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Spazman

"Zion: The Nexus" Project

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Zion: The Nexus
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It's a reunion with the spawn of the damned, back on their own stomping-ground...

 

              Rather than leaving forbidden-places be, the Union Aerospace Corporation -- now under new leadership -- sets their sights not on the destroyed moons of Mars, but the surface of the Red Planet itself. Rather than try to resurrect a teleportation experiment of old, a construct known as the "Zion" is placed on the planet's surface, designed to terra-form a large section of the dusty hellscape into a lush new paradise for mankind to set foot upon.

               Unfortunately, the ugly bastards of the netherworld have other plans for such a tool...


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"Zion" is a project I've had in mind for a little bit now, set to revolve around the idea (to an extent) a theme of map-transformation and subtle alteration. The more you progress through the campaign, the more abstract and subverted things become. Going back through territory you once plowed right through could even become unrecognizable to a point.. Changes around (mostly) every corner.


Screenshots:

Map 01: "Inception"
Zion.wad_MAP01.png

Map 02: "Treatment Facility"
Zion.wad_MAP02.png
Download:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kapd6cs8nxjiawx/Zion.wad?dl=0

Contents:

Map 01: "Inception"
Map 02: "Treatment Facility" [No level-name graphic yet.]
Map 06 [Old Map. Plan to scrap and redo.]: "Nexus"

Some new textures / flats, and new level / intermission music.
Recommended Engine:

Though jumping isn't required, my engine-of-choice is Z/GZDoom. It SHOULD be compatible with anything that's good with Boom stuff. There ARE (some) custom textures, but those are contained inside the WAD.

===

Do let me know how it plays, if anything needs fixing or otherwise.

Edited by Spazman

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I played some of this and liked it very much.I'm not the greatest at spotting glitches or bugs,but I do know when I like a wad.Best of luck to you! :)

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FDA, recorded in PrBoom-plus -complevel 9, seems to work right. I've exploited 2 places where to get stuck: Behind the tower with a switch in the first outdoor area, and inside a non-damaging lava pit (you can see both of them in my demo). IMO, many of your setups suffer from the assumption that the player will move slowly, which he probably won't, he would actually be able to outrun trap doors, which he shouldn't be able to - the final lava pit was particularly annoying in this regard. The map was visually OK, just slightly ugly (wallpapers of brown/green ASHWALLs and silver SHAWNs aren't exactly pretty), but acceptable more than well.

Gameplay-wise, nothing extra fun. Sniping hordes of enemies in front of you (or on high ledges), using pistol or shotgun, was the primary gameplay here - which I didn't like. The SSG trap was the best combat setup, but still noticeably tedious. Exploring the map was fun for a while, but the mandatory path was way too linear, which is not good for exploration-focused levels (players enjoy making decisions that affect main gameplay, aside from search for secrets). The gameplay lacked excitement and variation - for example, there would be more hectic setups involving various monsters attacking the player from multiple sides and heights, and more height variation that directly affects combat (allowing both monsters and player to change vertical positions during fighting).

The map was OK, average. Just fix the bugs and preferably improve gameplay too. Good work.

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Map 01:

Very good layout and gameflow, really enjoyed the mechanic of changing the map, but there is somethings that I would've done different to be a little bit more forgiving towards the player: a little bit of light on that cave that you have to kill those spectres, change the lava pit at the end with some iron bars that close very quickly so it wouldn't kill the player and delete sector 2 making a solid wall intead of a floor raised to the ceiling ('cause in the minimap it looks like a trap but it isn't, and that makes it a bit odd). Other than those little "nitpicks" it was a fantastic start map, and i hope the rest will be as great as this map is.

Map 06:

As you were saying, the map is unfinished, so i'll wait just a bit more to fully make a review of the map.

Also, for the first time ever in a new wad, i didn't mute the music (most map 01 use d_runnin as default, and that gets annoying). Lateralus by Tool, which is my favorite band, was a excellent song choice and that brings my anticipation for this wad up a notch. I managed to finish the map in the same time as the song.

Edit: just saw the review of scifista and i have to agree with him in one thing, the detailing is a bit ugly, but that is a minor thing that can be easily fixed.

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Thanks for the feedback, guys. I've been trying to take some time off from my normal routine to fix what was wrong with the first map (and have accounted for -I believe- every problem) and have moved onto the second map, which is ALSO completable. However - needs testing. I've run through it a good few times and found no problems.

Original link at the top updated, by the way!

Quick Edit: Re-uploaded the main Zion.WAD file. Apparently while working in DoomBuilder, you can't build off of secret-tagged sectors without the editor thinking those areas are 'secret', too. Fixed!

Quick Edit II: RE-Reuploaded the WAD somewhere else after fixing some game-breaking errors in Map02. WAD Download link updated with one that leads to a Dropbox upload.

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Map02 looks pretty great so far, the design of many areas reminds me of Icarus\Evilution. Died after killing about 100 monsters due to lack of health, I'll try to play more carefully next time. I'm digging the scale of these levels.

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Hey, guys. Sorry to revive an old-as-hell thread, but I've been getting my creative drive back on to make fixations and further-complete this project.

New Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/910qyhz12vmdeai/Zion.wad?dl=0

 

As far as updates go and all, I've completely removed / remodeled the old Map 2 from this version of Zion, seeing as how it was made of an assortments of tiny maps I'd thrown together over periods when I first tried to map for Doom. The replacement for Map 2 should play out a lot better, moreso resembling Doom II's "Underhalls" more than anything.

As always, I'm taking criticism and suggestions on this thread as I go. Plans for a third map are already brewing, and I should begin on it later on tonight.

Thanks in advance! :)

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Figured I might post some screenshots while I work on this. Not going for hyper-detail, mainly just regular Doom II-style mapping.

There ARE some custom textures in here, but I can't for the life of me remember where they were picked up from. If help with sourcing could be given, it would be appreciated.

Pictures:

Map 01: Inception
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Screenshot_Doom_20180129_183821.png

Screenshot_Doom_20180129_183831.png

Screenshot_Doom_20180129_183850.png

Screenshot_Doom_20180129_183901.png

Screenshot_Doom_20180129_183915.png

Map02: Water Treatment Facility

Screenshot_Doom_20180129_184003.png

Screenshot_Doom_20180129_184032.png

Screenshot_Doom_20180129_184056.png

Screenshot_Doom_20180129_184110.png

Screenshot_Doom_20180129_184143.png

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looks great. the third shot, with that bold red sky and the yellow roof lights up against it, looks especially awesome. cool to see you around again!

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Change to Map02 of Zion as of 5:37AM EST:

-Fixed a place where the player couldn't pick up a medkit placed in a receptacle before gathering the Red Key.
-Updating the top post to show off new versions of maps.

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