A new version of Vavoom has been released. This version fixes some known problems and it has even more improved Strife support.

No mirrors seem to work <!-- s:( --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_sad.gif" alt=":(" title="Sad" /><!-- s:( -->

Yeah, it takes some time untill files are updated to all mirrors.

These are great news! Don't think I have forgot my promise of making the skyboxes for the Doom games, I have them almost finished, you'll get them one of these days I have enough time to pack it all up and send it to you Janis <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=":wink:" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->.

Great news Janis. Could you briefly list the Strife changes - playable until levelx etc. Is there savegame compatibility from last version? Thx

HEAnet works /me gets now ------ edit: You didn't put windowed mode in the launcher it seems O_O Also doom2 runs hella fast. Hexen is a bit more playable but still goes around 30fps on here.

I didn't update launcher yet. In Strife all of the monsters should work (more or less). Also several line special fixes such as Blackbird's voice playd when needed. I played untill killing Programmer, but then I made some changes that made savegame incompatible and I didn't had time to play it all again. But it should go much further.

Just tried the DOS version... is that stuttery movement known of in that? (Win version is smooth, DOS ain't)

It's completely framerate dependant. I have an idea how to improve it.

I seem to remember reading something about Vavoom sky problems - just checked old and new versions with strife - sky definitely is more seemless with 1.15.3 until you look directly up where it all crinkles together into a wrapped join. Regardless the changes work well and once again Strife has another new lease on life thanks to Janis- i notice that there are now debug messages appearing at top of screen though - e.g. "quest 2 needed". Thx for the time you put into this Janis - much appreciated. <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

Yeah, sky was the main problem people were complaining about.

Congratulations on this release -1.15.3 - much improved over previous version. Music and Sound sliders independent, animated flats, better skies. Excellent ! <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

About complaining... Support for throwing inventory away is important for me, too (think of the chalice, I don't want to carry that one anymore after killing Harris). And I'd like to see the keys I own. But I don't urge you, I'm certain that you will add these details, sooner or later.

Why do you pick up the chalice in the first place? <!-- s:P --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s:P -->

As I documented in my (german) walk-through verbosely (available at dlh.net): First I do the job for the gouvernor. When he is satisfied, he doesn't care about me anymore. Now I can visit Harris, bring him the chalice, kill him - and get access to his hidden treasury.

You don't have to bring him the chalice. Killing Haris after talking with him and giving you the crossbow also will open the secret passage.

Really? Good to know - I'd include that in my walkthrough after checking with the original Strife (there are ideas I don't get on myself, I'm afraid...).

Show me your walkthrough and I might be able to add something to it provided I still remember things, I played Strife completely through maybe a dozen times back in the 90s, including on the highest skill (which the Strife developers themselves claimed to be impossible, well it wasn't easy that's for sure).

Couldn't find it at the Dirty Little Helper website? <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://dlh.net/chtdb/chtdl.php?lang=ger&id=24103">http://dlh.net/chtdb/chtdl.php?lang=ger&id=24103</a><!-- m --> As I said: In german!

[quote="LigH":2cuo9yym]As I said: In german! That's no worries for him <!-- s:P --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s:P -->

I hate RAR... could you post it here as an attachment in ZIP?

Never fear Rambo, I'm here.

OK just started reading it and here the first couple of notes about the introduction (as I have time, I'll read the rest of the document too and give my feedback). Strife is definitely not the first FPS-RPG crossbreed. 1994 saw the release of ShadowCaster, an FPS-RPG crossbreed using a heavily modified Wolfenstein engine. The greatest mistake of Rogue was to take too long to release Strife. DOOM was released in 1993 and Heretic in 1994. Strife was released in 1996, at a time when the first new generation FPS, Quake, was already out. At that point of time, interest in previous generation FPS rapidly fell. The source code of Strife is allegedly lost. James Monroe, who's been working for Raven Software for ~6-7 years by now, was the lead programmer on Strife and when I once asked whether he could give us the source code now that it ha no commercial value any more, the answer was that he doesn't even know where it is if it's still anywhere at all. There are many possibilities that might backfire, but AFAIK none of the choices really result in your not being able to get through the game at all. I found one thing though that's not very obvious and still means you have to restart the game from the beginning: if you kill that annoying thug in the town hall before getting access to the rebel base, you'll never be able to get in touch with the rebels and proceed in the game. Once he opens the door, you're free to kill him though. <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->

1-5) It is possible to avoid any alarms in the city at all, even on nightmare level. Just make sure you always use poison bolts. You don't mention the fact that you get a crossbow from Rowan and that you find an assault gun in the Sanctuary, I think in such a detailed walkthrough it'd be important to tell where you get which weapon (some of them are quite tricky to get hold of, especially the mauler). If you take the golden chalice, the governor won't speak to you and will sound the alarm, else it doesn't matter whether you have it or not. There's a guy on the street somewhere around the shops who has some info for sale. If you pay him the 2x5 bucks for his infos and then kill him (with a poison bolt), you'll notice you can get back your bucks and so you got the infos for a mere poison bolt. If you're even more devious and know anyway what he has to say, just shoot him on sight and cash in the 10 bucks which he has even if you never paid him (limitation of the engine or the designers).

Thank you for the information; I'll think about adding it, with credits to you, of course... If I steal the chalice, the Acolytes in the tavern start to shoot when I return to Harris, no matter if I already visited the governour. And I don't know if I can sell it anywhere. -- It is probably better to kill Harris as soon as I get his crossbow, and never return to the tavern afterwards. And the guy at the left of the prison wanted to sell only one sentence, as far as I remember.

A little history to correct here: - ShadowCaster was released in 1993. - Strife came out about two months before Quake and one month after Duke3D (May 1996). Hope this helps <!-- s:P --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s:P -->

Setting off the alarm in the town doesn't bar you from finishing the game, especially since after a time the alarm stops and the town returns to the peaceful state. This doesn't apply of course on nightmare skill, there setting off the alarm can easily create a situation where you might as well give up. The guy has two tips to sell, I bet you on it. <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) --> You're right Cheapy, that was a glitch with the SC release date, it was '93 of course, the year after Wolfenstein-3D. I must clarify once again, what I actually meant was that the general gaming public got hands on Quake sooner than on Strife. Strife was released later than the Quake demo, and given the circumstances, the Strife demo got as good as zero covering compared to the Quake demo which was the spotlight of the season. That's what I meant with Quake being out first - except for a very few people, the average gamer got his hands on Strife a lot later than on Quake. I know how it was here in Zurich, the only store that imported the game at all imported a single copy, and nobody wanted to buy it, in the end one of the sales guys bought it and played it, and when a year or so later I found out about the game and asked him, he sold me the CD for 10 bucks (no box, no manual by that time). This Strife CD might be the only one in Switzerland for all I know... <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->

You then might be lucky, I never saw the game by this side, nor even the demo until I downloaded it for ZDoom and I finally have the chance to play it with Vavoom and ZDoom, it's a very nice game, I thought it wasn't good at all, but now my opinion to it is changing as I advance further in the game. <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

LOL first time I got home with Strife, I installed and started it, got fucked by Harris and was fed up with the alarms, so I just quit, fired up DOOM and played that... it was only later that I got back to Strife again. Until I found out how to get through easily, it was an annoy at some places, after that it was great fun (same goes for Hexen too).

5b) If you've already accepted Rowan's quest, you already got a crossbow and so you don't even need to talk to Harris at all, just shoot him on the spot. You can't get a second crossbow, the prog will tell you you already have one. 6) Since you don't get through the anteroom of the prison without an alarm, you can as well start with grabbing the ammo - though what I always did was to walk up to that other guy and let him say his stuff several times, that line is maybe the best voice acting in the whole game (and given the extremely high quality of voice acting in Strife, that's saying a lot). <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) --> Also, the spiders are no big deal, given the horizontal auto aim of the DOOM engine - just look straight forward and shoot and it'll hit the spiders up on the ceiling and down on the floor likewise. Easiest to kill them is with the assault gun, if you're short on it just use the energy crossbow bolts.

I first played Strife when Happy-puppy just got the Strife teaser up for download (released around Feb 1996), I had a fun lan deathmatch with respawning Acolytes on. LOVE that flamethrower <!-- s:P --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s:P --> Later on that year (after having finished both Quake and Duke3D), I went to CompUSA and picked it up for a cheap $28 (eep). The full ver felt weird at first because I wasn't expecting a Leonard Nimoy-ish to talk to around the beginning, and most of the voices sound different than the teaser, but I got used to that, loved it till I got stuck in the sewers back then <!-- s:( --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_sad.gif" alt=":(" title="Sad" /><!-- s:( --> I did eventually complete the game though. Another interesting note, Strife seems to be the first FPS to ever use the F-expletive vocally, though.