Thank you for the kind feedback! Yeah, working with 3D models for the weapons and enemies was probably my biggest obstacle in this, but I feel like I kind of got a handle on it now? One thing I figured out early on is to not mess with anything other than .md3 files even if the editor supports other formats, and that the Blender .md3 import/export plugin seems more reliable than Noesis ended up being. Still a huge headache though -- I'm glad I was able to get it to work in the end!
Also, the dancing -- I know it's dorky as hell but I couldn't resist including it lol.