Lüt Posted December 16, 2007 Following nearly two years of silence, Espi has returned, and he brings with him a megawad of classic proportions. Fully replacing Doom's Episode 2, Back To Basics lives up to its name as yet another showcase of the quality still possible in Vanilla Doom-compatible maps. A literal descent into the bowels of the nether world, the player is taken through an increasingly ominous moonbase as the line between "here" and "hell" begins to blur, leaving only the inevitable crossover for certain. Begin the journey. 0 Share this post Link to post
myk Posted December 16, 2007 Yes, this is a quite Espifying surprise, to say the least... 0 Share this post Link to post
Lizardcommando Posted December 17, 2007 This is a pretty cool mapset. I got stuck on E2M2, I think, so I had to skip it. I think I last stopped on E2M5. Aside from the map I got stuck on, I like this. 0 Share this post Link to post
esselfortium Posted December 17, 2007 Espi = <4 Some of it is a bit brown for my tastes, but the Espiness of it all makes it okay. I wish I could map like Espi :p 0 Share this post Link to post
sgtcrispy Posted December 17, 2007 mmm a bit of old school creamy doominess. Awesome work Espi! 0 Share this post Link to post
CodeImp Posted December 17, 2007 Nice work! I like the looks of the levels. Haven't played all of it though, no time :( 0 Share this post Link to post
EarthQuake Posted December 17, 2007 God damnit, his wads give me hard-ons. 0 Share this post Link to post
Csonicgo Posted December 17, 2007 Wow. Now that he's back though, can we pester him about a sequel to SID or will we have to wait for Eternal Doom IV? which... I hope is awesome. If it's released. 0 Share this post Link to post
Scuba Steve Posted December 17, 2007 EarthQuake said:God damnit, his wads give me hard-ons. And his hard-ons give wads. 0 Share this post Link to post
Cadman Posted December 17, 2007 I have been absolutely loving this...good old fashioned doom for what it was meant to be...Great job!!! 0 Share this post Link to post
Udderdude Posted December 20, 2007 Hawt secksy classic Doom maps? YES PLZ. 0 Share this post Link to post
Marco Posted December 20, 2007 This replacement set for episode 2 is IMO the best megawad of the year for Doom1. First of all, I can't say enough about the layout of each of these levels. It adds so much fun to every map in the set. In addition, every level does a great job creating the OD atmosphere and feel. The ambience is nice, and the use of textures took me back in time to the early years. As far as gameplay, it's everything you look for in a wad. I've got no complaints. It's only a shame the CacoAwards have already been announced because this baby would definitely have been in the running. Great job Espi! P.S. If it hasn't happened already, I hope there will be a demo thread started real soon for this set. 0 Share this post Link to post
Espi Posted December 20, 2007 Looks like people liked this little christmas present. =p Nice to see people still enjoy classic mapping. And no, unfortunately there won't be a sequel to SiD. You went through the infested base to get a ride out of the whole mess (while the doomguy was saving the world or whatever it was that he supposedly did) and that's that. Also I'm not a jobless bum anymore, so I actually have to spend time away from my computer. :( 0 Share this post Link to post
Csonicgo Posted December 21, 2007 Espi said:And no, unfortunately there won't be a sequel to SiD. You went through the infested base to get a ride out of the whole mess (while the doomguy was saving the world or whatever it was that he supposedly did) and that's that. well, can you at least write a tutorial to how you did all those special effects? :-) 0 Share this post Link to post
esselfortium Posted December 21, 2007 exp(x) said:What the shit is this? Which map is that in? :O 0 Share this post Link to post
exp(x) Posted December 21, 2007 e2m5 It looks like the slime trails are needles or pins. I'm not sure if this was intended. 0 Share this post Link to post
Butts Posted December 21, 2007 espi seems to be my favorite vanilla doom level author at the moment. suspended in dusk was amazing, and this was really fun too. i loved it. as for whoever said do a tutorial on all those special effects, i agree. that would be cool. 0 Share this post Link to post
Lüt Posted December 21, 2007 exp(x) said:What the shit is this? No doubt something to do with this.exp(x) said:It looks like the slime trails are needles or pins. I'm not sure if this was intended. Doubt it; there weren't slime trails in eternity or zdoom, barring a slight sliver on the microphone when viewed from a specific angle. Seems to be a prboom issue. 0 Share this post Link to post
Csonicgo Posted December 21, 2007 exp(x) said:e2m5 It looks like the slime trails are needles or pins. I'm not sure if this was intended. I'm getting the same thing here- if it's intended, then that is the craziest effect I've ever seen. Intentional Slime trails have never been done afiak. also, if you go to the back of that room and look around at the entrance, the walls start to flicker/slide. Espi is really pushing the engine with this one. Lut: I think zdoom rebuilds the BSP so maybe that's why you're not seeing slime trails. As for eternity, its renderer, cardboard, solves a lot of that problem. Edit: it isn't a PrBoom issue as far as I can see; Chocolate doom is doing the same thing. 0 Share this post Link to post
Espi Posted December 21, 2007 Yeah, there's some unintentional slime trails, probably because of the small sectors of random shapes. ZDoom and some other ports have an improved renderer, with which they don't appear. I probably should've experimented with different node builders too, but oh well. =p 0 Share this post Link to post
myk Posted December 21, 2007 Espi said: I probably should've experimented with different node builders too, but oh well. =p I tested with ZenNode and Ed came out slightly slimy but much better than with what you used. The glitch isn't a big deal, but you could renode it, since it would be a quite quick fix. Better now than later when there are demos for it, and the slime will affect engines people will likely record with. It's a quite suiting wad for people to try with the newly released v1.0 of Chocolate Doom, in any case. I've played till E2M6, where a bunch of cacos boiled me over a pool of blood. Great stuff from what I've played. Good item/monster balance, and fine spacing and layouts. Generally, the maps seem to fit quite well with the original level names, as if it were a "remake", and the yellowish sky works very well. 0 Share this post Link to post
exp(x) Posted December 21, 2007 myk said:It's a quite suiting wad for people to try with the newly released v1.0 of Chocolate Doom, in any case. Luckily the savegame buffer overrun behavior in 1.0.0 isn't quite vanilla. If it was, saving in a few of the later levels would cause chocolate doom to bomb out and lose your progress. Due to a bug, the game is still saved when the engine bombs. 0 Share this post Link to post
myk Posted December 21, 2007 Heh, for the difference it makes, one might as well just use vanilla_savegame_limit 0 in the extra CFG while playing. Keeping the limit available in that way is still good, though, as it can help any map designer or tester know when saves won't be possible in Doom. 0 Share this post Link to post
Espi Posted December 21, 2007 Yeah it seems Zennode does a better job at avoiding slime trails. I don't think it's a big enough issue to re-upload the thing to get rid of most of those slime trails though... It's just that secret area, and it's not game-breaking. 0 Share this post Link to post
exp(x) Posted December 21, 2007 I saw a few random slime trails other maps, but they were barely noticeable. I agree that it's not major enough to warrant a re-upload. 0 Share this post Link to post
Belial Posted December 21, 2007 There's also a wall trap near the end of E2M7 that seems to be broken (sector 984). 0 Share this post Link to post
Csonicgo Posted December 22, 2007 Espi said:Yeah it seems Zennode does a better job at avoiding slime trails. I don't think it's a big enough issue to re-upload the thing to get rid of most of those slime trails though... It's just that secret area, and it's not game-breaking. there's a lot of slime trails in E2M5 itself, not just the easter egg secret. So, I have to ask: which nodebuilder has the best slimetrail control? Hell, That might be a question for another thread. 0 Share this post Link to post
exp(x) Posted December 22, 2007 I'm a fan of zennode; it did a good job of keeping slimetrails down in shdwpit2.wad compared to wadauthor's default nodebuilder. It also runs great on linux, which is always a plus. 0 Share this post Link to post