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New Lethal Deathmatch WAD Forthcoming
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Mr_Congeniality
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Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Utah

PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 3:04 am    Post subject: New Lethal Deathmatch WAD Forthcoming Reply with quote

Hello everyone, long time no see?

As everyone back in 2008 probably knew, Lethal Deathmatch 2 was supposed to be my bow out of the ZDaemon map creation community. In a sense, it was, but over the past 4 years I have possessed a greater amount of technological understanding about almost everything in general. I have understood what is wrong with these WADs, and by the end of the year, it is my personal goal to have what I have planned finished.

First off, we have to start from the beginning. I think everyone (including myself) can share the same complaint/concern with Lethal Deathmatch 2, and that is its filesize: It's more than 20 Megabytes. My thought process was like this: In 5 years, it won't matter, because everyone will have 20 Megabit connections, and they will be able to download the WAD file in a flash. Well, as it turns out, it's been 5 years later, I've moved away from home, and I live in the middle of no-where, and speeds are literally around 3 Megabits. So yes, America's broadband network is stull quite slow in general, but then I realized why people play classic Doom. It's small, lightweight, and simple. Also, when you think about it hard, the file size of Lethal Deathmatch 2 is so big, that I would have been surprised if it was unplayable to a user base that were using much older machines back in the day.

If you are unfamiliar with Lethal DM 2, here are some gameplay videos I recently captured:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ysm4-ztScg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mp7yRQgLZc

Well, time has caught up with us, and yes, while computers made today are faster, not everyone owns a fast connection AND a fast computer. So why should I count anybody out? Like I said, this file size is just too large. This is due to all of the music loops and custom sound effects that are not encoded in WAV formats, but I have been using OGG. But not even OGG could be small enough to be level music, but at the same time, I didn't want to sacrifice the quality. Then I realized the current quality has defeated by quantity: There's so many maps, so much music, it's just too much for one WAD. And it's not just the filesize that is the problem, but some levels don't even have a purpose but to look pretty and whatnot. There's no logic to some of the maps except for a visual and audio presentation.

It was almost as if I took every element I could and executed it well, but I somehow forgot to include the most important feature in ZDaemon, and that is playablility.

So, I'm here to say that I am doing a remodel of my WAD. I have a more extensive writing I am going to post here soon once work on the levels begins to go underway (and I plan on beginning work on making the levels this week). This remodel will turn the 20+ Megabyte file into at most 5MB or smaller. I'm going to be seperating the music so it is optional to the user; so if they wish to have the music included, then can download a separate WAD, and servers can be set up this way so they don't bug out or crash. I plan on replacing the music entries in the WAD with empty data, that way another WAD can lay over the top of it and replace it, whether it be my own, or somebody elses. Optional music: Created by the creator of the WAD, or by its userbase. I think either would be awesome.

Now, like I said, the size of the WAD isn't the only problem with it. There's no doubt the sound design Lethal Deathmatch 2 is very well done, and some of the visual presentation still makes me think "how the hell did I pull that off?" The idea now is to make these levels even more complex on a playability scale. Some will be left the way they are, but a lot of levels are about to receive a architectual redesign. Most of the new redeisgn will come with completely new graphics.

In some ways, can alike this to World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. I am going to try to expand on what works in this WAD, and try to smooth out the other things that do not. Where the space is too cramped for players, there will be more room. Where the space is too much, I will try to minimalize it. Also, if anyone has played the "Return to Station 7" level in Lethal Deathmatch 2, if there's one big mistake I have made, it is this: Don't place the weapons that should be easy to get in the hardest places to get.

If anyone doesn't know Station 7, Station 7 was in Lethal Deathmatch 1, and I brought it back for Lethal Deathmatch 2, and remodeled it. But the form in Lethal Deathmatch 2 was a destroyed space station; and the level is too dark, cluttered, and muddled to fight people in. In the remodel, Station 7 will become a (from my notes): "A government-owned and corporately endorsed shooting gallery, of which both the government(s) and corporation(s) are fictional and unknown, but they clearly come across as corrupt and wicked, while at the same time being deemed 'legal' and 'moral' in this same fictional world."

I will be releasing more information later, and I will also have servers up and running the latest build of each WAD as I go along the development process (just like I did last time), and users will be able to come in and pitch their own opinion or ideas. I'm even willing to turn this into a complete community project, that way there is equal influence from all of ZDaemon's userbase.

I also plan to bring Lethal DM 1 and 2 together in this WAD, granted I think some levels from the first one won't be coming along for the ride, but if anything, the architechture of them will.

This will also not be coined a "sequel", for it will not be called "Lethal Deathmatch 3".

I present to you "Lethal Deathmatch 2012":



I don't know if I can get this finished in under 300 days, but I'm going to give it a shot.

(Yes, that damn overpowered chaingun is getting a rework too =P)
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spacepirate
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Joined: 25 Jan 2005
Location: que pasa

PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

32 in 7200

good luck!
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TheCupboard
Generic Title


Joined: 25 Feb 2007
Location: USA

PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, fuck. Even I can be excited about this. Bravo to your considerations of downsizing from 20+ megabytes to 5. Makes my heart smile, grinning from ventricle to ventricle, that is.
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Cybershark
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Joined: 05 Jan 2005
Location: off the grid, but still fighting for the users!

PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey Mr. C!

Wow, your post is like music to my ears! Someone actually recognising that people don't generally want to download 20meg of useless crap? Or that gameplay actually means more than flashy, gimmicky graphics?

Hope you can get everything the way you really want it this time around Smile
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Mr_Congeniality
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Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Utah

PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cybershark wrote:
Hey Mr. C!

Wow, your post is like music to my ears! Someone actually recognising that people don't generally want to download 20meg of useless crap? Or that gameplay actually means more than flashy, gimmicky graphics?

Hope you can get everything the way you really want it this time around Smile


Actually, I don't want to aim for either.

Here is a preview of the redesign I'm doing. I'm starting with The Downward Spiral. I have taken the BFG out, and programmed the crusher so you have to run right through the middle if you are to survive.
http://twitter.com/MistaC87/statuses/183693963809669120


So far I have only been able to get it down to 15MB, but that could end up to be less than 10MB zipped. I'm still discovering there is a lot of other stuff in the WAD that may need to be taken out as well. I am thinking of taking all custom sounds larger than 40KB out, and save it for a custom sound WAD.

I may need a programmer or someone to help me with this it turns out, there is a lot of work to be done before year's end.

Here's a screenshot of The Downward Spiral being opened up (Full size: http://a.yfrog.com/img738/9718/azf.png, you can also click the thumbnail below)
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Mr_Congeniality
Posting Spree!


Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Utah

PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 1:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Zipped filesize so far is 8.12MB. I still have more to take out.

Edit: File size continues to come down. I have uploaded a video of what the map I have been editing looks like in-game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVnl5c3HMAw

Title screen music composed by yours truly Wink - Zipped file size has dropped to 7.64MB, and I plan on making it even lower

-----

I have also decided I am going to release a stripped down version of Lethal Deathmatch 2 without the music. Nothing will be altered except for the music.
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ManoLO
On a Rampage!


Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Location: 3. Kuhdorf von links

PostPosted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey there.

Sounds all good - besides that thing with taking out the music. I know that many players just donīt care about map music or mute the ingame sounds at all, but nontheless...for me map music is a big part of the whole gaming experience. andy hey, those midis canīt be thaaat big? Wink
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Mr_Congeniality
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Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Utah

PostPosted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ManoLO wrote:
Hey there.

Sounds all good - besides that thing with taking out the music. I know that many players just donīt care about map music or mute the ingame sounds at all, but nontheless...for me map music is a big part of the whole gaming experience. andy hey, those midis canīt be thaaat big? Wink


Screamtracker modules are nice and compact as well. But at this point I'm more open to putting the sound in a separate WAD and leaving it up to the user whether they want the music or not.

By the way, here's a look at the changes going on in the editor. Still a lot more to add in: http://yfrog.com/nxdsjtp


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Mr_Congeniality
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Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Utah

PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

More progress happening. I'm quite pleased with how this is all turning out so far. There is so much more space in this map now, and I am becoming quite tempted to throw out a "official beta" version of the WAD containing 4 "almost finished" maps that have undergone some big reworks. I won't be doing this until I do a reworks on some on some of the sound effects.

Animated GIF of the progress below:

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Mr_Congeniality
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Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Utah

PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 4:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbpLyKcrRjo

I have uploaded a YouTube video (that has a more consistent framerate). I have also added lots of cool new things to the map. I'm not sure if I want to leave it how it is or if I want to do more at this point, if anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it. (Btw, weapons placement is not completely finished yet)

You can get the music I composed in the WAD here:
http://soundcloud.com/mq6/mq6-evolve-march-2012-work-in


Edit: Uploaded an HD quality version of the work on the level.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg4g6cZK2Yo&hd=1
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Mr_Congeniality
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Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Utah

PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 4:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This map is nearly finished, and I am planning on putting it on a server soon after I clean up the WAD file a bit more.

Animated GIF:
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Mr_Congeniality
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Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Utah

PostPosted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello everyone...I come bearing bad news...I have slipped into a terrible depression, and I am about to go through a terrible medical crisis, both mental and physical, along with a Xanax addiction I am trying to kick. Long story short: I believe I have sustained a rather serious physical injury, and I'm about to lose health insurance as well, and I lack any emotional or personal support. I also suffer from several other mental problems--I know I have a brilliant mind, but I am pretty certain I have some sort of mental retardation of some sort, even if it is on only a mild level. At first I thought it was an autism spectrum disorder of some sort, but I received bad news last month that all of the medications that doctors have been feeding me over the years was a mistake, as I was diagnosed with "Borderline Personality Disorder", which should never be treated with medication, and I've been on Xanax for nearly 2 years now, and it's very addictive, and the withdrawal symptoms are a complete nightmare. I sometimes hyperventilate to the point where I nearly pass out. Sometimes I don't even know who I am anymore.

I committed myself to this project because it was basically the only thing I had left going for me in my life months ago besides my relationship. At the time I was deemed too mentally sick to have a job, and even though I couldn't work, I figured I could do something like Lethal Deathmatch 2012. I wanted to create a WAD that would make people who left the ZDaemon community want to return, and I wanted to inject more life into ZDaemon itself. Then me and my boyfriend broke up and I became insanely focused on this...then on April 17th when I decided to start testing Lethal Deathmatch 2012 on a private server, I discovered I made the mistake of testing LD2012 with ZDoom, and not a ZDaemon client instead when testing. The game looks great and sounds great in ZDoom, but in ZDaemon the engine won't read textures as flats, and the sound engine in ZDaemon in its current form completely guts the delivery of what I was trying to make. I basically haven't touched the WAD file since. I have felt too damn demotivated to.

I was thinking of taking LD2012 to Skulltag or some other platform, but I wasn't interested in alienating the ZDaemon user base.

So basically, I can't sit here and continue to work on this project right now, especially when things have reached a new level of low in my life I could have never possibly imaged.

Of course this WAD will never be unreleased. I uploaded it to 4shared in its current form. The WAD is basically a stripped down and modified version of LethalDM2Final.wad, with a lot of un-needed nonsense taken out. The file size of this ZIP file is 6.7MB. Map19 and Map01 are the maps that have been altered drastically so far. If anyone wants to take any of these maps in the WAD and do whatever you want with them, you are more than welcome to.

http://www.4shared.com/zip/7hBU47PP/LD2012-04172012.html

This might be goodbye for quite a while.
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BAZOOKA
Unstoppable!


Joined: 10 Feb 2004

PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good luck.
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TheCupboard
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Joined: 25 Feb 2007
Location: USA

PostPosted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Damn, dude. Depression, physical calamity, and addiction are a wrecking ball of a combination. Try to stay strong and stick with the things that made you happy before. Things will start to make sense and feel sort of good again after a while. Be persistent with your health insurance company. Try your best not to let them dump you.

All that aside, I seriously hope Lethal DM 2 could get replayed on ZDS sometime in the future maybe. Been a long time since it's been played on the servers as I can recall.
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Mr_Congeniality
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Joined: 16 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 4:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello everyone, I come bearing good news. I'm back, and I'm in better shape than ever. I'm currently in the process of making a project for work, but following that project, I'm wishing to venture back in Lethal Deathmatch 2012, and turn it into Lethal Deathmatch 2013. I'm going to be in college at the same time, so this will be challenging, and this could cause me to push the completion up until 2014 instead (which I have no problem with).

I'm going all out with this one. I am going to be sketching up what the levels should look like on paper, and after I do that, I am going to bring it into Doom the best that I can. These sketches will be altered versions of levels from both Lethal Deathmatch 1 and 2, so my original intentions of the WAD remain. It is an intense revamp of levels from 1 and 2, and it will help be a roadmap for something epic.

I also have a few gripes about the glitches, and I am talking about the glitches on the ZDaemon side. May I ask why this WAD works so great in ZDoom, but somehow it runs like crap in ZDaemon? Or can someone help me out with a workaround so that my sound design is left intact and whatnot? Or better yet, when can our players get ZDaemon 2? (If that's an idea in the mix right now, I would love to help. I'm a fast learner at coding.) Maybe it was my mistake to test with ZDoom, but I didn't really realize what a difference that it would make.

Anyways, I am going to get this project done for real, and I would love it if I had some more developers hopped on board with me. If any of you wish to contribute in any way, let me know.

I'm excited Very Happy
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Cybershark
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Joined: 05 Jan 2005
Location: off the grid, but still fighting for the users!

PostPosted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 12:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You and DarkLinux should get collaborating!

You'll probably have to be a bit more specific when you talk about the "subpar performance of Zdaemon" if you wish to get some answers. What are we talking here? Framerate issues?
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Dark Linux
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Joined: 15 Aug 2004
Location: Deep down in places YOU WONT TALK ABOUT!

PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 12:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cybershark wrote:
Wow, your post is like music to my ears! Someone actually recognising that people don't generally want to download 20meg of useless crap? Or that gameplay actually means more than flashy, gimmicky graphics?


Wow. I feel like that was a personal stab at me there Cyber...

Good to hear from you Mr.C.

It's good to see some of the old players comming back to ZDaemon
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TheCupboard
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Joined: 25 Feb 2007
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

While I wouldn't put it past him, his remarks spread out over the course of a couple years in this thread alone; I doubt anything was a barb for you.

This is a crusade that ranges from the rerelease of zdctfmp into a new pack with chunky non-optional mp3 music when midi/mod/ogg/anything really would be more fitting, nooblets who don't grasp the idea of "adding only the textures you need" as you go instead of merging a library of resources for a basic map01, to the most recent ZDS.
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Dark Linux
Unstoppable!


Joined: 15 Aug 2004
Location: Deep down in places YOU WONT TALK ABOUT!

PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You know, when you place it that way.

I was just kidding about the personal jab though. Laughing

On another note. I discovered that an entire song in .mod format could be re-compressed in .flac format to make it even smaller...

Who knew?
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TheCupboard
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did fucking not! Cheers, to modarchive.org this one slithers.
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