The Great Bicycle Mystery - A Cooperative Megawad --- RELEASED

[Cupboard]

The WAD has been released. Click:

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=14954

______________
The Great Bicycle Mystery is a 15 level megawad for cooperative Doom II play for 2-4 people, NOT single-player. It includes many new textures, new music, and a new enemy that replaces the Nazi (by Chain Mail). You can expect to die to multiple times in the levels, which is intended. This megawad is vanilla, but it will require a limit-removing port. All levels were designed to be linear, good looking, and easy to just start playing with a group of strangers or friends. And, umm... no jumping. All levels are being tested by 2 players over a LAN connection.

The project is actually done, though. After a year's work of recycling old work and constructing new material, the level set is finished. All that is left is to test the levels some more, last minute detailing, and then release.



EDIT: As always, comments/suggestions are appreciated.

[Vegeta]

Well, congratulations! It's allways nice to hear about finished (or almost) DOOM projects. BTW, why is it co-op only?

[scwiba]

Vegeta said:

BTW, why is it co-op only?

It's about time there was a good WAD really focused on solid co-op play.

[kristus]

Lovely. :)

Some strange/poor texturing in those shots. But it looks ok for the most part.

RoneKyakone said:

It's about time there was a good WAD really focused on solid co-op play.

Most definitely.

I just hope there's more to the cooperative part than just having really really hard maps-

[printz]

Off the top of my head, isn't "Memento mori" already a big coop megawad? At a point in a level, I couldn't go ahead by myself because a switch was lowering a lift I couldn't reach.

[kristus]

No.

[Naan]

I wonder if this can be played coop through the Internet, as my RL friends laughts at me when I see I'm still playing Doom... :x

[kristus]

Err, ever heard of these source ports?

Odamex
Skulltag
Zdaemon
CSdoom
Legacy
Zdoom
Vavoom
Doomsday

just to name a few.

[Scuba Steve]

Agreed, I hope this is more than just hard maps. I twould be fun to have cooperative puzzles and switches to access different and split areas.

[Vegeta]

RoneKyakone said:

It's about time there was a good WAD really focused on solid co-op play.

I didn't complain about the fact it's co-op only, I just asked if it's only super hard maps, or if there's something else.

I agree it'd be better if it's more than superhard maps, yet if that only means some annoying switch based puzzles then I keep with the hard maps alone.

Personaly I think that for co-op nothing beats survival mode with not so dificult maps.

[Naan]

kristus said:

Err, ever heard of these source ports?

*hides*

[Tango]

TheCupboard said:

You can expect to die to multiple times in the levels, which is intended.

Why must you torture us so ;_;

[Combustable]

Can't go wrong if you take examples from Gears of War for coop

[Doom Marine]

TheCupboard said:

You can expect to die to multiple times in the levels, which is intended.

For demo-recording purposes, I hope that all of your levels can be exitable without dying from pistol start on UV.

[printz]

kristus said:

Err, ever heard of these source ports?

Odamex
...
CSdoom

Not until today.

[myk]

printz said:
Not until today.

If you're kind of new perhaps you missed CSDoom (the father of Internet Doom engines, from where both ZDaemon and Skulltag stemmed), but Odamex was news not too long ago on the front page.

Haven't you ever browsed the Source Ports section of Doomworld? There's also Quasar's 10 years Genealogy.

[Cupboard]

Everything is done, really. It is currently ready for release, but I am reconsidering difficulty levels on almost all of the maps. I am still wondering about making provisions for players that don't want to die during the maps, etc. But anyway, I tested all of the maps yesterday with a partner and we had a good time. Best of all was probably the last level which is a change of pace from all of the other ones and a great way to end the series.

Thanks for all comments and suggestions.

[Dutch Doomer]

Its an nice idea but I think you should aim for an bigger crowd I would make them at least playable on dm and single but maybe thats just me I would want the whole package :p

[Combustable]

Well when do you think we might expect it, if you're going to make some more changes? I mean it sounds just about done and I, personally, am going to murder someone if I don't get to play this soon, I want it!

[myk]

You could release a "beta" version, and thus get an idea if any changes are necessary, form any input.

[SyntherAugustus]

myk said:

You could release a "beta" version, and thus get an idea if any changes are necessary, form any input.

2nded.

[Vegeta]

In case you do so, be sure to put "beta" in the wad file, or people may get confused.

[Cupboard]

Thanks everyone for the support. The first post has been updated with a download link to a beta version. Any further suggestions after playing through would be greatly appreciated. Be sure to read the textfile for VERY important information! My email is in my profile and text file for the download. Sorry, I know some people don't like Rapid Share, but I have never personally had a problem using it.

I'm not expecting much feedback since (like Dutch Devil said) I'm aiming at a small crowd of players.

[kristus]

dutch devil said:

Its an nice idea but I think you should aim for an bigger crowd I would make them at least playable on dm and single but maybe thats just me I would want the whole package :p

Quality over Quantity.

[Cupboard]

I forgot to update this. The maps are too hard and unfair for single-player. Just in case anyone missed it in newstuff:

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=14954

More feedback would be great, since I've already started some more editing work for other levels.

[Jethro]

I am going to go though it on single player, becuase I can.
After a bit of playtesting, I'll edit this post, posthaste.
First level: Gwah! Awesome! keep getting "Segmentation violation" though. :/ I can't play through all of it, just until the arachnotron. You over-used imps on the first level. I like the health bonus over-use, it seems like something I'd do.

[myk]

Jethro said:
First level: Gwah! Awesome! keep getting "Segmentation violation" though. :/

Are you using a plain engine, such as Doom95? The first line of the text file says "some kind of limit removing port to prevent crashes that can occur", in bold for "Advanced engine needed". You can get one of those here (at least to start checking, many have their own websites). I'd suggest one of the three where it says "Tested With", to be sure.

[Jethro]

I was using doomsday, but I'm willing to switch to another for this one.