this week in doom - week ending October 25, 2015 (doom date 21.7987)

this week in doom is my attempt at keeping you abreast of all the goings on in the DOOM community and, as you will notice, a busy community it is. It's difficult to believe that after 20 plus years this game's community is still as active as it is but, of course, ID Software has helped by releasing Doom 3 10 years ago (or thereabouts) and is now in the process of the new DOOM game (sometime in Q2, 2016?). Can't wait to see the beta shareware, or whatever it's going to be.....

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Thanks to "Fonze" for taking up the mantle of responsibility for TWID and doing the research and writing up TWID for us. Also, Thanks to you, the reader(s), and Community, which have kept Doom alive and relevant for all these years. And, thanks to ID Software, without whom, all this could not be possible. Keep on Dooming!

Doom is a special thing; it's a lot like that old car you always tell yourself that you're not gonna drive anymore, but then you find out that the new car sucks and they just don't quite make 'em like they used to. But it's okay, much like that old car, the Doom community doesn't judge; it knows you'll be back soon. Yessir, much like the addict you are, you'll be back soon... And now we play the waiting game... No, wait-- now we play Doom.

Unfortunately it's been another slow week on /idgames, so I'll spend a bit more time on these maps... playing Doom.

First up we have the "Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 21" by various authors, headed by TheMionicDonut, found here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/a-c/abyspe21.zip



For those who are unfarmiliar with the Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions, they were started by Obsidian and feature an open team of mappers all mapping at the same time while in a common Skype call. These sessions last 2 hours for map creation, plus 15 minutes for texture and music selection and another 15 for bug fixing. This session was a bit different and featured an added twist as the mappers paid homage to the late, great Ty Halderman. The mappers had 3 themes to choose from: dynamic architecture, gunfire-activated switches, and no light levels between 128 and 192. Some went with one, some two, and a few went with all three.



You can tell a few things about these maps when you play them. First, they are speedmaps. Don't expect a lot of crazy-detailed stuff and of course with various mappers comes a mixed bag of chips. However, you can also tell that this set of maps doesn't take itself too seriously, which is nice and fits well. Second, you can tell that a good portion of these maps boggle your mind as to how they were made in two-and-a-half hours. These are some well-established mappers here and though some parts feel like speedmaps, the vast majority of them are just fun to play through and look pretty darn cool, too. Third, you can see the themes fitting right into each map; the mappers did an excellent job incorporating the themes into their maps. I especially liked MAP08 that was almost all dynamic architecture. It's cool to see levels twist and change around you. Last, you can tell that even the time devoted to music selection was not wasted. The music was great here!



All in all, I had a lot of fun and spent maybe a bit too much time on these maps, heh. These maps are challenging and surprisingly fantastic-looking for the most part, given that they are speedmaps. Once again it boogles my mind as to how most of these maps were made in 2.5 hours. All I can really say is give these really sweet maps a go right away!



These awesome maps are made for the Boom engine with the Doom 2 iWad. Let's see some demos for these!

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Next up we have "Fear Station Bravo" by ReX Claussen found here:

http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/d-f/fear_stb.zip

This is a *GzDoom* map and runs with the Doom 2 iWad.

From the slopes to the 3D floors to the sloped 3D floors to the poly-objects, this map stands out this week as the flat-out best map. What a fun beauty to play through. The detailing was just fantastic and Good God if I all I can think of is how beautiful this map looked. This was not a small map, either; combine that with the fact that the detail-work was through-out such a sizable map and you got yourself one really sweet map right here. 10/10 for aesthetics from me!



As I said, this was somewhat of a long map. Starts at over 300 mobs and more spawn as you play, so expect that number to be higher by the time it's all said and done. The gun-progression is fairly slow, but not so much in a bad way. The enemies were just right to match the guns given. Health was tight at times, but was also pretty generous at others. Still, being a large map, just save it every so often and it ain't too difficult. No really cheap traps, the map as a whole was fairly easy-going. Still, there were a good number of traps. Ammo was plentiful for the most part, but there were a few tight spots. Fantastic scripting and effects, such as this bridge...



Once again this map was a ton of fun to play. It has a fairly non-linear feel due to the very non-linear beginning and many optional portions of the map. This was the best of the week, right here, so check out this gorgeous map as soon as possible!

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In the third position we have another submission by mrthejoshmon. That's one a week for three weeks in a row! All fun maps, too. This week, thejoshmon-boss-mon has gifted us with a map titled "Ossuary of Agony" which you can find here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/a-c/agony2.zip

This map runs under any limit-removing port, such as Boom, in the *TNT* iWad under the *MAP25* slot.



Lotta really cool scenery in this map. Mrthejoshmon did a great job, once again, on the design, layout, flow, and detail-work. I really liked how the map progressed, with new areas opening around what are/become central hubs of the level. Aside from merely being cool to begin with, this also allows skipped monsters a chance to catch up and cause trouble later. There were plenty of wide-open areas, with a few spots to duck down for cover when it was needed.



This is another fairly sizable map, though not nearly as big as the last; relatively same monster count, though. Still, this one provides the player with larger weaponry earlier on and typically has mosters come in larger groups. The higher monster density means that despite having a very similar monster count, this map is much quicker than the last. Unfortunately, the last also had a ton of exploration. But don't fret, this one had a pretty darn good exploration factor considering its medium size and Boom format. Not that there's anything wrong with Boom (it's one of the best), just that GzDoom has all those extra things that add interest. Still, mrthejoshmon's maps are typically proof that Boom can have some awesome effects as well and this map doesn't fail to deliver on that.



Health was tight for the most part, due to the situations, higher-tiered monsters and my stupid mistakes. Still, there were many pickups through-out the map. Ammo was plentiful, though I always hate seeing a backpack, let alone a redundant 4, at the beginning of a map. Still, if we assume this will be part of a megawad later, a MAP25 could get away with a starting backpack in my eyes. The monsters were fairly densely populated and consisted of many higher-tiered mobs, so don't expect this one to go away easy! *Do* give it a download try it out today!

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Our last submission this week comes to us from another mixed bag of nuts. It's called "Doomworld Mega Project 2014" and can be found here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/megawads/dmp2014.zip

This project was uploaded and I'm guessing headed by TimeOfDeath, famous to me for slaughtermaps. Strangely enough, I don't see any maps done by him in here. There were no rules to this Frankenstein and all 27 maps were accepted, with a different author for each map.

MAP01-12 boom compatibility (-complevel 9) MAP13-29 doom2 compatibility (-complevel 2); all run in the Doom 2 iWad.



Wow what a wad. This wad features many mappers that I like to look out for, with a list too long to make here. Many of the maps absolutely shine with quality and were great fun to play. Now don't get me wrong, this was a mixed bag of nuts, with some entries falling far short of the par set by most... you'll see some of this as you play:

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But don't let that discourage you. That second shot was actually a well-constructed map made by Jaws in Space that was just mono-textured and the first was a kinda fun, but hectic slaughter-arena. Some of the other not-so-nice looking maps had nice gameplay. But most of the maps were really cool-looking and good fun to play.



Sometimes a mixed bag of nuts is the perfect way to while away the time; the differing styles contrast enough to the point that they all stand out and thus have the potential to each be special. Some are visual masterpieces, others focus elsewhere. Unfortunately these screenshots are the best and worst way of advertising wads, as they only show off looks, but even among the different sweet-looking maps, styles and themes differ. Also, there were tons of custom textures that helped to differentiate maps even more.

It's tough to talk about all of these maps in a general way, as they were all starkly different from one-another, but it's safe to say that 90% of these maps were great. I always love playing maps from different people because, even among those who are similar, we all have differing approaches to creating a Doom level. I loved how some maps had really cool detailing in architecture, while some went for colors, and others atmosphere. The gameplay of each map was solid and I liked most monster placement. One map in particular that was not overly-pretty was really cool because it was designed with a low monster count, but dragged out so that each encounter was 1 or 2 monsters, on average. Good monster variety in that map, too, so each encounter used the monsters to their fullest. I like things like that and it was a pleasure to see here, especially with some of the more visual-intensive maps going for hordes of monsters in large, wide-open (but really cool-looking) areas. Sometimes that abstract-ness of Doom plays more to its gameplay strengths than realistic-looking areas.

There were also a good amount of homages to the iWads in these maps. I don't know if that was coincidence or planned, but after the third one I just started laughing when I'd find them. It's cool to see people pay small homages to the iWad levels, though; it's funny that those levels have been so burned into my brain that I recognize them immediately, heh. These maps were well-balanced for me to run through most of them legitimately, though I did have to cheat a few times to speed things up. I would love to go back and replay 90% of these maps legitimately to see what other wonders I may have missed.

Despite being a mixed bag of nuts, the vast majority of these maps deliver with extra on the side. Solid group of mappers and fantastic set of maps; what else really needs to be said? Give these a download!

All-in-all I have to say this was a very fun week in Doom from the archives! Keep up the great work y'all!

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Now let's take a look at the forums and see what we can turn up:

At the DoomWorld forums there is an awesome new mod called "Skulldash" from Dragonfly. The dev thread is located here: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/75133-skulldash-a-fast-paced-speedrun-arcade-mod/

Skulldash was made for Zandronum and runs on the Doom 2 iWad.



Skulldash is a combination of the old, fast-paced arcade games and... you guessed it, Doom. It almost reminds me a bit of one of the old Rise of the Triad DM modes, where players had to grab tokens to win, all while killing each other. The hectic battles that would ensue were always good fun. No word on multiplayer for this though... yet. As it is, it is a very fun single-player wad to play through.



To kill or not to kill; that is the question. Not that stopping to kill that baron that looked at you cross-ways is a bad thing or anything, just that Skulldash sets you off under a time-limit, so killing every monster may no longer be in your best interest... The forced speedrunning of this wad almost reminds me of "OCD Doom," which was another speedrunner's paradise.



Skulldash does an excellent job with its difficulty spikes; with the beginning missions easy as pie and the difficulty ramping up in small increments as the wad progresses. There have been comments so far by others, but after playing this I can safely say I agree: This is Cacoward material, right here. It's also a Hell of a lot of fun and at seven years in the making it's not much of a surprise that the author was thorough. I love this wad and highly reccommend it to anyone who likes both Doom and old arcade games!



There is also an upcoming community event for Skulldash. It is called "Skulldash: The Community Expansion Pack" and can be found here: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/75175-skulldash-the-community-expansion-pack-now-recruiting/

Also, check Skulldash's main site: http://joshuaosullivan.co.uk/skulldash/

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Searching the web, there is an awesome review of a gnarly map called "Breach" by Alun "Viggles" Bestor over at the One Man Doom website. To my understanding, Viggles hasn't been active in the Doom community in quite some time (hey, remember that old car... heh), but it looks like his time out was not for nothing as he's back and better than ever, with a few tricks up his sleeve to boot.

Breach is a fairly large map that is one of those rare, hyper-detailed-yet-really-fun maps that throws so many cool ideas into the mix. I loved how it broke up the super-cool base portions of the map with sometimes even cooler-looking Other Dimension parts. There were also some really neat puzzles and dynamic architecture that would open areas up while revealing something nice (or not so). It also has convenient ways of handling skipped/missed monsters, with some of them even showing up later to punish you for saying "Hi" to all of their friends while leaving them out. Hey, can't blame 'em for feeling left-out... lol. The best part, to me, is that there is a "Part 2" in the works! I simply cannot wait!

Breach was made for limit-removing ports, such as Boom and better, and runs on the Doom 2 iWad.

Check the full review here: http://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2015/10/breach.html#more

Check the DW dev thread here: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/71430-breach-updated-to-beta3/

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Small bit of news from the DoomsDay team: seems they will be changing servers within the next two weeks. The site will be down for a couple days, but these guys are good, so I'm sure they'll have it handled, no problem. Still, I'd like to say, "good luck, guys, on the move. See you on the other side!"

The dev team will be giving out updates via their Twitter account, @dengteam, while the site is down and I will be keeping an eye out for it to go down and come back up as well.

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No news in Doom 3 this week, unfortunately. Hopefully next week will bring us something, though! Hey, maybe this will give the Doom 3 fans an extra week to enjoy the new update to Doom Reborn, found here: http://www.doomreborngame.com/

DOOM IN DOOM 3! What could be better?! Awesome job to the devs of this, once again!

That wraps it up for another week in Doom, see (write) y'all next week! I hope you all have as much fun with these gems as I did (though I may have had a bit too much fun with them, heh). Fantastic job to all mappers this week!