The /newstuff Chronicles #126

[Epyo]

cab's are like zip's, but better, see.

[deathz0r]

Tormentor667 said:

Fine, I'll accept your challenge. I will do one newstuff chronicles review as far as the Doomworld staff agrees and as far as you tell me what I have to do. Maybe after that you will see that there's another way to do reviews or I will believe you that it's really not that easy!

Ok, you can do this week, since I'm having a few problems in real life(tm). Ask some staff member what to do, because I'm about to go offline in a few minutes.

[Tormentor667]

Cyb said:

yeah, but anyways, what it really comes down to is making maps that you like (at least at the time you release it, heh) and having some fun doing it. If other people happen to like it that's an excellent added bonus too.

Very true!

[Tormentor667]

deathz0r said:

Ok, you can do this week, since I'm having a few problems in real life(tm). Ask some staff member what to do, because I'm about to go offline in a few minutes.

1. It's your job to do this because you challenged me ;)
2. Pls +1 week because I have a lot of schoolwork to do!

[Torn]

netnomad312 said:

Yeeeeeah. That's the bunch of .cab files that I'm not looking for. I'm looking for a .zip file with zdoom.exe, zdoom.wad, and... I think it was fmod.dll or something. Where do I get that?

if you need fmod.dll, just download zdoom beta 1.33 (iirc). :)

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Tormentor667 said:

2. Pls +1 week because I have a lot of schoolwork to do!

Do you mean next week (my turn) or the week after that (Hyena's turn)?

[Hyena]

Tormentor667 said:

but the reason why I started this again is because of the "Dawn:Prelude" review. In my eyes, it's amazing. If you want to create something like this, you have to work hard, long and much. And then, is it fair, that someone critizises that MAP09 is an almost exact recreation of Dark Forces Map01?! Take a look at Hyenas review. 50% of his review is talking about that but is this really the major point of the wad?! I don't think so.

I don't consider that the most important part of the map, it's just the part I had the most to say about. Yes, it's one out of many maps and the one map shouldn't sour me on the whole thing, and it really didn't. I just thought it was kind of like a ripoff.
Overall, my analysis of the wad is that it looks great and plays okay.

[Fletcher`]

Torn said:

if you need fmod.dll, just download zdoom beta 1.33 (iirc). :)

The new fmod.dll is IN 47.cab.

[ReX]

Hyena said:

I just thought it was kind of like a ripoff.

Not to flog a dead horse here, but I'd like to make a few clarifications:

1. While the design of Map09 is similar to Map01 of Dark Forces, the game play and progress through the level are completely different.
2. Beyond the central building and the one to the north of the map, the design is quite different.
3. Given that Dark Forces allowed room-over-room, it was quite a challenge to replicate the central building, even in ZDooM.
4. Every sector in that and the other maps was done by me. If you know anything about DF editing, you'll know that it's absolutely different from editing for DooM. As such, it's virtually impossible to cut and paste sectors from one game to the next. I built Map09 painstakingly from screenshots in DF, plus detailed schematic drawings from DF's automap.

Regarding the rest of your review, you called it like you saw it. I did not expect everyone to fall head-over-heels about this level set, and I consider your comments fair. However, I did pay attention to creating a story-driven game, which is not too common among DooM add-ons. Perhaps you might have mentioned that.

[Hyena]

Actually I was well aware that DF editing is very very different from doom editing. I just thought it was too close to the original.

If you made it the same basic level but drastically altered that would have been really cool.
Maybe story-wise the place could have been renovated, or partially destroyed, or you find some sort of underground tunnel that wasn't originally there.

Tormentor667 said:

1. It's your job to do this because you challenged me ;)

Deathz0r isn't a staff member. He can't set anything up or give you forum access, etc.

[Fletcher`]

Hyena said:

Deathz0r isn't a staff member. He can't set anything up or give you forum access, etc.

Exactly why he said that. Which (in his mind) gets him out of reviewing.

[pritch]

netnomad312 said:

Yeeeeeah. That's the bunch of .cab files that I'm not looking for. I'm looking for a .zip file with zdoom.exe, zdoom.wad, and... I think it was fmod.dll or something. Where do I get that?

.cabs are cabinet files, another type of zip file basically. XP should recognise a cab and give you option to extract all to dir, if not then copy teh files to your dir under folder tasks.

If you're using an older OS and winzip (God help you) then winzip should read the file as a zip anyway. If you don't have winzip, get it.

Btw you suck at the internet :P

[Torn]

pritch said:

Btw you suck at the internet :P

heh

[netnomad312]

pritch said:

.cabs are cabinet files, another type of zip file basically. XP should recognise a cab and give you option to extract all to dir, if not then copy teh files to your dir under folder tasks.

I know what .cab files are. I meant that last time you all showed me that file, it was in .zip format. But I checked, and 47.cab does contain all I need.

pritch said:

If you're using an older OS and winzip (God help you) then winzip should read the file as a zip anyway. If you don't have winzip, get it.

Oh, I use WinZip all the time... although I had to re-download and re-install it to this hard drive. I also couldn't use Windows ME because I've misplaced the disc, so in the meantime I'm using Win98. But I believe even without WinZip, you can open .cab files like folders without any program...

pritch said:

Btw you suck at the internet :P

Pssh. Don't draw conclusions from such little evidence. I was only confused as to why I got a .zip last time and a .cab this time. Twice I recall downloading the wrong file and only getting some files I didn't recognize. That means nothing about my being able to use WinZip or the internet.

[netnomad312]

I just played System Vices. The biggest conclusion I drew from it is that the author is really big on graphics but not as much on the gameplay. At least not the type of gameplay I enjoy; I prefer puzzles, yes, but not frustrating ones. And finding out what a certain switch does is a lot harder when you don't recognize the graphics. I decided about halfway through the third map that it really wasn't worth bringing the thing to my Doom-ready laptop on two disks.

With the graphics... yes, there's a definite sci-fi atmosphere there... but the graphics are really too detailed, too eye-catching, IMO. You get drawn to them too much. A few new graphics are nice, but I think this is a little much. Just running through the list of patches in Wintex made my head hurt.

There. That's my review. Now I'm going to bed to cure my stupid headache thanks to this wad, and hopefully awaken to another /newstuff.

[Carnevil]

Hyena said:

The Transformer - Christoph Oelckers (Graf Zahl)
46k - Doom2.exe - SP - (img) (img) (img)
May Not Run With... : This level should work with any source port.The level crashed in doom2.exe, boom.exe, prboom.exe, and zdoom.exe before I could even begin. This would have been my entire review, but I somehow managed to get it to work in **skulltag**.

SCORE!