August 03rd, 2006 ================================================================ Advance Engine Needed : GZDOOM Title : Deadly Alliance - Version 1.2 Files : DA_12.wad DA_12.txt Author : John Email Address : Xel_Niya@yahoo.com Description : Same as original DA except for changes addressing some complaints. Other : The FloodGates (2001), Deadly Alliance, Deadly Alliance - Version 1.1 Additional Credits : See bottom of text file for original extract. VERY IMPORTANT! -------------------- ** This version should be downloaded instead of the original/Ver 1.1 as its the same but improved and can also stand alone. ** The switches of the combination lock atop the blood river can be hit up three times. That means that valid combinations can be hitting any one switch three times or one once and another twice. Order is important. For Eg. 112 and 211 are different. (1 and 2 representing different switches). One combination is needed to open a part of the map but there are some others that offer some goodies. Amongst them a SoulSphere, an Invul(the only one available on the map), ammo and some other shit. ** You will need alt-Fire so configure it. ** Weapon Selections 2-Glock 7-G37K 4-SMG ** There is a part of the map where you meet a horde in the canyon (when you see it you will know). You cannot defeat that horde. Approach them until you see a message(linedef trigger). After that just avoid them until.....well I wont spoil it. You'll know it when you see it. ** Note that the Supersphere also give a kind of temporary Invulnerability. damage sustained while charging DOES NOT affect the maximum amount of health it gives. However, if an attack is powerful enough to take all your health at any given time while charging, you WILL die. CHANGES AS OF VERSION 1.1---------------------------------------------------------------------- ** See bottom of this text file. CHANGES AS OF VERSION 1.2---------------------------------------------------------------------- ** Corrected Decorate error that caused GZDOOM to crash with a fatal error. ("Elf : DoomPlayer" changed to just "Elf" in DECORATE for anyone curious) ** For those who complained that the boss was a dissapointment due to the fact that the Maulotaur was harder, I dare you to say that now. He is even way harder than in 1.1. Please note that it may take a bit of strategy to beat him now. Just blasting at him might not produce the beat results. ** Someone said that the ending was a pain in the ass because of the elves fragging you. Well a balcony has been added, from where you can watch safely as the elves slay all the creatures in the canyon. ================================================================ * Play Information * Game : Doom2: GZDoom Source Port : GZDoom Episode and Level # : Map01 Single Player : Yes Cooperative 2-4 Player : No Deathmatch 2-4 Player : No Difficulty Settings : Yes(Even in scripts) New Sounds : Yes New Graphics/Sprites : Yes New Music : Yes ACS : Yes(Overdone) DECORATE : Yes(Overdone) * Construction * Base : Built From Scratch Build Time : 1 1/2 Months Editor(s) used : Doombuilder, XWE, Known Bugs : May lag at some places. Try turning of dynamic lighting. * Copyright / Permissions * Do what you like with it. Its free. Just give credit where its due! ************************************************************************************************* ---- The following is an extract from the original Text file and does not reflect the changes between Versions 1.1 and 1.2 STORY----------------------------------------------------- Think somewhere along the line of an alliance between The Serpent Riders and The Icon of sin. You fill in all the details. This is a map not a novel. LAYOUT---------------------------------------------------- I ait gonna lie, the map is very linear. Im no architectural genius so dont expect an overly detailed map. However that doesnt mean that its one of those all square room, 128 height types of maps. Its a little interesting to say the least, some areas are nicely done with decent bordering and other details but not overly done. Dynamic lighting is used also. Now, this map doesn't try to be any thing sensible here. Meaning you will not see chairs or benches or cathedrals because lets face it this is DOOM. None of the original levels had any thing that was immediately comparable to any real-life structure. DOOM was never made to be realistic. If you have a problem with that I suggest you go play UNREAL or SOF. DESCRIPTION-------------------------------------------------- Now be warned that on UV for lesser skilled folks, it may be a little too tough. There is more than enough ammo to kill all the shit that is roaming the map and you shouldn't have a problem with health. You will come across a couple SoulSpheres and other items. Medkits are strung out all over the place and for good reason. Many other Doomclone characters make an appearance here. Monsters from Hexen and Heretic, however you will find that after playing this, your respect for those creatures will grow as they are toughened up a bit to go up against Doom's powerful weapons. Not only Raven's creatures appear but a few from the Monster Resource Wad also appear here, mostly baron and imp creatures but they are not classed (laziness) so that means infighting is more effective. Barons will fight with Afrits and so on regardless that they are related visually. Three weapons from the Weapon Resource Wad are also present and severly powered up to deal with those heavy hitters. One of them is even more effective than the plasma rifle. GAMEPLAY----------------------------------------------------- This was my main focus when building the map. Its not perfect but its good. The gameplay is HEAVILY influenced by ACS. Scripts are running all over the place. The the gameplay is not puzzle driven or switch-hunt driven. Rather it depends on killing. More things happen by killing than by switches on this map. Its gameplay is based on this from start to finish. Some may not like it but I dont care, you cant please everyone. Also it should be noted that this map is optimised for UV. Everything was done with the UV skill in mind and as a result may become too easy on easier skill levels. But anyways as the description says above, you will be killing shit forever. Doom has never been about anything else but action and this map takes it to a high level. Everything will depend on overcoming the monsters, I cannot stress this enough. Another sub-theme of this map is the fact that monsters warping in is pretty common place here, bordering on annoying. Its done through out the map. To be on the safe side just kill everything that moves. There is a secret in the map that depends on killing all the monsters in the room so that should give you an idea of how the gameplay is. There many other areas like that too. All in all, the map plays like a progression, kill everything here a door opens, move on and so on. Ammo and health are not scarce but not excessive either except on skill 0 where there are less monsters to kill and ammo is doubled by the engine. Though the layout is linear, its not so much so as to be unable to have an effective route. Visiting certain areas before some can produce better results. DIFFICULTY----------------------------------------------------- The hardest thing about this map might be its creatures. Some of the other games' monsters are seriously powered up and can pack a serious punch but what balances this are the new weapons. All of them are quite efficient and have their own ammo except for the Glock, which uses "ammo" more effectively. It costs less ammo to kill something with the glock than the chain-gun/pistol. Watch out for the Reiver! WEAPONS------------------------------------------------------------- 3 weapons from WRW: The Glock, Sub-Machine Gun and G36k(very powerful) The Glock is powered up from the original in the WRW(gibs former humans) and shoots as fast as you can hit the shoot button but annoying has to reload after every 17 shots. The SMG is faster a slight bit more powerful than the chaingun. And the G36k is devious. It can take down barons faster than even the plasma rifle. To balance its power, its been given a low ammo capacity. Alt-fire is needed to reload the glock manually and fire a quick burst with the G36K so configure it. MONSTERS------------------------------------------------------------ The Decorate lump is abused by this map. I've never seen another map that uses so many critters at the same time. Now I am aware that plenty monsters dont make a good map but who can resist the power of ZDOOM. Here are some of the creatures: Golem - From Heretic, has a little more health and walks/hits faster. Can kill you in seconds when in hordes(Very dangerous). NitroGolem - From Heretic. Projectile does more damage. Knight - From Heretic. Has more health, axe moves faster, throws them in 3s Ettin - From Hexen. More health, slightly faster on attacks. Afrits - From MRW. Flying Baron but with less health and two attacks , one of which does insane damage.(The fire doesnt doo any damage) SnakeImp - From MRW. A little stronger than a standard imp, its projectile does not light up like standard projectiles which make it difficult to see. Does insane damage. Maulotaur - From Heretic. Not at all like the Maul you know. See for yourself. Numerous others make an appearance too. Note that the creatures of MRW are not classed with their lookalikes of the original so infighting is possible. Eg. A SnakeImp will fight a normal imp. ADDITIONAL CREDITZ---------------------------------------------------------------- The makers of the MONSTER RESOURCE WAD. The makers of the WEAPON RESOURCE WAD (Xaser, Dark Archon and others) ZDOOM.ORG which taught me everything I know about DECORATE and ACS. Randy for the most amazing engine on the planet. There is simply no other! IDsoftware and Raven for their games. CodeImp for the most advanced editor ever.(I go all the way back to Windeu) Maker of XWE. Very powerful stuff! TDA and other reviewers for critique OTHER--------------------------------------------------------------------- There are many thing this map needs still to be memorable but im quite out of time. I had to learn ACS and DECORATE from scratch while implementing it and building the level and its quite cumbersome for one person. There are many things that I would have like to have done. WaterSplashes, lightning but damn. I need a break. There is only so much I can learn at one time. When this map was started I knew absolutely nothin about ACS and didnt even know DECORATE existed. Countless time was spent learning and experimenting with them while building this map which in itself can be quite a drag. To me the map feels incomplete but I am worn the hell out. It took too much of my personal time and im just fed up. Let me personally commend ZDOOM.ORG whose wiki was an INVALUABLE ASSET to this. Its quite explanitory and well layed out. After reading any article you are left with a clear understanding of what they are talking about. Randy is also amazing. The intricacies of the engine are so astounding. It is by far the most advanced source port to date, and Im talking about on a technical level. Its just capable of so much, and very modifiable. Well done. ************************************************************************************************* -----------The Following reflects changes made in version 1.1 of Deadly Alliance. CHANGES---------------------------------------------------------------- This version of DA addressed the light level issue as well as some other small complaints. ** The average light level has been raised as players complained that the map was too dark. I apologize for this but I always use the highest gamma settings and GZDOOM has better lighting than plain ZDOOM. It appears quite bright on my PC. I dont know why it is dark on other people's PCs but the customer is always right. So I fixed it. ** Someone complained that the Maulotaur fight was unfair. "Spraying and praying" I believed the person use to describe a succesful battle with the Maulotaur. So Im inclined to believe that the light level was the main antagonist of the fight, and therefor altered to script to produce better lighting. However the Maulotaur itself is quite easy to defeat. Its attack is explosive, therefor the game physics make it quite possible to exploit this as explosive damage doesnt go around corners. So you can stand right next to him and as he lifts that mallet, you can just move behind a wall and the attack does no damage as long as the wall is between you and him. Ah shit do I have to tell you all this. Couldnt you figure that out on your own GODDAMNIT!!!!! Anyways lets move on. ** Some other wise-ass complained about a missing texture in the Crypt. This also has been dealt with. Though I dont know how the hell he saw that as the LINEDEF is about 32 or 16 or somthing like that in lenght and way up on the ceiling of a room thats 256 units high. Wow the things players find! ** The same wise-ass above complained that the end boss was dissapointing. It was never at all my intention to use the SMM as the boss. So I used one out of the two I was really considering. See for yourself. He also said that the boss was too easy....well what can I say, he asked for it. Damn, you give them mercy, they complain, you get them slaughtered, and still they complain. How the hell do you please players!!! OTHER COMPLAINTS--------------------------------------------------------------- Some crackhead said that the messages sounded dumb. Ah....hello......OF COURSE THEY ARE. Dont you think I know that! It was intentional. Like I said in the original TXT file. If you want realism go play UNREAL of SOF!!!!!! Another issue was the elves fragging players. Well I apologize for that but I dont know anyway to make their projectile safe for you and hurt the monsters at the same time. The best I can do is advise you. Stay back and let them do the killing. They will slaughter those legions in seconds without your help or supervision, so stay far from them when they are in action. Another complaint was the new weapons being inconsintent. WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!!!!!!!!!!! The are all automatic weapons, they are all guns. When someone tells me exactly what that means I will fix it but until then. I aint doing shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!! about the new weapons. The are fine as far as Im concerned. If you dont like it, then shove it where the sun dont shine!!