Believe or not, but it's the same area... la-la-land...
The Fire & Ice level (ex-Wastelands) is complete and it looks great. Tested with the Warrior class, who was able to shred through the opposition with confidence. Thus, i have moved to the Mage testing, which uncovered some major issues.
For one, the destructible shrubs, which i have used extensively in the forest-like areas in various levels - are forcing the auto-target based weapons (such as the new Sapphire Wand and especially the Arc of Death /Lightning Spell) - to target the shrubs instead of enemies! This was literally game breaking. So, i had to get back to the drawing board and create different shrubs, which would not only be visually different for the sake of aesthetics, but also be indestructible and clip-through.
The discovery and the amendment of this process delayed Mage testing, as it still does. What i realize now, is that destructible flora cannot be used in those levels at all, everything i put there - has to be clip-through with the only exception of large trees, which are both indestructible and non-targetable, and are used as cover. All level objects, except for the large trees MUST be made clip-through. I learned that much. Large outdoor sections in the new Darkmere and Shadow Wood (duh!) - must also be thus "re-shrubbed", before i can properly test the main section of the level and its battle structure. ASAP.
I have been investing time and effort into forestation aesthetics heavily, modding and adding various plants, grass types and trees. Obviously, ever since i have seen "CountryCide" , i have realized immediately that this is a gold standard and everything should be made as such. I also pride myself on making particularly nice looking ivy vines, - the bane of any and all classic game mods. The thing is that neither Id-Tech1 nor Build engine games have any suitable source material to mod with, so that's where a lot of projects fall. I realized that, and went toward realistic ivy pics, which i have then edited in Photoshop to suit Legend-9 and Hexen's art-direction. This was a smashing success. So i have to delete the rest of the old vines and make more of the new vines on the basis of that.
I also improved the projectiles, action and sound for the new Sapphire Wand, made new sound FX for the Arc of Death/Lightning Spell and improved the sound effect for the Shock Spell (Mage's basic weapon). Balance-wise, the new enemies which begin to encounter more often in the second hub, are surely a breath of fresh air - yet they also are more than capable of decimating a fragile Mage in less than 2 seconds by a direct hit. So, further power increase was given to the Mage. Now he can return fire with a surprising ferocity.
Lastly, there is an elusive Mage-related bug...the kind that crashes the game straight to desktop with an extremely generic warning that tells nothing... The bug seems to happen when the Arc of Death (Lightning Spell) weapon is used rapidly for an extended time. I have been trying to analyze what is causing it, and at the moment have found that there is a strange line in the Legend-9 Doomsday script definitions that regard this weapon. I have erased the strange line. Yet to test the results, as the bug does not happen every time. However, if this does not solve the issue, - then i really don't know what to do with it, and will continue developing the mod regardless, in hopes to get some help with it in the future.
The forest needs re-shrubbing...
"Forest?! What forest??? We've never heard of any forest...only the bland misaligned grey walls..."
THIS forest. Already sporting new plants and some of the new shrubs. Indestructible and clip-through. WIP. And yes, as impossible as it may sound - but the hideous grey walls segment is the exact same area...
Beautiful.