ZPack - Random Maps for ZDoom | Rejuvenated | RC1 in dev.

[Tormentor667]

M_DOOM.png

In my eyes, ZPack has always been one of the greatest community achievements ever, and it still is. It just ... didn't age to well. After retiring from creating new projects for Doom (which still was a very good decision by the way), I was finally able to concentrate on playing projects, including older releases like this one. And sometimes also experimenting, fixing and improving these existing maps and mods, as it's a lot less time-consuming than creating something new.

For ZPack, I imagined a smiliar treatment as for some of my other "Re-Releases", like Austerity or The City of The Damned, but I felt like this challenge was too overwhelming and too ambitious. Fortunately, Ozymandias81 and Salahmander2 felt different and started to work with me (or actually doing more work than I could) on a rejuvenated version of ZPack, and I think we are doing quite well.

A callout to the original authors
So many people have worked on this project, and we want to give everyone of them the chance to improve their maps as well. Captain Toenail already did an amazing job with E1M1, so if other mappers of the original ZPack are interested in doing something similar, let us know (same goes to mappers who haven't been part of the original cast, who are interested in improving existing content). So, if you can find your name in the following list, drop us a line or join us on the official GitHub repo.

• farlowj
• Captain Toenail
• Hnsolo77
• IcyTux
• InsanityBringer
• Keksdose
• Phobus
• Skillsaw
• Vader
• Xaser
• Zippy

So what can be expected? Here is a list of features!

• Added a new statusbar (base by NightFright)
• Added widescreen graphics
• Added a new palette
• Added dynamic lights (removed sector light effects)
• Added special effects (volumetric light, fire particles)
• Added new ambient sounds and sequences
• Added alt-deaths
• Added brightmaps and gl-lights
• Added gore effects (by Nash)
• Added low-health effect
• Improved colors for messages and statusbar graphics
• Improvements and bugfixes to all maps (3d floors, portals, skyboxes and more fancy GZDoom stuff)

Not convinced yet? Here, some screenshots!

[openroadracer]

official GitHub repo

You're not supposed to have the quotation marks surrounding the URL of your target page.

[Nems]

Added alt-deaths

Are we talking about the vanilla monsters having alt-deaths or the Decorate-specific monsters have alt-deaths? I ask because this could end up conflicting with monster replacement mods (I believe it's possible to use such mods in older ZPack but admittedly it's been a hot minute since I last played it so I may just be hallucinating :V).

In any event, I liked ZPack even with its faults so I'm looking forward to this.

[RubyEyeShabranigdu]

So cool!
I cant wait!

[Dynamo]

So what can be expected? Here is a list of features!

• Added a new statusbar (base by NightFright)
• Added widescreen graphics
• Added a new palette
• Added dynamic lights (removed sector light effects)
• Added special effects (volumetric light, fire particles)
• Added new ambient sounds and sequences
• Added alt-deaths
• Added brightmaps and gl-lights
• Added gore effects (by Nash)
• Added low-health effect
• Improved colors for messages and statusbar graphics
• Improvements and bugfixes to all maps (3d floors, portals, skyboxes and more fancy GZDoom stuff)

So I'm guessing the maps will only be changed if the original authors choose to be involved directly? Since I'm not seeing map changes in this feature list right here.

Anyway, what can I say. I think ZPack is a pretty decent set, but I'm not sure it needs a remaster, let alone one that has stuff like gore effects, low-health effects and so on - this is what external mods are for, they don't need to be built into ZPack itself. Remember how TerminusEst13 made a sanitized version of Ultimate Torment and Torture, for the simple reason that many of the effects and stuff it had was largely unnecessary as part of the main mod itself and was better suited as an external mod that people may choose to load or not to load, in case they want to play with a more vanilla feel or they just want to load a different gameplay mod entirely. Except Ultimate Torment and Torture was 2007, and back then one could say we didn't know better, but in 2022, we sure do. So I strongly recommend adding these features as part of an optional mini-mod to bundle together with the main release, rather than embedding everything, as that's just gonna cause headaches going forward, or will just make people want to stick to the original, which surely for a remaster, is not desiderable.

[Tormentor667]

You're not supposed to have the quotation marks surrounding the URL of your target page.

Works indeed better without them - thank you!

Are we talking about the vanilla monsters having alt-deaths or the Decorate-specific monsters have alt-deaths? I ask because this could end up conflicting with monster replacement mods (I believe it's possible to use such mods in older ZPack but admittedly it's been a hot minute since I last played it so I may just be hallucinating :V).

Well, the alt-deaths are indeed supposed to be for the original monsters, but maybe these could be altered to be compatible with gameplay/monster mods? I actually have no idea how to do it but it would be cool to keep compatibility for gameplay mods indeed.

So I'm guessing the maps will only be changed if the original authors choose to be involved directly? Since I'm not seeing map changes in this feature list right here.

Good guess, the map improvements and changes that we do without the original authors' permissions is fixing things and balancing gameplay, no huge changes. If original authors are fine with their maps getting a major revamp, we can do that, but we prefer to have the original cast work on their original maps if possible.

[Dynamo]

I actually have no idea how to do it but it would be cool to keep compatibility for gameplay mods indeed.

Best way is indeed doing it as an optional mod like I said, however, there are alternatives. The recently showcased mod Doom CE for example has a bunch of menus that control a lot of what the mod does, allowing the end-user to enable or disable features at will, through ZScript. That type of approach might work very well for what you're trying to do here.

[NightFright]

Looks like the old sbarinfo version of my Fullscreen Statusbar Mod is still good for something. Guess it's far easier to integrate than the ZScript release.

[Ozymandias81]

Looks like the old sbarinfo version of my Fullscreen Statusbar Mod is still good for something. Guess it's far easier to integrate than the ZScript release.

Yes definitely easier and we used it also for other remasters (Sapphire, Austerity, Refinery, TCOTD1 and probably KDiZD), really worth to use it and seems to work with any kind of resolutions.

[salahmander2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FDvj2rzVUQ

Decontanimation in process...

Decontanimation complete, have a nice day.

Just testing a little script for the nukage part for E2M2.

[_OniriA_]

So what can be expected? Here is a list of features!

• Added a new statusbar (base by NightFright)
• Added widescreen graphics
• Added a new palette
• Added dynamic lights (removed sector light effects)
• Added special effects (volumetric light, fire particles)
• Added new ambient sounds and sequences
• Added alt-deaths
• Added brightmaps and gl-lights
• Added gore effects (by Nash)
• Added low-health effect
• Improved colors for messages and statusbar graphics
• Improvements and bugfixes to all maps (3d floors, portals, skyboxes and more fancy GZDoom stuff)

I'm missing "added more detail" in this.