Reviving Doom - I released everything I had

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scifista42
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri May 18, 2012 8:30 am
Location: Czech Republic

Reviving Doom - I released everything I had

Post by scifista42 »

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26th July 2013
-----------------------------ATTENTION!----------------------------
I haven't added a single byte to this mod during past year.
Also I myself started to dislike the general idea, the side idcluded ideas and the maps.
So I decided to release everything I have.
I don't really plan to continue working on this, such a thing is unlikely. Sorry for disappointing some of you.
In fact, in that past year(s), I've got even more cool and whatnot ideas for Doom mods, and even worked on them, and even for months!
But I've finally abandoned them all.
Reviving Doom is the only of these ideas/mods which was actually announced. Again I apologize for making some of you falsely
expecting the (more) completed version. But this what I release is really everything I have.

The wad is full of random changes and ideas made mostly just for the sake of random changes and ideas. Not all of them are good,
and not all of them would probably appear in the final release, if there was. But this isn't a proper release.

Read the text file included for more specific info what is in. Or look into the .pk3 yourself. DECORATE codes are all stored
in simple .txt file. Of course, I allow you to copy it and use for your own purposes.

Hope you can find this release anyhow useful or enjoyable. Although I seriously doubt that.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
And here it is: http://www.speedyshare.com/6EwMn/revivingdoom.zip
Mirror: http://filesmelt.com/dl/revivingdoom.zip
(Filesize about 1 MB only. It's not much.)

The below is my old post left unchanged.



(Cross posting from Doomworld forums)

Hi, I would like to announce my newest ZDoom project. I was working on it for a longer time. It's for Doom 2 IWAD and it's for singleplayer, cooperative and also deathmatch. The project is not completed (and won't be completed soon), but I made a demo to show you what's this about. I also want some feedback to make sure if it's worth to continue with the project.

Note #1: The project title is tentative. Maybe I will change it.
Note #2: I plan to make F1 Help Screen for this project that will explain everything, but I don't have it yet so I explained important things here. Sorry for the long post.


THE MAIN IDEA

Zombies in Doom can be killed with a few pistol shots and then they don't give you any trouble anymore. Too easy. In this project it's different. Zombies (and imps) are undead, so killing them by a few pistol shot is not enough. After a while, they will get up and fight you again. I got this idea after watching this video of Doom 3 alpha version (zombies are behaving that way there): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXzJ0wFj-ag.


FEATURES
  • Weaker enemies (all kinds of zombies + weaker types of imps) have the ability of self-reviving. After they are killed, they lie on the floor as corpses, but after a while their injuries cure, they get up and go back to the fight. However, there are still ways how to kill them forever (see below).
  • Stronger enemies don't have this ability, but ALL of them can be ressurected (this includes Cyberdemons, lost souls, archviles and more) by an archvile or another monster with resurrecting ability.
  • Planned: 45 new maps (including secret levels) desined to be fun to play with these monster improvements. Maps will be divided into several episodes. The first maps will be really small and contain really low number of enemies to teach the player how to play this game. The last ones will be really hard.
  • Possibility to play original Doom 2 levels (or any PWAD) with these self-reviving monsters. (for hardcore players)
  • Jumping and crouching disabled, unless you are playing original Doom 2 levels. Freelooking is not disabled, it's even necessary to reach some of the secrets in my maps, but the maps can be always completed without it.
  • Modified version of Nightmare! skill level. If you choose this level (DON'T DO IT, MASOCHISTS!!!), all monsters with self-reviving ability will now revive twice as soon after death, all monsters without self-reviving ability will now have this ability (including bosses) instead of classic respawning, and you'll not get double ammo!
  • One new weapon, a flamethrower.
  • Improved berserk behaviour. Even more powerful and faster punches, but works for 30 seconds only. NOT included in the demo.
  • Improved BFG behaviour (although I will maybe remove it) - use it carefully, because the blast will hurt anything, including you. It also has alt attack - self destruction ;)
  • Invisibility and invulnerability respawns even in singleplayer game. Trust me this really helps (when fighting a lot of self-reviving hitscanners).
  • Several secret levels.
  • Deathmatch support.
  • Compatibility with ZDoom, GZDoom, old Skulltag and Zandronum.
  • Various other improvements of monsters and items using DECORATE.
To preserve the feel you are playing Doom, to avoid copyright infringement and to keep the file size to a minimum, I decided to NOT include any music, sounds, sprites or textures from other resources and to use only Doom 2 stock resources + very few sprites and textures made by me. Most of the new used textures (sprites) are just textures from Doom2.wad recolored/modified using TEXTURES lump, so I didn't have to place them into my .pk3 (which lowers the file size significantly).


ABOUT THE SELF-REVIVING

The zombies and imps will get up in a constant time after they die. They won't do so if something (you, other monster) is standing on their corpse. However, they will try to get up again after some time and they will repeat this procedure until there is nothing on them and they can get up.

There are three ways to kill those monsters forever:
  • Shoot them with a powerful weapon so they turn into gibs. Sounds logical, right? They can be turned into gibs by a rocket, exploded barrel, BFG shot, flamethrower flames, sometimes by plasma or some projectile of powerful monster. Note that archvile (or another monster with resurrecting ability) will be still able to bring them back to life.
  • Crush their corpses. By a crusher or under door. Then they turn into pool of gibs (normal Doom behavior) so they also cannot revive. This time, even archvile cannot resurrect them.
  • Stand a long long time on the corpse. After some time (few minutes) they will really die and stop trying to get up. This way is not at all advantageous when you are in a room with more than one monster, because you cannot dodge projectiles when standing on one corpse. Archvile, of course, can resurrect those monsters (when you're not standing on them).
Important note: In my maps, Zombies WILL NOT drop ammo after being normally killed. This prevents the player to use the strategy of accumulating ammo by repetitive killing the same monster(s). Zombies will, however, drop a greater amount of ammo after being gibbed. So the player is really motivated to use rocket launcher and flamethrower preferentially on zombies.

But, when playing original Doom 2 levels with this, zombies WILL drop ammo always. Those levels were not specially designed for reviving monsters, so the player gets this advantage.


GAMEPLAY

I am aware of that this modification of monster behaviour makes the game much more hard and tricky. I know that reviving monsters REALLY motivate the player to always go forward and try to exit the level as soon as possible, which might but also might not be a good thing. I tried to design the maps in conformity with that. The maps usually contain some sort of safe place where you can stay, think about your next step, look at the automap etc.

ALL maps were designed to be completable on Nightmare! skill level and also in UV Pacifist mode. Yes, even levels with arena battles (like the first tutorial level) can be completed without killing monsters. Not saying it'll be easy, though.

The maps will be divided in several episodes:
  • Episode 1. Very easy maps at the beginning, but the difficulty is increasing as the maps go. Story is the same as Doom 2 story, but you are a different marine at a different place. Generally more realistic design, but with low detail (I mean, it looks like a place where people can live, rather than surreal halls with shapes that doesn't make sense). The progression is very slow, I mean slow introduction of particular monsters and weapons. Stronger weapons are not available in the entire episode (except secret levels and, of course, deathmatch).
  • Episode 2. Direct sequel to the Episode 1. Harder maps. Generally more classical design. Not as slow progression. And very special final boss ;)
  • Xtreme insanity maps. Nothing common with the previous two episodes. It's there just to show absolutely crazy ways of usage of the new monsters. Super hard. Surreal design.
  • Hell on Earth. The original Doom 2 levels. You can also play this .pk3 with other PWAD to play other maps, then you access those maps selecting this episode. Only in this episode is jumping and crouching enabled and zombies drop ammo.
DEMO

I made a short demo of this project. Before playing the demo, consider this: Self-reviving monsters are something players are not habituated to. So I REALLY RECOMMEND to play on lower difficulty, even if you think you're a good player. Especially in the non-tutorial map. Maybe this demo won't be so difficult, but when the project will be finished and released one day, I recommend lower skill level, because the difficulty of maps will be increasing as they go.

Here is the link.

The demo features:
  • 3 easy maps (like tutorial) to teach the player how to play this game. Those maps are intended to be the first three maps of the 1st episode.
  • 1 map that is much harder. DO NOT PLAY IT ON UV on the first playthrough. A little different (-> harder) version of this map is intended to be the first map of the 2nd episode.
  • Some of the improved monsters.
  • Most of the new textures I already have. (there are some placeholder textures and sprites I will remake later)
  • The flamethrower, but with temporary sprites I drawed in 30 minutes. Its behavior will be probably changed also. The flamethrower is located only in the first tutorial map and only in deathmatch (where is practically useless). If you want to use it in singleplayer (of course you want!), type to console: give flamethrower.
  • The new BFG, but only in deathmatch. If you want to test it in singleplayer, type to console: give bfgun. Use it carefully, because the blast will hurt anything, including you.
  • All maps support singleplayer, coop and they were also designed with deathmatch in mind. For sure try deathmatch in the one hard map, it's fun even against bots!
  • You can test original Doom 2 levels with self-reviving monsters using the IDCLEV cheat. But the demo contains only some of the monster and item replacements, so it won't be the same experience as with the final version.
SCREENSHOTS

Note: this project is primarily not about maps, but about the monsters. The screenshots cannot show you how difficult the game is, you must try it for yourselves.

Anyway, some screenshots from the demo. First the tutorial maps: (I made them a longer time ago)

Image Image

Image Image

Image

The one non-tutorial map in the demo: (I made it recently)

Image Image

Image Image

And some screenshots from maps not included in the demo:

http://i.imgur.com/Taaqe.png
http://i.imgur.com/3onGI.png
http://i.imgur.com/2uqo3.png
http://i.imgur.com/RnSrW.png
http://i.imgur.com/8GlUb.png
http://i.imgur.com/HYmwF.png
http://i.imgur.com/Ca2c5.png
http://i.imgur.com/mH9pF.png
http://i.imgur.com/xVfCi.png


FEEDBACK

I would really like to know what you think about the project idea, about particular features in this project (especially reviving monsters and the BFG), your thoughts about the demo or anything. Please let me know in this thread. I want some feedback to make sure if it's worth to continue with the project.


CURRENT PROJECT STATUS

Maps completed: 14/45
Monsters/things modifications: about 90% completed
Graphics (like TITLEPIC...): not yet


Enjoy the demo ;-) And sorry for my English, I'm not native speaker.
Last edited by scifista42 on Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Springy
Posts: 532
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 3:22 am
Location: Earth

Re: [WIP] Reviving Doom [+DEMO]

Post by Springy »

I like the idea of the resurrecting zombies and other weaker enemies. The maps shown in the screenshots look very good so far. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.
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hugoroy
Posts: 221
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2011 4:59 pm

Re: [WIP] Reviving Doom [+DEMO]

Post by hugoroy »

I really enjoyed the demo. The gimmick works better than I would've thought. (also, that scared the shit out of me, it did a good job at putting me on edge and then THAT happened)
scifista42
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri May 18, 2012 8:30 am
Location: Czech Republic

Re: [WIP] Reviving Doom [+DEMO]

Post by scifista42 »

Okay, let's admit the truth...

I haven't done any progress on this project in past months. Not just because I didn't have much time, but mainly - motivation.

Thank you for at least some replies, but... It seems from them that only one person actually played the demo. And I got even less feedback on the Doomworld forums.

You know, when I started this project at the beginning of this year, I had practically no mapping experience and I thought self-reviving monsters are innovative, cool and whatnot idea. Didn't know there are so much similar newbie projects nobody cares about.

Instead of working on this project, I rather started working on some Doomworld community projects. As a mapper with low experience, I find it better. Because I know people will play my and others maps and give feedback, which could actually help me to compare my skills with others and improve them. But working on a large single project that nobody will play - not.

As I said, I lost motivation. As it seems now, nobody cares about it, so there is no reason for continuing. But if I knew someone had played the demo and didn't think it was a piece of crap, I would consider to continue working on the project. So for now, I would like to ask you once again for some feedback to decide if I should cancel this project or not.

Thank you. (and sorry that this post is almost a copy of that at Doomworld)
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Big C
Posts: 2839
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 3:24 pm

Re: [WIP] Reviving Doom [+DEMO]

Post by Big C »

Just gave this a whirl and am interested. Simple yet effective.

I don't think the version I tried long ago had its own maps, though, or maybe my memory is just fuzzy.

At any rate I'll try to beat the tutorial + bonus level sometime today and get back to you. :D I'd hate to see this abandoned!
Failure
Posts: 94
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 9:21 pm

Re: [WIP] Reviving Doom [+DEMO]

Post by Failure »

I will play this with brutaldoom...Or maybe not, because it will not work with it D: .
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Average
Posts: 626
Joined: Fri May 20, 2011 4:28 am

Re: [WIP] Reviving Doom [+DEMO]

Post by Average »

Posted on Doomworld but thought I should reiterate over here. I really like this and would love to see future development. :)
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