The /newstuff Chronicles #52

[AndrewB]

Thirteen new WADs have been uploaded over the past week, and they are presented in our latest digest of the new things found in Newstuff.

• QDOOM by Marc Pullen - Most of us should know what this is. The long-awaited total conversion for Doom 2. All the graphics, textures, sounds, weapons, and monsters have been converted to Quake-style objects. Of course, there are 12 new maps, spanning three episodes. Let's not forget about the room-over-room goodness. There are also some MP3 music replacements available if you're willing to take the big download. An amazingly successful attempt at making DOOM look and sound like Quake. Requires EDGE.
  
• Deleted Scene by Russell Pearson - An impressive single-player map for Doom 2. This map was originally intended to be used for deathmatch, but some areas were cut out and monsters were added to make it a playable single-player level. And playable it is. Health and ammo balance is superb. A challenging map, but not nearly impossible. There is an almost perfect amount of detail in this map. The ingenious architecture makes it look absolutely gorgeous. Hopefully there will be more good things on the way.
  
• Grenian Doom by William Green - Another impressive singer player / deathmatch WAD for Doom 2, this one spanning 18 maps! 16 single-player and two deathmatch. These maps don't have very much detail, but they use texture themes reasonably well. Most textures are aligned properly. The health and ammo balance are both very good, although there's usually a plentiful supply of ammo if you decide to play deeper into the game. There are a few brand new music replacements as well, which are used over throughout the WAD.
  
• Hsg_0107 by Harry Gunderson - One map for Doom 2, this one primarily centered around deathmatch play. It's hard to imagine how this map could be played in any sense. It's a huge, huge circular outdoor area with a star-filled sky, as well as an area in the middle with Arachnotrons and Revenants. It's mostly entertaining for the value of being amazingly wide open. That's about it. It seems quite off-par with the previous Hsg_#### series of maps. Enhanced DOOM port recommended.
  
• Mustache Doom by Doug Merrill - Upon first glance, one may dismiss this as being another overboard Cyberdemon-filled map, but it actually plays out with some fun strategies. Monster infight is the main element of this map, as you create battles of Cyberdemons/Barons, Cyberdemon/Imps, Cyberdemon/Spiderdemon and Spiderdemon/Spiderdemon. Lots of ammo, but not too much. Enough to finish off a couple of Cyberdemons with a BFG, and whatever is left with a super shotgun. Small, but interesting.
  
• 0lev1 by Janek Bringle - One map for Doom 2. Quite small, very little detail, a slew of clashing textures. A few small to medium-sized monsters, and enough ammo to get by. Mostly 90° lines. Nothing special at all.
  
• The Abandoned Base by Pablo Dictter - A high-quality map for Ultimate DOOM, running on E4M5. This map has a light-brown theme all around, with some E2M2-style crate storage areas. Ammo and health balance is very good. Enough detail for the map to look clean and professional, although the constant brown can get a little unpleasant. A reasonably large map with lost of classic DOOM style action.
  
• The Red Skull Key by Pablo Dictter - Another very nice map for Ultimate DOOM, running on E4M4. This one has a very nice cave theme, with some indoor areas as well. Health and ammo is balanced pretty well. There may be a bit of an excess of shotgun shells, although that doesn't make the map a cakewalk either. Some tricky ledges to maneuver, and a pleasant amount of detail.
  
• The Evil Base by Pablo Dictter - Yet another excellent original DOOM style map. This green stone map runs on E4M7 of Ultimate DOOM. It seems to be more difficult than most of the author's other maps. Lots of medium-size monsters to start out with, and it can be a battle to obtain a comfortable amount of ammunition. The map is of course not all that difficult if you choose to play on an easier skill level.
  
• The Gates by Pablo Dictter - Another single map for Ultimate DOOM, this one running on E4M1. Very similar in theme to The Red Skull Key. White caves, and the odd indoor area. The usual challenge, with the usual DOOM feel. Good amount of detail, good health and ammo balance, although a bit on the difficult side.
  
• The Lost Wad by Pablo Dictter - One map for Ultimate DOOM, E4M9. The slew of Ultimate DOOM WADs continue this week. This one more multi-themed than the rest. Still lots of light brown colors, containment areas, outdoor areas, same old action.
  
• Quake1 Base Deathmatch by Bryant Robinson - A variety of content in this WAD. One new deathmatch map for Doom 2. Many Quake textures and sounds are used, including the status bar. This is a pretty nice deathmatch map, taking place in a brown metal base. There's some height variation and a nice amount of detail. It seems most appropriate for a deathmatch with four or more players. There's also a somewhat appropriate MIDI music replacement. Requires Skulltag.
  
• No Name 3d by Alastair Montgomery - One deathmatch map for Doom 2. A compact "space base" styled map, but it has a very three-dimensional design. Rooms over rooms and underwater effects make this map quite interesting. Not much detail, but it still looks decent. Weapons and ammo are placed reasonably well. Requires Doom Legacy.

[Guest j00 equals ded]

"An amazingly successful attempt at making DOOM look and sound like Quake."

Either I was right in the first place, or AndrewB is wrong.

[Opulent]

To nearly single-handedly make one of the very best DOOM releases ever, I just wanted to thank Fanatic for all that hard work.

for nearly the opposite, check out my map. :)

[Guest Excalibur_Z]

52 weeks... wow. Looks like people pulled out all the stops for the anniversary of /newstuff Chronicles, because most of these levels are great! QDOOM is, of course, very nice as well =)

[AndrewB]

Well actually, it started on July 23rd, 2000. Some weekends I was away, and the reviews were wrapped around to the next weekend.

[Guest Excalibur_Z]

You're ruining it for me! =P

[Russell]

1) Opulent, don't dismiss your own map. It's one of those levels that may not look absolutely fantastic, but it plays extremely well and is great fun (I just wish I could finish it on skill 4 with 100% kills, I'm a crap player).

2) Andrew, did you actually read the text file for Deleted Scene? :-) This map was NEVER intended for deathmatch play, in fact to be honest it would make a bloody awful deathmatch level. It's a removed section of a larger single player map I am designing. It was removed for reasons described in the text file.

[kristus]

WTH is Nullspace?

[Russell]

'Null Space' is my forthcoming level from which the sectors found in 'Deleted Scene' were removed.

[Jon]

deleted scene is very pretty, I like it :) the bits with the metal architecture over a black 'sky' are my favourite.

[kristus]

Yeah it was very cool map. :)

Oh I though null space was a PC or something.

[Enjay]

Deleted scene is very nice indeed. I thought the "no entries" where the map was originally supposed to connect elsewhere were strangely effective. I too like the black sky over girders effect.

Qdoom, well, what can I say that hasn't already been said (positively)? A stunning piece of work. 'nuff said.

[mystic]

Nice one Big Al, Ive been thrashing my nephews on this level all morning. A really eye catching deathmatch experience.
Makes my own attempts at the hi-tec theme look a bit clumsy, it plays really fast and smooth on my crappy PC.

[Guest The Gemini]

why not release one big wad instead of 20 seperate wads, pablo diccter?

[Vorpal]

he was re-releasing them apparently.

[Julian]

Given the quality of the deleted scenes I can hardly wait for the project to be released.
PLEASE let us know as soon as it's uploaded :)

[Guest pablodictter]

They are re-released of a series called "The Gates". I had in mind to make this awesome episode using zdoom, but I never got to learn scripting and all that shit. = (

pd-gates and pd-lost have the old txt's, i don't know why I left those there.

[Swedish Fish]

Texturing, architecture and detail of deleted.wad were all top notch. Only thing I didn't like was the obvious linearity. But of course that's why you cut it from Null Space in the first place. Looking forward to it...You appear to be building a small fan base =)

[Guest Black Knight]

I'm a fan~@!

[mystic]

Some people dont like megawads and will only download single level ones (Karthik springs to mind)

[mystic]

What annoys me is if its a 1 level wad why make it E4M1 instead of E1M1, just to grit my tits?

[Guest pablodictter]

"Some people dont like megawads and will only download single level ones"

I'm one of those...kind of.
I can't make my own episodes 'cause I can't keep a finished level w/ me, so I release it.
When I work w/ other people, then it's different. I show them pics of the map, and they know the map is going to be used on the project so I can't do anything about it. = (

Now, on the map number thing...I do that 'cause it's fun! = )

[mystic]

Well im changing them all to level one, haha.
Maybe not, I like that orange sky

[Vorpal]

how hard is it to idclev41?

[Guest Virgil_]

I've played all your maps Pablo, and I have to say that, in a way, they're perfect. They run smooth, look good, and play good.

I have never seen so few sectors and lines used so well as to represent so much detail. You have succeeded at something I (and many other level makers) was/were never able to do: you have the skills to make a lot of detail without creating visplane overflows or using a source port to cop out.

I hope you continue making such maps, for they are great fun and remind us all that doom.exe/doom2.exe is just as good as zdoom, boom, and legacy.

[Guest Virgil_]

I've played all your maps Pablo, and I have to say that, in a way, they're perfect. They run smooth, look good, and play good.

I have never seen so few sectors and lines used so well as to represent so much detail. You have succeeded at something I (and many other level makers) was/were never able to do: you have the skills to make a lot of detail without creating visplane overflows or using a source port to cop out.

I hope you continue making such maps, for they are great fun and remind us all that doom.exe/doom2.exe is just as good as zdoom, boom, and legacy.

Virgil

[mystic]

I rarely use the cheats, I can never remember them. Also, I tend to rush into trying new wads out. I just extract them to the relevant directory and try them out right away. With Pablo's wads Im having to check the text files to see which level they use first which is a pain in the arse.

[mystic]

I agree about the wads though, they are quite smart and fast.

[Guest pablodictter]

wow...I never though that these wads were that good..I mean, these are some of the first stuff that I made when I started mapping again.

thanks for the comments dude. = )

[Hyena]

No offense, Pablo, but can you release your next levels for doom2? Some of us don't have ultimate doom.