Hideous Destructor 4.10.0b

[Abba Zabba]

Bug: 4 shell pickup message is "box of shells" while a box of shells says nothing.

Throw this translation in for the shell box: Translation "164:165=94:98"

Another bug. More than likely related to your fix for post mortem gibbed monsters returning to a gibbed state after a mild death; shot a revived imp that died mildy before with a shotgun, instantly went to the last death frame. Haven't seen this happen to any other monster (though I think I recall something similar in the past, I don't remember), but the same imp got revived again and died the exact same way. Weird.

Also, bravo on all the waste products of war; did you give each monster and decoration a chance to drop these? They're well dispersed and give the map a great feeling of history.

[Matt]

Actually my only serious motivation wrt: triggers, etc. was to find an excuse.
Thing is, I tried it without the loops and at least the atmosphere still works, so the loops will be gone next release.

The insta-final-death frame seems to be what happens when you shoot something while it's still in its raise state. I am unaware of any means to cure it.

I think I've figured out the pistol and injector bugs and they should be fixed next week. (I am assuming the injector problem arises b/c of the "+ripper" flag which could be replace with a noclip.)

[Somagu]

Actually my only serious motivation wrt: triggers, etc. was to find an excuse.
Thing is, I tried it without the loops and at least the atmosphere still works, so the loops will be gone next release.

I think I've figured out the pistol and injector bugs and they should be fixed next week. (I am assuming the injector problem arises b/c of the "+ripper" flag which could be replace with a noclip.)

Thanks on all counts.

[edit]Echoing that last about crashing while kicking a tree, my friend and I both got a windows error "GZdoom has stopped working" when he waded into a giant pile of chaingunner corpses and gave one of them a punt while trying to pick up their guns. Kicking had been working fine up until then, so... I dunno!

[Abba Zabba]

Also, why are some caco corpses pushable (and capable of getting you stuck if you fall on it) while others aren't? I think the level placed dead ones are push able (and maybe tie into the weird float bob caco corpses when they're revived and killed) while live ones aren't.

EDIT: Yep, the "deadbakademon" is created from level placed dead cacos aka "deadcacodemon". They're wonky as all hell, even while alive. It doesn't seem to be revive-able by healer imps either, only coming alive from vile shards or bfg frag.

[Matt]

...yeah, I've pretty much given up on trying to resolve most crash issues that aren't obviously reproducible. They just kinda happen completely at random as far as I can tell, just sorta whenever the engine feels like too much is going on.

Totally forgot about the pushable caco bug this last update. >_> I have never encountered any problems myself... are you sure that the corpses have stopped zapping when the healer imps ignore them?

[Abba Zabba]

Speaking of the loose electricity dead cacos release, the dead deadcacodemon ones didn't have any visual indicator, but they did play the sounds. Not sure if the actual electricity bolt actor was there or not.

I'm on the fence about the demonic plants. On one hand, the idea is kind of interesting, but on the other, they behavior is present on maps that really, really don't call for it. Also, you should add bleeding to the various hanging corpses.

[Matt]

Mind if I ask which maps? Do they all have spider masterminds? (If so I will remove the SMM from the list of things that cause trees to scream)

[Abba Zabba]

Actually, none of the maps have a SMM to #trigger trees. An example for what I mean is Yomi's difficulty selection map, that has a few hanging bodies and a good amount of trees and brown stalagmites. The only other idea I can think of would be making later levels activate the screaming, as you're usually in hell by that point or it can be assumed that the hellish things he's been confronting are starting to follow him and warp his environment.

[Josh771]

The only other idea I can think of would be making later levels activate the screaming, as you're usually in hell by that point or it can be assumed that the hellish things he's been confronting are starting to follow him and warp his environment.

I vote on using ACS to make the screams extremely infrequent -- basically non-existent -- on Map01 and make them gradually more frequent until they cap at around Map30. Just some A_SetTics and CallACS? I haven't looked at the Decorate.

[Big C]

The only other idea I can think of would be making later levels activate the screaming, as you're usually in hell by that point or it can be assumed that the hellish things he's been confronting are starting to follow him and warp his environment.

I vote on using ACS to make the screams extremely infrequent -- basically non-existent -- on Map01 and make them gradually more frequent until they cap at around Map30. Just some A_SetTics and CallACS? I haven't looked at the Decorate.

I...Like this idea.

It's very thematically fitting---especially with Ultimate DooM, given that game's references to both Lovecraft and the Divine Comedy.

[Matt]

I'd rather not - it requires too many assumptions I'm not too keen on making (after the whole "take away the SSG if the map number suggests the player is not playing Doom 2" clusterfuck a while back)

Also, by E3M1 you're already in the thick of it and there's no real gain in making the tree sounds more frequent from there onwards - you'd just get either an oddly underwhelming welcome in that first courtyard, or by E3M6 you could be staring at like 1 tree in the middle of nowhere sounding basically like this.

[Abba Zabba]

Then I don't know any other ideas. Wicked trees is a cool idea, but too many maps just want to use it for mild urban areas that have dead vegetation. Making hellish decorations scream or even replacing some hellish decorations to be wicked trees, but as it stands, it's all over the place.

[Matt]

Would be nice if there were a way to check if a certain texture or flat were present in a given level, as that would basically guarantee that the screaming would only happen where there is at least some part of the map that is hell-themed. (and if the screaming trees give away something that ought to be shown only later in the level, that's not "spoling" that's "foreshadowing" )

[Abba Zabba]

I was actually thinking about that but dismissed it as I assumed that there was no way to do that.

[Big C]

On that note, I always found it odd when level designers put candlelabras in E1/early game techbases. I don't understand the logic for them being there if the demon invasion was supposed to be a really bad accident.

I'm guessing the logic is that the Hellish invaders put them there *after* the teleporter gate breaches.