"A public speech or published text in praise of someone or something."
So, um yeah, this is an Episode 1/Romero tribute map running in Doom2. It's slightly modernish in style and contains a few non Ep.1 textures and things/enemies.
DOWNLOAD
http://www.aspectsweb.co.uk/enjay/doom/NJPanegyric.pk3 600 KB.
Stick it on a 720 floppy and share it with your friends.
Have fun!
I think it's all OK but I'm only learning GZDB (which I used for the final bit of editing - not the whole thing). So if anything is massively broken, let me know please. I haven't spotted any problems.
Screenshots:
Spoiler:Credits:
Silent Zora for the "Suspense" (D_E1M5) remix midi from here. Thanks for the permission.
The sky mountain texture is an edit of the one from Randi's original skybox example which is, in turn, an edit of the Doom episode 1 sky.
John Romero for the original inspiration for many areas in this map.
Secrets
Nomonsters video run through to show how to get all of the secrets. (10 minutes long)
Obviously it contains spoilers.
Spoiler:Background info that very few people will want to read:
Spoiler:
Why?
Spurred on by Project Romero, my own tongue in cheek foray into analysing Episode 1 and being recommended some nice music I felt the need to make an Episode 1 themed map.
I know that I am unlikely to have much time when Project Romero really gets going, and my computer has also been playing up (I think the SSD is getting ready to fail) so I decided just to bash on and get something done quite quickly and release it. I did it over most of the evenings of this last week (I was working late on Wednesday and was at the theatre on Thursday though - so time was tight), play tested it a few times yesterday and tweaked a few things this morning.
Design
The map is Episode 1 themed - but only in feel. In fact, it's intended to have a slightly updated feel (something akin to the level of detail in Romero's recent maps). It is not a purist map: it runs on Doom2 and has some non Episode 1 monsters, items and textures. Basically, the map got too big to stick with such a limited set of resources as the cut-down Doom texture range in Doom2 and ony zombies, imps and pinkies. I didn't go too overboard though. The vast majority of the monsters are Ep. 1 types.
No plasma based weapons are present though (just in case you are looking for them). I tried to observe Romero's mapping tips (as detailed in the Project Romero thread) as much as possible.
It is quite derivative (intentionally so) and some people may not like that I guess. However, I deliberately wanted to make areas that were either similar in feel to areas in the original maps and even sometimes to be pretty accurate recreations of certain areas (but updated in style to be consistent with the overall feel of the map). I spent a lot of my early mapping back in '94/'95 basically trying to copy/recreate Episode 1 maps. I actually took time to specifically memorise areas, including line lengths or sector heights of particular features. I think '94 probably needs to go down as the year where I needed to get out more.I still know the maps really quite well and enjoy remaking bits of them (the BROWN1 secret outdoor hut has always been a pain to make
). Sometimes I was working purely from memory, at other times I had a screenshot of the original map layout open on my secondary monitor to use as a reference and a lot of the time, of course, I was just making completely new stuff and not trying to emulate anything.
For this map, my logic was that this was probably a large base somewhere else on Phobos but the UAC presumably would have standard architecture, equipment and modular construction for their bases and so different bases would definitely have some features in common. They probably have a deal with the same building contractor for all of their bases too. Corporate finance and all that.
I also tried to keep the mapping style a bit "old school": there are no slopes or 3D floors, for example. There is a very small number of scripts but these are all quite simple. Most are just sequences of actions that could actually be done by multiple line types (scripts are just neater). I did do a few "modern" things (e.g. the key doors are all coloured a bit like PSX Doom, for example) but I hope that the map still captures the feel that I was going for.
Most of the original id/Romero maps are evoked in some way but with E1M8 and E1M9 having minimal representation. E1M6 is probably the most represented. Not sure why because it's not my favourite map in the episode. And yes, that does mean an annoying nukage maze-like area.
Resources
I was originally just going to go with only using the Doom2 resources and finding the best matches in that set for what I was looking for. This meant that a lot of texture options from Doom that would have appeared in Episode 1 were not available to me. I stuck with that though because the idea of releasing a map with nothing else in the WAD appealed to me.
However, after a while, the Doom2 skies really started to irk me because they just didn't match the feel of the map. So I used a modified skybox based on the original skybox example from many years ago.
I also decided to go with a music midi. None of the Doom2 midis really say Episode 1 to me. Silent Zora made a very nice remix/reworking of "Suspense" (D_E1M5) for "Project: Doom Redux" and it really fits the idea of map IMO (i.e. very familiar, but remixed and modernised). The fact that it is a midi also really helps for what I was going for. Thanks very much to Silent Zora for giving me permission to use it.
I also included a gldefs to give the nukage a bit of a glow because there is a lot of nukage and I liked it.
That's it though, two textures, a music track and some control lumps. A nice small download.
Gameplay
It's not too difficult (IMO); consistent with a map that mostly has Episode 1 enemies in it. However, it is more difficult than the original maps.
There are a lot of secrets. The map can be completed without them (though some secrets have enemies in them, so 100% kills is not possible without finding some secrets) but a few of them will really help. e.g. many of the weapons are available earlier if you find the secrets (partly depending on which path you take). Finding one of the secrets will give you the chaingun quite early and avoid you having to drop to your pistol in a nasty fight or two if you haven't been managing your shells too closely.
Most of the major areas have at least two ways in to them. Even I'm still not sure what the optimal path is. There are also quite few optional areas that do not even need to be visited (though doing so will usually reap some reward) and, as I mentioned, there are a load of secrets too (if you are familiar with the original maps (like who isn't?) then some of the secrets might be quite easy to track down).
It's possible to run to the exit in around 2 - 2.5 minutes (missing out lots of optional stuff and not really trying to kill things unless they get in the way) but a full 100, 100, 100 (why did I put so many "counts as an item" things in there?) on UV typically takes me about 55 minutes, 45 on HMP and 30 minutes on the easy settings (difficulty filters are implemented).
The map is intended for single play. Co-op start spots are present but it has not been balanced for Co-op at all. It will suck! Similarly a few DM starts are present. The map is too big for DM so the DM start spots are all trapped in a single outdoor area. It is not a good DM map. In fact, I think I only put in 4 DM spots. I just added the co-op and DM starts so that them missing did not flag as errors in DeePsea.
Jumping and crouching are both allowed. Neither is needed to get 100% of everything but they should harm the experience either. There will be a few places where jumping can get you across a low wall or nukage pit, or crouching can make life easier, but that's all they do. There should not be anywhere that you can get by jumping or crouching that you cannot reach by normal means. So, jump and or crouch if you want, or don't. Either way is fine (*I think*).
Because the map is so resource-lite, I imagine it will be playable with most, if not all, gameplay mods (but it would be nice if you gave it a "vanilla" run through first).
Editing
I made most of the map in DeePsea over Monday, Tuesday and Friday evenings after work, play testing as I went. Then I play tested it some more on Saturday and, on a whim, decided to convert it to UDMF and try to learn GZDB a bit better by making all the play-test fixes in GZDB. Hence all my recent flurry of questions. So, that slowed me down a bit, but I feel that it was a good way for me to get a bit more familiar with GZDB and UDMF. I learned a lot.
Science
Scientifically and in keeping with Episode 1, the map is awful. The Start to Crate time is 0 seconds as 3 barrels are present in the start room and 2 of them are clearly visible. The map has a total of 59 barrels. Yup, science tells me it's awful.
lol
