================================================================
Title : Pleiades
Filename : Pleiades.wad; Pleiades.zip
Author : Roger Ritenour
Emale Address : ritenour@rlc.net
Story Line : You are on a deep space mission when the
alien invasion at Phobos occurs. The
Starship Pleiades that is to retrieve
you does eventually arrive, but it too
has fallen to the aliens. Your first
challenge is to take control of the
Pleiades. From there, you fly her back
to the Solar System where you will face
a series of adventures against the aliens
of the Phobos Invasion.
Description : 11 Level quest for the ZDoom Port, v1.18b
or later (will run on earlier versions,
but some features used in Pleiades are
not supported by them).
Directions for running : Pleiades is a patch wad and is run with
ZDoom using an IWAD file. The IWAD file
can be Doom2, Plutonia, or TNT. (Note:
if you have a functioning installation of
ZDoom with anything but the shareware DoomI
game, the IWAD requirement has already
been met and nothing further is required
to run Pleiades.) Unzip
Pleiades.zip and place Pleiades.wad into
a directory of your choice. To start
ZDoom (from the directory you have ZDoom
in), enter on the command line of the
MS-DOS prompt something like:
zdoom -iwad c:\doom2\doom2.wad -file <path>pleiades.wad
If you run this with Plutonia or TNT,
the -iwad part of the command would be
appropriately modified with the iwad's
filename and path. The <path> in the -file
parameter is the location where you placed
pleiades.wad. Note on screen resolutions:
These levels have been optimized for speed
and run nearly as fast as the original
Doom II levels. (Somewhat slower areas are
due to a couple of fairly long wide open
views and complex structures using 2-side
lines with transparent textures not typical
in the original Doom II.) Generally, These
levels run well at one resolution step lower
from the best resolution your computer runs
DoomII levels in; ie. if DoomII IWAD levels
run well at 800 x 600 then you will see good
performance of these levels at 640 x 480.
Satisfactory frame rates have been obtained
as follows:
Pentium III, 600 MHz, (Home-build)
(AGP video adapter) 1280 x 1024
K6, 500 MHz, (Compaq Presario)
(PCI video adapter) 800 x 600
Pentium MMX, 200 MHz, (Clone)
(PCI video adapter) 640 x 480
Pentium 133 MHz, (Clone)
(PCI video adapter) 640 x 400
Less than 133 MHz, or any machine
running an ISA video adapter,
320 x 200
Note on delays in loading:
Wads with tall sky textures sometimes
require extra time for loading, especially
on older, slower machines. If
the startup screen for ZDoom appears to
lock up, give it at least 30 seconds for
the loading process to complete before
concluding that your computer has locked
up.
Multiplayer:
For network play (cooperative and DM),
using the command line under Windows DOS
prompt or LINUX:
zdoom -iwad c:\doom2\doom2.wad -file <path>pleiades.wad -net <number> [other machine 1] [other machine 2]... (-deathmatch)
<number> is your player number (1 through 8)
with each player having a unique number.
[other machine n] are other machines
in the network, this can be either a host
name or IP address. The last item, -deathmatch
is inserted for DM play (the default is
cooperative)
Additional Credits : Paul Flechette, Beta tester.
Derek Clemenze, Beta tester, Deathmatch
(only here I could beat him since I
designed the maps)
Doug Ryerson, I borrowed a few of his
textures from his ANTARES.WAD. Dave
Swift, I borrowed his idea of shiny gold
surfaces for a door textures from
his H2HMUD01.WAD level.
Pink Floyd, Shine On You
Crazy Diamond music selection. ID
Software, I redefined their COMPSTA1 and
COMPTALL textures as animated textures
to produce "living" instrument panels.
Also, a couple of the sounds were
borrowed from Quake and Quake II.
Jim Flynn/Return, Tree Sprite and the
opening music for solitude, Kanon.
Midi.net Music resource for many of the
musics in Pleiades. (Ride of the Valkyries,
Tubular Bells, Mars)
Michael Coyne, source for the music, Jupiter
* Play Information *
Episode and Level # : Map01 through Map11
Single Player : Yes
Cooperative Player : Yes (untested)
Deathmatch : Yes Map02, Map03, Map04, Map05 and Map10
are layed out for DM, other maps have the
DM positions but for a variety of reasons,
are not tuned for DM.
Difficulty Settings : Yes, full range (all difficulty levels
a little tougher than standard Doom
difficulties, suggest starting
at the easier levels until familiar
with the layout. One special note:
one of the things that really distinguishes
the ultra-violence, is the scarcity of
of ammo and health. You will have to
think your way through and aim carefully;
charging in with weapons blazing, will
result in running out of ammo with
many monsters left alive; But it is
possible to dispatch all the monsters
with the ammo available.
New Sounds : Yes, many ambient and sequence sounds using
ZDoom's new sounds capability.
New Graphics : Many Textures, Flats, Sprites, 8 new
skies that are full-tall for ZDoom,
and Title Screens.
New Music : Yes
Demos Replaced : None
ZDoom/Boom specials : Yes; water, sludge, colormaps, varying
gravity, episode flow under control of the
mapinfo lump, sound sequences, ambient
sounds, water current, animations
definition lump, and flat scrolling.
(although there is not a single conveyer
belt in the whole wad.)
Notes on Conversion : Even though this Wad uses a lot of custom
resources, an effort has been made to
conform to and enhance the classic Doom
story rather than to create something
entirely new and unfamiliar. The story
builds on the original Doom story.
*Construction *
Base : Based on the Pleiades and Phobos series by
the same author originally created for
Doom II. There are several totally new
levels included, and the original Doom II
version levels are significantly reworked
with new features to exploit the
advantages of the ZDoom/Boom ports.
Editors/Tools used:
WAD Builders: Wintex/Deutex, O. Montanuy
Patcher, Jim Flynn
(Wintex used in original Doom II levels,
Patcher used in ZDOOM version)
Level Editors: WinDEU32 5.23, R. Paquay, R Quinet, B. Wyber
(still my tool of choice when it comes to
close and detailed vertex placement, and DEU
does not choke on ZDOOM/BOOM specials even
though it cannot add them.)
DETH 4.16b, J. Burden, S. Oke plus
other contributors, (used primarily to
create the ZDOOM/BOOM specials)
ZETH (a variation of DETH adapted for ZDoom,
used primarily to reverse engineer the
ZDOOM demo levels)
Waded, M. Ayres (used in some of the original
Doom II versions)
DOOMED (used for Doom II version of Starcity)
(Multiple level editors used throughout
history of development)
Node Builders: BSP 1.2, Colin Reed (generally used in Doom II
versions)
NBLD 1.0, Jim Flynn (Used in final release)
WARM11, Robert Fenske (used in history of
development
RMB, Jens Hykkelbjerg (reject map builder)
(Multiple node builders used in development,
In the final version, the maps are compiled
under Nbld)
Graphics Tools Corel Photopaint 6 and 8
CorelDraw 6 and 8
Sound Editing Tools: Syntrillium Cooledit 96, full registered
version: Used for creation of many ambient
and sound sequence wave files. Plus
a portable tape recorder and a lot
improvisations to create some of the
custom sounds.
Known Bugs : Running ZDoom version 1.18b can be
problematic. The game can crash back to
Windows with a page fault error
or a Visual C++ runtime error.
This appears to be prevalent when ZDoom
has run consectively through several
levels. Recommend saving at the
completion of each level just prior
to exiting and proceeding. Also, on each
save, recommend alternating between at
least 2 game-save slots because if ZDoom
crashes during the save, that particular
save may be corrupted. Exits of the game
and restart with loading the saved game also
seems to help in reducing the occurences of
crashes. This problem
appears to be pecular to just version
1.18b and not to earlier versions;
but unfortunately, Pleiades uses some
features not supported by earlier versions.
* Copyright / Permissions *
You MAY use this episode as a base to build additional levels
You MAY modify these levels. If you do, please drop me a line, I
would like to see what you come up with. You MAY distribute this
this WAD in any electronic format provided you include this
information file unmodified. If you use portions of this wad
in other wads, all I ask is that credit be given to the
originator, whether it is me or someone from whom I borrowed from.
.thumb.png.ef7adf227f049ad68cb857c9e71b313c.png)
By Darman Macray · PostedThese levels are short, sweet, and pack a lot of punch. Complete with a humorous end-text-screen containing a healthy dose of silly shock-humor, this a masterful triumph of Heretic map-making, and most certainly a must-play wad.
By Walter confetti · PostedA really frantic and fun DM map with pretty neat stuff like invisible pillar in the middle of the arena, doesn't have anything to do with the title but the level can become a BFG spamming fest soon, especially with bots. Less fun in SP but the arch-ville+bunch of nazi combo is a nice feat.
By Fireseth · PostedOnly six enemies (played on UV) and no working exit. Other than that, it is a pretty detailed map for 1995. I enjoyed the general design and the poisonous vats of acid. Very cool, but not practical for good gameplay. EDIT: Just discovered this is a ideally a DM wad… haha, for that purpose, it seems good. My original rating was 2/5, will change it now.
By CravenCoyote · PostedLots of traps and monster closets. Some switches are activated by shooting but there's nothing to really tell you about this because they look the same as other switches. Texturing is good and enemy placement proved rather difficult at times. There aren't may health pickups on UV so it was a fight to get through.
By costadevale · PostedIt's pretty good for 1994. If you don't mind having no health items at all (except in a few maps) and the outrageous amounts of cyberdemons per map, you should give it a try. It's pretty challenging and I like it. E2M3 is a bit 'eh...' though.