Update: (Gzdoom) Brotherhood of Ruin: 2023 Supercharged Edition

[Kristian Nebula]

(Update Dec 3. 2023)

 

The project won't be released before Dec 10., see newest post in the thread down below, please. It's progressing but slowly :)

 

 

Hello! For the past couple of months I've shared some screenshots in the Doom Pictures thread 2023 of an unnamed UDMF project that I'm working on. In celebration of the upcoming Doom's 30th birthday, I've set a deadline to have it completed before that, hopefully no later than November. The map has progressed incredibly well because the excitement to try and see what is possible with UDMF, and my recent discovery of Supercharge by @Tango. So far it's a research base in a jungle-like environment made with OTEX resources. However, I'm also going to utilise Hexen2 textures from my old Brotherhood of Ruin resource wad to create a large pyramid structure you'll get to explore, too.

 

As I was going through the old ruinbros resource wad, I found some unused sprites of puzzle artifacts representing the four elements. Fire, Earth, Water and Air. These have been extracted from Hexen2 and put into sprite form for Doom. I had to really scratch my head for a while about their origin, and I remembered that during early development stages of BoR I was communicating with David Wood (Hakx) via email who if I remember correctly was hosting the original doomshack.com in the late 90's. I remember that he suggested that we should use them in the original Brotherhood of Ruin, so that the whole story of the project would circle around of adventuring the temple landscapes on the quest for the elements, to unleash the fifth element that would kill all the demons instantly that were infesting Earth. It might be that he extracted them from Hexen2 to me and for some reason it never happened, because back in 1999 I had no idea how to make puzzle items into doom / boom. Also, our communication with David faded over time, I don't remember why but I do remember that we were in good terms with no arguments or anything. And as time passed the existence of these sprites was completely forgotten. I also remember I lost a bunch of the levels that were not completed at the time, but I don't remember how. It might have been a HD crash, or that I got a new computer in somepoint and they were on the HD of the old one that went to my grandmother to write poems with. Original BoR was going to be 11 maps, but ended up being 7 maps and somehow I forgot to change the amount of maps in the text file before it was uploaded to idgames.

 

Now, 20 years later since BoR was chosen into top 100 wads of all time in 2003, it's time to visit the good old mesoamerican design one more time, UDMF style and with the expanded gameplay of Supercharge. I will also make puzzle items of these element sprites that you need to find inside the pyramid and use them in the end somehow, how exactly will come to me later as I keep creating the map (I often come up with stuff along the way). Plenty of demons to kill, interesting environments and a lot of secrets ahead, that's for sure!

 

SCREENSHOTS

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Kristian Nebula

[Garlichead]

Such great news. Really looking forward for this project.

[princetontiger]

Kristian, this looks incredible!!! Pumped.

[Red Recluse]

Impressive look like elementalism for jungle man with better weapon mod.Classic nostalgia.

[Zeroandneko]

Screenshots look fantastic I am super excited to play it!

[Kristian Nebula]

Here's a couple of new screenshots from another area in the base with some kind of reactor. I'm almost complete with the research base areas of the map, then it's onto making the temple part of the map! Just crossed 20k linedefs so it's turning out quite large already.

 

 

[HaKx]

@Kristian Nebula It’s lovely to see this post, and also see myself remembered from back then (!)

 

I don’t remember our contact very well, but I do know why I drifted… I was in my teens when I was working for Doomshack (my first job 😃) and circa 1999/2000 I started going out drinking/clubbing and all that sort of thing 😅

 

I play Doom still probably every 6 months, and no other game has ever come close to how it sucked me right in at that time.

 

Congrats on bringing this project together like this !!

[Kristian Nebula]

 

@HaKx What a surprise! I didn't expect to see you here. What's it been, 23-24 years. Almost quarter of a century lol. Glad to hear you are still randomly playing Doom.

The email I had back then doesn't exist anymore so there was no way to "go back in time" to see those conversations, but yeah now I do remember you was talking about getting into clubbing etc. I started producing music while still working on the original Brotherhood of Ruin, and it has taken me all around the world since then.

 

Anyway, here's a new screenshot of an outdoor area, that I'll finish this week before I'll put the wad away for a couple of months to spend time for all summer business, music- and vacation-related.

 

 

 

[Kristian Nebula]

One more progress shot of the area surrounding the entrance to the pyramid temple complex, which will be behind the wall on the right side of the picture. The map is fairly large now with almost 26k linedefs so far. A little bit more work left on the outdoor area before moving to work on the temple itself which will house some interesting challenges. Not sure if I'll make it before Doom 30 years, but I'll try my best with the time that I have.

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by Kristian Nebula

[Firedust]

I am so excited to play this!

 

The original BoR is a classic for me. Temple maps were few and far in between back in the day.

[Kristian Nebula]

For the past few days, I've done some more work on this. I've completed the first one of the element challenges where you need to pick up each of the element in order to reach the final area. The map is really huge already, probably almost an hour of playtime so far. Once I've completed the element challenges I'll make the actors into additional keys with LOCKDEFS that will unlock the door blocking the final area. The map is mostly open and exploratory and interconnected with multiple routes that can be taken, making it easier or harder depending on which route you take. There are some very light slaughter encounters too, possibly when not expected. I estimate the map is total 70-75% done. I'm positive the map might be in a playable state by mid-October, but if not then anyway before 10th December.

 

A couple of shots from the temple below.

 

[alando1]

Loved Brotherhood of Ruin back then. It was the wad that helped inspire my Temple of the Lizard Men series. Loved the Mesoamerican architecture and the overall feel of the original. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store with this project. Best of luck :)

 

Love the screenshots, by the way.

 

-Alando1

[Kristian Nebula]

On 8/14/2023 at 12:35 AM, alando1 said:

Loved Brotherhood of Ruin back then. It was the wad that helped inspire my Temple of the Lizard Men series. Loved the Mesoamerican architecture and the overall feel of the original. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store with this project. Best of luck :)

 

Love the screenshots, by the way.

 

-Alando1

 

Thanks! I must admit that I haven't played all of the TOTLM series but I do remember the first one from long time ago. Glad to hear BoR was an inspiration. :) 

[Kristian Nebula]

UPDATE:

 

Sorry for being quiet about the progress of this for a few months, for those that are interested about it. :) 

The project won't be released before Dec. 10 like I initially thought it would, as it has kept getting larger and larger than what I initially thought. I haven't had the time to touch it at all for the past couple of months because of working on unfinished music projects that I have. The map will be done when it's done and I want to make it as good as I can without the need to rush it so it gives you the best experience to play and explore, to have the kind of fun adventure we love with Doom. 

Music-wise, I had some serious technical challenges regarding my computer this year that took a few months to save up for a new computer. I couldn't work on my music projects for many months due to hiccups in the CPU of my old studio computer that caused critical problems inside the music production software that I have never run into before during 23 years long music production career. During that time I was working on the map extensively. Early September I was able to buy a new computer and have been taking back the lost time for music projects since. I've got a couple more music tracks to be finished in December and after that I'll be able to continue working on the map. 

 

Stuff that's left to do for the map:

-I need to create new LOCKDEFS for the element things to use as keys to unlock a script leading to the final fight and decide whether I use a special boss enemy or not.

-Create 2 more element challenges to reach the two remaining element pickups inside the pyramid.

-to polish and balance the gameplay flow inside the pyramid, and interconnect all areas together so you can explore it in any order you like

 

I expect to continue work on the project right after new year once the two unfinished music projects that I need to do are complete.

 

 

 

 

[Theespressoman]

Looks cool, but please give it to me straight on the performance, cause that's my main worry

[Kristian Nebula]

I need to test it on an older laptop of mine to see how it performs on that before I can say anything relevant about performance. With a GTX 1660 Ti Mini or RTX 2060 it works fine (my both desktops). I've tried to keep the design somewhat so that it doesn't load the GPU too much. 

[Kristian Nebula]

UPDATE 18th March, 2024.

 

The map is getting closer to being finished. I've almost completed the last Element challenge, been messing around with some polyobject traps etc. fun Indiana Jones-style stuff. Approaching 50k linedefs, and it'll probably be well over when it's finished. In my estimation, the map will consume somewhere between 1-2 hours to complete without previous knowledge about where to navigate. 

 

It's got a bunch of extra stuff from Realm667 that need to be loaded besides Supercharge, so it'll probably be a few different PK3's that will be included in the zip. They will all need to be loaded in the same time for the map to work properly.

 

No new screenshots this time. Hopefully the next update will be about release. I started this in January 2023. :)