3.1 is on the way!

Seriously. Honestly. Next couple days at the most.

Also, Mik57 is reworking Doom City and Doom City Outskirts, so whenever he's done with that will be p. cool and stuff. Yeeeeaaaah

ZDWars 3.1 preview

ZDWars 3.1 is going to do some neat things. Nothing earth shaking. There won't be a version on par with 2.9 in a long while, but 3.1 is a step towards perfecting 2.9, so that's cool. Anyway, some of the highlights:

-All Hero and Elite (cost more than a Hell Knight) units will have a health bar floating over their heads for all to see.

-All summoners will now not be switched to when unlocked, and non-basic units will not auto-fire if the button is held. Tap to spam these guys. This protects against accidentally spawning two barons of hell or what not.

-Doom's middle tech tree branch will take less units to progress through.

-Swamp Stalkers are getting a combat buff.

-Order Turrets are getting nerfed, and will no longer be able to hit ghosts.

-Flem spores should finally work correctly.

-Virus turrets getting nerfed, spreadshot turrets getting buffed.

There are also other things that have only been revealed in the IRC channel, because those people are SPECIAL.

ZDoom Wars Birthday Week Finale: Virus Unit Reveal, and 2.9 new stuff

The Virus faction will gain the Shield Drone

 Cost: 8/2 Health: 300

 Attack: Ranged Damage: N/A Role: Support/Defense
Shield Drones are, on their own, near completely harmless. However, when used in support of other units, they become an important part of an advance. The Shield Drone constantly attracts the attention of enemies and absorbs damage so its lighter armored comrades can survive longer. It will also occasionally let loose a short range, prolonged wave of projectiles that will block incoming fire, set off explosive projectiles early, or stop charging units.

The Shield Drone is unlocked alongside Greater Prisms, and will hopefully give Virus some added punch in a siege or big brawl.


As for ZDWars 2.9, there are many balance changes to accompany the inevitable paradigm shifts that will be brought about by the new units. Some of these have been covered before, but I'll go over the high points again:

-The F1 help screen has been updated with some more info, and the url to reach the documentation.

-C-375's height code has been made much more solid by evilspacetomato, and there is also an altitude indicator for Virus players. The max flight height is 384 units.

-Despair Canyon's slime will now dispose of monsters that fall in it, as will the water below the bridge in Valley (no more deathpit!)

-Da Void's funky skybox now works, and parts of it have been made more accessible and flow better.

-Yes, that sector in Something Epic is fixed (so says Damage :P ).

-Cyberdemon price raised from 130/115 to 140/125.

-Spider Masterminds have been slightly reworked so they are better at spraying multiple units. Try e'm out.

-Pain Elementals and Archviles will now try to keep a distance from the foe.

-Enchant has an increased radius, and Enchanted units are immune to radius damage from other enchanted units.

-Crusaders are now much cheaper.

-Normal Crusader's missiles now have a slight homing ability, so they are useful at extreme ranges.

-pre-upgraded Sniper Templars are now much cheaper.

-Stalkers had a width reduction.

-The Programmer will attempt to keep a short distance from foes.

-The chance of repair drone resurrection has been increased.

-The Commonus Split upgrade now effects spores spawned from Meteors as well.

-Common flemoids were given a slight buff.

-Flem spore spawning has been altered some, and the spores are more likely to create Bipeds or Larva now.

-Spores were given a slight buff.

-Air Carriers were buffed.

-Virus units are now immune to the death explosions from other Virus units.

And quite a few bug fixes. It's gonna be pretty sweet, even aside from the new units. We'll see what new strategies pop up.

ZDoom Wars Birthday Week: Chex Quest Unit Reveal

The Chex Quest Faction will gain the Slime Carrier

Cost : 30/8 Health: 600

Attack: Ranged Damage: N/A Role: Support/Shock

As the flemoids encounter the forces of other dimensions, they adapt and grow. In response to fortresses, the flemoids have created a new slime-form.

The Slime Carrier acts as a sort of troop carrier for the flemoids. Unlike other air units, it must be spawned on the ground, where it will undergo a period during which it is inactive while in synthesizes the fuel it uses to float, and grows its batch of flem spores. Upon activation, the carrier rockets a short distance into the air, and is awakened. When closing to within a short distance of the foe, the Slime Carrier unleashes its payload, rocketing around violently as it deflates. The ensuing swathe of flem spores (and even some resurrection slime) can break a battle line or swamp a garrison, or simply be used as an instant army. As the Slime Carrier loses health, its payload decreases, and if killed before beginning to unload, it has no effect.

ZDWars Birthday Week: Strife Unit Reveal

The Strife Faction will gain the Order Turret

Cost: 10/4 Health: 225
Attack: Ranged Damage: High Role: Defense/Skirmish
Burst firing and deadly. At least they can't chase you.
Order Turrets are sentry units, effective in combat at short distances, where they fire a burst of bullets that deals heavy damage. As they fire, they emit glowing beams that point to their target, alerting the Commander of the enemy presence. They have an incredibly quick reaction time as well, so don't expect to sneak past them. Not good if you want to stay hidden. Order turrets do not block other monsters, or players, and can hit ghosts.

Again, no surprise here (hopefully), though the additional sentry abilities will heighten Strife's siege capacity, and make them additionally effective when inhabiting outposts or establishing forward positions. Your turrets can give you that head start warning while you're busy spawning stacks of Stalkers in a corner. Heed their relatively obnoxious warning! Turrets are unlocekd alongside Reavers.

THE MIND BLOWING AWESOMENESS of the last two units is yet to come!

ZDWars Birthday Week: Hexen Unit Reveal

The Hexen Faction will gain the Stalker 

Cost: 18/5 Health: 200 

Attack: Ranged/Melee Damage: Medium/Medium Role: Skirmish/Shock

Stalkers are aquatic reptiles with huge talons designed to rend their prey into bite-sized morsels, and can fire slime projectiles.

Swamp Stalkers are a particularly effective harassment unit with high endurance. Spending most of their time burrowing, they only emerge to attack, and then quickly dive below the surface again. They are quick and can harass groups of enemies or surprise enemy commanders with ease. Though they cannot be hit most of the time, a Swamp Stalker will quickly perish if caught in a melee.

Of course it's the Stalker, what were you expecting? Mushrooms? REALLY? There's a whole functional, not ridiculous monster floating around, and the friggin' MUSHROOM was one of the theories? Bejeebus.

Anyway, don't spawn him in water, because he'll act as dumb as the next guy. He's unlocked along with Chaos Serpents.

Also, I don't care that it's 3 PM, it's Sunday. Love to all my haters.

ZDWars Birthday Week

On July 1st, ZDoom Wars will have been in development for exactly two years. So that sets the date for version 2.9 for July 1.

Naturally, I'd want to do something special for the Birthday wad, so today begins ZDWars Birthday Week!

Version 2.9 will contain the normal fixes, balance adjustments, and map maintenance, but there will also be a special add-on. It is my honor to announce to you:

I'm doing this Super Smash Brothers style. Each faction will be receiving a new unit, each of which is featured in the background of this image. Some are obvious by their shape, others can be determined by what has been asked for in the past, and others may be a complete surprise. Each day from here until the 30th, I'll be showing and introducing each new unit in the traditional faction order: Doom, Heretic, Hexen, Strife, Chex Quest, and finally, Virus.

None of these units are particularly elite, and most will be available midway (or earlier) in each tech tree. Each has an interesting behavior and use that will greatly expand each faction's gameplay, and fill in needed strategic weaknesses. Since they're new, don't expect them to come out of the gate well balanced, but do expect there to be a big shift in certain gameplay factors.

Sieges will be changed forever. Field battles and defense will be more devious than before. Some factions will gain special defensive units, others fresh attack units, and one faction even gets a new Support unit. Your old strategies may need adjustment or abandonment, as every single faction is getting a unit that has the potential to change how the game is played.

(Don't expect another monster add-on. Ever.)

Let the speculation begin!

Optimization

It's a well known fact that ZDoom Wars is ridiculous, by its very nature. So, I'd like to enlist some folks willing to comb through the code and/or propose methods by which ZDoom Wars can be made to run more efficiently.

Supergod quotes ZDWars as currently sucking up about 150 kb per second, per player. I mean, wow.

So, if you know, or are, someone adept at optimization, do tell. Supergod has stated that he personally has no issue with the bandwidth useage, but that, obviously, certain players do. At any rate, it couldn't hurt to make the whole darn thing work smoother.

2.8 is due soon!

How soon isn't really clear - there's still a little work to be done. Anyway, the Crucible maps are getting another upgrade, so the current Greater Crucible will become Lesser, and a much expanded and improved map will fill in the spot left vacant.

Bishops will be able to be enchanted in 2.8, as well. When enchanted, they will gain a slow, homing projectile attack which can stunlock lesser units in a radius around the impact, as well as dealing sufficient damage to them.

Evil Space Tomato has magically whipped up a Tech Tree Progress display for all classes, which shows your progress towards unlocking units in the upper right corner of the screen. It is currently triggered by the Strife Objectives key bind.
He has also improved the HUD so that it always displays in the bottom right corner of the screen, and works at low resolutions. Each mana bar is also labeled. So, many thanks to him for these fantastic additions!

That brings this a little closer to tournament-shape. I still need some sprites, though! D:

2.8 Report

Just now, Neuralstunner, MisterCat, and Kate helped me make Health work correctly in the event of a telefrag, so they honestly, really won't be an issue in 2.8.

The music pack will be updated in 2.8, though right now only the track for Grimwald is set to change. Others may follow suit.

The wad is going to use the Heretic Telefog instead of the Strife Telefog, since it looked odd with D'Sparil's Disciples.

There are also a few cosmetic fixes besides that, mostly to fix bugs. For example, the Cyclops flemoid's sprites are going to be better aligned to represent its actual position.

Grimwald is also recieving an update which increases its size a bit, and buffs up the forts, with a couple gates added in, and the water treatment plant thing getting a rehaul.

So, no Chromium or Obsidian server...

The folks who run the Chromium and Obsidian servers have judged ZDWars to be too much of a drain on resources. UNLESS I could implement a pop cap CVAR or something, which I have no idea how to do. So, yeah, join the forum and discuss that one.

Sooooo...

The votes for the forum came in pretty quickly, and the 2 negative votes may have been chosen simply on the basis that the 4th answer was an Exorcist reference. Anyway, I've now thrown together a goofy little free forum with some tacky Faction-related themes, so get posting! There's a link to it just above the ZDWars download link at the top of the blog page. This blog will continue to operate in much the same manner it already is.

So with that, I've put the forum poll out of the way again.

Waaaaait...

So, it seems that the winning poll option is going to be putting in both versions of Despair Canyon, but there's a problem with that...


...How am I exactly supposed to do that? I mean, having one take up a slot on the next map pack would be a total rip off for the mappers, and take away a map that many enjoy for months, but I would also dislike having to name it ZDWars2v2 or something dumb, and set a precedent for keeping older versions of the map, which is counter-productive.

...What if the new version was just made significantly less campy? Is that objectionable? Just... balance it out between the two versions? Therefore, it would cater to both the berzerker types as well as the tacticians, as the fortifications would be minimized?

NEW POLL

P.S. Yes, I'm a fan of early voting. There's no reason to delay clicking the check box, it's the internet.

The first news on 2.7

Haven't seen many players lately. Any particular reason you know of? Then again, I've been playing AvP 3 a LOT for the last few days. Like...a LOT.

Anyway, Mik57 is moving, and Damage has finals, so this week will be rather quiet in the mapping department. But I don't exactly have a time table, so I'll be willing to wait on them. At any rate, expect some more detailing work, and if there are gameplay changes you wish made to the maps, throw in your two cents in the comments, the threads, or on IRC, where it can be discussed live.

In the mean time, I've been cracking down on bugs, many of which have been reported by Avernus in the IRC channel THAT I DON'T SEE TOO MANY PEOPLE IN :'(

In case you didn't know about it, there is a ZDoom Wars IRC Channel on irc.skulltag.com, #ZDoomWars.

Anyway, fixes include something that should solve the problem with monsters attacking the ground, and a couple projectiles rendered invisible by mistakes made during the minor wad clean up in 2.6. There are a couple other minor things to be fixed in a couple maps, and then one vexing bug:


If you retrofit a Weredragon, and then use Ghost Wave on it... it doesn't work. At all. And I cannot for the life of me find out why. So if someone wants to poke around in the code and try and figure it out, please do!

As far as current balance changes, expect some improvements to Strife's Spectres and Menelkir, as well as the Inquisitor's attacks being sped up.

As far as balance, the Strife Heroes remain my primary focus, at least for the current versions. Any other outstanding balance issues you've encountered? As is, I think it's getting pretty close to balanced, but I want to make sure that people are actually using the Faction's special abilities. I know Ghost Wave gets used, but try out Enchant. Rough estimates say that it makes Ettins 50% more effective in melee, and the radius blast serpents can wreak total havoc.

Anyway, to recap my questions:
-Any map bugs you've encountered?
-Any map gameplay problems you've seen?
-Any general bugs you've seen?
-Can you figure out the Weredragon issue in Bold up above?
-Are there any balance issues you've noticed in 2.6?
-Are people really using the Special Abilities?

Things that (ideally) must happen before a Tournament is held

I have mentioned on many occasions that I'd like to run a ZDoom Wars tournament at some point. I have not before provided an actual time frame, as there are certain things I'd like to have done first.

-Each Retrofitted unit needs its own sprite set.

-I must feel that each faction is balanced enough to be fair in a competitive environment, and that each unit pulls its weight and is used by players. The same goes for the Special abilities.

-I want to have the older maps visually rehauled.

-I want all the maps to have up-to-date gameplay and a similar fun factor, with all known bugs fixed.

So, basically, once these things are well and truly done, I'll be willing to have a tournament. And really, the last two are up to Mik57 and Damage, while the second is up to me. None of us are particularly capable or willing to do the first.

Software vs OGL poll, and an IRC Channel!

At the time of this posting, there is still nearly a day left in the vote, but things haven't budged for a couple days. So, safe to say that a scant 20% of ZDWars players use Software to play it. I'm honestly surprised.

For those who use Software, you might consider living in fear. At this point, there'd be no reason to use 3D floors, even if they were implemented in Competitive modes. But in the future, it COULD be a possiblity. :P

In other news, Mik57 is playing around with the map pack in preparation for my final look-through. The map changes are gonna' be pretty sweet. Remember that there is now a NODE-3 server, so get playin'!

Also, on irc.skulltag.com, there is now a #ZDoomWars, so jump in there and talk about ZDWars, give feedback, share strategies, etc. I may even divulge some info about development that's not even seen here. ;)

SPRITING HELP WANTED

Unique sprites are needed for the Sniper Templar. Below are the details for the job. Anyone willing to try it out can work on a frame or two and give me a preview.

Goal: Create a sprite-set edit of the Templar in which the Templar's gun is modified to look more like it's a sniping weapon of some sort. Nothing huge, just a elongated or more powerful looking weapon of some manner. Make it enough to be noticed, at least.

Requirements:
-The sprites must, of course, be of decent quality.

-The sprites must remain in Strife's native palette. The easiest way to do this is to extract the png graphics from ZDoom Wars itself, and work in a non-paletted editor of some sort. At any rate, DON'T SCREW UP THE COLORS. If you're a software user, open up the wad and gaze upon the beauty you are missing in-game.

-Please do not perform any color-changes to the sprites outside of the gun (and make any gun color changes fit the color theme of the rest of the sprite). So don't think you're witty and change the color of the visor or something.

-Do not change the color of the gun's muzzle flash, since the bulletpuff is the same sprite as the normal templar's shot, except bigger. It would be pointless to change the muzzle flash color, in other words.

-Optionally: Put the sprites in wad form, rename them, and align them if you love me.

You compensation will be... your name on the last page of the Main Manual. And an e-fist-bump.

New banner Background, and some previews of 2.6

Just for teh lulz.

Now I've already brought up the Despair Canyon and Caverns rehaul, and the beginnings of the map pack 1 and 2 visual updates, so now some about the gameplay. 2.6 will resolve some bugs, as usual, and refine some of the nice changes made in 2.5, as well as solving a couple minor gameplay nitpicks that will work to make the wad play just a little smoother overall. For example:

-non-flying heroes can now never fall off of ledges, or be forced off of them, even by Loremasters.
      Yup, no more frustration with your hero ending up where they aren't supposed to be. Heroes are too epic to get pushed around like that! Note that they can still be pushed about by gunfire, and yanked by Loremasters, they just won't fall off cliffs.

-Undead Ghost Knight price raised from 10/4 to 10/5 due to their recent improvements.






     Well, with the improvements to the Undead Ghost Knight (increased melee range, health, etc.) in order to make there be a defineable difference between the two types of Knight, the standard Undead Knight was seriously obsolete. So now the Undead Ghost Knight will be two Hero Mana more in cost, which can stack up. So the more stingy types might actually opt to use standard Undead Knights (with Ghost Wave, if necessary).

-Barrage Weredragon's secondary projectile can no longer hit Ghosts.
     Barrage Weredragons are great. Spectacular, in fact. A battery of them could be nigh impregnable. So now, though they will retain their standard effectiveness, and still be able to effect ghosts more than normal Weredragons, Ghost units will at least be more resistant to their attacks so that Barrage Weredragons have a definable weakness of some sort.

-Zedek nerf.
     Seriously, he has 1200 health. Why, you ask? Because it was the longest time before I realized he was hurting himself, and kept trying to make him useful by buffing his health. Now, that's being turned down a notch, and the radius of his explosive attack is less significant, so he might actually be able to be overwhelmed.

-Inquisitor is more awesome across the board.
     More accurate rifle, bigger grenade explosion with forced, KaBoom type damage, actually using his rifle when up close. He'll be pretty sweet, though the direct damage of the grenades is reduced to compensate for the forced explosion damage.

-Programmer balanced further.
     He's cheap, let's face it. Now he'll take longer to conjure a lightning storm, and will shoot a little less. Still, his health has been bumped up to 2600, so his greater vulnerability and lessened omnipotence won't make him suck.

-Buffed Entity.
     He'll attack faster, and shoot multiple projectiles for some attacks (which, by the way, Spectre A and B already do, to a lesser degree).

-Normal turrets will be able to hit ghosts again.
     The recent Ghost revision made Virus lulz against Ghosts, and turrets nearly useless in some instances. So, in 2.6, a Virus player will want to not only use turrets, but mix in the two types: the choice between hitting Ghosts, or oodles of firepower? The Spreadshot turret's attack speed is also increased, so expect massive resistance when facing them.

And that's just some of the big stuff I have lined up. There are other, more minor changes, and quite a few bug fixes. The maps are undergoing some more work, as mentioned before, with a couple bug fixes and minor issues solved (Yes, Lord Maldovious will be really powerful).

Fun fact: Valley is getting a bit of a renovation. Yup. The old staple map is getting some fresh air.

Anyway, I, for one, am excited to see the result of Mik and Damage's first joint venture, because believe it or not, I don't get to see the maps other than an occasional screenshot until the pack is all done. :P

ZDWars Settings Poll

There's a new poll up, about what settings you use for your renderer when playing ZDWars.

oman

I don't believe I've actually mentioned this, but Damage is officially a mapper for ZDoom Wars, and is working in Concert with Mik57 on the map pack.

As is, Mik57 first makes gameplay changes, and then sends the pack to Damage, who will be doing detail work. At this point, the map pack is in Damage's hands, so 2.6 shouldn't be too far off, and as mentioned before, will pack some tasy map changes as well as balancing and some bug fixes.

I've been at a gaming convention here in San Antonio called Chimaeracon this past weekend, thus the inactivity on ZDWars servers. Now that I'm again able to work on this in my freetime, I may toss out the Heretic monster pack or something.

Anyway, I received yet another Map Pack 4 submission this weekend, but there are still open slots, and there can always be another pack! Just don't count on seeing your map in action within the next... the next, uh... long time span. The good news is that I'm feeling more and more confident about the wad's balance, and there are a couple other handy developments at hand as far as the map pack and such that can help set the stage for the long-promised tournament at some future date. :D