Darkmoon (2019 alpha!!)

[DMPhobos]

Looks like you're stuck on the shores of hell.... and the only way out is through!

Darkmoon is a GZDoom mod with strong influences from doom 3, psx doom and doom 64 that's being developed by me and @Z0k. Taking place in the UAC deimos base, it serves as a modern interpretation of the shores of hell. Each map features 2 different exits, meaning that each playthrough should be different, some maps are short and straightforward while others have a focus on exploration
 

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Download 2019 public alpha

Took a long time didn't it?
While we had some troubles for some time making the last maps, we managed to complete a couple of maps for a new public alpha, some of the old maps got upgraded too!, those old maps had some serious issues and some stuff was changed to make them flow different, if you had played the previous alpha then you'll notice some small (and big) changes. Also we upgraded the textures thank's to hidfan's doom 3 texture pack, no more blurry textures. It's been over 2 years since the last public release so we apologize for taking so long

For this release there's 6 Playable maps with different routes, since the map progression isn't even, the last maps lead to the same one, so you'll play 4 maps on each playthrough. While pistol starts are valid if you want to warp thru the levels, progression is meant to be continuous. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

What's next?

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Well that would be the final release, only a few maps remain along with some other stuff that needs to be finished, please note that there's some stuff that's gonna get updated, such as portals on all z0k's map and proper colored light usage. We're also looking to replace some of the weapon sprites, they are a bit aged and some weapons (particularly both shotguns) don't look that good. Hopefully it won't take long to get it released

Resource Credits

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Main credits:
Z0k - Proyect lead, Maps, texture edits
DMPhobos - Proyect lead, Maps, Weapon and monsters Decorate, sprite edits
Also, Urric Hammersong, For his awesome work on new textures for our project: Such as the new animated doors, new D3 style boxes, swichtes, light beam, some new light ceiling textures as well on his small sprites of the Armor shard, Adrenaline and the BFG Ammo Cell edit from Doom2.5

Additional Credits to:
Liberation for some early testing and helping to find some bugs
Aubrey Hodges for the Doom 64 and PSX Music, and for being kind enough to allow us to use his tracks in our project
ChaosCentral for the initial Doom 3 Weapons mod
scalliano, Xim, JoeyTD, the Skulltag Team, DavidRaven, Marty Kirra and Vader for the Zombified scientist that we used
Id Software For Doom & Quake Series.
Stecki for deConstruct Industrial Textures Wad
David Gevert for DarkBase Texture Wad
Nick Baker for MORTRES Texture Wad 
Pawel Zarczynski for NMNCORP 1 & 2 Texture wad
Ceeb For Quake 2 & Quake 3 Texture Wad Conversion
Daniel "Tormentor667" Gimmer For Too much brown wad
FuzzballFox, Enjay, EarthQuake, CaptainToenail For Doom Potpourri Texs pack
3D realms for Duke Nukem 3d textures as well Tormentor667 for converting them to Doom Palette Format
Hidfan for his awesome doom 3 texture pack
Doom 2.5 Team: KRoNoS, Nmn, Nick Perry, Vegeta, Dartmerc, For their gun graphics and a few textures
Monolith Productions For Alien Vs Predator2 Texture, as well Ceeb for converting and doing additional work on them.
Ghastly_dragon For the decorate for some of the monsters (Wraith and Trite)
Vader for the sprites for the Blood Demon, Imp variants, Wraith, Chaingun Major
Mechadon for some of the sky graphics used to create the skyboxes
Jimmy for the Status report font

A more complete credit list for the sprites used:
StimBonus - BloodyAcid
Blood Demon - Neoworm, Vader
ImpVoid and ImpSkulltag Sprite - Vader, ItsNatureToDie
Zombie Marine - Ixnatiful
Marine Sargent - Logan MTM, Ghastly_dragon, Xim
Doom 3 Style SSG - Sniper 109
ZSpecOps Zombies - Mark Quinn, Vegeta, Ghastly_dragon, MagicWazard
Chaingun Mayor - Vader
Wraith - Vader, Captain Toenail
Trite - Monolith, Captain Toenail
Flame Mancubus - Captain Ventris, Midway
Diabloist Fire Sprites - Eriance, Raven Software

Other minor Sprite edits by DMPhobos

Original post

Edited July 18, 2019 by DMPhobos
updated download link

[DMPhobos]

Screens

Map 01 - Deimos Landing Station @Z0k
 

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Map 02 - Office Complex - @DMPhobos

 

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Map 03 - Storage Area @Z0k

 

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Map 04 - Power Plant @DMPhobos
 

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Map 05 - Toxic Plant @Z0k
 

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Map 06 - Construction Zone @DMPhobos
 

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Edited July 16, 2019 by DMPhobos
added some screens

[Fonze]

I'm so glad to see y'all moving this project closer to completion given all the great work you've both put into it thus far! The old versions I played a while back were a lot of fun to explore and beautifully crafted. I hope to be able to play it soon; good luck as y'all finish it up!

[elend]

Aw man, this looks really, really awesome. I will try this out asap. You used those Doom 3 textures really well.

[StormCatcher.77]

I am very glad to see that Doom 3 style is not forgotten! It can be seen from the shots that the maps are very well desinged. Let's see how they are felt in the dynamics ... I will definitely check that project, but for now I’ll add it to my dimensionless wads-to-play list.

[Wilster_Wonkels]

I'm a huge fan of Doom 64, so when I saw that that was a source for inspiration on this project I downloaded immediately. Absolutely amazing work here, flawless, truly. The opening room alone made me want to give this a 10/10 right off the bat, and it just kept going from there. I love this.

[Terminus]

I've been eyeing this for a while, glad to finally have a taste of it!

Will give this a try ASAP, looks fantastic. :)

[Immorpher]

Nice! On my list to play. I notice it uses unique weapons, so I probably should avoid playing it with other mods that go over vanilla?

[DMPhobos]

4 minutes ago, Immorpher said:

I notice it uses unique weapons, so I probably should avoid playing it with other mods that go over vanilla?

Yes it uses custom weapons and monsters, so playing it with another mod will break the balancing and won't work properly with the monsters, so it's not something i'd recommend. Mod compatibility isn't something out of the table yet and in the final release i might make something about it, but for this version it isn't implemented

[AL-97]

It has been a long journey for you, guys. What, like 10 years by now or even more? Super excited for the final release!

[DMPhobos]

3 minutes ago, AL-97 said:

It has been a long journey for you, guys. What, like 10 years by now or even more? Super excited for the final release!

Even longer ;)

Hope you enjoy the alpha release

[AL-97]

It must be an interesting experience looking at your early work after so many years. Is there anything left in the mod of those early versions?

[DMPhobos]

Just now, AL-97 said:

It must be an interesting experience looking at your early work after so many years. Is there anything left in the mod of those early versions?

Not a lot but there's some stuff that was done at that time and still remains, such as the custom textures and sprites done by urric and some small bits of decorate code that were carried on.

[snapshot]

See, Border sectors are not bad. MAP03 and MAP05 screenshots give me strong Resurrection of Evil vibes, playing it now.

[Gaia74]

Lets try this wad! looks very good!

[DMPhobos]

It seems i did a big mistake while compiling eveything and by accident i put an old version of the toxic plant map that was missing nearly all monsters in non UV difficulties along with many other bugs.

Oops

The download has been updated, this time with the proper version

[Lorenz0]

I made it about two maps in, and I already have a few extensive thoughts, so I'm going to share them here. Disclaimer; I'm not familiar with any of the projects, which influenced this work, so I'm just going to judge it as a standalone doom wad, like any other.

 

Let's start with the positives:

The architecture and room design are quite incredible. There is a lot of detail wherever I look, and I greatly appreciate that. The general mood of the mapset is established right away, and you pretty much know what to expect immediately. I can see that a lot of thought has been put into the realism of areas you're exploring, which is also reflected in the gameplay.

Health stations are a neat idea, and they put a smile to my face.

 

The negatives:

Every single weapon is substantially less fun to use than the default doom weapons. Map01 is almost entirely based around using the pistol, which is different than the default one, but still just as lame and unpleasant to use. The shotgun is less accurate AND you have to reload it. The chaingun replacement takes longer to take down a single hitscanner and you have to reload it as well.

(yes, by every single weapon I meant just these three, since I haven't seen any others in the 2 maps I played)

 

So everything you're armed with feels very lacking and ineffective, and you're supposed to use it on enemies, that are stronger than the default ones. All of that makes the gameplay feel poorly balanced, though that may be also me not being used to the new additions. In general I also feel like making maps around the concept of fighting weak enemies with weak weapons isn't a fun approach, though I understand if you wanted to show a sense of progression by slowly increasing the scale of the combat as the maps go on (which I don't know if you did).

 

The realistic texturework looks great on a screenshot, but when you're actually exploring the maps themselves, the lack of diversity in colors makes everything really forgettable, and navigation starts to be a huge pain in the ass.

 

That would be it from me. I'm clearly not the target audience for this kind of project, but I hope that my thoughts will be of some use to you anyway.

 

[DMPhobos]

Thank you for leaving some feedback!, we knew some elements weren't gonna be well received, specially with the reloading weapons since it changes the rhythm of combat. Some weapons play a different role compared to their classic counterparts, but it's good to hear some feedback on some of the negatives about the weapons. Also you're right, progression with the weapons/monsters is a bit slower to have a sense of progression, this is something that we're already changing a bit since in hindsight i think not having most of the arsenal early on and limiting the type of monsters used is a bit of a mistake. 

It's a bit disappointing to hear you didn't enjoyed most of the mod, but at the same time, considering how different everything is compared to classic doom, it was to be expected that not everyone was gonna enjoy the new stuff, so once again thank you for leaving your thoughts on the mod

Also, on a side note, there's a sanitized, mod friendly version available, courtesy of Caligari87 in ZDF, if anybody wants to check out the maps with a gameplay mod, give it a go

Edited August 2, 2019 by DMPhobos

[AL-97]

I disagree with the sentiment above. Yes, the weapons are different from their default counterparts, but that doesn't make them less effective. I honestly fail to remember an encounter where the current arsenal would feel "lacking". Especially given a relatively modest difficulty of the mod.

 

What I would maybe like to see, is a revised sprites for SSG, Rocket Launcher and probably Plasma Rifle.

[DMPhobos]

12 minutes ago, AL-97 said:

What I would maybe like to see, is a revised sprites for SSG, Rocket Launcher and probably Plasma Rifle.

That's something we're gonna make along the way, we specially want to replace the SSG and weapon pickup sprites. There's already a proper chaingun pickup sprite, thanks to Urric
 

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[Jaska]

Very beautiful and atmospheric levels!

 

Liked:

+Architecture, slopes, lights, detailing and texturing, all great. Very cohesive and believable. Somehow reminded me from system shock(s). And of course Doom 3. Enjoyed this more than Doom 3.

+Nice variety on beastiary.

+New weapons and items.

+Exploring the levels.

+Little supply rooms.

+Doors are nice.

+Double barrel kicks nicely.

+Health stations.

+Have to respect the effort put into this.

 

-1st map has too much pistoling. Altough getting better weapons felt very satisfying after this.

-I think grenades should have more radius and be cause more damage.

-Maybe all weapons should cause a little more damage?

-Didn't find any plasma weapons. Found rocket launcher only at the very end.

-Didn't yet quite get used to the faster enemies, faster projectiles and reloading. Revenants were bastards.

-Some monsters were stuck on the slopes.

-Too much hit scanners in open areas sometimes. Died a lot in "storage area".

-Not much variation (on colors, different areas)? Theme restricts of course a bit.

 

Looking forward to the final version!

[Z0k]

Much Much thanks for the feedback guys because this help us a lot.

 

here a list of changes im working on my maps:

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map01: didnt have major changes

*added portal effect to the map01 entryway (already done)

*moved the shotgun to the main gate of the base, this mean before the door of the zombie mass hall (already done)

 

map03: major changes

*added colored lighting to the map (already done)

*added portal effects to the box area, outside train area near of power plant entryway and red key area. (working on this right now)

*added more health kits in the map (already done and tested)

*added green armors (map have 3 in total) 1 blue armor as secret. (already done)

*added chainsaw (already done)

*moved the Machinegun to the box storage area right after the door. (already done)

*added Chaingun in the yellow door area, and yellow key card is more visible and not hidden behind the train. (already done)

*removed pistol and shotgun zombies from teleporting waves as i considered "teleporting" monsters should be only restricted to demons (but this rule can change later on late maps) (already done)

*some monsters are behind walls or closets until player reach such area, this to avoid monsters congestion in some areas (like if you were in the platform monsters wouldnt just gather under you) this didnt happen before because i set up lines with the property "block monster line of sight" but this also help to get easy kills on them. (almost done i still need to set up monsters in the crusher and red exit area)

*some traps that werent working, works now (i forgot to put tags to some boxes that releases some lost souls a cacodemon) (already done)

*probably going to remove the ambush on the power plant entrance area, the main reason its that area i wanted to add some flying monsters but the problem comes to monsters that "fall on the black pit" and adding the "block monsters" line flag would just block the flying monster path (mean they have to surround the blackpit) so probably this last ambush will be removed (also decreasing monster count as map03 right now have more monsters than map05).

 

map05: i dont think need changes. phobos uploaded an old version of map05, but the new version i give to him have all the problems already fixed.

*will add portal effect in some areas.

 

 

 

We know textures repeat a lot but this because doom3 texture were limited as we are working, along with other textures from other texture packs that probably match with them. at some point i was planning to mix them with quake 4 textures but i dont own the game and the worst part it dont have a "cleaner version" like the hidfan's doom 3 texture pack, Urric could help us with this (as he did the new door textures) but sadly he is kinda busy with a new game he is developing so he help us what he can. so in order to no delay anymore the project we work what we have.

 

about the mono color on textures its something i was talking with phobos, we want to do something about them after the mod is done with all the maps, right now on map03 i just changed some textures for example on the outside area near of the broken train rails i swichted the black block textures to some gray ones as they look better back in time when i made the map i didnt have gzdoom builder and neither the UDMF so i didnt have scale or rotate textures. when i got the editor and the map format i was just like halfway to finish the map so i just completed the map instead checking everything. so in short, once maps are done we going to change some textures so we can have some order i mean: we going to choose which one belongs for outside of the base and which one for inside. probably another option it just add the same textures with color variation but this probably once we clean the wad frm the unused textures.

 

another thing i still need to do is with map05 about map navigation as in a stream done in such map i noticed the streamer have lot of trouble, but also that was a old version of the map (one with unfinished light color) but still map is big and players get lost quickly (along with the plasma secret) so any suggestion on this i would appreciated it (same thing happens with map03 and the SMG behind the yellow door area but i hope this is fixed with the update im working for the map)

 

there a lot of things we still need to do and thats why we really appreciated the feedback.

Edited August 3, 2019 by Z0k

[Z0k]

After doing the revision on map03; adding light colors and lights to the sector as well with portals for the outside area and some monsters tweaking (less hitscanners).

 

 i need help with some feedback for map05, before doing the same to map05 (mostly only portal effect for outside area and adding some sector lights too) the main thing that concerns me:

 

after watching the streaming of Bridgeburner56, i think  i need to add something to make clear where to go to get the keys, of course map version in the stream was a old one (where i didnt made some fixes) but now that im doing map05 revision i want to do something about it, my options to fix this problem were:

 

1) add some key door textures on the floor like trim guiding to the key area, the problem i found its due the map design in some sector this maybe wouldnt work without sacrificing some of the map design.

 

2) make the key sector linedef  and the path to reach key place with "initially show in map" so when players check automap they will have already in automap the path to follow.

 

3) add near of both map entrance the automap power up so players can get all the map from start.

 

also i was planning to add lights to any usable door as i did on map03 so players can find them easily, but still i need some recommendations with the map navigation as map05 its a big one.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2019 by Z0k

[Sir Hattington]

Doom 3?

 

 

[r3ach5stars]

i love so much this mod wad

darkmoon have a perfect balance between terror and action and is really fell sad when i play it because i fell that was the real answer was doom 3 must be that the sad thing

everything like color ambient everything except 2 fews thing

the rocket launcher and the plasma gun fell very slow and weak and the sprite rocket explosion is awfull  plasma gun the shot art fell like "weak" have aspect of weak

in the game use rocket or plasma on max dificulty is suicidal i like the super agresive revenant and spider and that thing teleport and atack you is very well done much better version than doom 3

the sad thing that mod show to ID software how DONE a good game perfect balance between terror music and action

it only have delorean 1.2 jigawag and capacitor flux plutonium to travel time  and work on doom 3....

but you cant buy plutonium on wallmart...

i forgot the grenade is super useless decorative object like real doom 3 game dont copy that from doom 3 plz

Edited September 15, 2019 by r3ach5stars

[Z0k]

@r3ach5stars

 

we are glad you liked our little project we are still working, @DMPhobos is still doing some decorate balance so plasma gun and rocket launcher will still get some balance, about the sprite work well... we dont have many artist in the project hehe, for now Urric is helping us by doing new sprite artwork for weapon pickup,  he is a bit busy with this but we know his work worth the time. if he agree and get the time and chance after doing the weapon pickup sprites we going to ask him for help for  a new sprites weapon and of course new projectiles (although plasma projectiles could be done before the weapons sprites), we know there a mod for doom3 weapon (screens from weapon models) but we want to keep them as sprite style but sadly no one got the interest in doing doom3 sprites other than doom2.5 team which most of our sprites come from.

 

the same thing with grenades phobos still have some plans for them, for now he want to set them to a hot key (i suggest him Q since its near of WASD and easy access for those who play with WASD but still players can set hot key for grenades to any of they like in the next update he is going to do) when we were working for the first time in this project grenades used a weapon slot (yeah they used to work as weapon instead artifact) and they used to have the same problem as doom3 grenades: barely someone used them, right now grenade as artifact you can use it anytime even while you shot any weapon to increase your damage to monsters or use them while you reload your weapons. There still something with them which i talked with phobos and its they bounch to much, but he still have plans for them for some rebalancing.

 

we still working on the mod, because honestly we want to finish this project for real (we have a long time working on it). so there still room for improvement :)

[r3ach5stars]

thank you for good so much well done work okay so if you have so much work im sorry keep the plasma same aspect because is not soo bad but i think you must modifi speed need a buff something and rokcet same problem need buff but the "explosion" sprite is really need a change is.. how explain anti climatic.. everything look good even the plasma forget what said before about art plasma.... but ONLY the sprite rocket explosion that REALLY REALLY need a change only that ,,, 

the grenade the problem for me is not hot key is very hard to use the grenade .. for me is useless i feel that require a change of balance too

for the rest of the weapon i understand why you do it slow it for gameplay and feel very well the pistol is very very usefull i like that becuase on doom 3 was useless
here you need use them to sniper THAT why shotgun CANT use as sniper and like it

every here say shotgun is weak have alzeimer remember doom 3 that was a really weak shotgun  shotgun on darkmoon is to use short distance most here we get used as sniper i think that why most here dont like it but the pistol replace that role

keep it up the good very good work i fell this game can win cacoward is very good ambient music well balance gameplay and ia enemy map damn beautifull map very good map a master piece

[Hell_Pike]

Great job on this guys. Very high quality work.