Head Survival

Head Survival

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, wi...

Filenames
head.wad
Size
1.92 MB
MD5
1cfdf26de15494bcc7f8d9cc7f6c4211
SHA-1
cc0478906c752c9aa150c1c1371d55a3d3867fc4
SHA-256
2659875824217df802005fcb43e62f5dde069aabe7ba20a8ad51d906c9c81e9a
WAD Type
PWAD
IWAD
Doom II
Engines
ZDoom
Lumps
286
Maps
MAP01

Read Me

===========================================================================
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           : [email protected]

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.

Maps

Head Survival

Head Survival (MAP01)

Deathmatch Spawns
0
Co-op Spawns
4

Graphics