The /newstuff Chronicles #284

It's that time Boys and Girls (who are actually just boys pretending to be girls), another fabulous edition of Scuba Steve's: Newstuff. That's right, everyone's second favorite scuba diver is in charge of providing you with a current wrapup of everything new in the idgames archive (except 1994 wads because they are garbage and not worth my time or yours). It's funny, I hate doing newstuff, but I keep coming back, like an abusive relationship. Why do you make me hate you Doom ;_;

• Oniria - Aluqah
  ZDoom - SP - 300kb - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  
  This is the kind of map that makes newstuff worth looking forward to. Inspired by Alice, Void and maybe a bit of BPRD, Oniria is an enjoyable trip (no pun intended) through an interesting level. A brand new palette was applied to turn everything grayscale except for the red index, which might not sound like much, but it really adds a whole atmosphere to this level. There are numerous new textures and some creative segments of the map that are definitely worth checking out. My biggest complaint was lack of new music, the level screams for some dark, brooding tune to accompany you. I will say however... Map of the Week.
  
  (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Four Flippers
  
  
• Psycho series: Neurosis - Aluqah
  Limit Removing - SP - 136kb - (img) (img) (img)
  
  Another level by the author of Oniria. This one is a bit of a letdown after having just played Oniria, Neurosis is a rather average Doom map, monsters come out, you get keys and shoot things. Nothing spectacular.
  
  (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Two Flippers, Two snorkels and a Goggle
  
  
• Deadly Alliance - "John" (Seriously)
  GZDoom - SP - 11779kb - (img) (img) (img)
  
  This is, how shall I describe this... grueling? The wad is designed for GZDoom but I'm hard pressed to find out why, there is nothing in this map to explain why it wouldn't work with regular ZDoom, heck the map doesn't even use slopes. The architecture is very dull and bland, there's nothing particularly BAD about it, but everything in this map is forgettable. A quick summary of this map, you shoot a bunch of monsters and a door opens leading to more monsters that you must shoot to open a door to more monsters which, when shot, will open a door to more monsters etc. The map is a bit less linear than that but it gets really old, really fast. Maybe the Hell Revealed lovers will get a kick out of it since there is a plethora of beasts to slay, but really, there just isn't much here in terms of gameplay and architecture. Also, why is this 12 megs?
  
  (img) (img) (img)
  Three Snorkels
  
  
• Go Read a Book! - xbolt
  Legacy - SP - 28kb - (img)
  
  Just a demonstration wad on making a readable book in Legacy using hud messages.
  
  
• A New Hellspawn - Little White Mouse
  ZDoom - SP - 9674kb - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  
  A fun mapset from Little White Mouse, about demons and hell gates and all that crap. A New Hellspawn is littered with the little touches you'd expect from the author of Chosen, a plethora of new sprites, faux 3d models and textures to turn a rather drab map into something a bit more entertaining. This map is your standard fanfare, Marines open gate to Hell, demons come out, you go in to clean up and along the way you find some guns and shoot stuff. Also you will encounter a number of generic ZDoom events like getting parts to a weapon, finding item A to open door B instead of a key and trite Doom font displayed onscreen for dialogue. There are some unique features to such as a windy canyon you have to watch to see when the leaves are not blowing so you can run across, and a datapad you use to drop claymores and use your personal teleporter (sweet when set up correctly to escape during the tried and true "escape in the countdown" segment). A New Hellspawn will not make you go WOW, but it is definitely worth a play since all of the above features, generic or not, come together nicely to make a fun map.
  
  (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Three Flippers, Snorkel and Goggles
  
  
• Better Late than Never - jetflock
  Legacy - SP/DM - 3039kb - (img) (img) (img) (img)
  
  A mediocre mapset for Legacy with a Christmas theme. I can best describe this map as a very elaborate and modern 1996 TC. The maps are decent but it is littered with ridiculous sounds like you would hear from an old wad from the early years, a mixed bag of bad sprites and even worse jokes. This level is worth a play at most, if you happen to be bored. The wad consists of a single player level, map 01, and a deathmatch level (that no one will ever play) replacing map 02.
  
  (img) (img) (img)
  Two flippers and a Snorkel
  
  
• High/Low 1 - Chris Hansen
  Limit Removing? - SP - 102kb - (img) (img)
  
  Despite Chris's comments in the text file that this isn't a good "Come Back" wad, I'd disagree. High/Low is a nice medium sized, Episode 1 style map. Fun battles, decent architecture, it has everything you need to make a good level. Recommended.
  
  (img) (img) (img)
  Three Flippers
  
  
• Traps 2 - Dutch Devil
  ZDoom - SP - 106kb - (img) (img)
  
  Well, the name is sure Truth in Advertising, Traps 2 is just that, traps. You grab stuff and stuff happens. Aside from the utter abysmal MDOOM logo, the wad is decent. It looks acceptable, as do most levels by Dutch Devil (hay that rhymes!) and the traps, while predictable, will provide you with some fun on a runthrough. Worth a play.
  
  (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  Two Flippers, Two Snorkels and Goggles
  
  

Well my fellow Doom comrades, this concludes Newstuff #284 and I hope you had almost as much fun reading it as I did writing it, read: none at all. I bid farewell for now, but may we all meet again at the 13th Annual Cacowards! (or the next newstuff which I will be forced into like indentured servitude.)

fp also fix image links dammit

What? No blowfish...

How does the review system work again?

Psycho Siggi said:

What? No blowfish...

Only for Legacy, since it sucks and doesn't run, so I had to use GZDoom to play all the Legacy maps.

Woohoo! C= usage in a doom map!
(Look at PDA screeny from New Hellspawn)

bah, ogrelabs was missed out again! :(

What are the flippes, googles and snorkels for ?

yeah, your rating system snorkels, scuba.

Deadly Alliances filesize explained: 8MB is music and 1300 sprites (Most being Heretic/Hexen rips).

Also, it's a candidate for worst boss fights ever. One one end of the scale there's a horribly unfair fight that is only winnable by the time-tested method of spraying and praying, with a considerable amount of luck to boot. The other one at the end of the map is a dissapointing piece of piss. (In fact the fucking ELVES killed me more than anything else with their projectiles: 99/100 a hit by those = instant death. Their supposed be on your side for fuck sake).

That plus the extreme darkness kills the WAD.

It's also the biggest collection of exclamation marks I've seen.

Edit: Oh ya, that was caused by 'fixing' the wad like the author suggests in the first review. Way to go.

Scuba Steve wrote:
heck the map doesn't even use slopes

The third screenshot is lying!

Edit2: Boring, bland, and just plain bad. Not to mention shiteasy. The G36 mows both bosses down before they manage to do anything remotely dangerous to the player. Other parts of the map are overflowing with ammo and health.

No, you're lying!!

Marines open gate to Hell, demons come out

That's not actually true. The gateway is of demon origin, not human. It's never really explained in ANHS because there is supposed to be another map. Circumstances forced me to cut it out and end it where I did. Depending on how this turns out, I might rebuild part 2 some day.

your personal teleporter (sweet when set up correctly to escape during the tried and true "escape in the countdown" segment).

AFAIK, you're the first person to figure that out. I thought about disabling it for that sequence, but I figured if anyone was willing to go through the trouble of setting it up, they deserved to use it.

Wow, Oniria almost gave me a seizure; where's the warning label at?

Lwm finish Adessa

LilWhiteMouse said:

AFAIK, you're the first person to figure that out.

A day late and a dollar short... the second I beat it I thought "aww crap, I could have just used the teleporter I left turned on at the beginning".

????Did you play better late than never in software mode???? You can't play it in software mode. Half the textures won't show. Everything is made for GL, sprites/textures included. It was a one shot Christmas wad not intended to be anything grand, and the graphics are certainly not as terrible as the review puts it. I understand the gameplay being considered terrible(once you understand the "path" its easy), but this is a concept wad, nothing more.
I would ask you please take the screenshots down because that is not the way the wad looks, all of the automobiles were painstakingly textured and modeled(Optimus Prime Big Rig), these screenshots show blank blocks. I re-created my first apartment in the safehouse. It looks exactly like the real thing, textures/items/etc....
If you are going to review my wad, review it right.
Here are some real screenshots.
http://www.geocities.com/rasputin1980/bltn.html
I don't wish to be rude, but this isn't exactly a fair review.
Don't review my wads if your not going to read the readme file.
I know you dislike my wads anyways Scuba, thats fine.
Just since you spoke about laughs in your review, I must say not everyone around here thinks your that funny. I wasn't trying to create a "joke" wad. I would appreciate a non-sarcastic response from you if you have a problem with this, otherwise, if its your turn at newstuff and my wad is in it, I ask you nicely to stay away from it.
I would have made this a PM but I feel my wad has been unjustly reviewed, even though I feel its one of my more bleh releases. I would say I'm leaving Doomworld or something, but thats stupid, and I don't post here much anyway.Just be more objective, I don't give a shit about your personal taste, and this ISN'T a 1996 wad.
EDIT: Seriously, did you play this the way the screenshots look? thats not what this wad looks like.
Edit: There is also a transparent hud.

Could someone please review my 6 month old wad the next newstuff please? It never got reviewed. Here it is.

TheDarkArchon said:

Deadly Alliances filesize explained: 8MB is music and 1300 sprites (Most being Heretic/Hexen rips).

Also, it's a candidate for worst boss fights ever. One one end of the scale there's a horribly unfair fight that is only winnable by the time-tested method of spraying and praying, with a considerable amount of luck to boot. The other one at the end of the map is a dissapointing piece of piss. (In fact the fucking ELVES killed me more than anything else with their projectiles: 99/100 a hit by those = instant death. Their supposed be on your side for fuck sake).

That plus the extreme darkness kills the WAD.

Oh right. 1.1 fixed the darkness and 1.2 fixed the elves thing and
the boss being easy. The review is a lot less harsh than I expected.
However, the things that Scuba mentioned, you could see that in the
text file. The gameplay being all about killing to open doors to
kill more shit. The fact that the architecture wasn't all that
and the linearity of the map itself and even the fact that the map
is forgettable. To quote from the text file " There are many
things this map needs still to be memorable....". There was no
false advertising. You either like it or hate it. Sorry to say but I'll give you more to either like or hate in time, hopefully with
better architecture and a little less linearity this time.

Another thing. Belial needs to get a life. The map HAS SLOPES!
(Yes another exclamaition mark!!). He is the most negative person alive. Never seen post anything positive anywhere. Take a deep breath and count to 3..... hell make that 10 and maybe your life might not seem so bad afterall. Just lighten up man.

Niya said:
He is the most negative person alive.

Heh, what a whiner. With any luck deathy will review your next wad, and you'll die of a heart attack!

yay, my 2nd favourite reviewer.

oniria rocks. actually reminds me a little of the afraid of monsters mod for HL1.

wasn't there supposed to be a b&w mod for heretic?

myk said:

Heh, what a whiner. With any luck deathy will review your next wad, and you'll die of a heart attack!

No shit. He's fierce man.

Csonicgo said:

yeah, your rating system snorkels, scuba.

Sure, but each item means something different, right ?

Scuba Steve said:

(img)

Nice Lacrimosa clown :P

Niya said:

The fact that the architecture wasn't all that
and the linearity of the map itself and even the fact that the map
is forgettable. To quote from the text file " There are many
things this map needs still to be memorable....". There was no
false advertising. You either like it or hate it. Sorry to say but I'll give you more to either like or hate in time, hopefully with
better architecture and a little less linearity this time.

So in other words you made the map forgettable and boring deliberately, and you are complaining like a little bitch when it get's a review saying it's forgettable and boring?

Scuba Steve said:
Limit Removing?

It doesn't seem to produce VPOs or other glitches using Doom (other than a few slight tutti-frutti glitches in a couple of locations, common in wads tested only with ZDoom).

Despite Chris's comments in the text file that this isn't a good "Come Back" wad, I'd disagree. High/Low is a nice medium sized, Episode 1 style map. Fun battles, decent architecture, it has everything you need to make a good level. Recommended.

Yeah, it's a decent level; it's akin to the CHRetro maps, and the layout is used well to make you feel potentially surrounded.

I'd fix one thing; a texture called SKYWALL has been used as a mid-texture in various locations, but is not present. That'll kill some engines this wad is otherwise compatible with (Doom, for one). Apparently the texture is supposed to be blank, because upon adding a blank texture with that name the level seemed fine.

kristus said:

So in other words you made the map forgettable and boring deliberately, and you are complaining like a little bitch when it get's a review saying it's forgettable and boring?

Yes. You are so intelligent.

Somebody has to be.

Niya said:

Another thing. Belial needs to get a life. The map HAS SLOPES! (Yes another exclamaition mark!!). He is the most negative person alive.

Why thank you :D

Never seen post anything positive anywhere.

Buy the man some glasses.

Try making less shitty maps next time. 1996 mapping coupled with some ZDoom features that don't even add anything interesting is thoroughly meh, and trying to sell a ridiculously easy map as omg challenging is just a lol.

Are there ANY reviewers who haven't been flamed yet? Guys, these are just WADS. They are not your source of income, it's not a life or death situation in which a low review will get you and your family killed.