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Doom: Episode Zero

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Some of you saw my post about a small community project about a week ago. Ten levels that take place before E1M1, with the tenth level ending as you open a door, revealing the opening sector of E1M1.

The backstory: You get a distress call from Phobos that ends abruptly. You are part of a top secret branch of the UAC. The prequel starts before they've mastered teleportation. So it actually requires a tech guy to program the teleporter whenever you want to use it. When you step on the pad to the Phobos receiver, the last person you see is the programmer. When you get to Phobos, something is wrong.

So, here's the first map. A short teaser that I only spent about a week on. But I think it turned out alright. Let me know what you guys think. The final sector is supposed to be a lift that takes you under the surface of Mars, the next level will be taking place underground.

This is a MAP01 replacement, and does not require brutal doom. I use gzdoom, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with other ports.

I shared this to see if anybody would be interested in being a part of this project.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/ysrl13iskij9s2a/opening.wad

REQUIRES MORTRES AND GOTHICTX TEXTURE PACKS, AVAILABLE HERE.

http://www.wad-archive.com/wad/455af0292472383a19841bf4692e002c

http://www.wad-archive.com/wad/0eae6e13a4406d92152a1e5c6fef72a6

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Running this in ZDoom with the Doom 2 IWAD I see the draughtsboard "missing texture" error in a lot of places - is this designed for use with an alternate IWAD or does it require a texture pack?

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Aw crap, sorry. I forgot to mention that this does require Mortres and Gothictx texture packs. I have provided them in the original post now. Sorry about that.

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Question: are you using raised sectors as walls? It's a beginner mistake I used to do and it ends up being way more trouble than it's worth later on: delete the wall sectors and retexture and you'll be fine. Also, if you're using GZDoom I'd recommend having stationary NPC marines instead of voodoo dolls, it kind of looks bad to have them dotted around a level.

Level wise I'd recommend having a larger and more expansive opening level if you wanna impress people: a good example of a prelude level would be the one from The Prometheus Experiment if you need an example. You appear to be getting the hang of detailing and lighting though, so no problems there: just build on what you have, make things a bit more spacious and you'll be set.

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Obsidian said:

Question: are you using raised sectors as walls? It's a beginner mistake I used to do and it ends up being way more trouble than it's worth later on: delete the wall sectors and retexture and you'll be fine. Also, if you're using GZDoom I'd recommend having stationary NPC marines instead of voodoo dolls, it kind of looks bad to have them dotted around a level.

Level wise I'd recommend having a larger and more expansive opening level if you wanna impress people: a good example of a prelude level would be the one from The Prometheus Experiment if you need an example. You appear to be getting the hang of detailing and lighting though, so no problems there: just build on what you have, make things a bit more spacious and you'll be set.


Much thank you, sir!

And yes, I am using raised sectors as walls, but that's just because of the open outdoor area outside. Is there any other way we can still keep the same look without using raised wall sectors?

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I played it. Some notes:

1) Work on your sense of scale. So many of the hallways are unnaturally tiny.

2) The computers in the caco room -- which is too small as well -- have alignment issues.

3) I would have liked better battles. I know you wanted it to be easy, but this was too easy. Beyond the surprise cacodemon, there wasn't much in the level to get the blood jumping. Consider increasing the monster density in the circle room on UV by five-fold (or more -- whatever testing suggests).

4) I liked the marine conceit at the start, though it would have been better if they weren't voodoo dolls -- you take damage when you shoot them, which ruins the immersion. In ZDoom you can use "marine" objects, which aren't tethered to you by blood (with "friendly" and "dormant" flags, so they neither try to kill you nor start walking around aimlessly).

5) Your circles don't need hundreds of vertices -- a smaller number would create the same effect, and better. The larger circles are there purely for the automap, and even still, they look wobbly because the high density of vertices can't snap smoothly to the 1x1 grid.

6) Ugh, d_runnin. When you start chaining levels together, learn how to replace music in SLADE. Sparing people from having to listen to d_runnin cultivates good will. :)

7) I like some of the creativity on display -- the little "base" you have, the nukage tunnel.

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rdwpa said:

I played it. Some notes:

1) Work on your sense of scale. So many of the hallways are unnaturally tiny.

2) The computers in the caco room -- which is too small as well -- have alignment issues.

3) I would have liked better battles. I know you wanted it to be easy, but this was too easy. Beyond the surprise cacodemon, there wasn't much in the level to get the blood jumping. Consider increasing the monster density in the circle room on UV by five-fold (or more -- whatever testing suggests).

4) I liked the marine conceit at the start, though it would have been better if they weren't voodoo dolls -- you take damage when you shoot them, which ruins the immersion. In ZDoom you can use "marine" objects, which aren't tethered to you by blood (with "friendly" and "dormant" flags, so they neither try to kill you nor start walking around aimlessly).

5) Your circles don't need hundreds of vertices -- a smaller number would create the same effect, and better. The larger circles are there purely for the automap, and even still, they look wobbly because the high-density of vertices can't snap smoothly to the 1x1 grid.

6) Ugh, d_runnin. When you start chaining levels together, learn how to replace music in SLADE. Sparing people from having to listen to d_runnin cultivates good will. :)

7) I like some of the creativity on display -- the little "base" you have, the nukage tunnel.


Thank you for the notes! Chances are I am going to redesign this level before I release any more levels for it. This was just to give a feel for what I had in mind. A beta version if you will.

Increasing the density of monsters in the room is something I wouldn't mind doing.

I appreciate your compliments on creativity. The nukage tunnel was my favorite little creative point in the level. I wanted the teleporter to take away a little health to show that the UAC hadn't quite grasped teleportation at that time, giving the level a "pre-doom" feel to it.

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If you're serious I guess we could work together to make a couple of maps. I haven't worked with doom in hexen format for years though but it would be nice to get back into learning scripts. I'm lazy so it'd be nice to have someone counting on me to make maps to get me working... so yeah, I'd like to make a few maps together for fun for your project and we'd both probably learn something cool along the way (hopefully I get better at deciding what first darn room to make). PM me if you want

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Update:

The first map of Episode Zero should be ready anytime now. I'm just waiting for Cupcake to finish his half.

Any idea when that might get done, man?

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Du Mhan Yhu said:

2 different "Doom: Episode Zero"? wads?


No, why?

I made two threads like a tool.

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TraceOfSpades said:

I made two threads like a tool.

The tool of your doom.

I mean, it's not a good thing to do on the forum.

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scifista42 said:

The tool of your doom.

I mean, it's not a good thing to do on the forum.


My mistake there.

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I sent half of Map01 to somebody on here a couple weeks ago and haven't gotten anything back from him yet.

So if anybody else would be interested in doing the second half of it, send me a private message and I'll get it over to you.

I really want to collaborate.

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