Discovering the Hell: The 5 Worlds

Jumping and crouching are allowed and will be necessary for some levels (and secrets)

Discovering the hell: The 5 worlds is the sequel to my previous wad (DTH: The Invasion - http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=16837 )

There are 19 levels with 5 general themes, containing 3 new weapons, some new monsters (according to the theme) and powerups. The level design is similar to the previous project, with simple detail, not many monsters but stronger ones and more strategic battles. I recommend playing at HMP before going into UV. No final boss battle, sorry. :P

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Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bvkk1sm933zw4sz/DTHT5W.rar

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Screenshots:

Nice screens. I'll give this a go later.

Nice that you've managed to release this. I remember playing DTHTI and also a MAP01 demo of this a long time ago. Glad to see more maps in this style and spirit. Faster projectiles / tougher monsters make for a different challenge than our usual Doom. Maps are detailed just enough to be interesting and not bland at all. Leveldesign is simple but also very effective and it's a pleasant experience to explore the maps. I like how you've decided to make the initial maps less intricate and intense than in DTHTI. Lastly, I like your music tracks complementing the maps, even though some of them are reused. I'm currently four maps deep in and I like the mapset a lot so far - and I'm still in the first world. :)


EDIT: Bugs encountered so far:

MAP05 - Yellow skulls can be grabbed from a side (no fatal problem at all).
MAP05 - Player can be trapped if he activates the lion switch lift but escapes before the lift raises. The lift should be re-activatable from below.
Maelstrom fires his projectile from above his head, should be easy to fix the DECORATE with a lower missile height paramater.

EDIT2:

MAP09 - Again, the first bars can let you stuck in the first part of the map if you backtrack and the bars close, trapping you.

DudeDesigns said:

Nice screens. I'll give this a go later.

Thanks :)

scifista42 said:

Nice that you've managed to release this. I remember playing DTHTI and also a MAP01 demo of this a long time ago. Glad to see more maps in this style and spirit. Faster projectiles / tougher monsters make for a different challenge than our usual Doom. Maps are detailed just enough to be interesting and not bland at all. Leveldesign is simple but also very effective and it's a pleasant experience to explore the maps. I like how you've decided to make the initial maps less intricate and intense than in DTHTI. Lastly, I like your music tracks complementing the maps, even though some of them are reused. I'm currently four maps deep in and I like the mapset a lot so far - and I'm still in the first world. :)


EDIT: Bugs encountered so far:

MAP05 - Yellow skulls can be grabbed from a side (no fatal problem at all).
MAP05 - Player can be trapped if he activates the lion switch lift but escapes before the lift raises. The lift should be re-activatable from below.
Maelstrom fires his projectile from above his head, should be easy to fix the DECORATE with a lower missile height paramater.

EDIT2:

MAP09 - Again, the first bars can let you stuck in the first part of the map if you backtrack and the bars close, trapping you.

That's awesome man, thanks scifista42! :D

Actually I didn't reeeally finish it. I'm pretty sure you have noticed some unbalances and (of course) the bugs. It's like at 95%, because of these stuff and, of course, the final boss, which I didn't had any good idea.

In other hand I wanted to release and get some feedback. :P I hope you're having fun regardless the weird stuff hahaha

Hey, I love these maps. I like the new boss monsters too. I kinda think a red flying cyberdemon might be good for a final boss. Something that shoots more rockets and maybe has a few more attacks or something.

Also, I'm in episode 2 now. It's great stuff. Definitely keep working on maps like this.

That is looking pretty sexypants, that outdoor theme is lip-smacking good.

I just realized there are actually only 4 worlds in this one. When can we expect the 5th?

General Rainbow Bacon said:

Hey, I love these maps. I like the new boss monsters too. I kinda think a red flying cyberdemon might be good for a final boss. Something that shoots more rockets and maybe has a few more attacks or something.

Also, I'm in episode 2 now. It's great stuff. Definitely keep working on maps like this.

Haha Thanks General!
The problem about the final boss is that I'm not very good at messing with DECORATE D:

TheCupboard said:

That is looking pretty sexypants, that outdoor theme is lip-smacking good.

Thanks hahahaha

General Rainbow Bacon said:

I just realized there are actually only 4 worlds in this one. When can we expect the 5th?

Have you played everything alreadly? Woah haha The 5th world is supposedly the last level (and the final boss one, which wasn't made). The initial idea was, however, to have a world beetwen the Jungle and Tech one that would be with more underwater stuff. (with a blue atmosphere)

No, I haven't played through the whole thing yet. I just took a look through the wad and looked for the 5th world. Still in the second world. Your monster placement is evil, specifically in that mining level.

E: I'd consider adding more ammo to the maps. It's really tight and the fact that there are new monsters and even the original ones have more health kinda makes some fights unfair ammo wise. The health is ridiculously tight too. I know UV is supposed to be hard, but now it kinda feels like you just aren't giving us what we need. These problems start in map 08.

Essentially either put the monsters health back to normal, or add more health and ammo.

What I do is I always put in 10 - 20% more ammo than I think is really necessary in a map to allow for missed shots and stuff like that.

Wow, that came out of nowhere and looks great judging by screenshots alone. Downloading it now!

According to the name of the final screenshot, it was finished 2 years ago.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

Hey, I love these maps. I like the new boss monsters too. I kinda think a red flying cyberdemon might be good for a final boss. Something that shoots more rockets and maybe has a few more attacks or something.

Also, I'm in episode 2 now. It's great stuff. Definitely keep working on maps like this.

somehow this reminds me of the architect in map30 of countdown to extinction. it actually is WEAKER than a cyberdemon on it's own, but due to the map structure it is a lot harder to kill.

Doomkid92 said:

Wow, that came out of nowhere and looks great judging by screenshots alone. Downloading it now!

Haha thanks!

joe-ilya said:

According to the name of the final screenshot, it was finished 2 years ago.

Yeah, the mapset is quite old, except for some few stuff here and there.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

No, I haven't played through the whole thing yet. I just took a look through the wad and looked for the 5th world. Still in the second world. Your monster placement is evil, specifically in that mining level.

E: I'd consider adding more ammo to the maps. It's really tight and the fact that there are new monsters and even the original ones have more health kinda makes some fights unfair ammo wise. The health is ridiculously tight too. I know UV is supposed to be hard, but now it kinda feels like you just aren't giving us what we need. These problems start in map 08.

Essentially either put the monsters health back to normal, or add more health and ammo.

What I do is I always put in 10 - 20% more ammo than I think is really necessary in a map to allow for missed shots and stuff like that.

Thanks man! And yeah, there's a lot of unbalanced stuff. Sometimes I finish the levels with more than enough ammo/health, but it's common to also lack. That's why I recommended trying HMP first. The weird stuff becomes too apparent in UV hehehe. Anyway, I'll try to address these unbalances and hopefully make things more fluids and less unfair.

So I've finished my playthrough. Your design, while mostly relatively simplistic, is very pleasant to look at anyways. With gameplay, your maps are a joy too, but one may start feeling that the challenge just isn't enough. Not that it's downright easy (not already due to the fast monsters). What I'm talking about is that most fights can be solved by using a simple circle-strafing or camping behind corners or trees. Also, nothing usually prevents the player from just running away, or past the monsters without killing them. With the exception of scripted (or boss) fights, which mostly weren't all that great, because... as I said earlier. However I can say I've enjoyed some particular challenging exercises (MAP14, MAP15) involving new powerup spheres and/or fast-paced combat in a limited space. Those are unusual and therefore interesting for me.

I actually felt I always had plenty of ammo, I'd personally even remove some from the levels (I was playing continuously, not from pistol starts). Monsters with increased HP tend to result in a tediously slow fight. Fortunately you haven't exaggerated it, except maybe the Snake Imps were too tough. I liked the new weapons with their advantages and disadvantages (harming you when shooting into a wall from close). The Bio-Rifle has proven to be really effective to painlock enemies, and the Freezer gun to kill them quickly. I've used the Railgun just a couple times.

Overally very enjoyable experience, I specially liked the space theme (the theme itself and its leveldesign too). It was above my skills for a long and mistakeless casual play so that I had to use saves, but I felt like the challenge is in fact quite mild (comparing to other mods I see and play) and I could at least challenge myself a bit in a pleasant way ("Can I pass this section without saving or taking too much damage?"). Good job on the mapset!

scifista42 said:

So I've finished my playthrough. Your design, while mostly relatively simplistic, is very pleasant to look at anyways. With gameplay, your maps are a joy too, but one may start feeling that the challenge just isn't enough. Not that it's downright easy (not already due to the fast monsters). What I'm talking about is that most fights can be solved by using a simple circle-strafing or camping behind corners or trees. Also, nothing usually prevents the player from just running away, or past the monsters without killing them. With the exception of scripted (or boss) fights, which mostly weren't all that great, because... as I said earlier. However I can say I've enjoyed some particular challenging exercises (MAP14, MAP15) involving new powerup spheres and/or fast-paced combat in a limited space. Those are unusual and therefore interesting for me.

I actually felt I always had plenty of ammo, I'd personally even remove some from the levels (I was playing continuously, not from pistol starts). Monsters with increased HP tend to result in a tediously slow fight. Fortunately you haven't exaggerated it, except maybe the Snake Imps were too tough. I liked the new weapons with their advantages and disadvantages (harming you when shooting into a wall from close). The Bio-Rifle has proven to be really effective to painlock enemies, and the Freezer gun to kill them quickly. I've used the Railgun just a couple times.

Overally very enjoyable experience, I specially liked the space theme (the theme itself and its leveldesign too). It was above my skills for a long and mistakeless casual play so that I had to use saves, but I felt like the challenge is in fact quite mild (comparing to other mods I see and play) and I could at least challenge myself a bit in a pleasant way ("Can I pass this section without saving or taking too much damage?"). Good job on the mapset!

Woah, thanks for the feedback scifista42!
Saying that most stuff were easy was a bit surprising for me XD I'm also a bit dissapointed that the fights weren't that much interesting. I'll try to focus next time on not making everything passable just by strafing at circles or getting cover :P Glad you liked though!

About the weapons, the Railgun was meant to be a hitscan choice to make easier to hit enemies from far away, but there aren't much sections in the levelset that use big distances, honestly. :P I think most of the times the plasmagun was more useful.

Played through this recently, apologies for late reply.

While simple, your map design is incredibly fun to play. The starting maps were small and delightfully fun to speed run through, and music is catchy as well. The difficulty is steep, but it never made me rage, and in fact I felt encouraged to continue on with the adrenaline pumping music. The new weapons were also great, with the freeze-thrower being my favorite one simply because Duke 3D accustomed me to that

The use of custom monsters is neat as well. As others have mentioned the difficulty is pretty steep, but man it was a rush on later levels.

My favorite theme you designed was the space maps. As well as maps 01 - 04.

Great work. Apologies if my feedback isn't as detailed as the others, but really scifista sums my opinion greatly. It was a real fun wad that was challenging, but fun to play.

DudeDesigns said:

Played through this recently, apologies for late reply.

While simple, your map design is incredibly fun to play. The starting maps were small and delightfully fun to speed run through, and music is catchy as well. The difficulty is steep, but it never made me rage, and in fact I felt encouraged to continue on with the adrenaline pumping music. The new weapons were also great, with the freeze-thrower being my favorite one simply because Duke 3D accustomed me to that

The use of custom monsters is neat as well. As others have mentioned the difficulty is pretty steep, but man it was a rush on later levels.

My favorite theme you designed was the space maps. As well as maps 01 - 04.

Great work. Apologies if my feedback isn't as detailed as the others, but really scifista sums my opinion greatly. It was a real fun wad that was challenging, but fun to play.

Haha relax, I appreciate your feedback :)
Glad you liked it!

I was thinking in using the same assets to make a new 8MAP long wad. What do you guys think?

Deadwing said:

I was thinking in using the same assets to make a new 8MAP long wad. What do you guys think?

I have a certain opinion about it, it may surprise you (and I'm sorry if unpleasantly, it's just my thought). It would be nice if you didn't repeat the themes you've proposed here. Just as I see it, your project is getting low attention. And just a couple differently-structured maps using the same ideas/themes wouldn't be worth the effort.

Unless you did them as quick effortless speedmaps; or radically changed design / gameplay philosophy towards hardcore player's likings; or possibly used the same assets but differently combined together as brand new themes; or came up with new "unexpected" map ideas and concepts. I would really like to see either of these from you. :)

I like your work, and I would like to see more of it. I only said this to warn you, to save you from spending time and effort into, basically, the same thing you've already done. Be sure that "the same game with the exact same principles and characteristics, only with new and differently structured maps" will probably manage to entertain less people than it was before.

Improve it by adding at least something new and actually interesting (I'm talking about "concepts" more than "assets"). Then I think you'll do it right and will probably like it. And more of other people possibly too. ;)

I think you should just add more to this set, and make that final boss.

scifista42 said:

I have a certain opinion about it, it may surprise you (and I'm sorry if unpleasantly, it's just my thought). It would be nice if you didn't repeat the themes you've proposed here. Just as I see it, your project is getting low attention. And just a couple differently-structured maps using the same ideas/themes wouldn't be worth the effort.

Unless you did them as quick effortless speedmaps; or radically changed design / gameplay philosophy towards hardcore player's likings; or possibly used the same assets but differently combined together as brand new themes; or came up with new "unexpected" map ideas and concepts. I would really like to see either of these from you. :)

I like your work, and I would like to see more of it. I only said this to warn you, to save you from spending time and effort into, basically, the same thing you've already done. Be sure that "the same game with the exact same principles and characteristics, only with new and differently structured maps" will probably manage to entertain less people than it was before.

Improve it by adding at least something new and actually interesting (I'm talking about "concepts" more than "assets"). Then I think you'll do it right and will probably like it. And more of other people possibly too. ;)

I see your point haha

I just got some ideas/concepts for some maps, and I'd like to try some more smart monster positioning and stuff too :P

Most of levels would like 10 minutes long though, or even less, like an episode of the first doom.