[TheDragonLiner]

GUYS !!!!

Don't ask me how, but I managed to crack that Golden Cube Maze puzzle in E5L5 "Death Dimension" !!
(Luck again I guess ...)

Sorry if I'm overdoing it but, this is THE worst puzzle in Oblivion, and now it's History ^^

[NightFright]

It's sad we can't ask Zaxtor any more about this. He was basically the only one who knew what he was doing there. Anyway, it's remarkable that at least some Oblivion mysteries are revealed now.

Btw I posted a map fix earlier on (Sep 6). Has anybody had any chance to test it?

[Doom64hunter]

NightFright, on 10 September 2021 - 07:10 AM, said:

It's sad we can't ask Zaxtor any more about this. He was basically the only one who knew what he was doing there. Anyway, it's remarkable that at least some Oblivion mysteries are revealed now.

Btw I posted a map fix earlier on (Sep 6). Has anybody had any chance to test it?

Yes, the fix works. The battlelords now spawn as their blue palette version, which are also later used in a building in the middle of the cave system.

Regarding E4 and E5 hints, I would split them. E5 is optional, and additonally E5L2 plays completely differently when accessed from E4, compared to E1.

[NightFright]

Outstanding! Unless there are other fixes that can be done manually (without the need of EDuke32 updates), I will upload a fixed version on Monday, then.

[TheDragonLiner]

I have finished Episode 5, after killing something like 800 enemies in Kihntron X_X

Cube hints are VERY rough, because they are basically a retranscription of Doom64Hunter's video. Also, in order to compensate, I tried to hold back on Hints with Kihntron because the level keeps using Enemy Spawns to guide the player.


 Oblivion Hints, Episode 5.txt (19.5K)
Number of downloads: 118



I am back at RainForest Fires .... the real suffering begins X_X

[TheDragonLiner]

Two things.

First I'm almost done with Wrecked Ship and I have found an anomaly in the map. Since I am using the previous version of the Compilation, I don't know if it has been fixed or anything.





Secondly, in the RainForest Fires II, there is an "Anti-DoomsDay Project Gem" to be found. Can somebody verify what it actually does ?
I never beat the game without it so I don't know, and I have indicated it in the Hint List for that level ...

[NightFright]

I haven't touched the game for sure since ages, surely not since the last official release. How could I, anyway, with nobody playing the TC and reporting issues?

[TheDragonLiner]

NightFright, on 12 September 2021 - 12:38 PM, said:

I haven't touched the game for sure since ages, surely not since the last official release. How could I, anyway, with nobody playing the TC and reporting issues?

We have a CON expert around here remember ?
That's why I asked the question.


By the way, I was STUCK in the Labyrinth, I think there is a problem that needs to be adressed here. The objective of the first part is to find and activate a series of Steles, they reveal switches near the beginning to close down a gap and proceed.
I have checked my map, I have found and activated 9 Steles, but NONE of the Switches is revealed (of which there are 9 surprise surprise). Not even one !

In the list of Hints I have written down an alternate way to proceed, without cheating, which is to use Steroids found in the previous level. But still ...

[ETPC]

eagerly anticipating the hints for wrecked ship and everything else in ep4 because oh my god

[TheDragonLiner]

ETPC, on 13 September 2021 - 09:00 AM, said:

eagerly anticipating the hints for wrecked ship and everything else in ep4 because oh my god

I PM you the list I wrote for Wrecked Ship. However I didn't specify the location of all the Blue Knobs. Normally, there is a Map in the Cockpit Room which indicates their location.

Right now I have reached the Grass and Pond area of "The Floating Island". Closer but still far x_x

[TheDragonLiner]

You know what this means.

 Oblivion Hints, Episode 4.txt (33.5K)
Number of downloads: 169



This has been a special experience for me, not only because it gave me the satisfaction of having been of service, but also because this became a small, personal way for me to pay one last homage to the Guy. I am thanking the few individuals who showcased enthusiasm, NightFright for the opportunity and Doom64Hunter for having solved the 2 levels I never ever completed ever ever.

By the way, it seems that the Gem, I had asked about earlier, has you automatically invoke a ThunderStrike on the DoomsDay Project Machine and deal a free "22,000" points of damage it said. Can be handy if you didn't obtain the 2 Chips from Ep5.

[NightFright]

Congrats! You may be one of very few chosen ones who had the willpower to go through this ordeal.

So, besides those Battlelord spawners I already fixed (but haven't implemented yet), is there anything else that can be fixed manually, without requiring an EDuke32 update? The next Oblivion upload I do should be the final one and I want to make sure we did everything we could to make it playable.

[TheDragonLiner]

NightFright, on 15 September 2021 - 12:24 PM, said:

Congrats! You may be one of very few chosen ones who had the willpower to go through this ordeal.

So, besides those Battlelord spawners I already fixed (but haven't implemented yet), is there anything else that can be fixed manually, without requiring an EDuke32 update? The next Oblivion upload I do should be the final one and I want to make sure we did everything we could to make it playable.

Well, like I said in the Ep4 Hints List, there is the Labyrinth's Steles which don't seem to work properly because they didn't reveal a single switch in my game, and the Eye Ship in the final level which doesn't die ever >_>
And also the secret to access Wrecked Ship but I believe you already fixed it thanks to Doom64Hunter's finding out why.

Oh and there's also that weirdness with the Chaingun Infinite Ammo Chip being refered to as the Petrify Gun's Ammo Regen Chip ...

[NightFright]

The Wrecked Ship thing... when was that mentioned? I don't remember. Recently I only fixed those Battlelord spawners iirc.

[TheDragonLiner]

NightFright, on 16 September 2021 - 08:04 AM, said:

The Wrecked Ship thing... when was that mentioned? I don't remember. Recently I only fixed those Battlelord spawners iirc.

You mean accessing the level ? The cracked wall issue ?

The last time this issue was reported was in post #1377 by ETPC, and I re-mentioned it in my Hint List for Ep4.

[NightFright]

If D64Hunter reported it, it must have been an EDuke32 issue. I remember I should also bring back that ep.5 entry in the menu, right? I remember Zaxtor didn't like that back in the days, but I don't know why.

[TheDragonLiner]

NightFright, on 16 September 2021 - 08:17 AM, said:

If D64Hunter reported it, it must have been an EDuke32 issue. I remember I should also bring back that ep.5 entry in the menu, right? I remember Zaxtor didn't like that back in the days, but I don't know why.

Doom64Hunter explained the issue by pointing out the fact that the crack wouldn't break because the actor that makes the crack open is enclosed in a small sector which somehow either showed up or became inaccessible with more recent EDuke32 versions.
(in shorts, it's a matter of a very tiny map modification to make an actor work as intended)

And yeah, he had mentioned it would be a good idea to bring back Ep5 in the menu because some of the strange CON stuff he uncovered when looking at that map with the BattleLord pallette problem was linked to the fact of playing Ep5 from the menu.


You removed it because, like everybody (myself included) you thought that is was glitched into bringing back to Ep1 instead of all the way through, while in reality it is intended to be that way with what Doom64Hunter had explained.

[Doom64hunter]

NightFright, on 16 September 2021 - 08:17 AM, said:

If D64Hunter reported it, it must have been an EDuke32 issue. I remember I should also bring back that ep.5 entry in the menu, right? I remember Zaxtor didn't like that back in the days, but I don't know why.

I posted a fix for that map here: https://forums.duke4...attach_id=17900

It is an eduke32 issue, but one that's significantly harder to fix on the engine side than simply moving the sector a tiny bit in the map itself. I recommend including the fix because it doesn't cost us anything.

Regarding the menu entry, I'm not sure what the best approach would be. My personal theory is that, back when Oblivion was finished, episode entries could not be hidden in eduke32 and thus selecting the episode was still possible.
As a compromise, Zaxtor included an easter egg that only triggers if you selected the fifth episode, and played all the way through to Doombase. Said easter egg involves the battlelords in the cave.

It is still possible to trigger the easter egg by selecting E5L1 from the usermap menu, but it is now significantly more obscure. Maybe just making the fifth episode option a dash (-) character instead of its own episode name? Originally the episode name for E5 was blank.

[ETPC]

after seven months, and with the help of TheDragonLiner and Doom64Hunter and others, Oblivion is finished. oh my god. i can't say i hated it but it's cryptic nature stopped me constantly, but with Dragon's walkthrough + links to Zaxtor's videos and Doom64's cube solution video, i think it will be a lot easier if anyone else wants to pick it up later.

it pains me to say this, but this tc still needs a *lot* more testing then just me and dragon. the white screen issues become complete show stoppers the further in you go, with bosses spamming those projectiles constantly. is there any other effect that they can be replaced by that would give us something similar to what was intended?

also, the 2nd boss in The Doomsday Project is broken and refuses to die, as mentioned by DragonLiner. this is in r9595.

the mod does work and i never encountered crashes or anything, it just needs more testing and patching i think.

tomorrow im going to finally play a different addon.

[ETPC]

where is the blue keycard in Nerve Center in Total Infiltration? i'm worried that a monster was supposed to drop it but didn't. i think the final level is bugged because i couldn't get on the little car in the beginning without noclipping. this is on r9604.

other then that, total infiltration works fine.

[ETPC]

oh, forgot to mention there is some mild visual corruption with TI in Space Titans Junkyard in the intro where you crash to earth.

[Doom64hunter]

ETPC, on 17 September 2021 - 12:01 PM, said:

where is the blue keycard in Nerve Center in Total Infiltration? i'm worried that a monster was supposed to drop it but didn't. i think the final level is bugged because i couldn't get on the little car in the beginning without noclipping. this is on r9604.

other then that, total infiltration works fine.

Boss2 and Boss4 (Cycloid and Queen, paletted versions) drop the keycard, but the former's corpse can be destroyed before it has a chance to do so.

My guess is that that's exactly what happened in your case.

Edit: The passage to the little car is blocked by that weird reactor sprite that has a giant clipping distance for some reason. In older revisions you were able to barely crouch past it, but standing up, you would get blocked as well.

Edit 2: Here's the GRP with both issues fixed
 infiltration.zip (2.21MB)
Number of downloads: 136

[Ax 34noff]

Ruohonen Pack - OK (and it's very tough on higher skill levels)
Also it would be good to have a list of grps that still need testing.

[NightFright]

Time to catch up a bit with latest updates before I lose track of everything.

Oblivion:
- Ep.5 available in menu again (shows up as "---")
- OBLVN105: Fix for killing Battlelord Sentries ending level too early
- OBLVN405: Fix for cracked wall that couldn't be blown up (by Doom64Hunter)

Total Infiltration:
- Code fix for Emperor miniboss not dropping key (if corpse is destroyed before key spawns);
- Code fix for reactor sprite blocking player (clipping distance lowered)

I have also added the first Oblivion episode to the walkthrough. The others will follow once I have more time.

To update:
- Use the downloader script (unzip into your EDuke32 root dir and execute eac_install.bat) OR
- Get the updated EAC Base Pack (13.3 MB) and download infiltration.grp and oblivion.grp from the repository

---------------------------------------

Latest checklist:

OK:

Spoiler

- A.Dream Trilogy (ladders fixed with r9485)
- ADG Episode
- Alien Extermination
- Alien vs Predator
- American Assault
- Army of Death
- Battlefield 3
- Borg Nukem
- Burnt
- C&C TC
- C3PO Pack
- Chimera
- Christmas Project
- Community Build Project
- Critical Mass (elevators fixed with r9485)
- Crucial Conflict
- DaikariN
- Dark Places
- Duke Is 007
- Duke is Ten
- Fbsp Series
- Grins of Divinity (ladders fixed with r9461)
- Industrial Complex
- JJ Duke Nukem 3D
- Jungle Tour Trilogy
- Last Reaction & Water Bases
- Layre (CHATPR1: Missing sounds commented out; CHAPTR2: Queen boss should no longer get stuck in pool)
- Lost Highway (LOSTHW03_ROR: sky issue fixed; LOSTHW03: sewer switches now visible)
- Merc 2
- Mic Episode
- Quakis Pack
- Quest for Al-Qaeda
- Quest for Hussein (elevator fixed with r9485)
- Roch Series
- Ruohonen Pack
- Savior of Alien Era
- Spiegul Contest
- The Final Confrontation
- The Gate (GATE306: shooting sprite platform fixed after r9485)
- Total Infiltration (two maps fixed by Doom64Hunter)
- Total Meltdown
- Turok Nukem
- WGSpace (WGS4X: Broken elevator might be intentional)
- Zombie Crisis

Unclear/unfinished

Spoiler

- Oblivion (even after OBLVN105 and OBLVN405 being fixed)
- Red Series (Getting stuck in black room fixed in 9488)

Bugs:

Spoiler

- 1999 TC: Invisible bullet-proof objects in "The Wash" --> needs map fix
- Alien Extermination: Flamethrower freezes facehuggers --> was probably always like that
- Castle Dukenstein: Dogs are hard to kill --> needs CON fix
- Layre (CHATPR1: Can get stuck in wall near exit; CHAPTR2: Textures turning into HOM)
- Red Series (RED4: pipebombs won't fit through hole, r7470-7615)
- Starship Troopers (SSTB1: Allies shoot all the time w/o enemies --> cannot be reproduced)
- The Gate (GATE306: teleporter to SOS room only working occasionally --> to be fixed with r9560+ probably)

Showstopper:

Spoiler

- DukeVR (Pipebombs cannot be stacked in RED2, still works in r7470 --> EDuke32 bugfix requested)
- Oblivion: Several maps cannot be completed --> OOZ and OOZ2 can no longer be used as pseudo-elevators (https://voidpoint.io...32/-/issues/105)
- Pinxten Pack (MPHYDRO: Can get stuck in diagonal underwater corridor close to Tripmine pickup --> resize sector?)
- Red Series (RED2: Crash due to MIDI playback stopping with WinMME driver --> use OPL3/SF2 synth)

[Ax 34noff]

NightFright, on 22 September 2021 - 06:33 AM, said:

Latest checklist:
OK:
Unclear/unfinished
Bugs:
Showstopper:

What about Need testing ?

[NightFright]

That applies to anything that's not on the list. Almost 100 entries. Still too many to make a list for those.
I might do one tomorrow anyway, unless someone else beats me to it.

[Ax 34noff]

Glavic Pack - OK. Also it looks like not just a bunch of maps but some kind of great episode that must be picked together.

[ETPC]

KaiseR Land has zero problems!

edit: worth pointing out that the KaiseR who made those maps is not Samuel Villarreal

[TheDragonLiner]

BTW NightFright, watch out whenever you'll tackle my Episode 4 list for Oblivion. For the Bright Green Maze in "The Other World" level, I wrote the Red KeyCard twice >_< The first one is correct, the second one is Blue.

I wrote Yellow, Red, Red while in reality it's Yellow, Red, Blue.


And also, the last thing about Oblivion that is troublesome is that Blue Screen in E3L2 (normal version) which doesn't display the path like it normally should. It's an EDuke32 display issue right ?
It's mentioned in my Ep3 list just in case >_>

[NightFright]

Thanks for the hint with the ep.4 walkthrough, I have already corrected that in my notes now. I will also enter that OBLVN302 glitch into my bug list.