The /newstuff Chronicles #116

I've had Southern Cross for a while on my Hard Disk. It was kinda like team Demise's great project.

Map01 is one of the most blatant Evilution map01 rip-offs I have ever seen, but it's good.

Ultimate DooMer said:

BTW, Southern Cross (sc.wad) has a bug in map 03 - the exit is missing. It's supposed to be on the red teleport pad in the red key building

Gah! I forgot all about this post, and when I got to that room, I saw the teleport, jumped on and... nothing!

I reckoned it probably was supposed to be the exit as there was nothing else in that building to activate - unusual for an area that required a key, and I was pretty sure I had done just about everything else on the map. Fortunately, I was playing with Zdoom, and so could use the "changemap map04" console command to fake an exit activation, and carry on to the next level.

Really enjoying SC BTW. Good gameplay and nice use of enemies like Hell knights. I feel they are an underused enemy, but perfect for middle difficulty enemy fights when used intelligently - and they are in SC.

Ultimate DooMer said:

It just seems co-incidental that he misses his turn and knocks out a crappy wad at the same time.

It is coincidence. I didn't miss my turn because I wanted to make a dumb map.

Ultimate Doomer: I'm detecting a little bit of hostility. (Maybe there isn't and I'm just imagining it) But in any case, when you volunteered to take my turn you didn't give me the impression that it was a big problem. Is there one?

I can sense so much love between our reviewers it's amazing.

Heh. Funny Stuff.

Anyway, I was wondering about screen shots and screen brightness. For me many of the screenies are a bit dark, though some are OK; what brightness level is being used for them? The standard DOOM screenshot brightness is too dark for how I have my monitor set up, and I generally prefer to brighten then by 30-40 (I'm not sure if there's a set standard for graphics brightness, but those are the values used by Paint Shop Pro... and on the same grounds, I tend to use gamma in DOOM.) Do other people play without gamma? How dark is the darkest room in map01 for you, can you see your opponents in it? I can see them though a bit vaguely if they are at the other end, especially brown Imps.

Does anyone know for certain if a monitor's lifespan decreases noticeably when you use it with a very high gamma setting? I do know monitors get old and dark after some time (although I've heard they can be tweaked up for a price or with the necessary know-how.)

Hyena said:

when you volunteered to take my turn you didn't give me the impression that it was a big problem. Is there one?

Private message?

myk said:

Heh. Funny Stuff.

Anyway, I was wondering about screen shots and screen brightness. For me many of the screenies are a bit dark, though some are OK; what brightness level is being used for them? The standard DOOM screenshot brightness is too dark for how I have my monitor set up, and I generally prefer to brighten then by 30-40 (I'm not sure if there's a set standard for graphics brightness, but those are the values used by Paint Shop Pro... and on the same grounds, I tend to use gamma in DOOM.) Do other people play without gamma? How dark is the darkest room in map01 for you, can you see your opponents in it? I can see them though a bit vaguely if they are at the other end, especially brown Imps.

Does anyone know for certain if a monitor's lifespan decreases noticeably when you use it with a very high gamma setting? I do know monitors get old and dark after some time (although I've heard they can be tweaked up for a price or with the necessary know-how.)

I usually have gamma 1 or 2 at all times. I do have a very old monitor.

I use gamma 3 or 4, but the monitor is not maxed (don't mind less gamma in other applications, generally.) I do have an older monitor as well, which I'm not using now which is truly dark, too dark to run DOOM on without one of those "bright" WADs.

Blood Works

Hmm, didn't enjoy this too much. Some nice visual trickery but very ordinary gameplay and a rather dubious theme to the whole place. Plus I got annoyed at that background sound after about five minutes.

Blind Alley S

Fun stuff. Good solid gameplay and a nice twin-area approach, feels like two maps in one. One of the best Blind Alley maps so far.

Red Alert

Very nice. Good intro, not too long, nice and simple. Great sky replacement and clever use of slopes. Good gameplay, great stuff!

Zed's Big One
Nice and simple, good honest fun. Detail level is fine, but could be improved upon. Clean, unfussy maps and some nice puzzles and other touches. A good base to expand on.

pritch said:

Blood Works

Hmm, didn't enjoy this too much. Some nice visual trickery but very ordinary gameplay and a rather dubious theme to the whole place. Plus I got annoyed at that background sound after about five minutes.

Well, I guess you can't please everyone. But, I worked my ASS off on that level and even if you didn't really like the gameplay you could at least acknowledge the effort that went into it. I review alot of wads that I don't like but I try to find something positive to say because there is always someone who will enjoy the style I'm reviewing.

To brad_tilf: Thank you for making a wad that has no health, you have to chainsaw cacos behind fences, and knock my fps to 4-5. Thank you for making me die 20 times in 5 minutes, and all the midbars blocking my view. Thank you.

Edit: And thank you for the BOH contributing to the death count. And the ungodly cramped playing area.

Southern Cross is good fun, it's nice to see older levels turning up in newstuff.

Brad_tilf said:

Well, I guess you can't please everyone. But, I worked my ASS off on that level and even if you didn't really like the gameplay you could at least acknowledge the effort that went into it. I review alot of wads that I don't like but I try to find something positive to say because there is always someone who will enjoy the style I'm reviewing.

Yeah, it's just my opinion. I'm sure there's plenty of folks who like that sort of map, but I prefer cleaner, more fuctional, perhaps more classic designs.

Sure there was obviously a lot of hard work in that wad, like I said there was some real nice graphical stuff, but that neat little two-tier platform at the start procludes any coop play, because once respawned you can't make any way in, even though there appeared to be coop starts?

There are plenty of positives from your map, the most obvious one being that, graphically, it's highly accomplished. For me, though, a good level is about gameplay first, and graphics after. It's just my own subjective view though, so you feel free to pursue your visions, you don't have to cater to everyones tastes and wishes.

pritch said:

Yeah, it's just my opinion. I'm sure there's plenty of folks who like that sort of map, but I prefer cleaner, more fuctional, perhaps more classic designs.

Sure there was obviously a lot of hard work in that wad, like I said there was some real nice graphical stuff, but that neat little two-tier platform at the start procludes any coop play, because once respawned you can't make any way in, even though there appeared to be coop starts?

There are plenty of positives from your map, the most obvious one being that, graphically, it's highly accomplished. For me, though, a good level is about gameplay first, and graphics after. It's just my own subjective view though, so you feel free to pursue your visions, you don't have to cater to everyones tastes and wishes.

Ditto for me.

pritch, Thanks so much for the very positive comments on my Blind Alley map. I really appreciate it. The next several maps are even better.

Espi- You just have to throw some monsters in your georgeous map and release it for SP. You just have to!!

Espi's got another sp masterpeice in the works... you'll see. :)

DEMOn said:

Espi's got another sp masterpeice in the works... you'll see. :)

Hell, if it's better than his DM map I for one will just be thrilled!!

Epyo said:

Yeh, tried that, it was pretty...well...bad. I also tried a level with low gravity, and that was worse.

IMO, that's a given..

I liked Blood Works.

It was cramped, in fact it was a horrible place to be generally. All that blood, the hanging corpses and the noise - the unending noise! A horrible oppressive place that you could almost smell the vile stench of the putrifying blood from. It really feels like something Hellspawn would be creating. (Heh, did I just call Brad_tilf Hellspawn?)

Another thing I liked, it was the first map in a long time that made even solitary Lost Souls dangerous.

The cramped conditons made it a hard play, but I kind of thought that's what this map was about: a cramped, smelly, sweaty battle where everywhich way you turn there was someone in a better position than you just waiting to take a shot. Doesn't mean it wasn't fun though.

All just taste stuff again I guess.

Hyena said:

I'm detecting a little bit of hostility. (Maybe there isn't and I'm just imagining it) But in any case, when you volunteered to take my turn you didn't give me the impression that it was a big problem. Is there one?

No hostility there, it was just idle speculation.

And no, doing this week's newstuff wasn't a problem - in fact I'm glad I did. (see the newstuff forum)

Burger.wad

wtfraggle

hmm, burger, is that something I might play with my mommy sitting in the room?

Epyo said:

hmm, burger, is that something I might play with my mommy sitting in the room?

I dont mean to spoil anything but

its just a Hell Knight with Fredrik's head and a Revenant saying
"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I come from Sweeden"
Endlessly
with a Demon making silly sounds. its nothing harsh. Kinda funny Imo. :D

in burger.wad, I was shooting weapons after using the cheat to get all of them, and imps started to attack the hell knight..

I wonder how that map would work if I was on shrooms...

Ct_red_pants said:

wtfraggle

But he is capable of so much more..

DOOM Anomaly said:

I dont mean to spoil anything but

its just a Hell Knight with Fredrik's head and a Revenant saying
"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I come from Sweeden"
Endlessly
with a Demon making silly sounds. its nothing harsh. Kinda funny Imo. :D

A winnar is j00. Maximum points for observation.

Thanks for the kind comments all. :)

I suppose I'll make an sp version of narcosis for the next weeks newstuff due to popular demand.

BTW I was listening to Tomahawk - Narcosis when I finished it, if someone is wondering why I named it that. :P

Espi said:

I suppose I'll make an sp version of narcosis for the next weeks newstuff due to popular demand.

Ooh. Try to balance out gameplay and detailing please? =]

DOOM Anomaly said:

"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I cone from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I cone from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I cone from Sweeden"
heh, Dunno why but I watched that for like a long time, just laughing. No offence tho.

how long does it last!?!??!?! 0_0

KoRn said:

in burger.wad, I was shooting weapons after using the cheat to get all of them, and imps started to attack the hell knight..

I wonder how that map would work if I was on shrooms...

I think you're the only person who found that secret on their own. Good job.

Ultimate DooMer said:

No hostility there, it was just idle speculation.

And no, doing this week's newstuff wasn't a problem - in fact I'm glad I did. (see the newstuff forum)

Glad to hear that. I guess it was just my imagination then.
Thanks for clearing that up.