The /newstuff Chronicles #219

[Xenaero]

Lets start off Super Bowl Sunday with a freshly made batch of reviews for our favorite game! No i'm not talking about the Superbowl. So wether you're rooting for the Patriots or that other non-existent team whose name I never remember, these wads should tide you over until the big game starts. This week we got a bunch of 1994/1995 levels uploaded, but we also got 2 or 3 good hitters to even that out, and 1 application. What are you still here for, get to reading!

• Citadel - Jim Flynn
  doom.exe - SP - 93k - (img)
  The first wad here and boy is it a stinger! As you might guess from the screenshot it is another one of those pesky 1994/1995 wads, with queer texturing and design. You start out in a plain of marble around a castle, where the only entrance in seems to be a hidden teleporter, to where you face a spiderdemon with near no hope to survive to grab the BFG at it's legs. Get past that and you have to survive a triad of puzzles and traps. For the sake of your own sanity, don't play this.
  
  
• DEPTHS OF DOOM - Richard Torquato
  doom.exe - SP - 45k - (img)
  Another mid 90's wad, and it only gets better as we move right along this week, this one is actually a pretty good replacement of E3M2. Using a good array of switches to open walls in the main area, you eventually unlock an arena with a slew of shotgunners (Who will decimate you, due to lack of health and armor.) if you aren't careful. A good wad, take a look!
  
  
• Despair - David L. Farrington
  doom.exe - SP - 93k - (img)(img)
  Another doom 1994 wad, this one is a lot more confusing. First you find a shotgun and ward off a few trap doors full of monsters, then you get the key and somehow make it up to a ledge where you find rows and rows of hidden doors I didn't notice until I used automap. More mysteries and I don't know how I came across a red key, but the rest is history, as I quickly ran out of health in a very small hallway filled with cacodemons to either side. Avoid this one.
  
  
• DESTRCT - Jim "DOOMinator" Weis
  doom.exe - DM - 45k - (img)
  First DM wad of the week, and it's bad. It's an E1M1 DM replacement, but it feels like a mixed up SP level, as you spawn in a random room, and fight off monsters, who knows why the author decided to put monsters in a deathmatch level. But then it's 1994, what would you expect, right? Using a modern port's No Monsters DMflag should keep you out of trouble however, and it should prove for some interesting games when put to the test with a couple people. Otherwise, stay away.
  
  
• Hemdale - LordEquimanthorn
  doom2.exe - DM - 28k - (img)
  A nice, underdetailed area with SSGs and Rocket Launchers about, and an invisibility sphere in the center. Not much to say about this, other than it needs a considerable more detail and weaponary, and needs to rethink the texturing, but otherwise, probably still a good play, try it out with a few friends!
  
  
• Heptic - Steve Rountree
  doom.exe - SP - 53k - (img)
  Here we are once more with another 1994 E2 level replacement, although this one isn't much fun or graphically appealing as some of the previous ones, this still takes you for a loop in terms of errors and texture misalignment and/or poor choices. This level's layout is pretty simple to figure out, run down one of these absurdly long hallways, get a key, survive darkness, get another key, and find the exit. Nothing new here.
  
  
• New Doom Level: Episode 2 Level 1 - Steve Rountree
  doom.exe - SP - 22k - (img)
  Another wad from Steve! This one is...well, very bad. You begin in a room shown in the screenshot above, and you would slowly die in the nukage while trying to navigate the maze of misaligned textures. Beyond that, is a teleporter, which takes you to a room with fake skull doors, fortunately, an imp telefragged me on my way out, ending my misery. Keep away, far away.
  
  
• No Brakes - Lutrov71, Cyber-Menace
  Limit removing port - SP - 300k - (img)(img)
  Now here's a nice level, and (at least to me) is rated toughest level of the week. You open up with a lost soul behind you, SSG right in front of you, and a RL right in front of that SSG, with only an imp and a couple spectres and zombiemen around, but that all changes very rapidly. This level is not really suited for using the rocket launcher, as it has many small areas where you can easily destroy yourself with the splash damage. Not much health and ammo, but there's a ton of monsters, including many shotgunners and chaingunners to keep the ammunition supply moving. Great map for the ones seeking a challenge this week.
  
  
• Nostalgic: MAP03 - ler
  doom2.exe - SP - 26k - (img)(img)
  A simple remake of "The Gauntlet", this one actually is a fun short level to play through, good detail amount for such a small size, a good secret or 2, ample amounts of health and ammunition, and a good monster amount, not much else to say about this. I had fun trying to break the par though, so in my opinion it's worth a shot. :)
  
  
• Starlit Map1 - Jodwin
  Edge - SP - 147k - (img)
  Now, first off, before you even think of playing this map with normal Doom weapons, you can't, you won't make it far, no matter how good you think you are. That's why you need the Immoral Conduct weapon set, as stated in the text. As for the level itself, with the Immoral Conduct weapon set it still is hard, but it can be beaten, and you can't even get past some parts in the level without some of the weapon's special abilities, like flares. A good level, and most likely the best SP one this week.
  
  
• Ultimate CTF - Izm, Danny, TUD, Meph and Exl
  Zdaemon - CTF - 2,748k - (img)(img)(img)(img)(img)
  Now here, I think, we have a real winner. Made by some of the best mappers in the Zdaemon community, or rather in this case, the ones that pay the most attention to detail! They have banded together to create a slew of fun and innovative CTF maps for us to enjoy. And by a slew I mean 20. They all have tons of different styles too, like in one of the maps, you have a library map where the only way for an intruder from the other team to get in is via a staircase on either side of the main gate, and they jump down to get the flag. They can go out either one of 2 ways, lower the main gate and run to their base, or run up the ladder opposite the game and run back down the stairs from where they came in from! Now what caught my eye here is most of the maps made by Mephisto. Sometimes his maps include so much detail, like pillars, that it's hard to play them without getting stuck on some object. Here this is not the case, and for that there's a thumbs up. Truly a top of the line map pack in terms of detail and gameplay, and a worthy download as well. Try it out for yourself on the servers that it's playing on!
  
  
• Mus2midi - Just_Joe
  Application/Modding Tool - n/a - 24k
  A tool used for converting the MUS files used in Doom wads back to MIDI. Good for converting the music of old Wads to MIDIs.
  
  
• UAC Research Vessel #1024 - Will "Kid Airbag" Hackney
  Advanced port - SP - 135k - (img)
  Here's a level from our own resident citizen Kid Airbag, and it isn't half bad. Set in a spaceship, it had 2 'real' decks of which you traverse and find the exit. My only complaints are that it isn't really that tough, and it's VERY cramped, not much room to move at all. It does look like someone sacrificed space for detail, as most of the eye candy takes up over half the space in every room. Other than that it's worth a look.
  
  
• Wicked Be The Ways of Men - ReX Claussen
  doom2.exe - SP - 357k - (img)
  Dark. That one word pretty much sums up this level. It's hard to see anything apart from fireballs and shotgunners firing on the default gamma. After you up it, you'll see that you are basically in an underdetailed cave, with hardly any source of ammunition or health, and are sent on a quest to the exit through dangerous peril without any knowledge or real signs of where to go in the darkness. Count your blessings that you have the Automap.
  
  

[sargebaldy]

No Brakes is a great long play that made me reload save games a lot, very much recommended for the Erik Alm types out there.

[TheDarkArchon]

Yay. Someone has gone and made an Immoral Conduct map. \o/

[myk]

DD_133 said:
Using a modern port's No Monsters DMflag should keep you out of trouble however, and it should prove for some interesting games when put to the test with a couple people.

Yes, yes... good thing they released the source and someone added that, otherwise we'd still be plaing DM with monsters like they did back in '94!

[TheDarkArchon]

*Sarcasm detector breaks*

[Chronoteeth]

Damn, no weapon mods this week. WBTWOM is fun though.

[Dittohead]

Wicked Be The Ways of Man was pretty fun. The review makes me think that DD didn't even play through it much since he only mentioned the dark cave at the beginning. I thought the gameplay was pretty fun if you ask me.

[Udderdude]

nobrakes.wad : decent map
wh1024.wad : so cramped it gave me the cramps
wicked_7.wad : pretty good
rest of the maps : lol 94

[The Flange Peddler]

That review of Wicked_7 is so bad it'd make deathz0r proud. Did the reviewer even play past the first room? That's pretty much the only dark area in the map. Plus he's completely ignored the fact that the map plays differently depending on what skill level you choose (and also shown that he's not man enough to play on UV :oP).

Research Vessel 1024 looks nice enough and all, but there's just far too much map crammed into that tiny space. I hope the other maps in Lutrov's Congestion 1024 project aren't all like this.

[Enjay]

Absolutely. Wicked_7 is quite an extensive base map. It only starts in a dark cave on one difficulty level. ReX has cunningly used the difficulty settings to make the map play quite differently on different difficulty settings. This includes different starting areas, different key locations and many other subtle changes to traps and so on.



Oh, and in 1994, every map had monsters in it - DM included. Remember, no-one had even heard of a DM specific map before then. And as Myk indicated -nomonsters was an option long before ports.

[Graf Zahl]

The Flange Peddler said:

That review of Wicked_7 is so bad it'd make deathz0r proud. Did the reviewer even play past the first room? That's pretty much the only dark area in the map. Plus he's completely ignored the fact that the map plays differently depending on what skill level you choose (and also shown that he's not man enough to play on UV :oP).

I had the same thoughts. That review was utterly pathetic. Some of the 'classic' map reviews were also a bit dismissive. I never remembered Heptic to be as bad as this review made it look.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Yay, Ultimate CTF. ( even though there's gonna be more maps added to it ;) )

[Kid Airbag]

I definitely sacrificed both space and gameplay for detail in my map. Sorry if that made it less enjoyable, but I was more interested in the architectural design aspects of the 1024x1024 limit and concentrated my efforts primarily on that rather than making the gameplay good. What do you all think, would it have been better with just a pistol/shotgun the whole level, scarce ammo, and toned down monsters?

I'm just not one to limit myself when mapping, so this was more of an experiment than anything else, plus I just wanted to release something - anything, since I haven't in so long. I promise you'll all like DOM better (when it's finished) =)

[lerner]

Huh, my map got a good review. Neat. Also I didn't plan for it to be like "The Gauntlet," and it really doesn't look anything like it, if you ask me. It's just part of a larger project called Nostalgic, from MAP03.

[Nmn]

Rex's Wicked saves this week of old shit. I really enjoyed the map, and disagree with DD (as always, his reviews suck) :P
EDIT: Duh, that Lutrov + Jow map was quite nice too.

[Xenaero]

Nmn said:

I really enjoyed the map, and disagree with DD (as always, his reviews suck) :P

As always? :'( Well i'm sorry I didn't get far enough to get OUT of the cave. :p

[sargebaldy]

lerner said:

Huh, my map got a good review. Neat. Also I didn't plan for it to be like "The Gauntlet," and it really doesn't look anything like it, if you ask me. It's just part of a larger project called Nostalgic, from MAP03.

My favorite part in that was the bit in the secret where the guy raises up, I thought that was an interesting touch.

[Chronoteeth]

Whoa! It's very innovative for starlight using IDC-SE for that map!

[Enjay]

DD_133 said:

Well i'm sorry I didn't get far enough to get OUT of the cave. :p

I'm not normally one to pick at the reviews, but if you didn't even get out of the cave, you only saw a tiny fraction of the map. Look at this screeny of the map in DeePsea (the grid is set at 128x128).

http://www.zen64060.zen.co.uk/wicked_7.png

You hardly scratched the surface. How can you review a map you didn't actually see?

You could have played on another difficulty setting and not even seen the cave! The text tells you things are different on the various difficulty settings:

"Each skill level "starts" the map at a different location"

You did read the text, right?

[Jodwin]

Chronoteeth said:

Whoa! It's very innovative for starlight using IDC-SE for that map!

Thanks. :)
I'm actually currently on the planning stage of my next ICD-SE map. Got to scrap up some blueprint scetches and I'm ready to go with it - this one will "abuse" the abilities of both ICD-SE and EDGE to the boundaries and beyond. ;)

And naturally it will offer some badass challenges...

Btw, have you yet finished the map on Ultra Violence? If yes, how many tries did it take? Without cheats, of course. :) I need some input on Starlit's difficulty to make my latter maps more appealing to the wider audience.

[Use]

Kid Airbag said:

I promise you'll all like DOM better (when it's finished) =)

Still looking forward to it!!

[Nmn]

Enjay said:

I'm not normally one to pick at the reviews, but if you didn't even get out of the cave, you only saw a tiny fraction of the map. Look at this screeny of the map in DeePsea (the grid is set at 128x128).

http://www.zen64060.zen.co.uk/wicked_7.png

khe khe, pwned I guess, not mean to be nasty ofcourse :)
Next time D, ask me to do Your reviews :)

[Grazza]

It's great to see more of the original versions of Jim Flynn's Enigma maps in the archive. Good job by whoever uploaded this one (Citadel) - I certainly couldn't find it anywhere.

[Hirogen2]

DD_133 said:
Now, first off, before you even think of playing this map with normal Doom weapons, you can't, you won't make it far, no matter how good you think you are. That's why you need the Immoral Conduct weapon set, as stated in the text.

Well, there's sv_fastweapons in ZDoom.

[Jodwin]

Hirogen2 said:

Well, there's sv_fastweapons in ZDoom.

Yeah right, just try it. :P
You will NOT make through that map without Immoral Conduct. It's not because you need their firepower. It's because: 1. You need the special abilities such as Flares and Silenced weapons. 2. The weapon placement is designed for Immoral Conduct.

Ye, go ahead and try it. Come tell me when you get through the cave, which is pitch black unless you use flares, without cheats. :P

[Xenaero]

Enjay said:

I'm not normally one to pick at the reviews, but if you didn't even get out of the cave, you only saw a tiny fraction of the map. Look at this screeny of the map in DeePsea (the grid is set at 128x128).

http://www.zen64060.zen.co.uk/wicked_7.png

You hardly scratched the surface. How can you review a map you didn't actually see?

You could have played on another difficulty setting and not even seen the cave! The text tells you things are different on the various difficulty settings:

"Each skill level "starts" the map at a different location"

You did read the text, right?

Well then, what i've learned from this expierence (sp?) is that I should look at every wad in XWE. :p

[funduke]

Grazza said:

It's great to see more of the original versions of Jim Flynn's Enigma maps in the archive. Good job by whoever uploaded this one (Citadel) - I certainly couldn't find it anywhere.

I've uploaded right now the following doom1-enigma-wads
(alongside with some others by Jim Flynn).
Mt. Doom dmmtdm.zip
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/games/idgames/levels/doom/d-f/dmmtdm.zip

Rings DMRING.ZIP
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=13216

The Wheel dmwhee.zip
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=13218

The following doom1-enigma-wads are already in the /idgames-archives:


Doom Gulch gulch.zip
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=12313


The Tower tower.zip
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=13000

Wack wack.zip
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=13001

Citadel citadel.zip
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=13196

Greetings
Funduke

[Enjay]

DD_133 said:

Well then, what i've learned from this expierence (sp?) is that I should look at every wad in XWE. :p

Fair enough. I'd probably have a quick peek at any WAD I was reviewing in an editor anyway just to see if I'd missed anything or if there was something worth mentioning.

Don't get me wrong, I still think you guys do a good job. It takes quite a bit of time and commitment to do the reviews (more than I can spare), so good on you. But each wad does at least deserve to be looked at properly and your readers expect you to have done it.
;-) :-)

[mystery8]

No Breaks was damn nice. Ultimate CTF was cool as well. I also enjoyed UAC Research Vessel #1024, but I agree with the review that its too cramped. Especially at the end with the Cyberdemon.

[cyber-menace]

Nmn said:

EDIT: Duh, that Lutrov + Jow map was quite nice too.

Lutrov and Jow? I don't know what you're smoking, but the only Lutrov map up there is Lutrov and Cyber-Menace. I'm not Jow... anyways enough of my ranting.

It's good to see another CTF megawad out there, and the concept of Rex's map sounds interesting, otherwise it is a typical week bloated with a few too many 94/95 maps.