Disclaimer
Everything you Read here is my own opinion and in no way, shape, or form represents the opinion of ION Storm or any other associated entity.

Doug Myres
"The Fresh One"
"Dougie Fresh"
"Piggly Wiggly"
"The Man"

This is my last posting for a very long  time will mark this one day in memory of Doug Myres.  He was a good friend... and a loved soul.  We are all going to miss him greatly. 

Doug, wherever you are, I hope you have all of the beach, sun, and fun that you can handle for an eternity.  Walk along the shores of Australia, fish the greatest lakes, hike the tallest mountains, and may you be greeted with the same amount of love and warmth as you have greeted everyone in your life.

We loved ya man!

-Noel

So,
I have been thinking about getting a DVD player, but there are so many different types!  I mean the first time I saw Saving Private Ryan on a DVD vs. a VHS it was a night and day thing.  So I am getting all excited about this... if anyone has any suggestions on a good low cost, but high-end DVD player please let me know.   

*boink*

-N03L

01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01011000 01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01011000 01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01011000 01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01011000 01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01011000 01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01011000 01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01011000 01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01011000 01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01011000 01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01011000 00000000 00000000

Okies,
I was reading a kind of cool article at:  http://www.3dactionplanet.com/features/articles/community/
This led me to start thinking about many other aspects of the community that formed and is still around in regards to the Daikatana user base.  I went from trying to get out of the office and into the real world as much as possible back into a mild crunch for some demos and patches.  Then from here we are back into another (more milder) crunch for Anachronox.  However, I didn't know if anyone, or myself for that matter, thanked all of the people who helped make the Daikatana community what it is/was.  So, deep from the bottom of my groins, I am sending out a thanks to everyone that had anything to do with Daikatana.  *gooo*

 

L8TRZ

-N03L

=============================================================================
Part II
=============================================================================
Ok,
So it seems that Benjamin Wartel had some VERY interesting things to say about this as well.  Although I have to admit that both sound as if they are heading down the same path. 

"I've seen a meaning for the title of this movie in a few reviews. All say that the title is an ancient Chinese proverb. crouching tiger, hidden dragon gets its name from a chinese proverb that refers to hidden heroes that emerge from the fact that nothing is in fact what it seems.  The title Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon draws upon an ancient Chinese saying, a proverb used to characterise situations and places where hidden heroes and legends dwell; a place where nothing is as it seems. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an old Chinese proverb that means "what you see isn't what you always get".

Sorry, I know this is getting a bit repetitive, but I wanted to give you an idea of how often this explanation is used for the title of this movie.  Also, directly frong Ang Lee: 
Ang Lee: Well, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the name of the novel which we adapted from. And this proverb is used to characterize situations and places wherein there dwell hidden heroes and legends, and where nothing is as it seems.

I saw another translation of the proverb which said it means to never trust a pretty face, but I would doubt that is the correct translation."

So, I would guess that the former is a more accurate depiction of what the title could mean or does mean.  However, I got one real question... who knows the actress who played Jen and how does one go about meeting someone like that!  I am one crouching tiger that has a hidden dragon for her!  (reeeooorrrrr)   >:)

=============================================================================
Part I
=============================================================================
Wow,
Well I stand corrected.  It appears that Ryan has a some insight to the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon title:

"

You've got it backwards, Jen is the Crouching tiger, Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat) and Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) are the hidden dragons. Possibly Jade Fox (Pei-pei Cheng) is the Dragon. Why? In Oriental philosophy, the Tiger reacts to his situation, lashing out and striking with awesome fury, but lacks forethought and can get trapped. The Dragon takes his time and has options as to which path he will take when (if) he chooses to strike, and always has an alternate plan.

 

The scene in the resturant where jen attacks all the fighters who just wnated a lesson typifies this.Li Mu Bai always being a step ahead of Jen shows him as a dragon as well ."

So, there you have it.  Unless someone else can come up with a better theory... then I am gonna run with this.  Sounds like he knows what he is talking about... anyone care to challenge this?  :)

 

L8TRZ

-N03L

So,
There is this movie...Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  I have to admit, it is probably one of my all time favorite 'Kung Fu' flicks of all time.  Even though it is sub-titled, which can sometimes force one to have to watch a movies a few times in order to get the entire gist of the ordeal, this one was quite pleasant.  If you haven't already seen it, then I would highly recommend it.  For those of you who have seen it, I have a good question:

If Jen is the 'hidden dragon' who is the crouching tiger?

Until next time!

-N03L

Ok,
Now I get this email from Luke and Tom screaming and yelling at the top of their keyboard lungs!  Chrono Trigger PSX-2 they say!  The images of high-poly rendered chrono trigger characters start flowing like a river of chocolate milk through my mind.  The thought raises the hair on the back of my neck.  Yes... Squaresoft is looking to the people of the community to determine if there is a market for Chrono Trigger... if you never played Chrono Trigger then you have definitely missed out on one of the better games of the 90's.  So, if you are a fanatical RPG future-fantasy buff like myself then you need to jot out a quick email to Squaresoft and tell them that you would be interested in something like this... even if you aren't really sure but you might even consider it I would send them an email... Where do you send an email to ?

support@squaresoft.com

So, send it off... get them all pumped up... and maybe... just maybe ... we will see one of the better games get even BETTER!

Oh yeah... have one of those Merry Type Christmas times with all that present tearing, food filling, family gathering type stuff... and if I don't get to the ol' .plan file before the new year.  Everyone have a good time... but for God's sake be smart about your 'partying' and keep safe.

Hmmm, and on another note... there was a minor save game issue that I was just made aware of concerning Daikatana and Wyndrax.  It appears that there is a possible 'time' that you can save the game on the Wyndrax level (right before you get to him) that can get corrupted.  This will cause the game to crash if you try to fight him from a load game... and I say this with extreme caution ... because I need to take a much closer look at the problem.  If I get a chance, after the New year, I will see what can be done.  For now, if you have been running into this problem and have a save game before the Wyndrax level then load that and try to play through the Wyndrax level without a save... hahaha... hey it makes it that much more of a challenge!  :)

Until next time!

-N03L

Ok,
So there is this rumor going around that I am a tad bit paranoid.  This is completely ridiculous!  If there is anyone out there who seems to agree then let me know who you have been talking to... I need to talk to them as well!  

On another note, today has been a very good day.  Switched over my ISP and got almost twice the speed as my old ISP...and they even screwed up the account  information so I could only log in at 64k.  Tonight I get both channels... so if you happen to be playing Quake III or UT and see a QIGONG running around stomping your head in... then it is very possibly me.  

Let's see, I am turning 31 years old tomorrow.  It is really funny... no seriously.... it is.  You see, if you are younger than me then sooner or later you will be hitting the same marker and will think back to yourself and say "Wow, I am getting older..."  You really don't think much about it until you get there.  Either case, I am still going to keep the same 'kid' approach with everything I do.  I like being a kid.. it is just down-right fun.

Anyway, I think I am going to do something crazy this weekend, but as of right now I haven't figured out what it is.  I was going to go Wake Boarding but that is out due to the stupid A$$ weather (too cold).  So, if you live in the Dallas area and know of anything crazy happening this weekend then send me an email and let me know... if you happen to be a gorgeous chick with a good attitude then let me know... hell if you happen to have a heart beat let me know.  *grin*

So, with all of this said, I am back to working on the 'project'.

Ya ya ya... badda da da da... *boing*

-N03L

It seems there has been a little confusion with the patches and what they do fix and what they do not fix.  There was a little bit of confusion due to the fact that we released a U.S. 1.0 to 1.1 patch and then realized that we might as well just release the 1.0 to 1.2 for the foreign versions due to the latency between releases.  Thus, if you have the U.S. version then both the 1.0 to 1.1 and the 1.1 to 1.2 will contain all of the below fixes.  If you have any other version and you obtain a patch for it then all of the below fixes will be in that one patch.  (i.e. UK, Italian, French, German, Spanish)

Daikatana Patch Fixes (<1.0 to 1.1 & 1.1 to 1.2 US> <1.0 to 1.2 all others>)

Here's the list of Bug Fixes and Additions to Daikatana that are contained in this patch.  To apply this patch, you must have a FULL INSTALL of Daikatana in place.
 ============
  BUG FIXES:
============
<All foreign versions 1.0 to 1.2 start here>
<U.S. 1.1 to 1.2 only starts here>
Power of two texture problems corrected on the following maps:

to set them from the console line-->        example:     > maps_dm "e1m1b e1dm1"
this will rotate the deathmatch maps between e1m1b and e1dm1.

E1M7A: Industructable fan prevents access to vents is now fixed.
With unlimited saves turned on screenshots were not showing up. *fixed*
Death taunts were not always correct. *fixed*
E2M4e: The iron gates did not close behind the players when they entered the cerberus area. *fixed*
Mishima guards kept opening locked doors to get to the player. *fixed*
E2M5e: Clip error at door on level exit is now fixed.
E4M1B: Light floating in the air is fixed.
Episode 1 crash: Sidekicks crashing the game when issuing the command for them to 'get' a hosportal is now fixed.
E1M1B: Slaughterskeets not coming out of their holes is now fixed.
Screen flashes like it is being lit improperly when the player gets hit is now fixed.
<U.S. 1.1 to 1.2 only ends here>

<U.S. 1.0 to 1.1 only starts here>
* Multiple graphic cards are selectable within the game, including Voodoo cards. If you are having problems with Daikatana running slow with your Voodoo, after  applying this patch, run Daikatana, go to the VIDEO menu and at the top of the  screen you'll see a pull-down menu.  Pull it down and select "Voodoo Mini ICD"  and click on Apply Changes.

 * Fixed sidekicks not spawning between level changes and savegames (where you  couldn't finish the game) 

* Added unlimited saves option.  If ON when starting a level, SaveGems will  not  spawn. Save function will no longer reference the save count when attempting  to save unless the option is turned back off.

* Texture size problem with Voodoo cards
* All map bugs have been fixed
* All Windows 2000 bugs have been fixed (including level loading)
* Fixed sidekick speaking and pathing problems
* Froginators and RoboSkeets have been changed per skill level
* Removed CD copy protection check
* Demo recording and playback works( Use the standard Quake II commands)
* Fixed crash when changing your name during a multiplayer game
* Fixed crash after a COOP game restore
* Fixed memory leaks
* You cannot save on moving platforms anymore (which caused a bug)
* Fixed multiplayer Mikiko Speed Boost bug (after dying, her Speed wasn't  setting correctly)
* Default value for RATE cvar is now 25000
* Cannot apply skill points to skills which are already at 5
* The autoload slot should no longer show up in the save menu

===============
  NEW FEATURES:
===============
* User-typed messages appear in a larger typed font in the message history
* Added dedicated server "message of the day" cvar (motd).  This is echoed to  clients when they connect.  The pipe symbol '|' may be used to separate lines in  the message.  Example: motd "Extreme Destruction Server | Prepare to die!"
* Incorporated advanced joystick axis support
* Skin color in COOP now works
* You can toggle Deathmatch Taunts ("Took the Hardwood", etc.)
* In COOP mode, Boss monsters change their difficulty based on number of  players
* Added double click to multi-player join menu
* Added death mp3 files for killing by telefrag and daikatana
* Added CTF and DeathTag messages for flag/bomb capture.  You can toggle  them in the Options menu by choosing "CTF/DT hints".
* Incorporated new weapon selection menu to the multi-player menu, allowing  selection of individual weapons, rather than slots.
* Episode 3 water is no longer freezing in deathmatc

* "Instagib" mod added for Deathmatch, CTF and DeathTag.  You randomly start with a different weapon when you respawn.  Each episode has two weapons to choose from.  They are:
 E1: Ion Blaster, Sidewinder
 E2: Venomous, Trident
 E3: Bolter, Ballista
 E4: Slugger, Kineticore

* Map rotation is now set with CVARs, depending on the type of multiplayer mode  you're in.
  maps_dm "<map1> <map2> ..."
  maps_ctf "<map1> <map2> ..."
  maps_deathtag "<map1> <map2> ..."
  (example: maps_dm "e1m1b e1dm1 e1dm1a")

=================
  IMPORTANT NOTE: 
=================

Your savegames will NOT work after installing this patch.  To resume gameplay AS CLOSE to where you were, you'll need to play that level over from the beginning.  If you're close to the beginning already, there's almost no difference.  If you are pretty far into the level, this means you'll have to play over from the beginning of the level.  To do this, follow these steps:

(1) Make sure you have "+set cheats 1 +set console 1" set in the Daikatana  shortcut properties.

(2) Run Daikatana and find your most recent savegame.  Remember the name of  the level.

(3) You will need to load up that level directly by typing "map <name>" where  <name> matches the list below:

 e1m1a - Marsh                      e1m2a - Sewer System
 e1m3a - Solitary                    e1m4a - Crematorium
 e1m5a - Processing              e1m6a - Icelab
 e1m7a - The Vault                 e2m1a - Lemnos Isle
 e2m2a - Catacomb                e2m3a - Athens
 e2m4a - Acropolis                 e2m5a - Lair of Medusa
 e3m1a - Plague Village          e3m2a - Passage
 e3m3a - Dungeon                  e3m4a - Wyndrax Tower
 e3m5a - Crypt of Nharre       e3m6a - Gharroth's Throne
 e4m1a - Alcatraz                  e4m2a - Beneath the Rock
 e4m3a - Tower of Crime       e4m4a - Mishima Labs
 e4m5a - Mishima's Hideout    e4m6a - SEAL Training Facility

You will start with the proper sidekicks in tow and have no inventory (which is normal).  The last thing you need to do is give yourself the proper weapons.  You must use the cheat "weapon_give_#" where # is the number of the weapon you wish to give yourself (the value is from 1 to 6).  This chart will tell you which weapons you need to give yourself based on which map you're cheating to:

e1m2, e2m2, e3m2, e4m2: 1-2
e1m3, e2m3, e3m3, e4m3: 1-3
e1m4, e2m4, e3m4, e4m4: 1-4
e1m5, e2m5, e3m5, e4m5: 1-5
e1m6, e3m6, e4m6: 1-6
e1m7: 1-6

For example, if you were resuming play on Wyndrax Tower, you would type (at the console): "weapon_give_1;weapon_give_2;weapon_give_3;weapon_give_4" and press Enter.  Then you'll be back as close as possible to where you left off, weapon-wise.
<U.S. 1.0 to 1.1 only ends here>
<All foreign versions 1.0 to 1.2 end here>

So that is about as comprehensive a list as it will come.  These are all of the fixes.  There are some memory allocation corrections for windows 2000, but all in all the above list is the skinny... the deal... its the jig.  If you have questions or problems finding things relating to the patches please feel free to email me.

*boing*

-N03L

Anyone who has worked on Unreal or done any modifications feel free to write to me and let me know what you have done.  I am always up for discussion as to what are better methods to doing something or reading other people's opinions.   

Ok, now for my political rants and raves.  I thought of an idea that might help us come to a middle grounds with the whole FDA testing process and death row/prisons.  Why don't we just turn people who are on death row into cases for the FDA to be able to run tests on new products under question?  Along these same lines, we all know the infamous white lab rat-mice who showed signs of cancer when being exposed to saccharin products (i.e Sweet & Low, etc...) , so we come to find out that only the lab rat-mice react to it in the manner that they did and that it does not have the same effects on humans.  Why don't we just bypass this whole rat thing and start running tests on food products through the prisons?  Not only would food processing companies get a plethora of test cases, but our cost to supplying goods like food, clothing, soaps, etc.. would be cut down.  The companies could use this as a tax write off and the prisons could redirect the funds towards helping rehabilitate prisoners.  I know this sounds cruel, but then again most people that are in prisons are there because they did something completely wrong and they are paying the price for it...or are they?  You see, we pay the taxes thus we pay for them to hang out in prison.  If we are paying to have them there then why can't they do something in return as favor towards a society who is paying to keep them alive?  If they use themselves as test platforms for new products (etc..) then they can not only make amends for their illegal activities but they could possibly help someone who isn't a thief or a murderer  live a longer healthier life.

I don't think this is the ultimate plan, but I do think we need to start looking at other more radical solutions to our current everyday sociological problems.  I realize these methods sound radical and almost 'nazi', however there are problems that we are coming to in the near future that I don't think most Americans realize.  Most Americans feel that we should try preserving life at whatever cost possible.  Even if the one life has taken several lives from its own actions we still find people wanting to preserve that one life.  The only 'pro' I can see from this attitude is 'pro-murder'.  Sure, in effect what we are doing is no better than the person's crime itself if we support death row or even the theory introduced above, but the other way to look at it is all of the lives that will be saved by sacrificing the one.  

If anyone has any thoughts on this I am open for discussion (when I have time so if you don't get a reply it probably means I am a little busy).

L8TRZ

-N03L

I have been working on the foreign version of the patches.  We are next to complete on these as they need to be tested and approved.  Once this is done they should be posted for download.  Along these same lines, the 1.1 English version to the 1.2 English version patch should come out around the same time... perhaps a little earlier due to the fact that the differences between 1.1 to 1.2 are so minor it shouldn't take as long to test. 

Now for the dirty stuff!  >:)

Ok, ION Austin is a party group.  No let me re-state this... ION Austin is a bunch of animals that you can hold a highly intelligent conversation with... uh... that is if you are not too blasted to understand them.  Yes, this all can mean one thing: I went to the ION Austin party and was very much impressed.  Not only did I get to see Warren sing, but I also got a chance to kick it with Satan's Cheerleaders.  Those girlZ are a nasty bunch... and I do mean that in a very good way.  

Ok, so I am not going to give away a URL, but I imagine that sooner or later Killcreek is gonna send out the URL to her collection of 'pictures' from the party.  I would like to take this time to post a disclaimer about a particular picture of me... 

yes it is that big.  :P

With all of that said, I would like to thank the Austin team for not only one of the most kick ass games but for one hell of a good time... and I do mean I had a good time!  Hey, it isn't every day that you get to Wake board all day, hang out on a house boat, kick it at a bar with Satan's Cheerleaders, and then finally end the evening with a small little party over at Chris Robert's 'little house'... OMG it is HUGE!  (if you ever go there watch out for attack trained cats with no tails... MEOW!)

Oh yeah... Russ.. next time you try to jump your boat off of a rock make sure there is WATER on the other side... it helps.  :)  (Really though... we are all glad you didn't kill yourself... )

GWOG... too bad we didn't get more time to chat but the bar keeps were busy filling me with shots... ;)

BAR KEEP MORE WINE!

L8TRZ

-N03L

"I'm in dallas, where can I make the drop? One can o' spam and one 1/2 eaten twinkie, that's the deal right?"
*rubs hands together and grins*
Guess he has some Mike Wilson fetish?

"Take away all of his movies of pigs &$@!* guys, freak porn, and strange death photos."
This guy must have known him real well... hmmm.

"Have him publish only sport hunting games."
Hell...I kind of like taking a gun to Bambi's head.

"Put his cage ( I imagine he is in a gimp cage, right? ) in John Romero's office with the old 'John Romero will make you his bitch' add.  Have an admission fee to see this."
Hmmm, I see we must like Pulp Fiction?

"Strip him naked and leave him in Greenville. Still in the cage."
Same person, must have a fetish for cages and guys with long hair?

"Keep him, fund raising is in process..."
Did I mention that Mike and I were gonna split this?  >:)

"Chain him to a wall and make Hilda the 230lb nun teach Mike the proper use of the Lord's name."
I wasn't to sure what to think about this one... *yikes*

"Let him go man!  How else will we have crawfish boils!?"
Good point...

So, after much debate, I have decided to let him go... yes it was a tough choice, but I think in the end we all know that it was the best thing to do...besides think of all the free Crawfish I will be getting out of the deal!  It beats the hell out of Spam and a half eaten Twinkie!

So anyways on the other side of town...

I got a great chance to wake board this weekend.  I might have to add that I had a complete and total blast!  Wake boarding is one of those sports that once you start it kind of digs its claws into your spine until you can't stop thinking about it.  Anywho, I did much better this last time.  Once I can start catching good air I might have some pictures taken and post them up!  I should get some of Mark Fletcher so you can see his Silver Surfer style jumping, but I will let him decide if he wants the public to see him... he is kinda shy like that.  

Everything else is going great and is right on track.  Until next time... 

-N03L

Okies then,

As most of you know by now, I have kid-napped Mike Wilson.  I am currently holding him hostage for a can of Spam and a half eaten Twinkie... hey I would even take money, but that would constitute different terms.  We can work this two ways, someone can give me a couple hundred million dollars and I promise not to let him loose onto our community again...or I can get my Spam and my half eaten Twinkie and Mike can go free..  Either way, I would be interested to hear from people as to what I should do with him...while he is at my mercy. 

Muahahahahahahahahaha!  >:)

Until Next time,

-N03L

As far as this weekend, I would like to thank Adrian C. for his warm open hospitality... we all had a great time and well I haven't gotten out too much lately so I would like to say thanks again:

Thanks! ;)

 On another note, I am going to start investing in pain killers of one form or another... got up on a wake board this weekend thanks to Mark Fletcher's kick ass boat and both Mark and Bill's good advice.  However, I think yesterday and today I have come to realize the actual amount of pressure exerted upon one's arms when being pulled up out of the water... my arms are toasted.  It is like a challenge to type and stuff... grrr.  Welp, just means I need to work out more...*sigh* but I will tell you what, getting up on a wake board is a pretty kick-ass feeling!

Anyway, 'things' are progressing very well and everything looks right on track. 

Until Next time,

-N03L

-N03L

As far as the Doom 2000 thing... I sure do hope John C. plans on picking Mark Fletcher's brain COMPLETELY while making the game.  Mark is, and I am sure that the community will agree, THE MAN to go to if you want to make the next generation Doom 2000.  I think the rest of the Doom community will definitely say that while Quake and all of the predecessors are great games, none ever matched the quick 'twitch' play of Doom or Doom2.

On a final note, I would like to send out a major thanks to Bioware for making MDK 2.   I just had to say that I have been playing that game on the Dreamcast for almost a month now (perhaps a little longer) and have had a complete blast!  You guys did a great job!  If you haven't played MDK 2, and you like hard core action, cool puzzles, and whacked out humor... then you are gonna spring w00d with MDK 2.

-N03L

Daikatana has hit the shelves!  Along with this comes the inevitable... the dreaded patch.  However, never fear too much regarding this.  ChalreZ, Shawn, and of course myself have been working on fixes for things that we have come to discover since the demo release on the code side, and I know the mappers have been adding some fixes and a few extra goodies to make the patch that much more welcome when it is released.

As far as Shawn and Charles are concerned, I know they have both been working in their 'areas' as I have been working on AI, World, and of course Sidekick related issues.  Some of the windows 2000 issues that have been solved are relating to level transitions and I know Shawn is working on one particular load game issue under Win2k.  So, if you are running 2000 and have had some crashes when transitioning from one level to the next, don't freak too much... the fix is coming soon.  As for things relating to the Sidekicks, well one of the additions that I have added is the ability for them to use those nifty health trees, medical kits (episode 4), and of course the various forms of the hosportal (in episode 2 it is the fountain of life).

On another note, things have been quite a change in pace and I think everyone is just 'adjusting' back to a normal schedule.  It is times like these that make me understand the whole game developer's cycle and why there are times of complete chaos and then there are times of nice peaceful bliss.  Either way, it is one fantastic ride.

I am sure there will be a good handful of bugs sent our way once Daikatana gets into full circulation.  As for when the patch is going to be released?  Can't say... because it is really a matter of how many more bugs pop up between now and the next few weeks.

Also, I would like to send out a special thanks to the entire Daikatana community for being so patient in waiting for Daikatana.  I hope that we have made all of your waiting worth while.  Enjoy! 

-N03L

MARCH 28th 2000

Sorry guys,

N03L

Hahaha,
I just was reported a very funny bug.  It appears that if you stand right next to the exact location of a specific monster and start using a 'specific' type of weapon which does an insane amount of damage, the monster will die within the first 10 milliseconds of its existance.  A problem?  Well... in the case of the person who might have this weapon at this point of the game and who already knows what and where things are going to happen...this could be a problem because these monsters in particular need to 'initialize' themselves before they are killed so other things can be triggered.   So, I am fixing this minor bug today along with one other very minor bugs. 

The good news?  Well, those are the two bugs I have left to do.  I also know that Shawn has kicked through a good % of his bugs last night.  Anyway, I figured, for those of you waiting for Daikatana feverishly, I would let you  know the severity level of most of the bugs we are dealing with (obviously the one described above is kind of severe if the moon and sun are aligned just so... but they are not like you start the game and it takes a crap to your desktop level bugs).

The bad news?  Uh... I can't find a good airline to book a flight to Thailand...speaking of Thailand...has anyone been to Phuket Thailand?  *sigh*

 Back to the grind and I will be updating my .plan sometime tomorrow afternoon.... :)

L8TrZ,

N03L

MARCH 27th 2000

Don't panic... :)

On another more important note, heh, I have come to my senses and decided to postpone my Thailand trip to Phuket until sometime later this year... I was looking around at some of the airfares and discovered that you are SOL if you want to fly to Thailand and only have a 2 week notice... like $5k round trip.  *yipe*

I appreciate all of the feedback that people sent to me regarding Phuket.  I also got a good deal of mail regarding some people trying to boycott Thailand due to it is supposed to be a pedophiliac safe haven/ place to go.  Well, uh... I am not a pedophile nor do I intend to be, however trying to boycott a place because something like that is occurring is not the solution.  That would be like saying we should boycott all of the countries that produce cocaine  and marijuana because our children are suffering greatly from it.  That doesn't fix the problem.  The problem (in the later example) is that there are a few bad apples that need to be plucked from the tree.  If we were to boycott everything that did bad things to 'humans' then what would we have left?  Where would we go?  Boycotting something is the same as running from it or turning your back on the problem, which in my eyes is worse than doing something positive about it.   Either way, don't email me about it, I gave at the office.

Does anyone know of a good travel agent?  I am looking for about 1 week of fun in the sun (white sand blue water).

We are not yet gold... some people have jumped the gun.  We are in the process of finalizing a release candidate.  This means test the crap out of the game until your eyes fall out and your pants are sticking to your backside.  So, to anyone mislead by various sites saying that DK is gold... *sigh*... not quite yet... but it is closer than it has ever been before.  If all goes well then it can be considered... 'Gold'.  So far there have been very few reports on major bugs...like very few meaning there are a small quantity... a handful... nothing to worry about.  

On another note... HAHA!  I had a weekend!  Wooohooo!  Like I went and saw a movie and like slept for longer than 7 hours and I even got a chance to actually wash clothes AND fold them (instead of just using the dryer as my chest of drawers).  On top of this I have had a chance to play UT... I must say... *claps hands*... good good job.  I like... very much!

I just finished tweaking some of the ambient voices for the sidekicks and also some other sounds.  All tweaks no additions means no extra bugs.

L8TrZ,

N03L

Been a very long 7 months!  Things have become quite different since I first started on this project.  During the process of this project I have taken off around 1 week, and most of that time during the 'vacation' I was sick.  However, heh, this weekend I am going home to have a nice long 2 day weekend... 2 WHOLE days!!!!!  *hint* *hint*

So, anyway, the AI has shaped up to be fairly intelligent without being too much of a burden on the CPU as well as the player.  There are a million little tiny details that I could get into regarding all of the time and energy that has gone into a good portion of the AI system, but I think I might leave most of that for a later date. 

During the project, I have been documenting the progress of the AI and world entities.  If given permission, I might even post that document somewhere for people to take a gander at so they can see the progress of at least one aspect of making a game.  After reading the 55 pages of documentation people will start to understand how MASSIVE Daikatana really is and how much work has gone into this mammoth game!  If it is 'ok' to post this somewhere, then I will probably hold off until people have had a chance to play it so they can then relate to the whole process.

As far as when the game will be done, well I am taking the weekend off and breaking the 7 day a week schedule, thus we must be VERY close to completion!!!! 

My bones are tired... fingers are bleeding... and I am happy as a pig in SH!t!!!!

So, come Monday I will probably post again to start an update on the progress of the game and you can count on the purtty little britches around your waste that I am going to post when the game is 'officially' gold!

L8TrZ,

N03L