The Green Herring

Speaking of commercial IWADs, WAD Rule #2 on the idgames archive has just been updated today not only to clarify what it means, but to also provide instructions for using SLADE to ensure that your WAD complies with the rule. There have been a number of cases where "unmodified resources" from the commercial games targeted by uploads were accidentally included due to inheriting them from certain texture packs, and this revision should go a long way to averting headaches for uploaders. The revised rule reads as follows: If anyone is wondering, the special case example at the end is in specific reference to the lostres texture pack, which unfortunately had to include every frame of NUKAGE and BLOOD in order to restore their unused fourth frames due to how animated flats work in the Doom engine. Have a good day, and happy uploading!

Hi, Alongside everything that everyone else brought up here, I'd like to focus on one thing in particular: if you are to start a community project of this magnitude, it would be best to wait till you have experience in leading community projects. I made many mistakes myself running Community Chest 4 that caused it to be dragged out for years, and I'd been in the community for only about a couple years at the point when it started. You've only been in this community, it seems, since June of this year. The best course of action would be to not repeat history, and save a huge project (let alone Community Chest) for when you have a wealth of knowledge of project management under your belt, rather than bust out a huge project with just a few months' presence in the community to your name. There's a reason Community Chest 5 hasn't been started in all this time: it takes some serious time, effort and patience to run a project like Community Chest without it crashing and burning or being dragged out to an absurd extent, and I haven't been able to do much in terms of planning because, long story short, life was kind of rough to me for the past half-decade. So, there's some consultation from the last person to run a Community Chest about running Community Chest. I would have appreciated if you asked them for that consultation before trying to start the project, but there's some consultation nonetheless. If I were you, I would put this on the back burner, wait till you have much more experience, and then ask them again. I would much prefer to transfer leadership of a series to someone who has the project management experience to take it on and who makes the effort to communicate with me directly to discuss the idea first, rather than someone rather new to the community who announces "I'm starting this soon" as the second post of a thread about the idea of the project, and then tries to start the project, all without saying a word to me even privately. After all, a person rushing headlong into starting a project without discussing it with me first is another part of why 4 dragged on as far as it did, as while that person had at least already been recruited as a co-leader beforehand, I was forced to run the project without as much planning as I could have, alongside someone who demonstrated little consideration for teamwork in the few months they were involved.

With the release of this pack, I've uploaded renders of my track "Impending End" to SoundCloud. Original Microsoft GS version: Roland SCVA-55 version in SC-55 mode: Click through to the SoundCloud pages for each song for composer's commentary!

Awesome work in rebranding PrB+ into a speedrunning port and adding features for that very purpose. However, I tried out that compiled binary for a bit and I get a signal 11 (segmentation violation) the instant I take any damage from nukage. I wonder if there's something amiss in the floor-damage code...

In recognition of an error made months ago, REKKR 1.16 is now on the gamers.org /idgames server. However, with Revae's permission, I uploaded a patch he made which fixes the reason REKKR was rejected from /idgames twice: three IWAD flats (CEIL4_1, CEIL5_1, F_SKY1) accidentally included in the PWAD. All three have been replaced with solid-color graphics, meaning it is now fully legal. I present it here as version 1.16a, and the REKKR website packages should be updated to match within the next few days. It is awaiting processing at /idgames, but while it's waiting, you may download it from this post. Have a good day! rekkr_116a.zip

This WAD is now available on /idgames, and accessible through the usual frontend: The file was erroneously rejected for "unmodified id Software resources" which turned out to just be two small rectangles with two shades of color each. I unrejected the file yesterday when I came back from a hiatus and it is now preserved on the archives. Enjoy!

@ReX If you notified us of a file you will upload, only to get an email verification notice anyway, then the notice being sent is entirely down to human error. I had been busy with RL matters until recently, so I do not know what happened there. However, sending advance notice of a file you've uploaded will indeed still shortcut the process of getting a file on the archives provided there is no grounds for rejection. :) We apologize for the inconvenience!

In the wake of murmurs in certain corners about the foolishness of using MS-DOS restrictions in 2017, the maximum filename length has been raised from 8 to 12. This is long enough to give more leg room for uploaders, while being short enough to prevent some of the more absurd filename abuses we've seen. README.INCOMING has also made the filenaming rules clearer by moving them to the Requirements section, where they read: 2. Your uploaded ZIP/TXT filename MUST be 12 characters in length or fewer, and can only include ASCII letters, numbers, dashes or underscores. No spaces and no accented characters. Whether you use it to give your uploads longer names or simply to add version numbers (and those are just examples), we hope this new maximum will work well! :) On a much more minor note, we have also partially rephrased the Email Verification Process for clarity: "If you do not respond within that timeframe"; "let us know in your verification response". With these more specific phrases, it should now be clearer that you must reply to the verification message in 7 days, and that you can write in your reply if you wish your email to be kept in your TXT. :) Keep on Dooming!

So it's out, finally. https://www.dropbox.com/s/fjkt56mcw25im51/32in24-16_v1.zip?dl=1 This will be uploaded to /idgames shortly assuming nothing bizarre turns up by tomorrow! Sorry for the massive delay--I got burned out for months. Spooky! Thank you to everyone who tested this!

RC updated to v2, see the post again. Fixed! Fixed (AGAIN). Fixed. This was in previous versions too, which raises the question of why nobody brought up such an "immediate egregious error" until now.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m0n6v7e9kpyfo9l/32in24-16_RCv2.zip?dl=1 After a delay caused by RL lunacy, here is a release candidate for 32in24-16. It features a number of updates by authors, including a special edition of "Naval Skeletal Battle" by Marcaek (the original is still in the WAD, but later), as well as fixes to prevent players jumping out of certain maps and to make sure every level is hopefully compatible with Odamex (which, despite assumptions, does not support textures-as-flats or vice versa). Music was assigned to Rude and andrewj's levels, and music credits are added to the temporary text file. To do: * Fix any more bugs that crop up during testing * Write a final text file with traditional comic description * Remove unused textures/flats EDIT (1/13/2017 9:49 AM PST): Updated to v2 with MAP15 updated, and the player 1 start bug fixed in MAP23 again. Please redownload from the new link above. Maplist:MAP01: Bad Times at the Armory by AlexMax MAP02: Flag Quest by GregLafitte MAP03: Cthulhu Fhtagn (What a Wonderful Phrase) by TheMionicDonut MAP04: The Greasy Brown Toad Bloater Special by Getsu Fune MAP05: Stones 'n' Bones by Jimmy (edits and detail by The Green Herring) MAP06: Spooky Shit by Walter Confalonieri MAP07: Tootsie Roll Showdown by Mechadon MAP08: Peruvian Voodoo Fortress by TheMionicDonut MAP09: Count Mortimer's Quest by 40oz MAP10: Scarydarkfast by 40oz MAP11: Count Toothy's Super Canoe by Mechadon MAP12: The Devil Is Evil by joe-ilya MAP13: Ren & Stimpack by scotty MAP14: Bone Pun or Something by Gothic MAP15: Displeasure Island by Rude MAP16: Voodoo Geometry by Breezeep MAP17: Creepy Cube Conspiracy by Zakurum MAP18: Grave Danger by Pinchy MAP19: Come On Down to Spooky Town by Mechadon MAP20: Get On the Floor, Everybody Walk the Bloodivore by esselfortium MAP21: Gloomy Gulch by Marcaek (detail by 40oz) MAP22: Captive's Crypts by Marcaek MAP23: Pumpkin Patch Kids by Marcaek MAP24: 32spooky24me by TheMionicDonut MAP25: BAD MOON by RottKing MAP26: YOU'RE GONNA HAVE A BAD TIME by Xaser MAP27: Castles of the Cyber-Creeps by andrewj MAP28: FatSmile.jpg by Marcaek (detail by Pinchy) MAP29: The Treefolk Assault Pumpkin Valley by lupinx-Kassman MAP30: GASTERISK by Xaser MAP31: Naval Skeletal Battle + by Gothic and Marcaek MAP32: The Wolfenshining by TheMionicDonut MAP33: Naval Skeletal Battle by Gothic MAP34: Coloured War by joe-ilya

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kmvrav60e1rp0bg/32in24-16_beta2b.zip?dl=0 Here is the second beta of 32in24-16: DOOT CTF. All updates since the last beta have been implemented (hopefully), including untitled levels getting titles, as well as new music. Only two levels (MAP15 and MAP27) do not have music of any kind; unless the designers have music in mind, they may have music chosen for them. At this point, I believe the next version after this one will be a release candidate! EDIT: Replaced with beta2a to fix MAP15 and MAP16 having the same music based on the MAPINFO, which no one noticed until 40 minutes after the second beta was uploaded. EDIT 2: Replaced with beta2b to fix a missing player 1 start on MAP23, as well as many missing textures in MAP23 and MAP28 (updated by Marcaek) that resulted from using Skulltag resources in a wad that doesn't use Skulltag resources. Again. Current maplist:MAP01: Bad Times at the Armory by AlexMax MAP02: Flag Quest by GregLafitte MAP03: Cthulhu Fhtagn (What a Wonderful Phrase) by TheMionicDonut MAP04: The Greasy Brown Toad Bloater Special by Getsu Fune MAP05: Stones 'n' Bones by Jimmy (edits and detail by The Green Herring) MAP06: Spooky Shit by Walter Confalonieri MAP07: Tootsie Roll Showdown by Mechadon MAP08: Peruvian Voodoo Fortress by TheMionicDonut MAP09: Count Mortimer's Quest by 40oz MAP10: Scarydarkfast by 40oz MAP11: Count Toothy's Super Canoe by Mechadon MAP12: The Devil Is Evil by joe-ilya MAP13: Ren & Stimpack by scotty MAP14: Bone Pun or Something by Gothic MAP15: Displeasure Island by Rude MAP16: Voodoo Geometry by Breezeep MAP17: Creepy Cube Conspiracy by Zakurum MAP18: Grave Danger by Pinchy MAP19: Come On Down to Spooky Town by Mechadon MAP20: Get On the Floor, Everybody Walk the Bloodivore by esselfortium MAP21: Gloomy Gulch by Marcaek MAP22: Captive's Crypts by Marcaek MAP23: Pumpkin Patch Kids by Marcaek MAP24: 32spooky24me by TheMionicDonut MAP25: BAD MOON by RottKing MAP26: YOU'RE GONNA HAVE A BAD TIME by Xaser MAP27: Castles of the Cyber-Creeps by andrewj MAP28: FatSmile.jpg by Marcaek MAP29: The Treefolk Assault Pumpkin Valley by lupinx-Kassman MAP30: GASTERISK by Xaser MAP31: Naval Skeletal Battle by Gothic MAP32: The Wolfenshining by TheMionicDonut MAP33: Coloured War by joe-ilya

No, it was replied to the same day, an hour later. Perhaps it was flagged as spam?

250 MB is still quite a lot for six maps—but the primary issue that led to my examining the file was not emailing ahead of time before uploading a file bigger than 50 MB, which has been /idgames policy for years. Just shoot us an email before you do it, and we can discuss issues if any come up. Thank you!

So when I looked in /idgames's /incoming folder today, I had to reject what turned out to be the mod package version of Blade of Agony Chapter 1 because it was over 50 MB in size without prior email notice (see README.INCOMING). More specifically, it was 291 MB. So I downloaded the file from the Realm667 site just to see why it's so huge. Uncompressing the zip, the PK3 turned out to be 356 MB. In examining the PK3, I found the following: - 96 MB of music (including music for unreleased episodes) - 80 MB of textures - 63.2 MB of models - 50 MB of maps - 40.8 MB of sound effects - 9.63 MB of sprites - 7.12 MB of brightmaps - 4.82 MB of miscellaneous graphics All this for a six-map episode (excepting C1M0 and the INTERMAP). A six-map episode that is about five times the filesize of DUMP 3 (80 maps), and over twice the file size of the previous Realm667 project Stronghold (44 maps). How much of this stuff is even used in this episode? For the sake of players who are still stuck with low-speed connections, Tormentor, you might want to cut out all the stuff not used in this episode to make downloading the "Chapter 1" package easier for them. (On a side note, the PK3 also contains the WolfenDoom project's PK3 compiler tools, even though this makes no sense for a released product. Whoops!)