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CONTENT:

I: INTRODUCTION

II: STORY

III: MAP CREDITS

IV: MUSIC CREDITS

V: OTHER CREDITS

VI: SPECIAL THANKS

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I: INTRODUCTION
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Welcome to Nova IV! This wad keeps the tradition of the Nova series intact, getting new mappers to join a community wad and make a well thought out, cohesive experience. Where Nova IV departures is its tone. This time it is more lighthearted and mysterious. The story I wrote involves you battling wits with an alien force while it sends demons after you. I've kept the story vague on purpose, to let the player decide what to make of it. We hope you have an excellent time playing this wad!

- obake

Welcome to Nova IV! This has been a long time in the making - at least, in a vacuum. Compared to other Novas this one's development cycle was relatively concise, but it's still an absolute age as far as I'm concerned.

Though it was nonetheless a long road, I'm immensely proud of the final product, as should everyone who worked on it. Nova IV has some of the most creative and enjoyable maps I've ever played, and that's not at all an exaggeration nor project lead bias. I can't imagine anyone picking up this WAD, playing it through front to back, and not adding several new names to their 'play anything this person releases in the future' list, and I'll be the hype man for every single participating mapper, musician and resource-maker until the end of time.

Watching - and later helping - transform this project from its base blocks to the cogent whole it now is was a truly special experience for me, and I can only hope that you playing it can be one for you, too.

A huge thank you for playing, from myself, obake and the entire Nova IV team. It means the world.

- novaseer

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II: STORY
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By all accounts, you should be dead.

The devices of the alien planet had dragged you beneath the cold, murky depths of nothingness, yet here you stand.

In your dying visions, you saw the visage of a formless entity, whose only manifest were eyes wreathed in violet flame. In the face of oblivion, its unseen hands pulled your soul from the brink and reconstituted your physical form, in the name of an unspoken game played above and between the dimensions of human and demon... you think, at least. It's hard enough to comprehend what you do see, let alone what you don't, so all your understanding of its motivations are pure guesswork.

Nonetheless, as you arise from a coffin the demons optimistically shoved your body into, you understand what must be done. To repay the generosity of the being, you'll purge the demons from every realm it spirits you away to.

Not that that was a problem for you, of course - it's what you were already doing. If it wasn't for your misadventure, you wouldn't have stopped. So get back to it, marine.

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III: MAP CREDITS
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MIDI credits can be found in the next chapter.

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MAP01: Temple of the Formless
Author: novaseer
Inspirations: Eviternity II E1 (specifically MAP04), very loose sprinkle of skillsaw
Author's Comments: This one was developed pretty late, all things considered - and made more out of obligation to the project as the assistant lead than as a 'new mapper', which I wouldn't consider myself as post-MAP29 - with me pencilling it down as a "backup map" for if any mappers dropped out just shy of the main submissions deadline. If it wasn't used I'd probably just reuse it for a personal project somewhere along the line. The original holder of MAP01 dropped out pretty shortly after I completed this, so it ended up taking the MAP01 slot. Whilst some maps were shuffled (and E1 in particular was shuffled a lot for pacing), this ended up keeping the slot due to being lighter and shorter than most of the other E1 submissions.

I had a few aims when making this map to make it stand out from my usual fayre: a more deeply interconnected layout than my typical linear maps, and a focus on lighter weaponry befitting of the first episode. I think I managed both pretty well - secret rocket launcher aside you're relying on the chaingun and single barrel for the entire map, combat is energising without being too much for an early slot, and the layout is compact and full of loop-de-loops. And also, in my humble opinion, the MIDI I wrote for it "Storming the Gates" is a banger.

As for the opening, after the map was already complete I came up with the idea after someone observed the connection between you dying at the end of Nova III and Nova IV's first episode being the Heaven one. I reached out to Scotty to get the all-clear, got it, and whipped it up. Had to do some dehacked shenanigans to make it work (which may or may not have led to me accidentally deleting the secret maps' party cacos, good thing I caught the problem before shipping the beta) but hey, being the guy doing the compilation lets you do that.

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MAP02: The Great Beacon in the Sky
Author: hebonky
Author's Comments: Got this slot around mid febuary after the previous mapper dropped. Ironically map02 was the 2nd to last map to be submitted. I always had an idea in my head for an episode 1 map ever since nova 4 started set above the clouds on floating islands. Also I hope more people notice the fake 3d gazebo.

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MAP03: Those Happy Blue Stars
Author: Heich
Author's Comments: I think I originally wanted to make a winter style map but I ended up in the heaven chapter of Nova IV. I had the idea of creating a map that's somewhat literally under construction. I wanted to have the player go through a sort of sky library where you walk through multiple scaffoldings to different areas. I couldn't really get it to work well so instead I chose a sort-of heavenly base. Several locations have a deliberate "unfinished" feel with things like a wall getting painted, planks on the floor, the side area meant to be a construction behind the scenes view as some others. I don't know how well it comes across but I tried to make the Sergeants the sort of supervisors whilst the lone Chaingunner in the red shipping container is the main manager of the whole project. The floating garden section of this map WAS also going to be in the original sky-braray idea so I'm glad I got to incorporate it successfully. :3 The small white text in the BFG9000 secret is the Lyrics to a song I absolutely adore: That Distant Shore.

I pretty much never use other maps for inspiration like 90% of the time so all the designs I create are just off the cuff, random ideas. Looking back through the builds I made I'm super proud of the "rope" bridge I created. For being built in MBF21 the design works super well. <3 As almost always I added a picture of Dynamite. Random fact: Nearly every single time I ever added her in my maps I don't copy-paste her. I DO draw her over and over. No idea why, Copy-pasting WOULD be quicker and easier... XD

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MAP04: Derelisteroid VII
Author: Andrea Rovenski
Author's Comments: I wanted a little bit of a barren adventure style layout with lots of unnecessary-but-well-worth twisting pathways to make it seem bigger than it actually is. Or something like that.

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MAP05: Worship Under Construction
Author: PsychEyeball
Inspirations: Doom 64's Hell Temple levels, their scripting of events and Blood's level design.
Author's Comments: I'm a relative newcomer to the Doom mapping scene, with this being my fourth map started and completed. This also was my first attempt at a MBF21 map and OTEX, which made everything a big learning experience. OTEX is tricky to use correctly and there were parts I was way over my head. Plus I initially inherited the MAP02 slot, which lead to a much more conservative approach level design-wise. You don't want a super long level or something ball-busting when you're barely starting the WAD. Even then, the early drafts of this map got it bumped to the MAP05 slot due to the difficulty. Oops.

I've always been a big fan of Doom 64's scripted events; three rooms in particular show this appreciation. The detailing remains mostly simple because I played a lot of early 2000s Doom stuff and this is where my affinities mostly lie. I don't like over-labored maps because I don't have the chops for it and this is not what I wish to make. I highly respect people able to do these but this will never be my calling card. To me, Doom remains charming due to its simplicity and I wish to stick to it.

The map itself is a temple under construction. The main hall has holes in the ceiling due to the non-sturdy nature of the materials and some blocks and structures are lying around to help build the top. Walls are still missing at moments. Your stops in the temple include a sacrificial pit, an evil library, a throne room, all leading to a big fight in a corrupted chapel. Spot the homages to Ancient Aliens and TNT's Wormhole!

This map evolved a lot throughout Nova 4's development cycle. I started work as soon as I got a spot in and I'm glad I started early: the draft versions were ROUGH and needed more fleshing out. Thanks to the feedback of everyone who tested the map (especially Mancubian Candidate, AnArchaicApparitus, novaseer and JackDBS), this map almost feels completely different from what it used to be, even while keeping most of its looks. The feedback I got really helped me out making this more fun to play. Thank you all and I hope you enjoy the map; it's average sized and it shouldn't push you too hard.

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MAP06: Sunset In Paradise
Author: mancubian_candidate
Author's Comments: My 2nd ever Map - the UAC were getting up to their regular old shenanigans, attempting to do research and set up a 5-star holiday resort in Heaven! Oh no! And to make matters worse, they set up a Toxin Refinery right next to it! Of course, Hell invaded and hijinks ensued! There's only 1 Doomguy who can clean up this mess - You, of course (and maybe some friends) 😄

I wanted to create something light hearted and fun to compliment a community Project like this (especially with it being an early slot - it was Map 3 originally). I was inspired by WADS like Boomer: Beyond Vanilla and Lost Civilization as well as Nostalgic Entropy: Neo Retro. Additionally, I've basically had "Fireblu Dreams" in my head since I first heard it in Not Even Remotely Fair so the MIDI definitely informed the vibe as well (thanks Cammy!)

Most of the Mapping process was coming up with crazy ideas and learning the tools well enough to implement them! Aesthetics are not entirely my strong suit so apologies if you find parts of the map ugly, I did my best xD

The Map should hopefully be easy enough, I've implemented all difficulties so feel free to turn it down if its too hard for you! I still recommend you save every so often to avoid any frustration (its a long enough map!). Also, I've hidden an extra "spicy" (mileage may vary) difficulty in co-op. If you find regular UV too easy, slap a "-coop_spawns" command in and see what you think 😄

I want to shout out a few people outside of the Project for providing excellent feedback while I was Dev'ing the Map - Dreadwanderer and AshtralFiend. Of course, thanks to everyone working on Nova IV who also provided excellent feedback (Especially Novaseer and JackDBS for their suggestions on Fake & Instant Raise Floors). I also want to thank Psych and stochastic for letting me lead out/in to/from their maps!

Finally, I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I did making it. 😄

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MAP07: The Gilded Chimera
Author: stochastic
Author's Comments: When a slot opened up in E1, I knew I wanted to build something Art Deco-inspired, which I first explored while using some of the Art Deco OTEX textures in one of my Box Doom entries back in 2023. I’ve always been a huge fan of the architecture style and felt like it well represents beauty and human grandeur, as well as lavishness, excess, and decadence. These qualities helped to shape the map’s backstory of a glorious man-made heaven that falls to human folly and becomes overrun with demons. Basically the story of the Tower of Babel influenced by too much Great Gatsby fan fiction.

This lead me to build a big-ass tower. The biggest one i could care to build (inspired by an art deco skyscraper in Las Vegas) - which became the map’s centerpiece. From there I built the map’s other megastructures. I knew the rest of the map had to be enormous to accommodate all these giant structures, but I didn’t want the map’s run time to be too bloated. 

Eventually, I filled in all the rest of the spaces - the result is a fairly linear “adventure” map where over 75% of the map’s area is non-playable, with the flawless companion of Canmy’s behemoth track “Machine of my Memories”

I’m overall happy with the map’s mix of incidental combat, tightly-calculated trap-heavy encounters, and large-scale slaughter-lite brawls. Difficulty is high for E1 but forgiving due to adequate resources. 

To give the map an RPG-like quality, you can reach the final area/fights after getting the red key, skipping the entire north area/BFG fight altogether, as the final fights are completely doable with just the plasma gun and rocket launcher. 

I went through a lot of IRL struggles and setbacks during its ~6 month development, and it felt like every step of the way I was fighting to build something I was happy with. By the end of it all, I was ready to wash my hands of the whole thing. Eventually it all came together and it became a map I was quite proud of. Hope you enjoy!

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MAP08: Monastic Archives of the Eternal Order
Author: HiMyNameIsChair
Inspirations: The works of Eternal, Jaska, Azmael, and Lainos.
Author's Comments: So right off the bat... sorry its so long! it was less a case of scope creep, rather that the scope of it was big to begin with. This is a very personal map to me, one born out of two main motivators. One being frustration in percieved shortcomings in my own mapping, and a hunger to improve. The other being a desire to make a love letter to Adventure maps, this genre i love that i feel has lost prevalence over time. Coming off Paint it Doom, i felt like my gameplay had let my map down... so i scrapped what i started for Nova around May of 2023... and i got to work. I wanted to  focus more on my fundamentals, shore up my weak layouts, and dial back the big, open spaces I'm usually known for and embracing more energized, close quarters fights. out of all my maps... this one plays the best, its not even close. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

 I redrew a lot of sections. The blue key section went through  the most changes, originally going from where the final arena is to where it is now. It also meant the exit swapped from the first arena, to the end of the cathedral fight. Originally... I wanted something more horror focused for the blue key section, with hints of an ancient evil  resting in the deepest reaches of the archive... but that had to be cut for time.. and because it would clash with the "under construction" theme of the episode. Yeah i kinda hated the episode theme, it was over-specific, creatively constricting and made it hard to splash other ideas in. Was not a fan. TBH there was a fair bit i had to scale back for time, so this is somehow the "restrained" version of the map, wrap your head around that! I did want to splash in more mandatory hidden switches or puzzles, but since Nova is a project with so many eyes on it... i opted to leave those elements to the wayside, leaving in just one mandatory hidden switch in the red key path.

If the title didn't make it obvious, the main influence on this map is Alexander S: Eternal. much in the way he took that moniker of "Eternal" as a show of respect for his beloved Eternal Doom, i wanted to do the same here. it's not meant to be an homage of any specific maps, i took aspects about his WADS & maps that i love and utilized that: from Plutonium Rust's open ended nature,  Hellground's atmosphere and sense of place, Gravity's sky island setting, and Epic 2's tighter gameplay and abundance of secrets and non secrets. Although i did aqueeze a big tower in, as a little nod to The Citidel.  Beyond that, there's a little bit of all my favorite adventure mappers in this: a bit of Jaska's non-linear layouts, secret lived in nooks, and platforming secrets (what little i could fit in), a bit of Azmeal, Lainos, and the Russian Realism movement in general with the heavy use of contrast lighting, and even a bit of the late great Kim André Malde in all the gradient lighting and quieter moments throughout. 

This is my gift to them, to the genre that captured my imagination, and helped me fall back in love with Doom at this stage of my life. A way to repay the countless hours of escapism they gave to me, a tiny little Nonbinary bean, whisking we away to worlds so toiled over and granular that they felt alive. I don't know if it's enough, but i can say with confidence... that i gave every inch of everything i could offer. Every shadow, ever brick laid, every encounter, painted with all the blood, sweat and tears of my person.

 It's the least I can do... to help tend to the flame they lit all those years ago... until someone can take up the torch again.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in the project, it was a huge honor to be a part of Nova, a series I love a lot. Also a huge thank you to my Waffle House team members who guided me during this maps grueling half a year long development.

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MAP09: Domus Impiorum
Author: Heretic926

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MAP10: Unearthly Manse
Author: TheV1perKiller
Author's Comments: This was originally going to be made on a much smaller scale, but  it ended up being longer than I intended. This is also the first map I made that exclusively uses OTEX, so apologies from me if the texture plastering is a bit 'all over the place'.

Given that my contribution lies in the 'Haunted' episode, I really wanted to make the theme stick (to the best of my ability). Overall, I am pretty happy with the end result, and special thanks are to be given to the playtesters, and especially Novaseer, for the handy feedback to further improve it. I won't lie though, the design process of this was quite exhausting, but ultimately worth it.

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MAP11: Violent Playground (Grandma Strikes Again!)
Author: AnArchaicApparatus
Author's Comments: in nova4info_map11.txt, too long

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MAP12: Make Your Money Work For You
Author: Dusty_Rhodes
Author's Comments: I wasn't sure what the title meant when RC1 rolled around. I just picked it. I wasn't sure what world I was creating either. I wanted something evocative, but a little sad. This is the grave of an empire, a tomb for a people we'll never know or understand. But they built something, they made their mark. Maybe that's what happens when you let your money work for you. Maybe it works too hard. I think this will be a comfortable breather, something mysterious, calming, and even a little sobering. We've built a little tech base in the midst of this digsite, something to analyze what could've been here. But it won't be enough to let us know where these people went, or what possessed them to build what they did. I just read The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, and I think it's exploration of memory and other worlds from time out of mind were a big influence on the final tone of the map. I mostly hope this one makes people think a little bit, theorize about these strange buildings and who put them there. Obviously I did, and I'm being a bit pretentious. But it's a lot more fun to ignore that. 

Big thanks to AnArchaicApparatus for the encouragement, to Ween for their 1994 Las Vegas concert recording on YouTube, the KLF for their album Chill Out, and Alephany for letting the start of their map be the ending of mine.

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MAP13: That Mansion in the Distance
Author: Alephany
Inspirations: Amnesia - The Dark Descent, Luigi's Mansion, Corpse Party, The Witch's House, Monster House (Movie), Map01 of What Lies Beneath, Map21 of Chillax.
Author's Comments: After being accepted in the project back in April 2024 in the episode I was really looking for since I'm a huge fan of horror/creepy stuff. I began my work with the final room, the idea came all the way back from Flesharmonic, I wanted a "floor that breathes" but couldn't since it was limit-removing. Working with OTEX for the first time was a big ordeal, tons of possibilities which is not always good because you have way too many options for too little experience. It got better the more I placed linedefs and sectors. 
Following the final room, I went for some kind of small cellars, taking reference on an old popular game called Amnesia - The Dark Descent. Took me a while to go through with it, especially learning what is possible to do with MBF21 (Fake Floor, Sky Transfer, Conveyor Belt, Kill Floor Monster, etc). 

And then, as usual when I start doing anything, my self confidence and being generally hard on myself started to weigh me down the path of non stop "No it's not good enough", "This is bad", "It looks awful" and so on so forth, slowing my productivity at a critical state. To sum this up, I had all the idea in my mind but putting it into a thing in Doom was where the challenge was...
Rooms after rooms were done very slowly, the basement then the elevator, the small office, the starting area that had to be redone from scratch because I'm bad at outdoor detailing.
Suddenly out of nowhere, I learned that I was going to become a dad and my life went full busy with irl stuff to welcome my kid in the world. Progress was harder than ever. But I absolutely wanted to finish this map in particular alone. So with the help from my wife, pushing me through as much as she could, I persevered.

The Red Skull fight was the first of the 3 Skulls, a simple library that would reveal a big chunk of the Mansion's true identity. The fight itself isn't too hard to make, I love the colors black and red in general so it was easy to put it together.
The Yellow Skull fight was the second room done, the idea happened at the same time as the Red Skull. It's not the prettiest part of the map, no doubt about that but I like it for it's simplicity and not being too long to complete.
The Blue Skull fight was the last part, a dream like sequence ending on a "brutal" nightmare to "scare" Doomguy. For some reason I went full crazy with the idea and I am proud of the visuals, maybe the fight could have been better but the deadline was getting closer and I knew I couldn't come up with a better fight. I hope it's still fun.

I'm honored to be a part of this project, the community is nice and welcoming. This map is filled with references and easter eggs (message me what you found on DoomWorld, I'll gladly answer to all your findings!) and I am happy with the end result even if some rooms are not well detailed due to self doubt and lack of idea. Thank you for playing!

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MAP14: One More Red Nightmare
Author: signaturereverie
Author's Comments: so ! there was a call for a mapper for the project less than a month before the first public release because they were looking to make an existing map secret (map33) and needed a map in the vacant slot . i felt like i fit the bill pretty much perfectly for a project like nova and i also really wanted to get my name out there so i stepped up to the task . after getting briefed on what i was supposed to do i got to work pretty quickly as i immediately had quite a clear idea of what i wanted to do with the map , which honestly happens somewhat rarely .

the map is divided into two distinct sections , the outdoors (the intro/outro) and the tree/the dream (the main bulk of the map) . the main idea behind the map is that the main part may or may not have been a dream , and i felt i conveyed that pretty well through the contrast between the settings and also the map name (which didn't actually come until later in the development . for quite a while it was the midi's current name , "yore" , but i found the new name to be more fitting . it is also a king crimson reference , however i am less looking at the source material and more the literal meaning behind the words) .

for the outdoors area i had a very clear image in my mind of what i wanted to do , with all the locations immediately mapped out , those being the river , then the hedge maze , the lake and the tiny village . i really wanted to go for atmosphere in the section so i also filled it with moving parts and doomcute (for example , the lake vanishing when you get the yellow skull and a functional guillotine in the village with the blue skull "falling" into the basket as the head) .

for the tree section , i took an entirely different approach . i knew i wanted to break off from orthogonality and embrace more unusual shapes , so i finally bound the grid transform keybind and used it very liberally all across the section . i used this more unusual geometry along with a different sky texture and many colourful trees to convey a certain sense of otherworldliness and i'd say worked out well (offhand remark : i absolutely love the trees . the trees are the best thing ever and i didn't know i needed them this much until this moment) . the combat turned out to be on the harder side , but i tried my best to balance it across the map and also across difficulties (the map was originally intended to be the opener to the episode , but while making it i realised it really wasn't geared for that with its difficulty and setting . thankfully we found a different ordering and i didn't have to rebalance everything because dealing with this as early as map09 would not have been pleasant) .

oh of course , i composed the midi for this map as well . i thought i was going to look for a midi elsewhere or ask one of the project composers for one , but after a long mapping session one night i just opened sekaiju on a whim and started placing notes , and it actually started coming together quite nicely ! it took a few iterations to get it to its current state (and also a name change , it started out as "when the winds come" , which i soon felt sounded boring and stock so i switched it out for the map name at the time and got myself a new map name) , but i think it captures the atmosphere quite well and it does what i wanted it to do very nicely . i'm especially pleased with it because this is one of my first midis ever , it might actually be my first midi that is a proper composition and not a simple melody on loop or a recreation of something else .

(side note : there's a slightly nonsensical easter egg that's a secret within a secret , see if you can find it !)


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MAP15: Border of the Wicked
Author: Cutman 999
Author's Comments: What's behind the switch?

First time I used otex, hope it was worth the struggle. Originally wanted to mix the "haunted mansion" theme with a lot more stuff, at the end I decided to do an underground bunker with a dreadful atmosphere. Kudos to Mark Klem for the midi btw, I think it fits superbly.

Is nothing too crazy, you have the freedom to choose what way to progress and tackle the challenges at your own pace, so don't worry. Just stay prepared for the final fight.

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MAP16: Techbase Shenanigans
Author: phoo
Author's Comments: I've never really used many barrels in a map before, so I thought I would fill one up with them. I wanted this to be short, simple and to the point; have fun and blow up a bunch of monsters. Not too much to else to add here... 

Regarding some of the monster choices: 

The cyber is purely there for initial shock value and to lend a hand by in-fighting, just watch out for stray rockets! The vile is also  mainly there to shock the player at the start. As for the pinkies, they're just there to apply some light initial pressure and encourage the player to run around and enter the techbase; they're not much of threat. Most of the remaining monsters are there to be blown up or they exist to eat up space so that the player is forced to move around and take them out.

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MAP17: Gosub Error
Authors: Amiga Angel and LoatharMDPhD

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MAP18: Techleticism
Author: CrazedCleric

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MAP19: Coca Cola y Pesto
Author: Pancrasio
Author's Comments: I didn't really think much of the any of the themes provided for each episode back when I first joined, I felt equally indifferent about all of them. I just told Obake to place me at whatever slot was free. When it turned out to be a swamp map, I quickly felt like, somehow, I had just gotten the most uninteresting theme, and that the rest of them were actually a bit better now. In handsight, I'm really glad this was what I got, not only because I'm proud of what I did in terms of visuals, but also because it ended up inspiring the main gimmick of the map, which I don't recall seeing anywhere else. 

So to fill in the "electric" half of the theme, I started thinking about an abandoned power plant of sorts at the heart of a swamp... A first image of a concrete tube with black liquid dripping inside it came to mind. Was that like some kind of swampy water treatment? Radioactive waste? No idea, but that didn't give me a gimmick, which is what I tend to look for, in order to have a clear idea of what I want gameplay to be like, and because it grants you quite unique fights. Even so, I did really like how it looked in my mind, so I kept thinking about it. I was coming from recently making my map for the Hispanic Community Project, where the main gimmick of every fight were the Boom moving floors, and I had also recently read The Incal, where there's a moment when the characters get swooped into a giant whirlpool in the middle of the sea, very nicely drawn by Moebius, so I had that image spinning in my mind... It all came together while I was walking back to my house, thinking about washing dishes... The kitchen sink, the moving floors, the whirlpoorl... The black liquid power generator! What if you got inside that concrete tube and it tried to "eat" you? It surely could be made with moving floors. Then I could make it so it spits you out, then I could also make it so you try to get to its center while it tries to spits you out... You know you "got it" when it starts giving you a lot of ideas for fights.

Making techbases feels boring to me. Everyone and their grandmother has made one already. I tend to make natural terrain out of "man made" textures, like a cave made out of metal2 way back in my first ever map, so I wanted to take it to the next level and make the techbase out of natural materials... A dirt-base, I guess. A dirt-base in a techswamp. That was also a bit of a challenge, because it's difficult to make it feel like a base using those textures, but I think I managed to do it. The base has perfect curves and nice some nice patterns, symmetries, while the forest is all irregular, quite a mess. The concrete tube holding the liquids is gone, in favour of a waterfall running down the walls. You can imagine a concrete wall behind it, if you want to. The theme also required a lot of greenery, in which I can confidently say I've succeeded. The whole thing is just green. Using otex was quite the challenge as well... I'll add one voice to the choir that seems to have been formed in this project: It's a pain in the balls, and I'm planning not to use it any time soon. I'm starting to realize Doom 2 is pretty much my favourite texture pack. Even then, I think I used it beautifully. Be the judge. 

After this, I don't think I can consider myself a novice mapper anymore. Not a veteran by any means, but this gave me a lot of experience... My best map yet, I feel. I'd like to thank DevilMyEyes, Medi, numsOic, Rata and the guys from the project for testing my map, and one HUGE thank you to SomeSpoonyBard for transcribing a midi which I didn't end up using... I'll make sure to use it in other map down the line. It's just that Set The Controls for The Heart of The Sun was too fitting...

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MAP20: Failure to Deny
Author: Glowylikesdoom

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MAP21: Shock Value
Author: novaseer
Inspirations: Other E3 maps, Eviternity II MAP32
Author's Comments: Similarly to MAP01, I started constructing Shock Value as a backup map back at the tail-end of January just in case any Episode 3 mappers failed to make the initial February deadline. Unlike with Temple of the Formless, this didn't happen - and even before I finished the map there were already more available backups for Thunder and Earth than there were pending slots. Therefore, I pulled this map from the project and repurposed it for my personal project Mainline to act as its MAP31.

So you may be wondering, especially if you played RC1 or RC2: why is this map here then?

I'll spare the drama, but two contributors' work had to be cut from the megawad mid-RCs, and all the other potential E3 backups at the time had already been recalled or repurposed. Even though I didn't particularly want to have four mapping contributions to the WAD, I figured using a map that already existed and was explicitly built for the project was better than rushing someone else to regurgitate something from their back catalogue. Worse still, I'd grown fond of the map's placing in Mainline and didn't have many other ideas as to how to fill its slot, but I decided that was Future Me's problem. As of RC3 Mainline's been on the backburner anyway as I work on other projects, so it's not been an urgent issue anyhow.

As for the map itself, I very much liked the neon green dark techbase designs CrazedCleric and one of those cut mappers had cooked up for their maps, and I wanted to create something visually congruous with them, whilst also keeping it gimmicky enough to serve double duty as the secret map for another project it almost was. I'm not sure exactly what made me settle on the traffic light design - I'm writing this over half a year after making the map, unlike my other commentaries - but the original "Electric Swamp" title of the episode probably had something to do with it.

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MAP22: Under the Iron Cloud
Author: Beubeu

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MAP23: The White Album
Author: Fun-E Personn

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MAP24: Frigid Well
Author: Razza
Author's Comments: The initial idea I had for this project was a map where you would have to drain a body of water in order to access the later half of a map, however not long after I started i figured that it would be more appropriate to have that happen at the end, and I also turned it into a big throwdown, rather than just an environmental setpiece. The fight was inspired by the beginning of Well Of Souls from Plutonia, what with the gradual revealing of extra enemies as the arena lowered (I like to think of them getting freed from being encased in ice). Originally, the midi I used was "MONOLITH" by Saneway, however eventually I felt that it was too repetitive of a song for a map of this length (though the song and the artist is still cool, look him up on youtube). The midi I swapped to is titled "DEATHLIGHT", a 15 minute epic sounding midi created by Glowylikesdoom, it still carried the same urgent feel as Monolith did and within a minute of first hearing it I knew it was the one to swap to, so great work to both Saneway and Glowy. My favourite parts of the map are the beginning and the penultimate fight, I feel like i really hit my stride with those two, and I'm super happy with the map as a whole, even though I got a little carried away with the scope of it :P

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MAP25: Relic
Author: Grape Juice

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MAP26: When The Canyon Melts
Author: lilywaves
Author's Comments: This is a new version of my first ever map (yah, rlly!) released as "Crucifix Canyon" back in early 2023.
This version is pretty much the same as what I made back then, just retextured and re-detailed, with some added tweaks. My original version was very unfiltered, I hadn't played any community maps at that point, just doom1,2 and TNT.  I think it's kind of unique and interesting, at least among my maps.

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MAP27: Ice Giant
Author: FlyingGoner

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MAP28: Shivering Summit
Author: DoomGappy
Author's Comments: I'm a TNT Head, with big influence from Half Life. Whenever I make a big setpiece map, that is more or less where the influence for my mapping comes from. I believe this can be felt on this map too. Besides those, there is heavy influence from the ps1 007 game Tomorrow Never Dies' first map, and Metal Gear solid. The idea for this map came even before NOVA IV, when I heard the song "Shivering Summit" by TheBlurCafé. It inspired me to create a "base invasion" map, and I worked on it for a long while, and I even named it the same as the midi because that's how I imagined the base being called. It was legit one of the most fun maps to work on. The end result is a very open map with many routes that can be taken, and which can be played in different ways. I like to think the map has a bit of that TNT atmosphere, especially in some of the more well crafted parts. Some others are severely lacking because I have the problem of getting tired of things when they are 90% finished (working on that slowly). The original song was revamped by TheBlurCafé Especially for my map, and I feel like I should add a few more parts to the map as it stands now, but I don't know if I have the energy. This is my first ever large setpiece open map, and I hope I can make other cool things like this in the future. Overall I think the midi really sells the theme really well.

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MAP29: Faces Contorted Into Screams
Author: novaseer
Inspirations: Eviternity II MAPs 32 and especially 36, Doom 2 In City Only MAP23 and a little bit of MAP20, various Simulacrum maps, just a pinch of Sunder (as a treat)
Author's Comments: Does it count as "scope creep" if your scope's completely out of whack minute one?

The longest and (before my several reworks) most difficult map I've made by quite the margin. I'd always reckoned that this map would be an hour or so long, as I wanted a spectacle befitting the MAP29 slot (my apologies for slotting it right behind Megiddo IV, though) - although I still think I went a little overboard in some aspects. Nova as a series is no stranger to slaughter, but my first draft could be mistaken for a slightly less orthogonal Sunder map - 5319 enemies! For what it's worth, I was always aiming for sheer wow value over raw CBT difficulty (I described it as 'some malevolent entity is testing your resolve' in my YouTube upload of Desolate but your mileage may vary), but at the end of the day there's only so easy you can make a map with quad-digit demons - and honestly the reaction I keep seeing to the archvile wave of the final fight is consistently priceless and exactly what I was aiming for. It - and the map as a whole - also makes for a great thing to jumpscare my non-Doom-playing friends with when I show them videos or screenshots.

I'm proud of Faces for what it is as a keystone piece in my development as a mapper, but I've come to realise that spending 7 months near non-stop (with just a little break for GAYhem MAP21) making a map usually isn't worth it. That being said, I'm much more chuffed with the other half of this magnum opus - as a sucker for ridiculously long music, I couldn't give up the opportunity to score a massive map with a super-sized MIDI, and Desolate ended up being one of my favourite MIDIs that I've ever written. Big props to Jimmy and Velvetic for letting me sample some riffs from Megiddos II and III - I reckon Nova series die-hards will appreciate the references.

Also funny story: despite the ridiculous scope, this was the first map submitted to Nova IV. Wouldn't be a Nova series megawad without development troubles, I suppose.

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MAP30: Megiddo IV
Authors: novaseer, obake, Heich, Razza, Beubeu and HiMyNameIsChair

novaseer's Inspirations: Eviternity II MAP36 again, prior Megiddos, Nova III MAP30, a dash of Swim with the Whales at the end (I'm sorry)
novaseer's Comments: Relatively shortly after completing MAP29 I realised that there wasn't any hub built for Megiddo IV yet, so I thought to myself "sounds like a plan"... then only started it like three months later. Ironic, considering how much of a fire I lit under so many other mappers' asses to get their works done on time. After completing the west area of the hub (originally the player entered from the portal to Beubeu's section), I got distracted by other things again, namely getting MAP10 of a personal project and MAP01 and MAP21 for this ship-shape, and I only picked up the hub again at the beginning of March 2025 - after which the rest of my section came together in about two weeks. Apparently I sometimes do work pretty quick, oddly enough.

I'm not exactly sure where the idea of the statue reanimation after pressing the three-key switch came from, and I'm not 100% sure whether or not it's worth the literal hours I spent making the finnicky little teleport system it uses work for eighty-odd demons, but hey, it's still pretty cool.

The MAP01 reprise was originally meant to be part of a much larger penultimate section akin to dobu gabu maru's section of Megiddo I - a smash cut of sections from every single map in the main rotation - but unfortunately, I noticed after completing the E1 slice that it already used 8k lines... meaning that the entire thing would've had to use half of the total linedefs allowed in the mapping format. Yeah, maybe not. Cutting my losses, I kept the MAP01 bit to make the whole thing cyclical, then smacked down a teleporter to the final area.

As for the final area itself, I struggled with ideas for a little bit - I even originally had the idea to dehack a final boss or some special enemies, but never got around to it - before I settled on doing something based off of the void stairs in Nova III MAP30, and extrapolated quite a bit to make the final fight. I also wanted to design a fight around every enemy (though I sequestered the SS and party cacos to a secret) - and it ended up being quite a mess, but hopefully a fun mess? I dunno, you tell me.

obake's Comments: My section of Megiddo is short and to the point. Though it has gone through changes in theme. Originally I was going to incorporate the party theme from the secret levels, but decided against it. 

The section in the library is a pain. I always have troubles with it, even with the BFG, but as for other player's reactions, we shall see. 

It's been an honor to add my name and other awesome people to a Nova tradition. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day.

Razza's Comments: Completely inspired by ULTRAKILL, specifically Layer 6 (Heresy) and the level P-2. I actually broke a personal mapping rule of mine to never use instakill floors, but all the little gaps in the two outdoor arenas forced my hand. The pits were initially just 20 damage hurt-floors with small teleporters, however that caused them to be easy escape routes rather than serious hazards. Goes to show that rules always have cases where they're to be broken. I also learned that it's WAY harder to balance slaughter for lower difficulties than it is for more "regular" maps, I had some people who tested it on ITYTD/HNTR just give up on it! Hopefully it's not too much for those difficulties anymore, and if it is: uhh sorry.

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MAP31: Moissonneuse-Batteuse
Author: SSGmaster
Inspirations: Doom II map 14, TNT map 4 and 31, Plutonia map 4, 15 and 18, PS1 Doom map 59, Silent Hill 3
Author's Comments: I had some experiences using a Doom map editor but it's the first time I complete one. I liked the freedom that MBF21 gives but I think forcing myself to use as much OTEX as possible was a mistake, I kinda gave up by the end using vanilla textures more and more.

As for the map itself, I wanted to do a map that celebrate the 30 years of Doom II. I always think map 32 in a megawad should be something memorable, I felt under pressure to make it so. I don't know if it will be, but I hope people will at least have fun playing it.

I've started working on it mid August IIRC, I've spent the first month tinkering with special effects though, none of them ended up being used but it was fun learning colormaps and such. I didn't have time to map during November either so really, this one took ~2 months do to. I was super slow doing anything at first but I got more comfy using the editor and its features as time went on. If I had to redo it, it probably would take me way less time.

The Nightclub is a direct reference to PS1 Doom map 59, to me it was obvious to start the homage with this section. Fun fact, I've never went to a night club in my life so that's my interpretation of what a night club is. The Soul Sphere secret is also a direct reference to the Megasphere secret from PS1 Doom Map 59.

The brown brick area was done before the metallic techbase area and I think it shows, it's overall less interesting to look at and play. Also I've learned that 64 unit wide corridors are awful, if my map feel cramped that's because I didn't realized how small everything felt while mapping.

I'm glad with how the metallic techbase turned out, the lone zombiman in the right room is a reference to the lone zombiman from TNT map 31. I don't have much else to say about this section, it's the one that changed the less during mapping.

The 3rd teleporter (the one that send you to the specters fight) was supposed to send you to a mirrored version of the night club but I had no inspiration about what fights I should put in that mirrored version (and I didn't want to just copy the fights from the normal version) so I've changed my mind and did the specters fight instead.

The dark corridor was supposed to be way more mazy but I quickly realized it wasn't fun so I made it linear. Fun fact BTW, this is a reference to the Hospital transition to the alt world from Silent Hill 3.

I'm glad and honored I could map for this project, I've been playing Doom since 2005 and I've wanted to give a map to the community, the same community that gave me a lot of fun throughout the years. I thank the Nova team for letting me map for this project and I thank the future players for taking their time for playing it. I also want to thank my friends who joked about how mean I was with my traps while I was mapping for this project.
Now I feel more confident mapping for Doom, you can expect to see my name again in the future.

Oh, one last note: a Moissonneuse-Batteuse is a combine harvester. Why did I choose that name? I don't know, I wanted something that sound badass.

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MAP32: Hang On To Each Other, Like Pigeons in the Rain
Authors: AnArchaicApparatus, Some Spoony Bard, Isabella_Dio, lilywaves, minimedals, Hebonky, Dusty_Rhodes, GlowyLikesDoom, Demonic Meatball and some cameos
Author's Comments: in nova4info_map33.txt, too long (168kb?!)

=====================================================
IV: MUSIC CREDITS
=====================================================

Music pieces marked by an asterisk (*) are bespoke.
Two asterisks (**) means the track is bespoke for NOVA IV, but not for the map it currently scores.
Maps with multiple tracks have those tracks ordered roughly in the sequence they play in when applicable.



Title Screen - Impending Eruption by Some Spoony Bard*
Intermission Screen - Nebula by novaseer*
Text Screen (ex. MAP30, MAP31) - Sidereal Voyage by novaseer*
MAP30 Text Screen and BOSSBACK - Last Man Standing (Sacraficial Symphony) by Kristian Aro
MAP31 Text Screen - Not The End by AnArchaicApparatus*

EPISODE I
MAP01 - Last Man Standing (Sacraficial Symphony) by Kristian Aro
      - Storming the Gates by novaseer*
MAP02 - Left Behind by NovusCognito303
MAP03 - Chrysilis from Jazz Jackrabbit
MAP04 - Galaxy by Mark Klem
MAP05 - Prayers for the Unredeemable by PsychEyeball*
MAP06 - Hishousouzan by Cammy
MAP07 - Machine of my Memories by Cammy
MAP08 - Anxious Dread by NecrumWarrior*

EPISODE II
MAP09 - Fresh Decay by Velvetic
MAP10 - Skedar Ruins from Perfect Dark
MAP11 - Manifold by novaseer (remixed by AnArchaicApparatus) + Stirring from the Cyberdream by DuckReconMajor (medley)
MAP12 - Night Theme 5 (On Ship) from The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
MAP13 - Ominous Lights by Emperor S P O O N*
MAP14 - yore by signaturereverie*
MAP15 - Night Bats by Mark Klem

EPISODE III
MAP16 - Suck This from Rise of the Triad
MAP17 - Zomby Woof by Frank Zappa
MAP18 - Rising Heat by pcorf
MAP19 - Set Controls for the Heart of the Sun by Pink Floyd
MAP20 - Solaris by Failure
MAP21 - Era of Wonder by Naiad Violet**
MAP22 - Lay Down the Gauntlet by novaseer*

EPISODE IV
MAP23 - Featherfall by stewboy
MAP24 - Deathlight by GlowyLikesDoom
MAP25 - Frozen Wilderness by Tristan Clark
MAP26 - The Dweller Drinks by Patrick Chaney*
MAP27 - Xenoscape by novaseer
      - Descent of Madness by Tristan Clark (edited by FlyingGoner)
MAP28 - Shivering Summit by TheBlurCafe
MAP29 - Desolate by novaseer*
MAP30 - Terminus Est by Some Spoony Bard, Demonic Meatball, novaseer, KarunaAztima, frankbeams, JustAthel and AnArchaicApparatus*

SECRET MAPS
MAP31 - archviles are tumblr sexymen by minimedals
      - Shades of Taylor by UUN4*
      - The Sweet Cause In Vain by AnArchaicApparatus*
      - Sweet Little Bunny by AnArchaicApparatus*
      - Faced by AnArchaicApparatus*
MAP32 - Simon Ferocious' Unfortunate Day At The Toothpaste Factory by AnArchaicApparatus and Some Spoony Bard*
      - Friendly Skeleton Bard Doots Deftly (It Lives In Your Pocket, Ready To Rock-It) by AnArchaicApparatus*
      - Facing It All Again + Mind The Gap (More Than Just Knee Deep In The Dead) by AnArchaicApparatus*
      - James by AnArchaicApparatus*
      - Jane by AnArchaicApparatus*
      - No End In Sight? by AnArchaicApparatus*

=====================================================
V: OTHER CREDITS
=====================================================

***PROJECT LEADS***
obake - project co-lead, founder
novaseer - project co-lead, compiler
DoomGappy - interim assistant project lead

***GRAPHICS***
TITLEPIC by cammy
M_DOOM by AnArchaicApparatus
INTERPICs by novaseer
BOSSBACK by Some Spoony Bard
ENDOOM by Peccatum Mihzamiz
Status bar by CrazedCleric and AnArchaicApparatus
CWILVs by AnArchaicApparatus
Text font by AnArchaicApparatus

***TEXTURES***
OTEX v1.1 by ukiro
Additional MAP01 textures from The Plutonia Experiment
Additional MAP07 textures from 32in24-15tex, Sunlust and by WH-wilou84
Additional MAP11 textures from The Kerberos Complex and Stardate 20x7
Additional MAP32 textures by AnArchaicApparatus and The Almighty EGG

***SPRITES***
Party Cacodemon sprites by obake
Tree sprites by ukiro
MAP30 statue sprites by novaseer
Minor Sprite Fixing Project by Revenant100

***AUDIO***
Party Cacodemon sounds by id Software and Cammy
Synthetic Cyberdemon sounds by id Software, Cammy and AnArchaicApparatus
Plasma Rifle sound by Hebonky and AnArchaicApparatus

***MISC***
PLAYPAL by novaseer
COLORMAP by stephyesterday
Various additional COLORMAPs by Heich and AnArchaicApparatus
DeHackEd by Hunting4R2d2, Cammy, SSGmaster and novaseer
UMAPINFO and ZMAPINFO by novaseer
Story by obake, novaseer and AnArchaicApparatus

***PLAYTESTERS***
- Alephany
- AnArchaicApparatus
- cannonball
- Cutman 999
- DoomGappy
- Dusty_Rhodes
- Foxo
- hebonky
- HiMyNameIsChair
- JackDBS
- Ludi
- mancubian_candidate
- NecrumWarrior
- NiGHTS108
- novaseer
- obake
- phoo
- Razza
- Seiji
- spineapple tea
- Xulgonoth

=====================================================
VI: SPECIAL THANKS
=====================================================

Thank you to Scotty for greenlighting the project and permitting the use of Nova III MAP30's final room, thank you to him, Cannonball and Pegleg for providing additional support, thank you to all of the fantastic members of the Nova IV team for their amazing work, thank you to all of those credited outside of it for allowing the use of your work, and thank you to the mappers who didn't quite make it into the final product - we hope that even if your work never ended up being featured, whatever the cause may be, you enjoyed working on the project.

And, of course, a massive thank you to anyone who takes the time to download and play the WAD.
