Zandronum

Spoiler: screenshots (Open)

SUMMARY:

PATHOGEN 1.1 is an industrial-themed 8-map deathmatch WAD that utilizes Eon Weapons. Throughout each level, the player will have to navigate away from acid pits, crushers, exploding barrels and lots and lots and LOTS of gunfire.

PATHOGEN is intended for Zandronum, but should work with any current or recent version of ZDoom or GZDoom (tested: works on PC, works on Mac with minor lighting glitches in GZDoom)

These maps are in UDMF format. For this reason, a ZDoom-based port (such as Zandronum) is required to run them.
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TO PLAY ONLINE: Join "PATHOGEN server for Zandronum" on Doomseeker. The IP is 192.99.6.150:15122, if you need that (Current as of FEB 02 2016 @ 3:45 AM EST)

TO PLAY ALONE:
1. download the current PATHOGEN WAD here..
2. download Eon Weapons here (courtesy of [bad site])

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CURRENT VERSION: 1.1--Now with Eon Weapons!

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM 1.2:

- Nothing... yet.

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Spoiler: changelog (Open)

Code: Select all

PATHOGEN
BY ANDY CARR (CALLCENTERHERO)
CHANGE LOG:
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V1.1 (FEB 02 2015):

REMOVED:
	- ALL Skulltag weapons. They are slow, crappy and buggy. 
	- The suspended pipes on MAP02: Former Refinery, as they were causing rendering issues in Software mode.
	- The Floor_Waggle in MAP08: Hydrolab, as it was causing the new grenades to misbehave.

REPLACED:
	- Spikes in the center of the "ice room" on MAP05: Cryolab with recolored stalagmites and stalagtites...
	and set them to "no block". This prevents players from being stuck in the scenery whe they're supposed
	to be dying... and fixes some rendering issues in software mode. 
	- Also in the MAP05 ice room That godawful gray concrete texture that was supposed to be "ice". The new texture
	Actually looks kinda like ice. It doesn't look great, but it at least RESEMBLES ice. That way, software mode-players 
	won't be confused when they slip all over concrete for no apparent reason.

ADDED:
	- Eon weapons! Now projectiles go faster, grenades behave more realistically, and the action 
	is generally faster-paced. 

FIXED: 
	- Misc. rendering issues in MAP02. Now the bridges don't disappear when you approach them!

Spoiler: story (Open)

STORY

In the distant future, a plague has ravaged Planet Earth--obliterating 87% of the planet's human, animal and plant population. With almost complete deforestation, chemical pollutants have poisoned the atmosphere--discoloring the air and rendering it too toxic to breathe.

Little time remains. Resources dwindle by the day. Now, the survivors are forced to skirmish for what little this Earth has left to give.

PATHOGEN.

Spoiler: Map descriptions and pics (Open)

MAPS

There are 8 maps to deathmatch on (with screenshots):

MAP01: Yellow District Sewers. This former sewage treatment plant is a popular squabble spot. Dotted with puddles of stagnant, parasitic puddles of sewage, if the bullets don't kill you, the water will. (Screen 1, Screen 2)
MAP02:Former Refinery: With decaying metal platforms suspended hundreds of feet above a simmering nukage pit, this map brings the skirmish to terrifying heights.(Screen 1, Screen 2)
MAP03: Mile 37. Thirty-Seven miles beneath the earth's face, these smoldering ashes of a former research lab are 100% unsafe for research, but 100% perfect for battle!(Screen 1, Screen 2)
MAP04: Cyberkinetic. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but these acid pits will melt your fucking face.(Screen 1, Screen 2)
MAP05: Cryolab. Coated in a solid sheet of ice, surrounding a gaping pit of glistening ice spikes, battling here is one slippery situation. (Screen 1, Screen 2)
MAP06: Green District Battery: Open pits of nukage and pollution so toxic, it's turned the sky green? Oh, you'll be just fine!(Screen 1, Screen 2)
MAP07: Green Cyclone: By the way, the pollution has swirled into the atmosphere, cooked up a hundred-year storm and forced the abandonment of this laboratory--where we're forcing you to battle. Stay safe!(Screen 1, Screen 2)
MAP08: Hydrolab. The air is OK, the water is blue and so is the sky. Who the hell would want that? (Screen 1, Screen 2)

Spoiler: System Req's (Open)

REQUIREMENTS

- A current or recent version of Zandronum, ZDoom, GZDoom, or another ZDoom-derived source port is required.

- ZDaemon is not supported.

- Non-ZDoom ports (Odamex, Chocolate, etc.) are not supported.

RECOMMENDATIONS

- Have tons of fun with this WAD, share it with your friends and provide plenty of feedback.

Spoiler: Credits (Open)

Credits:
Maps: Me

Music:
TITLE MUSIC: Mr. Death - Journey Into Space
MAP01: Minomus - ADHDTV
MAP02: Demoscene Time Machine - Missile
(http://www.demoscenetimemachine.com)
MAP03: sUgaR - eNeRGy
MAP04: Linus Akesson - Parallelogram
MAP05: Modraw - JS Pride
MAP06: Quazar/Sanxion - Hybrid Song 2:20
MAP07: Beatslaughter vs Tenda - Psydrums
MAP08: Sega - Hang-On (MIDI rmx. Unknown Author)
INTERMISSION: SaxxonPike - Return Home

Textures & Flats:
SS’s Textures Pack by Nick Baker
NMN Corporation Pt. 1 - Pawel Zarczynski

HEY YOU!

Thank you for reading and thank you for playing. I sincerely hope you enjoy this map pack and that your friends do as well. If you have any questions or criticisms, please let me know. I'm always happy to hear from you.


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Wow, nice use of 3D floors!

The texturing could use more attention though, some textures seem to fill the player's entire view. Also map01 and 02 are nice and big but they look too "open" to the point where I feel like they'd just devolve into a hitscan festival. Same with 05. Imagine a laser tag arena. Envision where pillars should be, or walls, or dips in the floor, or anything that might give players an incentive to use a projectile weapon or move in a certain way.

Decay wrote: I took a look at this a few days ago, and I think if this your first mapset you've got some real potential here. Unfortunately I saw the skulltag weapons in the pack, which are utter garbage for a variety of reasons, but overall I think I'd like to give this a shot with real play. Neat music picks, thoguh I'd also like to say OGL focused is not really necessary; you could probably tweak it to be software friendly without too much work.

Thanks! That's what I am hoping. It was a hell of a lot of work, but so, so satisfying to see done.

And yeah the skulltag weapons were a pain in the ass. I guess some update in ZDoom broke the railgun, so I fixed that with a patch that worked on windows GZDoom... but not Mac GZDoom (not sure why). The whole situation was a mess, so I eventually just baked the skulltag weapons into the main wad--forgoing the need for any extra pk3s.

About the OpenGL thing... honestly, the only two maps where you'll see a big difference without OGL is Map02 and Map05. Map02 extensively uses 3D floors (for better or worse) and doesn't render correctly in some spots. Map05 has a center room covered in a sheet of ice--which seems to turn gray for some reason when switching to software mode. TODO: Find a better ice texture, lol.

Hope you enjoy it, though. Thanks for the feedback :)

Hey I just sifted through this and I gotta say it's actually not bad. I really like how you always spawn with a SSG, and your work with colored lighting gives off a good PSX Doom vibe. That being said, the maps are just too large for the weapons you are given. The plasma, rocket launcher, and BFG's projectile speeds are too slow. The SSG's spread is way too high for how big most areas of the map are. Overall, you might wanna shrink the maps.

Overall I think you're right. Looking back, a lot of the maps are a little too spacey. I've thought about going back and dotting them with more crates and pillars to give people more stuff to hide behind... but I don't think it would be a good idea to change the maps this late. So probably my next map pack.

However, for the next version of this WAD, I am DEF considering dropping at least one skulltag weapon... most likely the minigun. It's just wayyyyy too powerful and tends to give a pretty unfair advantage. Any thoughts on that?

If you include your own custom version of the ST minigun and give it a "spinning up" delay before firing, that would probably help a lot. Also give the bullets way more spread, and make it vertical and horizontal instead of just horizontal.

Ænima wrote: If you include your own custom version of the ST minigun and give it a "spinning up" delay before firing, that would probably help a lot. Also give the bullets way more spread, and make it vertical and horizontal instead of just horizontal.

Sounds like a good idea. Also worth noting, the railgun is already modified--it doesn't reload. It shoots one rail, waits 50 tics, then shoots another rail--much like Quake III's railgun. I've thought of stretching the delay out a few more tics to more closely match Quake's... but doom's space marines move A LOT quicker so I've decided against it for now.

TODO: Find a different railgun graphic--to distinguish it from the Skulltag railgun

Keep making stuff like this with the tips above because u actually have potential (some people sadly have none). Since skulltag stuff is dead and you know some sort of decorate, you might want to consider making your own content (weapons, powerups, etc.); http://www.realm667.com will be acceptable for you for sprites, or you could take sprites from other wads with permission. Make sure to credit where you got stuff. Don't just copy paste everything on that site too, stick to the sprites/sounds and make original code, maybe with the base code as a reference. If that is too much work, there are also many skulltag rebalancer wads or something like Eon weapons as well.

Combinebobnt wrote: Keep making stuff like this with the tips above because u actually have potential (some people sadly have none). Since skulltag stuff is dead and you know some sort of decorate, you might want to consider making your own content (weapons, powerups, etc.); http://www.realm667.com will be acceptable for you for sprites, or you could take sprites from other wads with permission. Make sure to credit where you got stuff. Don't just copy paste everything on that site too, stick to the sprites/sounds and make original code, maybe with the base code as a reference. If that is too much work, there are also many skulltag rebalancer wads or something like Eon weapons as well.

Just downloaded eonweapons... what the fuck... these are SO much better than the skulltag weapons. The temptation to simply throw away the built in weapons and switch to this... it's strong.

Edit: went ahead and made the plunge. Skulltag weapons are GONE. All eonweaps now. Will be fine-tuning placement of weapons to ensure balanced gameplay for a couple days. Considering a few minor map edits as well (e.g. adding a valley to the edge of Green Cyclone, so players can dodge gunfire by going down below... putting a crate or two in the middle of Former Refinery... since there's basically no cover anywhere in the map).

I'll play this with some ppl later too and give u detailed criticism on every map

Combinebobnt wrote: I'll play this with some ppl later too and give u detailed criticism on every map

Awesome... and thanks for the suggestions. If you play tonight, the version you'll be playing still has the old Skulltag weapons... I think I should have the Eonweaps version up either late, late tonight or early, early tomorrow.

You know, about the maps, move them to the MAPMx slots rather than having them in the ordinary map slots and don't use MAPDx slots because they're for duels. So use MAPMx slots for death match. Also, you would use MAPM0 as the first and after MAPM9 comes MAPMA.

Version 1.1 is up, y'all!

NO MORE SKULLTAG WEAPONS! All Eon Weaps now (thanks to all who suggested them!) also fixed all the rendering glitches in software mode... so if you wanna use software... knock yourself out!

Come check out the WAD. With speedier weapons, the action is A LOT more intense!

Here's the changelog:

I browsed through this pack today and visually it's pretty damn nice. I dig the skyboxes and the overall environmental presentation of the maps. One of the unfortunate reoccurring themes is large maps with wide spaces and long hallways. Sometimes this formula works out, but most times large maps like this are a bit too big even for two handfuls of players. I'd advise to shrink down some of the bigger maps or just shuffle them near the end of the pack and focus more on some small to medium sized maps to open up the pack. Think of map04's size but a bit smaller. The idea behind this is that most DM sessions start off with small amounts of people and having to play on a big map with 3 people leads to slower and dull gameplay.

Some of the gimmicks are neat and not overused. Most of the colored rooms were a nice touch and I enjoyed dying in the ice spikes à la Mega Man. One last thing, I noticed the SSG in the northwest part of the map is invisible.

Hopefully #deathmatch can run this some time so more feedback can be provided.

Keep up the good work.

Oh yeah. I've been spending time playing some older DM wads and other wads in general... mine were WAY too big. I've been hacking together some vanilla doom maps that are pretty small--just for shits and giggles. Hopefully those will evolve into something. Thanks for the feedback :)

How many weapons your wad has?

Yo so before finally decide not to be lazy and review this on zanstuff, I got 1 random question: how many players were these maps intended for exactly? It could be a range of course not an exact number

Ok i played this in real deathmatch with real people. Biggest issue is most of the maps are too large and have too much area to cover. The size would be ok for like a 32-player deathmatch, but those don't happen outside of a good fnf. I would aim for more maps the size of map04 and map08 (maybe map02 occasionally), those are much more acceptable. Map03 is the opposite side of the spectrum, where there is so much distance to cover that encounters with players have to be actively searched for. The map size also causes the railgun to dominate on most of the maps. Grenade launcher might as well be useless when areas are too big with little corners or tight spaces.

Besides size, make sure spawns don't face into death pits or walls or whatever, make sure you put enough shells and clips (you can never have too little), and try not to put bfgs in too many maps if they don't have alot of accessible cover (reducing map size will help this greatly).

You seem like you are going to be fine in the future detail department. Make sure to align your textures, and although I like sector color and wish it was used more, avoid stuff like

Spoiler: extremely red room (Open)

and the super stretched out lava in map03. Oh yea the skybox in map02 is weird. I dunno what would make a building that massive. Alot of the map02 3d floors hom out when you are in the right spot in software as well

Spoiler: map02 software problem (Open)

Ok there is some constructive criticism have fun and good luck on future projects

Other people have already left really useful feedback that will lead to a better product, but I just have to say I love the use of color here.