Slaughterfest 2012 - NEW Final Final Version is up

FDA

I did not finish.

First part: big outdoor area with minimum monster count, still the healthbar gets drained in no time. Clever placements, I like it.

SSG trap: To easy to avoid when you know about it. w1 close door and a switch inside one of the closets to open the door for further progression could be an idea.

Cramped cyberfight: Dunno about this fight really. It could be a cyber in the YK closet and something else in the RK closet?

After the elevator: holy fuck... And where is that RL anyway? A megasphere in front of the switch would have been nice so the player can survive at least 1-2 AV blasts. Taking cover seemed to be a much worse idea than to take an AV blast.

I couldn't motivate myself to play the first part of the map more times so I stopped there. Will finish it some other day. GJ

Exodus Max in 6:01
http://filesmelt.com/dl/exodus-601.zip

First part, I agree with danne.

SSG trap: agree with danne again.

Cramped Cybers: They took longer to drop rather than being hard themselves. I kind of like it, anyways.

After the elevator, there is a secret with an armor and the RL in it. I find that part really really deadly. But you WILL die if Archies target you, so it's luck depending. I actually could beat this part more than dying on it (gotta conserve health hiding in that secret).

Last battle: Yeah, this is great. I like this huge battle. Yet again, a lot of Cybers for you to plasma. Yet again, it takes long to do so.

First version of Hard Contact done. Ignore the text file, I was just testing uploading stuff. Very untested ... the barons in the end should probably be hell knights, and I've thought about making that corridor wider. Not too sure about the masses of imps either.

http://dropcanvas.com/dn0pe

Right changes to Exodus
Red key monster closet, cyber removed, replaced by a couple of monsters, still quite dangerous.
SSG trap has been changed with suggested changes applied.
Rocket launcher now found on the lift instead of inside the secret.
2nd secret now contains blue armour and a switch for a nice surprise outside for the final battle ;)
Also arch-viles have been replaced with revs for the room talked about above, they were a little unfair.
Yellow key switch, two barons have been changed to pain elementals, to add a little variety.
This should be completable in a much quicker time now
http://www.mediafire.com/?3c6kek0bfg3124w

FDA for Hard Contact.

I didn't like the start, at all. Having a spider mastermind on your back, without health or armor, while sitting on a bumpy star of bumpiness, on top of a very tall structure with infinitelytall monsters on the floors below, and a BFG behind spidy... The entire thing is plain tedious until you figure out the map's layout, and at that point it doesn't add anything really as the only viable strategy (IMHO) is to just rush the BFG, let spidy infight its underlings and jump down pacifist style to pick up the backpack and RL, and if deaths happen, so be it, best to restart over and over after 5 seconds of play than have to wander this monster-filled arena without the BFG for a while.

My suggestion would be to just remove the mastermind and make everything east of the player start face east, so the player gets a chance to look around before the slaughter starts. If people ninjaing the red key becomes a concern, you could just put a few revenants on sector 71/72, or perhaps archies teleporting near the red key as you climb up the stairs.

I originally felt the amount of cybie towers were a bit too much, but that's because I didn't have a clear idea of the map due to the aforementioned constant pressure right from the beginning, so changing the above would fix any potential issue like that as well IMHO.

The secret seems to trigger twice. Likely action 159 also takes the effect of the adjoining sector despite not saying so in DB2.

Linedef 1602 is missing an upper texture; or perhaps you meant to join sector 545 with sector 794 as the other parts looking like this are set up like that.

I enjoyed the little fight/architecture in sector 812, quite the unique setup.

The final fight felt a bit overkill given the limited space, I would have liked an invul sphere or no cyberdemons. Making it wider could definitely be a good option. Then again I only played it once, because at that point it had been a while since I started playing anyway.

I liked it overall. I just think it can give a so-so impression on first playthroughs, which thankfully could be easily fixed.

What Phml said. But I don't agree that the final fight was overkill. I found a safe spot were I could, somehow safely, survive without losing to much health.

The last cyberdemon pit was overkill though. There was no chance in hell they could've hit me if I wasn't clumsy as hell. I just stood on a safe distance and held down the trigger and waited. Pretty boring stuff.

The death exit didn't work either. I didn't check DB2 so I don't know what you've done wrong.

Very cool map otherwise.

Alright changed some things, I didn't check the demo as I'm leaving to be with family soon but I'll probably check it out later today. Same link should work, added v2 to the canvas. Surprisingly handy.

Perhaps the most annoying change I made was removing the spidermastermind, heh, I built that very early into the map but I guess it just didn't evolve with that part intact.

We could also mention to the ones who download AB's map that it plays on map slot 21.

Ok. The changes were fine. It actually made the first part of the map hella-easy hehe. But I'm fine with that since the later parts are hard boiled.

Cyberdemon 2833 & 2834 are flagged "deaf" and won't teleport.

The megaspheres in the final fight room are a bit tricky to pick up since they are placed between 2 floors that are raised 16 pixels. Dunno if you want it like that to make it harder or if it's just a mapping flaw. At least now you know it.

To make the starting area harder and more dangerous again maybe you could pack the red key tower with revenants? There is shitloads of ammo to clear the area 3 times over so it wouldn't hurt with some more cannon fodder to force player movement even more.

Great map :)

Cool to see moar maps! and the first AB sighting also :) more comments later.

darkreaver said:

As far as I can tell, the link to my map (Pure Hate) is down. Should I re-upload it? I`m not even sure if it is a slaughter map. It`s kinda cramped and all that, and there are no real "hordes" of monsters. What defines a slaughter map? :P

Sure, you can re-upload it. I was going to re-upload myself, but my dooming computer has been moved to the music room so I haven't got around to it yet. I think it counts as a slaughter map. The start is hectic with hordes, and the end has hordes as well. :)

FDA for Exodus v1.2.

Playing this I found myself wondering "where is the slaughter". The fake exits and final fights set the tone nicely for what is to come and makes the whole thing complete as a standard techbase deviation, but I still think it takes, maybe, a bit long to ramp up to that point... Would have been cool to see the walls crumble, hinting at more sinister environments, too. :P

But it's probably fine as is, really.

AB: I recorded when I tried Hard contact version 2 for the second time: http://www.mediafire.com/?h43bd331nz99e6l

Died near the end by a bastard rocket.

Re downloaded all maps to test which needed other texture packs.
I expected that all maps were to use sf2011-tex for extra resources but I must have misunderstood that.
Well anyway, the list:

A_base.wad
FleshEater.wad
NGTribute.wad
Red Death.wad
SOHellV2.wad
tingsryd-1802-b.wad
UnleashTheFire.wad
WartoEndAllWars.wad

The first post states that custom textures and flats are allowed. I have found that most of the wads you have listed work when played with cc4tex.wad you can download the texture pack from the cc4 thread.
I'm not sure whether it will resolve all maps for you. Not sure whether I have looked at every map.

elmle - yeah, the first post was probably confusing, sorry about that. I added links to the other commonly used texture packs. At the end of the project, all of the extra textures will be added to the resource wad.

A_base.wad = cc4-tex
FleshEater.wad = cc4-tex
NGTribute.wad = gothictx
Red Death.wad = gothictx
SOHellV2.wad = cc4-tex
tingsryd-1802-b.wad = q1tex
UnleashTheFire.wad = cc4-tex
WartoEndAllWars.wad = gothictx

A short, super-brutal map I made over the last few days.

http://www.mediafire.com/?00icsmczbua31lz

Runs on Map 21, requires NB_RECOL.wad

Hey guys, I'm a casual doomer who has been following/downloading your maps since the near end of SF2011 and I just wanted to throw an opinion out there.

I read the last page's discussion and I want to say that I agree with j4rio & danne's approach to viewing the slaughterfest collection. While it's awesome that you're getting contributions from a wide variety of mappers, I'm not completely on gggmork's side that the more maps the merrier. As someone who has tried to play all of slughterfest2011, it's just a little jarring to go from the "better maps" (like the zig-zaggey, panic inducing "Lull" or the absolutely masterfully crafted, expansive beatdown of "mouse") to the "lesser maps" (like the super-slog of "mixednuts" or the slow-paced, confusing hodgepodge of "waffles" [no offense DH; your other maps are better!]). While I agree that authors' maps should not strive for conformity over personal ingenuity, I think a vote at the end to slam the "best" 32 maps you can together would definitely help to make it enjoyable to those outside of the project... and you could bundle the rest together in another wad for those that wanna see the whole project.

I also think while grouping map by author is a neat way to explore their style as you're playing through the wad, breaking up the maps and having a "progression" is the best way to make the wad fun, since after the 5th Grain of Salt map I was a tad burnt out on his similar symmetrical style. I found myself idcleving to enjoy different parts of each authors' works to get a different feel than playing through each one's contributions in one sitting.

You guys are the makers and planners though so it's ultimately up to you. This is just my 2 cents from an outsider's perspective. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the feedback on my map, 1ntru and j4rio. I'll improve it when I finish the other maps I'm working on.

I tried to edit PC's map a bit, scaled it and changed some stuff. Haven't tried to beat it yet nor do I know if it's better/worse than original PC's map, but I figured I'd post it to hear it should be trashed instead of doing it right away.

http://filesmelt.com/dl/2012_PC_Edit.wad

Added some more revenants and some cyber platforms to make the beginning a little more interesting, as well as shifting the megaspheres onto the platforms of the alcoves in the end.

http://dropcanvas.com/dn0pe

Playthrough of version 3

There's still 2 deaf flagged cybies and the death exit still doesn't work. Other than that, the first part is good as it is with the additional revenants and cybie platforms.

Fixed the death exit, apparently telefragging yourself isn't enough so I added barrels. Tested with 200/200 I think and it killed me. See previous post for dl link. Oh and those cybers are supposed to be multiplayer only, in case some people wanted to stay outside and let one guy deal with it, heheh. Good thing I checked them multiplayer until I got the deaf tags off.

Another New Map, another shortish one too, shouldn't be too difficult. I still need to add more detail in some areas, but the gameplay has been sorted out for UV at least, I will work on any improvements needed for Exodus tomorrow.
This one is called Core Annihalation
http://www.mediafire.com/?027z4156s2pd3ja
This map should encourage aggressive play, but I will let better players than me decide that :)

Another Update, possibly the final.

Unleash The Fire V3

Changes Made:
- Difficulty levels implemented. Map logic was slightly adjusted for this change to accommodate the waiting times.
- Changed the MIDI to my favorite Doom music. The original did get old after many many playtesting sessions...
- Ammo amounts for certain fights adjusted slightly. (mostly cells)
- Red key ambush chaingunners replaced with revenants. Previously the chaingunners would cause too much damage in the main arena and would infight in the holding cell. These changes also make getting out of the red key room a priority. No-one will want to be stuck in a small room with 4 cyberdemons...
- Final fight area has reduced cell ammo; the ammo is replaced with rockets instead. I can beat it, you can too.
- A few areas received aesthetic changes, namely, the exit room.

Enjoy.

EDIT: ToD, Y U NO UPDATE OP?!

Cannonball: If you want more aggressive play, you should consider giving away blue armor at the start instead of keeping it secret (without any clue of how to get it at all) like it is now. Running towards revenants with homing missiles and chaingunners with clear sight through the whole corridor drains the health fast as hell. And that's the only hard part of the entire map tbh.

The room with green tech floor and shotgun guys behind pillars: I would've like to see the imps on the platform to the left get switched to revenants to make it harder to clear the platforms of enemies. The shotgun guys are pretty lame when they are flagged deaf. Maybe make them teleport when you activate the lift? There is a berserk pack there after all, so if you got hit by a rocket you can get back to 100% health quickly.

Maybe you should consider removing the invuln on UV. Maybe swap it for a soulsphere instead to make the last AV's more threatning.

Nice map, but the q1 textures seemed completely out of place.

TimeOfDeath said:

Use sky transfers if you want a custom sky

What does this mean? I want to use a particular maroon red sky and not the RSKY1 in the SF2011-tex wad. Simply importing my sky texture of choice into my wad still uses the grey one from SF2011-tex.

Bloodite: Make a skybox.

Make a square outside of your ordinary map and give the lindefs the sky texture that you want to use (make sure you select the sky texture lower, middle and upper). Go into properties of the 4 lindefs you've modified and select action 271 (transfer sky to tagged sectors) and make sure sectors with sky texture are correctly tagged.

You should also consider changing the name of the sky if it's named "sky1" for example.

Thanks for the explanation Danne :)

While I was able to get it to work successfully, some sectors with the sky were conflicting with my own tags so I decided to go with the eerie space sky texture instead.

Last Cup of Sorrow

Requires: SF2012-tex.zip

Placed as MAP12

It's a HR esque map with an incremental scale, you begin with the SSG battling against weaker foes then it slowly builds up in intensity. It's mostly finished with the exception of HMP and Coop compatability. One area is inspired by Holy Hell :)

Niiiiice. Too bad I'm not capable of beating that within this century. :p

Yesss.. If your poor at dodging in close quarters :) Even when playing sloppy when playtesting I still manage to pull through, you have to pay attention to movement, particularly how monsters move as well, once you get the feel it isn't as atrocious as it seems.

FDA for Last Cup of Sorrow. Few deaths, doesn't complete, gets to what I assume is the final fight.

I really enjoyed this one! Clever, interesting, challenging fights. As I played through the archvile/chaingunner/columns one I thought "oh, this is definitely going to be my favorite part". Then I played through the revenant/caco arena (followed by mancs/cybie in the pit as you climb up, and at that point surely that was it, this was the best part of the map. Then there was the cybie/revenants/arachnotrons fight and... You get the point. :)

Now onto the nitpicks and random thoughts!

At first I believed ducking to the left right after entering the second room was too efficient as a chokepoint. Then again, given the length of the map I'm not sure it's a bad thing to have a safe way out of the very first fight, and it still requires some wiggling around to get the monsters previously in here out of commission.

I thought I could have used a little bit more health after the archvile/chaingunner fight, before getting into the next part. I ended up juust pulling through by playing cautiously and managing every single step as to dodge lost souls and projectiles and get all of the monsters to move a certain way, and winning by a hair like that felt great and appropriate for UV. Perhaps it's a spot worth looking at in lower difficulties (though I haven't even checked how/if you have balanced that yet).

The lifts in the revenant/caco arena could stand to be more obvious. Perhaps the player is meant to memorize their positions while (I assume) revenants are triggering them? I don't think it's working too well if so, given there's four of them and you have to manage a caco horde slowly creeping towards you while also dodging a barrage of revenant missiles.

Coming back to the second room, the archviles seemed unnecessary and forced, almost padding. They don't pose much of a threat as you can just backpedal to the room you just came from and due to the shape of the architecture they won't follow, yet at the same time their number makes a front attack too dangerous given you don't have a BFG yet and the angle right behind you doesn't give you much leeway with the RL (if you have rockets left at all). Their ressurection eats ammo too, and if I didn't provoke infight between the cybie and the mancs I might have ended up in a stalemate. I would think just two archviles guarding that switch, perhaps with bars closing down on either side, might be better here.

In (what I assume is) the final room, those decorations impeding movement were tedious. If I'm not meant to go around the cybie blocks, I would prefer impassable lines/raised sectors, movement often ends up too floaty near decorations.

Again, overall everything was great and those are just details. I stopped after getting killed in the final fight and perhaps that is the one real complaint that could be made, it is very linear and so the motivation to go through it all again after a death can vanish. That said, it works as a linear map and clearly couldn't, shouldn't be changed at this point.