32in24-14: How the Hamburglar Stole Christmas!

https://www.mediafire.com/?r6mhnmdj4sox6jx

version fixed by dew's feedback plus more detailing, tell me if you found anything wrong.

Sorry about the slow pace, folks. This is really much more demanding than usual and I slacked through some of the Christmas days. I'm trying to not halfass it, so feedback from me trickles in somewhat slowly. Don't worry though, I'll be sure to write up on everyone, even joe!


temp26: Christmas Eve in the Pie in the Sky Diner by lupinx-Kassman

A not-FDA recorded on the testing2 version. prboom crashed during my FDA (in which I died most liberally) and I went into this with a semi-solid plan already. The cramped nature of the map combined with pillar climbing makes movement very awkward and combined with very dense projectile/hitscan rain everywhere, this is pretty goddamn tough. I'd consider handing out a GA (BA for lower skills) immediatelly with no hoops to jump through, the start is that tough. Ammo-wise I found the map properly adjusted, there's actually enough health too, although I didn't get to fight the cyb. I can't even fathom how to release him, is he just a sound decoration? (That would be silly.) Oh, I'd say put a bullet box to the RL area... it would help dealing with some of the most imminent threat with a bit more grace.

Everything is about eating damage because being too focused on not falling into the nukage. Or getting out of the nukage, haha. It's kinda nt20ish/xaserish in this regard and a bit silly, but it's not unbearable. There are a few annoying issues... bars sector 262 and 263 cannot be opened? That's... sub-optimal. Doing the entire jumping sequence after the first time is nothing but annoying, so I think the switch linedef 2202 should actually open them. The risk of falling is real and having to run around the entire map again and again... eh. I bet you'll find it tedious if you watch the demo, haha. The rim of the map allows some weird behaviour, also seen in the demo... like walking on the protruding bit or jumping on the "non-connected" bit between the skyfloors where some graphical glitches on the edge of the map can be seen.

Also is there a reason for the easternmost area? It looks weird so empty. Finally, there's a small bit of nukage that can trap you with no means of escaping. It's between the platforms leading to the SSG and the ones going to exit. I think one of the platforms should be a lift, it would be most convenient. A teleporter in that hole would only get in the way.

So yeah, this map really makes you mind your every step. I think it can work, but at the moment it's perhaps a bit on the cruel side and there are some things that don't seem to work, like if the editor ate some of your tags?


temp27: Your Subscription to Egyptian Addiction, CE by Tib

A FDA recorded on the testing2 version. This map is exactly in the style of Tib's other map, but I can't say it's derivative. It just seems to be his style, sort of like _bruce_'s d2ino maps seem different, but actually the same. It's probably the slight organic feel to all the layouting, there's barely any orthogonality while texturing suggests something else (techbases for bruce, pyramids for Tib).

So it's not the design that is the problem here, although I will probably confuse the two maps till the end of my days. It's the non-event gameplay. I stroll through it casually with barely giving a crap about danger and I still have an easy time. It's okay to have easy opener maps, but this doesn't feel like map01 entirely while it plays like one.

I won't give you direct walkthrough what to put where, there's not enough time for that. However I think this direction could work: put in more hitscanners and make the map a chaingun-oriented affair (but not entirely, so there shouldn't be too much bullet ammo - sg should still be used a lot). Then go heavy with the map finale and provide a rocket launcher for it. That should be interesting in the corridors. Like, HKs port on the bridge leading to the red key while a PE appears on the side, revenants guard the loopback corridor after RK and there's a revenant and an archvile in the exit room. Something like that... uncomfortable but manageable with CG, easy with RL if you have the space. Go tougher.



temp28: Buntaluffigus Mountain and Generic Caps (also, Baby Jesus) by TheMionicDonut

A FDA recorded on a version TMD provided.

Well, this was a nostalgia blast. I had a fucking great time with this, but I have to say my critical senses were hijacked by all the homage-pasting that was guided straight at the home flag. It's a pretty tough map, but what do you expect from a goddamn masterbowl collage, bitch. I think it's populated just right... except maybe the invasion after grabbing the BK, which felt rather light. I expected more revs from more sides and having to spam rockets more. Mooooreeeee. When the map hit Mt. Zero, I started laughing maniacally. Good job, good job.

Small nitpicks: the secret is a bit annoying because of having to teleport back and forth. The switch cannot be pressed while standing on the teleporter because of the teleporter line eating the actions. Hmm, does the backside need the teleporter line? I'd say no. Also the door to Mt. Zero should be made ... more recognizable. I ran around the map like twice because I had no idea I should press the wall. Maybe instead of an active wall... a switch on the side?

I didn't run into any health or ammo issues, I think there's actually a liberal surplus. It's alright, the map shouldn't be about tight resources anyways (not sure about MP). The starter vile is cheeky but fun. Also... uh, I'll discuss that privately. :D

FuzzballFox said:

Just had a play of your map Obsidian, and it was fun! Couple of niggles, one being the sudden teleporting manc catching me off guard and insta-killing my face XD
Not sure if I was derping but I was running very low on shotty ammo and had to resort to killing the rev with my pistol, it was camping the tele and I had no way of getting around to killing it..
Love the choice of midi too! Love Crash 2 music but god those off-notes are killing my ears! D; Not your fault though :3

Yay, feedback! Looks like I need to have a bit more shotty ammo after the Manc, I'll get onto that. Also if you can fid a better version of the music I'd be more than happy to use it. Thanks for the feedback. :)

Obsidian said:

Also if you can fid a better version of the music I'd be more than happy to use it. Thanks for the feedback. :)

You're welcome C: I do use Skype if you ever wanna chat about it "live" via IM at all~
And I'll do my best to find something good!

Improved some fights based on Dew's feedback (thanks Dew! <3):
http://www.mediafire.com/download/1f56t45scbk3red/32in24_14_stew_v3.wad

edit: replaced link
Also please make sure it's 'one flew over' and not 'one flew overy' in the final wad, thanks :P

Detailed my map: http://essel.spork-chan.net/wasd/lawnwake.wad

edit: Reuploaded again to fix a bug with an archvile that wouldn't teleport in. Whoops.

Obsidian said:

STUFF AGAIN

http://www.mediafire.com/download/ghk77u5brcz9b5u/CB2_SNO.mid
Ripped from the game itself, pissed about with it for a couple of hours...found out something I didn't know how to fix on FL Studio and improved it! Hope it's good!

temp29: Air Jordan by Esselfortium

Three demos recorded on a version included, because essel managed to delete it within the 30 minutes he posted it. There's a failed FDA in which I quit because I had to drown my sorrow in alcohol and heartfelt facepalm, a SDA in which I die in a way that pissed me off, so I reloaded from that point. 730 is the second count you can use to skip to the restart point in the finished run.

This map is ridiculous considering it's an essel map. It's fucking brutal. essel says he channeled Bingo Pool of Blood and yeah, I can see it. Especially the way projectiles are flying everywhere. Except there was always room to piss off to in Bingo, unless you fucked up or made a wrong choice. Here you get monster dick pretty liberally even if you do "well". No you didn't, RNG thinks you deserve to eat manco balls and continue with 20% health for the next two minutes until you die anyways. It's amazing that this map is actually from essel, the king of easyish maps just three years ago.

So yeah, I think there should be at least slight balancing moves, heh. The start provides a mega and some serious crossfire including viles, which is all fine - the player can decide the amount of risk after grabbing the mega and the ssg. However he's most likely to be somewhat drained when he reaches the stairs down to the cavern, so I'd provide a healing point there. The shotgunner ambush alcove could use a largeish patch of health potions, maybe? Or two medkits if you don't want to boost players who are still over 100. The player shouldn't descend low on health though, because that place is dick.

The ambushes will probably chip away some health off the player, but they're mostly manageable. But then comes the HK sandwich trap in a hallway with no room to evade and that one is really cruel. It's down to luck and preknowledge to escape it without a few HK hits. If you do want to keep the trap, provide some healing. If you don't want to pamper the player with too much health, either provide a smallish alcove to duck into, or change at least one side of the trap to a monster that goes down faster with RL+SSG+CG.

I do believe my solution of the BK area is somehow extremely retarded, but I couldn't help myself from repeating it... and I survived it only with insane luck, heh. Right now I can see a few strats how to destroy the entire wave while staying on top, but I chose the hard way, oh well. It's a menacing fight, but don't change it. The blue door fight can be overwhelming if one comes with wrongly depleted stack and if the viles decide to port in a weird pattern or with unfavourable timing. Since retreating is the worst kind of choice here (as the revs will surely go and res a lot of monsters), would it be possible to port a rocket box and a few shells in front of the door after the player obtains the BK? Then it'd be fair game if the player still chickens out. The upper area seems okay.

Surprisingly brutal map, heh.


temp30: Hey Guys ROmero Actually Showed Up This Time by Marcaek

A FDA recorded on the testing2 version. It's unfinishied kinda like the map is unfinished. I ran out of all ammo and then a big revenant pack appeared and I didn't manage to outrun it. The very fact that I had to slalom through many revenants in those narrow hallways with no ammo says the map is unfinished, heh.

I think walking you through everything would hardly make sense, cause there is too much to do placement and detailing wise anyways. I can only say that I get a strong Abandoned Mines vibe from what you already have, so I'd recommend you to rip the hell out of that map in various inconspicous ways. And make sure there's actually enough ammo to kill the baddies. The Abandoned Mines actually have a pretty awesome gameplay progression after a tough start, so I think it can be a great source of inspiration.


temp31: All I Want For Christmas is a Masterbowl by AlexMax

A FDA recorded on the testing2 version. Damn, this map is actually harder than Donut's CTF collage! I think you went a little overboard with the hitpoints thrown at the player, considering that you only provide hitscan weaponry. I think you should do something radical, like putting a RL on the pillar in 31 where you currently have the chaingunner and then the revenant. Then the RL would descend (all the way to the ground level) as the player grabs the BK or something. Because the RL is sorely needed with all the hit points you placed everywhere. It won't decrease the danger on 31, you've mined that place really well, but it should speed up the action. That becomes even more of an issue on 12 where you provide just a few rockets and place A TON OF BARONS. Watch the demo and tell me how exciting it was to kill them all off with the SSG, heh. And jumping back to 31 - I was actually running out of all ammo there and wasting any of the shells could mean running out of everything entirely. Rockets could provide a reasonable way of clearing out packs of monsters better, but again, especially the lost souls you've put everywhere ensure it's going to be a pretty dangerous strategy.

There's also an issue with all the pigs you put on the flag floor of 31. They can't possibly walk down the stairs, so if I duck out, they'll just create a meatwall on top of the stairs, but they won't present any direct danger. I think it would be unwise to change geometry of Holy Mt. Zero or add some hackish teleporters to move the stuck pigs, so instead I'd recommend spreading the pigs around the entire map instead. Put some as far as the hut and others to the blue bars. Create room upstairs, but make the pigs be everywhere and trickle in steadily.

And on 12, consider changing mancos with HKs. The HKs on the flagstand don't really create any threat, they barely even attack. If you can put two mancos there (three top?), they'll probably be more of a danger with their spread attack while HKs starting on the stairs of the ground area will move around much faster.

Tl;dr if the BK ambush is less overwhelming and the second area less annoying with boring SSG grind, it's going to be pretty fun.


temp32: Walken in a Winter Wonderland by Shadow Hog

A FDA recorded on version from this post.

Wellll... the map starts a bit weird, because it presents a faint idea it might be possile to kill off all the monsters with just SG/CG found in that area. I'd say change the few shotgunners that are really annoying (no armor sucks with them around) to even more imps. Clearly translate the message that the player should just piss off and slalom through all the monsters without fighting them for real... for now. The very idea of fighting all that imp mass with just SG/CG is nnnnot an appealing prospect, so bury it. :P

The underground SSG arena isn't very potent, I'd say. Perhaps change some of the imps to revs so player has to move forward still? He'd be foolish to try to snipe them upstairs, so you can have a theme going. On the other hand, the two cacos behind the elevator need to be more treatening. The "third" one marked just easy... eh, just mark one of the other two as easy too? The central one should be a PE, that would truly push the player back a little. Right now a pair of cacos is a very meh experience. I really do like the spider idea upstairs though and I think if revs accompany HKs around the bend, that will be interesting too.

The maze is lacklustre, to be honest. Fighting HKs for ... 8 shells or 2 health potions? How motivating. You had a pretty good idea, however, with the lost souls. I'd probably trim the hedge a little so the skulls travel in a more observable height... and I'd add more of them. They should be the main threat to the player throughout the maze - so I'd say ditch the Hks for just groups of imps, pairs of chainers, a single revenant... more dynamic, possibly more damaging, but easier to clear out enemies. While the lost souls hover above menacingly. Might need making some of those health potions into stimpaks, but it should be worth it.

Now the circular arena. Again, the viles are entirely non-threatening. Basically... they need to be able to roam, to reach the player's ring. The pigs too, so that inner ring should start moving as soon as it's opened. There are enough goodies to support such a more exciting fight. Sniping the viles is certainly not much fun. Then give the player a buncha rockets so he can go exact terrible revenge on all those imps he passed earlier. The final room doesn't work, because the spiders inside keep the player outside, but they can't effectively chase him out due to their fatness. And all the other danger inside the exit room gets diluted because of it. You're probably better off with scripting the room for more smaller fights: start with the spiders inside and nothing else. As the player enters the room, the mancos appear on the platforms. Then as the player presses the first switch, TWO PEs appear near the exit! As he presses the final switch... uh. I dunno, either nothing or something. Up to you, heh.


Okay, I gotta take a break for, like, sleep. I promise I'll go through the rest ASAP tomorrow. Really sorry for the slow pace. :(

One more update to BBB, with a smidgeon more ammo and a revamped MIDI courtesy of FuzzBallFox.

Hope you don't mind if I respond a bit:

dew said:

temp32: Walken in a Winter Wonderland by Shadow Hog[/b]

A FDA recorded on version from this post.

Wellll... the map starts a bit weird, because it presents a faint idea it might be possile to kill off all the monsters with just SG/CG found in that area. I'd say change the few shotgunners that are really annoying (no armor sucks with them around) to even more imps. Clearly translate the message that the player should just piss off and slalom through all the monsters without fighting them for real... for now. The very idea of fighting all that imp mass with just SG/CG is nnnnot an appealing prospect, so bury it. :P

Sure. Mostly added the extra shotgunners so MP peeps could get shotguns once the single solitary shotgunner that was there in the first build was downed, but I suppose just placing a Multiplayer-flagged shotgun there would suffice?

dew said:
The underground SSG arena isn't very potent, I'd say. Perhaps change some of the imps to revs so player has to move forward still? He'd be foolish to try to snipe them upstairs, so you can have a theme going.

Ooh, I like that. Doing that for sure.

dew said:
On the other hand, the two cacos behind the elevator need to be more treatening. The "third" one marked just easy... eh, just mark one of the other two as easy too? The central one should be a PE, that would truly push the player back a little. Right now a pair of cacos is a very meh experience.

Well, it's actually one caco on Easy and two on Medium/Hard, but I do like the idea of compounding it with a PE... Sure, let's do that. Easy can be the two Cacos instead.

dew said:
The maze is lacklustre, to be honest. Fighting HKs for ... 8 shells or 2 health potions? How motivating. You had a pretty good idea, however, with the lost souls. I'd probably trim the hedge a little so the skulls travel in a more observable height... and I'd add more of them. They should be the main threat to the player throughout the maze - so I'd say ditch the Hks for just groups of imps, pairs of chainers, a single revenant... more dynamic, possibly more damaging, but easier to clear out enemies. While the lost souls hover above menacingly. Might need making some of those health potions into stimpaks, but it should be worth it.

Well, I can change the monsters, sure, but the health potions are actually to help keep track of the secret in that room (if you visit all the dead-ends in the maze, the dead-end with the armor bonuses has an area with a backpack and some ammo open up - although I'm wondering if that's really the best reward for that area, or for such an obtuse puzzle). Rest of the advice seems sound.

dew said:
Now the circular arena. Again, the viles are entirely non-threatening. Basically... they need to be able to roam, to reach the player's ring. The pigs too, so that inner ring should start moving as soon as it's opened. There are enough goodies to support such a more exciting fight. Sniping the viles is certainly not much fun. Then give the player a buncha rockets so he can go exact terrible revenge on all those imps he passed earlier.

Not really sure what to do there. Make the archviles teleport to the outer ring from the inner? I'm worried the player could just charge past them into the teleporter in the center as a result, though. I do think I want to alter the geometry of the inner area, at least, since while it being too low is acceptable (means you need to time things right lest you get stuck in a bad position), it being too high such that you can't even get on is annoying, and the enemies like getting stuck on the outer rim when that happens as a result...

dew said:
The final room doesn't work, because the spiders inside keep the player outside, but they can't effectively chase him out due to their fatness. And all the other danger inside the exit room gets diluted because of it. You're probably better off with scripting the room for more smaller fights: start with the spiders inside and nothing else. As the player enters the room, the mancos appear on the platforms. Then as the player presses the first switch, TWO PEs appear near the exit! As he presses the final switch... uh. I dunno, either nothing or something. Up to you, heh.

I don't think tying them to the switches themselves is gonna work, since the gimmick there is you have to have enough time/room to hit both (in any order) to exit, although I could add some one-time walk-over linedefs to summon monsters into the area, I guess? Hrmm. That's another toughie... I'll give it some thought.

Thanks for the feedback, as usual. Always helps to have a second opinion.

updates to reindeer processor and cold coffee because I forgot D:

hot damn dew these maps take long enough to play, I can't imagine how long this is taking you to complete (almost?) every map and write up feedback too. huge thanks for that. also thanks for the feedback on my maps, I haven't touched em since their original upload so I'll have a look at the stuff you mentioned, thank you :D

What do you think of the midi? Did I do okay?

Thanks for the review. I'll do some mods to it tomorrow, but I wanted to address one or two things. Personally, I'm not sure I like how somebody can lame it out from the entrance hallway in MAP31 - somebody suggested I make the entrance hallway a dropoff instead of just the player start, but I need to make sure the map is still possible after that...

That becomes even more of an issue on 12 where you provide just a few rockets and place A TON OF BARONS. Watch the demo and tell me how exciting it was to kill them all off with the SSG, heh.

Yeah, the last 'ambush' was hastily thrown together because I was running out of time. There's another problem with it - if you're not going for 100% completion, you can simply pick a hallway and kill half of them. Yawn. I have a few ideas of how I want to fix this.

And jumping back to 31 - I was actually running out of all ammo there and wasting any of the shells could mean running out of everything entirely.

Being ammo-screwed was actually intended - is it considered bad form for SP maps to be that short on ammo? Although perhaps I should give the player a backpack from the start, having those tantalizing shotgun shell packs in plain sight, only to discovered you've screwed yourself on ammo later on is perhaps too mean of a trick.

There's also an issue with all the pigs you put on the flag floor of 31. They can't possibly walk down the stairs, so if I duck out, they'll just create a meatwall on top of the stairs, but they won't present any direct danger.

This was intentional - the Spectre meatwall was to prevent somebody from speeding through the map without dealing with some of the other monsters first. This was also the intention of the pack of hell knights on 12 - I'm not sure that Mancubi would move fast enough to prevent someone from threading through a gap in the monsters, they can't scratch speedrunners, and they're are much more likely to hit other monsters with their fireballs and provoke infighting - not that I can prevent infighting, but it'd be nice if infighting wasn't just placed on a silver platter.

Thanks again! This was my first ever attempt at a single player map, glad to see I didn't completely cock it up.

polishing touches, looks like this is probably my final update unless it isn't

http://shanghai.the-powerhouse.net/32in24-14_Wartorn7.zip

Version 2 of Krampus Academy, based on dew's suggestions (thanks man): https://www.mediafire.com/?t9i62kecs94ozt9
I didn't had time to playtest this version, so you may run into ammo/health balance, but hopefully I added enough to cover the new monsters.

temp33: Cold Coffee by Jimmy

A FDA recorded on the version from this post. Sweet easyish shortish map that can actually wear you down if you get too careless too many times. Also interesting pseudo-nonlinearity. Everything is open, there's even an optional RL cavern, but the key sequence is locked *pada psh*.

Anyways, small grievances: the exit fight is a bit of a dickpunch. Am I supposed to back out of the room? I stayed in because the door was already closing, which spelled D-E-A-T-H. There's very little chance of surviving that, heh. Kind of a non sequitur... if the plan is to fight it on the spot, I suggest adding a soulsphere around the fake exit's "pillar". Also the manco down at the yellow bars often sees you too early, then hugs the wall and blocks you from jumping down (and when you manage to jump down, he shoots you mid-flight). Could he face the wall or the pig pen instead of the entrances?

Also I've included two nomo speedruns. Surprisingly they're just few tics apart despite using entirely different routes abusing a different speed trick, but I like them both and I can't tell which one would actually be faster with monsters, hehe. The sr50 jump looks so good. Oh, speaking of speedruns, there's another issue, it's my pet peeve. Could your bars be activable on the inner sides as well? Those make up to 87.5% of my initial bar presses and I'm always annoyed when only the front side is activable.


temp34: Plumbing Work on Christmas Eve by nub_hat

A short failed FDA recorded on the testing2 version. Well, this is a thing. I switched off the light and eventually got trapped by a hellknight while switching between SSG and fist. 2x iddt revealed dreadful tedium and grind, so I left. I saw a ton of HOMs, because some walls have a texture on upper front sidedef instead of the middle one. It seems silly that there's no way to put the light on again, I'd expect half the switches to do that. The sewer section has most of the toilets empty? I dunno, this is like some sort of weird social commentary on the dreary nature of our menial jobs or something. Is playing this fun for you? I mean okay, the nazis gave me a chuckle, but it gets old pretty soon. Well, you probably aimed for the end of the mapset with this anyways. Needs coop starts.


temp35: Christmas Dinner Pizza by nub_hat

A FDA recorded on the testing2 version. Well, let's consider the first few areas a homage to simpler times. Still, unpeg your doors. Also give a melee weapon, don't care which. The 32in24map01 part was rather tedious too, so a Chaingun would also be cool.

Then the ctf area... well, a monster spitter. And just one cube target. It had to happen and it happened even in my FDA - monsters got stuck inside each other, because the map's not map30. It has to be either placed there, or more targets need to be added. There will still be the risk of a random passerby monster getting stuck though. The dynamic of that place is not too good. It's a goddamn icon of sin and monsters are appearing fast while you also placed a TON of original residents... and you expect me to clear it out with mostly just SSG? How do I know which monsters are which? I suggest placing much more rocket ammo for the first base (the two cliffs with revenants are useless at the moment, but if there was a stockpile of rocket boxes on them, it would be worth the risk). And ffs make the second base a BFG blastfest or people will just have to kill off Romero and ignore everything else. Give cells. Also move the outside cacos closer so they can actually reach the playable area and aren't just fluttering around the windows. That also makes them almost impossible to kill out. Needs coop starts.


temp36: Christmas The Flag by nub_hat

A FDA recorded on the testing2 version. I won't lie, this was pretty damn tedious and boring, the other CTF collages were much better. You obviously need to fix the technical shortcomings... unpeg your doors again. And remove the thirty billion HOMs everywhere. Also you based the gameplay on SSG with some occasional CG shot, but it feels like a chore to remove the caco/rev/chainer packs with them. It gets worse over time, because the lack of health resources slowly drains you to become threatened by every rev or chainer you meet - and there's a lot of those. So it's a lot of peeking around corners, ugh. The mandatory lava run in the map22 segment must be dealt with. Radsuit or death. You can get away with giving the player an armor and put a lot of medkits to the lava segment if you want to see some lava action. I had to leave some revs behind, because they didn't follow me out of there and I had no health left.

The final segment is completely impossible to actually clear out, obviously. Cybs everywhere and it's just a silly suicidal run between them, hoping they'll let you slip by. I don't like that. Basically, you should put more monsters in all the segments, hand out heavier weapons and let players spam through. The final segment should be full of BFG action so even the cybs can be killed off. This feels half-assed, tbh. At least monsters don't seem to get stuck. Needs coop starts too.


temp37: A Festivus for the Rest of Us by Xaser

A FDA recorded on the testing2 version. Well, the map looks really lovely, that's obvious. The inverted skyfloor thingy is gorgeous and stunning. However the map plays badly right now though. I don't mind slow, resource-challenged adventures, but right now this map takes it to an extreme. I was afraid to take another step, because I could be falling off somewhere with no idea if there's going to be way back, or just landing between pigs and revs with nothing but a few rockets. After the skyfloor massacre, I had no clue such a dry segment is coming - I mean the dam and the eastern cavern. Sniping off ledge imps and revenants wouldn't be crazy cool action even if I didn't have to mind every shot. I dunno, if you want ledge imps, go wild and put big packs there, but also give players rockets to clear them out en masse. That's always fun!

Both slaughter segments (invertfloor and exit battle) are cool fights, so there's a solid fun core to the map. The pig field is insane. I went the extra mile and punched them all by syphoning them back into the cave entrance. Horrible, horrible stuff even ToD would find repetitive, haha. Punching is good, but I'd probably go with rocketing the piglets. There's just too many of them for anything else (if you don't want to hand out BFG that early - probably don't). You made it look like it's going to be a rocket oriented map from the very start, so follow through. :)

Btw, is there even a way to kill the cyb? Without something extremely tedious, I mean. Shouldn't the guy perhaps teleport after you? He could be something of a stalker, chasing you through the map, but keeping in a really awkward and hard to reach place. Then the rocket showdown in the green part under the dam... would get interrupted by a goddamn pig stampede. Heh. Just ranting and raving.

So yeah, gorgeous map, but gameplay is questionable so far. Needs speeding up and probably giving players more ammo.


temp38: A Very Patrick Swayze Christmas by Zakurum

A FDA recorded on the testing2 version. A wintery techbase, already polished... exactly the sort of map one would expect from a good 32in24 submission. There are a few rough spots though.

The manco-guarded lift at the beginning is definitely all sorts of problematic, heh. First of all, I got stuck there by going for the berserk in the vile alcove and letting the lift up. It cannot be activated from inside, durr. Also the switch downside is not functional, why? This means that if one lets the lift rise, there's no killing the archvile unless he plays like me, all paranoid to ever leave a lift or a door. Also all the monsters from the yard in front of the base wake up too easily - and they march over to the lift, clogging it profoundly. That chaingun/sg action there was not much fun. I think you should use a block sound line somewhere.

I rocked the invasion at the SSG, but I got totally owned by a fast closing door when I entered the reception and spammed at the vile, haha. A small marvel I survived all that. The RK secret is a good idea, but the gunshot activated secret is super-obscure. One even needs a SSG to activate it, but there's no visual clue he should shoot at that alcove. Not even a hitler picture or something! Also plasma secret is okay for the reception fight, but I think there should be another plasma placed for the final fight. Sure, one can just avoid them until he can exit the map, but I think even people who don't find the PG should be given a chance to kill off the cybs. Which is a lengthy task even with the PG.

A really solid map nonetheless!


temp39: The Day When Santa Captured The Flags by Crimson Dusk

A FDA recorded on the testing2 version. Damn, so many Mt. Zeros and Generic Greys we might as well call this wad a ctf priv on zandronum. This one is a pretty mindless blastathon. It starts pretty strong, even though I got trapped on that top ladder by the imp horde from start and had to manipulate it a little to let me down. Not sure what to do with that if one goes there before he grabs the RL. Maybe allow the lift to be called down from upstairs? That way one could clear out the imps by moving them up in groups, heh. Oh yeah, work on that lift switch a little... it's ghetto as fuck, haha.

Gunslinger has a nnnnnasty HOM on the big bridge you raise. I mean really nasty. So far great fun tho. Generic Grey is really really trivial and fillerish. The player is already geared up, so go heavy - more imps, more chainers, more revs! The ugly evil spider with a whiny voice, without a doubt representing Nostar, is a good defence on 13. There's one downside: the plasma+soul are unreachable without jumping, heh. How about making the gated teleporter lead to the PG/soul crates? You can have a secret and there will be motivation to dispatch the spider without dumb RL/SSG grind. Libraries are pretty dull, like Generic Grey. Kinda like you were winging it with some of these sections, heh. The answer is rockets and revenants, imo. Same with 22... it felt like nothing much. I'd finally throw in some archviles there.

Other than that... some HOMs on Libraries. And most importantly! You need to tag your monsters deaf, or maybe put sound blocking lines between the segments. All the monsters wake up early and then start homing on your position, so there's a massive invasion of everything that can reach you initially... and then you're left with a lot of emptied spaces and the rest of the imps grouped in some corner or on a ledge.

temp40: Belligerent Bauble Bastion by Obsidian

A FDA recorded on the last posted version (I inculded it in the archive, because I renamed it). A quickie with a strong gimmick, I had my fun despite the map giving me the finger in the first attempt several times, heh. First it was the revenant being too close to the teleport destination. I was trapped there with a SG and a RL - exactly the weapons I don't want to fight a rev with at intimate distance. Could you make the teleporter less of an alcove, so it's escapable?

Next the archvile resurrected all the goddamn cacos, because I lured them outside aaaaaaargh. That led to some ammo crisis and very careful planning... but after I prevailed, I literally tripped over the new teleporter and got a faceful of cyberdick. Yeah, no surviving that. The replay was pretty controlled and I avoided the revenant misfortune, so smooth sailing indeed. I doubt you can do anything about the potential caco revival catastrophe though, it's just tough luck. Not sure if there's potential to kill the cyb more gracefully, perhaps with a telefrag. But oh well, he's easy to kill from the exit platform anyways.

Oh yeah, it's possible to bump your frozen items, heh heh. I'd say leave it in though, it's fun and if one uses the rockets too soon, it's his funeral.


temp41: Santa's Got The Shotgun by MTrop

A FDA recorded on the testing2 version. This is a short sweet map, rather on the easy side, although I got too comfy and when I got greedy too, I got punished and had to scramble to restore my health.

I can't really think of anything that would be wrong with the map, it doesn't play big with a high concept or whatever, I think it would be a perfect map01. Well, maybe the exit door could have EXIT written above it or something, I totally didn't see the blue stripes and it didn't cross my mind that the door would be active. Oh and should revenants t.148 and 149 walk outside like they did in my demo? They only infought with the mancubi when I grabbed the YK, which didn't feel right, because the inside of the house was rather empty afterwards. Maybe another chainer should look through the window when the player first enters the house? I ignored the pigs and the manco, but a chainer would spice the visit up. But I'm really reaching for small stuff here, heh. Good job.


temp42: Winterfresh Gum Dictatorship by RottKing

A FDA recorded on the C version. Pretty brutal, heh. I'm surprised I only died once. Actually nope, I cheesed some bits pretty hard, that's why I didn't die more, ha ha. D:

Nice homage to the first 32in24 map... is the secret avjump only? Pretty lame reward for such acrobaticism under all the other fire that's going on. A blue armor with two medkits would be much sweeter, but BA is in the other secret (which I also didn't find), so I dunno... two soulspheres? An invul? That would be an interesting one maybe, since it gives you just a few secs of safety, but you wouldn't be able to kill the cybs with it. (edit: disregard that, I just can't find secrets even with doombuilder.)

The death came from a combination of bad things happening to me, heh. I was already on low health, but what truly did me in was picking a SG, which I didn't have yet. That's a massive facepalm moment, I bet you'll like it, so you probably won't hear me out and place a SG somewhere, heh. I survived the second attempt, but I don't think I should've walked out of that southwestern house in one piece, that was way too lucky, heh. Speaking of that area... I used the top floor to cheese the big final wave of monsters, I just let the cybs to clear them out again. I'm wondering maybe you should lock the access into the house after the floor sink/exit reveal. It felt really cheap, but I did it anyways because fuck you, Rott. (That would mean removing the elevator action from the pillars, too.)

Really cool and hard map, but there's room for a bit of silly cheese.


temp43: Missiletow by Mechadon

A FDA recorded the version from this post.

Really great finale to this marathon playthrough. Huge and slaughterish, but always manageable. Although I did cheese the final megabattle. I went back up the lifts and hanged out behind the BFG pillar where only cacos and the occasional rev rocket would come to visit. Actually, after a while it became problematic to get down again, because there was a sea of monsters under every bit of the wall... and the other side of the map is walled up at that point. Perhaps you should allow monsters to walk up there? Keep some stairs for them if the player manages to set up camp?

The BFG would've been really a helpful motivator for staying down with the monsters, but I only found the mechanism after the battle was nearly over. It's kinda do or die at the beginning of the battle, because the spider attracts a big crowd that blocks access to the switch after a short while... for a long while. Perhaps it should be in one of the cyber closets? Or switch the spider to one of the side closets so the BFG switch one doesn't fill up? Maybe I'm overthinking it and it works in most cases anyways, heh.

Everything else felt alright. I dunno, maybe you'll see something you quite don't like in the demo, but I felt like everything worked right and I didn't cheese anything too badly until the final battle. Oh yeah right... midtex grate l.633 is passable, as proved by a caco gracefully floating through the fine pattern.

Thank you for the feedback dew :). I'll get around to watching the demo later on today (I may have inadvertently addressed one or two of your critiques in a previous update that didn't make it into the compilation, heh). I'm working on detailing the map and I'll definitely work in your feedback before I'm done.

*edit*

Oh nevermind, looks like you played the latest version of the map, heh :P

Okay, version of the map with most of dew's suggestions implemented: https://www.dropbox.com/s/00g6pxcxszp87f0/32in24-14-WalkenInAWinterWonderland_v3.wad?dl=0

Looking forward to the completed compilation.

Here is version 2 of my map: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4fLhi4pUfilQW5telZiaVdYVGM/view?usp=sharing

Only a few minor tweaks to the first fight, but the second fight is now much more difficult. Like, way more difficult.

I wanted to experiment with the the RL being replaced with with berserk fist so you could have a more reliable way of taking those pinkies down, and the RL ended up on the central platform of the second arena. I'm not so sure how wise of a decision this was and I might move it to the first arena like dew suggested, but I feel like rocket launcher availability might trivialize the first part of the second arena. But who knows, the second arena is now truly a kick in the teeth, maybe it should be trivialized a little...

EDIT: There was a broken version of that map up for a few hours, try downloading it again.

Hmm, if the consensus for Festivus is "more rockets", that's cool. Bunching up the ledge snipers into huge groups for rocketing ain't a bad idea, so I'll do that. :P

Regarding the cybie nuke, there's actually a couple of spots in the map I never got around to completing (hence that one silly FIREBLU teleport thing D:) -- one of these was a planned connecting hall between the final slaughtercave and the skyfloor area (via those currently-unopenable temple doors), and I was going to sneak a teleporter in there that would let you fraggify the cybie. Hopefully I'll be able to actually add those today, heh. :P

The demon scene is supposed to be a Festivus in-joke (it's the "feats of strength"), but I suppose the result is dumb enough to not make it worth it. Between the berserk and the initial teleport, that's probably enough to "sell" it before giving the player some rockets, for the 3 or so people who will actually get the joke. :P

I might have my edits up later than today, technically, since I'm getting a late start to the day, but it'll happen.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bp7di989tg1vbrk/32in24-01-rottedit-d.wad?dl=0

probably last version of my map? i made some lifts lower after you get to a certain late part of the map, so it's no longer as easy to cheese the map. Also some minor item and monster adjustment.

Okay, starting my second pass through the maps that have been updated since I've played them. Starting with the illustrous joe ilya!

Chocolate Swamp by joe-ilya: I'm going to say, this is a marked improvement, mainly visually. Dropping the lighting to near darkness hides some of the simple texturing and not-so detailed layouting while delivering some cool The path with candles near the exit actually looks pretty good. The few teleporter tricks you did also liven the map up, so yeah. The map is still a bit plain and 1994-ish, but you've made a massive leap to making it presentable. I'm afraid you'll only read this tomorrow after feature lock, so it's too late for gameplay suggestions, but let's at least fix a few bugs. The wall that holds the new surprise vile by the exit bleeds into the floor. Also that manco behind the exit teleports too near to you, so he actually body blocks you. That's a bit too nasty, put the destination a bit farther away so there's some room for dodging when he starts firing. Also the RL secret is neat, but a bit too far away, so the player doesn't hear or see it unless he really turns around instantly and goes back. Try using a linedef that's nearer to the secret (not so far around the bend).

Candy Base by joe-ilya: Another great improvement. Most of the map could probably improve incrementally for a long time, but even this surpasses the original greatly. Especially the first vile is pretty boss. And you even added your own little ideas like the surpluss of crate chainers in that one spot. And the imp pincer attack is your baby step into the slaughter genre, haha. Also props for making it coop-safe. I think the map is prepared for shipping out.

With luck this should be the last update. Added a bit more space around the teleporter to the Revenant and also sunk said Revenant into an instantly raising pit along with it's cohorts. Also made the Cyb teleport a bit more instantly so the player doesn't have a chance of boxing it in at the exit. Hopefully that addresses all of Dew's feedback.

Unfortunatly i didn't had enough time to put into this, but the deadline is near soo... here it is: https://www.mediafire.com/?fvwyegc73eqt502

Added more monsters/health/ammo/weapons/viles still no skill settings unfortunatly :(

Didn't really have time this week to mess around with this more, but I added some fixes. Hopefully I will be able to add some more after tonight, but if not I'll request that the map be dropped =P.

Here: http://www.speedyshare.com/V2dsW/32in24-14Kass.wad

It Came Upon a Midnight Blackout by Getsu Fune: I like what you did with the map, the difficulty grows gradually. However there's a critical bug! Both your RK and YK doors are SR-action, but they don't use a tag! That is a zdoomism afaik, only Dx-action lets you ignore tagging. Needs fixing!

Violent Night, Holy Shite by Skillsaw: Cool. I've got nothing. Release-ready, one of the highlights. :)

The Krusty Krab Kwanzaa Kaper by Akimbo_Commando44: I think this should be one of the openers. It's short, easyish and really pretty. Even more so now. I think it's rea-HOLY COW is that 16 secrets? You already have a secret in the first room, but then in the soulsphere room you probably started splitting off sectors from one already marked 9. Some of them can't even be triggered in non-zdoom ports, heh.

Egyptian XMas Party (That You're Not Invited To) by Blackfish: Muuuuch better. It looks pretty good and festive and the entire dynamic is better. Start small, bring on the bigger fights as the player gets better weapons, but still keep the fights short and punchy, leave a possibility for infighting. It's classic, but it works. Oh, I found this slime trail. Slime highway.

ahaha, oops!

http://shanghai.the-powerhouse.net/32in24-14_Wartorn8.zip

thanks again dew :D

Well, if all else is well, then this will (hopefully) be the final release for my map:

Map with MIDI: http://www.mediafire.com/download/y83d8tpuvnloj9a/Zakurum_32in2414_v1d.wad
MIDI: https://www.mediafire.com/?fvc1g7suv838y7k
Music Source: Descent Level 12

Supports deathmatch and adds more multiplayer monsters and ammo to the mix based upon the number of players present.