The /newstuff Chronicles #364

[esselfortium]

Make sure nomonsters isn't enabled in S5COOP02, and wait 30 seconds. There was a bug at some point early on where one of the random spawns wouldn't work, but that was fixed. Or at least, it should be; I checked for it and corrected it somewhere along the line :-\

For what it's worth, I just googled space deathmatch 5 now for some other responses in other places, and it seems that most of the responses are either the same people saying it's awesome (many of whom are Jetsons members), or non-Jetsons members saying it's awful.

And seriously? Virtually every time I've played SpaceDM5 online, the server has filled up pretty quickly, often mostly with people I don't know at all, it gets mentioned with relative frequency in short lists of quality wads on Skulltag forums, and the general reaction is typically pretty positive. I've gotten Private Messages from people I've never heard of before surprising me with how much they enjoyed it. I don't know. (It's probably worth noting that quite a few of the old regulars on ST are honorary Jetsons members, if that explains the "many of whom are Jetsons members" at all.) There's also the older threads from where pretty much only the maps you hated existed yet. <_<

Honestly when we play it we usually set up the server maplist to skip a couple select levels here and there (the bowl map, the chasm ctf, etc.) and the rest is a lot of fun. Very little of it is really intended for "serious" competitive play, but maps like Planet Xerox: Xerox Edition, Moon Shoes, The Hunt For Red Lobstober, and a number of others are totally playable as serious maps. It was even, for some reason, used for the official launch party of Skulltag 98a; as far as I know this was done without the influence of anyone who worked on it.

Sorry to hear you guys didn't have fun; there is some sort of followup in the works, though I'm contractually obligated to keep my mouth shut about it for the time being. Chances are you'll enjoy it a lot more.

[infurnus1]

Melon said:

Wait, what have I done wrong here? My review of the 1024 concentrates on a lot of negative stuff and comes across as me not liking it or at least being incredibly petty, so I'm saying that actually I do like it.

Don't worry, that part was in jest. I understand what you meant.

[Melon]

esselfortium said:

Make sure nomonsters isn't enabled in S5COOP02, and wait 30 seconds. There was a bug at some point early on where one of the random spawns wouldn't work, but that was fixed. Or at least, it should be; I checked for it and corrected it somewhere along the line :-\

Oh Goddamn I am so sorry. It was indeed turned off, but because monsters still spawn in Invasion mode it never occurred to me that that would be the problem. Doh! It works now.

Also my google searches weren't really all that in context, I just wanted to see what other people were saying about it and it looked like there was a big divide in who liked it and who didn't. If it's really popular then more power to you guys, it's definitely not my cup of tea but I think we've established that by now haha.

Also also, a bunch of the guys I'd played with had actually never played Doom online before, I'd been trying to convince them to give it a shot, and when looking for a deathmatch wad, found this one in newstuff that had a really high idgames rating. The fact that I could review it afterwards seemed like a bonus. As it turns out, this was probably a mistake, it ended up with a bunch of cynics playing gimmick maps (I don't think they'll be playing again :/ ) If this has made my review really unfair then I'm sorry. It's not my intention to give the wrong impression.

[esselfortium]

Melon said:

Oh Goddamn I am so sorry. It was indeed turned off, but because monsters still spawn in Invasion mode it never occurred to me that that would be the problem. Doh! It works now.

I figured that'd do it. ;)

Also my google searches weren't really all that in context, I just wanted to see what other people were saying about it and it looked like there was a big divide in who liked it and who didn't. If it's really popular then more power to you guys, it's definitely not my cup of tea but I think we've established that by now haha.

Well, there's definitely somewhat of a divide, for sure, and I'm not sure if it legitimately counts as "really popular"... It seems to get mentioned a lot, but usually only played if I or someone goes out of my way to try getting a game of it started, though we usually have a lot of fun with it once it's begun.

You might be wondering why stuff like the bowl map is even still in there if I acknowledge it's bad. That one was sort of intended to be replaced at some point during development, but we never got around to it and, even though it's likely that absolutely no one agrees with me, I didn't feel right ripping out pieces of early SpaceDM5 development history. Here. This is SpaceDM5's development in comic form I guess.

Also also, a bunch of the guys I'd played with had actually never played Doom online before, I'd been trying to convince them to give it a shot, and when looking for a deathmatch wad, found this one in newstuff that had a really high idgames rating. The fact that I could review it afterwards seemed like a bonus. As it turns out, this was probably a mistake, it ended up with a bunch of cynics playing gimmick maps (I don't think they'll be playing again :/ ) If this has made my review really unfair then I'm sorry. It's not my intention to give the wrong impression.

Oh dear lord, I can imagine. Definitely not the sort of thing to get a first impression of Doom multiplayer from, though I think at least some of the maps could be if taken separately.

[Philnemba]

I like Spacedm5...even through 99% of the time theres no one on the servers but there still the addictive Treadmill minigame and the cool HUEG Blue map to play around.

edit: Also every time I tried joining a SpaceDM5 server it saids "Level Authentication failed" and I'm using the version from the Idgames archives.

[esselfortium]

Philnemba said:

I like Spacedm5...even through 99% of the time theres no one on the servers but there still the addictive Treadmill minigame and the cool HUEG Blue map to play around.

edit: Also every time I tried joining a SpaceDM5 server it saids "Level Authentication failed" and I'm using the version from the Idgames archives.

That's odd; maybe the server is running on a different version of Skulltag than you have? If it's not that, I have no idea. :\

[Walter confetti]

sure this is the most awesome newstuff reviews from ages!
maybe too much to read in some parts, but there's no problem.

[mammajamma]

Is anyone else getting visplane errors in chocolate from Simply Phobos? In E1M1, every time I open the door in the southwest stairway in the second ares, Chocolate keeps crashing with R_DrawPlane errors or something like that.

[myk]

Yeah, a VPO certainly occurs there. You'll have to use Doom+ on DOSBox or something like PrBoom+ to play this WAD with vanilla behavior.

[Philnemba]

esselfortium said:

That's odd; maybe the server is running on a different version of Skulltag than you have? If it's not that, I have no idea. :\

Actually I think the servers are still using the original release version of Spacedm5 and not the v1.1 bug fix version hence the "Level Authentication failed". Not 100% sure since through.

[negke]

Melon, "nothing spectacular and not very memorable" is the same impression I had, that's why I didn't upload the map in the first place. I'm glad to see some people seem to enjoy it, though. Back then, the contest itself didn't generate much interest. Your review doesn't sound overly negative to me, so no harm done.

[Super Jamie]

Shorten that strafejump, stop the chaingunners nerfing the cacos, make a better end battle and you'd have yourself a top map!

[Cjwright79]

Alfonso, what were you running Falstaff in when you took those screenshots? Looks pretty sharp.

[Xaser]

SpaceDM5 really is a "love it or hate it" sort of experience. Some of us nutty types like the whole "watch your step or become space dust" type of thing, for whatever reason. Though yes, some maps (Spayss Duhl, anyone?) are absolutely not meant to be taken seriously at all. :P

Funny how I managed to miss Simply Phobos the first time around. Guess I'll have to see what I've missed...

[Hellbent]

Astican - Chris Wright
Limit Removing - Solo Play - 115170 bytes
Reviewed by: Mr. Freeze
Astican is a recent map by the controversial CJWright. I have not played any of his other maps, so there is nothing to compare this to.

Upon downloading the .zip, I always take a look at the attached .txt file to prepare myself for the WAD. The very first thing I saw upon bringing the .txt file up was this gem:

"1. There are no secrets
2. This is a linear level
3. Yes, I am comfortable with this"

Oh JOY.

Right off the bat, something is very wrong. The very first room contains a Baron, two Cacodemons, shotgun guys, Chaingunners, and several Imps. On a pistol start. Any difficulty above ITYTD resulted in sandpaper-covered-dildo-buttfucking aggravation, and I wasn't even out of the first room! I've beaten both Hell Revealeds on UV, but starting the player off like this just screams idiocy.

The rest of the level is a jumbled mess. The rooms range from rock/stone to techbase in the span of one room, the entire level is crammed full of powerful monsters without much health, and the whole WAD feels like a beta. The first room has a door that does not open and has no tag. A staircase near the end switches textures from STEP1 to BRICK12 without any hint of transition. Techbase and wood themes both used at once, resulting in laughably clashing sights. This entire WAD reeks not only of laziness, but of ineptitude.

I have no idea what CJ was trying to get across with this WAD, but it backfired badly. The best advice I can give him is to shut up, man up, and try harder.

Much the same way people think CJWright shouldn't be posting on the forums, you shouldn't be reviewing wads.

How many well reviewed wads are there that have really hard beginnings? There was one awhile back that was ridiculously hard, but everyone liked it (incomparable to this in difficulty, as in this is a cakewalk). The beginning of this wad isn't even that hard, it just requires different tactics.. which is, omg, refreshing: ie, get the hell out of the first room, and rely on infighting. How can you not appreciate the arrangement of the first two rooms? Doesn't mean you sit back and watch the infighting, but you let the infighting take some of the heat off you. It's actually very intelligent game design and Cjwright's designs are very original and refreshing, appropriately detailed (generally not beautiful) with gameplay at the forefront (the way it should be) as compared to really polished MONOTONOUS themed maps with mostly repetitive gameplay... Then again, Citizen Kane is the greatest movie of all time, so what do I know....

This wad at least has interesting and creative, original rooms/areas and gameplay implementations that have you 'playing outside the box'. And the "clashing" of themes is refreshing. Breaks up the monotony nicely and contrasts the dark, interesting design of the wood areas with the tech areas. Yeah, it's not polished, but not polished does not a bad wad make. The non-linearity is done well enough.

[Creaphis]

I agree with part of that, actually - I found the beginning of that level to be quite fun. The problem with that level is how the quality tapers very sharply, and ends with two large flat areas that can be cleared from the doorway. If there were actually some architectural features at the end that made the gameplay interesting then I could forgive the spartan visuals. But there's just nothing.

Strangely, Cjwright79 demanded that we take his maps extremely seriously, though he himself didn't take them seriously enough to even finish them. He's admitted that he only works on a map until bored of it, and that always shows.

This should probably be the last post in this thread. I already made enough fun of Cj with my "poll" and don't really want to stir up more shit.