Jimmy

Thanks everybody for your input! It's got some good ideas bubbling. It seems we have a pretty clear winner already, but I'll let the poll continue. :)

I keep a link to jimmytex at the very top of the Post your textures thread:

Correct - they'll be selectable from the main menu in ports that allow for episodes to be defined in Doom 2.

Haha, awesome E2M7 run dude, that made me smile. :D

So... on the 29th of March of 2021, I'll have been in this community for 15 years. That's like... 15 years! In all the time I've been part of the Doom community, I don't think I've experienced a single moment where I didn't feel at home, or that this place wasn't for me. It's not just the people, either. This community's unrivaled level of creative output continues to stagger me - and inspire me. Rest assured, I'm not going anywhere any time soon. I'm considering doing something special for the 29th. Options in the poll above. Throw me your ideas if you have 'em. :)

@SiFi270 Nope, I definitely intend to get back to that thing as soon as I'm able. I blocked out almost everything before QuakeCon 2019 (I speedmapped it all on the flight to America no less!), so it's a long time in the making, but there hasn't been a really convenient time for me to knuckle down and properly flesh the maps out yet. @Redneckerz The Unity port is one I'm targeting for compatibility and I've been talking with Sponge for a good while now about this exact project. Looks very likely to happen in the near future. @Rudolph I'll still be using the same naming convention, i.e. MAP01-32, so both secret levels will be accessed via MAP15 and MAP31, as per usual.

Name: Earthless: Prelude Map Format: Vanilla Doom Ports Tested: Chocolate Doom 3.0.0, Crispy Doom 5.3, Eternity 4.02.00, GZDoom 4.5.0. IWAD: doom2.wad Map(s): MAP01-12 Par Time(s): None set Music: doom.wad, doom2.wad, tnt.wad Gameplay: Single play/co-op Difficulty Settings: Yes Multiplayer Placement: Yes Build Time: Since initial idea in late 2019, technically. Mapping actually started in July 2020. Textures: jimmytex.wad Requirements: No jumping or crouching (enforced). Freelook allowed. Download "Earthless: Prelude": /idgames Mirror Dropbox Mirror Powerhouse Mirror "EARTHLESS" is the spiritual successor to my Ultimate Doom megawad "Deathless", which was released in 2018. A full megawad for Doom 2 is planned which will, as is now common, be 32 levels spread across 6 episodes. As a taste of what's the come, I will soon be releasing the version entitled "Prelude", containing twelve levels. Included in this package are Episodes 1 and 2 in their entirety, followed by an additional two maps from Episode 3 as a bonus. Stay tuned for the eventual full megawad! ... Oh, were you expecting a story here? Uhh, alright. The demons have stolen the Earth, leaving humanity... earthless. Go on, then - get it back already. Credits for resources: @Fuzzball for skies and sprites! Playtesters: @Bridgeburner56 @Major Arlene @Tarnsman @Baratus Map list: "Contact: Lost" MAP01: Central MAP02: Dark Breed MAP03: Degenerator MAP04: Rendering MAP05: Cassandra Complex "The Hanged Gardens" MAP06: Eden At War MAP07: Foughtress MAP08: Silence Broken MAP09: Skyopolis MAP10: The Judas Tree "Realm of the Weeping" MAP11: Painways MAP12: Empress Full map list to come, once the full megawad is released. If you aren't following me on Twitch, I have been mapping pretty frequently for this project as of late. Go give me a follow! EDIT 22/07/21: As of today this mod has been officially sanctioned by Bethesda! Here's their article plus interview with me.

Subtle. I like it.

This is seriously such important advice.

hang on what's happening

Nice chill playthrough! I enjoy your commentary style. Hope you enjoy the rest of the mapset!

Here is a first pass at Market Place's track. Kinship (3:04) It's been a while since I tried to capture the Hexen sound and I'm not quite sure if I nailed it. I think I got close enough. There may be a slight amount too much repetition? @JD Herrera As I said to you before, I really love this track, it's got a really nice Schilder vibe - sounds like a cross-breeding of both a Heretic and a Hexen track. That Hexen-y "breakdown" at the end is great! Definitely will be right at home in this project. Suitably upbeat for H1M1 but I feel there'd be a place for it just about anywhere. If you're stuck for ideas on how to close this out, here's a daring suggestion: I feel like you could look to a track like "Jach" (the Seven Portals theme) for some material to quote for the ending section. I'm thinking of that little string/piano bit that happens about halfway through - a little quotation/homage scattered here and there throughout this project certainly wouldn't go amiss. :) @Alper002 Thank you for the update! Eager to hear your next submission!

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/music/heremidi The pack is finally uploaded to /idgames! I made one last-minute addition: creating a title track by the name of "Tides". It uses the string melody from "Lighthouse" as a sort of reference, for added consistency. :) Hope you all enjoy! This is, definitively, the final release of the pack, and any in-progress projects using these MIDIs should be sure to update, just to be safe. :) I wanna restate that this project was an absolute blast to work with you guys on. Great stuff all round! Very satisfied with the end product.

I'm something of a purist and try to make it my mission to play everything the exact way it was intended (because it becomes frustrating as a mapper that your works aren't being played as intended), although since GZDoom is the source port that to me is the easiest to configure while still in-game, I must admit I fall back on it in almost all cases. Its compatibility modes do a good job of emulating the original game's behavior, and while that's not a 1:1 faithful experience, the difference I feel is negligible. Even if not playing on those compatibility modes, you can easily acknowledge when something happens that shouldn't, which commendably, OP has done. To be honest, I don't blame anyone for playing without infinite height, because: (1) it's the default setting in GZDoom, and a lot of people may not immediately pick up on that, which is no fault of their own, (2) it's a terrible and frustrating limitation which frankly I'm glad they got rid of once Heretic came around! Also, Central Processing is uh, an IWAD level. What, you think Drake O'Brien is gonna swirl out of the ether and rip out your soul for not playing the map, his map made in 1996, the way it was intended? With the innumerable options for how to play the game that are available to us as a community, do we owe every single IWAD mapper the courtesy of staunchly only playing their way old Vanilla maps in Vanilla? I think not. :P Mappers like me may occasionally get up in a tiff about how you play our maps, but I think if you're just waltzing casually through the base game (or Final Doom, a set equally known for getting many people introduced to game back in the 90s), then I don't think we can stand to be that snobbish about the exact way these things are played nowadays! What are we, the fun police? Don't feel bad.

Name: Wrath Like Fire Author: Jimmy Music: "Getting Too Tense" by Bobby Prince Format: Doom 2 Difficulties: Some balancing done, not tested. Build Time: 6 hours, with some time spent drawing the layout on paper onstream. Ports Tested: GZDoom, Crispy Doom. Will not run in Chocolate due to huge drawseg overflow. Gimmicks Used: BFG cyber guardian, hot tomato start, baron parapets, central platforming hub, damaging floor + stairwell, D1 monster and weapon roster only. Download Entire map development, from paper sketch to finished level, can be seen on my stream from tonight! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/926953019

I might just make a map for this. Right the hell now. https://twitch.tv/jimmysquared

Please go ahead! EXE editing is fun times. It'd be rad to actually be able to hear these MIDIs running in DOS.

@Speedy Thanks for your interest! I've slotted you in for H4M5 just for now - JD's track got to me on Thursday, just before you made your post, so it may go to him. Hope this is okay! An opportunity for collaboration on this slot is definitely there between you or JD or Lippeth. :)

Hi everyone! Sorry, I've been away from this project for far too long. Things got busy around the time it started, but I am a little freer to continue the proceedings now! First allow me to offer feedback on the tracks that have since been posted: @Lippeth, you're like a musical chameleon. These works scream Schilder from the mountaintops. "Withheld Offering" is a really tense, heated piece that should work like a dream for Pyre. I really appreciate the melancholic chord progression and the groovin' combo of the bass and drums. I consider v2 that you posted to be in a perfectly fit state for inclusion! "You're Made Out of Meat" is delightfully dissonant, and the almost tribal percussion puts me heavily in mind of medieval dungeons and torture devices. Great work all around! I'll mark this one as done as well, but will welcome any further changes you have. @Alper002 "Mutually Assured Squishage" is a very nice track, minimal but full of mystique. Transit needed a track exactly like this - not too distracting, but full of the Schilder-esque musical motifs to keep a consistent tone with the rest of the soundtrack. I think the only thing that stands out is that the drum channel feels a tad loud - the hihats at the beginning seem a little overly present and there's a couple of hefty snares that could afford to be dialled back just a bit. I think all you might need to do here is lower the overall track volume, to be honest! Other than that exceedingly minor thing, great job with this. @TheEvilGrin "Follow Your Path" has turned into a really nice, ominous, slow-burn track. All the elements have come together really nicely. There is perhaps one last suggestion I have, which is to try and vary (or outright subtract) some of the repetitions on the harp and piano lines. It works nicer on the harp in the first section since it's outlining a harmonic progression, but the low piano line is quite incessant, and I think past bar 25 this track really needs something else going on instead of having that repeating piano line be front-and-center. Good stuff overall, though! I can definitely picture this in Blight. I've also gone over the OP and - I think - everything is in order now. Please let me know if anything's not quite right! There is a track being made for H1M1 by JD Herrera, who DM'd me the track on Discord. The in-progress piece is shaping up very well but I think I'll wait for JD to make a post here sharing it, instead of doing so myself. Eris has been taken out of the H1M1 slot so JD's piece can definitely fit there, although I saw Lippeth also wanted to collab for that slot, and Speedy you've also shown interest. I absolutely welcome the idea of collaboration! So we'll see what comes of that. JD's track can definitely go in an open slot if H1M1 is too hotly contested. This project is progressing really nicely, guys! Gonna kick it back into gear now, hopefully. :)

joe's midi kinda sucks. I know it's not my place to judge, but it kinda sucks. A LOT. Just... listen to it! Fuck me, man. Here's a midi that Dragonfly and I co-wrote last November. On an unrelated note. John Doom (3:03)

This is huge!

Played through this on my stream last night and I had to prize my jaw off the floor several times. Every other room is another "holy shit" moment. The things you can pull off with models in the GZ engine. The fights were intense but far from overwhelming, so I really appreciate the care taken into setting up the encounters. Even playing on UV every fight felt manageable and not too nasty. No moments of massive frustration - while I had some problems with chaingunners in the big crystal cave as well as the cacodemons in the bubble void, and the final fight had me for breakfast because I didn't have a BFG - overall I really really, really enjoyed this. The map layout flowed like butter too, I knew exactly where I needed to be at any one point. I know that I missed a ton of stuff because I didn't get a single keycard! I'll definitely need to replay this to get an idea of what I missed. Definitely look forward to tackling that final fight with the BFG and invuln though. The music was the only thing that I felt let it down the slightest bit. It's fitting for this sort of map in how strange-sounding and disjointed it is, but I think its tendency to have the melodies meander almost randomly and some of the instrumental choices like the bizarre brass solo towards the end ultimately let it down. I'll write you something new if you're interested!