﻿PLEASE READ THE DOCUMENTATION AND THIS CHANGELOG THOROUGHLY!! There are a myriad of important changes at multiple levels. The ingame "Game Info" menu is useful for an outline on the game's multiple elements, a la the codex in a Mass Effect game. Future updates will see it expanded to cover every aspect of the game; right now it only covers the weapons and ammo. You...don't want to see the length of the MENUDEF lump.

As always, please check the credits for assets used; for assets known to require permission beforehand, it has been secured. If you'd like an asset removed, contact me on ModDB or Discord and I'll try to find substitutes. If I can't...well, I beg your forbearance until I can. I've done my best to play by the rules.

ZX's fullscreen HUDs are designed around 16:9 or 21:9 aspect ratios and will appear cut off at the sides if not in such a ratio. To remedy this, you can force an aspect ratio in the engine's video options. The option search is your friend here.

Some weapons are possible epilepsy and photosensitivity triggers, especially with the engine's bloom lighting enabled. Please take care playing if you have such a condition, and be sure the bloom lighting option's disabled should it be a source of discomfort for you. The same goes for the camera tilting in regards to motion sickness; it's toggled under ZX Options/Tilt++ Options. I have tried to mitigate this somewhat, but I can't remove every possible trigger without unacceptably compromising the game.

Yet again, saves from previous versions will break. There's alterations to backend scripting and any change to that whatsoever, no matter how minor, will always break saves. Blah.

NOTE: LZDoom compatibility is restricted to the newest release versions-- 4.11.4 or later at time of writing. Neither GZDoom or LZDoom are the target ports for ZX going forward, but they'll work for this release if you use the latest versions. I have not tested ZX on any version of VKDoom, though it'll likely only work if it's on a post-4.4 codebase (and it's a shame that project burned down too). UZDoom is the target port, and if you still use GZDoom you'll need GZ 4.4.1 or better for ZX.

DISCLOSURE: To the best of my knowledge, QuakeStyle ZX is a clanker-free zone. That's to say, no large-language model-- the tech marketed as "AI"-- was knowingly used at any point in this mod's creation-- not in assets nor in code. I ain't Graf Zahl, and I ain't Microslop.

ZX log, version 9.4, "The Home Stretch"

key: 
+ : buff
- : nerf
= : neutral change
* : addition
/ : fix / modification
$ : removal

Multiples of the same symbol : more severe change. I.E. a three-slash "fix" is a much bigger fix than a one-slash.
Mix of symbols : mixed change

--WEAPONS--
+The gauntlet's fuel consumption has been reduced a bit.
+The Hellphage's wraiths now have a longer lifespan, markedly increasing their damage potential.
//The Gauss Cannon's particle trails and lighting have both been reworked to greatly aid performance.
=BFG10K splash is now a bit more dangerous to the player, but only moderately. As a compensation, the splash damage has been slightly strengthened overall.
+The Battle Rifle now is more accurate in sustained fire; one of its two duplex bullets is accurized, while one remains a flier.
++Notable overall buff to the Gauss Cannon, in a twofold sense. The impact now has a markedly larger splash radius, and now, very near misses deal some blow-by damage (30-in-128 forced, not hurting the player!) to help remedy the GC's lousy crowd-control ability. This comes at the cost of greater danger when using up close; to mitigate this, only half the splash output can harm the player now.
/Some little bits of spit and polish to the MG 60, Incinerator and Flak Cannon.

--AMMO--
No changes.

--HUD--
//All weapon and item tags are now color-coded. This change is reversible via a patch included in the new "accessibility" folder.

--ITEMS--
-Supply barrels have a lower chance to drop field medikits and armor repair kits.
/Dark matter cores have gotten all-new sprites, courtesy of PillowBlaster et al.
/Nail boxes now look much more Quake-styled and distinctive, courtesy of OSJClatchford.
/Slug cases now are much more distinctive, courtesy of Craneo.
/Grenade boxes now look better and more distinctive, thanks to Real_Trisk and MagSigmaX.

--MONSTERS--
-Further slight nerf to revenant rockets.
-Enemy Phalanx balls have had their splash damage halved.
-Enemy Hellphage wraiths have reduced lifespans.
/Napalm guys now correctly drop fuel cans instead of rockets.
-HAMR guys move a bit slower.
+Harbingers now have one more ball in every attack spread.
-Nightmare revenant health cut to 700 from 800.
=Minigun guys now have a higher chance to drop a bullet box.
///$All monster crush states now no longer spawn gibs, as a performance-improvement and/or map-proofing measure. I have opened up a feature request to lessen this issue further on the UZDoom GitHub repo, and hopefully they'll be nice and implement something to help on the engine's end.

--BOLOGNESE--
No changes.

--CLASSY BASTARDS--
/Fixed a little herp-a-derp with the shotpistol where it was playing its fire sound upon landing a kick. Dunno how I fucked that one up...

--MISC.--
*Accessibility patches in the "patches" folder split into their own folder. Also, new patch added specifically to undo the color-coded weapon and item tags, if you find them too hard to read for whatever reason.
/Invisible bridges now no longer show up on the monster scouter.
///Stripped out some legacy decal code; now every relevant actor has its decal defined in its definition, not as a "generator" in DECALDEF. As a result, some decal aberrations on weapons and monsters have been fixed. DECALDEF itself now only defines decals, making it a little easier to deal with.
//+Patched an exploit with the "emergency recovery" (slow regen below 25 health) mechanic that allowed the player to "run in place" by holding opposite cardinal directions, thus recovering health and keeping their static charge topped up. Any press of the movement keys (barring turning, looking or crouching) will stop the recovery for a moment. As a compensation, the regeneration itself has been sped up (approx. 3 health per second from approx. 2), and "running in place" still generates static charge, as it logically makes sense that you'd generate static charge by doing so.
//$Major change to the weapon wheel-- the option to slow time while the wheel is up has been removed. It causes too many problems with the recovery scripts. It now either just works in real time, or stops time completely. 
/Speaking of which, the recovery script now properly respects if you've got the stop-time setting on or off.