Thomas' Mapping Anthology Updated

Ever since taking my first stabs at modifying Wolf in early 2004, when all I had was WolfEdit and some VSWAP files to tinker with, I always wanted to chronicle my work for some reason. I don’t know any other people in the Wolf community who have done so, and so it might seem a bit pretentious. But it gives me some strange kind of inner peace to explain each step behind practically every released map I’ve made. But before we get to the map-by-map reviews, I’d like to list everything I’ve ever released, so there’s no confusion involved when I describe projects and tidbits you may never have heard of. Blue: Legitimate projects Red: Demos Pink: Unfinished projects Green: Collective projects as Possum Trot 2004-12-05: Abandon 2004-12-20: Operation Achtliebe 2005-02-02: Project Wolfgeist 2005-03-23: Abandon 2 – Purgatory! 2005-07-28: Secrets of Offenbach 2005-08-05: Nazi Operation [Demo Version] as Thomas Weiling (pronounced vy-ling) 2006-01-01: Nazi Operation 2006-02-12: Abandon [First Version] 2006-04-14: All This & Wolf 3D [Demo Version] 2006-05-01: Schabbs 7000 2006-05-18: All This & Wolf 3D [40 Level Version] – later withdrawn 2006-07-01: Wolfram 2007-01-27: All This & Wolf 3D 2007-02-12: Castle Assault 2007-09-11: Quest for the General – later withdrawn 2008-04-21: The Bitter End 2008-12-04: W.O.L.F. 2009-05-07: Hard Cell 2009-05-31: Endlösung 2009-12-02: NovoWolf 2011-10-16: 10 New Ones 2012-01-15: Spearfishwolfbones 2012-03-20: Time to Kill 2012-04-24: Wolf Overkill 2012-04-28: Odds & Ends 2012-08-19: Thomas’ Wolfenstein 3-D 2012-11-08: The Iron Dream 2012-12-16: Guten Tag! 2013-12-05: Abandon III – later withdrawn Mods and/or map sets I contributed to 2005-09-25: Spear Levels Pack 2007-08-26: The Wolf 3D Community Map Pack 2007-12-03: Escape from Castle Holle 2008-09-13: Team Aardwolf Map Set 2010-02-13: Super Haven Map Set 2011-01-07: DHW SDL Map Set 2012-02-08: DHW SDL Map Set [Spear Edition] 2012-12-25: Beyond Mutantstein SE Anniversary Edition Here is some much needed background info on my largest project to date, though it never materialized in the end, Wolf Overkill. From its inception in August 2009 through to its cancellation in mid-2012, I made around 200 maps for the project, of which only a small percentage saw release in other projects later on. First incarnation: August 2009-early 2010 When I contacted Havoc over the summer of 2009 I specifically told him that I wanted to do a big mod but I still wanted to maintain the original Wolf spirit. Graphically, I didn’t alter too many things but kept it in style with the original. I also took sounds from MAC Wolf rather than entirely new ones, despite never having played MAC Wolf then (I still haven’t as I never owned an Apple computer). But clever as he was, he still coded in features opening up for textured floors and ceilings, MIDI support, amazing memory, bug-free things the whole lot. I started making maps in August, and got on a roll. I usually had a routine. It was usually over the weekends, but I also recall making maps during the usual weekdays. Sometimes I could make up to 3 maps a day (!) in this ridiculous size. Of course, when you make 3 maps a day they all become repetitive, some of them were almost just showcases for how much fun you could have with a missile launcher, a pack of guards and exploding barrels. I had much fun making it though, but playing it was different. It lacked something. Though only 60 maps survive, I know I made between 90 and 100. I remember the original Hitler level, the final one, utilizing the gray dungeon texture from Project Weltuntergang to give a more realistic feel of a bunker, I remember the boss maps being unbearable and similar, but I also remember my ideas for the secret maps: * 1 level featuring a motorbike (made 2 for each incarnation – real fun!) * 1 level featuring a chainsaw as the only weapon * 1 level featuring dogs as the only guards * 1 level featuring nothing but toilets, some could explode (this was some of the last work I did for the overall series in late 2011/early 2012) * 1 level featuring a pill that made BJ spin around, played the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Elton John cover version) .OGG file while BJ spun around the map not knowing what to do – the ceiling was blinking different colors, all numbers on the status bar spun round, it was just fantastic * 1 level featuring different Hitler guards (ghosts, heads-only, Hitler ghosts with mounted chain guns instead of fire ball shooters, red dogs with yellow eyes) taking place in hell (a lot of sprites were made e.g. Schabbs’ bleeding head with a candle on top, and SS head making out a chandelier, guards that were hung from the ceiling etc.) We also had a secret map which was a “Rocket Arena” – an idea taken from Operation Panzerschiff, an old favorite of mine. I specifically remember beyond level 60 that levels 70 through 77 were half lab/half old castle which made an interesting hybrid, culminating in the Ubermutant at level 77. Level 78 through 86 were in style of Episode 1 culminating in Hans Grosse on level 86 and the last 4 maps took place in what was supposed to be the Fuhrerbunker. Some featured fog, vines and Hitler ghosts and really made no sense. 3 maps a day… Some days less, very few days more. All in all, when you have 97 maps nearing the end of 2009 and you’ve only spent 4 months less or more on the entire project… You just grab yourself in overindulging, “anything goes” and you realize you had no filter. We had now reached December 2009. The only maps I had not done were the toilet map, the chainsaw map and the drug map as these features were not fully in place then. I think I broke the news to Havoc around Christmas that I wanted to cancel this thing altogether. With NovoWolf just having been released after almost 2 years on and off on hiatus, it would seem weird to throw out a fresh project when experience show that it is possible to wait after all. Havoc gave me the idea to re-make all the maps, ‘cause as he put it – the only thing I complained about were the maps. His coding efforts had nothing to do with Wolf Overkill’s first incarnation’s failure. So it lay in the dumps for a while. I suppose it’s the old thing of mine where I long for old, original Wolf, so I started a map set entitled Wolf Overdrive which I even think had its own EXE made (!) which could hold 120 maps with no issue. I made about 10 maps, some were extremely good. I often tried in Time to Kill, Thomas’ Wolfenstein 3-D and now with my recent mapping efforts to approach what I did in those 10 maps. But for some strange reason during February I said “fuck it” and deleted anything Wolf-related and retired from wolfing for a good while. I thought. Second incarnation: April 2010-April 2012 I remember wanting to “overhaul” the original maps of Wolf Overkill but I found them all too naïve and out of place with what I was going for originally. So instead of overhauling, I decided on making wholly new maps instead. And instead of starting in the obvious manner, with the columns and the vines and the slimy gray stone, I decided to do something new. First of all, I designed all 100 levels with the one sole purpose that at the end, these would receive fitting textured ceilings and floors. While I had the maps and the EXE, the ceiling colors were still those of the original Wolf Overkill aka the one with 60 levels that’s the only available one. This could’ve killed it all for me, but I developed a flair for imaging how ceilings could look, and instead focused more on gameplay, guard placement and difficulty rather than what I often did – colors, numbers and how they interfere with each other. Having a turquoise ceiling on level 57 is just fantastic! But it made little sense to the player. Level 1 instead started in a cave; deep in the ground (supposedly) with brown weave textures, vines, barrels and only guards. Level 2 was a continuation. Level 3 and thereon up was your usual standard levels. Some were great and some were OK – but what I weighed the most was quality. I could make one map and decide it was not good enough, toss it, and make a new one. This happened to level 1, level 8 and level 25 – there were probably more. Not too many, but it happened. I remember various maps but I don’t want to bore you with the details. I can tell you as much that there was a large laboratory part which had radiation suits, exploding nuclear barrels and 3 mutant guards (all taken from Beyond Mutantstein). It had Tesla coils that could be switched on and off. It was fantastic and it was so much fun to make.

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