[Abandoned] STForums 2 - tech demo

[Jimmy]

Download: http://jimmy.phenomer.net/wad-files/stforums2_techdemo.pk3 Requires Skulltag (obviously).

This is me officially dropping this project and releasing what I have in case anyone wants to do anything with it. Apologies to anyone who was actually looking forward to it (all two of you). But I have more important things to focus on and I thought I might as well lift this thing off my shoulders.

A Bit of History
First off, I think it is probably deserving of the Mordeth award already - it has been in progress since almost the beginning of my time on these boards (2006-ish) and was originally set to be part of the Skulltag Community Co-op Project, initially headed by Tango. It was a single map designed to be a secret level for the pack - but I never quite finished it. The project was released eventually, with a few of my contributions included, like the music and title graphics I donated, but the map wasn't. With good reason, too. It sucked.

I thought I'd start afresh and have it instead be a full-blown megawad TC project that would be on par with CIF3.

I was already doomed from the outset.

I can do a little bit of graphics, some music, and some mapping, but not nearly enough to put together a solid project of this magnitude. I began accumulating vast amounts of resources from other games as they were posted around the web, so I could sift through them and hopefully find some things that worked together. The pool of resources I ended up amassing extended to Descent, Blood, Powerslave, Necrodome, In Pursuit of Greed, LameDuke, even Dungeon Keeper.

On top of that, I started furiously studying ACS and DECORATE so I could put together some kickass features. I did, and it was a long and arduous process, but in the end, I think I actually got some good features together.

And then, one fateful Easter, Windows Update got all up in my computer's shit and corrupted part of my hard drive. After repeated attempts to get into it and recover as many files as possible, which was partially successful, it had to be reformatted. The project was still intact. However, I'd been working on a huge design document containing every subtle nuance of what the project looked like in my head, and that had been lost completely. This stalled progress on the project quite substantially.

From that point on, I'd come back to it now and then, adjusting the various features it now bore, pruning all the unnecessary resources, and try to get it into a sensible state from which I could finally start building the maps. It didn't work. I was an impatient mapper and had only done deathmatch maps for the Skulltag community's various projects and official speedmapping sessions up to that point. I could usually only get stuff done if I speedmapped it furiously. This is still the case with me to this day (hence why Jenesis isn't done yet).

It stagnated on my hard drive for about a year.

Then this post was made. I sent scalliano a PM, we talked a bit, and now, here we are.

What could it have been?

• A CIF3/medieval/Strife/The Matrix-themed TC. (I couldn't ultimately decide.)
  
• A full 5-episode (with a bonus sixth) episode. Theshooter7 actually helped me out with the story side of things.
  
• There was to be a Doom enemy persona for virtually every important member of the Skulltag forums (and the various other Doom communities).
  
• It was to be almost a completely different game in its own right, with basically none of the original game features being used. The inventory system would be redone, as would the pickup messages, and the dialogue system and buy/sell menus from Strife.
  
• There would also be extra features like skippable cutscenes, weapon upgrades, experience points, private messages and an adrenaline system similar to UT2k4.
  
• It would basically have been an almighty clusterfuck overall.

So, what have we learned?
Start small. The reason Jenesis has evolved into something quite large now is that I've kept at it (until recently - I need to get back into the Boom mapping groove), and it has been well within my ability to produce something like it in a short-ish span of time. It demands attention, but so do all Doom projects. It has also helped that I've had a beta testing team handily relaying bugs to me as the maps developed.

With STForums2, I was on my own. I thought I could cope with it - it would take a few years but it would be worth it. Now, this is really all I have to show. There was a little more than this, but it wasn't anything mind-boggling. A single map which only had a few rooms because I couldn't be arsed to finish it. And it was pretty subpar anyway.

What does this tech demo include?
Much of what was listed above, but some of it is in a dated and incomplete state:

• A brand new dialogue and menu system
  
• Buying/trading items at shops
  
• New pickup messages
  
• A UT2k4-esque "adrenaline" system which ties into Skulltag's runes
  
• New (seen before) monsters
  
• A PDA (very buggy)
  
• Objectives which can be updated
  
• Private messages that can be stored and read at leisure
  
• Onscreen tracking for NPCs (mostly done by Isle)
  
• An intricate skippable cutscene system
  
  Also, the remnants of:
  
• A half-finished new inventory system (not viewable in the demo map)
  
• Weapon upgrades (also not viewable; and only work for 2 or 3 of the weapons)
  
• An experience/levelling-up system (not properly implemented)

Well, I think that's all that needs to be said. Hope it is at least enjoyable, and the very best of luck to anyone who does wish to pick it up again. You're going to need it. :P

[Mr. Freeze]

Would you mind PMing me? I have a few ideas I want to toss at you.

[Bloodshedder]

Here I was expecting this to be akin to the dwforums.wad series.

[Marnetmar]

Bloodshedder, any reason Newstuff #391 is taking so long?