Fantasy Quake: Rise of the Phoenix

I managed to break the navbar over on the left. Sorry about that. Sad part was, no one noticed - I didn't recieve one iota of mail about it. However I didn't find out until right at bed time, so I don't have time to rebuild the damn thing right now - I'll get it up tommorrow. For now, use these links:

And yes, I forgot the file names of the rest of the pages - it's been awhile since I've worked with the pages, and the directory is a royal mess of past and present .html's dating back over a year. Moral of the story is two-fold: 1) Keep a backup ready, and 2) clean up your web directory :-)

Hey. Management wishes us to place a few more ads on the site, so without further ado, let's bring on the ads. But hey, it pays the bills and allows us to continue on, so take a minute and click a couple of 'em.

Nothing much going on at all - gee what a surprise - just thought I'd post something new to read anyway and basically pontificate publically. (That's illegal in some states I think.) If you're just looking for some new files or something, read no more, because their ain't any today. I will be posting an awesome demo I recorded on DaTank at some point, so keep an eye open for that.

Shaper and Kew have been hired away but still stay in touch, Fireball has Q40k to deal with, so that basically leaves me, Arjuna, and Roots. Well really just Arjuna and Roots since my focus as of late has been this wierd and untamed thing we all lovingly call Real Life. I have found that (gasp) there are PEOPLE out there, and fun things to do that actually do not involve computers! So I'm sort of on a voyage of personal discovery or some crap like that. I was never a prolific level designer to begin with, but I've actually slowed down more so than usual lately. Once upon a time I was always working on a map, and to be "between" maps was unthinkable - but not so now.

Yes folks if you're here just for Fantasy Quake news you can stop reading now, the rest of this update is just some rambling on my part. Because of the odd mood I'm in I'll divide the update up into little digestable pieces (makes for easier swallowing.)

This woman at work approaches me today and says, "My son downloaded AOL 4.0 yesterday!," with pride, as though this was a special Kodak moment in their lives or something. I was silent for a minute (because I was supressing the urge to jump onto a desk and openly mock this woman in front of her peers), then said simply "That's nice." and moved on.

I obtained a copy of Win95 OSR2 finally, and just yesterday reformatted my C drive after hours and hours of cramming to-keep files onto my secondary drive D. I managed to reclaim over 200 megabytes of space by deleting old Fantasy Quake versions, duplicates, and other Fantasy Quake work-in-progress files. I hope I didn't delete something important. Time will tell. Anyway, back to the point. The reformat went very smoothly and much to my amazement, didn't have *one* *single* *problem*, and was able to covert the C drive to the FAT32 file system.

Once I was up and running again I ran Partition Magic 3.0, and converted my slap-full 2.1 gigabyte D drive to FAT32, and reclaimed a WHOPPING 409 megabytes of free space without deleting a single file!!! That was some SERIOUS cluster waste going on!!

Once you've tasted one, even Quake2 just isn't as fun anymore. That's part of the reason I've been invisible lately :-)

Got a chance at getting a second-shift UNIX administrator gig at the company I work at, and it looks promising. Bear in mind, though, that my complete knowledge of UNIX could fit inside a thimble with plenty of room left for the thumb. But for the money they offer, I'll damn well learn fast.

I will make a valiant effort to be there that Friday of the show. Take a look at the staff page and see what I look like, and hunt me down if you plan on bieng there. No, I do not plan on placing a name tag on my shirt which reads: "Hello, my name is Invictus." Ha ha ha. Just keep an eye out for a 5' 6" (approximate, I haven't measured my height because it's too depressing) brown-haired, brown-eyed white guy with a cool Goatee, walking with a taller red-headed brother. (He's never to far from me, he's like a Siamese twin without the physical connection.) His flaming red hair stands out real well, so just look for him, he looks like a walking fireplug for heaven's sake.

While writing all this nonsense I heard the next door neighbor's lawnmower run over some wire or something. I looked out the window and the dude is reaching his hand under the mower to get the obstruction, while the motor is still running. Well, this IS Georgia.

Besides bieng the title of the first Stabbing Westward CD, it also describes my back. Yes, Invictus got a suntan this weekend.

The second member of our team to be hired away by a prominent game development company (pending obtaining a US work visa) is none other than our most prolific level artist Tim Jervis, whom you may better know as the mysterious Kew. To put it simply, most of the levels you see in Fantasy Quake have been done by him, and since the main map set was released, he released the winterized map pack (a collection of some of his previous works winterized), 1 deathmatch level, and countless single-player maps, some of which have been intergrated back into map pack in later revisions. Besides those levels made for Fantasy Quake, Tim has quite a collection of maps released on ftp.cdrom.com made before he joined our team.

More details will be released at a more appropriate time. Until then, let's wish Tim the best of luck, and may the soul of the Phoenix follow him always.

Hey! I have a Quake2 deathmatch level for you to try out - Da Tank (324k), it's the first one I've completed for Quake2. It's a rather dark and dismal heavy-metal level, definately a departure from my usual Fantasy styles. Very symmetrical, with all the weapons except for that nasty BFG. Take a look at the shots, download it and deathmatch away, then tell me what you think.

Unzip the files into your quake2/baseq2/maps directory, and load it up by starting Quake2 and use the command "map tank21" to play.

Greetings once again. Sorry I've been absent so much lately.

I still plan on "tying the knot" with FQ, and finishing a few last details and adjustments. I'll get started on this when I return from my vacation (for which I leave tonight).

But my real reason for posting this is some requests:

Team Phoenix Openings

We're looking for dedicated, highly skilled individuals, able to work together closely with a team. Must be willing to work for satisfaction alone (well, and recognition). Please email us with your credentials, and possibly an example or two.

***Newer update - forgot to mention that Ishkish has created a Fantasy Quake entity listing for the popular level editor Qoole. This is a bit more extensive and easier to read/understand than the one I created for the level developer's kit, so even if you don't use Qoole, snag this file anyway.

Christmas goodies! Now available are some of Kew's maps, now Winterized; revisit your fav levels again with a newer, snowy look. These are definately worth having.

And separately available is Penkellis Churchtown, which is by far and away one of Kew's most impressive maps to date. The level of detail is EXTREME while all the time maintaining a very good framerate - you will not be dissappointed. Click on the thumbnails below to see what I mean.

As always, unzip these files into your quake/fq/maps directory (make it if necessary) and load up FQ to use these maps, like quake -game FQ +map winter for the winter maps, and quake -game FQ +map cornwall for Penkellis Churchtown.

Download -

Winterized Maps (5 meg zip, 6 levels)

Penkellis Churchtown (790k)

GL Screenshots - click for a closer look



Penkellis Churchtown

A month or more ago I had almost completed a map for Quake40k when I ran into an unsolvable map problem, that resulted in the necessary scrapping of the entire map. While the entire map was now useless, I cut away one of the bases and built it up into a stand-alone deathmatch-only level. This level is meant for standard Quake, but can be used in FQ. The base has no name, I have been calling it simply by the current revision level. Although it still needs a bit more refinement, I've decided to move on to more fantasy related maps, like I'm supposed to :-)

I have but one statement to make. LAN parties rule! My brother invited a few of his high school chums over for some awesome 6 player deathmatching; thanks go to PudRw (one of the invited guests and by far one of the best players out there) for the technical support. We matched on regular Quake on various maps, including one I'm working on now and will post soon, and also Quake2. Although it was my first foray into Quake2 deathmatching, I managed to hold my own and win several of the matches.

Although we didn't get the time to play it over the network, I did get a chance to show everyone the GLQuake version of FQ during a rest break :-)

Quake 2 is almost out - yeah, yeah, we know already. I'll have to dig up some money from somewhere and see about getting myself a copy. Knowing me as well as I do (and I should, shouldn't I?) I'll likely spend more time studying how the game was put together, than actually enjoying the game itself :-)

Thanks goes to Anders Bjorlin (The editor in chief of Swedish PC Gamer) for translating the piece that was ran in this month's PC Gamer. (See yesterdays news). It reads as follows:

Anyway, thought the rest of you would like to know. Thanks again to PC Gamer Sweden for putting us on a CD; it's a great way to reach those not lucky enough to have 'net access. I also spotted a little one-liner about the whole thing on bluesnews yesterday.

The map specs for Fantasy Quake maps have been posted for quite some time, but so far no mention of anyone producing any maps that I know of. By all means, if you create a good map, let me know, I may post it here. Admittedly, deathmatch maps aren't in demand, (those servers have been near death for some time now,) but good single-play maps are always welcome.

It appears we have made it onto the latest issue of the Swedish PC Gamer magazine, which features Tomb Raider 2, some stuff about Quake 2, Blade Runner, and many other fine games. We're on the CD, with a teeny little mention in the magazine itself. The magazine is worth buying just for the many pictures of Lara Croft, the buxom vixen from Tomb Raider 2. (I counted over 10 pictures, of both the "game" Lara, and the "real" woman that'll play Lara Croft in a movie.)

Since I can't read a lick of Swedish, could one of you Swedish speaking fellows tell me what's said about us in that article? (Click it).

Load it up like any other map - after extracting into your quake/fq/maps directory, start the game and type "changelevel fqextra4" at the console.

Hello everyone!

Undoubtedly many of you were beginning to think I was dead (with the occasional entry in the BBS from the grave). Well rest assured, I'm quite alive. As for why I have been so silent... well first Quake 40K was taking a lot of my free time, then RealLife (tm) jumped up and grabbed me big time. Without delving too far into my personal life, I'll just say it involves a new (female) roommate, and leave it at that.

I plan on updating my .plan (that's my plan, anyway) sometime soon to let everyone know my plan for each of my projects. As for Fantasy Quake, after a fair amount of hibernation I plan on giving it a little kick in the pants, to complete a Final version of FQ. The level designers are talking again about a sequelette, which will fit nicely with the new features I'm planning.

More of these may pop up in my .plan, as well as planned new spells and skills, so check there for updates.

Hey! Kew has a new level for you - The Chateau D'If, and in his own words it is a level "in which you escape from your prison cell (where you have long been rotting) and fight your way out through a maze of dungeons. Eventually you see the light of day and freedom is finally yours." Check out the screenshots, then download it.

You can download it here, here, or here. (685k) Extract into your Quake directory, preserving subdirectories. Load it into Fantasy Quake by merely starting a game of Fantasy Quake in the usual manner, and drop the console and type "changelevel fqextra3".

Having problems with MAX_MOD_KNOWN? Well, WinQuake and the other variations of Quake seem to not have the problem, so maybe the updated version of standard Quake will help you. Beware, there's a subdirectory accidently included in the ZIP, so you'll have to turn off "use folder names" when you extract it into your Quake directory. This is version 1.08 of regular old DOS Quake; the first such update from id in a very, very long time. If this does/doesn't fix the MMK problem, post a note on the bullentin boards so everyone else can find out as well.

ICQ - it's high time I get on the soapbox about this. I can safely say I speak for the rest of the team when I say, DON'T SEND SPAM! We DO NOT want ANY forwarded messages, period, unless they directly pertain to Fantasy Quake or something. I've gotten no less than 50 messages over the course of the month or so about "brownie points" and other hoaxes. C'mon, people, you know it's bullsh*t so don't spread it, ok? ::Soapbox mode off, de-AOL'ing the keyboard now::

MacQuake - I was under the rather false assumption that there were maybe 5 people out there who had Macs AND Quake, and had interest in TC's and such, so never considered a MacQuake version of Fantasy Quake. I am somewhat wrong. If anyone out there knows how to convert Fantasy Quake maps to work with a Mac, let me know. Currently, some Mac users have said the models and progs work, but not the maps.

"It's been ages since the last Fantasy Quake update" - yeah, I know - as some of you know, we have another distraction, Quake 40K. It is very cool, and could very well be "the next big thing." We've got to get some work done on it for various reasons, and will have to let Fantasy Quake cool a bit while that gets worked on.

Congratulations go to Slobering Monkey for being the lucky 100,000th visitor - everyone give him a nice cyber pat on the back :-)

Hey! If you're the 100,000 th visitor, take a screenshot (printscreen) and send it my way. I don't know what sort of prize we can offer, but at the very least you'll get your name posted here. No cheating please - and send the screenshot as a .gif or .jpg - no 1meg BMP :-)

The good maps just keep on a' comin' from Kew - the latest is Epitaph, a rock-solid Deathmatch level, texture-rich with a heavy "crypt" theme. If you can't get it from Stomped, get it from Abraxis.

Does Epitaph have a deeper meaning? That's a question to be answered soon enough.....

Kew has a new offering for you - take a look at The Blue Demon Inn - in Kew's own words, the story is as follows:

The Blue Demon Inn is at Illmyr. Following the unsuccessful siege of The Armory there, the hostile forces retreated to The Blue Demon Inn and took over the once proud Guild that it housed within. Some friendly guards, members of the Olde Guild, still survive... It is up to you to recapture the Inn and The Guild and save the remaining guards, the surviving members of The Guild......if you can.

I've put a request for alpha testers on the Quake 40K page. Please read the requirements and instructions carefully before applying.

P.S. Don't worry, we'll get back to FQ. Quake 40K just needs to get a good running start first.

Thanks goes to Elysdeon for bieng the first to point out that Fantasy Quake has appeared in the most recent edition of the U.S. PC Gamer magazine, on the CD itself. Cool - now I'll have to drive down to the nearest bookstore and get a copy, to see how we look in it :-) (I had no idea FQ was to appear in the U.S. PC Gamer - we mighta dressed it up a bit if we'd known ahead of time!).

Another shameless plug for Quake 40K... I've posted new screenshots, and updated the "About" page with new info and some cool graphics (thanks to Shaper, of course). I've also added a hit counter that I'd like to see go up...

Attention server ops: please download fqrotp15 again - I fixed a teleport destination that was causing a MAJOR problem in co-op - people were not bieng teleported around the water trap, which meant that unless the first person (who triggered the trap) clears the level, the level becomes impossible to complete because the additional players couldn't get around the trap. It's an optional download for everyone else (albiet highly recommended) - it's the servers that need the entity fix. The "fixed" level is non-GL, so GLQuake users will need to re-run the vispatch again to GL-ize it.

Sheesh, I feel pretty tired today - bieng a "hero" is hard work :-) (Read my .plan - I saved my workplace from a very nasty fire.)

Version 0.673 posted

Mostly more bug fixes, mainly posting this to try to squash death causing crash bug.

As if Fantasy Quake wasn't taking enough of our time, Shaper and I have resumed the Quake 40K project. We'll try to keep our time balanced between it and FQ. =-)

Version 0.672 posted

This version is to fix the chasecam bugs (some of which were very serious), but also has some other random tweaks.

Version 0.671 posted

Tell me how the new chasecam works out. Remember it's the ; key.

Version 0.67 posted

Mostly new rogue skins, but also an attempt to make death more reliable in this version.

Roots, with the help of Stomped, fixed the BBoard, by the way. =-)

Version 0.665 posted

Removed the altered speed tetector that was causing those spam bugs. Note to self: Don't try to fix bugs from a location that isn't set up right for testing...

The Bullentin Boards are hosed. Sorry about that. We should have it fixed soon. I have a topic for the bboards when it's back up again - what's your opinion on music on web pages? Pain in the rear, or cool feature? Also, Midi or Mod - what's your poison? I perfer Mod's myself - it's the same quality regardless of sound card - which is to say, GREAT. If we use music on this web page, mods would be the way we'd likely go - if we do it.

To learn WTF a mod is, and how it can be played over a webpage, go here. There's a browser plug in as well as a stand-alone FREE mod player there. (Mod4win is better, but the shareware version is limited.)

(looking at news header below) Does Fireball ever sleep? I've uploaded the patch to my Abraxis site - so those of you unable to snag the updated progs.dat can get it here as well.

Kew has a new map available for you - You've beaten back the armies of Fhod, and destroyed thier leader. Now you must flush out a battalion of Fhod's soldiers from The Forsaken Abbey. (Load in "changelevel" "Fqextra1" at the console)

(Also available here. You know the drill - extract into your Quake dir.)

You know you've been on the computer too long when you get this dire message in front of your eyes while NOT on the computer:

That has now became my new desktop wallpaper - centered perfectly on a black background, I fool everyone with it :-)

One last bit of news - go to the manual and click on the description of the Elementalist - my brother Snakebyte has drawn *from scratch* an Anime version of the Elementalist. She's hot!

Version 0.664 posted

Just fixed that "Loadgame Detected"/"Don't change speed" bug. Note to self: Don't do major coding the night before you have to catch a plane when you don't have time for serious testing...

Version 0.663 posted

Nothing exciting, just more bug fixes and class balance tweaks. I'm actually starting to get near the point where I can work on and finish the classes, then get busy on PAK2, the as yet unnamed second mission pack for Fantasy Quake.

Oh, tomorrow is my 23rd birthday. Whee or something. Please save me some clicking by posting congratulations or whatever (for what, living another year?) to the BBS, instead of emailing or ICQ'ing me.

New web look! New graphics entirely designed by Shaper. Yes, he is a multi-talented person - models, skins, levels, textures, you name it, he can do it - and do it well. Give me some time to convert the rest of the pages.

Lots of other things to report as well. Most notably, a really fantastic review of our project is up at The Adrenline Vault website. This is a must-read. He even did a better job explaining the Rise of the Phoenix storyline than I did - and I wrote the story! Be sure to tell your buds about this site.

I usually don't post info about stuff I haven't done yet, but I'll make an exception. I got in touch with the author of VISPATCH concerning creating a simple, easy to install VISpatch for the Fantasy Quake maps, and last night I completed ripping the GL info out of my own set of GLcompiled maps. As soon as I finish testing this out, I'll release it on the download page, and yes, I'll have a mirror site or two open :-)

If you have GLQuake, and you haven't yet converted your standard id maps to GL, then head to the VISPATCH page and snag it now. It'll give you practice for when we release the FQ patch tonight :-)

Version 0.66 posted. Get it from the download page, or the links on the right below

If you're having trouble downloading FQDM3, here's another place to download it here.

Get it while it's hot - Fhod's Cold Heart. Map 3 (fqdm3.bsp) of the Rise of the Phoenix Deatmatch series. Get it here or here. (half a meg.)

I have posted an update here, (and if that don't work for you, click here.) to the maps, which should repair that fist-sized bug on FQROTP15, "Into the Lair", with the infamous "precache" problem that a handful of users experienced. I also added an info_intermission, which silly me forgot to put in the map. Originally that was scheduled to be the final level, so at the time I didn't bother putting one in at the time.

FQROTP1 - "Illhaven Harbor", has also been updated to prevent the possibility of a player jumping off the map. (You would have had to really search for days to find that teeny bug.)

Lots of cool things coming up soon .... both for the site itself and for our project.... stay tuned. I won't jinx things by mentioning anything too early :-)

.... Well, I'll mention one thing - I just got the Chat Room open! Stop in, will you?

Rhuian and I fixed the crashing problem on the very popular Rhuian's ROTP BETA DM server (209.30.0.100). As you could have guessed, it was something with Necromancer's spell listing (the '[' key). I apologize for the instability these last couple days. The fix will be included in future versions for other servers.

I hope to have enough time tonight to do another version update. At least the bug reports seem to be slowing down...

Ok, the Stomped thing has been worked out. Everything is moved to the FTP server to free up some much-needed bandwidth - let us know of any problems. (We were flatlining the Stomped web server with our downloads :-)

The Stomped site for downloads of upgrades is unavailable for now. Why I do not know - the Stomped admins are not responding to our requests of explanation. Until they respond, I know as much as you all do what's going on with this site.

In more peaceful news, I'm working on a new Deathmatch (and future Capture) map named "Fhod's Cold Heart". Here's a little screenshot teaser:

0.65 posted

A bunch more bug fixes. Tell me how the automatic loadgame detector works.

fqdm2.zip.

Here is a new DM map, called the Twin Citadels. It's derived from a map I made for Capture the Egg and we thought we could use it for now as a DM. In fact reading the BBoard, and that post about players wanting some castles map, I dug this map from my HD and simplified it for DM need. Anyway, get it here:fqdm2.zip
Also fqdm3 should come soon, as Invictus is working on it, and from what I heard this one should satisfy your 'ambush the forteress' need :)

Version 0.646 posted.

Trying to fix that precache bug... unfortunately I don't get it, so I can't test it, but I'll keep trying.

Version 0.645 posted.

I've finally fixed that hostile guard bug in Shellmouth (and anywhere else). Also a ton of other bug fixes. Still a lot to go, though...

Hope to see you on some servers!

I've updated my .plan (finally) - have a nice look at all the things I need to do. Fun, eh? Ok, so it is, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it, but it's still a lot of work.

We've started talking about the second set of levels. Simply referred to as PAK2 for now, the main headlining new feature is NPCs (of all types). More on this as it is developed.

Whee! Deathmatch is fun. I've played some fun games the last couple nights. Thanks, guys. Now if we can get the level masters to make some more DM maps... Also I need to get in on some coop games - I've still never gotten past level 4 progressively.

I'm working on 0.641 - I'm trying to fix that guard attacking bug. It's nothing overly large, but seems to be fighting me. I'll post it as soon as I fix it.

Wow! 50,000 hits - a good 10-15K of it in the last week alone! I'm teary-eyed with happiness and pride. Ok, that was about the cheesiest thing I've said in a while, but is suprisingly true. =-) Thanks for the big success to everyone.

Looking forward to hopefully squashing a lot of bugs this weekend, so I can get back to finishing the classes, after which I can start designing the new CTE and MUD modes. Check here for progress reports (or watch my .plan hopefully shrink faster than it grows).

Uploaded a helpful batchfile for those of you having trouble starting Fantasy Quake. Extract it into your Quake directory and run it. It'll provide the rest of the info you need. Feel free to edit it.

Wow - it sure looks better from the browser, but this new news page is a pain to update (when you use EDIT.COM like me).

Anyway, the predictable 0.64 is available. Wonder how many more times I'm going to have to fix that precache bug...

If nothing new comes up, this may be the last version for a while as I work on spells and such, so I can finish the classes and move on to modes and future features.

I'll try to play more, especially internet games, since that's the best way for me to figure out what the most important bugs and missing features are. Hope to see you there!

Reorganized the news page a bit. Now the latest and greatest upgrades will also be posted right here on the right. Also streamlined things a bit, now the actual news should be very close to the top of the page, where you can actually see it without scrolling. Now I have about a million more pages to work on.....

Version 0.635 posted.

Oops! Fixed the shopping bug in 0.63, and a few other little things. Also that precache bug many of you have been having is (hopefully) fixed.

Version 0.63 is more bug fixes, with only some other minor changes.

Oh - for the Druid, wolf summoning key is incorrectly listed as "l", it's "o", and the poison key is "q", not "p". Sorry 'bout that - will fix next time.

I'll be posting 0.62 tonight. It already has a lot of bug fixes, but I'm trying to squeeze in some requested featuers and spells. Right now my priority is Deathball - prepare to be frightened - but I also am interested in some ideas posted recently. Regardless, I'll do as much as I can, then post it.

If you're still having some precache, memory, MAX_MOD_KNOWN, or heap problems, be sure to try the latest WinQuake and make sure you are using at least 12 MB heap size (displayed as Quake loads). This will help most of those problems.

So far, the two most common problems people have with Fantasy Quake are the infamous "MAX_MOD_KNOWN" Quake error, which throws the hapless user back to DOS, and the hunc alloc errors.

The MAX_MOD_KNOWN bug is actually present in vanillia Quake and does happen if you "stress" it by loading a lot of maps in succession. (Drop console, "changelevel exmy", going through the maps in succession.) Apparantly Fantasy Quake brings up this Quake bug quicker. If someone in the audience here knows something about this subject, drop us a line or post on the bullentin board.

About the Cache:TryAlloc : 78368 is greater than hunc error, make sure you have at least a 12 megabyte heap, by using the -winmem 12 command line parameter for standard Quake, and -heapsize 12000 command line option for Winquake. Speaking of WinQuake, it seems to be giving users less problems, so if you're having problems, try it.

Shaper has produced an excellent new map to add to your Fantasy Quake map collection, "Shrine in the Swamps". This one is built exclusively for DM. On the subject of add-on maps, we plan on releasing the texture wad and entity definition file this week - as soon as I get it all cleared up. Just to let you know, while you are free to create your own maps, we are not obligated to include them in future level packs; but if you create a map of exceeding quality, we may get in touch with you :-)

Note to server ops: make sure you have the lastest version of the Fantasy Quake maps! I forgot which, but one server I logged onto had the old Tusk Town, and players were walking through walls, heh. It's a wonder the map even loaded :-)

Reporting to you here from "vacation" at my parent's house:

Thanks for the positive responses to Fantasy Quake. It really makes all the work worthwhile.

First, there have been a couple more clever poems about Fantasy Quake, both of these from Crusader[GRIN]: Little Miss Druid and Twas the Night After Beta. Think we may have to start a whole page for these, and possible stories players have talked about making.

Many bugs have been reported so far - some small, some big. First, let me ask that you please post any bugs, including issues of not being able to do something, to the Bug Board. This will keep the regular board open for things like discussions of class balance as well as other "non problem" things. Thanks (the management).

Let me address a very large problem people have been having with "error: mod_numknown == MAX_MOD_KNOWN". This is a bug in regular Quake, but due to the size of RotP, it happens much sooner than in regular Quake. Try this: Load up Quake as you would normally. Then start a new game. At the console, go through every level in the game by typing "changelevel exmy", where e is the episode number (1-4) and y is the level (1-7, 8 on e1). Also go through all the dm levels (dm1 - dm6). Somewhere toward the end it will crash in the same exact way it does in Fantasy Quake.

I'm going to try to find out why this is, and what I can do to extend the time of this crash long enough to pass through all the levels. I would appreciate any help on this.

An anonymous visitor posted this great poem, Twas the Night of the Beta. It's very cool!

There should be a patch version 0.61 today, so check here later.

(some of you may have downloaded a wrong Progs.dat, get this one if you had problems...)

And the Phoenix was born! After almost a year in development, Fantasy Quake: Rise of the Phoenix is now publicly available.

There is a great deal left to be done - please understand this is a Beta version. There will be bugs, missing features, and other quirks to be worked out. By downloading and playing, you've agreed to be a Beta tester! Please report any and all bugs to the Bug Board, but be sure to check if anyone has reported the bug there first.

Bear with us - we've worked hard these last few weeks to bring this to you on time. We're going to continue to perfect and enhance Fantasy Quake, but understand we're going to have to slow down a bit - at least for the next couple days. I myself am going out of town this weekend, but I will check on things when I can. I should be able to find time and resources to repair any critical bugs that may exist.

Ok - enough from me - go download it! I need sleep.....

Yikes! Apparently the timer above is dependant on your computer's clock - so it may say different things for different people. Let me clarify - the release time is for Midnight Pacific time tomorrow, Thursday, the 14th (well, technically that's the 15th, but you know what I mean). Sorry if you thought it was coming out sooner.

Sorry to those I hinted that the Beta may be out sooner than the countdown says - doesn't appear so. Still think we'll make it on time as per the timer, though, so don't panic.

Tomorrow will be a busy day for all of us...

W00! Things are really humping along this weekend. Lot's o' features got coded by both Fireball and Roots, as well as many bug-squashes. Among the new things - more NPC's, such as female shopkeepers (big, heavyset-looking babes, ugh!), archer, and crossbowman guards. These are likely defectors from the invading army, who have taken up jobs in Welmyr.

Could the beta come out sooner than the 14th? Maybe. Especially since a Nameless But Well-Known company will be releasing a demo on the 22th of an eagerly awaited game (counting out my pennies so I can go buy it....)

As you can note, most of us have ICQ numbers now, at Root's insistance. I admit, I was reluctant to try anything new, but now I'm hooked. It's as if all of us are in the same room, and can freely pass quick messages, files, or even just break down and have a chat on a new idea. Today alone, we've generated dozens of new ideas for this beta, as well as future projects.....

On the level side of things, the Hidden Coliseum is up and running - find this if you can, it's tucked away somewhere in the level pack.

Jagasian sent me his flattering review of RotP, including many screenshots. I've posted it for your viewing here.

I adjusted the countdown to be to the end of the 15th - so it won't reach 0 until RotP is available. =-) Actually, now that I think about it, I'm leaving town that day, very soon after work. I guess I'll just have to change the release date to the 14th. Hope you all don't mind!

Updated my .plan for the first time in a while - now with detailed descriptions of spells to be coded. Perhaps you will understand why I need a couple more weeks now... I still may not have all of them done, but I'll try to get as many as I can. Hopefully I can kill the last few bugs nagging at me soon.

Can anybody point me to the "latest and greatest" QC compiler? Mine is rather old, but was custom made for me to handle my code size. I think I'm starting to push its limits - I'm getting weird crash message (with strange characters instead of filenames). Plus maybe a new one will be faster (ok, so mine takes 12-14 seconds, but when you compile every few minutes that adds up).

Added a nifty Java applet above the news section counting down to the (drum roll please....) first public beta of the Fantasy Quake: Rise of the Phoenix TC. Due on the 15th; maybe late on the 15th, but the 15th at some point.

The manual is posted - click the link to the left. Most of it is there - but more remains to be done. I'll try to finish it up the rest of the way this weekend.

Nakedman has posted the first small part of his very large and in-depth review. He promises to continue it and add more screenshots, so check Nakedman's TC List for updates.

Pre-Beta testers : Version 0.51 has been posted on the download page. Be sure to look at the rather large list of changes, some of which direly needed.

Invictus and Shaper had a chance for a short internet game on our first active server. While it still needs some kinks worked out to keep it stable (the server, not RotP), Shaper managed to snap this picture. We all love it - it very well may become the trademark image for Rise of the Phoenix.

We found one review so far - up on Telefragged. Maybe the size and overall completeness of the TC is proving to be too much of a download for some of the others :-) We will continue to post who's got a review as we get them.

We have also got a few server ops to commit to hosting the Rise of the Phoenix TC, this is good - you should* have internet multiplayer support from day one! If someone could make me one of those QSPY custom tabs, let me know. I haven't fooled with QSPY in awhile, so I'm not sure how to do it.

But let me repeat myself - if you want to host a Rise of the Phoenix server, let me know.

Been getting questions about the Manual lately - my goal is to post it this Friday.

Got wind on Bluesnews that Quake 2 may have some music done by Ozzy Ozbourne. Life just doesn't get any better than this! (never mind me - I'm an old-school heavy metal fan....)

Pre-Beta released!

Before you ask for your copy, the answer is no. We're only releasing this pre-Beta to select people, all of which have already been selected. A lot of them maintain Quake pages, so check around for first-hand reviews of RotP. We'll post links to good reviews when they start popping up (well, I guess I'm assuming someone will write a good review).

What this does mean for you, though, is that the Beta is fast approaching. I can say with near certainty that the public Beta will be available mid-August, unless major bugs are found (I sure hope not, and I really doubt it).

As is customary, here's a screenshot for ya. I call this Snow Goarc Hell :

... And the lucky fan to be included in the selected FQ:RotP test group is: Jagasian. Read my .plan from yesterday to see what I'm talking about. Congrats, Jag! He'll be among the first outside our team to see the complete project as it currently stands.

Ok, non-Quakeworld server administrators - e-mail me now if you are willing to host our TC, even if part-time. I have lost my previous lists of candidates, so please drop me a line again. I need to know these things for the "servers" page on this site:

It'll still be a couple of weeks before this goes public, but it'd be nice to pre-test the TC over the internet.

I guess there's no getting around this -

It's our pal the Necromancer blazing through a pair of (now dead) Ragers, in the sleepy town of Upper Illhaven.

Arjuna just sent me the new Crusader model with his shield, so here he is after a big fight :

Stop by the webboard and read the on-going reports by an unofficial "onsite correspondent" Jagasian, about the QuakeCon events down in Texas. Pretty cool, wish I was there :-)

Wow, it's screenshots fever!
This the last map in development. Kew is building that crazy ship that will transport you from Skull island back to the land. Well, you won't be alone on that fine ship, and if you want to arrive in one piece on the other side you'll have to claim the cap'tain cabin for yourself :)

You all seemed to like screenshots so much I made a few more. These are more mugshots than anything else, and will end up in the "players" section of the screenshots page, but here they are for your preview :

The Outlander (a bit hurt), sporting a shield, daring anyone to take him on (I wouldn't).

The Druid, about to roast someone unfortunate.

The Crusader, with his new helmet, taking care of business Blunderbuss style.

No much news these days, as we work a lot to finish the whole thing!
Oh yeah, today is Bastille day in France. That's worth a news update, don't you think? ;)

The Alpha is progressing toward a Beta. It's looking more and more like the patch will be ready at the same time as the levels. A public beta at the end of this month is a bit optimistic, but still possible. It really depends on how quickly we can get through testing (how many problems we find).

*sigh* I have a seminar on supporting NT all day tomorrow, hopefully I'll have enough of my soul remaining after that to do more coding. I want to learn this stuff, but not on a Saturday (wasn't available any other time).

Hmm.. I really should scan in a new picture for the Staff page...

I'm "finishing" up my maps for the internal alphas/betas etc. As any level designer will tell you, you're never really "finished" with a map :-) Afterwards, I'll work on the storyline a bit more as it relates to the maps; specifically, intermissions and the like. Also I can begin on a manual, now that we have the alpha to work off of.

The Blunderbuss - it may sound like a clunky, old fashioned weapon, but wait until you see it in action!

Oh - as you may have guessed, we have added a new member to the team - say hello to Roots , who'll be helping with monster AI and many other things. He's not exactly new around here - he's been in the shadows, helping with the web board all along.

I just finished Tusk Chasm, and you can take a look at it in the screenshots section.
Yes, the BBoard was empty again, but hey now it looks much better, and you won't have to hit 'back' everytime you read a thread. So, that's improvement!

I just distributed the Alpha to the rest of the team! Now I have to divide my time between adding things to work toward the Beta, and trying to fight the fires of tons of bugs which I'm sure are there.

So far everything seems on track. We're still planning on a public Beta in about a month.

New screenshots!

I've made some new screenshots since I've been working on integrating player models lately. Sorry they're so big, wanted as much detail visible as possible. Also, sorry for the annoying weapon models in the external shots - I haven't worked on my chasecam much.

I'm releasing the first internal Alpha to the rest of the group tomorrow. Then mostly what stands between me and the public Beta is a bunch of new spells. The rest of the team is busy finishing up final models and polishing their levels. I feel good that we've been making excellent progress lately.

On a couple peoples' requests, I've posted the last version of the original Fantasy Quake on the download page. This is not WoT Quake. Be sure to read the info on the download page before downloading.

As you can see from my .plan, there's only a few (albeit major) things left to do for the Alpha. Once that's done, it will be just some testing and tweaking to get the Beta ready. I'm still sticking to a projected release in late July or early August, but with some luck (and time to work on it), it may be sooner than that. However, it will still be some time before the level pak is released since that still requires a lot of new code to be written.

At the end of the day I'll be posting some new screenshots showing the Blunderbuss in action and a couple new monsters, so check back tonight or tomorrow.

I'm amazed at the number of hits this site is having - we're grossly outpacing the number of hits we used to have under the previous project line. (Unless I'm mistaken and there's this one guy reloading the page 200 times a day.)

If you're the 10,000th person to stop by, (no doctoring of images now) take a screenshot (print screen) and send me the .jpg or .gif of it, and I'll post your name here in bright florescent letters. Include a brief one or two sentence 'statement to the world' if you want; I post it here in the news as well.

Goals for this week - recompile all 100 posts from the bullentin board (salvaged from the crash) into some sort of FAQ. This should be fun :-)

Well, it seems the web board puked out last night, sorry for the inconvience, but we had to erase all 100 of those posts :-( Please feel free to repost.

Screenshots and level dept:
Illhaven is now 2 maps. There is Illhaven Harbor and Upper Illhaven, both maps done by Kew. Go click on Illhaven on the world map in the screenshots section and take a look at Upper Illhaven. It's neat =)

I hate bieng so close to E3 and not bieng able to go :-( I hope all the fellas attending enjoy the lovely Georgia heat and humidity. At least it isn't raining, as it usually is here.

Things are finally starting to move along for me. I'm fairly confident that I'll have the internal Alpha version ready by this weekend. Before you ask, no, we do not need or want any Alpha testers. My current estimate for the first public Beta is the end of July or early August.

I've made some improvements outside of the obvious game changes, notably a new item selection display and a bit of code optimization that should noticably increase performance. This may be offset by additions, but that's still better than it being even slower.

I'm still looking for "powerup" item ideas - post them on the BBoard. We have at least two slots still unaccounted for.

The Blunderbuss is looking good! I'm very pleased with it as a weapon. Funny thing is it works exactly how I wish the Quake shotgun worked. I'll try to get some screenshots of it in action soon - it's a very "effective" weapon...

Found out something about those high-res screenshots that we have posted - they make great "desktop" wallpaper. Download a couple, size 'em and convert 'em to .bmp and have at it.

Need a bit of help concerning sounds in Quake not "looping." I heard, once, how to fix that with CoolEdit a long time ago, but since then I have updated to a new version of CoolEdit, and for fun they rearranged all the menus and commands, relabeling random things, etc. So could someone post on the board how *exactly* you fix this problem with the latest version of CoolEdit?

I'm a little envious of my younger brother, who just went out and blew his entire bank account on a 17" monitor. Now that I think about it, I promised to make a link to his page and never got around to it, so stop by and give him a few hundred hits, so he'll shut up about it. Flood his mailbox about that broken link at the bottom of the page :-)

Say hello to Tremor, another fantasy style TC which has made the move to Stomped. Howdy neighbor! Go on over and check it out, then stop by Nakedman's site, our naked buddy has conducted an interview with Wildfire, the team leader of Tremor.

Well, I was struck down by inspiration while listening to some old Ozzy Osbourne CD's (yes I'm a metal head) for how the final level should be built. If I can pull it off as I envision it, it will definately impress.....

Go see the new screenshots section now. There's tons of pics there. And you'll see more clues about the adventure in a whole.

Yes, I'm alive! I've been getting a more than usual amount of RealLife (tm) in my system lately, so my coding has really suffered. Hopefully things are smoothing out for a while to give me a chance to catch up on some much needed RotP work.

I hope to update my .plan today, it will mostly be additions (ugh). I did code most of the Musket, so as soon as Shaper sends me the weapon model I'll make some screenshots of it in action. Oh, flaming oils are looking good, too - much improved over the originals (anybody remember FQ?).

Oops... we forgot to mention there was new screenshots in the shots page. Sorry :)

Need some help with some references, though. What's the command to turn off that funky water-bending special effect? It totally borks the textures when it's enabled. If you know off-hand, post it on the board.

You like the new title bars with the skulls? If not, post a note on the board why it sucks. I'm thinking of changing all the bars throughout the site to that. Yes, I know you can't see a damn thing except the bgcolor if you're using Nutscrape, but I just hate it for you. Get Microsoft Internet Exploiter and check out the skulls.

The Bullentin Board is working again - sorry 'bout the problem over the weekend.

Hats off to the Evolve team for putting together a great Deathmatch Partial Conversion, Pain Keep. Stop by and grab a copy - it's a 10 meg download, but so what, doesn't everyone have a T1 these days? :-)

I've ordered a Orchid Righteous 3DFX card to enhance my gaming pleasure.... and also to help design my levels to suit it better. (Ok, the REAL reason is because I want to keep up with Fireball, heh, who recently got one as well.) If you're in to buying stuff over the 'net, head over to PROVANTAGE and pick yourself up one. The price is lower than what they say on the page - something like $189 now, but don't hold me to it. (Click the "Orchid Technology" tab, and there it'll be).

Thanks goes to Roots for helping out with the Bullentin Board! He came out of nowhere just in time to help out, too - I was at the end of rope on getting that thing working.

Speaking of the Bullentin Board, it'll be a day or two before we get it "stable" so postings put on it today may or may not survive :-) I'll try to post a few starter threads as they come to mind to spur discussions.

Fireball added some finger scripts as well; but I haven't posted a .plan of my own just yet. (sorry.)

Updated the Story page, added some character profiles drawn by Shaper. I will get some more pages up tommorrow.

We have basically ironed out how we want the TC to look - now it's just a matter of doing it :-) I hope to post some nifty screenshots tommorrow or the next day of some of the fab textures that Shaper has produced.

We're up and running. Despite a major setback in our recent past, we're all still together and if anything more determined than ever to get our project going again. Those of you who know who we were are asking, how will your new project differ from the old one? Well, to answer that you'll need to take a look at our story page - which is under construction. We are adopting an entirely original storyline based off the legend of the Phoenix, a bird which lives for a long period of time, and is reborn through a firey death. (Sound familiar to any recent events?) Writing the full story of the TC will take a little while, so bear with me. Most of you only care about the "gist" of it and how it applies to actual gameplay anyway :-)

And now for a brief tour of the new website, which is really self-explanatory. Note that some of these pages aren't finished yet, so just keep checking back.

Well, thank you all for your patience while we get things settled in, and above all, thank you for standing by us during that troublesome time - this TC is for you.

First log entry May 24 bulletin board setup May 29 internal alpha release Jun 29 first glimpse of player mdl's July 15	Current web design Sept 3 Real Life GPF Sept 7 100,000 hits Oct 7 PC Gamer Nov 26
First non-member tests FQ July 24 First review comes in July 28 Public Beta released Aug 15 50,000 hit mark Aug 22	Winter PAK Dec 20 Tim hired away Feb 2 FQ development officially ends 5-3-98


Freedom will be mine....

Freedom is in my sight....