[W.I.P.] Yet Unnamed Aztec/Egyptian/Greek themed WAD

[Dislogical]

Hi everybody,

I'm Dislogical, french Doom player & mapper.
I already contributed to some wads in the past (especially Necromantic Thirst map 17 & 18 lately), and finally decided to start my own boom-compatible 32-maps megawad.
Being totally bored to see tech and/or military themed wads around, I wanted to focus on something more... "ancient".
The first episode will take place in antic aztec ruins ; the second one in some egyptian tomb & pyramids, surrounded by exotic landscapes ; to end in some of the bigger greek temples for the last episode.
There are 3 new enemies in the game, which I don't want to reveal already. Still, one of them is replacing Romero's Head as the final boss.

Here are some screenshots from the 2 maps completed at the moment.
http://i58.servimg.com/u/f58/18/59/08/91/screen10.jpg
http://www.servimg.com/u/f58/18/59/08/91/doom0110.jpg
http://www.servimg.com/u/f58/18/59/08/91/doom0410.jpg

People who know ruma.wad will recognize the suspension bridge made of ropes, while some others will recognize textures from Brotherhood Of Ruin.
I'm working on the 3rd map right now, and since I am kind of a reeeeally slow mapper, don't expect me to create a map each 2 days, haha

Cheers =)

[SFoZ911]

Looks very good so far, like the screenies alot, reminds me of epic 2.

So, you only have 2 completed maps so far?

[Dislogical]

Thanks for the good words =)
Yep, only 2 maps completed, I'm working on the 3rd one at the moment.
I started this in late february/early march, and since I'm so slow when creating my maps, don't expect this to be released really soon actually, haha x)

[40oz]

You sure you have it in you to do a full megawad? I'm sure a short episode of this would be great by itself! :)

[Dislogical]

Yes, I think that I am experienced enough to create the full 32-maps megawad, but it will take some time =)
Not very keen with the idea of releasing a short episode only, heh =)

[duh]

[scifista42]

SFoZ911 said:

reminds me of epic 2.

Agree. Nice screenshots. Good luck with your work. I can also recommend you to release some maps earlier than the final thing will be done. Not just because I'm curious, :), but it would be useful for you too. Specially feedback on gameplay, because gameplay is usually the thing which actually addresses players and determines quality.

[FireFish]

I like the look of this, nice architecture.

[Dislogical]

@ XCOPY : Yeah, I know about the arch, JCD's told me the same thing when he was testing it.
The problem is the following : the arch is NOT opened at first, it opens later. So I don't know how to change this... Maybe adjusting the textures of it? But the alignment will give a strange aspect of it I think... Any suggestion?

EDIT : here's a screenshot of what it gives when I adjust the textures so that it is not cut here and there :

http://i61.tinypic.com/33n86th.png

@ scifista42 : Many people telling me to release this by episode lately... I think I should do this. I'll think about it =) Thanks!

@ FireFish : thanks man =)

[PRIMEVAL]

Sexy screenies, looking forward to more!

[Dislogical]

Thank your Primeval =)

@ XCOPY : I guess this texture's fitting a bit more to that arch, take a look dude :

http://i59.tinypic.com/5cj86u.png

[Memfis]

I'd say finish this fully and then release it. I don't know about others but I'm personally getting tired of the modern trend of releasing demos/betas/etc. IMO it's much more exciting to get a full finished WAD after a long wait than to get 5 levels, then 5 more, etc. And if you want some playtesting just send your maps to a few selected people, no need to show unfinished work to the whole world.

Well, of course I can just ignore the betas so maybe this is a dumb post... The wad looks promising btw, I'm a big fan of RUINBROS' visual style.

[scifista42]

Dislogical said:

@ XCOPY : I guess this texture's fitting a bit more to that arch, take a look dude :

http://i59.tinypic.com/5cj86u.png

I personally think it doesn't make much difference of the overall feel, since it's still "just a brick wallpaper", therefore not ideal for an arch. Of course useable, but it could have been better. Maybe use textures so that the seams between them look like in here: http://i.imgur.com/VQ4O9m2.png (the part above the arch might be made of a darker/different texture than the rest)

[Ribbiks]

Memfis said:

it's much more exciting to get a full finished WAD after a long wait

how would you know that you're waiting for a full project if you aren't yet aware that it exists?

[Memfis]

Maybe I know about it from an announcement thread or something? But of course surprise releases are even better than yelling "WHEN KS2" for 10 years.

[SFoZ911]

Or fucking BTSX E2..

[Steve D]

Memfis said:

Maybe I know about it from an announcement thread or something? But of course surprise releases are even better than yelling "WHEN KS2" for 10 years.

You make some good points, but then us mappers would miss all the fun attention-whoring that we get from posting betas and teaser maps. ;D But it's not just attention-whoring, because posting betas can also provide that extra encouragement to keep going. Then again, once you have enough reliable testers, you can accomplish the same thing in the way you suggest, but in order to get reliable testers, you have to post betas for awhile until you get known a little bit. It's a conundrum.

[Steve D]

@Dislogical - I really like the look of this so far. I like the Eqyptian theme, being a big fan of Osiris, so having that is already good news to me. But the Aztec and Ancient Greek themes are excitingly different, since I've never played maps with those themes in Doom. Looking forward to this!

[Breezeep]

Looks promising, Better hope it's not some trick terry wad.

[Darch]

Breezeep, what exactly makes you think that??

Dislogical said:

The problem is the following : the arch is NOT opened at first, it opens later. So I don't know how to change this... Maybe adjusting the textures of it? But the alignment will give a strange aspect of it I think... Any suggestion?

I think upper unpegged aliment will do it. Nice shots, BTW.

[Dislogical]

Ok, just re-worked this arch, I think that it looks better this way :

http://i60.tinypic.com/2dc7r47.png

[scifista42]

Dislogical said:

Ok, just re-worked this arch, I think that it looks better this way :

http://i60.tinypic.com/2dc7r47.png

Yep, I think it's way better. :)

[DeathevokatioN]

Looks fantastic man, good luck!!!
Agree completely about tech base themes as well.

[duh]

[Dislogical]

Thanks mate =)
BTW, here's another screenshot from Map03 :

http://i60.tinypic.com/xksui9.png

Still working on this one, that's ok I guess. Gotta cut these bricks tightly.

[Dislogical]

Hi guys,

Here's some new screenshots from map03, getting in shape slowly but surely.

http://i61.tinypic.com/k2muiq.jpg
http://i59.tinypic.com/245euch.jpg
http://i60.tinypic.com/abt2eg.jpg
http://i61.tinypic.com/2nrouu.jpg

I think it'll be finished soon, hopefully I'll finally start to create map04 =)

[jdagenet]

Looks very nice. I like ancient, egyptian themed levels.

What's your take going to be on music?
I know music always comes last in projects, but have you given it any thought?

[Memfis]

You know, this seems to be one of the rare cases where the original Doom 2 E1 sky actually fits the levels. Or are you going to change it anyway?

[Dislogical]

@ jdagenet : yep, thinking about musics I could add to the project, and I'm also working with a good friend of mine who's also good in terms of midi-music creating, SidZetmeck =)

@ memfis : I think I'm gonna change it, but nothing's definitive about skies at the moment. Since I have the possibility to change the sky at will in each and every map because of the format I'm working with, I guess that this sky COULD stay in this map. Nothing sure right now though =)

[Dislogical]

Hi guys,
Some new stuff here. As I said at the top of this topic, I'm really freaking slow in terms of mapping speed, and I eventually finished map03 after some months of inactivity. That definitely doesn't mean that I'm bored or something, I just take a huge load of time to create maps =)

Here are some screenshots of the last part I made in map03, which finishes the map for good :

http://i74.servimg.com/u/f74/18/59/08/91/screen10.jpg
http://i74.servimg.com/u/f74/18/59/08/91/screen11.jpg
http://i74.servimg.com/u/f74/18/59/08/91/screen12.jpg

Hope you like them. I'm gonna start working on map04 when... Well, whenever I got some decent creative content popping out of my brain x)