[NOW ON /IDGAMES/] TNT Goes Boom! - 32 Map Vanilla TNT Evilution Replacement

[The_SloVinator]

!! (not related to Boom source port) !!

 

30/10/2023 EDIT: Now on /idgames! https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/megawads/tntgb Many thanks to all of you!

 

12/10/2023 EDIT: Release candidate 2 is up! Link updated below!

According to the feedback, I've fixed a lot of issues such as soft-locks, missing textures, hiding action linedefs shown with computer map picked up & other small stuff.

 

TNT Goes Boom! is finally finished!

 

Three & a half years ago, I decided to challenge myself to see how far will I make it into this enormous project all by myself using TNT Evilution aesthetics for each map. The journey was something. There were ups & downs, folks who reached out to me to voluntarily contribute which I couldn't be more thankful for, useful criticism were provided, which I'm also very thankful for & many lessons were learned, especially with the vanilla limitations that I had to overcome in some way or another.

 

Well, here I am, with a full 32-map megawad, releasing it for you guys to play & enjoy. Of course, this is release candidate 1 so if you plan to try this & if you find any bugs along the way, feel free to report it to me, so I can fix it before it will be uploaded to idgames & other places! I already playtested it tirelessly but you never know, perhaps I did miss a bug or two.

 

Needless to say the process was enjoyable & I believe that's the most important thing about the projects. Hopefully, both TNT fans & not-so-fans can enjoy this wad & regardless if you do or not, I thank you members for at least trying it out.

 

As always, any feedback is appreciated!

 

New stuff:

- Final episode, obviously.

-- Difficulty implemented, pistol start playtested, automap cleaned & more!

- BOSSBACK, CREDIT graphics & DEMOS were added.

- Some fixes & balancing in the previous episodes.

- Wide hud support by @NightFright (separate wad file in the zip)

 

WAD Info:

- Name: TNT Goes Boom!

- IWAD: TNT.wad

- Maps: #32

- Difficulty selection: Yes

- Source port: Chocolate Doom & above

- Pistol start: Yes (hopefully balanced)

- Dehacked: Yes, map names only.

- Custom textures/music: One custom texture only. Music is not changed.

- Third party contributions: P41R47 -> HUD & TITLEPIC

                                        NightFright -> Wide Hud

 

TNT Goes Boom! V2.zip

 

 

Screenies: (taken in Chocolate Doom 3.0.1.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2023 by The_SloVinator

[Firedust]

Woo, congrats on the release!

 

It takes a huge amount of sheer will and dedication to finish a full megawad! Will boot this up tonight :3

[DreadWanderer]

I played the first three episodes a few months ago and really liked how the experience is tighter and more focused than the original TNT. I'm glad to see this project is still alive and kicking! Really tempted to do a UV-max playthrough but I think I'll wait for it to be up on idgames. For now, picked up from where I left off, finishing 'Unholy Academy'. Very nice!

[Batakanta]

Truly causes TNT to go Boom

[Firedust]

Okay I definitely didn't expect you to take the OG's theme from every level and put your own twist on it! Beat the first few maps and they were good! Admittedly, this is certainly harder than TNT Evilution. Hopefully no missing keys in map 31 :p

[Firedust]

Sorry for another bump! Up to map 12 right now and I want to say that you did a stellar job integrating classic TNT motifs into the maps - I can tell where each level took an inspiration from (well, duh, they are actually in the same order as the OG's, even the slightly reworked map names should be a clear sign) - all while improving gameplay on every level. If the OG's level was good enough, you just ramp up the difficulty. If it was dull, then you make it super fun (I absolutely adored dig site and the warehouse level!). Looking forward to blasting through the rest!

 

Fans of TNT do NOT want to sit this one out.

[The_SloVinator]

Thank you all for the kind responses!

 

Now, if everything goes according to plan & if nobody finds anything to fix or change, I'll probably release it on Idgames this Sunday. Or perhaps, in the middle of next week if Sunday won't be a viable option. Moddb release will follow as well.

[Firedust]

1 hour ago, The_SloVinator said:

Thank you all for the kind responses!

 

Now, if everything goes according to plan & if nobody finds anything to fix or change, I'll probably release it on Idgames this Sunday. Or perhaps, in the middle of next week if Sunday won't be a viable option. Moddb release will follow as well.

If you're willing to wait a tad more, I'll play through the entire thing within 9-10 days -ish. I uv max every map so at least you'll know whether they are all 100% able or not.

[Somniac]

As a proud TNT Apologist I can safely say this WAD is quality, having played E1 previously a while back. I was just wondering which megawad to sink my teeth into next, so I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of it!

[kaleb.]

found a missing upper texture here on map02. im liking what im playing so far!

 

[The_SloVinator]

6 hours ago, Firedust said:

If you're willing to wait a tad more, I'll play through the entire thing within 9-10 days -ish. I uv max every map so at least you'll know whether they are all 100% able or not.

Sure! There is no rush to release this, so feel free!

 

2 hours ago, kaleb. said:

found a missing upper texture here on map02. im liking what im playing so far!

 

 

Good find! Thanks.

[Lila Feuer]

A plain ol' TNT replacement is a very rare sight. I am not the biggest fan of the IWAD nowadays but that doesn't mean I won't try stuff designed with it and I love its texture set and themes as well as the music, it is strangely more nostalgic than the original games, maybe due in part to being a very early example of custom content in an official release.

[Firedust]

Beat this today! You did a fantastic job ironing out the flaws of the OG without detracting too much from its design philosophy. All maps play better, and conversely to Evilution, the megawad only gets with each episode. Thanks a ton for releasing this!

 

Btw I have zero bugs to report, managed to uv max every map :3

EDIT: Also just a tiny piece of advice from me - consider putting [TNT megawad] [32 maps] in the topic to gain more traction.

Edited October 5, 2023 by Firedust

[The_SloVinator]

1 hour ago, Firedust said:

Beat this today! You did a fantastic job ironing out the flaws of the OG without detracting too much from its design philosophy. All maps play better, and conversely to Evilution, the megawad only gets with each episode. Thanks a ton for releasing this!

 

Btw I have zero bugs to report, managed to uv max every map :3

Many thanks! I'll go back to my original plan to release this on idgames & such. We'll see!

 

1 hour ago, Firedust said:

EDIT: Also just a tiny piece of advice from me - consider putting [TNT megawad] [32 maps] in the topic to gain more traction.

On the title of this thread?

 

[Firedust]

6 minutes ago, The_SloVinator said:

On the title of this thread?

Yep.

[OpenRift]

On 10/1/2023 at 2:27 PM, Batakanta said:

Truly causes TNT to go Boom

Real

[OpenRift]

Glad this got released! Always love seeing stuff made for the Final Doom WADs.

 

 

 

 

Also 0/10 because it's not in Boom format >:(

[elden4]

I've been waiting for this , thanks !

[The_SloVinator]

Now, I did plan on releasing this tomorrow (Sunday 8th). However, if you guys still feel the need to playtest some more or whatnot, I can delay the release a bit more.

[Kor]

Just finished playing it. I played the first 20 levels a while ago and was looking forward to the full megawad. Pretty good recreation of TNT. As a plus, I enjoyed the recreations of what I consider to be the worst levels in the game.

[MEMEAIDS]

Always been a TNT fan/stan/"apologist"(?), whatever label could be most accurately applied to unironic TNT enjoyers - since before I even entered the community and only just played the games.

Definitely going to give this a look-see. 
First time being outwardly EXCITED to play a mapset, in a long time!

[galileo31dos01]

17 hours ago, The_SloVinator said:

Now, I did plan on releasing this tomorrow (Sunday 8th). However, if you guys still feel the need to playtest some more or whatnot, I can delay the release a bit more.

 

Would support the idea of pushing an idgames release a tiny bit more, since I'm finding a few several softlocks along the way, some less apparent than others, which I'll list when I get to finnish this (which is going pretty well, this is a very fun mapset for me).

[The_SloVinator]

3 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

 

Would support the idea of pushing an idgames release a tiny bit more, since I'm finding a few several softlocks along the way, some less apparent than others, which I'll list when I get to finnish this (which is going pretty well, this is a very fun mapset for me).

Interesting. If you don't mind posting screencaps, I'll gladly fix them!

Edited October 8, 2023 by The_SloVinator

[Biodegradable]

Congratulations on your first RC for this project, SloV mate. Feel free to give yourself a bit of a break before you go about tightening the bolts and touching up the paint. You've earned it. ;^)

[The_SloVinator]

3 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

Congratulations on your first RC for this project, SloV mate. Feel free to give yourself a bit of a break before you go about tightening the bolts and touching up the paint. You've earned it. ;^)

Oh, it's such a relief that everything is pretty much done besides fixing stuff. Feels great.

And thank you!

[galileo31dos01]

17 hours ago, The_SloVinator said:

Interesting. If you don't mind posting screencaps, I'll gladly fix them!

 

Sure!
 

Spoiler

 

04

- It's possible to get locked in the secret that is sector 122. Found this by pure chance.

 

08

- Similar in secret sector 195 if you don't leave the lift in time. 

 

10

- Not an issue though some helmets in the western BK bars part appeared floating. You can still pick them up anyways.

 

19

- Super irrelevant: sectors 275, 276 are visible in the map, and might or might not be confused with a possible secret, unless you already found them all. Only reason I bring this up is because I embrace those who do automap cleanup :P

 

21

- It's possible to yoink the backpack in secret sector 85 from the other side of the window. Not sure if intentional or not, since you'd still need to enter the room to grab the other goodies. 

- I got locked in the secret sector 97 as the wall closed behind me. Considering that it's a somewhat tight timed run you have to do before it shuts down, this one has some higher potential to lock more players in than the other softlocks mentioned.

 

26

- There is a super skinny slime trail here. This is vertex 15.

- I was gonna suggest using sp_rock2 to hint at the secret in sector 203, cause I totally missed it even after a full minute of wall-humping/punching (still quite likely to miss fake walls this way actually) and it's also hidden in the map... but then that variant is only in doom 1 lmao. But I suppose something like raising the front side would show a slight hint for the observant. Up to you. 

 

28

- Lines 376 and 380 are missing textures on the upper back side.

- For some reason I got these visual glitches after the room switched back to high brightness, although the same room is only linked to a turn to darkest adjacent, but upon returning it was bright again, so, idk. It doesn't affect gameplay or progression at all. 

 

 

[Vile]

Good catches by @galileo31dos01, I recall running into one of those map21 soft-locks in my own playthrough.

 

I suppose I should share one observation, the only secret I could recall not being reachable:

 

Spoiler

In map02, is the backpack secret reachable?  The sector tagged 13 is supposed to rise up and allow the player to jump over and hit a switch in that area, which raises the sector tagged 18 so the player can reach the backpack secret, but tag 13 doesn't seem to have an activating line anywhere.

 

Overall, I quite enjoyed this wad.  It gave me heavy nostalgia despite never having played it and I thought many of the maps in this wad surpassed their original counterparts, but the ones that (I thought) didn't were still interesting in their own right.  I think TNT enjoyers should definitely give this a try.

[galileo31dos01]

40 minutes ago, Vile said:

the only secret I could recall not being reachable:

 

It is reachable actually:

 

Spoiler

You gotta shoot the wall that is behind a blue torch, that is also nearby the blue key skull. That wall is tag 13 (in UDB, if you hover the pointer on the trigger line, the arrow links to the control sector instead of the little platform.. it's more helpful to find tagged stuff using "Find and Replace Mode").

 

[The_SloVinator]

17 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

 

Sure!
 

  Hide contents

 

04

- It's possible to get locked in the secret that is sector 122. Found this by pure chance.

 

08

- Similar in secret sector 195 if you don't leave the lift in time. 

 

10

- Not an issue though some helmets in the western BK bars part appeared floating. You can still pick them up anyways.

 

19

- Super irrelevant: sectors 275, 276 are visible in the map, and might or might not be confused with a possible secret, unless you already found them all. Only reason I bring this up is because I embrace those who do automap cleanup :P

 

21

- It's possible to yoink the backpack in secret sector 85 from the other side of the window. Not sure if intentional or not, since you'd still need to enter the room to grab the other goodies. 

- I got locked in the secret sector 97 as the wall closed behind me. Considering that it's a somewhat tight timed run you have to do before it shuts down, this one has some higher potential to lock more players in than the other softlocks mentioned.

 

26

- There is a super skinny slime trail here. This is vertex 15.

- I was gonna suggest using sp_rock2 to hint at the secret in sector 203, cause I totally missed it even after a full minute of wall-humping/punching (still quite likely to miss fake walls this way actually) and it's also hidden in the map... but then that variant is only in doom 1 lmao. But I suppose something like raising the front side would show a slight hint for the observant. Up to you. 

 

28

- Lines 376 and 380 are missing textures on the upper back side.

- For some reason I got these visual glitches after the room switched back to high brightness, although the same room is only linked to a turn to darkest adjacent, but upon returning it was bright again, so, idk. It doesn't affect gameplay or progression at all. 

 

 

 

Many thanks for finding these issues & notifying me. I have no idea how I missed these but you're a life saver.

Now as for the visual glitches, I'm not sure what's causing that. I've not seen that in my testing sessions at all (Chocolate Doom 3.0.1.) & yea, the room turns dark permanently. Did you return to that area not long after you left it or was it much later by any chance? I checked if any nearby sector effects could be the culprit but I don't think that could be the reason.

 

15 hours ago, Vile said:

Good catches by @galileo31dos01, I recall running into one of those map21 soft-locks in my own playthrough.

 

I suppose I should share one observation, the only secret I could recall not being reachable:

 

  Hide contents

In map02, is the backpack secret reachable?  The sector tagged 13 is supposed to rise up and allow the player to jump over and hit a switch in that area, which raises the sector tagged 18 so the player can reach the backpack secret, but tag 13 doesn't seem to have an activating line anywhere.

 

Overall, I quite enjoyed this wad.  It gave me heavy nostalgia despite never having played it and I thought many of the maps in this wad surpassed their original counterparts, but the ones that (I thought) didn't were still interesting in their own right.  I think TNT enjoyers should definitely give this a try.

Thank you. Yea, as galileo said, you have to shoot the blue torch wall for the platform to raise.

[galileo31dos01]

6 hours ago, The_SloVinator said:

Did you return to that area not long after you left it or was it much later by any chance?

 

Yes, some time much later, at least twice I'm sure. It isn't the first time I find weird massive visual glitches nearby sectors affected by light specials, though I never paid proper attention to such cases to pinpoint what exactly causes those and I certainly failed at trying to reproduce this case again just minutes ago. Yeah I see no other light actions in your map, no other lines sharing tags with the special one, nothing particularly odd related to all sectors around... who knows

 

But while inspecting I found a thing I forgot to mention before: this door in map 28 seems to have been victim of the autoalign feature :p