ZDaemon

[Cybershark]

So you know how when playing single-player, at the end of each Ultimate Doom episode, you get the text message coming up on screen and then you have to start the next episode?

Well that's not something we ever see here as it doesn't really make any sense in a multiplayer environment. So servers just display the regular intermission after E*M8 and go onto the start of the next episode, right?

A problem which I've encountered a couple of times comes from a command in MAPINFO which overrides the usual behaviour. The command is recognised by Zdaemon but is not handled well by it.

Ordinarily MAPINFO, aside from all the stuff related to the map concerned, will have a line in it such as "next MAP21" which tells the engine what comes next in the play order. Another option here is that it can be told to display one of the text sequences instead with a command like 'next ENDGAME1', and this is causing real problems online.


More info about ENDGAME here

[EarthQuake]

I don't think this is necessarily tied to MAPINFO. ZDaemon didn't have a decent cooperative mode back then, so the episode interludes were probably disabled in favor of deathmatch play. Looking at Heretic, which has gone untouched until recently, the same thing happens at the end of an episode, locking up the game at the intermission. You can't call votes, and if you leave, you can't reconnect to the server, because clients can't connect to a server during the intermission. I reckon this doesn't happen in non-MAPINFO wads because the interludes are disabled. The reason you're getting lockups, is because the engine is forced into an interlude, which it doesn't know how to handle online.

Honestly though, I think cooperative mode should always show these interludes. If you're trying to play through the game, they are pretty much the only source of storytelling throughout the entire game, not to mention they could be used for custom wads as well, displaying information or details about the upcoming map!

[TheCupboard]

I think it would be interesting if EQ's point about bringing back the interludes would be introduced.

But assuming that is not possible or maybe not worthwhile based on the amount of work it would take to implement, perhaps ZD could simply ignore ALL of the following:

"EndGame1" The credit picture after Doom episode 1 and Heretic episodes 1 and 5.
"EndGame2" The picture used after Doom episode 2 or the credits screen for Doom 2.
"EndGameW" The picture used after Heretic episode 2.
"EndGame4" The picture used after Doom and Heretic's episode 4
"EndGameC" The monster shootout for Doom II.
"EndGame3" Doom episode 3's horizontal scroller (right to left).
"EndDemon" Heretic episode 3's vertical scroller (bottom to top).

This would make sure there would be no ugly freakout crashes. Of course, then the problem becomes: if ZD skips these, what does it do then? It could mimic something similar to "mapskipby 1" but that assumes there is a maplist already in place. Maybe some logic like:

[phenex2]

thanks a lot for the detailed explanation cuppy and the rest.

guess we will just ignore the interludes for now.
the question is what to do instead since the game ends there normally.
either do what a server without a maplist would do and start the next episode or we could make it restart the episode that just ended.
we will have to see what makes more sense.