Tom's Halls: A Doom Alpha Community Project (MUSICIANS WANTED!)

[Faceman2000]

Okay all, here's my take on the earliest version of E2M7. Please give it a spin and let me know what y'all think! I'm happy with how I was able to turn essentially just a long hallway into something enjoyable. I was hoping to keep the Hangar a little more recognizable, but man, that big empty space just didn't work at all haha. It's not like John ever worried much about that anyway.

 

Hangar 02: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GdMP5eCG_I9bdLwKlJPlRNUDBsDKiun4/view?usp=sharing

 

As per usual, this first edit only has UV singleplayer in place.

 

@Plerb, I played through your most recent rev and I don't have any notes. It's a great map, each time I play it I enjoy it a little more. Thanks for contributing to this project!

 

@DoodlesGDX, I also really like the edits you've made to your map! Feel free to keep tinkering away at it if you'd like, but I think it's in a good spot now. I once again thank you for your willingness to keep improving your map - it's not easy to take a preexisting level and turn it into something new, but you've kept with it. Thanks for participating in this project!

[Plerb]

On 12/4/2023 at 1:50 PM, Faceman2000 said:

@Plerb, I played through your most recent rev and I don't have any notes. It's a great map, each time I play it I enjoy it a little more. Thanks for contributing to this project! 

Thanks!

Also how will secret maps be handled? I haven't seen any maps designed to either be a secret map or have a secret exit. Will there even be secret maps at all?

[years]

4 hours ago, Plerb said:

Thanks!

Also how will secret maps be handled? I haven't seen any maps designed to either be a secret map or have a secret exit. Will there even be secret maps at all?

 

I'm happy to add a secret exit to my map if need be! It really depends on the ordering of maps however, and mine is quite sprawling and likely should be towards the end of an episode.

We could also make my map a secret one, since it isn't based on any of the alpha maps other than a staircase basically!

Also, should have an updated version of my map with more ammo and less vanilla glitches soon! Just been busy.

[Xeebleton]

I made some changes to my map. this should be the last rev to my map.

-made the monsters in the e2-like room deaf
-added a visual hint for the soulsphere + megaarmor secret (inspired by Doom 64 For Doom II)
-added some extra MP-Only stuff
-changes some thing places.

extramap_doodlesgdxRev7.zip

Edited December 6, 2023 by DoodlesGDX

[years]

Final or near-final build, fixed most of the tutti frutti and ammo scarcity.

 

Also having some issue with the textures/flats in the warehouse section where the grey and brown crate textures get 'mixed up' despite doing it correctly in doom builder.  I think it might be an error in the resource file?

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f2a0twu2bki9ypp6i7547/unusedmapyears.wad?rlkey=sz6f4q69lat4c3bg797eo2ln6&dl=0

 

Let me know what y'all think!

 

[Faceman2000]

As far as secret maps go, I’m. . . still trying to piece that together. When I started this project, I wasn’t sure how much traction it’d get - I was hoping for enough maps to fill an episode, maybe two. I’ve been floored by people’s enthusiasm and contributions - this is turning out better than I’d hoped.

 

Unfortunately, we’re now in a sort of awkward spot map-wise. With the maps already submitted and in progress, we’ve currently got 5 Phobos maps, 4 Hell maps, and 7 Deimos maps, plus Hexwalker’s two maps that I don’t know the theming of yet. That means we have 18 maps total, so we could end there: E1 would be Phobos and then Hell, and then E2 would be Deimos. That would follow the original episode order, too, which I would like. So once the last couple maps get submitted, we could call this finished.

 

Orrrrr we could get really ambitious and try for the full 27. This is exciting but presents its own concerns. For one, there’s not technically enough open slots to do so. We only have six available maps that haven’t been worked on yet. However, if we throw in Dev.wad’s SHAWNMAP, we can get that up to seven. I have an idea for a Deimos-themed secret map that is a Warrens-style riff on Taufan99’s Andakhupa utilizing those extra areas shown in this image, which would take us to eight - technically enough to fill an episode, though it would leave E3 without a secret map. This presents it’s own issues, however: COMM5, COMM6, and SHAWNMAP are all just solitary rooms, with little to speak of, and the alpha versions of E2M1 and E2M4 are so close to final that using them would essentially just be a Switcheroom-style map. I’m largely okay with that, but I worry if players would find those distract from more than enhance the idea of a wad full of finished alpha maps. The map scraps have led to some of the more interesting maps in this map pack, but at the same time least represent what the alphas had in store.

 

So I don’t know. I’d love input from anyone who’s contributed or just is interested in the project. I’m kind of leaning towards the full 27 maps but maybe this is a less-is-more situation.

[Plerb]

Putting Hell before Deimos, like it was during development, is a really good idea now that I think about it!

Considering this is otherwise vanilla-compatible, using sky transfers or UMAPINFO feels a bit weird to me. There's a vanilla-compatible way to make an episode shorter, but it would sacrifice any secret maps: for example E3M1 -> E3M9 -> E3M7 -> E3M8, where the secret exit is placed in E3M1. Perhaps this could be used in one or two episodes if the full 27 maps don't end up getting filled.

[Xeebleton]

never mind, this is the last.

-fixed some textures in the E2 area and the computer area that looked off
-changed the teleporter secret from w1 to wr
-removed some unnecessary decorations in the altar room
-added some blood decorations in the hell room
-added more coop monsters

extramap_doodlesgdxRev8.zip

[Individualised]

16 hours ago, Faceman2000 said:

As far as secret maps go, I’m. . . still trying to piece that together. When I started this project, I wasn’t sure how much traction it’d get - I was hoping for enough maps to fill an episode, maybe two. I’ve been floored by people’s enthusiasm and contributions - this is turning out better than I’d hoped.

 

Unfortunately, we’re now in a sort of awkward spot map-wise. With the maps already submitted and in progress, we’ve currently got 5 Phobos maps, 4 Hell maps, and 7 Deimos maps, plus Hexwalker’s two maps that I don’t know the theming of yet. That means we have 18 maps total, so we could end there: E1 would be Phobos and then Hell, and then E2 would be Deimos. That would follow the original episode order, too, which I would like. So once the last couple maps get submitted, we could call this finished.

 

Orrrrr we could get really ambitious and try for the full 27. This is exciting but presents its own concerns. For one, there’s not technically enough open slots to do so. We only have six available maps that haven’t been worked on yet. However, if we throw in Dev.wad’s SHAWNMAP, we can get that up to seven. I have an idea for a Deimos-themed secret map that is a Warrens-style riff on Taufan99’s Andakhupa utilizing those extra areas shown in this image, which would take us to eight - technically enough to fill an episode, though it would leave E3 without a secret map. This presents it’s own issues, however: COMM5, COMM6, and SHAWNMAP are all just solitary rooms, with little to speak of, and the alpha versions of E2M1 and E2M4 are so close to final that using them would essentially just be a Switcheroom-style map. I’m largely okay with that, but I worry if players would find those distract from more than enhance the idea of a wad full of finished alpha maps. The map scraps have led to some of the more interesting maps in this map pack, but at the same time least represent what the alphas had in store.

 

So I don’t know. I’d love input from anyone who’s contributed or just is interested in the project. I’m kind of leaning towards the full 27 maps but maybe this is a less-is-more situation.

Maybe you could add MAP36 to the roster? I know it's Doom 2 but it could still be finished as a "what if" Doom 1 map. It's not like there's any monsters (I think it doesn't use any Doom 2 exclusive textures as well but I'm not sure) already placed, so it could go anywhere

Edited December 7, 2023 by Individualised

[Plerb]

I definitely think a rough recreation of the one level sketch in the Doom Bible should be added to the roster. We even know what the exact things are supposed to be in the map unlike unusedmap.wad, heh.

Edit: I started working on a recreation right now, I'll post it here when it's done. It shouldn't take that long.

Edit 2: Okay here's my recreation. I only eyeballed it but it should be fairly accurate. It contains everything the Doom Bible says it has and nothing more, with Tom Hall's signature SHAWN2, brown lights and blue carpets. I'd love it if this gets added to the map roster.

 

dbible_map.zip

Edited December 9, 2023 by Plerb

[Individualised]

10 hours ago, Plerb said:

I definitely think a rough recreation of the one level sketch in the Doom Bible should be added to the roster. We even know what the exact things are supposed to be in the map unlike unusedmap.wad, heh.

We know that the object in the final room of unusedmap is a Cyberdemon. The level is actually probably a very early version of Tower of Babel. I was gonna essentially make it a Tower of Babel replacement before I dropped out of that slot; I would have mixed in some stuff from the Jaguar version of Tower of Babel as well.

 

But yeah the Doom Bible level sketch should probably be in here. I forgot that was even a thing.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Individualised

[Plerb]

Interesting. How many boss maps are there? (I haven't played every map for this yet, I want to wait until it's released to play all of them.) If E2 is Hell and E3 is Deimos, I think it'd also be a good idea to have the spider mastermind boss in E2 and the cyberdemon in E3. I think they could be easily swapped in DeHackEd for the correct boss actions without affecting anything else. Having a boss map based on an early Tower of Babel would be cool, if it can exist alongside years's take on unusedmap, but I don't know if there's already a cyberdemon boss map already.

 

I also think SHAWNMAP should be included. As for MAP36, if a Doom 2 sequel to this is planned, it should go in there instead (it only has Doom 2 textures). Otherwise I'd also support its inclusion.

 

Yesterday I had a map idea. If I end up making a third map, I'll use it, but here it is in case I don't. It's definitely possible that in an alternate universe id Software would use their own floorplan as inspiration for a section of a map. (image taken from Game Engine Black Book: Doom):

It'd be really really funny if a dead body is placed where that outline of Dave Taylor is.

(I don't think this should be included in the map roster, though. Just as an additional section of another map)

EDIT: I ended up claiming more maps, and this concept is going to be used in my Doom Bible sketch map.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Plerb

[Plerb]

Also, is it okay if I use the resource pack for a personal project of mine? It's a bit more complete and more ideal for Ultimate Doom than plain ol' lostres.

[Faceman2000]

Plerb, thank you for throwing that together - that's a great idea and a fantastic addition to the roster. Thanks to Wadmodder Shelton for bringing it up earlier, too - I'd forgotten about it. As far as boss maps go, we currently only have one for Deimos/E3 - Malice by Blast Brothers. It's a dual Cyberdemon fight and I think it'll be a great end to the wad. As far as the other episodes go, Hexwalker is working on the map that would eventually become Refueling Base. According to Sandy it was originally intended to be the E1 boss map so I suggested we do the same thing, but I'm not sure if he'll decide to interpret it that way or not.

 

Finally, absolutely you can use the resource wad! Just make sure credit all the appropriate people - Xaser, NaturalTvventy, David G, Jimmy, and myself.

 

EDIT: I also noticed in the early screenshots that Wadmodder Shalton posted, there's this map that I don't recognize from any of the betas, plus the placeholder automap image that doesn't line up with any of the maps. I'll try to recreate those and add them as scraps, too.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Faceman2000

[Rudolph]

I do not know if it had been pointed out since, but E5M1 seems to be missing some textures, namely before the two teleporters behind the blue keycard.

 

Unless that issue has already been addressed and the version that can be downloaded from the OP is outdated?

[Faceman2000]

5 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

I do not know if it had been pointed out since, but E5M1 seems to be missing some textures, namely before the two teleporters behind the blue keycard.

 

Unless that issue has already been addressed and the version that can be downloaded from the OP is outdated?

I'm not seeing any missing textures there. . . did you load the resource wad alongside it?

[Rudolph]

10 hours ago, Faceman2000 said:

I'm not seeing any missing textures there. . . did you load the resource wad alongside it?

Oh, that is why... I was somehow under the impression that it was no longer necessary. My bad.

 

Anyway, it is a pretty good map! As @Individualised stated, it does feel like an actual Doom 1 map that did not make the final cut.

[Plerb]

21 hours ago, Faceman2000 said:

Finally, absolutely you can use the resource wad! Just make sure credit all the appropriate people - Xaser, NaturalTvventy, David G, Jimmy, and myself.

Great! Also thanks for adding my recreation of the Doom Bible sketch to the map roster!

 

I think the original post should have a list keeping track of which maps belong to which themes/episodes, including ones in development, as well as stating it's final slot if it's known (e.g. E3M8: Malice). Something along these lines:

Phobos Maps:
-Map 1 by Author 1
-Map 2 by Author 2

Hell Maps:
-Map 1 by Author 1
-Map 2 by Author 2 [In Development]

Deimos Maps:
-Map 1 by Author 1

Also, is it preferable to claim music slots beforehand, or is it fine to just submit songs as I make them? The latter would be more convenient for me.

 

Lastly, I think I'll claim two maps: A hell map using COMM6 and the Doom Bible map, and a (likely) Phobos map based on 0.3/0.4/0.5 E1M2. Keep in mind I might not start working on them right away, as I'm trying to finish a map for another community project.

[Faceman2000]

I really need to rework the first post to better clarify the project’s current status but haven’t gotten around to it yet. It might encourage more involvement if things were a little clearer.

 

Sounds good, @Plerb! For the map that became E2M2, I would encourage you to use the 0.3 version of the map as your base since the others are so close to final. If you’re doing a techbase, make sure to work hard to differentiate it from the final map - I strongly suggest keeping the starting point in the same place as it is in 0.3, adding lots of height variation since E2M2 is largely flat, and retexturing the crate maze.

 

As for music, I don’t think it’s necessary to claim a slot per se - just submitting songs as you make them will be fine.

[Plerb]

I'm also open to making the Containment Area map Hell-based, but I wasn't sure if crates make sense in hell. But now that I think of it, I could scrap the crate concept completely and make it a maze of hellgrowth instead or something. Any thoughts?

(And yes, I'm going to use 0.3 as the base, however I will incorporate some lost concepts from later versions, such as the position of the exit in 0.5.)

 

Also I started working on a cover of un36.mid that should be MUCH less annoying than the original.

[Rudolph]

3 minutes ago, Plerb said:

Also I started working on a cover of un36.mid that should be MUCH less annoying than the original.

Someone has already made one. What do you think about it?

 

 

[Plerb]

That's interesting. I wonder if it could be used in this project.

(The one I just talked about was un36, not un31, however I did happen to start a cover of un31 a few months ago. I didn't get very far with it though)

[Faceman2000]

2 hours ago, Plerb said:

I'm also open to making the Containment Area map Hell-based, but I wasn't sure if crates make sense in hell. But now that I think of it, I could scrap the crate concept completely

It's up to you - I think either Phobos or Deimos is fine. In either case, I strongly suggest retexturing the crates to be something else. The crate maze is so synonymous with the final level I feel it'd be hard to make it feel like it's own thing if they're left as crates. If you think you can pull it off without retexturing them though, you are welcome to.

2 hours ago, Rudolph said:

Someone has already made one. What do you think about it?

I added it to the list of music options on the first page. Nice find!

 

I restructured the first post to give a rough idea of what the map order looks like and to make things clearer for new people jumping in. Final map order will be decided once all maps are in and will be sorted by size of the map and difficulty.

 

I also added two more scraps, based off those Alpha images. The one based off of the automap has two different scales, one with more Tom Hall-esque narrow corridors and one with wider halls, seeing as the scaling was ambiguous at best. The other is a collection of random rooms I tried to recreate. I tried to get everything as close as possible but there was a lot of guessing involved.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Faceman2000

[Rudolph]

9 hours ago, Faceman2000 said:

I added it to the list of music options on the first page. Nice find!

Amusingly enough, I stumbled upon it while looking for an upload of the original un36.mid to refresh my memory. :P

 

10 hours ago, Plerb said:

(The one I just talked about was un36, not un31, however I did happen to start a cover of un31 a few months ago. I didn't get very far with it though)

Oh fuck, somehow I misread the track title. I could have sworn I typed "un36.mid" in the YouTube search bar. Oh well...

[Plerb]

I finished my un36 cover, but because converting .it to .mid can be such a fucking pain in the ass sometimes, I don't have a MIDI ready yet. Hopefully I will by tomorrow. I really need to look into MIDI trackers at some point.

EDIT: Okay, we got the errors ironed out sooner than I expected. Here it is. As with my last music contribution, @Melodic Spaceship helped with the conversion from .it to .mid.

I don't have a name for it this time.

un36 cover.zip

 

On 12/14/2023 at 5:59 AM, Rudolph said:

Oh fuck, somehow I misread the track title. I could have sworn I typed "un36.mid" in the YouTube search bar. Oh well...

It's entirely possible you searched for un36, but un31 also came up, because search engines tend to also show results that are very similar but not exactly the same as what you typed.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Plerb
typos

[Plerb]

I made another song! A very spooky track based off of un13. I did the conversion from .it to .mid myself this time. Again I don't have a name for it (yet).

un13 cover.zip

 

@YeOldeFellerNoob, are you still planning to make music for this?

 

Also @Faceman2000 I played your Hangar 02 map a few days ago and I thought it was really good! Your usage of alpha textures is really impressive.

[YeOldeFellerNoob]

23 hours ago, Plerb said:

I made another song! A very spooky track based off of un13. I did the conversion from .it to .mid myself this time. Again I don't have a name for it (yet).

un13 cover.zip

 

@YeOldeFellerNoob, are you still planning to make music for this?

 

Also @Faceman2000 I played your Hangar 02 map a few days ago and I thought it was really good! Your usage of alpha textures is really impressive.

Hello. I apologize for not updating as much. I have been dealing with school and work for the most part. I have 2 of the songs finished (though they do need a bit of polishing up before release).

[nicolas monti]

This is 0.5 E1M11 (spawning vats) rendered by @Cacodemon187 and finished by me as I was asked for.

I tried to pay respect to Tom Hall and Caco187 and at the same time to apply my own "aesthetic sensibilities" on it, I hope nobody gets upset on it lol, changes can be made.

Some rearrangement of the portions which where left isolated on the north of the map where also reused and are organically integrated into the layout.

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/y5knn7r2rashpy3/05-E1M11-caco187-monti.wad/file

Edited December 18, 2023 by nicolas monti

[Cacodemon187]

18 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

This is 0.5 E1M11 (spawning vats) rendered by @Cacodemon187 and finished by me as I was asked for.

I tried to pay respect to Tom Hall and Caco187 and at the same time to apply my own "aesthetic sensibilities" on it, I hope nobody gets upset on it lol, changes can be made.

Some rearrangement of the portions which where left isolated on the north of the map where also reused and are organically integrated into the layout.

You did a fantastic job, Monti!! I love the way the level unfolds, specially when you enter the corrupted spawning vats hall at the last stretch of the map.  I'd like to edit it further now that it's in a more complete state if that's not an issue, although I'd start doing that in january as these holidays will get pretty busy for me. One thing that worries me is that the map is not vanilla compatible, there's some VPOs here and there plus a couple tutti frutti effects. I'll help fix these up after the holidays.

Thank you for finishing the map :)

[nicolas monti]

57 minutes ago, Cacodemon187 said:

You did a fantastic job, Monti!! I love the way the level unfolds, specially when you enter the corrupted spawning vats hall at the last stretch of the map.  I'd like to edit it further now that it's in a more complete state if that's not an issue, although I'd start doing that in january as these holidays will get pretty busy for me. One thing that worries me is that the map is not vanilla compatible, there's some VPOs here and there plus a couple tutti frutti effects. I'll help fix these up after the holidays.

Thank you for finishing the map :)

 

Not an issue at all, take it. I wasn't aware about the tutti fruttis because I was using DSDA, I'm curious about where those happen as well as the VPOs, I'm kind of trained in not using short textures where there are not supposed to be used. I'm sure it's an easy fix.

I'm prone to VPOs because I like windows but changing their height a bit could fix the issue unless there is no way and one has to delete it.

Edited December 19, 2023 by nicolas monti