Extermination Day Megawad Project

After one year and a half making loose maps, I decided to finally put everything in a wad and try to make a megawad.
Extermination Day will feature alternate routes. Let's say, in Map02, instead going to Map03, you can get into a "secret" level, and after you finish said level, you will skip map03 and start in map04. You are even going to start the same map in a different place. You can play the wad many times taking different routes every time you play.
It's going to be a ZDoom map pack that uses many zdoom features, and allows the player to freely make use of jumping, crouching and even rocket jumping without worrying about breaking the level flow.
The map is specially aimed at Zandronum's online cooperative play. All maps will have 8 player start locations so a lot of people can join without causing telefrags at the start, and all maps will have almost twice as much monsters in multiplayer. All maps will also feature starting locations for DM games, so the maps can provide some little fun for deathmatch with bots.

PLOT AND MAP PROGRESS:

Episode 1 - Operation Blowtorch
The government has secretly working with Teleport technology (inb4 how original) in the Area 51 in the middle of the Mojave Wasteland. But something went wrong and an intelligent and heavily armed alien force has emerged from the gate and have overtaken the whole Area 51. The military could not nuke the place out because the gate was constructed in an anti-nuclear shelter one mile under the ground. A nuclear strike could destroy the base and kill the aliens on it and borrow everything underground, but the portal would still be open and the aliens would soon or later find a way out. Then, the military sends the most combat hardened marines that ever existed (the Players) to get down, and destroy the portal manually. After it they could carpet bomb the base and everything in radius of 150 miles to make sure that no alien have escaped.

MAP01 Staging Area - 100%
MAP02 Engineering Bay (Alternative Exit to ALT01 Testing Center) - 0%
MAP03 Administration Center - 100%
MAP04 Marine HQ - 100%
MAP05 Secret Labs - 0%
MAP06 The Gate (boss level) - 0%
MAP07 Hangar - 0%



Episode 2 - Hell on Earth
Things didn't went like planned.The marines successfully closed the main gate, but even before it, it already was too late, because the aliens have used their magic to open a new (and 10 times bigger) portal. They have completely destroyed Los Angeles and started spreading like a plague, opening smaller portals in the way to summon even more aliens. The Marines must travel to Los Angeles and try to close the new gate.

MAP08 Mojave Desert - 0%
MAP09 Roadkill - 0%
MAP10 The Abandoned Factory (Alternative Exit to ALT02 Church) - 0%
MAP11 Downtown - 100%
MAP12 Gore on the Tracks - 0%
MAP13 Suburbs - 100%
MAP14 The Bridge - 0%
MAP15 Eye of the Storm - 5%



Episode 3 - The Outworld
Without finding a way to close the magic gate, the brave marines decide to cross the gate and try to shut it down from the other side. They get into the alien dimension. The alien world seems like a medieval place with large structures built of stone and wood. They seem to worship symbols such as the pentagram and the cross. The sky is dark and has a red color. The marines will have to struggle to cross this hostile land and find the main source of the portals.

MAP16 The Blood Outpost - 100%
MAP17 The City of Souls - 100%
MAP18 Swamp of Sorrows - 100%
MAP19 Black Stronghold - 100%
MAP20 Ant Hill 50%
MAP21 Dark Mountain Keep - 80%
MAP22 Jungle of Despair (Alternative Exit to ALT04 Temple of Gloom) - 0%
MAP23 Ancient Catacombs - 80%
MAP24 The Tower (boss level) - 90%



Episode 4 - The Dimension of the Damned
Crossing another portal, the marines reaches a very dark place. The sky is pitch black, and there's a huge fire consuming everything in the horizon and this is the only light source around. The terrain seems to be an incomensurable mountain range with lava flowing from the peaks. The only buildings present are creepy structures of marble and iron built near the cliffs and are very distant from each other. The Marines have reached this frightening place of no return, and they have no other option than going forward and face the nightmares that inhabit this desolate land.

MAP25 Darkness - 0%
MAP26 Sacrificial Grounds - 0%
MAP27 Citadel of Bones - 0% (Secret Exit to MAP50 Torture Chambers) - 0%
MAP28 Epicenter (final boss level) - 0%


Alternative routes:
ALT01 Testing Center (skips MAP03 and exit to MAP04) - 0%
ALT02 Church (skips MAP11 and MAP12 and exit to ALT03) - 0%
ALT03 Mansion (exit to MAP13) - 0%
ALT04 Temple of Gloom (skips MAP24 exit to MAP25) - 0%
MAP50 Torture Chambers (Flows to MAp28) - 0%

Screenshots (brightness has been increased to better show the details)

http://i46.tinypic.com/3305l42.png
Staging Area

http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/202/1111dkfr.jpg
Administration Center

http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/23/5555555u.jpg
Downtown

http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/827/44444444ry.jpg
Suburbs

http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/163/2222bj.jpg
Black Stronghold

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/743/bloodoutpost1.jpg
Blood Outpost

If anyone wants to contribute with extra maps to make more alternative routes, you are welcome to give a try.
I will upload a beta after I finish few more maps.

like the idea, but I don't like the concept of skipping levels. maybe just have them as secret levels with a reward at the end for beating them (maybe something to make the main levels a bit easier). I think an alternative may be to allow skipping, but not require it.

I like the non-linear idea a lot!

Cool idea and lovely screenies!

i think the screenshots carbon-copying your recent standalone maps look okay, although they promise no gameplay (as we learned from those maps). the rest looks really bad. the 3d bridges just scream "why the hell not?!" and i think you should use more textures in one scene.

The screen shot for Blood Outpost looks really, really, bland. Considering your heavy 3D floor usage, this area could stand for alot more detail, or at least something outside a floating block of ashwall.

BloodyAcid said:

The screen shot for Blood Outpost looks really, really, bland. Considering your heavy 3D floor usage, this area could stand for alot more detail, or at least something outside a floating block of ashwall.

Yes, it is. This is an old screenshot when I released this map as a standalone map back in the day. I opened the map in Doom Builder now, and I have even noticed some sectors that I was supposed to raise and lower, but just forgot.

Check it now.
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/743/bloodoutpost1.jpg

And other area of the map
http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/9500/bloodoutpost2.jpg

Pure Hellspawn said:

like the idea, but I don't like the concept of skipping levels. maybe just have them as secret levels with a reward at the end for beating them (maybe something to make the main levels a bit easier). I think an alternative may be to allow skipping, but not require it.

You don't skip levels, you just play different levels. In the end of the game, you will have played the same number of levels. In levels with multiple exits to alternative routes, I will make a text message saying "This Patch leads to (Name of Level)".

dew said:

i think the screenshots carbon-copying your recent standalone maps look okay, although they promise no gameplay (as we learned from those maps). the rest looks really bad. the 3d bridges just scream "why the hell not?!" and i think you should use more textures in one scene.

These maps will play differently than the original maps, some of them will have new monster and ammo placement to match their map slots (like the maps from Sinful Dimension), others will have a different setup, with different start locations (like Neighborhood From Hell)

What you could do is make maybe a hub system with some of the maps so that way you can go back and play the other path/level. Overall, I like the idea and would love to play it :) If you need help with music, I can assist.

The implementation of branching paths here seems rather awkward. I think it would make more sense if it was a much shorter mapset that'd be more replay friendly, or if significantly more of it was branched off so that you'd get a legitimately different experience, like switching out entire episodes' worth of maps. As-is, I probably wouldn't be interested in repeatedly playing through all 28+ levels just to find the four or five maps that might be different next time.