Interception III [MBF21 Community Project]

[Moustachio]

In the future, a mysterious infection is spreading throughout the city, and demons are running amok. The UAC’s sentient AI has gone rogue, corrupted by Hell’s influence. It’s up to you to save the future, but you’ll have to face the past first…

Format

• DOOM2.WAD + intercep3_res.wad
• MBF21-format [-complevel 21]
• Single-player & co-op compatibility
• UMAPINFO for map ordering & text screens

 

>> Download the Resource Pack (v005) <<

 

Not all of the sounds and graphics are final. Some may need to be tweaked or reworked. Please check back for any updates to the resource wad.

 

MAP DEADLINE: AUGUST 1, 2025

 

Target Ports

• DSDA-Doom
• Woof!
• Odamex

 

Please, do not playtest with GZDoom. GZDoom mostly works, but MBF21 splash groups are handled inconsistently compared to the other MBF21-compatible ports. I've opened an issue on GitHub for this.

 

Project Guidelines

Make an adventurous MBF21 map using only the resources provided.

 

Each mapper can submit a maximum of 6 maps total. Collabs count separately from individual submissions, so please feel free to team up.

 

There are no slots to claim. Simply map according to one of the episode themes listed in the following post. Feel free to mix & match themes in your maps as long as it makes sense given the story and theme(s) of the episode.

 

All mappers are welcome, but not all maps may be accepted. But don’t worry, rejected maps can be tweaked until they are acceptable. As a general rule, I tend to accept maps that are fun, detailed, and original. Bonus points for strong environmental storytelling. And please, do not copy others’ works without permission.

 

What does it mean to be done?

• No bugs or glitches.
• Good use of space. Each area should have a clear purpose.
• Polished texture usage.
• Good monster usage.
• Interesting scenarios. Each map should have something unique and memorable about it.

 

Detailed Mapper’s Guide

Spoiler

Damaging Floors

Keeping consistent with Interception II, damaging floors should be consistent across animated textures (except in creative examples -- i.e. a boiling pool of water can be damaging as long as the boiling aspect is well-communicated). But typically:

• Blood and water do no damage.
• Nukage does 5% damage.
• If sky/void floors are used, they are an instant kill.
• Lava does 20% damage.

 

Weapon Changes

The wad will use an extended dehacked patch to alter some of the weapons:

 

Punching is now faster and 2x stronger. The fists also alternate properly now.

 

The chainsaw is now the Chainsaw 64 with two blades for the most efficient demon sawing possible.

 

The pistol has been replaced with the Model 1887 lever-action shotgun. This beast rapid-fires single shotgun rounds until you let go of the fire button. Once you let go, it’s time to reload.

 

The shotgun has been replaced with the Incendiary Shotgun. It billows out huge flames similar to the Mancubus fireballs. Unlike the Manc fireballs, however, these suckers spew out tons of splash damage* on enemies, turning hordes of low-tiers into mountains of gibs.

 

The super-shotgun has been replaced with the Slug Rifle. Each slug consists of 3 pellets, each dealing 100 damage and each with a random chance of a 2x multiplier. The Slug Rifle has perfect accuracy.

 

The chaingun (now the Minigun) has received a massive speed boost. The draw is that it now has a lengthy wind down once you let go of the fire key. It obliterates enemies but will quickly deplete your ammo. For when you just want to delete some Barons of Hell.

 

The Unlocked Plasma Rifle has had its cooldown removed, a la Rowdy Rudy II. Otherwise, it is functionally the same.

 

The BFG 9000.1 functions identically to the 9K except the BFG explosion & tracers dish out some splash damage* now.

 

The Rocket Launcher remains unaltered.

 

* Players, mancubus, incendiary zombies, demonic turrets, tank zombiemen, boss monsters, and rocket zombies have resistance to this splash damage. GZDoom does not implement this immunity the same way as DSDA-Doom does, so the splash damage can kill the player in GZDoom.

 

Custom Decorations

100 extra Dehacked things have been added using a mix of Boom features and DEHEXTRA/MBF21 extensions.

 

You can place these new decorations by placing things of types 6000-6089 in your Doom editor of choice. Ultimate Doom Builder supports the new things right out of the box under User-defined things.

 

Custom Enemies

All the standard Doom II enemies are here. The Extended Dehacked patch adds a roster of new enemies however. The new enemies are as follows:

 

Thing type 6090: Nitro Barrel

Not quite an enemy, but a much stronger, more radioactive variant of the barrel. These bad boys cause bigger, deadlier explosions. You may hear your shots ricochet loudly off of nitro barrels, warning you of their presence.

• HP: 40

 

Thing type 6091: Incendiary Zombie

These zombies shoot the same fireballs that your incendiary shotgun does. As such, they are invincible to the splash damage of incendiary projectiles.

• HP: 50
• Item drop: Shotgun shells

 

Thing type 6092: Plasma Zombie

Tough former humans that shoot a volley of three plasma projectiles. Even a lone plasma zombie can be very dangerous, but they go down pretty quick.

• HP: 40
• Item drop: A plasma cell

 

Thing type 6093: Rocket Zombie

The glass cannon of the bunch. They have very low health, but pack a mean rocket launcher. Rocket zombies are immune to splash damage.

• HP: 10
• Item drop: A single rocket

 

Thing Type 6094: Former Tank

A single possessed soldier operating a massive, deadly tank. Fires three-round bursts of shotgun guy blasts upon seeing the player. They have as much HP as a baron of hell and move very fast. Immune to splash damage.

• HP: 1000
• Item drop: Box of ammo + exploding zombieman & clip

 

Thing Type 6095: Demonic Turret

Marble columns brought to life by a demonic spell. Once they spot you, they’ll fire incendiary rounds at you until you blow them up. They are immune to the splash damage of incendiary shots.

• HP: 75

 

Thing Type 6096: Winged Imp

Imps with low gravity and float enabled, giving them the ability to glide off of high ledges. Useful for ambushes from above, but they can also jump up onto high ledges for ambushes from below.

• HP: 60

 

Thing Type 6097: Snake Imp

A stronger variant of the imp that shoots a pattern of two fireballs to either side first, then one in the middle. Has a threat level somewhere between the Chaingunner and Revenant.

• HP: 200

 

The Story So Far

Spoiler

Decades have passed since you defeated the mighty Baphomet.

 

BarbatOS, a highly-advanced artificial intelligence, has been developed by the Union Aerospace Corporation. Its sole purpose? To teleport probes across the universe and back, hoping to find a habitable planet for human life.

 

The world has decayed, and no one wants to live on crusty, old Earth anymore, what with its dense and disgusting cities and polluted countryside. So the UAC has instead chosen to abandon Earth, confident that humankind has a better chance at survival on the final frontier.

 

The experiments are going smoothly until, one day, a probe comes back a little… odd. “Is that… human hair?” asks one of the scientists. Taken aback in horror, the team watches on as a fleshy mass starts seeping out of the malformed probe. It writhes as it hits the floor. A human eye opens up from a cut in the flesh. Human teeth soon follow, as the wretched being leaps at the nearest scientist, killing him and possessing his corpse.

 

In a small office down the hall, you sit at your dimly lit computer screen. It’s getting late. Or is it early? Either way, you are beat. You don’t even want to go drinking after work. After a 12-hour shift, you just want to sleep…

 

Before you can fully rest your head on your desk, an alarm starts blaring. You glare at the screen in disbelief. Not good. It would appear that some unknown entity had intercepted a communication from one of the probes. And it seems it injected something into the probe…

 

A knock comes from the door. And you hear some disturbing noises coming from down the hall. Cracking the door open, you catch a glimpse of your co-worker, Billy Barrington’s, bloody, gaping maw, ready to devour the skin off your face.

 

SLAM!

 

“Let’s not do this today,” you sigh as you pull your Model 1887 shotgun (not standard issue) and ammo from your–wait, where’s the ammo? Crud.

 

Looks like it’s just you and your bare fists until you can find some shotgun shells laying around. Slipping on your brass knuckles, you hop out of your office window and escape into a nearby hovercab, heading downtown...

 

Be sure to check out my concurrent community project, Embryo!

 

Special Thanks

A big thanks to @galileo31dos01, @DFF, @valkiriforce, @General Rainbow Bacon, & @Pottus for providing valuable feedback during development! And a big thanks to all who have played herschel.wad & hovercab.wad, since those act as little pilots for this.

 

And a very, very special thanks to @Darman Macray for composing three awesome tracks for the title, text, & intermission screens! Please go listen to these, even if you don't play a second of the wad!

Edited June 21 by Moustachio

[Moustachio]

Submissions

 

EPISODE 1: A futuristic Earth city at sunset (Main sky: CITYSKY1)

• Subway (or hovercraft) stations, ruined streets, fiery high-rises, and infested parks start off the adventure.

 

• Station to Station by Moustachio – a transit station in a futuristic city.
• The Stairwell by @valkiriforce – a climb through an overrun high-rise with a fun way down.
  • valkiri has asked me to touch things up here, so I'll be tweaking this map as we go along. -Moustachio

 

EPISODE 2: A futuristic UAC lab at the bottom of the ocean (Main sky: SKY-B06)

• Sealabs underneath the sea. Pressurized chambers, underwater machinery, oil digging contraptions, and aquariums lie beneath.

 

EPISODE 3: Earth in the distant past (Main sky: SKYM1)

• Around 250 CE. Ancient cities, temples, demon-infested villages, Romans, and lost wonders of the ancient world await you.

 

EPISODE 4: A demon city underneath Ancient Earth (Main sky: SKY5)

• Hidden demon outposts, uncovered tombs, necropolis, and hell portals go here.

 

EPISODE 5: An endless green void with floating islands throughout (Main sky: SKY6)

• Voidspace, eldritch flesh structures, floating castles & temples, and floating hellish nature are all welcome here.

 

• Terminated Bliss by @Treehouseminis — “Dark Eldritch Prison, Set piece combat that can get difficult at times.  Make your escape, just dont fall into the void.”

 

EPISODE 6: Enceladus, a moon of Saturn (Main sky: SKY4)

• Moon bases, airlocks, digging sites, underground hell hives for the final leg of the trip.

 

Feel free to use any of the extra skies provided in the wad as well, as long as it fits with the episode's story and theme. Multiple skies are encouraged, and can be a great tool for environmental storytelling.

 

The campaign will be a continuous set of maps. Maps will be ordered based on their length, difficulty, monsters, weapons, and story. The episode themes are a framework for the story I want to tell.

Edited June 18 by Moustachio

[JackDBS]

Looks neat! I'll definitely make one or two maps for this.

[cannonball]

Nice, hopefully I might get inspiration this time to make something after promising and failing to offer something to Interception 2.

[DoomGuy2077]

Oh, weird. I was just scrolling through my .wad folder thinking "I should finish Interception 2." Then I started looking for new maps to play an ended up here. I guess it's a sign.

[stochastic]

Episode 4 and 5 are calling my name. Will definitely make something for this!

[piXelicidio]

"There are no slots to claim." 👍

[Beubeu]

Episode 1 and 6 got my attention, this is what i'm looking for 

 

I will making a map or two for this 

[NiGHTS108]

Interesting… I’ll definitely be taking a good look at this. Looks like a fun project to map for!

[Firedust]

Holy fucking yes

 

Finally!

[Misty]

I'd like to join in, last project was fun to map for. 

[NeedHealth]

@Moustachio I'll do a map.

[Somniac]

Looks like fun, if I get the inspiration I may try my hand at an E1 or E2 map. Plenty of time at least :p

[Xaser]

Eeey, good to see all the newest stuff used :P

 

Quick thing real quick, though:

3 hours ago, Moustachio said:

Please, do not playtest with GZDoom. GZDoom mostly works, but MBF21 splash groups are handled inconsistently compared to the other MBF21-compatible ports.

Has a GZDoom bug report been opened for this? MBF21 features are supposed to work identically between ports; if there's an inconsistency, it's a bug that needs fixing.

 

That said, "don't playtest with GZDoom" is still sage advice for cross-port projects, since you don't want to accidentally hit any other ZDoomisms like tag 0 lifts and other such things. When in doubt, dsda-doom or Woof! oughta work great.

[Moustachio]

1 hour ago, Xaser said:

Has a GZDoom bug report been opened for this?

I've gone and opened one now. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I see things are percolating in this thread, so I just want to welcome everyone who has expressed interest so far! Can't wait to see what you guys come up with over the next year or so!

Edited May 18 by Moustachio

[JackDBS]

Is the "August 1, 2025" Deadline a typo

Edited May 18 by JackDBS

[Moustachio]

27 minutes ago, JackDBS said:

Is the "August 1, 2025" Deadline a typo

Nope, I want to keep the project open for about a year.

[JackDBS]

ok.

[Moustachio]

Heads up, I will be making tweaks to the weapons as well. They won't change too much, but I will probably scale some of them back in power (like the fists). I'll make an announcement whenever the resources are updated.

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

Nice. Enjoyed playing the first two.

 

Looked through the textures in the resource wad. Noticed SW1BRIK1 was wrong. It's slightly out of focus and looks like it was converted from a jpg instead of the original png.

[Artyoman]

What maps are free? Would love to make a map for this project

[Moustachio]

@Artyoman There's no limit to how many maps, just pick a theme and go forth.

 

@EffinghamHuffnagel You're absolutely right. Seems like when MISCTEX.wad was compiled way back in 2020, it was saved as a JPEG. I'll have to go ahead and track down the original texture.

Edited May 19 by Moustachio

[finnks13]

I really enjoyed Interception II, so I'd love to be a part of the third one!

 

Out of interest, what sort of thing are you expecting out of the third episode since the idea seems very interesting, but I'm not sure exactly how distant in the past you want them to be set :P Are you expecting something like an ancient egyptian-themed (or some other ancient civilisation) map, or something further back with far fewer man-made structures?

[Amiga Angel]

this project has some pretty cool textures

[Treehouseminis]

I'm also curious about this project.  The dehacked weapons look really cool.  I will probably make a map for episode 5 as it stood out to me the most at first glance.  

 

Also can we use Umapinfo to set the sky or fo you want mappers to use sky transfer? 

Edited May 19 by Treehouseminis

[Moustachio]

1 hour ago, finnks13 said:

Are you expecting something like an ancient egyptian-themed (or some other ancient civilisation) map, or something further back with far fewer man-made structures?

Good question. I was picturing something with more nature, less man-made structures, and more demon-made structures. Some civilization is not off-limits (a large temple would be okay, for example). It's okay to be a little loose with accuracy, but I was thinking around the time of the Mayan civilization. Roughly 250 – 1697 CE according to Wikipedia.

 

54 minutes ago, Amiga Angel said:

this project has some pretty cool textures

Made by our wonderful community members! Please, let me know if you find anything wrong with the resources or any missing credits.

[Artyoman]

I added resources in doom builder but there's no sky textures in resources wad, but slade shows that there's a lot of sky textures, also F_SKY1 is replaced. Should I do something in slade myself to get SKY-B06 or it's something else?

[Moustachio]

I've made the first revision to the resource pack. Searching for the full res SW1BRIK1 texture led me to all of @zrrion the insect's awesome texture work. All is stated to be fair game, so I adapted some textures from the Retro Alphabet Showdown wad since these textures are awesome. I also found DECOtex, from which I snagged four Mechadon skies. I grabbed a boatload of mid textures from Mid Texture Repository as well (another amazing resource). And yes, SW1BRIK1 has been fixed.

 

Some tweaks have been made to the weapons. The berserk fist has had its original 10x damage multiplier restored. The sawed-off shotgun now fires a 21-pellet spread like the super shotgun, but wider horizontally. These pellets have a base damage of 5 with multiplier of up to 5x. The BFG 9000.1 now fires "tracers" in mid-air. The tracers are really just splash damage every mid-air frame, with a radius of 320 and a max damage value of 64.

 

This is probably going to be the last edit for a while (unless something needs to be fixed). lol yeah right

 

>> Download the Resource Pack v002 <<

 

Added Skies

UNDERGRO (good for E4)

 

SUNSETCI (good for E1)

 

GODISWAT (good for E1)

 

BORDERWO (just looks awesome. Could go in a secret level or something)

 

1 hour ago, Artyoman said:

I added resources in doom builder but there's no sky textures in resources wad, but slade shows that there's a lot of sky textures, also F_SKY1 is replaced. Should I do something in slade myself to get SKY-B06 or it's something else?

You have to use MBF sky transfers. Use linedef action 271, make your the upper texture SKY-B06, and set a y-offset of -112 so that the sky is vertically aligned properly. You should be able to see the waves at the top of the sky and the sea floor at the bottom with no breaks in between. You'll want to use one line for tag 0 and make new sky transfers for any sky sectors with new tags.

 

You can also use UMAPINFO to set skies, but you can't change their offset this way. Sky transfers are preferred since they are embedded in the map and will always work.

Edited May 19 by Moustachio

[Amiga Angel]

2 hours ago, Moustachio said:

Good question. I was picturing something with more nature, less man-made structures, and more demon-made structures. Some civilization is not off-limits (a large temple would be okay, for example). It's okay to be a little loose with accuracy, but I was thinking around the time of the Mayan civilization. Roughly 250 – 1697 CE according to Wikipedia.

 

Made by our wonderful community members! Please, let me know if you find anything wrong with the resources or any missing credits.

there is something weird about panup

 

 

I would expect PANUPB to be a flipped PANUPA because its not possible to flip textures in MBF from what I know anyway and PANUPA is more usefull because it aligns with the colors of the panels in doom2.wad

[DreadWanderer]

NOVA IV and now this. I feel like this will be a shining year for the sequel. Nice!