Deertag

I got my conveyor working. Thanks for the replies and help. I do have another question regarding the conveyor. I have my primary line tagged for when the conveyor is to start working. However, I was wondering this senario. I have numerous monsters using the same conveyor that are released at different times and port to different spots using doors holding them back. If the player decides to quit the game but come back later, my guess is the conveyor won't be working? I guess I need to place conveyor activate lines at all the appropriate spots to make sure the conveyor is working. Oh well. Again, thanks for the responses.

Ok, this sounds stupid and I'm almost embarrassed to ask, but how do you build a conveyor belt? What I'm trying to do is build a dummy sector outside the map with a moving conveyor belt floor and a handful of barriers that will raise up allowing the selected monsters to then move along the belt to the teleport line bringing them onto the map. I want to do it this way because I want the monsters deaf so they will stay in the landing spot and not move around. I can build everything needed but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to make the floor move. Instead of the expected sector tag, DB2 only gives me the option of a line tag. I don't understand this and can't figure it out. I've built conveyors years ago no problem, but I either can't remember or something has changed in the edit system. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have a question concerning the merging of add on files that are added to your Doom map file. Specifically, any monster, weapon, item etc that you can download from Realm667. To start, I guess I should say my pc has Windows Vista Ultimate as an OS and I use slumped_07 for my wad merging tool. For the life of me I can't get Slade or XWE to load without getting errors that make those programs not work. However, slumped_07 works fine. Anyway,I can download any of the files from Realm667 and using slumped, I can merge them in my map file and everything works. So no problem there. My problem is that I have merged so many of these files that the lump file that opens on the left side of slumped when you open it up, is jammed pack full of these files so it takes forever to scroll down the list and it's near impossible to discern one file from the next. Frankly, it just looks like a big mess. My question is this, is there a way to merge these files so that each file is in a neat section of it's own so that I can still access them and leave the opening screen of slumped looking neat and clean of clutter? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I'm not sure what a birthday map is, but mine was on April 8th :)

LOL, Ok. I see where they are now. Yea, I guess they do make for a nasty surprise. For the life of me tho, I can't even remember putting them in the map. I'm guessing it's a tough fight if they were just regular revenants, but the stealth type adds to the "surprise". I do remember now on a final playtest, getting all the way thru the map only to get bushwhacked by the revenants and dying. It sucked. lol Well, anyway, I did get a favorable if short review. And like I mentioned above, I appreciate the review and hope Doomers worldwide play and enjoy my map. Altho in all likelihood, I'll be lucky if 10 people ever play it. Since I've always built Doom maps for the fun of the build, and dozens have rotted on my hard drive's over the years, that's ok. Thanks for confirming and identifying the stealth issue.

Quote from udderdude - There are some questionable design decisions (silent teleports and stealth monsters, eww), - end quote I'm not sure what you are referring to here, since I didn't place any silent teleports nor stealth monsters in the map. I double checked in DB2 just to see if I screwed up and I didn't find either. Are you sure you didn't confuse my map with another? Anyway, I appreciate your taking the time to play and review my map. It's just a shame that basically the only negative you mentioned was not even a part of my map. :( I did like the screen shots you took, tho. :) Deertagg

I've really enjoyed reading this thread. Pretty interesting. My first experience with Doom was back in late January or early February 1995. (I think) Doom2 had just been released about a month previously. Anyway, at the time I was heavily involved in a play-by-mail game called Duelmasters. Each winter in either January or February the company that ran Duelmasters (RSI) would hold a convention/tournament. So any excuse to escape the cold of New Jersey for Arizona sounded good to me. At this particular convention, one of the guys there had set up a PC in the corner of the room and it was attracting quite a crowd. So I went to see what was going on. Up until this time, my only experience with computer games were the old commadore computer games like Pitfall Harry, Superman, Ka-Boom etc. Anyway, I looked over someone's shoulder to see what was going on that had everyone's attention, and saw Doom for the first time and I was so blown away by what I saw. I stood there like in a trance for hours as different people all took turns playing. Talking to the guy who had set it up, I later found out what I was seeing was actually Doom2 and of course that meant there was a Doom1. Once I got home, I immediately went out and bought both Doom and Doom2. I remember starting on Doom2 first, altho I don't know why. I think I chose HMP and got as far as map07 before being ripped to shreds by the arachnotrons. I then switched to Doom and actually played Doom's original 3 episodes numerous times before going back to Doom2. I eventually bought Ultimate Doom, but was disappointed in the 4th episode. I don't think I've ever made it past e4m2 before losing interest. To much brown and way to tight on the maps. No room to move. Oh well. heh. At any rate I was so in love with both games, that here I am nearly 20 years later, still playing the originals and also hundreds of player made wads, as well. One thing that is obviously a personal preference, is I really like and prefer the episode setup in Doom much more than the one long continuous 32 level slog that is Doom2. However, I like the SSG and the additional monsters in Doom2. Makes me kind of schizo on which I prefer. lol I've often thought if it were possible to convert Doom2, SSg and new monsters and all, to a Doom1 episode format and place it in Doom1 and have these newly created episodes show up on the episode choice screen. Now that would be awesome! I also discovered back around 1997, I think, the ability to make my own wads. So I've enjoyed messing around with map editors on and off for years. I think it's one aspect of Doom that has kept my interest alive. I've also enjoyed being a lurker mostly on DoomWorld forums just to stay in touch with what other doomers are up to and projects being worked on. It has been a blast and I certainly look forward to many more years of Dooming. EDIT: Just wanted to add, I remember the immersion I experienced playing Doom. Closed doors and the lights turned down low, it was so easy to get sucked into the Doom enviroment. I remember at times almost falling out of my chair as I tried to look around the corners in the game map. lol Being literally scared to the point of feeling the hair on the back of my neck and even my arms, almost come alive with the dreadded anticipation of the monsters. Hearing the imps chatter and that OMG feeling of "what the hell is that" the first time I heard the Cyberdemons footsteps. Let's not forget almost jumping out of my skin, let alone off the chair when a monster would surprise the hell out of me as I rounded a corner not expecting to meet anything. Great times that unfortunately are darn near impossible to duplicate today. Still, I love playing Doom. :)

That'd be great if you're willing to do that. That's awesome. As for opening up the Doom IWAD, I tried that with Slade3 and couldn't find any sprites. Of course I am probably not doing something correctly, but any file I clicked on didn't have sprites, be they monsters or items. I have no trouble finding the sprites in the custom monster files, it the original Doom monsters I can't locate. Maybe Slade3 isn't the program to use? Maybe I need an image editor like you suggested for that to work? I had downloaded Gimp2 but couldn't figure it out. I'll try Grafx2 that you suggested. I enjoy learning how to do stuff for my Doom editing. The frustration lies in not initially understanding the process. Once I get the hang of that aspect, it's obviously much more enjoyable to practice new tricks. :) I appreciate your help and interest. Thanks.

@ GreyGhost currently I'm using the Devil sprites. I also tried the STDarkImp. Both appear to be the same as far as looks go. Actually, I tried the Nami, Void and Nether as well. Basically looking to see if I could find a behavior difference since I want my version of a dark imp to act and perform the same as the original doom imp. Funny how all these dark imp varients all act the same and have become common while the original doom imp is now the rare one. I had hoped to build a heirarcy of imps based on the number of body spikes that would be in relation to their comparative strengths. I also wanted the red eyes and red mouth as well. (don't much care for the yellow/green/black eyes and mouths being used on the current crop of dark imps) My plan was to modify a 1, 2 and a 3 spike dark imp and create a progressively harder and tougher dark imp family based on the number of spikes. But like I mentioned, I don't like the blue fireballs being used and I don't like the 2handed clap animation of the current dark imps. Actually, now as I am writing this out, it occurs to me that other than liking the black skin texture, there isn't much else I like about most of these dark imps. lol I'm starting to think what I want isn't possible with my skills nor with simple editing. I'm sure my "vision" far exceeds my abilities. Altho I can edit well enough to change the basic stats and even change fireball types. I just can't get rid of the initial blip of blue on both hands nor that annoying 2handed clap. @ Alphawolf Thank you for your suggestion. I had thought of that and think it's probably the best way to go, but 1) I couldn't find a set of original doom imp sprites and 2) I downloaded a free photoshop and since I have never used a program like that, I was lost on how to use it. Hell, I have a hard enough time building a doom map without trying to teach myself new tricks, like photoshop. lol (sigh) I wish I knew how to do all this stuff. I have the interest, just not the know how or the patience. As you all can see tho, I'm very good at long winded forum posts. lol

Well apparently I'm screwed. After hours of playing around with trying to create the effect I want for a monster, it's just not working. It looks to me that the sprites themselves control the animation of the monster, which doesn't make sense to me, but what do I know. I'm just a dummy noob. What I am trying to achieve is a dark imp that throws the red fireball like the original doom imp. One handed like throwing a baseball. Doesn't seem like to much to ask. What I am getting after loading in a various sets of dark imp sprites, from numerous different dark imps, is a two handed clap with the fireball looking like it comes out of the center of the chest. To compound the problem, the imp also displays a blue circle around both hands for a second prior to throwing the red fireball. Which of course just looks wrong. I even deleted all sprites that look to have any connection to a blue fireball, but to no avail. I still get the blue circle around the hands. I'm guessing because someone created 1 dark imp and all other dark imps are copies of that first one. If anyone has any suggestions on a fix, I certainly would appreciate the help. Since I am no artist and have no coding experience, my hope of a cheap fix for a new monster for my map is up in smoke. EDIT: BTW, thanks for that link Phobosdeimos1. Just what I was looking for, altho as you can see, I'm not getting the results I was hoping for.

Is there an already made DECORATE file for Doom/Doom2 original monsters? I'd like to be able to modify the original monsters to something that personally suits me for what I want them to do. I have spent hours checking out, downloading and inspecting the custom monsters on Tormentor667 web site. However, there is always something about most that bothers me. example: one will look great but I don't like the fireball. Another will have a great fireball but something else about it is not to my liking. This is not to say that these custom monsters aren't good, just that for my own taste, they are not always what I envision what I want. Apparently, after checking in the Doom/Doom2 IWADS I cannot see all the monster info, actually any info at all, that you can see in a custom monster decorate file. So I'm lost on how to proceed on making modifications. My thought was if someone had already converted Doom's monsters to DECORATE for use as a base, then that would be perfect for a starting point. Thanks for any help.

I didn't think of doing the light transfer on the thin sectors to hide the higher light level. Thanks for the help guys. I appreciate it.

I'm wondering is it possible to transfer light from a sector to a wall texture without the light effecting the surrounding floor and/or ceiling? What I'm aiming for is a subdued light in a sector and then having one or more selected walls be lit brighter to attract attention to those walls. Back in the day, what I'd do is place a very thin sector around or in front of the selected wall texture and increase the brightness in the thin sector so the wall would be brighter. Obviously, hoping that players wouldn't notice the bright floor/ceiling in the thin sector. With much more advanced editing capabilities with DB2 and ZDoom, I'm sure this is possible. I tried to follow a tutorial on what I thought was this very effect, but I either didn't understand the process or screwed something up. End result was I couldn't get it to work. If anyone is familiar with this effect, I sure would appreciate it if you could guide me thru the process. Once I get it to work once, I'm golden. :) Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the replies guys. Gives me some numbers to play with.

I've just started trying to learn to map build in Doom in Hexen and/or UDMF formats, and I have a question about doors. In these formats, discovered I need to input door speed and length of delay the door will stay open. I'm aware that I can put in any number I choose and I have experimented with a few numbers. 20 speed and 25 delay seems reasonable to me. However, my question is this. What is the standard normal numbers used in official Doom2 doors. I'd just like to know so I can keep my doors consistent with the norm, if that is what I choose to do. Thanks.