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mY mAPS
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It's amazing to see how the Doom community has
progressed over time. Each year, as new, amazing maps are made the bar is
set just a bit higher. Now we go to play Doom and have hundreds of wads to
play that are all top-notch; we truly have choices as players! So many, to
the point that none of us will likely ever play them all. That's a shame, of
course, but a great reason to be thankful for the fleeting moments of
somebody else's time to play your Doom map. For this reason, it is important
to know and understand the standards of the community and the principles
which make a good map.
NOTICE!!!
I need someone who would be willing to take the time to write
up these weekly goings on and submit them with pictures for me to get on the
site.
If interested, please use the email link above to contact me.
Thanks.
=====================================================================================
Exclusive Sneak-Peak at Super-Sverre's
"Echelon"
Sverre André Kvernmo's (aka Cranium or Soundblock) story is one of success
that serves as an inspiration to many Doom mappers and modders. While
studying art in England, he responded to a publication about Id looking for
levels for a map pack. After getting in touch with them, he learned that
they were booked up on maps, but he sent his in anyway. A short time later,
maps were dropped and Shawn Green opened up his envelope. Liking what he
saw, Sverre was brought onto the team to create "The Master Levels of Doom
2." It was here that his carreer in the gaming biz started and it was with
that perserverance of sending his maps in anyway that got him the job. After
getting his foot in the door, he worked for a bit with Xatrix on Redneck
Rampage and then went on to work at ION Storm developing levels for
Diakatana. He continued to work in the gaming industry for a while after
that, but eventually decided the constant deadlines and overtime was more
stress than it was worth; he now makes a comfy living as a graphic artist
for a vehicle simulation software developer.
Sverre originally made 12 maps for "The Master Levels of Doom 2." 5 were
accepted and the other 7 became his Cabal1-7 series. After working on the
master levels, Sverre shortly thereafter was contacted by Jim Flynn to join
TeamTNT and begin work on the iconic "Eternal Doom." From there, he took a
break from Doom mapping; a long break. 17 years later he burst back onto the
scene with "Plasmaplant," a big blue map that shares a similar aesthetic to
Ribbiks's "Swim with the Whales," with some amazing emphasis on color and
lighting, as well as a few quirks to keep the player paying attention. 3
years later, he's back with another amazing set of maps! "Echelon" is a
30-map megawad that runs in zDoom under the Doom 2 iWad.
There are many things I want to say about this megawad; where to start is
the toughest thing, though, hehe. Starting with aesthetics: these maps were
some of the most beautiful, minimally detailed maps I've played in some
time. With a heavy emphasis on colors, as well as some great lighting, these
maps each had an interesting atmosphere to them that made them all
memorable. Simply reading one line of my feedback to Sverre brings back a
total picture of each level. Of course, that's aided by the fact that most
of these maps are also very short. Even the maps with 100+ monsters took
under 10 minutes to max on a first pass. The longest map, containing 200
monsters, took maybe 20 minutes, including my own sight-seeing time. But
many of these maps were under 20 monsters, many more around 50, and only a
small handful over 100.
In-between each map is some intermission text, providing more and more info
on the story in this wad. The shortness of these levels adds to the
narritive of the overall set, given that the player is constantly returning
to an advancement in the story line with each quick level. In addition,
short, medium, and long-ish levels were spaced evenly throughout the entire
megawad, giving a great sense of variety to the overall product, as well as
keeping the player interested in the story. Sverre also did an excellent job
matching each map with what is going on in the story, along with a nice MIDI
selection consisting mostly of Ribbiks's and Jimmy's works, alongside a few
other talented folk, all further adding to the overall immersion. The story
itself was fairly interesting, incorporating a few of the original texts in
with a brand new chain-of-events in which the Doomguy wakes up late for
work, only to find that the invasion has come and gone without him. Left
behind is a small force to occupy and hold already taken areas. After seeing
the devestation, he decides to go home and check on his wife; not finding
her, he sets off to save the people of Earth and destroy Hell's upper
echelon, ending the invasion for goo-- for now. After finally reaching Hell,
the Doomguy fails to find the fiery horrors he was expecting; instead, as he
enters the portal after each level he finds that his thoughts shape the next
area he is thrust into, or perhaps his thoughts simply convey where he
desires to go and the portal delivers him there... "Echelon" delivers an
awesome, immersive experience that will keep you playing from start to end;
indeed, my total time on this, maxing each map was about 3 and a half hours,
taking my time and enjoying the maps.
The beginning of this megawad uses relatively few crazy zDoom features, but
as the map set goes on there are many really cool setups that could only be
done within zDoom, as well as a lot of awesome, minimalist architecture and
detailing that could only be done within zDoom. Sverre has a fondness for
the simplicity, yet beauty, of Doom's aesthetic and it shines brightly
within this megawad. I found this whole megawad to be a pleasurable journey
through a professional-looking map set.
In addition to the fantastic aesthetics, the gameplay was a fun romp. Sverre
included 3 new custom enemies in this wad which kept things fresh
throughout. One is called a Viper; a red lizard that launches
randomly-scattered volleys of 4 painful fireballs in the players direction
and explodes upon death. This monster has the added benefit of psychological
warfare on the player, as he shares sounds with both the caco and the rev,
hehe; I liked that twist. The other two enemies are of the -fiend family:
the Clusterfiend and the Midasfiend. Both serve similar roles as the
cacodemon, but each has a different, interesting effect on their
projectiles. The weaker one, the Clusterfiend, shoots his projectile which
produces a second projectile on impact, typically seeming to "bounce" off of
the object or wall it hit. The Midasfiend's projectile splits into 5-or-6
smaller ones upon impact, which thinking about it now, seems more like a
clusterbomb, but that's neither here nor there. The new custom monsters all
looked cool and the -fiends had a comical effect on their backside as they
launched their projectiles. The DECORATE code calls it "a small 'dingleberry'
of plasma rears out the rear when it fires," heh.
The gameplay for each individual map of this wad was fairly quick, easy
romps through levels, constantly pressing on. Most maps featured one major
scene/encounter, with the rest being incidental combat; opening the map or
wrapping up lose ends before moving on to the next. The whole set up was a
really cool way to keep the player hooked into constantly wanting to play
the next map. After all, you start it up, play for a couple hours, then it
gets to be about time to call it. After finishing your "last" map of the
night, you read that story and the next map opens up. You run through a bit,
then realize you're already almost done; might as well finish it at this
point. Then you read the next bit of story text and the following map loads
up. Rather than save and exit, you like what you see, decide to take a quick
look around, and then the process starts all over again until you fall
alseep in your computer chair for being up past 3 am. Guess I shouldn't have
started after 12, eh? Heh. Most of the maps were fairly low pressure, though
there were a few tight spots and traps here and there to keep the player on
his toes, but this was interspersed between quick, easy maps to keep things
moving at an enjoyable pace.
This megawad had me hooked for more than one playthrough; I highly recommend
it to every Doomer, old-shcool and new-school alike! Sverre doesn't fail to
deliver on the quality content he is known for; give this tremendous megawad
a go right away and prepare yourself for a beautifully colored, fantasticly
delivered story-driven experience through this reinterpretation of Doom's
classic storyline! Find it on
/idgames!
Some folk may be familiar with an old interview, 18 years old to be precise,
on the "5 Years of Doom" page in which Sverre was asked about his work on
"The Master Levels of Doom 2" as well as "Eternal Doom" and Daikatana, in
addition to other more general questions. The result was an interesting read
about his time spent mapping for Doom and how it impacted his life
professionally. If you haven't had the chance to read it, head on over here
and give it a check:
http://5years.doomworld.com/interviews/sverrekvernmo/
I had the chance to ask Sverre a few questions during my time with this
megawad, somewhat of a make-shift interview of my own. I think the result
turned out to be an intriguing perspective into the life of a video game
developer and graphic artist and I managed to get a couple age-old questions
answered... Without further ado here it is:
**************INTERVIEW**************
Vinny:
We all know you had a fair-sized hand in making the Master Levels for Doom 2;
having made almost one quarter of the maps in the final product. I see you later
had a short run with Xatrix making Redneck Rampage, after which you worked at
ION Storm developing levels for Daikatana for over a year and a half of its
development. What do you do now?
Sverre: After Daikatana there was KISS Psycho Circus, a Doom homage, the Anarchy
Online MMO and finally the Conan MMO, which rounded off my twelve year stint in
the games industry, which began with the Master Levels. I'm currently a graphic
artist for a vehicle simulation software developer. Churning out houses and
structures for tank- and car- simulators, that type of thing.
V: I don't quite understand, but I see something about a tank; care to
elaborate?
S: We're a small company that makes driving simulators, full arcade-style
cabinet, for driving schools/universities, and sometimes, the military.
V: Wowzers; that's a long way from mapping for Doom! In the old DoomWorld
interview, you were asked you about how you were selected for the Master Levels,
to which you provided a link to the story given to Henrik Larsen at The Master
Levels FAQ, broken over time. Would you happen to have a copy of that for
posterity?
S: Oh, that thing disappeared did it? Sorry, I don't have a copy. Basically, I
saw a note in the pre-internet gaming press (paper publication - PC Zone) about
how id were looking for levels for a map pack. I called up id long distance from
England, where I was studying art at the time. Donna got me to the person in
charge of Master Levels - Shawn. At first was told there probably wasn't any
vacancies, but I sent him my maps anyway, and when one of the participants
pulled out (his dad wouldn't let him spend the time making Doom maps!), Shawn
opened up my envelope and liked what he found inside.
V: It's awesome to hear that perserverance paid off. What's it like working in
the gaming field?
S: Well I miss the gaming biz a lot, and would love to go at it again at a
lesser capacity and with something retro. AAA titles are over for me as a
developer. I couldn't cope with the always looming deadlines and overzealous
amounts of overtime in the end, so I limped out.
V: Going limp before a climax is never a good thing; what would you say is the
climax of your work?
S: Haha, I wouldn't know... ;-) Besides Master Levels, which maybe was the most
fun, I have a special place in my heart for Anarchy Online. There was a really
buzzing community in there after the launch probelms were fixed. In-game radio
run by players, player-run chat bots which knew the world in and out, the
ability to conquer zones of the map and a really deep setting to back it all up.
Besides, I've always loved sci-fi and it is the only pure sci-fi title I've
worked on, and a massively huge one at that, so that was a a lot of fun. I had a
hand in the patch that spruced up our dungeon generator and added new and
popular static dungeons to that game (patch 14.8), so that was a climax of
sorts.
V: How has the constantly changing technology impacted your work?
S: It makes it hard to not throw out the baby with the bath water, features
wise. You always lose something when you gain something, game tech wise. Or so I
find. Why is oldschool Doom still so popular? One reason I'd wager is because
FPS'es lost something along the way.
V: Fast speed, projectiles, and knowing it's a videogame (not trying to be
realistic); I'd wager. Aside from Doom, what is your favorite shooter game?
S: I obviously loved the Quakes and the Half Lifes, Blood, Unreal and
Battlefield 1942, but haven't played them in a long time. Good old Metal Slug is
fun and I really enjoyed Mirror's Edge and the Portal games, but I'd have to go
with Hotline Miami on this one. It kicks so much ass.
V: What mappers inspired you the most in the 90's?
S: Jason Hargreaves (Nukemine) and Dr Sleep, definetely. They were the only two
early mappers I could find that made better stuff than the originals. After
that, Memento Mori was an influence and plenty of others that don't spring
immediately to mind.
V: What gave you the inspiration to return to Doom mapping in 2013?
S: Well I hadn't made any games since 2008, so I was really itching to do some
game design of some sort. I always felt Doom had some immediacy to it that later
games creation tools didn't match, so I chose a nostalgic return to that rather
than trying to jump on board the Unreal engine or something. So much time is
spent creating art assets with those new engines. Not to mention all the
scripting needed. None of that with Doom, just fast action and that short space
between designing and playing what you designed.
V: Glad to have you back! What Doom wads/maps and mappers have the greatest
influence on your work today, either when making Doom maps or professionally?
S: I dig Afterglow's very precise and texture-linedef hand-in-hand approach,
though I couldn't match his precision myself. I hope his Odium makes a splash
when its released. Likewise, Ribbiks' wildly awesome creations made a big
impact, though I don't think I could go all the way there myself. I heard
Skillsaw is really good, but I haven't seen enough of his to make a statement. I
try to, but I don't play enough other wads really, playtesting my own stuff
takes a lot out of my play-Doom budget. I do get the time to see some of other
people's stuff, but I wish I had more time and energy to just delve into what
other people make. To answer your question better I don't think I take direct
influence from anyone too much, having perhaps a style of my own, whether its
very good anymore or not. Well, come to think of it... If there's one guy that's
affected my style lately, its pcorf. He kinda liberated me from trying to go all
out on the detailing and proved that you can still do top notch playability even
with just a few lines. With Plasmaplant I was kinda trying to utilise the new
limit removing stuff a lot, which is very time consuming, but after playing
pcorf's 300 lines megawad I reverted a bit to just making simple yet cool
environments, so hats off to him or there may never have been an Echelon.
V: A giant hats off to pcorf, then! What were some of your biggest goals and
ideas with Echelon?
S: I've heard it said that confines can be liberating, creatively speaking, so I
went a bit overboard with the initial goals, which was to make the maps match
their expected playtime duration to Doom II's par times. "Project PAR" proved
impossible, but it forced me to make really small maps, which is what I wanted
anyhow. Bite-sized quicksnacks, rather than meandering behemoths. An arcade'y
approach, rather than an overly adventurous one. Also, to carry a narrative and
be colorful.
V: What was your favorite idea that unfortunately had to hit the cutting room
floor while making Echelon?
S: NPCs. I wanted some fellow survivors in there that you had to give your
weapons, which later transformed into monsters that you had to blast. Even made
some graphics for them. A preacher that becomes a Spider Mastermind, a
construction worker that turns into a cybo, a woman that turns into an Archvile,
and a couple of graffiti artists...
V: What symbolism did you incorporate into Echelon?
S: Abstracts, more so than intentional symbolism. I try and steer clear of the
too obvious, though that can be hard when working with a demonic theme, as we
do. There's plenty of graffiti in there, made by the Doomworld community, which
I suppose is rife with all kinds of symbolism.
V: Lol, I did like the graffiti. What is your mapping process?
S: I have no, one set way of going about this. Certain maps explode out in a day
or two, others take decades from first few linedefs to completion. Echelon is a
good example of this - there are portions of maps that date back to 1996 in
that, and maps that were made in a week, last month. I like it best when the
architecture you create starts buzzing off itself, and new unintended areas just
spring to life as a result from what you just made, but there's a lot to be said
for the more planned approach with pencil sketches, flowcharts and what not.
V: What was your favorite map to work on?
S: God, that's hard to answer. Teeth springs to mind. There's sometning
unrepeatable about how that map opens up - it was fun being in the same room as
beta testers trying it out. The Image Of Evil was fun, again since it has a
unique aspect in the mapview. But I guess nothing beats that wild creative joy
of putting together the very first map you make (Temple of Death, in my case).
You know what though, it was the Eternal Doom mapset - because that project was
such a team effort. Seeing everyone's creative force come together like that for
the first time, before I had worked on any games, was awesome.
V: What do you like to see within Doom levels?
S: Surprises. Stuff that makes me wish I'd thought of that, or could do that.
Renewed love for the game.
V: Same here. Making truly unique things in a 22 year old game is tough, but
every now and again folk seem to do it; it's inspirational. what is your
favorite aspect of map design?
S: Happy accidents. The magic that sometimes creeps out of corners you didn't
even plan for. An encounter that turns out cooler than what you expected.
V: I see in the previous interview you've had a lot of feedback from people who
prefer Timegate over Nucleus and Darkdome in Eternal Doom, despite the
difference in time spent on the maps; what do you think made Timegate more
successful than the other two?
S: Don't know for certain. There's a sense of narrative to the place? It ties
the story of Eternal Doom's two time zones successfully? It was created right at
the end, when all resources were in place? It doesn't meander like Nucleus and
doesn't make ridiculous switch-hunting demands like Darkdome?
V: I always liked the way Timegate was built, with the player starting on the
outer edge of the map, moving around, then finally inward. The overall aesthetic
of it was really cool and it had such a fantastic atmosphere to it. While I also
really liked Darkdome and thought Nucleus was cool, for some reason they never
left the impression on me that Timegate did. Still, time not wasted, as all are
good levels. The interview also mentions that you made over 600 textures for
Eternal Doom, how did you create them?
S: I can't believe that number to be correct. Perhaps if you count all fonts,
HUDs and stuff? No, still seems like way too high a number. You're not counting
all the three episodes' gtaphics are you? I mean, I only worked on the first
one. At any rate, I used Photoshop 3. Some stuff, like the (original) title
screen and the intermission soldier, were hand-drawn stuff that got scanned and
treated. A lot of it was created while experimenting and getting used to what
Photoshops filters could do. Frequently, I would work in RGB mode, fidget with
the RGBs until I hit a register of notes in the Doom palette, then convert back
to indexed color. It was quite the alchemy. The other mappers needed textures
and fast, so I can't say I'm too proud of every creation in there, but it has
its moments.
V: Perhaps it was the way you had counted it at the time. As somebody who's work
belongs solely in Paint, I have to admire the talent and skill required to make
textures that look as good as those in Eternal Doom. Retres.wad is perhaps my
favorite texture set, containing most/all of the Eternal Doom resources. What
advice could you give to somebody just learning to draw textures/sprites for
Doom?
S: Wow, ok. Maybe I was right, I'm not going back in there to count again!
Hopefully I wasn't trying to take credit for the Hexen rips - I never wanted
those in there to begin with. For any budding artists - post on Doomworld about
questions you might have about the process - there are a lot of competent and
brilliant people on there who know in and out how the Doom graphics work. Stick
to a theme, look closely at the original art, experiment wildly but don't be
overly ambitious at first, and prepare to have your patience tested.
V: That's some great advice; I believe making a plan and keeping things simple,
short and sweet in the beginning are the best courses of action, as well as
experimenting through genuine curiousity. The old interview mentions you used to
be an avid deathmatcher; when was the last time you DM'd?
S: I lost 50-49 to Randy Pitchford just before I left Ion Storm. I had him like
49 - 42 or something, then he made a valiant effort to come back and I wasn't
feeling it any more. Shouldn't be possible to come back from that in Doom, but
it happened. I logged onto some deathmatch server thingie a couple of years
back, I forget its name. Only one other guy was logged on and he left about the
same second I got on, so I looked around for a bit and then logged off. Should
give it another go I guess, though my wrist is pretty busted these days so I
don't much expect a comeback!
V: I'm sorry to hear about your wrist; I get minor problems with tendonitis in
both of mine, though it's usually remidied by wearing a brace for a few days so
I'm fairly fortunate in that regard. Idk if you have a good brace, but I'd
highly recommend a DJ Orthopedics wrist brace; lightweight and comfortable,
doesn't make my wrist sweat like some other highly padded braces while also
providing great support. Idk why, but it feels great sometimes to just crank
down that top velcro at my wrist for a couple minutes when it's in a lot of
pain. That's funny about that game with Randy; I've had more than a few matches
where I lost all of my steam towards the end, finishing in a confusing defeat,
hehe. Speaking of, I'm always looking for more people to DM; do you wanna DM
sometime? Lol
S: It would be ugly. I'd have to at least get used to how DM'ing works these
days first! Perhaps I'll play you with my left, just so I have an excuse.
V: Hehe; go easy on me! Feel free to stop by quakenet.org's irc channel #dmstuff
any time :) Otherwise we can try to set something up via PM. Do game dev's still
DM on Doom?
S: They did in the 90's and early 2000's, but I haven't seen a proper LAN party
like that for years. Battlefield 1942 took over the torch there I suppose, at
least where I worked after moving from the states.
V: Did you ever manage to fix that old hard drive with some of your earliest
maps on it?
S: Nope, it was double dead and I threw it away eventually. There wasn't that
much on it - half an unfinished map, mostly. I tried recreating it, but
couldn't!
V: What does that Doom collection look like nowadays?
S: I have my complete set of pewter miniatures that Romero gave me, but moving
around a lot like I have, you learn to trim down your number of belongings. The
future is digital I tell you!
V: Over 15 years since the last interview, is Carlsberg beer still where it's
at?
S: I'm lovin' it!
|
NEWS from the
/IDGAMES
ARCHIVES
8 new submissions for the archives; great
job everybody!
First up for the week is a beautiful NS DM wad we've seen on Wads In
Progress for some time now; "Morgenstern" by Nicholas "Tiger" Gautier is
an 18-map set which requires OpenGL to run. Being an MP wad, that
basically means play it in Zand under the Doom 2 iWad. Find it here:
http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/deathmatch/Ports/megawads/tgrdm3.zip
text file
This wad, while gorgeous, has many problems on the
gameplay side of it. Nevermind the absence of the bfg, this wad has some
questionable armor/powerup placement and strange design decisions.
Amongst these are several tight areas designed to eat up time running to
the opposite end of a large map and rediculous usage of OpenGL features
which bog down my fairly new, midrange laptop on SP to the point where I
could not reliably hit a moving target. I can only imagine what older
computers would experience, let alone during an active MP match. Still,
the bad things aside, this wad did have some absolutely beautiful
touches put into it: reflective floors/walls, clouds of fog, jump pads,
3D models, portals, nice architecure and a couple decent layouts in
their own right.
Even if you are not a DM'er, and especially if you map for zDoom or its
family, download this map set right away. Awesome, awesome, awesome
special effects in this thing that every (G)zDoom mapper should be
familiar with. The look of this is what the standard for GzDoom maps
will soon be, if it's not there already.
_______________________
Next on the list for the week is "Tritium Refinery" by Subucnameth,
which can be found here:
http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/s-u/tritium.zip
Text file
This 2-map set runs in Vanilla under the Doom 2
iWad.
These were 2 solid vanilla maps. Fun gameplay, with its easy general
setups and tight traps. Nice, simplistic visuals that worked well for a
vanilla map. The only downside to these two maps, to me, was the
overexcessive use of brown; aside from that the texturing, lighting, and
detailing was solid. Vanilla fans are sure to enjoy these two maps; give
them a shot today!
______________________
Our third wad this week is one I had the pleasure of playing some months
ago when its beta was posted on the DoomWorld forums. "Shrooms" by
Albertoni can be found here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/shrooms
This 6-map set runs in zDoom under the Doom 2 iWad, though GzDoom is
recommended.
Perhaps one of the more interesting wads I've played; this wad is
minimally detailed, but rich in effects and atmosphere. Something I
never noticed before: this wad has 2 endings. Personally, I like the
normal ending in which the player questions whether he has been
murdering demons, or his very same friends that gave him the magical
fungi in the first place. Much like a typical trip, not that I would
know, the journey starts off fairly grounded in reality, with a few
strange occurances here and there. Following that, things take a turn
for the crazy, symbolism and colors abound; areas clear and yet fuzzy at
the same time. If you're looking for something fresh and interesting,
give this wad a download!
_______________________
After that experience, "The Wreck" by Thomas Nijman can be found here:
http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/s-u/thewreck.zip
Text File
This 3-map wad was made for the Vinesauce contest
and runs in GzDoom under the Doom 2 iWad.
I'm not gonna lie; I hated the beginning of this map set. The underwater
portion during the first half of the first level as the player finds a
way into the ship really made me want to quit then and there, but as the
first map goes on the effect isn't quite so bad. This map set had some
cool things going on; during the first level, the player raises and
lowers the water level in the ship they are in, which is also crashed
and upside down. There was a decent puzzle that made me think briefly of
Zelda, as well as a few other cool things going on. This wad's second
level takes place firmly within 'The Wreck of the Moria Daria,' while
its final map is situated on its deck, which has somehow been turned
right-side-up. Idk how it makes sense, but this was an interesting map
set and I just love the theme of a wrecked ship. Nice job here Thomas! I
encourage every GzDoom fan to check this cool wad out.
________________________
The fifth wad this week is called "Deliverance: ONI Facility Demo
(stripped version)" by Elric Sullivan (Fisk); found here:
http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/d-f/f-f01-s2.zip
Text File
This wad runs in (G)zDoom under the Doom 2 iWad.
The music was stripped to comply with /idgames's standards.
This was a decent-looking, fun romp through a level that struck me as
being in the E1-style of Doom 1, both aesthetic-wise and gameplay-wise,
with most monsters consisting of imps, bulls, and zombies; few
medium-tiers thrown in there, but not many. This would make for a
fantastic opener for a map set, if just a bit long. Still, I ran around
this thing and somehow wound up at the exit in less than 5 minutes (I
also missed 2/3 of the monsters and map), so it ain't too bad. I liked
it enough to turn around before hitting the exit switch in order to
clear the map proper before leaving; I'm sure many folk will like this
as well. Give it a go!
______________________
Following that is an invasion map by the same guy who brought us the
first wad this week, "Morgenstern;" find "Shadowmaker" by Nicholas
"Tiger" Gautier here:
http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/s-u/shdwmkr.zip
Text file
This invasion-style map runs in Zandronum 3.0
under the Doom 2 iWad.
I love invasion maps and this was a beautiful one. A bit demanding on
the hardware, as was the case with a map or two in "Morgenstern," but
all-around a fun experience! I didn't make it far, legitimately, which
was unfortunate, but the once the enemies and stuff started porting in
things got a bit rough for this guy. Still, I kept at it for a little
bit and made it through to the end; I'm sure this wad would be fun with
2-4 people, all on nice comps. I was a bit saddened to not see the BFG
make an appearance anywhere, but at 7 waves this was nice. Respawn times
on items was rediculously quick, which might have been a bad thing
considering you could just about pick any weapon, stand on its ammo
crate and never run out of ammo (they respawned that quickly; < 5
seconds), but for SP it made things much more possible; a nice feeling
to have when every known corner of the map gets swarmed by enemies. With
nowhere to run to, this map demands that the player find a safe spot and
hold out. Still. being a fair-sized map there are plenty of places to
choose from and once that initial Hell of each wave has been dealt with,
mop-up is cake. Where you decide to hold up affects how tough it will
be, I suppose, but you'll rob from Peter to pay Paul in tedium, most
likely. As you progress through the map, portions of it open to give the
player more space, as well as supply him with additional goodies. Being
from Tiger, it was a very beautiful map. Invasion fans give this map a
download!
______________________
Our seventh wad this week is titled "Industrial Warfare" and comes to us
from Carlos Lastra. Find it here:
http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/g-i/industry.zip
Text file
This map runs in zDoom under the Doom 2 iWad.
A fairly straightforward map, this non-linear map features few traps and
mostly an exploratory style of play. Gameplay and aesthetics fit that
common E1 theme. Carlos is getting better with his maps; so take some
time to crack this map open and give it a check.
______________________
Finally, to round off the week for /idgames we have "Russian DOOM" by
Julian Nechaevsky, which can be found here:
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/source/rus-doom
This is a cool program; based on Chocolate Doom
2.2.1, Julian Nechaevsky has made a new executable program which runs
Doom, but with the words translated to Russian. In addition, for each
iWad, there is a small pWad within Russian Doom which translates the
names of the maps to Russian as well; for that full Russian experience.
This program is really cool; hopefully we'll see some more for other
languages pop up!
Fantastic; 8 new submissions to the archives is
something to be proud of!
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Speedrunning news and
videos
"Ancient Aliens" has been receiving some new demos
lately. I absolutely loved that map set and it's stuff like that which
raises the bar for all of us to aspire to as we map after its release.
There have been some really cool demos for this ground-breaking megawad
to come out over the last few months, but I was happy to see more begin
to trickle in; hopefully we'll see more soon!
Check out the DoomWorld thread here:
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-speed-demos/89728-ancient-aliens-proofs-complevel-9/3/
DoomWorld member 4shockblast put up a couple
interesting demos for Sunder over the week; MAP03 NM-Speed in 3:20 and
MAP08 NM-Speed in 2:54 (also Pacifist). Both are good watches! Great job
on these 4shockblast! Would love to see more!
Check 'em out here:
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1670302
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NEWS from around the Web
Looking towards the DoomWorld forums we
find a couple sweet things:
DoomWorld member Impie has released a quite
interesting gameplay mod titled "Surreal Killer" on the forums. In this
GzDoom mod, you "play a four-armed babe with an attitude and an unusual
way of handling firearms." New monsters, weapons and powerups are
included with this mod. The weapons are all really cool to use and most
have an alt fire, typically involving the use of your extra hands, often
increasing dps by simply putting out more shots, which tends to mow down
monsters fairly quickly. Having an extra set of arms really does pay
off!
The monsters, on the other hand, do not like to go down without a fight.
Most monsters seem to have been at the very least tweaked, with some
being totally replaced by new ones. Some regulars of the DoomWorld
forums might recognize Fractal Curly from this mod, ranamed here to Papa
Mosh; Impie put out a thread for him a little while back. I was glad to
see his inclusion in this mod, as he's an interesting character. Taking
the place of the Cyberdemon, Fractal Curly has a couple different
attacks, but wasn't truly fractal which might be the reason for his
change in name, but he'll always be Fractal Curly to me. One is to throw
big ole boulders at the player and the other is to spawn 2 ubercurleys,
which are simply smaller versions of Papa Mosh called Uber Mosh which
replace the Barons of Hell. Spider Masterminds have been replaced with a
large rocket-shooting robot ala Cyberdemon, and regular ole roided-out
Curly takes the place of the bulls. Every enemy has a new look and some,
like the Spider Mastermind, have totally new attacks which counter the
player's newfound set of hands nicely.
This mod was a ton of fun to play and I hope Impie continues to add more
content to it before its eventual upload to /idgames; great job on this
Impie!
Find its DoomWorld thread here:
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/90795-surreal-killer-monster-weapon-wip/
Find its download link here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/p3ege7760dm61c1/surreal+killer+dl.zip
________________________________
DoomWorld member rdwpa released a new map, "Ahh!" is a small -complevel
9 map showing off of the allhell.wad bestiary and sprite replacements,
with a few reverted back to Doom 2 originals.
This was a really cool map from rdwpa. As is typical for him, the
encounters are all layered in such a way as to provide the most amount
of pressure on the player. Something I particularly liked about this wad
was the large variety of monsters it used and how fun its guns were to
shoot. The shotgun was mixed with the chaingun to create an auto-shotgun
from Hell. Still, for an rdwpa map it was fairly easy; I guess its bark
was worse than its bite. I finished this map in just under 6 minutes,
though with an extra 4 deaths bump that number up to just under 12, hehe.
This map consists of 3 main encounters, with the second one being the
largest and most deadly. After finishing the entire area, the player is
teleported to one final fight. This whole thing is really interesting
for a Boom-compatible wad, given all the new monster behaviors. This
isn't a new behavior, but worth noting: the chaingunners have two heads.
This is a new behavior, though: when the arachnotrons die, who
themselves are steeds in this twisted corner of Hell to those two-headed
chaingunners, they spawn a chaingunner. Like the dude riding them dusted
himself off and decided to keep on going like his name is John Rambo. In
addition, should the player fall while one of these duos is locked in,
shooting at the player, they'll continue to fire at the player's dead
body indefinitely. It's quite comical.
The map itself is mostly an outside, grassy area surrounded by grey
walls, with tall grey industrial-looking things in the background. The
final fight takes place on a rooftop. Rdwpa succeeded in delivering
another fun wad with this; download it right away!
Find it on its DoomWorld thread here:
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/90741-ahh/
==============================
One Man Doom has 2 new reviews up!
"Asylum" is a Vanilla Doom 2 map made earlier this year by Angry Saint.
This wad has some absolutely gorgeous lighting and is a fun romp with
its fair share of tough spots. Read KMX's great review here:
https://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2016/09/asylum-asyv10wad.html
The second review KMX posted is about the first episode of "Alpha
Accident" by Eugene "Wraith" Guschin. This 9-map, Limit-Removing
episode-replacement takes over the E1 mapslots of The Ultimate Doom iWad.
This wad has a non-traditional Doom style that cannot be summed up in
one or two sentences, so head on over to One Man Doom and check out
KMX's full review here (he seems to have really enjoyed it!):
https://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2016/09/alpha-accident-aae1wad.html
Great job on the reviews KMX!
_______________________________
Wads In Progress has some new info on a couple wads; check it out!
http://wadsinprogress.info/?a=listwads&game=&status=&mode=
_______________________________
DoomLauncher received an update! V2.4.0 is now out; get over to Realm667
and see for yourself!
http://realm667.com/index.php/en/
================================
Take care everybody!
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Doom 3/4 news
Doom Wad Station (yours truly) posted it's
first Doom 4 map review, which you can find
here. The map
is called "Janitor vs. Zombies" and while not the best map I
ever played, it's not bad and it's a good lead in to the 2nd
map (the sequel) which I'll also be reviewing shortly. And
since you have to play the first one to play the 2nd one,
you might as well. :-)
Not really much going on with Doom 3 (pretty much the norm). If you have any news
to add for either of these, be sure to
email me.
In case you were wondering about System Requirements for Doom 4
Doom video game system
requirements (
minimum )
OS: Windows
7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
Processor: Intel
Core i5-2400 or better / AMD FX-8320 or better
Memory: 8
GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA
GeForce GTX 670 (2GB or better / AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2GB or better
DirectX: Version
11
Network: Broadband
Internet connection
Storage: 22
GB available space
Additional Notes: Open
GL 4.5. Latest Graphics Drivers.
Doom
Reborn has received an update! Pre-beta Version 1.6 is out! For those
who don't know, Doom Reborn is a 1:1 replica of Doom 1+2 in Doom 3. The
recreation and attention-to-detail put into this mod is simply amazing
and can truly only be witnessed for oneself. Grab your Doom 3 cd and
download this baby right away!
Find it here:
http://www.doomwadstation.net/doom3tc/reborn/
Sadly - Doom Reborn's website is gone. :-(
And check out their site here:
http://www.doomreborngame.com/
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That about wraps it up for this week. Once again, Vinny and I would like
to thank YOU, the people who keep the community alive, for visiting this
tiny corner of the internet and getting your news from Doom Wad Station.
Mucho appreciado!
See you next week, same Doom time, Same Doom channel. If you have news -
a wad, a new site, a youtube video you want to share, just
email me and we'll get it into
TWID.
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