Some small progress updates on AGDoom's next version (Version 3.γ)
Paradigm Shift[]
Hello, I have some bad news. At least, arguably bad. This last month I've actually been working primarily on another project I hope to have done very soon, a few friends (all of whom formerly worked on the lore/story side of AGD) and I have been compiling some writing work we had from a previous project known as Paradigm for the purposes of organizing it all into a book that might (hopefully) be published. We hope to have it done before the end of the year, a rough early version done around the end of November is specifically what we're aiming at in the immediate future.
That's not to say I haven't been working on AGDoom, I have been, though admittedly nothing groundbreaking. I can -- and will -- talk about what's been done so far, and future plans in general. I have a very specific idea of what I want to accomplish for the next release of AGDoom and I hope to have it done and ready earlier than the last version which surprised the hell out of me with how long it took to make the damn thing.
So, by the end of the year or the very start of 2023, I should have a neat little side project releasing maybe, and then I should also have some more solid progress done on AGDoom at the same time. We'll see what I have on offer for the December update, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Without further ado...
Fire & Ice[]
Surturian Ice Giant
The next update is undoubtedly based around this theme. It's introducing the Surturian Ice Giant class, who is (as the name suggests) based around some ice abilities. He can use ice spells to freeze enemies, then follow up with an attack from his fist or Super Shotgun weapon to shatter them. His Class 1.5 weapon (chainsaw replacement) is a morning star that, if used on frozen enemies, will turn their shattered ice particles into dangerous projectiles themselves, which can deal ice damage to other enemies and possibly freeze them as well, leading to the potential to domino frozen enemies. The Ice Giant also has a natural damage resistance to ice, but a natural weakness to fire.
Speaking of fire, it's getting a big update. Fire-based weapons will deal overall less direct damage, but cause afterburn. Certain enemies will be especially weak to afterburn, and others possibly resistant to it. Certain weapons, such as the Bodark's molotov cocktail, will become more focused on its trap-based potential, increasing the length of fire burning on the floor, improving FX etc. Enemies will not simply flinch and go "OUCH" when taking damage from fire (or afterburning) and instead be fixated on running it off in pain and terror, if the enemy can take afterburn damage (you'll know).
Some other big changes: The "Fancy Monsters" pk3 that came with the mod's release is now integrated into the game, and you can change what enemies you want to face with an in-game settings option between the forces of Inferno (Doom enemies with AGD enhancements) or the new Worr Machine enemies. There will also likely be support to fight Heretic, Hexen and/or Strife enemies later (Chex Quest enemies are weird), and support to fight enemies who are randomized in their factions. The sole caveat of this is that there will be less support for custom monster mods, but there will be specialized releases to include JUST the gameplay side of AGDoom for custom monster support, as well as JUST the AGDoom monsters in a standalone pack if you wanted to fight them with a different mod (fair warning that may play kinda weird, but that's typically how mixing up mod packs work anyway so).
The next version will hopefully introduce enemy weak points, such as headshots (but certain enemies may have certain different weak points) and some especially dangerous enemies may not have weak spots or only be open to them during special actions. Enemy weak spots will take significantly more damage from "precision" attacks (attacks from weapons with very tight or no spread), and minimal damage from spreadshot weapons (shotguns or multi-bullet weapons) to emphasize player skill and aim on these weak spots. We'll see how that goes.
A big overhaul for the Battleroid to make his weapons operate more like their Marathon equivalents; reloading for the Fusion Pistol, brief cooldown for AR grenades without impacting primary fire rate, general improvements overall to their affects, projectile speed etc. This will also complete his HUD further to look more like Marathon Infinity HUD proper, which is especially helpful since it'll indicate ammo counts and availability in a more in-depth manner necessary for the player.
Speaking of the HUD stuff, there'll be more improvements to the universal HUD elements, and an in-game help screen to explain the numerical values and information typically displayed on the HUD.
Did someone mention help? The help screen stuff is going to be overhauled so that you can see the specifics of your class' health/shield values, their weapons, and miscellaneous helpful info overall based on what class you currently have selected, and what weapon you currently have selected.
The friendly AI stuff is going to be overhauled. Friendly AI will be more intelligent, being able to think about whether they should push up, suppress, or retreat, and you as the player character will be able to issue commands to nearby troops for them to follow you, hold position or wander about, with dedicated keys that will announce your command in an "AOE" to any soldiers around to hear your command.
And a plethora of smaller stuff or stuff you probably already know about. New enemies to make Shores of Hell fully playable with new enemies and content, a whole slew of new powerups (with further emphasis on inventory), an overhaul to the Nova Beam weapon for the Nova Trooper, improvements to the Bodark's weapons and bug fixes.
To finish up, I'm going to suggest some ideas for stuff that will possibly not make it in the version but I would like to MAYBE do. Mainly: A new weapon class, the 2.5 "Super Pistol", and vehicle(s).
How Do You Do?[]
Glad you asked. Here's the personal segment. I feel FUCKIN HORRIBLE, but oh well. I also missed a job opportunity, but I'll probably bounce back fairly easily from that. I'm getting some support from family to see some of my passion project through though, which is really nice. More on the specifics of that maybe depending on how releases for this Paradigm book and upcoming AGD version go in the first place. I don't really have anything further to say on that, especially because I really think that nobody needs to know about all this usually anyway. If you NEED to know about my personal life, 1) kinda weird, 2) you'd probably find a better way regardless if I was cool with that or not.
October was incredibly busy for me not just because of that whole book thing, but also plans for a possible trip to England have been formulating, and I held a movie marathon with a few friends to watch a movie for every day in October, including classics like Alien and Aliens, The Thing, The Shining, The Crow, and some new films I really enjoyed that are kind of underrated like Mad God, Dog Soldiers and (somehow) Silence of the Lambs. Great time. DEFINITELY watch Mad God. I'm listening to one of the tracks from the movie right now which will be listed further below.
And now that Halloween (my favorite "holiday") has passed, it's time to focus on the next big one: Christmas. And definitely no other holiday. I can hear Mariah Carey already.
This has been Dewm. See you starside. Song for the month.