Good Doom/Heretic/Hexen WADs

[Riskbreaker]

This is looking really promising:

Is this a new "interpretation" of Aliens, or a remake of the original Aliens TC?

New one.

By the way, there is another Aliens TC from few years ago. Only three proper maps plus one boss arena, but those three maps were -huge-, partially non-linear, with some of the most impressive 3D architecture and lightning in any GZDoom release to date.
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=30920
Tho, it was pretty frustrating at times. Two of the maps would get literally flooded by xenos at one point, with their numbers constantly increasing, and another had a particularly "memorable" stroll trough alien hive.

 

[tormund]

H-Doom has come to fill all your sempai needs. http://hdoomguy.tumblr.com/post/117443743997/hdoom-techdemo-7-release

I still never even touched H-Doom, and I'm proud of it.

octavius
This is a completely new project. It started as a gameplay mod, but author then decided to create entire mapset based around Aliens.

 

[Gragt]

I don’t think this has been mentionned yet:

The Doom Minor Sprite Fixing Project is dedicated to fix some of Doom’s sprite while maintaining Id’s artistic work and compatibility. Most of the changes are very subtle but they’re the kind of things that you’ll probably notice right away once you know what to look for. Aside from fixing pixels of the wrong colour, the author also recentered many of the animation frames to give them a smoother appearance — some obvious exemples are the Revenant’s punch and the Archvile attack from the side where you can now see them lunge forward instead of having their center stay in the same spot.

He also added Romero’s released sprites, previously unused, to make some monsters look natural by eliminating sprite mirroring.

The mod should be compatible with almost anything, although WADs that modify the monsters (Eternal Doom, Hell to Pay) will revert the sprites to the original Doom look. It is basically a WAD that you should load after everything else, and there is also a DEH patch that fixes some animations, including the infamous Super Shotgun firing frame staying one second too long. You can still load the DEH patch even if you don’t/can’t use the WAD.

I’ve been using it for a while now and it is pretty cool. My only complaint, though that’s hardly the mod’s fault, is that you tend to notice its absence when you play a WAD that replaces the affected sprites and thus prevents you from using it. A possible trick is to load the sprite fix WAD before the custom WAD you want to play, so it will override the changes; it’s worked ok so far in the handful of WADs I tried it with.

 

[Riskbreaker]

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/p-r/rtctrl
Mini-episode consisting of four maps that are almost exclusively based on Quake textures. Maps are of small to medium size, with some pretty straightforward layouts (with the exception of slightly more open final map). Gameplay is (very) easy, and each map is rather generous with ammo. Enemy count will go all the way to around 250 in the fourth map, but you'll encounter mostly low end enemies, with some sparsely used mid tier mobs. Lotsa hitscanners, but they are rarely given a chance to snipe ya from any considerable distance.
Maps are all pretty nice to look at, with some classy detailing and nice balance between indoor and outdoor sections.
Very much worth playing if you're in the mood for something nice looking, polished and undemanding.

Spoiler

I guess that there is one wee issue that might cause some annoyance and thus warrants a mention: placement of blue key in map 3. You'll understand once you get there.

 

[skacky]

So, John fucking Romero, the man himself, has released a new Doom 1 level. You're reading this right. It is a re-imagining of E1M8 and my only comment will be: go play it right now.

 

[tormund]

From the text file:
"My previous Doom levels were made in 1995 for The Ultimate Doom (e4m2, e4m6), so this is a warm-up."
A warm up for... what?

 

[Major Malfunction]

Linear corridor fest in Doom 4?

 

[Gragt]

 

[dunno lah]

What the hell's up with Crispy Doom 3.2? Music Volume slider doesn't seem to work. Do you have this problem, Gragt?

 

[Astral Rag]

So, John fucking Romero, the man himself, has released a new Doom 1 level.

edit:

 

[Astral Rag]

"this is a warm-up"

He's going to make those Cacowards his bitch.

 

[Riskbreaker]

A warm up for... what?

Why, Daikatana remaster by Night Dive of course! It will feature a brand new secret map designed by the master himself.

 

[grudgebringer]

Jeezus, 3D Realms making a return with a build engine game, and now John is coming back with his new map. This is a good year.

 

[tormund]

In another news, release of The Golden Souls 2 is nearer and nearer.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I gave Romero's new level a go. I don't recommend doing a Pistol start on it, you'll only end up as Romero's bitch.

The readme had a disclaimer at the end that I couldn't help but smile at, considering the author:

Authors may NOT use the contents of this file as a base for
modification or reuse. Permissions have been obtained from original
authors for any of their resources modified or included in this file.

You MAY distribute this file, provided you include this text file, with
no modifications. You may distribute this file in any electronic
format (BBS, Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this file
intact. I have received permission from the original authors of any
modified or included content in this file to allow further distribution.

 

[otsego]

Here's a playthrough of Romero's map for anyone interested in seeing if he's still got the touch:



Haven't played it yet, but this looks to be very promising indeed... interested to see what comes after the 'warm up'.

 

[tormund]

TBH, he really overdid it with damaging floors.

 

[skacky]

Apparently they used to damage you even more during betatesting.

 

[Gragt]

A warm up for... what?

He apparently plans to make a new FPS, not new Doom levels, sadly.

What the hell's up with Crispy Doom 3.2? Music Volume slider doesn't seem to work. Do you have this problem, Gragt?

If you mean the setup option, it's normal and due to a SDL 1.2 bug that always set the MIDI volume to the maximum. The in-game slider works as normal but the volume will jump to the maximum again on a track change. The same issue affects Chocolate Doom; it should be fixed when Chocolate Doom, and by extension Crispy Doom, is updated to the latest SDL version.

I gave Romero's new level a go. I don't recommend doing a Pistol start on it, you'll only end up as Romero's bitch.

Nonsense. The start may be a bit rough but doable. Romero is best when tough.

Apparently they used to damage you even more during betatesting.

They originally were the 20% health per tick variety.

 

[ghostdog]

SHEEEET you get buttraped on the get go in UV, but if you get past that, it's ok. You basically have to find the secret areas that are near the beginning of the level. Hard map, with nice architecture overall, good for a first try after so many years. One mark down for teleporting enemies, but Romero still has it.

 

[dunno lah]

The only thing that bothers me about the cracks is that they look a little out of place with the overall aesthetic. The rotating red cylinders on the red key building also feel tacked on. Personally, I would only put cracks in the red key building and its surrounding area.

 

[Riskbreaker]

Lainos released another map:
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/85523-comatose-overdose-2/

A limit of sidedefs in LR format is achieved here, so it is not possible to draw at least one new line at all.
Because of this, as well as the abundance of large open spaces with lots of sectors, map may slow down in complex sourceports like ZDoom and it's derivatives, so PrBoom-Plus is HIGHLY recommended.

Do note that he is not kidding about the performance. If you do intend to use one of Zdoom-based ports, be sure to use the one with OpenGL renderer, since performance in software renderer will be abysmal regardless of your setup!

Good news is that, despite Lainos's choice to present this map as a Overdose sequel, from what I played so far it seems to be much closer to excellent 5till L1 Complex: huge, moody, non-linear map with realistic environments, so far free from Overdose's weird gimmicks.

 

[Astral Rag]

Thanks so much for all the feedback, both positive and negative, although I really don't count any of it as truly negative. I've been lurking on this thread to see the reactions of the actual core community, the real mappers and players.

I know it's not perfect. I haven't made any kind of map for any game since 1996. This was just a warm-up. I'm going to be doing a lot more mapping hopefully soon.

I plan on writing up everything I can about the creation of this map in the coming days and posting it. Thanks, Ling!

 

[skacky]

Joke about Romero all you want with Daikatana, I'm genuinely excited for the future.

 

[Riskbreaker]

I'm going to be doing a lot more mapping hopefully soon.

For Doom, I hope.