Identify this WAD please

[Enjay]

OK, I've been working on a level that I wasn't really planning on releasing, but it's turning out OK-ish so I may release it.

Problem is, when I started to make the map, I was lacking in inspiration so I thought back to all the WADs I've enjoyed in the last while and picked one whose layout I thought fitted my theme and used it as an inspiration. Now I didn't copy the WAD as such (I can't even find my copy of it to do so), and mine looks quite different (I think). Problem is, I have no idea what the original WAD was called or who it was by, much less how alike mine is to it.

Anyway, if I do release my WAD, I'd like to at least be able to give the author of the other one credit for breaking through my mapping block. However to do that, I need to know what the WAD was. It's fairly unique, so someone is bound to recognise it.

OK, cut to the chase already...

The original WAD was set in a base. In front of the base was an open courtyard kind of area surrounded by mountains IIRC. At one end of the area was a cave. The cave had a damaged sort of building built into it. Looking over the courtyard were 2 (I think) security towers. Possibly the most memorable feature was a very realistic looking rope bridge, that from memory gave you access to a small platform with some kind of powerup on it.

My map doesn't feature the cool bridge, and is themed very differently, but it sort of kinda maybe has a similar layout.

Anyone any ideas?

[Ichor]

Ruma perhaps?

[Enjay]

Ichor said:

Ruma perhaps?

Yay, thanks Ichor, that's the one. For some reason it didn't appear when I searched for Ruma in the data base, but I found it myself at ftp://archives.3dgamers.com/pub/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/p-r/ruma.zip Worth the DL for anyone fancing playing a nice little map.

I'm glad to say that whilst my map certainly has a "family resemblance" as far as basic layout goes, the two are pretty different both in theme overall appearance and the logical order to play through the level. Which is pretty much what I was trying to achieve. :-)

[Fletcher`]

It's on the /idgames archive too. You just have to use search to find it. (and try title)

[Enjay]

ravage said:

It's on the /idgames archive too. You just have to use search to find it. (and try title)

OK, it's working for me now title and filename and searching for Espi as author. I tried the search before but it didn't come up.

O_o

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=11572

[Cyb]

aye, ruma is an excellent map :)

[sargebaldy]

i really liked it, although the theme was a bit inconsistent.

[Fletcher`]

Möh.

[Nanami]

I remember playing Ruma. I had a few demos of it on my demosite, back when I still had a demosite.

[ReX]

Enjay said:

OK, I've been working on a level that I wasn't really planning on releasing, but it's turning out OK-ish so I may release it.

About time you published another wad, old man. Emphasis on the old ;)

[Enjay]

ReX said:

Emphasis on the old ;)

The eyesight isn't what it used to be, and the arthritis is playing hell with my keyboarding skills, so against all sorts of adversity it may get released soon.

For information, it's not just a level. I'd probaby call it a "mini conversion". Just one level, but mainly new/replaced textures, a few Zdoom effects, one weapon replaced (railgun instead of BFG), and thanks to dehacked and a few replacement graphics, you're not fighting hellspawn but other marines (yeah, I know, done before).

Definitely not a TC, probably not really enough to be called a PC either, but a conversion of some sort, so a "MC" it is. :-)

[cyber-menace]

Enjay said:

The eyesight isn't what it used to be, and the arthritis is playing hell with my keyboarding skills

Well that's no good, I really enjoyed all the maps you've released in the past... old age is a curse to anyone...

[Enjay]

cyber-menace said:

Well that's no good, I really enjoyed all the maps you've released in the past... old age is a curse to anyone...

He he, thanks, but ReX is taking the piss. My health has been (and continues to be) crappy all year, but the above are not (yet) problems I am suffering from and at 39 I hope old age isn't quite starting to be responsible for my failings yet. Heck, life is supposed to begin next year. :-)



Anyways, I just spent about 35-40 minutes uploading to /incoming (my modem is quite quick tonight).

Assuming it makes it from /incoming to /newstuff keep a look out for a file called njma01.zip if anyone is interested. It's about 3.24 MB (sorry about a file that size for one medium to large level). Hopefully everything is alright. I spotted a typo in the sndinfo lump a few seconds before I was going to upload. That's fixed, so I hope everything else works.

I have only really tested on Zdoom 2.0.47i (which was fine) and slightly earlier versions should also be OK. I did a quick test with the latest ZdoomGL. Again it worked, but because ZdoomGL does not yet support the linehorizon function, the skybox looks a little funky.

Features:

New enemies (mainly Marines based on modified player sprites)

New sounds

New music (well, old midis - not ideal, but not bad)

One replacement weapon - railgun instead of BFG. The rest of the weapons were kept as the Doom originals because that was quite important to the feel of the mod.

New textures/flats

New Palette (inspired by stuff Fredrik mentioned elsewhere and has done, but my own version of it). Changes blues to be more cyan, pinky reds to more orange and bright greens to a more limey kind of colour.

New title and ending screens.

Misc other stuff.

I also included a config to set up some sniper scope zooming aliases. This is not necessary, but comes in handy. The main area is quite large with enemies dotted around in semi covered areas. The railgun was included to allow you to pick them off. It's nice to be able to zoom in on them too.


If anyone is interested, I also put a few additional Zdoom crosshairs into a WAD and shoved them up on my Tripod/Lycos site. Most of the crosshairs are intended for general use, but some are suitable for sniper scopes. If you want, you could download them and edit the njma01.cfg file to get it to change the crosshair too.

You can get that at http://members.tripod.co.uk/Enjay001/
Read the info about Norton Internet Security at the top of the page, and scroll down to the bottom for the crosshairs. I'll have to update a few of the files on that page. Some are redundant now because they were done for versions of Zdoom that didn't have all the features of the current version. The crosshairs are fine though.

[ReX]

Enjay said:

Anyways, I just spent about 35-40 minutes uploading to /incoming (my modem is quite quick tonight).

njma01.zip is right there beside fear_sta.zip in /Incoming. Do you realize this is the first time you and I have uploaded our levels to the archives in the same week? I'm looking forward to playing njma01. (And then Aspects, perhaps? Just wishful thinking. Heh.)

[Enjay]

ReX said:

njma01.zip is right there beside fear_sta.zip in /Incoming.

Just checked and they have both moved to /newstuff. As you know, I thought Fear Station Alpha was/is a cracking good map. So people should download it right away.

Aspects? What's that? :-)

[ReX]

Enjay said:

Aspects? What's that?

In the well-worn words of Ian Anderson: "...you poor old sod, you see, it's only me."

Getting back on track, njma01 (and the rest of the recent newstuff crop) hasn't made it to the in-span.net archives yet, so you can imagine I'm getting just a little impatient and ticked off. (ReX looks down from the monitor and notices that he's gnawed off a chunk of his knuckle. Makes note to self to wean himself off DooM.)

[Enjay]

ReX said:

In the well-worn words of Ian Anderson: "...you poor old sod, you see, it's only me."

There was a homeless guy who used to be a well known "feature" of the centre of my nearest city. He basically fitted the description of a young "Aqualung" - so he became Aqualung in a lot of people's minds. He could regularly be seen wandering around the town centre with his worn sleeping bag draped over his arm. He always carried his sleeping bag, never rolled up - always just draped. Most people at that time would have recognised him. Some would even have known him to talk to. It came as quite a shock when this well known figure decided to end it all by pouring petrol over himself and setting himself on fire outside a city centre pub, must be almost 20 years ago now. I kind of miss Aqualung.

Now, how many people are scratching their heads in confusion? :-)

[Enjay]

ftp://archives.3dgamers.com/pub/idgames/newstuff/fear_sta.zip

or

ftp://3darchives.in-span.net/pub/idgames/newstuff/fear_sta.zip

and

ftp://archives.3dgamers.com/pub/idgames/newstuff/njma01.zip

or

ftp://3darchives.in-span.net/pub/idgames/newstuff/njma01.zip

[ReX]

Enjay said:

Now, how many people are scratching their heads in confusion? :-)

None of the old timers, I'm sure.

I just downloaded njma01, and I'll take it for a spin when I get off work. Btw, I did a demo of Fear Station Alpha, which only took me 16 minutes but numerous tries. I must have tried the damn thing twenty times, I kept getting wasted. One time I even made it all the way to the end, then swallowed shrapnel from my own rocket. Let me know if you want it, and I'll put it in an email.

[Enjay]

ReX said:

Let me know if you want it, and I'll put it in an email.

Yes please. I like to see people playing their own maps. My best Fear Station time is around 18 minutes so far, and I've eaten my own rockets a few times at the end too. O_O

[ReX]

Enjay said:

Yes please. I like to see people playing their own maps. My best Fear Station time is around 18 minutes so far, and I've eaten my own rockets a few times at the end too. O_O

It's in the proverbial mail. 18 minutes is pretty damn good, seeing as how I did it in 16 despite knowing my way around and all the traps & enemy placements.

Did you get my email with the secrets? You've got to pick up the plasma rifle (it'll provide a few seconds of extra excitement). In my demo I picked it up and dealt with the enemies in the vicinity, but didn't use it anywhere else in the level. Same with the chainsaw. The other two secrets are revealed in the demo, but I didn't pick them up. This way I've demonstrated that the map can be completed without finding any of the secrets.

[Enjay]

ReX said:

Did you get my email with the secrets? You've got to pick up the plasma rifle....Same with the chainsaw.

I got your secrets mail. I found the chainsaw to be a good ammo conserver when faced with demons and spectres, especially before I knew where to get the plasma rifle.