The Forge Worldcraft News
September 28th, 1998
Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! [6:00pm PDT]
Gabe Newell, managing director of Valve Software, asked me to post this for all you unemployed net admin/web master type people:
Please send all correspondences in regards to this job posting to mona@valvesoftware.com with the subject line of "network admin position". Please include a cover letter, resume, and references. E-mail sent to other addresses at Valve or without this subject line will not be considered.

Valve is looking for a network/systems administrator and require the following skills:

  • Extensive experience installing and configuring Windows NT/95/98
  • Extensive experience installing peripherals and maintaining PCs
  • Experience administering Microsoft Visual Source Safe
  • Experience with Microsoft Exchange, Back Office
  • Experience managing a website
  • Solid C/C++ programming skills
  • TCP/IP Network Administration
  • Experience supporting a medium sized group (15-30 people)
  • Friendly, even temperament
  • Passion for PC Games
These skills are optional, but desirable:
  • InstallShield or Wise Installer Experience

-autolycus
September 18th, 1998
Heeeeeeeeeeres Wally! [9:05am PDT]
Ok, I missed a few releases here, but Wally 1.23 is out now. The newest version adds gamma correction exactly like Worldcraft uses (so you can make it brighter without affecting the actual color values). That's pretty damn cool. You can find the new version of Wally on the Wally homepage, and i'll be mirroring the file locally soon. RAD! [9:15am PDT]
Speaking of news i've missed lately, my favorite qrad replacement, ArghRad, is up to version 1.03b. I don't know if I need to explain that ArghRad is one of the bestest and top notchiest qrad alternatives around. If I do, well...uh...whatever, reread the last sentence. :) I'll mirror this locally when I have the time, but right now, check it out at Radiosityland (which is pretty much local anyway). Dammit Hillary, I'm having inapropriate relationship right now! [9:20am PDT]
Hillary (could it be? do you think? naaaa, it couldn't be! hehe) sends word that...well...i'll just post what was sent.
Impulse 98 Map and Model Making Competition

As part of The Australian LAN tournament, Impulse 98 (covering Quake 1, Quake 2, Half Life and Team Foretess), there will be again a map making competition. This year we are seeking three Quake 2 Duel maps to be used in the 64 players double elimination competition.

The Author of the winning map will receive Diamond Monster Fusion 16MB 2D/3D Video Card and 32MB of RAM. The Winning map will also be used for the Quake 2 duel final.

There Will also be a Quake 2 Model Map Making Competition run as well with the prize of Diamond Monster MMX300 Sound Card (bundled with Half-Life Day 1) and 32MB of RAM.

For more details go to the Impulse98 site at http://impulse98.playnow.com.au

Thanks

Hillary[SoQ]
Impulse98.playnow.com.au - Impulse 98 --
www.smart.net.au/soq -- Sons Of Quad --

-autolycus
September 14th, 1998
Oh, by the way [10:00am PDT]
I just wanted to say thanks to Jim Molinets, Peter Mack, Zor, and robs for their help and question answering ... made writing up and understanding the Ground Zero entities alot easier. Thanks guys! Now I just need to go out and find this pack in the stores so I can do some testing. =)

Quake II Mission Pack 2: Ground Zero [9:30am PDT]
40 new entities. Dozens and dozens of modifications and improvements. Exciting new possibilities. This is what Ground Zero editing means to you. Here's what's new...

ammo_disruptor
ammo_flechetes
ammo_nuke
ammo_prox
ammo_tesla
dm_tag_token
func_force_wall
func_door_secret2
func_plat2
hint_path
info_player_coop_lava		 info_teleport_destination
item_compass
item_doppleganger
item_double
item_ir_goggles
item_sphere_defender
item_sphere_hunter
item_sphere_vengeance
key_nuke
key_nuke_container
misc_nuke_core		 monster_carrier
monster_daedalus
monster_medic_commander
monster_stalker
monster_turret
monster_widow
monster_widow2
target_anger
target_blacklight
target_killplayers		 target_orb
target_steam
trigger_disguise
trigger_teleport
turret_invisible_brain
weapon_chainfist
weapon_disintegrator
weapon_etf_rifle
weapon_plasmabeam
weapon_proxlauncher

There are some really cool new things in the mission pack! I haven't played it yet, but from a design standpoint, there's tons of fun stuff you can do. You might notice from the above list that trigger_teleport / info_teleport_destination is back (yay!!). Also, one of the coolor things is the target_anger entity, which lets you make one entity (monster) shoot at another (monster or other) entity. There's alot of possibilities with that.

Also included in the above zip is a file called GroundZero.def which can be used with QERadiant/QE4 type editors. This is the file I use to get the information from the FGD, and is straight from the Rogue code. It contains all the code comments for the complete Quake2/Ground Zero entity set.

Problems
The GZ code added a number of new spawnflag settings to objects. Worldcraft only has checkboxes for spawnflag values up to 2048, and some of these new flags go beyond that. The most prevalent of these is in the Appearflags (the spawnflags that control what skill level an entity is present at, or not at). The following are the values for the Appearflags spawnflags...

     256 .. not in Easy
     512 ..: not in Normal
     1024 .. not in Hard
     2048 .. not in Deathmatch
     4096 .. not in coop

func_door_rotating spawnflag contains the above Appearflags, as well as...

     8192 .. Inactive

func_rotating entity also has an extra spawnflag...

     8192 .. Acc/Dcc

Solution
For now, if you want to make use of one of the above "extra" spawnflags, you'll need to add it directly to the .map code. This is fairly simple - find the entity in the .map code and find the "spawnflags" key (or add one if you have to). Simply add the above values to the spawnflag value.

For example, if you have a func_rotating with a spawnflag value of 1 (which makes it start "on"), and you wanted to make it not appear in coop, and you wanted it to have acceleration/deceleration, you would add 4096 and 8192 to the spawnflags for a total of 12289.

This is obviously just a short term solution. Hopefully we can have a patch out soon that will allow for the extra spawnflag checkboxes that are needed. However, this is just me hoping. That decision is totally up to Valve.

And in case you missed it above =) ...

-autolycus
September 4th, 1998
Hexen II FGD v1.0! [7:50am PDT]
EuctecTic (aka The Man!!) came through with his own revision of the Hexen II FGD which he assures me is quite complete and correct. Since my copy of Hexen II has long since returned to the dust from which it had sprung forth, I can't test this, but I'm sure its perfectly fine. -autolycus
September 2nd, 1998
Hexen II FGD? Problems? Anyone? [2:00pm PDT]
Hello? tap tap tap Can anybody hear me? =) I've received about one report of a problem with the Hexen II FGD (worldcraft hexen2 entity support). Is that all there is to it? Come on all you Hexen2 designers, it's in your best interest to stand up and complain now! =)

-autolycus
September 1st, 1998
half o with fee thinggy! [3:45pm PDT]
Why the hell is that so funny??? I can't explain it. It just is.

-autolycus
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