MrFlibble

I meant more of a consistent background story/in-universe lore. Your monsters have so much character to them there has to be something more than just an "excuse plot" to Freedoom. Indeed, parts of this lore have already taken on shape in the Zamanthyte story. I suppose it would be logical to have the concepts of how the aliens interact with each other, what are the worlds they have come from, their goals etc. detailed to some extent. These concepts could be then reflected in the game environment such as textures or decorations. I wouldn't like to come across as trying to interfere with the artists' creative process. It has been my impression from reading this board that anyone may express their opinion on any topic relevant to the project's development. I believe that throwing around ideas could be useful, even if they get discarded eventually. It's better to have a wider scope of options to choose from than a narrow one.

Well, it is my understanding that there's still enough room for variety and originality even within those limits.

I know that. In fact, a while ago I suggested that a similar process could be used to create original replacements for these assets. It is also my understanding that the photographs that id Software used as sources for the mascaron switches were/are not public domain.

I wanted to ask, is it possible to add extra sprite decorations to the IWADs? Or do the sprites have to be defined in the game executable?

I think it's cool. There's a lot of red, but considering that it heals the player to 100% and adds a red haze the appearance of this powerup is consistent with its effects.

Maybe position the vial vertically and turn the head-shaped plug so that it "sits" on the top of the vial like on its neck?

Well, they don't have to be cocoons, it's just the laziest thing that came to my mind. This is why I brought the decorations from Strife as an example. With Freedoom aiming to be a stand-alone game, it doesn't have to follow Doom in the amount of blood and gruesome details. It's just my personal opinion, but I actually would prefer something less disturbing for decorations. I'm sure more original alternatives can be found to cocoons or stasis tubes. For example, if there's a theme with AGM or whatever carrying out genetic experiments (the mutant soldiers had to come from somewhere hadn't they?), why not replace the chained monster/corpse texture with a monster or human undergoing mutation? That would fit the alien/sci-fi/mutation theme better. I mean, with Doom's theme and aesthetics, there are no questions as to what all these decorations are supposed to mean - they depict something horrifying and disturbing simply because it's justified by the game's setting. Conversely, when you have a Serpentipede chained to the wall, you need to have dome kind of an "in-universe" explanation of why it's there. Maybe I'm wrong on this, but it seems to me that Freedoom's design and setting by definition has more depth, and hence requires greater consistency. If you don't like the sci-fi idea, perhaps, then, these could be captured Zamanthytes that are wounded and unconscious?

For some reason I think I'd like a remake of Blake Stone on the Build engine. As for Descent, there's the Descent: Underground project (still WIP if I'm not mistaken), and also Sublevel Zero. The latter has a freeware prototype version which is pretty nice, although the commercial game has evolved very far beyond it.

I suppose the levels can be given quite an extensive refurbishing with this new texture set.

I think it would be nice to make the lamp post entirely metallic and brighten the upper part to make it clear that it is emanating light. Otherwise there's the orange light thing inserted in the post and a red one at the top, with both being light sources (?). The one on the left is better IMO. The base could be given some perspective though.

Sorry for bumping this, but perhaps it would be a good idea to make an complete list of textures that are too similar to their Doom counterparts? Personally I've always been somewhat concerned about the satyr and gargoyle mascarons which are basically redrawn assets from Doom: https://github.com/freedoom/freedoom/blob/master/patches/wall30_2.gif?raw=true https://github.com/freedoom/freedoom/blob/master/patches/wall30_3.gif?raw=true https://github.com/freedoom/freedoom/blob/master/patches/wall42_1.gif?raw=true https://github.com/freedoom/freedoom/blob/master/patches/wall42_6.gif?raw=true https://github.com/freedoom/freedoom/blob/master/patches/wall47_3.gif?raw=true https://github.com/freedoom/freedoom/blob/master/patches/wall47_5.gif?raw=true

Great! Regarding your partial retexture idea, do you plan to edit exiting maps to introduce new textures from the Aquatex set? I suppose it's also possible to create entire levels only using this texture set.

Just wow. There's an amazing level of detail to your sprites. Great work! On another note, the current PSRTA0 pickup sprite has a relatively low height, which reduces its visibility. It may get obscured by monster corpses and is generally not easy to notice. Comparison: https://github.com/freedoom/attic/blob/master/sodaholic/sprites/pstra0.gif?raw=true https://github.com/freedoom/freedoom/blob/master/sprites/pstra0.gif?raw=true Would be nice if you could make a better version, either based on Maz Hades' work or on the old pickup designs from Freedoom. Or maybe something entirely original altogether?

Sodaholic used a shotgun model to create this weapon. The reload animation gives a good side look of it, and the barrel is clearly different from the more "regular" shotguns like the one used in Doom. But you're right that the sprite could serve as a basis for a machinegun weapon.

Thanks! Do you plan to redo other pickup sprites as well?

Very cool! However, it's also a bit confusing. Which part is supposed to emanate light - the upper one or the middle-lower one? What are the diagonal protrusions for?

I keep misreading this as Flirtation Tunnels.

Actually there's that old video interview (for some British channel) where he mentions Duke Nukem 3D as the second of his top five favourite games (YouTube link). The date of that interview is unclear, but it is implied at the start of the feature that Daikatana wasn't released yet at the time.

While testing various ports for the BEX/DEH issue I also noticed that both PrBoom and PrBoom+ (latest Win32 versions) ignore the extra menu text lumps in the IWADs, using built-in lumps based on the Doom menu font: Conversely, MBF and Boom have no problems using the Freedoom lumps: This seems like a pretty serious issue, has this always been the case? I know this should probably be reported to PrBoom+ maintainers (TBH I don't know if this project is being updated), but it seems weird to me that a feature works fine in older forks and doesn't in newer. I doubt that it was deliberately disabled. I also had the impression that PrBoom/+ is one of the more widespread ports that are used to run Freedoom.

All of those are simply awesome! :) This certainly adds a unique character to the game. Maybe the left part of the health bonus could be made more symmetrical, something like this? or maybe Also the central part of the armour bonus seems very bright to me. Perhaps the red could be replaced with a different colour (bight blue maybe)?

I also liked it, it was still in the game in v0.5 (not sure about 0.6 though). I have no idea what the reason was for replacement - certainly not the concern over the red cross, as this was brought up much later. I suspect that this might have been because of the glow effects that some of the newer ports have, so it might have been decided to have blue health and greed armour bonuses.

I think pictures like this would make some very nice sky backgrounds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tianchi_Lake.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Karakorum-d04.jpg It is my understanding that the licenses for exactly these pictures are not compatible with Freedoom, but I suppose similar images can be found that are licensed compatibly.

Well, this is why I posted these here in the first place :) When I found those photos I immediately remembered this fact about the E1 sky.

Well, I did not suggest anything but a recolour in my post above. The new torch versions are very nice! That is my concern as well, especially in the light of recent posts by fraggle.

Actually entryway said that future versions will use the small font from the IWAD for the menu items instead of using pre-generated lumps built with the copyrighted Doom menu font. I asked if the functionality to load extra text lumps from Freedoom if available could be kept, but there has been no feedback on that yet.