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<h3>DEVELOPMENT BLOG &nbsp;:&nbsp; 21st November 2008</h3>

<p>
Progress on OBLIGE V3 has been slow,
some might say <i>glacial</i>,
but things are still happening.

<p>
There was several attempts at creating better
whole-level designs for maps.  The first one was
called a "Zone" system, big square areas that would
be populated with rooms or sub-divided into smaller
zones.  Seemed promising, but it didn't work out.
Next I tried a "Room Fab" system, which connected
pre-fabricated room shapes together to make a
whole map.  It was great at making room/hallway
mazes, but lousy when it came to outdoor areas.
The final system is called the "Land Map" and
involves making a crude representation of the map,
where each grid-point is either: ground, building, or liquid.
This one is working quite well.

<p>
The GUI has changed again, especially the section for
Custom Modules.  Getting the custom modules to work
properly (including module-specific options) and
fixing the loading/saving of the CONFIG.CFG file
all took a while, but is working fine now.

<p>
The Quest system, which is responsible for deciding
where to put locked doors and what keys/switches to
use for them, needed to be rewritten.  The old way
decided all the quests first, and branched off
a chain of rooms to fulfil each quest.
That method doesn't work well with the Land-Map system.
The new way works like this:
firstly we connect all the rooms (including outdoor areas),
then we decides how to split the level into smaller
quests and where the locked doors should go.
It's not as easy as it sounds though.

<p>
The Fight simulator, which figures out how much ammo
and health you need to successfully win each battle,
was also rewritten.  It is now simpler and more flexible,
and all the information it needs about the
monsters and weapons of each game
(especially Heretic, Hexen, and Quake)
was greatly improved.

<p>
In the previous update I talked about Quake support.
Since then I have played through Quake II, enjoyed the
game and wanted to add support for it into OBLIGE.
While there is a lot in common between the
compiled map formats of Quake I and II,
there are also some big differences,
especially with collision detection,
where Quake II uses actual brushes
(as opposed to Quake's BSP hulls).
So far I haven't got collision detection working
in Quake II maps yet, so everything (including the player!)
just falls out of the world.

<p>
Some other side projects in OBLIGE have been
fun to work on recently.  Firstly there is code to
generate random DOOM skies, either mountains with
clouds, or starry nights.  This should make the levels
a bit more interesting to look at.
Secondly there is a random Level-Name generator,
which can pick some words out of various lists and
string them together to make TECH, GOTHIC or URBAN
level names.  Big thanks to <b>JohnnyRancid</b> who
supplied a huge number of words and complete
level names (which are used occasionally to
spice things up).

<p>
Finally, and unfortunately, there is still heaps to do
before even a limited demo of OBLIGE III can be released.
Doors don't work yet, switches don't work yet,
monsters/items/scenery are not added into maps yet,
yada yada yada...
I am really looking forward to being able to put out a
WIP (Work In Progress) for people to play with.
Just don't hold your breath :-)

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