DEMOS UPDATE
Yes, finally, the demos update I should have done months ago. I managed to do that demo for 1fifrmx that I was talking about, so here it is along with every Doom demo I've done that's still in my /stuff directory.
- Times in bold indicate demos that I haven't previously posted about here, although they have been posted on Doomworld (this is just a summary, I guess)
- Compatibility "None" means that I didn't use a -complevel when recording; this is discouraged, and I started using proper compatibility levels after I did Speed Villa.
Ganymede I downloaded this because it's mentioned in the PrBoom changelog as having linedefs which use negative left sidedef numbers other than -1 to signify that a line is single sided and I wanted to test that and fix it in rboom. I decided to play it, but it's not very good.
- It has some silly plot line about being a technology institute then you get transported forward in time and it becomes a military base. There's a couple of rooms that look like lecture theatres.
- There's very little detail or texture alignment or even proper use of textures - repeating the computer screens over and over again just doesn't work.
- It's got nearly 500 monsters but they're mostly small ones so it's like a slaughter map for people who can't manage difficult slaughter maps!
- The monsters in the lecture theatres are stuck together and I can't help but think it was deliberate
- There's also this imp transporter gimmick which is mentioned in the text file but it's not half as impressive as it sounds. Sorry.
- The secrets are pretty odd, some of them need keys that you don't get until the very end of the level. They're also mostly unmarked doors you have to hunt for
- Most memorable moment was late on in the level when I found an entrance to Hell in the back of a storeroom - pretty daft theme transition there
- Finally, how can anybody hate cacodemons?!
Holy Hell has been rereleased, with some bug fixes and more resources.
- The red key trap doesn't lock you in for so long, and you can run over the line without getting a MapPlane overflow (although those have been fixed now, sort of) I don't think all the issues with lock-ins have been fixed though, I think some of the forced delays are too long, especially since the sizes of the traps they are tied to have been reduced slightly (e.g. the yellow key area) You can still break the monster teleporters in the final area. Just remember, south before north.
- You can now do each individual map from scratch apparently, as the weapons have been added at the start. There is also lots more ammunition and some of the more extreme traps have been reduced (there are far fewer archviles in most of the teleporter traps, except the one at the very end of the wad) It's still totally overstuffed with monsters on UV and way beyond my ability though, and map05 runs really slowly. I must point out that it does mention this and that's why it was split up into smaller maps; also it does recommend you reduce the skill level, so fair enough.
I wonder if it's possible to speed the monster code up at all? The full version of Deus Vult doesn't run very quickly either until you reduce the population quite a lot. Oh well, it'd probably end up breaking demo compatibility. Original review
THREE BASE MAPS
Better that than "three base cocaine"!!! (groan)
Testing Facility
Testing Facility is a large, complicated techbase map. Its appearance is flawless. In fact it is one of those maps where you think there's too much detail! There's a lot of attention paid to lighting. There's overlapping floor and ceiling detail, which is hard to do* (unless I suppose your editor does it for you, which it might)
The map is very easy though. There's a few places where it raises the monster density and if you're not careful you might find yourself low on ammunition but there's not much in the way of large monsters. It's a token archvile map - there's exactly one and you can pretty much guess when it's coming. At least it is free to move around but by then you'll be armed to the teeth and it won't present a problem.
I will mention the secrets because they are hard. There are seven, but many depend on each other so you have to find the start of the chain as it were. On my first play of the map, I missed all of them. But I still finished it because like I said the map's a bit easy. I did however find two areas that looked like secrets but weren't marked as such, which was quite odd. The large outdoor plain to the north of the map isn't a secret, although from the way you find it you might expect it to be one. Oh well.
But in summary download this now because it's great.
*I notice that sort of thing because, well, put it this way, in Elixir there should be a row of lights over the bottle machine but there aren't because the machine was complicated enough already and it would have been too bothersome to get all the linedef and sector splitting to work properly. In other parts of the map there are a few smaller lights overlapping some stuff on the floor - e.g. crates in the lift corridor, toilets in the ladies' - that shit took ages to do properly and nobody fucking notices when you do do it. Anyway enough ranting. My point is, look at maps with both floor and ceiling detail - in general you'll see they manage to avoid overlapping. That's what I mean.
Techbase 6
I found our second base map Techbase 6 on its author's homepage, where it is described as "unreleased of course". That being said it is on the internet and can be readily downloaded so I'm going to post about it!
What you get is an E1-style techbase. Well-detailed and lit, and with a layout that is interconnected well. The scenery outside the first room is inaccessible but adds a feeling of being part of a bigger place. There's a big pit of nukage and a yard outside, where much of the map's action takes place.
Gameplay is tight - there's a high monster density and not a great deal of resources. I made as much use of the berserk box as I could, let the cyberdemon do a lot of the work for me, then shot it in the back while it was distracted.
Techbase 6 is well worth playing and certainly should be released properly!
The Outer Base
The Outer Base (text file**) is our third base map. It's vaguely styled as episode 1, though with more grass and episode 1 never had so many curved walls. The architecture is excellent, with particular mention going to the texture alignment, which is flawless even with the curved walls. I don't know how much of this was due to the author and how much is due to editor automation, all I know is this shit would be nearly impossible in Yadex.
It plays fairly typically, you just follow your nose until you get to the exit. Okay so it is linear but you get plenty of forward glimpses that draw you on. "What's that" "I wonder how I get up there" etc. There is plenty to shoot at. Although the text file asserts that you only have "as little to fight them off as possible" there's no great ammunition shortage, but you can't be wasteful either.
Sadly however even though with one author and four, count them, four beta testers nobody thought to run this shit in anything other than ZDoom, so guess what. There are at least two lifts that don't lower because they don't have proper tag numbers. It is most frustrating to run halfway round a map only to get stuck because of - depending on your point of view - author/tester laziness/ignorance, or ZDoom's Internet Explorer-like combination of ubiquity and tolerance of badly-formed input.
So with that in mind I can't recommend you bother playing this, which is a shame because other than the bugs it's a very nicely made map.
**Doomworld's /idgames frontend for some reason doesn't even include the text file for this pwad. I must say once the frontend was great. I sung its praises when it was first made. But recently, I've been getting increasingly sick of it. It has a number of annoying bugs (e.g. it doesn't update its own data if somebody reuploads a wad) and/or missing features (it'd be better if you could make links out of the zip filename, which is predictable, rather than a meaningless identification number - I'm sure this would lead to fewer broken links in /newstuff articles) There's no source so you can't submit patches. The staff themselves seem unwilling to make changes (or indeed do anything at all - see how often the front page updates these days)
Equinox revisited
"It might be that I just want an excuse to go on about Equinox, which is fantastic. I think that in another update I might go through it, level by level..." - this site, four years ago (no link because I hate all those really old updates)
Equinox came out of nowhere late in 2001 and made a great impression. It draws you in because there's this whole implied storyline even though there isn't a storyline... okay what I'm trying to say is there's no actual story in the text file or anything - indeed to compound this the author replaced all the intermission screen graphics except the map names(!) - but if you play it it's obvious, there's this whole progression to it and feeling of being on a mission. You want to carry on just to see what happens and where you end up.
It is made by the textures. It has a lot of new textures that almost make it feel like a completely new game. I mean, it's still Doom, the monsters and weapons are the same, but in a completely new setting. But if you look past that the map construction, with a couple of exceptions, isn't all that complicated.
Problems start when you look back though once you're done; it's not greatly replayable, the gameplay is extremely uneven, the maps range between very easy and almost impossible when done from pistol starts so you kind of have to play the whole thing or none at all. Also, it seems to have been designed by a mapper more used to source ports with proper thing height clipping - there's too many solid hanging bodies that block you, not to mention monsters at long ranges and height differences, probably only shootable using mouselook.
Definitely a wad that you should play once. Like I say not so great to replay but still good if not played too often (like every couple of years or so I guess)
In fact if you've not played it stop reading now because it's much better without spoilers. Plus, the rest of this post is embarrassingly nerdy, like overanalysing Star Wars or whatever. You know, nerdy, and also unproductive. Programming might be nerdy but at least you end up with something to show for it at the end other than a bunch of words nobody will read.
Go on, bugger off!
Okay so anyway. I always end up thinking about the plot, because even now I'm not really sure exactly what's going on. Perhaps that's why there isn't a plot, or even proper level name replacements. What I'm going to try to do is write a one line summary of each of the maps and see what happens.
But first, the title screen: you are looking up at a large silver sign proclaiming "Equinox: the international space association". The lights above it are harsh and bear down on you, making everything else black. Also the intermission screen shows the base is on some remote island surrounded by dark sea. The first eleven maps take place on this island, at night.
- Entryway. Starting just inside a fence above a cliff face you look towards the entrance sign from the title screen. Light floods out of it but everywhere else is dark. The inside was once a lavish entrance hall but is spoiled by all the mutilated effigies, not to mention zombies, imps etc.
- Teleporter central. This is kind of a hub. There's a map of the base facilities, and teleporters to three other parts of the island: genome labs, storage and the hanger (sic) but only one is currently active so you go in it.
- You're on the way to the genome labs but they've clearly been attacked and you end up having to go underneath, past an underground river and through some service tunnels.
- Genome labs. They are similarly lavish. Posh carpeting, brightly lit, hundreds of zombies, things being grown in vats... Then, some more service tunnels and a test area in which research subjects can be observed. The final horror is at the end, where you find an enormous cavern, in which an entire army of monsters is being grown in vats... Fortunately, there's a self-destruct switch...
- Back at teleporter central. See I said it was a hub. It's seen some action while you were away with cracks appearing in the walls and floor and blood everywhere but the second teleporter to storage is now active.
- The first part of this map is some kind of large empty storage bay or harbour or something by the sea. After that you teleport outside to a smaller island on which there is a central building full of crates. There's a freight lift...
- This is a very large map, partially outdoors, but also with runs through massive tunnels stuffed with random monsters. Lots of crates, too. Your goal is the armoury, another huge chamber stacked with crates? Why all these weapons? Never mind, there's another self-destruct...
- Back to teleporter central - presumably you always find some way to return after pressing the self-destruct switches - which looks more and more mashed up every time you see it. The third teleporter is active though, so on you go.
- The Hanger (sic) is a predictably enormous map. Two large monster fights in vast areas of space (this map inspired Sandbox) separated by a run around some side areas to find switches. You don't have to use your weapons much here, all the monsters kill each other. The spiderdemon hardly lasts any time at all. At the end, you find an enormous glowing flying saucer. It takes off as you run towards it...
- Oh no, I've been teleported on board an alien ship! This level is really odd, but I was glad to note, only had 51 monsters, until I realised they were all archviles. Having said that there's plenty of cover so if you come on board with lots of ammo it's not too bad - its just that "eek" factor of archviles again. At the end, you trip the ship's self destruct mechanism.
- Teleporter central has now been completely destroyed and you find your way out into the caves beneath it. The exit is a heavily guarded free-standing hole in space. Could this be the source of the invasion? Of course being the fearless Doom marine, you step through...
What could be on the other side of a shimmering portal underneath the base? Well, guess!
- Alien planet. Crawling with monsters, nowhere to hide. Very hostile. Have to run over thin ledge surrounded by demons. Fall off, you're toast. All kinds of horrors on the other side. Few more switches to find and a megasphere if you can use an archvile to bounce you to it. You exit via a strange castle which builds itself and populates itself with monsters.
- Alien base. For some reason, looks exactly like the Equinox base, only in that black wavy metal they like and covered in a strange language. Inside, monsters, blood etc. The real heart of the complex is an enormous black underground cave, with a central control tower. To get in, solve some puzzles, including a maze where the ceiling comes down on you and another tunnel run through a crowd of demons. Also, the red key has to be seen to be believed. If you get this far - I can't do this map at all, it's too hard - the top of the tower from which the invasion is being organised can be destroyed. As the room explodes around you, you die - your last thoughts are that earth is safe again...
So, that's it. Some of the maps are very easy. Apart from the last version with the caves, teleporter central is usually doable in two minutes. The first entrance map is easy although tedious as it forces you to use the pistol a lot. The hanger (sic) is pretty easy as the monsters all kill each other and even the archvile spaceship can be done with care. On the other hand the genome labs are a bitch, it's not that there's a lack of ammo but you can't take it all with you, so when you start running out at the end it's doubly frustrating. Not to mention the test lab where you basically go up a slow lift to right where a cyberdemon is waiting for you, and then you have to fight it while being partially invisible. The alien planet isn't as hard as I first thought if you don't try for 100% kills, indeed the castle at the end can be bypassed if you straferun. But the last map is nearly impossible.
So what about this plot I keep on about? Well basically you can fit the original Doom plot to it quite well, but it doesn't quite work and that's what bugs me.
Imagine the ISA is the UAC and they encounter the hostile alien race which decides to wipe out humanity, starting with the ISA headquarters. They mount an invasion through a portal they open under the base. Contact is lost and you are sent in to investigate and whatever.
There's too much evidence of collusion for one thing. Why are Equinox's genetic labs being used to breed monsters (map 4)? Why have an enourmous stockpile of weapons, too (map 7)? Why indeed does the alien base resemble a copy of the Equinox base (map 13)? Furthermore, if the aliens can open a portal to the base why do they need to fly there in a spaceship, and take off hurriedly when they see what has happened to their army in the hangar (map 9)? And how the hell do you get back down from the spaceship after you destroy it at the end of map 10?
The nearest thing I can come up with is that the only actual aliens are archviles, and they're trying to enslave Earth using an army of creatures force-bred in vats. Equinox, a remote ISA station is used as a base of operations; the ship is there because they had to fly there first to set up a two-way portal to their home planet. This still doesn't explain the self-building castle at the end of map 12 or map 13's replica base, though. Whichever way I try to think about it, I find contradictions.
So like I said to begin with, that's probably why there's no supplied storyline at all! I'd do better sticking to the technical stuff, and leaving the imagination and creativity to other people.
It's just Doom, shoot the monsters...
DISEMBODIED HEAD MODE
I thought putting the status bar face in the top corner of the full screen HUD would be a great idea, but it is so creepy. It reminds me of this picture in a book about ghosts I had when I was very small, it was a floating head with a trickle of blood running down it, and a very evil grin. It's so creepy aargh
Pink Munchers and Pesky Imps
Best wad name ever. Otherwise, it's an E1-style map that uses E2 base textures, so more like an E2 map only without the hell corruption. It has a couple of new textures, a rather cartoony-looking yellow and black hand rail and a STARTAN variant with a line of blue lights going across it. It's quite simple, there's not much detail but there is enough.
Gameplay is rather sparse, there's quite a lot of monsters but you'll not see many at once, except for a few flash points. For instance there's one part where you open some doors and there's about 50 imps behind. But, you just retreat through a previous door and they all line up and come through two or three at a time and you just pick them off. Later on the only really nasty bit is the red key room which uses a monster teleporter. Irritatingly you only get the plasma gun after you've done that room, and you don't really need it any more. Then you have to run all the way across the base again and there's not a great deal of new monsters to fight on the way.
Overall, decent map, looks okay, plays okay, worth the download but could be better.
1fiffy remix
By Stphrz, the same author as PMAPI. To really understand 1fifrmx you need to play the original 1fiffy. Then this is a remake with roughly the same layout but a vastly better look, a proper amount of ammunition, and no bugs that prevent you from getting 100% secrets.
I really like 1fifrmx and have played it a lot. Indeed I tried to record a maxdemo but due to the slightly weird layout of the map it is easy to go the wrong way and lose time, or run past something you need later and forget to pick it up. Cells, in particular, it's much easier to remove the cyberdemon if you can muster 3 BFG shots.
Anyway yes I think you should play this, like I said I really like it.
Also if you enjoyed these, try Stphrz's other maps Shock 'em down (reviewed here somewhere) and map 28 of the NewDoom community project. Both are excellent, probably even better than these two.
