[/idgames] Arrokoth - vanilla compatible Ultimate Doom episode

[bioshockfan90]

Alright, I don't usually play current-year WAD releases but I'm looking to fix that because I notice there's a severe lack of footage of WADs on youtube played on HNTR/ITYTD (my main difficulties). In the spoiler is a playlist that should have all 9 maps uploaded by noon EST today, DSDA-doom, HNTR, pistol starts mostly blind playthroughs single-segment.

 

I was intrigued by the concept of this wad and I'm a sucker for episode replacements so I loaded this up and found it to be an immensely satisfying experience. The only 'bug' I ran into was on E1M7, where, upon lowering the final lift to the exit area, there is no way I could find to get back up and hence some monsters got left unkilled. Other than that, it seems everything else was taken care of, but then again I'm no playtester.

 

Aesthetics are great, almost like a warped E2/E3/E5 hybrid with its own flair and it's spot on with the Scythe comparisons in terms of combat. On HNTR, it's mostly incidental and a matter of dispatching hitscans before they get a chance to get you, and you'll see in the playthrough I get really low on health in some maps and coast through others, these shotgun guys are the main reason. I didn't feel anything was unfair though and it was well-balanced. Always some health you can go back and get, ammo was never tight, didn't find many secrets but they came in handy when I found them; additionally, did not feel they were NEEDED in order to beat the map which is always something mappers should strive for. 

 

Overall, great bite-sized experience you cooked up! Watch the longplay videos if you want, maybe they can help you pick up on something you missed when balancing for those difficulties. If not, then I wish you a great rest of your day. Cheers. :)

 

Youtube Playlist with HNTR Longplays of Each Map (should be complete by this afternoon):

Spoiler

Playlist

 

[DogsRNice]

I love the

Spoiler

small trap at the red door on e1m3

 

[Endless]

Really had a lot of fun with this one! Just finished it today in a single setting. Here's my review at my blog: https://endlessquesting.wordpress.com/2023/07/08/wad-review-arrokoth/

[Daytime Waitress]

Only three maps (and the secret one) dusted, but this is already a really elegant marriage of OG combat/geometry and subtle, modern atmosphere; and the Doom 64 additions are just plain perfect seasoning. You should be proud of the ambience you've created with this set, Somniac, and once I'm done here, I'm gonna go raid your catalogue to see if you've done something with coloured lighting, because I reckon that's something you'd knock out of the park.

 

On 4/6/2023 at 3:16 AM, Somniac said:

This isn't an overt E1 remake, but there is a definite influence in places.

 

The switch around the pillar in nukage on map 02, and the other switch on the right hand side of the Hangar-inspired room in the bonus map were just plain gorgeous touches - super cute stuff!

 

11 hours ago, bioshockfan90 said:

Alright, I don't usually play current-year WAD releases but I'm looking to fix that because I notice there's a severe lack of footage of WADs on youtube played on HNTR/ITYTD (my main difficulties).

 

As a fellow HNTR player, I appreciates you. Enjoyed watching the maps I'd already completed, but you were just as horrible at finding secrets as me...

One quibble though: the volume on your vids was super low - totally not picking up the music in this set :c

[bioshockfan90]

20 minutes ago, Daytime Waitress said:

As a fellow HNTR player, I appreciates you. Enjoyed watching the maps I'd already completed, but you were just as horrible at finding secrets as me...

One quibble though: the volume on your vids was super low - totally not picking up the music in this set :c

I was wondering if that would be an issue - I'll fix it in future recordings. Unfortunately, I just got done recording another set of maps with the same exact volume settings hahaha so... yeah. Not much I can do about that unless I felt like re-recording. The volume thing is intentional, but not to the point where I want the music to be un-hearable. So I'll just turn up the music volume in DSDA-doom for the rest of my current playthrough and all upcoming ones. Thank you for bringing awareness to this issue.

 

RE: secrets, yeah, I used to be an avid secret hunter, but for the purposes of recording I don't actively try to go out of my way to find any on FDAs because it would be a rather boring video if I spent 10+ minutes on a map roaming an empty layout humping walls. I think the secrets in this set were just really well-hidden though. Not on the caliber of say, No End in Sight, but I was really struggling to find any 'gimmes'. 

 

Enough of that, back to Arrokoth! ^^

[OliveTree]

just finished this. LOVED it, gorgeous, gorgeous maps imo.

[Somniac]

Thank you so much everyone, got to admit I'm a bit blown away by all this positive feedback! My apologies for taking some time to acknowledge recent comments, I had to put this on the back-burner for a bit due to IRL, and take my time tidying up the various little bugs and such (it feels like a never-ending process at times haha). Its really gratifying to know that this wad seems to be hitting the mark for vanilla fans, as my sort of "love letter" to the original Doom and the wads that I drew inspiration from while making this. 

 

An updated version with fixes to the potential softlocks in E1M6 and E1M9 (plus some minor texture adjustment + updated UMAPINFO courtesy of @DreadWanderer) has been uploaded to /idgames, which should be available pretty soon. I'll update the link in the OP when I see that its been merged. 

 

Thanks again!

[Daytime Waitress]

22 hours ago, bioshockfan90 said:

On HNTR, it's mostly incidental and a matter of dispatching hitscans before they get a chance to get you, and you'll see in the playthrough I get really low on health in some maps and coast through others, these shotgun guys are the main reason. I didn't feel anything was unfair though and it was well-balanced. Always some health you can go back and get, ammo was never tight

I wanted to echo this, not just because I played on HNTR as well. I initially took a lot of damage, but once I realised how many hitscanners would be pouring out of the walls, I adopted a more cautious approach. 

 

Spoiler

Guess it helps that I'd just started a Demonfear playthrough yesterday...

 

And from then on I could appreciate how each map felt like a finely balanced escalation of intensity, without inflating the volume of opposition - even though the number of monsters was going up by less than a dozen or so with each stage, the manner in which they were hurled at the player shifted just enough each time, culminating in some really fun slaug massacres towards the end.

 

And that was mirrored oh so well in the atmosphere. Hell's influence seeping into the base before you get thrown into a green marble and blood soaked pocket plane in the void, and then getting yanked back to whatever constitutes reality - it really did capture my favourite parts of the original experience, just played out over one episode rather than three. I especially loved the way you manufactured chaos, with a couple of triggers resulting in the demons tearing each other apart before engaging the player, such as

 

Spoiler

the beginning of Arrokoth Labs (E1M5), and the goatbois and cacos that tumbled out of the fireblu in E1M6.

 

It didn't feel like, "Oh, this author should've positioned these teleport destinations differently"; it felt like the forces of Hell were being unleashed. Y'know, like Doom should? :3

 

Special shoutout to @leejacksonaudio for that haunting and beautiful track on E1M5. Was that a new composition, or have I just never heard it before?

Edited July 9, 2023 by Daytime Waitress

[leejacksonaudio]

6 hours ago, Daytime Waitress said:

Special shoutout to @leejacksonaudio for that haunting and beautiful track on E1M5. Was that a new composition, or have I just never heard it before?

I don't know - what was the name of the track?

[Lippeth]

7 hours ago, Daytime Waitress said:

Was that a new composition, or have I just never heard it before?

It's Plasma from Duke 3D, also famously used in map 10 of Alien Vendetta.

[slowfade]

I so want to play this but I'm still waiting for a bugless version... My patience is wearing thin!!

[Somniac]

28 minutes ago, slowfade said:

I so want to play this but I'm still waiting for a bugless version... My patience is wearing thin!!

 

Updated version is now on idgames, just updated the OP!

[Daytime Waitress]

15 hours ago, Lippeth said:

It's Plasma from Duke 3D, also famously used in map 10 of Alien Vendetta.

 

Never played Duke all the way through, and when I did finally get around to AV, I used Cammy and Co.'s midipack (with msx2plus' gorgeous offering in that spot). Thanks for solving the mystery!

[leejacksonaudio]

4 hours ago, Daytime Waitress said:

 

Never played Duke all the way through, and when I did finally get around to AV, I used Cammy and Co.'s midipack (with msx2plus' gorgeous offering in that spot). Thanks for solving the mystery!

There's a story behind Plasma, and it's available from my old Song of the Weekend Archive. Look for Plasma on this page:

 

https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/music/song-of-the-weekend-archive/song-of-the-weekend-archive-alpha-k-r/

 

The story will be on a downloadable PDF. I've got links on that to YouTube pages with other recordings, if memory serves. Have a look!

[Somniac]

1 hour ago, leejacksonaudio said:

There's a story behind Plasma, and it's available from my old Song of the Weekend Archive. Look for Plasma on this page:

 

https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/music/song-of-the-weekend-archive/song-of-the-weekend-archive-alpha-k-r/

 

The story will be on a downloadable PDF. I've got links on that to YouTube pages with other recordings, if memory serves. Have a look!

 

That's fascinating, I had no idea there was a different arrangement that existed first! The one that ended up in DN3D is probably my favourite MIDI of all time, quiet and moody but it has a great subtle tension to it. Thanks for sharing that! 

[Daytime Waitress]

5 hours ago, leejacksonaudio said:

There's a story behind Plasma, and it's available from my old Song of the Weekend Archive. Look for Plasma on this page:

 

https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/music/song-of-the-weekend-archive/song-of-the-weekend-archive-alpha-k-r/

 

The story will be on a downloadable PDF. I've got links on that to YouTube pages with other recordings, if memory serves. Have a look!

 

These potted histories are absolute treasures, Lee.

 

There's the youtube link to the original Plasma, but have you ever considered releasing original/"beta" MIDI's like this? I'm sure everyone would enjoy them, and that mappers would get a lot of use out of them.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Daytime Waitress

[slowfade]

Somehow I knew this was going to be good but it was even better than I expected. This is such a good production! Exactly what I needed to return from the extravagant insanity of Doom 'In Name Only'... Definitely playing this one again some time. These maps were just so good. Cohesive design, eerieness, every switch was understandable, surprises, cool designs... Didn't find the secret map yet but it shall wait for my next playthrough. The end text fit perfectly with the mood. Interesting to see no episode boss but just a larger fight -- I might not even have seen that before.

[leejacksonaudio]

6 hours ago, Daytime Waitress said:

There's the youtube link to the original Plasma, but have you ever considered releasing original/"beta" MIDI's like this? I'm sure everyone would enjoy them, and that mappers would get a lot of use out of them.

I just don't have the time to code up new website pages, that's all. I'm either too busy being sick, or too busy composing new music. ;)

[Somniac]

On 7/8/2023 at 11:42 PM, Endless said:

Really had a lot of fun with this one! Just finished it today in a single setting. Here's my review at my blog: https://endlessquesting.wordpress.com/2023/07/08/wad-review-arrokoth/

 

Just got the chance to properly sit down and read this, thank you for the write-up! I really enjoyed reading it. I agree that a completely outdoors map would have been a cool idea!

 

On 7/9/2023 at 12:16 PM, Daytime Waitress said:

 

Hell's influence seeping into the base before you get thrown into a green marble and blood soaked pocket plane in the void, and then getting yanked back to whatever constitutes reality - it really did capture my favourite parts of the original experience, just played out over one episode rather than three.

 

 

Just wanted to thank you again for your detailed feedback! This was mainly a result of trying to avoid techbase fatigue, I knew I wanted a Hell map in there somewhere and it opened up the narrative of being pulled into their dimension. With E1M7 I was trying to replicate that "just back from Hell in a teleport chamber full of corpses" bit from Doom 3. It didn't quite come out as grandiose as I originally planned, but from your comment it seems like the idea is still conveyed effectively, which is great!

 

On 7/10/2023 at 10:45 PM, slowfade said:

Somehow I knew this was going to be good but it was even better than I expected. This is such a good production! Exactly what I needed to return from the extravagant insanity of Doom 'In Name Only'... Definitely playing this one again some time. These maps were just so good. Cohesive design, eerieness, every switch was understandable, surprises, cool designs... Didn't find the secret map yet but it shall wait for my next playthrough. The end text fit perfectly with the mood. Interesting to see no episode boss but just a larger fight -- I might not even have seen that before.

 

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! There's a Cyber in that final fight on UV, but for other difficulties I felt a double-dose of Barons (plus Cacos) was probably enough :p and yeah, the sinister corporate cover-up seemed to fit like a glove. Those evil corporations will never learn.

[Daytime Waitress]

2 hours ago, Somniac said:

Just wanted to thank you again for your detailed feedback! This was mainly a result of trying to avoid techbase fatigue...

 

Thank you for articulating exactly what I was trying to express there. I do love me some E1 replacements, but even with the absolute best of them, rigorously consistent theming can sometimes feel like "too much of a good thing". That's precisely why your jaunt through the pocket plane and the ensuing whiplash of return felt so refreshing.

[netcurse2000]

Great maps and atmosphere. One of the best Ultimate Doom wads I've played. Amazing replace for E1.

Difficulty level is much higher than in the original Episode 1 (played on UV).

In general, I really liked the idea of moving action to one of the asteroids (rather than somewhere in an abstract place). Perhaps you would like to do episodes on other asteroids or dwarf planets? Which would differ in the general atmosphere, environment etc. In any case, I have always liked wads related to space.

Map 01 playthrough with Vesper mod

 

 

[netcurse2000]

Map 02 playthrough

 

 

[slowfade]

On 7/14/2023 at 10:10 PM, Somniac said:

There's a Cyber in that final fight on UV, but for other difficulties I felt a double-dose of Barons (plus Cacos) was probably enough :p

Ah, yeah forgot to mention I played on HMP. Seemed well-balanced for that indeed. I'll try UV next time.

[netcurse2000]

I liked map03 more than map02. There are new enemies (spectres and lost souls) and new weapons. This map has a rather interesting progression.

Spoiler

And exit to secret map

Map03

 

 

[netcurse2000]

Map04

 

 

[Somniac]

On 7/15/2023 at 8:12 AM, netcurse2000 said:

Perhaps you would like to do episodes on other asteroids or dwarf planets? Which would differ in the general atmosphere, environment etc. In any case, I have always liked wads related to space.

 

I'm a total astronomy nerd, so that sounds like a good idea! Would make an interesting community project maybe, though I guess Solar Struggle already did something quite similar. Maybe one day hehe. Thanks for the playthroughs so far, also! That Vesper mod you're using looks cool, I'd like to give it a try sometime!

[netcurse2000]

Starting from map05, difficulty increases significantly. Barons appear. What I didn’t like very much is that quiet exploration is combined with large ambushes. By the way, it even looks like Doom 2016. Interesting detail - traces of past fights remained at the ambush sites.

Map05 playthrough

 

 

 

[netcurse2000]

After a short break, I returned to the passage of this mapset.

Map 06.

 

 

[netcurse2000]

Map07 seemed difficult enough. For some reason it reminded me Aliens series. Finally, plasma gun appears.

Map07 playthrough

 

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by netcurse2000

[OpenRift]

Just finished it. VERY solid stuff. Great use of music for that Doom 64-adjacent feel. Also love the end text. That's the kind of writing that fits the UAC.