Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
The Ultimate DooMer

The /newstuff Chronicles #155

Recommended Posts

Oh dear. A very weak week for newstuff this week, with only 5 maps to play - and none of them are anything to shout about. And none of them will take particularly long to complete either. At least they all have an element of difficulty in them, and one looks really good, too. Anyway, here we go:

  • Arena 3 by Bruno Vergilio
    4kb - doom.exe - SP - (img)
    A tiny Doom 1 map for E3M8 with four monsters, one weapon, one tactic and one arena.

  • D Base by Bruno Vergilio
    16kb - doom.exe - SP - (img)
    A tiny Doom 1 map for E2M8 with more monsters, two weapons, plenty of ammo and one arena with a not-too-easy battle.

  • Tanis Base SP by Rodrigo Acevedo & Christopher Emirzian
    430kb - ZDoom - SP - (img)
    Fortunately I didn't play this last week, so I'm playing it for the first time. Basically a high-detail deathmatch map set in an arctic base (but let's be honest, it could've easily been a spaceship or something given the poor and almost non-existent outdoor bits) that's had a load of monsters and traps put in. Deceptively easy at the start and harder as it goes along, although some of the time you'll be wondering round with 10% health trying to work out how to kill a roomful of monsters with your fist. Aside from that it's quite good, and the music fits well, too.

  • X-treme by Erik Alm
    171kb - doom2.exe - SP - (img)
    Calling all Hell Revealed fans, here is a 2-map wad just for you. It's on a much smaller scale, but can be just as hard in places. Unfortunately this wad will annoy the rest of you unless you drop to skill 2, skill 3 is for the challenge seekers and I really have to question the point of deliberately making skill 4 unplayable and unenjoyable. Maybe it's maps on skill 4 are both Compet-N-speedrunner-only maps like the one in Scythe (hence playable by only a tiny fraction of the community - a big no-no in my book). The maps themselves are reasonably well detailed with a decent ammo/health balance and the traps are of the nasty variety, but even on skill 3 the first map can be annoying (especially the archvile that can hit you when you're right up against the ledge it's on, so it can't see you). The second map is better, faster and a lot more fun, but apparently on skill 4 you'll last 5 seconds (what's the point??). It's not bad, it's certainly challenging (always a good thing IMO) and the ROTT music is perfect for it, but this wad gets a big thumbs down for it's skill 4 implementation and other potential annoyances.

Share this post


Link to post

hehe weak week

also, does zdoom's sound totally die when anyone else plays map01 of eaxt.wad?

Share this post


Link to post

I wonder if this slow week means a deluge next week. :/

I think Erik made the point about difficulty settings pretty clear in his text, though long and bitter experience does suggest that a lot of people refuse to play anything other than skill 4, no matter what. Maybe he should have made skill 2 the one with an insane difficulty level (then those who want to try it can choose it, and most people can happily choose skill 4). Then, as a spin-off, skill 1 might be interesting also for non-gods.

Share this post


Link to post
Grazza said:

I wonder if this slow week means a deluge next week. :/

Na, likely everyone's saving their releases for Dec 10th.

Share this post


Link to post

I was just pondering, if we knew how to dance, we wouldn't care if it was a bad week in /newstuff chronicles, because we'd be out dancing! And that was what I was pondering.

Share this post


Link to post
NiGHTMARE said:

Na, likely everyone's saving their releases for Dec 10th.

Hmmph. That's my week too.

Actually, there is apparently at least one major project due for release in the forthcoming week.

Share this post


Link to post

Doom's Birthday is close to finals week for me. A match made in hell, so to speak.

Share this post


Link to post

Me too, but I don't have any finals this term, just one group presentation. So essentially I have dead week and finals week both mostly off == time for Deus Ex 2 (Dec 3rd) and Doom's Birthday (Dec 10th) :D

Share this post


Link to post
Grazza said:

Hmmph. That's my week too.

Actually, there is apparently at least one major project due for release in the forthcoming week.


There certainly is...try and play it without god mode, you'll enjoy it a lot more (I certainly did). Also, try and get 100% kills on map 08 (it's fun)...

sargebaldy said:

damn, this would have been a good week for that slige set too :/ curse you ty halderman!!111


Very true, as I enjoyed those maps. Some of them were really good, too.

Share this post


Link to post

Tanis Base SP was a fairly well done mod of the DM level IMO. Even though it did include a lot of stealth monsters, which I normally hate, somehow they seemed to pose less of an annoyance in this level than others. Maybe because things are quite cramped so it was easy enough to work out where they were, and they were always getting hit by crossfire, so spent more time visible than normal.

However, I have played it through about 5 or 6 times now, and have always run out of ammo with the final room still very much populated with a lot of monsters. I know I'm a little wasteful with ammo, but even when I made a real effort to conserve it, I still ran short. Summoning 3 shellboxes was enough for me to finish on the occasion where I was being extra careful.

Share this post


Link to post

I loved Tanis base for DM, I wished to see a single player version, but I didn't liked the convertion, so many monsters in small rooms. I spected to see something based in DOOM 3. Few monsters, few ammo, few health.

Share this post


Link to post

I thought Tanis Base SP was ok. A bit repetitive and predictable. It's a shame the ammo goes so way off at the end. There's no where near enough to clear that end room. And why does anybody use those damned stealth monsters? They have to be the worst addition to doom gameplay ever.

Now to try X-treme... Though reading the text file scares me enough already.

Edit: Oh and Baldy, did Ty get back to you about letting the Slige modification into the archives?

Share this post


Link to post

Erik is one of the few mappers that realise that the skill level of doomers is very diverse, thus he makes his maps for all kinds. Doomgods can play, and enjoy it on skill 4, normal and good doomers can enjoy it on skill 2 or 3, which often is harder then doom2.wad skill 4 anyway.

I don't see the problem with that.

Share this post


Link to post
Grazza said:

Actually, there is apparently at least one major project due for release in the forthcoming week.

I wonder if ZooM will be out by then? Currently we're waiting on ZDoom 53.cab (fixes some bugs) and SkullTag 95g (fixes A LOT of bugs and will be based on 53), but even if that happens before Doom's birthday we may not upload it then, since we don't want to make /newstuff too bloated... everybody and their grandmother's going to upload that week.

Share this post


Link to post
schepe said:

Erik is one of the few mappers that realise that the skill level of doomers is very diverse, thus he makes his maps for all kinds. Doomgods can play, and enjoy it on skill 4, normal and good doomers can enjoy it on skill 2 or 3, which often is harder then doom2.wad skill 4 anyway.

I don't see the problem with that.


But in this case skill 4 isn't for DooM gods (skill 3 is), he even admits in the text file that it's deliberately unplayable and not fun in any way. There's a difference between rock hard (AV, HR etc.) and unplayable (skill 4 on this wad, some of the silly wads with 2000 cybers in etc.).

Maybe it's to do with the fact that in AV/HR etc. you've always got the weapons/ammo to kill the vast hordes (giving you a chance of survival if you're good enough) but here you're up against them with no decent weapons or ammo to hit them with (giving you no chance of survival). If you brought your own weapons/ammo (all and plenty) into the maps they would probably be playable.

Share this post


Link to post

Damn, I wish erik would saved these maps for his new megawad.
I remember I got them for beta testing long time ago (spring or summer this year).

Share this post


Link to post

Hey, I'm the guy that made Tanis Base SP.

Enjay: Keep running out of ammo at the end? I can finish it with 101 bullets and 12 shells, and that's when I'm being pretty wasteful. I think the problem is when you get the SSG you go trigger happy and all your ammo is drained. I admit it could use a bit more health though.

Here's a demo, recorded with Zdoom 2.0.52. My first try, I didn't re-record the demo 20,000 times to get it perfect :P I made a bunch of dumb mistakes near the end (Grabbing shell box when I had 38 shells, alot of lame misses with the SSG) and I still managed to get away with it. I suck at Doom :P

http://rydia.net/udder/!crap/udder.lmp

Vegeta: Sorry, I'm not a big fan of those kind of levels. They seem to be made more for perfectionists than players who want to kill alot of monsters :P

Share this post


Link to post
The Ultimate DooMer said:

"But in this case skill 4 isn't for DooM gods (skill 3 is)..."


Then don't play it on skull above 3.
i don't see how that makes the map bad.

Share this post


Link to post
schepe said:

Then don't play it on skull above 3.
i don't see how that makes the map bad.

Indeed. WTF? Piece of crap review. Booo!

Share this post


Link to post

I played Erik's X-Treme maps and they were ok. Looked nice, pretty good challenge on HMP, and a nice little romp on skills 1 and 2, but (and I say this from personal experience, some of you people might think it's piss easy) UV is just too damn hard. Like UDoomer says, there's a big difference between a really hard level where you've got the guns and ammo to take on the masses, and a really hard level where the difficulty level is just stupidly high.

Share this post


Link to post
udderdude said:

Here's a demo, recorded with Zdoom 2.0.52.


OK, so you proved it can be done (nice demo). All I got to do now is work out where I have been wasting ammo. My technique and yours seem pretty similar (ingluding SSG use) but I must be throwing ammo away somewhere. :-/

Share this post


Link to post

I was doing pretty good in Tanis Base till I found the damn stealth knight! I had stupidly not saved, so I just turned off monsters and played the map over again.

Would it be possible to convert that mod music into MIDI format? XWE can't do it and I already know Wintex can't...

Share this post


Link to post
Nanami said:

... but even if that happens before Doom's birthday we may not upload it then, since we don't want to make /newstuff too bloated... everybody and their grandmother's going to upload that week.

It's hard to know if it is going to be a bumper week or not. Maybe some projects will deliberately avoid a release that week (for the reason you give), and if some of the projects that do intend a release date that week fail to come out, then it might even turn out to be a very bare week.

Anyway, it would be helpful if you (or anyone else contemplating a major release around them) could let the /newstuff reviewers know if you are definitely (or definitely not) shooting for a 10th Dec release, so we can plan around it.

Share this post


Link to post
Nanami said:

I wonder if ZooM will be out by then? Currently we're waiting on ZDoom 53.cab (fixes some bugs) and SkullTag 95g (fixes A LOT of bugs and will be based on 53), but even if that happens before Doom's birthday we may not upload it then, since we don't want to make /newstuff too bloated... everybody and their grandmother's going to upload that week.

i think december 10th would be a swell time to release the zoom demo. i know i'm going to try my best to make that /newstuff too bloated.

Share this post


Link to post
Grazza said:

Hmmph. That's my week too.


exactly what is the current reviewer rotation?

Share this post


Link to post
Grazza said:

Anyway, it would be helpful if you (or anyone else contemplating a major release around them) could let the /newstuff reviewers know if you are definitely (or definitely not) shooting for a 10th Dec release, so we can plan around it.


im sure there's enough reviewers to share the workload, if not just add reviews as they come in

Share this post


Link to post
×