Less gruesome/more sci-fi-ish decorations?

A while ago raymoohawk sketched a replacement texture for what I'm guessing is BODY1 or BODY2, with a Serpentipede chained to the wall. However, maybe it would be better to change those, as well as other similar textures (WALL50_1, WALL50_2, WALL51_1, WALL51_2, WALL51_3) into something more fitting of a sci-fi/aliens theme?

I know cocooned marines or stasis tubes are very cliche, but they certainly are more in the line of Freedoom's current art direction. I suppose that these replacements can be done in such a way that will not conflict with the castle setting much. Or maybe there are some other alternatives I haven't thought about? At any rate, I think such a change would be a welcome improvement, as the current assets are too close to their Doom counterparts, without any aesthetic value of their own.

Similarly, there are those GOR1 to GOR5 and HDB1 to HDB6 decorations that could be replaced with cocoons or something to that effect. I suppose that Strife decorations could be a possible inspiration.

nope. freedoom doesnt have to be pure sci fi. those gory decorations just have to be replaced by new ones that dont look like their doom counterparts, but theres no reason why they cant be fantasy like or gory. also having a bunch of different sprites be cocoon variations would be a boring and lazy thing to do

Well, they don't have to be cocoons, it's just the laziest thing that came to my mind. This is why I brought the decorations from Strife as an example.

With Freedoom aiming to be a stand-alone game, it doesn't have to follow Doom in the amount of blood and gruesome details. It's just my personal opinion, but I actually would prefer something less disturbing for decorations. I'm sure more original alternatives can be found to cocoons or stasis tubes.

For example, if there's a theme with AGM or whatever carrying out genetic experiments (the mutant soldiers had to come from somewhere hadn't they?), why not replace the chained monster/corpse texture with a monster or human undergoing mutation? That would fit the alien/sci-fi/mutation theme better.

I mean, with Doom's theme and aesthetics, there are no questions as to what all these decorations are supposed to mean - they depict something horrifying and disturbing simply because it's justified by the game's setting. Conversely, when you have a Serpentipede chained to the wall, you need to have dome kind of an "in-universe" explanation of why it's there.

Maybe I'm wrong on this, but it seems to me that Freedoom's design and setting by definition has more depth, and hence requires greater consistency. If you don't like the sci-fi idea, perhaps, then, these could be captured Zamanthytes that are wounded and unconscious?

nah, as a free resource freedoom has to have at least as wide a variety of resources as the original doom, if not more. your right that they musnt be equivalent, but that doesnt mean they have to less gruesome. ultimately i guess it will come down to who ends up making the new resources. as for a setting consistency that is something that falls primarily on mappers to achieve

Let the artists have their freedom for creation, as they seem to work better that way.

raymoohawk said:

as for a setting consistency that is something that falls primarily on mappers to achieve

I meant more of a consistent background story/in-universe lore. Your monsters have so much character to them there has to be something more than just an "excuse plot" to Freedoom. Indeed, parts of this lore have already taken on shape in the Zamanthyte story.

I suppose it would be logical to have the concepts of how the aliens interact with each other, what are the worlds they have come from, their goals etc. detailed to some extent. These concepts could be then reflected in the game environment such as textures or decorations.

XCOPY said:

Let the artists have their freedom for creation, as they seem to work better that way.

I wouldn't like to come across as trying to interfere with the artists' creative process. It has been my impression from reading this board that anyone may express their opinion on any topic relevant to the project's development. I believe that throwing around ideas could be useful, even if they get discarded eventually. It's better to have a wider scope of options to choose from than a narrow one.

Of course you can, but there is a difference between trying to dictate what they should do and providing them feedback based on their current work. One gives the artist suggestions on what to improve (in their skill), the other doesn't.

I'm sorry to hear that I made an impression of "dictating" something to anyone. I thought that I worded my ideas and concerns carefully enough so as they would not come across as anything but suggestions based on feedback from existing work (the Serpentipede texture).

It appears that existing textures that are too similar to their Doom counterparts are planned for eventual replacement with something more original. My suggestion of what could be made out of them is entirely based on my understanding of the current art direction in general. I am obviously in no position to tell anyone what to do here, and if my posts somehow suggested otherwise, then I have to apologize for this misunderstanding.

I'm not sure why the idea was dismissed so quickly without even a test sprite first, I really like this idea, and it could end up being even creepier then the originals if pulled off right.

I would not mind less gore. Other graphic overlays could be used and still be good. Embedded engravings and such would work just as well. Does not really matter, just my opinion.

Sorry for the slight bump but I also think this could potentially look fantastic.

I agree the idea of sci-fi enviroment to FreeDoom.

Actually, I had an idea for FreeDoom's story like a mix between Quake 1 and 2 and Doom 2, maybe less satanic, but same evil.

I am a great H.P. Lovecraft fan and reader and like Quake 1, I would like to see some style and art inspired on his horror tales.

I was thinking on a futuristic set where the monsters are evil aliens that come from a parallel dimension or a far away galaxy (black holes, worm holes??) and possibly the idea of they traveling to our Earth by invoking Yog-Sothot or using the "Gate of Sygil" (the sign used to invoke Cthulhu and also referenced on Doom2).

Monsters can still look like monsters, just changing their origin, a very distant galaxy from an evil planet.

That's the idea I got so far, hope to expand it further to contribute to the FreeDooom project, greetings

Imho, the gore and gruesome aspects just make it more interesting. This is not a game for little kids anyway. For cartoony characters and crazy sci-fi you can always play chex.

I would be a bit disappointed if Freedoom went on the direction of shiny lizards everywhere and avoided satanic or gory elements. It's not like Doom has a copyright on everything satanic. Imho, rejecting and changing anything remotely similar to Doom is not a good idea. Specially considering this is actually intended to replace Doom.wad, doom-inspired gory content added by pwads might look out of place if everything in the iwad was "revamped" to follow a totally different theme.

Just have different creative kinds of demonic creatures, it doesn't have to look futuristic. Something like the worm is a good example of creative creature that might as well have come from the depths of the Earth, not necessarily from space.

Like Gato606, I think using Lovecraftian creatures would be a nice compromise. And Freedoom could even use Lovecraft's names, lore and stories since it's Public Domain and there won't be copyright issues.