Custom Doom2 episode quide? [i.e. guidance on how to make one]

Hi! I've spent the last hour searching the internet for instructions for this and found none, so I thought it would be about time someone wrote a full step-by-step quide how to make a custom .wad file for doom2 that contains an user-created episode.

I've downloaded Doom Builder and started making a few maps. Testing them I noticed that the map names are by default the same as in the original Doom2 game. Does anyone know how to change these level names to your own?

Also, I thought of the text "intermissions" like between stages 6-7 and 11-12 etc. The ones where is more text to unfold more of the story. Can you edit those intermissions to include a storyline of your own or remove them completely? Can you add more of these intermissions between desired stages?

Lastly, I don't feel like making my episode 32 levels long. How do you edit the total level count of your episode?

Are you targeting a specific souce port?

Some, like ZDoom or Eternity can change these things but if you go for the basics (Doom.exe, Boom) all you can do is use Dehacked to change the level names and the intermission texts, but not end the game before MAP30. The best you could do is make an end map the player can't leave.

Basically, you'll want to look here for an overview of what's available. It's not an exhaustive list of the options, but it's a starting point.

Herska said:
Also, I thought of the text "intermissions" like between stages 6-7 and 11-12 etc. The ones where is more text to unfold more of the story. Can you edit those intermissions to include a storyline of your own or remove them completely? Can you add more of these intermissions between desired stages?

You can edit them with DeHackEd (or its Windows derivative, WhackEd2) but not eliminate them unless you make it for a source port that allows that: Gez mentioned the Hexen-derived MAPINFO option some ports support, for example. The first method is compatible with nearly any engine people might use, the latter, much more customizable.

Lastly, I don't feel like making my episode 32 levels long. How do you edit the total level count of your episode?

If you rely on a source port with advanced features, you can change that through a lump you place in the WAD (like MAPINFO). Otherwise, what people do is simply end the episode at one of the text screens (in a 6 or 11 level map set, for example.)

If you're mapping for ZDoom-supported ports, make a MAPINFO lump in your wad. This is a textbased lump.

First, you tell it to clear all previous episodes (reccomended) then, start defining your episode. IF you wanted your episode to be called "Oh deary me" and have it start on Map11, this should be your code.

clearepisodes

episode MAP11
name "Oh deary me"

I'm pretty sure that's what it is.


http://zdoom.org/wiki/MAPINFO/Episode_definition

There's the wiki page for Episode defining.

I've used Zdoom to test the map, so I quess that's the source port I'm going with the final episode. I use XWE to edit wads, can I write a MAPINFO lump with it and does it work with Zdoom?

When saving the final wad to share my episode in the forums, should I copy & paste the original data from Doom2.wad to my episode wad or does my wad run on its own?

It should work, and you keep the any original MAPINFO data if it still applies to your episode.

That is, just change, add or remove according to whatever is different.

Note that if your map does not use features exclusive to one port, you can then put in several MAPINFO-like lumps, so it's compatible with several ports.

This is an example of a mod that is compatible with both ZDoom and Eternity, because it features both a ZDoom-style MAPINFO lump and an Eternity EMAPINFO lump.

Thanks for all the help!

Also, does anyone know how to add custom textures into your episode without tempering with the existing ones? I'd like to keep all the original Doom2 textures but add my own signs and new sky textures with space photos.

The most compatible way for Doom II:
1. Copy the PNAMES lump from the IWAD in your mod
2. Add all the relevant patches to your copy of PNAMES, putting them at the end.
3. Create a TEXTURE2 lump in which you'll add all your new textures.

DOOM2.WAD does not have a TEXTURE2 lump, so this way you avoid conflicts and you do not need to bother with all the existing textures.


Some ports also allow you to use the TX_ markers. If you have textures that are made of a single graphics (rather than composited from multiple patches), you can have a TX_START and a TX_END markers, and put all your texture graphics in-between. This will work with ZDoom, and if I'm not mistaken with PrBoom+ too. (As well as SVN builds of EDGE. Not in 1.34 though.)

Does it need to be in a TEXTURE2 lump? If he just adds his new textures to TEXTURE1 (which, I think, is what most texture tools do by default) without changing the definitions of the original textures, then includes his new TEXTURE1 lump in his WAD (as well as his pnames) it should work as he wants - yes? I don't think that there would be any effective compatibility difference between the two methods.

It's just annoying to have to always scroll past all the standard textures while you work on them. :p