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deathz0r

The /newstuff Chronicles #304

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Welcome to the monthly edition of /newstuff Chronicles! I apologize for it being late, but my ISP decided it was convenient for users to require a firewall and the customer service neglected to mention that to me when I rang them up, so I was basically Internetless for a day and a half. Hooray! Anywho, I got a lot of trash to go through this week month, so I'll keep the reviews short for your convenience. And yes, I'm aware I didn't review anything past May 1st as I'll get to those next week, but if I missed any before that date, whine about it!

  • Adios - Jacob H. Orloff
    ZDoom - SP - 131kb - (img) (img)
    Starting off this week month is a fun little map for ZDoom. It doesn't abuse the ZDoom effects and it's a nice challenge to boot! It aims for an arcade "BLAST SHIT AND THEN BLAST MORE SHIT THAT TELEPORTS IN" feel and it definitely succeeds in that. Well done Jacob.

  • Apocalypse - Carlos
    CDoom - SP - 398kb
    Utter shit.

  • ARGH! SPIDERS! - Cutmanmike
    ZDoom - N/A - 12kb - (img)
    SPIIIDERS!!! I know find those little bastards annoying thanks to Cutty's brilliant modification that turns monsters into SPIIIIDEERS that destroy the shit out of you if you let them live for mere seconds too long. See above screenshot for a nice example.

  • FraggleScript standalone source code - Simon Howard
    N/A - N/A - 35kb
    I can't say I know much about FraggleScript, but I'm sure someone could put this source code to good use in their port! The text file mentions that this is the original source code before it was integrated into SMMU and that some functions are missing because they weren't implemented by then.

  • Gamarra's soul story: Mission 2 "The Spammer" - Giulio Galassi aka Glassyman
    ZDoom - SP - 339kb - (img)
    This is marginally more interesting than the first one that I reviewed last month. Still found it a bit too boring to play more than once though.

  • Generator of Evil - Alexander "Eternal" S. (aka Deadall)
    Boom - SP - 644kb - (img) (img)
    I thought WAD files with spaces in their filenames were banned.

    Anyway, this single map is your basic HR-style map with tons of monsters, tons of action and tons of darkness. Definitely looks like a quick blast in co-op, but it doesn't seem terribly interesting for single player.

  • Gray textures v2 - Nick Baker, aka NiGHTMARE
    N/A - N/A - 415kb
    If Quake is known for being excessively brown, then I guess Doom is known for being excessively gray, and Nick Baker sells that point pretty damn good with this solid texture pack. The text file basically speaks for itself:

    Over 600 variations of the gray textures (GRAY1, GRAY2, etc). These include 84 different layouts, with four colours of each (the standard gray, plus brown, green, and tan), plus variations with warning stripes and blue and red backgrounds.

    So if you want your levels to be MORE GRAY, then I strongly suggest using this texture pack.

  • Kohe 3 - Ruba
    doom2.exe - SP - 32kb - (img)
    It's kinda ironic that this replaces MAP13. A deliberate act on Ruba, or a coincidence? He/she/it does like to randomly choose map numbers other than MAP01 for unknown reasons, but this city-themed map is a lot more fun than I expected from a Ruba WAD. If Ruba keeps this up, I'm sure he/she/it will become a successful mapper over time.

  • Kohe 4 - Ruba
    doom2.exe - SP - 36kb
    DOES NOT WORK IN INTENDED SOURCE PORT

  • Kohe 5 - Ruba
    doom2.exe - SP - 49kb - (img) (img)
    Ruba is definitely improving as a mapper, and this level shows that he/she/it is putting in a lot more effort than his/her/its previous maps. I don't understand why Ruba still Nazis in maps, but the thing that boggles me most is the description in the text file:

    You are in a small Maes of death and you will get some Bloodshedder done to you by all the Kakoka Balls.

    What? The map has a rather nice hellish feel to it and the detail is very good. Keep it up ladyboy!

  • Little Tiny Map - D Link
    Enhanced Port - SP - 45kb
    DOES NOT WORK IN INTENDED SOURCE PORT

  • Meretricious Plunge - Eugene Sloupsky a.k.a. DarkJedi188
    ZDoom - SP - 158kb - (img) (img)
    Hey, this isn't bad at all! It's a fun E2-style map which can consume a fair bit of your time if you have nothing else to do. There isn't much detail and the map is horribly symmetric (which isn't that bad for SP) that could have been made a bit more interesting, but it oozes in fun shotgun battles against Barons and Cacodemons and what say you. Definitely better than half of the trash released this week.

  • Revenge of The Kunun - Ruba
    doom2.exe - SP - 5kb - (img)
    A boring 1-on-1 Cyberdemon battle with a Rocket Launcher. Yep, I just described the entire level. Moving on...

  • TGRCP1 (or try the German version) - Tigers Files
    Skulltag - SP - 1,518kb - (img) (img) (img)
    Ok, the text file for this has to be by far the absurdly retarded text file I've ever read. Why? First, we start off with the information section:
    Region : AmericaFile Theme: Blue HornFile Sys : Advanced TechnologiesWhat the hell was the point of writing that region shit? Is this WAD file only restricted for Americans to play? What about me, who is an Australian? What the fuck? I don't even understand what "Blue Horn" is as a theme, and when I played the WAD there was very little indication of "blue" or "horn" other than the blue status bar. And what the hell does "File Sys" mean?

    Then there's the features section:
    =======================
    Features
    -----------------------
    New Appearances and Themes of (Blue Horn)
    Remote Procedure Call
    Designed For "Skulltag 97.x" Series
    Real Effects
    Intentional Telefrag Protection (5 Seconds)
    Re-Scaled Monsters
    IWAD Game Play Support
    Online Gaming Support
    Offline Gaming Support
    What the hell is "Remote Procedure Call"? What are "Real Effects"? What's the point of mentioning "IWAD Game Play Support" when it's a goddamn PWAD? It's also totally redundant to add "Online Gaming Support" and "Offline Gaming Support" in the same text file. What "Gaming Support" doesn't it support?

    Here's the best part though:
    =======================
    System Requriements
    -----------------------
    Your Operating System must be a genuine copy of Microsoft Windows!
    If you are unsure if your version of Microsoft Windows is a genuine copy,
    go to (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=3448&clcid=0x0407) for more details!
    
    Look below for your Operating System requirements for running (TGRCP1)
    The Requirements are "Averaged" for good performance for (TGRCP1).
    Which then rants on about all of the different versions of Windows. Again, what's the goddamn point, it's a fucking PWAD for Doom which requires Skulltag. I think it's obvious to almost anyone who has ever played Doom what system is required, and the maps aren't even that intensive to require a power system unlike the nuts series or anything with 20 billion linedefs. It also goes on about online requirements but I don't need to bore you there.

    Ok, I lied, this is the best part. I love dissecting copyright sections of text files as I have done in the past, and this is certainly no exception:
    =======================
    Restrictions of Limitations
    (Copyright)
    -----------------------
    Once you have downloaded this file; you automatically Agree to the (ROL)!
    (Restrictions of Limitations)
    Which includes a lot of worthless and stupid crap such as:
    This file; can be used for Playable uses.  "Hosting \ Server 
    (Broadcasting), Online and/or Offline Play uses."
    I don't understand why there's quotes or if there's meant to be more to this section and they forgot to type out the rest, but I found it another waste of 20 seconds of my life.
    YOU MAY NOT steal any new effect(s) within-this file!
    What effects?
    YOU MAY NOT use or steal any sounds\Music\MIDI's within this file!
    This one made me literally laugh out loud. It's ok for this group of morons to blatantly steal sounds from Quake 2, but it's wrong for us to steal from them? Hello Tiger Files, meet double standards.
    YOU MAY NOT swap any Textures \ Flats \ etc... And give credit to the "TGRxxx Team"
      for using "Illegal" Textures!
    Ok? Combine this with the previous quoted text and you're bound to have a massive aneurysm. As for the WAD itself, it's nothing special, just five amateur HR-style maps with horrible scripting, especially in the fifth map.

  • The Corrupt Pit of Hell - Steve "Vermilion" Thiesmeyer
    Skulltag - DM - 779kb - (img)
    The only DM wad this week month, and I wish I handed this to RottKing as he wanted to review a DM wad for this /newstuff, and I kinda forgot about him. The layout is symmetrical, it's too dark to be interesting, and there's a very deep and annoying pit right in the middle of the level. The weapon modifications suck ass as well. Avoid.

  • The Great Bicycle Mystery - TheCupboard
    Enhanced Port - SP/Coop - 1,821kb - (img) (img) (img) (img) (img)
    This gets the WAD of the Week award. Despite being a co-op oriented WAD, I believe the difficulty is on par with HR-style maps and can be beaten in single player. Granted I didn't get much time to test out that theory because of all of the other WADs, but it is clear that this is intended for co-op play, and would make for an great night of monster slaughtering action. If you have a friend who plays Doom, go through this shit together, you will not regret having an excellent time.

  • The Prometheus Experiment - Lorenzo Davia
    ZDoom - SP - 2.4mb - (img) (img) (img)
    Now this is a pretty damn cool WAD. It's story-driven and has a case of Engrish throughout the WAD, but the maps are beautiful, they're hard, and the themes for each map vary greatly, but they hold together well because of the story. It was pretty tough choosing between this and The Great Bicycle Mystery for the prestigious WAD of the Week award, but this WAD narrowly missed out. Play this now.

  • torture - mastofmet
    Skulltag - SP - 209kb - (img)
    These are horrible. Aspiring mappers, please learn from this example of terrible maps and don't waste my time uploading crap like this.

  • Ultimate Torment & Torture : Invasion - Daniel "Tormentor667" Gimmer
    Skulltag - Other - 7mb - (img) (img)
    People usually turn into crybabies whenever I review a Tormentor WAD. I don't know why that is, they believe that I have a biased opinion of Torm or that I'm jealous of him, so that I constantly have to give him negative reviews. Well, you're all stupid, retarded assholes.

    Because this one almost won the WAD of the Week award.

    But it didn't, because T2INV05 was a shit map that caught the "symmetric Invasion map" virus. So did T2INV04, but that map was more interesting.

    The first three maps however are excellent, especially the first map. I was really hoping for a consistantly good mapset with the same gameplay quality of the first map, but it fell flat by the fourth map. Oh well, one day you'll win my heart Torm, just not this week month.

  • Untitled - Ryan Dupler (mastofmet)
    Skulltag - N/A - 75kb
    The text file says Just a demo for a Skulltag version of the "Unmaker". Ok then! The demo map has some items with really shitty scripting, a cyberdemon and the unmaker itself, which is apparently a rapid-fire railgun. Ok then!

  • Vermilion's Mod Version 3 - Steve "Vermilion" Thiesmeyer
    ZDoom/Skulltag - N/A - 684kb
    This is simply a standalone version of the shitty weapons mod in The Corrupt Pit of Hell. There's better stuff out there and I didn't find this interesting at all.

  • Water Treatment Facility #17 - Edward Dassmesser
    ZDoom - SP - 281kb - (img)
    This probably would have been an interesting map, but I hate scripts that give you temporary god mode, doesn't freeze monsters and moves a camera around like crazy to the point that it makes it impossible to exit the area because a revenant missile is mere units away from you and you have to try to dodge it when the cutscene finishes. That's just wrong on so many levels and instantly makes me stop playing the WAD.

  • Xenus 1.5 demo - Alterworldruler (not going to reveal RL name)
    Enhanced Port - SP - 934kb - (img) (img) (img)
    I liked this WAD. When I was gathering the links to the WADs, I noticed that this received a low score and I have to disagree with all of those idiots. Granted that the music choice was highly inappropiate, the levels themselves were brilliantly detailed and a lot of fun to play through. A recommended pick.

  • zbloodpak for skulltag - Cobalt and Butcher and steve "vermilion" thiesmeyer
    ZDoom/Skulltag - SP - 14mb - (img) (img) (img) (img)
    Ugh. Imagine Neodoom but with horrible amateur maps. It's painful to even think about it.

    I thought that someone had already covered this in a previous /newstuff, but they didn't. Maybe it wasn't uploaded to /idgames because it's a horrible excuse of a megawad?
There's also yet another upload of CDoom 2.05, just in case we haven't downloaded it already! And there's an updated version of the termin series that merges them all into one WAD. Cool!

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Nice newstuff there deathz0r ;) i agree that music choice sucked in xenus 1.5 demo :D there's still a lot of room to improve

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Finally, newstuff :)

I suggest not playing the german version of this TGRCP wad (or however it is called), really... even Babelfish wouldn't have translated so bad :P

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Awesome. My wad was skipped.

I should say that your wad is awesome too.

Generator of Evil
Anyway, this single map is your basic HR-style map with tons of monsters, tons of action and tons of darkness. Definitely looks like a quick blast in co-op, but it doesn't seem terribly interesting for single player.

Hmm, in this case all HR maps should not seem terribly interesting for single player too, but is it true? Sometimes we need the levels with tons of monsters. I would like to see maxrun of this level by xit.

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Bloodskull said:

You forgot Gravitation and Extraction, dated back to mid April.

hobomaster22 said:

Awesome. My wad was skipped. Please review it next week?

I'll get to them, thanks!

entryway said:

Hmm, in this case all HR maps should not seem terribly interesting for single player also, but is it true? Sometimes we need the levels with tons of monsters :) I would like to see the maxrun of this level by xit.

I probably worded that wrong. I meant the map itself isn't that interesting, not HR-style maps in general. I like killing tons of monsters! =]

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deathz0r said:

Over 600 variations of the gray textures (GRAY1, GRAY2, etc). These include 84 different layouts, with four colours of each (the standard gray, plus brown, green, and tan), plus variations with warning stripes and blue and red backgrounds.

So if you want your levels to be MORE GRAY, then I strongly suggest using this texture pack.

yay

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Nice how my level was grazed over and wasn't even given a remotely good review just because of the reviewer's inattention to the fact that monster's attacks don't hurt you for about two seconds after the cutscene is over so you have time to escape anything coming your way.

I originally had it such that all of the monsters did freeze when any cutscene played, but it looked dorky and funny, so I made it normal.

Please, anybody with half a brain, try playing Water Treatment Facility #17 and tell me what you actually think about the map. I'd really like to know if anybody likes it.

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Yay controversy! I was expecting it to be related to utnt_inv though, I am thoroughly disappointed!

durnurd said:

Nice how my level was grazed over and wasn't even given a remotely good review just because of the reviewer's inattention to the fact that monster's attacks don't hurt you for about two seconds after the cutscene is over so you have time to escape anything coming your way.

Yep, it must be my inattention that I tried to get past that area multiple times and that two seconds of grace time you speak of never happened. Totally must be my fault!

Or maybe you should have sticked to keeping them frozen during the cutscene.

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Sorry, it's just that I'd kinda hoped it would actually get a review. You know, that's what reviewers are supposed to do. Even with horrible games, whenever I read a review, they seem to have at least played through it, and given a review of more than one detail.

Anyway, I had no problems getting past that section, but maybe that's because I made that section, and I know when the cutscene is over. Try it on a lower difficulty so the revenant isn't there.

For anybody who really, really wants it, here's a version of wtf17 with frozen monsters during cutscenes.

http://www.beardedchild.com/files/wtf17.wad

Or, if you have a WAD editor, just open the ACS in the wad, find Script 6, and add a Thing_Deactivate(19); after SetPlayerProperty(1,1,PROP_TOTALLYFROZEN); and a Thing_Activate(19); after SetPlayerProperty(1,0,PROP_TOTALLYFROZEN);

Don't forget to compile.

Oh, and if you really want:

"You stupid idiot!!11ONE! WTF, Y U CAL UTNT_INV BD?1?! OR GUD!?!? I DINT RED REVIEW SO I DON'T NO WUT U ACTUULY SED"

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durnurd said:

Nice how my level was grazed over and wasn't even given a remotely good review just because of the reviewer's inattention to the fact that monster's attacks don't hurt you for about two seconds after the cutscene is over so you have time to escape anything coming your way.

I originally had it such that all of the monsters did freeze when any cutscene played, but it looked dorky and funny, so I made it normal.

Please, anybody with half a brain, try playing Water Treatment Facility #17 and tell me what you actually think about the map. I'd really like to know if anybody likes it.


I have half a brain!

OK, the music in your level blows. Seriously, by the end my ears were practically bleeding.

The scripting was pointless. I don't want to read a couple of dozen fragments of pointless banter, and I don't need to watch a cutscene of a door opening when I am in the next room. Hell, I shouldn't be watching a cutscene of a door opening from halfway across the map, because that is just poor mapping. Scripting literally did nothing for this map. There was no point to adding all the crap.

Puzzles. There are good puzzles, and then there are switch-hunts. Guess which one this was. The map would have flowed (or gelled, if you will) much better if you didn't need to hit 5,000 or so switches, one after the other. That was also a big issue with this map, it was hyper linear. Now linearity isn't nessecarily bad, but this could have been made as an on-the-rails shooter. All of the enemies were in front of you, and the whole exercise was extremely predictable.

This map could have been decent by removing the ear-searing music, cutting out the useless scripting, cutting the switches way down (and letting the map be a bit non-linear, rather than trying to cram a route down the player's throat), and finally some better enemy placement and a few surprises in both gameplay and architechture.

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I guess you didn't look for many secrets then. And personally, I'd turn off the speakers or take out my headphones if my ears literally felt like they were going to start bleeding soon.

Are you masochistic?

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durnurd said:

I guess you didn't look for many secrets then. And personally, I'd turn off the speakers or take out my headphones if my ears literally felt like they were going to start bleeding soon.

Are you masochistic?


I turned it off fairly quickly, but it shouldn't have been there in the first place.

And why should I be looking for secrets? Does a secret somehow let me magically skip all of the dialog and excessive switch hunting?

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durnurd said:

You were complaining about linearity. That is all.


Secrets do not equal non-linearity.

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Not if they are along a linear path in themselves, no. If they simply presented themselves along the linear path, they wouldn't be very secret, would they?

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durnurd said:

Not if they are along a linear path in themselves, no. If they simply presented themselves along the linear path, they wouldn't be very secret, would they?


You don't even know what the hell you are talking about.

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Oh? As soon as you have nothing else to argue with you start attacking me? How predictable. I guess I should stop hijacking this thread. It's here for discussion of other maps as well. If you wish to continue in this manner, please just email me personally.

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Classic, as soon as the bluff gets called it becomes a personal attack. The map is a linear switchhunt, and putting a couple of rooms off to side flagged as secret does not change that. Try making some non-ZDoom maps to build your skills before you move on to scripting.

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Despite the name, the gray textures wad contains brown, green, tan, blue, red, and yellow textures as well as gray ones ;). (The name is because they're all based on Doom's standard GRAYx textures.)

It's actually just one in a planned series of texture wads, each of which will have variations of a specific texture or range of textures. Future installments will include brick, metal, rock, skin, stone, wood, and so on.

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Can I ask what has caused some wads to be missed out this month?

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NiGHTMARE said:

It's actually just one in a planned series of texture wads, each of which will have variations of a specific texture or range of textures.


Gah if you keep making these no one will get anything done!!

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durnurd said:

Oh? As soon as you have nothing else to argue with you start attacking me? How predictable. I guess I should stop hijacking this thread. It's here for discussion of other maps as well. If you wish to continue in this manner, please just email me personally.


You aked what people thought of your map, you got an answer, this is how you respond. Your problem. I found the level pretty meh-worthy for the reasons described. It's fun in alot of places, but the zdoom stuff felt really tacked on. Just not my kind of gameplay. Cut scenes are just silly, I've been playing Doom for a long, long time. I know stuff happens when i hit a switch, I don't need the wad to hold my dick while I pee, seriously.

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durnurd said:

Please, anybody with half a brain, try playing Water Treatment Facility #17 and tell me what you actually think about the map. I'd really like to know if anybody likes it.

I played it for an while and got annoyed by the cutscenes all the time at one point I was ignoring every message that appeared on screen and just continued my way.

The map was good despite some serious texture issues, sorry as an mapper myself I'm really paying attention to these things I can't help that, I think I would have enjoyed this map an whole lot more without the cutscenes.

NiGHTMARE said:

It's actually just one in a planned series of texture wads, each of which will have variations of a specific texture or range of textures. Future installments will include brick, metal, rock, skin, stone, wood, and so on.

Big YAY! :p

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Alright, newstuff is finally here again!

What, no SMDM review? ;_;

Ah well, atleast someone was able to a /newstuff...perhaps SMDM can be in the next one :D. Anyways, I gotta check out some of these .wads.

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Well, durnurd's map was even worse than what I expected after the descriptions posted here.

On the other hand, I haven't had time to dig into GoE, but judging from the demo it can be an awesome map. Too bad it requires Boom complevel.

Edit: The Xenus reviews on /idgames are indeed full of shit. While the first map may be considered average, the second one is very good. Both have their problems in PrBoom though, like the non-functional lift next to the secret in the first map or the red key door in the second map.

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