SIC Remade

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**SIC Remade** (*Stocean Interstellar Committee*) is a Doom WAD created by I'm a Zombieman in 2021. With a planned release date in 2022, the wad is a remaster of the original SIC.wad, and features new weapons, new music, textures, and some new enemies, most of which are made from the ground up.

## Inspiration and Development

The idea for creating a remade version of the original SIC.wad came to light during the pandemic in 2020. After taking a hiatus for some time, Adam felt like returning to map making and started off again in September of that year. Furthermore, after reviewing the original wad, Adam found some issues and other various amateur mistakes and felt the need to create a remake that would fix certain issues in the original and also show off a much more advanced usage of the map builder. The following month, the first map, E1M1, was remade, although development would be very slow until May of 2021 when development resumed. Currently, Episode 1 is roughly 75% finished and is actively undergoing development.

### More Advanced/original work

The biggest reason for remaking SIC was because of an amateur development and the fact that lots of work is not my own. All of the new weapons in the original wad were taken from Realm667, as well as some textures, and even the final boss. Furthermore, the inconsistency in map formatting showed improper management and an inconsistent map design, as maps become more advanced and complex as the player goes further into the wad. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the sheer scale at which it happens is definitely not the best course of action. However, in the time between the original wad and the remake entering development, Adam has become much more accustomed to the builder and being able to create more advanced maps. As such, SIC Remade’s maps are developed entirely in UDMF format, the most advanced format that is possible in Ultimate Doom Builder.

As for the resources, SIC Remade is going to be almost entirely original. The only Realm667 content that will be used are most wall textures from the Mars 3D texture pack (a Taiwanese clone of Doom) which is used only for the purpose of making the maps feel much more thematic than what the original textures can create, as well as certain light textures and brick textures, all of which are given proper credit in the wad’s credits image and in the readme. The rest of the sprites, weapons, etc. are hand made or heavily edited from original resources. For example, the Pistol is now colored chrome instead of black, and the green/brown pixels (a result of the game’s palette limitations) have been removed. The Shotgun has been given a more “polished” look and was given glow sights. A heavily edited version Super Shotgun from Doom 2 replaces the M49 Shotgun, but it has been edited to remove the two “bolts” on the gun’s breech, the barrels have been extended, the shotgun shells have been colored yellow, and the gun also has glow sights as well. Beyond appearances though, weapons have been given extended functionality: the pistol has two firing modes, one semi-auto and one fully-auto; the shotgun has a standard fire of a very powerful but slow slug, versus a faster but less damaging buckshot; the Chaingun now spins up for a second before reaching its full rate of fire; the plasma rifle fires at a slow, slightly more powerful rate for standard fire and a faster, less accurate rate alongside more recoil; and the BFG has a secondary fire mode that fires two slightly more powerful than usual shots in rapid succession, but at the cost of 100 energy cells instead of the expected 80.

The new weapons are also handmade with some parts from the original game’s sprites being used for touch ups: The .45 pistol is now darker, longer, and has red glow sights compared to the original Colt 45 which was taken straight from Realm667; The SAR15 is no longer an assault rifle, but now a .50 caliber machine gun that fires at a much more contained rate; the Dual Laser uses an original sprite and has a secondary fire mode where it fires one shot at a time; and the Gatling Laser and Dual Grenade Launcher have yet to be implemented.

The same applies to monsters as well. All enemy sprites are edits of original monsters or are new entirely. For example, the Earth Soldier is a hybrid sprite of a Zombieman in a Marine’s armor, but with edits added to make the Zombieman’s head a human head instead. Furthermore, some improvisation has been done to make the wad feel more unique. For example with the same Earth Soldier “monster”, the death sprite uses that of Doomguy’s death animation. However, the Zombieman has a different death animation, and no sprites exist where the Zombieman’s head is in the same position as Doomguy’s. As such, the Earth Soldier’s head will explode upon death and leave a headless corpse. By the time more monsters have been added in, this same concept will be applied if need be.

Finally, all DECORATE and ACS scripts for the weapons, enemies, and maps are written by Adam only.

### Issues from original wad

The secondary reason for making a SIC remake was to correct various issues, problems, mistakes, and inconveniences that were present in the original wad. The biggest issue was the fact that, at the time of SIC’s release in May 2019, Adam had barely a year of mapping experience and as such, there were instances where the map quality suffered. Furthermore, halfway through development, Adam switched map formats from the vanilla Doom format to the Hexen format once work on Episode 3 began. This wouldn’t be an issue for advanced sourceports like GZDoom, but for several other ones it certainly would present some issue and could potentially be outright incompatible.

Beyond those were some issues in the maps themselves. There are several instances where textures on certain lower or upper sidedefs (most notably the walls that are hidden by elevators) were missing. There will issues where it could be impossible to complete the map normally, such as in E1M6 where if a monster crosses over the linedef that is supposed to teleport the player to a key, then the player will be stuck and unable to get the key. Another example is in E4M6, where a switch was accidentally tagged to go down without returning back up, thus making access to the yellow key and subsequently the secret exit impossible.

Finally, one last issue was the gameplay itself. Some maps, especially ones in Episode 3 and Episode 4, are very difficult to beat on hardest difficulties, especially if one is pistol starting. Adam did indeed successfully beat all maps on Ultra Violence, but it has to be noted that some of the maps are unfairly difficult either due to very high amounts of monsters/adding more tougher monsters than weaker ones, or because that supplies were too scarce or hard to find and the player would be forced to resort to using weak weapons. This is especially prominent in maps such as E3M1, E3M2, E3M7, E4M4, and E4M6, with Adam’s personal favorite example being the fact that the first three levels of Episode 3 on Ultra Violence are objectively unfair. Another issue, however, was the opposite, in that some maps were too easy. For example, E2M7 can be rather difficult on Ultra Violence, but the following boss level, E2M8, is very easy. This inconsistency can be rather annoying to some and is something that Adam wanted to fix in the remake.

## Story

The story is the same as the original SIC.

*The year is 2134. The countries of the Earth are filled with large mega corporations, including the democracy-fanatic country of Stoce. One company, however, stands out from the rest: The SIC (or Stocean Interstellar Committee if you want spicy specifics). The SIC is devoted to researching the XN-26272 Solar System (our solar system) and the nearby universe. Alongside space exploration, the SIC is a leading weapons manufacturer, for both civilians and the military alike. Some of these weapons are highly confidential and state of the art, including the lusted X-62 "Gatling Laser", alongside highly popular weapons like the M49 Shotgun. But enough of that boring background.*

*You’re a part of the Stocean Space Marines division, controlled by the military and heavily sponsored by the SIC. You’re stationed at the SIC’s Cyla Base, having a good time with your squadmates. One day, however, the lights in the base begin to flicker, and strange noises are heard. Suddenly, screams ring throughout the base, and guns begin to fire. You’re in a back room relaxing when this is happening. After a while, the guns cede down and the screams stop. You grab your pistol and open the door.*

*It’s up to you to find out what happened to the base, get off the base, and get back to Earth.*

## New features

The player character is an unnamed corporal who is stationed with the SSM on the Cyla base. He is NOT the same corporal from the original wad.

### Levels

`Bloodbath`

* E1M1: Reception (SIC Remade)
* E1M2: Computer Hub (SIC Remade)
* E1M3: Power Plant (SIC Remade)
* E1M4: Control Tower (SIC Remade)
* E1M5: Military Unit (SIC Remade)
* E1M6: Cargo Landing(SIC Remade)
* E1M7: Central Pumping(SIC Remade)
* E1M8: Teleportation Hub(SIC Remade)
* E1M9: Quarters(SIC Remade)

`Breakdown`

* E2M1: Lab Sector E
* E2M2: The Slough
* E2M3: Administration
* E2M4: Hallowed Halls
* E2M5: Maintenance Tunnels
* E2M6: Mess Hall
* E2M7: Lab Sector B
* E2M8: Lab X
* E2M9: Lost Dreams

`Hellish Hatred`

* E3M1: Infernal Corridor
* E3M2: The Visage
* E3M3: The HAAK
* E3M4: Leaning Tower of Death
* E3M5: Hill Of Hatred
* E3M6: Merde!
* E3M7: Growth Spurt
* E3M8: Cauldron
* E3M9: Throwback

`Home at Last`

* E4M1: Mors Expectet
* E4M2: Effugium
* E4M3: Turmoil
* E4M4: Odium Perfectum
* E4M5: Visus Labs
* E4M6: Interstate
* E4M7: The City
* E4M8: Sheath
* E4M9: Mortal

`Bonus levels`

* To be revealed!

### Weapons

* LP-9 Pistol
* .45 Pistol
* Pump Action Shotgun
* M49 Shotgun
* M2130 Chaingun
* SIC .50 Machine Gun
* Rocket Launcher
* Grenade Launcher
* Plasma Rifle
* Dual Laser
* BFG9000
* Gatling Laser

### Monsters

* Trooper
* Sergeant
* Commando
* Earth Soldier (friendly)

To be revealed.

## Episode synopsis

SIC Remade contains 4 episodes, with 8 maps and 1 secret map each, just like the original. Each episode contains easier levels at the beginning before ramping up in difficulty in the middle levels. At the final level of each episode, a boss is fought before the episode ends.

### Episode 1 (Bloodbath)

Taking place on Cyla, the player encounters a smaller legion of monsters, mostly former humans and lower-ranking Hell monsters. They are teleported to Titana at the end of the episode.

### Episode 2 (Breakdown)

Taking place on Titana, this part of the game introduces new monsters and challenges. At the end of the episode the player is teleported to Hell.

### Episode 3 (Hellish Hatred)

Taking place in Hell, the player is introduced to the most powerful monsters of Hell. They battle the Cyberdemon at the end and are sent back to Earth at the end of the episode.

### Episode 4 (Home at Last)

Taking place on Earth, this is the hardest level. No new monsters are introduced except for the final boss, the Unholy Sheath.

## Development

Development of SIC Remade.wad began in October of 2020. The first map, a remake of E1M1: Reception, took 6 days to complete. Development went on a hiatus due to school, which ended in June 2021, when work on the remake of E1M2: Computer Hub began. Development is currently underway.

Unlike the original, every map is made with the UDMF format, whereas the original had the first half made in vanilla format and the second half made in Hexen (a very unusual thing in my opinion).