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JonnyFive

Cold As Hell: Special Edition (final version)

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Front Cover Art
Back Cover Art

It's been four years since the original Cold As Hell was released. While it was well received for its storyline and gameplay, it was also rightly criticized for its numerous game-breaking bugs and performance issues.

Now, after four years, Cold As Hell is back the way it was intended to be played.

Cold As Hell: Special Edition is intended to be used with GZDoom 1.1.06 or higher*, and adds a number of major improvements to the original mod. In addition to the numerous bug fixes and visual enhancements, the storyline has been re-written to be more coherent and fleshed out. The levels have been tweaked and ehanced, and the gameplay and design has been tweaked to be more balanced and fun.

*I will be releasing a regular ZDoom levelset eventually, but due to the fixes I've had to make on the SE version, it won't be until early 2009.

Download it now! (final version - idgames archive link)

Check out the official manual
(manual is also included in the main download, updated 12/2/08)

Screen shots:
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May I suggest that you make a re-release with GL nodes built at least for the larger levels? The nodes that are present in some of the maps are more or less useless for use in GZDoom and not having GL nodes will increase loading times for these maps by several seconds.

EDIT: Found a serious bug: Reloading doesn't work due to a typo in keyconf.

The current line is:

defaultbind R reload_gun

but it should be

defaultbind R +reload_gun

Did you ever test this without your own config. ;)

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Did you ever test this without your own config. ;) [/B]


And why would I do something silly like that. :)

I'm re-uploading with the GL Nodes a couple minor bugs that slipped by, including the KEYCONF. Thanks for the heads-up.

I put cah_se2.zip up on incoming and put a .msg to let Ty know to delete the old version that I uploaded.

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New version posted with some minor bug fixes and gameplay tweaks. Weapons will now automatically reload when empty, except the regular pump shotgun, since you have to add individual shells.

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Epic. :D

I've been awaiting this ever since you reappeared; glad to hear the project has finally reached a releasable state!

Downloading it as I type this, looking forward to playing it again, hopefully with a lot smoother sailing experience this time. :)

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engineer said:

Whyc do the cold storage rooms induce bleeding?


Because it's generically handled with damage checking.

Think of it as badly chapped lips or something. :)

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JonnyFive said:

Think of it as badly chapped lips or something. :)


Heh. That would be some severe chapping right enough. :)

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man, I can't even finish the first map. I walk around looking carefully everywhere, then I get into the bathroom and shit gets showeled on to the fan at a break neck speed. I run around cappin asses and whatnot. Until I got no more caps to cap with and no more ass of my own to keep uncapped.

Can't find any brass key for the life of me. And why are they using a brass key on a switch in a Army air base anyway?

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Doom Map Logic. Serious business.

The brass key is in the control tower. To get there, go to the airfield, into the hangar and take a left in the tunnel (the end that doesn't have the dimly red-lit door). It'll be the last door on your left as you reach that end of the tunnel.

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A better name for this mod would be 'Hard as Hell' ...because it is.

I played through on the rookie setting (easiest) and there were some parts that are just unbelievably hard... oddly enough, they are the first 2 levels... it actually got easier as the game went on. Now that this mod is fixed, and I've played it to the end, I can say that this is an amazing project. Tons of custom artwork, fun gameplay, and a story that is intriguing. I know this mod is technically 4 years old, but this is the first time anyone has been able to realistically play this mod... and it one of the best projects I've played for Doom.

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Scuba Steve said:

A better name for this mod would be 'Hard as Hell' ...because it is.

I played through on the rookie setting (easiest) and there were some parts that are just unbelievably hard... oddly enough, they are the first 2 levels... it actually got easier as the game went on. Now that this mod is fixed, and I've played it to the end, I can say that this is an amazing project. Tons of custom artwork, fun gameplay, and a story that is intriguing. I know this mod is technically 4 years old, but this is the first time anyone has been able to realistically play this mod... and it one of the best projects I've played for Doom.


caco?

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engineer said:

Also, the T20 used BAR magazines. Which means 9 rounds is.... not enough. Should be 20/21 rounds in this case.


Shhh... don't tell anyone the secret, but the T20 was added as an afterthought to balance out some discrepencies in the notes you find and add another secret-ish weapon. It's explained away as "doesn't work with the extended BAR mags we use here," which is total bullshit but is just code for "used to balance out a powerful weapon without breaking compatibility with all the M1 clips you find." Try it out on one of the bosses and you'll see why I didn't make it use 20 round magazines. :)

My reading of the info I could find on the T20 was that is was possible to use BAR mags, but not necessarily that it required them. Still... eh... it is a Doom mod, after all. A Doom mod where you fight demons. File it under "why is an Army base using brass keys?" ;)

Also, I'm making some minor fixes based on suggestions from the ZDoom forums, since there are a few minor bugs. Nothing that will render it unplayable or anything, but annoying stuff. Also, I'm toning down the difficulty a tad by tweaking the weapons and bleeding slightly.

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Something else that I've been meaning to mention - and this has struck me ever since the first release - the modified monsters, particularly the imps: I think they look really cool. They are sort of creepy in a kind of mutated version of the imps we all know and love* way.

I can't decide if they are merely mutations of an imp or, perhaps, my newer thought on the matter - that they are less evolved versions. That's an idea that I am increasingly coming down in favour of. I guess I'm sort of seeing it as the lesser evolved hellspawn made a sortie into our dimension in 1954 but by the time of the Doom Mars moon invasions, the demons were further evolved into the ones that appeared in the original id game.



*When I say "love" I don't mean in an impse kind of way. However, I realise that it is the 21st century and if some people wish to interpret it that way, or if that definition is closer to their own feelings about Doom imps, then who am I to stand in their way?

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JonnyFive said:

Shhh... don't tell anyone the secret, but the T20 was added as an afterthought to balance out some discrepencies in the notes you find and add another secret-ish weapon. It's explained away as "doesn't work with the extended BAR mags we use here," which is total bullshit but is just code for "used to balance out a powerful weapon without breaking compatibility with all the M1 clips you find." Try it out on one of the bosses and you'll see why I didn't make it use 20 round magazines. :)

My reading of the info I could find on the T20 was that is was possible to use BAR mags, but not necessarily that it required them. Still... eh... it is a Doom mod, after all. A Doom mod where you fight demons. File it under "why is an Army base using brass keys?" ;)

Also, I'm making some minor fixes based on suggestions from the ZDoom forums, since there are a few minor bugs. Nothing that will render it unplayable or anything, but annoying stuff. Also, I'm toning down the difficulty a tad by tweaking the weapons and bleeding slightly.


Fair enough. There weren't really many experimental weapons in the 1950s, actually. Did you ever take a peek at the T44? Like the T20 (which became the basis for the M14), the T44 evolved into the M60.

http://world.guns.ru/machine/m60_t44.jpg

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Uhm I can't even run it past the second chapter. After I deactivate the lockdown and get the story segment, the game just stays stuck on the story sequence. No matter what keys I press I can't get beyond the text screen. I can still access the escape menu options etc, but there is nothing I can do to progress. What gives?

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Did you try hitting the "use" key? It's set up to use a "player uses sector" action to skip ahead past the sequence.

I'll check it to see if it's bugged though. Thanks for letting me know.

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I think I found the problem. If the user changes the use key to something like the space bar, then it seems to fail. However, if the control scheme is left to its own defaults, such as use being the E key, then it seems to work. However, the story screen after the lockdown seems to be problematic as it doesn't seem to be as responsive as the first. The first story segment doesn't have these problems as I can press any key to make it progress. For consistency, this should change.

Edit:
For the first story sequence, only keys that have an assigned function will bypass the story screen. So default keys like w a s d shift space mouse1, etc work. Though some others like tab enter and unassigned keys don't. For the lockdown, I can only get the e key to bypass the screen. :\

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cool game! Too bad it's too hard to play! But whatever, it has cool features so even if it's not actually playable shouldn't matter, right? Seriously, if it's too hard to play, what's the point? The reload feature is annoying. What's the shotgun doing when he cocks each time? I can understand reloading a magazine--but each bullet/shell individually? This is a bit much for a video game. It's a real shame a game that obviously involved lots of time and effort probably won't be played because it is too difficult. The bandage theme is really neat, but I'm constantly bandaging myself to stop the bleeding!

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Yeah, I got a few complaints about the difficulty and I'm preparing a refined version with the difficulty toned down a bit (including automatic reloading after emptying a mag, which is something a couple people asked for), along with a bunch of minor bug-fixes.

Not sure what you mean about the shotgun though. A pump-action shotgun needs to be racked after every shot. That's also how it behaved in the original Doom.

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Reloading the shotgun is fine for me. What I found to be a pain in the ass was having to apply a bandage every time I got hit. It's really annoying to have to put away my weapon and spend three seconds running around trying to put the bandage on, and then get my weapon out again once I'm finished, only to get hit by another fireball and need to apply another bandage. If you decide to keep this feature in the next revision I'd suggest making it faster, more efficient, and less frequently needed.

Beyond that, this was pretty cool and I like where it's going.

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I'm playing it on Lieutenant/Ultra Violence and it isn't that hard. I think it is pretty easy compared to some other mods I've played such as Tarakans and Drown in Blood.

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Sonikku7 said:

I'm playing it on Lieutenant/Ultra Violence and it isn't that hard. I think it is pretty easy compared to some other mods I've played such as Tarakans and Drown in Blood.

Yeah, I suck at Doom. I was playing on easy skill. If it wasn't for the constant need to bandage myself, I'd probably be able to manage it. But I play Doom for fun; and for me running around bandaging myself all the time or reloading my weapon all the time doesn't add up to fun, even if the the bandage system is really cool. I think just having it be needed less frequently would make sense. Maybe think of MDK where the player's health lasted a long time (was slow to wear down). Maybe make the player have a health longevity more like that.

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Does Intel integrated graphics (yeah yeah) really hate to use the bathroom around other people, or is there actually something on the first level that would cause integrated graphics to fail when entering the bathroom in GL mode?

Awesome mod other than this, though. I look forward to playing the rest, if I can.

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