[Doom 2] Intergalactic Xenology

For anyone interested, we made some changes based on the feedback we received. These include a bunch of visual improvements as well as some gameplay/balancing changes on maps 4 and 5. The first post has the updated link to the file.

Let us know if there are any other issues.

In map05, was the timer for the first fight extended? I killed everything and still had around 10 seconds trapped inside, thought it broke but no. 

No, that first arena wasn't touched.

Played them through UV, pistol start. Gosh those 5 maps left me wanting more, overall looks awesome, plays great and as I'm a new mapper I don't know where I would improve, except for two things:

The ending stairs on level 2, which I had to rocket jump because doomguy didn't climb the first step for some reason

The very bright sky on map 5, wish it wasn't a bland pure light blue sky

But the maps themselves are great and memorable, let me know if there's more from you!

Oh no!  The download's removed!

When will it be back up?  Ancient Aliens left me wanting more AA-Tex maps to play through, since they were so beautiful!  I'm pleasantly surprised to see the textures used outside of Ancient Aliens, so I'm really stoked to play this mapset. :D

Thanks for the comments, Juka. It's weird that you weren't able to climb the stairs. I didn't have any issues with that when I was testing.

Thanks for the interest, DoomKrakken, and apologies for the missing link. We had uploaded it to idgames, but it was rejected, so we are looking into what we can do to address that. No ETA on that yet, but the hope is not terribly long.

Check for double iwad entries in slade, there might be some of them included as it happened for me in the past. Don't forget do backup just in case. 

Apologizes if you already know this but you can use the idgames archive twitter to check for rejections. I can see yours did get removed for having duplicate IWAD entries just as @Misty suggested.

You can check for dupes in Slade:

Either remove the lumps or edit them in any way to not have this trigger.

Thanks for the info, guys, will give that a try and see if it comes up with anything.

Nifty...

Thanks for the tip, @xvertigox. I didn't realize Slade had those handy tools.

So here's the conundrum: The database is rejecting the wad because it contains unmodified Doom assets. Only 1 texture came up when the "Remove Entries Duplicated from IWAD" tool in Slade was used and resubmitting the wad without that texture still didn't work.

Plan B was to just have this wad require the Ancient Aliens resource wad as a separate download. However, that isn't going to work because that resource wad does not contain the Doom sprites that work with the AA palette. Meaning the enemies, HUD, and various other things look messed up. My guess is that including these sprites is the reason why the database rejects our wad.

Plan C was to have the wad require the Ancient Aliens base wad as a separate download. That isn't going to work either because a lot of the textures have different names than the AA resource wad, which is what our wad was built with.

Without having to do some heavy texture or resource modifications, I'm not really sure what to do.

@Lord_Z Upload it to Dropbox.  I've been hosting my mod there for quite a while. :D

3 hours ago, Lord_Z said:

Plan B was to just have this wad require the Ancient Aliens resource wad as a separate download. However, that isn't going to work because that resource wad does not contain the Doom sprites that work with the AA palette. Meaning the enemies, HUD, and various other things look messed up. My guess is that including these sprites is the reason why the database rejects our wad.

It shouldn't be that, because Ancient Aliens itself was accepted to /idgames. I've been told that the /idgames admins check for duplicate IWAD resources using Slade, so Slade should be able to identify anything they're finding. Seems like something weird is happening, or maybe you accidentally didn't save after removing that one texture or something? You could try getting in touch with them -- I think the /idgames FAQ includes an email contact.

I re-added the link to the first post for the time being in case anyone wanted to play it.

I'm going to send an email to hopefully figure out what they are seeing on their end and we'll go from there.

@Dreadopp You have IWAD assets in your wad, either remove or modify them

 

FINALLY, I was able to run through this whole thing. :D

Goodness gracious, it's amazing what people are doing with these resources!  I absolutely love it! :D

2 hours ago, xvertigox said:

You have IWAD assets in your wad, either remove or modify them

Ah, thanks for that screenshot. I also got an email back confirming that same texture is the issue. I updated the link in the first post with a version that replaces that texture. Thanks for being patient with us, this is the first time either of us have come across this situation.

2 hours ago, DoomKrakken said:

Goodness gracious, it's amazing what people are doing with these resources!  I absolutely love it! :D

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

I finished this wad a few days ago and I can say I had a great time!

Intergalactic Xenology is a 5 levels tribute to the megawad Ancient Aliens which offers an accessible and fun gameplay as well as a quite advanced aestheticism. Each level is easily distinguishable and offers a little adventure.

I must say that the underwater theme of map 02 is particularly original as well as the penultimate map.The last map resembles in part map 24 of Ancient Aliens, except that it is a succession of arenas with a disturbing but epic music (Descent of Madness by Eris Falling).

There are also a lot of interesting effects with Boom actions or structures made with grouped middle textures for instance.

Intergalactic Xenology also reminds me of Alienated which I also enjoyed. However on my side, I'm glad you kept the Boom format for playability reasons.

Finally, I think this wad deserves its runner-up. Indeed, the only obstacle to the cacoward in my opinion is the fact that there are only 5 levels. The maps themselves are very qualitative and manage to reach current mapping standards.

With the release of IX 2, I finally finished the last map and can't wait to start playing the new ones.

So here is my Youtube playlist of IX 1.

Thanks for the play through!

Loved it, great design, fun gameplay. Worked great with Brutal Doom Platinium (UV + Tactical).

Here's my playthrough of the first two maps:

Thank you for all the time and effort that you put into these maps. The quality is worth it!

Thanks a lot for the videos! We're glad you're enjoying yourself. :)

Something that may be of interest (not sure if you've seen it yet), is that an enhanced version of this wad is part of the trilogy release from last year. I'm going to add a note to the first post regarding this as well.

On 1/24/2023 at 5:49 PM, Dreadopp said:

Thanks a lot for the videos! We're glad you're enjoying yourself. :)

 

Something that may be of interest (not sure if you've seen it yet), is that an enhanced version of this wad is part of the trilogy release from last year. I'm going to add a note to the first post regarding this as well.

Thank you, that's great, I will check it out! Appreciate all your hard work.