[Released & updated] Infection

[exl]

 

"UAC Research Base Delta has unexpectedly gone dark. Delta base, situated in an undisclosed location in the northern United States, is tasked with experimenting on salvaged remnants of the demon army that invaded Mars. Your job is to find out what the hell happened and at your own discretion, take care of whatever evil is taking place there now."

 

This set of 7 maps should take around 45 to 60 minutes to complete on Ultra-Violence, provided you don't die too often. It is designed to be played in order, but pistol starts are possible with some added difficulty.

 

This was tested with GzDoom, DSDADoom and PrBoom+ UM. It should theoretically be playable in all limit removing source ports that have support for MBF21, DEHEXTRA and UMAPINFO. That said, it crashes Odamex when starting a new game, and Doom Retro doesn't seem to support all UMAPINFO features yet. There are a few minor enhancements available when playing in GzDoom such as the light gradients and autosave disks.

 

Thanks to these people who indirectly contributed: Bethesda Softworks, Bioware, Biodegradable, Breezeep, Cage, Cammy, CGEffex, Christopher Laverdure, Clay, Clippy, Degree23, Earthquake, Emerson Tung, Enjay, Eris Falling, Esselfortium, horselessheadsman, Jimmy, JXC, Keyboard_Doomer, Kor, KWC, Lippeth, Malinku, Mechadon, Muddy, Nick Baker, Pistoolkip, princetontiger, rando, Raven Software, Rex705, RDETalus, Ukiru, Unraveler, Varis Alpha, Velvetic, Vile

 

Download

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/g-i/infectio

 

Sources
https://github.com/GitExl/infection

 

Screenshots

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by exl
Released

[Biodegradable]

Oh yeah, this looks like my kind of WAD. Can't wait to dig into this tomorrow!

[Kor]

I've played the first couple of levels.  Pretty good.  Good atmosphere.  I like the ambient sounds, there doesn't seem to be a lot of those in maps.

[JXC]

Are there custom monsters in this? Also, just found out that if you revisit the room across the one with the image of the spinning cube, you can't get the switch to unlock the door again (at least for Woof!).

[exl]

4 hours ago, JXC said:

Are there custom monsters in this? Also, just found out that if you revisit the room across the one with the image of the spinning cube, you can't get the switch to unlock the door again (at least for Woof!).

 

Technically, there aren't any new monsters... Also that door switch is indeed a bug I hadn't noticed before. Thanks!

[Not Jabba]

This looks awesome. I've been following your screenshot posts and it's great to see this released.

[Doomkid]

Wow, this looks damn good. Some of those outdoor shots and the awesome use of lighting in particular are delicious!

[Soulless]

Only played the 1st map and it was great, loved the visuals and the atmosphere of the map.

Such a clean and classy layout I must say, going to enjoy this one for sure.

[Terminus]

I've been seeing screenshots of this wad in the screenshots thread and I'm loving what I see!

Had no idea this is a full episode. Can't wait to play this!

[horselessheadsman]

A stream of thoughts.
Very nicely put together. Both old and new textures make good use of color.
The new palette is subtle but effective.
I applaud your restraint with the initial bestiary, I know I would have been tempted to start using the tougher monsters sooner.
Its pleasing to see the UAC use more greenery in their interior decoration.
I only played on HMP, the difficulty was never unfair, though there was a horde-lite or two.
Its interesting seeing how Doom 2 gameplay is effected by having the rocket launcher instead of the Super Shotgun.
The teleporter effect, even if it is just a sliding texture around the pad, is nice.

 

Fourth map:Empty secret in BFG room.
Floor mis-texture in Red Key room.(uses the 'blue computer-circuitry' instead of 'blue carpet')

Fifth map: The ventilation shaft barred opening before the switch to the first teleporter, the block-players tag doesn't seem to be set.

[Murdoch]

Looks great, definitely adding this to the queue.

[Degree23]

So I played through the whole thing on UV. I had great fun playing through these on the whole! A really nice set of maps. Thoughts below:

 

- I was constantly low/out of SG/CG ammo in the first three maps. I'm not sure if you're wanting people to use the Berserk more, but I did use it a bit and a lot of fights weren't really conducive to it. I'd place another 20-40 Shells and 50 CG ammo around somewhere. Part of the problem also was...

- ... I found it very odd to delay the SSG to the point where you did. This contributed to the ammo problems, because where you should be able to use 2 Shells for Demons and 6 Shells for HKs with a SSG, it can take 3 for Demons and 8 for HKs with only a SG. You also obtain the BFG before the SSG so I would swap those weapon placements around.

- I found it weird that the Cyberdemon battle was in the "pretend" core room, and the fight in the actual one didn't have one, and was a bit easier. I also wasn't expecting the ending to be what it was, so I hadn't killed most of the enemies on the map yet.

 

But overall, very enjoyable.

[CoolerDoomeR]

Oh nice, its released now. :D

Downloading!

[Biodegradable]

Really fun start. Can't wait to play more tomorrow. :^)

 

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by Biodegradable

[gwain]

On 3/6/2022 at 6:43 AM, exl said:

, situated in an undisclosed location in the northern United States

I'd like to think its north dakotah 

 

pretty fun wad

[BetelgeuseSupergiant]

Nice architecture!

[exl]

Thanks everyone for testing it out so far!

 

17 hours ago, Degree23 said:

- I was constantly low/out of SG/CG ammo in the first three maps. I'm not sure if you're wanting people to use the Berserk more, but I did use it a bit and a lot of fights weren't really conducive to it. I'd place another 20-40 Shells and 50 CG ammo around somewhere. Part of the problem also was...

Berserk shouldn't be needed to kill off everything. I might rely a bit much on the player "scrounging" for ammo by picking up all the loose clips and shells from corners, would that explain the lack of ammo?

 

Quote

- ... I found it very odd to delay the SSG to the point where you did. This contributed to the ammo problems, because where you should be able to use 2 Shells for Demons and 6 Shells for HKs with a SSG, it can take 3 for Demons and 8 for HKs with only a SG. You also obtain the BFG before the SSG so I would swap those weapon placements around.

I deliberately wanted to avoid relying on the SSG too much, so much of Doom 2 combat ends up being a bit same-y with an SSG, if you know what I mean. I might consider swapping it with the BFG though, they're not too far away from each other in playtime.

 

Quote

- I found it weird that the Cyberdemon battle was in the "pretend" core room, and the fight in the actual one didn't have one, and was a bit easier. I also wasn't expecting the ending to be what it was, so I hadn't killed most of the enemies on the map yet.

The very last fight is not really meant to be beatable easily with 100% kills (but can definitely be done), so maybe that needs to be even harder? I worry that players might not be able to figure out what to do if put under even more pressure.

[Degree23]

2 minutes ago, exl said:

Berserk shouldn't be needed to kill off everything. I might rely a bit much on the player "scrounging" for ammo by picking up all the loose clips and shells from corners, would that explain the lack of ammo?

 

I scrounged around quite a bit out of necessity, but still was running quite low.

 

2 minutes ago, exl said:

I deliberately wanted to avoid relying on the SSG too much, so much of Doom 2 combat ends up being a bit same-y with an SSG, if you know what I mean. I might consider swapping it with the BFG though, they're not too far away from each other in playtime.

 

That's fair enough, and a low amount of Shells will help force that, but obtaining it so late after every other weapon just felt odd.

 

2 minutes ago, exl said:

The very last fight is not really meant to be beatable easily with 100% kills (but can definitely be done), so maybe that needs to be even harder? I worry that players might not be able to figure out what to do if put under even more pressure.

 

The reason why I didn't beat it with 100% kills was because I didn't realise how the map was going to end, and I was hitting switches to release enemies, which then ended the map. Going back and playing again, I can see the fight is a bit tougher than I thought, but I would still like a Cyberdemon to appear. In order to prevent the switches being hit so quickly, you could lock the blue key, or the switch it activates, behind a timed barrier to ensure that enough enemies spawn in that you have to fight a lot of them. I was entering with 600 Cells from the last map though, so I was able to nuke a lot of things pretty quickly.

[Biodegradable]

This is looking like a big contender for my favourite miniWAD of the year. Great stuff, @exl. I loved the progression, the variety of the combat, the rug-pulls and traps, the odd weapon-balancing that threw me for a loop, the designs, layout and texture work, everything!

 

 

[exl]

On 3/7/2022 at 7:47 PM, Degree23 said:

The reason why I didn't beat it with 100% kills was because I didn't realise how the map was going to end, and I was hitting switches to release enemies, which then ended the map. Going back and playing again, I can see the fight is a bit tougher than I thought, but I would still like a Cyberdemon to appear. In order to prevent the switches being hit so quickly, you could lock the blue key, or the switch it activates, behind a timed barrier to ensure that enough enemies spawn in that you have to fight a lot of them. I was entering with 600 Cells from the last map though, so I was able to nuke a lot of things pretty quickly.

After seeing Biodegradable's playthrough I realise what you mean. I'll rework the last map a bit to give more time to kill all the enemies off, and put in a physical exit.

 

4 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

This is looking like a big contender for my favourite miniWAD of the year. Great stuff, @exl. I loved the progression, the variety of the combat, the rug-pulls and traps, the odd weapon-balancing that threw me for a loop, the designs, layout and texture work, everything!

Your playthroughs were super interesting to see, thank you! This is the first time I've seen someone else play these with a more held-back\snipey playstyle, and it is good to see most fights hold up well that way. As far as the weapon balance, less reliance on the SSG was an obvious choice I made. Hopefully that is not too annoying, and makes it a nice reward when you do finally get it.

[exl]

Ok, updated the start with RC1 with the altered MAP07, some ammo work on the first three maps and some minor fixes overall. Hopefully the last RC before something final.

[Degree23]

I loaded up Map 7 and completed it pacifist. I was hoping that there would be some delays forcing you to fight more, but that's just my preference. There's nothing wrong with the way you have the map.

 

Also I'm not sure my first post accurately conveyed just how much I enjoyed playing these maps. They were absolutely great fun!

[Not Jabba]

For some reason, I can't seem to extract the wad from the new RC1 download, or open the textfile either. Dunno if it's happening to anyone else?

[Vile]

This was an enjoyable episode, though I should have read the post since I played from pistol starts, my bad!  I still had fun regardless!

 

3 hours ago, Not Jabba said:

For some reason, I can't seem to extract the wad from the new RC1 download, or open the textfile either. Dunno if it's happening to anyone else?

 

I had the same issue opening the zip file directly from Windows, but 7-zip seemed to handle it fine.

[Breezeep]

Just finished this tonight. Very enjoyable set over all! Lots of cool use of boom features and other fun stuff. Though I found this visual mishap on MAP06:

 

[exl]

11 hours ago, Not Jabba said:

For some reason, I can't seem to extract the wad from the new RC1 download, or open the textfile either. Dunno if it's happening to anyone else?

Oh, I compressed it with 7zip and uses LZMA. Here's an RC2 ZIP that should be openable by everything.

 

7 hours ago, Breezeep said:

Just finished this tonight. Very enjoyable set over all! Lots of cool use of boom features and other fun stuff. Though I found this visual mishap on MAP06:

Nice catch, thanks!

 

I've uploaded an RC2 release with some detailing I forgot in MAP06 and some tiny ammo adjustments.

[DarkIceCyclone]

one question: is this UV only or there is HMP implemented?

[kalensar]

Holy smokes! Nice freaking wad! On Map02 and having a blast with it.

[exl]

1 hour ago, DarkIceCyclone said:

one question: is this UV only or there is HMP implemented?

All skills levels are present.

 

11 hours ago, Vile said:

This was an enjoyable episode, though I should have read the post since I played from pistol starts, my bad!  I still had fun regardless! 

I'm curious, how doable was it from a pistol start? I imagine its mostly the lack of weapons that could be a problem.

[princetontiger]

Howling wind? Glamorous shading? Save point floppies??

 

This wad rocks, and I definitely see it nominated for a cacoawards!