This is not /newstuff
I copypasted the previous update about dr2008v2 into the review system. It appears to have been accepted, but will probably be several weeks before it is published over there.
I very much doubt I'll do this much in the future. One reason is that I'm simply not quick enough. You have to be the first to claim the map which means I would have to play new maps and write reviews a lot faster than I can be bothered.
I just post about what I happen to play, sometimes weeks after having played it. Sometimes, especially in recent months, I have posted about maps that have not appeared in Doomworld's /newstuff feature. In general this has been rare, though. My being ahead of the chronicles is more to do with the chronicles being several months behind. If this new review system they have catches on, I'll never be this far ahead again.
DICKWADS
To emphasise not really being a /newstuff supplement let's post about some maps from the dark ages.
DICKWAD2 has the dubious honour of being one of the first PWADs I ever played. It is a straight Doom-to-Doom-2 conversion of DICKWAD, although, going by file time stamps, was released before it. There is also the deathmatch-oriented DICKWAD3, released a couple of years later.
Let's start with DICKWAD2. I won't go on about this too much. The whole thing can be summed up as "mediocre oldschool maps with annoying gameplay and replacement sound effects". One map, MAP02, is deliberately a symmetrical maze of 128-wide corridors. Another, MAP04, is a huge waist-high hedge maze which must be repeatedly traversed, and which is full of invisible teleporter lines that unceremoniously dump you back in the middle. I usually cite this one as the worst map I've ever played, but there's a certain amount of bias here. I've undoubtedly played worse more recently, but now I just wouldn't bother, whereas when I was new to PWADs I played this several times, and it has stuck in the memory.
I admit at the time I didn't hate the sound effect replacements. I had only just recently seen Evil Dead II when I played DICKWAD2, so I thought the use of "groovy" with the chainsaw was hilarious. I'm pretty tired of them now though, the Terminator's "excellent" and the metal-grinding moving floor sound in particular.
DICKWAD is the same set of maps for Doom. It's pretty much identical except for the map ordering. Slightly easier due to lack of Doom2 monsters. Particularly, health-sapping chaingunners. Unfortunately these maps seem to delight in giving the player very little ammunition and no health at all. At least the final level can be exited with a compatibility option (all cyberdemons dead will cause E3M8 to exit if you have comp_666 turned on) and you can get into the rocket launcher secret, which had the wrong linedef type in dickwad2.
In fact that's what confuses me over which of DICKWAD and DICKWAD2 came first. The broken rocket secret is in MAP10 but fixed in E3M8, which suggests DICKWAD2 came first. But the map seems to be designed around the boss monster death exit effect of E3M8. which suggests the map was designed as E3M8 and then converted to MAP10. So which could it be?
DICKWAD3, which is for Doom2, is much better. There are only 7 maps; a lot of the originals have been removed entirely and replaced with better ones and even the ones that remain have been improved to remove gameplay awkwardness. The final map has been modified the least; simply, an exit has been added. Compared to the other two it's practically a pleasure. However it still suffers from lack of health.
An interesting challenge is to play all 7 maps of DICKWAD3 one after the other. Maps 1 and 2 have about 60% health in total, so you can't lose any; but you will, because of all the zombies with bullet weapons. Map 3 has about another 60% but you need to stock it all up for maps 4 and 5, both of which have zero health right up until the end of map 5 when there's a soulsphere in a secret area. Surviving map 6 is a bit easier with that, and map 7 is wide open enough that you should be able to do it without taking any damage if you don't foul up while fighting the two cyberdemons. It's just on that edge where I think "I should be able to do this but somehow I keep dying stupidly"
So in summary, DICKWAD3 isn't great but it isn't too bad for oldschool maps. Probably avoid the first two though unless you're interested.
Links: DICKWAD, DICKWAD2, DICKWAD3
other more recent wads
Aeternum Not sure what to make of this, whether to call it a Boom wad with a myriad of ZDoomisms or a deliberate ZDoom wad that just happens to run passably in p/rboom. For example it uses ZDoom customised monsters, but apart from a warning about unknown thing types there's no problem. Other than that there's a bunch of solid hanging bodies and on map02 a door that needs implicit passuse to open.
Anyhow, ignoring all that, what you have is three maps made by the guy who did Sector 666 years ago, who's returned to mapping after playing Alien Vendetta and being inspired by it. That sounds good in theory, Sector 666 was cool and Alien Vendetta is a classic. Map01 is pretty good. Map02 goes on a bit too long, and is cramped, stuffed with monsters, too hard, and annoyingly stops you from backtracking and makes you leave ammunition behind. Map03 is kind of like AV map29 but is too disjoint.
On the whole I can't really recommend this because unless you can walk under the hanging bodies things can get annoying and the monster teleporters really suck. Honestly how hard is it to make a teleporter that the monsters can leave in a timely manner? Shame really, it looks pretty good and I remember enjoying Sector 666. Maybe go back and play that instead...
ChemiComplex This would be quite a nice mid-nineties style nukage-flooded base - I liked the height variation in particular - but for the fact that it's full of bugs.
- incorrect sector references on sidedefs, unclosed sectors
- untagged teleporter lines (this isn't necessarily a bug, if there was an untagged sector with a teleporter exit - but there isn't)
- unkillable monsters (they can't exit their teleporter because of the above reason)
- ungettable secrets (sectors behind teleporter lines, like on Doom2 map27)
- broken raise-and-change effect (the transferred sector properties are taken from the sector the switch linedef faces, he apparently doesn't understand this - weirdly according to the /newstuff reviewer it works in EDGE, which means EDGE is doing something really strange with flat transfers)
Not to mention all the running back and forth around cramped hallways and having to be very careful about radsuit management or you'll be running around in damage sectors until you die. It's also badly packaged - there's subdirectories, but no text file, in the zip.
Deathstruction Very much a retro map. Random texture theme, simple construction, flat, no lighting contrast. Made up of several completely separate sections accessible only by teleporter. Rather an excess of ammunition.
Also, is he seriously going round calling himself "High Flyin' Ryan"?
Sawun Luajaw Veagiuna (Enemy Base) Ruba's maps are quite hit-and-miss. This one's not too bad. The usual excess of copypasted sectors and weird texturing here, but the layout is quite interesting, there's height variation, and it doesn't play too badly. The ending was quite a surprise. Also I liked "Known Bugs: Reviewers".
The City of Great Gattle Another Ruba map, more of a miss than a hit I'm afraid. Four identical small buildings in a courtyard. The most interesting thing about this map is the design of the secret area - you have to let the monsters open it for you, and you can't just press all 4 buttons to open the exit or they'll teleport out instead.
t/nc goes communal
Yeah you can go to the /newstuff Chronicles page and submit your own reviews. Apparently they're okay with copypasting previously published material into the system - I'm not sure I'll do this, though. Having a bigger audience might be interesting but I can never be bothered with taking screenshots. Plus then what the hell would I post here?
Anyway, while I ponder, here's a wad:
Community wad developed in a single thread. Replaces the first eleven maps of Doom2, and needs Boom. Had some release problems including being released early and full of ZDoomisms (I admit I didn't pay much attention to the thread - I was kind of expecting something like that to happen, given some of the previous work of the thread poster)
However then they did version 2, which seems better. I'd probably better do each map individually...
Onset This is a 1024x1024 map that's also kind of a puzzle map. That is, a long switch quest. Despite the small size I often found myself unable to easily find the next switch; for example the second (iirc) switch is quite hard to press, being at the back of quite a wide ledge, so I thought you had to find a way to jump onto the ledge. Other switches are hard to spot due to only being visible at an angle that require you to use mouselook to see them. Also, there's a couple hidden in the floor which you can press out of order due to Doom's lack of proper height checking. Resistance is fairly low, this is a puzzle map after all, although there's one baron that scared the hell out of me when it suddenly popped up.
Operation Zero Nicely detailed hell-corrupted techbase kind of thing. The texturing is pretty much flawless and I liked the little bits of hellish weirdness embedded into the walls. However it plays awkwardly due to being cramped, full of traps, monsters with bullet weapons that sap your health, and not many pickups to replace said health. You will die and get fed up of having to wait for the lift at the start to descend. The ending, past the yellow door, is better, although the final switch and ensuing large teleporter can be skipped (you can sort of climb up to the exit anyway)
The Hunt This one could be a base on an alien world. Complex route that crosses over itself and glimpses that draw you in. Full of nooks and crannies too. An intriguing-looking building on the other side of a canyon - sadly it appears to be inaccessible, I spent ages looking for a teleporter... However the Wolfenstein area was a bit pointless and random, and what I can only assume is a tribute to wow.wad (a bfg in a pit with missing lower textures) was just stupid (not to mention very hard to get into) Other than that, an enjoyable map that doesn't skimp on monsters or the resources with which to kill them, and which rises to a decent crescendo at its end.
Den of the Beast E3-style hell castle, with surrounding caves and canyons and so on. Does some clever things with floor scrollers to teleport corpses around so they can be resurrected at unfortunate moments. However it has a serious gameplay flaw - a complete lack of useful weapons. If I have to pistol more than 2-3 small monsters I get bored, so the only way I could bring myself to bother playing was to gift myself a chaingun at the start. It seems like you're meant to have one, there's enough bullets to pick up. It finally grants you a chainsaw just before facing a spiderdemon (blatant ZDoom gameplay change) then gives you a super shotgun when there's about a dozen monsters left.
Base Construction The major part of this map is a huge flooded canyon. There are various side areas, one of which you start in, and each of which contains a switch - when all of these side areas have been done, a bridge will have been raised over the canyon and you can get the key you need to exit the level. At least one switch is hard to get to, requiring a long series of jumps that must be repeated in entirety if you miss a single one. A bigger problem is ammunition and health at the start - this map is very top-heavy. Not brilliant, but not bad. Finally I do wonder why there is a huge cache of cells and spheres at the extreme far end of the map, but with no way to get at it.
Hellstorm Workshop I don't know what this one is, it's not computery enough to be a techbase but there's metal everywhere so let's call it industrial. What there is though is massive amounts of detail linedefs including one of the most intricately-made 3d bridges I've seen. Vaguely reminiscent of CC3 map12 although a lot smaller. The gameplay is tough, I found UV to be an exercise in savegame reloads and frustration. You can't take much damage at all but the traps will damage you a lot. Slightly top-heavy, the yellow key area was definitely the most annoying. It got slightly easier after that, even the two cyberdemons weren't that much of a problem although I was very timid around the archviles in the exit room because there are so many of them.
Devil's Pit We're in hell! Specifically first we have to hop around some floating islands in space. It's pretty easy to miss the jumps and fall. Then you have to go round the corridors and cramped rooms of a smallish hell castle. This map has next to no health and ammo on it, I gave up trying to bother with 100% kills. Not a great map, really.
The Demons Inside One of those bases that's mostly outside, and some caves underneath. Unfortunately the wide-open nature of the start makes the map very top-heavy - the zombies overlooking the main area do not help with this, although there's a partial invisibility secret which can help you reduce damage taken and infighting is fairly easy to get going. I suppose it's best to run for the caves, but you need to know where they are. However the caves are tight and cramped and you can get pinned down quite easily. A decent map especially since it mostly avoids being another sequence of rooms and corridors, but could do with more ammo and health, or less monsters at the start (repopulate with teleporters, for example)
Spawning Evil This is a partially-outdoor system of caves, where someone's built a base. Has all the trappings of an excellent map - complex route, cohesive landscape (you know, not disjoint), decent secrets that are more than just a miscoloured panel on a wall, glimpses, light and shade contrast, detail, blah blah blah it's hard to review maps that I can't find fault with.
The Soulscarred Universe Honestly where do people come up with these map names? This one is a slaughter map, I guess. It's really hard even on HNTR, because you basically start off surrounded and have to grab the weapons before you get overwhelmed, and there's all monsters raining fire down on you from the surrouding castle. There are side areas: a lava cave and some corridors with a really awkwardly-placed cyberdemon. As I said, even on easy skill it's too hard. (However, the final area - a cave with some kind of a generator in it, behind the yellow door - seemed rather easy, given what had come before)
Lich I'm surprised I've never seen a map with this word in the title before. I guess archviles are the nearest thing Doom has to liches, as they cast spells and raise the dead - but fortunately they don't come back to life themselves! So anyway as you'd expect from the name there's a ridiculous number of archviles on this map. First you go round the interior of another hell castle. This part wasn't too bad (on easy skill, at least) However I found the courtyard at the south of the map to be too frustrating due to lack of health and ammo, but the final area of the map wasn't so bad because you can use the staircases as choke points.
Packaging: It replaces the status bar numbers with grey ones which breaks Boom's number colouring, and also replaces some of the key icons with ones that have odd patch offsets and look strange on a fullscreen HUD. (The red status bar replacement was suitably hellish, but I don't use it much, I prefer having a fullscreen display)
Summary: this wad is worth downloading, especially for map 9 but also 3 and 8. Some of the others are all right if you like that sort of thing, but others are poor. Typical community project, really...
Just to keep the page updated
So last week I dropped off the internet for three days. ntl (yes I know they changed their name but I hate it) did something to their network on the Tuesday and I lost the connection. I waited to see if it would fix itself but it didn't, so as usual I very reluctantly tried calling the ridiculously expensive tech support line. This was last Friday. I guess three days is better than the last time when it me two months to make the call (although of course the last time I wasn't completely offline)
So I spent about 15 minutes on the phone with a woman with an impenetrable Indian accent who asked me to reboot the modem, unplug this or that, yadda yadda. At least on this occasion I didn't have to sit there for several minutes having recorded messages played at me. She eventually agreed that it wasn't my fault the thing was down and would send out an engineer. Apparently that means I get the cost of the call refunded, or at least the cost of the call if I had called them from one of their phonelines, which I didn't.
Anyway so to cut a long story short the guy turned up and poked at this and that and added another attenuator, why I don't know, but he eventually fixed it by doing something at the cabinet up the road that the other end of my cable is apparently connected to. Fortunate that worked because prior to it he was talking about getting the cable re-pulled which would have been weeks. I don't really understand what he actually did, his accent was pretty impenetrable too especially with my shyness around strangers acting up, but it's fixed now so that's the end of it I hope.
Well, almost. Thing is, they've been upgrading everyone on my broadband package to a higher speed. Here's the really stupid part - I didn't notice the speed had gone up until I happened to look at the modem's configuration webpage several days later. See I have this traffic shaping script that's vaguely based on wondershaper, and one of the things it does is drops packets if they come in too fast. So it was of course dropping everything that was coming in faster than the old speed! I should probably get rid of it but I don't know. They put ingress policing, as it is apparently called, into wondershaper for a reason. What you really need is some way to test things, currently all I can do is make a change to the script and cross my fingers and hope it worked and keep an eye on it over a few days which is less than ideal. Or I could just stop caring. Fed up of typing this now.
