This is a trailer for Sonic Robo Blast 2 ver. 2.2.
SRB2 is a mod for Doom that creates a unique 3D Sonic game in the style of the older games. Honestly, it’s probably the best Sonic has ever been in 3D. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect (3d Sonic sets a low bar). The controls have always been too slippery for my liking which makes precision platforming a pain.
It’s nice to see this mod getting some love. It’s over two decades old (originally created in 1998), and it was a technical marvel (for the Doom engine) when it came out. The new release looks like it has added a lot of impressive new effects (destructible terrain using polyobjects!) and I’m looking forward to trying this.
[Anonymous Question] “Do you have any doom mods in particular you recommend? I’m new to even the idea of modding it and don’t know where to start ??”
Gosh, there’s so much out there now! It’s hard to know what to recommend first without dumping way too much text.
Trailblazer
is a mod that turns you into a Snake Plissken-style bad ass. I always
come back to it, it’s lots of fun and probably my favourite at the
moment. https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=47494
Demonsteele is
Devil May Cry: Doom Edition. It’s a favorite and by the same author as
High Noon Drifter but it’s very different to normal play. Try something
else first. https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=46787
Combined Arms wasn’t originally a favourite, but the new update has really improved it and it just feels great. It’s a not a bad place to start as it’s a nice and simple armoury replacement. No extra controls or special moves, just new guns (and an optional monster replacement pack) https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=51066
Final Doomer
is a great weapon replacer that gives you a new armory themed around
five famous megawads (mega-wad = map pack that replaces all the levels
in Doom 2) and a tweaked version of the default armory.https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=55061
Off the top of my head, you want to keep an eye on TerminusEst, Combine Keegan and Pillowblaster. They’re putting out some good stuff.
The levels you pick will really affect your enjoyment. Try looking through the Cacowad’s (https://www.doomworld.com/cacowards/)
and downloading anything that appeals. ALL the stuff listed for the
Cacowad’s is quality – but it’s only some of the good stuff out there.
Finally, Doom Mod Madness
on YouTube always manages to find weird and interesting new mods. I
don’t watch as regularly as I used to, but it’s been a useful series for
me.
The mods above require GZDoom to play. I also highly
recommend using the ZDL launcher because eventually you’ll have way too
many files in your core Doom folder to do the drag and drop thing. Let
me know if you need any help with that.
Even if you don’t play Doom, or want to get into it, it does let you know about some of the crazy stuff that’s been made by the community over the past 25 years.
Last year I made a Lovecraftian Doom mod to help me figure out how
mods are made, and one thing I did then was turn Realm 667′s Flesh
Wizard into an alternative Archvile.
I’ve now combined some of that Decorate code with Hexenmapper’s raisable Heretic monsters and made a very fast monster with a decent amount of hit points that resurrects fallen foes, turns invisible, and throws out low damage fireballs. He also has a high pain chance.
In the test encounter he wasn’t able to escape concentrated fire from
a rapid fire weapon, but he’s much harder to catch in an open arena
with other monsters around. He’s scary but not very dangerous by
himself.
So let me know what you think about the FLYING STEALTH ARCHVILE
Hexenmapper has been working on some monster replacements for Heretic and posting them in the HUMP discord server.
I
asked if I could use them, since I want to make an expanded ‘Doom 2′
style monster roster for Heretic and he’s already made an Arch Vile type
creature. He said yes, because he’s a really cool person.
I’m going to walk you through the inside of a simple monster replacer mod. Let’s have a look at what sort of stuff is inside…
1) First I’ll have to open SLADE, so I can rummage around the data file.
2) Then I’ll find my data file. Luckily I keep everything well organized…
3) Here’s what the inside of a Doom (or Heretic, or Hexen, or Strife…) wad file looks like:
4) This is the DECORATE file. Decorate is a language added to sourceports that let’s you create new monsters and effects without much technical know-how. Pictured below is an Arch Vile type monster that resurrects enemies
5) Hexenmapper has been hard at work; every non-Boss in Heretic is now replaced by an identical copy with a resurrection animation (their death animation played backwards). Because the other two new monsters replace Heretic’s ‘ghost’ enemies, those monsters’ resurrectable versions are disabled (but can easily be turned back on)
6) Let’s have a look at the graphics for the new Yuan-Ti Monsters. As you can see, it’s a “Frankensprite” of the Ophidian and the Brown Chaos Serpent enemies.
7) The side view had some sprite tearing I thought. However, other views of the Yuan Ti are very well done.
8) Holy cow, that’s how it attacks? That lightning attack looks cool as hell
9) The Arch Vile type monster is a smaller version of Hexen’s Korax
10) The third new monster is an Archer, based on the Hexen II enemy. This is from Realm 667 and modified from the existing Archer resource.
11) The Credits List
So for reference:
DECORATE contains the programming for the monsters (health, movement, properties, lists of sprites to use for each animation cycle, etc) SNDINFO is ‘sound information’ which assigns labels to the sound files so that the Decorate file can tell the game which sounds to play GLDEFS tells the game to light up the area around monsters when they’re using their magic attacks The rest is sound and graphics data that get used by DECORATE and SNDINFO.
Will I use it? In a modified form, probably.
I
was thinking of using the Korax sprite for a boss monster so I might
change swap the graphics. I certainly can’t ignore the work put into
making each Heretic monster resurrectable though!
I think the archer would make a good “shotgun sergeant”, perhaps if I made their attack more like an ethereal crossbow attack.
I may have already put in a monster that does what the Yuan-ti does, so that one might not be used.
For fun and to brush up on my GZDoomBuilder skills I decided to recreate a major location from the freeform RPG I’ve been running on and off for the past 3 years.
There is a LOT of artwork of the various characters.
I
really wanted to practice with GZDoom exclusive features more and
hopefully this will help me learn some new tricks (the dynamic light
shown in the above pic is the first time I’ve ever tried using them).
The level itself is a small witch’s tower at the edge of a vast forest. So far I’ve only finished the cellar area.
Because
Heretic has so few resources I’ve had to add stuff from Hexen and
Realm667. After testing out my work in progress I do regret not simply
using Hexen as the base, given that the combat feels closer to what I
want and there’s so many textures and options available from the start.
Below are some pics from my test map where I’ve been testing out new sprites, animated textures, and monsters. I can’t begin say how proud I am for figuring out how to emulate the Wendigo’s fragmenting ice attack outside of Hexen.
Not only did I get the Wendigo’s attack working, but I’ve also edited the terrain files so that characters sink into mud and create splashing effects as they move in water/slime/mud.
I’ve even managed to create PolyObjects – swingable objects (in this case, a door that creates an ominous creak and slowly opens – this is no mean feat in an essentially 2D game engine based on static sectors).
I’m currently playing through some Call of Doom. It’s a Doom mod by Arrowood (possibly the only Japanese person alive who likes both Call of Duty and Doom*)
and it’s great fun. Sadly the coding is all over the place. This isn’t
entirely the author’s fault as CODoom requires Brutal Doom** to run.
Both
of those mods have seen a lot of development since I last played them.
Unfortunately, changes to both mods and GZDoom are making it harder to
play the most up-to-date versions. I wish both mod creators would just
focus on making optimized, error-free versions of their works which only
require one file placed into the launcher.
Oh well. Call of Doom is good fun all the same. It has ear ruining sound effects, requires about six mods in a specific load order, and it runs like ass, but it’s still able to give a visceral thrill every time you blast an imp to pieces from across the room. You have to respect that.
*
There must be other Japanese FPS fans given that JPCP.wad is a thing,
but the possibility exists that they’re all just Arrowood wearing
several different combinations of hats and false beards.
** A legendary mod whose code perfectly resembles an enormous plate of spaghetti.
The Halloween level was never publicly released, so here it is.
It’s been a busy few months. Wish I could say I spent all of it making levels but no. I’d love to make another one tied to this. It was a good learning experience.
WIP of Halloween level. Ignore the default sky texture, something else is going there eventually. The valley and crypt is the beginning area before the player drops into a deep cavern that becomes a black and orange metallic hell.
I started to get the hang of decorative mid-textures after looking at how Skillsaw uses them. Study other authors’ levels to work out how they pull stuff off.
“Any advice for beginner Doom Mappers with no ideas for the full picture?”
I can vouch for the tried-and-true method of just jumping in and teaching oneself everything about Doom mapping, since it is a very accessible medium of creation – seriously, drawing simple lines and shapes is really all it takes… well, okay, maybe not.
However the community itself is rich in resources to help you get off the ground. There are editing tutorials all over the place:
This one by Eevee is definitely worth checking out if you want a no-nonsense tutorial for starting your first map all on one page.
Of course there’s a lot beyond this – and you might want to make maps, and be able to, but be quite stuck for actual ideas. Again, the community is there to help.
There are name generators and
theme generators
out there. Of course some of these are ineffably silly, but hey,
sometimes a silly idea might stimulate you creatively in ways you’d not
previously considered.
OBLIGEis
a level generator that can help you gain a general idea of how a Doom
map layout can work. It is generally frowned upon to use these
layouts “out of the box” though, so use them for inspiration, but don’t go generating a bunch of maps and then releasing them. 😛
The Doomwiki is a great resource regarding specifics of the engine.
There are innumerable community projects ongoing at any one time, especially on Doomworld,
with specific restrictions like using a certain size of playable area,
or specific enemy placement. Limitations breed creativity, so hopefully
you’ll find one that stimulates and challenges you!
Just doodle! Find some blank paper, whether it has lines/squares or not, and get sketching. Interesting things are bound to arise.
Play a lot of Doom. Seriously. The maps the community makes are invaluable sources of inspiration. We’re a stupidly creative bunch.
The Nephrite Games Blog 