A comunity megawad in two weeks (READY to download)

After reading the other thread asking for an installer to make a wad look like an oficial add-on, the discussions about Plutonia 2, and particulary the new map made by speedmapping, I got this idea.

A comunity megawad made in two weeks. This will start in march 5th and will end on 18th, no matter how many wads were submited. The wad will be for Zdoom to add more freedom in the victory messages (no need to fill the 32 levels slot), but will not use any other Zdoom specific function (probably except decorate if we have nice contributions), neither Boom stuff except limit removing, in fact, the maps alone could be played in doom2+.exe

The rules are as follow:

-The wad must have a classic DOOM look and gameplay
-Scripting, mirrors, NPCs, slopes, coloured lights, fog, deep water, skyboxes, and the rest are not allowed.
-Fake bridges are not allowed
-Your map can be from scratch, or recycle old wads you never uploaded
-There will be new skies that will be posted before March fifth
-If you want to use new monsters, you must post them here first so everyone can use them too, but they must be close to id quality stuff, and ripped stuff from other games is not allowed (unless some good editing was done over them), if the rest of the participants don't like them, they must be droped.
-New textures will only be used if someone suggest a texture pack and everyone accepts it (no custom textures for each map)
-You can only start mapping or recycling on March 5th. If you're too excited (which I doubt) you can do it in secret :-
-You must specify which music you want on your map (can't be from games not designed by id, neither other music formats than midi or mus)

Why to wait until March 5th? To organize a bit the stuff, and to call participants.
Once March 18th, I'll take two days to group the maps in themes, and to compile the stuff. Betatesting must be done in the mapping week.


In the mean time we need
-A name for the project
-A little plot, and list of big locations that the player must visit
-Custom titlepic, m_doom, interpic (I think we convered this one), endpic
-Custom skies
-A texture pack?
-Some custom monsters? (probably not)

List of current participants:
-Vegeta
-Fisk
-Bloodskull
-Torn
-Lizardcommando
-Tango
-Kid Airbag
-Icarus
-Shtbag667
-Bashe
-Dr. Zin
-Nuke 'em
-amberleaf
-stewboy
-DomRem
-lupinx-Kassman
-Skeetz
-farhaven
-Cadman

Uhh, okay. I'll do something for this. Any limit on map size? Oh, and what about crystal sectors, REJECT editing, etc...? Are we limited to only stuff the engine was intended for?

A suggested title : Piece By Piece (if that hasn't been used by anything yet).

Wait. I'm confused. Is this supposed to be a sequel to Doom II? And it's for ZDoom, but virtually all ZDoom features aren't allowed? If the idea you're going for here is sort of a "fan-made Doom III", I'm all for that, but I don't see why you would limit it to one week.

Anyway, this is somewhat interesting. I won't pass judgment until the idea is fleshed out a little.

I would join if it wasn't for the time limit.

In my opinion, it would make more sense and would attract more people if you just said "make another Community Chest in a week," and gave people 7 days instead of 5. If that were the case (being limit-removing only would be nice too), I would most likely give this a shot.

Vegeta said:

...particulary the new map made by speedmapping...

heh ^_^

Well the reason for the time limit is to get the project actually done, and fast. Sofisticated megawads are cool, but take ages, and many never get completed. On this I'd like to try something diferent, I know the time limit should reduce the quality, and probably there will be some flaws of diferent kind, but I think this may be fun.
I'd really like to make a "DOOM 3", in fact that's what I'm secretly planing, but I'm not sure how many should follow the idea. If everyone likes it I think we can go for it.

About the use of Zdoom, it's only to give the "episodes" its own form acording to the number of maps we get. The reason not to use Zdoom specific stuff is to add a bit more of balance between maps (not everyone knows how to use them properly), to conserve a bit more the classic DOOM gameplay, and because not everyone likes much advanced Zdoom stuff, but everyone likes more or less the classic stuff.

I mentioned bad the days, it should be 5th to 11th, if you think extending it to two weeks or perhaps a month (whole march?), I have no problem, I just wanted to make something diferent. Please post your opinions about this.

So..

-Should it be a DOOM 3, or it's better to keep it as a comunity chest like megawad?
-How many time do you think is the best for this?
-Wich texture pack should we use? Personaly I recomend Enjay's DOOM 1 texture patch so we can recycle even maps from DOOM 1 without much work, but I know the default textures are a bit old for some.
-Should new monsters be a good idea?


Oh and no limit about size, maps can be big, medium, small, whatever you like. And dificult settings is a plus, but not a must.

A preview of an old, old (pre-2002 I think) map of mine that I may consider finishing special for this project. Lighting accentuated with IDBEHOLDL to be easier to see.

Stats:
1161 Sectors
9242 Sidedefs
4042 Linedefs
10117 Vertices

EDIT:

-It should remain a Community-Chest style (mega)WAD.
-I think two weeks is good enough.
-Any texture pack that looks very close to original DOOM/2 art.
-Maybe five new monsters maximum.

That looks sweet!

Hmm, well considering I was never gonna finish my episode. Take your pick Vegeta:

Map01:Crash Landing




Or!

Map02:Into the Factory


Or

Map05:Station 89



There all basically done, I just need to fix up the exit's and they should be good to go.

Thanks Blood, I like them all, I think first and second look more classic doomy. We must decide about the texture wad, for the moment I think is more safe to choose the first (yet I suppose some new textures are in other areas).

-So anyone for a comunity chest like megawad, in two weeks?

Bloodskull said:

Hmm, well considering I was never gonna finish my episode. Take your pick Vegeta:

Why don't you release it as a 3-level mini episode? If the levels match the quality of your previous maps they deserve a proper release

Cause I feel that sometimes my maps aren't that good, but I could give it a shot. If vegeta want's to, I can change some textures and probably release all 3 in this if he wanted to.

Edit:If you want I can send you a beta of all 3 and you can give some input.

Edit 2:It could end up being a 5 map episode:

Graf Zahl said:

Why don't you release it as a 3-level mini episode? If the levels match the quality of your previous maps they deserve a proper release

They do look pretty awesome. I get the feeling they could easily stand on their own.

Vegeta said:

We must decide about the texture wad, for the moment I think is more safe to choose the first (yet I suppose some new textures are in other areas).

I actually compiled a texture wad which basically just took textures from most Tex wad's that I liked, and merged them in.(EP5, Vrack3, Q1/Q2, etc). If you want to do something like that, you can add onto my existing wad.

Hmm, this sounds interesting. So you want maps that are basically for any limit-removing ports?

Is it ok if I join? It might take a while for me to make a map and my maps aren't exactly high quality by today's standards, but I can try to make a new monster replacements for the zombiemen, chaingunner, and shotgunner. BTW, would it be ok if I used the zombieman replacement from my latest weapons mod? No, they aren't cartoony MSPaint replacements. They were slightly edited from other Doom skins and mixed with other Doom engine games (more specifically Strife).

The latest map I made is on the /idgames archive called "A Generic UAC Base" or uglee.wad.

I'd like to sign up for making a small map. This has to be at 5 March?

I'm thinking if you're trying to make this as much like classic Doom as possible, there should be no new textures, no new enemies. Maybe new skies, and I think new music would be fair. But that should be it.

Also I might contribute if I have time, since that week is during my spring break anyway and I'll probably have lots of down time.

Thanks everyone, after a some consideration I think two weeks is better so we can work with a bit more time, specialy the beta testing, and there are more chances of more participants to join during the mapping time.

@Bloodskull, if you feel like using the three maps, that'd be cool, I just don't want to take all of them when you can do your own release, you decide. BTW these screens look great.
I'm not sure about the textures I think standard texture should atract more participants, yet new textures use to be a nice addition, I don't know I'd like to hear more opinions.
The texture patch I'm talking about is this

Uncompressed version
http://www.mooload.com/new/file.php?file=files/210207/1172091975/d1d2.wad

Zip version
http://www.mooload.com/new/file.php?file=files/210207/1172092066/d1d2.zip

It just let you use all the textures from DOOM 1 and DOOM 2 in a map, the result looks great.

@Kid Airbag, well if you find some time, and have some unused map/s or feel like designing one (no matter if it's small, or a boss arena), you're welcome.

@Torn, yeah the idea is to start at March 5, of course you can start before if you feel like that.

@Lizardcommando, heh, and do you think my maps meet the today standards of "high quality"? I like the idea of new monsters, I think they should fit better as extra characters rather than replacing the existing ones. If you could post a little preview of them should be nice. To keep the classic DOOM look, perhaps would be better to save the new monsters for bosses (one to three new bosses or sub bosses), then again, I want to keep this more like a comunity project so I'd like to hear what everyone thinks.

beauty snaps guys, and now i download vegeta map...

Vegeta, I'll contribute all three as I don't really mind, and might do DX or Remix release way later on when I can get my Cartpushing self some time(damn 30 hour workweeks).

As for the monsters I replaced, I've already made the no helmet pistol marine and you can find it in The Exterminator. I'll try to do a chaingunner guy replacement.

Can Boom features be used?

Vegeta said...

The wad will be for Zdoom to add more freedom in the victory messages [...] but will not use any other Zdoom specific function [...] neither Boom stuff except limit removing [...] the maps alone could be played in doom2+.exe

Any space left for helping with this? I reckon if i actually set deadlines for maps, I could get it finished to a decent degree :)

Well Vegeta, I found a classic map I made that was supposidly going to be a secret level in that episode, but check it out:

I still have this swamp caco if anyone wants to use it. I never got around to creating sounds for it yet and it is decorate based:

Hey, that Swamp Caco's not so bad. I imagine it sounding alot like the Pain Elemental with the sound mixing with either a Revenant or Archvile.

Bloodskull said:

Well Vegeta, I found a classic map I made that was supposidly going to be a secret level in that episode, but check it out:

Another nice one. But I really don't get why you don't release your maps on their own.

Whoa this has a lot more movement than what I expected

@Bloodskull, as allways your screens look great, of course I'd like to include them on this project, I just let it up to you, I agree with Graf that you have the material for your own release.

@Icarus, you're welcome, I added you in the participants list, whatever map will be used no matter how big or small (except joke wads).

@Shtbag667, that monster looks sweet. That's the kind of monster I were talking about when I said "id quality", if you already have a wad with it and it's behavior I think it'd be great addition.

@Lizardcommando, I checked the zombieman replacement, I like the sprite, but I don't want to replace the standard zombie. And as your pistol character isn't a zombie I only see it fiting as some kind of boss, NPC, player skin, or smart zombie, all things that would look a bit out of place in a mod that tries to follow a classic style. Perhaps with a little editing, but I think other projects could give a better use to your sprite. If somehow you manage to design a ssg zombie, or convert the fist marine in something more like the tentacle commando (yet with a bit of vanilla style), that'd be a great addition.

@Dr. Zin, the reason not to use the Boom stuff is to keep maps a bit more balanced, as the maping skills eventualy will be very diferent, I don't want to add more diferences introducing the diferent skills in the use of the Boom features. That and to keep the pure old school map style that we all like (more or less).

Yeah, when I made the zombieman replacement, I made him look more like a UAC marine than a zombieman. My chaingun guy replacement looks more like a human enemy rather than a zombie enemy. I'll try to put up a pic soon.