=========================================================================== Archive Maintainer : Heretic level for GZDoom Update to : Please replace my file njhthief.zip This is a simple bugfix to correct a WAD bug exposed by recent changes to GZdoom. Advanced engine needed : GZDoom Primary purpose : Single play =========================================================================== Title : Thief - The Trail of the Arch-Heretic Filename : njhthief.wad Release date : 09 October 2008 Author : Nigel Rowand (Enjay) Email Address : enjay001@hotmail.com Other Files By Author : Quite a few. Misc. Author Info : Batteries not included. Description : A moody, ambient WAD intended to put some of the feeling of "Thief: the Dark Project" into Heretic. It's a reworking of my own njthief WAD for Doom2. This is a revision of the file originally uploaded. It contains minor bug fixes and a number of mainly cosmetic improvements. Additional Credits to : Looking Glass Studios (RIP) for the excellent Thief games, Solarsnowfall for his fire sprites and effects and Sir_Alien for also allowing me to use them (as he had "dibs" on them for his project), the authors of the monster resource WAD (esp Espi) for the Hellguard. Westwood/SSI for the "Eye of the Beholder" series which has inspired me since my early days of gaming, id, Raven, Volocity/Rogue for Doom, Heretic, Hexen and Strife, Randy Heit and Graf Zahl for Zdoom and GZdoom respectively Csabo for XWE and Jack Vermeulen for DeePsea which was used to map it and put it all together. Additional additional credits to Solarsnowfall (again) for further enhancing the level by providing more particle effects. I don't think I forgot anyone, but if I did, let me know. =========================================================================== * What is included * New levels : One - E1M1 Sounds : Yes - many Music : No - well a short loop for the intro and outro. Everything else uses ambient sounds instead of music. Graphics : Yes - many. Most use their own palette rather than the Heretic one thanks to GZdoom Dehacked/BEX Patch : No Demos : No Other : Yes DECORATE for items and enemies Other files required : none * Play Information * Game : Heretic Map # : E1M1 Single Player : Designed for Cooperative 2-4 Player : Player starts present. May work but some non-critical scripts will probably break. Deathmatch 2-4 Player : No Other game styles : Thieving - see below. :) Difficulty Settings : Yes * Construction * Base : Modified from njthief1.wad for Doom2 (http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=11107) Build Time : Not sure. Longer than I wanted because RL got in the way. Editor(s) used : DeePsea, XWE, PSP, GoldWave. Known Bugs : Nothing I know of. May Not Run With : Anything other than GZdoom and a pretty fast computer (see below for speed tips) Tested With : GZdoom on a 2.8GHz machine with a GeForce 6200 * General information * * Why do this? I wanted to revamp my old level to use some GZDoom features. It started as a personal amusement thing, but I decided to release it. I used Heretic because it seemed a bit more in tune with the feel of Thief than Doom did and it's been a long time since I did any mapping for Heretic. However, I did notice a real lack of a mid-toughness enemy of the kind Doom2 has plenty of (Mancubus, Hell knight, Baron etc) so I included the Hell Guard from the monster resource WAD (and tweaked him to suit my needs). I think he possibly has some Heretic in his sprites anyway. He wasn't used that often but he plugged a gap I felt was there. * Jumping and crouching? Sure, why not? I don't think either are needed to complete the level, but both are needed, I think, (crouching just once) to collect all the items. There are no big jumpy or crouchy bits though. * Thieving: There is no way to adequately use the AI in Doom engine games to emulate the sneaking and hiding aspect of the Thief games. However, at least I put in a bit of loot for you to steal. :) The loot items serve no other purpose other than to be collected and give you a thieving ranking on completing the level. Loot can mainly be found as pick-up items, but some chests will also give you gold. There is a total of 13000 gold to be collected on the map and it is distributed slightly differently on the various difficulty settings. All the loot (except the chests) glows in the dark for no other reason than I like the effect and it reminded me of the "frob glow" from Thief - even if it is unrealistic and makes finding the loot very easy at times. The loot items are as follows: Coin worth 50 gold Goblet worth 100 gold Green purse containing 150 gold Necklace worth 200 gold Red purse containing 250 gold Ring worth 300 gold Red Gem worth 500 gold Blue Gem worth 600 gold Chests - various amounts of gold. The Thief rankings are as follows: < 6500 gold = Petty Thief 6500-8509 gold = Burglar 8510-10069 gold = Cat Burglar 10070-12579 gold = Master Thief 12580-13000 gold = Garrett By default the loot you have collected will be shown in the top left of the screen. If you don't like this, type "puke 300" at the console to make it go away. Your loot will still be counted and a total will be displayed briefly whenever you get some loot. The message will also be logged to the console. If you want to switch back to a permanent loot display, type "puke 300" again. * Computer speed: This WAD uses dynamic light objects and a few other OpenGL effects that can dramatically slow down older machines. Solarsnowfall provided a number of particle effects. When these are all active, they can have a significant performance hit. I have configured the level so that effects not in view are deactivated using scripts. This helps performance, but be aware that cheating and noclipping around the map could mess this up slightly. If you have any problems playing, you might want to try the following: Reduce screen resolution. I usually play at 1024x768 and noticed a slight slow-down in some areas. On a slower computer, this slow-down may be problematic Reducing to 640x480 meant I didn't notice the slowdown at all. Use alpha dynamic lights instead of multiplicative ones. These don't look as pretty but are much less processor hungry. To enable these, type the following at the console: gl_lights_additive 1 Switch off dynamic lights completely. This will destroy the ambience and make one of the power-up items useless, but hey, it might just work. Type "puke 666" at the console. This will switch off all the reflective floors in the level and deactivate all the fancy particle effects. You should see quite a speed improvement from doing this. If you want to restore the effects, type "puke 666" again and the effects will all be toggled back on. * Other things: There are a few new pickups in the game. You can get 1% health and armour bonuses like the Doom bottles and helmets. There is also a flare orb. Throw it and it will release a glowing light for about 30 seconds. However, it is bouncy so precise throwing is hard - especially on water where it floats around like a mad thing. All the monsters needed to be re-defined slightly for this WAD, so whilst I was at it, I changed how often they drop stuff. They will tend to drop ammo a little more often, but give slightly lower values when they do. Also all the ammo items were set to be properly bright. For some reason, despite the fact that most of the ammo in Heretic is in the form of glowing crystals and orbs, very little of it seemed too use bright sprites. That has changed. * Back story: You play Garrett, the protagonist from the Thief games. But why has he forsaken his usual sneaky mode and gone in "all wands blazing"? Let's hear from the man himself (for those that know Thief, imagine this being read in the usual sarcastic tones of Garrett, over sepia coloured sketch-like screen shots): The keepers contacted me in their usual "subtle" manner. Apparently some dark magic has been employed to take over the old Bafford place. Quite why they thought I'd care I have no idea but I guess they were right because I started asking around... It seems the streets around Bafford's place were closed off a few days ago. Some people managed to get out, the rest have bolted themselves into their houses. Those who were caught out on the streets... Well, it seems fair to say they won't be coming home any time soon. The tales going round the Crippled Burrick Inn spoke of golems, skeletal knights and all manner of creatures stalking the streets at the behest of their master. Apparently this master likes to go by the title of "Arch-Heretic". Sounds like a lot of hot air to me. I really should leave this sort of thing to the city guard, or the hammers, or the keepers, or anyone really. Taking on an army of who-knows-what simply isn't my style and anything that keeps the city guard busy makes my life easier. However, the tales also spoke of unusual gold coins and jewels turning up on the market. My nose tells me they've come from the old Bafford house. Before he vacated the premises, Bafford had an electric barrier installed on the front door. Getting in that way will be impossible unless the barrier is deactivated. However, Basso the Boxman tells me that a friend of his was called to the Bafford manner a few weeks ago to submit an estimate for a repair. Apparently, Bafford's kitchen wall still has a hole through to the sewers in it. I used the very same hole on my last "visit". I hope the new landlord hasn't had the opportunity to fix it yet. In order to get into the sewers, I'll need the sewer key. My sources tell me that the sewer gate keeper's body is lying somehwere near the fountain in the square. Let's hope he has his key with him. Taking on an army of monsters may not be my style, but the chance of picking up some loot is, so I guess I'll have to get used to making a little noise... Objectives: Get into Bafford Manor. Kill the Arch-Heretic. Grab as much loot as possible. * 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 Web sites: FTP sites: