S.U.P.E.R Natural
Everybody has a story. Sometimes, these stories are part of a larger whole, a piece of history in the making. Sometimes, we even remember the people's names, and what they did. Perhaps these are the people who lived life to the fullest. Perhaps they will be the only ones who have maintained a purpose even after they are gone.
But regardless, everybody has a story, as simple as it may be. Inside each larger one there are countless smaller ones waiting to be told. Sometimes these stories have a bigger impact than anyone will know. But sometimes, just sometimes, regardless of what happens, a story will make no change.
Their story is not important. It is nothing at all.
Sometimes, our stories have no meaning.
And sometimes, our stories mean something to us, and us alone.
Sylvius Leonard left his home, with no story, and with no intention of making one.
So tell me again, how does his story go?
Okay, enough being weird and cryptic.
Welcome one and all to the most ridiculous thing I have ever done.
Inspired by the likes of TCotD:A and RTC-3057, S.U.P.E.R Natural is a free roam single hub, designed to be full of survival horror elements. Of course, shortly after attempting to make it, I realized that horror is completely impossible in doom, so I just focused on the survival part a bit more and attempted to rely on atmosphere and tension for the latter.
You are all going to hate me for this, but like most games of the same kind, you have no weapons. Your only way of survival is running and hiding, or maybe, if you're lucky, being a bit clever with your surrounding environments. The small number of enemies you face are (usually) randomly generated, and will attempt to kill you in just a few hits. Health is regenerating, as enemies are technically infinite too.
For the most important nitty-gritty detail, we have the hub. This is a single hub of a planned 20+ maps, all fully explorable in whatever order you feel. Some will be blocked unless certain events occur, and some will be denied if the path you take steers you away from it.
To define it further, S.U.P.E.R Natural has a story to it. While Winter's Fury revolved around being as much of an over-the-top action blockbuster as possible, this mod uses the story much differently, and hopefully more successfully. For those interested, this is set in the same universe as Winter's Fury, this part occurring a few months after the events of Doom 2.
What I should also mention is that since this mod is taking story to be a critical part of its gameplay, I have had to change a bunch from my original plan. To put it into perspective, the original was just as the Winter's Fury story was; This is happening so more explosions can occur, and weird stuff is happening so I can put in a void level. Over the development of S.U.P.E.R Natural I came up with some ideas I wanted to put into place, and you will see these new developments come together soon.
Anyway, like I halfheartedly indicated in the paragraphs of text at the start, I can't tell you any story from this mod. It's up to you to create your own story depending on what you do, where you go, and who you trust. What this means is that the mod has multiple endings, so three cheers for replay value. No, there is no ending which you could call 'THE BEST'. Each ending is not a recolour of the last. All endings are cannon. At best, some are just harder to achieve than others.
Also, one of your least favourite characters from Winter's Fury will be making a quite major guest appearance.
Now that I have all the interesting stuff out of the way, it's time for the things which you will want to punch me in the face for:
-It's not done yet. I wanted to release a mere demo today, but real life is hard.
-This mod is big. In this case, I am not talking about 20+ maps big, but I am talking about filesize. Fortunately UDMF format maps compress pretty well, but just be prepared that you will be downloading a 100MB+ file. This isn't because of ludicrous amounts of .mp3's or something silly, it's due to the sheer size of the UDMF format levels. Which of course leads me to what you have all been waiting for...
-Much like Winter's Fury, you need a pretty strong system to play this. I upgraded my system to an overclocked 16gb ram monster from my modest 2gb of ram that I ran Winter's Fury on, and I get 30-ish FPS in some areas. This isn't nearly as bad as getting framerate drop in something like Winter's Fury, because you aren't trying to dodge and circle strafe enemies 24/7. Regardless, lower level machines will not be able to run this mod very efficently, if at all. Sorry if that is the case. Unfortunately it is not a matter of turning off all special effects and watching the FPS soar to 60. The reason most maps lag is due to, once again, the sheer size of the levels.
So yeah, lag is great and all, but... Screenshots!1!!11!!11
Spoiler:Now I did want to release a demo this Halloween, but like I said, the full mod has a long way to go and the demo isn't quite done yet, but I can promise a 'Soon™'.
For those who wonder, the demo will include the 'Introduction', which is a linear-ish segment in which you are forced in a certain direction through the hub, but you do have the ability to explore the areas you go to. There will be a few areas blocked off for the sake of maintaining this linear path. At the end of the introduction you hit the start of the actual game, where you can go anywhere and do anything. It's all up to you. For those who will want to play the mod multiple times, there will be the option to quick start. This takes you straight to the end of the introduction.
So now that I am done ruining what everyone thought of the mod, feel free to comment now that I have actually given you something substantial to comment on, other than brief conversations about places. If you ask questions, I might actually give proper answers!
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