DescentBB

I recently played The Enemy Within (thanks DFW & the crew! ) and was inspired to create my own huge levelset. It's going to have *54 levels (36 normal + 18 secret! ) and each level has custom textures, music, and 'bots! Here's a little preview of the robot list, from weakest to toughest:

Leech.
Weapons: ROBOT Laser Level 1.
Strength: Low.
Annoyance factor: 1 at the beginning, about 6 later.

Buzzard Mk. 1.
Weapons: 2 Light Vulcans
Strength: Low
Annoyance factor: 2 at the beginning, about 5 later.

Buzzard Mk. 2.
Weapons: 2 Fox Energy Releases
Strength: Medium-Low
Annoyance factor: 2 at the beginning, about 3 later.

Glaive.
Weapons: ROBOT Gauss Cannon & PLAYER Proximity Bombs
Strength: Medium-Low
Special: Energy Pulse
Annoyance factor: 2 at the beginning, 1 later.

Razorhead.
Weapons: 2 PLAYER Vulcan Cannons
Strength: Medium
Annoyance factor: 4 at the beginning, about 5 later.

*3 Downloadable beta versions (along with other missions) are available on my DMDB profile: http://enspiar.com/dmdb/viewMember.php?id=65

*: The level-count has been decreased, and a third beta version has been released.

If its 60 levels, its going to have to be done on D2X-XL program, because the original Descent and/or D1X Rebirth is probably not going to be able to handle that many levels and the entire 60 level custom soundtrack you no doubt have planned.

That'll keep you busy for quite some time.

DarkFlameWolf wrote:... because the original Descent and/or D1X Rebirth is probably not going to be able to handle that many levels and the entire 60 level custom soundtrack you no doubt have planned.

...eh? Why's that?

well I confirmed with Zico that the reason why levels 25 onward in enemy within don't get their custom musics because it was like that in the original Descent 2. The levels ended at 24. So it'll repeat from level 1 song after that. So if he wants a custom soundtrack beyond 24, he'll have to use d2x-xl or beg Zico to make the change to dx-rebirth.
As for level count, I know d2x-xl gave you a massive limit, like 200 levels or something. But I do not recall rebirth doing that.

Hmm. Oh well, even if I have to remove some levels it'll still be pretty big. And about the soundtracks repeating, I planned for that when I made the set. On that topic, I've edited 2 TEW songs (game03.mid & game26.mid, respectively) and was wondering if it'd be okay to use them as long as I gave credit to the one who made the tracks?

Look in the credits file for TEW, the proper credit should be in there for those two songs.

I'm not sure how to properly view the credit file, as it's in a different format than what appears to be readable by BriefEd & Yahoma. And the TXT2TXB/TXB2TXT converter doesn't appear to work for WinXP.

Have you tried running them under compatibility mode?
Right click> Properties> Compatibility tab

Set for something like 98SE.

Duper wrote:Have you tried running them under compatibility mode?
Right click> Properties> Compatibility tab

Set for something like 98SE.

I tried, but when I double click TXT2TXB.exe or TXB2TXT.exe, I get a brief flash of the black "command window" and nothing happens. Any other suggestions?

open the command prompt before running the exe.

I managed to get the .CTB file converted to a .TXT file using Hoggle 1.3. I'm unsure what the \"command prompt\" is though, I've never really had to use it for over a decade...

from the \"Run\" box type \"cmd\" (without quotes of course) That will give you the command box with a \"command promt\" in it.

Ahh. Thank you Duper, and everyone else who offered advice or just even commented on my mission.

DarkFlameWolf wrote:As for level count, I know d2x-xl gave you a massive limit, like 200 levels or something. But I do not recall rebirth doing that.

If I remember correctly the limit in D2X-XL is 100 (non-secret) levels (I want to exploit that... somehow). I think in standard D1 and D2 the limit is 30 non-secret levels per mission. D3 can only have 30 levels total in a mission (including secret levels).

give me a day or two Addict. things are kinda nuts, but I'll give it a run through. (having vid driver issues)

Duper wrote:give me a day or two Addict. things are kinda nuts, but I'll give it a run through. (having vid driver issues)

Sorry to hear that Duper. Hope you get things settled... :/

*THIS POST IS NOW OBSOLETE!*



I can't seem to find a way to expand on this concept. If anyone would like to offer suggestions I'm open for them!

Here's some images of the first 18 levels of Disintegration:


Level 1- Xenith: Carbonia
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 2- Xenith: Egreon
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 3- Xenith: Outpost VI
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 4- Xenith: Illucidium
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 5- Xenith: Exterior Caves
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 6- Xenith: Hangar Delta
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 7- Aquarion: Gerlamet Resevoir
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 8- Aquarion: Bauer's Gorge
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 9- Aquarion: Ipsum Bio Lab
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 10- Aquarion: Selenium Mine
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 11- Aquarion: Iridescent
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 12- Aquarion: Corrugation
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 13- Ishtar: Controlled Burn
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 14- Ishtar: Fan The Flames
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 15- Ishtar: Extinguished!
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 16- Ishtar: Third Degree
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 17- Ishtar: Wildfire
Author: Gameaddict11707

Level 18- Ishtar: Inferno
Author: Gameaddict11707

Looks kind of like Project: Hydro. I'll give it a look. My computer has problems with midi music, but I have ways to get around that (extract the midis from the mission, record as .ogg, and then use the modding feature in D2X-XL to get them in the mission. They end up sounding better, and it saves all the tedious work of switching .sng files).

Project: HYDRO really gave me a lot of level architecture ideas, as well as The Enemy Within, and many other Descent levels I've played over the years. I'm glad someone caught the resemblance.

Alter-Fox wrote:Looks kind of like Project: Hydro. I'll give it a look. My computer has problems with midi music, but I have ways to get around that (extract the midis from the mission, record as .ogg, and then use the modding feature in D2X-XL to get them in the mission. They end up sounding better, and it saves all the tedious work of switching .sng files).

Ah ha! I always plagerize a VARIETY of missions to make my levels! Oh, wait...um...it is all original.

Hard to say where things come from, in all honesty.

Nice Screenshots GameAddict! Look foward to it.

I think my biggest no-no was in Road to Oblivion, where I outright copied a block out of D2 level 11 (I think, might have been 10, but probably 11), flipped it, and retextured it... I don't think anyone noticed though.

I've now had a chance to play up to level 10. The level design on many of the levels (level 4 for instance, and level 9 and 10) is very good for a beginner, but you'll need some practise to catch up with the pros. Some of the levels though (like levels 1, 2 and 3), are too small and the quality isn't nearly as good as the others. You might want to consider completely redoing them for the final release. And most of the levels, even the good ones, are way too short, and should be either heavily extended, or much more detailed, (or a moderate amount of both), to make use of more of the cubes you have at your disposal.

Texture work is very good, (I might even call it inspired) especially on the later levels .

Most of the levels don't have enough weapons and resources though. I had to cheat to get past level 1 because I ran out of energy and there wasn't a vulcan cannon or energy center to be found.

In short, you still have to do some work on the quality of the level design, especially on the early levels. I would say the design quality and structures of the better levels is above mediocre, but the overall smallness brings the score down.

You have some work to do to catch up with the greats, but your levels are much better than a novice's, and much, much, much (x6,000,000,000 1/2) better than Descer's (the worst level designer on the planet). And with the design of your later levels, you've shown that you are willing to improve, which is more than I can say for him.

Alter-Fox wrote:I've now had a chance to play up to level 10. The level design on many of the levels (level 4 for instance, and level 9 and 10) is very good for a beginner, but you'll need some practise to catch up with the pros. Some of the levels though (like levels 1, 2 and 3), are too small and the quality isn't nearly as good as the others. You might want to consider completely redoing them for the final release. And most of the levels, even the good ones, are way too short, and should be either heavily extended, or much more detailed, (or a moderate amount of both), to make use of more of the cubes you have at your disposal.

Texture work is very good, (I might even call it inspired) especially on the later levels .

Most of the levels don't have enough weapons and resources though. I had to cheat to get past level 1 because I ran out of energy and there wasn't a vulcan cannon or energy center to be found.

In short, you still have to do some work on the quality of the level design, especially on the early levels. I would say the design quality and structures of the better levels is above mediocre, but the overall smallness brings the score down.

You have some work to do to catch up with the greats, but your levels are much better than a novice's...

I'm going to redo the first three levels , the first of which I HAVE to, because something went FUBAR with D2 Rebirth & it crashes when-ever I try to select the first level, but the others work fine, as do the other missions in the menu. Here's a picture of the error I get whenever I try to start level 1:




Note that the level's filename in the .HOG is "01carbo.rl2", but this shows a blank space where the "0" is supposed to be. If anyone has any knowledge on this subject, please share it. I don't want to have to scrap the whole project this far into it.

Alter-Fox wrote:You have some work to do to catch up with the greats, but your levels are much better than a novice's, and much, much, much (x6,000,000,000 1/2) better than Descer's (the worst level designer on the planet). And with the design of your later levels, you've shown that you are willing to improve, which is more than I can say for him.

Wow burn... do you guys have a history or something?

Update: The remake of Level 1 is going fine, should be done later tonight.

Still haven't found a way to fix the above error.

Update 2: Suddenly, I cannot, for the freaking life of me, get Disintegration working! So sorry, but the 3rd beta will be the last release...



Hopefully you'll get some enjoyment out of what almost was an awesome mission.....