A techbase by armouredblood

What's this, a nonhell map? Yep. Still heavily populated, though the demons and weaponry are taken down a knotch. Took a little bit of negative feelings and funneled it into this boom comp vanilla textured level. Leave an FDA and comments if you can, I subjected jimmy91 to this already to get his permission to use his midi Adrenaline in the Blood. Enjoy the slaughter.

FDA. I enjoyed it a lot. Good fights, plenty of possibilities to abuse monster infighting, barrel placement that makes you think how to use them more effectively. I like the music too, especially the part that starts around 3:00.
I have two complaints, the first one is very minor: an armor bonus changes its position after the shotgunner alcoves open. The second is more serious: monsters can barely navigate the stairs after the yellow door so it's too easy to kill them from below. That makes for a disappointedly easy final fight. I'd recommend to widen the stairs and maybe make it so the cacos teleport after you hit the lift switch and they appear between the two yellow doors, trying to block the player when he shamelessly runs away. :)

I thought the level itself could have used a little more in the way of detail and lighting variation, but the gameplay was really really good.

More.

really fun/chaotic. One of the openings to the center ssg is really hard to fit through, prob needs to be wider.

Armor bonus and stairs issues fixed. I intended the cacodemons do that, but it was late and I didn't think to just use a passthru on the switch since cacodemons are impossible to make teleport closets for if you have just a floor raise action. I'd make the openings in the rings bigger, but it'd mess with the structure a bit much ... maybe just a little wider. I'll do that in a bit maybe.

Oh yeah, final fight spiced up a little. Check the canvas.

Cool map, very hectic. Did a lot of dying and saving. I like the liberal scattering of barrels, they came in handy. I did a laugh at the spidermastermind trying to join the party at the end.

Really enjoyed it, even though I died a whoooole lot. Really liked the dynamic of the teleporter in there, used that to frenetically cruise around the base for the final wave of monsters. Also, nice touch on adding the Spider Mastermind to the entrance area. I was too busy dodging Revenants to even notice it was there until it lit me up.

Since I high-tailed it out of the last area after hitting the elevator switch, and didn't see the imps come up, I thought, "Hey, no falling damage! I'll just drop down and avoid the final wave of monsters." Right into the sea of imps. What I wouldn't give for a Duke Nukem pipe bomb...

Cool music, too. Really liked it overall. Didn't get all the secrets -- was there more plasma ammo available?

All the ssg openings were fine except 1. Try them in order and you'll probably see one is like exactly 32 pixels wide or something practically requiring a glide to go through (bump into it repeatedly and you can fit through eventually though in prboom+)

Fixed the SSG ring issues, I think. Sort of. Only 2 of the openings that looked small were widened. Anyway, plasma should only be on HMP, and I only put it with the plasma gun. So no more plasma, sorry.

8:30 max but missed 1 secret (just forgot to walk into it apparently).

http://filesmelt.com/dl/station2245v3-1-830-missed1secret-ggg.lmp

The vile was easy enough this time, but lost time completely missing rockets. Speed depends on whether mastermind infights or is a stuck bitch (was the latter this time).

what possessed you to make a techbase level? Cool map by the way.

A pretty good time, although in a bit of a different style than what I (and probably others) have come to expect from you....it sort of reminds me of a less scatterbrained Gene Bird + early HR II map, of all things. Like others, I dig the barrel usage--it felt good that my initial instinct not to blow them up while first going down the angled cement corridor paid off when stuff started teleporting in behind me. The "core" room with the SSG looks interesting, and the trap that springs when you pick said weapon up makes it pretty clear that you're probably intended to fight off the trap from the inside, but the openings between the layers are all so narrow that it's hard to move smoothly without actively watching where you're going (although it tends to stymy the monsters a bit too, I guess), meaning that it's probably more effective to just haul ass back out to the corridor and fight from there. I tried it both ways....staying in the room is more fun, but running for the chokepoint is really a lot smarter.

The final battle, well, that's the best part, since the availability of the dropoff to the right and the stairs at the back give you a lot of options. If the spiderdemon who appears on the landing outside wasn't in the first version, I reckon it was a good addition, because it keeps you from chokepointing safely at the bottom of the stairs. Only thing I didn't really like were the groups of tiny monster closets in the first crate room.....seemed sort of awkward and "weird for weirdness'" sake. Might've worked better if they'd all just been triggered to spring on a walkover trigger at the other threshold, or something....could've chased you into the backpack room, something like that.

Will NG #2 have a few 'breather' maps in a similar style to this one, or will you be sticking with a more grandiose/largescale slaughter style + generous item placement like most of the first one had?

I was playing a bit of hadephobia since the dwmegawad club was playing it, and decided I hadn't done anything interesting with former sergeants yet. They don't really make sense logically or thematically in hell, so, just went to techbase.

If you can't tell by how sporadically I post, I've lost a lot of inspiration for doom mapping so NG2 isn't going anywhere. It might've had to do with the map I started not having any musical inspiration and the general lack of new midis I've come across. But you asked about the ordering of maps, and NG1 had no order besides when I made the map, earliest first. I think when I make NG2 I will actually try to order the maps this time so there isn't some crazy variation in difficulty, though the maps are all pretty hard. I've come away from NG1 with the conclusion that I don't want to make a megawad full of 30+ minutes maps again so yeah probably quite a few 'breather' maps like this.

The alcoves in the second room are about the third thing I made in the map, and really should be changed. I'll do that now actually.

EDIT: V4, unfortunately dropcanvas changed their policy so unless you're paying, files get deleted. Soooo every other upload I had with them is dead. For now, trying filesmelt since mediafire doesn't like opera.

http://filesmelt.com/dl/Station2245_v4.wad

E2: Uploaded to idgames for posterity

What a great challenge, very solid map. Just the right amount of ammo, died about a million times but there was always a strategic way to win. Fun stuff, I really hope to see more!

Really enjoyed the gameplay throughout the level. I played on HMP and found there was just the right amount of health/ammo so that I had to keep an eye on what I was using but not worry too much. I really had to keep strategising over how to win each fight, especially in the opening couple of rooms, where I died the most. I did notice myself doing a lot of hide/peak/shoot/repeat towards the end but I think you made it hard enough to break out of big groups of enemies that this wasn't a problem - I felt like I'd earned it. Also liked the barrel placement.

The only real negative for me was lack of detail/texture variation but that wasn't a massive issue - what is there now looks solid.

Dont be too concerned with them not making sense because they're fucking everywhere in Thy Flesh Consumed.

FDA for v4.
I expected something more slaughter-oriented after ngmvmt1, oh well. Visually it's not for me to appreciate since it looks too 'nostalgic' for me (and I don't suffer from nostalgia at all), gameplay-wise it's more miss than hit but still fun. Special thanks for that last part with all hell breaking loose at once, bastards almost got me that time. Nice adrenaline boost.
All in all - not bad, but you've reached a very high ground yourself with ngmvmt1, and this is inferior by all means. Maybe I should stop expecting too much. Yeah, maybe.

What you expected was a type of map I haven't really wanted to do in a year or more. I might get around to it - if I find the right inspiration. Perhaps I should post what I have of the NG2 map I got stuck on.

ArmouredBlood said:

What you expected was a type of map I haven't really wanted to do in a year or more. I might get around to it - if I find the right inspiration.

Okay, I see, a deserved rest from endless gut-wrenching. So be it, though I don't give up my hope of seeing Movement 2 in not-so-distant future.

ArmouredBlood said:

Perhaps I should post what I have of the NG2 map I got stuck on.

I wouldn't. Some sreenshots maybe, but not the map itself. It's better to take your time and finish it eventually that to post something raw and unpolished, isn't it?