April 17 , 2010
so far i have 8 levels for the smoking dog. i had a great idea for the titlemap, but i gave up on it and i decided to just focus on the maps themselves. i'm also not sure if i should keep the intermission screen, or do some funky transitions between maps. think of an album without any breaks, non-stop, continuous music.
but do we really need intermission screens? the automap has all the information about the level for those that care. it shows how many secrets the map has, how many monsters are dead/alive, and it gives you the time. what else do players need? then again, not having an intermission screen would mean no funky intermission songs after each level.. :(
back to the maps. i have more levels that would make this a 11? map episode. but those levels are horrible. it would take too much time to make them into something understandable levels with nice, non-confusing layouts. 2 1/2 are left over maps from hatomo. they are kind of finished, but they just so damn boring! :D
i am not sure what the order of the levels will be either. i had two small maps [think map01 or map02 sized maps] that i merged into one. is not hard to see that once you play it, but they fit so well. i'm surprised at how easy it was to glue these mamas together.
all maps so far are either medium sized or big ones. apart from the start map, there wont be any tiny map01 levels, and i really don't want to have the usual tech to hell progression, which means working like hell to change the look of a sewer level [think of a sequel to the chemical base, a map that i got the idea by playing richard clark's awesome sewer map].
and somehow i am getting used to the original doom music for them too. i really want to write music for these, but whenever i try and use a new song on the maps, they feel out of place and i just go back to the original doom songs. the same happened with hatomo, but i think i decided not to do it because it would have end up being a big file size? all i remember is having a lot of fun trying to fit damian's old midis into the maps.
one thing about these maps is that even though this is a zdoom only episode, they where born as boom maps. its very weird and stupid, but all maps i started as boom maps, and then i made them into zdoom levels.its very stupid, but i find it that its much faster to do boom maps first. even though its much more work in the end.
anyway, if none of this makes any sense its because i am too sleepy right now, and the new keyboard is too smooth and i cant seem to stop typing...
April 4 , 2010
i have always been scared of DECORATE madness. it just looks so complicated, though i am slowly getting used to it, it still kinda weird for me. i guess if you know programming it might be easy to look at? i don't know.
anyway, i managed to create new objects [decorative stuff, like corpses and flames, and so on] and i also made some new variations of the shotgun/pistol dudes and mancubus. its all copy & paste from the properties of the original monsters though.
if it wasn't for the zdoom wiki, i dont think i would have had any of this stuff made!
all the things i have done so far a pretty simple things. but for me, who happens to be very dumb when it comes to scripting and any other weird zdoom specific stuff, its pretty awesome when you have something like this figured out :)
been having a lot of fun with the DECORATE lump, and ACS scripting too, though nothing mind blowing. just simple things like kill all the barons on the room to open this door, then kill this other monsters to lowe this and make this appear.
map progress has been slow, but its not a bad thing. if would be pretty awesome if i get all of this done by the end of the year, but that's never going to happen.
march 20 , 2010
click here for screenshots [opens a 1024x768 popup window] of the maps so far. there are a few more, but those i haven't touched yet, and some are too messy that i might not try to fix and use for this project in the end.
march 11 , 2010
start map is finished. i was organizing all of the wads that i have, then i remembered one map i started [but obviously never finished] for the zdoom random map pack. i think it was released last year or in 2008 [edit - here it is]. i never told the dudes i wanted to do a level because, knowing me, i knew i wasn't going to finish it, and i didn't :)
i only made a very small thing. i thought it would be nice to turn it into a start map. i wasn't going to do one, since now zdoom has a new mapinfo format that lets you have different skills and different parameters for each skill, and doing that is obviously much easier than having a whole new map as a start map, but because it was just so damn easy to turn it into a start map i thought why not. screenshots below. also, check out the new status bar. still needs some small tweaking, but its pretty much done :)
so far this [and e0m1.wad, which i'll write about later] are the most "zdoom" levels i have so far. i shall turn pmap4z and valley into zdoom levels once i am finished with the gameplay on them. detail is not something i am worried about right now, and its much easier to do it afterwards, but wont go crazy with detail either.
i also managed to do the song for this level. ambient music is very easy to do, and i think it fits very well too.
march 2, 2010
note: pagebreeze [the freeware html editor i was using] corrupted the old updates. when i opened this page, i got nothing but a bunch of □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ and instead of downloading the original file from kotogoto site, or copying the text and pasting it from firefox [it looked normal in there], i uploaded this page without thinking so those are gone. but whatever, below a small explanation of whats happening in case you didnt read the old updates:
i have a bunch of unfinished doom maps. these need some work, but they are pretty much finished. some are very messy, others are near complete, and a small number are finished, but lack gamepaly. i originally wanted this to be boom only maps, but said fuck it and went with zdoom only.
maps will be put together in a random order, no theme progession like most episodes. and unlike pablo maps from the past, i will try very hard to turn these into real levels.
i feel like mapping fever will stay for a while, mostly because whenever i play diablo [or torchlight, or arcanum, fallout1/2] i really get inspired. and because i have been wanting to finish these maps for a while now. specially diablo1/2. i really think they are pretty much doom with experience points. sure they look diferent, but how does this not say doom to you?
but anyway, since they will be for zdoom, i wont go crazy with detail or scripting madness. crazy detail is nice, and if done right is just amazing, but i get bored. they will be simple and good looking, at least thats what i hope. and enough of this.
pmap4 progress - this level started as a e2m1 themed map, then i glued another map, which was a red cave gstone themed map, and it slowly grew and grew. i decided to send it to this project, but i'm still not happy with it so i keep editing it and editing. the boom version will be for the community project, but a zdoom version thats much bigger [and i'm sure its going to end up being very different too] for the unfinished maps thing i am doing now.
so it seems i'll never end up with a version of this map that makes me happy. i re-made the start area, and its pretty neat but its not working for me? i also re-designed some rooms to make it all seem more connected to each other, added windows here and there so the player can see other areas, and in some parts, you can explore some of the caves and you'll get a reward [some armor bonus, shells, ect]. the layout is not really the prolem though. i really dont know what is. maybe i'm just obsessed and just want to add more and more, kinda like that big wood5 zdoom map from a few years ago [e0m1 if you remember].
lets see if this makes any sense. what i want to do is to have the e2m1 area on its own, hopefully on the center of the map. this way the cave and the gstone parts are surrounding it, so the player will teleport [at the begining of the map] to the gstone parts, then go back to the e2m1 area through a stair or something. think of an arrow with the tip broken pointing down, inside a circle. the arrow is the e2m1 area, the circle is the cave/gstone parts.
played this map co-op with my brother and its fun, but because its a bit big, dying and having to start from the beginning gets boring. recorded a demo to later take screenshots, but because i edited the map afterwards, the demo is all messed up now. but instead, look at the funky new bigdoor1! ok so its not that big of a change... but the status bar is looking different [still working on it btw, decided to replicate this hud] :)
valley.wad - this map was born from pmap4. i had made an exit area that would take the playre to the surface [because pmap4 is a big cave map] and because that level is too big already, i decided to take that big chunk and make a map on its own. while valley is not as big as pmap4, its getting there.
but so far i am quite happy with this map. i havent converted it to zdoom yet, but it should be easy since everything is pretty straight forward. its simple scripting [like have one switch to make monsters appear, open a door, make a bridge and such]. and then its more detail because a lot of areas are pretty empty and its done. oh yeah, gameplay too :)
one thing i cant wait to work is a section of the map thats only puzzles & traps instead of enemies. i think with zdoom i could turn this into a much more fun part, rather than just crushers and jumping to next area, press switch and so on, though it might just end up being crushers with my crappy imagination :)
then there is a brick5 level, which is very brown. i already have two wood5 maps [they might end up being one in the end, but who knows], so another brown map seems kinda lame. but i am not creative with textures. i do want to change the look of that map, then again, its such a pain to do so when you already have so much done and you are used to seeing the structures with that texture. tried taking screenshots, but they all make the map look boring. in-game though, its pretty neat [i hope].
then there's the music. i dont know what to do with it. use the original doom soundtrack? i wrote a song for pmap4, but the sound is too, i dont want to say new, but the thing is the quality is too good compared to midis and i dont think it fits on doom. then i thought about writting the music on a tracker, but i havent used those in a while. i tried to get into them last year, but i only got one song made and nothing else. and now i forgot the stuff again :D
i could write midis, but i cant do them for some reason. .xm files on the other hand, one can have different "parts" on them and with the awesomeness of scripting, use those specific sections on certain parts of the map, so its not just the same thing all the time. just like in unreal.
and before i go away, i played some of my old maps [pdsp15, pd-evil, pd-lost, evlp, whouse] and man, those are pretty neat maps. these maps pretty much all had the same floor height. some of these maps had some funky things in them, but none are any good i think. i will try to do a new map with that same theme.
p.s - there are and will be [always] many spelling and gramatical errors.
August 21 , 2007 - Hatomo Battles The Yomi Demons is finally finished and you can download it here. all other info can be found on the update below.
July 18 , 2007 - after a long time, its almost finished. me and tobias münch have been working on this since late 2004 till very early this year (though polishing is not really over yet). the thing we have been working on is a doom2 episode w/ 10 levels. and some funky music by damian lee too :-)
the levels are very simple. very straight forward and no fancy stuff. we really like them, and hopefully you will too. these levels where inspired by the look of the doom2 levels, but not a true d2 inspired episode... like some ep1 projects.
like i wrote before, 10 single player maps. and its for zdoom (anything based on zdoom too i guess). there very little zdoom features, probably nothing. we only used it for mapinfo features and texture madness (flats on walls and so on) in reality is a boom episode, but because of those small zdoom only things, it only works in zdoom.
the episode will be released soon, and its called Hatomo Battles the Yomi Demons (nothing to do with any anime or manga or whatever). and you can look at some screenshots here :-)
november 2, 2004 - nothing interesting is happening today (at least for me anyway), the heretic map is finaly avaliable for download. the level is called how to disappear completly and you can get it on the maps section. its for zdoom, so except some crappy scripts.
there are a few projects im slowly working on. one of them is a 3 map series for strife, started 2 months ago or so, and now that zdoom has strife support i started working on this again. have no idea when i'll finish the maps, but i hope to get something fun done with them.
and the one im working on right now is a doom2 set of wads (i'll hopefully get more than 2) for this one, im working with Toby. we have two maps finished already and i dont know when the other 2 will get finished. they have a classy doom2 feel to them. more info about it soon (like screenshots)
august 20, 2004 - since i cant seem to access my site for some reason (could it be because of when the power went down? i doubt it) i dont want to bother bahdko about it so im just gonna write something here instead, but will send e-mail to bahdko later.
the cave map is finished, finally. and its for zdoom! so it has some cool stuff (lots of monster spawning and jumping) i wont release it yet since i got to work on the difficulty settings and i always add things on the last minute, so its gonna take a few weeks. maybe.
there are new screenshots mixed with old ones. nothing fancy, some are dark so fix your viewing box and make it brighter. after this map i'll work on the tomb one and then maybe do something for hexen.. or more heretic. who knows. maybe heretic2/hexen2? :)
july 17, 2004 - decided to try wads in progress and uploaded some screenies over there. its a new heretic map. it was part of river of fire 3 (screenshotsof this map can be found on the old news page), but since the style and look of it was too different, decided to make that chunk into its own level and will release them separatly once they are finished. you can look at the screenies of the new one here.
the level has no name yet and uses a few new textures. anyway. work on both maps is going nicely, but slow. apart from working on these two maps, i got the "big" project (also for heretic) and trying my luck at finishing a quake level (which has been unfinished since 2002). hopefully, one of these 4 things will come out one day.
in case you havent noticed, i finally finished the site content. info for the maps has been added. except for a section of non-doom related stuff (like maps for wolf3d or commander keen). anyway. go navigate through the site. maybe you'll find a hidden page filled with goodies! maybe not. nah, there is nothing. :(
july 15, 2004 - finally got all the content added, fixed broken links and re-wrote a few sections. did alot of cleaning too (lots of unused screenshots and sections that made the file bigger). still thinking if i should add a section for my wolfenstein maps. do people still play wolfenstein like doom? :)
june 6, 2004 - i know i said i wasnt gonna update this site again... i guess you shouldnt believe what i write when it comes to things like that. my mind changes every second or so. anyway. im working on something really cool for heretic, but i have no idea if i'll use legacy or zdoom for it... wont say much about it since there isnt much done, its all brand new stuff made by me (textures, sounds, music... ) and its for heretic. its gonna take a long time before i post something tho' :(
and more heretic-ness. working on a old level i never released. i have to re-do alot of areas since i used some of them for a 9th gate level but its looking good. its gonna be part 3 of the river of fire series... dont know when this will be finished. like the previous ones on the series, will be designed around a cave w/ lots of lava and some indoor castle/temple/orgy areas, but there wont be any outdoors this time (altho it doesnt s eem to matter anyway).
click
on a number below for a screenshot.
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
may 30, 2004 - her belisha beacon erased till forwards is finally finished. it started as phm3 but wont be part of the series, even though it has the same feel and look. the map is a simple, straight forward base map that has lots of chunks from unfinished levels (and one of those unfinished levels comes from tobias munch) and well, its ready to be downloaded! so go play it now!
download her belisha beacon erased till forwards
may 15, 2004 - cant access the site but i'll leave this update written anyway, thinking its gonna be buried on the old news soon. anyway, got something new coming. its a level that i started on 2002 but never finished! more news coming.. check out the screenies below.
april 1, 2004 - its been a very long time since i wrote an update for my mapping site. and thanks to bahdko the site is back. altho im not back to doom mapping, i do have some stuff i need to put up on the site.
i also want a place for my levels, i had an account on tripod, but they deleted it and after 2 years, i found a new home. the only thing i need is to write information for the levels. right now you can click on the names and you'll get a zip file. the txts were updated with the new e-mail and some of the levels had some bugs fixed. there is a new version of a lonely place to die. more of this stuff will be happening to older levels.
hopefully,
in a few more days/weeks/months i'll have the content finished. i also
need to take some screenshots of a few levels i'd been working on for
a long time (since 2002, but im lazy and i get work done on them 1 day
every 5 months). i've been doing alot of quake stuff tho, and im learning unrealed so hopefully some day i'll get something
done for unreal. and that way, i'll have some knowledge for when i thief3
gets out. hell yes.