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The Ultimate DooMer

The /newstuff Chronicles #116

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Hyena's had to miss his turn so you've got me again, a week sooner than you'd expected. Coming up: great handfuls of fresh wads, from deathmatch to atmospheric to fast-paced to downright silly. 26 maps in total, starting from the very second you start clicking:

  • Pretty Deathmatch by Daniel Crowley (SpinSpyder)
    (wad) - (txt) - 32kb - doom2.exe - DM - (img)
    We start this week with a somewhat bizarre deathmatch map, which is set in a series of interconnecting AV map 31-style blue rooms, some of which are different in height, and have connecting stairways. All weapons are present, along with a barrel or two for extra chaos. It is pretty cramped, so expect plenty of suicides as well as homicides.

  • ZED's big one by Mr. Z
    (wad) - (txt) - 430kb - doom2.exe - SP - (img) (img)
    Silly wads seem to be in fashion at the moment, and although this isn't one, in some areas of the maps you could be mistaken for thinking it was. A 4-map wad with square rooms and mazes, huge bare open areas, random texturing, low detail, far too much ammo and more powerups than most wads would sensibly include. There are some ok graphics (notably the status bar) and a couple of half-decent puzzles (including a good rising floor puzzle in map 3). To be fair, the author is new to mapping and probably built these maps purely for self-enjoyment without any intention of releasing it, but release it he did, and I don't expect too many people to be taken by this one.

  • Red Alert by Chrono
    (wad) - (txt) - 230kb - ZDoom - SP - (img)
    A Doom 1 style map, but for Doom 2. You get a scripted intro, and then it's into the power station. There is some nice slope-enhanced architecture here, and these represent the different parts of the station well. The storyline present in the intro continues as you go along, with updates every so often. Music comes from Doom 1 and changes when you enter each area, which is a nice touch. There are tons of monsters here, all of them from Doom 1, resulting in the map being a bit easy except the final area. The other downer is that everything is basically grey (if you don't like that sort of thing). Overall, a good map that is recommended. Fans of Doom 1 tech maps will enjoy it, as will those who like ZDoom maps but those who want to battle hordes of Doom 2 monsters will want to look somewhere else.

  • Southern Cross by The Solution and Bryant Robinson
    (wad) - (txt) - 2110kb - ZDoom - SP - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    A Phobos-style 9-map wad for Doom 2. It's made by the creator of Dark 7, so it's no surprise that this wad is several months old - 13 in fact. Onto the wad itself, and it is extremely atmospheric - the combination of environment, light level, new sounds and new music makes for a pretty dark, eerie mood throughout. The maps themselves are fairly detailed in most areas and the texturing is faithful to E1 - in fact he's used the entire texture set from Doom 1 instead of Doom 2. Doom 2 flats are used in some areas, but it's appearance is pure E1. The gameplay is a mixture of classic E1 (lots of small monsters) with some bigger ones (from Doom 1 and 2) thrown in, and every so often you'll get a tough battle with a load of 'em. However, the amount of needless ammo increases throughout, and there's usually enough health to go round, meaning that on the whole this wad is fairly easy. This will please the lesser-skilled players, but the experts may want to speed up the monsters. Unless you really hate Phobos maps, download this now and enjoy, as it's an experience not to be missed! Wad of the week.

  • Narcosis by Espi
    (wad) - (txt) - 810kb - ZDoom - DM - (img)
    A deathmatch map with lots of detail, and also a re-release (apparently the graphics are what's new). A Doom 2 map set in some kind of stone courtyard with some degree of symmetry. Weapons are spread out, but there's no lifts (only stairs) so expect a reasonable pace as you hunt your opponent through the various buildings and the courtyard in the middle. Slopes, trees and the pretty good new graphics add nicely to the architecture and atmosphere, but 800kb is quite big for a DM map, which could put some people off it. Now, if someone released a Hell Revealed version...

  • Blind Alley S: Spirit World - Headquarters by Gene Bird
    (wad) - (txt) - 130kb - doom2.exe - SP - (img)
    Here we go again, another slice of action from the self-styled Grandpa of Doom. The first area is somewhat different to the normal Blind Alley style, given that it has a discernable theme (a city-like area) and a bit more detail to boot. But don't worry - once you leave the first area, you're back in traditional Blind Alley territory - rooms and passages with no real theme, and plenty of monsters. The detail is improved over the previous maps, ammo is plentiful as always, but this map is not as difficult as the others (except for one or two areas). It's still a good fun map, though.

  • Bloodworks by Bob Larkin
    (wad) - (txt) - 750kb - non GL port - SP - (img)
    A small map for Doom 2. Replacing map 03, this is set in some sort of blood making factory, and the doom2.exe ambient sound (running water here) reflects that. The areas are all brown/grey, dark, well detailed and full of fake 3D effects, some of which are impressive. Gameplay-wise it's cramped, ammo and health are finely balanced and lost souls (normally not too troublesome) can be quite dangerous here. Those who don't like fairly close-quarters battles will probably want to stay clear (as will those who hate Quake-style brown/grey texturing) but most of you will want to play this. (note: don't play this with an OpenGL port as it's supposed to screw up the graphics - use Boom/prBoom, Legacy or ZDoom)

  • Epyo DM by Epyo
    (wad) - (txt) - 400kb - ZDoom - DM - (img) (img) (img)
    A set of 7 maps for Doom 2. They're not very detailed, but these are DM maps. Each map is based around one or more ZDoom features including bridges, slopes, waggling floors, gun turrets (auto and manual), conveyor belts and ice. This should make for some fun, if unconventional, battles (especially on map07 - familiar yet unfamiliar). The maps are small so expect plenty of deaths, some of which will be amusing. However, the feature that would give the biggest twist in a deathmatch is not used - water. Imagine what an underwater deathmatch would've been like, even without the air pockets. Still, I believe this is the first DM mapset to use ZDoom features in this way, so gather round your LAN (or whatever you use) and have fun.

  • Burger by Safely A. Nonymous
    (wad) - (txt) - 160kb - ZDoom - SP (Shitty Prank)
    I think I'm gonna let you decide whether or not this deserves a review - it's certainly not getting a screenshot.

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Red Alert isn't bad for a first attempt single player. I played it before reading the text file (heh, and here I was demanding people read text files for my maps... :P) and was suitably surprised when I saw Russell Cartwright being used. Cool :) Never expected people to use characters that I'm using/creating (I say using because Russell Cartwright's name was a bit of a FanFic community decision).

Haven't tried the other maps yet, tempted to try burger... :P

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BTW, Southern Cross (sc.wad) has a bug in map 03 - the exit is missing. It's supposed to be on the red teleport pad in the red key building, so if you can edit maps (doom2.exe triggers/specials), I recommend you put the exit in yourself. (I mailed him about it and he said he'd upload it again before Saturday, but obviously he hasn't)

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I don't think Ty rejects maps unless they obviously use the original as a base, meaning that it was tweaked and reworked in an editor (a la dminator.) But I don't think remakes, even ones with similar structures as the originals, are disallowed.

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Ultimate DooMer said:

However, the feature that would give the biggest twist in a deathmatch is not used - water. Imagine what an underwater deathmatch would've been like, even without the air pockets. Still, I believe this is the first DM mapset to use ZDoom features in this way...B]

Yeh, tried that, it was pretty...well...bad. I also tried a level with low gravity, and that was worse.


Capslock 2...coming in May...

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Insomniak said:

Uh...wasn't there already a wad called Southern Cross?

Demise comes to mind for some reason...


Good memory

----
Web sites: http://www.doomworld.com/demise/
FTP sites: http://tux.telefragged.com/?directory=/doomworld/demise/
Title : Southern Cross
Filename : sc.wad
Release date : Dec. 31, 2001
Author : The Solution and bryant robinson
Email Address : Moonscrapper@aol.com
Other Files By Author : various wads
Misc. Author Info : none
Description : Nine E1 style maps.......
----

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I thought "Red Alert" was a cracking map for a first single player map. Really good fun. Lots of small enemies to scythe through, a reasonable story line, and nice tie ins with established (kind of) characters. I thought the map was generally logical and easy to navigate, but still quite "real" in feel and didn't feel an overly linear walk from A to B. I also suspect that the look of the level owes a little bit to GooberMan's mapping as well as the name of the guy on the other end of the comm link. Again, I liked that touch. Helped make the map feel "part of the universe".

2 Minor criticisms, and one suggestion...

How to activate exit was a little obscure, easily done by accident, and difficult to find if you don't accidentally do it. A "count all enemies in the final battle and make the exit available when they're all dead" script would be an improvement IMO. The script doesn't have to auto open the door, but could perhaps simply enable an exit switch. Possibly the switch could say something like "exit sealed, unknown entities in the area" if you try it before wiping out all the bad guys, and would allow you to open the door if you had killed all the enemies. Just suggestions.

Having 4 switches to activate the conversation with Russell Cartwright wasn't necessary. I "listened" to the conversation, then flicked a second switch "just to see" in case it did something else, and was still babbling to Russell (and he to me) when I was already in the other room fighting the enemy horde. Just making the first switch repeatable would have been fine for people who wanted to re-read the conversation (although you can check the console too). Perhaps you could also look into using the Hudmessage command in future, rather than the Print one. It's a lot more flexible.

One thing I felt this wad could really have done with was a couple of ambient sounds. I dunno why, but I really thought it felt like they were missing. I stepped into a few areas that looked like they should have had some sort of ambient noise going on in the background, and they just didn't. You were making a Zdoom specific wad anyway, so this would have been an easy way to put some "icing on the cake" IMO.

All in all though a really enjoyable little map with lots of nice touches. I've already played it a few times, and will play it again.

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Isn't that cramped. If you're kiling yourself with the rocket launcher, then try tactical fire ie. not firing at people at point blank range, and not firing at walls that are next to you =P

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Downloading Southern Cross right now. I love E1 themed maps! :)

EDIT: I think I'll send one of my DM maps in for review next week. Seemingly everyone who's tried my DM maps seems to think they're fun.

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"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I cone from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I cone from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I cone from Sweeden"
heh, Dunno why but I watched that for like a long time, just laughing. No offence tho.

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burger.wad = Best. Wad. Ever
No seriously, I enjoyed it more than anything else I've played all week.

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Narcosis is very cool looking, me likes.

burger is dumb. Look in the scripts lump to see who made it by the way. There's a comment 3/4 of the way down or so.

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I had a suspicion it might be Hyena - a silly ZDoom wad, the words "no hints, newstuff reviewers" in the text file, and especially the fact that he missed his turn this week...

On the other hand of course, the // Hyena did this comment could refer to the "character" in the wad...


beezee88: It's from narcosis.wad

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Narcosis would look nice with a few monsters and some paint. :)

(oh, and is there an exit of any kind too?)

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Could there be a link between dwforums.wad and burger.wad? Hmmmm...??

Just an arbitrary senseless thought.

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Fredrik said:

Could there be a link between dwforums.wad and burger.wad? Hmmmm...??

Just an arbitrary senseless thought.

actually maybe, both have scripting, though thats nothing special. Both are kinda jokish. But I like Dwforums.wad better imo. :D

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DOOM Anomaly said:

"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I cone from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I cone from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson I come from Sweeden"
"My name is Fredrik Johansson, I cone from Sweeden"
heh, Dunno why but I watched that for like a long time, just laughing. No offence tho.


ditto..
it would confuse a person who doesn't play doom often if I said "here, play this map."
hreh

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Ultimate DooMer said:

especially the fact that he missed his turn this week...

You haven't been paying close attention to the /newstuff forums, no?

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deathz0r said:

You haven't been paying close attention to the /newstuff forums, no?


Err...course I have, otherwise I wouldn't have known I was doing this weeks.

It just seems co-incidental that he misses his turn and knocks out a crappy wad at the same time.

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