Sargasso - A Boom-Compatible Space Adventure for DooM II - Now on Idgames!

[valkiriforce]

 

Sargasso is an 11-map episode for Doom II for use with any Boom-compatible port of your choice. It explores space themes and makes use of DeHackEd monsters, which is a first for me. Tested in PrBoom-Plus and ZDoom/GZDoom, let me know if you run into any issues. Playtesters are very much needed so I would like to hear back from anyone playing this. It's likely this won't be released on idgames due to the nature of using certain copyrighted graphics/sounds, but I would like for this to remain available on any other sites where it might be safe for upload.

 

Maplist:

MAP01: Freighter
MAP02: Red Zone
MAP03: Surveyor
MAP04: Multiplier
MAP05: Starfighter
MAP06: The Terminal
MAP07: Cannon Ridge
MAP08: Clones
MAP09: Alien Colony
MAP10: The Portal
MAP11: Danger Zone
MAP12: Credits
MAP13: Lobby (Bonus)
MAP14: CAN'T LET YOU DO THAT (stops progress)

 

>>>DOWNLOAD<<< (Doomshack)

Idgames Download

ModDB Page

 

 

 

 

 

MAP01 video:

 

 

Edited February 28, 2020 by valkiriforce

[PasokonDeacon]

Finally, the WAD of choice for all Star Fox-based mods yet to be made.

I'll give this a go in a few hours. Space-base themes appeal a lot to me and I could use some inspiration.

[galileo31dos01]

Ooooh those screenies look familiar, definitely going in my list. Congrats on the release!

[wolfmcbeard]

I'm going to give this a go tonight, a personal favorite franchise of mine so I'm really looking forward to this.

[Doomkid]

Oh yes, gonna be playing this one tomorrow!

[KVELLER]

I had a lot of fun playing this! MAP05 was a chore for me though. It overstays it's welcome IMO.

 

Also, I have a suggestion:

 

 

There's this area in MAP07 where you have to go through one of the hallways at the sides of the blue keycard switch, and I just kept running past them time and time again. I think the area is way too gray, so the entrances end up blending with the environment. Maybe a red stripe like the ones you can see on the left could signal that the player can go through there.

Edited September 17, 2019 by KVELLER

[Egg Boy]

looks nifty I'll have to give it a try

 

[Doomkid]

I'm stuck on map03 - I've killed 83 baddies, I have a blue card, and I've killed everything I can see in the starting area and the area the lift takes you down to. I see a locked red door with a lot of rad suits and the blue door is behind silver bars no matter which direction I approach it from. I'm probably missing something really obvious..

 

I'm absolutely loving this so far btw, the sprites, sounds and dehacked work, it's all exactly the kind of stuff that I enjoy! As far as the whole not being uploaded to idgames thing.. Well, based on what I've seen so far, I'll just quote Cybershark:

What [you] need to do is ignore letter-of-the-law alarmist idiots like this who don't really know what they're talking about. Seriously, no-one is going to shit a brick over a few images being included in your work.

It would be a total shame for the finished version to not be on the main database. Either way, here are some places you can upload the finished product whenever you're ready:

http://www.theultimatedoom.com

https://doomshack.org/upload.php

https://dudoomers.com/zandronum/wads.php

https://allfearthesentinel.net/zandronum/wads.php

https://wadhosting.com/Upload

http://www.doomwadstation.net/submit/

https://doom.dogsoft.net/upload.php

and mod DB of course!

[Gez]

And also https://www.nexusmods.com/doom2 lol.

[valkiriforce]

7 hours ago, Doomkid said:

I'm stuck on map03 - I've killed 83 baddies, I have a blue card, and I've killed everything I can see in the starting area and the area the lift takes you down to. I see a locked red door with a lot of rad suits and the blue door is behind silver bars no matter which direction I approach it from. I'm probably missing something really obvious..

 

Spoiler

There's a security monitor next to the bars you can shoot to disable the lock system - it actually opens up as you walk up to it.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the idgames stuff - I'll see what I can do about it. I'll definitely upload the finished wad on Doomshack and ModDB in the future!

[bioshockfan90]

agh, just released when i got back into doom playing avactor, which i expect will take me a pretty long time for me to beat! this is definitely going on the backlog however, i love your maps

[wolfmcbeard]

Man this is a fun jaunt, got stuck on map 3, but so far I'm having a blast!

[Matias]

This is pretty cool so far. 

I only just finished map03 so i can't speak for the rest of it yet.

 

The areas so far have been surprisingly big and really nicely detailed, also all the custom stuff is nice too.

 

I got stuck on map03 just like everybody else but was luckily able to figure it out myself.

Would probably be good to give player some sort of hint on what to do, maybe there is something already but i certainly didn't catch it

 

Here is a gameplay video of the first 3 maps. i don't know will i be playing the whole thing but i'm planning to. oh and i'm playing this with GZDoom

 

[valkiriforce]

Updated the latest download link to version 2; I fixed some clipping issues with some monsters which were apparently raised too high, and made some other minor adjustments including a switch location on MAP02 I forgot to fix before release. There were also a couple of spots where it was possible to get stuck on maps 2 and 10, so I fixed those up as well.

[valkiriforce]

Well if there's nothing much to report about in the coming weeks I may just upload the finished wad as it is - although I have made other fixes that are not in version 2 including a false linedef tag action on MAP02, and making the teleport trap on MAP03 a little less severe since you could get ambushed on returning from the lift. I'll be including the playtesters' names in the credits as well, and finishing what little is left to be polished.

 

I would like some helpful advice on MAP04's fake floor transfer for the submerged Wolfen, since it appears just fine in most any port I've tried it in, and I noticed it doesn't appear correctly in this playthrough (at the 13:25 mark):

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by valkiriforce

[valkiriforce]

This is likely the final update I'm posting here for Sargasso: Sargasso (ver. 4)

 

I've updated and made a number of adjustments including some missing block lines and additional monster placements and ammo. I've also fixed some bleeding textures on MAP11 and worked on a proper Credits graphic and updated the credits map.

 

Again, this will likely be the last update, unless anything else needs addressing. As far as I know it's played smoothly in a number of different ports, and I played it through DOOM Retro recently so I haven't encountered anything really map-breaking. There's only a minor graphical issue on MAP04 that is possible when playing under specific settings, as seen in the above video. Otherwise this should work under any Boom ports that I know about.

 

Please let me know if there is anything that needs fixing before release, or if you have any feedback on the maps in general. Hoping to get this released before the end of the month!

Edited October 8, 2019 by valkiriforce

[Ribbiks]

up to m05 (I saw the monster count and decided to bow out, as the maps were surprisingly long). Interesting project, very narrative-driven, and I like how non-interactive spaces are really fleshed out. It's also cool to see silent TPs used this seamlessly. A+ immersive space stations. I'm lukewarm on the combat, in general. Most areas seem to be either hallways or large flat spaces, with a plethora of sniper mobs perched on boxes or balconies or what-have-you. Coupled with the fact that the custom enemies are significantly more threatening than their iwad counterparts the gameplay seems to grind to a halt in many places. Places where, by a drastic margin, the most effective strategy is to hang back and slowly peck away at certain enemies before committing to entering the room. The generous health/ammo prevents it from being overly frustrating, but it's definitely... laborious.

 

Also those revenant sprites are bizarre :p

 

 

sargassov4_fda_cl-1saves_rbk.lmp.zip

[valkiriforce]

So I've come to a decision to release this on October the 26th - plenty of time for any other reports to come in should there be any. In the meantime I've also updated to a version 5 release since I included a new speed run route on MAP09 (still haven't thought of anything for MAP10...any ideas would be great) and I've adjusted the MAP03 security yet again to hopefully make it a little more obvious. I've made other little changes over time so it'll be more of an ideal experience.

 

Download version 5

[P41R47]

I'm up to map 04. Really entertaining by far. I will somehow quote Ribbiks, though i'm not near as a great mapper like him: This feels a lot like something team TNT would do, very narrative and extra long, thus, the gameplay tends to drag a little in the massive vastness of the maps.
But thats not bad at all, i really liked what i have seen just for a minor thing: the enemies tend to blend a lot with the environments making them hard to spot at times. In the 3rd map, where the console need to be shot to continue, there are some chaingunners that i had to look twice, and feel them twice to see that they were up there, blending with the railing.
I'm playing this in Doom Retro and it plays pretty smooth and without anything to report in the glitch/bug department.

 

PD: you caught me of guard with the reapers, haha, and more when i see them bleed blue... At first i think you found how to change blood color bia dehacked (don't know if it can be done), then i realice that you only changed the color order of the palette. Good work, sir! Very clever indeed ;)

[valkiriforce]

Glad to hear people have been enjoying this; we did play it over Thursday Night Survival last week so I wanted to share a video of that happening maybe to gauge interest shortly before release. Also I did fix some co-op related bugs thanks to the feedback I got while we were playing it.

 

 

[Firedust]

I hate to be THAT person, but this wasn't for me :(

 

I love the aesthetic and sprite replacements, but most of the time it felt like a reskinned early 2000s corridor shooter. Sorry, Valkiriforce :( I have greatly enjoyed your other mapsets, but this one just isn't for me. I gave up after map 5.

 

 

But I'm glad that people are enjoying this! :)

Edited October 22, 2019 by Firedust

[valkiriforce]

That's okay - I know it's not going to be for everybody. It's pretty different from my usual content but that's part of the fun of exploring new ideas. I'm pretty satisfied with how it came out so I'm excited to get this out there.

Edited October 22, 2019 by valkiriforce

[valkiriforce]

Here it is! The final version of Sargasso has just released.

 

>>>DOWNLOAD<<<

 

[Doomkid]

Yay! I frigging love this mod, glad to see the finalized version!

 

My headcanon is that this is all happening in roughly the same time and place as Doomed in Space.

[valkiriforce]

So like maybe a Doom expanded universe? Sounds cool. :)

 

I've also given this the ModDB treatment so it's up there as well!

[P41R47]

Glad you finaly released it, Valkiriforce!

Its wonderful that you decided for a mapping style soo out of the scope of today standars. Its like you went full-ValkiriForce the way teamTNT did!

 

Seeing this partial conversion, all the love vanilla is taking with D4V, and the interesting approach of the DoomersBoard memembers, its like revisiting the good old '90s days after Doom's birth, where everybody were trying to make their own Doom without caring at all for what the community would said after.

 

Hope this work gets the love it deserves!

 

Cheers, Valkiriforce!

[valkiriforce]

Well, Sargasso found its way onto idgames...however it seems to have screwed up likely due to having two text notepads with sargasso as the title (one of them is sargassotxt, which acts as a manual, the other is just sargasso for idgames).

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/sargasso

 

Guess I'll have to give it another upload...but hey, it's out there now.

[Alfredo]

Wrong thread. how'd that happen? Whoops. Sorry about that.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Alfredo
Accidental wrong thread. x.x

[Austinado]

@Alfredo i will record with the new version.

[Doomkid]

1 hour ago, valkiriforce said:

Well, Sargasso found its way onto idgames...however it seems to have screwed up likely due to having two text notepads with sargasso as the title (one of them is sargassotxt, which acts as a manual, the other is just sargasso for idgames).

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/sargasso

 

Guess I'll have to give it another upload...but hey, it's out there now.

Wow, what an enormous fuckup. Not by you, by the archive. IIRC which text file from within the zip is picked for the actual info display is automated, but it’s super weird that it doesn’t use the one with the name that most closely resembles the name of the zip.. A weird, very irritating fringe case. I assume having multiple text files both with the filename in them confused the system. I guess the lesson here is to always put additional text files within a sub directory? Still though I see old files with multiple text docs in them all the time and this never happens. I hope it gets fixed somehow, or maybe just removed and replaced. This mod deserves a proper landing page.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Doomkid