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Katamori

"Somewhere in Time": 15 vanilla maps - RELEASED!!!

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At last, the journey is ended!
Thanks for the help to everyone who has ever been involved in it. You can get and rate the final version here.

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Somewhere in Time is a set of 15+1 maps made for vanilla Doom, specifically in Doom 2. It was inspired by the greatest vanilla Doom 2 megaWADS (particularly Reverie and Scythe), and used to be an actually very old project that was more or less suspended for months, if not years.

Finally, I could make it to its current size, by gathering unreleased maps and creating some additional ones, based on ideas I really wanted to implement to vanilla-compatible maps. I'm a bit sad for not being able to make it to 32, and especially for that I lost some great submissions while creating this WAD, but eventually, I'm done.

Not a perfectly polished gem, maybe not even a gem at all, but I'm so proud of it that I hope you're also going to enjoy it as much as I did creating it.

Some screenies to make you interested:









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OLD TEXT; IGNORE

Spoiler

Latest non-final beta

Okay, guys, I'm gonna be short: a very long time ago, I decided to make a vanilla Doom 2 megaWAD and unlike most of the amateurs, I won't retreat from it. Indeed, I've got to make and/or collect 15 maps to the set, but after losing some of them in an HDD failure, and losing the inspiration for most of the ideas and half-made maps, I decided not to wait any longer, and I'm going to release it before November. EDIT: I'm not able for that anymore, but this stuff will surely be uploaded to /idgames before Cacoward 2015!

What do I have so far:
- 15 maps, with several gameplay bugs and inconviences fixed
- replaced CWILV graphics, intermission screen, titlepic, etc.
- DeHackEd text replacement - not vanilla compatible, but I don't care anymore. Reverie was not worse because of it.
- replaced music
- a new HUD: made by Jimmy some weeks ago in the picture thread.

What do I need from you:
- playtest, playtest, playtest! I know I still suck at making gameplay, so I need your help to make it more playable and to eliminate the rest of the bugs.
- opinion about the graphics: they were easy work, by a guy who sucks at arts, I want to know your feelings about them.
- demos: just to keep elegant. :)

I hope I can finish this stuff after FOUR years of agony, absence and work.

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That was one of the first thread that I saw when I registered. I'm going to play the maps very soon.

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It'll probably take me a week to get around to this, but I've downloaded this for a playthrough. It'll be on UV continuously in Zandronum.

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I can do the DeHackEd work for ya. Just wondering though, did you want anything for the intermission text as well? It's a shame you lost so much work and I'd be lying if I didn't say I still want to see this reach the full 32, but it's understandable if you want to release it as is. :)

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Obsidian, the intermission text replacement is a new priority, because I found out that if the game end at MAP15 with a secret exit, then I can close up the mod itself with the intermission text you get when you reach the secret level.

And yeah, I also would have been happy if I can finish it, but I checked out the halfmade maps I've had, and I had to realize that NOTHING EVER will be done from those. Maybe later, much-much later, but not now, and it's not worth to procrastinate the rest of the maps, some of which is waiting even since 2012 to be released. Not even talking about that this 3yr project was FAIRLY enough to make me sick of stock Doom 2 textures.

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Fair enough, haha. Lemme know what text you want and I'll put it in. There's also the text before MAP07 and MAP12 to consider. :)

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Fdas for MAP01-05, played on Prboom+ cl2, UV pistol starts

I like this so far. It's simple visually but very elegant, maybe many area could have some little visual touch-ups if you still can use more segs or visplanes. Gameplay was allright! Also I really liked the music choices. Though on MAP03 after the song ended there was silence for a while than it restarts, idk if it's the midi or what else.
I notice that there are many secrets near the end of the map, but I guess it's allright as the rewards seem more suited for the continuous run.
The final battle of MAP03 could have the mancubi on the ground rather than having them on those high ledges. In MAP04 there are 2 imps stuck in the last battle.
I'm note very fond of the maze with the lost souls in MAP05. Also in the map there are homs if look at the windows of the vent system (the one with lost souls and armor bonuses) from the lower areas in the parkings.

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Thank you, gaspe! I learnt a lot from your FDAs - mostly that I placed way too much medkits. I was sad though that you've found most of the secrets but missed the self-reference on MAP05.

Glad you're satisfied with visuals, I put some effort on them. Same with music; I was often unsure if I made the right choices - and yes, I know about that the Motörhead MIDI loops with only a huge pause; sadly I doubt I can fix it.

Secrets are interesting, because I often added them in the very last minute - I'm not a fan of creating them.

About MAP05: the maze must be kept, because that map is the remake of an earlier map I made back in late 2010, and I was really proud of that. Also, the HOMs are caused by the obvious "invisible wall" I placed on the vents to prevent the player to wake up all the monsters. I doubt I can fix it.

Also, I saw you struggled a lot with the blue key area. Should I place some medkits there? What do you think?

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Katamori said:

Thank you, gaspe! I learnt a lot from your FDAs - mostly that I placed way too much medkits. I was sad though that you've found most of the secrets but missed the self-reference on MAP05.

Glad you're satisfied with visuals, I put some effort on them. Same with music; I was often unsure if I made the right choices - and yes, I know about that the Motörhead MIDI loops with only a huge pause; sadly I doubt I can fix it.

Secrets are interesting, because I often added them in the very last minute - I'm not a fan of creating them.

About MAP05: the maze must be kept, because that map is the remake of an earlier map I made back in late 2010, and I was really proud of that. Also, the HOMs are caused by the obvious "invisible wall" I placed on the vents to prevent the player to wake up all the monsters. I doubt I can fix it.

Also, I saw you struggled a lot with the blue key area. Should I place some medkits there? What do you think?


When I first saw that writing I thought that there was something special in the maze, but somehow I forgot about it while running through.

For the invisible walls you can try to use self referecing sectors to make the effect. Or lower the invisible walls when the player gets in the parkings, and raise them when he leaves. Like the 3d bridge trick.

On the blue key area maybe add just 1 more medikit, the main threat is all the hitscanners that can be resurrected, and the archvile is well guarded in that position. Honestly I also played kinda bad there the first 2 times :P and for being UV it's fine imo.

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So I did my first ever FDAs for MAP01-MAP05! (Well, not really--MAP01 is my second time playing it, and I technically tried FDAing Crumpets for over half an hour and couldn't get anywhere...) It's a bit hard to remember certain details while I was scrambling about, but I liked the maps overall. They're fun, bite-sized nuggets of action with a lot cool architectural details (I think the visuals are the highlight). Gameplay is kinda balanced all over the place though, which needs some retweaking. For instance, MAP04 has two soulspheres kinda just sitting out in the open for the player, while MAP05 is a bloodbath with low health and some really evil enemy placement. I personally think the BK battle would be fine in other wads, but it's a bit too over the top for how Somewhere In Time has been ramping up the difficulty thus far... additional health should probably help with that (and rockets)! I think some medikits could be removed from earlier maps too, as it's a bit too generous.

Also in MAP05, the Lost Souls in the RK tunnel can't move because of the armor bonuses in the way.

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Fdas for MAP06-10

We start to see some more interesting fights in these maps. Here's some thoughts and issues:
MAP06: I think that the pinkies on the outdoor area and the first building slow down a bit too much the flow, maybe mix them with other low-tier monsters would be better.
I really thought I was dead when I got stuck into those hell knights :P
MAP07: Interesting how this is done. The lost souls need to come from more side than just the front to make more pressure.
MAP08: this one was really nice. I loved the lightning on the bookshelves and that ominous IoS. Maybe just make the secret plasmagun reachable from the middle of the level.
MAP09: I died like an idiot here. It's better that sector 15 changes texture too when it lowers, and it has this problem:

MAP10: this was interesting. Unfortunately after the big teleport trap it isn't very difficult. It could have a stronger opposition for the ending fight.

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Fdas for MAP11-14

On the visuals/layout the maps were always very good. But I've got the impression that the gameplay from MAP10 has gone for mostly 1-2 nice moments of combat while the rest of the map feature areas that seems more empty or that doesn't offer so much giving the impression of beign incomplete. For example MAP11 feels empty a lot in the inner areas of the base, and having some monster for the backtracking at the end would work well imo. Overall these maps could have a stronger (also just a little more can go) opposition, as it seems that there's really room for this.

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Thank you for the kind words and the help, folks! Gonna release a Beta 2 ASAP.

gaspe, I have to admit: MAP11 had a long way to reach its current form, somehow it was hard for me to fix its mistakes. MAP12 had to be strongly revised and reduced since Vanilla Doom produced several HOMs on it. MAP13 was a pretty damn lame speedmap for a since abandoned community project; I'm not sure, how much I can improve on it. MAP14 was alo a quick and lazy work, I admit.

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Katamori said:

gaspe, I have to admit: MAP11 had a long way to reach its current form, somehow it was hard for me to fix its mistakes. MAP12 had to be strongly revised and reduced since Vanilla Doom produced several HOMs on it. MAP13 was a pretty damn lame speedmap for a since abandoned community project; I'm not sure, how much I can improve on it. MAP14 was alo a quick and lazy work, I admit.


Imo MAP12 is fine, on MAP11 just making it more populated is enough. On MAP13 the problem is that there are many corridors and with fights that aren't so interesting. Maybe if you keep the main areas and you connect them in other ways with some more interconnections it could work without having to rework so much all the map.

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gaspe said:

Maybe if you keep the main areas and you connect them in other ways with some more interconnections it could work without having to rework so much all the map.


I thought of detailing only, actually, since that was the part I'm the least satisfied with. I think it's not a huge problem if I leave a comparably bad map in the set, especially if it was a speedmap.

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Katamori said:

I think it's not a huge problem if I leave a comparably bad map in the set, especially if it was a speedmap.

Except that every single player will dislike it (the map itself AND the fact that it's comparably worse than others), and those who write reviews will inevitably take it into account. I also remember how DWMegawadClub collectively bashed the last maps of Rylayeh (or another wad by the same author) because those maps were a half-baked afterthought coming after the wad's climax and included probably just because the author didn't know what to do with them.

Sure, it's your wad and you make it whatever you want, I'm just saying that I don't recommend it.

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scifista42 said:

Except that every single player will dislike it


Hopefully that's not gonna happen; at least I try to improve that much enough not such things to happen.

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first map starting with 8-bit maiden?

im into it.

i will post more as i play more. right now im on map three and having a good time. i love how much stuff you packing into small levels.


little texture blemish on map 03 in the revenant hallway.

http://imgur.com/Wwk1QOh


edit:
im on map 6 and still having a blast. so right on dude.


still trucking! having a good ass time still.

i did notice missing textures on map ten.
photos here

http://imgur.com/a/BWFHc

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Hihi, haven’t forgotten about this mapset! Not doing FDAs this time because I don’t want to potentially restart a whole level, no matter how short it is :P

MAP06: A map that starts as a slow burn but becomes quite a meat grinder towards the end. One thing I really dislike are the revs that pop out of the floor right before you teleport to the big silver sky area—they’re too sudden and the space is too restrictive, making the fight waaaay harder than the rest of the map… should definitely be 1 rev or 1 rev & 1 HK. The big silver area also has too much health (I’d remove all the health in the monster pop-up pits) and the caco/PE teleport trap is agonizingly slow—think you need to adjust those monster boxes to allow them to warp in faster. I’d also suggest warping in a manc or arachnatron behind the player when the HK/arach pit pops up, as it’s real easy to just take them out without a problem.

MAP07: Ahhh some good ideas here that suffer from some strange execution. The mancs at the start are a bit too high up to be properly hit with the SSG, and can be safely dodged by standing directly under them… lowering everything down by 32 units may make the fight more interesting (and quicker too). The arach void is an excellent idea, but the Lost Souls spend more time infighting than attacking the player. You should draw a circle around the playable area and make the lines “block monster” to ensure they stay within the vicinity of the player (you could place “invisible” pillars around the area to have them spawn from, as the big cross would be outside of the block monster zone). Other than that, it’s a solid take on the Dead Simple formula.

MAP08: Ooooh good atmosphere here—I like the lighting you gave to the bookcases, the Icon of Sin looming in the background, and the slow corruption of flesh that’s seeping in. Only change I’d suggest is pulling the red key altar back so the player can’t go behind it, as it’s real easy to take out the Lost Souls from there with the SSG. I’m also not keen on those revenants that pop out of the ground near the exit, but they’re not as bad as the ones in MAP06. Probably my favorite map in the set thus far.

MAP09: This was a bit of a goofy one. The tree structure is quite distinctive but there really isn’t a lot going on with this map… it’s not unpleasant, it’s just that the tree is the only really memorable thing about it. I think it needs half as much health as it currently has, and I’d put another box of shells in there somewhere, as I needed 10 more shells than I did to finish off the cyberdemon.

MAP10: This was neat. I like the dilapidated base theme you’re going with here, and the trees (while tacky) are cool. Didn’t really notice anything worth changing here.

MAP11: The guitars on this midi are too low and the percussion is too high, making it kinda grating… shame too since Long Distance Runner is (IMO) one of Iron Maiden’s best songs. I agree with gaspe that when you hit the three key switches, there needs to be something more fun to make the journey back enjoyable, as it’s kinda winding and vacant as is (I didn’t know where the exit was for a while… didn’t see the sign above it originally). Other than that, it’s not exceptional, but it does have a lot of good exploratory moments.

MAP12: Hmmmm this map seems to meander a bit. I like some of the platforming in the beginning (once again though you sprinkle around so much health that it’s not really a dangerous level), but everything past the blue key switch feels kinda… pointless? Like the map isn’t sure where it wants to go and just ends. The cyberdemon fight in MAP09 wasn’t really dangerous but you at least end the map on a battle, where here it’s kinda like “hit a switch, kill some PEs/cacos, hit a switch, go back, ride a lift, exit”. Needs a little more oomph to it.

MAP13: Quite a bit of adjustments here: you need some candlabras by the switch that lowers the yellow key down since it’s barely noticeable in the dark. Replace the baron there with an HK too. Remove the medikit from the blue key pedestal so the player can see it’s a blue key there… while you’re at it, remove the four (FOUR?) medikits from the SSG lift too. There needs to be shotgun shells in the closets in that one hallways where you have 6 monster closets (also make the last HK a revenant as HKs/imps are easy to fight in that hallway). And lastly, what is UP with that archvile?! The cover is tough to perceive upon immediately entering the room and you basically only have the berserk to fight him with. I’d recommend putting a 34 wide barrier in the middle of the platform to give the player some better cover, as that fight is cruel the first time you run into it.

MAP14: I’m not sure this map is good at all. The symmetry is boring, it’s extremely short, and the last fight requires low effort to complete. Nothing really remarkable about it either.

So far I think you have a pretty fun set. It reminds me of the gay old days where mapping was new and people made whatever they wanted, setting their mishmash maps to heavy metal midis—not because the soundtracks fit, but because they liked the music. I think there’s a lot of charm to your style, but the maps just need a bit of tweaking here and there to make them more enjoyable. Also that AV parking garage encounter in MAP05 has been the hardest thing thus far, so I’d suggest moving its slot up or getting rid of that AV there altogether

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Oh, wow, I almost forgot that I must work on it, so glad you didn't. Thanks for the test, I added a lot of considerations to the changelog, gonna do them as soon as I can.

At MAP09, I'd highlight that it was a speedmap, rather inspired by the music, and I didn't want to overwhelm the entire map with trees, so it might make sense as a reason, why you didn't find the rest memorable. Also, I doubt I can do anything to the MIDI quality (in response to MAP11).

MAP12 is the area around a bunker that is now out of order and is infected by hellspawns - the start area might be inconsistent, I admit, but otherwise, I consider this level finished, so I'm not planning to give a major overhaul beyond gameplay balance (it's true to all the levels in general). Thanks for being honest anyway, it's clear that no mapsets are perfect.

Same for MAP14, except that that was ACTUALLY a lame speedmap attempt, I admit - that stuff is some kind of heritage from 2012, but even I didn't liked much. Still, it's done and is kind of playable, so that's why I included to the mapset.

In general, I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope the fact that MIDIs fit rather less times (though I think they are at some maps) didn't make your opinion worse, or anything. Given by the name, I thought I MUST put the Somewhere in Time album's songs to this mapset.

And don't worry, AV fight from MAp05 will be SURELY removed! I didn't expect it's gonna be THAT painful.

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Katamori said:

In general, I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope the fact that MIDIs fit rather less times (though I think they are at some maps) didn't make your opinion worse, or anything.

Oh they're definitely part of the appeal; I was bringing that up because since mapsets no longer do that, it's kinda refreshing to experience. Here's to hoping this will be a full megawad some day!

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dobu gabu maru said:

Here's to hoping this will be a full megawad some day!


Well, this one won't, since I'll release these maps very soon, and I'm not the fan of "releasing the same maps and additional X ones" model like Jimmy did with Jenesis. If I'll ever make a vanilla megaWAD then that'll be made from scratch.

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Here are some things I noticed while playing on UV in Zdoom 2.8pre-1805:

Map03: Sector 335 didn't open even though I pressed switch on linedef 1369. It was somewhat annoying there was no radsuit on the path to the blue key. Wrong texture on linedef 1506. And here are some Zdoom warnings:

Unknown bottom texture '--' on second side of linedef 1249
Unknown bottom texture '--' on second side of linedef 1255
Unknown bottom texture '--' on second side of linedef 1259
Unknown bottom texture '--' on second side of linedef 1261
Unknown bottom texture '--' on second side of linedef 1265
Unknown bottom texture '--' on second side of linedef 1271
Map05: Improperly done grating texture on linedef 460.

Map10: small HOM at linedef 1313.

Map11: sectors 43 and 80 shouldn't be secret. Secret sector 28 is too small to be "found" reliably. Perhaps you could make sector 45 secret instead?

Map13: blue skull key is hidden by medkit.

Map14: wrong texture on linedef 406.

However, the main problem of the mapset is that it was very easy, as in "could play this blindfolded" easy. The first 5 or 6 maps also looked dated, though I generally don't care about that much.

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Update!

I was a lazy ass, so I didn't make the proposed changes for a very long time, but now it's done at last!

Check out the first post for the fresh download!

Thanks for dobu gabu maru and gaspe for the extensive texts.

If no gameplay issue are mentioned, then I'm gonna do only some DeHackEd text replacement and finishing MAP15, before uploading to /idgames.

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Yeah, not a fan of this so far (up to map04). Just a huge amount of 'a barrier you have to get past, so now go out of your way and find a switch that lowers it, rinse, repeat', which makes the flow pretty awkward and feel like it's unnecessarily padded. Some of that isn't a bad thing, but it's literally the whole progression scheme in some of these levels.

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Katamori said:

I know about that the Motörhead MIDI loops with only a huge pause; sadly I doubt I can fix it.


Here's a fixed version of the midi, it should loop correctly now. Idk why I hadn't though of making this before.

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