Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Katamori

Uplink: 3 Boom maps in the cyberspace [ON /IDGAMES!]

Recommended Posts

AS OF 12/09/2016, UPLINK HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY RELEASED! TRY AND RATE HERE!

Inspired by various music (an album by a friend of mine (here's a song from that, which I use on the first map as well), OST of Deus Ex and its mods such as The Nameless Mod or Nihilum, Uplink and VVVVVV) and Obsidian's "Into the Code" release I decided to make a mapset of half-cyberpunk, half-VR style.

There's no actually story yet, the main concept is to clear hellspawn out of various internet services in a virtual reality-like depiction of such services.

There were plans of more maps, but because of certain circumstances and mapper's block, I decided to release it with three maps.

Teaser screenshots:



Outdated + more screenshots:

Spoiler


MAP01: Login





MAP02: FTP Server





MAP03: The Resolver






MAP04: Liberty Port (WIP)





Download the current build here.
Download music WAD here - had to be separated, since I couldn't manage to make it below 30 mb. Not mandatory, but strongly recommended for the complete experience.
Needs cc4-tex.wad to run.

Share this post


Link to post

FDA. Nice visuals. I didn't like the skippability of fights in the main "outdoor" area. I also didn't like the dynamic of the fight against a pinky / spectre horde. I recommend you to make more use of solid obstacles and height variation during combat: Don't let the player fight on a flat ground only, instead let the monsters attack him from multiple heights and allow the player to evade attacks by climbing stairs or dropping from ledges or hide behind obstacles etc.; flat ground combat is rather boring. Finally, make it so that the player can return back from the exit area.

Share this post


Link to post

Loving the very tall areas. The shots of map 2 look really good. Bright, primary coloured textures always look good in Doom, especially when they're metallic. Fir some reason it looks like the walls are bars made from lasers.

Share this post


Link to post

scifista, thanks for the FDA! Gonna watch that at night. I have no idea what would I do without your extensive FDA help... :D

About design: this map was intended to be a small square in a city-like scenery, that's the reason of the flat area. I can't even change that too drastically, mostly because of that logo in the middle. Though, if you think they may fit, I can put some small pillars to various places, with width of 32.

Returning from exit, and breakind skippability is easy though.

MajorRawne, I didn't think much of the texture use, I just felt in my guts that SHAWNBLU would pass to these maps, they have a hologram/laser/digital matter feeling.

There are going to be several architecture ideas like this which are kinda abstract but still can give the feel.

Share this post


Link to post

Link updated!

MAP01: changed according to the tips of scifista:
- no optional ways
- you can go back from exit
- pillars are NOT added yet though

MAP02: finished!
- had a hard time with testing so you might find it either buggy or hard
- please tell me such things

MAP03: half-finished
- architecture and 80% of gameplay is done
- try if you want anyway, that may help both in gameplay and in bugs

Share this post


Link to post

reminds me of DO-TIMS, there's this one map you fight in a supercomputer called Oremor the super computer, plus SOD: map 31.

can't wait to see the finished product.

Share this post


Link to post

Tried it with GZDoom, got stuck on MAP01. Got the blue keycard and the blue skull, am stuck. There's a pillar I can open with the blue skull, but it doesn't let me go through to what's beyond anyway because there's also blue bars that didn't move. The elevator won't move back up, and what appears to be a teleporter is also blocked.

Looking in a map editor, seems that the other bars are supposed to open as well, but the effect is a D1 which only affects the back sector, not the tagged sector. (The tagged sector is instead the light sector.)

Tried with Eternity, same thing, so it's not a ZDoom bug.

Share this post


Link to post

Thank you Gez; however, I was aware of that mistake and since I fixed it, but I didn't upload the fixed version, because of the seemingly lack of interest.

Share this post


Link to post
Katamori said:

I was aware of that mistake and since I fixed it, but I didn't upload the fixed version, because of the seemingly lack of interest.

I suppose that there are people who download wads and don't leave a single comment in threads - out of many possible reasons, for example they simply want to play something and not be reviewers / playtesters, or they find out that the wad is not up to their tastes (not just quality-wise, but categorically). Speaking for myself, when the latter thing happens to me, I often don't comment, because I feel that I have nothing meaningful to say.

Share this post


Link to post

Interesting visuals, some parts reminded me of TRON games. Difficulty is definitely on the low side, I didn't come even close to dying during the entire playthrough (I played on UV and my health never dropped below 60%). Though personally, I found it a pleasing change after... erm... aggravating WADs like Swift Death. Having said that, I run into problems and bugs when playing in Zdoom 2.8pre-1042:

Map01: four glowing blue skull key bars did not open, only the center bar did. The cacodemon pillar also didn't open. I had to use noclip to get inside. Also, there are misaligned textures inside that room.

Map02: revenant bridge leading to the exit didn't activate when I stepped on it and I fell between the revenants. Also, the revenants could see me when I first approached the bars, giving away the trap before I even had the chance to step on the bridge. In the end, I used fly cheat to get to the exit. And here are some items too close to the lift/door leading to the blue armor:



Map03: not a bug, but the spectre fights in the blue maze got a bit boring after a while. Personally, I was disappointed there was no berserk pack in the map...

Share this post


Link to post

Bloody awesome visual work you have done here, it kind of reminds me of that one Hell To Pay map where you are sent into a computer system to shut it down.

Honestly, I would add some things like circuit boards and the like to further push that feeling.

Share this post


Link to post

scifista42: I can understand, but if downloaders never even barf a single word like "awesome", "mediocre" or anything, then how do I know that anyone ever played it?

It's not a problem if you check back later anyway, since I made some custom skies, for instance.

Caleb: I thought difficulty is rather hard, thanks for enlightening. Also thanks for mentioning the bugs, gonna fix the ones I haven't yet.

Joshmon, I didn't even remember that HTP had such map. Also, circuit boards are extremely unoriginal for me; I prefer VR style, wih metaphoric implementation of services and actions. For example, I'm planning a "Deep Web" map where you have to sink down into a sea of COMPBLUE.

Share this post


Link to post
Katamori said:

(...)I didn't even remember that HTP had such map(...)

But you should've considered, since "HTP" is almost "HTTP".

Share this post


Link to post

I'm curious, what was the problem with the blue key bars on map01? At first look I can't find anything wrong with them in the editor.

Very nice, refreshing and well-executed theme you've got here. The music adds a lot to the feel as well.

I took some notes while playing:

map01
http://i.imgur.com/7evczDh.png - misalignment here

map02
http://i.imgur.com/vupZCxG.png - put block monster flag on the pillars so that the revenants can't get stuck on the ledges.
http://i.imgur.com/lIRDQ8V.png - the invisible floor seems to have a different height, resulting in a little bump when you step on it. Not necessarily a bad thing but maybe you'll want to change it.
http://i.imgur.com/ZRlIGvl.png - the pillar blocks the faraway crates, might be somewhat tricky to fix.

And here are the FDAs if you're interested. Both unfinished because of the map01 bars bug and on map02 the revenants at the exit didn't want to rise.

Again, very promising project. map01 was a bit simple but map02 was an excellent little adventure. I'm curious to see more.

Where did you get the map02 music btw?

Share this post


Link to post

Wow, Memfis, you surprised me, especially after so much time since the thread was left intact. Thank you very much, and it also should be noted that I created some proper skies to this mod since, you may have seen that in the picture thread, but I had no time to refresh pics and the dl link here. Anyway, glad you still like it! Also glad you enjoyed the second map, I had an extremely hard time with its playtesting since as you can see, it's a kinda long map. I was really unsure if I did the job well.

Map1 blue bar bug is fixed as I mentioned, I just didn't upload the fixed version yet. Map2 revenant rising bug is also fixed.

The bump on the invisible floor was made by purpose, I felt it better this way. Do you think I should fix that?

I'm aware of the cover thing, it's pretty unlikely that I'm gonna fix it since I have no idea for it.

Map2 music is a track composed by finnish musician Peter Hajba, better known as Skaven. i can't recall the name of it but you can be sure that i'm going to share the complete tracklist, and i'm also going to use Skaven tracks on the final maps as well. Most of the other music will be chosen from the soundtrack of Deus Ex mod Nihilum (e.g.map3 music, which is phenomenal imo) and from songs from ¨¢m album a friend of mine made (e.g.map1 music). Also, I have a plan for 13 maps ( 2 secret maps) if you're interested. A full megaWAD also would be a good idea but I had to realise that a bunch of epic, fancy or at least promising map name ideas are not enough for that.

Share this post


Link to post

I think that bump is fine, I just mentioned it because I thought maybe you haven't noticed it, but if it was a conscious decision I don't see any problems.

For the pillar sky bug you could do this: http://i.imgur.com/T28QpVi.png Make it tall just like the crates, then it won't block anything. But maybe it looks weird, I don't know.

Share this post


Link to post

You can't believe, but after your comment, when I started fixing the mentioned things, I did it exacly that way!

...well, except the gap in the middle. I simply set the same floor height to the value of the faraway crates on a very thin layer around the pillar.

Share this post


Link to post

UPDATE!

After the extensive help of Memfis, I decided not to be lazy and to upate the thread. Download links now contain the most recent version.

The most important change: MAP03 is finished, and new sky textures are added! I made them from CC4 resources. (except the city buildings, which is from Lainos' Doxylamine Moon)

Also, several bugs were fixed, and gameplay was changed at some parts. It really needs a revise though, mostly on MAP03, gonna do that in the future.

Screenshots are refreshed too.

Share this post


Link to post

I'm sorry but I hated map03. The starting areas are nice but then it turns into one big spectre punching exercise that goes on for like 10 minutes. I know you hate working on gameplay but this is just terribly lazy. I made a let's play, I doubt you will have fun watching me punch spectres for eternity though. But check out the beginning of the video where I show that the first room is totally dark for me in OpenGL (can't see anything even with gamma correction 30+).

So yeah, I think you should replace the spectre area with something completely different. It is baaad.

Share this post


Link to post

Ah, you made a video? Thanks!

The beginning area was originally tested without OpenGL - later I realized that it's barely playable on that, but wasn't sure, how long I sould wait for someone to find it out. Kinda glad that it took much less time than I expected. Gonna be changed of course.

The main architecture and concept of the spectre area won't be changed, I can tell for sure, but if you think variety may help, I can replace some packs with imps, for instance.

Also, in general, the map is gonna be harder by deleting some of the ammo supply and changing some of the medkits to smaller ones. Do you think it's necessary or I was wrong with this experience?

Share this post


Link to post

Yeah, there seemed to be quite a lot of ammo and medikits so I think it's fine to remove some.

Honestly that whole spectre area is very simple and lazy imo: just basic corridors with some closets. I'm not sure if swapping some monsters would help much but I guess I said enough about this already.

Share this post


Link to post
Memfis said:

Yeah, there seemed to be quite a lot of ammo and medikits so I think it's fine to remove some.

Honestly that whole spectre area is very simple and lazy imo: just basic corridors with some closets. I'm not sure if swapping some monsters would help much but I guess I said enough about this already.

I must second this as far as I'm concerned about that Spectre area. It could be shorter and could have better visuals than those simplistic flat dark blue maze systems for that the switch textures don't even harmonize with the rest of the theme.

Share this post


Link to post

Okay, was sitting ridiculously much on this project.

Would be interested in a release of the three finished maps before the Doom birthday?

Not that I would (or even could) change much on the maps, I'm not a Windows user anymore, and SLADE map editor is way not my friend. Way not at all...

Yet, I'm ready to spice things up with some new GFX and a proper merge of the music and the textures. I think I'm even ready to decrease file size by deleting every texture I'm not using from cc4-tex.

Share this post


Link to post

Died 3 times on map 01 because of stupidity, then got permanently stuck on map 02 after trying to jump to to the red key. I did find the BFG secret while I was trying to get out, so, obviously, I was supposed to go there, but I have no idea how I was supposed to get out of there afterwards. I ended up saving and exiting, because it seems that idclip doesn't work while recording, restarting the game, idclipping back onto the walkway, and finishing the rest of WAD without recording. Demo of me getting stuck, if you're interested (-skipsec 1320).

That same area gave me a bit of a headache because of its transparent floors and invisible stairs, btw.

Sawing spectres on map 03 was tedious. The weird thing about that labyrinth is that the wall texture made me feel (several times) as if I were freefalling, then I got used to it. Also, climbing crates in the dark is evil.

Visually it looks interesting, and reminds me a bit of Corridor 7, not sure why.

Share this post


Link to post

Thanks for the FDA! I really, really, really missed that you can get stuck if you grab the BFG the wrong way, I'm sorry for that bug.

I've also learned some, from your demo, about gameplay. I think I'm gonna tune some and then give it a go.

Thanks, again!

EDIT: fixed version with .txt file uploaded! It's a matter of time and I send it to /idgames, too.

Share this post


Link to post

Uplink is now on /idgames! Check the first post for link.

Not too much for the birthday of Doom, but at last, I did it. These maps are not waiting in silence anymore.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×