Also, at his suggestions I have made some improvements on the blinking eye of the snake staff & the looping idle sound for the fire blast. Expect to see it all in the yet unreleased 1.22b, which also features a few other enhancements. Also, here are some screenies that are rather cool. They show off the new scenery possible in Valkyrie 1.22, as well as giving you a little taste of things to come . . .
Also, if any of you have been trying to run Valkyrie 1.2x with DosDoom 0.65--don't. Use 0.651: you may already have it. Huh? Yes, the Deathbot is also DosDoom 0.651, the very latest version, & it has been released in the form of the Deathbot. This is all very unofficial, so please don't bug the rest of the team about any 0.651 problems you may have. So, ddbot.exe will run bot matches as well as any single player DosDoom you are craving, & it is also what Valkyrie 1.2x was made for. So get it!
I have been checking out those sprites from the defunct Destruction project--Nark really put a lot of work into those. I have done some 3d rendering myself, & I can appreciate the time he obviously put into creating these weapons graphics. I hope my DDF coding can do them justice . . .
On another note, the sprites of the now-defunct Destruction weapons mod have been released. You know where I'm going with this, right? Yes, you can expect a ddf-based version of Destruction in the near future. Since the Destruction site has disappeared, I am going to have to wing it as far as what the weapons are supposed to do. I don't know how much info he had up that explained these weapons, so I will just be creative with what I have.
On another note, look for the next official release of DosDoom to be here rather than at the official site...& soon, at that. FOV needs to be finished.
Well, I'm thinking that this minotaur is a big, D U M B overgrown thug. I have fixed the attack to do what I originally envisioned it to do--that is, you throw the little minotaur figurine like a grenade. Where it lands, POOF, there's your minotaur, amidst a puff of smoke. It works fine, but the thing doesn't attack very well. The ghost will make mincemeat out of 2-3 minotaurs before one of them even face_target. Not very encouraging. All that, & it will crash the bot too. Yes, I think I may be moving on to the other ideas I've had, & leave this minotaur fiasco behind. I may go on to 1.2, which won't even have a minotaur spawner. Anyway, if you're curious, here is 1.12. It works fine in single play as far as I can tell, & the bot dm crashing seems to depend on the map you use to a small extent. On Bothered, this thing will crash quickly, but on Wildpack map01 you can get a pretty extended period of botmatch going before crashing. So hey, crash now or crash later, Valkyrie 1.1x is gonna go down in flames. ;-) While the other guys are working on quality mods, the Captain is fearlessly churning out bug-ridden versions that Fanatic would cringe to imagine letting the public see. We gamers are used to getting games with bugs & lots of patches these days anyway, right? ;-)
On another note (which would be better suited for the bot page, but I am anxious to return to the ddf coding), Yoghurt has updated his bot page with a screenshot of 100 bots in action, as well as some more news of his plans. On a bummer of a note, Fanatic has put QDoom on hold. He has some very high standards, & wants some new features for ddf implemented so that he can make QDoom more realistic. We will have to wait, I guess.
Okay, here is Valkyrie 1.1. It has the minotaur spawn, but it is has a bug. It will crash the Deathbot for some yet unknown reason. It's hopefully something really simple that I overlooked (as I write this, a few things already come to mind). Anyway, I figured that I should get this thing out for you people to play around with, & maybe one of you can help me fix it! Anyway, the minotaur spawner replaces the ssg, & yes, the weapon sprite is a rather strange choice, but sometimes form follows function. The original version of Valkyrie is still here, so you can botmatch more reliably.
One thing I have noticed is that the bot will attack its own minotaur, which of course causes the minotaur to turn on its robotic master. Very strange. I think 1.1 will be unique unto itself (unless the crashing bug can be fixed), & the future releases will be based upon 1.0. We'll see. Also, Gokuma has volunteered to contribute his hellstaff in some form to Valkyrie! This will be a cool, collaborative effort.
Work on the minotaur spawner for Valkyrie has been somewhat daunting. I have done tons of graphics work on the minotaur, but ran into a snag after coding the thing & testing it out. For kicks, I made it spawn imps successfully, but that's it. & it couldn't spawn them from the projectile explosion as I originally wanted, but only directly from the weapon. I may as well have to leave it with the imps, but I'd love to see that minotaur work! Any thoughts on this? Also, what do you think of having the spawned imps not being friendly (i.e. attacking everything, including you)? Or would too many spawner type weapons be a bad idea?
I tried making the ghost spawner into a triple spawner--easy enough to implement in ddf. However, the effects have been interesting. You get damaged when spawning 3 ghosts at a time! The first shot fires 3 of them without trouble, but subsequent shots will spawn 2 ghosts in front, one in back, & cause you about 20% damage. Very strange. I think I'll stay with the single-ghost spawning.
I think I will make the fist replacement & the chaingun replacement somewhat connected: It will feature the staff, which you can use for close-combat bonking, & also for firing flechettes a la nailgun.
The crossbow attack will be beefed up to be that of the super crossbow, & the super crossbow will be replaced by . . . something. What do you guys think would be appropriate? A spawner? Shot weapon? Projectile weapon?
GotSnakeStaff="Thou hast the Snake Staff!";(in my own default.ldf, I put it after the line that says GotShotgun="You got the shotgun!";)
GotSpiritStaff="Thou hast the Spirit Staff!";
GotFireBlast="Thou hast the Fire Blast!";
GotCrossbow="Thou hast the crossbow!";
GotSuperCrossbow="Thou hast the supercrossbow!";
Sorry about that, guys. :-P
Also, make sure to use -skill 5 in your deathbot command line, or else the bfg & plasma won't appear in the maps. Also, weapons that have the "no single play" flag set won't show up in the maps. The solution is to open up a map editor & change the flags of those weapons, or just use a different dm map like bothered or wildpack.
Valkyrie 1.0 is a ddf dm mod that will work with the Deathbot. This mod is not a dehacked patch. It will not work with any Doom port other than DosDoom 0.65 or later, nor will it work with any current bot other than the Deathbot. It currently has replacements for:
- pistol a blue wand that shoots blue projectiles
- sg crossbow
- ssg supercrossbow (this will be replaced with a different weapon in the next release)
- plasma snake staff
- rl ghost spawner shoots helper ghosts
- bfg fire blast
This mod will feature player sprites from Heretic for a start, & will have those surreal weapons based on the Raven games. Already coded on Saturday were the blue wand (default weapon), the snake staff, & the spirit spawner. Yes, those spirits will attack your enemies, & yes, the bot can also spawn those things to attack you. This mod will come out when the Deathbot comes out--soon. I will work on adding more weapons, of course, & releasing some maps that have all these weapons lying around for you & the bots to pick up & use. However, I really lack the mapping skills--at least I've never tried my hand at serious mapping. Anyway, I remember seeing a map that was an adaptation of e1 of Heretic, & if someone could tell me where to get it, I would be very happy. Also, if anyone can send me some cool dm maps that use the Heretic/Hexen textures, I can add the weapons or tell you what the map #'s should be for the weapons so you can add them yourself.
Here is the plan--I will release the Deathbot as an unofficial bot, totally unsupported by the rest of the team. Do not bug the rest of the DosDoom team about this bot when it comes out in a few days. I will post the usual bot info for the Deathbot that I have posted for any of the other bots on my bot page, so it should be pretty clear to everyone as to how to use the bot. Just be warned that there will be bugs, & the team has plans for a much-revamped version of the Deathbot in the future.
Reclamation is a truly freaky set of maps--very cool, very wild. This is a great showcase of Boom's special effects. Now I know why Sir Robin has been so quiet lately--he's been doing many of the maps! With the recent wave of Boom DM maps, a bot user might be bummed out because he can't chase bots around in those Boom maps--but the Deathbot may change some of that. As some of you know, emulation of some Boom effects is possible in DosDoom by editing the lines.ddf file. Of course, the release of TeamTNT's Reclamation has created a lot of interest in making the Deathbot work with Boom effects. Deep water isn't do-able . . . yet. The conveyors & a few other effects are possible, though. Maybe TeamTNT can give the okay for a DosDoom-compatible version? I have received questions re: what bot would work with Reclamation, to which I sadly had to say none atm--I don't consider the MBF-based N Bot to be a real bot (sorry Andy). The closest thing will be the Deathbot. Maybe TeamTNT would be interested in working with me to make a little Reclamation map set for use with the Deathbot?
BTW, I tweaked the uzi.wad to add the double uzi's as well. As an abstainer of 3d Realms' games, I was not aware that the uzi & rpg launcher graphics were from Shadow Warrior--you learn something new every day. Anyway, the uzis are bound to the "8" key, & they are map# 7105. the rpg launcher is map # 7104. I tried them out in BOThered map02, & they were rather cool I must say. The double uzi's may be too powerful--nahhhh!
The first one should look familiar--it's the flaming sword from Hexen, & it will dimly light up a dark room for you. Hey, it's no Maglight, but it will whack baddies like no Maglight can!
The second weapon is the RPG launcher, which I found in "Don Tello's Calvacade o' Guns" dehacked weapons patch, & converted into a ddf patch. This will shoot a very powerful grenade in an arc. Use with caution! You don't want this thing landing too close to you. There is one problem that must be fixed by any of you who wish to use this patch, though--you must add the following line to your default.ldf file:
GotRPGLauncher="You got the RPG launcher!";
If you don't make that small addition to default.ldf, then the rpg.wad will not load. Incidentally, you can translate "You got the RPG launcher!" into your language of choice & insert the entire string into the appropriate area of default.ldf.
As for my own take on QDoom, well, I have found it to be very enjoyable to use the rl, ng, & sng in the Doom setting. The sounds are top notch, & the graphics look great. I was able to rocket jump onto the manubus platforms in MAP07, but that may be possible with the Doom rl as well, i.e. it may be a DosDoom thing, not just a QDoom thing.
BTW, I got the ddfdemo3.wad by Simbey to work with the Deathbot, & that shellgun makes even Breed DM's guns look like peashooters. Woah! Gib city! Talk about overkill. I have yet to hear from Kester on the bot progress--I may be tempted to release this bot myself if I don't hear from him soon . . .
;-)
I must say that there is some real cool stuff going on lately in the community for bots & dm mods. Fanatic cranks out mods at a dizzying pace, & then Wildman slams out maps to go with them. Gokuma & Fanatic are doing some very cool DDF work, & a bot to go with DDF is in the works. We may soon see some very cool mods & maps ready for the Deathbot as it comes out! As Fanatic said, it's a great time to be alive!
Woohoo! I just tested Kester's Deathbot, which is of course based on DosDoom 0.65 & the Doombot 2.0a source. It plays surprisingly well, starts with the fist & pistol, & can pick up & use all weapons & powerups (as far as I can tell), including ddf weapons. It comes with a new things.ddf, which has a Deathbot section for you to modify. I hope Kester gives the okay to release this bad boy soon, though there are a few bugs to work out. DDF-based Team Fortress bots, anyone? :-)
I agree with Fanatic about the mouse feeling very loose, but once you tweak the sensitivity to your liking, it's fine. When I first tried out the 0.65, the mouse was all over the place, but there is a much greater range in the mouse sensitivity now. It can be turned down to feel more normal, or turned way up past what was originally possible with Doom.
Also, after a little email powow, I think there may be some movement in the near future towards integrating the public Doombot source with DosDoom 0.65! Yes, bots & DDF. A beautiful thing to consider, isn't it?
Also, there is a maintenance release cooking . . .
Lastly, for a truly cheap DosDoom trick, go into weapons.ddf with notepad, look in the chaingun section, & replace ATTACK=PLAYER_CHAINGUN; with ATTACK=PLAYER_BFG9000; . With this beefed-up chaingun, you will leisurely cheese your way through even Jonotan Donner's toughest maps.
I get annoyed whenever I read someone wringing their hands over the Doom community, claiming that it is dying because their buddy just left in a huff or because things have changed since they were last active. In so many words, "why were the former days not like these?" Dudes, you're not seeking wisdom or contributing anything by saying things like that. Catch your breath, step back, & reassess.
Really, you're just feeling a little bummed out because something has just changed or someone has just left, right? & you'll get over it in time, right? Life is dynamic & changing. It ebbs & flows like the tide. You can't freeze time & space. Different things happen in the community as different people are creatively inspired, & the face of the community changes accordingly. Things slow down as people are busy with school or work or other real life obligations, & things pick up during winter breaks etc. The people who are active in the community of today are just as valid as the people who were active yesterday. Maybe they're not your old buddies, but they are still Doomers.
Shake off the rust. Stop sounding like an old fogey. Try out what's new. The community is alive & well, & getting cooler & cooler every day. It's a collective pool, fed by each member's fountain of creative energy. Dive in & swim around, & loosen up!