We’re very pleased to finally bring Version 0.60 of Dragon Sector (The Remake) to you today! Before we get into the details, we want to share one critical piece of information.
If you have been using Project Brutality and you have been updating from build to build, you will likely run into an issue where upon loading the maps, your framerate will start normally but then begin quickly degrading, slowing to a crawl in performance, within the first few seconds of play.
There seems to be some sort of interaction between our mapset and Project Brutality’s more recent Staging builds. We are aware of it, and so are Project Brutality’s developers. Neither of us have been able to yet, nail down what is causing it.
However, there is an easy fix for this and it should only need to be done once.
Go to your Documents\My Games\GZDoom folder and delete the gzdoom.ini file. GZDoom will create a new one, automatically, the next time you start it. The game should then run normally. Unfortunately, you will need to rebind your controls and adjust your preferred graphical settings, after you delete the old ini file. A bit of a pain, but Project Brutality’s developers are working to find the problem.
V0.60
New Map: Facilities Support
Map 6 of Dragon Sector (The Remake) is now ready for release! This is an intricate, yet fast-paced map which will put all of your skills to the test. At the end of it, you’ll be faced with a new Boss Encounter that will make you bring your game, or else! Also, this map is moody, atmospheric, and features some very detailed environmental structures. If we don’t say so ourselves (and we do!), this map is better, visually and mood-setting, by a good margin, than all of the maps in the set which come before it, as good as they are!
Three months in the planning, I, BarefootMapMaker, thought for a long time about what I wanted this map to be, and what I wanted it to look like, feel like, and play like. I did all of this before ever laying the first vertice. Then, once I got started, it was an exercise in meticulously sticking with my plan. I’ll let the results speak for themselves, but I am fully satisfied that most who play this map will find it an extremely satisfying experience. I don’t take making these maps lightly. I love making Doom maps. I want the best. The best play experience for myself, and to no lesser extent, for you. I think you’ll agree that this latest map in our set, will be the best Doom experience you’ve likely ever had.
Other Map Improvements
- Map 1:
- Added lava texture to the floor of the pit, with a glow that extends a good way up the walls of the cliff.
- Switched the long line of health bonuses in the Pharmacy, to Traffic Control, and vice-versa for the Soul Sphere.
- Map 2:
- The Tower leading to the exit has been tweaked and polished. Thank you, Hawkwind!
- Replaced the Megasphere in the secret reservoir with a SoulSphere. And replaced the backpack pickups to a MegaArmor pickup, down atop the reservoir’s drain. I did this to help improve play balance, in both avoiding overloading the player with ammo, and to ensure the player gets 70% armor protection.
- Replaced the Rocket Launcher with a box of rockets, in the northernmost elevator access to the lower levels. There has always been one available in the maintenance bay, near the beginning of the map, so having another where it was, was redundant.
- Map 3:
- Fixed some rendering issues.
- Added and adjusted a few monster placements, to help better balance the map’s pacing and playability.
- Map 4:
- Adjustments to some monster placements.
- Moved an Autosave line to avoid saving at an inopportune time.
- Script Cleanup.
- Added glow to the Nukage lagoon, outside of the first control room.
- Completely reworked the lighting scheme around the catwalks, in the lower, flooded area of the refinery.
- Map 5:
- Script Fixes.
Additions & Fixes
- New PowerUps: Health Regeneration & Temporary Poison Immunity.
- Underwater Bubbles now appear while swimming, not just with the rebreather pickup. They can be toggled in the Dragon Sector Options.
- Added the ability to place PB specific items while still retaining mod compatibility. Now, where we wanted a backpack, a backpack appears, always! Same with specific weapon types. If PB is not detected, you’ll get a base item instead. We have implemented this across all maps.
- The Security Drone and some of our Cacos can now Dodge incoming fire.
- Fixed the Cyberimp. It was dropping way too many rockets.
- The Agothademon (the white Cacodemon variant) now has a chance to drop a Blursphere.
- Vast improvements made to the graphics of Drone and Bot and Plasma Turret fire.
- Tweaked several Autosave lines, throughout all of the maps, to help improve performance (some doors would not open for you until the save was complete, the lines being too close to those doors).
That’s it for now! We want to thank everyone for the support, and for giving our maps a shot. Making maps with this much detail and intricacy, while still being fun is a real challenge, and it takes a lot of man-hours from both of us to get them to where we feel comfortable releasing them.
Dive into the mapset, immerse yourself, get to know Dragon Sector. These maps are challenging, and will push GZDoom far. But in the end, we think we’ve created something to be proud of.
So, lock and load, Doomers! You’re in for a hell of a ride!
