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Updated Q1SP MOD - Arcane Dimensions 1.7.1 *PATCHED*
Sock has been beavering away behind the scenes to get a fully updated tweaked fixed and finalised version of AD. So here it is. One point SEVEN.

Download (220mb):
http://www.simonoc.com/files/ad/ad_v1_70final.zip

V1.7.1 Patch (see recent post below):
http://www.simonoc.com/files/ad/ad_v1_70patch1.zip


Readme:
http://www.simonoc.com/files/ad/ad_v1_70_readme.txt

Recommended Quakespasm 0.93:
http://quakespasm.sourceforge.net/download.htm

Past versions etc:
http://www.simonoc.com/pages/design/sp/ad.htm

In his own words:
"The AD zip file is getting a bit big and inconvenient to download and I think its time to start splitting stuff off into separate files. The AD map source files are not needed or viewed much and if anyone wants to see them, just drop me an email request.

This download contains all the previous maps, some new extra code and features, lots of bug fixes, some new mapper features (check documentation) and as a final bonus, a couple of extra maps hidden away in the main map hubs, good hunting!"


Screenshots:
http://www.simonoc.com/files/ad/ad_17_finish1.jpg
http://www.simonoc.com/files/ad/ad_17_finish2.jpg
http://www.simonoc.com/files/ad/ad_17_finish3.jpg
http://www.simonoc.com/files/ad/ad_17_finish4.jpg
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"For the amount of praise sock is getting, he seems to be rather easily upset by negativity. I can sorta understand, but, in my experience, creating anything worth talking about will inevitably produce at least a certain amount of drama. Taking it to heart is counter-productive."

This, really. 90s FPS isn't my only hobby, I also spend some time in the poetry scenes near where I live, and also observing poetry on a national level. Let me tell you--the beefs that happen here make poetryland beefs look like the Eastern Front in comparison. You can't imagine the hostility, both justified and unjustified, people have for each other over the words they write. In comparison, AD has received almost universal praise from this (admittedly smaller) community, with most critics being people who just have different personal preferences (don't like huge maps or whatever) with as far as I can tell one or two real "haters." Like I said, as far as internal disputes within niche creative communities--this ain't nothing! 
 
*in the AD threads specifically, maybe not this forum in general. My point is, have some perspective! Though I know from experience stepping away from the keybaord forma while can help with that.

Sorry for triple-posting. 
Sock Is Known 
for taking criticism to heart. I think it's part of why he is so good at this. I hope he'll be back when he has cleared his mind a bit.

Making something like AD in your spare time is very exhausting. I know this from my own hobby projects. Sometimes you ask yourself why you're doing this at all, esp. when faced with criticism that upsets you like in this case. But at some point you remember why, and you get back at this. 
 
I hope he'll be back when he has cleared his mind a bit.
Ditto. AD has so much more yet untapped potential that it'd be a pity to put it to rest permanently. 
Not Necessarily Back With More AD 
But yeah, let's hope that he uses this toolset now that it's done. 
+1 Sleepwalkr 
I think wed all be wise to respect whatever choice sock makes in regards to AD. His reasoning likely extends far beyond this thread. Its in more than a polished enough state to call final and any changes can be taken on by the new wave of mappers/content developers.

Best of luck to Sock on all his creative ventures. Though, he doesnt really need "luck".

Now, everyone, GO MAP. 
I'm A Sock Fanboy 
... and it only gets worse on every release. 
Sock Quitting Quake... 
... d�j� vu all over again.

The king is dead, long live the king. 
Buncha Cents 
Weapons:

I was sceptical of the projectile shotguns at first, and still not sure changing them was really necessary, but one gets used to them and it works. It's even admittedly somewhat satisfying to kill enemies with the pellets, because of the visual feedback and 'having hit' through slight movement prediction. It feels hitting things is slightly more difficult now with the delay - at least it seems I've missed way more shots than I would have with hitscan, as if the monsters were lucky to zig-zac their way through my attacks.
The triple-barreled shotgun kicks ass. An actual improvement over the normal one, and good thing the maximum shell count is increased.

The plasma gun, like Shambler put it, just works, gets the job done. I can't decide whether it's an improvement over the LG and occasionally I would have prefered to be able to switch back to the LG as the plasma felt less powerful (possibly caused by restistances) and dangerous to my self at point blank range. At least it allows shooting under water (right?).

Axes are good, not as useless as the stock axe, and in many cases the axe upgrade is found quickly to make it suitable tool for emergencies.

Monsters:

The new and modified monsters are all very well designed and reasonably balanced. Some seem to have oddly little health while others have surprisingly much within their context (e.g. normal knights vs. crossbow guys). But it works out in the end, no Quoth-grade ammo sponges. Even the vorelings, although I wouldn't have minded if they had had even less.

Z-aware ogres are a bit of a mixed bag. Generally, I think removing their grenade limitations is good and adds to the gameplay. At the same time, the z-awareness can make it quite unfair for the player occasionally. Seems to be as if at short ranges the grenades are very fast and harder to dodge. Glad they have a range limit, too.
Zombies, on the other hand, are still unable to attack vertically. Maybe it's for the best, though.

One thing that bothers me a little is how some of the modified monster models, especially hell knight and ogres, are so thin in their posture compared to the originals.
Knights and zombie knight models, while being good overall, could've used a little touch-up perhaps. Something about them feels wonky to me, maybe because they are so round now?
Same with the updated shambler model. He has been working out obviously, but his death animation is a bit of a diva move...

The monster spawners are tricky. They add tension to the gameplay and a further component of target priorization which is good. However, mappers must be careful not to let this get out of hand. YES, YOU, IONOUS! :) Depending on the situation, this can cause ammo shortages. Most maps handle it well, or at least it worked out for me in most cases, secrets and respawning items etc.

The scrag queen is cool if not slightly overpowered. Or maybe it only felt that way, because the arena in Zendar is fairly small and dead-endy in terms of cover with regards to the additional mobs. You should have added the scrag boss from Travail as well -> scrag kind and queen in a scrag kingdom map with a permanent flight powerup. Hmm, looks like there's now way around AD 2.0 now!

The resistances to certain weapons didn't really look clearly communicated to me. There's mention of particles indicating resistance somewhere here, but during the game I didn't recognize what does what. The only obvious thing is grenades bouncing off certain enemies and rockets seemingly flying through scrags. Not sure I like the latter in particular. While in theory a system like this can add some flavor to the gameplay, I think in Quake, at least for me and in this mod, it's largely irrelevant as I just keep shooting until the monsters are dead unless it's clear they don't take any kind of damage from the current weapon.

Maps:

I had some thoughts on each map, but can't really recall. Let me just repeat what other have probably mentioned and say the maps are amazing. Great detail, many secrets, so much to explore. The rune meta game is a nice touch. Ever so slightly intransparent, but rewarding if completed with a stunning credit map.

Newschool stuff like skyboxes, fog, colored lighting, alpha textures and (excessive) particles was used to great effect. Made things look fresh and modern, yet still sufficiently Quakey. As far as I can tell the new map functions add a lot of potential for unique designs and gameplay/story/event opportunities, much of these probably yet to be explored. 
Fun Fact 
When playing ad_lavatomb, I caught myself thinking "this would look a lot better with colored lighting". In its current state, the level is fairly bright and mostly grey/white. Imagine how it'd look with a more dark and gloomy style and walls tinted in subtle color by candles, flames and flowing runes...
Clear indication how much the rest of the MOD has spoilt me! 
Lavatomb 
I reported the same thing in the past, but I was told that the level does have colored lighting.

I dunno. No matter how hard I squint, I can't see it. I'd love to take a look at the saturation values. Most likely, the person who told me that was mislead by the occasional use of fake tint on the textures themselves (typically near lava). 
Lavatomb Has A 5MB .lit File 
PS. 
It's not even funny how much better it looks without awful DKT3 textures repeated like wallpaper... 
Public Service Announcement 
I am the person formerly active in this community as goldenboy.

Post #270 was not written by me.

Thankfully a friend e-mailed me about this, otherwise I wouldn't even have known that someone abused my old nick for fakenicking and trolling.

I don't post from proxy servers. I have not been active in the Quake community for a long time now.

Get your wits together, you have been trolled. Probably someone who has some undying beef with me.

For the record, I think your mod is cool, Sock. 
Public Service Announcement 
I am the person formerly active here as goldenboy.

Post #293 was not written by me.

At least this time the troll didn't use my nick. Please refer to my more detailed answer here:

http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61381&start=336

In short, someone is fakenicking and shitposting, using my old nick and who knows how many others.

Thanks to the people who alerted me to this. 
Negke. 
Yeah I need to reiterate how much I'm liking the TBS in this, it no longer feels like shells are for easy enemies or saving nails / rockets / cells, it feels like the TBS is a primary choice in it's own right. 
Well Then. 
Fixes: 
* Changed all monsters to use same sound channel for pain/death sounds
* Added spawnflags option to monster_golem for melee/stomp version only
* Added special gib sound for stone enemies (just a pile of rubble)
* Changed infighting formula (ai_combat.qc) to be closer to id setup
* Changed icegolem boss to ignore damage before trigger wakeup
* Fixed compiler error in mon_bossicegolem.qc function iceg_tranB13
* Fixed monster_shalrath not removing voreball attachment when in pain 
 
what will happen with ad_sepulcher? 
 
unfortunatelly it's canceled 
Thats Rather Unfortunate 
 
No Ad_sepulcher ??? :-( 
 
Shattering 
That's truly unfortunate to hear...it looked like it was well on its way...

Maybe GiftMacher has plans to finish it as a separate release? This was originally his e1m3 remake map right? 
Seems Like The Drama Got To Him. 
That really is a shame. I was looking forward to playing that map. 
 
Bonus points go to ad_magna for utilizing pos1 in breakables to manipulate the particle colors. 
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