Anyway, all is well. Can’t wait to open up Tier 5 with the Defensive Structures I kinda forgot I gotta do. Made a stable commit to the ole’ code base, and now it’s bedtime.

Identified an oversight that I realized is good for the game. I’d previously raised the player speed gains from Tiering Up (player stats go up with tiers), but there’s now a big jump from Tier 1 to T2. But the effect this has is that you are comparatively slow and vulnerable in T1.🧵

Did a one line behavioral improvement: Normally units with no melee attacks will back away from a close target, which makes them shoot slightly less while retreating. I just made it so they won’t try and back away if they’re elevated, for example when manning a wall. Will make a big difference!

And the Meshwalker is in! It’s tied with the Death Wyvern as the highest cost for non-Heroes. It’s a total monstrosity. It’s got one upgrade good vs hordes and one good vs elites, and it targets accordingly. With that, Tier 4 units are done. Next is … ugh, the menus. But THEN Tier 4 will be done.🧵

The Flembrane is in. It’s going to be really good for a decent price point since it’s immobile. It’s special thing is that, if you USE it, it spawns destructible Flem walls to either side, allowing it to bar gates, create choke points, etc. #Gamedev #UZDoom #ZDWars2 #Doom

Strife’s Alien Spectre is in. It was actually super easy. An aerial artillery unit is pretty cruel, it’s gonna kick ass but costs twice the mana of a Hell Noble. Hits like a truck, though!

Got Heretic’s brand new unit done. Then I had to do the Death Wyvern. Between it’s various upgrades it’s got no fewer than 5 different projectiles it can put out: The Blessed Version has elemental attacks, then it can get either a breath attack or a wingflap that damages and scatters ground targets.

Archvile was a pain in my ass. Spent all afternoon on it. It now “Rezzes” just fine, and its firewall attack upgrade passes through enemies but only deals damage once to each enemy as it does so. Still some refining to do on the “Rezzing” but it’s functional. Whew!

Every time I see the UZDoom bio. #ForkedUnderA

They’re gonna be a major hassle, but only work when they have a target. I can see people putting them on walls so they can spew flemoids down onto invading hordes.

And Virus’ Meshfliers are in, so that’s wave 2 of the Tier 4 monsters! The Meshflier is expensive, but it’s a total beast.

CQ’s Maximus is in! Interesting unit to stat. Same cost as a Hell Noble, but a whole Tier later. It’s pretty serious business to make up the difference. Hell nobles rely on poison damage at range whereas Maximii deal the same damage against every target, but not as much as a Noble vs a Bio target.

Took a brief Kirby Air Riders break to implement the Order Bishop. He’s an obscenely long-ranged sniper. Upgrades for either homing, or a triple rocket ability that deals out mondo damage.

It’s Trans day of Remembrance. This is BlueSky, so I think 65% of my personal feed is trans people, so here I am in support. Trans Rights are Human Rights!

It’s International Men’s Day, which is to say that it is NOT a day for Disciples of D’Sparil and Dark Bishops, because they are women.

I’ve got Thursday off this week for Kirby Air Riders, so I’ll get the rest of the 2nd wave of Tier 4 monsters done in hopes of doing Wave 3 this weekend. That will complete Tier 4, then it’s on to Heroes. Sheesh.

That one time I made a thread of ZDW 1 memories on my personal account and got the first map for it wrong …

Me, five minutes after release when someone does something completely off the wall that either breaks everything or works too well: We intend on a long alpha and beta testing period. There’ll be a discord and invites.

Rebecca Heineman’s co-founding of Interplay resulted in the publishing or development of a vast array of games. Fallout, Freespace, Starfleet Command, all under their umbrella and all important to me. She did incredible work and will be very missed.

Me, every weekend when it’s time to code: All other time is just a windup to ZDoom Wars. And gaming. And writing. And watching movies. Look, I just enjoy my weekends.

I don’t dive into politics on here, so when I affirmatively say Trans Rights, you are correct in interpreting that Trans Rights are not a political subject because existence is not a debate. So, as hinted at previously: TRANS RIGHTS #TransgenderAwarenessWeek

Remember folks, there’s a big holiday between Thanksgiving and Christmas: The @thecacowards.bsky.social ! I took off work for it like I do every year!

Every time I jump in for some games of Ghouls vs Humans: Reborn, I get called “Captain ZDoom Wars”. 4 people did it tonight!

Wasn’t up to much Dev this weekend. I’ll pick it back up next week. Got an extra day off I might use to finish this wave of monsters. The final wave of Tier 4 monsters is gonna be tougher. Some detailed behaviors. For example, Flembranes, when you USE them, will spawn slime walls to either side!

Reivers are in. Mean for their size! Their upgrade makes them Stealth (nasty for an air unit, and especially a unit that hurts more in melee). When Blessed (i.e. when spawned during the correct moon phase) they can inflict Plague in melee, which is pretty fucked up.

Pain Elementals are in. We’ll see if I get the other 5 of this wave done this weekend. Got some pointers and got mastery working with the various Pain Elemental spawning calls. Getting REAL familiar with mastery. A projectile spawns a monster which spawns a projectile that spawns a monster, etc.

The ZDoom Discord (which rules) has had this as its logo for years. I think it used to just be during Pride month, but then some bigot whined so it’s just this forever now.

Working on the manual. Other monster entries are usually 3 to a page, but Hell Nobles are pretty complex.

Inspired by @neuralstunner.bsky.social , I have begun throwing notes together for a ZDoom Wars 2 manual. I envision it being like a For Dummies book with little asides to highlight important details. I have made the requisite icons. If nothing else, this game will be documented.

Stealing this one from my personal account. Who knew having a Doom meme on hand would work out?

I decided that Advanced tutorials would be a good idea. Like the basic ones, two 3-minute videos suffice, but go into some mechanics that could use it, for example an explanation of Hero Talents. I also intend to do a roster overview video to go with the 1 minute faction mechanic tutorials.

Didn’t think about how many people have probably never seen the mediocre ending to Strife before the meme week. It makes sense, it’s not like a zillion people have played it, and why would you doubt Macil?

Still stand by this one.

I’m not gonna forget! bsky.app/profile/zdoo...

I had followup thoughts.

Iron Liches are one of my favorite hero designs: They have Ice, Fire, and Wind spells and their Ult is stronger the more of one of those types you have, so you need to specialize. Fire vs elites, Wind vs hordes, and Ice is rounded.

I know this one’s ZDWars specific due to implying a matchup, but Space Marine Corps. was the closest thing to US army I’ve got.

I THINK the Hell Noble is the Unit with the longest actor code so far, at 735 lines. Won’t be surprised if heroes bust 1,500 or so. Sheesh.

W in the chat for the A_RearrangePointers function in UZDoom. I wouldn’t have correct mastery on flemoids spawned by spores spawned by other flemoids without it. Well, I mean you can directly manipulate pointers in ZScript, but I went with the method that didn’t make me think. You get my point.

Every time you finish a game where you played as Heretic: