Absolute Dishonor - Now on Idgames!

So me and Jon "40oz" Vail agreed it was time for the both of us to come out of our inactivity towards Doom mapping and work together to make an episode for vanilla Doom 2. We decided a short 8-level WAD sounded like a reachable goal, with the two of us making 4 levels each.

download (Final idgames link)

Maplist:
MAP01: Playground of Destruction by Michael Jan Krizik
MAP02: The Ravine by Jon Vail
MAP03: Death Depot by Michael Jan Krizik
MAP04: Raiden's Key by Jon Vail
MAP05: The Railway by Michael Jan Krizik
MAP06: The Heathens by Jon Vail
MAP07: The Tower by Jon Vail
MAP08: Lost Resort by Michael Jan Krizik

Looks good guys. Just finished playing Reverie and I'm itching for more Valkiri-wads.

General Rainbow Bacon said:

Looks good guys. Just finished playing Reverie and I'm itching for more Valkiri-wads.

We need more Valkiri-wads, will keep an eye out for the download.

Will keep an eye on this, tho I am way backed up in terms of what to play.

I'd be up to test this if you need someone to go through it in depth.

Nice! I'll record some fdas for this.

I've added the download link - I'm still waiting for some of Jon's updated maps plus I had some segs issues with my MAP08 that still need some looking into, but otherwise the maps should play just fine.

Looks cool! I'll play this soon :)

I'm up to MAP03, I can't shoot the button because the fence is blocking gunfire, while in Prboom +, I am able to shoot the button through the fence without any issues.

^ Made a quickfix and updated to ver. 2. Hopefully it works fine now.

Glad I could have been a part of this. I'm really happy with how this project turned out! Thanks to everyone who's interested. I would love to see your demos and comments (when it's done of course)

Y'all did a fantastic job with this; the screenies look great! It always pleases me to see well-done Vanilla wads because detailing without using 2k lines in a small area is very difficult to me and it's something I try to study. It might be a little bit before I can play this, but I have put it on my play list. Gotta finish 2 huge maps first, then it'll be this one; I really look forward to it!



*Edit*
v Thanks 40!

Here's some more screenshots to get you guys pumped (click to enlarge)

MAP01 / MAP02


MAP03 / MAP04


MAP05 / MAP06


MAP07 / MAP08

Based on the screenshots alone this looks right up my alley - That classic but clean feel. Will leave some feedback after I get some play time in :)

Did a quick run through and really like what I got the chance to see so far. Beautifully constructed levels that are simple yet elegant supported with challenging but not over the top game play. Also liked some of the puzzles included which you dont see a whole lot of, in fact a lot of the style in both detail and gameplay I found unique and refreshing. I really enjoyed some of the themes with temple-esque buildings, open seas and large caverns being common which for me is fantastic. The maps were a little too big for my taste, brown seems to be the dominant theme which for me is a plus though I know some people dont like that. Props for all the secrets in map01 too, I just love secret hunting in small maps!! Overall a really great map set and ill be sure to see the whole thing through when I get the chance, awesome work guys!!

Fdas for the first 4 maps, recorded on PRBoom+ with cl2. So far is a really nice wad. MAP02 has few vertical misalignments on the bricks in the starting area. I didn't finished MAP03, it's full of meat but it was really fun. Of MAP04 I really liked the mood and the puzzle for the key.

Thanks for those FDAs gaspe! I'll be sure to check those out when I have the time.

Also we've finally got a finished MAP07 in there from Jon as well as some updates to his maps, so I've updated the WAD file to version 3.

Doomkid said:

Based on the screenshots alone this looks right up my alley - That classic but clean feel.

exactly this. nice classic look, and an 8 map episode is a goal that shouldn't take too long. both for the mappers and the players i guess ;)

UV, pistol starts, 100% kills

Map 01

Nice little map here. Not much anything in the way of challenge but it is just the first map after all. There is obviously a tremendous glut of secrets, all of which being so unnecessary or even called for in the map that it's a little puzzling. I sort of wish getting some of them resulted in spawn in encounters or something, to be a tradeoff. But if that's not the sort of thing you're going for, I understand.

Map 02

Hmm, well for continuous players I see the value of the RL on the prior map now. There's almost a mocking quantity of rockets littered about the map, which I suppose at least motivates the player to secret hunt to be able to use them. Personally I think the likelihood that a player will either inadvertently shoot the wall revealing the blue armor or never ever think to shoot there means there might be something wrong with the secret's setup. perhaps a barely visible shootable switch in the large room with where the Revenants were on pillars would be better? Anyway though I found the RL, I did not use it out of testing purposes. This meant that I got to find out how cool the ammo balance in the map is, as i ended with 9 bullets. That honestly is how I think maps ideally should work out, to help contain the advantage continuous players attain as well as to keep the combat intense and every shot mattering. I also like how the map changed dynamically so much and unfolds as one proceeds and secret hunts. It's a pretty excellent place.

Map 03

This map is, needless to say, very intricate, tight and thoroughly populated. It's quite easy to get lost or overwhelmed, as happened to me a few times. There's often so many directions to choose to go and so many switches and doors and monster reveals. It's pretty darn cool. Sometimes a sense of progression can be lost, but I think that's just sometimes the nature of maps such as this. The northeast area of the has a slight imbalance in ammo placement; I was reduced to quite a bit of tysoning using the secret berserk when I prefer not to utilize secrets while testing. Just moving a shellbox from near the switch near the BK to near the teleporter from the southwestern portion of the map would help tremendously. The southeastern area however has quite a bit, which is fine I guess for a map such as this one. I ended up going to the RK fight and beyond last of the three somehow, and eventually found quite an ammo closet to stock up on, so I suppose if a player went there they would never have had my ammo difficulty. When one teleports to the exit area, when standing on that pad, they might still be secret hunting like I was and try to go left, right, or back to explore the computer panels. Well, I did this and maybe it's just the engine I was using (Zandro) but I got stuck in each one of the compartments, having to duck or clip to get out. Strange that I could move in but not out, which is why I mention my engine. Map is very impressive in scope and execution.

Map 04

Small tight map complete with tense gameplay. The visuals are nice, I like the look of the RK room and the fireblu pillars and fissure. The switch-to-door-or-pillar aspect of the RK room is however pretty annoying, especially having to dart around to get things to happen again if one screws up the sequence to get the key. Maybe make them stay open? I ultimately couldn't even figure out how to get the key, and spent plenty of time going over and over the sequence. In the end I just grabbed the key and moved on. Also I feel there should be a way to get back into the RK wing once one rises out; as currently stands the switch to lower the way in is one time use only unfortunately, preventing thorough exploration and 100% everything for some people most likely. Some of the Chaingunners near the end did not port in properly; three were just wandering around their cage and occasionally finally porting in which took a while. Also the two Mancubi never ported in no matter what I did, so there may be something broken there. Despite all my bitching the map is okay conceptually, just had a lot to report is all.

Currently on map 03. The only thing I can say is that, probably, is the best map of valkiryforce and one of the more fun map I've played recently.
I'm Ultra enjoying it.
I will post more detailed feedback on the others maps later

Thanks for the reviews seele!

In map04 i had to set up some convoluted conditional trap for the mancubi so they only show under the condition that you get the red key the right way. You'd need to know the solution to the puzzle to get them. I'll have to do something about the chaingunners. I may have messed something up when I moved their closets to avoid a potential seg limit. I'll make that switch repeatable too.

My quick point of view of the first 3 map, UV pistol start no saves

Map 01: Cute opening, many secrets easy but to find. A map that suite well for speedrun (all categories, nightmere too).

Map 02: Not bad. One thing I particulary liked is the brightness: even with few basic textures used the lights/shadows of this level work very well. Difficult is ok, considering the armor is given near the end, play with too much ease can be fatal in some situations. A good map overall.

Map 03: My first impression seen the first room and the number of monsters has been "ok the classic level full of light tier monsters to kill with ssg etc".
I was big wrong. Proceeding with the map we have impressive interconnected rooms/corridors/lifts, non-linear path (in this map you can go almost wherever you want), unexpected surprise attacks, regular to very good fights, many cool secrets (that you Will want to search!) and all of this performed excellently by the author. About the non-linearity I liked the fact that actually you can ambush the monsters if you choose a particular route.
Graphically, again, the first classic brick room may mislead, but the more you proceed the more themes became interesting, varing from metal/plutonia bricks style to more hellish touch rooms.
About ammo balance for me is ok: finished the map with 19 rockets almost full shells and some energy cell (got 100% kills and 8/10 secrets found). If you waste ammo you can find yourself in some bad situations and some secrets helps in this matter but I will not touch anything about ammunitions tbh.
Overall an awesome map, very good job!

Edit:

Seele00TextOnly said:

When one teleports to the exit area, when standing on that pad, they might still be secret hunting like I was and try to go left, right, or back to explore the computer panels. Well, I did this and maybe it's just the engine I was using (Zandro) but I got stuck in each one of the compartments, having to duck or clip to get out. Strange that I could move in but not out

This is happened to me too and I was using gzdoom

40oz: Drat, I just could not figure it out for the life of me. I suppose I can try again someday, but not for awhile... every time i got the bars to disappear and the skull lowered they'd just rematerialize. Got too frustrated.

Map 05

Another huge labyrinth chock full of bad guys to kill. It's a solid and well thought out map, tons of intricate paths and locations, interesting encounters, etc. I can't come up with any complaints or recommendations. It feels weird to say that after playing a map for a really long time and knowing myself to be such a picky person but it was a fine experience. Tough an fun, long and interesting.

Map 06

The SSG fight is really cool, I like how the room changes immediately and the fight is in pitch black. The Hellknight pincer attack a bit later might be too much, I'm not sure. There's certainly not time to really take them out in that tiny box with the SSG, or to do much in the way of dodging them before they close in and slash, so I had to evacuate past everything to safety. Maybe that's the intended reaction though, I wouldn't know. Rest of map works fine, had a good time.

Map 07

I like the difficulty and ammo starvation, along with the mood of the map. I didn't have anything to complain about till the final lift fight with four teleports around it; it occurs to me that there really ought to be some additional health in the area, perhaps simply a medipack on each of the four teleports. It's just really, really hard with the growing pack of Revenants firing in from afar like that and no health replenishment other than the probably badly needed supply that was laid out at the area from the outset. Then again if nobody else has a problem with it I guess it's not necessary and I'm just an inferior player.

Map 08

Had fun storming the compound. Also had to reload the hell out of the RL fight with the Archvile. There's practically no cover and no time to kill it before it gets off a hit; if you're not prepared to tank a hit you're probably screwed. I only got lucky when it finally darted about a second before trying to resurrect. I couldn't come up with a practical non-cheese way to engage the first Cyberdemon, so I left it alive. I think there's just too much close quarters from every angle, there's no avoiding the splash damage. Later when I found the BFG I went back for it but it was still a very tough fight I had to try lots of times. It is in this sense I suppose that the secret adjacent to that room has its greatest value, what it brings to the fight if one has opened it. The fight just past the red bars might be triggered too early; everything starts porting in so quickly that there's almost no chance to actually be in the circular room for it, so one is pushed back to basically camping the entrance while loads of infighting goes on. Never found all of the enemies but I'm pretty sure they were in secrets I didn't discover. Really nice map; if I had any other complaint it would be the lack of a final confrontation past the yellow door prior to the exit; the player has tons of ammo, health, and armor most likely at this point and the wad deserves a big brawl to go out with a bang on. As it stands, the last hurrah is that port-in infighting one that I couldn't even squeeze into the room for. Oh actually there's a minor port in fight when getting the YK but that's a little weak for that far into the map as a final conflict too in my opinion.

Great job on this mapset!

valkiriforce said:

So me and Jon "40oz" Vail agreed it was time for the both of us to come out of our inactivity towards Doom mapping

Great news! The screenshots look good so far, looking forward to playing it.

Haha, I could probably use something like this. I'll give this a look.

valkiriforce said:

So me and Jon "40oz" Vail agreed it was time for the both of us to come out of our inactivity towards Doom mapping and work together to make an episode for vanilla Doom 2.

Good to see you both around and putting maps out. :) Looking forwards to an /idgames release!

Here are my first attempts on the first 3 maps. I would have gone further but map 3 took quite a long time haha (41 min).

I am generally not very good at critique unless there is an impossible encounter or I don't have any fun. So, gj =).

https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1660930

Continuing the playthrought (100% kills /100% secrets):

Map 04: Liked the tension atmosphere of the level helped by the good usage of the lights, by the lack of ammo/tyson style gameplay and also by some arch-viles 'shock' appearence. Good level.

Map 05: This sort of mining site with annexed goods train station looks very well designed (liked the details on this map).
Particulary cool is the aforementioned train station and the "secret train area". This level also host, imo, one of the hardest fight for now: the blue key guarded by several monsters included 2 arch-viles. In this battle I had the most problems, I had to retreat while the arch-viles spread the havoc resurrecting everything; somehow I managed to kill them with low life and few rockets remnant. Anyway I think that was mostly due to lack of strategy on my side.
Overall a cool level, the hardest of the first 6.

Map 06: The layout of this level is very nice and well joins the gameplay, I have to say. Took me some tries to complete this map: died most of the time in the RL revenants cave and reached the exit with the two arch-viles and arachnotrons alive and no ammo aswell; I then found the last secret which allowed me to eliminate all the foes, on my first exit.
Overall this is one of my favourite map of the set, not particularly difficult when you know how the level "works" and with a good replayability factor.

Really pleasant to play your wad in Chocolate-Doom. I recorded a demo, but i didn't play well this evening x) maybe another day.

Seele00TextOnly said:

When one teleports to the exit area, when standing on that pad, they might still be secret hunting like I was and try to go left, right, or back to explore the computer panels. Well, I did this and maybe it's just the engine I was using (Zandro) but I got stuck in each one of the compartments, having to duck or clip to get out. Strange that I could move in but not out, which is why I mention my engine.

It's not a port issue - I just forgot to put blocking lines in each of those little window compartments. Seems like a rather obvious place to get stuck with the ceiling teleport sticking out so much I wonder why I hadn't thought of this sooner.

Thanks everyone for all the excellent feedback! I'll be sure to put up version 4 after some further changes have been made.

[edit] Version 4 is up with said map changes + 40oz sent me some new graphics including a title + credits screen along with all of the map names. Check it out!