The /newstuff Chronicles #278

[Bloodshedder]

Pritch, joe and indeed Kaiser here with this week's newstuff. Sorry it's late but one of our regular reviewers has quit at short notice. Nine wads for you this week, fairly standard fare, but I'm sure you'll find something to tickle your fancy.

• AKKKMWAD - Paul Noble
  doom2.exe - Solo Play - 400KB - (img)
  
  Review by pritch.
  
  Paul Noble gives us 5 varied levels which, as he warns in his text file, are not exactly the finished article just yet. That's an understatement. These are really novice maps of the 1994 feel: they are very poorly textured and the layouts are also of rookie standard. I'm not sure if they're actually new or not (some made with DCK 1.0) but in any case they're worth skipping. I'll give a brief runthrough of each one all the same;
  Map01: An open arena surrounded by confused passageways. Horribly textured, untagged door linedefs, multiple secrets that aren't, in short, bleugh.
  Map02: Slightly better map, involving runjumps over to different sectors. Not a bad idea but this has been done much better elsewhere.
  Map03: Better texturing this time, and better quality. This is the teleporting map. Still a long way short of polished, though.
  Map04: Going back down into the poor standard. Just open the first door and you'll see what I mean.
  Map05: Again, pretty poor, this is a kind of direct route fight-through attempt, but I finished it with 39% kills in about 2 minutes, which just about sums up the quality of this wad.
  If this is a new wad, there's plenty of room for improvement, nail the texturing first and then worry about the layouts.
  
  
• The green level - Surreily
  ZDoom - Solo Play - 245KB - (img)
  
  Review by pritch.
  
  Ah, this is more like it. As the title suggests, this map is highly green. But in a good way. This map is fairly nifty, in a Simplicity-esque kind of way. Neat, symmetrical tech-rooms and hallways are, like Simplicity, detailed nicely, not excessivly, making full use of the modified palette, and a firm but fair challenge is provided too with judicious monster placement and just enough ammo and health to get by. It's not a long map by any means but it's worth downloading for a quick, quality blast. I especially liked the detailing on the keyed doors. One criticism would be the secret areas are shown by default on the automap, but that's a niggling point. I hope to see something a bit lengthier from this mapper soon. Possibly wad of the week.
  
  
• Dada - Scientist
  zdaemon - Deathmatch - 143KB - (img)
  
  Review by pritch.
  
  Here's an interesting concept, a DM wad with psychedelic scrolling textures. Interesting idea, but I'm not convinced. For a start there's no doubt that the texture gets pretty annoying pretty fast, and given that it's the only texture used in the map, it also makes the layout difficult to handle. Admittedly that seems to have been the intention, but in practice I don't think this would have much more than novelty appeal to top players. Speaking of the layout, the four or so rooms are too disjointed to be an effective DM map for anything but several players, but there is at least potential there as your enemy will stand out clearly against the background. Maybe worth a look if you want to go insane playing DM, but unless you play 24/7 and need new material there are worthier wads for your deathmatching delectation out there.
  
  
• Heretech - TheDarkArchon
  GZDoom - n/a - 506 KB - (img)
  
  Review by Joe.
  
  A tech themed GZDoom/ZDoom 2.0.99 weapon mod for Heretic. As odd as this may seem the weapons (mostly) blend in quite well and after a while you barely notice that you're picking up clips instead of claw orbs and suchlike. On to the weapons:
  
  Staff/gauntlets are replaced by a punch attack and the tazer thing from Hacx. The problem is the tazer takes about 3 seconds to actually get into the attack and by that time you're already dead.
  
  The elven wand is replaced by a badly drawn pistol. I am all for people drawing their own guns but this is sadly on the lower end of the quality scale. At least it isn't a Duke3d rip though. Tome of power attack is some kind of explosive tipped bullets.
  
  The etheral crossbow is replaced by Eriance/Ezxariarch's shotgun. The animation on this is excellent and the sound is good. Tome of Power special is some kind of freezey rounds that can (amazingly) freeze stuff. Top stuff.
  
  Instead of the dragon's claw we have some kind of sub machine gun (which i think is ripped from PO'ed) which, like the pistol, suffers from graphical quality issues. Bluntly put, it could have done with quite a bit of cleaning up. Tome of power makes it shoot some kind of guided bullets.
  
  There is also a plasma rifle replacing the hellstaff which looks alright and fires some nice looking projectiles. Tome of power makes projectiles explode into a load of fireballs when they hit something.
  
  Rocket launcher is ok, another Eriance gun I think. The rockets suck though, they move so slow a gargoyle can dodge them. Tome makes it fire two missiles.
  
  The final weapon is some kind of sigil, fires a nice looking stream of magical plasma. Problem is that the tome of power makes it revert to the hellstaff frames, it doesn't have its own tome special power it would seem. Possible bug there.
  
  Overall recommended if you're into that sort of thing.
  
  
• Ultramodern Combat 2 - DeumReaper
  ZDaemon - Solo Play - 194 KB - (img)
  
  Review by Joe.
  
  I don't know what to say about this. The first map, some kind of office block according to the text file, was (I'm pretty sure) reviewed by deathz0r last week. Basically it's a pretty bland affair with some odd texture choices (zimmer switch in the middle of an office) and some odd passages that appear to be carved into the walls or something. Possibly dirt lined air vents? Who knows. The main problem here is that every wall seems to be at a 90 degree angle making for some pretty boring stuff, try adding some curves please. There appears to be an abundance of scrolling textures (and some horrific scrolling sky effect) that look quite out of place. Still a relatively creative map with outside and roooftop areas.
  
  The second map, a marble castle on a cliff, is a bit better but it still feels like it hasn't had much effort put in to it. At least the texturing is more consistent in this one. Also, please ditch the floating shotgun shells/chainsaws.
  
  
• Rikuo / Aulbath Skin - CheapAlert
  ZDoom Compatible - Deathmatch - 209 KB - (img)
  
  Review by Joe.
  
  At first i was expecting this to be made from cheapy's Rikuo model, but alas no, it is created from some ripped Darkstalkers sprites (naughty CheapAlert) and thus only has two sets of sprites (facing left and right) for all directions. Not amazing but not exactly awful either.
  
  Might appeal if you like Darkstalkers/masturbating to anthropomorphic newts.
  
  
• Mega Trickster's Mistake : Unreality With Stupid - Mega Trickster, Yoshi Trickster, Psycho Trickster
  Skulltag - Solo Play - 3824kb - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
  
  Review by Kaiser.
  
  I love jokewads, ever since Mock 2 I can't get enough of them. But this one offers nothing new. This wad offers the same humor you would find in Mock 2, same ridiculous amounts of cyberdemons to fight and same ridiculous level design. Over 40 maps of pure silliness, this wad will keep you either busy or bored. While not as brilliant as Do-Tims, this wad will make a great time killer. Also, the music for Maps 11 and 41 are brilliant!
  
  
• The seven tongues of Satan - Algeroth
  ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 160kb - (img) (img) (img)
  
  Review by Kaiser.
  
  This wad is set in a hellish dungeon with interesting puzzles and lots of uh.. switches. The beginning starts off a little frustrating with mild-strong enemies at the start and surrounded by lava, but once you find the super shotgun, things will eventually be a piece of cake. There is a interesting puzzle after the first area as well. Ammo and health is balanced just right and the enemy placement is well done. There are several switches that can be "reached" for those who know the Doom engine well, which could make this wad a good canidate for speedrunners. The only drawback to this map is that its too short and it should have lasted longer. Another recommended wad for those who have nothing better to do.
  
  
• 50 frags 2.0 (zdaemon friendly) - Derrick A. Allen -BloodSplatter inc.
  Limit Removing - Solo Play - 136kb - (img) (img) (img)
  
  Review by Kaiser.
  
  The first thing that I noticed when playing this wad was that there are a lot of hallways. While the level looks nice, it's not very well designed for deathmatch. There are too many hallways and too narrow passages which could spoil a dm fight quickly. The map has some connectivity but I found myself at a dead end and came across some very tight areas. I still recommend this map for hardcore dm players.
  
  

[Kaiser]

No one would agree with me but I choose Mega Trickster's Mistake : Unreality With Stupid wad of the week.

pritch says;
Heh, I didn't realise you were serious. Srsly?
Omg FP.. from within Kaiser's post! Mod abuse!

edit by kaiser
YARLY

[Kristian Ronge]

The Paul Noble maps are likely very old (he contributed two great maps to MM2, so these were probably made before then). They'll be interesting to check out, though.

[Hobbs]

I'll check some of this out though I have a feeling Paul Noble is going to be this weeks winnar.

[pritch]

Kristian Ronge said:

The Paul Noble maps are likely very old (he contributed two great maps to MM2, so these were probably made before then). They'll be interesting to check out, though.

Aha, interesting, yes those are great maps indeed.

These maps did feel like someone testing out concepts without yet having the talent to really finish them to any standard. Bloodshedder thinks they may be from 1998, though we're not sure, could well be earlier still, and I can't think who'd have uploaded them now.

[Grazza]

The files are dated 26-Mar-1995, but that's just the date they were given on the shovelware compilation that they came from (I presume the anonymous uploader got it off the D-1000 disk). The same wads from another source (Sprint Gamers Companion 5) have dates of 5-Feb-1995. That may well be correct, given that it didn't impose its own dates on the files.

[Combustable]

You know, I want to play Mistake, but every time I do, I get the error "Script error, "ANIMDEFS" line 34: Unkown texture fan2" which bothers me. Do I need a specific build of Zdoom to use it, or what?

[leileilol]

im getting quite scathing reviews while its still better than most skins out there :(

[Nightmare Doom]

I can't get MTMistake to work (tried almost every version of ZDoom I have and I kept getting errors/crashes)

[Kaiser]

whoops, sorry about that, it requires skulltag, not zdoom

[Combustable]

That explains it, thanks, and now I run off to play it immediately

[exp(x)]

I may have to check out that jokewad. Thankfully single-player skulltag works fine in wine.

[Lüt]

Pritch said:

But in a good way.

Sentence fragment (consider revising).

[TheDarkArchon]

Joe said:

Problem is that the tome of power makes it revert to the hellstaff frames, it doesn't have its own tome special power it would seem. Possible bug there.

Strange. It works for me.

[Grazza]

Lüt said:

Sentence fragment (consider revising).

Ignore All

[mrdna1]

what's with the resurgence in jokewads? (okay, like two in the past few weeks, but still)

they're pretty cool and all (although anyone who uses JeffK-speak, ironic or not, should be slaughtered), but I'm starting to wonder if we'll see some kind of planetary collapse when someone makes an unintentionally bad jokewad.

[Csonicgo]

Grazza said:

Ignore All

isn't pritch an englilsh major?

and who is loloiloilioil and whatever is he/she/it talking about?

(edit: it's cheapskate. man, why don't you tell us when you get a sex/nick change?)

[Naan]

Fourth Heretic wad in a row in /newstuff !

Err, ok, the week's one is just a weapon mod...

[pritch]

Lüt said:

Sentence fragment (consider revising).

Poetic licence. :P

And don't believe anyone who tells you never to start a sentence with a conjunction. :P

[Craigs]

Oh dear, looks like Pcorf is going to have some competition for the mockaward... It seems that these Trickster guys did their homework before making their jokewad. Seems like they got some of their inspiration from Deathz0r's OMG COUNTERSTRIKE

[Tango]

Craigs said:

...Trickster guys...

Heh actually, Mega Trickster is female.

[Craigs]

Tango said:

Heh actually, Mega Trickster is female.

You mean Doomworld now has female Doomers!? TEH SEQCH!!!

[daimonreloaded]

mtmistake.wad is the most funniest (?) jokewad of the week. Thanks for effort. Most sick is map 11 is somenthing similar... the place full of mirrors...

[handojin]

Heya all, sorry to necropost on this thread, but i thought it might amuse you guys, it did me when i found it in a moment of nostalgia!

Today (at work) i was tasked with going thru an 10 year archive of past projects and it got me thinking about what my legacy was and went hunting out my old doom levels, specifically looking for (what i think) was my best doom2 level ever...

sadly i didnt find it and instead found this travesty of akkkmwad, god all mighty, i dont even remember creating it way back in 95!

I think with the demise of cdrom.com the 'works' on there have been reshovelled and so a lot of them have come back to the surface, but really this one should have remained dead i think, you can tell from the notes at what stage of development they were, it used dck1 and deu, hehe i think i used deu for about 3 months before moving entirely over to dck editing and produced the momento mori 2 levels (i really liked those ones), the dojodm 9 level dm pack and also my fave the riverfrt.wad level, which i've sadly lost, which was a shame as it was the last wad i made, all the textures were fine, the gameplay frantic and well paced, and used lots of special effects well learnt from 3 years editing.

ah well. unfortunately i got a job and had to knock a lot of that on the head, although i do certainly feel the urge to rejoin the fray :)

i'm horrified i released unfinished texture work, all i can do is apologise and thank you for appreciating the mm2 levels, i really enjoyed those levels, even though i had to compromise on the silos map, it was going to be bigger and the outside space all one area.

anyway enough wibble, but thought it might be funny :)

Paul Noble

[myk]

While it's true cdrom.com died, the idgames archive is still alive and kicking. I see that by searching in the database site for your name under "author" two WADs pop up in addition to the one reviewed here, including the DM set you mention and another '95 WAD which was uploaded in '07 by funduke.

[Craigs]

Nice 2 year bump.

[myk]

Craigs said:
Nice 2 year bump.

Not sure if you're being direct of sarcastic but this type of bump is quite welcome.