SHRINE - A Total Conversion Mod for Doom 2

[Aurelius]

I've played through the first six maps. Here's some tidings from that spurt:

 

The artistry in this mapset is amazing! The visuals are captivating and moody, the overall style cohesive and the sounds go well with the enemies and weapons. The overall feeling is coherent to me, and nothing seems too off on that part. I like the disturbing atmosphere and all the quirky weapon designs.

 

Gameplaywise I'd say it is pretty fun, but relatively average. There wasn't much use of different mechanics like switches, lifts, moving floors, ambushes and so on, so overall it became predictable quite fast.

 

- The level design of the first three levels was quite repetitive, and like previously mentioned, introduced a lot of the weaponry in a very quick fashion. Which in itself is not that bad, but it felt like they were given not so much to deal with the problem at hand as to just get it in the hands of the player. The levels became more interesting from map 4 onwards, but still felt very straightforward (open door -> kill monsters -> repeat). There were also a lot of doors that needed their lower sides to be unpegged (not raise along with the door).

 

- Monsters were usually introduced in a pretty rudimentary fashion, much in the same way as the weapons. Monster fights were mostly just rooms filled with enemies, and so far I've seen no teleporting enemies, ambushes or enemies appearing in previously explored spaces.

 

- I liked most of the weapon ideas, and had most fun with the "grenade launcher" and the double barreled shotgun. However, the beam weapon (that is perhaps meant for sniping?) became obsolete quite soon, since the damage output was so low. Also, the quickslot placements were really strange, since slot 3 was empty, shotgun was in slot 9 and so forth. Also, like mentioned here previously, I have no idea what ammo goes to which gun, and, combined with the strange weapon slots, changing weapons mid-fight was often a chore.

 

- Monster behavior was mostly fun, with varying enemies with different attacks requiring different strategies. However, the revenant replacement's near instant projectile attack was a bit frustrating, since often it was encountered in hallways where you couldn't dodge it. You could painlock him with the chaingun or chainsaw though, but if there were two of them and you had low health, you were out of luck. Also, the flying red cross felt a bit redundant, considering it was just absorbing damage and did this small projectile. Maybe it could be more different (a different attack for example) from the other floating blob that basically does the same thing? The robed dude introduced pretty early on never felt too threatening, and to be fair I'm not even sure what he does.

 

Overall I found it simple fun with gorgeous aesthetics (which go a long way with me), and I feel it's more like a proof of concept that this art style works, with the sounds and other assets. What you could do is improve monster and weapon balance, and keep on mapping for more elaborate level designs. I'll definitely play it through, since despite some of the problems it might have, it still feels fresh and unique, and I'm very curious to see what you have in store in the later levels.

[Octillion]

I found a couple of things that might be bugs, unless they are intentional.

 

1) If you want to pistol start any map, the character starts with the default doom 2 pistol when you IDCLEV.

 

2) The pinky demon replacement monster's corpse blocks the player when the player goes up stairs. (Particularly map 04's beginning.)

 

Other than that, I enjoyed it. The gameplay was ok for the most part. I agree with a lot of Aurelius's points. It was straightforward, simple and fun.

 

The weapon slots being a 8 and 9 might confuse people who play Doom without any mods. As they are only used to 1 - 7. But that's a very nitpicky thing so don't worry about it much.

[TravyB]

A lot of my thoughts echo what others have said. I LOVE the art and sound here. I especially love those little hitscanner guys. They reminded me of the enemies in The Suffering, a game no one else probably remembers. I've only played the first 5 levels so far but I'd definitely switch that super shotgun, which reminded me a lot of Blood's SS and I really liked it, to the 3 slot. That is, unless something supersedes its role sometime soon; otherwise switching between them can be a bit clunky, though that might just be me. Overall, I'd say this is a really good mod but needs a bit of fine tuning, mostly with little stuff like unpegged doorways and corpses blocking you.

[BoJustBo]

Just played through it in one sitting of about 90 minutes, had a lot of fun and I really like the feel of this TC.
Levels were pretty linear but not bad.
I liked a lot of the enemy replacements and how they differed from the original Doom enemies, the Baron replacement was probably the toughest enemy in the game not counting the last two boss types.
Same with the gun replacements. The grenade launcher was a little tricky to shoot but fun to bounce around walls. one thing that confuses me a bit though is that sometimes it seems to explode after one bounce while other times it can bounce for what feels like forever if it doesn't hit anything. Love the BFG replacement, both the look of it and how it handled.
Playing on medium difficulty (Acolyte I think it was called,) I thought it was quite easy overall with maps 13 and 14 being the only ones with a bit more sting to them.
I did find it refreshing to not have a monster closet open up behind me all the time like in most wads (not that I dislike monster closets,) and I especially liked the lack of teleporting monsters from nowhere (and those I do hate.)

 

I have a few questions about odd choices and a few critiques.
Why do the "imps" green projectiles glow red on the floor?
Why is the shotguns slot 8 and 9 instead of 3, which gets nothing?
While I really dig the 8-bit aesthetic, those mountain textures look really big and repetitive, very noticeable in those first few levels where it's used liberally.
You get stuck on the staircase in the beginning of map 4.
There were some misaligned textures on several levels, like at the stairs in map 11.
A few things didn-t fit the 8-bit aesthetic, so ok, there's glow for shiny objects and projectiles, but the soulsphere flask thing really looks out of place, like something drawn with an airbrush. It also looks a little out of place on the cultists attack animation.
On map 12 there's this lava fall that just begins at the floor but it doesn't come from anywhere.
Map 15 was easy as hell because the bosses can infight and there's three soulsphere flasks. Not playing with pistol start, maybe that would make it hard.
 

Edited November 17, 2019 by BoJustBo

[Mirphy]

i loved the atmosphere and overall level design of this, you did a really good job in that department. though one thing i will say is that shrine is pretty easy for the most part. aside from the last 5 or 4 levels, i could breeze through every level with little effort. i can see some situations where making keys open monster closets would help with the difficulty, not to mention while the level design is great, it felt kind of short, with levels taking about 3-5 minutes to complete.

 

one other thing im not a big fan of is the universal ammo, that, and using the eldritch annihilator trivialised most boss encounters.

 

also one more thing: you can move map 15 to map 16, and maybe include a secret level in there somewhere.

 

with a few tweeks i definitely think this could become one of my favourite doom mods, and criticisms aside, youve done a great job with the art direction and unique weapons, im a massive fan of this simplistic style of pixel art. i look forward to the updates on this and your future projects!

[whirledtsar]

This mod is a blast. I must give special compliments to the music, it's seriously kick-ass. I'd listen to it outside of the game even.

 

However, there are some technical issues to report. For one thing, the door tracks are not properly unpegged. So it looks like the walls next to the doors move with them. You need to set any lines touching the inside of a door as "lower unpegged". Second, some props are not properly solid. The trees for example are in fact solid but much shorter than their sprite. Third, some props should not be solid at all. Things like candles and decorative gore should be non-solid so they don't impede the player's movement.

 

Also, locked doors need color-coded markers like in the original Doom so that you can tell what key they need at a glance.

[BoJustBo]

13 hours ago, whirledtsar said:

Also, locked doors need color-coded markers like in the original Doom so that you can tell what key they need at a glance.

All the doors have colored lights on em, at least if you play in GZDoom.

[whirledtsar]

8 hours ago, BoJustBo said:

All the doors have colored lights on em, at least if you play in GZDoom.

That explains it, i do normally play gzdoom but without dynamic lights.

[Rex705]

This looks great and is super fun. My only thoughts are improve the skybox so it's not a...box and add a gore system like Nash gore vengence with colored blood. Also wish mappers didn't use Copywrite music because it makes it hard for us Youtubers. A little more polish and this could be a full game on Steam.

 

Video of map 1 😀

 

 

[Master O]

@scumhead Shrine was nominated for a Cacoward:

 

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2048239

[Marlamir]

I *cking love these graphics styled games. This one looks absolutely flawless and unigue. Can't wait to jump into it.

[delfiler]

for some odd reason the first level and few weapons remind me of another game but i can't recall the name of it, still very nice mod

Edited November 24, 2019 by delfiler

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

12 minutes ago, delfiler said:

for smoe odd reason the first level and few weapons remind me of another game but i can't recall the name of it, still very nice mod

It makes me think a bit of Project Warlock, but is also pretty clearly distinct from that.

[delfiler]

9 minutes ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

It makes me think a bit of Project Warlock, but is also pretty clearly distinct from that.

no not the one i was thinking off but intresting mod as well, what i was talking about is a game that is still in development but there are trailers off

[BoJustBo]

16 hours ago, delfiler said:

for some odd reason the first level and few weapons remind me of another game but i can't recall the name of it, still very nice mod

Scorn probably, was announced some years back but still hasn't come out.

 

[delfiler]

27 minutes ago, BoJustBo said:

Scorn probably, was announced some years back but still hasn't come out.

 

yup that is the one thanks

[strtj]

That was the coolest Chex Quest TC I have ever played.

[Scorpinax]

I gotta say, this is a very enjoyable wad to play. It still has all the fast paced shooting you could ask for in a doom game along with heaps of atmosphere. Fantastic job on this.

 

edit : also the music is goddamn fantastic. 

Edited November 28, 2019 by Scorpinax

[Gez]

From MAP02 onwards, doors no longer have their tracks unpegged.

 

Gonna have lots of little level nitpicks.

 

MAP01: at places, the bridge is broken. (It's not broken when seen from the other side)

Spoiler

 

When monster corpses are squished, they get turned into a regular Doom sprite.

Spoiler

MAP03:

- Texture mismatch on this door (besides the non-unpegged thing)

Spoiler

- This cliff wall that can be lowered to go quickly from the brown key to the brown door has non-repeatable actions, so if you lower it first to see what it does before picking the key, then it can't be lowered again. Either make it repeatable, or make it so that it stays lowered.

Spoiler

MAP04: for some reason, lots of impassable lines on this stairway at the start. I honestly thought it was a collision problem with the dead monsters, before finding out the right side is climbable.

Spoiler

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by Gez

[Baron Pampa]

Something is wrong with the sky:/

[Gez]

Ha, it's ambient occlusion. I think there's a way to disable it in skyboxes.

 

Speaking of skyboxes: this one looks really bad.

Spoiler

In the same level, those ammo souls are quite annoying to pick up, because the lamp post makes you climb over the height of the pickup.

Spoiler

Also, at the start of this level, you can fall in the void and chill out there. You don't die, but you also can't get back up without cheating.

Spoiler

 

[ketmar]

12 hours ago, Baron Pampa said:

Something is wrong with the sky

Spoiler

GZDoom SSAO. don't use it. ever. one of the biggest GZDoom misfeatures. just ask Graf about it. ;-)

 

spoilered, because offtopic.

[phsi]

Looks kinda cool, bit cartoony doe

[ketmar]

12 minutes ago, Tauin said:

cartoony

hm... i'd say "surreal". i mean, yeah, grapics is highly pixelated, but for me it only adds to surreal mood. like, "that is how my brain protects what's left of its sanity, because seeing that world in all its glory is surely too much for mortals to handle."

[Baron Pampa]

Thanks for help with the sky: )

EDIT: I'm in Map 12 now. Last time I've felt like this was when I've had my first playthrough of Quake 1, sometime this summer.

Edited December 1, 2019 by Baron Pampa

[Baron Pampa]

Double posting to share impressions after finishing all maps. Fantastic work! Some things could be improved I think, I'll list them in the "Cons" part.

Pros:

- Graphics, music, general atmosphere, monsters, weapons...
- Short maps were nice, since even I could make them from pistol start without savegames and getting frustrated. At the same time they were challenging at times on the "Sentinel" level.

- The progression between levels - they were connected, and they told a stories through the changing landscape. I love that thing.

Cons:

- I think I don't like the empty black spaces, especially in the early episodes. They might look better with more details
- Since Ambient Occlusion does pretty bad things, it would be good to mention it in the Readme file
- The final boss fight is trivial with the new weapon you receive. I'm a mediocre player, but I've made it on second attempt without much effort. It's a pity, since the boss has some interesting attacks and looks cool.

- The fight with two knights and a seraphin got auto-solved for me as they started infighting before I fired a single shot.

All in all, one of the best things I've played in my short time here: ).

[Nembras]

I love the atmosphere in these levels. The the bright pickups and projectiles contrasting with the subdued colors of the world, together with the strange monste sprites, the sounds and the music all work together to create a wonderfully weird implementation of the lovecraftian dream lands.

 

In the beginning I wasn't too big a fan of the ammo pickup replenishing all weapons at once, but I got used to it quickly. As others have remarked, the weapons are introduced a bit too quickly, and that's a real shame. I would have liked the opportunity to play around with each new weapon before being given the next one, as each weapon feels unique enough for me to want to try it on different enemies. Pistol starting all the levels might solve this, but I don't think my skills are enough for an all pistol start playthrough.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this TC, and I just wish there were more levels to play through and explore some of the weapon/monster interactions a bit deeper.

 

 

[YoshiofEarth]

Apologies in advance if this is a simple fix but whenever I try to run the game on GZDoom I keep getting a error message saying Script error, "Shrine.pk3:shrine.wad:DECORATE" line 1220: invalid state parameter a_setspeed. Anyone know what the error is being caused by?

[JBerg]

3 minutes ago, YoshiofEarth said:

Apologies in advance if this is a simple fix but whenever I try to run the game on GZDoom I keep getting a error message saying Script error, "Shrine.pk3:shrine.wad:DECORATE" line 1220: invalid state parameter a_setspeed. Anyone know what the error is being caused by?

 

what version of gzdoom are you using?

[YoshiofEarth]

Nevermind figured it out. Man do I feel dumb. 

Edited January 17, 2020 by YoshiofEarth