upcoming project: lost in doom.

[PhilibusMo]

I shall start by saying this: this is currently very little more than an idea, so don't get too excited/annoyed by the idea before anything actually begins to get going. Also I already have a megawad on the go so this is taking a back seat from the start.

Right now on to the actual idea:

I am a big fan of the TV series Lost, and having played the official Lost game 'Lost Via Domus' and being quite underwhelmed by it I started thinking about how it could have been improved. This got me thinking (as the doom engine is the only engine I have an understanding of how to use effectively) how a wad based on Lost would work, or if it even could work. I quite liked the idea and started creating some Dharma textures and tree sprites on photoshop, but I am getting ahead of myself.

There are 3 fundamental problems:

1. The island is 3D, the doom engine isn't.
2. Doom is built for action. Lost would make a better rpg/puzzle game.
3. I have very little scripting knowedge beyond the basics.

All of these could be overcome I am sure, but is just finding a way around them.

Here are some more basic ideas:
*The island should be a hub level, with the swan, the barracks and other such structures being little mini levels that can be entered and left at will.
*the island should change dynamically, given the progress through the game so that you can access new areas as the story progresses.
*The game should follow a completely new charcter and his adventures on the island
*The game must be true to the lost story and could even explain some of the very small mysterys that have no bearing on the actual storyline so probably won't be answered by the actual show.
*There should be interactions with the other survivors
*The island should have ambient noise and small creatures and flies to make it feel alive
*There could be important choices in the game, which effect how the rest of the game plays out, eg whether to stick with the survivors or join the others.

that is all I can think of for the moment.if anyone is interested or feels like they wouldn't mind helping this project along if it ever gets off the ground then please reply. If people actually appear to be mildly interested in a lost themed wad then I will give my best shot at bringing out some content so you can decide whether its would be any good or not. In the meantime if I could be pointed towards wads with some tropical looking trees in them or similar than I would be greatful as it would help give it a bit of flesh and start it going. I am currently working on the interior of The Swan to see if it is technically viable.

thankyou

[Creaphis]

PhilibusMo, before you start asking for help on your new mega-cool-and-whatnot project, make sure you have something to show first (screenshots, map downloads, etc). Keep in mind we've already seen thousands of upcoming projects that actually never got done.

Sorry, but I haven't had the chance to use newproject tags before.

[esselfortium]

PhilibusMo said:

PLEASE, I BEG YOU DO NOT REVEAL ANY SPOILERS ABOUT SEASON 4 OR LATER as I am yet to see all of season 4. thankyou

Karen dies.

Karen Carpenter.

[PhilibusMo]

I now have a few new textures and am gonan start making the hatch and island to see if it could work. Could anyone point me towards a wad with some good tropical tree sprites that I could use temporarily?

[Hellbent]

My friend is currently working on a tropical island wad for DM (now that I think of it, it could be a setting for Lost, but his island is very small.) I will ask him if you can use his trees.

[Craigs]

esselfortium said:

Karen dies.

Karen Carpenter.

[PhilibusMo]

ok, im still looking for trees as my few attempts really have been very shoddy also, I am hoping to have the first version of the map of the swan (the hatch) up by end of next week.

[Craigs]

Biovite had a couple of tropical looking plants in it, but you'll need to send an email to Milian and see if he'll let you use em first. As for help beyond that, you're going to need to show evidence of what you've done for the project first. We see huge ambitious projects like this all the time, and they rarely ever get off the ground.

[PhilibusMo]

yh ok, thats fair enough. Its kinda annoying as I have pretty well formed ideas in my head and even a new story line coming along quite well, yet I have next to no idea how to implement these ideas so that they will work effectively in zdoom. But I shall have hopefully have a small indoor map (a littl rough but mostly complete) up by the end of this week if all goes well. end of next week if it doesn't.

[TimeOfDeath]

Stranded Coop has some really tall palm trees in it.

[PhilibusMo]

ok, sorry for the long wiat, just thoght I should mention that this project is back up and running again after a hard drive failure wiped out what I had done. That'll teach me to not make backups.
Anyway I'm now back to where I was and am now wondering how to change the player size in zdoom? I have tried to work it out using the zdoom wiki but to no avail so any help would be appreciated.
Also is it possible to have an episodic format using the DOOM2 iwad?

[Lorenzo]

Sometimes ago i started a doom 2 map inspired by Lost... there was the beach, the crashed airplane, the Rousseau bunker and so on...
I never finished it but i really liked as i did the trees on the beach.

I'll post some shot ASAP.

[PhilibusMo]

That sounds pretty interesting, so far i have the start of the island, not an awful lot, a few trees, some sand. I also have made most of the Swan (or the hatch if you prefere to call it that) it is still pretty rough but I think the rooms and proportions are all good, even if the textures could do with some work, as could the objects and other little things in there. But post some screenies and if you want to you could upload your wad and so I can take a proper look at what you have done.

[GreyGhost]

PhilibusMo said:

Anyway I'm now back to where I was and am now wondering how to change the player size in zdoom? I have tried to work it out using the zdoom wiki but to no avail so any help would be appreciated.

I take it you have a DECORATE script for the player but ZDoom doesn't want to know about it. Have you added the following lines to your KEYCONF lump? (I've named your actor "LostGuy" just for convenience)

clearplayerclasses
addplayerclass LostGuy

[CeeJay]

This sounds very ambitious, i can't see one person pulling this off by himself. But i could be wrong (one huge island with many locations, interactive character and progressing storyline). I'm also a fan of the series, one of the few series i actually watch on TV.

[PhilibusMo]

I realise that it is pretty ambitious, and I have really started it at the wrong time as I have quite allot going on, so it is going to be slow. Should pick up soon though as I get more free time after towards the end of may onwards.
I'm still having trouble with the things I stated above and am considering moving this project onto a 3d port instead of zdoom as it would probably work betetr when different characters have to be shown. Would be easier to tell the difference between them.