Good Day, Doomers!
After several months of work, we're finally ready to release Dragon Sector (The Remake) version 0.40. With @BarefootMapMaker's hectic work schedule, this update has taken longer than we'd expected. He's been getting a bit done whenever he wasn't too wiped out from driving all day or night to concentrate on it.
For my part, I've been going back and forth with him over the phone, bouncing ideas between us, and implementing what I can. This is a work-in-progress for both of us, and we're both learning new things as we're making this mod. So, while not everything we want to do is possible now, as we learn more, it will be.
Okay, enough with the preamble. Let's get to the update itself.
First and foremost is the release of Map 04, the “Fuel Refinery”. It's an engineering level that draws inspiration from “The Focus” from Doom II. The most obvious of these nods are the shutters at the beginning of the map. These are decidedly more violent than those in the original, setting the tone that something Very Bad has happened here.
The map's key progression is also similar to The Focus, where only the Blue and Red keys are required to progress through the map. However, the Yellow key will let you gain access to supplies that will make things much easier for you.
Dealing with fuels and other toxic materials is not a clean job. The map starts to take on a darker and more dirty aesthetic in the deeper sections.
We've also got a tweak to the friendly drone and turrets. Both of them are more reliable allies, now, since we were able to dial in their behavior. However, you don't want to shoot them. You are not cleared to be on this base. Shooting the drones and turrets will cause them to see you as an intruder, and you'll be forced to destroy them if that happens. There is a threshold, so it shouldn't happen accidentally. It's another fun little wildcard element that you'll need to pay attention to.
Finally, we'd like to say this is our most intricate and detailed and technically advanced map yet. We added in some special lighting effects to enhance the atmosphere, and unique fixtures like the toggleable doors and cyclable airlock. There is also a ton of complex layering of 3D Floors happening here. I tried to look at how it's done, but my brain wanted to explode when I looked at the map in UDB. Still, @BarefootMapMaker can understand it, and boy, has he done something impressive.
All of this stuff is added to meticulous monster placement, to create some fun, challenging encounters. If you haven't picked up on it by now, setting up monster infighting is a key strategy to our maps. There are numerous opportunities in this map to do exactly that.
Okay, we know you want to go play the maps now, so we'll leave you with one more thing. We hope you enjoy these maps. They're a ton of fun to make, but they also take a ton of time to do so. So please, watch this mod, share it, talk about it to your friends, make YouTube videos about it. Help us get the word out. We'd really appreciate it.
Above everything else, though. Have fun, and stay safe!
And here's a video I just recorded of this awesome map!
@BarefootMapMaker & @DarynS
We've made a small update to the mod. I've updated the Liquid Textures to v6.2, and BarefootMapMaker has done some tweaks to Map 04. Unless there's something seriously game breaking found, this should be it for a while.
Thanks, everyone!
Oh, and if you see the file as not being authorized, that should clear up shortly.
Remember when I said that unless something game breaking came up? Well, we found one. If you played at lower skill levels, you couldn't complete Map 4. ind of a problem. So we're uploading a fix now.
Dude, why have you included DHTP textures and a UPscaled Cacolantern? It doesn't make sense, I play with no filtering for that pixel look. Can you make a separate pack with no "enhancements" like these?
Hey, thanks for trying out the mod.
To answer your questions, this is meant to be an immersive, atmospheric mod. We're going for detail and high-resolution. We included a subset of DHTP textures because otherwise we couldn't be sure the textures would look right on people's systems. Our original textures are all HD, and having them mixed with Non-HD ones would've looked bad. The Cacolantern sprite we happen to like, so that's why we recolored the HD cacodemon and put him in. He was a text, and we plan to do that with all of our modified monsters.
We won't be doing a low-res version of Dragon Sector. That would just kill the look. The textures we made have a ton of detail, and shrinking them down would turn everything very blurry and you'd lose all the detail we're striving to put in.
I know you and some other folks love the pixelated look, but that's not what we're aiming at.
Thanks again for checking us out, though. Stay safe, man.