It is released! The three map demo that is
Here's the link to the page:
http://www.phobus.servegame.com/doom/ph_virus.html
and the direct link to the zip: dead link
For those of you wanting screenshots, look through the thread - there's plenty, particularly on p5. Have fun, and please do comment, later maps may need the input
And now I'm going to start putting time into making the other monsters, so Captain Ventris can have a Virus faction for ZDoom Wars.
Old stuff below, may be out of date:
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I once wrote:I have an idea! Why don't we use one colour for walls facing east or west, another for walls facing north or south, another for diagonals, another for the floor, another for the ceiling and one for the sky?
...or something like that. Well, I put some 64x64 blocks of colour together, and thought about it for a bit. I decided it needed taking further, as I'd just look like a complete n00b making a normal wad with a load of coloured blocks rather than real textures.
So I started doing some spriting, and some thinking, and some storylining. I also started setting records for the number of times visiting the wiki in one day for editing help. (I really should know DECORATE a bit better...)
This is what I've got so far:
Textures - 64x64 coloured boxes (one shade only). I'm not sure if I'll hold to my original idea, as the bright colours tend to hide the projectiles... though I'm yet to have given it a proper mapping test (ie. with light levels and stuff).
New weapons - I somehow worked out weapons decorate, and have made three weapons:
-Basic Blaster - fires weak yellow projectiles rather like the chaingun does (first shot is accurate, if you hold down the trigger, they start to spread a bit). Infinite ammo.
-Blaster - Fires bigger (red) projctiles, which go considerably faster than basic blaster's shots, and do a lot more damage (32-64 as opposed to 3-24). This also doesn't suffer the accuracy issue. Has limited ammo, however.
-Wall of Death - Fires a box of 8 projectiles, each dealing 4-32 damage. Projectiles change colour as they fly, and go very quickly (I'm yet to see one make it to the fourth colour in my tests before it hits a wall). Uses it's own ammo (which is in short supply, as one ammo is all 8 shots fired)
New player class - my intrepid explorations of DECORATE have also lead to the creation of C735, a Spore class inhabitant of physical computer space (I'll explain later). It flies, it zips around quickly, it makes strange noises and it's pretty small. The flying is very important.
Health 100
Radius 20
Height 32
Starting equipment - Basic Blaster
New Enemies - Something I have been able to do before (still rushing off to the wiki though)
-Spore - Not all of you avoided Virus infestation, and these are the ones that didn't. They fire a weaker version of the blaster (does about half the damage), and have no concept of rapid fire. They still fly around quite quickly, so shooting them tends to involve flying in close and dog fighting. When you kill them, you get to pick up a blaster (which works properly when you've got it). Health 100
-Prism - These purple diamond shaped entities are one of the lowest level inhabitants of physical computer space, consequently, they are highly simplistic. As they are basically living batteries, they are usually just farmed for their power (computers don't have feelings). They fire vollies of three energy bolts, and have a very rare chance of giving off a very strong electrical discharge, which is harmless, except for the fact that it produces another prism (which has the Vrus inside it as well). Fairly low health (60), and fun to shoot as bits of prism go flying off of it with every shot, and they shatter when they die. You'll want to wipe them out quickly, because once a certain number are about, the replication is barely manageable, evenwith a Wall of Death.
-Turret - Basically a big metallic block with a swivelling gun mounted on top, and either stuck to the floor or the ceiling. They sound alarms through the computer space (even if nobodies listening, as the turrets tend to handle it) and fire off Basic Blaster shots quickly, with accuracy and impunity. With 200 health, and a take no prisoners ethic, they won't run after you, but you don't want to just be floating next to them, especially when they die.
New pickups - Something else I've not got a lot of experience with, but at least these are simple (all of these (and the weapon pickups), appear as screens with an image shown on them):
-Health - Red writing. Comes in +5 (max 150), +20 (max 100) and +100 (max 200). Very useful.
-Shield - Blue writing. As in, energy shield. Takes half the force out of the shots hitting you. Comes in +50 and +100 (whilst both maxed at 200, it is possible, with a bit of luck and management, to have up to 299 shield, if you pick up a +100 with 199 shield to begin with).
-Mega Power - White exclamation mark. Gives you 300 health, and 300 65% shield. If you see it, you be sure to pick it up.
-Power Shot for Basic Weapon - White cross-bones-skull. If you pick this up, the next shot you fire with your Basic Blaster will do 10000 damage (ie. enough to kill anything). May come in handy. You can only have one at a time, so manage them carefully, and remember where they are.
-Speed Boost - White Dots doing an imitation of the starfield screensaver. Gives you the speed power up, so you go even faster, and have that cool trail effect. Lasts one minute.
-Disruptor - Blue and Red flashing. Gives you a two minute invisibility. As you're small and quick, this might be very useful.
As you can see, I'm not quite done (I've sorted out a MAPINFO and some other things, like music, sounds, credits and stuff), but I've got it mostly planned out. No screenshots or anything yet, as I've not made a start on the map, or finished all of the enemies.
I intend to make another three enemies, and then make a titlepic and go and find a tune for that, finally scripting myself out a HUD and then my resource work is done. Then it's time for the mapping, which may take some doing, as I'll have to experiment with my colours until I find a way that I like (I'll either use my original plan, or if that hides the projectiles too much, I'll look at using the floor or ceiling colour on the walls as well, and use the bright colours for details and stuff). The intended gameplay will involve a lot of shooting, but also a fair amount of exploration, maybe a bit of puzzling or a key hunt (exploration without purpose isn't good)... though then I'd have to make a key as well, I think. It'll be one map, whatever happens. Guess it's wait and see.
I'll update the thread when I've finished making things (graphics or whatever), and might even show one of the sprites off (though they are mostly small). There will be some map screenshots however, before I make the release.
