Doom 2 The Way id Did [Final Beta Released!]

Doom II The Way id Did


I kid you not.

...But first, here’s a special foreword by proliferate project founder and harbinger of success, Jason “Hellbent” Root:

Hot on the heels of the super fun and challenging Doom project that pushed mappers to get inside the minds of revolutionaries in game design comes the natural sequel to Doom The Way id Did. Join us as we continue on the exciting journey to recreate retro-authentic mapping gold. This time there will be more map designer styles to emulate, more abstract warped-reality levels to explore, more monsters to thwart the player in new, devilish ways, and new mapping design concepts to rediscover and draw from as we meticulously strive to recreate the Doom II experience. If you're up for a different kind of mapping challenge and missed the first DTWiD project, try your hand at a map for Doom II The Way id Did.

-- Hellbent

>> D2TWiD Final Beta <<

ALERT!: The D2TWiD Final Beta has been updated to fix an egregious error! If you downloaded the beta before the time of this edit (10-02-13 at 04:54), you might want to do so again.

Maplist

BOLD = "Completed," pending inevitable tweaks. Maps that aren't emboldened are penned in for inclusion on the grounds of what's been seen so far (Map06 and 12, for example, are simply missing monsters), but all maps can still be trumped for quality.

map01 Loading Bay - Rottking (Petersen)
map02 The Compound - Tarnsman (Mcgee)
map03 Water Main - Esselfortium (Mcgee)
map04 The Siltyards - Alfonzo (Mcgee)
map05 The Boiler - Pavera (Mcgee)
map06 The Gorge - Esselfortium (Romero)
map07 Unnamed - Tarnsman (Petersen)

map08 Starstruct, Inc. - Purist + Tarnsman (Petersen)
map09 The Gambit - Tarnsman (Petersen)
map10 Reservoirs - Tarnsman (Petersen)
map11 The Garrison - Pavera (Romero)

map12 The Shipyard - Esselfortium (Petersen)
map13 The Wharf - Marcaek (Petersen)
map14 Flooded Library - Jimmy (Mcgee)
map15 The Causeway - Tarnsman (Petersen)
map16 Cul-de-sac - Pavera (Petersen)
map17 The Precinct - Tarnsman (Romero)
map18 The Sanctuary - RottKing (Petersen)
map19 Bedlam - Alfonzo (Petersen)
map20 Leap of Faith - Esselfortium (Romero)

map21 Passage to Exile - Megalyth (Petersen)
map22 Borderlands - Tarnsman (Romero)
map23 The Crucible - Tarnsman (Mcgee)
map24 Crushed Spirits - Marcaek (Petersen)
map25 Dead Sea - Esselfortium (Petersen)
map26 Damned Strait! - Tarnsman (Romero)
map27 The Bloodwash - Alfonzo (Petersen)
map28 Abyss - Xaser (Petersen)
map29 The Mortal Coil - Esselfortium (Romero)
map30 Hell on Earth - Alfonzo (Petersen)

map31 Vorticon - Xaser + Megalyth (Petersen)
map32 Well of Wishes - Xaser (Petersen)

Playtesters

- Xfing
- Fernito
- Larzuk
- Dragonsbretheren
- C30N9
- bigbadbill

The Project is nearing the home stretch. Please check doomworld.com/vb/post/1149778]this here post for further details.

Just like its predecessor, Doom II The Way id Did will be an attempt by members of the Doom community to recall the styles of Doom II’s chief level designers - Sandy Petersen, John Romero and American McGee - as well as the historical circumstances and limitations surrounding the development process in 1994, to commit to the formation of a 32 map Megawad which could convincingly stand in place of the existing commercial product.

The last project saw more than 30 authors and a hundred maps submitted for inclusion over roughly 14 months of bustling development; and that excludes those maps that failed to find their way to the project’s home page after being posted in the thread! This time around we want to beat it.
Just beat it.


Home Page / Submissions

Website: http://d2twid.herokuapp.com/

Above is a link to the project's official website, providing contact details, information about the project, news updates, and the very maps themselves. You can vote and voice your opinion of the maps contained in the comments section featured, but those same maps can still be posted, praised, and battered with friendly critique right here in this thread.


Mapping Arrangement

With Doom The Way id Did, mappers were encouraged to create a map for the episode of their choosing in general rather than for a specific slot, as it was hoped that with this approach it would be easier to visualize a map being somewhere between the stock Doom maps - and thus compared alongside them - rather than in place of them, where one might inadvertently lend homage to the original map for that slot (a justified exception to this rule was when considering those slots that serve as the introduction/conclusion to an episode such as E1M1 and 8). However, this ultimately proved problematic when it came to selecting the final map list, as there arose the problem of too many maps having too little synergy and variation between each other when compared with the maps in Doom (this particularly when concerning size and pace of play). Although we like to think that we got there in the end, a slightly different approach this time around could help us avoid a similar problem!

The Approach

1. Decide whether you want your map to appear in an “episode” of Doom II (those sets of maps between intermission texts) or in one of the slots that either possess unique actions, serve as the start/end map of the game, or are secret levels (MAP01, MAP07, MAP30 and MAP31/32). If it’s the former...:
   
2. Keep in mind an ideal slot for your map, providing a little bit of leeway so that in the interest of progression the map might be shifted around a little bit.
   
3. Try to stay conscious about what sort of maps you would like to see either side of your own in order to create the most varied total playing experience. This could make it more favourable when measured up against other maps that for their size, pace of play and atmosphere also pair easily with maps around them. Be innovative in a way that only a designer from 1994 could be!

Example Progressions in Doom II

E1:- America!*
E2:- MAP13 (Large; sandbox; isolated concepts) > MAP14 (Smaller; unified texturing; atmospheric) > MAP15 (Large; sandbox) > MAP16 (Medium; abstract; concept) > MAP17 (Large; progressive)…
E3:- MAP21 (small; isolated concepts) > MAP22 (Tiny; tricky) > MAP23 (Medium; concept) > MAP24 (Large; concept; slower pace) > MAP25 (Linear) > MAP26 (Non-linear)

* McGee’s dominating the early proceedings ensures that certain facets of progression - particularly size and linearity - remain largely unchanged over a good 5 maps. As slight exceptions to these two, however, Map06 is notably larger than the 4 before it, and Map05 is less linear with the eastern portion of the map offering multiple routes for the player.


Authorial Diversity

Doom 2’s map designers by contribution
(excluding maps 31 and 32)

Petersen......14
McGee.........7
Romero........6
Co-authored:..3 (MAP07; MAP10; MAP25)

Unlike Doom, where each episode was dominated by one author or the other (with Tom Hall sort of dancing across the lot of it before he was kindly asked to step down from the floor), Doom II was a smorgasbord of hands with different owners building maps all over the shop. The displayed diversity of id designers isn’t really something that needs to be replicated down to the number, but it should go without saying that having 6 to 8 Shawn Green maps compared with a count of 10 in the style of Petersen is not the sort of scatter most desired, so keep that in mind when you’re contemplating which style to shoot for! Collaborations not seen in Doom II are perfectly fine (esselfortium and Xaser’s Filtration Compound for DTWiD E2M2 is a meeting of styles from Petersen and Romero), and could produce some very interesting and no less authentic maps indeed.

E1 should feature more maps in the style of one American McGee than by any other, as with his approach favouring a smaller size it is reasonable to conclude that the designers opted to have his contributions headlining the game, but a Petersen or Romero number in the early proceedings is not something to be frowned on.

Finally, if you want to shoot for a truly exotic brand of authenticity, try yanking out one your more successful DTWiD maps that didn’t make the cut and rework it into Doom II. Maps 8, 10, 18 and 19 in particular show evidence of having been started or made before many of the flats and textures exclusive to the game became available, and map 10 is a clear transplant of a map from when a certain Mr. Hall was still on the scene.


IRC

Doom II The Way id Did does not have a core team, per say. It is a community project that preserves the right for any and all members involved to discuss how best to achieve the goal of the project. There are however a few overly keen individuals that arrange and compile a bunch of stuff when it‘s needed and talk a lot in the mean time. They - as well as a few other regulars - can be found chatting away here:

irc.oftc.net
#doomtwid

All Doom, (almost) all the time. See you there!


Community Input

Here is where you can/will be able to find many of the links, articles and tips put forward by members of the community in aid of the project. A concise and fast-improving account by esselfortium is expected to be linked here very shortly indeed, so check back soon! It will aim to cover many of the important mapping traits that were adopted by id software’s designers circa 1994. You can’t go wrong by taking a peek. It’s Xaser approved! [citation needed]

- doomworld.com/vb/post/1055289]1055289...: C30N9 on McGee maps
- doomworld.com/vb/post/1057437]1057437...: 40oz on THUD!, and external influences
- doomworld.com/vb/post/1083725]1083725...: st.alfonzo on e2 design: buildings from structures, layouts and more!


Release Date

Delayed The Way id Didn't! See doomworld.com/vb/post/1102215]this post here for more details. A reasonable expectation at this stage would be somewhere in the first or second quarter of 2013, but, given the nature of the submission method at the moment, this could fall back to something tantalizingly close, indeed.

Go forth. Map on. By Petersen’s guile!

It's about time :P

HURRY UP oh it's posted.

Awesome, looking forward to seeing submissions for this!

DeathevokatioN said:

Awesome, looking forward to seeing submissions for this!

A few are already posted in the OP :)

Yeah, they're in Chapter 4 of the first post. ;)

neat.

I missed out on mapping for the first DTWID but I'll want to submit something to this for sure.

This should be interesting.

Not sure if I'll contribute this time as I'm working on a personal project, but I'll definitely be following progress.

Super-cool. I look toward to this project, though I refuse to participate until another certain project is finished.

I should have time for a map or two (I hope).

I downloaded just to look at the 30th level and I was impressed. I defiantly enjoyed DTWiD and look forward to this wad when it comes out.

Cool! I'll make a submission when I'm done with all the other crap I'm working on. :)

Please, and like, very please. Put the best effort on MAP29. That is one of my favorite maps ever, and I would love to see it revamped. That's my personal request.

I know it has just been announced, but...I can't wait for it to be finished. :)

Awesome! I might have to participate this time.

in the submissions list could you add the authors?

Tango said:

in the submissions list could you add the authors?

Razen said:

Awesome! I might have to participate this time.

This.

skillsaw said:

I missed out on mapping for the first DTWID but I'll want to submit something to this for sure.

And this.

Processingcontrol said:

Cool! I'll make a submission when I'm done with all the other crap I'm working on. :)

And this.

Sweet! Looking forward to this.

Oh man I'm totally working on something for this.

RIGHT NOW.

IT BEGINS

Hehe, lots of enthusiasm already! I'm gonna have to get my ass in gear and start something if I want to stand a chance of ever having a submission make it in. :P

I want MAP04 :-)

I'm already committed to 4 projects but I really want to get involved with this.

seems a tad ridiculous so far. best of luck to all the mappers involved though.

40oz said:

seems a tad ridiculous so far. best of luck to all the mappers involved though.

You can always map for it.

@TGH: oops :p

40oz said:

seems a tad ridiculous so far. best of luck to all the mappers involved though.

and how did you calculate that

I enjoyed Dtwid quite a bit, so naturally I'm looking forward to this :). I don't think I'll try to contribute anything though. I'm pretty sure if I tried to copy a certain style of map, I'd fail miserably. The one exception might be a MAP06 knock-off...I always really liked that map for it's theme and moody atmosphere. Plus crushing Masterminds is always fun!

Well, good luck to everyone!

I wish I could attribute to this but I don't think I have gone far in my mapping skills ever since I started a month or less ago, even learning the guidelines for the project when they are available won't be enough either.

Will there be Wolfenstein remakes in MAP31 and MAP32? Like, you know, in so many other megawads so far!

Making something like Monster Condo tempts me, but I don't know what editor to use (Doom Builder 2 is too detail friendly and it auto-aligns -- while nice, it's not helpful for deliberately undetailed maps). I also don't have time.

printz said:

Will there be Wolfenstein remakes in MAP31 and MAP32? Like, you know, in so many other megawads so far!

hah

I suggest a homage to a completely different game!

I really look forward to in this :) On the other hand I do not wish to participate, I work on too much project at the same time, but it is also because to create a map doom2 style frightens me :s

Good luck in all the mappers especially :)

Marcaek said:

I suggest a homage to a completely different game!

How about Shadowcaster? Did Id have copyright permission to show it in Doom 2, if they wanted that? Or what about Catacomb 3D?

How about a new easter egg monster? Unfortunately it will only be able to do hitscans.

Commander Keen.