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Coffee Break Episode 1 - RELEASED

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So for the past couple of years I was going to make this Megawad, but I was too lazy to finish it and had tons of other stuff to do. So I just settled on releasing 11 maps.

Introducing "Coffee Break, Episode 1" - a set of 11 short-ish, MBF(BOOM)-compatible maps that I have no idea what to do with but still want to leave some sort of sequel/continuation up in the air.

I've already tested the thing to heck and back, but I still need some additional help. That's where you come in!

I need to make sure all of these maps are as good as they can be, so I'll need some extra-critical eyes to pore over these things, especially for Co-op and DM, since both are supported. All skill levels supported as well.

I don't have any new music, though. If someone could point me in the right direction for some unused MIDIs or if somebody wants to compose some, that'd be great!

Oh, you wanted screenshots? Here you go!



No nit-pick is too small. If something is wrong, let me know! Fire up your favorite Boom/MBF-compatible port and give it a whirl!

UPDATE 7/26/2012: Download from idGames

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Mista_T said:

No nit-pick is too small. If something is wrong, let me know!


eheh.. Ok. I was just thinking that what I was thinking was really being a nit-picker, but alright :)

I think it looks great, and I especially like the shot with the hexagon-details on the ceiling, and the one with the lighting effects on the bookshelves.

Shot 3 in your first post grabbed my attention. It looks cool, like a military complex, with the brick "fortress" before the building. But I don't think that Tekwall texture is suitable for an exterior wall :) At least not in that environment.

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Wow, maaan, i love you. I had tremendous amount of fun, someone should invent a new word for amount of fun that i had on all those beautiful maps. Each map is simply wonderful and packed with action, fantastic action. Simply awesome. I had so many wonderful moments, your map was a canvas, and my skill was a painter. Here's some notes that i took while playing (UV):

Map01: first demon blocks doorway and really ruins the first encounter, first demon in the room with berserk also blocks entrance. I think that there are too many demons on the map overall.
Map03: Cacos that appear after you take red key can fly into the room with red door if the player will jump down and left from the platform with the red key.
Map04: Sector with the yellow key in the middle of the green slime pool gives damage. Also, i found only one secret, if most of them are in the sewers, you should give one or two more suits cause at the end i was only 5hp, and couldn't check sewers one more time.
Map05: Woo, rocket jump secret!
Map07:Make a linedef in front of those trees impassable, because they grab player's back while he's trying to survive and kick some ass.
Map09: i would recommend spawning two imps behind player's back after he triggers the fight near the place with BFG (yellow gates). He can kill them with one SS shot, but they will show that retreating back is not that easy way.
Map10: No no no, why the hell-room with yellow key has damaging floor and not the huge, huge fall? What a letdown, FIX IT!
Map11: Consider locking the door behind the player when he enters the hallway to the final battle, yes, even before he falls down. To balance, maybe remove chaingunners. Oh, and those blue torches next to Cyberdemon block too many shots, looks ridiculous.

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Harmata said:

Map01: first demon blocks doorway and really ruins the first encounter, first demon in the room with berserk also blocks entrance. I think that there are too many demons on the map overall.


Yeah, they get in the way, sometimes. That first area needs a little work, I feel. Demons should trap the player, not be among the horde.


Map03: Cacos that appear after you take red key can fly into the room with red door if the player will jump down and left from the platform with the red key.


Darn chase code! Why does it have to be so dumb? I'm gonna have to get artsy with the "Monster Block" flag. I'll probably just flag the lines around the stairs. Shouldn't ruin other monster behavior too much.


Map04: Sector with the yellow key in the middle of the green slime pool gives damage. Also, i found only one secret, if most of them are in the sewers, you should give one or two more suits cause at the end i was only 5hp, and couldn't check sewers one more time.


Nah, the sewer areas are off the beaten path, but not secret. There are four in total, and none are in the sewers. I might toss another suit in there, anyway. I'll also fix the yellow key lift. Guess I never noticed it.


Map07:Make a linedef in front of those trees impassable, because they grab player's back while he's trying to survive and kick some ass.


Good point, though I'll have to place it in such a way that it looks/feels like the player is just brushing up against them.


Map09: i would recommend spawning two imps behind player's back after he triggers the fight near the place with BFG (yellow gates). He can kill them with one SS shot, but they will show that retreating back is not that easy way.


Teleporting them in seems like a cheap shot, to me. I'll have to find another way to put an obstacle at the player's back when he/she goes through the yellow bars. Maybe just close them?


Map10: No no no, why the hell-room with yellow key has damaging floor and not the huge, huge fall? What a letdown, FIX IT!


Can't kill the player any other way. Teleporting them away to a kill-room would be awkward. Maybe something involving a voodoo doll and a crusher? Any mappers want to discuss?


Map11: Consider locking the door behind the player when he enters the hallway to the final battle, yes, even before he falls down. To balance, maybe remove chaingunners. Oh, and those blue torches next to Cyberdemon block too many shots, looks ridiculous.


Good idea. No escape. You're right about the chaingunners and the torch pillars. They're as good as gone.

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gemini09 said:

Shot 3 in your first post grabbed my attention. It looks cool, like a military complex, with the brick "fortress" before the building. But I don't think that Tekwall texture is suitable for an exterior wall :) At least not in that environment.


You're not gonna like Map04, then...

Maybe I should do some redecorating with the gray Plutonia brick texture? Maybe get rid of the more exposed techy parts?

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Can't kill the player any other way.

I just loaded your map into Doom Builder 2, and it showed me that you are using Doom map format, and surprisingly it doesn't feature Instant death sector effect. Huh. Never knew that. Welp, i don't even know what to recommend. Maybe moving maps onto newer map format? Newer did that, so don't know how hard that may be.

I'll have to find another way to put an obstacle at the player's back when he/she goes through the yellow bars. Maybe just close them?

Sure, why not, imps were simply my first thought. But locking the bars would require placing somewhere one more switch.

One more thing concerning the Cyberdemon battle, the sky (horizon) is to close to the ledges, projectiles disappear almost immediately when they pass Revenants, kinda ruining the sense of open space. If it's not too cumbersome, move horizon lines farther from cliffs.

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Converting the maps is out of the question, since I want to keep everything Boom-compatible. There is probably a better solution someplace.

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Best gameplay I've seen in a long time. Great work. Nice design too (but a little too much copy-paste/symmetry fo my taste).
My FDAs. MAP11 pissed me off a lot, so when I died I didn't want to continue.

Speedrunners are going to hate you for that rocketjump secret on MAP05. Or is there another way to get that megasphere? If there is no, I'd recommend to remove the secret flag from that sector so visiting it will be unnecessary for UV-Max demo.

Tag667 battle on MAP07 would be much more intense if the spiders could enter the central area.

On MAP10 it isn't obvious at all that the animated red thingys will teleport you somewhere. I though these were just decorations. Had to use Doom Builder to figure out what to do.

You can check how instant death on fall is done in Epic 2 MAP18. But be very careful with linedef placement, or else some players will die without falling and then yell at you! Another problem is that in coop everyone will die if you damage the voodoo doll, so you better disable this effect in multiplayer. (should be possible with basic conveyor trickery, for example place some multiplayer-only object on the way of voodoo dool that triggers the deadly crusher)

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Played a few maps, in PrBoom+ -complevel 9 as I got confused. Perhaps it wasn't the right complevel because enemies kept hearing me through solid walls and shotgunners were stuck in map03. FDA

Overall it was OK, although I felt it relied on surprise traps that became trivial once you knew what to expect a bit much for my liking. I ultimately killed myself out of frustration after seeing 4 cacos pop up behind me right as an AV was about to resurrect 2 barons...

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I might not do the instant death thing on Map10. Too much work for something that will still kill the player. I'm also thinking of locking the player into the Plasma gun room so that they would have no choice but to play with their immediate surroundings. Maybe add arrows or something, I dunno.

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Okay, so far, here are the things on my to-do list:

WAD: Fix DBrain patches. Supposed to be lava fall, not the brain texture.

MAP01: Decrease amount of demons. Find a way to keep them from rushing the player early and blocking entrances, hindering flow.

MAP03: Fix the "red key" cacodemons in the outside area from heading into the building. Monster Block flagging should do the trick, here.

MAP04: Add third radsuit in sewer area. Fix Yellow key pillar damaging the player. Maybe replace barons in yellow key room on hard.

MAP05: Make rocket jump secret not a secret. Add some shells to green armor trap on hard. Add another secret to make up for removing the secret status of the rocket jump secret. Make lines around the four pillars at the end monster block so chaingunners can't fall off of them.

MAP07: Maybe add an ammo box on hard near the end of the level. Find way to open up center area a bit after mancubi die. Lower some pillars, perhaps? Add impassible linedefs near trees.

MAP08: Put monster block lines around key door markers. Need better ending fight after last switch flipped for hard.

MAP09: Make first door SR instead of DR so the player can open it but not monsters. Remove monster blocking around that door, but add it to the windows so monsters can't fall out of them. Find a way to keep the player in the BFG area.

MAP10: Lock player in Plasma gun room after the gun is taken. This will make the player examine their surroundings, finding a way into the hell area. Remember to make the switch that opens those bars repeatable (for Co-op/DM). Shift around some ammo placement near the area that unlocks the bars to the red key.

MAP11: Fix up the ending fight. Lock the player in after they go through the blue door. Make blue door open repeatably. Get rid of the blue torch pillars - they are overkill for cybie protection.


Anything else?

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Tag667 battle on MAP07 would be much more intense if the spiders could enter the central area.

But they can, you probably pwnd them before they could spread out. I clearly remember how i wanted to enter building and spider blocked my way in, he was already there.

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Harmata said:

But they can, you probably pwnd them before they could spread out. I clearly remember how i wanted to enter building and spider blocked my way in, he was already there.


What he's referring to is that they can't freely roam into the center, due to the large pillars in the starting area.

I think. Is that what you mean, Memfis?

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Yeah. I too was blocked the first time, but then I entered it and the rest was very easy. You can watch my demo (link in my previous post).

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MAP08: there are broken stairs after the red door which player can't climb, was this planned?

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Harmata said:

MAP08: there are broken stairs after the red door which player can't climb, was this planned?


Yes.

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Lol, it turns out that you can get the megasphere on MAP05 without RJumping. But it is quite difficult to do, so I don't think you should fix anything.
Demo.

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I noticed that you sometimes use W1 teleport lines in monster closets. They can prevent the possibility of getting 100% kills, which is very annoying for speedrunners. Please fix this.

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map01, map05, maybe some others, I'm not sure. But it should be easy to fix: just open each map and use "find and replace" function to change all W1 teleporters to WR in one click (unless there is some teleporters that you want to work only once, but I think there is none).

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Yeah, It's probably some of the earlier ones. I made those back in 2008/9, before I got some better advice about how to make "monster teleports in" areas from the Plutonia Revisited Project.

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Started playing now - just started MAP02.

I like the tongue-in-cheek humour for the TITLEPIC and difficulty options and MAP01 was some great generic Doom 2 action. Minor nitpick for MAP02 - the two little cubbyholes that open up when lowering the green armour and shotgun at the start have cut off METAL lights on the side walls, as they're only 96 units long. Easy fix would be to split each line 32 units from the lift/entries and have those 32 unit bits be METAL2 instead.

EDIT: Actually, playing more of MAP02 and MAP03 makes me think nitpicking texture alignment is too much, as you've gone for minimal alignment on the majority of this stuff by the looks of it. Keeps with the classical Doom 2 aspect

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On the contrary - I've been going for COMPLETE alignment. ;)

I'll fix the issues in the beginning alcoves on MAP02 - I had to expand the size of them and forgot to correct the textures.

Any discrepancies in MAP03?

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MAP03 (or MAP04?) saw a lot of the TEKGREEN panels being cut off at 32-pixel intervals are doors and wall panels (see on the way to the red key door, for an example) - otherwise it seemed fine.

I've just at the start of MAP07 now and enjoying myself. The Plutonia-theme has come creeping in now :P Couldn't find my way into the 4th secret on MAP04 (the one that leads round and down to red key area) but I'm assuming that's because I missed whatever the cue was rather than because the secret is inaccessible ;)

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