Just some castles news - MacenWolf mod for Wolfenstein 3D

Welcome again after a break that was as long as it was necessary (meaning: very). It had to happen and was caused mostly by external circumstances. Rest assured that the project is not abandoned, but while I'm hoping to eventually resume autumn's rapid tempo of releases, the best I can do right now is a couple mapsets in a couple versions to try and re-introduce myself back into the groove. We also have a new version of the game, bringing it further still on the roads towards exact accuracy.

Let's discuss the latter one first. MacenWolf 1.17 is predominantly the result of Dermuda testing some mods and pointing out remaining flaws in the game along the way, then Nexion graciously agreeing to once again fix all issues thus uncovered for zero personal gain. Accuracy improvements include areas such as:

* enemies reacting to your presence and noise in certain circumstances
* shooting through doors in the process of being opened or closed
* some ammo items finally playing the correct sound
* god mode behavior
* better automap
* perfected south-east corner trick
* displaying double digits for floor numbers
* fixed locked door on Second Encounter map 5-6

I sincerely hope there is nothing left to be done, but you just watch reality shatter my dreams soon. Oh well.

Moving on to ported mapsets, we lead with Castle Claustrophobia by Tovarich (or just Rich) Pizor. The set exists in two version as far as I know. The First Encounter (single map only) version presents a fairly long trek through lots of more or less identical 3x3 rooms arranged in the shape of a swastika. There is, however, a Second Encounter version to be found in some sort of small mod compilation called Wolfenstein Classics. This SE variant offers four maps; the original one reappears, significantly improved in terms of decoration and some overall variety. Three new maps follow, providing lots of (obligatory) secret passages and familiar combat in close quarters, culminating in a proper boss encounter. Still plenty of 3x3 rooms though.

And then we have Castle Ensprungen by Antoni Chan. This mapset has eight small maps (they basically all fit inside a quarter of available mapping space, though unusually given these circumstances, there's stll more elbow room than in many other sets); in the readme, the author promises a gradually increasing difficulty curve and plenty of traps, which is mostly true, as the levels do seem to get tougher overall and there's a good deal of unusual combat situations. We once again have separate First and Second Encounter versions, but differences are small and mostly concern balance issues (new stuff to pick up in a game with lots of items to collect already) and minor use of SE enemies, mostly Officers. Feels like a neat mod on the whole, not some sort of breakthrough, but a satisfying enough experience.

That's it for now, but I'll do my best to keep things in motion now that I've started again. See you soon.