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kmxexii

Cacowards 2013 nomination thread

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Well, Brutal Doom got a cacoward as far back as 2010, so at most it's an unwritten custom. :) BtSX E1 should've been finished already, but it's undergoing one final update based on the Megawad Club feedback. Mostly minor tweaks, but other projects provide endless distractions (looking at you, d2twid and 32in24).

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DeathevokatioN said:

I've always thought there was some unwritten rule that if a wad isn't uploaded to idgames it doesn't count as "finished"... this could all be in my head though.


Planisphere 2, The Eye, Winter's Fury, and Reelism weren't on the archives when we wrote the 2012 Cacowards. Only one of them has since been uploaded!

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I'm going to second the nominations of Hellbound and D2TWID as best WADs. Really great stuff and consistently enjoyable.

As for mods: Project MSX is one of my all-time faves right now after the latest beta update, and "Accessories to Murder" is a terrific collaboration between WildWeasel and DoomNukem. Simple but effective, it looks and plays very well.

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If you're doing gameplay mods like a few previous cacowards, I would nominate Samsara.



The recently made trailer says it all, but it's a Zdoom/Zandronum mod that features 8 (and soon 9) classic characters than can all play with each other in a single or multiplayer setting. You can play any of the characters in any of the iWads Zdoom supports currently (Play as Parias in Doom, play as Doomguy in Strife, etc). Besides that, it's one of the few mods that uses CVARs for mutator settings instead of having to load up multiple mutator wads such as Brutal Doom. It's quite balanced and fun in my opinion.

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Despite it not being on Id games, surely BTSX episode 1 is finished in a close enough state to count for a nomination?

There have been a few wads that have been cacoward winners in unfinished or partial states, (RTC-Demo, Eternal Doom IV). Also, Scythe 2 was initially missing some later levels when nominated. When the megawad was finally completed later, its cacoward paragraph was modified to include this change.

Finally, there's wads such as Deus Vult II and Phocas Island which are getting updated/expanded long after their nominations.

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I'm definitely putting my votes in for Samsara for best gameplay mod, D2TWID for a general nomination, and Futility as another general nomination.

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pizzabob18 said:

Also, some such as Scythe 2 were initially missing some later levels when nominated, with this being posthumously changed

I haven't heard news of Erik Alm's death...

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Gez said:

I haven't heard news of Erik Alm's death...


I think by posthumously, I think he means after it was given the cacoward. Could mean his death, though. Just a thought.

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I was just being a smartass about his improper use of "posthumously" because it pretty much means "after death and burial" and nothing else. (That's even why there's an 'h' in the word. It's Latin wordplay on "postumus" (after) and "humus" (soil).)

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Cynical said:

Plutonium Winds actually was finished. It's just not on /idgames because of the read-only thing.


Not that it matters, but yeah it's done. For now that is. I know about a couple of minor bugs and texture-mistakes but nothing that really matters.

I'm planning a "sequel" sometime (don't know when, thats for sure!) and I'll fix that stuff then.

Just for the heck of it, here is a new link, I think the old one is dead:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/q67znm

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Update to my previous nominations:

- Unholy Realms (my second favorite release besides Hellbound this year)
- Plutonia MIDI Pack (I know, not a level pack, but it polishes the game a lot - it's such a small download and yet so ingenious)

Still looking into some other stuff I didn't have time to play yet, so the list could get longer.

*EDIT*
Since it is the anniversary year, can we also nominate some classic wad that never got any award until now? In that case, NJDoom should be awarded at long last.
It was the first full megawad replacement (or at least it's known as such), and after just recently playing it, I can say it's better than many wads released soon after that. Hard to believe this wasn't mentioned in the Top 100 10 years ago, so now it would be the perfect time to give it the attention it deserved in the first place. Also an early testimony of Enjay's mapping skills, btw.

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seconding doomkid92 for mapper of the year very profilic dm mapper with several high quality releases

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nub_hat said:

seconding doomkid92 for mapper of the year very profilic dm mapper with several high quality releases

I couldn't agree more. He's made some amazing layouts for DM and ZMatch was very fun. I nominate ZMatch as well as unholy realms and D2TWiD.

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I'm with NightFright here on the 20th anniversary special idea. We should give a mention and a brief write up of at least one wad per year that never previously got recognize, at least for the years 11-19. I'll put out at least one idea for each of those years:

2004: Nilla Doom, Hollow Minds
2005: Vae Victus, Hordes of Chaos X
2006: Scimitar
2007: Hatoma Battles the Yomi Demons
2008: 32 Inch Nails, Axiom
2009: Needs More Detail
2010: Deimos Deja Vu, Jade Earth, f_ep2.wad
2011: Dark Deity's Bastion
2012: Skepland, A Taste for Blood, Can't Run From Evil

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LodiB88 said:

I'm with NightFright here on the 20th anniversary special idea. We should give a mention and a brief write up of at least one wad per year that never previously got recognize, at least for the years 11-19. I'll put out at least one idea for each of those years:

2004: Nilla Doom, Hollow Minds
2005: Vae Victus, Hordes of Chaos X
2006: Scimitar
2007: Hatoma Battles the Yomi Demons
2008: 32 Inch Nails, Axiom
2009: Needs More Detail
2010: Deimos Deja Vu, Jade Earth, f_ep2.wad
2011: Dark Deity's Bastion
2012: Skepland, A Taste for Blood, Can't Run From Evil


Just to save everyone some time and energy, don't do what Brandon D. Lade does

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There goes my extensive, 20 years spanning research into lost gems of Doom.

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We do kinda need something to set these Cacowards apart from the others. The Lifetime Achievement Award might be a good one to have, maybe it could be a golden Candle or something. :P

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Nothing terribly insightful from me, just throwing in my two cents here via some mini-reviews (mostly the usual suspects). My favorites from this year were:

Hellbound - Expansive, moody maps that are aesthetically very pleasing, largely through scale and lighting, with a satisfying blend of heavy bloodshed and exploration. A very immersive WAD. My one main complaint: map 32 will have you groaning 'this again?'
Stardate 20X6 - While 'Swim with the Whales' was a fun (if somewhat sadomasochistic) play and was visually very enchanting, I'd still say this was Ribbiks' best release this year, simply for its endless procession of mostly well-planned setpiece encounters, broken up nicely by some casual aspects of non-linearity that emerge in several of the maps. Map 06 here is one of my single favorite discrete levels from this year.
BTSX E1: Get Out of My Stations - A complete package here, an aesthetically very rich mapset with a fresh texture set and some of the best BGM to come out this year. While I felt that the version the DWMC played was perhaps a mite too gentle or restrained in its handling of the player at points, this is a minor qualm in the big picture, more than compensated for by the overall variety in encounters and mapping styles evinced by its many authors. One of the most consistently on-point WADs of its length this year.
Unholy Realms - Another very consistently well-built set, this does what it says on the tin--an offering of mostly concise and mostly-engaging, fast-paced little romps of an obviously Scythe-ian cast. The little cameos by guest mappers afford it just enough stylistic outliers to make it a well-balanced package overall; my only personal qualm is that there's really only ~1.5 maps that have any kind of really substantial expanse to them, which is something I personally always enjoy, and would've augmented the feeling of variety.
Plutonium Winds E1 - Maybe a little bit lesser known than the others (probably due to being released without much fanfare), Darkreaver's (not-particularly-Plutonic) paean to Plutonia is a short series of tightly-balanced scenario-oriented challenge maps that should see almost any player work up a sweat with all of the dipping and rolling and jucking and shiving their playfully malicious encounters offer. A good WAD to get the blood flowing, in more ways than one.

For honorable mention, I'm inclined to give a nod towards Interception from earlier in the year. While apparently the current 'final' version has some unfortunate technical issues, and not all of the maps are exactly sterling to say the least, there's a lot of very interesting and worthwhile stuff in here (particularly in E2, with ProcessingControl's maps being my favorite), and the sort of whimsical approach it takes to establishing setting and progression and the patchwork quality of the mapping styles really does remind me of the overall atmosphere of old standbys like Memento Mori and Requiem and the like, a nice nostalgic feeling.

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Obsidian said:

We do kinda need something to set these Cacowards apart from the others. The Lifetime Achievement Award might be a good one to have, maybe it could be a golden Candle or something. :P


Golden Cyberdemon signed by John Romero and blessed by the freakin' Pope.

(Its been done)

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TheMionicDonut said:

Golden Cyberdemon signed by John Romero and blessed by the freakin' Pope.

(Its been done)



Amen to that!

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One of the co-authors has been having technical difficulties but rest assured that we are doing our best.

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