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Arclite

Desolation - Released

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Desolation, the 12-level megawad and sequel to Damnation is now up on idgames.

To start things off, the story takes place shortly after the events on Kronos in Damnation and follows the surviving marine as he encounters the Stalwart station and the nearby ice planet, Thanatos.
The feel of the Wad is similar to that of it's predecessor, but the gameplay is a little different:
It is less chaotic and "bold" than Damnation, with the levels presenting more traps and mind games while being more horror focused. Most areas are considerably darker, and you might find yourself in the midst of some hard encounters within the first couple levels, as the Wad slides more toward the difficult side.

The Zip is 56 MBs (mostly due to the 64 Ambient Sounds and 20 .ogg music files which make up the levels, and yes, much smaller than the huge MP3 files in Damnation), and contains Doom - Desolation.rtf, Desolation.txt, IDTEX.wad, q2tex.wad, cc4-tex.wad, and the usual skulltag_actors.pk3 and skulltag_data.pk3 (all which are required for the Wad to run properly, excluding the .rtf file) in addition to the Wad itself.
Unlike in Damnation, Brutal Doom is not a necessity and it's just as fun on normal Doom, though you may notice imbalance in ammo counts. I managed to implement Co-Op support as well, so go ahead and try that out with someone if you want.
It uses some of the Skulltag monsters/weapons/items throughout, which is the primary reason I haven't made a GZdoom version for the Wad, though if enough people make requests for one I'll probably go ahead and do it.

Now to close things off, I'd recommend you read the .rtf file that comes with it if you want more details on the Wad and are interested in the story.
The installation instructions are as follows: Just extract the files in the .zip (though you can ignore the .txt and .rtf file within) into your Zandronum skins folder, or just select them all and open them with your zandronum.exe, and play.
Let me know if you have any problems with the Wad (technical or gameplay wise) and feel free to report any bugs.
Here's the download link to idgames: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?file=levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/deso.zip

And here are some screenshots:
http://imgur.com/bWd5Y3Q
http://imgur.com/yptKvcu
http://imgur.com/226LCqe
http://imgur.com/C0twkM7

Enjoy Desolation!

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I'll give it a shot and tell you how it went. I didn't play Damnation though :o

EDIT: So I finished the 12 maps.

It very good, I really enjoyed pretty much everything in it.

In Map03, I like how you use a clip and a barrel to teach the player that you can jump on them to reach higher areas, which make you find a plasma gun in a secret in the same room, brilliant. The frozen Imps and teleport in Map10 is also very nice.

For bugs, in Map06, in the circular room under the red door there is a Demon that is stuck in a corner and can't get out from his spot.

Map07 - Right before taking the pistol in the vent area (with the Archvile) we have to press duck to go through for some reason...

It took me forever in the last map to see that the final switch reveals weak spots on the four pillars. The thing is if you face the switch too close you won't see that transition through the window so I felt stuck until I replayed the map and backed off a little before pressing the switch to see what was happening.

The ammo balance in general when playing with normal Doom is alright but it felt really really tight in Map10 and 11.

If I create tech-base maps I know where I will find inspiration.

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Thank you very much, I'm so glad you liked it!

And yes I was worried that detecting the pillars' change in the final level might be difficult through all the carnage, so thank you for confirming my fears about that, I'll change that around a bit when I get the chance.

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No problem you did an awesome job and you deserve feedback.

One little thing I forgot; in the early maps you sometime placed some hanging corpses or assets in small corridors but those have collisions and block monsters, projectiles and the player. So when you fight monsters there, things become a bit awkward for a moment, not sure how to explain it. I like to move around but when a section of a corridor is blocked and only one character can walk through during encounters, I don't like it but maybe that's just me.

Fortunately this only happens a few time and these places are not so crowded with monsters.

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Well I prefer Zandronum so that can I utilize the Skulltag items/weapons/monsters, which I feel adds a little extra flavor to the gameplay. I'm willing to make a version for GZDoom if a few people request one.
(The only reason I didn't make one for Damnation is because it would've been quite exerting removing/replacing all those ST components throughout 32 levels, plus the ST Runes were a big part of the Hell levels, so I would've had to partially redesign those levels altogether.)

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It would be nice if you organized the wads in a single pk3 to make things easier to run. I tried to rename the zip to pk3 but it caused a lot of missing textures in Zandronum.

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I think the Skulltag item and monster additions are negligible if you're able to get it on a second or third port, most people prefer GZdoom over Zandronum for SP.
Anyway I just played through the first few levels, and I'll say that I'm really liking it, it has more creative traps and scares than most horror wads.

EDIT: Fantastic wad! I don't think I've seen levels with such atmospheric and realistic personality, and I'm pleased that the boss encounters didn't require Icon of Sin to make for some intense fights.

For gripes, as Estryark said the pillars in the final level are a little inconspicuous, and I noticed that a lot of the monsters seem to get stuck and bunch up on the portal platform.
I also don't think the Skulltag additions were necessary, they didn't contribute much to the gameplay.
Other than that though, these were some awesome levels and I look forward to seeing more.

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Thank you, I'm happy the style of the levels hasn't come across as repelling (having the "realistic" vibe and all).
And I do suppose you're right, I think people would be more willing to play it if it was on GZdoom also. I can probably do away with the ST additions :)

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