Austrian Avian Association

From DoomWiki.org

Austrian Avian Association
Title screen
Author MundyC
Port Boom-compatible
IWAD Doom II
Year 2023
Link Doomworld/idgames
Cacoward-2018.png This mod received one of the 2023 Cacowards on Doomworld!

Austrian Avian Association is a Boom-compatible, 15-level megawad and total conversion for Doom II, plus three added deathmatch maps. It was created by MundyC and first released on May 21, 2023, originally featuring nine levels, with version 1.3, released on March 7, 2024, adding an expansion named "Post Mortem", which included a further six levels, as well as three deathmatch-exclusive maps. The final version of the WAD, version 1.3.1, was uploaded to the idgames archive on April 15, 2024. On January 31, 2025, MundyC added a hotfix to the Doomworld release thread that fixes a few minor bugs in the final release version.

The PWAD utilizes the OTEX texture pack and makes extensive use of DeHackEd for its custom monsters and weapons. The setting is inspired by Alpine folklore, taking place inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the year 1898, with the player assuming the role of a Schnabelperchten, a type of humanoid bird.

The original set of nine maps of Austrian Avian Association was named as one of the winners at the 2023 Cacowards.

Story[edit]

"December 11th, 1898.

Something nasty is going down in Austria-Hungary... and no, it doesn't involve Franz Ferdinand in any way.

In the western part of the country, tucked away in the middle of the Alps, are a group of bundled-up birds known as the Schnabelperchten. They estivate throughout the warmer months in their village of Perchtam der Rauris, only waking once fall breaks back to winter. At January's start, the Perchts visit the local townsfolk and either give them gifts if they've been hardworking and kept things clean, or disembowel and stuff them with straw if they've slacked off big time.

It's a tough, yet fair system that's been a unbreakable tradition for hundreds of years... until now.

You are Maria Katharina "Trina" Berger, the 55-year-old doctor and herbalist of the Perchts. Making sure that your fellow fowls are healthy and stable before and shortly during their estivation, you always end up being the last to nestle up and start slumbering. But you are also the last to awaken, and it might have saved your bacon.

After coming out of your estivation, you get dressed, grab your tools, and head out to take count of your fellow flock. However, as you descend down the slopes, you notice signs of a struggle and subsequent battle in the local area. The sight of ransacked houses and dead beings confirm your worst fears - something attacked your village while you were still sleeping! While assessing the damage, you find Auguste - a Percht guard - slumped on a bedroom wall with multiple injuries.

She is fortunately still alive, and quite shocked that you're here. You treat the wounds and, while doing so, learn what happened while you were slumbering. Everything was going well until the 28th of November, when a strange beam of "dark light" shout out from the peak of Grossglockner (the area's second-tallest mountain). Soon after this incident, a legion of creatures - "bone hounds", tatzelwurms, and harpies - descended from the mountain. They proceeded to capture the local humans and kobolds, turning them into their expendable grunts.

When word got out, the village's matriarch felt a sense of overwhelming danger and quickly organized a mass evacuation of the local area. A gang of guards were sent to assist and protect, though most of them would go missing one way or another. The Perchts themselves had mostly fled when their village was attacked, so casualties on their end was thankfully low. And, in the midst of all this chaos, a rumor spread that you had died in your sleep. That's why nobody woke you up!

Angered, you tell Auguste that you'll personally deal with the bastards who threw this land into chaos, and walk away. She worriedly advises against it - that you should join the military gathering up troops in the east! But you've already made up your mind. At home, you grab a map of the local area, your trusty basket, some rations, and a handful of throwing axes.

It's time for some aggressive alpinism."

Content[edit]

Custom content[edit]

Austrian Avian Association replaces every sprite, sound, and graphic in the game, and makes use of a DeHackEd patch to create custom monsters and weapons. A modified PLAYPAL and COLORMAP are included, increasing the dynamic range of saturated reds, and desaturating blues and greens, while also making several color ranges fall off less quickly with increased distance or decreased brightness, most notably the desaturated reds. Also included are a custom ENDOOM and M_PAUSE lump, and custom intermission scripts for GZDoom.

Monsters[edit]

Town watch
An axe-throwing knight with 45 HP that replaces the zombieman, with each axe doing 10–80 damage, while up close they switch to scratching with their axe, dealing 3–24 damage. They drops two axes upon death.
Hunter
A hooded zombie with 30 HP that replaces the imp and attacks the player with a double hitscan attack, dealing 6–30 damage. Their wake-up sound is Austrian dialect for "I can see you".
Fallen priest
A hooded priest with 55 HP that replaces the shotgunner and wields two double-barreled shotguns although it uses only a regular shotgunner attack.
Der Ritter
A type of blackened revenant with 300 HP that is translucent and uses the pain elemental's attack at a distance, as well as triggering the A_PainDie code pointer during its death sequence. Its name is German for "the knight".
Das Kinder
A modified lost soul with 45 HP that is translucent and attacks more aggressively than the regular lost soul. Its name is grammatically incorrect German for "the child", using the plural form of the noun in combination with the singular article.
Harpy
A flying hybrid of a woman and bird with 150 HP that replaces the cacodemon. Its screech spawns a psionic projectile that deals 6–48 damage.
Kobold
A type of goblin with 70 HP that attacks by firing a continuous string of throwing axes at its target each dealing 10–80 damage, and switching to the same type of scratch attack up close as the town watch. It drops two axes after death.
Rogue Krampusling
A black, horned, devil-like creature with a stick in one hand that has 200 HP and replaces the demon. It is quick on its feet and uses the A_BruisAttack code pointer, hurling small fireball at a distance that do 8–64 damage and switching to a melee attack up close for 10–80 damage.
Knochenhund minor
A massive skeletal dog creature with 300 HP that replaces the spectre and attacks with a bite that does 8–80 damage—twice the damage of demon/spectre bite. Its name is German for "bone dog".
Shadow'd Schnabel
A possessed Schnabelperchten with 90 HP that replaces the chaingunner and attacks by repeatedly shooting its rifle at its target. The second half of its names is German for "beak".
Tatzelwurm
A flying snake-like creature with 400 that replaces the pain elemental and shoots a burst of two revenant missiles at its target, each one doing 5–40 damage—half the damage of the regular Revenant missile.
Plated anima
A animated gestalt of ground meat assembled from different local species stuffed into a suit of plate armor and wielding a sword. It has 600 HP and uses the same attack as the Krampusling. It replaces the Hell knight.
Knochenhund major
A fully grown, faster version of the Knochenhund with 700 HP that replaces the mancubus and fires two volleys of mancubus fireballs at a distance, plus the same bite attack up close as the Knochenhund minor.
Troglobite Krampus
A type of cyberdemon with 1250 HP but without any of the cybernetic enhancements. It replaces the arch-vile and instead of firing rockets will resurrect corpses and use a slightly sped-up version of arch-vile's attack at a distance, while switching to a melee attack up close.
Acrochordon
A fleshy pod with 120 HP that does not attack but upon death summons a spawn cube in the form of a ghost that flies to a predetermined location and spawns a random enemy. It replaces Commander Keen.
Maldurion Doppelsöldner
A crab-like creature with 700 HP that replaces the baron of Hell and holds a rifle in one of its smaller arms, which it fires at a moderate rate of fire. Up close it uses one of its scissors to snap its target, dealing 8–80 damage. It take only be encountered if it is spawned by a ghost summoned of an acrochordon or the final boss. The second part of its name is German for "double mercenary".
Knochenhund Kinder
A small, flying variant of the Knochenhund with 120 HP that replaces the arachnotron and shoots a rapid stream of projectiles that each do 4–32 damage, and bites in quick succession up close. Its name is German for "bone dog children".
Knochenhundkaiserin
A towering creature of feather and bone with 9500 HP that serves as the final boss of "Frozen Hell". For its ranged attack it leaps into the air and fires three mancubus volleys followed by a revenant missile. At melee range it stabs its target with the exposed bone of its severed left arm, doing 10–100 damage. Furthermore, if its pain state is triggered, it fires a single mancubus volley and summons a ghost that spawns a random enemy. Its name is German for "bone dog empress".
Lindworm
A type of dragon that emerges from the water and attacks the player by firing a Krampusling fireball, a revenant missile, a mancubus volley, and a harpy energy ball in quick succession, for a total of 26–208 damage, while delivering a single punch up close, dealing 18–180 damage. It posseses 666666 HP, rendering it virtually invincible and forcing the player to run away from it to survive. However, triggering its pain state (<1% chance) will make it fall over and seemingly die, although after just three seconds, it will rise again from the water. It replaces the spider mastermind and does not count toward the kill percentage.

Weapons[edit]

Broom
Replaces the fist and does twice as much damage; however, powered up with a berserk it will only do the normal 20–200 damage, as one of its two attack frames uses the A_Saw code pointer, which is not affected by the damage multiplier the berserk activates.
Giant scissors
A pair of large rusted scissors that replace the chainsaw and deal twice as much damage as the broom (8–80), but unlike the normal chainsaw, they can be powered up by the berserk for a 10x damage increase.
Throwing axe
A bloody axe that is thrown at enemies, dealing 10–80 damage. It replaces the pistol though the in-flight axes themselves replaces the rocket.
Winchester Model 1887
A lever-action rifle that replaces the shotgun, dealing the same amount of damage but at a slightly increased rate of fire.
Elephant gun
A massive double-barreled shotgun that replaces the super shotgun and deals double the damage, but also consume double the ammo.
Automatic Mosin-Nagant
A functionally identical reskin of the chaingun.
Flamethrower
A flamethrower that replaces the rocket launcher and shoots a large fireball that deals 18–144 damage and explodes on impact, for a total of up to 272 damage.
Maxim gun
A type of machine gun that replaces the plasma gun and functions like a fully automatic shotgun, firing two shotgun blasts per shot at a high rate of fire. It shares its ammo with the Mosin-Nagant.
Frau Perchta's Gauntlet
Magical gauntlet that replaces the BFG9000 and share its ammo with the flamethrower. Each shot consumes 16 napalm and releases a skull-shaped projectile which upon impact summons twice as many tracers as the regular BFG (by calling the A_BFGSpray code pointer twice in a row).

Items[edit]

While all items have been renamed and given new sprites, they behave exactly like their vanilla counterparts, apart from the asbestos suit (radiation suit) using a blue tint instead of the standard green, and the horn of Krampus (invulnerability) having a sepia effect rather than its normal inverse monochrome.

MIDI soundtrack[edit]

The download comes with an optional MIDI soundtrack in a separate WAD file.




  • Title screen: "Sail On, Sailor" by The Beach Boys
  • Intermission screen: "Winds of Fjords" by minomus
  • Text screen: "MM_05" by Rich Nagel (Weeds), from Daedalus: Alien Defense

Built-in demos[edit]

This WAD features three built-in demos. All require Doom II with a Boom-compatible v2.14 source port to view them. The demo levels are:

Demo Level Skill Tics Length
DEMO1 MAP01: Rauris Ranch 4 1277 0:36.49
DEMO2 MAP03: Cavern Bypass 4 1541 0:44.03
DEMO3 MAP13: Vacation in the Dinarics 4 1371 0:39.17

External links[edit]