ZDoom

First Encounter download (1.9 MB)
Updated 9/5/15. Requires a copy of Wolfenstein 3D v1.4 to play.

To install:

STEAM WOLF3D
1. Install Wolfenstein 3D from Steam to your DEFAULT Steam directory.
2. Unzip the contents of the zip file into a folder of your choice.
3. Run the batch file to start the game.

ORIGINAL RETAIL/REGISTERED WOLF3D
1. Install Wolfenstein 3D from diskettes or CD (or piracy, whatever) into a folder of your choice.
2. Run Blzut3's patcher to ensure your copy is the most up to date variant of v1.4. This is a MUST for Apogee-distributed versions, they will not work otherwise!
3. Unzip the contents of the mod as above, but into the same folder as your Wolfenstein data files.
4. Run the batch file to start the game


Video of level 1-2, "Office Space".

This is something I've been thinking about doing ever since I did my ECWolf Classics conversion of Second Encounter--a 34-level (30 normal + 4 secret) mod inspired by the Mac Wolfenstein level progression and using gameplay elements from Coffee Break. The 30 levels in the main progression would be divided into six units, each with a boss enemy (and unlike most mods, each boss will have unique behavior and require different strategies). While most of my mods can be very difficult, especially on skill 4, this mod's difficulty curve is meant to resemble a retail game and be accessible even to people who have never played Wolfenstein before. The levels start out short, easy, and simple, and will gradually get longer, harder, and more complex over the course of the campaign, adding new weapons and gameplay elements--the final unit will probably have a difficulty level similar to Spear of Destiny.

The First Encounter is now available for download, containing the first two missions, with nine levels out the planned 34.

Story
It is the year 1943, in the darkest hours of the Second World War. You are William J. "B.J." Blazkowicz, a spy working for the American OSS intelligence service. While investigating a rumored German chemical weapons program in occupied Lithuania, your cover was blown and you were arrested by the SS and sent to the notorious Castle Wolfenstein, in the Bavarian Alps. Once owned by Bavarian nobility, Wolfenstein is now a prison where Allied spies are interrogated and executed.

You have been imprisoned in Castle Wolfenstein for twelve days. You have overheard orders from your jailer, Oberst Hans Grosse, that you are to receive "special measures" to loosen your resistance to questioning. You see a guard coming towards your cell, but whatever he has in store for you, you have no plans to find out. As he opens the cell door you fling yourself upon him, crushing his windpipe with your hands. As blood pours from the now limp guard's mouth and nose, you take the knife and pistol from his body. You listen carefully--no one seems to have heard you.

Most assuredly, however, they will inevitably come looking when the dead guard fails to report back. You survey your loot from the guard. His uniform is too small for you to wear, but you fit into his boots. Boots, a knife, a pistol, eight bullets. Enough to kill two guards, maybe three. Your act of desperation has sealed your fate. If the Nazis see you, they won't give you a second chance.

Your mission is clear. You must escape from Castle Wolfenstein, or die trying. The enemy will be out for your blood, and you'll need every means at your disposal to kill them before they kill you. As you load the pistol, you think to yourself that you signed up to be a spy, not a one-man army.

Guess there's a first time for everything.

Features:
* Seamless 30-level progression with four secret levels and Mac-style segmented level numbering (so level 17 would be labeled 4-3).
* Six missions that follow one after the other, each with its own architectural theme.
* All the new weapons, enemies, and mechanics from Coffee Break--bolt-action rifles, flamethrower Nazis, and more!
* A "drip feed" of new enemies, weapons, textures, and gameplay mechanics that keeps gameplay evolving throughout the course of the mod.
* Much tougher and more powerful dogs.
* Four keys: gold, silver, bronze, and iron. The silver key only appears starting mission 2, the bronze key starting mission 3, and the iron key starting mission 5.

Levels:

Mission 1 (levels 1-3): Castle Wolfenstein
During your investigation into Nazi secret weapons research, you were captured and imprisoned in the dungeons of the notorious Castle Wolfenstein. You must make your way out of the dungeons, through the keep, and out the main gates to escape. But beware--Colonel Hans Grosse, your jailer, isn't about to just let you walk out the door!

Mission 2 (levels 4-8 ): Underground Complex
Now that you are free from Castle Wolfenstein, you must pick up the trail and infiltrate a secret Nazi chemical weapons facility on the Baltic coast. Find and destroy the Nazi chemical rockets before they can be used on the Allies, and assassinate the project's head, General Gottlieb Totenauge, to ensure the project stays dead for good.

Mission 3 (levels 9-14): Assault on Hollenhammer
Rumor has it that secret biological experiments are being conducted on the dead in a facility beneath Castle Hollenhammer, deep in the Austrian Alps. Explore Castle Hollenhammer and find the bunker entrance. But some of the "experiments" may be waiting for you...

Mission 4 (levels 15-18 ): What Lies Beneath
The secret elevator in the heart of Castle Hollenhammer has led you here, to the secret laboratory of Dr. Schabbs. Four floors filled with deadly traps and monstrous horrors stand between you and the evil doctor himself. Kill them all and bring an end to his plans!

Mission 5 (levels 19-25): The Fuhrer's Eyrie
Allied Command has located Hitler somewhere inside a bunker complex called the Adlerhorst (Eagle's Nest) beneath Castle Kransberg in Kransberg village in rural Hesse. Infiltrate the complex, storm Castle Kransberg, and find the entrance to Hitler's bunker, which is guarded by none other than Klaus-Gustav Ritter von Wetterau, known more commonly as der Totenritter (the Death Knight), Hitler's personal bodyguard and the most feared warrior in the Third Reich. Good luck--you'll need it.

Mission 6 (levels 26-30): A Cornered Rat
You have penetrated into Hitler's private bunker, the most fortified place in the entire Reich. The Fuhrer knows you're coming, so expect to face the very best troops Germany has to offer. And who knows, maybe even Hitler himself will have a surprise in store...

Secret levels (levels 31-34)
These hidden treasure vaults can be accessed from secret locations in Missions 2, 3, 5, and 6. Millions of dollars worth of gold and other loot have been stored in them--but they're also very heavily guarded.

Yeah, colour me interested!

Level 31, "Purpura", the first secret level. The secret levels are much harder than the regular levels, and much closer to the difficulty of Coffee Break. They also introduce new gameplay elements before the regular level progression, so this level has officers, mutants, and the bronze key:

I'm excited to check this out!

When can we expect to see the First Encounter?

Screenshots of the level 8, "Missile Command". This will be the last level of Wolfenstein Missions First Encounter, hopefully due out next week!






The second mission's boss, General Gottlieb Totenauge. If you think he looks like a pushover with that single pistol of his, think again. They don't call him "Deadeye" for nothing!

I'm extremely interested in this. I'm in the mood for some vanilla-styled Wolf today, and I can't wait to try out the first encounter. By the way, do you take content submissions? I talked to blzut3 a long while ago about how ECWolf doesn't use any type of interpolation when resampling unless the sound is coming straight from VSWAP. In other words, sounds that you import, exclusively, that have a sample rate of 7042 Hz sound really strange and telephone-y. I found out a way around this, and that is to resample them to ECWolf's default output rate (which is 22050 Hz) manually with some FB2k plugin (no idea how to do it in Audacity) with linear interpolation. I think it'll give this mod a small boost in authenticity for sure, I could even do the same for coffee break if you want. Personally, I'm weirdly picky about this kinda stuff.

Sound stuff aside, I'm really excited to play through this, really love the atmosphere and how faithful it is to the vanilla Wolf aesthetic.

Resampling is pretty easy in audacity but tbh I cant remember how lol. I've been using Logic Pro and FL studio for my edm production for some time now so I just use them lol

By the way I do know he has tweaked the sound within the past year as there were problems playing Mac version sounds, but that may have just been on the Macwolf end of things.

Yeah, it kinda sucks because I've tried resampling using "linear" interpolation using Audacity but it doesn't come out sounding quite right, like it's not actually linear as people have lead me to believe. It's something like cubic? At least that's what it sounds like. I haven't done extensive reading on the topic but even if you configure Audacity in such a way to use the "worst" interpolation algorithm it has (which I would assume is linear) it doesn't make it sound quite right at all... so I had to find something else. I used someone's SoX FB2k plugin to resample all 7042 Hz sounds to 22050 Hz and it ended up sounding exactly how ECWolf would play a sound as if it was reading it from VSWAP.

DenisBelmondo wrote:I'm extremely interested in this. I'm in the mood for some vanilla-styled Wolf today, and I can't wait to try out the first encounter. By the way, do you take content submissions? I talked to blzut3 a long while ago about how ECWolf doesn't use any type of interpolation when resampling unless the sound is coming straight from VSWAP. In other words, sounds that you import, exclusively, that have a sample rate of 7042 Hz sound really strange and telephone-y. I found out a way around this, and that is to resample them to ECWolf's default output rate (which is 22050 Hz) manually with some FB2k plugin (no idea how to do it in Audacity) with linear interpolation. I think it'll give this mod a small boost in authenticity for sure, I could even do the same for coffee break if you want. Personally, I'm weirdly picky about this kinda stuff.

Sound stuff aside, I'm really excited to play through this, really love the atmosphere and how faithful it is to the vanilla Wolf aesthetic.

OK. All the sounds I have come from Coffee Break so if you do Coffee Break it will double for both of these. One thing I've started doing recently is downsampling files to 7042 Hz in Audacity, I originally used ChaosEdit (a Wolfenstein all-in-one editor) for this as it did it in a single click instead of having to fiddle with drop-down menus, but it sounded harsh and trebly, while doing it in Audacity sounded marginally more authentic.

There we go, all the sounds from coffee break filtered through with the method I described above. You may not notice a huge difference, but I find that a lot of the sounds are a bit less harsh when muffled slightly by the interpolation. It's all in .pk3 but Google Drive identifies it as a zip and views it as if it's a folder so if anyone here is not familiar with Google Drive, you'll have to click on the down arrow on the topmost bar.

These sound much better, thank you.

Wolfenstein Missions First Encounter has now been released, with the download in the OP. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Am I the only one having issues trying to play this? I extracted the files into a folder and tried both the batch file and the ecwolf application. The batch file just pops up for a second and then disappears. And the ecwolf app. says "Please use --console or start from command prompt to see error messages. An error has occurred <press enter to dismiss>"

Im using windows 7. Not sure if that is the issue or not.

JimpArgon wrote:Am I the only one having issues trying to play this? I extracted the files into a folder and tried both the batch file and the ecwolf application. The batch file just pops up for a second and then disappears. And the ecwolf app. says "Please use --console or start from command prompt to see error messages. An error has occurred <press enter to dismiss>"

Im using windows 7. Not sure if that is the issue or not.

Try following the instructions that the message is giving you (i.e. edit the batch file to add --console to the command line options) - I wonder if the error is that it's not detecting an install of Wolfenstein 3D, but I wouldn't be able to be sure without seeing whatever error it's putting out.

(For what it's worth, running Windows 8.1 here, runs fine, but I also own Wolf3D through Steam which ECWolf is designed to detect.)