Freedoom 0.13.0 was released

[rostuhan]

Today, Freedoom 0.13.0 was released. It has a lot of new stuff, so make sure to check it out. You can download it on the official Freedoom page: https://freedoom.github.io/

Happy new release, Freedoom!
Some screenshots:
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2024 by rostuhan
Screenshots update (once again)

[selliott4]

Thanks. For everyone's convenience here's a summary of the changes since the previous release (sorry for not translating to Markdown for this forum, but that's not obvious to me):

 

= Freedoom project news

== 0.13.0 (2024-01-29)
=== General
  * Improved vanilla compatibility.
  ** Boom features removed.
  ** Hall of mirrors greatly reduced.
  ** Visplane overflows fixed.
  ** Savegame buffer overflow errors remain.

=== Levels
  * Relevant Eureka warnings fixed.
  * New levels E1M9, E2M2, E2M3, E2M4, E2M7, E2M8, E3M5, MAP07, MAP21 and MAP27.
  * Various level renames.
  * Numerous vanilla fixes and aesthetic modernizations.
  * Fixed and standardized secret exits.

=== Manual
  * French and Spanish translations.
  * Sections added to highlight project mandate and additional accessibility options.

=== Misc
  * Adds automatic labeling to pull requests.

=== Monsters
  * New minigunner.
  * The hatchling, which replaces the deadflare.
  * The matribite, which replaces the summoner.

=== Music
  * Lots of new music including most of FreeDM music.

=== Sounds
  * New boss brain sounds.

=== Visuals
  * Colorblind-friendly keys and key indicators.
  * Various revisions to sprites and textures.
  * Improved kerning for menu text.

=== Weapons
  * Improved weapon sprites generally.
  * SSG replacement restored to updated take on older version.
  * Revised polaric energy weapon.
  * Double-barreled shotgun flash timing bug fixed in built-in DeHackEd.

=== Textures
  * Esa Repo (Espi)'s old STAR* textures are now included under ESPI*.
  * A STARBR1 texture is now included as a counterpart to STARBR2.
  * Numerous additional grey and METAL2-based textures also available.
  * Boss brain wall found to have Hexen resources and was re-done.
  * Wolfenstein replacements completely redone, designed to work as
    seamlessly with other textures as possible. A few are also added.

[Enzo Carozza]

You forgot a patch note: The octaminator, which replaces the dark soldier.

[selliott4]

Wow, you're right. That's a really neat and note worthy monster too. I'm surprised we missed that after our multiple reviews of the list. At least we have screenshots of the Octaminator. I'll update the website sometime today.

[Meerschweinmann]

I did a quick run at E1M1 and nice how the first levels entry area and the open area were get overhauled. Looks promising. Later i will have a deeper look.

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Does this mean that the road to Version 1.0 is upon us soon?

[GrnKnght]

Basically, replaced or changed a ton of maps, replaced a bunch of sprites, and did a general touch-up on everything.

Edited January 31, 2024 by GrnKnght

[panorain]

Excellent of you to do all this. I have never played Freedoom 1 or 2 before very recently. I do like the double barrel shotguns new look.

 

Edited January 31, 2024 by panorain
Capitalize F in freedoom for Freedoom.

[Lonespacemarine]

Awesome, the new maps are sure neat and also the small touches to existing maps are great too

[TuxWare]

in the phase 1 E1M1 starting area behind you in the window sky textures were used on walls which doesn't produce the look of skybox rather it is a wall with the sky1 texture

[Enzo Carozza]

You're never supposed to be out there, that's why it ends up looking like that.

[TuxWare]

well you can sorta see the sky texture  out of the window

[selliott4]

Interesting. I've never noticed that window in spite of all the times I've played that map. It's neat. I'm not too worried about the sky box texture not being an actual sky box - seems hard to notice, but good catch.

[erzboesewicht]

Nice, downloaded :)

Love the new sprites. The few new midis I've seen are also quite good.

 

About maps, I've played the new MAP07 and MAP21 for now.

 

MAP07 is cool, very interconnected and with some nice little traps. Perhaps a little bit switch-hunt-y. But an enormous improvement over the old MAP07 (even if I liked the olde one a bit because of how challenging it was, but objectively it was a weak Dead Simple clone).

 

MAP21, however, has some problems in my opinion. It is nice visually, I love hellish cave maps. But things start with the beginning "ambush", you can simply walk away into the lift. The monster probably meant to block you from doing that is no obstacle because you're safe in that area. Add one more? Then the extreme linearity. I associate cave maps with exploration and secret hunting, but here you have two points where you can't go back, without a specific reason. Also, I think the last part which is blocked from the rest of the map (particularly the two technospiders room) is too low on health. If you get the soulsphere before that doesn't matter but if not, then it's quite difficult for the intended audience I think. With some tweaks and perhaps a little bit more inter-connectivity it could be a good map though.

[TMMMS]

i struggle to find any secrets on the new e1m9. any help would be greatly appreciated her plz.

[Dimon12321]

14 hours ago, TMMMS said:

i struggle to find any secrets on the new e1m9. any help would be greatly appreciated her plz.

Here is my walkthrough with 100% kills and secrets, with a timecode at the beginning of E1M9
 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited March 2, 2024 by Dimon12321

[erzboesewicht]

Haha, I had also problems with E1M9's secrets.

 

Small hint if you don't want a full walkthrough:

 

Spoiler

Three of the secrets are in a single "chain" which starts in the sewers area. Get your feet dirty and watch for barely visible structures :)

 

Good level though, for me it's the best one until now from the new levels I played. Only perhaps a little bit too easy (I swam in ammo near the end, even almost without having found secrets). Interesting E1-style techbase with memorable areas and several small sewers.

 

I also played MAP27 of Phase 2. I think I played an earlier version of this one in one of the builds. The final version is an improvement. However, the map feels a bit empty sometimes. Above all in the eastern part I would add more monsters (and a bit of ammo to deal with them, even if I liked the resource starvation level in this map). And a freely available invul for a single archie (how was its correct Freedoom name?)-matribite pair is a bit too much I think, as there is lots of cover and the floors in this area aren't damaging. The monsters in the cage in the starting area can also fall from their pedestals and are then difficult to kill (albeit not impossible with the RL). And in general there is a bit a lack of space, even if it's almost never threatening.

 

Edit: also played E3M5. I like the layout, really cool location, but the gameplay seems unfinished. The first key ambush (I think it was red) triggers way too late, when the first monster appears you're probably already in the hub area again :) There are also plenty of quite empty areas, and if you find the two megaarmors (very easy secret one and one freely available) you're almost invincible. I liked the damaging blood area but it could also be more populated. The tripod fight would be cool if the door was closed at least for 30 secs and if there was more ammo, but even with secret plasma I ended up shotgunning it from outside the room. And that baron fight near the end for more goodies ... meh.

 

And let me ask: why was the old E3M5 removed? This was quite a cool map with interesting gameplay and layout. Or was it moved around somewhere else? Ah, I saw it was moved to E3M4. :) The map which had to go was actually the old E3M2, and I think that's a good decision.

 

BTW: Is there a way to participate in playtesting for the next versions without having to go to another platform (e.g. Discord)? Perhaps a thread could be started here to play through new or modified maps in the alpha builds ...

 

----

 

More reviews:

 

E2M2 - Very short, but that's not necessarily bad. Has some nice (easy) setpieces. Really good visuals, I like this kind of techbase. The secret near the exit though ... I had to look into the editor. Does the trigger need to be so close to the exit line itself?

 

E2M3: A mid-sized techbase-crate-sewers level, seems a bit a tribute to the OG Doom's E2M2, including the crusher part. There are some nice bits like the teleporter "blocking" access to a semi-secret area which contains a secret.

 

E2M4: Awesome map! It seems to be a retextured and heavily expanded version of the old map "Power Plant" (I think it was originally in Freedoom2 even, but in 0.12 it was E2M2). The main concept of this map, to use height levels for progression, which I already liked in the original, was heavily expanded. The fights however were toned down a bit and the almost absence of damaging floors also contributes to a more amenable, exploration-rewarding atmosphere. Gives almost the impression of a BTSX E1 techbase (albeit it's considerably easier), and in a good way. This is exactly the "remix culture" I would like to see also with some of the other old maps ;-)

 

E2M1 seems also to have changed, I don't know if it was re-edited but the start does not look familiar to me.

Edited March 2, 2024 by erzboesewicht

[realjohnmadden]

About time they redid the weapon sprites - they looked pretty bad before (although they still look a little weird, mainly with the hands).

[TMMMS]

i like the previous quake3-style supershotgun better. oh well.

[erzboesewicht]

More small reviews :)

 

E2M1: Is definitely a new level, I don't recognize any familiar parts. A relatively symmetric map with abundance of imp snipers and a nice small cave section. I liked it, pleasant run and gun gameplay, good episode starter.

E2M7: I guessed first this was completely new too, but looking at the automap the central part seems to be taken from the old E2M1. This small but punchy episode starter has now muted into a big fortress map with a quite unusual texturing scheme with these green walls. I liked to see a more spacious map in Freedoom1, and the indoor parts are good, with attrition-based gameplay not unlikely to Double Impact which can be tricky at times due to the high amount of shotgunners. The outdoor parts however imo are a missed opportunity for some bigger firefights and could also benefit from a bit more detail.

 

E2M8, despite of the changelog, is the old boss map with the two tripods. It seems to have been retextured partly with the same green walls than E2M7 but looks and plays still is a bit "basic". I guess this could be the next one to be replaced or heavily remixed.

 

So the list of new maps of Phase 1 should not be:

> E1M9, E2M2, E2M3, E2M4, E2M7, E2M8, E3M5

but instead:

E1M9, E2M1, E2M2, E2M3, E3M5 (E2M4 and E2M7 being heavily expanded maps E2M2 and E2M1)

 

I guess I have played all new (and heavily changed) maps now, and definitely I like the changes, above all the new monsters and the Phase 1 maps. The new Phase 2 maps need some tweaks in my opinion. And I'm a little bit nostalgic about the old MAP27, which had a cool hell section, but I guess it was simply too big (and parts of it too boring). I was also surprised that it wasn't the old E1M9 which had to go in Episode 1 but instead the old E1M5. Guess because it was too long and orthogonal? This one would definitely be worth to be preserved in some way, perhaps in the freedoom-classics megawad ...

 

Ah, what I forgot to mention: the small health pack now looks a bit like .... toilet paper. Is this intended? ;-)

Edited March 4, 2024 by erzboesewicht

[SwiftBlitz]

man, i really liked the dead simple clone, it was actually really challenging even with the megasphere and the music track was a banger. i don't like the one they replaced it with.

 

its been a long time since i've played freedoom and i'm replaying it to see the new maps and enemies, i've forgotton how long all the maps are, still haven't even reached the halfway mark.

Edited March 22, 2024 by Phantaxal

[Enzo Carozza]

3 minutes ago, Phantaxal said:

the music track was a banger.

"Riders of Hell" by Picklehammer: restoring that was rejected by someone who had write access at the time. :'(
It was DM05 for a bit mid-development, but it received an awful instrument change which I tried to revert but instantly got rejected.
I ended up restoring "Music for Freedoom 9" by Vandalorian (0.10 MAP18) there instead, but it just doesn't have the same feeling.

[epg]

The screenshots have all gone 404.

[rostuhan]

On 4/3/2024 at 4:21 AM, epg said:

The screenshots have all gone 404.

I rarely check DoomWorld, I'm going to fix this soon.

[Lonespacemarine]

The new RipSaw Textures look really cool, the old ones definitely needed replacements but here is the thing, Back then when it was called a angle grinder, it looked like a Saw, and now that it looks like a angle grinder, it is called the RipSaw😂😂

[watermelon eater gaming]

they added soda cans to doom in place of the 10 hp health packs

Edited April 25, 2024 by watermelon eater gaming

[TheUnbeholden]

Nice enemies. But can you upload images that are larger than that? Those are tiny and doesn't show off any of the changes well.

[ax34]

On 4/25/2024 at 5:53 AM, watermelon eater gaming said:

they added soda cans to doom in place of the 10 hp health packs

Looking at Freedomguy's face I think they are beer cans.

[camper]

21 minutes ago, ax34 said:

Looking at Freedomguy's face I think they are beer cans.

[MrFlibble]

On 4/25/2024 at 5:48 PM, TheUnbeholden said:

But can you upload images that are larger than that?

You can enjoy them, and more, in the official screenshot gallery:

https://freedoom.github.io/screenshots.html