Doomkid

This is definitely what I've come to understand 2.5D to mean. It's a colloquial term. Really though, the longer I've thought about it, the less satisfied I am with it, because everyone seems to have different definitions - I've heard people saying other isometric games like Marble Madness, Snake Rattle N Roll, Mario RPG etc are "2.5D" as well, because they don't seem to realize it's just sprites moving on the X and Y axes and being either layered in front of, or behind one another based on their X and Y positions on screen.. It's one of those terms that, in an effort to simplify things, actually just added to the confusion for many people.

Nobody's a nobody.

Happy new year everyone!

Does the DOS version come with SETUP.EXE yet? You might need it to select the right music device and customise your controls. Here it is, alongside a handful of other useful vanilla EXEs for DOS: http://doomshack.org/~doomkid/doom_vanilla_exes.zip

Near the far bottom right corner of the map, I see where the 6th secret is that hasn't been found yet: The brick wall there opens up to reveal a cell and a switch

Are there any other vanilla bugs that ended up more like gameplay features which GZDoom artificially destroys compatibility for? This is extremely bizarre. All instances of this should probably be documented, perhaps so a simple decorate mod can be made which reinstates proper behaviour, even if Salty Member doesn’t like it? Also, and this is a pure side note, but I have no idea why anyone who plays a decent amount of Doom wouldn’t have at least one backup vanilla-esque source port set up and feeling good. PrBoom+, Crispy, Chocolate or even Vanilla itself. I’m sure recall other sweet old vanilla tricks that are too advanced for a basic port like GZDoom to handle, so for the sake of being able to play any mod/wad at any time, you need at least 2 ports minimum installed. (I have GZ installed but I never use it because mouse/player control feels like ass gravy compared to every other port)

Definitely agree. I think it's too late to modify the poll by now and get a meaningful result, but I think it's safe to say most anyone who voted for "Arguments about what is or isn't "truly Doomy" wold generally agree. Gatekeeping the franchise is absolutely moronic no matter what direction it's done in.

If only all the people who tried this would have worked on different enemies every time, rather than doing the Imp in HD over and over and over. We'd be able to Frankenstein together a full HD monster sprite set by now!

Well, a technical explanation probably is more useful, but Jon Dowland did this a long time ago so we wouldn’t have to: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/graphics/doomnoir This wad used to be a staple of ZDaemon servers! Combining it with, say, PSX Doom music creates a very cool vibe.

My “target Doom demographic” (rofl) is pretty much always those seeking some casual fun, so I rarely design encounters that are a struggle for me on UV, but otherwise my approach is pretty similar. Generally when all is said and done and the wad is complete, on HMP I can blast through while only paying half attention, and HNTR is a power trip. I figure this is not only enjoyable for those looking to switch off and “meditate via Doom” for a while, but also means the wad will be accessible to newcomers who want to get into the custom content scene, but get their shit kicked in by, say, AV or HR2 or whatever else we can call “average pwad difficulty” these days.

My latest SP wad (Doomkid’s mega which is currently on hiatus) is mostly competent, but it lacks the strong sense of gameplay continuity and gameplay smoothness that I try to put into all my stuff, thus it feels weak and soulless by comparison. I also usually have a pretty strong idea of what I want for setting/theme/sense of purpose, and that was also somewhat missing from the design process. I still think I can go through and minorly overhaul what’s there into a wad with good gameplay and that “knows what it is”, but as of yet I just haven’t worked out how to do that, and bumping the project thread saying “how2soul?” doesn’t seem like the best approach - so I’m just sort of waiting til the answer comes to me.. This is all in contrast to the DM wad (Bourgeois) that Decay, Raz and I have built recently. While some of the maps are “formulaic” (they sort of have to be for fun DM) the wad itself still has a clear sense of personality, purpose and good gameplay. Working on the wad felt good, because we all knew what soul/personality we wanted the wad to have, and I feel we succeeded. Sorry for rambling - I think this all has to do with the “soul” of a wad though, so hopefully it’s on topic enough. And although Marn was clearly trying to get some answers to the question at hand, I do agree with DSC that the “soulless” pejorative is often pointlessly tossed around and often towards maps that clearly do have soul. It really can be hard pinpointing “the soul factor” when it comes to wad making. To put some sort of period on this post, I’ll say I think soul often comes down to a lot of details and how they add up.

Spent time with family, and didn’t have bushfires running wild.. That would have been plenty compared to last year, but I also got some new shirts and a replacement for my broken old GPU. Fantastic Christmas for me all around, really what I needed after a very rough patch in Nov and early Dec. I also got some tips in my paypal jar - I didn’t even notice til a week ago so they felt like Christmas donations. Thank you to the gorgeous handful who threw some change in my hat <3

It’s one thing to be able to appreciate the love/effort that goes into something, but trying to “force yourself” to like something seems misguided. I’m glad you have an open mind to it, but sometimes things just don’t resonate with certain people and there’s no shame in that, so long as you don’t try and force your tastes onto others. The other responses here may be more useful to you, but sometimes the shoe just doesn’t fit, you know?

There was a patch recently that improves the SNES control greatly by adding circle strafing. If ever a patch is made (or had been made) that also reduces input latency, it would honestly be a great port given the limitations. The controls were the Achilles heel of that port imo.

Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 was already having some trouble running on Windows 7 64 bit. Thankfully OpenRCT is around to make sure current gen OSes can play the game!

I had fun with this one! Definitely feeling some SIGIL inspiration in how cramped and dark it was, but the mood set by the lighting, texture work and MIDI choice was very eerie and enjoyable. I did find what I think are two sequence breaks: The flesh door that closes near the starting area is really easy to straferun past if you go in knowing it's going to close in your face. Once you're in there (the room with the small Quake logo on the floor), it seems like there's no way to get back out. Not surprising, but maybe either move the door further back, or make the line that triggers the close a little further away? Another area was the tall lift that leads up to the Chaingunners constantly being revived by the Vile. It's easy to straferun onto the platform with the RL, and I don't think that's intentional. Overall a really nice wad. If you keep this same sort of style but create a slightly less claustrophobic take on it, I'd really enjoy that. Don't get me wrong though, there's room for cramped maps once in a while (pun not intended). Keep it up!

Hmm, Sekaiju reports that MIDI to be around the 4 minute mark as well. I'll just let the MUS format conversion play 2-3 times through in-game soon here and make sure it plays back fine.. By the way, ZeMystic and Lippeth, thank you for the updates, really liking these improved/tweaked versions of the MIDIs!

No need to apologize, all is fine.

You could try just making it very dark, therefore the cool designs will still be in the background but the brightness and business won't make it hard to read/look at. It may not work as well as I'm imagining, but worth a shot if you're willing

Comparing anything to Doom 1 and 2 is unfair, even the new Dooms which are great games in their own right. Classic Doom is the greatest gaming experience I have ever had, there's no shame in not being as good as they are. It's frankly an unrealistic standard to hold any game to, the new Dooms included.

Just wanted to update this with the latest beta - we're SO CLOSE to the finish line! (old link removed)

The hotfix link seems to be broken - could anyone provide a mirror? Would love to hear this! Edit: Derp, looks like Rift updated the OP. Nice!!

Nope, it's done for collectible items as well, not to mention z-height checking is also done to determine when a player hits their head on the roof or lands their feet on the floor.

I just KNEW the Wadazine would be a success from the moment you PMed me about it, Endless. Here's to many more, and a great decision making a metathread!