The /newstuff Chronicles #65

A bountiful eleven new modifications for DOOM are given to us this week, the sixty-fifth week encompassing the new files uploaded to Newstuff.

• Gotcha Where I Wantcha by Richard J. Sham - (img) - This is a decent single-player map for Doom 2. It has a series of rooms and hallways, and a reasonable challenge. Ammo and health is well balanced, and creating monster infight is probably the best way to play this map. Monsters go up to medium-size, and there are a lot of them. Sometimes it can be a challenge finding safe spots, but it's still quite a playable map. A music replacement from Rise Of The Triad is used. To play this WAD, you'll need to have Gothic Textures.
  
• Twisted Tower Of Death by Patrick Gross - (img) - One map for Doom 2. This is a small to medium sized map. It's not overly difficult in the area of health and ammo balance, but you do find yourself trapped in a small room with some big monsters every now and then. A good amount of detail in this map, which by the way has a brown brick and metal theme.
  
• Unidoom DM 1 by Various Authors - (img) (img) (img) - Eighteen very diverse deathmatch maps for Doom 2. This series varies in all sorts of ways. Texture themes, indoor and outdoors, big and small, simple and complex. Perhaps even one of the most diverse deathmatch WADs ever released. None of these maps have any excessive detail, but they're still quite good.
  
• BrikBlat! by John Bishop - (img) - This is one very nice single-player map for Doom 2. It's themed very much along the lines of Plutonia, as the author has indeed contributed maps to that project. It's a moderately-sized map, with a good challenge. There's more than enough ammo to go around, although health can be a little harder to find. It has sort of grassy, outdoor theme with some tunnels. A fun map.
  
• Crabbet Park House by John Bishop - (img) - A much more amateur-looking map for Doom 2. A large map, filled with rooms and hallways. No detail, a strange combination of textures, as well a strange bunch of new textures. Playability-wise, it might be okay. Much like BrikBlat, there is more than enough ammo but health is short. It's also somewhat fun to play through in god mode, super-shotgunning and berserking all the monsters. Music from E1M2 of DOOM is used. BOOM / ZDoom recommended.
  
• The Honeycomb by John Bishop - (img) - Another single-player map for Doom 2. The theme this time is lots of green stone and marble, in a dark indoor place, with a few outdoor places. This WAD is on the difficult side, with lots of monsters, and few places to run from them. Ammo seems to be balanced rather well, although there is a bit of a shortage of health.
  
• Kiddy by John Bishop - (img) - One map for Doom 2. This one is a bit more outdoor-oriented, with the usual unspecific theme. Ammo is balanced reasonably well, health is lacking. Not much detail, but it could be playable.
  
• Out Of Phase II by Karthik Abhiram - (img) - Two new maps for Doom 2. They have a variety of mild themes, in a mostly flat layout. The levels are a bit on the difficult side, with some medium-large monsters and a few traps. Both maps are small to medium size. Not all that much detail. It has a couple of decent music replacements, though. And a water-paint sky.
  
• The Orangery by John Bishop - (img) - Another map, even less detailed this time. Wide, open, in a parking lot theme. A variety of textures, not very good playability.
  
• Sprike by John Bishop - (img) - One map for Doom 2. This level has decent playability, although perhaps a bit short on health. Detail and meaningfulness is much improved in this map. Lots of dark areas, a variety of spooky atmospheres, and a few special effects. Music from E2M6 of DOOM is used. Requires BOOM / ZDoom. 
  
• The Castle by Xooz98 - (img) - We finish off with a single deathmatch map for Doom 2. The layout is very simple, two brown castles, mirrored in their design, and a big green courtyard. It seems more like a Capture The Flag style map, and indeed that's what it's intended for. Included in the ZIP are WADs for DoomBot and CTFDoom.

Andrew, you didn´t use the doom1tex.wad in the screenie.
Just thought I´d point that out.

RTTF, s/Plutonia/Plutonia 2/

I wonder if that's a new version of Sprike, judging from the text file it's just a re-upload. Insert cynical theory about ways to get more publicity for your levels here (just kidding, it's a good level :-).

I had a chance to record this map earlier in the week and found it to be a good challenge!

I'm also partial to metal and brick architecture and this map uses them very nicely, along with a very attractive bridge over bridge effect.

I couldn't get doom1tex.wad to work, and the text file was just trying to be confusing. I thought; might as well pass it over for now.

I tried these two maps a couple of times and kept going back because I liked the attacks and gameplay in level two.

To experience the most challenge, I always try to record when I play. Level two is fun recorded along with level one but is even more challenging when done standalone. Always a kick punching out an archvile!

Remember folks, always put all the stuff in one single WAD and everybody will be happy.

Never mind, it's neutered.wad that I didn't bother with because of errors. After playing DOOM addons from 6PM to 3AM last night, well, you know the rest.

amen to that.

i guess most of that time was with udm1, correct?

The text in that neutered.wad zip was very confusing, at least for me. I was assuming this was a wad I could play. After a few tries I gave up and moved on.

I looked at it again today because I couldn't understand why someone would go to the problem of uploading that stuff. Turns out these are texture wads with some new entries and some modifications to existing textures - especially cupcake.wad. So, end of mystery.

This may seem a very dumb question but, how do I upload stuff there? I can't find any incoming folder or anything.

CPH - you are quite right these are just re-uploads, not for publicity (God forbid, they're mostly crap) but because email addresses & website addresses had all changed along with a number of other details. At the same time as I uploaded this old stuff I emailed Doomworld asking them not to put these in Newstuff but I think maybe the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing and it got publicised anyway ...a pity since they are for the most part pretty naff (apart from Sprike which I think is OK).

The key thing in my email was that the reference to my 'Getting Started with DOOM Editing' Guide in the Doomworld Editing Tutorials page pointed to an 'old' website and was way out of date - especially since the disappearance of cdrom.com. The one available from my 'real' website (www.users.waitrose.com/~sharx) has had all the links corrected so that they point to the 3d gamers archive. This was the main purpose of my email to the DMW guys but it must have got missed (again actually, I've tried twice!)

That's it. I'd advise anyone to avoid all those maps except maybe for Sprike. Apologies for the confusion... Jb

This bears striking similarity to my earlier designs (when I first dabbed into detail and was Gothic Textures obsessed)

I don't post normally...but had to break the silence on this one ;-)

Hi pixel. wohoo

I read your post several times because you seemed to be implying that I copied one of your designs.

If you read my text you may have noticed that this level (map02) was from a megawad I released over two years ago. That megawad is named Immortal and was released when doom interest was at a very low point. I recently decided to redo some of those levels ( adding new architecture, monster traps and enhancing textures) and release them as singles.

Could you have subconciously gotten the idea for your design from my Immortal wad?

If I misunderstood your comment then I apologize.

This particular segment of 'Newstuff' will soon be gone and I'm still waiting for your reply.

Maybe you haven't checked back since you made that post trying to undermine my reputation. For some, maybe like you, that's one of the advantages of making accusations on this type of forum - you start a lie - people read it and some think it must be true. Then, before the truth is know the 'Newstuff' segment is gone.

Do you ever think of the consequences of your, so called, 'breaking the silence' - you know what I mean - the fallout from your unsubstantiated innueundos.

It seems rather obvious to me, and I would have though to most others, that he's saying that the style of your levels reminds him of the style of his own levels, rather than saying that you ripped them off.

Thanks for your post! You're probably correct. Obviously he just couldn't keep silent about how our level looked the same - nothing more, nothing less.

Yes, you misunderstood, and no, I should be the one to apologize for the ambiguity. I meant no offense, just that your map brought me a good reminiscence of my active mapping days in Dooming a bit more than a year ago.

Rock on ;-)

Thanks for your response. I'm relieved to find that it was a misunderstanding.

Please ignore the comments in my second post as they obviously don't apply to you and I feel somewhat foolish having made them.

To better times... :-)

Dammit pixel, finish your Millennium map :P