Ruins to the Underworld - Doomworld /idgames database frontend

Title:	Ruins to the Underworld
Filename:	levels/doom2/p-r/ruunder.zip
Size:	234.3 KB
Date:	11/05/96
Author:	Kyle Lomelí S.
Description:	STORY: UAC had been studying the ancient ruins of a civilization which had discovered the secret to opening a portal to the Underworld. One of the most remarkable sites of these ruins was the mile high crusher, which had amazingly pinched a whole between both dimensions. UAC did the impossible to cover up their sinister operation. From outside the site seames to be and abandoned brick structure...but from the inside, its a completely different story . A duke had discovered these ruins in the 12th century and built his castle around them, including a precious library with countless volumes on witchcraft. But now UAC has taken over and integrated this castle to thier research facilities. It was recorded in the computer logs that the researchers were able to open the portal for a few moments, but it was too unstable. A few days later, after this grand moment, demons began to appear everywhere. Little by little the researchers of this ultra-secret operation became possesed by confusion and rage, rendering themselves useless to their tasks. Somehow UAC forsaw that the doom of the world was inminent and decided to give it one last shot. They hire the one last man on earth who had any experience with these types of operations (you), and hoped for the impossible. LEVEL CONSTRUCTION: It took a WHOOOOOOLE YEAR to create this level (I am not kidding!).But it wasn't a 24-hour a day kind of thing,but more of a "30 minutes here"-"30 minutes there" thing. I had a small deathmatch level planned out when I first started... but, as time went by, it got soooooo big I just had to convert it into a one player type of level (although I think deathmatch and COop is DOable,I have never really tried it). I tried to pay attention to the texture alignments, aswell as the shadow effects of certain light sources. This level represents a hell of a lot of patience on my part (and probably on your part as soon as you play it). I hope you enjoy it.
Credits:	- Id-Software for creating this superb game. - Ben Morris for creating, what I still consider to be the best, DOOM level editor:DCK. - Olivier Montanuy for creating the excellent Wintex utility. - Peter Monks for creating TED.
Base:	New level from scratch
Build time:
Editor(s) used:	LEVEL CONSTRUCTION: Started out using WADED 1.83á (learned the basics to constructing WADS [built the first 1/2 of the level]... moved on), DCK2.2 (for placing THINGS... until they were too many and DCK2.2 couldn't handle it), and DCK3.x (excellent level utility...did the other half of the level with it). NODES BUILDER: Mainly WARM. I used Zennode 0.68á for a while but suddenly began to recieve an "Abnormal Program Termination" message while building the level...so I stopped using it. GRAPHICS: Wintex3.4 (never got the hang of using Wintex4.2) Aldus Photostyler SE v2.0 (used it to create both textures. The sky texture took me about 15 minutes to create and was created totally from scratch (it was a snap!).
Bugs:	I have noticed a little of HOM in the outside area where the ruins are, but its very unnoticeable (only if you look at it at one angle). But the main bug are the DOOM engine limitations. Because of it you will have a difficult time saving at difficulty settings 3-5 (I tried the impossible to fix this, but the level just wasn't the same without most of the THINGS [so I give you the option]). The sky texture colors didn't come out quite as I had wanted. But I looks OK. Origionally I had intended the level to use the sky texture in the first episode of DOOM1©... but I have been told it is illegal to distribute it in WADS...so I substituted in my own. If you have the opportunity (and the patience of installing it) use the DOOM1 sky texture. It best fits the mood of the level. (note: What follows are fixed bugs...I hope that if you experience similar problems with your level... it might help you...) A bug I encountered was one which resulted with DOOM2 crashing and displaying the message "visible plane overflow". What happenes is that I placed 8 sectors around various lamps to simulate lighting. Whenever a player stood viewing two of these lamps in a straight line... DOOM2 would crash. I fixed this bug by inserting a sector between any two "lamp sectors" , thus obstructing the direct view of +16 sectors which could cause DOOM2 to crash. If your DOOM level crashes while saving it is most likely due to the fact that there are too many THINGS in the level. Mayor tip: plan your level ahead!
Rating:	(4 votes)

Download mirrors:

/idgames protocol:

idgames://7187

Reviews:

Anonymous	Way too dark and flashy, unhinted doors, fences (f.e. cell 'doors') block randomly, horrible amount of texture misalignments, often ugly ambiance, very unbalanced gameplay (f.e. got BFG & encountered first cybie way too early). Layout and gameplay almost completely misses a leidmotiv, the player just walks around through what looks like random scenes without any coherency. Rated as 1996 map: slightly better than average, but not good, so 3/5.	x
mallo	Nice! For '96, it's really good. What is weird is that one of best-looking places in the map isn't mandatory, and even is hidden! (Without adding to the secrets count!!)	x
TimeOfDeath	this actually turned out pretty cool with a few cybers and power weapons later on	x
Anonymous	Decent, large early level. Gives the impression of having been worked on intermittently for a year; it starts off quite poor, gets better, has a nice non-linear open-air end. No real flow and it's basically random smushes and very old, but it amused me for fifteen minutes or so. Gets better as it goes on.	x

View ruunder.txt

DATE: 12th of July, 1996
================================================================
Title                   : Ruins to the Underworld 
Filename                : Ruunder.WAD
Author                  : Kyle Lomelï¿½ S.
Email Address           : ricrod@vianet.com.mx (...a friend's Email so keep
                          it cool!)
Misc. Author Info       : I'm just a 12th grader at the American School
                        Foundation of Guadalajara (in Mexico), who
                        doesn't have time to be creating these types of
                        DOOM2 levels (they are so time consuming!). This is
                        my first (and probably last!) Doom2 level. I do have
                        another DOOM2 level lurking around in my harddrive...
                        but I guess I will never finish it (ever since I
                        noticed how much time it was taking me to finish
                        this one!).

Description             :
                        STORY:
                         UAC had been studying the ancient ruins of a
                        civilization which had discovered the secret to
                        opening a portal to the Underworld. One of the most
                        remarkable sites of these ruins was the mile high crusher,
                        which had amazingly pinched a whole between both dimensions.

UAC did the impossible to cover up their sinister operation.
                        From outside the site seames to be and abandoned brick
                        structure...but from the inside, its a completely different
                        story . A duke had discovered these ruins in the
                        12th century and built his castle around them, including
                        a precious library with countless volumes on witchcraft.
                        But now UAC has taken over and integrated this castle to
                        thier research facilities.

It was recorded in the computer logs that the researchers were
                        able to open the portal for a few moments, but it was too
                        unstable. A few days later, after this grand moment, demons
                        began to appear everywhere.

Little by little the researchers of this ultra-secret
                        operation became possesed by confusion and rage, rendering
                        themselves useless to their tasks. Somehow UAC forsaw that
                        the doom of the world was inminent and decided to give it one
                        last shot. They hire the one last man on earth who had any
                        experience with these types of operations (you), and hoped
                        for the impossible.
                                             
                        LEVEL CONSTRUCTION:
                         It took a WHOOOOOOLE YEAR to create this level (I am not
                        kidding!).But it wasn't a 24-hour a day kind of thing,but more
                        of a "30 minutes here"-"30 minutes there" thing. I had
                        a small deathmatch level planned out when I first started...
                        but, as time went by, it got soooooo big I just had to
                        convert it into a one player type of level (although
                        I think deathmatch and COop is DOable,I have never really tried
                        it).
                         I tried to pay attention to the texture alignments,
                        aswell as the shadow effects of certain light sources. This
                        level represents a hell of a lot of patience on my part (and
                        probably on your part as soon as you play it).
                        I hope you enjoy it.

Additional Credits to   :
                        - Id-Software for creating this superb game.
                        - Ben Morris for creating, what I still consider
                         to be the best, DOOM level editor:DCK.
                        - Olivier Montanuy for creating the excellent
                         Wintex utility.
                        - Peter Monks for creating TED.
================================================================

* Play Information *

Game                    : DOOM IIï¿½ v1.9 (it should work on other versions)
Episode and Level #     : MAP01 (I never want to bother with other levels)
Single Player           : Yes
Cooperative 2-4 Player  : I Guess (you could, but it would be too slow for modem
                         play [I just placed a whole bunch a 1,2,3,4  and
                         deathmatch player starts]). If you think of using
                         this level in multiplayer mode... COop would probably
                         best fit this level... .
Deathmatch 2-4 Player   : Yes (I recommend using at least 3-4 players)
Difficulty Settings     : Yes (Since the level is sooooo big, I couldn't save
                         the game in progress... it resulted that there were
                         too many THINGS that could change during the game so
                         DOOM2 would crash.)
                         To fix this...difficulty settings:
                         1-2     : minimal amount of THINGS... you can save
                         3       : normal amount of THINGS ... you can save
                                   1/2 throughout the level (at your own risk)
                         4-5     : maximum amount of THINGS (as it had been
                                  originally)... you can't save unless you
                                  practically kill everyTHING. )
                        
New Sounds              : No
New Graphics            : Yes (teleporter animation and sky texture)
New Music               : No
Demos Replaced          : None
Weapons                 : All (...and believe me, you NEED them!)

* Construction *

Base                    : New level from scratch
Editor(s) used          :

LEVEL CONSTRUCTION:

Started out using WADED 1.83ï¿½ (learned the basics
                        to constructing WADS [built the first 1/2 of the level]...
                        moved on), DCK2.2 (for placing THINGS... until they
                        were too many and DCK2.2 couldn't handle it), and
                        DCK3.x (excellent level utility...did the other half
                        of the level with it).

NODES BUILDER:

Mainly WARM. I used Zennode 0.68ï¿½ for a while but
                        suddenly began to recieve an "Abnormal Program Termination"
                        message while building the level...so I stopped using it.

GRAPHICS:

Wintex3.4 (never got the hang of using Wintex4.2)

Aldus Photostyler SE v2.0 (used it to create both
                        textures. The sky texture took me about 15 minutes
                        to create and was created totally from scratch
                        (it was a snap!).
                        
Known Bugs              : I have noticed a little of HOM in the outside area
                        where the ruins are, but its very unnoticeable (only
                        if you look at it at one angle).

But the main bug are the DOOM engine limitations. Because
                        of it you will have a difficult time saving at difficulty
                        settings 3-5 (I tried the impossible to fix this, but
                        the level just wasn't the same without most of the
                        THINGS [so I give you the option]).

The sky texture colors didn't come out quite as I
                        had wanted. But I looks OK. Origionally I had
                        intended the level to use the sky texture in
                        the first episode of DOOM1ï¿½... but I have been told
                        it is illegal to distribute it in WADS...so I
                        substituted in my own. If you have the opportunity
                        (and the patience of installing it) use the DOOM1
                        sky texture. It best fits the mood of the level.

(*note: What follows are fixed bugs...I hope that
                        if you experience similar problems with your
                        level... it might help you...*)

A bug I encountered was one which resulted with
                        DOOM2 crashing and displaying the message "visible plane
                        overflow". What happenes is that I placed 8 sectors
                        around various lamps to simulate lighting. Whenever a
                        player stood viewing two of these lamps in a straight line...
                        DOOM2 would crash. I fixed this bug by inserting a sector
                        between any two "lamp sectors" , thus obstructing the
                        direct view of +16 sectors which could cause
                        DOOM2 to crash.

If your DOOM level crashes while saving it is most
                        likely due to the fact that there are too many THINGS
                        in the level. Mayor tip: plan your level ahead!

**** NOTE:              I used a 486 SX/33 (8MB of RAM), and was able to play
****                    it OK (although it did get slow when I was presented
****                    with the view of the outside area). I wouldn't recommend
****                    using anything lower than the computer I used to play
****                    this level.

I personally consider this to be a HUGE single level...
                        of course, I haven't played that many WADS to begin
                        with. Generally it takes me about 20 minutes to run through
                        this level in difficulty settings 1-2. I have a hard time
                        finishing this level in difficulty setting 3. And have
                        a HELL of a time trying to finish in difficulty setting
                        4 (tip:don't try to kill the cyberdemon...just run. The
                        teletransporter is there for a reason.. and the BFG9500
                        is not for the cyberdemon but for...).  I have never
                        finished this level in difficulty setting 5.
                        If you are ever able to finish this level in difficulty
                        setting 5 (mainly for the reason you can't save),
                        you would have earned my deepest respects! I would even
                        consider you to be DOOM GOD!

I have never played this level in Deathmatch or COop
                        modes. I guess my level will work... but if it doesn't
                        feel free to fix it...and indicate so at the end of
                        this file.

* Disclamer *

I am not held responsible for any damage or anomally in data your computer
may experience due to the intensity and heat my level introduces into you
and your hardware. If you feel that this level is too suspicious, due to its
size, simply don't use it... and remember that you will never know how much
a not-so-simple level may stir your adrenalin.

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Copyright / Permissions ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½

You MAY distribute this WAD, provided you include this file, with
no modifications to the text I wrote (what I wrote ends after the lines at the
bottom). You may modify the WAD itself provided you indicate so at the ending
of this file (beyond the lines) stating your reasons for doing so,
exactly what you modified, date, and who you are. You may distribute this file in
any electronic format (BBS, Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this
file intact. If you would like to build additional levels including this WAD,
please give me some credit and send me an email message indicating you plan
on doing so.
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