Ex Aequo - Ultimate Doom MegaWad [ALPHA - Playtesters are welcome for E2 !]

[Bri0che]

Intro -

Welcome to Ex Aequo, an Ultimate Doom megawad I started to work on after I eventually released NostalDoom,
another Ultimate Doom E1 replacement wad. Initially, Ex Aequo was supposed to be a sequel to it but I finally decided to
start from scratch again, trying to provide you some even better quality content.
This is an opened playtest alpha of the Episode II. I count on you if you want to help me and point out bugs (you should not find any softlock I swear) and gameplay issues if you find any.
I am also opened and will hear your suggestions.
Thank you !

 

 

 

Available maps -

E2M1: Stone Age
E2M2: Lurking Evil
E2M3: Abandon
E2M4: Iron Age
E2M5: Forgotten Passage
E2M6: Forbidden Symphony
E2M7: Whisperers in Darkness (officially named "Darkness" because the full name is too long ; do you have this title's reference by the way ?)
E2M8: The CyberBrothers
E2M9: Anachronism 

(every music is from AD_79 or Korp, very qualitative stuff if you want my opinion,
the only exception is for the intermission music which I composed)

 

 

 

Screenshots -

Just one little screenie...

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Important informations before playing -

IWAD needed: Doom I / Ultimate Doom
May run with: Anything except too Vanilla ports (DOS and Chocolat Doom have issues that I won't fix)
The usual: No crouch, no jump, freelook is ok
Difficulties: Implemented but UV recommended. What they change is 90% of the stuff given such as armors and powerups. For exemple in easy you will have almost everytime an armor at the beginning of the map.

Play Time: Maps are relatively short (average of 100 monsters, 8 to 10 minutes for completion).

Build Time: almost 1 month straight for this E2. I am certainly already mapping E1 at the time you are reading this.

Gameplay (read this): A mixed bag. Maps are mostly linear with "optional" doors and stuff… The general difficulty range is between medium to soft-hard depending of your own experience. I believe most of players will find these maps regular, difficulty wise.

For a real (but fair, don't worry) challenge, I highly recommend Pistol Start, otherwise I do not guarantee you will not feel overpowered just a little bit.
I still tried to balance as much as possible the maps, but balancing both Pistol Start AND Continuous Play is a real challenge, trust me.

 

 

>>> Download <<<

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/u8xooktrzrdgzdg/Ex+Aequo.wad/file

(1.1: fixed a BIG softlock on E2M7 which prevented the player from taking the red key leading to the exit

1.2: minor changes)

 

Good luck, have fun, and thank you again !

Edited July 17, 2023 by Bri0che
1.2 patch

[RaRu Des2122]

Oh, new megawads on The Ultimate Doom are always welcome! The first and general impression - I definitely like it. The second and third times I will investigate everything much more thoroughly for a more detailed report.

 

But what exactly deserves a big plus right now is the secret level! Firstly, it's not that I haven't seen anything like this (for example, The Long Trek Back Home megawad) but such an idea is still far from being called hackneyed today. Secondly, the level itself is unmistakably recognizable (I think @Bri0che intended it that way) and the style is fully sustained, so I never had any doubts that I was playing exactly in the second episode of The Ultimate Doom. And thirdly - oh, this bait at the end! It's not the first time this has come across (Map04 from Speed Master, Map22 from 1994 Tune-Up) but still emotions are still evoked at such moments...

 

Before retiring to go through this episode more slowly and in more detail, I will express a wish that the inscriptions at the place of selection of the first and third episodes are not deceived! :D

[Bri0che]

23 hours ago, RaRu Des2122 said:

Oh, new megawads on The Ultimate Doom are always welcome! The first and general impression - I definitely like it. The second and third times I will investigate everything much more thoroughly for a more detailed report.

 

But what exactly deserves a big plus right now is the secret level! Firstly, it's not that I haven't seen anything like this (for example, The Long Trek Back Home megawad) but such an idea is still far from being called hackneyed today. Secondly, the level itself is unmistakably recognizable (I think @Bri0che intended it that way) and the style is fully sustained, so I never had any doubts that I was playing exactly in the second episode of The Ultimate Doom. And thirdly - oh, this bait at the end! It's not the first time this has come across (Map04 from Speed Master, Map22 from 1994 Tune-Up) but still emotions are still evoked at such moments...

 

Before retiring to go through this episode more slowly and in more detail, I will express a wish that the inscriptions at the place of selection of the first and third episodes are not deceived! :D

 

Thank you for your comment !

I am also very proud of this secret level :) ironically I only had the idea because of the music track that remind of Running from Evil, I told to myself "hey, why not use this music for a secret level that is basically Doom II's MAP01 in Doom I, starting from the usual exit to the beginning ?" and that's it. "Anachronism" simply remind that.

 

By the way, I just noticed that E2M7 has a softlocked passage and a mistextured wall, my bad… I fixed it, don't hesitate to redownload the wad :p

Edited July 11, 2023 by Bri0che

[RataUnderground]

Congratulations, I haven't found any technical problems, except for a couple of misaligned textures on map 5, I think? Well, it's all in the video.
As for the gameplay, maybe it's too narrow and reliant on ambushes to be entirely to my liking, but they're certainly fun maps with a very distinctive style. Maybe I'd be a bit more generous with the ammo, but that's a minor complaint (the last cyberdemon I had to kill with the pistol xD).

[Bri0che]

50 minutes ago, RataUnderground said:

As for the gameplay, maybe it's too narrow and reliant on ambushes to be entirely to my liking, but they're certainly fun maps with a very distinctive style. Maybe I'd be a bit more generous with the ammo, but that's a minor complaint (the last cyberdemon I had to kill with the pistol xD).

 

I know that there is a lot of ambushes on these maps and that it may not be that attractive for some players… I must be honest, I don't know how to render a better fight with anything else.

For the ammo issue, I agree that they are very sparse and tight, mainly because I still wanted the continuous players not to have too much ammo… I will have to adjust that ;)

 

Anyway, thank you for playing, and your video ! Very usefull stuff :)

Edited July 11, 2023 by Bri0che

[jmac]

I just finished playing thorugh this on UV, using DSDA-Doom.

 

The chapter as a whole was very enjoyable to play. I remember trying some of your earlier work and being impressed by how well you seem to handle the flow of progression, and this chapter has that same strength. I also like how elaborate a lot of the secrets in the first few maps were. Aside from E2M8 (which I'll get into more below), all of the maps in the chapter were very well made, with both excellent gameplay and visuals. I'm looking forward to getting to play the entire complete wad.

 

Here's some feedback on the issues I had while playing the chapter:

- It seemed to me like you started to run out of steam for secret ideas as the chapter went on. The early maps had secrets with a lot of substance to them, with whole areas and secret keys etc. The later maps in the chapter started to have secrets that were a lot more basic. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I was a bit dissappointed, as the early maps had gotten me excited to hunt for all of the secrets.

- The red key room in E2M7 might be broken. I could find no way to lower the pillar, and I also could not leave the room without noclipping. I'm using a fairly old version of DSDA, so it could be a problem on my end.

- E2M8 just wasn't really any fun in my opinion. It seemed to rely on getting the cyberdemons to infight with the barons, but had them positioned in in ways where they couldn't effectively attack each other. I ended up killing the middle cyberdemon off right at the start, and then mostly just standing around watching the wandering cyberdemon and barons trying and failing to attack each other.

[Bri0che]

19 minutes ago, jmac said:

I just finished playing thorugh this on UV, using DSDA-Doom.

 

The chapter as a whole was very enjoyable to play. I remember trying some of your earlier work and being impressed by how well you seem to handle the flow of progression, and this chapter has that same strength. I also like how elaborate a lot of the secrets in the first few maps were. Aside from E2M8 (which I'll get into more below), all of the maps in the chapter were very well made, with both excellent gameplay and visuals. I'm looking forward to getting to play the entire complete wad.

 

Here's some feedback on the issues I had while playing the chapter:

- It seemed to me like you started to run out of steam for secret ideas as the chapter went on. The early maps had secrets with a lot of substance to them, with whole areas and secret keys etc. The later maps in the chapter started to have secrets that were a lot more basic. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I was a bit dissappointed, as the early maps had gotten me excited to hunt for all of the secrets.

- The red key room in E2M7 might be broken. I could find no way to lower the pillar, and I also could not leave the room without noclipping. I'm using a fairly old version of DSDA, so it could be a problem on my end.

- E2M8 just wasn't really any fun in my opinion. It seemed to rely on getting the cyberdemons to infight with the barons, but had them positioned in in ways where they couldn't effectively attack each other. I ended up killing the middle cyberdemon off right at the start, and then mostly just standing around watching the wandering cyberdemon and barons trying and failing to attack each other.

 

Thank you for your review :)

- Indeed I wasn't really inspired for the secrets with the later maps, some of these maps indeed turned out to have none or almost 1 of them in their earlier state, just before the releasing. I think I'll reconsider and maybe rework some of them

 

- E2M7 was broken when I first published it yes (I made a walking floor lowering instead of a switch one, my bad), maybe you downloaded the 1.0 release that's why. It has been patched since.

 

- Well, I made little changes to E2M8 now, mainly giving the player more stuffs and weapons, the barons aren't necessarily monsters to kill, at least this is what I had in my head when I placed them, they are just here to be a threat that you have to dodge so you can't easily snipe and kill the cyberdemons, but you can still kill them if you want (ended up that if you do it in the 1.0 you almost had not enough ammunition).

Anyway, I'm sorry you don't like this map, I tried to do an interesting fight but that's kinda hard to be original with the already big boys they are ;)

Edited July 16, 2023 by Bri0che

[jmac]

3 minutes ago, Bri0che said:

 

- E2M7 was broken when I first published it yes (I made a walking floor lowering instead of a switch one, my bad), maybe you downloaded the 1.0 release that's why. It has been patched since.

 

That'd be it. I think I downloaded it the day you made this thread and didn't get around to finishing it until now. I didn't realize updates had been made in the mean time.

[Bri0che]

Big updates for this 1.3 !

I am working on the E1, but for now here is an update of the E2. Among all the minor ajustements I made, I drastically adjusted some secret areas in the later levels, a whole area for the secret level is also in work (no spoil but this will be an even more interesting level).

The following levels now have more interesting secret areas (thanks to @jmac for pointing out) :

E2M4

E2M6

E2M7

E2M9

 

This is probably the last update of this alpha, the next release will be official and contain E1 and E3, then the final release will contain E4 :)

Thank you.

 

 

[Floowand]

Great work!

E2M3 and E2M9 are my favorite maps.

E2M2 was kinda confusing and the pacing of the map feels different from the others. Some places appears black on the map.

I agree with the others comments about E2M8. Since i almost found all secrets on the episode, the map was really easy but i can see how the mandatory infighting can be kinda wack if you pistol start, you did not preserve ammunition, find secrets or not a expert on the BFG.

Love that the secrets are easy and fun to find, especially since you added a computer map in almost maps and this reaches another point that others comment too, that the secrets in the last maps seem afterthoughts.

Overall, i have fun and eager to play the next release.

[Bri0che]

13 hours ago, Floowand said:

Great work!

E2M3 and E2M9 are my favorite maps.

E2M2 was kinda confusing and the pacing of the map feels different from the others. Some places appears black on the map.

I agree with the others comments about E2M8. Since i almost found all secrets on the episode, the map was really easy but i can see how the mandatory infighting can be kinda wack if you pistol start, you did not preserve ammunition, find secrets or not a expert on the BFG.

Love that the secrets are easy and fun to find, especially since you added a computer map in almost maps and this reaches another point that others comment too, that the secrets in the last maps seem afterthoughts.

Overall, i have fun and eager to play the next release.

 

Thank you for playing and your comment :)

 

Funny that a lot of us share the same attraction, because E2M3 and E2M9 are also my favorite ones, alongside the fact that E2M9 is the map I had the most fun to work on, surely because of the nature of the map itself.

 

E2M2 is somewhat the map that I'm indeed the less proud of, even though I don't hate it because it this is the first map I worked on (E2M1 is a scraped map from another E2 set I was planing and that never saw the light of the day) this is probably the map which I came back to the most… Indeed even yesterday I reworked and added some rooms to it. x)

 

E2M8 has been reworked, this rework hasn't been released yet and will be in the official release ; what I can say is that it now detain a secret BFG. 

 

The later secrets are also a problem, I saw "big" with the previous ones, so the later ones feels obviously a little "weaker" even though I already reworked them one time. I think I'll review them again.

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Bri0che

[Bri0che]

Hello, I am sharing you a short update of Ex Aequo today. I Just finished E1M9 (or maybe 90% finished, currently the map need balancing and stuff), I really like this map. Definitely, E1 is going very very well !

 

https://ibb.co/p03NSx6 >>> Screenshot of E1M9 automap, notice how the map is based (from scratch) on Tom Hall's MAP01 from the Doom 0.5 version)

 

Actually, E1 is half finished : E1M1 ; E1M2 ; E1M3 ; E1M4 ; E1M9 are finished

E2 as you know is completely finished

E3M1 is finished and E3M2 is under construction

E4M2 is finished and E4M1 is under construction

 

I'm not so sure about releasing E1 for a beta playtest, do you people would be interested for it ?

[Tangra]

Thank you for sharing this!

 

In recent weeks i got an urge to go back and revisit some good old Doom 1 episode replacements and megawads. I guess i'm mentally preparing for SIGIL II. Did Fava Beans, DTWID, was about to replay 2002: ADO when i saw this, and i'm glad i did.

It is amazing, hats down, probably my favorite set of maps of the year so far. The levels are exactly what i want from classic inspired Doom maps. The encounters are interesting and very diverse, and i'm very impressed what you pulled here with the limited Doom 1 enemies. Each map brings new and unique traps and challenges. The balance and progression are perfect... assuming you're aiming to make something similar, or slightly harder than the original Episode 2. The layouts and map sizes also hit just about right. When a map can pull an interesting layout that also feels very intuitive to navigate, i'm always impressed, and this is something that's always been my goal when making maps. I don't mind the usage of the automap, but when a level makes me stare at it too often, that kills any sense of pace for me. Here there is no such thing, i was in the action all the time, and the gameplay flow felt great.

I guess a failed as playtester, as i didn't discover technical problems (maybe there aren't any?), but i really didn't watch out for that, i was just flying through the levels and having a blast. 

 

The music selection is also really, really good and feels very coherent, like all these midis were written for and belong in this episode. I think the e2m7 track was a bit louder than the rest, i could be wrong, but it felt like it was overwhelming the sound effects.

 

Looking forward to seeing more from this project!

Edited September 12, 2023 by Tangra

[Bri0che]

21 hours ago, Tangra said:

Thank you for sharing this!

 

In recent weeks i got an urge to go back and revisit some good old Doom 1 episode replacements and megawads. I guess i'm mentally preparing for SIGIL II. Did Fava Beans, DTWID, was about to replay 2002: ADO when i saw this, and i'm glad i did.

It is amazing, hats down, probably my favorite set of maps of the year so far. The levels are exactly what i want from classic inspired Doom maps. The encounters are interesting and very diverse, and i'm very impressed what you pulled here with the limited Doom 1 enemies. Each map brings new and unique traps and challenges. The balance and progression are perfect... assuming you're aiming to make something similar, or slightly harder than the original Episode 2. The layouts and map sizes also hit just about right. When a map can pull an interesting layout that also feels very intuitive to navigate, i'm always impressed, and this is something that's always been my goal when making maps. I don't mind the usage of the automap, but when a level makes me stare at it too often, that kills any sense of pace for me. Here there is no such thing, i was in the action all the time, and the gameplay flow felt great.

I guess a failed as playtester, as i didn't discover technical problems (maybe there aren't any?), but i really didn't watch out for that, i was just flying through the levels and having a blast. 

 

The music selection is also really, really good and feels very coherent, like all these midis were written for and belong in this episode. I think the e2m7 track was a bit louder than the rest, i could be wrong, but it felt like it was overwhelming the sound effects.

 

Looking forward to seeing more from this project!

 

Thank you a lot for this comment :)

2002: ADO is one of my inspiration for this megawad, as No End In Sight is. So it's an honor for me if you really like it.

 

By the way, here is typically what E1 will look like, even though it's short and easy, this is E1M1 (I won't show you the secrets ;p) :

 

 

 

Every E1 map will start in front of a basement like you can see at the beginning, the switch-platform with the two evil eyes will also be the gimmick of the episode, serving as a key objective that open the way.

If you knew how many time I reworked E1M1 before being satisfied with this one, I even entirely remade it once, here is the first one, he's not that bad, but was far away from what I wanted :

 

 https://www.mediafire.com/file/d4tw8v80xbmrxm3/Scraped+E1M1.wad/file

Edited September 13, 2023 by Bri0che

[Tangra]

Looking good! And the scrapped level is not bad at all, but the new one definitely feels like a better episode opener. For some reason, i always thought a Map01 in a megawad should have both interior and exterior parts. It's also more open and fast-paced, so i can see why you changed it. The old version is still a nice level, so don't toss it away for good, i'm sure you'll find some use for it one day.

[Bri0che]

Hello, some news for Ex Aequo :)

E1M7 is "finished" (95% finished exactly, need some polish, some rooms are still kinda bland as you can see on the screenshot)...

 

This map is the biggest one I've done for Ex Aequo this far, but not the one that toke me the most time to do (actually it is E4M2, I believe). The funny part is that this very map you see bellow (which is the one E1M7 I'm talking about) was originally E1M5, but when I saw how big and consistent it was, I knew it would have to belong as E1M7. It count nearly 200 monsters ! But they fall very quickly I promise, and it is still not a slaugthermap at all.

 

Finally, I will probably open a beta for E1 despite the fact that I didn't wanted to in the first place, it should help me to go for balance and bug correction step by step and not having to do all of this in one and big step. Not now though, E1M5 isn't done so, E1M6 has just been started, and E1M8 isn't started yet. However, E1 is almost complete and ready to be served, then E3 and E4 shouldn't be big deal and so I will maybe succeed to have a release candidate before 2024 :)

 

 

Edited September 27, 2023 by Bri0che

[Bri0che]

Episode 1 is almost 90% completed, only E1M8 isn't finished yet (at its 80%) and need a proper ending, then I'll do a last full playtest alone to correct gameplay issues and bugs. I may upload a beta this week-end :)

Edited November 29, 2023 by Bri0che

[Bri0che]

Here is finally the beta released, enjoy !