Lithium 1.7.0 Beta (Apr. 17, 2022)

[Unregret]

Yeah, Deus Ex for Doom baby!

[Shatter-Thought[V-4]]

Those new sprites are looking slick! Some great progress there!

[DarkQuill]

Playing with the latest build, it's super great.
Is there any way to disable all the info that keeps appearing under your level/score? Finding it distracting the way it keeps appearing and disappearing.
Also would like to request an option under Environment to disable the extra coloured fog effects, for maps where it's already very dark.

[Marrub]

Is there any way to disable all the info that keeps appearing under your level/score? Finding it distracting the way it keeps appearing and disappearing.

I'm not sure what you're talking about, because the only things in the top right are the level and score. Do you mean the accrued score indicator that pops up when you attain score? If so, I'll add an option for it to my to-do list.

Also would like to request an option under Environment to disable the extra coloured fog effects, for maps where it's already very dark.

Yes, there will be an option for this in the future. The fog effects are currently in an unfinished state.

[Marrub]

I had originally intended to release Lithium 1.7.0 Beta 2 by the end of November. Obviously, it's December now. I didn't tell anyone this because I knew it would be delayed, but Beta 2 will probably be coming 2024, or potentially later depending on circumstances. I wanted to get something out before or on Doom's 30th birthday, because I love this game, and it feels like "the deadline of deadlines" to me. But, due to health complications, even though I've resumed development, it's been a bit slower than I've wanted. The past several years have been awful for my mental and physical health, and just as things are starting to seem better for my brain, the rest of me is struggling to keep up. That's all I've got to say on the matter, honestly. Beta 2 will feature all Dark Lord upgrades completed, complete environmental effects, and new endings. This is because I need these to be tested as much as possible before a full release. Thanks to everyone for sticking with me through this incredibly long development cycle.

[Dr_Cosmobyte]

Take your time, friend.

I've wanted to get a mod overhaul in a tight deadline and it did me no good.

Hyped for the next release.

[DarkQuill]

I'm not sure what you're talking about, because the only things in the top right are the level and score. Do you mean the accrued score indicator that pops up when you attain score? If so, I'll add an option for it to my to-do list.

Ah sorry, I meant the stuff like the map name, weather info, time/date, mission, etc that pop up when you stand idle for a couple seconds. If there's a dedicated option for it already I cannot find it. I actually really like this feature, but as it doesn't differentiate between in and out of combat, it shows up often when you're doing some longer-range sniping while standing still and I keep thinking it's something moving at me. Maybe even just an option to extend/shorten the delay.

Also I think the temperature gauge on that part might be deviating too far, or using the wrong measurements. Even for areas marked as Nominal, you can get wild temperatures like -7C or 95C. I'm guessing it's supposed to be a random number in Fahrenheit, but reads your computer settings and applies the measurement unit it's set to? Or maybe it's just for the gaffs

Played through Hellbound as the Dark Lord class and hoo, it is super slick even if it is unfinished. Having the Kampilan sword be consistently useful even in late-game horde shenanigans is very very cool. Only things I could suggest as feedback would be to maybe give the Scattergun a bit of a lookover. Maybe I was just using it wrong, but even trying to intentionally shoot at roofs/walls to bounce projectiles was unreliable. Even with the Damage stat almost maxed out, direct shots would struggle to consistently kill zombiemen in a minimum of 2 shots. I bumped up the damage on it by a single point, and it was a little more satisfying to use, but would later find myself just sticking with the Hunting Shotgun to wipe out rooms of more enemies with less time and ammo comparatively.
The other thing would be to add a buff icon for any of the Rage/Constitution/etc stats when active, optionally with a timer on it like the powerups currently do.

[Marrub]

Ah sorry, I meant the stuff like the map name, weather info, time/date, mission, etc that pop up when you stand idle for a couple seconds. If there's a dedicated option for it already I cannot find it. I actually really like this feature, but as it doesn't differentiate between in and out of combat, it shows up often when you're doing some longer-range sniping while standing still and I keep thinking it's something moving at me. Maybe even just an option to extend/shorten the delay.

Oh, shit, you're right. It would actually be really easy to add an option for the delay. It's easy to detect if you're aiming as well, so adding that should make things easier.

Also I think the temperature gauge on that part might be deviating too far, or using the wrong measurements. Even for areas marked as Nominal, you can get wild temperatures like -7C or 95C. I'm guessing it's supposed to be a random number in Fahrenheit, but reads your computer settings and applies the measurement unit it's set to? Or maybe it's just for the gaffs :D

I just think it's funny. The player's supposed to be armored anyways, so it's OK. It always uses Celsius, even internally. The range is actually -90C to 100C before the environment begins to change, then 100-200C for fire in the sky, and vacuum for anything below -90C. The ranges are placeholders. Gameplay effects for extreme temperatures are on the to-do list as well.

Played through Hellbound as the Dark Lord class and hoo, it is super slick even if it is unfinished. Having the Kampilan sword be consistently useful even in late-game horde shenanigans is very very cool. Only things I could suggest as feedback would be to maybe give the Scattergun a bit of a lookover. Maybe I was just using it wrong, but even trying to intentionally shoot at roofs/walls to bounce projectiles was unreliable. Even with the Damage stat almost maxed out, direct shots would struggle to consistently kill zombiemen in a minimum of 2 shots. I bumped up the damage on it by a single point, and it was a little more satisfying to use, but would later find myself just sticking with the Hunting Shotgun to wipe out rooms of more enemies with less time and ammo comparatively.

The shrapnel will always be emitted directly towards you in a horizontal spread, and is thus ineffective when fired at a ceiling. It's also not very effective with just direct damage. It might feel under-powered for single targets, but it's the most effective weapon for hordes in my experience. I might adjust the damage values a bit more. When hitting a ceiling/floor it should probably have adjusted velocities, so I'll try that out.

The other thing would be to add a buff icon for any of the Rage/Constitution/etc stats when active, optionally with a timer on it like the powerups currently do.

That would be useful, but I'd have to implement effect wrappers (or just re-implement the effects) in ZScript to do this. I'll put that on my list of stuff for later versions.

[Marrub]

Not sure if I've talked about the dialogue system here before, but to summarize the madness:

• Dialogue boxes, terminals, and endings run in a mostly-MOS 6502-compatible VM, running in the ACS VM.
• They're written in a fully-fledged programming language with a compiler implemented in-engine, with keywords in both English and toki pona.
• The compiler has some high-level constructs—for instance, `if` and `else`—but ultimately works most like an assembler, and can even be used to directly write 6502 assembly.
• Like all the ACS bytecode in the mod, it's compiled with GDCC and written in GDCC C.
• Just about every other detail shifts and turns over time.

Recently, for an upcoming Extra upgrade, I've been writing and re-writing a bunch of stuff relating to this dialogue system. Instead of loading one fixed file (specified in Lithium's specialized LITHMAP format) it can now load multiple. Constants are actually useful now, now able to be used cross-file, and even have a very small RPN expression parser. Here's an example!

Code: Select all

var %some_var = var_beg 32 + 16 / ++; /* => 515 */

Program code is more generalized. Very few special cases (in particular for the extended instructions) exist now. Yada yada. This system is only really useful to me, as even my own maps can't keep up with the constant syntax and behaviour changes. I suppose someone might be able to use this for some custom maps if they wanted to target a specific release version. The upgrade shouldn't be too difficult to implement now. :P

[Marrub]

---

Re-added the 2017 title map, this time with enhanced IWAD compatibility. Now shows all the camera angles. Replaces actors as necessary. Uses Freedoom textures.

[Marrub]

Hi! It's World Bipolar Day. I have bipolar disorder. I was diagnosed with major depression as a kid. A lot of people get diagnosed with depression instead of bipolar, especially when they're young, because their first few episodes are more likely to be depressive. I was, like a lot of people, prescribed antidepressants, which all either did nothing or worsened the severity and frequency of manic episodes. I only got a bipolar-I diagnosis over a decade later, this year. The name of this project was actually just a reference to the Nirvana song, but, whoops, yeah, guess there was a reason I picked that song.

A lot of the to-do list for 1.7.0 is already complete. I'm not going to promise it'll be this year, but it will be finished. The, like, pandemic is still happening and stuff, so I think it's pretty normal that I haven't published a new release version in 4 years. Thanks for playing.

[Someonewhoplaysdoom]

Thanks for the info. this is one of my favorite gameplay mods and even if It hasn't been directly updated for some time, I know and Im glad that theres still going (I really love mods that includes authors made lore, is just beutiful).

[Grimthwacker]

Marrub wrote:
> Hi! It's World Bipolar Day. I have bipolar disorder. I was diagnosed with
> major depression as a kid. A lot of people get diagnosed with depression
> instead of bipolar, especially when they're young, because their first few
> episodes are more likely to be depressive. I was, like a lot of people,
> prescribed antidepressants, which all either did nothing or worsened the
> severity and frequency of manic episodes. I only got a bipolar-I diagnosis
> over a decade later, this year. The name of this project was actually just
> a reference to the Nirvana song, but, whoops, yeah, guess there was a
> reason I picked [i]that[/i] song.
>
> A lot of the to-do list for 1.7.0 is already complete. I'm not going to
> promise it'll be this year, but it will be finished. The, like, pandemic is
> still happening and stuff, so I think it's pretty normal that I haven't
> published a new release version in 4 years. Thanks for playing.

Hello fellow depression-haver, I know that pain all too well. Thanks for making a really unique and cool mod despite that. I need to revisit it soon.

[Marrub]

I've been working on Lithium again recently. I'm basically as healthy as I can be at the moment; not to say I'm in great health, but my mind and body are stable for now. I've been working on a game for the past few months as well, but I'm taking a break to focus on this mod for various reasons. The weapons and weapon upgrades are more or less feature-complete now. The weather and environment systems are now mostly complete, with a dynamic day/night cycle that effects outdoor sectors and skies. There's 2 body upgrades and 3 extra upgrades that are unfinished, and most of the writing for DL is still unfinished. Version 1.7 will probably be done by the end of the year at this rate barring any potential life events. The remaining features aren't necessarily easy to implement, but they aren't particularly difficult either, and I've already planned out how to do them. The main issue is writing, which might take a while, but it shouldn't take more than a month or two to figure everything out. I'll make a video of all the stuff I've finished recently in a few days when I've got enough to show!

[devlman127]

Good to see there still is work going on for this mod. It's one of my favorites, and I can't wait for the new teaser.