The UnMaking: a 33-map nightmare for Doom 64 (final version on /idgames)

[scwiba]

[Please note: This version of The UnMaking is outdated and obsolete. Click here for the current version, which runs in EX, EX+, and the official remaster. I've removed the download link below but otherwise left this post intact for posterity.]

 

As my last act of 2020, I'm setting this thing free! The UnMaking is my latest (and greatest?) megawad -- 33 maps of moody, technicolor nightmares as only Doom 64 can bring you. The mapset is split into three episodes, starting with your classic techbases, moving into the heart of Hell, and culminating in a journey to a trippy dimension where some real experimental levels live. This version is exclusively for Doom 64 EX but a new and improved version with 7 bonus maps is now available for the official Doom 64 rerelease.

 

DOWNLOAD

(Tested in Doom 64 EX 2.5)

 

The UnMaking is the swansong for my speedmapped "UnSeries," which also includes UnAligned for Doom, UnNecessary for Doom II, and UnBeliever for Heretic. However, they're all pretty loosely-related and are very much enjoyable on their own, so don't worry about jumping straight into this one. When we last left our hero, you had just annihilated every monster across three realms of swords and sorcery. But while you were busy cosplaying in the Dimensions of the D'Sparils, a new demon emerged in our reality and revived all the hellspawn you ever killed -- and dragged you back through space and time for a climactic showdown. Grab your super shotgun and megaarmor; this is your final campaign against the forces of the UnAligned.

Trailer:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

Map List:

Spoiler

Episode 1 - The Last Moonbase on Earth
01 - Old Dog...New Tricks
02 - Manic Marines
03 - Hexcomplex
04 - Warehouse Shuffle
05 - Ghost Stories
06 - Sardine Packing Plant
07 - Dead Man Switch
08 - The UnAbsolution

 

Episode 2 - Hell-o, Good-bye
09 - Dig Your Own Grave
10 - Blast Processing
11 - Crosswind Crossfire
12 - Walled Garden
13 - When Hell Freezes Over
14 - Sicklied Symmetry
15 - Mercurial Minions
16 - The Infinity Gantlet

 

Episode 3 - Dimension of the Darndest

17 - Do Not Wake Mother
18 - Going Nowhere Fast
19 - Monuments to the Cement God
20 - The Misaligned and Maligned
21 - Prismatagoria
22 - Flotsam in an Astral Sea
23 - How Many Demons Can Dance...
24 - Remember the Hellamo
25 - Raise a Glass
26 - The Void Dreams of Huge Guts
27 - Good Night and Good Luck
28 - Aligned in Darkness

 

Secret Maps
29 - Remote Control (accessed via Map04)
30 - No Going Back (via Map12)
31 - Roll the Dice (via Map18)
32 - The Docking Bay (via Map01)

 

33 - UnTitled (played at startup before the menu)

 

Known Issues:

Spoiler

1) Because "spawned" enemies in Doom 64 count toward kill percentage even if they're blocked and not spawned, it's impossible to get 100% in a few maps. The "ghost" gimmick on Map05 also creates several unkillable monsters. Below I've listed all maps where 100% kills doesn't appear to be possible, along with the maximum percentage I was able to achieve on skill 4:

• Map05: 89%
• Map13: 99%
• Map14: 6%
• Map19: 97%
• Map21: 97%
• Map23: 78%
• Map26: 94%
• Map28: 99%

 

2) Related to the same problem as above, other maps are tricky to get 100% kills on but not impossible. Often it just comes down to luck and where enemies (or the player) are standing when other enemies spawn, but killing everything as fast as possible does help reduce the chance of failed spawns. Maps where I found 100% kills to be quite finicky were:

• Map03
• Map16
• Map21
• Map27
• Map30

 

3) 50% items is the maximum attainable on Map29. (One item is despawned.)

 

4) On Map10, the switch that creates fire to detonate the barrels in the kiln room sometimes requires two presses to work despite being intended to take only one.

 

5) On Map 24, venturing out in the lava and looking back at the main structure can cause pretty significant visual glitches.

 

6) One-pixel-wide slivers of sky appear all over Map26 when looking at structures from certain angles. I believe this is a glitch in Doom Builder 64's nodebuilder and I haven't found a way to fix them without creating new problems.

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

/idgames Rerelease [unmaking.wad]

• Map02: Monster-blocking lines have been added around the drop after the demon hallway to prevent infinite height enemies from walling it off
• Map07: The bar stools are now slightly smaller to cause less collision
• Map12: Corrected a major bug where pressing use on any of the blue key doors other than the first one you're meant to open causes all sectors tagged 0 to "open"
• Map15: Fixed a missing damage and liquid effect on nukage in the area right before the yellow key door
• Map18: Added a second line to trigger the timer script because it's possible to straferun fast enough to skip the first one
• Map20: Separated tag numbers on the lost soul monster closet and lift so that the monster closet isn't affected by a late-added secret shoot switch that's only supposed to raise the lift further
• Map31: An alerted demon was placed outside the playable area so that something would engage the RNG aside from the random switches, making the random switches... well, more random hopefully (and the demon is killed by a crusher so 100% kills is still possible)

 

Rerelease Candidate 2 [unmaking_rc2.wad]

• New stained glass window and light textures
• Moved a few items further apart in Map21, 24, and 29 that could not be collected under certain circumstances due to a strange bug with overlapping pickups
• Map13: The sky definition has been changed to give a gray, cloudy look and thicker fog
• Map24: Changed out the orange sky and fog for a red sky and darkness
• Map26: Three additional SSGs are available in case the player misses the first one
• Map26: Removed the partial invisibility and added a couple light amps
• Map26: To aid in navigation, the visible distance has been extended slightly and there are now flaming statues around areas with keys still in them

 

Rerelease Candidate 1 (unmaking_rc1.wad)

• Major balance tweaks on all maps, especially for lower difficulty settings
• Small visual changes throughout, including new props and more colorful lighting
• Platforms in several maps have been raised or widened to prevent grabbing items from below when playing with strict Doom 64 compatibility settings
• A serious attempt has been made to clarify the visual language of switches; all shoot switches now use one of only two switch textures, and those two textures are never used for regular press switches
• New waterfall texture
• Map01: Added a new secret (which includes an additional barrel for the secret exit scavenger hunt) and replaced the medikits from the ledge secret with a shotgun and shells
• Map02: There are now double the initial number of marines in the final fight but none spawn in later
• Map04: Untagged a sector that had accidentally been marked secret
• Map04: Combined the two switches in the central-northern room into one and added switches that lower the lifts rather than having to press use on the lifts directly
• Map07: The series of switches for killing the cyberdemon now use darts instead of an invisible crusher (the crusher was not behaving as intended)
• Map07: Reworked the last encounter in the barracks
• Map07: The four-stage lift battle now uses teleports instead of spawns to prevent failed spawns from affecting kill percentage
• Map07: Placed a light amp in the warehouse area and replaced the plasma gun with a BFG
• Map08: Both secret alcoves are now significantly lower to the arena floor
• Map09: The teleport macro in the grave is now triggered by pickups at the bottom, so you must drop into the grave rather than being able to simply run across the top
• Map09: Swapped out the secret rocket launcher for a light amp (or soulsphere on skills 1 and 2) and created a new rocket launcher secret
• Map10: The key-activated barrel bridges are now pillar bridges to make them work with vanilla Doom 64 compatibility settings
• Map10: I've made it easier (I think) to guide the tracers to the furthest cacodemon (attempting to account for the unexpected behavior of tracers to stop following at the last second)
• Map11: Reworked the rocket launcher secret (previously it had not counted toward secret % until spawned in)
• Map12: There are now several lava floors and dart-shooting pillars scattered throughout the labyrinth
• Map12: Secret SSG is now a plasma gun
• Map13: The shoot switch secret now contains a BFG and cell ammo, with the megasphere moved to a new secret
• Map13: The initial shoot switch has been moved back and out of reach to hint at the need to shoot it
• Map14: Parts of the floor now lower into lava with each new phase; all monster platforms now become accessible at the end of the map for cover or grabbing health bonuses
• Map15: Removed green armor in the big hell knight ambush and replaced with a blue armor secret
• Map15: Replaced the secret unmaker with cell ammo and added a new unmaker secret requiring the blue key
• Map16: To encourage traveling the full circuits of the arena, the weapons now spawn on higher steps
• Map17: Motherdemons will now teleport into the final fight if awoken during the earlier sections, making the fight nigh-impossible
• Map17: A new secret is available in the final motherdemon temple
• Map18: The platforms in the damaging floor area are now closer together
• Map18: Three secrets added to provide enough weaponry and ammo to kill the cyberdemon
• Map19: The two barrel bridges have become raising sectors to make them work with vanilla Doom 64 compatibility settings
• Map19: The walkway housing the red key now has a raised half-wall along its sides to prevent falling (previously falling off would cause a silent teleport to your death as it does in Map20 and 23)
• Map19: You should no longer be able to skip the majority of the third island by triggering a lift from the wrong side
• Map20: There is now an additional secret past the blue door, and the soulsphere secret includes a major sequence break to get the yellow key without solving the last puzzle
• Map21: Now titled "Prismatagoria", a slight... correction(?) from "Prismatigoria"
• Map21: Two new secrets
• Map22: Three new secrets
• Map24: The delays between waves have been drastically shortened and the blue key has been replaced with a shoot switch
• Map24: Replaced the secret megasphere with an invulnerability
• Map25: Added a brief sequence after collecting the soulsphere to allow crushers to kill the marine bots for 100% kills
• Map25: There's now a single secret to appease secret-hunters
• Map25: Now uses the title map music
• Map26: This is an entirely new map titled "The Void Dreams of Huge Guts"
• Map27: Moved the first soulsphere to a "secret" placement and added another secret in the first area
• Map28: Merged two of the cyberdemon phases into one and sped up pacing, but weaker enemies spawn more frequently
• Map28: Now uses the main menu music
• Map28: Added a tricky secret with invuln spheres in it
• Map29: Scripts were sped up slightly
• Map30: New secret added and the secret soulsphere has been removed
• Map31: Corrected an oversight where the player always had access to the chaingun regardless of the path selected
• Map31: Items accessed by the second random switch have been changed so that they don't count toward item % (making 100% items possible)
• Map32: Re-designated which sectors count as secret, which has reduced the total number of secrets from 6 to 5

 

Hotfix 1/4/21 (unmaking_fix.wad)

• Map02: Replaced secret blue armor with a soulsphere (carrying 200 armor into the next map can prevent picking up a critical item)
• Map07: Corrected oversight on skills 1 and 2 where the second wave of the sewer room fight would not spawn, making the map impossible to complete without cheating
• Map17: Untagged two switch sectors which had accidentally been tied to a door-close action and would sometimes be found temporarily closed and displaying a missing texture
• Map29: Moved spawned items closer to the player (they were a bit finicky to pick up)

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by scwiba

[P41R47]

Happy new year, Ryath!

what a beautiful present you gave us!

 

Gonna try this right now since its early to get into bed ;)

 

EDIT: holy new year gift, pal!

this is just amazing!

map02 just screw me... really hard!

Totally digging your puzzleish approach to dooming :D

 

check this out guys, @Immorpher, @TheMagicMushroomMan, @ChopBlock223, @AmethystViper

Edited January 1, 2021 by P41R47

[Bryan T]

Woweee. Give me gzdoom version naow.

[Immorpher]

9 hours ago, P41R47 said:

Happy new year, Ryath!

what a beautiful present you gave us!

 

Gonna try this right now since its early to get into bed ;)

 

EDIT: holy new year gift, pal!

this is just amazing!

map02 just screw me... really hard!

Totally digging your puzzleish approach to dooming :D

 

check this out guys, @Immorpher, @TheMagicMushroomMan, @ChopBlock223, @AmethystViper

Yes! 2021 is starting off right! I shall get this loaded.

[scwiba]

16 hours ago, Bryan T said:

Woweee. Give me gzdoom version naow.

This may or may not be in the cards in the future. I'm not really sure how much additional work would be required and I'd definitely need some help from someone familiar with GZDoom. The version for the Steam port definitely comes first though.

[D.Vile]

I just completed map 04, and I must say I am pretty amused that, after all these years, someone would make a level whose entire gimmick is literally taken from Marathon's much hated Colony Ship for Sale elevator puzzle, of all things.

[D.Vile]

Ryath, did you design this mapset with Doom 64 compatibility settings in mind ? I've just found out that map 10 is unbeatable if you turn on infinitely tall actors (you can't walk on top of the barrels that lead to the switch that opens the final arena). Also, if you turn on "grab high items", you can easily get the blue key and bypass the whole explosive barrel gauntlet.

Edited January 2, 2021 by D.Vile
Fixing a minor mistake.

[ChopBlock223]

Interesting. I'll have to check this out sometime, and get Doom 64EX too. Does 64EX support analog sticks?

[Immorpher]

48 minutes ago, ChopBlock223 said:

Interesting. I'll have to check this out sometime, and get Doom 64EX too. Does 64EX support analog sticks?

It may depend on the controller, but I got analog sticks working with it. :)

[BlueThunder]

Nice.  well be checking this out!!!

[LuciferSam86]

Hi, I'm on map 07 in the radiation room and I can't understand how to keep going on the level and I'm stuck:

 

Spoiler

I took the radsuit, killed a cacodemon and the 3 pillars lowered, but after that nothing happens.

I'm playing on the easiest skill with Doom64-EX 2.5 .

other than this , the levels are a blast! Highly recommended!

Edited January 2, 2021 by LuciferSam86

[MattFright]

God this is so much fun, i haven't played many D64 wads but this is one i can recommend.

Edited January 2, 2021 by MattFright
Swapped replies between different threads again, fuck.

[Repugnus]

Wow, I gotta give this a try, it's not too often you see a Doom 64 megawad. Strong way to kick off the new year.

[FrancisT218]

@LuciferSam86 

 

 

If Map07 is the same as it was when I was testing this wad, you can lower lifts at the entrance to the room to get out of the radiation once the pillars are done.

 

Edit: According to @Ryath there is a bug at the moment...so ignore the above

Edited January 2, 2021 by FrancisT18

[P41R47]

Hey, Ryath, i was wondering, what makes this mapset not compatible with the rerelease of Doom64?

I read, somewhere else that the rerelease didn't support non iwad textures.

Are those few you use the ones making this non compatible with the rerelease?

 

Also, could it be possible for an ULTIMATE Unaligned?

I'm in love with your puzzle style maps, and i want to be raped Thy Flesh Deep in the A... style by them :P

Edited January 2, 2021 by P41R47

[scwiba]

19 hours ago, D.Vile said:

Ryath, did you design this mapset with Doom 64 compatibility settings in mind ? I've just found out that map 10 is unbeatable if you turn on infinitely tall actors (you can't walk on top of the barrels that lead to the switch that opens the final arena). Also, if you turn on "grab high items", you can easily get the blue key and bypass the whole explosive barrel gauntlet.

My unfamiliarity with Doom 64 seems to have bitten me in the ass here because I assumed they'd done away with infinitely-tall Things in 64 the same way as in Heretic. There are only two maps that involve running on top of barrels, but yes, you'd be right that those maps aren't completeable with proper Doom 64 compatibility settings.

 

3 hours ago, LuciferSam86 said:

Hi, I'm on map 07 in the radiation room and I can't understand how to keep going on the level and I'm stuck:

Shoot. There's supposed to be a wave of hell knights that spawn but it looks like I accidentally left none of them flagged to appear on the easiest difficulty. And since those don't appear, the rest of the fight doesn't trigger either. For now my suggestion is to noclip out of the nukage and continue the rest of the map. One of the pillars blocking the exit will not have opened, but again you can noclip past that. I'm sorry for that oversight. I'll have to add a fix for it.

 

54 minutes ago, P41R47 said:

Hey, Ryath, i was wondering, what makes this mapset not compatible with the rerelease of Doom64?

I read, somewhere else that the rerelease didn't support non iwad textures.

Are those few you use the ones making this non compatible with the rerelease?

The textures are the primary issue, though there may be a way of loading textures if they're included as a separate wad. But there are definitely other problems. I haven't tested in the rerelease too much but even from the very first map there seems to be an issue with the way it processes macro scripts because the macro fails to raise the lifts as intended.

 

1 hour ago, P41R47 said:

Also, could it be possible for an ULTIMATE Unaligned?

For a while I was actually considering it, with that exact title, but I think I'm quite done with this series. That doesn't mean I won't be making more maps under different names.

[P41R47]

25 minutes ago, Ryath said:

For a while I was actually considering it, with that exact title, but I think I'm quite done with this series. That doesn't mean I won't be making more maps under different names.

My world comes brown ;(

I was hoping for more non-stop puzzley laugh on Ultimate UnAligned: Thy Unfleshed Bottom.

 

25 minutes ago, Ryath said:

The textures are the primary issue, though there may be a way of loading textures if they're included as a separate wad. But there are definitely other problems. I haven't tested in the rerelease too much but even from the very first map there seems to be an issue with the way it processes macro scripts because the macro fails to raise the lifts as intended.

Well, there is a way to make them compatible.

Ed answered on another thread that Kaiser use the same DoomBuilder64 to make the new episode of ''Lost Levels'' for the Rerelease.

May need some tweaking, but unfortunately i can't help more.

I'm a zero at Doom64 style of mapping.

They use something similar to ACS, kinda like Hexen for the scripted scenes?

Edited January 2, 2021 by P41R47

[D.Vile]

Speaking of compatibility with the official Doom 64 remaster, does anyone here know if the Bethesda port also supports Doom 64 EX's "nightmare creatures" flag ? Many of the later levels make heavy use of nightmare monsters, and it would be a shame to lose them.

[scwiba]

18 minutes ago, D.Vile said:

Speaking of compatibility with the official Doom 64 remaster, does anyone here know if the Bethesda port also supports Doom 64 EX's "nightmare creatures" flag ?

It does! I made sure of that before using them a bunch in that last episode. 

[Repugnus]

Made it up to map 07, and had the same issue @LuciferSam86 had. So far though, the maps have been very enjoyable - nice, short, and do a great job of using Doom 64's scripting to make some interesting gimmicks. Lovely work.

[Dynamo]

On 1/2/2021 at 12:44 AM, D.Vile said:

I just completed map 04, and I must say I am pretty amused that, after all these years, someone would make a level whose entire gimmick is literally taken from Marathon's much hated Colony Ship for Sale elevator puzzle, of all things.

I had *just* last week completed Colony Ship for Sale again, and I was looking forward to never having to see that puzzle for the next years, and now it's finally been transplanted into Doom, hah! Does this mean that other infamous Marathon tropes are soon going to find their way into Doom maps...?

Jokes aside, this looks really incredible and I look forward to playing it, I especially like the whismical theme of some of the later maps. May this be the beginning of a Doom 64 renaissance?

Edited January 3, 2021 by Dynamo

[Nevander]

On 1/1/2021 at 5:01 PM, Ryath said:

This may or may not be in the cards in the future. I'm not really sure how much additional work would be required and I'd definitely need some help from someone familiar with GZDoom.

A lot. The only things that get preserved by copying from D64 to UDMF is geometry, texture names and thing numbers.

• You must manually fix textures that are meant to be mirrored by using pre-made mirrored versions with TEXTURES.
• You must manually re-write all macros into ACS and re-apply line actions.
• If the map uses any doors that open in the middle, you must manually script them with a door and plat action.
• You must redo the entire map's lighting using sector colors.
• Finally you should thoroughly test the map and be aware of differences between engines. Things that work in GZDoom that don't in D64 which need to be scripted to get right (such as using fake object actors to stop the player from being able to grab them early, i.e. Unholy Temple)

It's a lot of work indeed. I may or may not be interested in doing this myself for your WAD, but if I did it wouldn't be for a long time and I'd need your blessing first.

[D.Vile]

6 hours ago, Dynamo said:

I had *just* last week completed Colony Ship for Sale again, and I was looking forward to never having to see that puzzle for the next years, and now it's finally been transplanted into Doom, hah! Does this mean that other infamous Marathon tropes are soon going to find their way into Doom maps...?

 

To be fair, Ryath's version of the puzzle is nowhere nearly as grating because:

A) All the switches you need to press are located in the same room, so no backtracking is required.

B) You don't have to manually time your button presses to adjust the lift's height.

[scwiba]

Thanks for the kind comments so far! I've honestly been neck-deep in this project for so long that I can't tell whether it's any good anymore.

 

10 hours ago, Nevander said:

A lot. The only things that get preserved by copying from D64 to UDMF is geometry, texture names and thing numbers.

• You must manually fix textures that are meant to be mirrored by using pre-made mirrored versions with TEXTURES.
• You must manually re-write all macros into ACS and re-apply line actions.
• If the map uses any doors that open in the middle, you must manually script them with a door and plat action.
• You must redo the entire map's lighting using sector colors.
• Finally you should thoroughly test the map and be aware of differences between engines. Things that work in GZDoom that don't in D64 which need to be scripted to get right (such as using fake object actors to stop the player from being able to grab them early, i.e. Unholy Temple)

It's a lot of work indeed. I may or may not be interested in doing this myself for your WAD, but if I did it wouldn't be for a long time and I'd need your blessing first.

That would be... kind of incredible. I know you're not committing to anything but I appreciate it either way. Feel free to message me on Discord (under "scwiba"). We're on the Doom 64 server together.

[buckmatic4]

I'm at MAP10 so far and I'm loving the puzzle design. You really did spook. me with the Ghost Stories map. My only complaint is that so far I haven't found a single super shotgun. I know it's super powerful, but it seems like I found have found at least one by now. I haven't any secrets so maybe that's why?

[scwiba]

Hey all! There's a hot fix version in the OP to address a progress-halting bug in map07 on skill 1 and 2. Update as soon as possible especially if you're playing on those skill settings.

 

8 minutes ago, buckmatic4 said:

I'm at MAP10 so far and I'm loving the puzzle design. You really did spook. me with the Ghost Stories map. My only complaint is that so far I haven't found a single super shotgun. I know it's super powerful, but it seems like I found have found at least one by now. I haven't any secrets so maybe that's why?

There's intentionally no SSG or BFG (on skill 4 at least) in the first episode. But just wait one more map...

[buckmatic4]

3 minutes ago, Ryath said:

Hey all! There's a hot fix version in the OP to address a progress-halting bug in map07 on skill 1 and 2. Update as soon as possible especially if you're playing on those skill settings.

 

There's intentionally no SSG or BFG (on skill 4 at least) in the first episode. But just wait one more map...

Hey thanks for your quick reply! I am on WMD (skill 4) so I eagerly await some well-needed blasting.

[Smite of Disrespect]

I only finished map03 so far but I wanted to say the way the same floor shifts to create different combat arenas is SO COOL!

 

Also the marines on map02 seem kind of janky, though that just might be due to doom64. The marines help me, but then they turn and shoot me once I myself fire a shot, even if it's at a wall.

[scwiba]

12 hours ago, RonnieColeman said:

The marines help me, but then they turn and shoot me once I myself fire a shot, even if it's at a wall.

They're a bit unpredictable, yes. You might even say "Manic."

[LuciferSam86]

5 minutes ago, Ryath said:

They're a bit unpredictable, yes. You might even say "Manic."

Well, I thought it was intentional. Like some evil entity took and left them in a weird state.

Now for eternity they shoot at everything they see. :)