A new WIP map, featuring GZDoom effects

As I've mentioned earlier, the first few maps I made for the 'Acid Wars' project didn't have any of those fancy effects that GZDoom offers - they started out as plain vanilla maps. Later I converted those maps to Ultimate Doom Map Format, and started adding new features such as rotated textures, slopes and deep water.

The current map I'm working on was started using UDMF right away, and it's the first of my maps that features 3D bridges, even 3D slopes. This video tutorial helped me a lot.

Here are some screenshots of the results, first one is a simple 3D bridge, actually several 3D bridges:


A teleporter on a 3D bridge:


This room was a bit tricky to do, since it's a sloped 3D bridge with some 45 degree angles. The tutorial didn't cover odd angles, but after some experimenting I found out how to do that. Actually, the whole room was an experiment but it's quite cool so I'll keep it in the map. You can see another new feature in these screenshots, acid dripping from the ceiling (click the thumbnail for a fullscreen image, otherwise the drops are very hard to see).



More acid drops, and a new texture I made from a vanilla rock texture, it's basically the same rock but with acid flowing through the cracks. Looks quite cool when animated. It won't hurt the player like the nukage/acid liquid does.
Also, you can see another 3D bridge here.



No monsters in these screenshots, this map is very much WIP. The lighting looks rather bland, but it's a cave map for most parts so it's kinda hard to give it different lighting besides the GL light sources. Maybe I'll open some cracks in the ceiling for a better variety in light levels.

Mutant Sphere

The Mutant Sphere is my first (and so far, only) power-up item. It started as a DECORATE experiment which didn't end like I wanted but the result was still satisfying.
I basically wanted to create a power-up that turns you into a mutant until you receive a certain amount of damage, and then transforms you back, leaving you with the same amount of health you had before the morph. This wasn't possible (maybe it is but I couldn't figure it out) so it just lasts for 60 seconds and your health is reset to a fixed value.
Also, I created new sprites from the Spider Mastermind face and the Soul Sphere, recolored some of the DoomGuy mugshots and retextured the punching arms.

Description from Realm 667 (which is back online but there still seem to be some security issues, caution is advised):

Information:
Name: Mutant Sphere
Type: Morph
Palette: Custom
Summon: MutantSphere
Use type: Instant
Duration: 60 seconds

Credits:
Submitted: DeVloek
Decorate: DeVloek
GLDefs: DeVloek
Sounds: id Software, DeVloek
Sprites: id Software
Sprite Edit: DeVloek
Idea Base: Shrink Sphere, Hulk, Forced Evolutionary Virus

Description:
This Powerup turns you into a mutant for 60 seconds. You lose all your armor, you cannot pick anything up, and you cannot use any guns. The mutation increases your body size by ~14%. Even worse, you'll look really ugly. Being a mutant isn't so easy after all...
But don't worry, you still have your mutated fists! Your mutant powers make your attacks twice as fast. Each punch does 8 times the normal damage. Your skin becomes harder and you take only 25% of the damage.

Sprite examples:






Download Link:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4091016/Doom/MutantSphere.zip


Note: there are a few things I couldn't fix yet. I'm not really happy with the mutant sounds, right now it's just a low-pitched Doomguy voice with shitty fx in the background. Sounds awful.
The Inventory.PickupMessage property doesn't work somehow, although all pickup messages of other items work just fine, including custom ones so it isn't in my gamesettings. I made a workaround with a message printed in the middle of the screen.
I couldn't find a way to keep current health and armor when morphing/unmorphing. Your health is reset to 150 when morphing, and back to 100 (or whatever your DoomPlayer's Health value is) when unmorphing. Armor is removed completely. I hope there's a way around this...

As you see this version is not final, although it has already been approved at R667. I releasef this item anyway, it's pretty cool as it is and will probably be a nice addition to new maps if it's placed in a well thought out location (ie. not in a trap with hitscan snipers all around). I'll most definitly include this item in my own map project as well.

D_DOOM remix

In 2008, I made a remix of Doom 2's music for MAP05 (The Waste Tunnels). The original tune is simply called DOOM, or D_DOOM for us nerds. D_DOOM was always one of my favorite tunes from the soundtrack. When I made the remix, I tried to give it a modern touch (ie. Dubstep), while keeping the "doomish" atmosphere. I also added some voice samples from the film The Doom Generation. Despite the title, the film has nothing to do with the game. Still, I think the samples fit the tune quite well.
I named the remix "Nuclear Waste" and released it under my music alias "Ear2brain". I also made a video with scenes from the russian post-apocalyptic film Letters from a Dead Man. I tried to upload it to Youtube, but it was instantly blocked by Lenfilm, the corporation which holds the rights to the film. So a direct download has to do until I can figure out how to embed the video on the blog.

Listen to Bobby Prince's original tune:


Listen to my remix:


Song Download Link: (mp3, 8.5 MB)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4091016/Mucke/ear2brain/nuclear_waste.mp3

Video Download Link: (mp4, 88 MB)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4091016/Mucke/ear2brain/nuclear_waste.mp4

Trent Reznor Player Sounds

When Doom 3 was in development, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails was hired to create sounds for the game, but later he quit the job, for reasons unknown to me. Before he quit, he already created a lot of sounds which were used in the leaked Doom 3 Alpha, but none of them were used in the final game. Later, an unofficial mod for Doom 3 with Trent's sounds surfaced. The mod replaces sounds for the player, the imp, the hellknight, the chaingun, the machine gun, and the pistol. Although the file description says the shotgun sounds are replaced too, only the "dry" click sounds are replaced, not the firing sounds.

Now I created a WAD that replaces the original Doom/Doom2 player sounds with those by Trent. There are at least 5 new sounds for each original sound, all are played at random. There are 6 new jump sounds for those who switched on ZDoom's jump ability. Trent also recorded 57(!) pain sounds for different "amounts" of pain. Fortunately the ZDoom programmers had the foresight to create 4 different pain sound states depending on how much damage the player takes, so I distributed the sounds among those states.

Download link:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4091016/Doom/trentreznor_playersounds.wad

I also made a WAD that replaces the pistol and chaingun sounds, but I guess I'll use these sounds for new weapons instead.

Shootable Impaled Humans

Back in the day, one of my first DeHackEd experiments was to make the impaled humans shootable. First I simply made them bleed when hit, then I added a death sequence, which was the same as the Zombieman death. No sprite edits at all, but in-game it looked kinda cool. This mod is a re-make of the old one, with actual sprite edits, and it also adds a twitching variant of the dead impaled human.

When I saw ItsNatureToDie's Impaled Guys Pack, I remembered one of my old, long lost Doom mods which made the impaled humans shootable. This mod follows the basic idea, with much better results than before.

Information
Name: Shootable Impaled Humans
Connection: None
Palette: Custom
Summon: LiveStick1, Deadstick1, LiveStick2, DeadStick2
Ambient Sound: Zombieman pain
De-/Activatable: No
Destroyable: No

Credits:
Submitted: DeVloek
Decorate: DeVloek
Sprites: id Software
Sprite Edit: DeVloek
Idea Base: One of my old mods and the Impaled Guys Pack

Description:
Adds a living variant of the Impaled Human (POL1) and a dead variant of the Twitching Impaled Human (POL6). All variants can be shot down or gibbed. They have less health than a Zombieman, and when they are down, the stick will block the way with a very low radius. The twitching variants make Zombieman pain noises when they hear you.

Sprite examples:



Download Link:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4091016/Doom/ShootableImpaledHumans.zip

Note: When the impaled humans go down, an invisible "BlockingStick" actor is spawned. This is a work-around, as there is no DeathRadius property, only DeathHeight. Downside is, the blocking thing prevents the Archvile from resurrecting the twitching humans. If you think being able to walk through the sticks is an acceptable loss, just remove the lines that spawn the BlockingSticks and after you released the poor guys from their suffering, Archie will happily torture them once more.

Lost Spirit

When Korax (the boss monster of Hexen) dies, he spawns some spirits. I took the sprites of this spirit, and edited them a bit. Originally, the spirit has only very few frames, so I had to add a few more to make the movement look better. I simply mirrored and mixed the existing frames to create more. Then I played around with the colors until I got a "ghostly" cyan/green.
When I was finished with the sprites, I stumbled upon some other mods that use the spirit sprites, so I tried to make my attacks somewhat unique. The first idea was to make it charge at the target like the Lost Soul, but for a short distance. When I later added ghost sounds to the monster, I coincidentally added a charge sound with a duration exactly as long as the charge attack. So I left it as it is. But the sound was always cut off when it charged from a short distance. To prevent that, I made it shoot projectiles at close range. Projectiles at close range? Yeah, I was lazy again and didn't bother to furthermore edit the sprites in order to make it attack with claws or teeth. Although some may people may disagree, I think this "workaround" works pretty well.
The Lost Spirit may not fit into Doom, but I hope somebody can find use for it in a "fantasy" mod or something like that.

Information:
Name: Lost Spirit
Difficulty: Easy
Connection: None
Summon: LostSpirit
Melee: No
Distance: Projectile, Charge
Type: Ghost
Brighmaps: No (full brightness)

Credits:
Submitted: DeVloek
Decorate: DeVloek
GLDefs: DeVloek
Sounds: Wolfsinger, CosmicD, Robinhood76
Sprites: Raven Software, id Software
Sprite Edit: DeVloek
Idea Base: Lost Soul

Description:
Similar to the Lost Soul, the Lost Spirit will charge at its target, but the duration of the attack is limited to about 1.5 seconds. When closer to the target, it shoots two projectiles with a limited range. The Lost Spirit deals more damage and has more health than the Lost Soul. It is a ghost, so it feels no pain and it can fly through anything (only collides with other actors during the charge attack).
Because the sprites are based on a monster that has only two frames (of which a few were just mirrored), I edited the sprites to make the animation look less wonky, and added more frames so it doesn't look too repetitive.
The sounds are completely new and unique, taken from http://www.freesound.org.

Sprite examples:



Download Link:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4091016/Doom/LostSpirit.zip

Volacubi (flying Mancubus variants)

These monsters were inspired by a flying Spiderboss, called Arachnophyte. I thought it would be a good idea to have more flying monsters in my maps, and after experimenting with some other monsters I decided to make a flying Mancubus. I replaced the legs with some kind of rocket jets, made from a Doom 2 floor lamp and a torch flame. After I finished the "flying fatso", I thought it would be nice to have a few variants, so I made a blue one that shoots plasma (same attack as DoomGuy's plasma gun) and a green one that shoots radioactive slime. I think these monsters are my best so far, and I hope they will find their way into other WADs as well.


Description from Realm 667 (which is back online, including the repository :D)

Information:
Name: Volacubus
Difficulty: Medium
Connection: Mancubus
Summon: FlyingFatso, FFPlasma, FFSlime
Melee: No
Distance: Projectile
Type: Demon, Cybernetic
Brightmaps: Yes

Credits:
Submitted: DeVloek
Decorate: DeVloek
GLDefs: DeVloek
Sounds: id Software, d3deville (jet engine), blastwave fx (slime)
Sprites: id Software
Sprite Edit: DeVloek
Idea Base: Arachnophyte

Description:
The Volacubus is a flying Mancubus, the legs have been replaced with propulsion jets. He is twice as fast and more agressive than his walking counterpart, but has half the mass.

The WAD contains three types with different looks and attacks:

-tan skin, shoots 6 flaming projectiles (same as the Mancubus)
-blue skin, shoots 3 plasma bursts with 6 projectiles each, drops plasma cell when killed (same projectile as of the player's plasma gun)
-green skin, shoots a stream of radioactive slime balls which cause poison damage (projectile is affected by gravity and has a limited range, but the monster won't shoot unless the target is close enough)


All attacks have a random spread, but are not as inaccurate as the original Mancubus attack. The projectiles are shot from the two guns instead of the middle of the monster sprite. The blue and green Volacubus types are different species, so they are immune to their own type's attacks and will infight the other types.

Sprite examples:



Download Link:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4091016/Doom/Volacubi.zip