Gotterdammerung

[thisaccursedman]

Dear All, this is a ten level wad called "Gotterdammerung", which I built using Plutonia. It can be played with vanilla doom but I would highly recommend using GZLights (because a lot of the lighting comes from objects or textures), and I would implore you to use the PSX music and sound effects (the wad is heavily inspired by PSX Doom and Doom 64 and I built it in the more sinister and eerie spirit of these games).

 

The wad has an elaborate (overly elaborate, some might say) storyline, which you can read below, if you have five hours to spare.

 

I hope you enjoy it. Any honest opinions, including criticism, would be welcome, because I don't consider this the final version. Link is here: https://ufile.io/0121q

 

Doom: Gotterdammerung

In February 1945, with the Third Reich in its death throes, Nazi atomic scientists successfully opened the gates to Hell. The unhinged Fuhrer eagerly entered into an unholy alliance with the emerging Hell spawn, and an infernal combination of SS troops and demonic mutants quickly turned the tide of the war.

 

The year is 1995. Only isolated pockets of guerrillas in the jungles of South America continue to oppose the seemingly invincible Nazi war machine. You are in occupied Europe, a member of the British resistance captured and brought to the Reich for interrogation. But the night before you’re to be turned over to the Gestapo, a nervous looking conscript brings a derisory tray of stale bread and water to your cell. Whoever sent this raw recruit made a bad call. Within 30 seconds he’s broken-necked and twitching at your feet. You take his gun, the key to the cell and venture out into the corridor of the prison.

 

Your mission is to escape occupied Europe by finding the SS teleportation centre in Nuremberg. From there, maybe you can beam directly over to South America and link up with the guerrillas. Your only chance is to find the gateway to Hell, through which the Nazis are importing the alien troops and technology giving them the decisive advantage in this war. If you can make it to Hell you can strike at the heart of the evil alliance and bring a premature end to the ‘Thousand Year Reich’…

 
Part 1: Escape from Europe

Map 01: ‘Protective Custody’
You’re armed again at last, but first you need to make it out of the SS prison alive.

       

Map 02: Chemical Weapons Factory
The Nazis have used chemical weapons indiscriminately for over 50 years. This is the kind of facility where they’re produced. It’s payback time.

      
Map 03: SS Teleportation Centre
It’s from this building that Nazi manpower and munitions are exported to the jungles of South America to crush the rebels. You need to jump into that teleport.

      

Part 2: Welcome to the Jungle

Map 04: Frontier Outpost
A sudden flash, and you’re in the Amazon rain forest, in an austere, stone walled SS bunker that was built here decades ago. You must fight your way out into the jungle itself.

      

Map 05: The Abandoned Tunnels
The resistance once used these ancient underground tunnels, but only a few months ago the SS and the demons fought their way in. They showed no mercy. Why should you?

      

Map 06: Forgotten City
In the recesses of this ancient heathen temple, the Nazis are transporting the demons and their technology onto earth. You’re the first person who wants to go in the other direction.

Part 3: Tartarus

 

Map 07: Einfach Tot
Welcome to hell. And the welcoming committee is waiting for you.

        

Map 08: Chapel of the Damned
You’re fighting your way deeper into the inferno, toward the heart of the evil that has colonised your planet. This satanic temple is a stronghold you need to take. 

          

Map 09: Valhalla
This is the demonic equivalent of a munitions plant – a place where the legions of hell are mass produced, ready for shipment to earth. It’s time to decommission this death factory.

 

Map 10: Judgement at Nuremberg

The teleport leaves you back on earth, where the Nazis and demons have gathered for one final stand. Even the Fuhrer showed up, but he’s had a bit of a makeover…

Edited July 30, 2018 by thisaccursedman

[eharper256]

Sounds like an ideal map to use with Bratwurst.

 

Also, I suggest this to everyone who does this: Doomworld is always hesitant with any large sized WAD, especially when you state you're including music. You generally do not want to include it, even if you feel its the optimal version. Feel free to suggest what you feel is best for the WAD, but let people play their own ports and music choices.

 

Yeah, and I'm fairly sure you SHOULD NOT include the Plutonia iwad in there. That's actually dodgy as its still part of Final Doom and technically being sold. Sometimes a blind eye is turned to including a few official textures as part of a pwad, but never this, so I'd get that changed ASAP.

 

Finally, using a big, well known download service like MEGA or Mediafire is generally advised.

 

I may give it a shot and throw you some comments later, must go shopping first.

[Misty]

No need include plutonia iwad, you better remove it from zip and tell that people to use it. And make information more clearly visible - port you used to for this mapset and on which iwad it should run.  

[Lampenpam]

I like the detailed eviroments so far and I recognize several setpieces from Doom 64. 

 

Why is your game so dark? Do I need some certain setting or another wad, because it's by far not as dark as in your screenshots. I expected I needed to load some flashlight mod with it. 

[thisaccursedman]

Thank you all, I appreciate the heads up. Please find attached an updated version of the zip file, which consists only of the wad, the storyline pdf, and GZLights (Lampenpam, to answer your question, you need GZLights to be able to see very much).

 

Hopefully this file sharing service cuts the mustard:

 

https://ufile.io/0121q

 

(P.S. Yes - Doom 64 provided a certain inspiration, I can't deny it...)

[Lampenpam]

well I loaded the game with and without gzlights and it didn't made any difference :I 

 

Now, I actually don't want to play the game this dark and part of the reason is that skybox texture. Why is there such a bright light day skybox when it's like mid-night in the map? That doesn't look right at all, you should use some skybox texture that shows a night. 

[Korozive]

By the look of the screenshots i'll need a headlamp.

[eharper256]

Hokey Dokey, I got around to doing up to level 3, so here's my thoughts:

 

Yes, it is very Doom 64, with how dark as fuck everything is. This actually looks interesting with the HD textures and lightmaps I always use (Glow in the dark eye lightmaps for monsters is recommended if you don't roll with a targeting crosshair mod).

 

The other main thing I have to mention is that the levels are very much switch hunts with considerable backtracking, and where it isn't usually very obvious what the switches do. You quite often have to stumble back in the dark to figure out what happened. Lots of timed switches too, which is a bit irritating when you don't know what the switch just did, like in the start area with the exit, the prison cell down the corridor, and so on and so forth. I had to press several of them twice.

 

There's also loads of places that scream TRAP at you if you've played a fair few doom wads, and they never fail to dissapoint.

 

Speaking of traps, onto level 2, this was not a good one:

Narrow inescapable deathtrap with several chaingunners on either side? Not fun for most circumstances. I allowed myself to duck here to mitigate damage. There's also no indication you have to shoot this point in the screenshot to get out.

 

Speaking of shooting strange places:

You can see the Revenant's arm/leg poking out of this particular monster closet that opens later, allowing you to take one of them out early (The blood splatter is where I just sniped him with the FMG 10-shot mode), and also cueing you to the fact you need to dash through later and run outside after grabbing the key, as fighting the Revenants from outside the cramped nukage room is much easier.

 

Finally, the secret rocket launcher with the switch hidden behind Hitler here:

The time limit is very tight, so its very easy with Doomguy agility and you running at full pelt to get in the hatch in time, to dash over the first stair that acknowledges the secret. Might want to change the pinkzone to where the launcher is?

 

Overall, though, its so far an entertaining romp, and I feel the difficulty level is pretty good. It keeps you on your toes with Trailblazer, so I imagine its suitably difficult on Vanilla. Though obviously it would be a cakewalk for the resident doomgods, its at a good level for most players, I'd imagine, assuming it doesn't accelerate at a breakneck pace later (which alot of wads fall into the trap of, sadly).

[thisaccursedman]

Gentlemen, ladies, I appreciate your feedback, eharper in particular. I hope you'll continue playing it to the end. Thanks for the heads up about the Revenant. The other criticisms you site, however, I'm a little loathe to change. I want things to be tough - as you point out yourself, the difficulty level is pretty well-judged. I want it to be hard even for the demigods!

 

A note on the lighting - this is something I can't see myself changing. I was never a fan of the more free-wheeling, rock'n'roll, rather cartoonish style of the PC version. I've endeavoured to emulate the horror-style atmosphere of the PSX version and of Doom 64 - which means, making it pretty dark. Maybe I've gone overboard and the PSX version wasn't as dark as I remember - perhaps I should play it again and form a new judgement, as this seems to be such a common criticism.

 

I should add, most of the lighting comes from torches and textures, because I designed it with GZLights in mind. Hopefully you're using this!

 

17 hours ago, eharper256 said:

 

[Lampenpam]

I don't even know how to load the mod to make things as dark as in your screenshots. I loaded it with and without the gzlights and, well, the lighting was like your average doom mod. Fairly bright with pretty much no dark areas. 

[eharper256]

I hope you will at least fix the other glitches mentioned and maybe increase the timers on switches if possible. Personally I just point out fights and elements that I think anyone will find frustrating. (shrugs)

 

5 minutes ago, Lampenpam said:

I don't even know how to load the mod to make things as dark as in your screenshots. I loaded it with and without the gzlights and, well, the lighting was like your average doom mod. Fairly bright with pretty much no dark areas. 

Make sure you're using the OpenGL renderer on GZDoom (not classic), and have lights and brightmaps in your loadorder. I didn't even specifically use the GZLights provided, and still got the results in my above screencaps.

[thisaccursedman]

23 hours ago, eharper256 said:

I hope you will at least fix the other glitches mentioned and maybe increase the timers on switches if possible. Personally I just point out fights and elements that I think anyone will find frustrating. (shrugs)

 

I take your point, don't get me wrong, and in fact, I've debated this very question about the timing of the switches with myself as well. Currently I err toward the side of wanting to make it as difficult as possible, because excessively easy Doom levels always frustrated me in the past. But who knows - maybe what I've done is a bit too much of a cheap shot, at times.

 

I really appreciate the feedback!