[Doom 2] Intergalactic Xenology 2

[Dreadopp]

NOTE: An enhanced version of this wad is available as part of the trilogy! Check out its thread to get all three episodes with updated visuals and story elements, among other changes!

 

Huzzah!

 

@Lord_Z and I have been working together again for the past few months and the following is our next release together! Intergalactic Xenology 2 is a set of 5 Boom compatible levels (MAP01-MAP05) using the Ancient Aliens resources as a base. PrBoom+ and GZDoom were used for testing, but we recommend using GZDoom for the full effect.

 

Please do let us know if there are any issues that need addressing. Don't forget to save often! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. :)

 

Screenshots

Spoiler

 

Download

Intergalactic Xenology 2

 

As a bonus, we've also made a few updates to the original Intergalactic Xenology:

 

- New and improved TITLEPIC
- Added a menu title image
- Added some visual details to MAP01 and MAP04
- Fixed a midtex issue and hopefully some PrBoom Plus rendering issues on MAP02
- Lighting improvements to the outside area of the base on MAP04
- Fixed a number of sector rendering issues in PrBoom Plus with the green flashing floor on MAP04
- A monster on MAP05 now uses a scrolling sector to teleport so it's less easily missed
- Fixed a rendering issue in PrBoom Plus and some missing sky transfer tags on MAP05
- Updated the last skybox on MAP05

- Fixed a GLDef compatibility issue that prevented the wad from working in Zandronum

 

Screenshots for the original can be seen in its thread.

 

Download

Intergalactic Xenology v1.1

 

Enjoy!

Edited January 24, 2023 by Dreadopp

[Lord_Z]

Fun facts: Similarly to the first installment, the first map of this one was created back in October 2020 as part of the month long art/creativity challenge. The ideas phase for this map set began not long after the first set came out but nothing was fully underway until October. Some of the original inspiration hit me as I was holding a Cacodemon coin bank which was quite fitting, haha.

 

I feel pretty good about the ideas we set out to execute and I hope you enjoy the journey!

[Killer5]

Yo. The gimmick on map04 is really great. Probably the best idea I have seen for a while - reminded me of Prey.

 

The gameplay wasn't really my thing but nothing stood out to me as stuff people wouldn't enjoy who like more incidental wads. There was one egregious bit I can't get behind though: the masterminds in map04. They really just forced me to use all of my ammo.

 

Many of the slaughter-y encounters quickly devolve into circle strafes. The final fight of map05 was a poster child of this. I assume I was supposed to have a secret bfg for this fight which I missed but it is certainly not required to deal with the final area. I was quite happy that it didn't devolve into floor vile spam at the end too, so thanks for that.

 

Map04 is without a doubt my favorite map of the set. Can't say enough re: how much I liked that gimmick.

[Terminus]

The sequel I didn't know I needed in my life.

Loved the first Intergalactic Xenology, can't wait to play this one! Screenshots look beautiful!

[TheGreenZap]

The first IX was really cool, I’m glad to see you two release this. Congratulations! I will definitely be playing it.

[sapphics]

didnt know about either of these until now. super stoked to try them both out! grats on the release!

[GarrettChan]

UV pistol starts

Port: DSDA-Doom v0.18.0 -complevel 9

Total IGT: 0:58:29

Personal Difficulty Evaluation: 1.3 (1 = Plutonia)

Personal Rating: 7.5 (out of 10)

 

Have to say Map04 is definitely something that worth playing in it because of the cool gimmick. I love it a lot. Thanks for making it. Sadly that adorable Caco got crushed.

 

It is a bit grindy and seems to have ammo starvation throughout all the maps. Gunning down a lot of mid-tiers seems to be a theme in this mapset.

 

The visuals are cool. Although using the Ancient Aliens assets will make people think it's the feeling of Ancient Aliens, but I personally would say it does something quite different from Ancient Aliens, so the environments are pretty unique.

 

----------------------

 

Map02:

 

Maybe you could make the ice texture upper unpegged (or lower? I can't remember) in order to emulate ice melting instead of lowering the sector.

 

Maybe move a box of shells later to the ice melting fight mentioned above. It's kind of low on all kind of ammo there and you don't have enough rockets to deal with the Baron + PE.

 

Maybe put a box of rockets or even a bit more in the final fight because of those Rev placements.

 

----------------------

 

Map03:

 

Definitely not enough ammo in the map... I ran out of everything when I have 3 Cacodemons + 2 Arachnotrons left at the end of the map.

 

Section 3: 5~10 Rockets before the AV + Manc fight. This fight has a lot of potential problem for not having enough rockets because the AV can resurrect Mancubi.

 

Section 4: 5~10 Rockets when the Cacodemon horde is coming out.

 

Having a bit of bullets/shells here and there will also help as you need to gun down quite a lot of mid-tiers in this map as well.

 

----------------------

 

Map04:

 

Would say probably have 1~2 more box of shells (or replace some bullets) somewhere before the second SMM. Right now, if the infight of the first one went wrong, you probably won't have enough stuff to deal with the second one. If you ended up Chaingunning mid tiers, the pace of the map will get a bit interrupted.

 

----------------------

 

Map05:

 

I would say moving some of the ammo out of the final into earlier places would help the map with ammo problems. I'm not saying I'm the king of efficiency, but for others' blind playthroughs, I can see they may run into ammo problems as well.

 

The final fight could use a few more Medikits as you're very difficult to recover from a major screw-up of getting shot by SMMs.

Edited May 24, 2021 by GarrettChan

[Biodegradable]

Another small map-pack to add to the backlog. Looks great, fellas!

[Lord_Z]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, everyone! It sounds like we have a little balance tweaking to do so we'll take a look at that today.

[Deadwing]

The first one was amazing!

Congratz for the release!

[Pirx]

ancient aliens, i love maps with that theme.

[bimbo]

This is very well done. I love the aesthetic of it, the map design is great, and it's very apparent a lot of love and work went into this. I love it!

[Dreadopp]

Thanks for all the comments and feedback, everyone. We did indeed have a lot of fun working on this. :)

 

I've uploaded a new version of the mapset, which includes some more ammo on most of the maps for UV. The link on the first post has been updated.

[Shepardus]

I played maps 1-4 of the old version last night (before the updated version) and enjoyed them. Didn't encounter any issues, but I wasn't trying for 100% completion either. MAP04 reminds me of

Spoiler

DBP16: Cyb's Freaky Colonoscopy :)

The textures (including the FIREBLU!) really sell the experience.

 

Regarding ammo balance, I never actually ran out of ammo but had to be deliberate about its usage, including some chaingun usage on monsters where that otherwise wouldn't have been my first choice. The closest I came to running out was in MAP02, which I finished with 20-odd shells and nothing else.

[Blip]

Ok just finished playing all 5 maps. I really enjoyed them they were pretty cool. The fights were nice, some traps were mean (in a good way,

Spoiler

the one at the end of map02 really got me

), the secrets were well hidden (there were some that I didn't even find even with iddt because the secret tag in dsda doom is barely visible but well they are secrets after all :) ), and the throwbacks to ancient aliens were nice. It felt like a short expansion of that mapset.

 

My favorite map has to be either map01 or map04, I really liked the effects on both, though map04 has that cuteness factor to it.

 

My only problems were mostly with the spider masterminds in the maps, as most of them weren't really good at infighting so fights with them were really tedious and made you waste a lot of ammo on them (especially the ones in map05 as the revenant missiles barely can't reach them when they go against the pillars were the spiders are). My other problem was about the lowish ammo but I just noticed while writing this that you uploaded an updated version on monday that apparently fixed those issues so I'll skip that (and download this version while we are at it).

 

 

Really good mapset and I'm hoping to see more stuff from you!

[Lorenz0]

Hey guys, I wanted to play both Xenology 1 and 2 with my friend on co-op, but as I tried it, I found out that these wads aren't compatible with Zandronum at all. An error pops up as soon as you try to load the game, which is very weird for a boom mapset. I hope that's something possible to fix.

[Dreadopp]

Thanks for letting us know about that. Zandronum was not a port we tested with (our multiplayer testing was in GZDoom), but the fix was easy enough to do. Doesn't look like Zandronum knew what to do with "Attenuate" in GLDefs.

 

I've uploaded a new version to fix that issue. Let us know if it works.

Edited June 5, 2021 by Dreadopp

[TJG1289]

And I thought the first IX was good. This was even better! I always love it when I see maps using the AA textures and colors, and you guys used them to great effect here. I especially loved the final 3 levels, with them all having awesome concepts behind them. Really fun too. Not too tough on UV (only died a few times). And awesome MIDI picks. The MIDI by Dragonfly for map 3 has instantly shot up toward the top of my list of favorites. 

[Lorenz0]

Thanks for fixing the issue, both wads are playable now :)

[DOEL]

amazing little episode, seriously some of the best looking and innovative maps I've ever played

[Lorenz0]

I forgot to comment after finishing the wad, but I was honestly really impressed.

 

I think this wad is an improvement over its prequel, some of the map concepts are really strong this time. My favorite is definitely the cacodemon map (04 I think), it was very interesting and fun. I look forward to your future projects :)

[Turin Turambar]

Very good episode, with lots of carefully done ambient stuff and solid themed levels.I think I will nominate it to Cacoawards when I finish it.

[Turin Turambar]

Some screenshots (never mind the weapons, that's a separate mod)

 

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Turin Turambar

[Dreadopp]

Thanks for playing through the set. I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

[DEYBAR_TECH]

I liked the maps. :)

My favorite is:
map03: around de world in 8k years

the music on this map is very nice.

 

maybe I did something wrong, but it seems that it has no end after map 5

and then it reaches the next map (doom2 the crusher)

[Lord_Z]

Thanks for playing!

 

On 7/26/2021 at 4:31 PM, DEYBAR_TECH said:

maybe I did something wrong, but it seems that it has no end after map 5

and then it reaches the next map (doom2 the crusher)

 

There actually isn't an intermission message, if that's what you are referring to. The map set is done after map 5 ends and then it'll just continue on to whatever is next in regular Doom 2. An intermission screen was something that I considered at one point but wasn't sure if that was something that could be positioned after any map slot you want. I didn't look into though since I wasn't sure how much it would add in the end. It is something I would consider adding to future projects though.

[Pixel Fiend]

This wad is really classy. What are the further plans for it? I just played in Woof but not too long so I don't know how big the maps are but I'm really impressed and would like to feature it in this collection:

 

 

[Dreadopp]

For this specific mapset, we don't currently have any other changes in mind (aside from bug fixes if any major ones arise). We do have a bunch of ideas for future projects.

 

If you want to make a wad cover, feel free. Those look very cool. :O

[Argenteo]

What an amazing trip. I was as surprised as Doomguy about that final revelation. A nostalgic and irresistible laugh.