Switcheroom! Or, what if E1M1 was E3M1? (Release Candidate 3, aiming for whenever)

[Death Egg]

Basically, I got the idea to remake E1M1, but if it had appeared in Episode 3 instead of Episode 1. I got the idea after a friend of mine who only plays Doom a little accidentally mixed up some maps with the wrong episodes, and I began to wonder what it'd be like if they actually had appeared in that episode instead.

Now, this isn't just a simple texture change. First off, I rebuilt the map layout from scratch, so it isn't just the original map with some different textures. There's also some areas where I changed the geometry as well so it wouldn't be completely identical to the original. That isn't to say it's radically different, it's still pretty much the same layout, just with some changes here and there to help make it look a bit different. Second, and more importantly, I readjusted the enemies and items to better suit the episode and difficulty. As such, rather than Zombiemen, Shotgunners, and Imps, you get Imps, Demons, and Cacodemons!

Download RC3

Some things:

* Not all of the maps currently have names.
* Maps still need to be completely bug tested.

New map slot/Original map

E1M1: E3M1 - Phobos Keep [Doomkid92]
E1M2: E4M2 - Perfect Plant [walter confalonieri]
E1M3: E3M3 - Toxin Lab [Jaws in Space] (Secret Exit)
E1M4: E4M4 - Unruly Control [Saliva]
E1M5: E2M5 - Command Lab [Fernito]
E1M6: E4M6 - Against Thee Processing [Death Egg/traversd]
E1M7: E3M7 - Limbo Station [gothic]
E1M8: E2M8 - Babel Anomaly [Scypek2]
E1M9: E2M9 - Military Fortress [Death Egg/traversd]

E2M1: E4M1 - Beneath Deimos [traversd]
E2M2: E1M2 - Nuclear Area [schwerpunk]
E2M3: E1M3 - [Icytux]
E2M4: E3M4 - Mainframe Grid [Magnusblitz]
E2M5: E4M5 - Nukage Spill [Jaws In Space] (Secret Exit)
E2M6: E3M6 - Center of the Damned Mountain [Jaws in Space]
E2M7: E4M7 - Hell Is Coming [scifista42]
E2M8: E3M8 - Tower of Dis [Death Egg]
E2M9: E3M9 - Deimos Keep [Capellan]

E3M1: E1M1 - The Baleful Fluids [Death Egg]
E3M2: E2M2 - Containment of Despair [C30N9]
E3M3: E4M3 - Phlegethon [Magnusblitz]
E3M4: E1M4 - [Flamen0d]
E3M5: E1M5 - [ShadesMaster]
E3M6: E1M6 - Mt. Central [gothic] (Secret Exit)
E3M7: E1M7 - New Limbo [scifista42]
E3M8: E4M8 - Abomination [Magnusblitz]
E3M9: E4M9 - Gaudy [Jaws In Space]

E4M1: E2M1 - They That Dwell Within [Megalyth]
E4M2: E3M2 - Their Torment Ascendeth [Magnusblitz] (Secret Exit)
E4M3: E2M3 - The Beast Factory [scifista42]
E4M4: E2M4 - Evil Lab [walter confalonieri]
E4M5: E3M5 - [Joseph Lord]
E4M6: E2M6 - And Death Shall Flee [Death Egg]
E4M7: E2M7 - And Vats Spawned [gothic]
E4M8: E1M8 - Cruel Anomaly [Memfis]
E4M9: E1M9 - Fear Base [EvilNed]

Rejects - Other map combinations:
E1M1: E4M1 - [traversd]
E4M5: E2M5 - [zinkai]
E4M8: E3M8 - [BloodyAcid]

How I do the map file naming: E(Original Episode Number)-(New Episode Number)MX (i.e. E3-1M1 would be Episode 3 converted to Episode 1)

Testers:
Fernito
schwerpunk

Rules:

* Maps should be tested using Chocolate Doom or Vanilla Doom. No ZDoom, Boom, MBF etc. specific features.

* Stock textures only.

* You have to remake the map from scratch, no just retexturing the original maps. This is mostly done to ensure an /idgames release.

* You are allowed to have leniency regarding how close it is to the original. While the basic layout should remain mostly the same, you're allowed to change entire rooms (likely smaller, less recognizable rooms) to help them fit the episode they'll be based on, or add/remove secrets.

* It's also recommended to redo monster placement completely so that it also fits the Episode that it'll be emulating. For example, an Episode 4 map would have to be made much easier for it to appear on any other Episode, and Cacodemons and Lost Souls would not appear in Episode 1.

* If a map is already taken, then, for the sake of every map getting its own makeover, I won't allow it to appear twice. (i.e. E1M5 being remade for both Episodes 2 and 4)

[Memfis]

I found this map a little bit annoying because it felt very cramped compared to the original. Kinda neat I guess but needs more creativity (as opposed to merely remaking the same thing) to be interesting IMO.

[Death Egg]

Ah, yeah, I see what you mean about it being too cramped... and I suppose I did copy the original layout a bit too much to make it that interesting. I'll get to work improving it.

[Megalyth]

This is a cool idea. I liked the e3 touches, such as the reimagined nukage room, which, even though it makes perfect sense given the episode it's emulating, I didn't see it coming. The texturing and monster placement was pretty good.

I agree, though, that the map is too cramped, which makes it seem less threatening somehow. At the very least, the outdoor section should be much larger to increase the overall scale.

[Death Egg]

Here's a better version. Changed quite a few of the rooms to be different, and expanded rooms as requested. Also, some new and rearranged areas, too. Less like the original now.

EDIT: Threw another one together, this time I redid E3M8 if it were E2M8 instead and housed the Cyberdemon. It kinda turned out to be more like if you threw E2M8 and E3M8 in a blender, but I like how it is.

Also, map slot is E2M8.

[Dragonsbrethren]

Not sure if I still have it, but I did an E2 retexture of E1M4 a few years back.

[Chopkinsca]

I liked it, it was a neat twist on a very familiar map. I agree on it being cramped in some places though. It would be neat to see all of episode 1 done this way.

[traversd]

It would make a neat secret map. Definitely needs to scaled up as it is probably only 75% the size of the original. TBH you are probably better off using e1m1 as a base.

[NiuHaka]

I really like what you are doing here. I would say that erring on the side of larger areas would be better.

[Springy]

chopkinsca said:

I liked it, it was a neat twist on a very familiar map. I agree on it being cramped in some places though. It would be neat to see all of episode 1 done this way.

I'm up for this! Maybe make a community project like this and do all of the episodes? I did think before "what if the episodes were done using another episodes textures before." I'm glad someone's taken the liberty to do something like this.

[schwerpunk]

Springy said:

I'm up for this! Maybe make a community project like this and do all of the episodes? I did think before "what if the episodes were done using another episodes textures before." I'm glad someone's taken the liberty to do something like this.

Ooh, now this is an interesting proposition! Start out with an E1-E3 swap, then if there's still interest, go on and do swaps for all of the episodes, and pack it all into a megawad. On that note, I think a very liberal remaking of the episodes should be allowed, particularly for turning hell maps into techbases, which will also help keep mappers interested. Most of us want to create, not derivate, after all.

Death Egg: I haven't played the map yet, but those screenshots are sexy as Hell. Definitely excited to see if anything more comes of this.

[Gez]

Reminds me of this.

[scifista42]

E3-2M8 is excellent and much better than any of the original bossfights, for sure.

[Death Egg]

Hey, a community project to continue this idea would be great. I was only thinking of doing a few more myself, including porting E2M6 to Episode 4 next. I'd love to see what other people come up with when porting maps to other episodes.

[Springy]

Death Egg said:

Hey, a community project to continue this idea would be great. I was only thinking of doing a few more myself, including porting E2M6 to Episode 4 next. I'd love to see what other people come up with when porting maps to other episodes.

I would love to give one a go but it'll take a long time for me I think but I'm up for it if anyone else is.

[Death Egg]

Also, I'd note that if this does go through, people should still probably build the maps from scratch, that way it's more likely to make it onto /idgames. It's one of the reasons I did my maps from scratch.

[Springy]

Death Egg said:

Also, I'd note that if this does go through, people should still probably build the maps from scratch, that way it's more likely to make it onto /idgames. It's one of the reasons I did my maps from scratch.

Yeah, I know that they should be from scratch but shouldn't we have a little more difference as well? I noticed you have some enemy difference in there, which is good.

[Death Egg]

Springy said:

Yeah, I know that they should be from scratch but shouldn't we have a little more difference as well? I noticed you have some enemy difference in there, which is good.

Yeah, definitely, especially if it helps the map better match the episode it's supposed to emulate. It should also be okay for people to deviate from the original layout a bit, since the second version of E1-3M1, for example, has a new secret that I added, and I'm debating removing one of the original ones since it's already kinda broken due to layout differences.

EDIT: Started work on E2-4M6:

[isVital]

I really liked both levels. Both aesthetically and in terms of gameplay, I thought the conversion worked well. In fact, I felt like the new enemies made E'1'M1 more fun to play, and the star layout in E'2'M8 I think worked a lot better than the actual layout of E2M8, since the center of the map is more open and thus the cyberdemon is more mobile.

[Walter confetti]

uh, looks nice!

[Doomkid]

Hmm.. E1 and E3 switched around is a really cool idea. E2 seems to sit somewhere in between, so I'm not really sure how that would work. Even switching it for E4 style wouldn't be much different, E3 nailed the hell feel just right.

That said.. I'm going to make the same thing in reverse, and see what it ends up like. Cool maps and cool idea, a very nostalgic feeling playing through them. Keep it up!

[Death Egg]

Wel, rather than just taking whole episodes and putting them in other episodes, it could be done on a map by map basis. So in Episode 3, you'd start with E1M1, then maybe follow it up with E4M2, then E2M3, etc.

[levir]

I just wanted to declare I've done this before! but probably not in the same way, i just changed most of the textures to SP_HOT1 and the nukage to lava and put harder enemies in it.

It was in.... *gasp* Nightmares of Loki. It was one of the secret levels lol. Now with that being said I'm going to skip out of this thread like mad before shit flies in my direction, like blunt objects.

PS: Also I had this idea I halfway went through with that was crazy to put all of episode 1 in one level. I removed some of the locked doors and replaced them with switches since I could only have so many keys but I did finish what I started, and the enemies were different. There were added corridors that were really low in detail between the levels. And since I knew I wasn't allowed to release it here, I've no idea what happened to it. The hellish part was redoing all of the tags

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

That was very interesting. I like it.

[Death Egg]

I've changed this topic to be the official community project topic, and updated the original post accordingly. Though, I might want someone else to help lead the project, since I haven't exactly had much luck getting other community projects off the ground in the past... (I really should try to get Multiverse off the ground one more time... Or give it to someone who can.)

[schwerpunk]

Depending on the deadline, I'm in. I don't want to take too much time away from my Monochrome Project, but I'd like whip up a brief E1M2 map done in the E2 visual style. The monsters aren't all that different, so I'm mainly going to have fun with the aesthetics. Also considering putting in crates a la E2M2. :3

[Death Egg]

Currently there isn't really a deadline. It'd be pretty cool to get it done by Doom's 20th but I really doubt that'll happen.

[Scypek2]

Oh yeah, so many cool community projects at once! I'd surely like to make an e1m8 ala e2m8.

[Megalyth]

I'm doing an e4m1 in the style of e2m1. This shouldn't take long, and I need a mapping boost, I've been slacking sooooo hard in the creativity department.

Edit: whoops, I mixed those up, derp. I meant e2m1 in the style of e4m1.

[traversd]

I might try an e4m1 in e1 style.