Incineration - An Episode 3 replacment for DOOM

Took a break from Space Wars and whipped up an episode 3 replacement for Doom/Ultimate Doom. No new music (only rearranged Doom 1 music) or graphics, just maps. The aim for for classic style design and game play. For many years I wanted to make an E3 replacement all by myself, here it is.

The wad is not yet on idgames (as you guys may find a few bugs that I am not aware of) but can be downloaded from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: paulcorfiatis.com/pe3_inci.zip

LEVEL DATE COMPLETED
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E3M1 At Hell's Gate 4 Oct 2014
E3M2 Torture Town 1 Oct 2014
E3M3 Crypt of Agony 10 Oct 2014
E3M4 Ruins of Despair 12 Oct 2014
E3M5 Shadows of Hatred 22 Oct 2014
E3M6 City of Lethe 5 Nov 2014
E3M7 Nightmare Ultima 13 Nov 2014
E3M8 Terrified 19 Nov 2014
E3M9 Abstract Antagonize 1 Oct 2014

DESIGN AIMS

* Designed for Single Player. But with coop and DM starts in the maps.
* E3 Style levels, mainly hellish.
* 100% stock textures.
* 100% kills, items and secrets possible in all maps.
* TONS of secrets, none which are unmarked. Always a hint, automap, different texture, etc.
* A mix of linear and non linear maps (yes I am trying my best to avoid linearity :D)
* A mix of indoor (hell base/cave) and outdoor (city style) maps.
* No fast doors. All linedef types compatible with Doom v1.2.
* No visplane overflows, made sure the number was less than 100 in visplane explorer.
* Tested on -complevel 9 and also in the very first version of Prboom.

downloading now--love episode 3 type stuff

I've played first 3 maps. I really liked them! Great D1 stuff.

You've managed to include a few unusual texture usages and combinations into each map. Nothing there looked ugly, just classic, as you said, and I'm a fan of that. Gameplay was rather easy, but definitely felt classic-like and that more it was enjoyable. I particularly liked how at the beginning of E3M3, the start area was actually smaller than it appeared to be, and pinky demons posed an unexpected threat when a group of them attacked me.

The environment kept changing and being interesting, too. I've also enjoyed the exploration and finding secrets. I've actually found all of them, except for the last one in E3M1, pointed to by an arrow, which I couldn't open (or at least didn't find a way to do so).

If there was anything dragging the experience down, then it was usage of Barons. Thankfully you've used them sparingly, but still: They posed no real threat. They served just as an excuse to stop the player for a while and make him waste 15 shells or 100 bullets, or better just skip the fight without any negative consequences at all. I wished there was something like a DEHACKED patch to change Barons into a monster like a Revenant, with much less health and with an actually dangerous attack. Barons are hard to place in a map to pose an efficient threat, but one typical usage is to make them sudden ambushers in cramped areas without a possibility to run away (at least not without negative consequences, such as losing health). I'd say, it wouldn't be a shame if you've restricted them to places like that, and removed all of them from all other places.

Good job! I'm looking forward to the rest, now. :)

E3M4...cute.

Does the start of E3M8 really have no other way to beat other than single shotgunning a cyber to death?

Magnusblitz said:

E3M4...cute.

Does the start of E3M8 really have no other way to beat other than single shotgunning a cyber to death?

It sure does but I might consider some changes before the final idgames release. Maybe changing the position of the RL and adding some rockets.

The farther you go the more Barons you encounter. The first Cyberdemon is in E3M6,

Cool, an E3 replacement! Will check this out eventually.

E3M4 was awesome for its visuals, structure and majority of its gameplay. Such a deja-vu, but with a nice twist and seemingly more varied. I've actually died a couple times early on, I liked that kind of challenge. Lost souls have proven to be efficient close-range enemies there, since I couldn't hear them coming to me. I only felt sorry for the fact that certain moments copied nearly exactly the happenings in the original IWAD map (the gimmicky secrets, metal barriers, key doors) - here, I'd prefer original ideas instead of a ripoff.

This wad would be fantastic if it had green armor on M2 and the later.

Up to map3 right now and am enjoying myself (though it seems my skills are more than a little rusty). I loved the constant action of map2, though it took a few tries to get use to the map from a pistol start...

Magnusblitz said:

Does the start of E3M8 really have no other way to beat other than single shotgunning a cyber to death?

By this comment I am immediately reminded of Threshold of Pain (Death Tormention 2 E4M6), an earlier map by Paul whose opening apparently required the player to pistol a cyberdemon to death.

Anyway I tried this E3M8. It seems possible to ascend the stairs around the pillar to a sufficient height that the button can be shot, without waking the monster. You may then go on, find a rocket launcher, alert the rest of the map's population, and deal with them in the usual manner.

The map still seems designed to have weapons brought forward, however; it contains copious quantities of plasma cells, but nothing that can use them. If you want 100% kills from a pistol start, it seems likely to have to shotgun some large monster to death.

scifista42 said:

E3M4 was awesome for its visuals, structure and majority of its gameplay. Such a deja-vu, but with a nice twist and seemingly more varied. I've actually died a couple times early on, I liked that kind of challenge. Lost souls have proven to be efficient close-range enemies there, since I couldn't hear them coming to me. I only felt sorry for the fact that certain moments copied nearly exactly the happenings in the original IWAD map (the gimmicky secrets, metal barriers, key doors) - here, I'd prefer original ideas instead of a ripoff.

Different texturing, ROCKREDx. The level is now a foot instead of a hand. Yep kinda a ripoff but still made it from scratch.

Thanks for all your comments as usual.

I finished this set of levels and I can say I had fun going through it. The only map that really annoyed me was City of Lethe (E3M6).

Not too easy, not too difficult.

This is a really nice mapset you made. I love all the traps and especially liked the second map. The difficulty was in a good spot too, as I died atleast once in each level. Great use of stock textures.

I give this a 5/5

Advanced engine needed : None
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.
.
Tested on -complevel 9

There are some problems with REJECT table (I assume) in compabilities lower than Boom compability:
- in e3m2 if you're standing on the platform with rocket launcher it's impossible to hit the imps on the platform closer to you with hitscan attacks - demo (-complevel 3)
- 2 blind-deaf monsters in e3m9 (things 75 and 152) - they appear normal if you approach them from the "correct" sector, e.g. if you approach the shotgunner (thing 152) from the red door that's right next to blue armor he appears normal

I haven't finished m6 and m7 yet and I may have missed a lot more of these REJECT table imperfections...

E3M5, M6 and M7 were all great maps. The extensive non-linear layout of M6 was particularly awesome. I liked the appropriately challenging difficulty in them, and also the continuing focus on exploration. I've been rather rushing in the latter maps instead of finding all secrets - but it worked too, and was fun.

M8 had the terrible idea to shotgun the Cyberdemon to death. The following Spider arena wasn't bad, but I have to admit that it was a very trivial fight, better said "in-fight" between the monsters including Spiders killing each other.

Anyway, pretty great D1 mapset, I've enjoyed it (playing all maps from pistol start, occasionally dying). Now I'll just have to check E3M9 too.

* No fast doors. All linedef types compatible with Doom v1.2.

Sadly, WAD itself seems to crash in Doom v1.2 on E3M1.

I've enjoyed E3M9 a lot, too. I liked its shortness and craziness, and the music actually fits it. I thought that the map wasn't meant to be entirely serious, but also not entirely inserious - and still IWAD-like! Nice.

xnv said:

Sadly, WAD itself seems to crash in Doom v1.2 on E3M1.

Why would you test on 1.2? It's likely there might be a few linedef types or other things 1.2 doesn't have.

Glaice said:

Why would you test on 1.2? It's likely there might be a few linedef types or other things 1.2 doesn't have.

The wad's text file, which your parent post quotes, suggests when taken to its logical conclusion that the wad is v1.2-compatible.

However, I took the statement more to mean an intention to deliver an authentically very-old-school Doom style, with no v1.666+ linedef actions, rather than a serious commitment to support such an ancient game version.

RjY said:

I took the statement more to mean an intention to deliver an authentically very-old-school Doom style,..., rather than a serious commitment to support such an ancient game version.

This.

I understand what you mean now.

Thought I'd give this a play.

E3M1: A good enough opening map I think. Seemed to flow nicely.

E3M2: Lots of enemies dotted around and I liked the way others spawned in later when you got to key points. The BFG is a welcome addition given the number of Barons around.

E3M3: Due to a lack of SSG, Barons pose a different type of threat as you usually need to expend much more valuable ammo (Rockets or Cells) to kill them efficiently. As I'm going through I find I'm only really using the BFG to take out the Barons and my Cell count seems to be fine. Having looked at the map to see places I'd missed, I found the room with a bunch of Cells and PG so my Cell count is pretty healthy now.

E3M4: I've never been too much of a fan of tight areas where you get caught on walls and stuff. Second half of the map is great, though I'm not sure if jumping to the red key while the platform is still rising is the only way to get it or not.

E3M5: I really enjoyed this map. The layout was very enjoyable and there's been enough firepower to deal with the more difficult encounters. I still have over 500 Cells despite using the BFG a few times.

E3M6: Reminiscent of E3M2 in that there are low level enemies all over the place. I do seem to be running short of armour a lot and there doesn't seem to be much in non-secret areas. I had a MegaArmor from the second (I think) map that carried me through until E3M5 but there does seem to be a shortage which makes even simple looking encounters somewhat threatening. I'm typing this as I'm playing more or less and just after I finished my last sentence and went back in I found a MegaArmor. Typical! For the blue key I did feel like I was going on a bit of a switch hunt, or maybe those switches did something else, I wasn't 100% sure. I wasn't expecting a Cyberdemon, but when I got inside the final room it felt like there would be one there. I definitely wasn't expecting the massive Demon ambush after hitting the final switch! A great map overall.

E3M7: Ambushes left and right! Without the BFG these last couple of maps would be considerably tougher. I left the previous map with 100 rockets so I've been able to take care of a lot of them easily. A welcome Soul Sphere and MegaArmor on this map. The Cyberdemon battle was great. I suspected that there would be a telefrag once I'd finished hitting all the switches, but the fact he has 360 degree vision from his platform makes it fairly challenging. A thoroughly enjoyable map.

E3M8: Is the intention really to SG a Cyberdemon to death here? Coming in with a ton of weapons made the battle quite easy, but that would be incredibly tedious from a Pistol start. I liked the double Spider Mastermind battle as I was only expecting there to be one at the most. I finally used all of my Cells here!

---------------

Overall very enjoyable. The second half of the WAD will be quite challenging from Pistol starts for sure. The RL from previous maps made some ambushes fairly easy, but without that (and no SSG) I can see there being a lot of problem spots. I had great fun with this!

1. Here is a small wad containing:

- a DEHACKED lump that sets the automap titles in Boom ports, and
- replacement intermission screen title graphics.

Please consider merging it, instead of relying on MAPINFO.

http://temp-host.com/download.php?file=nh36cp

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2. This texture - the section of EXITDOOR to the right of the light strip - seems misaligned, or at least does not match the left half:


http://i.imgur.com/eSJHzxm.png

RjY said:

1. Here is a small wad containing:

- a DEHACKED lump that sets the automap titles in Boom ports, and
- replacement intermission screen title graphics.

Please consider merging it, instead of relying on MAPINFO.

http://temp-host.com/download.php?file=nh36cp

----

2. This texture - the section of EXITDOOR to the right of the light strip - seems misaligned, or at least does not match the left half:


http://i.imgur.com/eSJHzxm.png

Cheers for that.

* Removed the MAPINFO and added the Dehacked and Level Names. Thanks RjY.
* Fixed E3M3 exit texture mishap, replaced it with with a GARG texture.
* E3M8, altered the starting area by moving the RL there, widening the steps around the Cyberdemon and adding some alcoves where Cacodemons teleport in after about 30 seconds to help you out. More Cacodemons on lower skills. Also removed some of the shells.

pcorf said:

* Removed the MAPINFO

That wasn't necessary.

Holy Crap! A new UD episode from Pcorf? I had to sign in after a long absence just to say thanks. :D

As usual: I'm gonna make a Let's Play ASAP!

Can't resist to new releases, especially from you :P

Uploaded it to pub/idgames/incoming it will be on idgames soon. Work has resumed on my next project Doomed Space Wars, an 11 level Zdoom wad that I have been working on and off for a year. I have 4 more levels to make for it 06, 07, 08 and 09. Work has started in Level 6. (1-5, 10 and 11 are complete)

Katamori said:

As usual: I'm gonna make a Let's Play ASAP!

Can't resist to new releases, especially from you :P

Do it, as I already did my blind walkthrough of it.