[Ninety-Six]

I remember seeing it when it was posted on the zdoom forums.


I'll have to curb my enthusiasm for it. My trust in these larger projects has been shattered one too many times.

[NightFright]

Well, at least they revealed that it's not supposed to have slaughter map gameplay. For me that's already a big plus. Whether they can stick to their release date is another thing, though.

[Ninety-Six]

NightFright, on 02 September 2018 - 10:08 PM, said:

Well, at least they revealed that it's not supposed to have slaughter map gameplay. For me that's already a big plus. Whether they can stick to their release date is another thing, though.

Wait, did they? I didn't see that part.

[NightFright]

Bauul described it "challenging, but not slaughterish" and maps should take between 10 and 30 minutes. Guess this may still mean there could be high monster numbers at times, but you shouldn't need to do any BFG spamming (hopefully at least).

[Fantinaikos]

Some Zdoom/GZdoom/QZdoom mods that transform DOOM&co in games from other commercial and indie franchises

Wolfenstein 3D TC

Consolidated recreation of Wolfenstein 3D that allows to play all the experience including "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge" mission packs under zdoom and his features. Most modders also exploited it as a foundation for many Wolf3D mods that becomed standalone later. The rest of the themed mods you may know are based on Laz Rojas' WolfenDoom.

Download: https://www.afadoome...3D_TC_2.0.2.zip


Castlevania: Simon's Destiny mod

Reinterpretation of Super Castelvania 4 (which itself is a remake of NES Castelvania) in first person view, it uses both sprites from different chapters of the saga and modified Id games enemies to resemble Castelvania ones. Enemy cast expands in Blood Moon mode.

Post+addons: https://forum.zdoom....hp?f=19&t=57800
Download: https://www.moddb.co...ons-destiny-v13


Quest for Glory IV 3D (Hexen mod, 19 maps)

A TC that turns Hexen into an action RPG version of Quest for Glory IV - Shadows of Darkness. Only the first world is completed and to avoid some MAPINFO triggers errors you have to playing it with GZDoom 1.8.2 or ZDoom 2.7.1.

Check also the good Blake Sanctum site and his other cool mods.

Also anyone interested in the original QF4, the next version of ScummVM will support it.

Star Trek (TOS) TC - WIP

Site & description: https://afadoomer.com/trek/


Project-Einherjar/Arctic Wolf fanmod/Midgard-Outlaw

A series of mods based on Mike MacDee's Winter Agent Juno series of books. More details on author tumblr.

Project-Einherjar (five episodes)

"Enter Midgard, a nuclear winter dystopia ruled by a fascist matriarchy, where men are stored and treated like cattle, and several madwomen fight for supreme dominance. At the center of their power struggle is a one-eyed ex-commando searching for her last chance at redemption."

Download: https://mikestoybox....ject-einherjar/

Arctic Wolf (Wolfendoom Fan Episode)

"A mod of the Wolfendoom adventure of the same name, replacing BJ and the nazis with Juno and the PE enemy roster, plus a few new faces. Contains a modified version of the original Wolfendoom mod, adding new stuff and fixing a couple of map details. Doesn’t need the original Wolfendoom mod to play: it’s basically self-contained. Because AW is a mod from the 90s, you’ll have to run each pk3 file separately. Also the Bonus Map is for Part 2: if you try to play it in Part 1 it does…interesting things."

Download Part1: https://www.impie.dr...m.org/PEAW1.pk3
Download Part2: https://www.impie.dr...m.org/PEAW2.pk3

Midgard-Outlaw (11 maps + 1 secrets)

"Now retired after saving the world from nuclear disaster, Juno Radcliffe is asked to help escort dangerous war criminal Dietrich Drogo to Normandy, to be tried for crimes against humanity. Once in Normandy, the caravan is hit, Drogo is rescued by his fellow war profiteers…and Juno takes the blame. Now Public Enemy Number One in a foreign country, Juno must hunt and recapture Drogo to clear her name."

Download: https://mikestoybox....midgard-outlaw/


Poharex The Second Invasion

This requires a bigger premise to be fully understood.

There are games like 1994's Inherit the Earth that generated a still running webcomic which continue the story aftergame, and in development there is a second game that probably will take into account the vicissitudes narrated in the panels. Poharex is a similar case, but to the opposite.

On 14th Dec 2012 Dory Holtzman published the first issue of his webcomic focused on the adventures of Poharex, a Tyrannosaurus Rex last of his kind which has left his native land to escape slavery thanks to the help of an entity called "The Witness" that leads him to the island of Mesociam where apparently dinosaurs still exist, including those of his species. Poharex hope that the place can represents a new beginning and a bright future, but the events will take a different turn.

You will immediately notice that all episodes up to the number 11 are in crude pencil and markers with all the consequences this may have and anything it's not animal alike looks even weirder, but still unequivocally better and consistent than Sonichu. Holtzman knew that sooner or later he had to change his style and infact starting to the 12th issue the art style begin to be aesthetically polished, but this surely have slowed down the production considering that last page was dated 27th Sep 2015 and the first three pages of 13th issue has come out only recently.

During that time, he released the first game of Poharex setted between the second and third issues: Poharex - King Of The Jungle, a platformer made in Gamemaker with the value of hand drawed graphic but frankly stiff in terms of gameplay, but remains closely connected with the comic since one NPC assigned to the informations becomed a permanent member of the characters cast.

All this bring us to this mod, that initially was intended to been another platformer.

Unlike the first game, Poharex: The Second Invasion is not related to a specific event happened in the story (at least not yet) and good quantity of the graphic is obtained utilizing screenshot of self-made models. The DEMO campaign takes place on Mesociam where a proto weapon has been stolen from the Todor's lab by the extraterrestrial Rakairs, Todor and another friend traced the weapon but they were been captured in the attempt to resume it. Now just Poharex can save his friends and repeal the siege.

At the begin you just have teeth and claws, so keep pressed the mouse button to tear apart your enemies and take their guts to regain energy. Soon enough you will also obtain alien energetic powers, items and arsenal.

But it's not over: Not only this mod is custom vanilla .WAD compatible, but also IWAD compatible. PTSI can be played on Heretic, Hexen and FreeDoom (and Hacx too, even if undocumented) if you load "poharex_tsi.pk3" individually, with contextualized textures in addition. Given the characteristics that distinguish the Poharex universe nothing in environment or architecture should look out of place.

So if you have nothing against read/play of a world where all the epochs seems to be mixed that has sentient dinosaurs with a fluctuating concept of the food chain in their society that launches magic balls and can use both archaic and hi-tech weapons to fight against humans and other kind of creatures, Poharex is the webcomic/game you are looking for.

Download: https://www.moddb.co...second-invasion

[Sixty Four]

Doom 64 style level I made for Diddy Kong Racing. Works on N64 hardware also. Sunfire Sanctum.

https://youtu.be/2C99iaEBxog

http://www.goldeneye...file.php?id=461

Doom style level I made in Diddy Kong Racing Doom Base.

https://youtu.be/vepdEzgQ_1c

http://www.goldeneye...file.php?id=459

[Ninety-Six]

NightFright, on 03 September 2018 - 04:35 AM, said:

Bauul described it "challenging, but not slaughterish" and maps should take between 10 and 30 minutes. Guess this may still mean there could be high monster numbers at times, but you shouldn't need to do any BFG spamming (hopefully at least).

That gives me a little hope, I suppose. I don't hate slaughtermaps in concept, but it seems most slaughterwads just make it as ridiculously unfair as possible (and usually through enemy types and placement over count). I've played like...two maps that were considered "slaughtermaps" that were actually good.

Most annoyingly is how a lot of wads are "surprise slaughterwads." The other day I discovered that one year, 7 out of the 10 cacoward winners that year were slaughters, with potentially an eighth but I hadn't played that one and once I realized how many winners were slaughters I wasn't inclined to verify).


The favorite trend seems to be the prettier a wad tries to be, the more slaughtery it will be (hello ancient aliens). So it's good that Elementalism isn't going for that, but I'm still hesitant to get excited for it. At the first sign of an abused arch-vile I'm probably just gonna drop it right there, to be honest. Been burned too much (pun not intended).

[Mark]

I don't follow the Doom community enough to know if its a trend or if its mostly been this way for a long time. I watched yet another video of a very cool looking Doom mod with fancy new graphics and dynamic lighting. It happened to be Slayer Chronicles this time. Fantastic creepy atmosphere, great 3D looking textures with their normal and spec maps.

Then wham. The same tired and blocky 20 year old sprite monsters and sounds appear. ( facepalm )

In all these years has the community at least come up with acceptable looking higher res sprites. I know model aversion is alive and well there but c'mon, demand a little sprite update at least.

[Doom64hunter]

Mark., on 04 September 2018 - 05:53 AM, said:

I don't follow the Doom community enough to know if its a trend or if its mostly been this way for a long time. I watched yet another video of a very cool looking Doom mod with fancy new graphics and dynamic lighting. It happened to be Slayer Chronicles this time. Fantastic creepy atmosphere, great 3D looking textures with their normal and spec maps.

Then wham. The same tired and blocky 20 year old sprite monsters and sounds appear. ( facepalm )

In all these years has the community at least come up with acceptable looking higher res sprites. I know model aversion is alive and well there but c'mon, demand a little sprite update at least.

The mod is supposed to be compatible with other gameplay mods, that's the reason why the monsters and weapons are all vanilla.

The greater issue lies with its gameplay. Reviews on Doomworld from long-time members aren't all that approving.

[NNC]

I learned that Russel Meakim (aka TheCastle), who was responsible for the best maps in NRFTL created a standalone map called "Redemption of Slain". I jumped it immediately, and learned that it was designed for Brutal Doom only, and while it started well in vanilla GZDoom, it doesn't play too well simply because there is an early section where you have to free some bots that help in a Caco spam. I tried it with Brutal Doom, only to verify my opinion about hating it and all gameplay mods (also for Duke).

What a waste of a brilliant piece of leveldesign to this.

[Ninety-Six]

Mark., on 04 September 2018 - 05:53 AM, said:

In all these years has the community at least come up with acceptable looking higher res sprites. I know model aversion is alive and well there but c'mon, demand a little sprite update at least.

I dunno. Attempts at upping the resolution of older sprites always looks kind of weird to me. Or in the worst case, like most Wolfenstein-themed mods where they try to use the Macintosh sprites, they just look plain hideous. (Seriously, those faces)

Doom64hunter, on 04 September 2018 - 08:49 AM, said:

The greater issue lies with its gameplay. Reviews on Doomworld from long-time members aren't all that approving.

To be fair, I wouldn't take their opinions very seriously. They're an insanely hard-to-please bunch.


That being said, I'm not a big fan of wave-based structures so I mostly write it off as "not my thing." Trailer was dope, though.

[Mark]

Doom64hunter, on 04 September 2018 - 08:49 AM, said:

The mod is supposed to be compatible with other gameplay mods, that's the reason why the monsters and weapons are all vanilla.

How many maps/episodes are in that Slayer Chronicles mod? If the author is concerned that it works with other mods I'm assuming it has a whole lot of maps/episodes and will have lots of replays. If it's only a small handful of maps I wouldn't limit myself elsewhere just to have other mod compatibility. With all the possible conflicts that can arise I personally wouldn't bother trying. I would either go without those other mod's features or program them in myself/with help.

[Ninety-Six]

Mark., on 04 September 2018 - 10:46 AM, said:

How many maps/episodes are in that Slayer Chronicles mod? If the author is concerned that it works with other mods I'm assuming it has a whole lot of maps/episodes and will have lots of replays. If it's only a small handful of maps I wouldn't limit myself elsewhere just to have other mod compatibility. With all the possible conflicts that can arise I personally wouldn't bother trying. I would either go without those other mod's features or program them in myself/with help.

That's another doom community trend. Making it playable with as many gameplay mods as possible (if it isn't a TC). Sometimes they even demake existing TCs to be gameplay-mod friendly (See Valiant vs. Valiant Vaccinated)

[Mark]

Someone else de-making a TC I put so much effort into would piss me off big time. Maybe its a good thing I'm not in that community. Having someone create a better map than mine with the TC would be fine but not destructing my hard work.

[Doom64hunter]

Mark., on 04 September 2018 - 03:01 PM, said:

Someone else de-making a TC I put so much effort into would piss me off big time. Maybe its a good thing I'm not in that community. Having someone create a better map than mine with the TC would be fine but not destructing my hard work.

Pretty sure these were made with permission of the authors so it's not like it was a hostile act.

Doom Slayer Chronicles has only a few maps and I think it was made with Brutal Doom in mind.

[NNC]

Finished Redemption of the Slain without forcing myself of using BD. The way to play this is to add double ammo in GZDoom gameplay options. It's needed because vanilla settings need higher ammo count to beat enemies.

This was a fantastic experience, and most definitely commercial in quality. Map, particulary after you reach the Doom castle part looks gorgeous. The gameplay is more modern though, closer to Doom 2016 with enemy wave and continous play.

Found the very well crafted secret area with Spectres all around, also the first yellow key. Still found only 7/18 secrets, so next time I need to check everything closely.

The only weak part is the annoying cacospam very early on. It was designed to be beaten with bots help, but no, I don't care about such gameplay (I'm too oldschool to that).

The Cyberdemon in the end was a cakewalk with invisibility and the BFG.

I recommend this thing to everyone who liked NRFTL leveldesign. This is an even better version of it, with a bit of Doom 2016 style fights.

[MrFlibble]

Just stumbled upon a WIP megawad project called Eviternity, the screenshots look pretty nice!
https://www.dfdoom.c...rnity-part-one/

[MajorTom 2417]

At long last, the end is near.....but there's just a little bit of history repeating to get through before we reach the final fight.

[Ninety-Six]

Been going through the Master levels again recently. I remember why I never finished them. I really hate Cranium's levels. I have not regretted ever booting up the game this much since Ancient Aliens.


How were these ever declared okay to be officially released? For money?

[Ninety-Six]

Sorry for the double post, but I can't edit:

Spoiler

Whoever seriously looked at this part and said "yeah that's acceptable for release" should have never worked in the games industry.

[NNC]

Ninety-Six, on 14 September 2018 - 04:15 PM, said:

Been going through the Master levels again recently. I remember why I never finished them. I really hate Cranium's levels. I have not regretted ever booting up the game this much since Ancient Aliens.


How were these ever declared okay to be officially released? For money?

Well, many of Sandy Petersen's or Tom Hall's levels weren't that much better.

[axl]

Nancsi, on 15 September 2018 - 09:38 AM, said:

Well, many of Sandy Petersen's or Tom Hall's levels weren't that much better.

Indeed. Of all the official classic Doom levels (ultimate doom, doom 2, master levels, TNT and plutonia), the best are those designed by Romero. This is basically Knee Deep in the Dead, some levels from episode 4 and some from Doom 2 (circle of death, industrial zone, living end, ...). The other levels are just not up to the same level of quality (although i do like Plutonia).

On the other hand, No Rest for the Living is very good...

[Ninety-Six]

Nancsi, on 15 September 2018 - 09:38 AM, said:

Well, many of Sandy Petersen's or Tom Hall's levels weren't that much better.

They were by miles. Neither engaged in the same sheer amount of player abuse that Cranium does (except maybe Romero. But even then the traps he springs tend to actually be doable whether it's your first time or not.). And none of them tended to spam chaingunners and revenants, and place them in tight corridors with no hope of avoiding them save for sheer luck of RNG (again, except maybe Romero, minus the "spam" part). Seriously, if you want to experience Doom level design at its absolute worst, play the Express Elevator to Hell. Or Mephisto's Mausoleum.

axl, on 15 September 2018 - 10:14 AM, said:

Indeed. Of all the official classic Doom levels (ultimate doom, doom 2, master levels, TNT and plutonia), the best are those designed by Romero. This is basically Knee Deep in the Dead, some levels from episode 4 and some from Doom 2 (circle of death, industrial zone, living end, ...). The other levels are just not up to the same level of quality (although i do like Plutonia).

I would beg to disagree. Romero also made Perfect Hatred and Gotcha. And honestly, I prefer the entire first half of Doom 2 (up past Suburbs) over Knee-Deep in the Dead. KDitD is still good, but.

[axl]

Ninety-Six, on 15 September 2018 - 10:45 AM, said:

I would beg to disagree. Romero also made Perfect Hatred and Gotcha. And honestly, I prefer the entire first half of Doom 2 (up past Suburbs) over Knee-Deep in the Dead. KDitD is still good, but.

Perfect Hatred is a great level in my opinion. Maybe just too hard... I do agree on Gotcha... not a very good level indeed.

[MajorTom 2417]

There's Alien Armageddon footage in this, at 11:14, showing what that mod looks like on my rig and why I can't, in good conscience, do a full video series on it until I get the issue fixed. I make it very clear in the video that this issue is a fault with the graphical drivers on my computer, NOT with the mod itself.

Other than that, standard fare.

[Ninety-Six]

axl, on 16 September 2018 - 02:29 AM, said:

Perfect Hatred is a great level in my opinion. Maybe just too hard...

I'll admit it's not the worst level. My main issue with it is that Doom is a game all about mobility as a defense, and Perfect Hatred is a level all about pitting you against high-tier monsters and removing most of your ability to safely dodge. I have similar issues with The Living End though it is a bit more forgiving, spatially.

To be fair, a good lot of my problems with the level stem from it being level 2. PH has no business whatsoever being level 2. Especially when you enter it half-dead with barely any ammo from the equally misplaced level 1. (I use a mod that reorders E4 into something less stupid for this reason). If you enter the level not two hits away from death and armed with more than your fists and like 3 bullets, or better yet fully armed, it can be a fun level. So I will grant you that.

[NNC]

The problem with Romero's maps outside KDITD is that he seems to expect the player to follow the route he imagined for a proper walkthrough which includes finding important secrets. Too bad you're following your own route, and his tricks are not always a given. His maps are very good if you're not pistolstarting, but if you do, the ammo will be sparse, the monster count (especially at the start of the levels) is big, and you can get into problematic situations very easily if you miss some parts you should have played in Romero's plan.

Industrial Zone's yellow key is really a nice demonstration of this flaw. If you pistolstart the level, there are lots of hitscanners early on, and you probably struggle for keep some ammo after a while. Since the red key and the Berserk Pack are in hidden places, there is a big chance you go straight into the lava with a suit, and enter the teleport with the BFG waiting for you. You shoot the blast to the Baron of Hell in a very cramped area, very little to maneuvre if you try different things, then a total hell of Pain Elementals enter the scene with sometimes nothing else but bare fists at your disposal.

This area either needs a non pistolstart, or a knowledge of two important secrets, one with the red key, the other with the invulnerability. The latter needs a blind jumping to a hard to reach platform, almost impossible to find without mouselook (which was the norm back in 95).

Other maps like E4M6 also suffer from these trial and error schemes, like different teleporting from different angles, and lots of lava below. Again, Romero somehow made the map where he expects from the player to know every little trick and place to unfold the level.

It's quite a big shame, as he is a much better designer in terms of making sensible places than his peers. Hall basically did advanced Wolf3D levels (Refueling Base is a really good showcase of this), Petersen never really cared about texturing and visuals, McGee was somewhat bland.

Still, there were many good levels in the original campaigns, but it should have been a lot better. When I played NRFTL a few weeks ago, I realised how big potential is there in this game. I actually think both of its designers, TheCastle and Squibbons are superior to even Romero.

[Ninety-Six]

Nancsi, on 16 September 2018 - 11:45 AM, said:

It's quite a big shame, as he is a much better designer in terms of making sensible places than his peers. Hall basically did advanced Wolf3D levels (Refueling Base is a really good showcase of this), Petersen never really cared about texturing and visuals, McGee was somewhat bland.

Honestly I preferred Hall/Petersen and McGee to Romero in D2. The first seven levels are some of my favorites to the point where I frequently boot the game just to play those levels and be done. But really I love most of that first half of the whole game. Granted some of the city levels aren't as good, but IZ is probably my least favorite of that batch. I quite liked Refueling Base for basically being a well done horde level, and I feel similarly about Suburbs. Courtyard was fun, Gotcha is terrible, and The Citadel is probably my favorite level in the entire campaign.


But what you described about Romero applies doubly so to Cranium. To the point where not only do you need to know the specific route, you still have to be psychic and know where every single trap is and what form it will take. Or you will die, guaranteed. It's so bad that even if you cheat to get all weapons and make it as non-pistol start as possible, you will still die. Probably to a fast crusher under a low ceiling or something stupid like that.

[NNC]

Ninety-Six, on 16 September 2018 - 12:23 PM, said:

Honestly I preferred Hall/Petersen and McGee to Romero in D2. The first seven levels are some of my favorites to the point where I frequently boot the game just to play those levels and be done. But really I love most of that first half of the whole game. Granted some of the city levels aren't as good, but IZ is probably my least favorite of that batch. I quite liked Refueling Base for basically being a well done horde level, and I feel similarly about Suburbs. Courtyard was fun, Gotcha is terrible, and The Citadel is probably my favorite level in the entire campaign.


But what you described about Romero applies doubly so to Cranium. To the point where not only do you need to know the specific route, you still have to be psychic and know where every single trap is and what form it will take. Or you will die, guaranteed. It's so bad that even if you cheat to get all weapons and make it as non-pistol start as possible, you will still die. Probably to a fast crusher under a low ceiling or something stupid like that.

I do agree with you about the first 7 levels. They have a nice, cohesive design, good flow, fun to play. Dead Simple works as a semi boss level.

[Ninety-Six]

Nancsi, on 17 September 2018 - 01:38 AM, said:

Dead Simple works as a semi boss level.

It really does. Even to this day it's still a frantic and challenging level. I wouldn't call it difficult anymore, but it's still thrilling to hold down the run key and circle-strafe around the arena, firing rockets and SS blasts to kill everything before they kill you. Werid as it sounds I thoroughly enjoy having to quickly think up a new route or path dependent on the enemy positions (particularly once the Arachnotrons step into the arena).

Spoiler

Also the music for that level is tied for being my number 1 song from that game and generally all of Classic Doom