DOOM Unity port WAD Suggestion thread

[cannonball]

Given the recent wads put onto Unity, I guess Arrival by Pavera would be a good candidate.

D2ISO would be a good choice too, subtle jokes aside it is a very solid megawad.

[Kyka]

19 minutes ago, Devalaous said:

 

Even if that was sorted out and all the legal landmine textures and sprites were replaced, id would also need to get permission from every mapper who had a hand in the final Revilution. Its just not happening I think (Megamur is still gone, and he was a contributor to Transduction at least)

 

I thought that Megamur had contributed to another map as well, but that map will go into tnt forever, and wasn't in the original Revilution.

 

But yeah, Revilution was never gonna make it. :)

[VoanHead]

What about including Akeldama and 3 is a Crowd? Both were some pretty dope releases last year

[roadworx]

the darkening ep2 and the classic episode? while they're older, i'm pretty sure the majority of its authors - if not all of them - are reachable.

 

it seems that joshy is in contact with thomas van der velden, so revolution! would be possible. there's also zone 300 and 400, ch retro episode, and demonfear, whose authors still actively post on dw

Edited August 1, 2021 by roadworx

[Gothic]

2 hours ago, VoanHead said:

What about including Akeldama.

May need a couple of texture changes. Also there's a MIDI that is very similar to "Goin' Down the Fast Way" from ROTT, so it may need to be changed too.

[Devalaous]

8 hours ago, roadworx said:

the darkening ep2 and the classic episode? while they're older, i'm pretty sure the majority of its authors - if not all of them - are reachable.

 

it seems that joshy is in contact with thomas van der velden, so revolution! would be possible. there's also zone 300 and 400, ch retro episode, and demonfear, whose authors still actively post on dw

 

Ideally Revolution would be combined with its midi pack, but that creates a bigger list of people to contact

[P41R47]

12 hours ago, cannonball said:

D2ISO would be a good choice too, subtle jokes aside it is a very solid megawad.

I remember reading a post by Sponge, i think it was?, that said that, even when D2ISO is awesome, some may not catch the joke, and may feel offended by it. And those are risks a publisher needs to avoid.
A shame for sure :/
The best serious joke mapset in a good while since Kama Sutra, almost.

 

11 hours ago, VoanHead said:

3 is a Crowd?

It only has one minor grip and easily sorteable: a midi version of Head Like a Hole by Nine Inch Nails made by Doomkid.
Changing it is all thats needed.

 

Aside from that, there are just a few textures and different midi authors, not a huge number, counting me, i think.

Crunchynut44 - music for MAP02 to MAP09.
Doomkid - music for MAP20 to MAP27.
Ribbiks - every other bit of music

P41R47 - status bar graphic
129th Visplane, Torridgristle and ChaingunnerX - stuff I used for SKY1
ChaingunnerX - SKY2
Valkiriforce - SKY3
MTX1996 - chandelier and wooden railing graphic
osjclatchford - grass and hedge graphics
Doom_Dude - red demon face texture
Solmyr - techbase exit door
Earthquake - urban exit door
Eradrop - red mountain sky I used to make BOSSBACK

And i can seriously lend my work authorship to Scypek2 if it could help 3IAC making it way to be officialized.

Edited August 2, 2021 by P41R47

[NiGHTMARE]

Community projects in general are going to be a hassle for the Unity port team, since so many people need to be contacted. Wads constructed by only a handful of people (or even better one person) are far more likely to appear... though let's not have an "Annual Kama Sutra on Unity begging thread"!

 

16 hours ago, roadworx said:

the darkening ep2 and the classic episode? while they're older, i'm pretty sure the majority of its authors - if not all of them - are reachable.

 

Ola Björling (Ukiro), myself, Derek MacDonald (Afterglow), Lee Szymanski, and Adam Windsor (Capellan) are still active in the Doom community, and I believe people have been in contact with Jan Van der Veken relatively recently. Anthony Soto, Ben Davies, and Richard Wiles I haven't heard anything from or of for around 15 years, so they may be harder to contact.

 

I personally would be willing to work on some new levels to replace them if they're not reachable - maybe some of the DM levels could be adapted and expanded upon to become new SP levels? It might also be interesting to update everything to use OTEX, though maybe with some new variants e.g. to keep the original Darkening E2 logo.

 

I know it's not mentioned, but if Darkening E1 were ever to be included I would definitely want to go back and improve my two levels.

Edited August 2, 2021 by NiGHTMARE

[ukiro]

It'd be really interesting to make a custom OTEX pack to replace the darkening e2 textures actually; To try to stay maximally faithful to them while still improving stuff.

That said, the way darkening E2 plays is a little dated with all the ammo starvation. (I haven't revisited E1 in so long that I wouldn't even be sure I recognized the levels, and wasn't involved much beyond some minor graphics stuff.)

 

[roadworx]

1 hour ago, NiGHTMARE said:

Ola Björling (Ukiro), myself, Derek MacDonald (Afterglow), Lee Szymanski, and Adam Windsor (Capellan) are still active in the Doom community, and I believe people have been in contact with Jan Van der Veken relatively recently. Anthony Soto, Ben Davies, and Richard Wiles I haven't heard anything from or of for around 15 years, so they may be harder to contact.

i've seen anthony soto in mtpain27's youtube comment section, and tracking down richard wiles was pretty easy. kniggit, metabolist, and ben davies are really the only ones left

[NiGHTMARE]

Quick re-texturing test on Darkening E2 MAP07 (it exposes some poor alignment work in places ;)):

 

 

 

 

 

[ukiro]

Man I want to find time to do this properly. The Darkening E2 rusty metal remains a very good pixel soup; I should perhaps revive that but with modeth shading for edges, rivets, etc. The OTEX crates are also much darker than The originals but maybe these can still work? Shot 3 feels almost identical!

[NiGHTMARE]

In quite an amazing coincidence I chose that exact room for an attempt at "modernization" :) The ceiling needs some work, but other than that I'm quite pleased with this.

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: A couple more tweaked areas. As evidenced by the second new shot, one addition to OTEX that would be needed is vents with the logo; in fact, these are one of the first things that comes to mind when I think of the Darkening E2 :) 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by NiGHTMARE

[ReaperAA]

I really like the modernized version of that area

[baja blast rd.]

some ideas...

 

TVR!: a cherished classic, story-oriented, not very difficult. has a lot of 'concept'-oriented design that tends to appeal to people who don't care about how detailed something is, and don't need to be (or can't really be) impressed by architecture. 

 

Three is a Crowd: a really delightful and popular wad for good reason. basically what I said for TVR! except "modern classic." it's more difficult too, especially early on, but not so overbearing. very imaginative and novel concept here, has a lot of the appeal of Going Down (of course nothing can be exactly like Going Down). a couple midis need to be changed afaik.

 

25 Years on Earth: short and mostly easy through "fair challenge" on UV. well crafted but in a simple way, as with the above, has plenty of concept design and Doomcute (sector furniture, spaceships). needs new MIDIs.

 

Nihility: terrifying and relentless, but in a way that stays accessible. don't think the port has had a true horror wad yet (not that there are even many of those at all), but this one would fit that bill. actually one of my favorite wads of all time. 

 

Doom 2 in Spain Only: even if the comedic frame -- the names, music, etc. -- is removed and no one really gets all the references, this is still one of the best crafted D2TWID-likes, both in terms of level design and gameplay (yes even though the gameplay can be silly).  also has inventive gameplay ideas. gimmicky. pretty spicy on UV.

 

Bury My Heart Knee Deep: dunno if single maps are ever gonna be a thing, but the heft and concept makes this one feel really suited to a try. (in itself, it's basically as big as something like Syringe so...) the implementation of Metroidvania-style gameplay is quite creative and might appeal quite a bit to a wider game-playing audience. very good standalone map. 

 

Arrival: really good, again like the author's maps in D2TWID but bigger and meaner and trading some of the pure exploration for big brawls without getting rid of it entirely (the map author is the same person behind some Syringe maps). has music specifically made for it. it offsets its meanness with a lot of resource generosity, so even if you're dying a bunch, it doesn't feel spiteful.

 

Return to Hadron e1-e3 and Thy Flesh turned into a draft-excluder: these wads are excellent and consistent in quality (and can treated as a single release despite being four wads). there are many maps that are so difficult on UV for general audiences that this might have to be a lower priority, but it makes sense to think about them at some point. 

Edited August 4, 2021 by rd. : formatting stuff

[P41R47]

21 minutes ago, rd. said:

Doom 2 in Spain Only: even if the comedic frame -- the names, music, etc. -- is removed and no one really gets all the references, this is still one of the best crafted D2TWID-likes, both in terms of level design and gameplay (yes even though the gameplay can be silly).  also has inventive gameplay ideas. gimmicky. pretty spicy on UV.

it makes me cry whenever i see this being brought up.

 

A good joke without the joke is still good?

 

Serious question, cause its the context designed for it and how it was made, the bootleg-y approach and all, what matters to me.

Edited August 4, 2021 by P41R47

[baja blast rd.]

not relevant to me. I have no idea what Bethesda legal will permit or not. obviously it's best if it can stay intact. the point is even if it can't, it's still a smart choice. 

 

edit: also not interested in that discussion at all 

[Chip]

How about Lunar Catastrophe? Miss Bubbles and Count651 both visit the forums from time to time, and as far as I know, it fits the requirements. it was also a cacoward runner up in 2019.

[P41R47]

1 minute ago, Chip said:

How about Lunar Catastrophe? Miss Bubbles and Count651 both visit the forums from time to time, and as far as I know, it fits the requirements. it was also a cacoward runner up in 2019.

i think this is a really good option.

It meets the criteria, a little too faithful to the source material at first but becomes really good later on, and it offer something new: different slots for the secret maps, something that can be done without problem with the DMAPINFO lump of the Doomnity port.
Miss Bubbles and Count651 really deserve their work to be aknowledged, as it is really good.

[Agent Slacker]

4 hours ago, Chip said:

How about Lunar Catastrophe? Miss Bubbles and Count651 both visit the forums from time to time, and as far as I know, it fits the requirements. it was also a cacoward runner up in 2019.

Thank you for reminding me of the name. I wanted to recommend this one as well, but it was one of those tip of my tongue situations. I tried playing it recently on the Unity port, and a level or 2 was completely busted, but I'm sure they can work something out.

[baja blast rd.]

Also just want to say, if anyone cites or refers to the Cacowards in any way when looking for ideas, it makes way more sense to treat the feature as an general Top 20, or whatever number, without making big distinctions between the tiers (and unordered, because they aren't ordered). Or even treat it as a Top 30 in the last 5 years, if you read other pages very closely and know what likely came after the runners-up. 

 

Whenever you hear a gaming outlet write about their year-end top 30 or 50 or whatever, there is no magical discontinuity between 1-10, 11-20, and 21-30, where 10 is great but 11 is suddenly not. In that same way, there is no rift between awards and runner-ups, or between runners-up and not runners-up. (I actually hate that the format implies that to many people, but I don't decide those things.) 

 

Furthermore, when you notice gaming outlets do those types of summaries -- outlets, as in multiple -- things often get quite different placements, which makes the distinction even fuzzier. 

 

Even further, when you're looking for a pretty narrow set of criteria -- like "fits the small % of notable releases that might be eligible for Unity, and works for a Unity audience" -- you have to factor in that the awards don't really optimize for your specific criteria. The awards would be different too if it was just that subset and "how well does it play when you consider many people are using a controller" and other relevant differences.  

 

On top of that, different years aren't comparable. Years got really deep after 2015.

 

So, what that all adds up to is ideas like "This was a [2011] Cacoward therefore interested. This wasn't a [2018] runner-up therefore skeptical," are ones you want to avoid. It's more reliable to zoom in on your own opinions and go to bat for them. I'd trust what is reliably suggested by a group of newer or less-frequent players as much as what is suggested by experienced players anyway. 

 

(This is not in response to a specific post, just things I've seen in other posts and on Twitter, or "curate all the Cacowards [that you can]" type things.)

[Chip]

On 8/4/2021 at 6:15 PM, rd. said:

dunno if single maps are ever gonna be a thing

If they did release single maps, I would imagine they released it in a pack of several different maps put together in the same way the Master Levels were put together. Like, you can play a master level, then when completed, it brought you to a menu where you could choose another map where you could only pistol start. 

[P41R47]

Thats an interesting idea.
There are ton of great one hell of a map out there.
Breach and Brigandine come to mind being both limit removing.

The Given also, but i doubt the puzzle approach of it would be liked by the new doom fans.

 

MUTABOR ir perfect for this, as it also uses a dehacked patch for some gameplay modifications.

And its completely vanilla.

Edited August 6, 2021 by P41R47

[ChopBlock223]

Nihility would be DAMN cool, being one of the best .wads ever made, but one wonders about a few things.

 

It uses a lot of Alpha and Beta assets, is that a problem for this port? It has a custom monster with that Doom 3 style wraith thing, are the authors for those assets still around to be asked, if not, is there any simple way to substitute them?

The .wad uses ambient sounds instead of music, though these would be trivial to substitute if needed, one wonders if that approach is too unconventional for iD today.

 

It's an absolute treasure, a must play, and I'm still waiting for the followup to it, but would it qualify?

[NiGHTMARE]

Nihility uses sound effects from Blood and Serious Sam, so those would definitely need to be replaced. It also uses sound effects from Quake and Doom 3, but they may be okay due to also being ID games.

 

No End in Sight also uses alpha resources, so there shouldn't be any issues in that department.

[Chip]

Is Years still active? She hasn't visited since April 2020 ^{(Coincidentally at the same time that I joined, maybe I am the reason for her inactivity)}. 

[P41R47]

Thats why she is called Years.

She flew fast while passing by without us ever realizing.

Jokes aside, Nihility by Years is a great candidate for this.
But as Nick said, there are a few other games resources used here.

Alpha Accident by Wraith is also a great candidate and has less problems as is just edits of alpha resources and iwad resources.
And there are just a few midis from forum regulars, mostly.

 

Heck, also Gods & Guardians by Wraith, a set of DTWID outtakes that play really good and are awesome looking.

Gods & Guardians is one set i would had instantly added as official if it was my job.
Great little mapset by a lone mapper.

Edited August 22, 2021 by P41R47

[Chip]

Does anybody know if there are any other Vanilla Total Conversions that don't inflict on copyright other than REKKR?

[Noiser]

3 hours ago, Chip said:

Does anybody know if there are any other Vanilla Total Conversions that don't inflict on copyright other than REKKR?

Harmony is almost vanilla compatible, except for the hi-def sprites and music. The music could be replaced with the Jimmy version, but the sprites would need to be recreated on 320x200.

[Faceman2000]

5 hours ago, Noiser said:

Harmony is almost vanilla compatible, except for the hi-def sprites and music. The music could be replaced with the Jimmy version, but the sprites would need to be recreated on 320x200.

A lot of images I’ve seen seem to really on ZDoom features such as floor over floor - if that’s not the case I’m not sure how the moving train or this tree were achieved.