Xarathustra map set

Greetings Doomers, I have a new set of Doom2 maps which are almost ready for release. After nearly a decade away from the community, however, I have no one to do any playtesting and checking for me, so that is what this post is about.

There are 12 maps of classic single-player Dooming. No new textures, sprites, or any other extras this time, just huge maps with hundreds of enemies. If anyone would be interested in this type of mini-megawad, please let me know and I will find a way to get the file uploaded somewhere. (Open to suggestions for that also, as I no longer have my own hosting space.)

Thanx

You can sign up in a hosting site like dropbox or mediafire and upload your wad there, then put the like to the file here.

Whoa, Psyren is back?!?!

Anyways, for "non-final" versions of wads, I recommend just using http://www.mediafire.com

No, screw mediafire, go with dropbox so we don't have to sit through ads and pop-ups and who knows what other kind of invisible, background bullcrap.

At least mediafire doesn't obtrusively ask me to register on their site every time I try to simply download something. I just click and it downloads with no bullshit. On dropbox some stupid window always appears instead. "YOU'RE NOT ON DROPBOX YET???"

Memfis said:

At least mediafire doesn't obtrusively ask me to register on their site every time I try to simply download something. I just click and it downloads with no bullshit. On dropbox some stupid window always appears instead. "YOU'RE NOT ON DROPBOX YET???"

God I hate that shit, why people say dropbox is better?

psyren777 said:

Huge maps with hundreds of enemies.

Sounds promising =P .

Gothic said:

God I hate that shit, why people say dropbox is better?

zippyshare and mega are better.

Well, no matter where you upload your mapset when it's done, I'm looking forward to playing them.Good luck to you! :D

Memfis said:

At least mediafire doesn't obtrusively ask me to register on their site every time I try to simply download something. I just click and it downloads with no bullshit. On dropbox some stupid window always appears instead. "YOU'RE NOT ON DROPBOX YET???"

Isn't it obtrusive for mediafire to only allow a download in a pop up ad window?

I'm sorry, this is off topic; it sounds like we all look forward to the maps man!

Sorry for the delay, not high enough permissions at work. This site seemed simple and easy enough:

http://www.filedropper.com/xarath12 at least for 30 days...

...And now to find this "Brutal Doom" I have been reading about. Wondering if this set will be survivable.

Memfis said:

At least mediafire doesn't obtrusively ask me to register on their site every time I try to simply download something. I just click and it downloads with no bullshit. On dropbox some stupid window always appears instead. "YOU'RE NOT ON DROPBOX YET???"

What happened to simply clicking "No thanks, Continue to view" or the "X" on the corner of the popup?

Has anyone played this yet?

downloaded right now...

Memfis said:

At least mediafire doesn't obtrusively ask me to register on their site every time I try to simply download something. I just click and it downloads with no bullshit. On dropbox some stupid window always appears instead. "YOU'RE NOT ON DROPBOX YET???"

It's never intrusively asked me that.

psyren777 said:

...And now to find this "Brutal Doom" I have been reading about. Wondering if this set will be survivable.

So, uh... I hate to interrupt your "the best file hosting" dick measuring contest, but I found some problems in the WAD while playing in Zdoom 2.8pre-1805:

-Grating textures were bleeding into the ground in all the maps I've played so far. You couldn't see that in GZdoom, this bug happens in software renderer only. Here you can find how to fix that:
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-editing/45608-mid-texture-bleeds-into-the-ground/
Here are some most visible examples, but almost all gratings are affected, unfortunately:

-Map02: make sector 627 secret instead of 629, it can't be "found" very reliably in Zdoom.

-Map06: move rockets and shells away from walls of sector 2, otherwise this happens when the monster closets open:More later. If I find anything else, that is.

Thank you, Caleb13.
- Grrr... I had forgotten about this issue with grating textures. Probably solve it with shorter textures rather than rebuilding, since they are used so much. It will look nicer too.
- Moving pickups is easy enough also.
- Thank you for your feedback, it is much appreciated!

psyren777 said:

Probably solve it with shorter textures rather than rebuilding, since they are used so much. It will look nicer too.

Changing light level on one side of the linedef by 1 unit might be an even easier solution, in comparison to making variants of the same texture with various heights and then retexturing the maps to make them fit the architecture.

Voltcom9 said:

100% Agreed. Drop box is infinitely better than mediafire and it's advertisments and spam...

In 2015 you should have some sort of ad-blocking plugin set up. Not only to block the intrusive spam, but also for safety.

Okay, I made it through rest of the maps and:

-Map07: not sure why, but I partially sank into floor when standing in the hallway in front of sector 340:

-Map10: I don't understand why there is a hidden cyberdemon in one of the pillars. I know he can be released if you press hidden switch (linedef 3313), but IMO it would be more logical if he appeared when the player grabs the BFG nearby.

-Map11: the deadly crusher in sector 445 is bullshit, there are no warning signs it is there. Either add some (bodies, blood splats etc.) or change it to fast variant, so it is not immediately deadly.

Overally, I liked the mapset very much. Its difficulty is low, mainly because there are lots of ammo and health everywhere, but the high monster count keeps it engaging. It felt good to play something not crammed full of archviles for a change. Plus, even after all these years, it still amuses me when zombies get gibbed by exploding barrels of revenant fireballs... and your maps were practically made for that. I died only once, in the Map11 crusher. Apart from that, my health rarely went below 60%. At the end of the day, I wish the mapset was longer. Do you plan to expand it?

Caleb13, and others, thank you so much for your effort and input.

- Is it possible to offset the transparent textures vertically to fit the space? (Like making it -48 if trying to use in a space that is 80 high.) I don't know what else to do besides adding extra sectors in tiny spaces, or adding a bunch of shorter textures.

- The crusher is supposed to be a trap, but not deadly. Sorry, my bad. It is dark, and the way around may not be as obvious as I thought.

- The Cyberdemon is sort of a trap also. Switch throwers will find him, and you'll need to release him to get 100% kills, but sometimes I hate wasting the time to snuff a Cyberdemon, so it's optional.

- Falling into the floor is a nodebuilder issue. Wadauthor does a crappy job, and not all maps were run through Doombuilder, so I'll fix that.

- Thought I fixed all the pickups that were stuck on ledges, but obviously I didn't. Hopefully I can find them all.

- Difficulty is always a matter of personal taste and skill. Tutorials I read said, "If the map is difficult for you, it will be twice as difficult for someone that didn't design it," and that makes sense. As I frequently get annihilated in these maps, I try add enough resources to balance it. Nothing is worse than running out of ammo.

- As for expansion, I have two more maps, perhaps, but creativity is drained, and it seems like repeating the same concepts. I suppose all maps are repeating older concepts, (what is really new and original?) but I get bored and uninspired.

Give me a few days and I'll have a fixed version ready and uploaded.

psyren777 said:

Is it possible to offset the transparent textures vertically to fit the space? (Like making it -48 if trying to use in a space that is 80 high.)

Yes, but if there is no height difference and no light variation between sides of the line, the midtexture will bleed into the ceiling instead of into the floor. Again, just put a light difference at least 1 unit, or a height difference at least 1 unit, and the problem is fixed.

Thank you scifista42,

I will try changing the light levels on one side. Most of the areas where the texture is used should have a difference in lighting anyway.

I really need to get another port installed so I can see these errors. Nothing seems to run right on my old machine except GZDoom.

You should've done gamefront...
*wears protective gear*

Hoo, I'm psyched! We played Rylayeh, Azagthoth, and Crimson Canyon for the Megawad Club last year, and I still think about them often. Can't wait to try this one.

Xarathustra... Sounds very similiar to a certain map from a certain 2005 wad... or its inspiration, a certain book... I dig it.

If you're looking for a port similar to GZDoom for software-render testing, it couldn't hurt to check out Zandronum.

Other than the few small flaws mentioned, these are looking swell, keep it up!

Doomkid,
I saw the cool name 'Zandronum' when reading about Brutal Doom, but looked liked multiplayer, so never bothered.

I found an old ZDoom.exe that lets me see these errors. Sure makes things look dark, or maybe I'm just spoiled playing GL. Much faster loading than GZDoom, of course, so that makes testing more efficient.

Salt-Man Z,
Glad you liked the old mapsets. Hopefully this will be as good. Looking forward to finishing this set, and playing those old ones again with Brutal!

Protester,
The title is based on Nietzsche's book, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", but with an X. Not aware of any maps with the same name, but interested if there is.

--=--

Finished a decent 13th map, and now struggling to complete #14. (Maybe it's fine as it is, and not every map needs to be huge.)

Thinking about a more introductory Map01 for the set also, but no ideas yet, and not sure I want to juggle everything around that much to accomodate it.

99 cents!
Upload it to moddb!
Or gamefront!
I don't have that kind of money. Especially to download one file.
4shared is good too.

Voros said:

99 cents!
Upload it to moddb!
Or gamefront!
I don't have that kind of money. Especially to download one file.
4shared is good too.

I can't download anything on gamefront.
Moddb maybe... but 4shared make me wait!
Prefer Sendspace.