Advent Doom Calendar for December 2005

Torn said:

cycloid said:
nothing to stop it being compiled as one come jan 2nd.. 31 days in dec + jan 1st = 32 maps! ... if i get time i'll knock something together but i'm making no promises..

I thought of that. Like 24. December you could take all the finished maps in one big wad. Thats all the other 23 maps plus 9 more. But I do not know about that idea atm, but it would be a fine idea. But the main goal now is to finish 24 maps.

Just make it a zdoom megawad!
All you need is to make a hub level with 25 portals or so for each of the levels and have it count which levels you completed and after all are completed an area opens up with credits and the exit. Zdoom is popular and supports quite a few formats.

I'll think about mapping if the slots aren't filled. What is the theme? 25 christmas levels? 32 non-christmas levels? ZDoom? Vanilla?

I like the portal idea and it sounds easy to do, just make a global variable and add 1 to it in each exit script. If its zdoom then I can add falling snow to my map and maybe create a few decorate monsters. I have some resources from my unfinished christmas WAD so I'm already a step ahead of the game... I guess.

Sign me up. Hooray.

Ah what the hay.. I'll do a map.

I'll do one.

Please Sign me up. Im creating "First Episode" map style.

Bye

Torn said:

Well, boom features are allowed, as many ports support them.

Ah common, give us ZDoom capability :) I have so many beautiful ideas for all that xmas stuff that I can only achieve with some ACS scripts :)

well if i do get around to knocking one together (instead of knocking together a win 2000 server in the cupboard above the stairs) i'd prefer to be able to aim for standard boom compatibility myself. but it would drop into zdoom without any changes. though if you really really really must do zdoom then at least base it on a "stable" relese, the most recent is 63a.cab, harking back to 1.22 might be a little restrictive for some people :-)

just to clarify my stance:
doom2 = happy to go along with it
boom = preferred
zdoom = would rather not, really

Well, we could at least say, that it can be VANILLA DOOM, BOOM and ZDOOM in the end because everything is playable with ZDoom. I prefer ZDoom because this would give all the mappers more features... just think about all the possibilities and effects you could add in regards to christmas themed wads ;)

Beyond: The latest stable version is 2.0.97 ;)

Personally, I hate ZDoom, although I know theres a bunch of ZDoom fanboys here. I think we should keep it vanilla compatible, or preferablly limit removing sourceport at best. That always works out best in the end.

I like zdoom, but not as much as edge, and there are too many zdoom fanboys sadly :/. I mean, I would like to play these maps with, possibly CHC or ICD-SE. Make it available for everyone=goodness! :D

I vote Vanilla. Fun as zDoom is, I figure the best way to go about this is to Keep It Simple Stupid.

And think that zDoom fanboys exist because the first zDoom wads they witnessed were crazygloriousscriptomania WADs? Because back when I lurked here and wasn't registered, I thought zDoom was the best thing in the universe since humans learned how to have sex, but now I think that zDoom is too much effort for me to bother with. I just make 'nilla levels with DooM Builder.

The point is that plain-vanilla-maps make the work on the map very constricted. No possibility to add snow, many tricks (conc. translucency, slopes) that are very simple to achieve with ZDoom aren't possible anymore and - trust me - this will make this Advent Doom Calender much more boring because it will be more ordinary just as every other /newstuff effort.

But I think Torn aimed at something different with this "Advent Doom Calender" and I think we should make the best out of that.

AFAIK there is no single X-Mas wad out there (except XMassMouth, but that's more MassMouth) that is actually funny and worth to play. With this little project, we could do something like that ... but that's going to be very hard with JUST vanilla features :(

It's no contest, who is able to make the best vanilla xmas wad, it's more like a community achievement for all those Doomers out there to make them feel comfortably christmas-happy when they play doom :)

On vanilla features: I had to overhaul the front entrance of my map to be daytime instead of night - my lighting effects caused visplane overflows (even after merging the sectors where applicable). I ripped out the lights and still got them. So I had to delete the light fixtures as well and it made me sad, because my front entrance is all bland now.

I'm using ZDOOM, since that is the only port i'm used to mapping with. Does anyone have a good xmas-texture pack that you could share with me? I think my map is turning out to be something like a metal compound on an alien planet. It looks alright. I'm at school right now, i'll post some screens when I get home. I need some feedback, it looks kind of dull, but I'm not sure.

I'll post another reply soon,
SlatheDoomer

Tormentor: What did you do before Zdoom?

I think Boom compatible, then it won't be port specific and we can still have some special effects.

I'll join, my level is almost complete but I will need to make 6 filler levels before that probbally. (My main level is map07) Either that or i will change it to remove sector tag 666/667 dependency

Hah! You start with shotgun and you teleport in front of a spider mastermind!! and there is a super shotgun suprise! :)

Is someone going to make a resource wad with xmas themed textures and snowy textures too or is it up to the mapper?

I agree about not being port specific. Also assuming that each map is it's own wad like what the original idea was, would it be alright to change some sprites and sounds to "enhance" it? Im asking since I'm making a dark creepy castle set in winter and ghosts would add a nice touch.

Here are some screens from my map. Tell me what you think.

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/6755/doom00366le.png

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/7579/doom00372kn.png

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/3161/doom00384dt.png

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/696/doom00395iy.png

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/6232/doom00401wk.png
(On this one the lights are phased and light up from closest to farthest.)

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/3573/doom00412ck.png

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/503/doom00425eo.png

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/7281/doom00434kh.png

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/623/doom00448hp.png

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/9172/doom00454eo.png

http://img435.imageshack.us/img435/7992/doom00466pi.png

[QUOTE]SlatheDoomer said:
[B]Tell me what you think.
Looks cramped, may want to fix that. Also needs detail, and when I say detail it really need something more than bland walls(comon be creative!). You could do a better job Im sure.

It looks fine.

Shtbag667 said:

I'll think about mapping if the slots aren't filled. What is the theme? 25 christmas levels? 32 non-christmas levels? ZDoom? Vanilla?

I like the portal idea and it sounds easy to do, just make a global variable and add 1 to it in each exit script. If its zdoom then I can add falling snow to my map and maybe create a few decorate monsters. I have some resources from my unfinished christmas WAD so I'm already a step ahead of the game... I guess.

Well, the main was/is 24maps for the 24 days in December, but a megawad in the end would be cool. And this is Boom, not zdoom.

Tormentor667 said:

Ah common, give us ZDoom capability :) I have so many beautiful ideas for all that xmas stuff that I can only achieve with some ACS scripts :)

Sorry, but I want only Boom features. Because if it is only for zdoom, then it is limited to one port. And I really want so most people can play it.

Tormentor667 said:

The point is that plain-vanilla-maps make the work on the map very constricted. No possibility to add snow, many tricks (conc. translucency, slopes) that are very simple to achieve with ZDoom aren't possible anymore and - trust me - this will make this Advent Doom Calender much more boring because it will be more ordinary just as every other /newstuff effort.

But I think Torn aimed at something different with this "Advent Doom Calender" and I think we should make the best out of that.

AFAIK there is no single X-Mas wad out there (except XMassMouth, but that's more MassMouth) that is actually funny and worth to play. With this little project, we could do something like that ... but that's going to be very hard with JUST vanilla features :(

It's no contest, who is able to make the best vanilla xmas wad, it's more like a community achievement for all those Doomers out there to make them feel comfortably christmas-happy when they play doom :)

Well, you don't have to just make xmas themed maps. That wasn't kinda my goal of this project. My goal was to kinda have 24-32 funny maps for kill some wait time until christmas eve. :)

Tormentor667 said:

Well, we could at least say, that it can be VANILLA DOOM, BOOM and ZDOOM in the end because everything is playable with ZDoom. I prefer ZDoom because this would give all the mappers more features... just think about all the possibilities and effects you could add in regards to christmas themed wads ;)

Beyond: The latest stable version is 2.0.97 ;)

Please, no zdoom only features. I know you can add kinds of stuff, but it would kinda kill the simply things of this advent idea.

doom2day said:

Is someone going to make a resource wad with xmas themed textures and snowy textures too or is it up to the mapper?

As there is written in the first post, this is not just for xmas themed maps. I kinda want all kinds of themes, like techbase, hell, etc...

But it is free to people for making snow maps, but no sprites are replaced. Btw, you can find tons of texture wads at idgames ftp and afterglow's website.

And remember people, I testplay all the maps. And it is up to me, if they are gonna be in the project. This doesn't mean I will kick any new mapper's map out. But I don't want some 94 looking map with hella alot errors. (however a good ultimate doom themed map would be cool).

Torn would like me to clarify:

NO ZDOOM FEATURES. ALL MAPS MUST BE BOOM-COMPATIBLE.

Oh, and the maps don't have to have a Christmas theme. In fact, Torn was hoping for a wide variety of themes.

Torn said:

but no sprites are replaced.

Ok, I'll remove them and the sounds, but one more dumb question. Could we replace the sky?

zap610 said:

Ok, I'll remove them and the sounds, but one more dumb question. Could we replace the sky?

Well, I guess so for the single map. But not for the megawad.

ravage said:

Tormentor: What did you do before Zdoom?

WADs for the local dump!

Nevertheless, looks like I have to create a Boom compatible map somehow... :( Very said but true...

@Torn - Everyone has ZDoom, don't think that this is a big problem at all!