Realm of Chaos: 25th Anniversary Edition - RC2 RELEASED! (vanilla classic megawad)

[Insaneprophet]

Quick bug report possibly. On map 20 if you take the west side teleporters there is an area with pedestals over a slime pit. On lzdoom the switch down in the slime doesnt work on any of the comp lvls.

And also... I cant figure anything about either secret.

Spoiler

On the east side teleporters there is a spot up top, between 2 windows, that shows up funny on the auto map but I cant see how that helps me get the armor. And the soulsphere in the west teleporters is beyond me. 😃

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by Insaneprophet

[Roofi]

Here are my videos of Map 16 to 20, with secret maps.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

The wad gets considerably spicier and I really like the unexpected slaughter-lite tone of some combats. Map 18 and 19 became my favourite maps in the anniversary edition now , even if I had to play them on HTNR because of their size and high monster count. Map 31 is also an highlight, it has the ability to radiate such serenity when there's lava everywhere.

 

Now here are my remarks and bugs I found :

 

- In map 31, you can permanently lock some rooms if you press the switch that close the door and quickly get out of the room. Check at 12:41 and 12:52 for exemples.

 

- My video of map 19 ended with a crash, probably because of a VPO regarding to the extreme openess of the boat's area. DOSBOX crashed at the same time, so it didn't explain why the game crashed. Excuse my laziness, but I didn't feel like starting the whole level again. I was near the end anyway.

 

- spotted some tutti-fruttis on the steps surrounding the yellow key in map 20.

 

- The last fight in map 20 is.... really hard. It's not a reproach, but I'd like to point out the difficulty spike of this place. Nevertheless, I haven't played the two previous UV maps. I tried without success to reach the soulsphere's and blue armor's secret. 

 

 

[Cammy]

On account of this unexpected development (thank you, dobu!), here's release candidate almost 2 but not quite! It's an updated version of the wad with fixes and adjustments to maps 1-19, 31, and 32 - hopefully the final versions of these maps. I haven't gotten to map20 and onwards yet. This zip download includes a changelog with the wad, so you can read up on the adjustments I made there.

 

@Insaneprophet I'm so, so happy that you enjoyed the wad this much. I wasn't expecting such a passionate response from pretty much anybody except for maybe the original dev team. Thanks for enjoying it so much, and for your suggestions and reports. I really appreciate it. :)

 

And thanks again, @Roofi, for your playthrough! I can't stress enough what a fantastic source it's been.

[apichatpong]

I was going to say that I enjoy (a lot !) my ride through this wad on hmp BUT that the red key was missing on map 08 (on hmp)... and now I discover the new Release Candidate where it's fixed !

 

So I'll just say that I fu..ingly enjoy my ride !

[mouldy]

Map 8 red key only appears on UV

[apichatpong]

21 minutes ago, mouldy said:

Map 8 red key only appears on UV

It's fixed on the new release !

 

By the way, 2h after my last message I've played map 08 and thought I was a bit mad not remembering some parts only two hours after my first play on the old version. I checked and realized that there was some significant changes on this one, i'll have to restart the wad from map 01 to check all changes ;)

[mouldy]

4 hours ago, apichatpong said:

It's fixed on the new release !

 

Cool. The link I used was from the megawad club thread, i guess it must be an earlier version

[apichatpong]

7 hours ago, mouldy said:

The link I used was from the megawad club thread, i guess it must be an earlier version

 

Oh, you're right ! When I've found like you the red key problem I thought i'll check the megawad club thread to warn but Cammy already posted the new version... but it's not on the first post of the thread. The version linked on Dobu Gabu Marus's post is still the old one. Maybe @Cammy should contact him to change it ?

[Roofi]

And my videos of map 21 to 25 are here !

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't really have much to say about these maps, consider it good news because it means everything's going well, apart from the saves problem which you can't do anything special to fix, vanilla Doom is cruel about that. 

 

Steve Duff's maps generally belong to my favourite ones in the set even if I have to play several of them on HNTR due to save buffer overflows issues haha 

 

I'm really enjoying the slaughters-like combat found in some of the maps, for a megawad with a strong 1990s flavor. 

 

Map 21 is one of the most difficult maps in the megawad from what I played, I can't remember if the original version was just as tough. One special mention for the caco cloud which slowly invade the available space near the BFG. :)

 

 

[Celestin]

Bug in MAP09: the teleport pad in a slime pit in the south-west corner of the map doesn't work (sector 237). Sector's tag is set to 0 instead of target destination's 2, changing this solved the issue.

[Cammy]

5 hours ago, Celestin said:

Bug in MAP09: the teleport pad in a slime pit in the south-west corner of the map doesn't work (sector 237). Sector's tag is set to 0 instead of target destination's 2, changing this solved the issue.

 

Good catch! I'll fix this for RC2.

 

Speaking of which, be advised that map08's "fixes" in RC1.5 inadvertently introduced a couple new issues. It's now possible to run out of ammo and softlock yourself in the nukage room, and the yellow key fight is trivial to skip. I've also fixed those issues and will include the update in RC2.

[Rudolph]

In MAP03, I noticed what looks like a meat cleaver on the ground right before the big Pinky ambush.

 

Was this in the original map? If not, then why exactly was it added there?

 

EDIT: Unrelated, but I am most grateful to be allowed to finish MAP04 this time around! :P

Edited December 5, 2023 by Rudolph

[Cammy]

42 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

In MAP03, I noticed what looks like a meat cleaver on the ground right before the big Pinky ambush.

 

Was this in the original map? If not, then why exactly was it added there?

 

That entire area wasn't in the original map - it's an expansion on a tiny, underwhelming sewer room in the '96 version. The meat cleaver isn't a new addition to the wad, though - it was used for decoration in '96, too! I believe the sprite is taken from Heretic or Hexen, but I admittedly haven't played either of them, so I could be wrong.

 

I love that little cleaver. I hadn't seen any other wad use it when I first played RoC, and I think it fits right in with Doom's vanilla selection of bloody piles. Since it was included in the original wad, I wanted to make the most of it - expect more cleavers in the future maps!

[plums]

That cleaver is indeed from Hexen, though it's been edited a bit from the original:

 

 

Also, just a heads up that RC1.5 is missing the dehacked present in RC1. Since the wad is supposed to be vanilla-compatible you should still include it in the archive as a separate file, so people playing in vanilla/chocolate can use it.

Edited December 5, 2023 by plums

[mouldy]

map 31 yellow key doesnt appear on HMP

[Roofi]

And here are the videos for the last segment (map 26 to map 30) :

 

Spoiler

 

 

As map 04, map 26 is one of the fews maps I hoped it was deeply reworked as it's one of the worst maps in the set to me due to the copy-pasted rooms, the medkits you are forced to step on or the monsters located at the bottom which can prevent you from crossing the small gaps. I really hated that map in both versions.

 

Map 28 is weird too and excessively cramped at some places. I spotted some stuck monsters (look at 6:17 of the video)

 

I really appreciate the redesign of map 29 and the fact that it can now be finished in uv-max. The cavernous scenery is both grandiose and disturbing.

 

Map 30 was surprisingly easy, which is why I really liked it in the end. I'll never complain about an easy IOS battle!

 

 

Finally, a short list of my favorite maps in the anniversary version: Map 12, Map 31, Map 14, Map 15, Map 18, Map 19, Map 29

 

 

[mouldy]

map 20 switch in nukage pit doesn't work (tag 34)

[SiFi270]

MISFA0 looks like it might have been saved at the wrong size or something. This screenshot was taken without any cosmetic mods like Revenant100's sprite fixes loaded.

[plums]

3 hours ago, SiFi270 said:

MISFA0 looks like it might have been saved at the wrong size or something. This screenshot was taken without any cosmetic mods like Revenant100's sprite fixes loaded.

It's a weird problem with how Doom draws the rocket launcher firing - all flash frames are drawn in front of MISGB0, but MISFA0 was drawn for MISGA0. It looks the same in Chocolate with no mods loaded.

See @Da Werecat 's post here: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/1320026

 

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by plums

[SiFi270]

Ah. I really should have compared it to both the fixed version and the original instead of just the fixed version.

[Devalaous]

Another small offering for @Cammy if he wants to add it to the full release, here is a small patch for the original RoC that could go in a bonus folder with RoC25; its the RC 1.5 music and xINFO patches for RoC25 backported to the original, with a COMPLVL lump that enforces Vanilla in DSDA/Woof and a ZMAPINFO that enforce-disables MBF21 (Thanks @brick). Eternity still cant get past the evil vine in Map 4, because I cant seem to disable MBF21 for that port, but DSDA, Woof and the final version of PrBoom plus could all get past that spot.

 

Music changes from RC 1.5 onwards will need to be backported, and cosmetic sprite changes from RoC25 could also potentially be added to this, but as is, the original can now be played a little bit smoother and with those great new tunes. Perfect for side-by-side map comparisons.

 

 

[Cammy]

@Devalaous Thank you so much for this! I'll be sure to include it in the final release. I owe you. :)

 

On that note, now that the DWMC thread on this megawad is complete, I have a lot of new reports to work with, and a lot of ideas to put to paper. I'm not sure exactly when RC2 will be out, but the fixes and adjustments will be fairly substantial. Thank you all so much, and happy new year!

[Steve D]

Wow, @Devalaous, that is so awesome. Thanks a ton!

[NightFright]

Widescreen statusbar spawned.

 

roc25_uwide.zip

[Devalaous]

I noticed in the 2013 megawad club playthrough that Steve D mentioned Map 6 was originally a different map that was cut and that he might still have it *somewhere* on an old build of the megawad, that'd be a neat Map 33. *A Cammy groans in the distance at another map to remaster*

 

Been playing the original with the patch I made to make sure its not busted somewhere, and the new music really breathes life into the old maps. Thats TWO bad Sewers maps that Cammy has made bearable with good tunes! Up to Map 7 now, and Steve's Map 6 was pretty damn good for its time, the highlight so far. I'll be looking forward to playing the new versions for sure!

 

[Cammy]

On 1/4/2024 at 11:20 AM, NightFright said:

Widescreen statusbar spawned.

 

Sick, thank you so much! :D

 

1 hour ago, Devalaous said:

I noticed in the 2013 megawad club playthrough that Steve D mentioned Map 6 was originally a different map that was cut and that he might still have it *somewhere* on an old build of the megawad, that'd be a neat Map 33. *A Cammy groans in the distance at another map to remaster*

 

Hell, if @Steve D is able to find it, I'd do it. Might as well, right?

 

I actually planned to give this megawad a map33 on two separate occasions! The first one was going to be just a plain ol' new map from me, snuck in under everyone's noses. I got about as far as drawing a big building shaped like an inverted cross - with the plan that you would make your way through the short end of the cross in the beginning of the map and then be funneled back through the newly-opened long part of the cross in the latter half. I then realized I had no idea how to make a map at the time, and it was promptly scrapped.

 

The second one - which I was hotly contemplating not even a week before RC1's release - was going to be a Go 4 It-style mishmash of all the maps Jason Fowler created for the game Avara, recreated in the Doom engine and twisted together. That one didn't materialize either, mostly because I just wanted to be done with the megawad by that point and making such a complex map would have pushed release back quite a bit.

[Rudolph]

2 minutes ago, Cammy said:

game Avara

I did not know what that was, so I had to look it up. Do you think you can made good Doom maps out of that game's level design?

[Cammy]

36 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

I did not know what that was, so I had to look it up. Do you think you can made good Doom maps out of that game's level design?

 

If you're really, really transformative with them, maybe! Avara's engine and gameplay are both wildly different from Doom's, and I'm no Iikka Keranen, so it would be less of an engine-twistingly faithful recreation of another game's experience, and more of a "hey look at these familiar shapes" type of deal. As you can imagine, this tangentiality was another reason the idea didn't make it.

[Steve D]

On 1/5/2024 at 6:01 PM, Devalaous said:

I noticed in the 2013 megawad club playthrough that Steve D mentioned Map 6 was originally a different map that was cut and that he might still have it *somewhere* on an old build of the megawad, that'd be a neat Map 33. *A Cammy groans in the distance at another map to remaster*

 

I hate to say it, but don't hold your breath.

 

If I have Slava's original Map06 at all, it's on one of 2 old SCSI drives from the Power Computing PowerWave 604/132 -- a PowerMac 9500 clone -- that I used for most of my Doom designing back in the day. Years ago, after my PowerWave died, I bought first a PowerMac 8500 and then a PowerMac 9500 in the hope that I could just put the PowerWave HD into it. I even had it professionally installed into the 9500 at a Mac store, and it didn't work. This could indicate a problem with the drive, or the ancient video card. Also, I have 2 drives, one with Mac OS 7.5.3 -- which would have the Doom material -- and the other with OS 8.1, but I don't know which is which. ;D

 

Lately, I've been thinking that the best idea is to get a SCSI-USB adapter and a Mac emulator, since that would free me from the unreliability of ancient hardware, but I'd need to make sure I could get an adapter with the correct pin count and termination. And for the emulator I'd need some flashed Mac ROMs. Either way I go, I figure I'm likely to spend around $150. I do plan to get it done sometime this year, tho, so don't give up hope!

[NightFright]

Here is a collection of fixed sprites. Mostly it takes care of HUD weapons to align them according to the "Minor Sprite Fixes" project, but in some cases it also fixes glitches such as the partially transparent automap pickup and two STCFN letters having red leftover pixels ("D" and "F"). Also adds green crosses for the health/Berserker pickups (Unity port style), mostly because I think it looks cool.

 

roc25_spritefix.zip