Eternal X v1.1.0 final is now online, and I've taken the "last stable" v1.0.3 down at last.
The 1.1.0 final is the same as b5 with two or three very minor bugs fixed.
Further development (besides possible bugfixes) will have to wait for 1.2 which will probably be in another seven years at the rate things have been going, but as soon as life settles back down again I'll get back on that texture project, and then figure out the new toolchain and start brushing up the maps a little, and meanwhile I'll keep on bugging people to finally get those damn weapons rendered, and we'll see what comes of it all.
But for now, at least it's no longer just a years-old "beta" sitting next to an even-more-years-old "stable" version on the front page of the website.
Pfhorrest wrote:UPDATE: Ok, so it was only two years' delay this time. Now watch me invoke fate to destroy my life again by daring attempt to do even something minor like this with it. Anyway...
Available now at eternal.bungie.org is Eternal X v1.1 beta 5. It's basically just b4, plus:So I'm going to give it like a week (hahaha, I've said that before) for just one person (LT, I'm looking at you) to play through this and tell me it's not completely broken, and then I'm going to call this 1.1 final. Anything else can go into 1.2 instead.
- The Previous Aleph One AI script to let things continue working they way they used to despite the changes made in Aleph One's AI in its own 1.1 update.
- An updated version of President People's patch to the Eternal shapes, fixing 3rd-person view of the Marine sprites and a few other things. Hey, that's the only substantial "known problem" from the first beta, and now it's finally fixed!
- All of the terminal picts are redone. They don't perfectly match the terminal textures anymore, but stock Marathon didn't do that anyway. Updated textures including new terminals are in the works for a 1.2 release... someday. That part of it is already done, but not included here because it doesn't match the rest of the textures that aren't redone yet.
- The floating HUD now displays the level names in a Halo-like way as each level loads.
- Assorted bugfixes.
If I don't actually call this 1.1 final within a week, someone please call me out on that.
So besides the redone textures, and the weapons if they ever get finished (Nick, CryoS, where are you guys?), on the docket for the next release is to change out the annoying PiD monsters from chapter 5 to something scarier. I'm thinking of keeping the Banshees, replacing the Headless with invisible Devlins, and just turning the Nightmares invisible, unless someone can think of a better third scary monster that already exists that I should use there. Or unless everyone thinks this is just a terrible idea.
Also, at some point I might learn the new toolchain and actually go through RyokoTK's and Crater Creator's reviews and fix all the little things they point out.
And remember, if any of you would like to help with that, the Eternal Maps merge folder is up on github now, so you can make small changes as you like and I'll roll them in to the next version of Eternal.
Pfhorrest wrote:UPDATE: So I've finally found time to get what's been sitting on my HD since 2009 out to the public and try to finalize it as v1.1 as I was trying to do four years ago before life buried me in too much shit to even think about games.
Available now at eternal.bungie.org is Eternal X v1.1 beta 4, which is whatever I had sitting around on my HD as of late 2009 plus any improvements I might have made in the interim plus anything anyone else has contributed in that time frame, plus a few minor enhancements I've recently made while finally playing through all that to make sure that you can at least get from beginning to end.
Since I haven't really been on top of things, I can't give a complete change list, but some things that jumped out to me as newish on my play-through or are recent enough that I remember doing them:
I'd appreciate it if anyone could play through this and let me know if there are any show-stopper bugs that should keep me from calling this v1.1 final and taking v1.0.3 down for good. If I don't hear anything like that back in a week or two, I will probably give it another, more thorough play-through myself and call it a day. I'm open to suggestions for people who think I should push back or move up that schedule or proceed differently in any other way, too.
- There's a new floating HUD, with graphics of my design and scripting by Hopper. I think it's pretty awesome.
- The textures are improved.
- The landscape textures are now taller, to accommodate the increased vertical viewing angle Aleph One's new Shader renderer.
- Lots of miscellaneous graphics (like the main screen interface and theme) are improved.
- Terminals new use the RIGHT tag for PICT sections and make use of the STATIC section for some interesting purposes.
- I can't really speak to what differences there may be in the maps from 1.1b3 since it's been forever since I played it, though there seem to be some changes made to improve the flow of the prologue level, so I imagine there are probably lots of minor things like that throughout. I think chapter 5 may be a bit different from how it was before too.
For the future, I am looking to get this up on some kind of version control system along with all of its source files (merge folder for the maps, original PSDs for the textures, etc), so I will no longer be a bottleneck in the release process. It's not looking hopeful as far as solutions for that go, however, so I may end up just putting the map merge folder by itself up on GitHub, though that will still leave me as a bottleneck for getting a merged map into the actual release, not to mention any other improvements anyone wants to make to the rest of the project. (Like poor Hopper's work being stuck in limbo for all these years). I welcome suggestions on this front as well.
I still have someone working on finalizing the new weapons (he keeps forgetting, and I've been too busy to ride him about them), and I'm hoping to recreate all of the textures in even higher resolution (and with other improvements along the way), together with glow and bump maps, to fully modernize them for the new Shader renderer, but I can't make many promises on that front as it depends on the workload at my paying job and other major life factors. But things are looking up on that front, so hopefully no more four-year delays to look forward to
Pfhorrest wrote:UPDATE: Eternal X v1.1.0b3 is now available.
http://eternal.bungie.org/files/_releases/...Xv110b3Full.zip
Changes since Eternal X v1.1.0 b2:
- Four tracks of new music from the Pfhorms' own Tommy T-Bone; featured mostly in Chapter 3, but more sparsely in other chapter as well. (The music which "broke" in the b2 supplemental map now works again too).
- Updated interface (splash, main screen, loading, credits) and a theme to match which works on modern builds of Aleph One.
- Experimental implementation of mobile fusion turrets on the success branch of Chapter 5. Needs thorough testing to balance them just right.
- Assorted bug fixes, including some major ones on Unwired (sigh, again) and My Kingdom Pfhor A Horse.
Still to come later:
- Experimental varying starting weapons (e.g. you start with more on later levels).
- New weapon&player sprites from CryoS.
- A floating HUD.
- Maybe that coop vidmaster pack.
Pfhorrest wrote:UPDATE: Having finished play testing through all of b1, I've fixed some bugs and made some improvements and there is now a b2 available.
http://eternal.bungie.org/files/_releases/...Xv110b2Full.zip
Changes since Eternal X v1.1.0 b1:
- Visciom has let me implement the hires blood and explosions and stuff from his WEP, as well as his hires fusion pistols and N-cannon. However CryoS has stepped up to fill Julian's shoes, so there will probably be new and improved fusion pistols and N-cannon eventually. I've also expanded on the blood and explosions from the WEP, making hires blood for the Hulks and hires impact effects for the S-rifle.
- A major bug on Deep Into The Grotto fixed. (A door was mistakenly marked to open only once and close on initial level, which could cause the level to sometimes become unbeatable if a monster opened it before the player got there).
- I've fixed some miscellaneous sequence issues with F'lick'ta blood and M1 Enforcers.
- Minor things like texture tweaks and fixed terminal pics here and there.
- I added Julian and $teve to the credits, as well as Visciom.
Interesting news:
- The fancy-pants 5-level coop vidmaster pack I've been wanting to put together for a while, may end up happening after all, so between that and CryoS hiresing things, this 1.1 might turn into Omega after all.
Known problems:
- Players mostly still look wrong in third-person. (I did get started on a half-assed solution of photoshopping things, which I stopped when CryoS stepped up, so the pistols now look like proper fusion pistols, but that's all).
Unknown problems:
- Please list below.
Pfhorrest wrote:So, Eternal X Omega is going kind of... not... since Julian vanished. But for a while people were clamoring for some Eternal X coop, so I've just been waiting for one map from $teve (making chapter 3 complete again) to release what I have so far, with coop enabled. I'm calling this a "beta" just because I haven't playtested the whole thing online yet (that's why I'm here), but hopefully it's more or less final.
http://eternal.bungie.org/files/_releases/...Xv110b1Full.zip
Changes since Eternal X v1.0.3:
- Chapter 3 has been reorganized a bit, and one map replaced, for story reasons.
- Various graphical touchups all around, plus bug fixes, etc.
- Coop enabled on all maps.
- Three competitive netmaps ported: Mars Needs Women, Thunderdome, and Duality.
Known problems:
- Players still look wrong in third-person (the main thing Omega was supposed to fix)
- I need to add Julian and $teve to the credits.
Unknown problems:
- Please list below.