Descent: The countdown development thread

[TRUEpiiiicness]

I have found courage to mess with textures.

For level 13 and most likely onwards I've done something rather special. The D1 door lights are back with D2-like animations!

[LightWolf]

Cool!

[TRUEpiiiicness]

I've just exported all D1 exclusive textures into a seperate folder ready to use at any time.
Also, some signs and monitors are now in the mine ready to go. However there is an issue that has risen from that.
Is it at all possible to add or take away frames for an animated texture? The red fatty monitor has 16 frames whereas the the grey planet monitor from d1 has 11. I've found a workaround which is putting two of the frames twice in a suitable manner.
The D1 door lights however were not a problem because the thin d2 door lights have 7 frames each and it just so happens that the d1 door lights have 6 mini lights including a frame where they can all be 'off'.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

After a nice long break from modifying and making levels, (you can blame factorio for that one, the factory must grow. ) level 16 is now underway!

[Xfing]

I've just exported all D1 exclusive textures into a seperate folder ready to use at any time.
Also, some signs and monitors are now in the mine ready to go. However there is an issue that has risen from that.
Is it at all possible to add or take away frames for an animated texture? The red fatty monitor has 16 frames whereas the the grey planet monitor from d1 has 11. I've found a workaround which is putting two of the frames twice in a suitable manner.
The D1 door lights however were not a problem because the thin d2 door lights have 7 frames each and it just so happens that the d1 door lights have 6 mini lights including a frame where they can all be 'off'.

Been through all that. You can't modify the number of frames, that would be too sweet. I had to duplicate some frames when I made that POG file that has all the D1 monitors by default. I also have exported D1 exclusive textures and am keeping them in a folder, too bad we didn't communicate about this earlier, could have saved you a bit of work

[TRUEpiiiicness]

I've just exported all D1 exclusive textures into a seperate folder ready to use at any time.
Also, some signs and monitors are now in the mine ready to go. However there is an issue that has risen from that.
Is it at all possible to add or take away frames for an animated texture? The red fatty monitor has 16 frames whereas the the grey planet monitor from d1 has 11. I've found a workaround which is putting two of the frames twice in a suitable manner.
The D1 door lights however were not a problem because the thin d2 door lights have 7 frames each and it just so happens that the d1 door lights have 6 mini lights including a frame where they can all be 'off'.

Been through all that. You can't modify the number of frames, that would be too sweet. I had to duplicate some frames when I made that POG file that has all the D1 monitors by default. I also have exported D1 exclusive textures and am keeping them in a folder, too bad we didn't communicate about this earlier, could have saved you a bit of work

Don't worry about it, it was kind of fun to find the textures that wouldn't normally go on tunnel walls. Like the green version of metl059 that goes on the puuma sphere reactor.
It's a shame that it isn't possible to modify frame count, it would have made for some sweet animations.

[LightWolf]

IIRC you can modify frame counts with a custom HAM file (either that or a custom PIG).

[TRUEpiiiicness]

More messing with textures.
Forcefields now change colors based on the theme of the level that they are in.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

Just thought I would do a quick update post.

While I was playing ulterior ultima thule, I noticed that the levels got better looking along the way.

I've realised that happens here too somewhat. Where the further along I get in the mission, the more modifications the levels get.
For example, in level 1, all there is in terms of geometry is the reactor room at the start and 3 secrets.

Then going to level 14 for example, it is a non-countdown level. (Yes there are some of those to break it up a bit.) The reactor room has moved and the exit is near the start of the level. (That will be the case for the part or non-countdown levels to keep a hint of the point of the mission.) The usual new secrets are there but the big one spans the whole level. (Quick tease for ya there .) Then the area where the blue key is has been remade.

The level that took the longest time to modify was level 18 where 99% of the cubes in the level were not originally there. The entire level has been remade apart from 2 tiny sections.

And in 19 which is currently being modified, there are no original cubes.
That's all I am saying about those two.

Dont worry though, the levels that are and will be redone will keep what parallax intended them to be. So a big maze and a central hub for 18, robot hunting for 20 etc.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

Two thirds done! Just ten to go!

Here is a nice spoiler for the new level 20 to get excited about.

[vision]

Here is a nice spoiler for the new level 20 to get excited about.

Wow, that looks really cool.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

I should have said this a long time ago but this project is temporarily on hold until my contributions to descent 1.5 are done.
Since I am the only person working on this, I can take as long as I need, so other people's projects are a priority.

So to summarize, no this project is not dead just on hold.

(Edit) This post is no longer correct as my level slots for D 1/2 are done.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

I think it's time to list the level names since I've finally thought of good names for the last few levels.

1: Zeta Outpost
2: Cyro laboratory
3: Amalthea Firecrystal mine
4: Quartzon Military Base
5: The Shadow Nodes
6: Driller testing lab
7: Fatty's Sandpit
8: The Icicle Factory
9: Maze Sprinter
10: Tun'haed h'lasl
11: The underwater horror
12: Pallas drill storage
13: Triton palladium mine
14: Layton's underground bunker
15: Thermal Lab
16: Oberon Experimental Shield Lab
17: The Alluvium Basement
18: Firecracker Quarry
19: The Centerpiece
20: Byzantium
21: The lost tunnels of Mak'duran
22: The Artosis Pylon
23: IO Sulphur Refinery
24: Ganymede Super Generator MKIII
25: Lunar colonization base CB0002
26: The Matrioshka Security Checkpoint
27: The Matrioshka Motherboard

S1: Turnback Valley
S2: Charon Dolemite Mine
S3: Universal Security Tower M4

[TRUEpiiiicness]

Does anybody think it would a good idea to lower the volume of the self destruct alarm? Since you'll hear it a lot more than normal it might get annoying.

Secondly, is it even possible?

[LightWolf]

It is possible, you'd need an altered copy of the S11 and S22 files. DTX2 can patch those fairly easily, but needs Windows XP or older.

[vision]

Does anybody think it would a good idea to lower the volume of the self destruct alarm? Since you'll hear it a lot more than normal it might get annoying.

That's literally the function of an alarm.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

That's literally the function of an alarm.

Yeah but you're going to be hearing it a LOT all the way through ~23 of the levels. Your ears will probably be ringing if that's all you hear for a long time. It might also be a bit ear rapey for headphone users.

Dont worry though, it wont be too quiet. I'll probably reduce the volume be about 10 to 25% and see how it goes.

[LightWolf]

We don't want a repeat of Descent 3 level 8 now, do we?

[TRUEpiiiicness]

Just putting the demo here because the DMDB is probably forever dead now.
It has some small changes compared to the demos from ages ago. Now you are able to see the D1 doorlights with D2 animations for the first time. (On level 6 )

(See below post for demo)

[LightWolf]

DBB has been replaced by DXMA:
https://sectorgame.com/dxma/

In other news, I tried to load it; apparently it's a vertigo mission, meaning you need to import d2x.ham into the mission file and rename it to Cntdemo.ham for it to work in Rebirth.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

Oh ★■◆● I did forget to rename countdown.ham. I'll sort that shortly. (I just copied the main countdown mission, removed level 8-27 and the music for those and rezipped them.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

Demo actually works now! (I hope)

Question for testers, how loud or quiet is the non-standard music compared to sfx? Just wondering.

[Xfing]

BTW, haven't asked you this yet, but would you like to use the modified HOG file I made for D1,5? It restores the power of D1 lasers, spreadfire and fusion and the damage robot concussion and homing missiles do to the player - so creates a more authentic (or "unfair") D1 experience. It also includes the sound patch by default.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

You are reading my mind I swear. Just a week ago I was looking for v1.4 of your sound patch because the link in the thread is dead. (I ended up yoinking it from ulterior ultima thule.) I wondered whether I could include it in this mission. But I already have the vertigo .ham in the .hog so I dont know how descent would react to 2 .hams in the same .hog. They might need merging into one. I'll gladly accept your offer though because this a (albeit heavily) reimagined set based on first strike level structure and concepts

[Xfing]

You are reading my mind I swear. Just a week ago I was looking for v1.4 of your sound patch because the link in the thread is dead. (I ended up yoinking it from ulterior ultima thule.) I wondered whether I could include it in this mission. But I already have the vertigo .ham in the .hog so I dont know how descent would react to 2 .hams in the same .hog. They might need merging into one. I'll gladly accept your offer though because this a (albeit heavily) reimagined set based on first strike level structure and concepts

It's possible to make a .dxa with a custom .ham, which overrides the .ham in the main directory - then you can enjoy the changes while leaving the original files intact. The only problem is that Rebirth doesn't seem to load dxa-s selectively by mission title, meaning there can only be one working ham replacement at a time. It's a bit of a pain honestly - not to mention the graphics fix that I'm currently making also requires alterations to the HAM, meaning I'll have to integrate these somehow. In other words - if you want to play everything with just the uud2sp, you're good. But mission-specific custom HAMs will require separate Rebirth installation folders.

All that aside, there is currently a .HAM available that contains the sound patch at 1.4 and also the balance changes specific to D1.5 - which are mostly just restoring D1 weapon balance where applicable, but it also messes with the bosses. I know you'll only be using the D1 bosses, but that .HAM still has alterations to them. So it'd probably be ideal if I just made a custom .HAM specifically for you, based on uud2sp 1.4 combined with the texture fixes I'm working on ATM, and then the weapon balance on top of that while leaving the bosses intact. We've got access to weapon data and stats from D1 now thanks to Arne and bitmaps.tbl, so tweaking D2 weapons to mirror D1 ones shouldn't be a big difficulty. As an added benefit, for several updates now D2X-Rebirth has restored the D1 boss AI (teleporting around and spontaneously spawning bots around the room). If you want bosses to act the same as they did in D1, the only thing that would have to be changed for authenticity would be giving them zero movement speed - as they didn't actually have non-teleporting movement in D1 (that was added in their D2 settings).

[LightWolf]

But I already have the vertigo .ham in the .hog so I dont know how descent would react to 2 .hams in the same .hog.

V-HAMs and regular HAMs are slightly different formats anyway; however, Rebirth will always load descent2.ham from a mission and override the base HAM for just that mission. Then you can leave the Vertigo HAM named after your HOG, which will work in any version of the game. XL still needs to use its mod system and vanilla/chocolate still require you manually replace the base (descent2) HAM to override it though.

[Xfing]

But I already have the vertigo .ham in the .hog so I dont know how descent would react to 2 .hams in the same .hog.

V-HAMs and regular HAMs are slightly different formats anyway; however, Rebirth will always load descent2.ham from a mission and override the base HAM for just that mission. Then you can leave the Vertigo HAM named after your HOG, which will work in any version of the game. XL still needs to use its mod system and vanilla/chocolate still require you manually replace the base (descent2) HAM to override it though.

Ummm so can you have both the v-ham and the regular ham inside your hog archive? Like for example descent2.ham and countdown.ham for the Vertigo one, and it'll load them both up fine? That would sure be nice.

[LightWolf]

Only in Rebirth though. Vanilla and XL won't load descent2.ham, though they will still load countdown.ham.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

Time for some level name meanings.


1: Zeta Outpost
A basic level 1 name. Similar to lunar outpost
2: Cyro laboratory
The level is a lab in a cold planet.
3: Amalthea Firecrystal mine
A standard descent 1 level name but with a more exotic sounding celestial body and mineral.
4: Quartzon Military Base
Another standard descent 1 like level name but on quartzon.
5: The Shadow Nodes
The first mysterious name. I was thinking of nefarious assault's 'The shadow conduit' when naming this one. And there is certain bits of level geometry to represent a node.
6: Driller testing lab
Its level 6. It's a lab. It introduces class 1 drillers. Need I say more?
7: Fatty's Sandpit
References level 4 of the pc port of descent maximum which was called fatty's playhouse. Now with lots of that one sand dune texture.
8: The Icicle Factory
A rather flat icy level with little verticality. Similar to most factory buildings.
9: Maze Sprinter (Now The Forgotten Maze)
Reference to The Maze Runner in both name and level style. I want to change the name because it's way too obvious, but I dont know what to. (Edit: It is now The Forgotten Maze.)
10: Tun'haed h'lasl
Standard puma sphere level name. Also an anagram of 'Haunted halls'.
11: The underwater horror
There is something under the water...
12: Pallas drill storage
General purpose name. Not much to this one.
13: Triton palladium mine
Standard name as well. But with this one it has blue colour at the top and red further down.
14: Layton's underground bunker
Reference to the Professor Layton puzzle game series. Also reflected in the level with puzzles. Some of which probably hasn't been seen before in descent history. (That I know of )
15: Thermal Lab
A red and blue lab based level. Thanks again to Lightwolf for this one.
16: Oberon Experimental Shield Lab
Originally I was going to texture every robot with a forcefield and make them 'drop' the same robot so it would look like you broke their shield. This was unfeasible however, because it would destroy the level object limit in DLE.
17: The Alluvium Basement
Alluvium is a deposit of clay, silt, and sand left by flowing floodwater in a river valley or delta. This is represented as a mid brightness water level.
18: Firecracker Quarry
A natural rock based boloris level. Also the troublesome crashy level which is why I'm going to remake this level from scratch as similarly as possible but not block copying anything in case its the crashy part.
19: The Centerpiece
A ring like structure like D1's level 19 with the reactor in centre as usual.
20: Byzantium
Mainly referencing the word byzantine which means 'excessively complicated', not the city of byzantium which is now Istanbul or the byzantine empire. The level is also quite complicated mechanically.
21: The lost tunnels of Mak'duran
Another reference to the Professor Layton games, more specifically Professor layton and the miracle mask. Where at one point there is a place called the ruins of akbadain. I didn't research this name before hand and tried to remember what it was off the top of my head. I knew it had an 'ack' sound. Then Mak'duran then popped into my head for some reason.
22: Ogep'rgs
Used to be called 'The Artosis pylon' but then I reused the name Artosis in xfing's descent 1.5. So now it's an anagram of poggers. Because why not eh?
23: IO Sulphur Refinery
Noice reference to descent 1's IO sulphur mine. This level is intended to be where the sulphur gets sent to for processing. Its location is not far from the mine itself
24: Ganymede Super Generator MKIII
This level will have concentric circles like the OG but with more matcens. Also references the superconducting super collider, nicknamed the desertron.
25: Lunar colonization base CB0002
The second colonisation attempt by man in the future. Wont be as lab based as descent 1's level 25 but will still have the domes. Plus you'll be able to go outside.
26: The Matrioshka Security Checkpoint
References the matrioshka brain megastructure which is several Dyson spheres layered around each other like an onion. Each Dyson sphere uses the waste heat from the inner one before it for computational purposes. With the innermost sphere using energy from the star itself. This level puts you at one of the billions of security stations on the structure itself.
27: The Matrioshka Motherboard
Same as above, but inside the innermost spheres main motherboard section. It is a significant sounding name which is good for the final level.
S1: Turnback Valley
Similar shape and structure as the OG. But where the red area used be is much more important. You visit it at least 3 times. This is the earliest you can get the gauss cannon, but its locked up by a very hard puzzle.
S2: The execution of order 66
Obvious reference to star wars.
S3: Universal Security Tower M4
This level expands of the fact that there are two layers and will add more. Also it will have all kinds of robots in it hence 'universal'.

[TRUEpiiiicness]

It feels wierd just placing lasers and quad lasers in random places after neatly placing everything else in D:TC secret level 2 like they did in D1 SL2.

Also quick question: After finishing secret level 2, shall I move on to level 22, or go back to level 18 to rebuild from scratch to get rid of the crashing that happens at random. (Or somehow fix, but I've pretty much given up on that now.)

I've also added the demo link to the first post.