[/idgames] Arrokoth - vanilla compatible Ultimate Doom episode

[Somniac]

 

Far from the sun, in the frozen expanse of the outer Solar System, the UAC conducts clandestine research on an ancient, icy planetoid. Something goes wrong. As the only survivor, you must escape. Your best chance of escape is to reach the shuttle bay, and pray that there's a ship there. If that fails, you'll have no choice but to go deeper into the facility and discover just what the UAC has been doing with its "research". 

 

A while ago I started working on some vanilla Ultimate Doom maps with a view to blend Scythe-like scale with more intense combat than KDITD, with a darker atmosphere like Doom 64 or Doom3. At the time I had been playing a lot of older Ultimate Doom WADs (Fava Beans, Classic Episode, CH Retro, stuff like that) and I wanted to do my own take on the E1 style with more of a dark sci-fi atmosphere within vanilla limits, using exclusively gloomy MIDIs to accomplish this.
 

This isn't an overt E1 remake, but there is a definite influence in places. Indeed, its been called KDITD's "evil sibling". Why Ultimate Doom? I felt like challenging myself with the limited textures and enemies, and it felt like a natural fit for the concept. Plus, Ultimate Doom WADs are cool, right? The end result probably sits around E2/E3 in difficulty, and while the maps do get slightly bigger they stay fairly compact throughout. This is a WAD for people who want a fairly easygoing and classic Doom experience, with more modern design and a focus on atmosphere. Software renderer is recommended for ports.

 

Screenshots:

 

More screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

Map Format: Vanilla

Ports Tested: doom.exe, Choco, Chocorenderlimits

Replaces: Ultimate Doom E1M1-E1M9

Music: Yes

Difficulty Settings: Yes (UV recommended, HMP is pretty similar)

Build Time: around 3.5 months

Textures: New sky (from Scythe X), some void textures, a slightly janky status bar

Thanks to @DreadWanderer for the UMAPINFO fixes + help with issues affecting DSDA-Doom

Widescreen status bar by @NightFright

 

Map/MIDI list:

Spoiler

E1M1 - Service Entrance - MIDI by Snaxolotl 

E1M2 - Waste Extraction - MIDI from TNT: Evilution

E1M3 - Supply Station - MIDI by Snaxolotl 

E1M4 - Shuttle Bay - MIDI by Jared Boyce

E1M5 - Arrokoth Labs - MIDI by Lee Jackson

E1M6 - Fearful Symmetry - MIDI from Hexen

E1M7 - Reactor Substation - MIDI by Lee Jackson

E1M8 - Central Core - MIDI unchanged

E1M9 - Subspace Transceiver - Music from Doom

Intermission music - Paul Corfiatis

 

Known bugs/ notes:

Spoiler

 

• There are some VPOs present, but these occur outside the playable space. Noclipping will probably crash the game in a few areas in vanilla. There is one potential VPO in the playable space of E1M9, I blocked it with a decoration so hopefully you should be good if playing in vanilla/Chocolate.

 

 

DOWNLOAD

 

Making this WAD has been an experience for sure. I set myself a goal and saw it through, and its been a rewarding process in spite of a few frustrations along the way. All the same, I'm proud of this and I hope you enjoy playing it! 

Edited July 10, 2023 by Somniac : Updated version on /idgames

[Endless]

Oh I love the concept of this! Arrokoth is one of my favorite things in the universe, such a strange and fascinating object that's just floating around aimlessly across the outer reaches of our solar system. Great idea to make a WAD set here.

 

[Fernito]

I played the first 2 levels, these maps are great! :) Super atmospheric and creepy, the layouts are intricate and interesting and you make an excellent use of lighting. Very good stuff!

 

Thanks for sharing this, I'll definitely continue playing it! Is it useful if I record my playthroughs?

 

PS: found 2 small visual bugs 

Spoiler

 

This lift has lower unpegged on:

Lower unpegged missing in window

 

[RED77]

that's a pretty great set of maps

[Somniac]

3 hours ago, Endless said:

Oh I love the concept of this! Arrokoth is one of my favorite things in the universe, such a strange and fascinating object that's just floating around aimlessly across the outer reaches of our solar system. Great idea to make a WAD set here.

 

It makes a cool setting for an E1 replacement, its like Phobos but colder :p really lends itself to the scary vibes. Hope you enjoy the maps!

 

2 hours ago, Fernito said:

I played the first 2 levels, these maps are great! :) Super atmospheric and creepy, the layouts are intricate and interesting and you make an excellent use of lighting. Very good stuff!

 

Thanks for sharing this, I'll definitely continue playing it! Is it useful if I record my playthroughs?

 

PS: found 2 small visual bugs 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

This lift has lower unpegged on:

Lower unpegged missing in window

 

 

Thanks so much! I feel like I've gotten much better at layouts making these. If you don't mind recording them, that'd be really helpful! Thanks for pointing out those bugs too, I'll make sure to fix them in the next update.

 

2 hours ago, RED77 said:

that's a pretty great set of maps

 

Thank you, glad you're enjoying them!

[OpenRift]

23 hours ago, Endless said:

Oh I love the concept of this! Arrokoth is one of my favorite things in the universe, such a strange and fascinating object that's just floating around aimlessly across the outer reaches of our solar system. Great idea to make a WAD set here.

 

Oooooooh! I do love when Doom WADs take place on other planets/moons/asteroids in the solar system, it feels like a proper extension of the classic Doom universe and the scale of the UAC's interplanetary reach. More stuff like this, please!

Edited April 6, 2023 by OpenRift

[KneeDeepintheSludgemetal]

2 hours ago, OpenRift said:

Oooooooh! I do love when Doom WADs take place on other planets in the solar system, it feels like a proper extension of the classic Doom universe and the scale of the UAC's interplanetary reach. More stuff like this, please!

 

Omg all I want is a three episode or full megawad of Doom levels set on different asteroids/dwarf planets. 

[Biodegradable]

That status bar... I want it.

[OneMagpie]

I really really loved it, the atmosphere is incredible and I can't wait for the full release!

[Somniac]

On 4/6/2023 at 8:19 AM, Biodegradable said:

That status bar... I want it.

 

I couldn't get it quite as neat and tidy as I hoped (few stray pixels that wouldn't let me change them without wrecking the whole thing) but it came out fairly well regardless :p 

 

16 hours ago, OneMagpie said:

I really really loved it, the atmosphere is incredible and I can't wait for the full release!

 

Awesome, glad to hear it!

[taufan99]

A vanilla E1 replacement? Don't mind if I do!

Can't wait for a finished version, I'm gonna have fun with this.

[Midway64]

Seems interesting... Will give it a download and try it out later.

Last second edit: I always love it when an interesting Doom I WAD is released.

[Fernito]

Here's my playthrough of e1m3. The atmosphere in this wad is amazing, this episode feels and plays like an evil sibling of "Knee-deep in the dead". I'm loving it so far! :)

 

 

[Somniac]

Thanks so much for the feedback so far! @Fernito nice playthrough, appreciate it! I noticed a misaligned texture in the crate area so that was really helpful.

 

E1M6 has been added, it was near enough done so I figured I might as well, OP has been updated w/ the latest version. Other changes:

 

- fixed misaligned textures in E1M2

- fixed a potential VPO in E1M3 after the pillars open in the last room

 

Not sure if the next update will include more than one map, I made the bulk of this in a big spurt of mapping so I'm kind of playing it by ear for now, but we'll see :)

[Doomkid]

This looks badass, directly up my alley based on the description and screenshots. Added to my infinity-long playlist!

[Rudolph]

18 hours ago, Doomkid said:

Added to my infinity-long playlist!

So relatable! :P

 

No Rest For The Playing.

[Somniac]

Tiny update:

 

I removed the secret exit line from E1M5, I put it in the wrong map in the first place (whoops hehe) so it will just break the flow atm.

It still needs to be rebuilt into E1M3, which I will sort out for the final release. 

 

Meanwhile the mapping continues, here's a look at the start of E1M7:

 

 

Finish line getting slowly nearer! I predict I will mildly overshoot my target of the end of the month, though :p

[Insaneprophet]

Ran through this today, literally ran, these lvls just begged for a fast care free play style. The layouts and combat flowed along perfectly. Really felt like classic Doom. Good work, I look forward to more and Thank You For Sharing This.

[Somniac]

13 hours ago, Insaneprophet said:

Ran through this today, literally ran, these lvls just begged for a fast care free play style. The layouts and combat flowed along perfectly. Really felt like classic Doom. Good work, I look forward to more and Thank You For Sharing This.

 

Thanks so much! Glad to hear it, as I'm trying to keep the gameplay fairly run & gun while still being atmospheric.

[Fernito]

E1M4 here, another excellent map! I'm loving this wad, the atmosphere is very well executed, it really makes you feel as if you were on a floating rock millions of kilometers away from everything :O

 

 

[Somniac]

Thanks @Fernito! I liked how you handled the yellow key fight, I only ever tested it by rushing it, which makes the Lost Souls much more of a threat. Looking forward to the next one!

[sandwedge]

Hey played thru this quick and have to echo what others have said about the atmosphere.  Cool setting that really ties in with the skybox, music, lighting etc.  I will say that when you mentioned scythe and being harder than kdizd I expected it to be a bit harder, especially since I figured you were just doing an episode and not a megawad, so I expected a bit of a sharper difficulty curve.  As it is, it's very easy... but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I found that the combat flows well, and some of the sparseness kinda adds to the atmosphere.  Yes there are teleport traps but I never found them actually scary, and had plenty of space to toy around with my food.  Since it felt easy I ended up playing saveless pistol start and not really getting anywhere close to dying, except near the very end when I was a bit lackadaisical and almost got cornered by specters and imps.  But all in all, it was a nice, pleasant, atmospheric romp.  It's really up to you, but I'm just saying there could be some room to ramp up more if you want, especially on UV if you implement difficulties.  If you're preparing for a larger megawad then this difficulty curve probably makes more sense to me as an episode 1 akin to the iwad.  Anywho great work, always great to see more dark, brooding doom wads, and in vanilla!

 

More specific notes:

e1m2: the progression in the acid took me a bit to find as usually that's more of a secret type area, but the player will probably eventually try that so maybe it's fine.

e1m6: I like the escalation in this map and the fireblu portals that lock off after you're done.  But the first lift out is very easy to accidentally ride up and escape, and there's no way back to kill stuff.  just depends on what you intend for this section, but might be nice to make it a bit harder to get out.

[Somniac]

Thanks for the feedback @sandwedge! You make a good point about difficulty, I was going for a more laidback E1-esque feel or something like "grimdark Fava Beans", the difficulty is probably more around the E2 ballpark really, but like you said there is room to ramp it up a bit and I can see myself tweaking things a bit more. For the E1M6 lift, I thought I'd give the player a way to bail on the first room if ammo ran out, but you're right that it can be skipped maybe a little too easily. Not too sure how I'd modify it right now, but its something for me to think about anyway! Thanks again.

[Somniac]

Still chipping away at things over here, work/life got a bit busier recently and I took a little break from this to work on some Doom II stuff, but E1M7 is progressing:

 

 

If all goes to plan I should be ready to drop the finished version in the next couple of weeks!

[slowfade]

Not going to play until the finished version drops but everything looks great, just the kind of Doom 1 stuff I love!

[Somniac]

RC1 is here! E1M7 and E1M8 are now done. E1M9 is still ongoing, but as my plan for this was pretty much always to remake one of the E1 maps as a tribute, I figured now would be the right time to go to release candidate as the main body of the episode is complete.

 

Changes:

 

- Some Playstation sound effects added

- Difficulties implemented

- Minor tweaks to existing maps

 

I'm sure there are probably one or two kinks to iron out still. Namely, the end text behaves a bit weirdly in some ports, don't think I've quite got the text formatting quite figured out yet. Otherwise, enjoy! 

[DRON12261]

9 hours ago, Somniac said:

RC1 is here! E1M7 and E1M8 are now done. E1M9 is still ongoing, but as my plan for this was pretty much always to remake one of the E1 maps as a tribute, I figured now would be the right time to go to release candidate as the main body of the episode is complete.

 

Changes:

 

- Some Playstation sound effects added

- Difficulties implemented

- Minor tweaks to existing maps

 

I'm sure there are probably one or two kinks to iron out still. Namely, the end text behaves a bit weirdly in some ports, don't think I've quite got the text formatting quite figured out yet. Otherwise, enjoy! 

Cool, congratulations on the pre-release! Played the first levels earlier, absolutely loved that "dark ultimate doom" style. Would love to get through the whole thing later when I have time.

[Cheshire Sphinx]

This is the first project I've played in half a decade, I think. I'm so glad I did, it totally threw me back to something from the late 90's called 'Phobos: Relive the Nightmare'. Really hit the Ultimate Doom vibe, with style and grace.

 

Thanks so much for sharing this project, I realize it took a lot of time but the love and care shows.

[Somniac]

22 hours ago, Cheshire Sphinx said:

This is the first project I've played in half a decade, I think. I'm so glad I did, it totally threw me back to something from the late 90's called 'Phobos: Relive the Nightmare'. Really hit the Ultimate Doom vibe, with style and grace.

 

Thanks so much for sharing this project, I realize it took a lot of time but the love and care shows.

 

That's awesome! I loved that one too, haven't played it in forever but I should definitely revisit it. Thanks so much for your feedback!

[Fernito]

Hey! Took me long, but here are some more playthroughs :) (I still owe you E1M8)

 

I found a couple of issues, namely:

- In E1M6, you can get softlocked in the first area if you happen to fall down the platform as it's going up.

- In E1M7, some monsters didn't teleport in.

 

E1M5

Spoiler

 

E1M6

Spoiler

 

E1M7

Spoiler

 

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Fernito : update link