The /newstuff Chronicles #139

[Cyb]

Wow, I don't know how I ever managed to review all the maps this week. I'm about to collapse from all this Doom playing and writing and thinking and stuff. Get ready folks, because this week there are a total of four wads. That's right four. And to top it off two of them are bugfixes of my own maps, so there's really two maps. TWO. On the plus side both of them are pretty good, so at least I didn't get stuck with new versions of wow.wad or something. To (two) the reviews we go!

• Helm's Deep - Cyb
  ZDoom 2.0 - SP - 113k
  Massmouth Do Over! - Cyb
  ZDoom 2.0 - SP - 4.0M
  I'll just briefly cover these because a) there's two other maps b) they're mine and c) they're re-release bugfixes. Helm's Deep has a couple minor changes fixing the slopes (certain slope thing behavior was changed, so they were going the wrong way) and some texture alignment, and Massmouth DO is now ZDoom 2.0 only (was for 1.23) and thusly you can actually exit the second to last map properly. I also made it so that only the dwarf baron can set off the cage and not any random monster you get to follow you outside. Alright, that's enough of that!
  
  
• Doom Classic 11: Deimos Spaceport - Jan Van der Veken
  doom.exe - SP - 56k - (img)(img)(img)
  It's pretty cool how Jan seems to be timing the release of his latest maps to the weeks I do the /newstuff reviews. So in three weeks we'll have classic 12, right?! Anyways, as you'd expect this is a quality level in the theme of the original episodes. However, while it's still a good map, I didn't quite like it as much as classic 10. For one the textures didn't vary as much, this one was mostly gray. However, I was able to punch my way through this one (and pistol a sniper imp) which is always fun. So the diagnosis is, good map, not as good as classic 10, but still good. Get it.
  
  
• CZ-181: Hazardous Materials Internment - Mike Teske
  ZDoom - SP - 831k - (img)(img)(img)
  Interesting ZDoom wad here. It takes place on some sort of complex either at night or on another planet. It doesn't make overly amazing use of scripts (if any, it's hard to tell sometimes, and I didn't look at it in a level editor), but there's some really excellent use of slopes here, probably some of the best I've seen next to Doom Raider. It's mainly textured in STARTAN and its variants, which I normally don't like (especially the brown one), but it fits very well here. It also makes nice use of a couple ambient sounds. My main issue with this map was that I didn't find any weapons for a while. Thus I was forced to pistol crap which is severely boring. However once I got a shotty, things picked up, and I had a nice stockpile shells by that point, so ammo wasn't much of a problem.
  
  Another thing about the map is a lot of it looks the same. It's all very similar, and it also covers a fairly large area, so it's easy to get lost. It also needs some texture alignment in a couple places, but nothing too major, and I'm sure it won't bother most people either way. Overall, gets off to sort of a bad start, but it's still a pretty nice map, if not slightly boring.
  
  
  

[Amaster]

FP! props to me, and only me!

[Planky]

Bah! so close...

Such a riveting newstuff this week, I don't know how you managed it cyb :D

[Manc]

Cyb said:

Doom Classic 11: Deimos Spaceport - Jan Van der Veken


...Anyways, as you'd expect this is a quality level in the theme of the original episodes. However, while it's still a good map, I didn't quite like it as much as classic 11...

omg you don't like it as much as itself?

I'll just assume you're talking about Classic 11.

Hooray for bugfixes.

[Grogglogobofink]

two whole maps? poor cyb :( plus you had to review helm's deep and massmouth, and god knows how completely terrible those two wads are.

[Naked Snake]

Whoa, I just finished Massmouth Do-Over, and it was pretty friggin' fun. I finished MM2 the other day and it was just as fun. KUDOS, CYB!

[Cyb]

Mancubus II said:

omg you don't like it as much as itself?

I'll just assume you're talking about Classic 11.

Hooray for bugfixes.

omg what are you talking about?! :P

actually it was a typo, I meant classic 10 .

[NiGHTMARE]

Who's doing Newstuff Chronicles next week? I'm asking as my latest map just missed this week's :)

[SyntherAugustus]

in that CZ wad, I was lost for so long it took 14 minutes and looked in 45+ rooms to find the first key! :P

[Cyb]

NiGHTMARE said:

Who's doing Newstuff Chronicles next week? I'm asking as my latest map just missed this week's :)

deathzor

[Epyo]

I guess I'll play that Zdoom wad, I mean, since it's Zdoom.

BTW, Massmouth > Massmouth 2

[NiGHTMARE]

Heh, looks like Cyb should have waited an extra day, 'cos there's a tonne of new wads there now (well okay five, six if you count a re-release) :)

BTW, doom2.exe doesn't work on my computer, so I had to check through nb_e1m01 in SMMU (which flashes a VPO icon on the screen in problem areas). It didn't find any, so I didn't mention needing a port in nb_e1m01.txt. However, because of not being able to use doom2.exe to properly test it, I've just realised that the new flats aren't implemented in a doom2.exe pleasing manner. This means anyone who wants to play the level the original .exe will have to edit the wad a bit first.

[Opulent]

I played through it, Nightmare. It didn't give me any problems.... and believe me, I went everywhere. :)
cool map, but I don't know if they'll allow it at the archives.(??)

[myk]

The only minor glitch I saw running Doom2 was slight tutti frutti effect on one of the stair textures (which didn't show on Boom.) The flat markers are set correctly for Doom2; that's FF_START and F_END.

[NiGHTMARE]

Opulent: it was created from scratch, so there shouldn't be any problem.

Myk: Ah, I was thinking doom(2).exe required an FF_END as well as an F_END. Glad I was wrong :)

Would the problem stair texture by any chance be the top step in the room to the left of the start?

[myk]

Yeah, the topmost step of the stairs to the armor. But also in other places, both top steps at the first door, the first step after the zig-zagging path over the water, and the uppermost step after the secret door leading out (that lowering wall.) Oh, one more thing, the exit door looks like made of gray stone from the inside of the exit room.

[NiGHTMARE]

Hmm, looks like the easiest way to fix this is to simply make those textures 128 tall.

[Cyb]

the secret with the backpack, if the door closes you can't get out of the room :P

[Rellik]

Just in case any missed it who might find it interesting:

As snipped from Machinima.com:

Hells Deep in Doom ? Posted 4/7/2003 by admin


Original post about these pics came from Rendermania.com

Here's a mystery for you..

Can Doom (normally or only when modified) handle this much work? or is this a clever hoax of imagery..check them out and see if you can tell..

http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~sdh300/helmsdeep/

It's funny how even there the comments thread soon switches to talk about the computer buckling ability of the Nuts releases. :p

[Grazza]

Rellik said:

It's funny how even there the comments thread soon switches to talk about the computer buckling ability of the Nuts releases. :p

And impse gets a mention too!

Oh yeah, a few months back some vile fucker made a short DooM-engine movie based on an incredibly vile piece of fanfiction on DooMworlds forums. I won't mention the name as I think such disgusting shit is a disgrace to DooM, video-game made movies, and to existence itself.

BTW, I found that by far the best port for handling nuts.wad was GLBoom (NB: the GL executable, not standard prboom.exe).

Doom2.exe doesn't crash instantly with nuts.wad, but does tend to fail at some point with a memory problem. On my computer, my NutsP045.lmp demo plays back OK right up until the point where I press the exit switch.

[DooMBoy]

Heh, I played Classic11 - Deimos Spaceport earlier on today, and I liked. It just wasn't long enough, though, IMO. Oh well. I still need to play Classic10 - Mercurius Pools.

[Jan]

DooMBoy said:

Heh, I played Classic11 - Deimos Spaceport earlier on today, and I liked. It just wasn't long enough, though, IMO. Oh well. I still need to play Classic10 - Mercurius Pools.

Ah the reason for the shortness is explained in the text file: it's going to be the start level of my upcoming Classic level set, and start levels are usually shortish. Other than that, I generally prefer to play (and build) shorter levels because they tend to look and feel more consistent. Classic10 is a lot bigger though, near the limit of what I'd consider too big. Classic12 is probably going to be about the same size as 10 though.

Jan

[Carnevil]

janvknn said:

Ah the reason for the shortness is explained in the text file: it's going to be the start level of my upcoming Classic level set, and start levels are usually shortish. Other than that, I generally prefer to play (and build) shorter levels because they tend to look and feel more consistent. Classic10 is a lot bigger though, near the limit of what I'd consider too big. Classic12 is probably going to be about the same size as 10 though.

Jan

Woo, can't wait :)

[DooMBoy]

janvknn said:

Ah the reason for the shortness is explained in the text file: it's going to be the start level of my upcoming Classic level set, and start levels are usually shortish. Other than that, I generally prefer to play (and build) shorter levels because they tend to look and feel more consistent. Classic10 is a lot bigger though, near the limit of what I'd consider too big. Classic12 is probably going to be about the same size as 10 though.

Jan

/me can't wait for Classic12
Oh and I played Classic10 last night, it's just as good as the other Classics.

[Jan]

Right now I reckon that 80% of the architecture is finished, with just some loose ends to tie up so I have a pretty good idea of what the size is going to be like (ie. comparable to classic10). Monster placement, gameplay and gameflow are still very much unfinished.

I got a bit bored with the level this weekend though, and worked on something different to distract me a bit .... but don't worry, I often do that. It will get done.