DieHard Wolfers

[doomjedi]

We proudly present Eisenfaust edition of SoD Extreme (1). We've got many new surprises for you this time, much beyond what Eisenfaust Edition of SoD Extreme II had to offer - new additional enemies, Bosses, weapons, features, enemy actions and attacks, scenery interactivity, missions. So many surprises to discover or get discovered by. Get Psyched!

"Eisenfaust Edition" series of mods are made to bring surprise and new twists to classic Wolf3D gameplay while keeping the oldschool charm of classic Wolf3D.
“Like ID should’ve done it” is overused but I can use it anyway in relation to those editions. Enemies are now more challenging and surprising, but you also have wider weapon selection and optional missions to care for. Have fun discovering all the new features, not all you meet right away.

Download:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/spear-of-destiny-extreme-1/downloads/sod-extreme-1-eisenfaust-edition















Main credits:
Coding: LinuxWolf
Mapping: RonWolf, Dean
New art: DoomJedi, Atina (Title Screen and some scenery animation)
Music: RonWolf
Testing: GarrettChan, WLHack

[Tricob]

Love those burning plants! The screenshots do a very good job at getting the viewer interested in the game, and that's exactly what the screenshots are supposed to do. Good job!

[doomjedi]

Thank you. Trust me, I avoided big spoilers in those shots, mod has much more to discover.

Still waiting for moddb to approve download

[MrWolfForever]

Uh - I strongly recommend you just use a temporary link like dropbox, sendspace, mediafire, etc. That's a common courtesy until a file finds its permanent home.

[doomjedi]

Download has been since approved, so nothing more is needed. Have fun
Usually moddb were much faster at approval, was counting on that.

Once got dropbox account blocked by exceeding download width limit on new mod, since then prefer to wait for moddb.

[Metalor]

Looks good. I'll have to check it out in the near future and give my impressions.

[MrWolfForever]

I've started a blind playthrough for this.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTK5UMTFDo89MYb-yi1Xe1glKwoXCKjrT

However, in Floor 1, I have a question:

To do the bonus objective, I think I've figured out everything except getting the silver key. I don't see how it is possible to not alert the two SS by the elevator (which has the key in it). They are both facing your way and there is no alternative I can find - no other silver key, no sneaky way into the elevator, no way to get an enemy to, without seeing you, open the silver doors leading to the security room. Can someone please cue me in one what I'm missing; it can be in a private message if desired to not give any solution publicly?

[doomjedi]

Thank you, will take a look

Regarding the key - GarretChan made detailed 100% “tutorial” videos on all the maps while testing the mod (though playing test beta and not the release version) - which we asked him to delay release of - not to spoil the mod too soon for others. I might be able to pm you private link to his video.
From all I know - all missions are doable with right tactics, not all are easy to find on blind play. Anyway, missions are bonus missions and are not required to finish the level.

[MrWolfForever]

I'd like the private link, or at least a private message offering up a clue please.

[MrWolfForever]

How do you get the third screenshot to say it's Floor 11 AND have the correct ceiling color too? It clearly is a different floor...

[linuxwolf]

--tedlevel I think.

[doomjedi]

MrWolfForever wrote:

How do you get the third screenshot to say it's Floor 11 AND have the correct ceiling color too? It clearly is a different floor...

Well, the story behind that screenshot is that in past releases I made alot of screenshots from level 1 with weapons cheat to showcase features without much level hopping. And then guys expected to find all those weapons in level 1 and were dissapointed.

In this release I wanted to make screenshot of burning wines, and level 1 happened to be the best showcase for that, but I was lazy to look for flamegun and used weapon cheat...just to be safe in case flamegun is not there anymore, changed the level number artwise

But I see I can't fool you guys
You keep impressing me every time by your eye for detail.

P.S. - other screenshots are legit level-number-wise, though I used weapon cheats to make them.

[Thomas]

What a journey. I started playing this last night and I just could not let go. I have just come back from dealing with the Angel of Death.

There are no special standouts in this mod, seeing as both mapping, music, graphics, sounds and flow are perfect. It was jaw dropping to see shooting frames a la DOOM on the guards; level 5B (Pow) especially grabbed me in this aspect. The fact that you can scorch vines and plants is just perfect. In certain areas where vines make for quite a confusing play, it is wonderful to just see them go up in smoke for the price of clarity and better sight.

The music took me aback; especially that on levels 2/5B, 4, 6, 8, 15 and 17; it fit the scenes perfectly. So in addition to being one of the few true originals in the mapping world, Ron also makes for some excellent compositions. Very intriguing music... The sounds and nuances were perfect, sort of synth-y, brass-laden in places.

In general, the maps were made so well that you never really lost your way. They are not vertical, one-way types of maps. Often, especially with both keys, you can roam around the map once the major battles are over, and pick up things you may have missed out on. When I played this mod, I did not go for the full 100 percent ratio, and opted out of bonus levels 19 & 20 (though I found their elevators and previewed the maps). However, there were levels where I just could not simply move on. I had to find out why the secret ratio was so low! Level 15 was a perfect example of this. Just a wide open, courtyard sort of feeling with small, interconnected rooms sandwiched between walkways where you can see for miles and miles and still take out guards with your rifle. That was a genius map.

Aesthetically I was also quite fond of level 7; again, as with the other classic-themed Raycast mods I am happy to see that it is okay to use the truck rear sprite. The feel of the original Spear of Destiny units was retained well; you were never in doubt that levels 6-10 were supposed to be dungeons. Level 8 also featured some exquisite design in the often used blue stone, which when used well you just do not tire of.

Level 11 had quite a tough opening, but I often felt that the generous amounts of ammo and health made for a perfect play. Sure, it was hard in places, but you were always able to find some items to relinquish your munitions. Level 13 had a lot going for it; I was especially taken aback with so many small areas concocted to the hugeness of the 64x64 slate. It felt much larger.

Level 14 had a brilliant concept but was quite tough, especially as the brown plant uses the exact same colors as both the guard and the SS; this has often fooled me and certainly many others as well. Level 17 was astonishing in design, but a pity there were so many ghosts. Even if there were mutants and other zombie guards I still feel it could have benefited without the ennui of the re-spawning ghosts.

Level 18 was an epic showdown, thoroughly a masterclass design for a big, tumultuous boss level. Though the weaponry is excellent, using various automatic rifles and flame throwers, I was sometimes surprised in how easy to defeat the bosses were. But I suppose they were not more difficult than they were in the original Spear of Destiny.

I encountered ridiculously few bugs. There was an instance where you shoot the chain gun guard with an M16 (that the name?) and he falls back. He gets up to walk in a random position 1 square from where he has been shot back to. There were two silver keys in level 13... And a couple of floor code errors in level 6, the gray slab room near the beginning. But none of these stood in the way of a good play. What, with all the bonus objectives, in-game messages, reloads, guard interactions, music playing, lossless files used for certain guards and guns etc. the mod never crashed once and ran exquisitely well. A masterpiece in coding, a masterpiece in design, sublime and brilliant mapping and intriguing, original and genuine music well fit for the occasion. Another notch in the belt that underlines why Team Raycast are so ahead of everyone else.

P.S. Dean's levels, in particular, were incredible. This came as a surprise as Ron always steals the show in collaborative efforts. Again I take my hat off to level 15... So much originality and sense of detail and battle; just tremendous work.

[Blazkowicz3]

Looks great. Can I play this with ECwolf ?

[doomjedi]

Thank you Thomas, this is so rewarding to read, this is why we mod Thank you for finding the time to write and post this, in those busy days.
I always value your opinion and feedbacks as a diehard wolfer and modder.
It's almost too good a review to be true

So much work went into it, I want to thank again - the grateful players and everyone who took part in development of this mod.

Quote:

I encountered ridiculously few bugs.

I want to thank all our testers, but especially I can't underestimate GarrettChan's testing of our mods. Since he became our "resident main tester of choice" (since Arrow mod), we have close-to-bugless releases one after the other, as he is so "ridiculousy" meticulous that... he makes Art out of testing, for me he is not just a tester but a Team Member - so large is his contribution, dedication in the testing phase of the mod.
Not only for bug reports - but gameplay balancing feedbacks too.
Eventually we released it not for having 0 unfixed reports - but after feeling that no major/critical bug are left to fix and fixing all he can notice will take years, heh

With such feedbacks we'll definitely consider making more entries to the series.
Thomas, you have fantastic maps/mods, if you have vanilla (!) SDL mappack you'd like or at least approve us making Eisenfaust Edition of, that would be fantastic I think (I need team approval, but this is good to discuss in any case). Your mods are pinnacle of oldschool mapping for me. And doing this for a good existing mod is more interesting that making better and more advanced SoD Extreme Re-releases. No pressure though

P.S. Guys, if you could post/copy your rating and reviews (also) on moddb page - that would help much promoting this work. Here only wolfers see it.
Again, it's fully up to you guys, no pressure. This is just the best way you can "give back" something that will help the team - many read reviews before downloading, and sure relate to mod rating when choosing a mod to download.

[doomjedi]

Blazkowicz3 wrote:

Looks great. Can I play this with ECwolf ?

No It's SDL mod.
You run it directly. As is. In Windows.

We have no plan to make ECWolf mods, for many reasons.

[Blazkowicz3]

doomjedi wrote:

Blazkowicz3 wrote:

Looks great. Can I play this with ECwolf ?

No It's SDL mod.
You run it directly. As is. In Windows.

Ah, ok. For some reason Streamlabs (software I use to stream on Twich) didnt capture SDL Wolf games. Thats why i am asking.

Quote:

We have no plan to make ECWolf mods, for many reasons.

Tech reasons ?

[doomjedi]

Blazkowicz3 wrote:

Ah, ok. For some reason Streamlabs (software I use to stream on Twich) didnt capture SDL Wolf games. Thats why i am asking.

Most wolf3d mods released (sure on this forum) are SDL mods, so you better find some solution for that.

Quote:

Tech reasons ?

Well, all sorts... Wolf4SDL is what our coder knows best, ECWolf doesn't support some key features like parallaxed skies and directional scenery and we don't want to be limited to features ECWolf maker allowed us to have - on Wolf4SDL we can have all we desire and know to code in.
Mapping-wise etc... it requires tools our mappers are not used to.
Also it still feels more Doom than Wolf3D.

[Blazkowicz3]

Quote:

Also it still feels more Doom than Wolf3D.

Yeah thats true. Being able to circle strafe using mouse and wsad and using auto map really make the game plays like Doom. Not that it is a bad thing, but yeah, you are rigth about this.

[doomjedi]

I'm not against Wolf3D-themed Doom mods, as you might know I'm a spriter for "WolfenDoom - Blade of Agony".
But for me it's Doom modding, not Wolf3D modding.
When I want to do a Wolf3D mod I go to Wolf4SDL.

[MrWolfForever]

I think SODXT was mapped mostly in 2011/2012, while SODXT2 was mostly done in 2015. Plus Dean had fewer levels in SODXT2. From what I've played of Ron's, his mapping became considerably more deviant by 2015 (not that it wasn't good in 2011 though). But that may explain why Dean is more a highlight here perhaps.

[Robbbert]

Ah, new mod! I'll try this out next week, and the reviews look great.

The download took forever though, at just 19.5KB/s

Looking forward to playing it

[doomjedi]

Regarding WASD:
Here - you just need to replace your cfgsdl.sod with that "wasd" config file (renamed) and it should give you WASD controls. The executable was *not* updated.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u5gzhdt2fw2t9t5/wasd_extreme.rar?dl=0

[Dean]

Thomas wrote:

P.S. Dean's levels, in particular, were incredible. This came as a surprise as Ron always steals the show in collaborative efforts. Again I take my hat off to level 15... So much originality and sense of detail and battle; just tremendous work.

Thanks for the kind words Thomas, I'm very proud of my work in this and SoD Extreme II. It's great to see people still getting enjoyment out of playing my levels.

[Robbbert]

Finally tried running this, but it errored out at start. Seems win98 cannot be used, in fact it seemed to require 64-bit.

[AlumiuN]

Any semi-recent version of MinGW doesn't compile EXEs that work in Win98 (because supporting it at this point would be much more work than it's worth); it should work on XP (unless it does actually need 64-bit, in which case a recompile for 32-bit might be a good idea).

[mbender]

First-class T.C. Team Raycast - well done *again*! Very strong mapping. 'Treed Under' is a great idea and just one of many standout levels.

Loving the optional missions within levels but.....

I can't help thinking that with some of them you have to accept the mission (i.e. reach the radio) at a particular stage as otherwise it won't work. For example, I've tried accepting the Blood Ritual challenge at different stages of its parent level but I'm always too late (that is, the officer is already impaled). Can you give me a clue and/or send me the link to GarretChan's video?

[doomjedi]

mbender wrote:

First-class T.C. Team Raycast - well done *again*! Very strong mapping. 'Treed Under' is a great idea and just one of many standout levels.

Thank you
Can't reveal what mappack/mod is selected for next Eisenfaust Edition series

Quote:

Can you give me a clue and/or send me the link to GarretChan's video?

Here is the whole playlist, select level number and see for yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbrs96bdVHKRLgBc8wt7wRnBPcQxIWNou

If that level is not there - PM me and I'll send you a link.

[Dean]

mbender wrote:

First-class T.C. Team Raycast - well done *again*! Very strong mapping. 'Treed Under' is a great idea and just one of many standout levels.

Thanks Michael, glad you enjoyed the levels!

[mbender]

Thank you Doom and Dean, the videos did the trick and now I'm on to the final(?) level