Yesss...!!! The next version of Q2HM will converge on perfection. Hahaha... The overwhelming majority of the SFX even in the version 1.4 - are super impressive (like all 6 laser fx and impact!), though a lot of these come somewhat later in the game, while the few "bad decisions" appear right at level 1... Which is a damn shame. But don't worry: all of that is going to go away, and Quake 2 battles will sound better than ever.
There is a reason why there are not many Quake 2 sound overhaul mods, and there are no good ones among them. An average or two, but that's about it. And sadly, there is a reason for that. Not only some effects are rather hard to remake well - because they are broken into strange multiple segments that don't make any sense - like the player machinegun and the titular Tank machinegun, but the much greater problem lies in the abnormal way Quake 2 engine handles these sounds in-game. For no reason whatsoever - they don't appear the way you make them in your sound editing software of choice. Instead - they get attenuated and heavily random band-filtered to exclude or greatly limit certain frequencies - resulting in your sound effects becoming almost unrecognizable, more often than not. Thus, it becomes a rather imposing task - to somehow arrive at the effect that Quake 2 engine will not demolish. Not gonna lie, it didn't pass without some luck being involved here. That, and my reliance on the player machinegun, which i got right already in version 1.4.
It took me 4 days just to deal with the Tank machinegun, - and only a few hours to deal with making and fine-tuning ALL the other Tank sounds! (though the rocket and laser attack were already great in 1.4 and the stepping sound was perfectly chosen by someone else). I also kind of went on to give my take on how certain Strogg would talk... But more on that another time.
In the realms of Sword & Sorcery, - i am dealing with map 33 detailing and ornamentation, which is extensive enough to be called formidable. And then there is the battle design - from scratch. This is the final challenge of such magnitude in the levels department. While i anticipate some problematic sections here and there in Gibbet or something - but nowhere near the degree that is happening right now with map 33. However, Gibbet will not appear in the upcoming build, so i don't have to think about that right now. Oh yeah, i am strongly considering removing the third secret level altogether (Desolated Garden), but not sure yet... If it does end up appearing, it will be beyond version 1.0 Meaning, not so soon.
According to my estimation, both Legend 9 v.06 and Q2HM 1.8 (or maybe even 2.0 :-) ?!) will be launched very close to one another. Next time i'll bring some sound demos for the new Q2HM FX. And an official article regarding it.
