Difference between revisions of "Modding:History"

Revision as of 00:58, 18 December 2012

The earliest form of DoomRL modding available, the sandbox, first appeared in version 0.9.9.1 RC1. It started out limited--there were no exotics or above, no math library, and only one level to work with. Early modding was fraught with peril, and largely the domain of reversers and masochists. But the introduction of user generated content has had a lasting impact on DoomRL and the direction DoomRL has since taken.

0.9.9.1

The original sandbox was released to the beta testers on February 25, 2010 and to the public at large in March. It came with a single example level, a slightly modified Hell's Arena, and no practical documentation. Early levels tended to use Hell's Arena as a base while prospective modders felt their way around the API. It soon became apparent that the currently exposed interface was inadequate; still, by the next release many limitations had been worked around and reasonably interesting mods were appearing.

0.9.9.2

Version 0.9.9.1 remained the dominant version for almost a year, finally being replaced in February 2011. During that time modders had made many requests/demands, and 0.9.9.2's sandbox mode satisfied many, at the expense of breaking almost every line of code written for 0.9.9.1. One of the biggest additions involved the level generation code being moved from the pascal engine to the Lua scripts, introducing coordinate and area objects in the process.

0.9.9.3

Version 0.9.9.3 was more modest in both its delay and the changes it included. Released in May, it focused more on additions and expansions. Customizable monster AI was first added in this version and level manipulation was again improved. Most exotic and unique items were also re-enabled. 0.9.9.3 also marked the start of multi-level mods, although none were released publicly until much later.

0.9.9.4

Version 0.9.9.4 continued the trend of unobtrusive changes. Released in November, AI was expanded, level generation was reworked, and the sandbox itself was removed in favor of a module system. By this point public content was still sparse, but all of the critical limitations were removed.

0.9.9.5

DoomRL 0.9.9.5 was meant to be the release when full total conversion support was added, but this was not achieved. Released in January 2012, most of the changes were related to design changes in DoomRL proper or to create a more consistent syntax. AIs were expanded, the limit on status effects was increased, and function hooks became organized into a strict hierarchy, filling in many gaps in scope along the way.

0.9.9.6

While DoomRL 0.9.9.6 was the first public release to support graphical tilesets, modders were unable to add tiles of their own. Released in February 2012, most of the changes affecting modders were minor, although the shift from ascii to graphics did throw the user interface into disarray. Mods also crashed on exit when run in console mode, a serious problem for the many non-graphical mods of the day.

0.9.9.6 also saw the release of the first DoomRL megamod, Inferno.

0.9.9.7

DoomRL 0.9.9.7, released in December 2012, continued the time honored tradition of yanking the rug from underneath prospective modders and spitting on them while they were down. Although most of the fundamental redesigns were in areas only TCers dared visit the sheer volume of changes made DoomRL modding a much more complete and thorough experience. Only a few areas remained outside of modder control, though total conversions were still not supported.

0.9.9.8

According to the rumor mill version 0.9.9.8 will be released around March 2013 and will finally deliver TC support along with two mods--WolfensteinRL and HereticRL. Can't wait? Too bad. We're too busy working on it to console you.