Jimi's Nameless Megawad (9 levels now)

Time for another megawad project... uhh...

I hope I don't abandon this after posting this thread... Usually that's happened. To counter the usual abandonment, I thought I'll make the levels so that they could be standalone levels, not try to start making them from MAP01 and worry about final level order later. I'll probably make one level every week or two.

Well, so far this project has 9 levels.

It should work on any port. And since the levels were made like standalone levels, they're pistol start combatible.

Includes a DEH that adds A_KeenDie to boss monster death sequences.. so remember to load the external DEH if the port doesn't load DEHACKED lumps from wads.

Levels so far (level names = screenshot links):

EPISODE 0:
NAMELESS

MAP01 - STC Time Zero
MAP02 - Water Store
MAP03 - Ventilation

--

EPISODE 1:
NO ESCAPE

MAP10 - Waste Processing
MAP11 - Oil Rig

--

EPISODE 2:
BETRAYAL

MAP18 - Bricks and Frags
MAP19 - Heart of the City
MAP20 - Haunted Library

--

EPISODE 3:
MISSION: DEATH

MAP21 - Weigh'O'Despair

--

Download:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_v008.zip

Demos and other feedback are welcome.

Nice. Here are my first attempts. map10 was pretty easy, I never really felt like I was in danger. 11 was more interesting, sometimes I had to skip monsters while looking for ammo and that was making things a lot more hectic. Personally, I think you provide the player with more space (or less monsters :-) than necessary, so both levels can be finished very easily with careful playing.

I really like the style of maps portrayed in the screens. Totally playing this.

Thanks! I think for me they both are sort of close to my skill limits. And as their themes kinda fit better for the first "episode", they may get a bit easier.

Or maybe episode ending levels could be more difficult than episode starting levels? For an example MAP12 would be (much) easier than MAP11.

I'll probably use the usual E1: Techbase, E2: City and E3: Hell kind of themes. It's possible E2 would be techbase too, but more corrupt and decayed. Other than the theme, there wouldn't be any other continuity between the levels, or I'll add that later.

Played these two levels. Really liked the layouts and design. A lot of the fights felt a little similar in terms of monster selection, but generally interesting.

A few little things to perhaps fix up:


Upper texture misalignment.


Gotta admit, I dislike when items are put where they must be picked up.


Thought this liquid platform could be lowered into the ground, rather than sitting 8 units above it.

Generally good stuff though. Am interested to see more.

Thanks for spotting that.. don't know what I was thinking trying to y align the slimy bricks.

Tried adding some baby spiders into the MAP11, also moved that armor, and made the oilfall traps use the instant lower trick. Too bad there's not a turbo lower to lowest... Also added a secret.

And some new screens:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_004.png
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_005.png
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_006.png
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_007.png
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_008.png
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_009.png

Tried making something with corridors, or just not so massive structures. And vertically tiling SUPPORT2... Yea, it does look better...

Ok, a new version is up.. This has 5 levels now.

The new 3 new levels are MAP01 to MAP03. There are some minor updates/fixes on the 2 previous levels.

Maybe the next levels I'd do would be in the City/Corrupt Base or the Hell episode, so I could get a better feeling what kind of difficulty should be in the first episode.

Download: http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_v006.zip

Man, that's one great MAP01! I highly approve your decision to not hesitate to give the player right away what he actually wants - shooting fun! And as it seems, you know how to do shooting fun well. I also really like those big secrets with additional combat in them, although I didn't get the point of the eastern "secret exit". I'm not sure if you intended it to behave like a crusher that killed all monsters inside when I came close and didn't even let me in, because the low-open door were crusher too. Anyway great fun and I'll soon play the rest.

MAP02 didn't disappoint after the first one. Used textures work surprisingly well being mixed together. Gameplay is another pleasure, relatively easy but you must not slack off. Even though it is probably unintentional, I really like the first teleport trap when the floor is raising with you and teleport fog drops down while disappearing, that effect looks cool. I like your frisky approach to mapping shown in the secret behind locked door ;) I'd like to know if it is an intention that east and west secret switches in the first area both do lower both secrets, instead of just the one on its side. I found it a little strange, but nothing too bad. To my own surprise, although playing continuous and finding all secrets, I've finished the map with relatively low ammo. Thorough the level, I was never lacking it. Which means you've done the balance really well.

MAP03 very well introduces an SSG, because it's not an introduction like "here lies another weapon, feel free to get it", but after you grab it quite early on, you're given a whole map of opportunities to test it in practice. And it makes an enjoyable ride! Again, visuals and gameplay are great (I already got used to your style), and secrets are hidden in new ways, which I appreciate. This time I've finished the map with lots of ammo (with all secrets).

I was forced to warp to MAP10 and lose all my inventory so I changed strategy and from this point, I was just resurrecting myself using ZDoom "resurrect" cheat after every death. I've died several times on this map, mostly from inattention so don't take it into account. I like the three-branch gameplay here, with each area (including the central) having a fair amount of monsters coming in interesting encounters. I admit I was expecting a cyberdemon after jumping down behind red door, but I've got quite a shock from what I've actually found. Great map, and in my opinion, well suitable for this position in a wad.

I entered MAP11 with lots of ammo brought from the previous map, and the map drained it ALL from me. But I admit, if I were pistol starting this I would explore all the corners with ammo more in depth. Some interesting looking structures in this, and many interesting fights, no disappointment here as well. I like the loud ending :)

And finally I have to say - I really like your recolored liquids.

Good luck with making this a full great megawad, I'd be glad for every next map of yours, that much I enjoyed them!

Thanks for the reviews :)

The easter egxit in MAP01 was there just to spook player... and maybe if the level is ever revisited.. ;) And to be able to get 100% kills, the monsters there needed to be teleported/crushed... although if they got under the malfunctioning door, then that was not intented.

In MAP02, the secret switches don't lower both secrets, just the one on that side, but going into the secret reveals the other as some sort of trap. Initially they were just traps that lowered by walk/cross line, but that might have been a bit annoying if player hadn't killed all the other monsters in that area already..

Mmm.. didn't even notice that teleport effect at the start, until now that you mention it :)

MAP03 ammo balance, etc.. I maybe pushed the level out too fast, was starting to get interested in working on my other project. I'll tweak the level later and maybe add some optional (secret?) areas to find through the vents.

Also just noticed that in continuous play, player would collect 360 cells from Backpacks. Maybe I'll introduce the Plasma Gun when it hits 600. With the current Backpack appear rate it would be like level 5 or 6. 7 could make sense too, since there's the intermission text before it.

Good stuff Jimi. Here's FDAs for all five. Recorded with glboom+ cl2. The complevel was accidentally left but whatcha gonna do. The one for map03 is a failed attempt but I died with 6 monsters left so I probably saw the majority of the map.

Maps01, 10 and 11 were all very good and I didn't find anything in particular to complain about. The other two were fine as well but a few things struck out.

Map02: The BK is weird, I thought I didn't use it in my demo in any way but looking the map in DB it looks like it does have a purpose after all. The Cyber-trio secret is goofy as hell, not sure if that's a good idea or not. Checked out the secret I missed in the demo afterwards and found out that it's VERY easy to make the PE get stuck in it's little hole. Just making the closet a bit bigger should solve that problem though.

Map03: This one section where there's a "bridge" over some nukage and a handful of HK's and Imps trotting towards the player to start with (and a chaingun maybe?), seems like the HKs have a knack of getting stuck with the elevator there as you can see happening twice in the demo. The jump into the shotgun shaft at the start is a bit awkward and might be a problem for some players. Nothing else really comes to mind at this hour. The intestine-flavored room looks delicious though!

Some of these problems could be source port things or complevel things or whatever, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to that stuff. If it is so, my apologies and please do ignore them :)

Looks like the small swithces are a bit difficult to use. You found the one in MAP01, but then use action hit the wall around it...

Maybe I'll move the PE in MAP02 forward a bit, so it doesn't need to lower down, and flag the line behind it blocked, so it doesn't float up either. At first there were two of them...

I could use block monsters flag on the walk/cross activated lifts in MAP03 bridge/nukage room, did that later in the exit area, so the HKs and Mancus don't get stuck on the lifts there. Imps seems to be able to use them better, although they get stuck sometimes, as both lifts activate at the same time and some imps might not be in the correct place to hop on to the lift.

I could make the vent opening at the start a bit wider..

Allright.. time for update... now it's 9 levels.

New levels are from MAP18 to MAP21. These are maybe a bit simpler looking as I did them pretty fast. Most of the time went into tweaking/testing the gameplay. All the levels are pistol startable.

I also added a DEH, which adds A_KeenDie to the boss monster death sequences, so their deaths can open doors. If you're playing with a port that doesn't load DEHACKED lumps from WADs, remember load the external DEH file...

Demos/Feedback are welcome, preferably from MAP18 to MAP21. Also included my own demos from them, and some "quick/preview/death" demos inside the wad.

Download: http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_v008.zip

Screenshots:
MAP18: http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_020.png
MAP19: http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_013.png
MAP20: http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_012.png
MAP21: http://koti.mbnet.fi/jeejeeje/doom/jnm_015.png