It was a dark and stormy night, and Doomguy had just spent another evening locked in his study, examining an ancient occult tome. Unraveling the forbidden secrets of the dark arts sure wears a person out! Fortunately, Doomguy had outfitted his castle with more than a few modern conveniences... and tonight he was feeling rather musically inclined!
This is the first of (hopefully) many ZDoom-oriented community projects organized by several veterans of the DBP series. Projects will be bimonthly, with a month of mapping followed by a month of polishing and finalizing. In this inaugural edition, we'll be mixing gothic fantasy and tech themes, with a synth/keyboard motif tying it all together. Check out the demo map (MAP01 in the resource pack) for a taste of what we have to work with! Screenshots below.
RULES
1. Target compatibility is ZDoom 2.8.1, but also make sure your map doesn't break in recent GZDoom. Allowed formats are UDMF, Hexen, and ZDoom: Doom 2 formats.
2. Maps should be modest in length; aim for 4-15 minutes.
3. No jumping or crouching; freelook is optional. Jumping and crouching on land is disabled via MAPINFO, but should still work for swimmable water. Design your maps accordingly.
4. Don't go overboard with advanced features. Maps should "feel Doom-y" at their core.
5. Many stock textures and some stock THINGs are blacked out for thematic consistency. Blacked-out resources should not be used. Do not add your own resources!
6. A MAPINFO lump defines the music for each map slot, as well as enforcing general project settings. Use this to pick music for your map. The final sequencing of maps will be determined by the project leader.
7. Do not implement difficulty settings initially. Post your map first and let others assess it first.
8. Get your maps in by June 2nd! This is a firm deadline. After a month of polishing, refining, and sequencing, the project will be released on July 2st.
9. Submitted maps may be modified by the project leader for quality control and error fixing purposes.
MUSIC
Spoiler:
TITLE: "Ogre Road" (Breath of Fire III, seq. by Zagro)
INTERMISSION: "Swamp Battle" (Legend of Dragoon, seq. by Zagro)
1. Cave ambience (Thief: The Dark Project)
2. "Flower Garden" (Dark Cloud 2, seq. by Zagro)
3. "Gundor Volcano Grotto" (Dark Cloud 2, seq. by Zagro)
4. "Tree Spirit Jurak" (Dark Cloud 2, seq. by Zagro) CLAIMED BY GLENIZNHO ("Synthful Journey")
5. "Underground Water Tunnel" (Dark Cloud 2, seq. by Zagro)
6. "Castle" (Legend of Dragoon, seq. by Zagro) CLAIMED BY SCRANGUS MCBRICKDAD ("Kasparov's Claim")
7. "Helena Prison" (Legend of Dragoon, seq. by Zagro) CLAIMED BY BIG OL' BILLY ("Knights of the Patch Cables")
8. "Heim Rada" (Dark Cloud 2, seq. by Zagro) CLAIMED BY BIG OL' BILLY (DEMO MAP)
9. "Lavitz's Theme" (Legend of Dragoon, seq. by Zagro)
10. "Lohan" (Legend of Dragoon, seq. by Zagro)
11. "Prepare for Battle" (Legend of Dragoon, seq. by Zagro) CLAIMED BY DOOM_RO ("Vlad's Carpathian Resort")
12. "Rose's Theme" (Legend of Dragoon, seq. by Zagro) CLAIMED BY BEARINTHAWOODS (WIP)
13. "Seles" (Legend of Dragoon, seq. by Zagro)
14. "Shana's Theme" (Legend of Dragoon, seq. by Zagro)
15. "Story" (Legend of Dragoon, seq. by Zagro)
16. "Drake Castle" (Legend of Legaia, seq. by Sirius)
17. "Despair" (Tales of Eternia, seq. by MaliceX)
18. "Nostos Cave" (Tales of Eternia, seq. by MaliceX)
19. "Vicissitudes of Fortune" (Vandal Hearts, seq. Joe Schwebke)
CUSTOM THINGS
Spoiler:
Enemies
Wicked (DoomEd# 13017), a Doomified version of Quake I's Scrag. Basically a flying imp.
The SS Nazi has been reskinned as a gun-toting monk, but is mechanically unchanged
Hazards
PainBall (DoomEd# 13018), a hellish barrel variant that spawns three lost souls as well as exploding like a traditional barrel.
PainBallProximity (DoomEd# 13022), variant of above that also charges up and then explodes if player is in melee range. Experimental
Decorations
RainSpawner (DoomEd# 13000), used for the famous Mercury Rain rain effect (also requires the "S_CheckSkyCeiling" ACS script, which can be found in the demo map)
DemonPedestal (DoomEd# 13001)
Evil Eye color variants (DoomEd# 13002-13007)
BonePile (DoomEd# 13008)
Crucified Corpses (DoomEd# 13009-13010)
Marble Columns in several colors (DoomEd# 13011-13016)
BreakableWallTrigger (DoomEd#13021), invisible target that can only be killed by high-damage attacks (rocket/BFG), useful for making breakable walls
Spawnable Explosion (DoomEd# 13019), makes it easy to spawn explosions for breakable walls and other special effects
SpawnableExplosionNoDamage (DoomEd# 13020), same as above, but does no damage
SFX
Spoiler:
Individual synth notes now included for special effects and interactivity (see especially the MAP32 tech demo)
Six ambient sounds are now placeable with the AmbientSound THINGs
Three built-in, Quake-derived door sounds for Quake-style PolyObject doors
SCREENSHOTS (DEMO MAP)
Spoiler:
Current credits can be found in a CREDITS lump in the resource pack.
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 5:20 am
by glenzinho
Just to expound upon rule #4 a little more: Bill's demomap/resource introductory MAP01 in the resource package paints a picture of the type of style of Doominess in a ZDoom context that we're aiming for here. If you've played any of the DBP series, think along those lines but you can go just that little bit further. We'd be hoping to see some unique actions and creative combat setups that can only be achieved with the extended trigger possibilities of the format. Moving large amounts of sectors in epic transformations is pretty great too.
Some other examples in ZDoom format that I can link to if a more clearer understanding is needed is Bill's Last Saucer Off of Mercury from the recent Jimmycontest, Fall of Society which also had a project thread here on this forum a few years back, and a couple of older and smaller pieces by myself in Trace of Soylent and We Die Young.
Thanks for having us onboard and we hope you're intrigued by the resource theme on offer to try your hand at a little sumthin sumthin. Also don't be afraid to steal borrow ideas and motifs from the demomap; I've been borrowing so much from Bill over the years that he had to give me a library card. Fun and jokes aside, this helps with keeping the final package cohesive as a whole. Stuff in the demomap like the skullkey being placed on the keyboard key switch after activation, and the steps made of keyboard keys, this is the kind of thing we'd like to see showing up in other maps and taken even further. It's always great to build off each other and give it a twist, particularly when mapping for a project with a deadline and new resources and ideas.
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 5:34 am
by Zedonk
I might join but it depends on how well I get on with the hexen map I'm making.
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 6:32 am
by DooM_RO
Theme looks cool. Gonna make a map for this.
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 8:33 am
by Phobus
Very strong demo map here! Looking forward to the finished product in a couple of months We need more ZDoom map sets. Not sure if I'll get round to doing anything for this within the time limit, but I certainly intend to try.
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 9:04 am
by Jaxxoon R
Alright! Time to groove.
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 6:58 am
by zrakbz
Bruh
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 7:54 pm
by Vertigo
Hell yeah, stoked to see this! Time to start mapping
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 12:53 am
by 4MaTC
Hello. This seems interesting. I'd like to give it a try. Though i don't promise i could deliver.
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 9:17 am
by Big Ol' Billy
Awesome 4MaTC, we'd love to have you on board. Your previous experience with Doom/Q1-themed hybrid mapping will definitely be an asset here, since we're leaning into some Quakiness with this one!
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 5:44 pm
by BearInThaWoods
Really digging the theme and the change of format. I'm excited to get to work.
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Thu May 06, 2021 6:15 am
by Endless
Ooooh yeah. DBK 4 life!
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 6:55 pm
by glenzinho
Some screenshots, one map by me that's just getting started, and another just about ready for public consumption by Jaxxoon R:
Here's my map: Kasparov's Claim
Glen's already posted some screenshots in his post, so just scroll up if you're looking for those. As an aside I'm rather pleased with how quickly this one came together, from start to fully-completable in only about 7 days. Of course it had to wait a couple for bugfixing, hahaha.
Re: DBK01: Dungeon Synths - looking for mappers!
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 10:17 pm
by Big Ol' Billy
Resource pack v2 is now up in the OP. Note that I've split the resources into non-music and music wads now, since the music files are pretty hefty. New features include:
-- Tweaked health for Wicked (100HP, up from 80) and Lost Soul (50HP, down from 100)
-- More music tracks
-- More thematic SFX, see OP for details
-- A few new textures
-- Extra special keyboard interactivity features! Check out the tech demo on MAP32 for examples of some more advanced things you can do
-- Updated demo map