[Release] Gene-Tech: Before the Storm

[Enjay]

Download
http://www.aspectsweb.co.uk/enjay/doom/njgtb4ts.7z
(just under 90MB).

It's in a 7z file (which shaved a few MB off) but you'll have to take the PK3 out of the 7z and load it to play it.

As I mentioned below, there is a minor visual glitch with the latest official GZDoom (camera textures are bugged) but it plays OK in the latest Git build (I tested it this morning with the build from 20th September):

[edit]
In light of discussions later in this thread, for the time being it seems as if the mod works best if you use one of the GZDoom 1.9 Git builds until a few minor problems are sorted out with the latest version of GZDoom
[/edit]

http://devbuilds.drdteam.org/gzdoom/

Any Doom-based IWAD should be fine for loading it on top of.



It's not much, just a single map. I originally wanted to make a small episode of three or four maps but time and real-life meant that simply couldn't happen. I've managed to get most of what I wanted to do into a single map anyway.

I've had a few bits and pieces lying around on my HD for a while that I always intended to make into a map and when my Summer holiday started I thought I would have an opportunity to finish them off and release something. However, me being me, I got carried away with the idea and it kinda-sorta turned into a one map mini TC. That's partly where the problems start. I spent much of the Summer creating, gathering and modifying resources and DECORATing new weapons and enemies. So that side of the project is pretty fleshed out. However, now that my real-life work has started again, I simply don't have time to do more than one map.

It will definitely require GZDoom. It has lots of models (scenery, weapons, enemies) and loads of graphics not in the Doom palette. It also uses brightmaps, dynamic lights and sloped 3D floors. It works with the current beta of GZDoom and should work with the latest release with one exception. It uses a camera texture in one place and these are broken in the 2.0.03 release. Graf has fixed the bug but I don't think it has seen its way to an official release update yet. I'm sure it will soon. Recent git builds play it just fine.

It will work with any Doom-based IWAD. All the required content is in the PK3. It will even just about function with any IWAD (Hexen, Heretic, Strife) but menus will look messed up and some sound sequences (Hexen) won't work. I was going to make it completely IWAD independent but then I thought "what's the point?"

Part of the original idea was to have a Hollywood "orange and teal" colour scheme and this is evident throughout. However, I didn't try to adhere to this too closely in all areas.

So, what have we got?
A single, quite large map.

Screenshots

---

Setting/story: - I'm keeping this very, very short ATM but avoid if you don't even want a hint.

---

The game has sort of an EU-like, fan-fictionish plot for another game inspired by a single paragraph in an article that I found online. I'll not say too much at this stage but I'm sure it will become pretty obvious to most people quite quickly.

You are tasked with investigating the Gene-Tech corporation. This company, based on Mars (why is it always mars), specialises in genetic manipulation and cybernetic integration. The Global Defence Force has strong evidence to suggest that Gene-Tech has made contact with an alien race and is working with them on new technology. This goes against the internationally and interplanetarily agreed protocols for alien contact and is considered to pose a significant security risk. As such, you are authorised to use any means necessary to investigate Gene-Tech, discover the nature of their work and neutralise any alien threat should it become apparent that there is one.

Gameplay

---

Gameplay can be pretty much run and gun Doom-like play if you like. That was pretty much one of the intentions of the project. However, in many parts of the map, there will be alternative routes to take and, if you really want to, you can miss out large areas simply by choosing not to go there. This is quite deliberate. I was originally going to force the player to visit all areas via the usual key and switch techniques but I eventually decided to open things up a bit instead.

There are NPCs. Some are just innocent bystanders. They will not attack you and may also panic, cower or run away at the first signs of violence. However, they are involved with Gene-Tech and, given the nature of your mission, if they die, so be it; there will be no negative consequences for you. Some NPCs can be spoken to. They are distinguishable because they have a Sims-like crystal floating above their head. Approach them and press the [USE] button to "speak" to them. They will give you information about what is going on but they can also be ignored of you like. Speaking to them is not essential to complete the map. Many enemies are also NPC-like in as much as they are the workers and scientists of the base. They are easy to deal with and only have (often slow) melee attacks so they can usually be picked off before they get to you.

There are lots of secrets and many of them are quite unimaginative and easy to find.

[Enjay]

More information

Weapons
Although many of the models used for the weapons will look familiar (coming from SiN or Quake 2) and some may even feel quite like their original game counterparts, they are not (and are not intended to be) exact copies of the weapons from the original games. They're more like cousins (sometimes distant) of the original weapons. As such, most have an altered appearance and behaviour in some way. There are probably more weapons than are really needed for a single map but, like I said, I had originally thought that this might be a mini episode rather than just a single map.

---

Slot 1
Fist: Pretty much the Doom fist. Punch things with it. Pick up a berserk pack and you can punch things harder.

Ammo: None

Slot 2
Magnum: A pistol (using the SiN Magnum model). This fires WWNazi-like projectile bullets. Your basic-issue starting weapon.
Heavy Magnum (also using a SiN model). A rapid fire weapon using the same ammo as the Magnum pistol. Its spread is a bit wild but it can dish out quite a bit of damage. This was originally going to be on slot 4 in a traditional Doom pistol/chaingun relationship but there is something else in slot 4. I could have left this weapon out because it does cross over quite a bit with other weapons (see below) but I figured if I'd given it to the bad guys, it made sense to allow the player to have it too.

Ammo: Magnum Bullets

Slot 3
Shotgun:
Using the Quake 2 shotgun model, it's behaviour and damage is somewhere between the Doom and Quake 2 shotty with a bit of adjustment for my own tastes too.
Super Shotgun:
Much like the above but in SSG flavour.

Ammo: shells

Slot 4
Machine gun:
This feels quite a bit like the Quake 2 machine gun (and uses its model) but has less of a climbing kick and I massaged the damage slightly. It is a hitscan weapon and can intentionally be used for "chaingun sniping" by tapping rather than holding the fire button. I wasn't originally going to include this but I'd already gone through quite a bit of effort to give it to one of the enemies, so it made sense to include it as a player weapon too. I hope that, being hitscan rather than projectile, using its own ammo and allowing sniping makes it different enough to the Heavy Magnum to justify its presence.

Ammo: Machine gun bullets

Slot 5
Rocket launcher:
Quake 2 appearance but more like the Doom RL in terms of damage etc.

Ammo: Rockets

Slot 6
Hyperblaster:
Too much overlap with the heavy magnum? Maybe. This feels quite a bit like the Quake 2 Hyperblaster (whose model it uses) but does have some differences. I guess in behaviour it crosses over quite a bit with the Heavy Magnum. However, it uses different ammo and has a much tighter projectile spread. It's really meant to be a Doom plasma gun equivalent.

Ammo: Cells

Slot 7
BFG 9500:
Yeah, it's a BFG. It's much like the Doom2 one but uses a slightly modified Quake 2 model. The damage and projectile appearance is a little different, as is the ammo consumption, but Doomers should be in familiar territory when using this weapon.

Ammo: Cells

Slot 8
Railgun:
Yeah, it's a railgun. Quake 2-like in feel but adjusted to my own tastes and to the enemies in this mod (I hope).

Ammo: Slugs

Pickups
I'm including details of these simply to help people avoid picking things up when they don't need them and thereby wasting them. Most of the pickups have basically the same functionality as their Doom equivalents.

---

Health Bonus, Stim pack, Medi pack and Berserk pack - All much like Doom


Keg of Health - Basically a soul sphere


Armour Bonus, Regular armour, Mega armour - The only real difference here is that the bonus is a 5% item instead of a 1% item and is, therefore, rarer than the Doom armour helmet might be in a Doom map.


Mega thingy - Same as megasphere


Backpack - Much like Doom - gives ammo, increases carrying capacity



Computer Map - Much like Doom


Invulnerability - uses the gold palette rather than the Doom inverted palette but otherwise the same as Doom


Environment suit - Doom Rad suit replacement



Invisibility belt - Much the same as the Doom blur sphere but also gives protection from seeking missiles. However, I don't think I actually placed one in the map.


Light amp goggles - Like the Doom ones but, again, I don't think I put one in the map.

NPCs and Enemies: Many enemies have alternative skins. Many have melee as well as ranged attacks.
I'm not going to go into too much detail here, and I have deliberately missed some out. Finding out how to deal with them should be part of the fun (I hope). However, most of the main, common antagonists are here. Don't look if you don't want spoilers.

---

NPCs

Anyone with a crystal above their head can be spoken to. Sorry about the sexualised nature of the women. I did tone it down as much as I could but SiN is a pretty sexualised game and that was the only source of suitable models I had.

Semi-NPCs (Gene-Tech employees: enemies - they will attack but are weak)


Gene-Tech security Getting a bit more serious now


Robots

Protip: Steer clear of the big flying ones when they die; they explode and spray damaging shrapnel too.
Spiders are small, potentially annoying and can dish out damage quickly. However, aim low and you will quickly strip away their low health values.

[Enjay]

Thank you kindly

Credits
A lot of what is in here is based on the work of others or only exists because I received help from others when making it. I will try to credit everyone but if you see something that you know is yours and I haven't credited you, please let me know and I will rectify that. I apologise in advance to anyone in that situation.

Most of the resources, sounds, models, model skins, textures, sprites, code, whatever have been at least tweaked by me to a greater or lesser extend and I did produce quite a few things myself too.

---

Firstly thanks to Randy and Graf. Everyone always gives these guys a thank you (quite rightly so) but we (myself included) usually just skim over it with a "cheers for ZDoom guys". Randy and Graf, for years, have given loads of their time, effort, expertise and probably money to the game engine. Without them, this community would not exist and I'm quite convinced that Doom modding would not be as healthy as it is. These guys deserve an enormous thank you.

id software, of course.

Chevrolet103 for playtesting. It takes about an hour each time, and he's done it a number of times, so thanks son.

Wild Weasel for WWNazis. I used the projectile bullet code as a base for the Magnum projectiles.

SGT_Mark_IV for Brutal Doom. Some DECORATE ideas came from there (the basis of how to do the alert system for enemies).

22Alpha22 for his Quake 2 mod
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=45628
This actually served to inspire me to try using weapon models. I originally planned on just lifting the mod and dumping it into my project but, eventually, I realised that much of the DECORATE was not compatible with what I wanted to do and I did quite a bit of re-working. Quite a bit of the original stuff is still there though and I'm grateful for the work done by 22Alpha22 to get his mod to where it is.

Willem Sitters for various models and helping me with finishing off one of my models.
http://www.md2.sitters-electronics.nl/

LilWhiteMouse - always an inspiration and she helped me with the coding for one of my actors. I'd never have got it right on my own.

Brad Carney/Carnevil - very generously allowed me to use one of the models from his commercial game Wrack as a basis for a couple of my enemies.

Gez for lots of help with Slade and both sirjuddington and Gez for their work on Slade.

Blueshadow for some very useful DECORATE help.

Neoworm for the BFG projectile sprites

NiGHTMARE, Blox and the various denizens of the Custom Texture thread whose work I used either directly or as a base. If anyone else sees something of theirs, give me a shout and I'll name you in this list.

Scarecrow for the Spider Dalek Quake 2 model (I used it as a base for one of the little spider robots).

HorrorMovieGuy for Quake Stuff Ultra - Dog code based on the Quake 1 dog from this mod.

Duke HRP - models, textures, graphics

Doom HRP - textures

FreeDoom - Textures, sounds.

Twice Risen for some HUD elements.

SirAlien - I did a small level for the planned Sir alien WAD "ZDoom Forums". That is unlikely to see the light of day so I re-purposed one of the rooms and used it here.

Rex Claussen - a constant inspiration to me. I tried to make some of the architechtutre a tribute to his style.

Michael Krause - inspiration (especially "Darkstar" )

Adz123 - Inspiration ("Computer Storage")

Music
Eric Brosius, Sonic Mayhem, Aubrey Hodges, The Smirnov Squad.

Art
http://johnmblaz.deviantart.com/art/Tan ... -463061585
http://outerkast.deviantart.com/art/Qua ... -169997090

The guys at the biohack.me forum. I already had the idea for the Gene-Tech logo being a cog with DNA inside it but their ideas helped me get a final design.

SiN, System Shock 2, Thief, Quake 2, Unreal Tournament, Terminal Velocity, Jedi Academy, Dark Forces Mod, Dark forces, KM Quake, Strife, Doom, MoHAA. Maybe others.

Various other people on the ZDoom and GZDoom forum who offered hints and tips along the way both for things I was asking about related to this project and generally. There's loads of people due credit here (too many for my tired brain to remember) and there is always someone willing to help. That's a really cool thing.

Tools used:
Thanks also to the authors of the various tools used.

---

DeePsea, Slade, Misfit Model 3D, Milkshape 3D, Blender, QME, Noesis, GrabPNG (Doomcrap), Wally, Winzip, Paint Shop Pro, Gimp, GoldWave, Audacity, ModPlug tracker, TextPad.

[Sgt. Shivers]

Woah, this looks really good. I love your other wads so I am highly anticipating this.

[Slax]

Feels like we're about to Sin.

[Nash]

Hhhh...

[hyperventilating]

[Undead]

Yeah.

[Jblade]

Hot damn, I loved your Liberation level set and the BGPA universe sounds really interesting just from that pack along. Eagerly eagerly looking forward to this.

[SamVision]

---

[seedzhao]

i´m excited just to see the photos, can´t wait for the final release...

very nice indeed.

[Ed the Bat]

Something fresh and exciting? My interest has been grabbed.

[grouchbag]

This is beautiful. Thank you also for all the great maps in the past.

[Darsycho]

NEAT

[Enjay]

OK, it's out. Link in first post. I hope people have fun with it.

Please treat this as a late, late, late beta rather than a final release. I've played through many times and not had any real problems and it has been tested by Chevrolet103 a number of times too so it should be OK. I did get a last minute glitch where one actor seemed to be juddering between two states instead of dying properly when shot. I've looked and looked at the code and I can't see a reason for this. I added something that might work as a safeguard but it's a shot in the dark. The glitch was merely odd-looking and did not break the game and I've not been able to replicate it.

Just a "heads up". As I mentioned, the logic of the map is quite open, particularly in the first half of the map where most areas can be visited by more than one route and some areas are entirely optional. I think it's OK but this could lead some people to find it a bit mazey. When it comes down to it, however, the logic is still just "find the blue key and then go through one of the blue doors". Once you've done that, things become a bit more linear.

There is also a "zoo" map (type map zoo at the console) if you want to see all the actors, models etc. It would be better to do that after playing through at least once because it, obviously, contains spoilers.

[AstroSkull]

Eye candy, i like it!