Knee-Deep in Knee-Deep in ZDoom

Knee-Deep in Knee-Deep in ZDoom is a vanilla-compatible episode-length of Knee-Deep in ZDoom released by Sarah Mancuso (esselfortium) in November 2022. Originally conceptualised in 2008 by a small team of mappers, the project was stuck in until early 2020, when it was picked up again by esselfortium, who revised and overhauled the maps, bringing them into their final form, while also rebuilding the DeHackEd patch from the ground up.

As with the original Knee-Deep in ZDoom, the WAD consists of reinterpretations of the original Knee-Deep in the Dead with new textures and music, with the WAD also reusing many of the custom monsters from Knee-Deep in ZDoom.

Story
A tongue-in-cheek story of sorts is provided in the in-game help menu (F1) and accompanying textfile:

''Your name is Doom Guy, an actor. You've been cast in a cable TV reenactment of 2007's "Knee-Deep in ZDoom". You were never much of a history buff, but it'll put food on the table and help cover Daisy's vet bills. Maybe it'll even revive your acting career. You adjust the prop helmet to breathe a little easier, try out a few cheesy poses with your character's handgun, and ready yourself for the first day of filming.''

Levels
Unlinked maps are narrative in nature.
 * MAP01: KDiKDiZD Start by Sarah Mancuso (esselfortium)
 * by esselfortium; based on Knee-Deep in ZDoom (KDiZD) map by Daniel Gimmer (Tormentor667), Michael Niggel (Risen)
 * by Nuxius & esselfortium; based on KDiZD map by Tormentor667, Risen and Nick Baker (NiGHTMARE)
 * by esselfortium, Tun & Tango; based on KDiZD map by Pawel Zarczynski (NMN), Björn Ostmann (Vader), and Jacob Zuchowski (ellmo)
 * by esselfortium; based on KDiZD map by NMN, Risen and NiGHTMARE
 * by esselfortium; based on KDiZD map by Tormentor667, NiGHTMARE, Risen and Burke Hill (Kirby)
 * by esselfortium, Nuxius & Cody Stirm (Butts); based on KDiZD map by Vader and NMN
 * by esselfortium, Nuxius & Mike Brincka (brinks); based on KDiZD map by Risen, Tormentor667, Christoph Oelckers (Graf Zahl) and Vader
 * by esselfortium; based on KDiZD map by Tormentor667 and Vader
 * by esselfortium; based on KDiZD map by Ryan Turner (BioHazard), NMN, Vader, and Tormentor667
 * MAP21: Where Am I? by esselfortium
 * MAP22: The Party by esselfortium
 * MAP23: The Rest Of Your Life by esselfortium

Soundtrack

 * MAP01: "The End of DOOM" by Robert Prince
 * Z1M1: "Hanger Danger" by esselfortium
 * Z1M2: "Nuclear Plant-Based Diet" by James Paddock (Jimmy)
 * Z1M3: "Underground Overload" by Jimmy
 * Z1M4: "Control Alt Delete" by esselfortium
 * Z1M5: "Phoebe's Labrador" by esselfortium
 * Z1M6: "Hunter Gatherer" by Jimmy
 * Z1M7: "Computer Core Workout" by Jimmy
 * Z1M8: "Faux Bows-N-Harmony" by esselfortium
 * Z1M9: "Rainy Moods To Study Demons To" by esselfortium
 * MAP21: no music
 * MAP22: "Red Lobster Music" by esselfortium
 * MAP23: "The End of DOOM" by Robert Prince


 * Title screen: Title music of Doom by Robert Prince
 * Intermission screen: "Intermission from DOOM" by Robert Prince
 * Text screen: "The End of DOOM" by Robert Prince

Custom monsters
Just like Knee-Deep in ZDoom (KDiZD), KDiKDiZD features an extended roster of enemies. About half of the original list of custom monsters are included, albeit most of them in slightly revised form. Aside from that, the wad also includes several new additions to the cast of custom monsters.


 * Rapid fire trooper
 * Same as in KDiZD, this is a zombieman with a rapid-fire gun. They have 30 hit points and replace the Wolfenstein SS.


 * Chaingunner
 * Just like in KDiZD, this is a redress of the chaingunner with no additional changes.


 * Hell knight
 * Same as in KDiZD, Hell knights feature a sepia-filtered look. They also use different sounds for their screams and roars but behave otherwise the same as regular Hell knights. Interestingly, the knights in this WAD do not utilize a separate set of sprites like they normally do, but instead use the same sprite set as the baron of Hell, which is recolored through DeHackEd. This way additional DeHackEd states are freed up for other custom actors.


 * Suicide bomber
 * A new addition to KDiKDiZD over the original, this black-clad zombie seeks out the player and will explode when either shot or making contact with them. They have 60 hit points and replace the dead lost soul (thing number 116).


 * Mauler
 * A blood red variant of the demon with large, black horns that charges into the player just like a lost soul during its attack. It has 200 hit points rather than 150 but is otherwise largely identical to its KDiZD counterpart. However, it will attack more aggressively as it continues to charge as long as the player remains in its line of sight. It replaces the pool of brains (thing number 137).


 * Nightmare demon
 * A new addition to KDiKDiZD over the original, this grey-scale variant of the demon has 200 hit points, moves faster than regular demons, and has a green tongue rather than the usual red one. It can be seen as a revision of the blood demon from KDiZD and replaces the hanging torso, looking down (thing number 131).


 * Shadow
 * An imp-like creature that quickly moves about with a slouched posture, grey skin, and large red eyes. Before attacking, it will halt in its track for a moment, before beginning to continuously hurl small, dark red projectiles at its target. It is mostly identical to its KDiZD counterpart but possesses a slightly faster firing cycle during its attack. It replaces Commander Keen.


 * Dark imp
 * An imp with dark skin and orange eyes, a wide open mouth, and even more spikes covering its body than a regular imp. They closely resemble the third variant of dark imps in the original KDiZD in terms of visuals, but have 160 hit points, more than any of the three variants present in the original, and fire a quick burst of three cacodemon projectiles as its ranged attack. It replaces Romero's head.


 * Soul harvester
 * A grey-skinned, emaciated imp-like creature with 100 hit points, same as in KDiZD. It shoots yellow skull projectiles that have a 75% chance of homing in on the player. It has no melee attack and replaces the revenant.


 * Soul reaper
 * A new addition to KDiKDiZD over the original, this tall, grey-skinned, emaciated monster resembles a fully grown soul harvester and attacks with the same kind of yellow skull projectiles with a 75% chance of homing in on its target. However, unlike the soul harvester, it also has a melee attack and fires a burst of two projectiles, instead of just one, as its ranged attack. It has 400 hit points and replaces the arch-vile flame (thing number 5).


 * Dark caco
 * A new addition to KDiKDiZD over the original, this grey-scale cacodemon has 400 hit points but no melee attack, moves faster than a regular cacodemon, and spits out a continuous string of the same kind of small, dark red projectiles that the Shadow uses, though with a much higher rate of fire. It replaces the arachnotron.


 * Wargrin
 * A new addition to KDiKDiZD over the original, this humanoid mutant crawls along the floor on both hands and legs, and has a flamethrower equipped on its back. It has 250 hit points and fires a burst of three volleys, each consisting of a pair of small fire projectiles, mirroring the firing pattern of the mancubus, which it replaces.


 * Hell warrior
 * An orange-skinned Hell noble with a lion's mane, 600 hit points, and a shield. It flings baron projectiles but with much shorter intervals between shots, and upon triggering its pain state, will raise its shield to defend itself, temporarily becoming invulnerable, although it can still be hurt through blast damage. While the shield is raised, if the target is still in its line of sight, it will fire a burst of two volleys from its shield, each consisting of three projectiles, with the outer two being a wargrin volley and the center one a single dark caco projectile. While it looks and behaves similarly to the Hell warriors from KDiZD, there are many subtle differences between the two in terms of their attacks and animations. It replace the arch-vile.


 * Bruiser
 * A triplet of orange-skinned, fiery Hell nobles with 3000 hit points each, they serve as the final boss of the WAD, as opposed to their implementation in KDiZD, where they represented the penultimate boss encounter (only two instead of three) before the fight against the giant mantis-like Deimos Guardian. Just like in KDiZD, they have three different ranged attacks, however the exact nature and behavior of these attacks differ from their KDiZD counterpart. The first attack is a burst of six volleys of wargrin projectiles. The second is a ground attack that spawns fireballs (modified lost souls) along the floor that home in on and impact with the player. The final attack is triggered either by moving into its melee range or through activating its pain state, whereupon it will spawn three yellow skull projectiles in quick succession, each with a 75% chance of homing in on the player. It replaces the swaying body (thing number 102).

Custom weapons
Knee-Deep in Knee-Deep in ZDoom includes two main weapon modifications: a custom super shotgun replacing the standard SSG and the flare rifle replacing the plasma gun. Additionally, the BFG9000 is removed from the game, with the corresponding weapon slot instead calling the regular pistol, which as a result has two weapon slots associated with it.
 * The super shotgun mirrors the custom SSG from the original KDiZD: it reuses the same sprites and sounds, though the latter at a somewhat lower quality due to vanilla format restrictions, and has a marginally faster rate of fire than the regular DOOM II SSG.
 * The flare rifle, while it does resemble the rifle replacing the BFG in KDiZD, is actually based on the flare gun from Mapgame by Fletcher` from 2009, reusing the sprites of both the weapon and its projectile. It fires plasma "bullets", which have been modified to have their damage almost tripled compared to the normal plasma projectiles, but the rate of fire is much lower, shooting a projectile every 9 tics rather than the standard plasma gun's 3 tics.
 * The pistol has its firing rate slightly increased (-1 tic) to match that of KDiZD's pistol.