Chex Quest 20th Anniversary Megawad: Galactic Conflict

[Tifosi 92]

From the ZDoom forums; it was recommended to me that I post it here, so here we are. In-depth info can be found on the ZDoom wiki (spoiler alert, though).



Chex(R) Quest 20^th Anniversary: Galactic Conflict

About the .wad

Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict is a fan-made megawad expansion to everyone’s favorite cereal-based shooter, Chex Quest! After four-and-a-half years in development, Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict serves as perhaps the most comprehensive expansion ever released for 2008’s Chex Quest 3, introducing a new, nine-level fourth episode, three new hidden levels, multiplayer support on seven all-new maps with original bot chats and graphics, a new zorcher, more powerful Flemoids, and various improvements and fixes to the DECORATE code to allow for compatibility with the latest versions of ZDoom and its various forks. Join in the fun and celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the only Doom spin-off ever to gain popularity from a cereal box!

Story

After the defeat of the Flemoids at Shreddies Provincial Park and the subsequent development of high-power, large-scale zorcher weaponry, the Intergalactic Federation of Cereals declared the Flemoid threat to be all but non-existent. Any attack on the Cereal Dimension by the Flemoids would require a force too large to quickly transport through inter-dimensional space.

Unless, of course, the attack was already rooted in the Cereal Dimension.

Eight years after cleaning out the Provincial Park, you receive a distress call from an IFoC research base built inside an asteroid in loose orbit around a remote moon, on the border of IFoC territory. It appears that the recent occupation of the asteroid by Cereal peoples has awakened a sinister Flemoidous presence that was already inhabiting the asteroid's caves. The scale of the threat is, so far, undetermined.

Knowing there is no time to waste, you immediately set off for the base. You've beaten the Flemoids before, but your warrior's intuition tells you that this time, things won't be so easy. You face a battle unlike any fought before... and unlike any that will ever be fought after. After eight long years, the Flemoids will be hungry for revenge.

The automated docking bay doors close behind you, and the hangar is pressurized. You give your trusty zorcher one last check, and then climb out of your ship and into the base. Your final mission begins here.

Features

- Do battle against the sinister Flemoids in a new nine-level campaign through an asteroid base.
- Wield an experimental zorcher in combat against your slimy enemies, and enjoy the stealth capabilities of a 'silent' Bootspoon.
- Use the 'secret' command in the console for clues on secret areas both new and old.
- Reworked difficulty scaling gives Chex Quest a new, unique feel. In the fourth episode, changing the difficulty affects not only the number of enemies, but the environment and progression of some levels as well.
- Flemoids with new characteristics present an extra challenge to new and past levels.
- Explore the depths of the asteroid base to find the three hidden levels.
- Fight as a female Chex Warrior.
- Bring up to three friends on your quest through the base in a dynamic co-op experience.
- Send your friends to another dimension with multiplayer on seven tailor-made maps, in a variety of game modes featuring all-new graphics (Zandronum is required for bot support and any modes other than Zorchmatch/Team Zorchmatch).
- Over 20 bots with chat strings and backstories designed for the Chex Quest universe (Zandronum is required for bot support).
- Contains a patch for the missing textures on E3M2 and E3M4.

Screenshots

Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.

Download Links

These links were last updated August 21^st, 2020, with the release of Version 1.2.

NOTE: Version 1.4 of the Chex Quest 3 IWAD (chex3.wad) is required to play Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict. Chex Quest 3 Version 1.4 is no longer hosted on Chucktropolis, but can be found on the official Chex Mix Website here, as of Aug 22^nd 2020. I am hosting Version 1.4 of the Chex Quest 3 IWAD here, but you will need ZDoom 2.8.1, GZDoom 2.1.1, Zandronum 3.0, or newer to run Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict.

Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict Version 1.2 (bundled with ZDoom 2.8.1)
Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict Version 1.2 (bundled with 32-bit LZDoom 3.86a)
Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict Version 1.2 (bundled with 64-bit GZDoom 4.4.2)
Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict Version 1.2 (bundled with Zandronum 3.0 installer)
Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict Version 1.2 (.wad file only)

About the Author/Credits

Appropriate credits can be found in full in the game’s readme file; in short, I owe a huge thanks to my family, the folks who’ve helped build ZDoom and all of its spin-offs into the masterpiece it is today, Digital Café, id Software, General Mills, and Charles Jacobi.

The full story is in the readme bundled with any of the above links, but I’ll give you the short version here: I’ve basically been a gamer since birth. I played Chex Quest years ago when it first came out, and still have the original CD. I played all the expansions and was ecstatic when an official third episode was released in 2008. This prompted all sorts of web-searching which eventually resulted in me constructing maps for the game. I hadn't ever played Doom or any other Doom-based game, and didn’t actually play one (Doom II), until after I’d finished all of the maps except the third bonus level. In a way, I think it’s great that I didn’t, because if I had, these maps very likely would’ve ended up as ‘just another Doom mod’. Instead, they’re here now, released to the community on the 20th anniversary of one of my all-time favorite video games. I’ve been mapping for Doom on and off since 2009 in various incarnations, and between undergraduate studies and work (being a double major in biology and chemistry is quite a time-sink), have maintained mapping as a hobby depending on my level of free time. This megawad is the conclusion of an incredibly lengthy journey which managed to include everyone in my family in some way or another along the way.

I’m ecstatic to have finished it and would be overjoyed for anyone else to actually give it a shot. If you decide to play it, please let me know what you think (or let me know if you find any bugs; not likely, but you can only test so much in-house). Thank you very, very much for giving this thread a look, and I hope you enjoy the game!

[noob1234]

Hey, welcome to the forums and thanks for sharing this with us! I'll definitely give this a whirl soon.

[Nomekop]

In E4M6, it is possible to get stuck in a pit with no way out other than getting slimed, in the middle of the room with all the arrows.

[xbolt]

[Awesomedude249]

mrw the mod I've been trying to start for 2 years is already finished

[Tifosi 92]

Thank you for the kind comments, everybody!

In E4M6, it is possible to get stuck in a pit with no way out other than getting slimed, in the middle of the room with all the arrows.

Yes, this is possible. I tried to refrain from using these areas when possible and replace them with a 'bottomless' pit, but my precedent for their existence comes from the (later revised) E2M4. I think the only places you find them are on E4M6 and E4B3.

Thanks for playing this! 

[Nomekop]

Alright, so I have completed the entire wad, and I feel that it is actually really well done. The addition of the Aerial Armor Bipedius was a nice touch, and I enjoyed the gimmicks presented (like the zorch laser.)

A thought that occurs would be adding a fake floor to the bottomless pits with an animated slime texture, so that the player sinks into the slime, unable to get out, instead of the present result of going splat on the ground. But that is a minor tweak, and I can understand your reasoning for not doing so.

Honestly, my least favorite part of the game would have to be the puzzle presented by the reactor room, as well as its tendency to lead me into passageways where I have next to no warning of a laser going off, due to my tendency to go running full tilt through them. Part of me wonders why I wouldn't be able to disable said reactor entirely, but I suppose that would leave the doors without power or something. It certainly isn't osha compliant, thats for sure!   

And the last area, I honestly expected to have more enemies drop down from the pillars after beating the two Maximus. Maybe they do on harder difficulties, I don't know!

I only managed to play through one secret level, and I think I should probably play through it again, as it was the randomizer. Hopefully this mod will be hosted online for coop soon. I certainly hope so!

[noob1234]

... So I need the latest ALPHA of Zand? Cuz 2.1.2 isn't running it

[Tifosi 92]

Alright, so I have completed the entire wad, and I feel that it is actually really well done. The addition of the Aerial Armor Bipedius was a nice touch, and I enjoyed the gimmicks presented (like the zorch laser.)

A thought that occurs would be adding a fake floor to the bottomless pits with an animated slime texture, so that the player sinks into the slime, unable to get out, instead of the present result of going splat on the ground. But that is a minor tweak, and I can understand your reasoning for not doing so.

Honestly, my least favorite part of the game would have to be the puzzle presented by the reactor room, as well as its tendency to lead me into passageways where I have next to no warning of a laser going off, due to my tendency to go running full tilt through them. Part of me wonders why I wouldn't be able to disable said reactor entirely, but I suppose that would leave the doors without power or something. It certainly isn't osha compliant, thats for sure!   

And the last area, I honestly expected to have more enemies drop down from the pillars after beating the two Maximus. Maybe they do on harder difficulties, I don't know!

I only managed to play through one secret level, and I think I should probably play through it again, as it was the randomizer. Hopefully this mod will be hosted online for coop soon. I certainly hope so!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! 

The Flying Bipedicus is one of those things that I expect has shown up in a Doom mod at some point by now (like a winged Imp or something), but I think the game needed an intermediate-strength flying enemy. He actually dive-bombs you like a Flem Mine if you get too close, which is hysterical if more than one of them try it, lol. The Beam Zorcher is definitely a niche weapon in single player, but really comes alive in multiplayer; unfortunately Zandronum's code won't allow anything other than their railgun actor to be used in the Insta-gib modifier, though, but most of the bots gravitate to it anyway.

I felt the bottomless pits were okay because you find them in other games like Mario. When I put the first one in (E4M2), I hadn't even any idea how to write a script, let alone do a fake floor. 

The reactor level is probably my least favorite of all 19 maps, with the possible exception of Telenet (MP05; try it against the bots and you'll see what I mean) . It was definitely a 'seems like a good concept, let's try it' type thing. By the time I was starting to realize it was a little boring, I had invested waaaay too much time in it to start over. My brother beta tested the wad and said the reactor was his favorite level, so I guess some people might like it. It (and many moments in this wad) was based on the reactor level from Jedi Outcast, which in my mind remains the gold standard for modern sci-fi first-person action gaming. Like most areas in Star Wars, definitely not OSHA compliant... but it is a government base on the outskirts of inhabited territory, so were you expecting anything other than danger?    (Whatever you do, don't tell OSHA about the hidden Power Control level, LOL!)

There are definitely more enemies on E4M9 when you up the difficulty--on Extreme Ooze and Super Slimey!, there are 1000 Flemoids on it. I made sure it was beatable, but on SS! it takes dozens of saves to get through it. I honestly don't think it's possible to do without saving, but it's the last level, after all--it should be hard, lol. You must have been seriously quick through it to get the secret level; you've got to beat the final boss before the level clock hits the 10 minute mark to get it. Congrats! 

Thank you again for playing through it! It takes a lot of time to get through all those levels, so I appreciate it. I enjoyed reading your comments and am really glad you found it well made. 

... So I need the latest ALPHA of Zand? Cuz 2.1.2 isn't running it

Yeah, you'll need the alpha version; there's a compatible one bundled in one of the download links above. Sorry about not mentioning that! I guess 2.1.2 technically is the 'latest version'. I would've needed to remove so many features to make it compatible with 2.1.2 that I just tested it with the latest alphas.

Perhaps this weekend (or sometime soon) someone could get a server going? Never used Zandronum for anything other than LAN games before, but I'd love to go a few rounds with you guys, either co-op or deathmatch zorchmatch.

[75]

I might be able to host for this weekend, do you know exactly what version of Zand you need? If you remember when you downloaded it, that would work too.

Also, just wondering, what features did you need that Zand 2.1.2 doesn't have?

[Tifosi 92]

I might be able to host for this weekend, do you know exactly what version of Zand you need? If you remember when you downloaded it, that would work too.

Also, just wondering, what features did you need that Zand 2.1.2 doesn't have?

EDIT: it seems to be working on 160814-2010

Additional information for nerds other people that need to compile it:

Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.

Windows download:

http://zandronum.com/downloads/testing/3.0/ZandroDev3.0-160814-2010windows.zip

For those of you running Windows, download this zip file, unzip it somewhere, and copy your zandronum ini file there (if you want to transfer your settings over from Zandronum 2.1.2). You can set doomseeker and IDE to use this version of Zandronum, if you need help getting that set up don't hesitate to ask

Sounds good. IMSA, Indycar, and F1 all have races this weekend, so I may be a little busy with those mixed in with some P-Chem; let's tentatively shoot for Saturday night.

I have yet to find anything newer than Zand 2.1.2 for Mac (can a Mac even play Zand online with PC's?) so I'll probably boot up my old Dell and use that with Doomseeker or IDE or whatever the newer one is, lol.

Thanks for the info!

[75]

I have a (somewhat outdated) MacBook Pro and XCode but unfortunately I've never built anything for Mac before, and it looks like Mac alpha builds are pretty rare

[Tifosi 92]

I have a (somewhat outdated) MacBook Pro and XCode but unfortunately I've never built anything for Mac before, and it looks like Mac alpha builds are pretty rare

Don't worry about it.  I was just curious if it was actually possible for Macs and PCs to play together. The Dell's chassis cracked from a defect earlier this year, but it'll be plenty fine sitting on a desk for gaming, lol.

I figure when Zand 3.0 finally drops they'll compile a version of it for OS X; I'll just grab it then.

As an aside, based on some... er, 'polite feedback' on the ZDoom forums I've gone through and linked music to all of the levels in the game. The links in the OP have been updated to reflect this new version of the .wad (v1.1); if we play this weekend it's the one I'll be using. I'll add them to this post too for convenience:

Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict (bundled with ZDoom 2.8.1)
Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict (bundled with 32-bit GZDoom 2.1.1)
Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict (bundled with 64-bit GZDoom 2.1.1)
Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict (bundled with Zandronum 3.0 alpha)
Chex Quest: Galactic Conflict (.wad file only)

[75]

EDIT: Tifosi you really need to add the version of your file in the file name, e.g., chexgc1.2 or something like that.

Wadseeker goes by file name, and if you don't put the version in the file name, it will go get the wrong one, you should only remove the version number when you do a final release.

EDIT 2:

<[IFOC] Server> [Zand 3.0 Alpha] Chex Quest 20th Anniversary Megawad: Galactic Conflict

EDIT 3: I didn't see anyone come in, I'll leave the server up if you guys want to play later

NOTE: you don't need to download zand separately, if you're using doomseeker, it will automatically find and download the right version of Zand for you to use.

[Tifosi 92]

EDIT: Tifosi you really need to add the version of your file in the file name, e.g., chexgc1.2 or something like that.

Wadseeker goes by file name, and if you don't put the version in the file name, it will go get the wrong one, you should only remove the version number when you do a final release.

EDIT 2:

<[IFOC] Server> [Zand 3.0 Alpha] Chex Quest 20th Anniversary Megawad: Galactic Conflict

EDIT 3: I didn't see anyone come in, I'll leave the server up if you guys want to play later

NOTE: you don't need to download zand separately, if you're using doomseeker, it will automatically find and download the right version of Zand for you to use.

Wow, thanks for all this, 75. 

I had fully intended the version I posted at first to be the release version until I got a lot of complaints on the ZDoom forums about the lack of music in the game, so I made that and a few other changes on the fly without expecting to fix anything more after that; though I've found two or three textures that need to be realigned, I don't plan on releasing a fix for those unless somebody finds a lot more errors or something game-breaking, because as things stand I likely won't have time to go in and fix them until Thanksgiving at this rate. This semester has been far busier than I anticipated.

I will see about playing online for a bit this coming weekend, though I have a friend or two I may be studying with instead. Thank you for all your efforts in setting a server up, though! 

As an aside, I'll ask you this because you seem very acquainted with the multiplayer: one of the bugs I couldn't pin down in testing multiplayer with my family has to do with the obituary strings. Seemingly at random, rather than displaying the correct 'x was y-zorched by z' string, it would occasionally display the 'x died' string (which shows as 'x didn't watch x's step' because the forcefield/world death obituary was changed). For the life of me I couldn't find a consistent trigger for this issue, but I'm thinking it's got something to do with the way Zand is attempting to read the obituary strings, because I don't recall the Beam Zorcher's obituary showing correctly often if at all.

Just wondering if you guys have come across this before and what if anything you may have done to fix it. If there's a solution, I may put some time into implementing it along with the aforementioned alignment fixes in a then-final release for the wad, as I'm pretty sure everything else will be nailed down at that point. I tested the... er... Flem out of this thing, I promise. 

Thanks again.