=========================================================================== Archive Maintainer : My first time uploading anything here. I've read the readmes, so I hope there are no issues. Advanced engine needed : ZDoom 2.0.96 (latest at the time of writing) Primary purpose : Single+Coop play =========================================================================== Title : Head Survival Filename : head.wad Other Files in Zip : head.txt, head.ico Release date : Author : James Lord ( Zippy ) Email Address : zippyman29@hotmail.com Description : A multiplayer co-op map in which up to four players fight against a horde of heads (the author's head and that of my roommate's.) Gameplay is round based, with life and ammo recovering between rounds. There are 2 alternate modes of play and 4 player classes to choose from. Map is balanced for 3 or 4 players, but will still run fine with 1 or 2. Additional Credits to : Testers - Kaze (roommate), Senshi, Niji. Others - Randy Heit for ZDoom, the ZDoom Wiki and the people behind it. Pyscho Siggi, who wrote the original DOOM 2 monsters in DECORATE format (I used pieces of it), id Software for Doom, Raven Software (used/modified 2 Heretic sounds.) =========================================================================== * What is included * New levels : 1 Sounds : Yes Music : No Graphics : Yes Dehacked/BEX Patch : Yes (included in the wad) Demos : No * Play Information * Game : ZDoom 2.0.96 (latest at the time of writing) with DOOM2 Map # : Map01 Single Player : Supported, but not as exciting. Try Boss Only Mode. Cooperative 2-4 Player : Designed for Deathmatch 2-4 Player : No Difficulty Settings : Indirectly implemented. There is a Weak Heads option * Construction * Base : New from scratch Build Time : 60 hours, little more, little less Editor(s) used : Doom Builder, ZDBSP, XWE, Notepad, MSPaint, Photoshop, Goldwave, some digital camera software, Hotpockets (Yum) Known Bugs : In normal mode, it's theoretically possible you might not get your rewards at the end of a round. There are things in place to prevent this, and since I've put those in I've never seen it happen in testing, but it's still possible (in theory.) Sometimes it seems that ZDoom loses count of the monsters (reports something like 142/160 at the end of a round instead 160/160.) Only seems to occasionally happen. I've checked and the right number of monsters are being spawned (and subsequently, killed by the players) so just ignore the discrepancy if you see it. It's possible for the player who is the Rocketeer to go some places he shouldn't. It hurts you enough to do it anyway, so see if I care. Might break your own rewards script anyway. May Not Run With... : Anything that's not ZDoom 2.0.96 or later. * Copyright / Permissions * Authors MAY use the contents of this file as a base for modification or reuse. Permissions have been obtained from original authors for any of their resources modified or included in this file. You MAY distribute this file, provided you include this text file, with no modifications. You may distribute this file in any electronic format (BBS, Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this file intact. I have received permission from the original authors of any modified or included content in this file to allow further distribution. * Where to get the file that this text file describes * The Usual: ftp://archives.3dgamers.com/pub/idgames/ and mirrors =========================================================================== * Indepth Gameplay Details * The game supports up to four players cooperatively. Find your friends and connect, making sure not to run Deathmatch (it's not supported.) The game is balanced for 3 or 4 players, but it'll still run with 1 or 2. With 1 player, you may be hurting for ammo in the final rounds (on normal mode.) Every player starts with a plasma gun, some cells, a faster chaingun, plenty of bullets, the super shotgun, plenty of shells, 100 armor, and a backpack (doubles max ammo capacity.) Max ammo capacity has been increased in general (with the exception of rockets.) With the backpack, you can hold 600 bullets, 150 shells, and 800 cells. You can only hold 50 rockets maximum. Ammo is given back at the end of rounds, along with full health and armor. Players who die must wait the game out, unless you are playing with less than 4 people or the Infinite Player Respawn option is set. There are cameras to watch the arena action from in the spawning room. Also, you can coop spy. With less than 4 people, dead players can come back as leftover unchosen classes. Gameplay is round based. Each round a set number of heads will spawn, and it's the players' job to destroy them all. Once you get them all, there is a brief break giving you ammo and life back. Ammo returned is based on an awards system. The awards are: Survived Round Award - If you lived through the round. Kills Bonus - If you killed at least one head. Award multiplied by the number of heads you killed that round. Round Bonus - As long as you are still alive at the end of the round. Award is multiplied by what round it was. (It you beat that 3rd round, the award will be multiplied times 3.) Double Header Bonus - A small bonus for getting a double kill (killing two heads within 2 seconds of each other.) Award is multiplied by the number of double kills you got that round. Sissy Award - Didn't kill a single head. Dodge City Award - Didn't get hurt. Lucky Day Award - 25% chance of getting it at the end of any round. Double Deuce Award - At the end of the round the last two digits of your health were the same. ( 11, 22, 33, 44, etc...) One Digit Award - Health could be expressed with a single digit ( 1, 2, 3, etc...) at the end of the round. To help you out, there are four classes to choose from, but since each one can only be chosen by one player, you should probably work out with your buddies who will be what (as Senshi would say, yoinking is highly inadvisable.) Those classes are: Lifeologist - Gets 200 health and armor each round instead of 100. That's twice as much armor and life, if you're good with math. Rocketeer - Get a rocket launcher. Your ammo will restore like normal with the awards. Berserker - Get a beserk pack so that your punches are extra powerful, and are much more reliable if you run out of ammo. More importanly, your life will slowly regenerate mid round. Summoner - Summon demons to help you. You have 100 mana max, but no demon summon limit. Mana restores slowly. Becareful about where you summon your demons. They won't go after players, but missed shots of theirs can still hit and hurt players. Also, your monsters won't infight and they can't (seemingly) hurt each other. When monsters kill heads, the kills count towards the summoner's kill score for that round (except on survival mode.) You can summon: Hell Knight - 40 mana - Takes a few heads off your back. Isn't really powerful. Arachnotron - 60 mana - Larger and has more life. It makes a better distraction than a Hell Knight and it canreally pound on heads with it's plasma fire. Fires a double split plasma beam (instead of a single straight one like in Doom 2.) Mancubus - 90 mana - Big and has plenty of life. Its attack has a large spread too, so it really distracts a lot of heads for a long time. Sometimes isn't as powerful as the Arachnotron (This guy is much more menacing up close.) Fires 6 times (instead of 3 like in Doom 2.) There are 20 rounds to play through, with the boss rounds every 5th round. The bosses are: 5th Round - Brian Head Swarm. Large group of my roommate's head. He becomes a normal enemy in later rounds. 10th Round - Super Head Duo. Two stronger, faster, and more challenging heads. Their attacks are different slightly as well. 15th Round - Invisible Wind Strikers. Heads which are stealth heads. They are completely invisible except when attacking or taking pain. They only have a short range attack, but are very fast. 20th Round - Final Boss. ????? Additionally, there are some options in a room to your left at the beginning of the map. Once all players have entered the arena once, options can no longer be toggled. The options are: Game Mode - Normal Mode : As described above. Boss Rounds Only : Similar to Normal Mode, but you only play the boss rounds (rounds 5, 10, 15, and 20.) You start with max ammo. There are no awards, ammo is restored in full between rounds. The boss rounds are made slightly more difficult, except for the final boss, who remains the same. This mode is more ideal if you intend just to fight the interesting enemies, OR if you are playing singleplayer. Survival Mode : Instead of being round based, the game is just one massive round with heads slowly filtering in. As time progresses, heads will filter in faster. Some ammo is restored each time you kill a head. When summoned monsters kill heads, a smaller amount of ammo is given back to all the players. The "Infinite Player Respawn" option is always disabled in this mode. Weak Heads - The normal head enemies have about 2/3 as much life as normal. The 5th and 15th round bosses also have reduced life. The 10th round boss and the 20th round boss only drop to about 95% of their normal life. Infinite Player Respawns - Players who have died can come back infinitely. Classes can be reselected after a player has died. This option cannot be used in Survival Mode. It also doesn't work in singleplayer. Have fun. * Round Listing * Round 1: James Heads - 6 Round 2: James Heads - 10 Round 3: James Heads - 14 Round 4: James Heads - 20 Miniboss - Round 5: Brian Head Swarm - 26 Brian Heads (Boss Rounds Only Mode - 38 Brian Heads) Round 6: James Heads - 26 Round 7: James Heads - 26 Brian Heads - 6 Round 8: James Heads - 36 Round 9: James Heads - 28 Brian Heads - 12 Miniboss - Round 10: Super Head Duo - A powered up James Head and Brian Head. (Boss Rounds Only Mode - 2 of each powered up head, so 4 heads) Round 11: James Heads - 48 Round 12: James Heads - 34 Brian Heads - 20 Round 13: James Heads - 30 Brian Heads - 30 Round 14: James Heads - 12 Brian Heads - 50 Miniboss - Round 15: Invisible Wind Strikers - 10 stealth Brian Heads, they have no long range, but are fast and strong. (Boss Rounds Only Mode - 16 stealth Brian Heads) Round 16: James Heads - 66 Round 17: James Heads - 40 Brian Heads - 30 Round 18: James Heads - 12 Brian Heads - 60 Round 19: James Heads - 40 Brian Heads - 40 Final Boss - Round 20: ?????? * History Behind the Wad * Why would I do something crazy like this? Long story. Alright, well, no, it's kind of short. Way back when, not long after Doom and Doom 2 had come out, my older brother received as a gift some Doom editing software ("The Tricks of the Doom Gurus"?) and made some wads to play around in. He also did some exploring of DeHacked, which seemed interesting. Being a 9 or 10 year old at the time, I got this crazy idea that I wanted to replace one of the monsters with my head. For laughs. Time passed, I aged, and memories were pushed aside or forgotten... Then... sometime in 2002 or 2003... I hear something about "Doom source ports." Checking it out, I see that hi res Doom is possible and decide to have some old fashioned fun. Using ZDoom, I played Doom, Doom 2, Final Doom, Heretic, Hexen, and few pwads that I found. It was good. One day, months (a year?) later I was browsing through the ZDoom wiki. Looking at DECORATE and thinking about some of the custom monsters I had fought as of late... something struck me. I remembered. Brother, wads, DeHacked, my head, the plan. IT WOULD BE SIMPLE NOW. Very simple. Digital camera, some editing, and a little bit of text. So I hooked up with my friend Kaze (he had the camera) and then I made the dream come true! After the head was made, it took a long time before I got around to making this map for its use. So this is the result of some twisted idea I had like a decade ago. That's probably the best way to describe it.