.