Since mid October, I have been working almost exclusively on The People's DooM, with no regard to The Ultimate Chex Quest at all. Sorry, but it is true.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Pyroman, who was so enthusiastic over TUCQ that it has kind of knocked me off TPD and back on to TUCQ.

So I've been working on TUCQ for the last week, and here are some of the things I have done:

I've done more detailing on the diner on E2M1 (level 1 of CQ2).

I added a bank of windows to each of the walls adjacent to the street. There are a couple of screen shots of the changes on the web site (link in my sig). I will be adding tinted glass to the windows in the near future, and the windows will be breakable. Textures for the windows and window frames have yet to be made, but hopefully I will be able to put those together soon.

I am also doing what I can on E2M1 to combat the 128-tall-square-room-and-corridor syndrome this and other Chex Quest levels suffer from.

I have added some shape to the large hangar on the west side of the map across from the diner by adjusting its height outside to match the height of the ceiling inside(don't you just hate buildings that are taller inside than outside?). The new shape of the hangar's exterior does not affect the way the level plays, because I have included a fence along the side of the street, thereby keeping the play area the same size and shape.

I have created a large courtyard at the north end of E2M1 for visual interest. It was origianlly constructed to display a large control tower, which is an appropriate thing to have in a spaceport, but it is likely that I am going to put some other buildings in there too. The tower shows from several areas in the level, but shows best in opengl mode of Legacy, because the way software mode renders can partially block it out with sky. New textures will be required for the control tower, and any other buildings that end of in the courtyard.

The hostages in the cave at the end of E1M5 have always been a bit of a problem. When Digital Café Made them, they used three of the torches from DooM. DooM Legacy uses a special setting to make the torches translucent, and adds coronae to them in opengl mode. Glowing hostages do not look good, and besides, with the limited number of things in the thing table, I am certain the torches can be put to much better use elsewhere.

Luckily, I have just discovered that it is actually possible to create brand new animated textures and flats to mods for Legacy, rather than just redefining existing one, as in normal DooM mods, so I removed the thing based hostages, and replaced them with animated textures. Except for the fact that the new hostages don't glow or have translucent sections, it is impossible to tell the difference. ;)

The fact that Legacy adds coronae (plural of corona) and translucency to some items was also causing trouble on E1M3. The flask that appears on most of the table tops was made from the candle in DooM (corona), and the bunson burner with the bubbling beaker on top was made from an object that is translucent in Legacy. Having the bubbling liquid in the beaker was a good idea, but I haven't seen any translucent bunson burners lately. I redefined the candle, formerly the flask, as the bunson burner, and the outline of the beaker, and kept the existing burner and beaker sprite. The flask got assigned to another object. The translucent and opaque versions of the bunson burner and beaker are placed together on the same spot on the map, creating the illusion of a solid burner and a beakers with translucent liquid inside. The bunson burner now has a corona in opengl mode, so it really looks sharp.

Just as I got rid of all the thing based hostages in the cave, I came up with another brilliant idea —— thing based hostages!

Actually, the new hostages I have made are very different from the old ones. Instead of being static scenery objects, these hostages can actually be rescued! By using your zorcher, you can remove the flemoid slime holding each hostage in place. This will free the hostage, who will then proceed to wander about the level. I am pretty sure this will add an extra dimension to the game.

Anyway, that is the state of the union right now. I will try to keep you all informed as things progress.

It looks great so far!

This is going to be awesome once its released! :)

He'll release them at the same time as One .wad file.

NEWS FLASH!

Something new and important is happening to editing for DooM Legacy that will have a direct impact on TUCQ, and I happen to be in on the ground floor.

Thanks to the efforts of Toxic Fluff, and a little from yours truly, it is now possible to access the Heretic things and frames within DooM Legacy.

That means more things to be used as flemoids or scenery. It also means that functions normally only used by things in Heretic are now available to be used in DooM, and therefore in TUCQ as well.

Things are really going to get funky now!

Sweet! :D

im lost, could you put it in the complex lanquage of "idiot" for me?

Certainly.

It means more kinds of flemoids, more scenery objects, and possibly new kinds of weapons for the player.

SWEET! Cant wait!

Now THAT IS News!

Tell em about it, and i CANT PLAY IT! WHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! :( :( :( -_-

Nobody can play phase 2 yet, and not for a while either. :unsure:

If I get some more decent progress on it in the next month, then I may try to release a beta of some sort.

No promises though. ;)

you see, I cant play it because i dont have Doom wahtever to insert the WAD file.

Oh.

You can get it from the id Software site.

The Ultimate DooM page at idsoftware.com

The Ultimate DooM is the one you want if you want to play The Ultimate Chex Quest.

You will also need to have DooM Legacy in order to play The Ultimate Chex Quest. That's the source port TUCQ is specifically being made for.

The DooM Legacy Website

Do you have to buy it?

DooM: Yes.

DooM Legacy: No. Legacy is free.

this is such good news that i will realease some of my own....i will release a beta version of my game maker zelda game. it uses all of the links ever used in a video game. The story goes that as he pulls out legendary sowrds from the triforce's resting place, he warps forward in time, causing him to change appearance. Eventually, he finds out that while doing this, Ganon, Ganondorf, the LZOT fire temple's dragon, and a few other final bosses have tracked him down for revenge. I am also working on a special version where you can work with friends over internet. __________I HAVE TOO MUCH FREE TIME!!!!!!!!!! :)

What about ultamite doom?

Sorry for my stupidity.

Se my previous post.

ok let me get this straight, once again, sorry for my stipidity. :wacko:

Doom : Free
Doom Legacy : Cost
Ultimate DooM : Cost

Right? :wacko:

Ultimate DooM = MONEY

DooM Legacy = FREE!

So I need lagacy?

Yes.

You don't have to pay for Legacy though.

TUCQ is going to be using more and more Legacy specific features as time goes on. 3D sectors, for example, are already being used, and Heretic based things and code pointers are going to become part of the mix soon.

You especially want to be using Legacy in opengl mode, because you will get to see coronae and stuff like that.

ok, i will down load leagacy soon.

Legacy rules! :P

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!! "lagacy" ah yes, it is very laggy.... "leagacy"...... Jeez!

I was only kidding jeez <_<

LOL! I don't know why, but how you said that, and the picture in my mind from it made me burst out laughing in real life. I wish I could have seen it.

What happens with Chex Quest 2? Does it show a disembodied boot with slime stomping on his head? XD

Anyway, I looked at the screen shots, and they LOOK SO COOL! I notice every detail in things changed from the original, so when I play your new one after it's done, I'm going to be marvelling at every little thing.

It looks so cool all the changes you've made! This is going to be SOOOOO fun to play when it's done.

So, you're working on both Chex Quest 1, and Chex Quest 2? Which one do you think you'll release first?

Lookin good :)

uh, whats the deal with leagacy? help the challenged. :wacko:

CB... I'm not even going to say anything.

Well... yeah I am.

he mispelled legacy as both lagacy and leagacy.

and before... a sprite is a 2d image. A sD model is self-explanatory.

I like sprites for monsters, because there is a little more control over the look of the animation, plus sprites are part of the traditional look of DooM, and therefore Chex Quest. Models are good for scenery, but I find that models for moving creature have a tendancy to look like puppets.

Sprites are probably the best way to go with Chex Quest anyway, because of the cartoonish look given to the characters. It would be almost impossible to duplicate that with models.

With that said, I am playing around with models to a certain extent for the purposes of scenery objects at the moment, but it is unlikely that any of them will appear in the game until the model display code in Legacy is fixed. It is also probable that models will not be available in Legacy's software mode.

<<EDIT: It should be noted that the Legacy team is working on a higher resolution mode for sprites, although I do not know when it will be ready. Replacing the coarse sprite currently used with higher resolutions ones has always been my preference over using models.>>

More Progress (January 6):

Two questions have always come to mind whenever I start the museum level (E2M3):

The first question is, "How the heck did I get into this enclosed courtyard?" (Fly perhaps?)

The second question is, "If the museum is so tall that I have to run up three flights of stairs to get to the main exhibit hall, and the exhibit hall itself is over two stories tall, why the heck can't I see the darned thing from the one story courtyard?" (Cloaking device?)

I guess one could always ask why the street in the courtyard is only 40' - 60' long, but I digress.

Anyway, I have now addressed both of these problems, plus that third extra one besides. I have constructed the exterior of the museum, and modified the rest of the sectors in and around the courtyard so that it is visible. I have also opened up the courtyard on one side with a long street, which comes up to, and ends in, the courtyard. To keep the game play the same in the level, the street is blocked off by a gate. I don't want player chickening out and running away up the street now do I?

As with E1M1, I have also built out the basebords and crown moulding of the walls of the courtyards, and areas just outside the museum proper. I've rid these areas of that aweful red ceiling. I've replaced it with a brown ceiling that matches the look of the rooms much better.

Meanwhile, E2M3 now contains the first direct application of my new ability to hack the Heretic things in Legacy. The Heretic wall torch, with new graphics of course, is now being used to light up light up areas of this map.

I will keep you informed of developments as they happen. B)

<<EDIT: I forgot to mention that I altered that texture used out in the courtyards. It didn't tile well, and at only 64 pixels wide, it repeated too much. I widened it from 64 pixels wide to 256 pixels wide, and fixed up the left and right edges. Now it looks a lot better.>>

Good for you, I cant wait till i play it!

Will that be dynamic Lighting?

Yes.

I can not say how much dynamic lighting I will use. This is because I want the wad to work in both software and hardware mode, and dynamic lighting does not work in software mode.

Hey Boingo, can you predict when it will be done? I want Chex Quest! Stupid XP!

I estimate that it will be done ... eventually.

Ah. You are like me. And 3D Realms with Duke Nukem Forever. I know why they call it that: Cause you gotta wait...... FOREVER! But seriously, I know you're taking time so that you get everything right the first time. I'm not gonna rush ya, and I hope that the rest of the TUCQ fanatics here will join me in doing that

Hopefully seeing a bunch of new screen shots of my current progress will help to keep everybody around here from sinking into dispair while I continue my work.