Operation UAC - Brutal Doom Wad

[Chezza]

Description
A Brutal Doom experience with unique triggered events, detailed maps, themed levels and custom content such as Music, Monsters and Textures. Not enough wads take advantage of the mechanics of Brutal Doom and modern source ports. This wad utilizes advanced features to create unique and entertaining scenarios for Doomer's of all skill types.

I'm always looking for feedback, particularly ideas that may help improve player's entertainment.

Requirements

Source Port: Modern version of Zandronum
Mod: Brutal Doom V20B

Notes:
- Strictly a Singleplayer Wad
- Jump and Crouch required
- Difficulty levels will hide or unlock rooms / content

I recommend difficulty 4 to 5 for experienced Doomers. Realism mode not supported.

**Download Links**
https://www.mediafire.com/?3ndkp3zm6rj8x8c

 

Pics and Downloads on Moddb

https://www.moddb.com/mods/brutal-doom/addons/operation-uac

*If GZDoom has issues loading Brutal Doom, download the 64 bit build* http://forum.drdteam.org/download/file.php?id=2897

**See Spoiler for Screenshots**

Spoiler

Map 3: Biochemical Lab

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Map 4: Production Facility

upload pic

Map 6: Corrupted Caverns

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Map 6: Corrupted Caverns

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Update Archive

Spoiler

May 2016

• Now GZDoom friendly! Requires 64 bit release - http://forum.drdteam.org/download/file.php?id=2897
• Added 3 Difficulty Settings. 3 and below are easy, 4 is standard and 5 is challenging.
• Added unique rooms and traps only activated by higher difficulties.
• Created an introductory room for the Wraith enemy in Map 2.
• Removed the Monster 'Agaures' due to lack of use (feedback)
• Added visual indicators to most unusable doors
• Made adjustment to Map 9 triggers. Machine vs Monster encounters are now more frequent

January 2016

• Updated Wad to specifically run with Brutal Doom V20B
• Added Map 09 - 'Taint' (Boss Fight)
• Added Map 08 - 'Classified Facility'
• Added 2 Intermission text screens
• Added 2 new triggered events in Map 01
• Added various V2B Brutal Doom specific triggers
• Removed: Poison Soul & Roach monster(feedback)
• Fixed all broken triggers
• Re-balanced ammo and supply pickups
• Added additional BD specific events
• Cleaned up automap, now easier to navigate

November 2015

• Added Map 07 'The Aftermath'
• Added more monsters in various maps (feedback)
• The music of Map 04 'Production Facility' has been replaced to a more subtle song (feedback)
• Increased monster count and difficulty in Map 06 'Corrupted Caverns' (feedback)
• Added Boss Death sequence with collapsing ceiling and also added additional sfx
• Increased the success rate of Baron vs Marine trigger in Map 02 'Base Entrance'
• Corrected various texture offsets, slight redesign of some maps, added some more lighting depth and wall details to Map 06
• Multiple bug fixes, minor re-balancing of pickups

 

 

Edited July 22, 2019 by Chezza

[gaspe]

Ok but where's the download link?

Edit: missed the last line sorry.

[Chezza]

gaspe said:

Ok but where's the download link?

I was waiting on approval via the Newstuff section however I will upload and provide a link here shortly.

**Edit**

Uploaded File, Added Link.

[Walter confetti]

looks cool from screenshots, downloading now...

[Dav_NW]

Soon as i configure Zandronum i'll try this one, i'm eager to see how you exploited all the features of Brutal Doom.

[Merry Widow]

This was a lot of fun.Nice graphics, good gameplay.

[Chezza]

grouchbag said:

This was a lot of fun.Nice graphics, good gameplay.

I'm glad you liked it!

Do you have any major criticisms you feel I should know about? Also how did the trigger events with the Baron in Map 2 go? Did you see the BaronofHell rip that Marine in half as the door slowly opened?

[ShadesMaster]

Can't... find... download... in... link... provided!!!!

[Chezza]

ShadesMaster said:

Can't... find... download... in... link... provided!!!!

It's using a free upload service. You will have to select one of the two, free user or Premium. Naturally you would select free, for me I have to select it twice to start the download.

[scalliano]

Was about to come on here with a mountain of criticism until I realised I'd been playing vanilla when the .WAD is optimised for BD :facepalm:

Need to go back and fire it up again properly, suffice to say the music is MAP03 is fucking bangin' :D

[Chezza]

Excellent I'm excited to hear your feedback. Don't forget this is my first Wad and I don't think people treat it as such. Anyway overtime I have learned of issues myself but also after a livestream of my map being tested I gained some useful feedback.

I need to push for more Brutal Doom features / events to help justify the BD requirement, increase in some difficulty or at least increase monster count, slow down on custom content and fix up some texture offsets. I'm having a real struggle improving the aesthetics of map 6 and working on the monster numbers, use of space and less repetitive wall textures.

Since this is only 6 levels, most of the criticism makes total sense. However I am planning to transform this into a Megawad and chapter one is more of a introduction with easy difficulty. Level 7 already has a superior use of aesthetics and events with a neat new ending to map 6. The Tech Base will now gradually transform into a Hellish environment which is going to be really fun.

[Kappes Buur]

[Chezza]

**Wad Updated - November 2015**

• Added Map 7 'The Aftermath' - increased difficulty, traps and monster count due to later chapter
  
• Added more monsters in various maps (feedback)
  
• The music of Map 04 'Production Facility' has been replaced to a more subtle song (feedback)
  
• Increased monster count and difficulty in Map 06 'Corrupted Caverns' (feedback)
  
• Added Boss Death sequence with collapsing ceiling and also added additional sfx
  
• Increased the success rate of Baron vs Marine trigger in Map 02 'Base Entrance'
  
• Corrected various texture offsets, slight redesign of some maps, added some more lighting depth and wall details to Map 06
  
• Multiple bug fixes, minor re-balancing of pickups
  

Alrighty I'm excited to submit the latest version of my Wad with an additional level named 'The Aftermath'. I believe more experienced Doomers will enjoy this new addition with the added difficulty, higher monster count but also more Brutal Doom dedicated tricks that justifies its connection. Please, give me all the feedback you're prepared to give. I'm becoming proud of this project and hope to entertain many members of Doomworld.

[Chezza]

**Bump**

Really looking for someone to test and provide some feedback. The next level can be heavily influenced by your opinion, taking into consideration difficulty is to increase over time all the way into level 30.

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

I really think you should change the way these alarms on level 1 are made. They seem to be spawning projectiles that emits dynamic lights. This causes ear rape when loaded with mods that adds footstep sounds, because these lights are making footstep sounds. You should attach the lights to the actor itself. It would make the animation smoother, and won't cause said ear rape.
This is an example of how this could be made:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/c0hcmin1ugo2t00/alarmsimplified.wad


And I think most of the Realm 667 monsters you added are pretty irrelevant for gameplay. Most of them add nothing new, are just a "stronger imp", or a "stronger "pinky demon". Some of them, such as the UAC Bot, which fits well between a Baron of Hell and a Cyberdemon, or the sentry turrets that attacks both you and enemy monsters are a good adition indeed (sometimes these turrets are able to "walk". If you already have set their speed to 0 but the problem persists, use A_Stop after every A_Chase line. But the others, they seem pretty irrelevant. I would recommend removing every new enemy with exception of the UAC Bot, the Sentry Turrets, that freedoom pink worm, and the tentacle monsters in the sewer level. It's never recommended to add a new monster if it can't fit in the sub-boss or boss category, or has an unique behavior such as the sentry turrets or the tentacle monsters.

Also if you need help, since you are making this wad with Brutal Doom in mind, I can help you with making a way to detect if Brutal Doom is loaded and change the effects of the monsters accordingly (explosions, particles, gore, etc.)

[Chezza]

Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

I really think you should change the way these alarms on level 1 are made. They seem to be spawning projectiles that emits dynamic lights. This causes ear rape when loaded with mods that adds footstep sounds, because these lights are making footstep sounds. You should attach the lights to the actor itself. It would make the animation smoother, and won't cause said ear rape.
This is an example of how this could be made:
[url]http://www.mediafire.com/download/c0hcmin1ugo2t00/alarmsimplified.wad[/url

Interesting, thanks for testing I would of never picked this up. I wonder if Project Brutality would cause the same footstep effect for the lights. Thanks for the link, this shall be something I look into.

Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

And I think most of the Realm 667 monsters you added are pretty irrelevant for gameplay. Most of them add nothing new, are just a "stronger imp", or a "stronger "pinky demon". Some of them, such as the UAC Bot, which fits well between a Baron of Hell and a Cyberdemon, or the sentry turrets that attacks both you and enemy monsters are a good adition indeed (sometimes these turrets are able to "walk". If you already have set their speed to 0 but the problem persists, use A_Stop after every A_Chase line. But the others, they seem pretty irrelevant. I would recommend removing every new enemy with exception of the UAC Bot, the Sentry Turrets, that freedoom pink worm, and the tentacle monsters in the sewer level. It's never recommended to add a new monster if it can't fit in the sub-boss or boss category, or has an unique behavior such as the sentry turrets or the tentacle monsters

Yeah I'm guilty of adding lots of Realm 667 monsters out of excitement to test them out. I do have a couple in mind to remove and now will rethink on the others. What I'm planning to do is justify some of other additional monsters within the later levels. Treat the early encounters as introductions and gaining an understanding of how they operate. As the levels progress and the difficulty increases their ambushes and placement will be more deadly.

As for the Turrets, I had the intention to let them move as a form of patrolling the room for enemies.

Sergeant_Mark_IV said:

Also if you need help, since you are making this wad with Brutal Doom in mind, I can help you with making a way to detect if Brutal Doom is loaded and change the effects of the monsters accordingly (explosions, particles, gore, etc.)

That would be great my friend! Support from the Father of BD himself is welcomed. Would this be more ideal after I complete the Wad or sooner the better?

[cortlong50]

download link is broken dude.

reupload it.

[Chezza]

cortlong50 said:

download link is broken dude.

reupload it.

Probably due to lack of traffic or alike.

Re-uploaded. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/ma52cgm3qh82yyb/UAC_pt1.rar

[Chezza]

**New Update - January 2016**

Spoiler

• Updated Wad to specifically run with Brutal Doom V20B
  
• Added Map 08: Classified Facility
  
• Added 2 Intermission text screens
  
• Added 2 new triggered events in Map 01
  
• Added various V2B Brutal Doom specific triggers
  
• Removed: Poison Soul & Roach monster(feedback)
  
• Fixed all broken triggers
  
• Re-balanced ammo and supply pickups
  

I'm pretty proud of this one. I have finally updated the wad to the latest version of Brutal Doom, removed wasted resources, finished my most technically advanced map I have ever created, permanently fixed lingering issues caused some triggers to fail, added more spice in various levels, utilized more of Brutal Doom's features and learned quite a bit from making the latest map.

Give it a play and let me know what you think.

[Average]

Hey. Does this still require Zandronum? :)

[Chezza]

Average said:

Hey. Does this still require Zandronum? :)

Yup. I tried this with Zdoom and GZDoom and various triggers play up or straight out don't work unfortunately.

[Chezza]

**New Update**

This is a relatively small update but a fun one nonetheless. I added a stealth segment, included some robotic voice acting and a whole new Boss fight in a deadly arena. Are you game?

Now it's time for a break.

• Added Map 09 - including Boss Fight
  
• Added additional BD specific events
  
• Cleaned up automap, now easier to navigate
  

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ma52cgm3qh82yyb/UAC_pt1.rar

[The Doommer]

Chezza said:

Recommended Wad: A HD Texture pack

HD Texture Pack ? What is that ?

[snapshot]

Hey chezza, you might want to upload it to another site like Mediafire or dropbox, Filedropper won't keep it forever, in fact the link already died .

[Chezza]

The Doommer said:

HD Texture Pack ? What is that ?

There are mods that replace vanilla textures with smooth and higher quality variants. The reason why I recommended it was due to a rookie mistake of play testing my maps with this wad active. So I based my texture offsets and standards off the texture pack. As a result the couple of open large maps look less forgivable with repetitive textures and tiny texture offsets are a little off. This is something I'm addressing atm. I have removed it from the list.

DMGUYDZ64 said:

Hey chezza, you might want to upload it to another site like Mediafire or dropbox, Filedropper won't keep it forever, in fact the link already died .

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm using Mediafire now and updated my links.

[kchesley]

I just played some of this wad and it was really fun. The only thing I would say bad about it was the difficulty being too easy. There were lots of medkits and soul-spheres everywhere. I also thought the scene where you open up the door and find a monster ripping someone up was a bit repetitive.

[Quineotio]

I don't have a lot of time to play but I know you're keen for feedback, so I went to level 7 and played from pistol start. My favorite moment was about half way through where I used a switch that opened 2 doors with some enemies and a mancubus. That was a good fight because the opening of the doors was dramatic, and I wasn't ambushed by any bullshit. Just a straight up, old fashioned fight.

The monster density is quite low. I think it would work well as a horror themed map, with more minimal lighting to build up tension between fights. Otherwise some more encounters would probably be nice, because there is a lot of walking around without fighting. I ran out of ammo a few times (from pistol start), but still managed to get through.

Overall I feel you've spent a lot of time on details, but could put more thought into pacing, and probably up the difficulty a bit. If you aren't fighting in an area, what purpose does the area serve? If it's to build tension, then I definitely think you could do more with lighting.

I feel like the middle section of the map (with the green walls) was by far the best part. It just looked and felt really cool. I think perhaps there are too many cracks and dents and such in the walls before that point. I get what you're going for, but when there's so much going on visually it can be distracting. I think you could find more visually simple ways to communicate what you're going for - with less complex geometry. This is just my opinion, but I think the doom engine just isn't build for detail. It seems to work best when you use bold shapes.

I hated the black room where you can fall to your death. The first time walking in I just died with no warning. If you're going to have a jumping section, at the very least I think you should light the room so that it's easier to see what's going on. But I would suggest not killing the player if they fall and instead teleport them to the entrance. There's no need to kill the player for failing a jump.

I also didn't really like the revenants in that room. It didn't really make sense that all of a sudden they started smashing the imps. I mean, what was going on before the wall opened? And also seeing as you can't do damage to the revenants while in the animation, you kinda just have to stand there waiting to throw the imps at you.

I think there's definitely potential here. I hope this feedback has been helpful - let me know if I've been too harsh.

[Royal_Sir]

Hey, played (most) your wad, here are my thoughts.

You completely captured the Brutal Doom atmosphere. The higher level of detail, the usage of BD mechanics, the various scripts.

Spoiler

The spooky hallway in Classified Facility got me. I knew there was something wrong with that corridor, but how you executed it was setpiece in my opinion. The stopping of music was one-of-a-kind. I crouched in the corner most of the time XD)

The monster difficulty is medium, I would say, and not too hard in UV. But hey, that's what Black Metal and Realism is for, eh?

Perhaps you went a little overboard with scripting. I didn't really mind the typical Open-Door-See-BD-Mechanic,. but I can see how it could get really repetitive for some people. Try doing it in a corridor or something, have the player turn a corner and see it, give the location of these events a little variety (block sound sectors could help with that). Windows would be great for this, too.

The sewer monsters were a great addition, and I appreciated the three-way conflict between Marine, Security, and Monster. However, I felt like the black imp was too useless to be used effectively. The slicer monster, though, I could see having some merit, also not exactly being used really effectively so far.

Now, on to specific things. The first boss fight, after you kill him, I was by the edge of the map and got crushed. I don't know if this is semi-intentional, but it was a forced AR start in that regard. If you don't care whether the player lives or dies (at the discretion of the player to go to the center, of course), then leave it as it is. But if you don't want them to die, could you change the ceiling to slow crush please?

The stealth portion in map 9 felt out of place. Having Mancubi and barrels all over the place, while gameplay-wise cool, seeming really out of place with the rest of the map. And I'm not sure if there's a way to remedy that.

Overall, loved your wad, looks really promising. I hope you can keep it up!

[Chezza]

This is great feedback and detailed exactly how I like it. Good stuff.

What I look for in particular is consistency in feedback which there are now some points I definitely need to address. Dark Imps don't seem to be used effectively and not required, more lighting work is needed in larger spaces, monster scripted glory kills feel a bit too repetitive and could use more subtlety or at least split further apart, don't overly rely on detailing maps when there aren't many monsters to keep it interesting and pacing / difficulty needs some addressing. It's my intention to start easy and gradually increase in difficulty so naturally the first 9 maps I created should be very manageable. Nonetheless I want to keep the player entertained and if they bore you then I must make changes.

Some events like the BD stealth segment seems to be a hit or miss with a few. Although I do like the stealth segment due to effectively using its mechanics and being a break from the traditional run and gun fighting. Dark Room - not a great idea and just simply designed to build tension but I feel if I keep these situations very limited it can be forgivable. Perhaps I could just have two Revenants in place instead of them throwing Imps.

The Ceiling crush in the first Boss - I think I will slow the corner crusher as requested. The player needs to understand what's going on before risking near instant death after a challenging Boss fight.


I appreciate your feedback and it was all very helpful and fair. It's quite motivating.

[Quineotio]

I think you could definitely use the new monsters if you want to. But I think you need to work on some memorable encounters with those monsters in particular, and make sure that you introduce them to the player in special ways, because the first time you encounter a new enemy you don't know what is going to happen. You also need to use them a bit more often so that the player has a chance to get used to fighting them.

Those tentacle things in the slime were cool - I thought that part was cool, and definitely played to the horror potential of the map. But then that pain elemental looking thing came out and in the dark it kinda looked like a pain elemental but I couldn't tell, then I realized it was a new enemy, and it was a bit overwhelming. I'd just encountered a new enemy and here's another immediately. Couple that with being around slime so that my mobility was reduced, and I felt like I was over my head.

Those dark, teleporting guys were cool, but I think they'd be awesome in a dark area with intermittent lighting so you have these quick, dark things coming at you through the darkness.

I'm being hyper sensitive here of course, but the point is, do the most with what you have. Like, after introducing the slime tentacle things that first time, maybe have another encounter with them that ramps things up in an interesting way.

I think the problem with a mechanic like stealth is that it is binary opposite to the way most people play doom, so if you're going to have something like that in a doom level you need to be very careful with your design to communicate the "rules" of stealth. Like, how do you tell the player that being stealthy is an option? How does stealth work? How do you know when you're supposed to be stealthy? All very difficult things to communicate (but not impossible I'm sure).

I don't think there's a problem with the darkness in the room, it's more the falling to your death. It seems like an arbitrary way to die, especially in doom, where there normally isn't falling damage. I mean the room LOOKS good.

With the revenants, you could do something that might work by having the imps placed behind the revenants so that the imps hit the revenants when they throw their fireballs. Maybe this would cause in fighting. You can create situations like this organically without needing to use scripting, and one benefit is that it won't play out the same way every time. Like, on the first level, instead of having the imp killing the marine when you open the door, you could have a tied up marine (the one that replaces invisibility) and have a bunch of imps. The imps will automatically attack the marine, and it'd probably look quite dramatic to have an imp swarm tearing a marine apart right in front of you.