Nex Credo [RELEASE]

Okay, I’m finally back at it! Only 2 maps tonight, though. My apologies on that.

Map04 – Kills – 98, Items – 100, Secrets – 50. Time – 11:27. End Health – 77, Armor – 79. Death Count – Zero

The least impressive map of the set thus far. Although I like the green motif – especially those awesome green bricks – the combat was very lackluster shooting-gallery stuff with almost everything ahead of the player. The Revvie use was remarkably poor, with one stuck behind a teleporter and another trapped atop a column for easy pickings, quite a contrast to the very dangerous Revvies in the previous map.

In spite of this, I played badly enough to get dropped down to 13% fairly early, and I spent the rest of the map in health-stress. Also, since I hadn’t played the wad in a few days, I reached for my chaingun only to discover I didn’t have one! ;D I thought, “Wait, I’m playing continuously. I must have the chaingun by now.” Yep, I was playing continuously, but nope, I didn’t have the chaingun. And I can tell you that at the start of Map06, I still don’t have it! :D

Aside from having the poorest combat, this map is also probably the least attractive since Map01. The only notable event was the nasty Arachnotron trap at the end, easily escaped, leading to some slightly sloggy shotgunning of baby spiders. It’s not a horrible map - you’re too skilled for that – but it doesn’t offer much, unless it’s intended as a breather.

Map05 – Kills – 97, Items – 88, Secrets – 16. Time – 25:07. End health – 98, Armor – 104. Death Count – 9

Now this is a horse of a different color, the first genuinely difficult map of the set. It’s also the best-looking map with the most interesting architecture seen yet, although some parts are iffy, for example all those floor lamps on the concrete railings in Sector 1, 2, 3 and 4. That gives a very busy look for no obvious reason.

That area, however, is the most hellish in the map and was responsible for the majority of my deaths, mostly from the sniping Chaingunners, who took advantage of my kamikaze playing. And if I wasn’t in kamikaze mode, I’d have been forced into camping and corner abuse – ZZZzzzzzzz. So at least I went out as a hero. ;D It took a long time to get those Chaingunners and I can’t say I really enjoyed it, mostly because I was denied the weapons most suitable for the occasion, the chaingun and rocket launcher. It made me think of the people who complained about “sniping chaingunners two miles away” in Map22 of Realm of Chaos. I’d love to see them in this map! ;D

I might never have beaten that area if I didn’t find the secret rocket launcher, probably the only secret I found. I was able to dust off 2 chaingunners with that. Hallelujah!!!! ;D

Once that bit of business was dealt with, the map became easy. The Arachnotrons were no problem, and neither were the Revvies. The Archies at the end got me once because I hesitated while the exit bars opened. When I tried it again, I was lucky enough to trigger just the first Archie, and I made a killer third rocket shot as I dodged behind a column. I’m patting myself on the back because that’s a move I can rarely pull off and I was all kinds of satisfied with myself over that. ;) While I was killing the first Archie, the exit bars opened and I ran for the border while the other 2 were gearing up to kill me.

I guess the map is a mixed bag for me. I’m not one for clever puzzles, and this really was quite clever. But it was also cruel, and I usually admire that, as I do here. I was also forewarned about the column issue, so I only lowered the truly necessary columns, though I’m not sure it made much difference. The map was super-nasty while still dominated by those damned sniping chaingunners and all their little jagoff buddies, but once you got off the Base Ganymede-style ammo/health approach, and started giving proportional weaponry to deal with the heavier monsters, the map lost its edge. In the end, I had a ton of rockets but was still butthurt over my missing chaingun. Damn, I want that thing bad! ;D Overall, I’d rate this second to Map03 in overall fun, so pretty good map.

Map06 – Kills – 89, Items – 100, Secret – 50. Time – 22:39. End Health – 100, Armor – 99. Death Count – 12

Yeah, so what’s the best way to kill keyboarders of, at best, moderate skill? Chaingunners and Revvies, of course, and here you serve up a Monster Thickburger of those very jagoffs, fiendishly placed – oh, the blue key trap! – with the usual side-dishes of low ammo and relatively scarce health. Jay, this was harrowing! for the Doom Fossil. ;D

The map was deceptively easy at first, but as in other maps, damage tended to build up and couldn’t quite be healed well enough to inspire confidence. For example, I died in the waste tunnels on my first try, and never after that had enough health or chaingun ammo to try it again. Too bad, I would have liked that BFG. :(

I had to smile when I checked the automap and saw that I had navigated some swastika corridors. ;)

I basically liked everything about this map. I don’t mind me some corridor-crawling every now and then, so long as the action has this level of intensity. I don’t mind central hubs, either. I thought it looked good all the way through, with consistently interesting and not over-detailed architecture. I was stressed-out enough that I wanted to concentrate on survival rather than wall panels anyway. ;D

As my death-count shows, I probably should’ve played this map on HMP. Some of those deaths came through my tendency to kamikaze tough situations. For example, in front of the exit, I insisted on fighting the Revvies out in the open, rather than dodging behind the shielding column. Probably 5 deaths resulted. Then when I ducked behind the shield, I killed all the Revvies with ease on my first try. Why do I do these things? I guess the tension temporarily causes me to lose my mind. :D

I wanted to play 2 maps today, but I definitely had enough by the end of this one. Fave map so far? Maybe so.

There's a BFG? Um, I may've mis-flagged a multiplayer item there.

Good to hear you actually liked MAP06, seems to be the least-popular of the bunch; MAP05 did at least polarise people.

Thing is, I'm a bigger-picture kinda guy. I mainly like maps that are a sequence of outdoor setpiece 'arenas' with breather areas in between, but I wouldn't make just that kind of thing. Though I'm not into corridor-crawlers myself, I thought I should include one between the openness of MAP05 and the inevitable Dead Simple remake of MAP07.

Also, swastika is a kinda self-referential semi-homage. You see, I took inspiration in this map from Murderous Intent's MAP04, so I made a nod to Doom's E1M4. Makes sense only to me, maybe. ;)

My bad, Jay, you didn't mis-flag the BFG, I just didn't look closely enough at the BFG in DB2. Now I know that the point of the area was to take a teleport to the SSG secret.

Cool deal that you're a "bigger picture" kinda guy. I don't mind a bit, and your stated design philosophy is not vastly different from mine, except that I'm pretty much run 'n gun with a fair few traps -- and nothing else. ;D Every now and then, however, I do something that even I can see might be polarizing. Keep your eyes open for Shotgun Symphony. I just finished E1M8 last night, so E1M9 is all that's left. And the polarizer? Likely to be E1M6. Maybe E1M8, too.

I should be back on the Nex Credo train tonight. ;)

I kinda wanna play this, as I've just mentioned in the pictures thread, but I gotta ask one thing first. Is there any sort of unifying idea behind this set of maps, some sort of backstory, even if only in your head Jayextee? Or is it at least supposed to be the standard Doom 2 fare, demons in the starport, demons in the city, you arrived and gotta fight them etc. Because the screenshots look nice and inviting, but I'm usually not interested in these wads where the authors just bunch together a number of levels they've made over the months, add a random and disconnected name to it and call it a levelset just so they can release them all in one file.

Played in this piece of megawad. Not bad. Pity that only 11 levels. But still better than nothing.

Well, fancy that - after enjoying the first episode of Concerned I figured I'd check out another oldschool episode. Nex Credo fit the bill nicely and I fired it up. Again, very enjoyable!

Silence is probably the standout in terms of concept and execution - particularly how you can max it if you're feeling patient, but the whole 11 map deal was a blast. Story seems a bit odd, as the MAP07 intro text says you're in Denmark, but not on Earth and then the MAP12 intro text says you're on Mars. Is there a Denmark on Mars?

The early maps bought to mind things like the Mini-Level Megawad and Scythe's first episode, with a swerve into valkiriforce territory when the SSG finally joined regular play and the chaingunner population shot up. Disappointed that MAP07 was pretty much a MAP07 - particularly as that Cyberdemon is just a time sink - but it does help vary play to just be thrown into an arena.

The total absence of closure at the end of it all was pretty downbeat :P

All told, good job. 11 solid Doom II levels delivered.

Wow, a sudden burst of activity on this thread. Good to see people still enjoying this, thanks guys! :)

Antroid said:

I kinda wanna play this, as I've just mentioned in the pictures thread, but I gotta ask one thing first. Is there any sort of unifying idea behind this set of maps, some sort of backstory, even if only in your head Jayextee?

Pretty much a re-run of Doom 2's progression, really. I harked back to the old days when Megawads were first created (that I wasn't around for) and thought 'what would I have done back then'?

The concept isn't so imaginative as some of the in-level concepts, I admit. But it was all designed to flow from one level to another, even if the last two maps were intended as 'episode 2' stuff with the city sky.

Phobus said:

Silence is probably the standout in terms of concept and execution - particularly how you can max it if you're feeling patient, but the whole 11 map deal was a blast.

Thanks! To be honest, the concept for Silence was one of the very first map ideas I ever had for Doom, even before I'd access to a map editor. I always loved how much of a potential threat the Cyberdemon was outside of the comfort zone of 'large open area where he can be circled easily' - and wanted to use several of them as vanguards for an indoor area where, if you alerted them, you'd be toast. The challenge with making this map was making it MAX-able.

I like concept maps, especially if they offer a little more besides that initial idea. This is what I attempted to deliver.

Phobus said:

Story seems a bit odd, as the MAP07 intro text says you're in Denmark, but not on Earth and then the MAP12 intro text says you're on Mars. Is there a Denmark on Mars?

I'm afraid I was appropriating a common quote to mean "something's not right here" (from my end it's a borrowed Tarantino-ism). I hadn't thought how this may cause confusion for some, especially people who don't speak English as a first language.

Sorry about that.

Phobus said:

The total absence of closure at the end of it all was pretty downbeat :P

I've been thinking on this of late. I've patched together a few 'scraps' of maps I was working on for this, and am making a new map for it. I think I shall consider this release a 'demo' and work on the rest of the content slowly. I still have ideas for MAP15, MAP30 and a couple of other concepts I'd love to explore in this.

Yes. There will be more Nex Credo. :)

English is my first, and only, language :P But fair enough, we either get references or we don't! No harm in having them in there for those who do get it.

A Brit who doesn't recognize classic Shakespearean quotes? Something is rotten in the state of Denmark...

Mine is an ignorant generation... Plus I've never been interested in Shakespeare - school saw to put me off that!

Hi, while testing I found a couple of things that may cause problems:

MAP02 Thing 152 (DM Start) on top of Former Sergeant.
MAP06 Line 1699 (SR Lift) has tag 30.
MAP08 Lines 2004, 2010, 2012, 2014 are W1 monster teleports.
MAP09 Has a DB start (not really a problem).

Edit:
Just finished a playthrough. Great job.

A couple more things I found:

MAP03
Thing 230 (Imp) - It stayed behind the cylinder and was hard to shoot. Maybe if it or the cylinder could be moved slightly.
A similar thing happens with the Lost Souls near the exit (on the West side), there were a couple stuck behind the cylinder.

MAP05
Sectors 299 and 311 are marked secret but don't seem to be accessible.

MAP06
There is a slime trail visible from -6347, 4410 (prboom-plus).

The final intermission text seems to be too big and doesn't display some words (prboom-plus).

Hope this helps.

Map07 – Kills – 100, Items – 100, Secret – 100. Time – 10:49. End Health – 100, Armor – 67. Death Count – 5

Okay, so I didn’t get right on these maps last week like I said I would, but I have a good excuse – I got some ideas and managed to finish the last 2 maps of Shotgun Symphony in a couple marathon sessions. Public beta this weekend, says he who always pimps his shit in as many threads as he can. :D :D One thing I’d like to ask is, do you know of any good tutorials on how to use Whacked? I want to change the level names, but I have no idea how to use this puppy, or how to make certain that names longer than the originals, such as “A Lazy Afternoon on Phobos” instead of “Hangar” will work. Then there’s the issue of the titlepic that must be shrunk down to 320x200 and put in the Doom palette, plus have the new title on it. So much to do, and so little idea how to do it. ;D

But back to your work.

Pretty neat Dead Simple map here. But no Arachnotrons?????

The Mancs were a pain at the start – so damned many of them. Died on my first try, and after that it was many reloads to avoid death and try to survive with decent health numbers.

The Revvies were no problem. At least 2 were killed by Cybie before I dusted off the rest.

The Cyb is a questionable addition, IMO. Playing continuously, I had plenty of ammo for dealing with him, which might not have been the case if I’d pistol-started. As it was, I camped in front of a window and shotgunned him to death. Took exactly 50 shells. Tedious!!!! At least it was easy. ;D

I fully expected to face 3 Archies at the end, since I was checking the monster count, and was surprised when I opened the red door and saw only 2. They accounted for all of my other deaths as I tried to save the Zerk for the end to avoid entering the next map at 10% health or so. Sometimes it seemed the RNG hated me – one Archie seemed to eat 5 rockets, but maybe it only took 3 and the next 2 hit the other one. One time I got hit simultaneously by a Revvie rocket, a Manc spread, and some Archie mojo. That was at least a funny death. :D

Once everything visible was dead, I hunted down the final Archie by sound, and pressed the wall where the most noise was coming from. Lo and behold, it descends and there he is! Easiest kill in the whole map. Quick spread of rockets, strafe left, and watch him die. Quite satisfying. And to top it off, at last, the SSG!!!!! I sure wanted this at the start of the map. Too bad I didn’t have enough health and ammo to beat the forces guarding the secret SSG path in Map06. But now, all is right with the world. ;D

I liked everything about this map except the Cyb. Good job.

Map08 – Kills – 72, Items – 86, Secret – 0. Time – 16:29. End Health – 163, Armor – 166. Death Count – 1

I had sort of a love/hate relationship with this map. The start was kinda cool and accounted for my only death, because I ran right out there and played kamikaze with all the Mancs in a big open area with no cover. I also failed to note that there was another room I could duck into. Managed to kill all the Mancs anyway, but took so much damage that I was killed by Chaingunners firing from all the way across the bigass room.

After that, it was all of a sudden Platform City, but it was bearable for me because the first sets of platforms were all a matter of running down as if you were on a bunch of separated stairs. Also, it was possible to fight the red key area in at least 2 ways by taking side branches.

Combat in this map fell a bit below the last 3, with almost all the monsters ahead of the player and, for once, a fair amount of ammo and an unusual amount of cover. For example, the most attractive area – the one past the red door with our first real experience of epic architecture in the mapset – is all straight-ahead, mow-‘em-down combat. Take out the hitscanners, then dodge behind the immense structures to play peek-a-boo with the Mancs until they’re dead. What could be easier? Perhaps this is meant as a breather map?

I really enjoyed that section, though, because of the excellent visuals. Hard is not everything in a Doom map, as DoTW has said.

And then there’s that bit of mess behind the yellow door . . . ;D

As a keyboarder, platforming sections that require turns are basically impossible for me. I gave it the old college try, but after that, my policy is to use God Mode and IDCLIP to cross the offending section. I can see why others liked it, though. First, it’s Map08, so I guess a Tricks ‘n Traps homage can be expected somewhere, so why not at the exit? It was also a cruel and clever construction, with that giant crusher forcing you forward, and crushers coming down on the platforms. If I was a mouser, I’m sure I’d give you the credit you deserve, since this is a devious and nasty bit of design work and certainly in keeping with the jagoffy side of Doom, and I mean that in the best way.

Big surprise was the Megasphere and Plasma Gun at the end. Has Jayextee suddenly become jolly old Saint Nick? ;D I didn’t get the Chaingun until Map06, didn’t get the SSG until Map07, and now I get a PG and a Megasphere in one room? I almost fainted dead away! :D

I was thinking something truly awful must be in the offing, and felt immense dread when I pressed the switch and – a-ha! – it was an homage to The Shaft, a map I fear to this day. Except the floor descended without me, and I was standing on a ledge as Lost Souls flew up towards me. I opened fire and soon heard the cry of a Revvie, and the spinning-up of an Arch-Vile. Ah, this ain’t so bad, I figured, and jumped down into the fray. Fought badly the first time and opened a saved game to get my health numbers up. I plasma’d through the Revvies and turned to face the Archie, but apparently backed up over the exit line and was shocked when the map ended.

I’m not sure how to feel about this map. I was disappointed by the combat, and I’m not equipped to properly play platforming sections, so for me the gameplay left much to be desired. I didn’t find any of the secrets. Perhaps you are a little too devious in hiding them. So as a result, the exploration aspect of the map was not there for me. OTOH, some of the rooms were quite attractive, especially the yellow key area, so in the end, this is a pretty good map to me, just not something much to my taste.

Even Sweet Brown ("ain't nobody got time for that" woman) would have time for this wad.

Just a quick note, Jay, no need to go finding me tutorials on changing map names and titlepics. I found some and fingered it out, all except changing map names on the automap, but I have a fair idea how to do that. I'm postponing it for a later time, though.

I'll be back at your maps once I fix the half million errors in Shotgun Symphony that ZDoom revealed. ;D

I had some catchup reading to do. Whoops.

SteveD: I'm in agreement with the combat of MAP08, although it was intentional so as not to detract from the platforming later. I think the yellow key door (because yellow AND blue doors lead to the same end, they're just different platforming) is the faster section of the two, but the nastier one because of the crushers.

I may spice up the combat in the sections behind the red doors.

invictius: Thanks! :)

marineController: Thanks a lot for these, I'll make some fixes soon. I was aware of the intermission text but WhackEd seems to be problematic and won't even run most of the time. Nice catch on the secret sectors in MAP05, I know totally why they happened (some last-minute detailing of that section) but should've been aware of it. Cheers. :)

Total necrobump to say I've finally put this thing, weighing in at only 11 maps, on idgames. I made some small changes to it as of last year, but to be honest my heart's not in it any more to continue this.

Some people in this thread liked what I made. I don't. Will update with the idgames link when it's live.

Alright, bump number two and edited first post because Nex Credo is up on idgames.

Among changes I made to this were some small tweaks to earlier levels; people who lamented the lack of chaingun early on are partially-appeased now. Have fun with your toy, you funky folk.

Now. I can get on with my life instead of procrastinating from finishing this, because it wasn't happening in a big hurry. Nope.

Enjoy. ;)

Thanks jayextee

I really enjoyed this wad :)

Jayextee already knows this, but I posted my review a week or so ago. once again, thank you for this

I am at MAP06 right now. This is a solid vanilla mapset, I don't have anything more to say about it. Pretty old school look with the stock textures etc.