The /newstuff Chronicles #274

[duncan]

Newstuff is like buses, you wait ages for one to come, then two come along at once. Cliché, I know, but hey it fits the situation. Dusting off my reviewing hat (oh how I wish I had a reviewing hat) I will delay no longer and introduce this week's offerings.

• Adessa - LilWhiteMouse (the first of a few of this authors offerings dug up from the past this week)
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 1560KB - (img) (img)
  I am in two minds about this map. The custom made textures have clearly received a high amount of effort during their production and they fit well into the intended atmosphere. The sound scheme and lighting effects combine with this to achieve quite a dark feeling whilst playing and I feel this effectively captures the afore mentioned atmosphere.
  One danger that this level posed was the threat of repetitiveness. What was made and used was good--but there was very little variety. The textures were well done but detail itself wasn’t always apparent. Many rooms were often duplicates of previous rooms and, while I’m sure this was often necessary to show the type of environment, it often got boring as it was rarely interspersed with new sights.
  Also, the author says his (ed. note: her) custom made monsters were removed. So you will find very little action in here. The map has a good potential. It still has work to be done, in my view and seems incomplete. A solid start, however, to what seems to be a promising project.
  
  
• Arsenal - Daniel
  ZDoom - n/a - 5336KB
  When reading the text file, I liked the sound of this mod and I must say it didn’t disappoint. There is a large range of weapons and new accessories, to add another new life to gameplay. It will brighten up that overplayed wad that you thought you had leeched everything out from.
  
  
• Unruly Evil - John Cartwright
  ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 51 KB - (img) (img)
  This map boasted action and ZDoom features and that is practically what you can expect. ZDoom features were often used to good effect but, a few times, I got the feeling that they were just being used with no real purpose. The action was very linear at times--a kill one horde, release the next scenario was usually dominant.
  While there wasn’t a copious amount of detail, the map was well constructed and some scripting was used to good effect. This isn’t anything particularly spectacular, but it is still definitely worth your time.
  
  
• DOOM2Forever Deathmatch beta v.5 - Halden "Baphomet" Richards
  ZDaemon - Deathmatch - 4582 KB - (img) (img) (img)
  I enjoyed this collection of Deathmatch levels. Some are intended for DM purposes, others for duel. The first eleven maps are certainly the strongest and the last couple of duel maps maintain the quality. There are a lot of good visuals and detail is used well. Some nice touches, such as a spectator audience, allow this mapset to have an original feel to it.Oh, and I think I found the secret...
  
  (Note that SkullTag and ZDoom [as far as I am aware] also support this mapset)
  
  
• UAC Earth Headquarters - Checkmate
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 541 KB - (img)
  Okay, so for a first map, this was very decent. The detail was good and the overall construction was done well. Lighting contrasts were fitting and the level had a very good fixed theme. For me, the gameplay let the map down slightly. Fighting off revenants and barons in cramped corridors is never pleasant, but with only a pistol? I ended up being chased half way through the level before I came across a weapon. Ammunition and health was sparse.
  A good map, but I found some aspects of combat slightly too difficult. It should also be noted that unless you really can be bothered to go on no clipping mode and type IDFA every thirty seconds that 100% kills can’t be achieved.
  
  
• A Furry Tale *and* A Furry Tale: Retold - LilWhiteMouse
  ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 3713 KB
  I shall ignore the two map version as it doesn’t appear complete. If it is complete then the quality is abysmal. The 11 map (which I’m presuming is the ‘retold’) is quite good fun to play and even challenging at times. It takes on the odd RPG twist of quests and the ability to buy items and, the graphics, while cartoonish and child-like, are sometimes shamefully enjoyable.
  Very cute! Take a peek!
  
  
• Gunsmith Cats: Russian Roulette v1.4 - LilWhiteMouse
  ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 4244 KB
  This conversion is on a different vein to the previous. The construction of the map is very well done and the rooms are realistic in both texture and formation. The action and style of gameplay is smooth and overall good fun. With some scripting in between and features such as the ability to buy items, this conversion may not feel too much like Doom, but it is still worth playing.
  
  Oh I should add that my screenies for the last few of these maps have gone missing. So, sorry about that! Im not re-downloading though!
  
  
• HellSpawn Sprites Demo - LilWhiteMouse
  ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 25814 KB
  What I played of this seemed pretty good. Demo seems an inappropriate description considering the project was abandoned--and it is clear that it is unfinished as it can’t be completed as far as I can see. The visuals are very good, there are some new graphics and some ZDoom features used mostly to good effect and the gameplay is intense when you don’t hit a dead end with no apparent solution.
  
  
• Too much Brown - Daniel "Tormentor667" Gimmer
  ZDoom Compatible - n/a - 2530 KB - (img)
  A handy resource wad for level designers. There are some interesting textures that would add a lot to levels when landing in the right author’s lap.
  
  
• Lost bridge - Jimbo Jack Billy Bob
  Legacy Compatible - Solo Play - 7 KB
  I always cringe when I see 1-2 hours as the production time of a map. I wasn’t wrong to do so in this case. There are two platforms and a chasm separating them. The idea is to cross the bridge to get to the other side. There is no bridge. I’m not convinced there is any way to get across. And when I did get across (idclipping for review purposes of course!) there was nothing except 3 arch viles and an exit.
  There weren’t too many monsters--until you realize there is nowhere near enough weaponry to deal with them.
  Dire.
  
  

[Ralphis]

lol newstuff

[TheDarkArchon]

Someone's been uploading LWM's lost gems en masse.

[Tango]

I played/looked through Doom2 Forever DM when Baphoment released it in the Skull Tag forums, and I found the maps to be pretty nice. I also looked at the Too Much Brown textures, and those are definitely some textures I would like to use sometime.

[duncan]

Oh apologies for the LWM error!
Writing him is a habitual error of mine.
I must have a sexist blood vessel within me somewhere...

[Ichor]

Anyone else getting "Script error, "MAPINFO" line 10: Bad syntax when trying to play arsenal.wad?

[TheDarkArchon]

Use ZDoom 2.0.96x.

[Ichor]

I did.

[danimetal]

Nice batch of reviews. I think I´ll take a look at Adessa before proceeding with any other wad.

[Psyrus]

Ichor said:

Anyone else getting "Script error, "MAPINFO" line 10: Bad syntax when trying to play arsenal.wad?

I confirm that, and this is with 96x.

[exp(x)]

duncan said:

DOOM2Forever Deathmatch beta v.5 - Halden "Baphomet" Richards
ZDaemon - Deathmatch - 4582 KB - (img) (img) (img)
I enjoyed this collection of Deathmatch levels. Some are intended for DM purposes, others for duel. The first eleven maps are certainly the strongest and the last couple of duel maps maintain the quality. There are a lot of good visuals and detail is used well. Some nice touches, such as a spectator audience, allow this mapset to have an original feel to it.Oh, and I think I found the secret...

(Note that SkullTag and ZDoom [as far as I am aware] also support this mapset)

I remember testing that mapset back when I used skulltag. It's good to see that it's finally public; some of the levels were pretty fun.

[Afterglow]

I added Too Much Brown to my texture page along with Doom Textures for Doom II and Dark Arena (WTF, they're not dark). Does anyone see texture sets missing in my list?

[Balos]

UAC Earth Headquarters - Checkmate

For me, the gameplay let the map down slightly. Fighting off revenants and barons in cramped corridors is never pleasant, but with only a pistol? I ended up being chased half way through the level before I came across a weapon.

I didn't see this as a problem at all. It's obvious that you'd better run in the beginning instead of firing a single shot with the pistol. And the chaingun isn't really far. Even I can make it to it in about 15 seconds from the beginning.

As for the imp swarm, I chainsawed all of it from behind the bars, and took hardly a scratch. (No ammo problems for me!) I'd call that part badly designed, though - Nothing prevents you from running to the portal before a single imp appears.

[duncan]

Har, you probably had a better knack than me.
I didn't have too much bother with the imp swarm, it was the revenants that got me as I kept getting caught in corners etc.

[Nmn]

Afterglow said:

Does anyone see texture sets missing in my list?

Yep

[Tormentor667]

Afterglow said:

I added Too Much Brown to my texture page along with Doom Textures for Doom II and Dark Arena (WTF, they're not dark). Does anyone see texture sets missing in my list?

Great to have them on your page :)

[Tormentor667]

Oh and by the way, if someone's interested, next week you will get the DUKE NUKEM ATOMIC EDITION texture pack!!!

[danimetal]

I just tried and noticed that there´s actually a bridge in "Lost Bridge" as this Legacy screenshot shows:

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/8281/lostb5jk.png

I guess the bridge will also appear on GZDoom but well, anyway, it´s not as if the addition of the bridge does add a lot to this map. The two battles are just too cramped and the map is way too short so it actually looks more like a test wad than an actual level. Maybe there´s a joke on this wad that I missed but it´s, somehow, a pity since the construction is very tidy and it doesn´t look bad.

[Afterglow]

Nmn said:

Yep

* A D D ' D *

[Nmn]

*bows*
Thank you kindly.

[SyntherAugustus]

Tormentor667 said:

Oh and by the way, if someone's interested, next week you will get the DUKE NUKEM ATOMIC EDITION texture pack!!!

ah. I've been playing duke recently.

[Veddge]

Gunsmith Cats has some interesting concepts... but otherwise not particularly noteworthy.

[Checkmate]

Duncan - Thanks for reviewing my map along with all the other /newstuff maps. All that work you guys put into it saves me a lot of time and usually points to a decent map or two.

As far as my map thanks for the good things you've said - As for the difficulty, I wanted to force the player to run a bit before they could make a stand. My idea was that most people don't have heavy weaponry laying around their office. A dead security guard on the other hand...? I don't know how to fix the under 100% kill thing. Is there a tag or something that lets a monster not figure into the total? The 'invading army' part really throws off the totals...
CM

[duncan]

Checkmate said:

Duncan - Thanks for reviewing my map along with all the other /newstuff maps. All that work you guys put into it saves me a lot of time and usually points to a decent map or two.

As far as my map thanks for the good things you've said - As for the difficulty, I wanted to force the player to run a bit before they could make a stand. My idea was that most people don't have heavy weaponry laying around their office. A dead security guard on the other hand...? I don't know how to fix the under 100% kill thing. Is there a tag or something that lets a monster not figure into the total? The 'invading army' part really throws off the totals...
CM

I'm not particularly sure if it's possible to fix the 100% thing. I mean it was more an observation, it didn't particulalry bother me, because the reason was obvious why I hadn't got the 100%.
I did think you had some good ideas with your map, particularly at rhe start with the running...it was more my own personal irritation that I kept getting caught on a corner that perhaps made me dislike it. It also didn't help that yours was the last map I reviewed and I was quite tired at that point ;0) So it was more a personal gripe than an overall criticism...many people I know liked the touch of fleeing the monsters

[Craigs]

Finally, that Daniel dude managed to create a DECENT wad.
Still though, what's up with the modern shotgun?
Your character loads in a new shell every time he fires!

Check Mate:
I like your style buddy, most people would say "Oh, I got a decent review... Whatever.".
Not you though...
You want to know how you can improve it! You want to learn so that you can improve future wads!
Therefore I give your wad a 4/5.

Anyway, you can probably just use Zdoom. Give the monsters a TID, then instead of an exit, use a script, so that when the player throws the switch, it will kill all the monsters the player couldn't kill and then exit the level.

[Jon]

Once again, it would be lovely if the story picture was linked to the bigger version, or in any way associated with the WAD it was taken from.