NEVER Doom2 PWAD/Techno EP Release

[tei tenga]

 

 

 

Finally ready to call this 1.0!

 

NEVER uses mostly vanilla assets to create an atmosphere that I think you'll find unique and oppressive (but in a fun way). There is some old-school DEHACKED nonsense to keep it fresh.

 

DETAILS

IWAD: Doom2

Intended port: Crispy Doom or the Unity port. GZDoom and Zandronum work too.

Intended difficulty: About Doom2-level. Nothing crazy.

Length: Six Maps. My goal is to have something beatable in an afternoon or two.

Freelook: not intended, but whatever

Jumping: no

Pistol Start: Yes, besides maps 5 and 6 (Never Ending 1 & 2) which are meant to be played as one unit.

 

GETTING THE MUSIC WORKING IN CRISPY DOOM

- Open up the crispy-doom-setup.exe in the crispy doom directory.

- Set music to MIDI/MP3/OGG/FLAC

 

THANKS

- The developers of WhackEd, Slade, Ultimate Doom Builder, GIMP, and Bitwig Studio

- Whomever made this great texture pack using the OG patches

- Mekworx for the small font

 

DOWNLOAD

 

OST

Edited June 16, 2022 by tei tenga

[Dubbag]

 

[Drywtler]

Played on HMP on Crispy Doom, no pistol-starting.

Took a whole hour to beat it, couldn't find all the secrets, the cacodemons scared me sometimes.

The music *chef kiss*, really adds to the atmosphere.

Nothing against the vanilla pallete, but I wish you implemented a custom one matching the colors of the Reshade stuff you shared before on the NEVER.WAD beta thread:

Spoiler

I've found some missing textures during my playthrough:

Spoiler

MAP02: See-through bridge

 

MAP04: Small missing wall texture on the floor, and sky inside the tunnels

 

 Over all, good stuff. That room on MAP07 tho, what a way to end the wad LUL

[Daytime Waitress]

Trailer did its job - sold on this and will be taking it for a spin later this evening.

[TheCyberDruid]

The music is great, the maps aren't my cup of tea. The cacodemon is a great mix of scary and funny though ;) I also found a few missing textures. Here's one from map 2:

 

[Daytime Waitress]

Only a couple of levels in on HMP, but I think you've absolutely hit your mark here, @tei tenga: this really is oppressive, in a fun way. The driving music, despite being relatively fast tempo, gets under your skin in the same way that Quake's OST did. It's complimented by constant flickering and contrast shifts that disorient the player - not in a technically incompetent or irritating manner, but in service to an aesethetic choice.

 

And all that is backed by the gameplay. These might not be the most complex maps, but you seem to have a pretty good knack of showing the player what they ought to do next, and then putting a good amount of opposition in between them and their goal. Tricksy, but acheivable. Enough hurt to challenge the player, but not to the point where they're ragequitting, and not too much dickishness in the traps.

 

I've also appreciated the limited use of mid-tier enemies in close quarters: good use of barons and skelebois, and the one Vile so far was an absolute prick to deal with - loved it. In fact it's almost entirely gravy up until the introduction of the new enemies:
 

Spoiler

 

"What if cacos had charge attacks, and lost souls had projectiles"

 

 

 

 

Who hurt you, OP?

 

Spoiler

I'm just fucking with you - still love the WAD. But goddamn if I ain't scared of cacos for the first time in living memory.

 

Edited May 3, 2022 by Daytime Waitress

[tei tenga]

Thanks for the kind words!

Special thanks @Dub Bag for making a video. It's a thrill to see how people react to this in real time

[Bobby :D]

Oh shit! I've been waiting for this since I played the beta last year! Can't wait to play it!

 

[Mercury Spade]

I played through the first two maps and I found a missing texture on the step in Map 02. You're a good mapper man and the music is really good.

[Drywtler]

Ok this is something I just stumbled upon. The first switch on MAP01 changes depending on which sourceport you're using.

 

Skull switch on Crispy Doom, no switch on dsda-doom 0.23.0 (nor PRBoom+, which dsda's derivative from), Lever switch on GZDoom (any ZDoom derivative sourceport behaves the same).

Spoiler

 

I suppose Skull is the intended switch and the other ones are a byproduct of the sourceports?

[tei tenga]

Yeah, I've noticed that. There are some custom textures (made from the OG patches) and the different source ports seems to have different ideas about whether or not the new or old textures get priority. It seems to happen particularly often with switches. Thanks for the QA @Drywtler!

[LadyMistDragon]

I think this a little bit harder than Doom II because of monster density if nothing else (probably comparable to TNT)

 

Also,  here's a few HOM issues I spotted with trim in DSDA Doom

 

This appears in the one balcony right next to the first switch that opens up the Revenant closets in Map 03.

 

Spoiler

 

 

This one appears at a location in the subway area I think.

 

Spoiler

 

 

This last one is near the backpack secret in Map 03

 

Spoiler

 

 

I spotted a few others but I'm not sure they'd be as obvious, (some trim issues with the inner end of the rocket launcher secret for example).

[tei tenga]

I certainly need to do a roundup of these missing textures

[msx2plus]

oh my goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

 

yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

bandcamp version of soundtrack when!! let me support this! hahaha

[rzh]

I'm getting some Doom Zero & Nihility vibes from this, would definetly check it out.

 

Edit: yeah, this is definitely unique and high-quality stuff.

Spoiler

Goddamn those Cacos are amazing, I love them to death. Lost souls are really cool too.

 

Edited May 6, 2022 by rzh

[philcul]

14 hours ago, msx2plus said:

oh my goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

 

yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

bandcamp version of soundtrack when!! let me support this! hahaha

 

I second this! Please put the soundtrack on bandcamp, I wanna add this gem to my collection!

 

Oh, and I'm excited to play this again. I remember the older version (was it a beta?) that was posted some months (?) ago.

Had a great time with that and gladly wanna experience it again!

[tei tenga]

On 5/5/2022 at 9:59 AM, msx2plus said:

oh my goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

 

yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

bandcamp version of soundtrack when!! let me support this! hahaha

friend!! you came to my party!

 

I played through Doom Zero, but I've never heard of Nihility. That Wad and Never are clearly barking up the same tree

[Mercury Spade]

I found some more missing textures. Both screen shots are on Map 04 using gzdoom.

Spoiler

[Andromeda]

On 5/4/2022 at 3:55 AM, Drywtler said:

Ok this is something I just stumbled upon. The first switch on MAP01 changes depending on which sourceport you're using.

 

Skull switch on Crispy Doom, no switch on dsda-doom 0.23.0 (nor PRBoom+, which dsda's derivative from), Lever switch on GZDoom (any ZDoom derivative sourceport behaves the same).

  Hide contents

 

I suppose Skull is the intended switch and the other ones are a byproduct of the sourceports?

Weird, on DSDA-Doom 0.24.3 I'm getting the lever switch like in the GZDoom screenshot.

[Drywtler]

34 minutes ago, Andromeda said:

Weird, on DSDA-Doom 0.24.3 I'm getting the lever switch like in the GZDoom screenshot.

You got a newer version of DSDA-Doom that's why, I have to get the latest release and for that matter i specified the version I had

[Shepardus]

52 minutes ago, Andromeda said:

Weird, on DSDA-Doom 0.24.3 I'm getting the lever switch like in the GZDoom screenshot.

 

16 minutes ago, Drywtler said:

You got a newer version of DSDA-Doom that's why, I have to get the latest release and for that matter i specified the version I had

It depends on which renderer you use, with software renderer I get no switch and with the OpenGL renderer I get the lever switch (dsda-doom 0.24.2, I should remember to update at some point).

[sandwedge]

This was sick.  I don't really listen to techno, dark or otherwise, but the OST really fit the dark, foreboding atmosphere and architecture of the wad.  I guess back in the day I liked nine inch nails so it scratches that itch a bit.  I struggled to remember the name in the vid, but this reminds me of that youtube horror series The Backrooms found footage with its creepy atmosphere, really enjoyed that.

 

 

I think you pulled off something pretty cool with the way you just use vanilla textures, as far as I know, and some pretty freaking large places that have a lot of bare walls and yet it all feels like part of the aesthetic, not like it's too bare.  I gotta say those cacodemons are scary as hell and are probably what I will remember most.  They really do a lot for the atmosphere because they can just lunge out of seemingly nowhere and keep charging you like a lost soul and take you out in short order.  I also had two infight each other??  That was hilarious and not sure if it was intended, though perhaps it's just using lost soul programming so that makes sense?  The lost souls end up feeling better than the normal lost souls just because of their lower health.  Of course I was expecting some lightplay with the club atmosphere, but thankfully you didn't make that too annoying or anything.  Also that final fight in map 3 was nuts, I suppose I could've jumped off and escaped but if you wanna get them all that is definitely a crazy fight.  Looking forward to finishing this later.

[Delisk]

Man this was a fun mapset!

 

[InTraining]

Chiming in with everyone to say incredible stuff tei, the atmosphere and encounter design of this set was really top notch. 

[sandwedge]

Finished this up, had a lot of fun... terrifying fun, lol.

 

 

Really started to feel the oppressive atmosphere by the 4th level.  5th level being a build up of resources for the final level was actually a really cool idea, especially with the more ambient music.  I really liked the 1st and 3rd puzzle but as you might see in the second, I just didn't really get it.  The first level of platforms made sense but the second level I just sorta randomly hit switches till I was able to cross.  Not sure if I missed something.  Also a softlock area there.  Also you can grab the mega armour through the gate.  But the other two puzzles were fantastic.  The final fight... oh boy.  Awesome stuff, cool disco floor, scary cacos, and the archviles threw me for a loop at first.  I guess I didn't realize the platforms would provide me enough cover from the archies so it took me a bit.  But great setpiece ending!  Thanks for all your work, really enjoyed the soundtrack too.  Amazing use of vanilla textures with cool architecture to make everything feel very fresh.

[tei tenga]

I updated the download link in the OP with a new version that just fixes some missing textures (thanks for reporting them) and tweaks the final fight a bit.

Cheers

[Shepardus]

Seeing this thread bumped reminds me that I really ought to finish playing this. While I wasn't immediately hooked by the first map, the second map onward have really stood out to me as a unique experience. I love the look you've created from the vanilla textures, and the awesome soundtrack complements it perfectly.

 

A couple missing textures that weren't previously reported, on the staircase early in MAP03 (just to the right of the player weapon sprite in each of these screenshots):

Spoiler

 

 

 

Crispy Doom until recently rendered HOMs differently from other source ports, so it's understandable that you missed these.

 

Edit - One more, later in the map:

Spoiler

Edit 2 - Missing ceiling near the beginning of MAP04:

Spoiler

Edit 3 - Finally finished playing this and had a great time! Just one more missing texture to report, on MAP06 if you fall off the edge facing the direction of the exit before the platforms to it have been raised:

Spoiler

 

Edited June 16, 2022 by Shepardus