Magic Doom (now with E4!)

[magicsofa]

Inspired by my most recent playthrough of Doom 1, this is a full four-episode megawad and gameplay mod for The Ultimate Doom. My focus for this project was to create lots of fast action, fun nonlinear layouts that don't take a huge amount of time to complete, and as little grind as possible, all within the restrictions of vanilla doom v1.9. To accommodate that goal, most weapons and monsters have been rebalanced in favor of speed and/or damage vs. tankiness. Full spoilers are included in the text file... in general, you can expect the meatier enemies to have lower HP than usual, but more aggressive abilities such as faster movement, higher damage values, and appearing in greater numbers.

The Story

You are a resurrected marine, about to be sent to battle a new generation of demons. But as you stare into the glowing teleporter in front of you, the urgent message that called you here seems like a distant dream, and you can't even remember how you arrived here. It occurs to you that you were dead, and somehow came back - but when you try to imagine who brought you back, all you can think of is an image of an empty laboratory. Suddenly the image melts away as a wave of nostalgia pours over you, lulling you into a vaguely determined state. Without another thought, you step forward...
 

UPDATE 2-27-21: Added a bunch of stuff:

• A whole fourth episode!
• Recolored most items, as all four skies, and other miscellaneous things.
• Several music tracks!
• Many other small polishes including a proper menu logo and custom demos.

UPDATE 11-1-20: Did some rebalancing regarding rockets and plasma - now plasma pickups give you half the amount and rockets give the normal amount instead of double (what was I thinking). BFG only uses 20 cells to compensate. A few minor bugs were also fixed, as well as slight modifications to health placement and certain encounters to increase the challenge a tiny bit.

IWAD: Doom.wad
Maps: E1M1-E4M9

 

Download:

magicsof.zip

Edited January 30 by magicsofa

[Walter confetti]

Looks cool! Is the sprite recolored or is it a new palette?

[magicsofa]

Thanks! It's original palette, just lots of color translations via SLADE :)

[magicsofa]

This should've been on idgames by now but since I am indeed a moron it got rejected twice, once for no email address in the text file, and twice for leaving a couple of unmodified sprites in the wad. Third time's a charm? Anyway, I have updated the download link above, so for anyone who downloaded it previously (from gofile) please replace it lest you be smitten by the ghost of id's past....

[nicolas monti]

Playing this because of the HAK's thread, I'm having a blast! Congrats for this gorgeous wad, I noticed one bug in E1M2, when you get the secret chainsaw and let the lift rise you cannot get out. It's up to you to update the file, nothing too terrible, I'll keep playing it, I'm in E1M6

[Doomkid]

Played the whole thing in vanilla Ultimate Doom 1.9 in DosBox (so I had to use dehacked.exe and deusf.exe, for anyone else out there who wishes to play that way). Beat the whole thing in a 2ish hour session. Extremely fun, it's as if the whole wad up to e1m7 was crafted to perfectly suit my tastes.

 

It has all the fixins: Custom enemy graphics and slight changes to weapon/enemy behavior, but it all still feels very natural and Doomy. The changes just help to keep things a bit more fresh but they're all well thought out - it's cool having to reassess enemy threats despite being fully vanilla. It also proves very well that you don't need a billion sectors or a new texture pack to make something very nice on the eyes and aesthetically pleasing even in 2020. Gameplay was all paced extremely well, I only died about 2 times but enjoyed almost all of what it threw at me.

 

e1m7 pissed me off just a teeny bit with the crushers where you have to wait (seemingly) 999 years before they all fall in just such a way where you can zip through them without taking damage. This annoyed me, but I also understood that it was good to have some variety in the challenge, this particular flavor just wasn't for me. The map itself is fine other than the crushers. I liked the way you needed both the blue and red key, but you had to open the switch in each hall. It was just a cool little spin on a classic idea.

 

I was a little disappointed with the lack of some custom message when I beat the episode, considering there were plenty of graphical and dehacked changes. Not a big deal, but a minor gripe. Oh, another minor gripe, the sprite of Doomguy gritting his teeth in the HUD goes back to being skin colored when you have full health. As far as I can tell, every other frame was successfully switched to grey. There was also a texture misalignment here and there but, meh, what you gonna do.

 

Anyway, this is really nice turf, perfect for fans not only of oldschool maps, but any well-paced Dooming experience that isn't a nail biter or severe punishment in any way. Just a good old fashioned romp with plenty of it's own flavor and spin to keep the player engaged. Great stuff!

Edited July 22, 2020 by Doomkid

[nicolas monti]

Definetively this mapset deserves more attention!!! It's just fun and the layouts are good.

[magicsofa]

Really appreciate the praise you guys :) And thanks for finding those bugs, they are now fixed and download link is updated. Pretty sure I actually found those bugs before and possibly messed up my versions or something. Either that or I'm having weird deja vu...

 

On 7/22/2020 at 4:17 AM, Doomkid said:

e1m7 pissed me off just a teeny bit with the crushers where you have to wait (seemingly) 999 years before they all fall in just such a way where you can zip through them without taking damage. This annoyed me, but I also understood that it was good to have some variety in the challenge, this particular flavor just wasn't for me.

I was a little worried about that crusher section.... the thing is, it's not necessary to go past the red key at all. You could just turn back, but I guess the soulsphere and megaarmor are just too enticing :) Also, there's a secret that lets you in the back way, but I won't reveal where it is...

 

On 7/22/2020 at 4:17 AM, Doomkid said:

I was a little disappointed with the lack of some custom message when I beat the episode, considering there were plenty of graphical and dehacked changes. Not a big deal, but a minor gripe.

Yeah, I couldn't figure out how to replace the text in doom.exe. It's there in the dehacked file but it just displays the original text anyway. Chocolate Doom replicates this behavior but I'm pretty sure it does work in forks like Crispy. Anyway, the episode end text is also at the bottom of the .txt file.

[Doomkid]

Out of curiosity I checked to see if the .deh file could be modified to make the story texts work in vanilla, but unforuntately they're too long, so it's no big deal, the little story texts can just be a ports only feature. It doesn't matter anyway since it's included in the text file.

 

Also, I'm a dummy and read the OP as "Maps: E1M1-E1M9" somehow, so apparently I have two more episodes to play through. Yay!

[Zolgia108]

did you make those sprites? they look freaking cool man! i envy you, going to play this right now! i love those weapons in particular :) good job, i ll let you know what i think of the wad :)

[magicsofa]

4 hours ago, Zolgia108 said:

did you make those sprites? they look freaking cool man!

 

Yeah, they are all just recolors using Slade's color remap feature, it's easy!

[Zolgia108]

10 minutes ago, magicsofa said:

 

Yeah, they are all just recolors using Slade's color remap feature, it's easy!

this wad is amazing...

im into e1m6 now, best map i've played in a while m8!

 

i have some questions:

i ended up with 7 secrets and couldnt find a way to take that yellow key card and how to use it as well, please tell me!

I m recording everything, will upload soon :)

awesome.

[Zolgia108]

 

E1M1 / E1M6

 

 

E1M7  E1M8

 

 

sry for the english and the bad audio :)

Edited July 24, 2020 by Zolgia108

[JXC]

Why isn't this on idgames yet?

[Zolgia108]

E2 m1 / m4

Again sorry for the bad audio! Still having fun!

 

[Ant1]

EDIT: I'm a noob and asked something dumb.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Ant1

[HAK3180]

8 minutes ago, Ant1 said:

Is this playable in Crispy without me having to figure out add-ons? I'll look up a tutorial if need be, just curious.

 

I played it in Crispy just fine. I'm not sure what you mean by add-ons. Just run Crispy Doom with doom.wad and magicsof.wad

[Ant1]

Just now, HAK3180 said:

 

I played it in Crispy just fine. I'm not sure what you mean by add-ons. Just run Crispy Doom with doom.wad and magicsof.wad

Yeah, I figured it out. You'll see my edit above haha.

[Cacolemon]

Only finished the first two maps but they were fun!

Speaking of map 02... Two of the three secrets are seemingly only accessible with noclip, and they don't really make any sense since there's nothing to grab. Is something more behind that?

[Zolgia108]

@magicsofa

hey m8, so i think i found a bug or glitch or something:

Spoiler

e2m5, i couldnt find a way to get the red key, i thought it was my fault but then i looked it on db and i found out that you had to press the computer to lower the floor, problem is that i did that and nothing happened, then i tried again but nothing it doesn't work. Im on Gz doom, any ideas?

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by Zolgia108

[HAK3180]

@Zolgia108

This had me curious, as I just did the level yesterday.

Spoiler

I tried it in GZDoom and had no issue, and I have no idea what it might have been. Are you sure you weren't trying to hump the east panel instead of the north one?

 

[Zolgia108]

2 minutes ago, HAK3180 said:

@Zolgia108

This had me curious, as I just did the level yesterday.

  Hide contents

I tried it in GZDoom and had no issue, and I have no idea what it might have been. Are you sure you weren't trying to hump the east panel instead of the north one?

 

well i was on gz as well, pressed basically everywhere, and nope there are no scrolling textures around (also i don't have retrocompatibility on so it can't be that), i can't really understand^^

@HAK3180

Edited July 25, 2020 by Zolgia108

[magicsofa]

19 hours ago, Cacolemon said:

Only finished the first two maps but they were fun!

Speaking of map 02... Two of the three secrets are seemingly only accessible with noclip, and they don't really make any sense since there's nothing to grab. Is something more behind that?

If you're referring to E1M2, I just realized that there was a weird sector that was still tagged as secret. The others should be totally accessible though... one of them is mandatory, one is just a shortcut, one is the secret exit, and one has the chainsaw (which used to be inescapable if you let the lift go up but that has been fixed).
 

8 hours ago, Zolgia108 said:

@magicsofa

hey m8, so i think i found a bug or glitch or something:

  Hide contents

e2m5, i couldnt find a way to get the red key, i thought it was my fault but then i looked it on db and i found out that you had to press the computer to lower the floor, problem is that i did that and nothing happened, then i tried again but nothing it doesn't work. Im on Gz doom, any ideas?

 

I'm not sure what's going on here. I just tried it in GZ and Choco and it seems fine on my end. It is a little weird because you can walk over the computer sector, so you have to make sure you're standing on the floor in front of it rather than on top of it. 

 

On 7/24/2020 at 10:29 AM, JXC said:

Why isn't this on idgames yet?

 

It is actually! But, there are bugs still popping up here and there as more people play it, so I'm updating the download link in this thread as I fix them but I'm going to wait until it seems like they've all been squashed before I bother the archive maintainers with my untidyness :P

[Zolgia108]

25 minutes ago, magicsofa said:

I'm not sure what's going on here. I just tried it in GZ and Choco and it seems fine on my end. It is a little weird because you can walk over the computer sector, so you have to make sure you're standing on the floor in front of it rather than on top of it.  

 

 

i'm sorry m8. it was my fault, when i checked in db i did it in a rush and so i thought that i needed to press the tall sector, and not the small one, i guess i didn't really press everywhere. My bad.

 

[Cacolemon]

3 hours ago, magicsofa said:

If you're referring to E1M2, I just realized that there was a weird sector that was still tagged as secret. The others should be totally accessible though... one of them is mandatory, one is just a shortcut, one is the secret exit, and one has the chainsaw (which used to be inescapable if you let the lift go up but that has been fixed).

 

You are right, it's a total of five, not three. Don't know how I came up with that... So I found the shortcut. What remains is that little corner in the room to the secret exit. That's probably the weird sector you mentioned. So it's all good.

[Salt-Man Z]

Started playing this last night and didn't really want to stop! It's a little quirky, but a total blast to play.

[Terminus]

Really cool wad! I finished playing through it today.

I wasn't sure what to think of the gameplay changes at first but after getting used to it I had a blast and enjoyed it till the end.

The fact you removed any kind of "grind" that Ultimate Doom had is a feat in and on itself. Highly recommend this one.

Definitely one of the more memorable releases I've played this year.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Can anyone please tell me how to open the secret door in e1m1?

 

EDIT 

Nevermind I figured it out, thought the shut door at the end connected to the walled off secret area, turns out it was just there for continuity reasons.

Edited August 4, 2020 by TheMagicMushroomMan
I stupid

[magicsofa]

Hey all, really appreciate everyone who enjoyed this mod so far. I've updated a few things, mostly minor fixes and tweaks, but the most major change is that I've reduced the ammo given by cell pickups to 10 per item / 50 per box. Also, I reverted the rocket pickups to the normal amount, and turned down the rocket launcher's fire rate a tad. It's still faster than the original, just not obnoxiously fast. This should reduce the amount of "sit back and hold fire" moments in episodes 2 and 3. Thanks to @HAK3180 for his detailed playthrough, which really highlighted that issue. I made a few other small adjustments to actor placement in that regard as well, in order to make some encounters more dangerous. My aim for this mod was to create fast, grindless action, but not to bore the player with encounters that are too easy. Hopefully these changes have brought E2 and E3 closer to that perfect balance!

[Salt-Man Z]

For some reason, I don't think I realized this had 3 full episodes. Pretty sure I only played the first one over the summer. I will be sure to rectify that post-haste!