Zandronum

So I have been working on a little set of wads that alters how the puzzle items and keys in hexen are handled. Right now, all that this does is move some maps around so that you can play the whole original level set and the deathkings level set in one instance of the engine, and replaces all of the puzzle items with global acs variables that keep track of how many of each puzzle item was collected. So right now, puzzle items act like a shared inventory of sorts. When one is picked up, placeholder inventory items are added to every player so that he/she can see what puzzle items are available to the party. In beta 2, there is an optional file that will share keys with the party as well. The puzzle items also disappear when picked up and won't respawn even in netgames.

NOTE: If you wish to play Deathkings with this, make sure that the original maps wad is loaded before the expansion maps wad. The patched maps only work with the puzzle item wad.

Beta 5 (Everything here):
Puzzle: http://static.[bad site]/wads/hexcoo ... zle_b5.wad
Keys: http://static.[bad site]/wads/hexcoo ... eys_b3.wad
Maps (Hexen): http://static.[bad site]/wads/hexcoo ... xen_b4.wad
Maps (Hexdd): http://static.[bad site]/wads/hexcoo ... xdd_b4.wad

Survival Patch Beta 2: http://static.[bad site]/wads/hexcoo ... val_b2.wad
Survival Patch Beta 1: http://static.[bad site]/wads/hexcoo ... val_b1.wad

Survival Test Server:
108.61.83.66:15089
[bad site]:15089

NOTE: The survival patch should work on it's own, but it is also fully compatible with the rest of these patches. It only works hosted on an actual server and is likely very glitchy. If you find any bugs with this, please report them here. I'm pretty sure that this patch can break access to the 4th hub's secret as well if that map is accessed followed by all players dying/leaving. Resets every new hub... hopefully.
PS: Run this in cooperative

Spoiler: Changes (Open)

Survival Beta 2:
Made hub reset a little more robust
Should work with any MAPXX format hubs
sv_maxlives support (up to 99 lives)

Survival Beta 1:
Initial release

Beta 5:
Fixed Nave line activation types
Puzzle items reset on map01 and map41
Removed pickup messages for singleplayer
Some other stuff i have forgotten about

Beta 4:
Fixed Castle of Grief clock gear bug
Fixed puzzle item reset bug

Beta 3:
Fixed Inventory bug
Fixed Zandronum sound bug
Added Tag property to placeholder items so they look nice with the invquery CCMD
Started making some of the code look nicer

Beta 2:
Added key sharing
Made hudmessages when keys or puzzle items are picked up
Fixed respawning item bug in Zandronum
Split wads into multiple files

Beta 1:
Initial test release

Working features:
Proper hub reset for survival mode
sv_maxlives in survival (up to 99 lives)
Able to run original hexen and deathkings simultaneously
Puzzle items displayed in inventory bar. Updated for every player if any are picked up or used.
Deathmatch level set for Zandronum using CMPGNINF/BOTINFO
Keys are now also shared for the whole party (Thank you Synert)
Messages show up to alert players of grabbed items in netgames
Force players to spectate on death/rejoin while a survival game is in progress.

Known Bugs:
Hexen hub 5 and Hexdd hub 3 exit text doesn't display the proper ending sequence It's for multiplayer anyway, so I probably won't fix this
Inventory puzzle items cannot be used directly, instead you have to use the wall/decoration (not sure how to tackle this one)
Inventory isn't reset on maps 1 and 41 (Zandronum only)

Hello Meaty, i've been trying to configure a server myself for Hexen co-op play, and these are great!

I made a thread not too long ago asking some questions regarding Hexen, perhaps you can help me a bit. As you know, the key variables make manually forcing map-changes game breaking. For instance, in the Seven Portals, if you manually switch to that level all the puzzles/doors etc. are reverted, no matter where you were before.

This is unfortunate because, I was trying to find a way to make the game have consequences for dying. As of right now, you can brute-force the game on co-op -- kill a few monsters, die, respawn, kill a few more, and keep going. This takes the fun/challenge out of the game, as success, at some point, is guaranteed. I've been attempting to configure a server to where each player has a set amount of lives--after this, they can no longer respawn; the only way to do so is through a map change. If all players in the server run out of lives, then the server reverts to the state of the most recent map change. I understand this may be tricky, as it would have to incorporate the states of puzzles and open doors in different levels. However, the game keeps track of it somehow....I just don't know, as I'm pretty noobish.

So, I was wondering -- do you happen to know of any resolution to this? I've tried forcing my server to cooperative survival, and even survival....but it keeps reverting to Cooperative, despite the fact the server will restart under reason : game mode change. If you could share any insight, it would be greatly appreciated!

I'm a little busy with school lately and i have a few updates to this i still need to upload (EDIT: done). (Mostly map bugs fixed) IIRC, back in the days of skulltag, Hexen survival never worked properly due to the hub system used in Hexen, and the engine would simply revert it to coop. I have a few ideas for ACS that might adapt normal coop to survival, but i'm not ready to officially announce something like that since it is a bit more involved than simply remembering which items are grabbed.

For the key variables being broken... it is likely due to you using the "map" ccmd. try again with "changemap" instead. the map command loads the map as if started from a new game which includes resetting all acs variables, even world/global variables.

Anyway... if no more game-breaking bugs show up in this release, I can try to start working on some sort of a survival coop adaptation to hexen. I'm open to ideas on how to handle that.

EDIT:
So I have given hexen survival some thought... Right now i need to keep track of which players should be still alive, and simply unflag that player upon death or disconnection. These will need to be reset when all players are dead or when the next level should happen. This part is where i am stuck... should this happen when moving to a new hub or between maps? Right now I am leaning towards new hubs, but sometimes that can be a while before new players will be able to join. Let me know what you guys think.

So, do the puzzle items and keys get placed in people who join late into the game? Like, you get puzzle X from a map, exit the map, player joins. Does he have puzzle X?

Besides this, I guess this is a much needed thing that needed to be done. Maybe people will play Hexen...

Yes, people who join late receive the puzzle items/keys in their inventory as if they had been in the game all along. I guess maybe my wording wasn't as clear as it could have been. I am hoping that this may spark some interest into hexen coop as it is a very unique game and is a welcome change of pace from doom, at least for me.

It's about time someone worked on improving Hexen MP! It deserves more love, it's only control in Mods/Maps isn't even really Hexen, just it's resources. :|

Okay so i made a best-ever test server for the survival patch. I'm expecting a lot of bugs, but hopefully the thing is at least playable. If the players die, it should restart the whole hub and only allow new players in when a new hub opens. you have 10 seconds to join after the first player comes in. I might have some time today to try it out myself and will appreciate any feedback. If you find a bug, I prefer you report it here rather than telling me ingame. Also feel free to open up the wad yourself. All the acs source is available.

Anyway... heres the server address:
108.61.83.66:15089
[bad site]:15089

Double post for update...

Beta 2 is up, check the OP.

Code was cleaned up a lot... hopefully a few bugs went away with it.
sv_maxlives support is added and should work, but it only works with up to 99 lives. If this is really a problem, it isn't hard to change.

Anyway the test server will be updated in a little bit, I'll edit this post then.

EDIT:
108.61.83.66:15089

If anyone is curious what I still want to implement before I put this one on the shelf, here is a list for ya.

1. Reset the hub after the 10 second warm-up
2. Have a delay period and message after players lose
3. Maybe rework the HUD
4. Anything else to better emulate Zandronum's survival mode