Parallel Doomensions - Quake 1 Styled Community Megawad - RELEASED!

[TMMMS]

oh i missed the switch thank you

 

but why would you allow the platform to go below the floor in the first place?

 

anyway im not particularly fond of the way the map handles water especially in the large open area since doom doesnt let you swim and you cant see who is shooting at you but the enemies can see you

[galileo31dos01]

Checking this one out, I loved Dimension of the boomed so the quakey stuff may still feel familiar despite never having played Quake before. First two maps left a solid impression so far, in spite of being trolled too much by ubiquitous hitscanners. Glad to see some known quake monsters back again. 

 

One minor suggestion I wanna point out for map 02: one is to add door-open actions to doors that already are linked to walkover lines close to them, I keep hitting them and closing them by accident since that's how we automatically attempt to open doors, though like I said it's not that important, less so if this is how doors work in general in the wad.

 

Few miscellaneous questions:

- Arachnotron plasma bolts look blue-ish when crashing onto stuff, not sure if this intentional or a side effect of tweaking the palette for the set.

- Are revenant projectiles slower by any chance or am I just confused?

- Double-axed seems to do same damage as the ordinary chainsaw. Guess this is purely cosmetic?

- Spawns (if that's what the blue blobs were called) lack melee attack so they just glue to your body though not sure if that's on purpose. You don't want that happening with multiple around anyways. The death explosion doesn't make any sound for me, I'm on dsda-doom cl9. 

[Forli]

On 7/10/2024 at 12:55 AM, galileo31dos01 said:

- Spawns (if that's what the blue blobs were called) lack melee attack so they just glue to your body though not sure if that's on purpose. You don't want that happening with multiple around anyways. The death explosion doesn't make any sound for me, I'm on dsda-doom cl9. 

 

I'm not sure, I think this wad uses some features that were added in version 2.6 of prBoom.

 

With an older version some of the maps have incorrect names and music, and the spawns' melee attack won't connect for some reason.

[DoomGappy]

On 7/8/2024 at 10:15 AM, DoomGappy said:

A friend told me that this still looks very similar, so I made this little stimpack based on Doom's original. Dunno if it fits better, may need some adapting to be dirtier and grittier; 

 

 

PD-items.zip

[Kain D.]

On 7/10/2024 at 12:55 AM, galileo31dos01 said:

- Spawns (if that's what the blue blobs were called) lack melee attack so they just glue to your body though not sure if that's on purpose. You don't want that happening with multiple around anyways. The death explosion doesn't make any sound for me, I'm on dsda-doom cl9. 

 

18 hours ago, Forli said:

I'm not sure, I think this wad uses some features that were added in version 2.6 of prBoom.

 

With an older version some of the maps have incorrect names and music, and the spawns' melee attack won't connect for some reason.

 

Because this is MBF wad and not Boom and it requires complevel 11.

[Andromeda]

1 hour ago, Kain D. said:

Because this is MBF wad and not Boom and it requires complevel 11.

In that case the original post and the text file should be updated with that information since everywhere I looked states that this is a Boom wad.

[damned]

Well, sorry for dumb question :D How can I tell, if the wad is BooM compatible or MBF compatible? What is really the difference?
I've tested it in PrBOOM+ with UMAPINFO and DSDA, so I've expected it is enough to be sure.

Also I am not surprised :) The project have had lot of issues, people and even project leaders have coming and leaving without trace so potentially some could add some assets, that are not BooM friendly.
In fact, under those circumstances, I am happy I've been able to preserve at least the current compatibility (whatever compatibility it really is :D).

[Kain D.]

2 hours ago, damned said:

Well, sorry for dumb question :D How can I tell, if the wad is BooM compatible or MBF compatible?

This wad uses MBF codepointers in the Dehacked file, which obviously makes it MBF wad and will not work with -cl9.

 

2 hours ago, damned said:

What is really the difference?

MBF has more features, than Boom. Most visble in this wad by bouncy movement of Spawn.

 

From the perspective of this project, locked doors, that require 3 keys don't work properly in MBF (6 key doors wok fine), but on other hand it doesn't have line skipping bug.

 

2 hours ago, damned said:

I've tested it in PrBOOM+ with UMAPINFO and DSDA, so I've expected it is enough to be sure

Yeah, but with default compatibility.

 

2 hours ago, damned said:

Also I am not surprised :) The project have had lot of issues, people and even project leaders have coming and leaving without trace so potentially some could add some assets, that are not BooM friendly.
In fact, under those circumstances, I am happy I've been able to preserve at least the current compatibility (whatever compatibility it really is :D).

This is because Dimension of the Boomed is MBF wad, but labeled as Boom for some reason. Which makes it infamous in my opinion for that.

 

Parallel Doomensions uses the Dehacked file from Dimension of the Boomed.

[damned]

1 hour ago, Kain D. said:

Parallel Doomensions uses the Dehacked file from Dimension of the Boomed.

I see. Last time I've touched Dehacked is like 20 years ago so it is alien to me. When it comes directly from the main resource pack, then I cannot do much with it so lets be it. It is MBF compatible :D

Thanks for the details.

[Bob9001]

I gotta start this review off by saying, what a fantastic project this is! I fell in love with Quake in 2000 when i started playing it for the first time and now finally thanks to these wonderful people they have made a wad that replicates that first time feeling of Quake. I love the monster replacement, I love the maps. I have so many questions but ill get to them.

 

First of all: I really recommend anyone gives this a full play through because the continuity of the wad flows so good right from map 1 to map 26.

 

Secondly: I love the design of all the maps, there isn't one map i played where i actually thought 'oh what were they doing here?'.

 

Thirdly: I do wish there were 6 more maps, but i see why it's 26 maps (+ 2 secret levels).

 

Anyway, I found a one place i got stuck, so screenshot of that is attached.

 

Lastly, please tell me you are going make a sequel wad to this project?!

[damned]

Thanks. Thanks. I was able to squeeze out around the stump from the south, but it was tight, so I move it little bit north.

[Bob9001]

4 hours ago, damned said:

Thanks. Thanks. I was able to squeeze out around the stump from the south, but it was tight, so I move it little bit north.

Hehe I tried for awhile then just noclipped out.

[BoJustBo]

What torturer came up with the box jumping section on the water in map 2? The jumping physics suck in default Doom and if you fall in the water you have to take a long way around to get back up to the platforms to do it again.

[damned]

19 hours ago, BoJustBo said:

What torturer came up with the box jumping section on the water in map 2? The jumping physics suck in default Doom and if you fall in the water you have to take a long way around to get back up to the platforms to do it again.

Me and I am proud on the execution :D I know platforming in Doom doesn't really work, but it is not unusual in Quake, so I've put there one easy and short.

[damned]

On 7/11/2024 at 5:33 PM, DoomGappy said:

A friend told me that this still looks very similar, so I made this little stimpack based on Doom's original. Dunno if it fits better, may need some adapting to be dirtier and grittier; 

 

 

PD-items.zip

To be honest, I like the stimpack and medipack we have right now, because it is more Quake accurate. On the other hand, the megasphere doesn't fit the theme at all, no matter the coloring. 
I am just guessing if it would be possible to recolor the current soulsphere replacement to make it shine in golden instead of red. I believe it would fit perfectly.

[BoJustBo]

8 hours ago, damned said:

Me and I am proud on the execution :D I know platforming in Doom doesn't really work, but it is not unusual in Quake, so I've put there one easy and short.

It's not short unless you make it on the first try, I slid off like 4 times and then decided it wasn't worth even trying and used noclip instead.

It wouldn't be a problem if you could just climb back up at the start, but as you have to take a long way around to get back to the start of it, it's just annoying.

[galileo31dos01]

Hi, I finnished this already so I figured I should give here a list of various observations relating to various issues from small to potential softlocks. The set as a whole was a pretty darn good experience, a lot of different styles from action-heavy maps to linear big-scaled journeys and pure mood simulators, where the BGMs speak for themselves. I can state that a whole playthrough in complevel 9 is possible, as I could beat every map, but at the same time, without the MBF specifics some of the issues I found might have not been present in the right complevel, while also missing potential issues in that right complevel if there were any... though hopefully the list is of help anyways.

 

Spoiler

02

- Minor slime trail

 

05

- This is an interesting case. So, once I crossed over this bridge, later on the sector wouldn't lower back to the ground if I wanted to go underneath it, no matter how hard I tried. For reasons unknown I suppose, since I have just checked again on both cl 9 and 11 and I could not replicate this problem, so I've got no idea what I did before to encounter such problem. Perhaps the voodoo setup is prone to malfunction somehow?

 

06

- While not a relevant problem, it is possible to, umm, shambler-jump to this area, where you'd be in a softlock. Like I said, you don't have to do this at all, but it was funny to find out.

- Small suggestion: line 941 has a W1 lift action, I think it would better be WR since it's possible that a hell knight or two may get trapped if they happen to be on the pillars as they raise back to the ceiling.

 

07

- The imp that teleported on sector 283 was stuck.

- Sector 4310 should be a lift you can lower if you press on it (or via switch) from below, otherwise if it's raised up and you missed the only chance, you'll have a long long way back to the higher level. Or alternatively use noclip.

 

08

- All four lines of sector 1133 have W1 exit level for some reason, even though you can't realistically make any use of the triggers. 

 

09

- This is more of a suggestion if the mapper wants to take it. When you acquire the SSG, have more monsters appear -like imps, pinkies, etc- because by the time I got access to the weapon I already had plenty cells and rockets and very few enemies left to justify getting an SSG among lots of shells imo.

 

10

- Not sure if this is an aesthetic choice but, in case not, lines 2414 and 2448 have "wrong" texture so to say.

 

12

- A suggestion for the monsters in this closet: I nearly missed their existence because I didn't pass right in front of them, yet they saw me when I took the RK, but if I didn't hear a random growl I would have certainly missed them completely, so there's a few tweaks that can be done, like for example a barrier raising around sector 500 so you are obliged to meet the monsters upclose, or have them teleport away and you find them sprinkled around the cave (less effective but still more of a better idea than how they are currently).

- Maybe a switch to lower this lift? I mean, next to the exit there's a teleport that you can take to go back to previous areas (and so I could return to kill the oddly placed baron thing 54 with plasma), so it seems that backtracking was supported up to a certain extent, which is alright if that's how the mapper intended.

- There are multiple batches of misaligned textures almost everywhere but they weren't as striking as this one lol

 

15

- I noticed HOMs around here, despite the borders being textured (with ashwall2 so that may be why they aren't displayed properly in-game?)

- There is 334 with tag 10 that isn't linked to any action lines. Doesn't affect anything else of course. If it's there for a purpose, maybe I would though suggest, as an extremely minor thing, to set the lines one-sided so on the map they aren't confused with a potential secret or something hidden.

- Another observation, there are two juicy secrets super close to each other, a megasphere in one and a megaarmor in the other, and from a balance perspective giving both is overkill at that point in the map - somewhat near the exit, sparse combat left. If you find the MS first, the blue armor is rather useless (or if viceversa, the MS would still be OP unless of course you carry the boost to the next map). Perhaps the MS could be replaced with a soulsphere?

 

31

- Sooooo, would the mapper consider hiding the entire map in the automap? Currently if you toggle on the automap at any point, you get spoilers of how the rooms are constructed and where the void areas end and so on, and happens to ruin immersion (as an automap addict, I mean). Then again, you can also abstain from ever pressing the tab key lol, so this is just a suggestion for "quality".

 

32

- Minor thing, the imps trap referencing waste tunnels seemed so randomly obscured that I casually missed it through the entire map, and only found it via IDDT when I was searching for the last monsters. I mean, if that's part of the intention, then ignore this, but yeah you have to really stumble upon the trap lol. Perhaps there could be bonuses or ammo on the lift to entice players to go there and fall into the trap?

 

17

- Line 3862 is misaligned with the rest of the walls. I know there're more harmless misaligned textures in the set, these are just some I saw casually.

- Not sure if this is intentional but you can see through sector 1317. Its set with create fake wall action so maybe it is part of the design.

- So, once you enter the final exit room, the door cannot be opened from inside and thus you loose access to the rest of the map. Only pointing this out in case it wasn't intentional.

 

19

- This giant place could have had many more spawns imo. I know this map is generally low-danger, but come on, three meager spawns aren't gonna spook anyone at this point :p

- Happened to notice a few sectors outside of the map that weren't set to hidden in the automap. 

 

21

- Minor misalignment here and the opposite wall too. 

 

22

- Minor misalignment here

 

23

- These lost souls are harmless because line 868 is set impassable, is that intentional?

 

24

- So this shambler thing 107 sucks lol, I mean in order to have a "fair" time with it you have to lure it to the lifts and then you'll have cover, which proved to be tedious (it'd refuse to stay on the lift), otherwise it's not fun to fight in that little room where you can get electrified over and over, probably die since you have no armor unless it succumbs to chaingun pain chance idk. It's funny that on HMP there's an imp instead, and on HNTR a hell knight lol.

- Is it okay that the cyberdemon can get easily temporarily stuck on its lift? Maybe the lines around the lift could be impassable in case that's not intentional. I think you'd also run the risk of a telefrag fail but I can't confirm that...

 

25

- Small suggestion, to have these two cyberdemons get killed automatically after the first big fight is over, or alternatively teleport somewhere else where you can kill them manually upfront. Currently, you can technically kill each - the one near the invul secret, easily on the lava, and the other can be sniped with SG/CG from a certain angle, though the latter at least isn't a good idea.

 

26

- Another small suggestion: the timer for the exit seemed a bit, tight, as in, I was reading the credits and suddenly the map finnished. Perhaps have the map exit after doing a sequence? such as, shoot each text wall once so the voodoo then crosses the exit line.

 

- Shambler is labelled "the spider mastermind" at the end, I think it's possible to change that in the dehacked.

 

 

Thanks to the mappers for making the maps and thank you for sharing the whole package with us!

[DoomGappy]

On 7/20/2024 at 8:49 AM, damned said:

To be honest, I like the stimpack and medipack we have right now, because it is more Quake accurate. On the other hand, the megasphere doesn't fit the theme at all, no matter the coloring. 
I am just guessing if it would be possible to recolor the current soulsphere replacement to make it shine in golden instead of red. I believe it would fit perfectly.

Did you use the quake palette? I could try something but I'd need to know the correct palette. 

[damned]

6 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Hi, I finnished this already so I figured I should give here a list of various observations relating to various issues from small to potential softlocks. The set as a whole was a pretty darn good experience, a lot of different styles from action-heavy maps to linear big-scaled journeys and pure mood simulators, where the BGMs speak for themselves. I can state that a whole playthrough in complevel 9 is possible, as I could beat every map, but at the same time, without the MBF specifics some of the issues I found might have not been present in the right complevel, while also missing potential issues in that right complevel if there were any... though hopefully the list is of help anyways.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

02

- Minor slime trail

 

05

- This is an interesting case. So, once I crossed over this bridge, later on the sector wouldn't lower back to the ground if I wanted to go underneath it, no matter how hard I tried. For reasons unknown I suppose, since I have just checked again on both cl 9 and 11 and I could not replicate this problem, so I've got no idea what I did before to encounter such problem. Perhaps the voodoo setup is prone to malfunction somehow?

 

06

- While not a relevant problem, it is possible to, umm, shambler-jump to this area, where you'd be in a softlock. Like I said, you don't have to do this at all, but it was funny to find out.

- Small suggestion: line 941 has a W1 lift action, I think it would better be WR since it's possible that a hell knight or two may get trapped if they happen to be on the pillars as they raise back to the ceiling.

 

07

- The imp that teleported on sector 283 was stuck.

- Sector 4310 should be a lift you can lower if you press on it (or via switch) from below, otherwise if it's raised up and you missed the only chance, you'll have a long long way back to the higher level. Or alternatively use noclip.

 

08

- All four lines of sector 1133 have W1 exit level for some reason, even though you can't realistically make any use of the triggers. 

 

09

- This is more of a suggestion if the mapper wants to take it. When you acquire the SSG, have more monsters appear -like imps, pinkies, etc- because by the time I got access to the weapon I already had plenty cells and rockets and very few enemies left to justify getting an SSG among lots of shells imo.

 

10

- Not sure if this is an aesthetic choice but, in case not, lines 2414 and 2448 have "wrong" texture so to say.

 

12

- A suggestion for the monsters in this closet: I nearly missed their existence because I didn't pass right in front of them, yet they saw me when I took the RK, but if I didn't hear a random growl I would have certainly missed them completely, so there's a few tweaks that can be done, like for example a barrier raising around sector 500 so you are obliged to meet the monsters upclose, or have them teleport away and you find them sprinkled around the cave (less effective but still more of a better idea than how they are currently).

- Maybe a switch to lower this lift? I mean, next to the exit there's a teleport that you can take to go back to previous areas (and so I could return to kill the oddly placed baron thing 54 with plasma), so it seems that backtracking was supported up to a certain extent, which is alright if that's how the mapper intended.

- There are multiple batches of misaligned textures almost everywhere but they weren't as striking as this one lol

 

15

- I noticed HOMs around here, despite the borders being textured (with ashwall2 so that may be why they aren't displayed properly in-game?)

- There is 334 with tag 10 that isn't linked to any action lines. Doesn't affect anything else of course. If it's there for a purpose, maybe I would though suggest, as an extremely minor thing, to set the lines one-sided so on the map they aren't confused with a potential secret or something hidden.

- Another observation, there are two juicy secrets super close to each other, a megasphere in one and a megaarmor in the other, and from a balance perspective giving both is overkill at that point in the map - somewhat near the exit, sparse combat left. If you find the MS first, the blue armor is rather useless (or if viceversa, the MS would still be OP unless of course you carry the boost to the next map). Perhaps the MS could be replaced with a soulsphere?

 

31

- Sooooo, would the mapper consider hiding the entire map in the automap? Currently if you toggle on the automap at any point, you get spoilers of how the rooms are constructed and where the void areas end and so on, and happens to ruin immersion (as an automap addict, I mean). Then again, you can also abstain from ever pressing the tab key lol, so this is just a suggestion for "quality".

 

32

- Minor thing, the imps trap referencing waste tunnels seemed so randomly obscured that I casually missed it through the entire map, and only found it via IDDT when I was searching for the last monsters. I mean, if that's part of the intention, then ignore this, but yeah you have to really stumble upon the trap lol. Perhaps there could be bonuses or ammo on the lift to entice players to go there and fall into the trap?

 

17

- Line 3862 is misaligned with the rest of the walls. I know there're more harmless misaligned textures in the set, these are just some I saw casually.

- Not sure if this is intentional but you can see through sector 1317. Its set with create fake wall action so maybe it is part of the design.

- So, once you enter the final exit room, the door cannot be opened from inside and thus you loose access to the rest of the map. Only pointing this out in case it wasn't intentional.

 

19

- This giant place could have had many more spawns imo. I know this map is generally low-danger, but come on, three meager spawns aren't gonna spook anyone at this point :p

- Happened to notice a few sectors outside of the map that weren't set to hidden in the automap. 

 

21

- Minor misalignment here and the opposite wall too. 

 

22

- Minor misalignment here

 

23

- These lost souls are harmless because line 868 is set impassable, is that intentional?

 

24

- So this shambler thing 107 sucks lol, I mean in order to have a "fair" time with it you have to lure it to the lifts and then you'll have cover, which proved to be tedious (it'd refuse to stay on the lift), otherwise it's not fun to fight in that little room where you can get electrified over and over, probably die since you have no armor unless it succumbs to chaingun pain chance idk. It's funny that on HMP there's an imp instead, and on HNTR a hell knight lol.

- Is it okay that the cyberdemon can get easily temporarily stuck on its lift? Maybe the lines around the lift could be impassable in case that's not intentional. I think you'd also run the risk of a telefrag fail but I can't confirm that...

 

25

- Small suggestion, to have these two cyberdemons get killed automatically after the first big fight is over, or alternatively teleport somewhere else where you can kill them manually upfront. Currently, you can technically kill each - the one near the invul secret, easily on the lava, and the other can be sniped with SG/CG from a certain angle, though the latter at least isn't a good idea.

 

26

- Another small suggestion: the timer for the exit seemed a bit, tight, as in, I was reading the credits and suddenly the map finnished. Perhaps have the map exit after doing a sequence? such as, shoot each text wall once so the voodoo then crosses the exit line.

 

- Shambler is labelled "the spider mastermind" at the end, I think it's possible to change that in the dehacked.

 

 

Thanks to the mappers for making the maps and thank you for sharing the whole package with us!

Thanks for this. I will check it and try to make changes where needed. 

[damned]

6 hours ago, DoomGappy said:

Did you use the quake palette? I could try something but I'd need to know the correct palette. 

I guess so, but to be honest, I am not very sure. I suppose the pallette is taken again from Dimensions of the Boomed.

[DoomGappy]

1 hour ago, damned said:

I guess so, but to be honest, I am not very sure. I suppose the pallette is taken again from Dimensions of the Boomed.

I am very stupid, I should just take the Palette from inside the wad. Will see if I can do anything interesting. 

[DJVCardMaster]

At last, congrats on the release!

[UserPlayer89]

MAP01:Slipping Through Gates was pretty annoying on Hard/UV with all the hitscanners placed in alcoves or spots that are hard to see at first upon entering a room, having to adopt a style of play that involves minimizing exposure and picking them off slowly and doesn't end up feeling like what I end up finding fun in both Doom or Quake. it's a great Slipgate Complex homage that manages to tap into that same streamlined looping back in on itself sorta level structure I liked in Q1 otherwise. original ambient soundtrack is also appropriately haunting

 

also has vanilla monster behavior been tweaked at all alongside the visual facelift? i feel like hitscanners were marginally more accurate than normal at range, the green imps shot more often, revenants missiles were slower and consistently homed in and cacos fired much more often but had less health. same goes with weapons like the SSG where it felt like it shot more pellets slightly more accurately but did less damage per pellet and the chaingun also fired slightly faster

Edited July 24 by UserPlayer89

[galileo31dos01]

On 7/24/2024 at 1:28 AM, UserPlayer89 said:

also has vanilla monster behavior been tweaked at all alongside the visual facelift? i feel like hitscanners were marginally more accurate than normal at range, the green imps shot more often, revenants missiles were slower and consistently homed in and cacos fired much more often but had less health. same goes with weapons like the SSG where it felt like it shot more pellets slightly more accurately but did less damage per pellet and the chaingun also fired slightly faster

 

The chaingun does fire faster, and chaingunner's reaction time was delayed 16 tics of frames. Aside from that, I don't read any other changes in the dehacked to the behavior of the other vanilla monsters or weapons you mentioned, if the patch was carried from Dimension of the boomed and left intact aside from this set's own tweaks. What you say about the revenant's missile is just, perception - I also thought it traveled slower but once I got used to the sprite I realized that wasn't the case. In fact I was reminded of when I played Avactor and, in a similar way, confused the speed of the homing projectiles. About hitscanners being "marginally more accurate", in reality you may just be getting bad RNG on a higher frequency than the common - I'm sure it happens every now and then to any player you ask, it happened to me as well in the first few maps, so don't worry!

[TMMMS]

i have to ask

 

why does this mapset feature both the cacodemon and the scrag? and why not replace the revenant with the vore altogether and keep the mancubus? i also couldve sworn someone made a really sick-looking nailgun sprite so why not use it instead of a generic-looking minigun?

 

jsut to be clear i wasnt expecting this was to be 100 percent faithful to q1 but im just a bit confused by certain design decisions

Edited July 28 by TMMMS

[natashanightmare]

I'm genuinely stuck at the last map and have no idea how to progress.

Spoiler

think i'm supposed to open some huge blue gate but have no idea how? the gate is in a area that a three piece raised bridge led to.

 

[UnknDoomer]

 

[damned]

On 7/28/2024 at 1:52 PM, TMMMS said:

i have to ask

 

why does this mapset feature both the cacodemon and the scrag? and why not replace the revenant with the vore altogether and keep the mancubus? i also couldve sworn someone made a really sick-looking nailgun sprite so why not use it instead of a generic-looking minigun?

 

jsut to be clear i wasnt expecting this was to be 100 percent faithful to q1 but im just a bit confused by certain design decisions

Hard o say who did any of those decisions :D People were coming and leaving the project without possibility to track the changes, meaning of changes or even sources of assets.
Regarding Scrag, I find it as nice alternative to imp. It flies, but it has less HP than Caco...
Vore replaces Mancubus because of the size, appearance and speed and I think it fits pretty well. 
It hasn't ever been plan to make it faithful to Q1. It has supposed to be Doom megawad in Q1 style.

[NightFright]

Friendly reminder:

The ultrawide statusbar from "Dimension of the Boomed" works with this project as well. :)

Edited August 7 by NightFright

[NightFright]

(Ignore, problem solved itself.)

Edited August 8 by NightFright