[Community Project] Expedition to the Doomier Peaks - An MBF21 Science-Fantasy Themed CP

[thelamp]

 

Hello Doomworld! I come to you with a new Community Project inspired by D&D - specifically This dungeon module. The setting is a blend of science fiction and fantasy. Right now the resource pack comprises most of the weapons and enemies I'd like to include, this project is still very green and I can use all the help I can get. What I'm mostly looking for is mappers. As of now there is no texture set compiled for this at all Ettingrinder's Heretic/Hexen textures converted to doom2 pallette by Doomkid. Still light on sci-fi themed textures so I ask that you use vanilla textures as placeholders in the meantime. If you have suggestions for texture sets to use you can do that here or join the discord!

 

As you can tell this whole thing is pretty undercooked right now, it's possible that I'm jumping the gun by posting this thread now but I'm just too excited not to. I recently learned how to use decohack so that I could take advantage of the many new MBF21 features and boy am I glad I did. Big thanks to @MTrop for doomtools and everyone involved in making MBF21! My ideas for this project went well beyond the scope of the original MBF and without this option, it's very likely I would've gone to another port. Nothing against other ports but I wanted to keep the potential audience as large as possible and with MBF21 having widespread support for modern ports, I felt this was the best choice. Also big thanks to @Large Cat for helping me to build the .deh patch contained within the current resources!

 

You can find a current version of the resource pack on the project discord, and below you will find a brief description of the new monsters/weapons to help with mapping. Credits to Realm667, and the Post your Sprites thread here on doomworld. more detailed credits below

 

Since this is still very early in development I'm not sure how many maps will be submitted or accepted but UMAPINFO is a powerful tool so even if we want to go over 32 maps this is easily doable. Honestly I was thinking of making forking paths between episodes, sort of like a choose-your-own adventure book which is a D&D adjacent sort of thing in my mind.

 

If you'd like to discuss more in depth please join the discord I am open to suggestions on what texture packs to use and people's ideas of what sort of episodes themes could work within the setting. Thanks for reading and happy mapping!

 

Project Resource Pack here

 

design document

Spoiler

ENEMIES

Beholder
    flying enemy with a medley of attacks, can toggle invisibility and summon imps
    a bit like a miniboss, should be used sparingly
    Attack                        % chance

    Single projectile            44.83
    Flurry of misc projectiles    25.15
    Fan of fireballs            14.93
    Invisibility spell            10.01
    Monster summoning            5.08

Bugman
    melee enemy with a long reach. moves fast

Double Orc
    baron

Drone
    flying weak hitscanner

Ettin
    hell knight

Flying Imp
    exactly what it sounds like

Gargoyle
    a lost soul that cant fly, but it can drop off cliffs

Gargoyle spawner
    this thing spits out gargoyles. Doesn't move. Still blocks even when dead
    please do no place this where the player cannot kill it

Knight
    Heretic knight that also has a rage mode where he speeds up

Maephisto
    mancubus

Minotaur
    big badass with a scary AoE attack

Orc
    quick swarmers with a better melee reach than a pinky

Rocket Bot
    a robot that shoots rockets

Robot
    wolf SS with 80 hp, small explosion when it dies
    
Scout bot
    faster shotgunner

Skeleton
    lowest of low tier enemy, easy to fight with the sword, drops arrows

"Boss" mosnters

Gunner Robot
    think of this as a thinner, less dangerous SMM

Sycophant
    very dangerous flying enemy that throws oil flasks

Mind Flayer
    Boss monster with many attacks

Cleric of Baphomet
    demonic healer than can raise biological units from the dead
    has a strong short range spread attack
    
Zapper Drone
    flying drone with an archvile attack

=====================================================================
MISC

Goody barrel
    drops an item when destroyed
    
Target dummy
    stationary enemy that has Bossdeath to activate via UMAPINFO
    
Target dummy, flimsy
    keendie attached to death
    
=====================================================================
WEAPONS

slot 1 -the scroll of agony
    a low damage weapon that can stunlock enemies
slot 1 - polearm
    long range melee, longer on successive swings

slot 2 - short sword
    slashing weapon, multiple attack frames
    
slot 3 - crossbow
    fires three arrows at a time
slot 3 - Magic cross
    fires a lot of homing arrows fast
    
slot 4 - laser rifle
    hitscann
    does more damage on consecutive shots, overheats eventually

slot 5 - Oil Flasks
    larger blast radius rockets. no refire
    short lingering fire effect

slot 6 - Railgun
    projectile penetrates enemies, massive damage

slot 7 - Summoning tome
    short click summons an item
        Item                    % spawn chance
        
        health vial                22.25
        bolts                    19.94
        cell                    9.99
        health potion            9.95
        armor bonuses            10.17
        2 oil flasks            7.14
        bolt case                4.94
        bulk cell                3.07
        backpack                2.10
        invis                    2.15
        radsuit                    2.2
        liteamp                    1.87
        green armor                1.14
        berserk                    1.15
        gargoyle                1.16
        map                        0.78
        
    long click summons a lot of projectiles
    
=====================================================================
GENERAL INFO

Target ports are DSDA Doom, GZ Doom, and Woof!

Please implement difficulty settings in your maps. You can submit them in discord for testing as well, difficulties can be added afterward

Also remember to include multiplayer and deathmatch starts!

=====================================================================
EPISODE STRUCTURE - subject to change, this should be taken a general idea of design and not gospel. Depending on what the maps are like that are submitted these guidelines may change.

Episode I - Rural

Episode one starts in the forest or other rural area, presumably around where the protagonist lives. They are finding occasional downed spaceships and futuristic enemies meandering about. For this episode, mappers must set their maps in a naturalistic environment (forest, plains, desert, tundra, mountains, etc.) with a few robotic enemies around. laser rifle can be given but with none or very limited ammo, just as a tease
-no spell tome
-limited autocrossbow & oil flasks
-limited sci-fi enemies and themes

Episode II - The outskirts/The city

Episode two sees the player visiting a city to warn someone, but they find the city already overrun with this foul presence. Mappers should set their maps in a medieval city environment, and their map should imply a greater city beyond the play area, to help continuity with other maps in the episode. Futuristic weapons may appear, but they should be very sparse (same for cell ammo). Probably still wait on the spell tome. Futuristic enemies should still be the exception, rather than a common occurrence. It's likely there will be occasional futuristic pods or teleporter pads, something like that.
-laser rifle with sparse ammo
-very limited spell tome
-more sci fi enemies
-rare rail gun

Episode III - Castles and Keeps

Episode 3 gets the player into the central keep of town. Finding no lord to warn, they take advantage of a quick travel teleport system between other city keeps. Maps in this episode should take place in some sort of castle/fort/dungeon/minotaur maze and should begin and end with some sort of teleport-pad-style area. The maps should also contain many small futuristic installations guarded by futuristic monsters. This is a goodpoint to introduce the spell tome. Maps should also have one fairly central cell weapon pickup, and cell ammo should be available, but not abundant. The final map will reveal that this last keep is inside an alien craft to transition to the next episode.
-more cell ammo for laser rifle
-spell tome can be found on some levels
-railgun ok

Episode IV - Spacecraft

Episode 4 takes place on a vast spacecraft. Robotic denizens patrol the halls, intent on removing intruders like you. They also seem to be tenuously allied with the more fantastical creatures aboard. Maps should have plenty of futuristic enemies, but all types are welcome. This craft has abducted other medieval settings, allowing for brief departures from the space theme. Cell weapons and ammo can be as plentiful as the mapper wishes from here on out. The final map takes the player on shuttle down to an alien planet.
-anything goes

=====================================================================
UMAPINFO

Bossactions may be used to perform S1 Door Open Stay via UMAPINFO using the following tags:
The tags for the bossactions are:

666 flimsy dummy
667 target dummy
668 mind flayer
669 maephisto
670 rocket bot
671 beholder
672 double orc
673 gunner bot
674 minotaur
675 sycophant

Although there are many enemies listed here please refrain from overusing this mechanic, gating the player behind killing everything repeatedly is not a recipe for a good level (in my opinion) so please use this feature sparingly.

If you would like to use a sky transfer please just make that known in discord so it can be added to the main UMAPINFO lump when the time comes to compile the set

 

some videos

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by thelamp : link update

[Doomkid]

This project looks awesome, Lamp! Pencil me in for a slot.. Gonna do my best to make something Hexeny!

[WorldMachine]

12 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

This project looks awesome, Lamp!

Pencil me in for a slot.. Gonna do my best to make something Hexeny!

Wuh oh, Doomkid's gettin' the the Hexen out!

Be prepared for pure 90's science-fantasy excellence!

 

On a contrary, this actually seems interesting for a CP, I'm definitely gonna give this a try when this is complete!

[Bobby :D]

Goofy as fuck, I love it. Sign me up

[Snaxalotl]

Snack here, I'm in.

[Moustachio]

I like the idea of forking paths. Sign me up!

[Walter confetti]

This Is a really unique project! Good luck with it, i have too many Doom stuff i'm involved...

[Silhouette 03]

I'd like to participate, but I have a few questions. I'll join the discord once these questions are answered 

• Is the project open to newer mappers? I can post some of my work if you'd like to take a look.
• When is the deadline?
• Are these new enemies and weapons just sprite replacements and have the same usages and properties  as the vanilla weapons, or are they completely new?

[RataUnderground]

Sign me in! I'm going to snoop around the discord server.

[thelamp]

2 hours ago, Silhouette 03 said:

I'd like to participate, but I have a few questions. I'll join the discord once these questions are answered 

• Is the project open to newer mappers? I can post some of my work if you'd like to take a look.
• When is the deadline?
• Are these new enemies and weapons just sprite replacements and have the same usages and properties  as the vanilla weapons, or are they completely new?

The project is open to anyone, but there will be quality control on accepting maps.

As of now there is no deadline

The weapons are all new, all of the monsters will be modified (resource pack is still in progress)

[MFG38]

Ggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, why are there so many interesting community projects happening lately?

 

I'm never going to finish any of my personal projects at this rate but fuck it, I'm in.

[Cheesewheel]

Very interested in this - please count me in.

[thelamp]

op has been updated with a link to the current project resources. please report any bugs or issues. happy mapping everyone!!

[Andrea Rovenski]

I'm in 

[RastaManGames]

I wish to help you, my dear Lamp-comrade!

Count me in, so I can forge my map in the future!

[IvanDobsky]

This seems way too cool to pass up, sign me up for a slot.

[Honsolo56]

Looks sick, I'm in

[thelamp]

New version of resources here and in op

 

Also here's me showing off all the monsters and weapons so far!

 

[thelamp]

new version of resources in op, changed some sprites and other small improvements (oil flasks, fire smoke use better sprites)

 

also made a trello for the project

 

 

[DJVCardMaster]

I might try a map for this in a "forest" style. Sign me in.

 

EDIT: Discord invite link is down, it should be set to non-temporary

[thelamp]

18 hours ago, DJVCardMaster said:

EDIT: Discord invite link is down, it should be set to non-temporary

fixed!

 

new resources also

[Anarkzie]

Wow, this looks really exciting, I'll definitely be following the development of this project.

[thelamp]

Big update, now includes textures from Nick Baker's Silver edits and deConstruct Industrial Textures by Derek Mac Donald aka Afterglow

 

 

[Dusty_Rhodes]

Sign me up for a map buddy! I love Doom, DnD, and the idea of choosing your own adventure. 

[Treehouseminis]

I'm interested In making a map this in the near future!  After making several big slaughter maps in a row I'm slightly burnt on the concept atm lol.  I should be done with my personal set in a few weeks (thanks for testing a few of those BTW)  

 

But yeah I liked the show case videos a lot so far.  I've never mapped in mbf21 but I assume the UDB editor isn't too different from boom format? 

[thelamp]

2 minutes ago, Treehouseminis said:

I've never mapped in mbf21 but I assume the UDB editor isn't too different from boom format? 

There are a some new mapping features but most of the new features are DeHackEd related. You can find the spec for it here!

[thelamp]

New version of Resources! Includes a new enemy that flies and throws oil flasks

[KeaganDunn]

Interested in this! Unfortunately the discord link is down again - make sure it's set to never expire. 😅 I'll join as soon as I can and see if I can make something for this.

[WarvyGarvy]

Super dope idea! Don't think im there yet to contribute but will definitely follow!

[thelamp]

On 6/17/2023 at 1:38 PM, KeaganDunn said:

Interested in this! Unfortunately the discord link is down again - make sure it's set to never expire. 😅 I'll join as soon as I can and see if I can make something for this.

fixed!