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Cyb

The /newstuff Chronicles #123

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deathz0r needed the week off to catch up with schoolwork or look up more insults or something, so this week's meager showing of four wads gets me for a reviewer. On top of that none of them are really very good (one is nice, and when compared to the others it's frickin amazing), so uh there isn't much I can really think of to say here. If you're smart you'll skip down to the last review. Filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler!!

  • Slime Lab - Bjarne Christensen
    93k - Doom2/Legacy - SP - (img)
    I'd like to tell you about this map, but every time I tried to play it Legacy segfaulted. Sorry.

  • SargeBaldy Speedmapping Compilation #6 - Various
    37k - Doom2/Boom - SP - (img)
    Crap. Crap. Mega crap. The first map is a decent output for 100 mins of work (it's the one in the screenshot), but the rest are liquified ass in a can, though I suppose they followed the theme well enough. As actual Doom maps though, they're trash.

  • The Therion Project - Stealthy Ivan
    87k - doom2.exe - SP/co-op - (img) (img) (img)
    Hmm. Yeah, well, first off the text file says doom2.exe can be used, but in the first map I couldn't seem to get to the red key switch without jumping (nor did I particularly want to hang around the map any longer). It didn't mess up anything else in the map, so I dunno. Second the text file implies there are five maps, when in fact there are only four, and the fourth one doesn't have any exit I could find (opening the last door yields a marble wall that doesn't do anything).Yeah, so the maps aren't that great. The gameplay is a tedious hit a switch that opens a door that has another switch/key behind it and repeat a few times until you get to the exit. Mister Ivan also apparently does not know how to align textures at all, either with offsets or with simple upper/lower unpegging. Also his choice of wall textures in many places left something to be desired.

    Gameplay is eh. There was only one trap that really surprised me, and the rest of the maps were fairly easy. I never once had to conserve ammo, and health was never really an issue either. Overall, I would say you're better off skipping it.

  • DeathBelow - P. "Ace" Westlake
    94k - doom2.exe - SP - (img)(img)(img)
    When I was playing this map I wasn't quite sure what I thought about it, and really I'm still not entirely sure. It's not a bad map at all, in fact it's very well done for the author's second release. Actually that was what bugged me. While the map has a couple nice areas, there are things about it that are inconsistent, and also a variety of things that constantly remind you it's from an author who is relatively new at mapping.

    I dunno though, perhaps it's just because I played it at 5 in the morning. Anyways, the general theme of the map is pretty much brown bricks, though it seems to change theme twice with no discernable transition. First it swaps to a metal base with tons of crates, and then later to something that looks like some of the earlier Doom 2 maps. It's not as bad as it could be, and gameplay seems to flow pretty well the entire time. I did run out of ammo a few times and was forced to fight off specters (and two pain elementals at one point, ick) with my fists until I managed to find some shells, but other than that I had few problems.

    Overall it's a nice, solid map which has a couple minor flaws but overall it's still quite good. I will be looking forward to seeing more from this author.

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Haha.. That Slime Lab gave me a segfault error, and that doesn't usually happen to me with Legacy, unless there's some really bad script error, or the level is just plain fucked.

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Deathbelow was pretty fun. The detail is a little simplistic, but it's definetely there.

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I played DB when it was first reviewed at Doom Wad Station. It was a decent little level. I think I posted my thoughts about that in the other thread that deals specifically with that update to the DWS.

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The Therion Project, in PRBoom 2.2.3:

It is possible to reach the red key switch on map1 without jumping. I don't think it gives the game away too much if I say "sector 33 is a lift"

Having said that there are a few little bugs (understandable since it's still "in the works" I guess)

  • map1, sector 72 has a kind of raised invisible floor which went away after rebuilding the nodes with BSP 5.1
  • map2, sector 17: the door doesn't seem to want to open, it's not marked manual nor does it have a trigger
  • map2, again: There is more than one trigger line to lower the bars around the red key (sectors 76-91 or thereabouts) but the switch that raises them again is not repeatable, so it's possible (but not likely) to trap it
  • map4, 5: As is mentioned there's no exit on 4 and no map5 at all. Seems to me like an old version was uploaded.
Overall it's pretty linear, and somewhat easy, but it's good if you like old school maps.

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Um... what kind of thing is this speedmapping project? Now, the first one was decent. The second one... uh... no monsters, no nothing. Just an exit. The third one... come on, what's with the freaky two-patch main texture? I thought the fact that this screws up the picture is common knowledge. The other three... aren't levels. At freakin' all.

What I want to know is: what the hell were these people doing for the OTHER 98 minutes of the exercise?

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Yes, it is an old version I uploaded, sorry I feel like an ass hole for doing that... But the finished product will be out soon, and I am sure you wont be displeased...

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netnomad312 said:

Um... what kind of thing is this speedmapping project? Now, the first one was decent. The second one... uh... no monsters, no nothing. Just an exit. The third one... come on, what's with the freaky two-patch main texture? I thought the fact that this screws up the picture is common knowledge. The other three... aren't levels. At freakin' all.

What I want to know is: what the hell were these people doing for the OTHER 98 minutes of the exercise?


well, come to irc and let us see what you can do, remember it is not that easy... well, they tried to fit the theme...

(I know it isn't active, and I also think it was a bad idea to upload them, heh. But I think speedmapping will begin again sometime)

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Wow, I really liked DeathBelow. It was a sweet level, simple, yet not ugly. We need more levels like that, man. Sadly, I died right before I got to the exit (cursed Hell Knights blasting me in the back) but nonetheless, I did enjoy it. Now only if I could design levels that good...

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Torn said:

well, come to irc and let us see what you can do, remember it is not that easy... well, they tried to fit the theme...

Hey, I never said I was a master speedmapper. But I know I can do better than that. Hell, a hamster could do better...

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netnomad312 said:

Hey, I never said I was a master speedmapper. But I know I can do better than that. Hell, a hamster could do better...

well ... silverwyvern is a new mapper and hardly spent any time on hers anyway, hyena did 3 maps he meant as jokes, and holy avenger made a joke one too.

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sargebaldy said:

well ... silverwyvern is a new mapper and hardly spent any time on hers anyway, hyena did 3 maps he meant as jokes, and holy avenger made a joke one too.


I thought this was a serious exercise... or competition, or whatever it is... what the heck is it?

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I suppose it depends on who turns up. Many of the earlier ones included some astonishingly good maps.

I believe the purpose was originally to see how good a map people could make when working hard for 100 minutes - primarily a learning experience, rather than a competition.

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Okay. About Slime Lab... I ran it in Doom95, no go. Ran it in ZDoom, and it told me to fix linedef 45. So I did. Then I played it. I couldn't figure out the first room, which had no special linedefs nor any apparent way to get out of it. So I IDCLIPed through the crates and down a long tunnel. Then I got to another wall with apparantly no way to open it. So I walked through that too. After killing all the sergeants there, I found one safe spot in the radiation pit, in a corner. But the corner doesn't do anything, and there's no way out of the room. At this point I decided I couldn't figure out this wad.

Anybody else have ANY luck?

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as the text file said, the wad is for legacy

... which segfaults when trying to load it

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Did you try to run it in Legacy after you fixed linedef 45?

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It might just be that it needs a port that allows jumping. AFAIK though, it crashes all ports that allow jumping. I tried it with PrBoom, and it was OK, except of course that I needed to IDCLIP to do the "jumps".

I don't know if jumping is the only issue - it didn't look like a very interesting map anyway (the jumping "puzzles" just looked pointless), so I didn't spend very long on it. Maybe it's got a ton of Legacy-only stuff though; who knows? The text-file was pretty uninformative.

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Slimelab does run with legacy after deleting the linedef #45 (which is a duplicate linedef without sidedefs). Actually it runs with any port which allows jumping, it doesn't use any legacy features. And yes, it is rather uninteresting and ugly.

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Funny: if it hadn't been for the segment violation it probably would have got far less attention. :)

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netnomad312 said:

I thought this was a serious exercise... or competition, or whatever it is... what the heck is it?


It was a serious exercise that no one took seriously.

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