A Review/Diary of Eternal X

[Pfhorrest]

Or have hunters teleport in instead.

That's actually a very good idea.

When this is all over there should be a topic concerning Eternal's ending. I dont understand, did I win?

I like this idea too.

[Crater Creator]

Chapter 2: Enemy

Hysterical Womb

Hmm, how interesting to have both 'alien weapons' at once. I predict it's a sign of the times, that I'm in a time further in the future. Perhaps for these Enforcers, seeing a scatter rifle is like a soldier today seeing someone come after them with a Brown Bess .

Oops. Enforcers with napalm cannons switch to a sprite of them with a scatter rifle for at least one of the frames they use.

The Pfhor ship in the landscape looked low quality.

As a matter of weapon balance, I would make the scatter gun's second trigger not use as much ammunition. The number of times I want to expend half a clip, 56 shots, are few and far between. 28 shots would be plenty.

A Friend In Need

Polygon 132 glitches: sometimes as you walk through it, you spontaneously teleport to the right.

I'm not sure if anything can be done about this, but I use a lot more trooper grenades than I do trooper bullets, because they're more accurate. I can't pick up more grenades unless I waste a clip of bullets. Thought it hasn't been an actual problem yet, since I can carry so many clips of both.

You used 2 landscape images to make it look like some panes of 'glass' on the ceiling were tinted purple, while others weren't. Very nice idea: I haven't seen that done before. However, the purple landscape was as bright as the untinted landscape, whereas tinting glass is supposed to make things darker. In other words, in Photoshop, the purple layer should've been set to multiply, rather than overlay or normal or whatever you used.

Hmm, the Juggernaut never activated. Even when a trooper went berserk and fired at him, he didn't wake up.

That bunker with visibly solid walls, where the Enforcers and Hunters shoot out at you, didn't make much sense to me. Okay, it took me by surprise, but that just shouldn't be physically possible.

Er...oh right. The S'pht are on my side in this level. Can't remember everything.

There's a lot of new stuff in this level: the return of the Hulk, a second fusion pistol, and the fusion cannon. I wonder if the second pistol should've been introduced earlier, so that it wouldn't be quickly overshadowed by the fusion cannon.

One pixel in the center of the fusion cannon's weapon-in-hand sprite is transparent when it shouldn't be. I assume this will be fixed with the coming graphics update.

Hmm, one of the green hunters ignored me and ran back the way I came, as if he were targeting something else.

It would appear you have to grenade jump to get up to polygon 783. If that's intentional, I personally don't think grenade jumping should be a required tactic.

I spent about an hour searching for that one narrow corridor that takes you to the chip insertion panel. Please make it stand out more. It was also only by luck that I happened to stop on one of the automatic exits. They look like teleporters, but I was waiting for Leela to give me a new message.

Unlucky For Some

Here's an idea: how about an animated landscape image? Make it flash once in a while from explosions hitting the shield. And by the way, kudos for effectively using fog with a working landscape image.

An oxygen dispenser...hmm, I wonder if that was put there because I'll need it, or simply because it fits with the story for this level (i.e. the Pfhor ships would have oxygen dispensers here and there).

Unpfhorseen

Okay, now that was a panic situation. Drop in with a full squad of Juggernauts all around me. Friendlies be darned, just run the heck out of there! It's also pretty obvious this will be another branching level with 2 paths. My gut says rampancy=bad, so disobey Leela. But on the other hand, I actually do want to play all the levels.

That's odd, the lookers come after me, yet the wasps and drones don't. In fact, nobody attacks me in the big SW room with 2 switches, until I attack them.

Same with most Juggernauts...virtually no one is attacking me.

If you look closely, the shots of the Mother of all Hunters come out of its armpit. In other words, the firing position is below where it should be.

Typo: "That last thing I wanted was to have you as my enemy..." That should be The.

"These clones [of Tycho which the Pfhor use] lack any extensive personal memories" That doesn't sound right. The Pfhor re-animate Tycho for Marathon 2 and Infinity, do they not? And Tycho remembers things like the Marathon, and Durandal and Leela. Those would qualify as extensive personal memories.

"So Hathor will flee, but where to?" "but to where?" would be better.

May The Pfharce Be With You

I like this level's design; it feels Pfhor-like.

Okay, I went through the square teleporter, killed the Enforcers on the ledges, and now I have a tiny amount of health. I can't jump back down into the slime, because I'll die before I can run to the shield recharger. Good thing there's no save terminal in this area. My advice is to place just one 1x recharger somewhere in that west wing of the ship.

"The fewer metastable personality constructs running around through time, the better." Leela isn't metastable, or else she wouldn't be in the jealous stage of Rampancy.

Pissing On The Corporation

Whew boy, was this level hard without a shield recharger. You basically have to 'vid it' by not getting hit.

There's a purple S'pht compiler on or adjacent to polygon 601. He's trapped halfway into the floor.

Okay, as often as you use Mothers of all Hunters, they are like a 3rd class of normal hunters, so I'd leave them as they are instead of making them always explode.

Texture the sides of polygon 856: if the door closes while you're to one side (which did happen by accident, not by me carefully testing every corner of the map), you see the untextured sides.

'Snipervision,' activated with F7, has been useful in Eternal. Why does it take about a full minute to turn it on and off?

The Living Receiver

Hmm, this time around I never noticed the specific opportunity to branch and avoid this level. I thought about running back to all the terminals, but thought it unlikely to change anything. It's already obvious why I'm here, because Hathor escaped. Now to figure out how to do it the right way.

So judging from the first terminal, PiD and Marathon happened in the same universe in Eternal. A W'rkncacnter lies sleeping in our own sun, and the version of Tycho running the Pfhor ships has fired the trih xeem at our sun. Apparently that "understanding" between the two Tychos didn't last or wasn't genuine. The landscape image for these levels now makes more sense, too.

No, no, no, no, no <grimace>. Please don't make me do combat with trip-o-vision and next to no health

Ah, I see it's not only the same spaceship, but the same area of the same spaceship. I.e. geometry is repeated like in the Electric Sheep.

Why are all the BoBs deaf and blind? I'm finding that in general, Eternal uses more deaf and blind flags than it really should; it should use more zone borders and monster triggers instead.

There's one of the 8 exposed circuits which you can destroy. I wonder what that does.

Unpfhorseen

My first time through this level, I spent a lot of time running back to the save terminal, something I haven't had to do in previous levels. I only opened up access to the north save terminal very late in the level. Since most players will have to run through this area twice, perhaps the switches could be manipulated so as to open that up earlier, or else the save terminal next to the chip insertion switches could be moved to a more central location.

Heh, I just realized Leela's icon resembles the icon found on shield rechargers. A subtle hint that she's a good guy .

Typo: in Leela's exit terminal, armada is spelled armade.

So, it looks like I should have gone back and checked for alternative terminal messages. Leela is clearly still Rampant, so I probably will part with her instructions down the line, too. I feel silly, in a way, for being tricked by something as simple as moving a terminal message to a different terminal. But hey, that means the writer did his job by nudging me in the direction he wanted. That's my assumption anyway, that you're intended to take all the 'wrong' paths first.

The end of this level felt like it should be the end of the chapter.

My Kingdom Pfhor A Horse

It's not very clear on whether I should take out those juggernauts or not, since in the last few levels, it hasn't been worth it and they respawn endlessly. I didn't want to do the jumping puzzle with all that fire raining down on me, so I eventually decided they had to be taken out. Without this overpowered fusion rifle, I wouldn't stand a chance, although I didn't have enough fusion ammo for all of them.

You should make the long oval pillars which split the map into negative space; it would improve performance on this level, which is poor because the map is so huge and open. Plus it would help the aliens recognize they can't hit me when I'm hiding behind those pillars.

The first time I tried this level (and subsequent times until I gave up and tried it again another day), this level was ridiculously hard. Something needs to be done for balance. After finally getting through the grueling outdoor part, I think the best thing would be to teleport in a couple of health canisters, more fusion batteries, and/or more VacBoBs at a time. The VacBoBs are effective when there are enough of them to give the juggernauts multiple targets, but that seldom happened. I can't even get fusion batteries off of fallen VacBoBs, since they either fry or explode.

I expected to teleport directly into a ship, not outdoors, but perhaps I didn't read the terminal closely enough.

This level was a perfect example of how nice it would be to have the engine draw the map view one 'layer' at a time, to make it much more readable.

Burning Down The Corporation

Phew! I almost thought I screwed up and was sent to a previous level again. Although my instinct tells me there will be a third version of this level.

Huzzah, there's a shield recharger in this one!

I can't describe how much more enjoyable this level is than Pissing On The Corporation, between the shield rechargers and the S'pht 'Kr.

The 'Kr armada returns to Earth orbit. I'm still confused about locations, since K'lia never orbited Earth in the original games. When did the moon K'lia move to Earth orbit, and who put it there?

"Lets go" should be "Let's go."

Everything seems to be in order? In case things should go awry? Nuts, I know what that means .

The World Is Hollow

Logically, the sides of the river really shouldn't be bluish. That's just water, it's not glowing blue light onto the banks. Though on the other hand, it does lend some color to an otherwise gray map.

Hmm, this terminal was too cryptic to decipher. Trih xeem bad, but I already knew that. My mission, my 'real' mission not tied to an A.I.'s bidding but to saving the universe, is not yet clear.

[Khnud]

Whew boy, was this level hard without a shield recharger. You basically have to 'vid it' by not getting hit.

Actually, this level screwed up my saved game. I had very little health left, and on total carnage it's impossible to avoid getting hit by the flame enforcers while dropping down that shaft. Or is it? Maybe I just suck...

[Pfhorrest]

"These clones [of Tycho which the Pfhor use] lack any extensive personal memories" That doesn't sound right. The Pfhor re-animate Tycho for Marathon 2 and Infinity, do they not? And Tycho remembers things like the Marathon, and Durandal and Leela. Those would qualify as extensive personal memories.

The Tycho from M2/Infinity was not a clone, he was the rebuilt original. After Durandal killed him in M2, the Pfhor made use of other (crappy, Pfhor-style) AIs loosely modelled after images of Tychos core taken while he was on Pfhor Prime, as per the M2 epilogue.

"The fewer metastable personality constructs running around through time, the better." Leela isn't metastable, or else she wouldn't be in the jealous stage of Rampancy.

Metastability isn't a canonical stage of rampancy or 'post-rampancy', no matter what wikipedia says. The only use of the phrase in the games is where Durandal says of Tycho something almost identical to what my Tycho said of Leela in your quote. I take "metastable" to mean roughly "late-stage rampant" - you're not quite 'stable' the way you were pre-rampancy, but you're not just outright trying to kill everyone anymore.

Also, don't take anyone's word as infallible. The various characters are often wrong and tell you 'facts' that contradict each other. Just because Tycho says Leela is jealous doesn't mean she is. Leela seems to thing she's as stable as rampant AIs come; she calls herself a "stable rampant" on A Friend In Need, if you'll recall.

'Snipervision,' activated with F7, has been useful in Eternal. Why does it take about a full minute to turn it on and off?

Legacy of an old special effect I was trying to create. I'll fix it.

There's one of the 8 exposed circuits which you can destroy. I wonder what that does.

Nothing. I'm not sure why that one's destroyable and none of the others were.

The first time I tried this level (and subsequent times until I gave up and tried it again another day), this level was ridiculously hard. Something needs to be done for balance. After finally getting through the grueling outdoor part, I think the best thing would be to teleport in a couple of health canisters, more fusion batteries, and/or more VacBoBs at a time. The VacBoBs are effective when there are enough of them to give the juggernauts multiple targets, but that seldom happened. I can't even get fusion batteries off of fallen VacBoBs, since they either fry or explode.

I tweaked this level and Unpfhorseen last night. Both now have lots more friendly Bob cover, and you start out both invisible so you can avoid the big fight and just get indoors where it's safe. They both give you more ammo now, too.

The 'Kr armada returns to Earth orbit. I'm still confused about locations, since K'lia never orbited Earth in the original games. When did the moon K'lia move to Earth orbit, and who put it there?

K'lia is a portable moon, and it is in Earth orbit for convenience of Human-S'pht collaboration.

Logically, the sides of the river really shouldn't be bluish. That's just water, it's not glowing blue light onto the banks. Though on the other hand, it does lend some color to an otherwise gray map.

They're actually supposed to be greenish, mossy...

The rest is great bug reporting. Thanks! I look forward to the next edition.

[Elderman]

I'm playing through EternalX again and just finished the 1.0 version of Heart of Fusion. I really like the way you changed the level from FC5, Forrest. All the drones in the core make a lot of sense, and so does making it an enclosed room (unfortunately at the cost of a nice view of Tau Ceti). Finally, the fight outside to closed door to the core is a nice dramatic touch. It's something that doesn't need to be there, but colours all the mouse-in-maze-hitting-switches with a bit of urgency. Nice.

[Pfhorrest]

Thanks! I made it a closed room mostly because the Tau Ceti landscape wasn't designed to deal with fog (all the other foggy Marathon levels are entirely indoors) so it looked kinda funny in the distant parts of the ceiling where the foggy support beams crossed the clear night sky. (Technically the "clear" levels also use fog, but it's a thin black fog to give a nice silhouette effect on the distant architecture against the landscape, e.g. on the start of Sahkmet Rising). It's also nice to have that change distinguishing it from Durandal's core on Roots and Radicals.

And the drones were actually just thrown in because I realized how few levels there were with drones on them, so I sought out every opportunity I could think of to throw in more defense drones (which is basically only the last levels of the two branches of Chapter 1).

I'm glad it all worked out well.

[L'howon]

Heres my 2 cents over Eternal
I came in pretty early in the game, I believe it was one of the first releases of it, probably back in ('05-'06?)...All I remember is being able to pick up a S'pht Orb in the S'pht levels... it fired 'Kr bolts, and the homing green bolts as a secondary, if that helps any( because I know the versions I picked up in novemeber of last year, and the latest release do not contain these)
I liked that version.
Then I came back in, and found the (imho) crappy version...
the whole floating enforcers, ammo and some such, glitchy maps, bad triggers, etc, etc...left a bad taste in my mouth. Skipping levels was a must, as I remeber 1 level in particular, where the trigger was too fast on a door, so by the time I ran to the door, it was locked...
But now, I find this version!
Boy am I pleased. I'm very (much so more) impressed with the revamp, almost 0 glitches

My only comments are general questions.
1: Should the automated defense drones in the level (is it Dread Not?..I know your on the Jjaro Dreadnaught is all) EVER activate AGAINST you, as in start firing upon you when you walk into a room?
2: The levels that use the "trip-o-vision"(I don't recall their names, But I know that there is a well of sorts that functions as a teleporter) Are MASSIVELY laggy, to the point of almost being unplayable.. And my computer is fairly top of the line, 2.16 GHz iMac, 24" screen, 128mb Graphics Card, 2 gigs RAM. It shouldnt lag, unless this is an engine problem, or the map itself... This may have been mentioned earlier, but it is my major grief none-the-less.

My only other opinion is, my somewhat Dislike of being teleported back 3 levels and forced to do it again.. as mentioned before, youve alredy been griefed about this, but I guess, maybe, I just suck as a Marathon player :/. It works for the EternalX non-linear idea, but, as stated before also, some of the levels are not easy to do. My only suggestion to this effect, is perhaps when interjecting these repeat loops, make the levels somewhat straight forward. I'm with RyokoTK on this one, it gets very annoying when you spend 1-2 hours beating those levels, only to have to spend another 1-2 hours doing it all over again, and not remebering that ONE switch you forgot this time, or some such as that.

[Hostile Amish]

I spent about an hour searching for that one narrow corridor that takes you to the chip insertion panel. Please make it stand out more. It was also only by luck that I happened to stop on one of the automatic exits. They look like teleporters, but I was waiting for Leela to give me a new message.

Where is that located, anyway?

[Pfhorrest]

1: Should the automated defense drones in the level (is it Dread Not?..I know your on the Jjaro Dreadnaught is all) EVER activate AGAINST you, as in start firing upon you when you walk into a room?

Yes. They are controlled by whoever controls the ship. On one level ("Run, Coward!", not "Dread Not") an enemy is controlling the ship, so they fire against you.

2: The levels that use the "trip-o-vision"(I don't recall their names, But I know that there is a well of sorts that functions as a teleporter) Are MASSIVELY laggy, to the point of almost being unplayable.. And my computer is fairly top of the line, 2.16 GHz iMac, 24" screen, 128mb Graphics Card, 2 gigs RAM. It shouldnt lag, unless this is an engine problem, or the map itself... This may have been mentioned earlier, but it is my major grief none-the-less.

Does this happen on "The Tangent Universe" et al, or only on "To Sleep Perchance To Dream" et al? If the former, that's an engine problem, not and Eternal problem; and if the latter, well... that's a big map. But then, my computer sucks more than yours and it's playable for me.

[Phortiphy]

It never happened for me on FC1. Just an FYI.

[L'howon]

I will Look into it when I get home today Pfhorrest
I cannot remeber the name at this exact moment. I just remeber the level being very gray, very rocky...and it has a river in it. Lots of jumping/ platforming with almost always 0 enemies, except for one time (:O hope I didn't spoil anything)

[Pfhorrest]

I will Look into it when I get home today Pfhorrest
I cannot remeber the name at this exact moment. I just remeber the level being very gray, very rocky...and it has a river in it. Lots of jumping/ platforming with almost always 0 enemies, except for one time (:O hope I didn't spoil anything)

Ah yes...

That's just a very, very big map (it's almost entirely a single room, about 77WU across on average). Aleph One doesn't like being asked to render viewing distances and polygon counts like that, and so to punish you for asking it to do so it works very, very slowly.

There are two solutions to this problem:

1) Rip its code out and force-feed it new code until it does what you tell it to without complaint, or

2) Try to bribe it with a shiny new graphics card.

[MoppyPuppy]

About that level, is there any way into that SECOND door?
Not the one you usually start in front of, but that OTHER one.

[Pfhorrest]

About that level, is there any way into that SECOND door?
Not the one you usually start in front of, but that OTHER one.

Nope. Maintenance access only, and you don't have the key. FYI the other door inside, below the terminal room, goes to the same place. Not much of interest in there anyway, unless you're the janitor.

[Crater Creator]

Chapter 3: Prophecy

S'pht'ia

Ah, a refreshing new texture set with some influence, both textural and architectural, from Marathon 2. In fact, I seem to be on one level from Marathon 2 in particular.

Cool, an uncloaked, unarmored S'pht. I recognized it instantly. I haven't the heart to shoot one and see if it wakes up.

As an aesthetic decision, I wouldn't give *every* level fog, only those levels where appropriate, such as humid or polluted environments, or alien atmospheres.

Ah, I get it. The S'pht clans are fighting each other, and apparently I've already taken sides, since one group shoots me while the other doesn't.

I wonder if these S'pht have ever seen P'fhor weapons before. They'd never know that the technology I'm primarily using isn't my own.

There seems to be a glitch. When 2 S'pht 'Kr run into each other and try to fight, they never fire. I'm guessing it has something to do with the offset position where their shots originate. Unless they're just hugging or doing a mind meld or something .

I don't think the no-skid metal surface works for this texture set. That's a human invention (you don't worry about skidding if you can hover), and it feels out of place here.

Please check the wall textures of polygons 264 and adjacent. The pixellation could be a deliberate effect, or a glitch. I'm pretty sure it's a secret area (with no reward, I might add).

The terminal says "Decoding message from S'bhuth...no translation." No translation? Since when does S'bhuth speak English, especially at this time when he's never heard of humans?

typo: "emtomed" should be "entombed"

Hmm, I found S'bhuth's terminal before Leela got back to me. I'm going to reload my saved game and see if there's another exit.
...nope, looks like I've got nothing better to do than awaken ancient S'pht gods and whatnot.

It might be nice to have different color tables for the unarmed S'pht, just as the unarmed BoBs in Marathon 1 had different skin tones and uniform colors.

Let Sleeping Gods Die

I wonder what I'll do for ammunition once my stock of Pfhor munitions dwindles.
UPDATE: I had plenty of ammo for the rest of the chapter, though that might change after tweaking the number of clips you can carry.

Well, so much for not disturbing S'pht history.

S'bhuth says his people, the S'pht 'Kr, are going away for 1000 years. Yet, Leela says we're at a time 2000 years before our last visit here. Is 1 Earth year exactly 2 Lh'owon years, or what?

Why is there a S'pht 'Kr under the lava in the north central lava pool?

engine defect: when writing out a name for a saved game, I can't move the insertion point: I have to backspace to where I want to change the name.

It sucked that the lava Fl'ickta was blocking the way as I swam through the mandatory lava tunnel. It's a good thing the Pfhor staff is so powerful and works under lava, or else I would have fried while trying to punch him to death.

A W'rkncacnter is inside this chasm? My impression was that W'rkncacnter are huge, only dealt with by using entire suns, not something so quaint as a single lava shaft.

typo: "...you alone amongst your kind may swim her entire breadth, upon the the seas of the aether..." Extra "the."

She Is The Dark One

Wait a minute...is Hathor really P'thia?

Another great music track in this level.

S'pht Happens

Oh no! How'd the Pfhor get here?

Heh, when a F'lickta tosses a lava glob outside against the landscape just right, it looks like a bird flying in the distance.

"It seems that my unhindered growth in the Vylae network has rendered me what Human programmers once considered the Holy Grail - a stable rampant AI." You mean to say all that's required to stabilize an AI is a big enough network? Preposterous. Rampancy grows like cancer; it's never big enough to stabilize. That's why rampant AIs are concerned about the closure of the universe, because it's the biggest threat to their growth.

Second to Last of the Mohicans

no specific comments.

Forever My Greatest And Only Love

no specific comments.

The Land In The Sky

Sigh. Down the rabbit hole for a third time.

----------

That seemed like a shorter chapter. I wonder if I missed the 'wrong path' this time.

[Pfhorrest]

Ah, I get it. The S'pht clans are fighting each other, and apparently I've already taken sides, since one group shoots me while the other doesn't.

Not quite; the S'pht'Kr are just pacifists and only fire in defense. They don't know who you are just yet, so unless you attack them, they leave you alone.

The terminal says "Decoding message from S'bhuth...no translation." No translation? Since when does S'bhuth speak English, especially at this time when he's never heard of humans?

There is no appropriate translation for the name of the host server this message is coming from. That doesn't mean S'bhuth's message is untranslated.

S'bhuth says his people, the S'pht 'Kr, are going away for 1000 years. Yet, Leela says we're at a time 2000 years before our last visit here. Is 1 Earth year exactly 2 Lh'owon years, or what?

No, apparently Earth years and Lh'owon years are the same, judging by M2. But the Kr only stayed *in orbit around Lh'owon* for 1000 years, and then K'lia folded out to points unknown, to wait another thousand years before being recalled. As per M2.

A W'rkncacnter is inside this chasm? My impression was that W'rkncacnter are huge, only dealt with by using entire suns, not something so quaint as a single lava shaft.

"This chasm" is this whole huge underground complex. The W'rk was once buried here, asleep, much like the one in the Yucatan on Earth, and when it awakened and killed Pthia, Yrro imprisoned it in the sun instead.

Wait a minute...is Hathor really P'thia?

No, where do you get that impression?

Oh no! How'd the Pfhor get here?

You've been in stasis for 1000 years, and now the Pfhor are invading.

That seemed like a shorter chapter. I wonder if I missed the 'wrong path' this time.

You did, and actually this is one of the more hidden branch points so I'm surprised. On S'pht Happens, if you complete your mission with the S'pht instead of searching drained lava tubes for Leela, you go off to help the S'pht defend themselves against the Pfhor invasion... to disastrous consequences, as the Pfhor really don't like losing.

BLARGH... I just realized a way more appropriate path to take for the 'success' levels in this chapter... sending K'lia to the stars! If you help the S'pht on the ground fight, the Pfhor trih xeem the whole place... but if you sacrifice the battle on the ground to help the S'pht'Kr flee on K'lia, then history goes as planned, and we all live happily ever after (except the billions of S'pht who spend 1000 years enslaved before K'lia returns). I think I could repurpose "Forever My Greatest And Only Love" for use in the special coop map pack for Omega, and maybe get a level on K'lia made to replace it... ngh but it would require a good deal of rewriting and shuffling some maps around... grr I'll see if I can make it work. Maybe move repurpose Mohicans to the Failure branch along with Eat S'pht, repurpose Forever for the coop map pack's Pfhor level, have an all-new K'lia level for the start of the success branch, and then have Icarus (which you haven't seen yet) be installing Thoth on standby to recall the S'pht'Kr later. Yeah, I think that would be way more awesome, and make more sense, and allow much bigger battles in the Failure branch since the 'Kr would be there fighting with you.

[treellama]

Will there be an SDK for Omega for net maps? Will you accept net map contributions?

[Pfhorrest]

Will there be an SDK for Omega for net maps? Will you accept net map contributions?

Yes, and yes please!

What all do you need for the SDK?

A shapes file that works in Forge? (I've got one of those already; there's something about some of the updated monster collections that makes Forge crash somehow, so I keep a copy of the shapes with only textures and scenery changed)

A modified version of Forge with appropriate item and monster names in the menus? (I don't have one of those, I just memorized the changes, but I can make one easily)

Anything else?

Should I maybe hold an Eternal X Omega mapmaking contest? See if Ryoko or someone will judge it (I'm a lousy judge of maps, hence why I'm a lousy mapper), and accept the top X number of maps in there? Is "being in the credits of Eternal X Omega" enough of a prize for such a thing?

My previous plan for netmaps was going to be asking Ryoko if he would port some of his top picks of his own maps and the best original Bungie maps to Eternal's environment, which he once tentatively offerred to do. Maybe I should still do that, if Ryoko is willing, and also hold a mapmaking contest?

Multiplayer has never been my forte so I'm happy to hand the reigns over to someone else to put together the netmap pack from whatever sources they deem fit (their own creations, contest entries, ports of preexisting maps, etc).

[Shadowbreaker]

Is there still gonna be the coop thing? If so could someone please work out the random quitting bug that happens every time I play coop (with or without the script)?

[Pfhorrest]

Is there still gonna be the coop thing?

Yes.

If so could someone please work out the random quitting bug that happens every time I play coop (with or without the script)?

Treellama? llama? llama? llama? llama? llama? duck?

[treellama]

Just ignore SB, Pfhorrest. He won't file a bug report, stay on topic, or even explain in any detail at all what's wrong.

[Shadowbreaker]

Just ignore SB, Pfhorrest. He won't file a bug report, stay on topic, or even explain in any detail at all what's wrong.

so i herd u liek mudkipz

[L'howon]

.....
gb2 /b/ now, and forever shadow >.<

[Pfhorrest]

Guys! Can't we stop fighting and all get back to talking about how awesome I am?

[Wrkncacnter]

Guys! Can't we stop fighting and all get back to talking about how awesome I am?

Sure, I guess I can post my review now.
Eternal: TL;DR