¿What am I doing? news - MacenWolf mod for Wolfenstein 3D

Admittedly, after publishing the previous post I have found myself in a limbo of sorts, having finished multiple matters that took quite a bit of effort over a number of days, but still with no very clear idea of how to progress. Oh well, I suppose the best way to move forward onward is forward. Imagine, then, a library, where books are neatly segregated on their shelves. In what order do they stand? Why, numbers go first, followed by letters in alphabetical arrangement. Oh, but what if other signs come up? Why, they go first, even before the numbers. You would know that if you were a librarian, but you're not. And to be fair, neither am I. It's simply what I did: took the big huge list of scenarios and selected the first three, those that begin with characters you don't often see in names and titles. Why don't we give them a look.

!Ay Chiwawa! is a single map for the Second Encounter by an unknown author. Truth be told, I don't know anything about this map other than there's something seriously wrong with it. I had to fix the orientation of every single door for things to even begin to make sense, plus many places appear to be simply inaccessible behind improperly placed pushwalls, etc. But otherwise it's theoretically completeable as it is, so you're free to try. Or just zoom around with noclip, I don't care. There's a bunch of bosses hidden around if you do.

"They're Everywhere! v1.0" is five First Encounter maps by Tim van der Leeuw. Actually there's a bit more to it than that, as Tim was gracious enough to distribute this with two companion scenarios called My First Level (Rambo) (this one's rather self-explanatory, don't you think?) and Crazy Mazy (which is not all that mazy), each being another 1st Enc map. You can choose those from the scenario selection screen. Whichever one you choose though, you will be facing swarms of guards in blue and brown, even more so than in your average Mac mod, so be prepared. Be prepared to examine the included readme files as well, as those are rather detailed and provide some development notes, a short backstory for the main scenario and even some map names. Plus a whole another file with hints for specific levels! Easily one of the best documented First Encounter releases around.

And our third choice is <=[Shisenstein]=>, ten maps for the Second Encounter by Thomas Elgin of WolfenJunkie Software. Things start out innocuously enough: a helicopter is about to drop you down near Castle Shisenstein, where you are to steal secret plans and exfiltrate via the same route. But nope, the whole setup was a trap and the next thing you know, you find yourself on the roof of the castle, under machinegun fire, the chopper exploding ten meters above your head. So much for your airlift escape! The only way to go is inside, and as luck would have it, you suddenly find the plans in a hidden compartment when climbing a ladder down. That's more like it. With the target of your mission sitting safely in your backpack, you're standing on the top floor, ready to go all the way down and escape through the sewers. Wotta bother.

<=[Shisenstein]=> offers some interesting mapping for the most part: many secrets, some tricks, places you probably don't want to hang around too much. Lots of dogs too, at least later on. This continues for a bit, then there's a couple maps that look suspiciously like WolfMaker output, then the mod returns to form and puts you through four more rough levels. All this is presented as anything-interesting-ware: send the author *something* (even a lump of coal would do) to receive registration bonuses, including First Encounter scenarios: *-={(|Draconstein|)}=-* (10 levels) and Hell Dogz (8 levels). But these scenarios don't seem to be available, so I guess nobody had any coal to spare.

As a side note, there's a money-making scheme in here too: if you had any good ideas for Wolfenstein levels but couldn't or wouldn't make your own, Thomas would create them for you, $1-1.5 per floor. Or even for free if the idea is particularly good. It would be delightful to find out if anyone's ever tried to take up the offer; unfortunately I don't have such information, nor any other scenarios known to have been authored by Thomas Elgin, for that matter.