REDS OVER WORLD - 30-level Cold War TC - 2.0 VERSION AVAILABLE!

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

This thread's quite dead. But anyway, I have an important announcement to make in terms of ROW.

Reds Over World version 2.0 is what I might call "done"', after plenty of beta-testing and other stuff, I think it's good to go, especially as it fixed all the things people complained about - it adds more ammo types with each assault rifle having a different one, makes the weapons faster and enemies have longer flinch frames, some puzzles are made more obvious, etc, etc. It also adds some new stuff, such as new visual enemy variations. Not to mention bugfixes, lots and lots of bugfixes. The changelog is really HUGE.

The only one singular thing preventing me from releasing 2.0 is my one Achilles heel I am unable to fix - the HUD. The HUD which people complained about as not showing how much ammo you have left in your magazine and overall. I am quite unable to program this - but it's the only thing left to fix; I was never good as SBARINFO.

Should 2.0 just be released as-is with the old ammo display that doesn't show how much ammo you got left before you gotta reload, or should I wait for someone to volunteer to program the new ammo mechanic on the HUD?

[Void Warrior]

This thread's quite dead. But anyway, I have an important announcement to make in terms of ROW.

Reds Over World version 2.0 is what I might call "done"', after plenty of beta-testing and other stuff, I think it's good to go, especially as it fixed all the things people complained about - it adds more ammo types with each assault rifle having a different one, makes the weapons faster and enemies have longer flinch frames, some puzzles are made more obvious, etc, etc. It also adds some new stuff, such as new visual enemy variations. Not to mention bugfixes, lots and lots of bugfixes. The changelog is really HUGE.

The only one singular thing preventing me from releasing 2.0 is my one Achilles heel I am unable to fix - the HUD. The HUD which people complained about as not showing how much ammo you have left in your magazine and overall. I am quite unable to program this - but it's the only thing left to fix; I was never good as SBARINFO.

Should 2.0 just be released as-is with the old ammo display that doesn't show how much ammo you got left before you gotta reload, or should I wait for someone to volunteer to program the new ammo mechanic on the HUD?

The second one! Otherwise, players will have to recharge all the time after each battle. I've been going through the whole game like this.

Maybe you should ask someone for help with the HUD?

[ZikShadow]

I can think of maybe two ways of mending the ammo indicator problem. I'm no stellar programmer (or know any ZScript for more advanced features), so if anyone knows better, feel free to correct me. One is tedious and entirely placed upon the SBARINFO, the other is just as tedious but puts more burden on the weapons code department. Both will require a tremendous amount of work to do, which might delay the 2.0 release significantly if you really want to get it out the door sooner.

Like I've mentioned in the past, the reason why it's not easy to do a mag counter with the current system is because the weapons work by giving the player an inventoryitem everytime they fire. This could be AKStrzelil, M16Strzelil, P90Strzelil, and so on. When the inventoryitem reaches the limit defined by A_JumpIfInventory in the firing state, the weapon will jump over to the reloading state (regardless of the amount of ammo the player has at that given moment). In order to have an indicator work with this kind of system, it will require the SBARINFO coder to practically define a counter for every single inventoryitem that all the weapons in ROW uses. An "if" indicator'll also be needed, unless you want the HUD to be a mess of numbers. I should also mention that using this method'll have your magazine counters going UP instead of DOWN, because of how the checking systems work.

The second method, would be to change how the entire weapon firing and reloading system work. If Weapon.AmmoType and Weapon.AmmoType2 are both used, it'll allow a simple ammo1 and ammo2 counter in SBARINFO to just work. This is what I personally use in ROWAn, with AmmoType being the magazines and AmmoType2 being the total ammo. The magazines'll have to inherit from Ammo instead of Inventory, and the weapon firing states revamped to take from the magazine instead of giving. The mag counters'll go down with this method. The same firing states could check before the gun fires whether it should, or if it should instead go to a reloading state. I personally have it go to a dryfire state, preferring to change weapons midcombat instead of being forced to reload. Reloading states'll also have to be altered to fill the Ammo with the correct amount from the pool, usually with a looping state inbetween as a counter. Lots of work, but like I said, the SBARINFO'll be tidy in comparison.

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

I would be willing to give someone the ROW 2.0 wad I used for betatesting for that person to implement such a new HUD, if it means changing the weapon's firing and reloading code I won't mind, in fact by looking at it I might learn how to program such things myself in the future, because I personally suck at doing anything within SBARINFO or any "complex" weapon codes. Im more of a prop, NPC and enemy guy in terms of Decorate. Once that's done, ROW 2.0 is pretty much ready to go.

[ZikShadow]

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ijeyx0yg ... r.pk3/file

Tried cobbling up the first method. That's about the only thing I'll be willing to do for the original version's weapons. Should be simple enough to understand and adapt to 2.0, since I've code blocked all the new stuff. You'll probably have to change the ININVENTORY ammo names to the new ones, since you've got new ammo types for them. Not sure if ya changed the magazine inventoryitem names. If so, rename them as you see fit.

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ijeyx0yg ... r.pk3/file

Tried cobbling up the first method. That's about the only thing I'll be willing to do for the original version's weapons. Should be simple enough to understand and adapt to 2.0, since I've code blocked all the new stuff. You'll probably have to change the ININVENTORY ammo names to the new ones, since you've got new ammo types for them. Not sure if ya changed the magazine inventoryitem names. If so, rename them as you see fit.

I've looked up the SBARINFO and those comments about the weapons in the code really made me laugh ngl, I needed that, had a bad day and these made me chuckle. Thanks for help in advance, i'll see what I can do with that code; if it will work, then it's ROW 2.0 time at last!

[BLSZDOOM]

is there a weapon only version out there? or enemy only?

[Navek]

Playing through the Soviet campaign. This is really excellent, thank you.

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

Technical difficulties sadly have postponed 2.0's release; I don't know when the whole thing will be released, im sorry for the delays, but these are issues that aren't something that I have control over. So, to keep you all entertained and maybe sweeten the wait, i'll show you the first major "What will be in 2.0" update, with new in-game pictures!

GUNS BLAZING

During the early days of the Third World War, due to chaos all across the globe, plenty of ammunition for assault rifles, pistols and machinepistols was supplied and delivered in generic "ammo" boxes. This logistics nightmare caused confusion among the armed forces of the globe, who were unsure if the ammunition boxes they received were AK-74 ammunition, NATO ammunition or something else entirely. In some of those generic crates, commonly labeled by American soldiers as just "Ammo crates", instead of promised 5.56×45mm NATO cartridges, there was only paper. In others, they found ammunition intended for the just-released Belgian P90 submachine gun!

The Soviets also had this issue, with their mile-long convoys of GAZ trucks carrying tons of ammunition to the front. Soviets were never the smartest in terms of logistics, with conscripts simply dumping everything as-is everywhere, hurling AK clips into pistol ammo boxes or wooden crates, and much more. Pictures of Soviets utilizing stolen civilian dump trucks and pickups to carry their disorganized supplies in Europe as the war raged on became the laughing stock of the American populace.

Because of logistic issues, there has ben incidents with supplies of AK-74 assault rifles, M16 assault rifles and P90 submachine guns among others. Thankfully, after a few weeks of the chaos, they have ben fixed, and soldiers were now able to find proper ammunition boxes, as both NATO and Soviet Union started supplying their soldiers with properly packed ammo.



5.56×45mm NATO ammunition is available in three sizes - a standard M16 magazine, usually dropped by NATO infantry, a box, and a very large box containing 100 units of ammunition; all are usually mostly found in NATO compounds, but some loose ones can be found scattered all across the battlefields, either dropped from NATO convoys, looted from bases, or just lost all around because of the wartime chaos.



5.45×39mm ammunition; the bullets that ended many a life, all across the world; the one and only weapon that fuels the world's most prolific firearm, and Soviet Union's standard-issue rifle during the Third World War - the AK-74. Available in three sizes, just like the NATO ammunition - standard-issue metal AK-74 magazines, which can be mostly looted from corpses of dead Reds, the tin-can like boxes, and the big wooden crates, which contain 100 AK-74 bullets. The typical Soviet conscript isn't known for his tidyness, so you'll find plenty of these laying around whenever Reds are present.



The small FN 5.7×28mm cartridges are available in only two sizes, as by 1990, the P90 just barely got off the assembly lines at FN Herstal; one can usually find just basic P90 clips, very narrow and long, allowing for some long, continuous fire, or official FN Herstal branded ammunition boxes. No one is sure why the boxes pack more ammunition than the clips, but so far, no one has sued FN Herstal over false marketing; presumably because of the fact that the world is set ablaze, and after the war, everyone was focused on rebuilding destroyed infrastructure and economy rather than comparing the bullet to price ratio of some cartridge boxes.



Magazines and ammunition boxes for pistols, the Škorpion vz. 61 and the MP5SD all look quite familiar; there have ben reports of American and Czechoslovak soldiers being quite suprised to find just the right ammunition for their sidearm when they needed it. Be it 9×19mm Parabellum, .32 ACP, .45 ACP or 7.62×25mm Tokarev, they always seem to turn up in those similar boxes.

In Reds Over World 2.0 there will finally be separate ammunition for all assault rifles - no longer will six weapons use the same type of ammunition, with the old "clip" ammo being relegated to being only used by three pistols, and AK-74, M16 and P90 receiving their own ammunition types. It makes the game much more dynamic and fun, and encourages using different weapons as well.



Even more changes to weaponry include the assault rifles firing much faster, and each being different - M16 deals the highest DPB (Damage-Per-Bullet), AK-74 is slightly weaker, while P90 has the largest clip size. Further change I plan is adding the Manurhin MR 73 revolver as a powerful starting weapon for Alceste that replaces the pistol but deals massive DPB; the con being that no ammunition for it is to be found in levels (Only in Mega Pakas perhaps?), so the player has to use it sparingly.

KILLING IN STYLE



The uniform of the American forces when the Third World War broke out as the famous Battle Dress Uniform, which was used from 1981 up until 2012. This uniform includes several variants, including but not limited to a snow-white variant for use in snowy theathres, which saw great usage during the 1991 NATO European Re-Taking campaign and invasion of the Soviet Union, and the woodland camo, which was famously utilized by Americans as they defended their homeland in 1990, alongside the desert BDU used in areas such as New Mexico or Nevada, where the famous Groom Lake Base is located.

Visual changes have ben applied to some enemies, to make them look more accurate. Since 2021 - when I first made the ROW 128x-128x sprites - i've grown to really like spriting DOOM enemies - maybe even more than programming them, heh - so it's no biggie to make them look even better. NATO soldiers now have three uniform variants - a desert uniform, a temperate uniform, and a snow uniform. Further changes that I have planned is Cuban soldiers having their iconic "Castro" hats instead of being Soviets with a different voicebank, Polish soldiers having rogatywka hats instead of pilotka caps, and Bambo's criminals having three visual variants each to showcase that they're criminals, not an army of identical Africans in tan shirts.



OTHER CHANGES

Among other changes, here are just a few changes from the veeeery long changelog that might put a smile on your face:

-E1M5 broken window made more obvious
-Double scope mechanism removed from SVD
-Added missing health replenishing scripts for E3M3, E3M4, E3M5, E4M2, E4M3, E5M2, E5M4, E6M3, E6M4, and E6M5
-Enemy rocket impact damage lowered from 20 to 10, and the blast damage from 100 to 70
-Mujahideen sounds replaced due to being repetitive and too loud
-*Several human enemy attack animations have ben slowed down and pain animations have ben elongated and the chance of them happening increased to allow stunning
-Knife has been buffed, now dealing 10 damage instead of 5, and attacking way faster
-The two scripted suprise attacks on E1M1 now are much easier to deal with
-Improved difficulty levels ("Normal" now lowers damage dealt with enemies to roughly 70%)
-Added objective markers to radios, fire extinguishers that need to be destroyed in order to progress, etc.
-Added a gameplay hint to E1M1 about crouching to duck bullets, as it's an important game mechanic
-Several no-go zones marked by invisible walls made more obvious
-Made the Dushka section in E2M2 more challenging by adding enemy soldiers attacking the player from behind

Til next post, y'all! Tell me what you think!

[Dynamo]

Nice work on the updates, but I'm curious, what exactly are these technical difficulties you speak of? Still related to the SBARINFO issues?

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

Nice work on the updates, but I'm curious, what exactly are these technical difficulties you speak of? Still related to the SBARINFO issues?

Nah, my PC. Nothing DOOM-related.

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

Alright lads, it's time for another update. It might not be an issue anyone reported, but it's an issue I personally had with this mod. As some people know, Reds Over World went through several aesthetic changes, starting out as a simple Wolfenstein-like mod with 64x64 enemy sprites and simple Blade Of Agony-like texturework, nothing fancy. This caused some maps to have some very old rooms that had Wolfendoom and NAM textures that I didn't really like that much after the mod's aesthetic became more realistic and less Wolfenstein-esque.

So behold - new HD textures! Not all textures in the mod will be replaced in 2.0, of course, but only those that I personally found unappealing and sticking out because of their low resolution. The Canadian Base Amarok looks great, doesn't it?

[ZikShadow]

They look pretty decent, though you'll probably wanna be careful to keep the resolutions equivalent to the rest of the assets so there's no visual dissonance. It'd be weird to see hires 1024x textures next to ones that barely go above 128x. It's kinda already visible in the screenshot above with the wall texture and the junction box linedef. Same thing with the flooring there on the bottom right picture, the difference between hires textures and stretched lowres ones look very visible.

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

They look pretty decent, though you'll probably wanna be careful to keep the resolutions equivalent to the rest of the assets so there's no visual dissonance. It'd be weird to see hires 1024x textures next to ones that barely go above 128x. It's kinda already visible in the screenshot above with the wall texture and the junction box linedef. Same thing with the flooring there on the bottom right picture, the difference between hires textures and stretched lowres ones look very visible.

They're 512x512, not any 1024x stuff; and the changes are only gonna be made to several Build engine and Wolfendoom textures that are sticking out to me in several levels; the rest of the mood still looks good to me, and some of the old rooms i'll keep unchanged simply out of nostalgia.

Edit: as a proof of concept, here are some screens, it looks so much better in the game than in the editor, with all the color and stuff the editor doesn't really see applied to it.

[WojtTheDoomer2K]

In 2.0, the infamous shapeshifting pistol that changes from a Tokarev TT to a Colt 1911 will finally get replaced with three distinct starting weapons.

-Colt 1911 for Americans. 7 bullets, more damage but more recoil. Basically the shapeshifter pistol as-is. Will be using the Pistol ammunition.
-Makarov for Soviets. Less damage but less recoil as well. Will be using the Pistol ammunition.
-Manurhin MR 73 for the agent. Deals the most damage, but with a twist - ammo for it won't be available on levels, only in the Mega Pakas.

Here's a very, VERY rough test video:


What do you all think?