IMAJANA - A Vanilla Single Level Challenging Map [Now on/idgames!]

Nice post, very clean. I had a quick jam but I got soft locked when the bars raise in the outdoor area (before you get any keys). I backed up over them as they were raising and had no way to lower them. You've got your secrets marked on the automap btw, you can tag those linedefs to show as one sided so they don't appear as doors. Same goes for monster closets. The map was fun up until I got locked out, if you release 1.1 or something I'll give it another go and upload my playthrough.

13 minutes ago, xvertigox said:

Nice post, very clean. I had a quick jam but I got soft locked when the bars raise in the outdoor area (before you get any keys). I backed up over them as they were raising and had no way to lower them. You've got your secrets marked on the automap btw, you can tag those linedefs to show as one sided so they don't appear as doors. Same goes for monster closets. The map was fun up until I got locked out, if you release 1.1 or something I'll give it another go and upload my playthrough.

Thanks, I will check that to release a quick update.

Here's my playthrough with this updated version. I ended up dying to a brutal trap and called it gg. I like the feeling of this map, it feels reminiscent of E1 at times. My favorite aspect was the ammo placement. It was scarce but there was just enough to not fully run out (if you're careful). That combined with the dark areas made it feel quite tense at times.

As to what could be improved - You could do with some less linearity and more varied ceiling heights in a few places. The detailing was really cool in a few places then more sparse in others. There's some technical issues - missing lower textures, more bars you can get locked out of etc. You could also add the statusbar to map wad itself.

Edit: I also get weird sound playback as you can hear below, it doesn't happen in other wads though ?

On 5/10/2019 at 8:48 PM, xvertigox said:

Here's my playthrough with this updated version. I ended up dying to a brutal trap and called it gg. I like the feeling of this map, it feels reminiscent of E1 at times. My favorite aspect was the ammo placement. It was scarce but there was just enough to not fully run out (if you're careful). That combined with the dark areas made it feel quite tense at times.

 

As to what could be improved - You could do with some less linearity and more varied ceiling heights in a few places. The detailing was really cool in a few places then more sparse in others. There's some technical issues - missing lower textures, more bars you can get locked out of etc. You could also add the statusbar to map wad itself.

Edit: I also get weird sound playback as you can hear below, it doesn't happen in other wads though ?

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Thanks for the feedback and playing.

About the missing textures, it was an intentional use of HoM (As in map 25 in Doom 2), but I suppose that in source ports with a defined missing texture can bring problems. I will upload a new version with that problems solved.

I put the map and the status bar in 2 separate files, mostly for people who want to use it in other WADs.

NEW UPDATE 5/12/19
 

*Fixed some missing textures.

*Added the missing lower textures in the yellow skull room, now it should work on Source Ports with a 
defined missing texture (Originally a was intentional use of HoM)

*Fixed a secret door that was unable to open.

*Added new details in areas where feel pretty empty.

*Changed the Bars Raise trap in a secret room for a "Door Wait Open" trap.

*Fixed the map's song and added some new effects, now it works flawessly in Vanilla!

*Added a Monster Ambush in a secret room.

*Fixed typos in the INFO file.

*Added a update DEMO (Vanilla).

-Due the use of a "Lower Floor" linedef to avoid the player to be stuck in the courtyard area, 
now every time that you crossed that area will reproduce a sound. I don't know how to fix that.

Download link in the OP

I love

 UPDATE 5/23/19 (Maybe Final)

*Changed some sector brightness 

*Added new details and two (pretty obvious) secrets! 

*Fixed some texture alignments

-Removed Demo, I will upload it later as separate File

Download link in the OP

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/430392734

This is the third wad I cover in this playtesting stream. I didn't find the chaingun in the first room somehow so I beat this map with the shotgun for the most part.

After 3 years, here is the FINAL update
 

 UPDATE 30/08/22 (Final Update)                       
*Added some enhancements (Few and mostly visual)                        
*Added a custom GENMIDI made by me (Doesn't have all patches, only a few necesary for the map music)
*Fixed some texture alignments

*Fixed a secret Key Door error
*Download Link now on idgames, Google Drive and MediaFire (the last two along with older versions)

Download Links in the OP

I have completed this map not in Vanilla way and there was some harsh moments that I just can't be silenced about...

First of all, why optional locked blue door & yellow locked door are surrounded by "block player" lines? It is confusing to navigate, 'cause there is a feeling that is air the only one who blocking me with no reason.

There was also small texture inconsistency between two trap doors on their floors that was pointed in on the video footage below.

Big room with teleporter to the puzzle is overrun by "spongy" enemies (like cacodemons), but I guess this is okay?

There is also few things that is kinda... Harsh... Here they are:

1) "Block players" lines. Again. For what reason I am not allowed to go to the edges of cliffs? There is many shotgunners that was gathered & killed. This is just not right, I think.

2) Line that is raising a bars behind the player can be a little bit further from the hallway. It is possible to just run in and out to trick it.

3) Check out teleport itself. There is no reason to put not "WR", but "W1" activators instead. There was three imps in the destination room, so 3 of 4 lines was used. What if there was fourth imp? Softlock gonna be happen.

After first very occupied room there is a puzzle that is unclear how to solve. Look at MAP12 of "Doom 2". There is a great example of that kind of puzzle. I can see a hints on the ceiling. You should mark it too, somehow. And, I think, raised platforms must change their texture as well.

In the another very occupied room (server-room?) with repetitive computer texture on almost every wall there is a some kind of offsets alignment problem.
I am not sure, but I guess that walls in this room not even to 64 map units. I can suggest to rebuild that room a bit and use this texture more careful.

Room with blue skullkey are very mean & very crumpled. I don't know how to make it right w/o invulnerability sphere, but that may be just me.

There is also another place that can lead to softlock, but this place is optional. I am talking about thin hallway that leads to night vision goggles secret. You can also saw on the video below that there is a way to trick this mechanism too via quickly entering in and out. You can make these bars fast & made some of their faces an activators, so poor player that broke them can open them. Activators itself can be a "D1" fast doors.

At the end I've missed only two items.

Map itself is not bad. I think that it needs more polishing before be posted on /idgames.

this is a great map

I played this map on stream and quite enjoyed it.

In the vid, I think I mentioned there were a bit of some impassible lines that I thought were weird. I will also mention that the bars in front of the exit cause a Spechits overflow (should be easy enough to fix, just remove some of the open door lines / scrolling lines from the side of the bars that are unable to be pressed / not visible).

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1577976718?t=0h6m28s

32 minutes ago, RastaManGames said:

I have completed this map not in Vanilla way and there was some harsh moments that I just can't be silenced about...

Thanks for the feedback and playing!!

 

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First of all, why optional locked blue door & yellow locked door are surrounded by "block player" lines? It is confusing to navigate, 'cause there is a feeling that is air the only one who blocking me with no reason.

That was made in order to avoid people using jumping in advanced sourceports (idk why I made that before, I supposed wanted to make it strictly vanilla lol).

 

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Big room with teleporter to the puzzle is overrun by "spongy" enemies (like cacodemons), but I guess this is okay?

Yeah, the point of that part (and others of the map) is to be a slaugher fest lol

 

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1) "Block players" lines. Again. For what reason I am not allowed to go to the edges of cliffs? There is many shotgunners that was gathered & killed. This is just not right, I think.

That part are intended to be turrets, so blocked the part because I thought it was unnecesary for the player, but you're right that is not a really cool thing to do. Sorry :P

 

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2) Line that is raising a bars behind the player can be a little bit further from the hallway. It is possible to just run in and out to trick it.

You're right! I never thinked on that possibility before lol

 

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3) Check out teleport itself. There is no reason to put not "WR", but "W1" activators instead. There was three imps in the room, so 3 of 4 lines was used. What if there was fourth imp? Softlock gonna be happen.

Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking with that.

 

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After first very occupied room there is a puzzle that is unclear how to solve. Look at MAP12 of "Doom 2". There is a great example of that kind of puzzle. I can see a hints on the ceiling. You should mark it too, somehow. And, I think, raised platforms must change their texture as well.

I think is a problem with how your mod handles liquid brightness, because the point of that puzzle involves brightness changes

For example, this is how is supposed to look:
 

As for the texture change, yeah I tried, but to make something like that in vanilla mean that I need to remade the puzzle, so I decided to keep the floor as is.

btw, that puzzle was actually based on the Doom 2 MAP12 one lol

 

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In the another very occupied room (sever-room?) with repetitive computer texture on almost every wall there is a some kind of offsets alignment problem.
I am not sure, but I guess that walls in this room not even to 64 map units. I can suggest to rebuild that room a bit and use this texture more careful.

Room with blue skullkey are very mean & very crumpled. I don't know how to make it right w/o invulnerability sphere, but that may be just me.

That room was completely ripped off based on E1M2 Computer Room (Even the secrets are the same heh), I think is more a perspective problem than a alignment problem since I worked a lot with alignments in that room when I started the build up.

As for the Blue Key room, yeah, I wanted a brutal "Kill them before they kill you" trap, I was made with a heavy use of the chaingun in mind (as in the original demo I used it to finish that part without Invulnerability) 

 

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There is also another place that can lead to softlock, but this place is optional. I am talking about thin hallway that leads to night vision goggles secret. You can also saw on the video below that there is a way to trick this mechanism too via quickly entering in and out. You can make these bars fast & made some of their faces an activators, so poor player that broke them can open them. Activators itself can be a "D1" fast doors.

tbh, I don't see how that part cant lead to a softlock (aside the trick with the mechanishm), also, I think adding a activator breaks the entire purpose of that trap (Making the player into a forcibly fight without escape). So, I blocked with that one (again, sorry :c)

 

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At the end I've missed only two items.

 

Map itself is not bad. I think that it needs more polishing before be posted on /idgames.

Again, thanks for playing my map and the feedback, keep in mind I made this map for Vanilla Doom with his Limitations so a lot of things that look strange are probably because vanilla limitations with effects.

Probably I will not making any changes since I made a upload request on /idgames, but I will keep this feedback in mind if they reject my map heh

46 minutes ago, Arsinikk said:

I played this map on stream and quite enjoyed it.

 

In the vid, I think I mentioned there were a bit of some impassible lines that I thought were weird. I will also mention that the bars in front of the exit cause a Spechits overflow (should be easy enough to fix, just remove some of the open door lines / scrolling lines from the side of the bars that are unable to be pressed / not visible).

Thanks for playing!

I never realized about the spechits overflow can happen in the exit bars. I will keep in mind in a (probably not) future update along with RastaManGames feedback.

BTW, Thanks for the feedback! I laughed after you realized about the Invulnerability Sphere secret too late lol

Fun stuff!  Played on HMP as is my custom with first-time playthroughs these days, got 3/7 secrets, 249/272 kills (must be a lot of the baddies are hidden?)

Overall, it's a good mostly-techbase style map, attractively detailed and managing to be classic and Doomy while still carrying a style of its own.  The hell flourishes here and there worked well, I enjoyed the approach to the final battle especially.  The preponderance of flashing lights and dark areas toes the line between being charming and annoying, most of the time I enjoyed the atmosphere it created and felt it never overstayed its welcome too much.  The battles were fun, too, given the limits imposed by the Doom 1 bestiary it's probably good you kept it mostly to the lower-beef monsters instead of loading this up with barons and cacos everywhere (although this might be different on UV).  I only died once, in that particularly mean blue-key trap.  It was a cheese of course when I did it a second time ("oh, that's what that invulnerability sphere is for"), but with all those shotgunners and imps all around in such close quarters it feels like it's up to the RNG whether I die or not under ordinary circumstances.  I also very nearly bit it in that round room looking outdoors (cool area, by the way), but there was enough health around to get me through it and overcome all those nasty hitscanners.  The piggies up on the ledge felt unnecessary, they pose no threat since by the time I get up there I've already killed everything else around and just line them up for a chainsaw feeding.  I enjoyed the dark computer maze, and I normally hate dark computer mazes.  You used the space well and made it mazey enough to up the tension while also easy enough to orient that I barely needed to reference the automap.  Good work.

Wow 4 secrets and 23 monsters left to find!  Gives me another reason to attempt a UV run at some point.  A couple rough patches aside I say good work and I hope you keep making more maps :3

I gave this one a try and I definitely think it's pretty well done. Action wise, there was never a dull moment and the combat was pretty well done. Usually with Doom 1 based stuff it can be tricky to balance but there were some very fun and deadly encounters here. I luckily survived my blind UV run, just barely. 

Gameplay stuff:

Cosmetic stuff:

I've never attempted a vanilla compatible map and I'm sure it's relatively challenging to keep things simple enough. So I may be somewhat ignorant to those limitations. Some of this is very nitpicky and might have been mentioned already.

3 hours ago, Stupid Bunny said:

Fun stuff!  Played on HMP as is my custom with first-time playthroughs these days, got 3/7 secrets, 249/272 kills (must be a lot of the baddies are hidden?)

 

Overall, it's a good mostly-techbase style map, attractively detailed and managing to be classic and Doomy while still carrying a style of its own.  The hell flourishes here and there worked well, I enjoyed the approach to the final battle especially.  The preponderance of flashing lights and dark areas toes the line between being charming and annoying, most of the time I enjoyed the atmosphere it created and felt it never overstayed its welcome too much.  The battles were fun, too, given the limits imposed by the Doom 1 bestiary it's probably good you kept it mostly to the lower-beef monsters instead of loading this up with barons and cacos everywhere (although this might be different on UV).  I only died once, in that particularly mean blue-key trap.  It was a cheese of course when I did it a second time ("oh, that's what that invulnerability sphere is for"), but with all those shotgunners and imps all around in such close quarters it feels like it's up to the RNG whether I die or not under ordinary circumstances.  I also very nearly bit it in that round room looking outdoors (cool area, by the way), but there was enough health around to get me through it and overcome all those nasty hitscanners.  The piggies up on the ledge felt unnecessary, they pose no threat since by the time I get up there I've already killed everything else around and just line them up for a chainsaw feeding.  I enjoyed the dark computer maze, and I normally hate dark computer mazes.  You used the space well and made it mazey enough to up the tension while also easy enough to orient that I barely needed to reference the automap.  Good work.

 

Wow 4 secrets and 23 monsters left to find!  Gives me another reason to attempt a UV run at some point.  A couple rough patches aside I say good work and I hope you keep making more maps :3

Thanks! I love how everybody died or on the Courtyard area or on the Blue Key area.

Also, It fills up my Ego being one of the few Computer Maze maps that you liked B) heh

i really encourage you to play in UV, it was the difficulty meant for that map (all the base enemy placement was made first on UV and is the setting played in the demo).

Played on UV in Zandronum.

- The teleporter that takes you to the yellow key seems to be missing a linedef on one side.

- If you decide to go through that teleporter again for some reason, you get softlocked in the yellow key area.

Just in general, blocking the player from being able to move, especially with invisible lines, makes a map very frustrating to play through.

3 hours ago, Lucius Wooding said:

I gave this one a try and I definitely think it's pretty well done. Action wise, there was never a dull moment and the combat was pretty well done. Usually with Doom 1 based stuff it can be tricky to balance but there were some very fun and deadly encounters here. I luckily survived my blind UV run, just barely.

 

Thanks man!

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-I didn't really see the point of the yellow key puzzle, but I liked the fight afterwards very much. It was one of a handful of nice exciting skirmishes and I like the use of the previous area now being opened up.

I just wanted to add some platforming into Doom (Like Doom 2 MAP 12) but yeah, now I think it doesn't have really much sense that part with the rest of the map.

 

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-The computer maze area was well done, I usually hate mazes but this required a lot of care to clear out. It changed up the pacing of the map and the spectres and surprise cacos commanded some respect. The well placed barrels were also a welcome addition, best monster in all of Doom.

Another Ego boosting comment, I love it! B)

 

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-In the final room it's possible to drop down in between the stairs and skull decorations (if using infinite height actors) and get stuck. I did this by accident but I'm not sure if it's easy to do.

 

-It doesn't appear there's any backtracking from the final fight? That's a shame for people who play to UV max and want to backtrack for secrets. It's impossible to know whether there's one at the end so I think it'd be a good courtesy to place a red key door with a teleporter going back to the central hub or something. However it's possible I may have missed something so let me know.

Oh, It never happened to me when playtesting, I suppose is a pretty rare and specific error.

About the backtracking, that was the point of the final fight. A no returning point, so prepare yourself well (or save before) for that.

 

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-I missed one secret which I can't find even with cheats. I got Megaarmor, Invuln, Lite amps, Plasma, Bulk cells, and Backpack secrets. They were all pretty helpful and not too tough to find for the most part. If I had to make one change it'd be to switch the cells and plasma so it's available early on, since there's only the backpack you'd have a max of 60 cells until the ending fight. It'd be enough to help out but not to allow the player to spam.

Hehe, I recomend you to look carefully the textures for something "odd"

 

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-In the maze area, the compwall textures were often wrapped around corners very awkwardly. I think it was due to all the stuff that opens up, it makes it a nightmare to do automatically. I think it was very well designed from a gameplay perspective but it could really use some more trim and transition textures along corners and where it meets different walls. It would probably be a good amount of work but it'd make it much nicer looking. A lot of this is due to the nature of that texture, it always wants to look cut off unless you're very strict about the geometry.

You are like the Third or Fourth person to notice that, yeah the COMPWALL texture is really hard to work on, is fairly easy to mess up with it even with a lot of care in the alignments. That even happens in official maps (e.g E1M2), actually, that part took me most of the time thanks to that.

 

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-In the little teleporter room to the megaarmor secret, the inner texture for the door is still visible when it's open. 

Really? I didn't notice that lol

 

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-The two optional key doors use unpegged textures?

I was at purpose because I think the effect looked cool. B)

 

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-I felt the final room looked a bit flat compared to the rest. I liked the stairs being a bit stylized and the overall look you were going for. But it felt like it lacked some details the other areas had. Part of it was probably vanilla limitations, but I think having most of the ceiling as one blood texture with no height variation was a missed opportunity. On top of that, it didn't seem like there was much in the way of lighting variation here, where it was used well in the other parts of the map.

It was a combination of Vanilla Limitations and Ran off ideas for that part, I wanted that people use the pillars as Shield against the enemies.


Again, thanks a lot for playing and feedback.

13 minutes ago, Degree23 said:

Played on UV in Zandronum.

 

- The teleporter that takes you to the yellow key seems to be missing a linedef on one side.

- If you decide to go through that teleporter again for some reason, you get softlocked in the yellow key area.

 

Just in general, blocking the player from being able to move, especially with invisible lines, makes a map very frustrating to play through.

Really? I didn't noticed a missing linedef.

I'm 100% sure you can't get softlocked in the yellow key area, what happens is that the teleport sector is a really tiny square (almost the same size as the key) so in the moment you got the key you are teleported instantly. You can look Arsinikk's playthrough and see that he go to the yellow key area twice and didn't got softblocked (also, I tested it myself).

About the invisible lines, Indeed idk what was I thinking by putting that lines, however in Arsinkk's stream seems you can actually trick that block lol

Thanks a lot for playing and feedback man!

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Pistol Start: Only if you feel suicidal.

Very funny

I discovered the wad is on idgames, but is a old version with a error in one of the secrets (basically, you can't get one because a wrong key linedef) soooo I need to reupload that version.

btw, I decided to fix some things based on the feedback received.

So here is the Final Update bugfix(?)

 

02/08/22 (Final Update bugfix)
                          
*Added more visual enhancements (yay) 
*Added a custom GENMIDI made by me (Doesn't have all patches, only a few necesary for the map music)
*Fixed a lot of texture alignments in computer maze (probably made another misalignments in the process)

*Removed the impassable linedefs, so yeah, more Freedoom (got it?)
*Fixed the W1 linedefs in the teleport of the outside area (3 of the 4 lines have a W1 by mistake but the 4th was a WR, now all have WR linedef)

*Also, that teleporter is now blocked for monsters, so the imps can't surprise you in the next area anymore
*Enhanced one of the secrets traps

*Fixed a Tutti-frutti effect in a secret room.

*Fixed a softlock with decoration in the final area

*Enhaced some secrets making it more noticeable
*Readded Demo! (yay x2) Now there are 2 demos, one in the wad (more akin to classic doom demos) and the other in the zip

*Now builded with ZokumBSP!

-Some graphic glitches (Only in vanilla. I only find 2, one was fixed and I decided to keep the other because it actually looked cool)
 

Download Links in the OP

Just a quick update to say IMAJANA is now on /idgames!

Download Link in the OP

Just finished now.

It was good to clear my head.
It certainly shows signs of being influenced by iwad.
I did a good job saving and entering at the end. I died twice.

It was fun.