Megawad?

Hello people.

All right, a few of you know about Grind2.wad that I guess I'll release sometime soon. To follow it up, since my beta testers seemed to like it, I'm making another level called Dream with a lot of the same style. This one, though, requires the use of a small (106b) dehacked file that is included in the .wad file.

Actually, I started considering making a whole episode, maybe more. 10-32 levels even. Although my typical style is to make levels with nothing added (no sprites, no flats, no textures, no scripts, no port effects), my new level DOES have the dehacked file. While I'm at it, I was wondering if there was anything else people could stand me adding to the levels, whether it be a wall texture of a TNT box or a few ZDoom effects. I like having fake slopes, but real slopes would be smoother and down the filesize. Basically, any effects/textures that anyone out there just really loves?

What does everyone think?

If you really want to take a shot at this megawad thingie, set a realistic goal to start with.

A 11 level Doom2 episode is a popular choice.

Maybe you should even consider a sub-goal of a 3-6 level pre-release.

Nanami said:

a few ZDoom effects

I'd suggest either making extensive use of Zdoom-only effects, or not using them at all. I think people tend to get a bit irritated if they can't use their preferred port (assuming it's not Zdoom) just because of the odd slope or particle fountain, etc.

Nanami said:

whether it be a wall texture of a TNT box

Team TNT is pretty strict about not letting anyone else use their textures, so be warned.

Team TNT have most of their doom textures up for public usage in their return resources.

Gothictx.wad is another possibility. Just remember to GIVE CREDIT!!

kristus said:

Team TNT have most of their doom textures up for public usage in their return resources.

Oh? I remember e-mailing Ty about some Icarus textures, and he wouldn't let me use them.

Maybe Nanami meant a box of dynamite?

Er, a box of dynamite. My Grind2.wad has a box of dynamite (a few, actually) that one of my testers said is a little hard to tell that it's supposed to be TNT, and suggested I put a texture that says something like "DANGER! Explosives!" I thought about it, but I'm not usually one to add things to a .wad file. Plus, I can't draw.

As for the ZDoom effects, yes, I know the particle-fountain only wads are annoying. I would really get into the slopes if I was to go into effects, but I might not do much as far as scripting goes. I can, I just don't usually like to. My real question is, would people prefer I leave it as it is, or add some textures, and maybe something else? Personally, my slopes/mirrors/other effects seem more impressive when you realize it's mostly vanilla. ANYONE can toss up a mirror tag.

Leave out the zdoom specifics.

New textures should be a judgement you should make yourself.

Music replacements can do a great difference.

Make a spiffy title screen and some custom level names.

You want textures? Let me know what you want. I'll spruce something up. (I've been working on static walls for a bit now (ashes, metal)) We'll see.

I agree with some of the posts here about making a WAD as generic as possible in respect to the engine used to run it, but that's up to your tastes.

I think that adding textures is a good idea, adding something when you come up with an idea that could require a new texture. I wouldn't recommend more than that unless you are interested in being a texture artist.

A dehacked patch for a few quirks is OK, but again, it's best to make it a plain DEH file to avoid compatibility problems. I personally don't like gameplay modifications (changing player, monster or weapon behavoirs) but a few minor alterations can be OK; maybe changing the Nazi into something else, changing a few of the decorative sprites to suit the theme and (naturally) changing the level and storyline texts.

For textures, I might need a couple things, but not much. I was thinking maybe yellow/black tape to mark off some areas, and then again the Dynamite box. As for the dehacked file, I'm not going to say WHAT it does, because I rather like the effect and don't want it spoiled, but you'll know it when you get there. I'm not good at music or texture design, but if ravage would like to help, I'd be glad to work with ya. ^_^

Thanks for the tips. I did want to try and make the wad generic (although to my disappointment, it isn't doom2.exe compatible and jDoom had the stupid idea of changing the no-wall floor overlap thingy so some of my effects don't work in jDoom). So far it works fine with ZDoom and Legacy, and jDoom only has a small visual bug, but other than that, it ought to run fine in whatever other port you want.

*cough**snort**cough*

*wheeze*