Reliving the End (/idgames release!)

Well, we've all lived through the end, but the question is, are you ready to Relive, the End?

IDGAMES LINK: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/alt-end

This is my personal interpretation of Romero's classic, I had two goals in mind:

- See how far I could take the original concept in terms of size and difficulty

- To make a map that suits Jimmy's Atomic midi

It's a boom compatible map, it has no coop starts yet. Anyway i'm looking for feedback before I release this baby on /idgames sometime soon.

Note: The only parts missing from original map29 are the wood maze and the baron platform gauntlet, I might still add those but only if I come up with solid visual/combat ideas for them.

Credits:

Jimmy for his Atomic midi

Mechadon for the sky from his Box O' Skies

Everyone who already tested it in private <3

This one screenshot should give you a solid idea of what's ahead:

Have fun! And good luck, this map's a toughie on UV, you can always play on HMP/HNTR though, as difficulty settings are indeed, implemented.

Visuals are not much to write home about, but that sky (not screenshotted above) is amazing, worth a quick look even if not planning on playing it, if only for that. 

A lot of the action is really strong: it's like a kinetic Resurgence-style slaughterlight outing, lots of pressure and bloodshed, lots of provisions. 

Some points of concern: 

- The very start is weird. It banks on the assumption that the player will fight the chaingunner and imps with the pistol (or infighting). But if I grab the super shotgun that is right there, as looks natural, now the floor lowers and I can't return to kill those monsters. The subsequent teleport fight is also very clearly dependent on firing a shot, when you are given no reason to ever shoot at anything at that point. Pacifisting it is not helpful, but that whole setup seems off. 

- A common theme throughout the map is monsters rising out of the ground slowly paired with walkover triggers that are really close to them. There are a few spots -- the line of pinkies early, the cyber/rev fight with the rising and lowering barriers, and the cyber (!) at that lift late -- calling for instapops or greater separation between trigger and affected sector -- you will run into a monster while it is still rising or learn of its existence only as you touch it, with potentially dangerous consequences, which is annoying. 

- Early, there are two green armors when you are highly unlikely to need more than one at that point (already having one from the the start). Nearing the end, there are few green armors. It seems logical to move one to the later stages of the map, perhaps around the radsuit drop. (Played on UV, for reference.)

- Lulls for me were: that first cyber and spidermastermind area (feels slower-paced and more cleanup intensive than the stuff at the start), and any time I had to fight cacodemons and pain elementals. The group of fliers near the mega is fitting as an homage to the original; the set at the end feels pointless cleanup. It's not so bad, but it's odd that it's a naked group of gasbags. The stuff in the southwest corner following the two archviles isn't so spectacular either. Compared to the opening arachnotrons with their crisscrossing streams, these don't really do as much. Maybe a good spot to play around with a monster type the map doesn't use much elsewhere. Contrast and all that. 

- That late cyb needs a monster block line behind it imo. No joy in waiting for it to come back up the lift if it decides to 'retreat' from you. 

 The map was a blast for the most part, especially the room with the raising / lowering marble, but there are some points I need to bring up.

• The crusher above the spider mastermind seems a bit like overkill. Everything in the general area is capable of slaying the spider, plus there's enough ammo to assist with clean up duty

•  I kept hearing chaingunners firing around the lava near the secret plasma gun, but never saw or got hit by them.

•  The final fight is just obnoxious. The archviles actually threw me clear out of the room towards the beginning of the map on my first attempt, wasting the invulnerability. My second attempt was what it must feel like to be a tennis ball.

•  There are a couple of sequence breaks around the area with the megasphere. They can both be prevented by trimming down the ledges a bit.

Yo thanks for the feedback guys! I've received a lot on Steam/Discord as well. Here's the changelog for RC2:

- Changed the start of the map to force the player into shooting (using the new placed chaingun) to trigger the initial trap.

- Added more health right after the lift

- Got rid of the raising monsters trap early on, the demons are active from get go and just swarm in when the gate is lowered

- Added a new backpack secret early on

- Gave the player more time to react in the raising/lowering platforms room by pushing the monsters further back (and making the raising floor turbo to avoid the player just walking into the raising monsters)

- Fixed all the reported sequence breaks, especially the ones near the caco/pain fight.

- You can no longer bail out easily out of the caco/pain fight.

- Lift cyberdemon can no longer walk into the radsuit area

- Fixed the damaging floors not being damaging, use that radsuit wisely! (added a second one just incase)

- Added a second non-secret invulnerability sphere in the final fight on all difficulties

- Fixed various misalignments.

Main post has been updated with RC2 download.

NINJA EDIT: Uploaded RC3

- Added coop starts

- Added a new mapinfo disabling crouching/jumping, freelook is allowed :)

NINJA EDIT 2: Fixed inescapable pits, I think.

That was a fun romp. Thanks for making it.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/431244378

I play this at 1:54:05 into this playtest livestream. A good remake of Doom 2's map 29 overall, as I expected from someone who's made some good maps before.

3 video parts of the map (older version and testing some settings for game recorder)

7 hours ago, Suitepee said:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/431244378

 

I play this at 1:54:05 into this playtest livestream. A good remake of Doom 2's map 29 overall, as I expected from someone who's made some good maps before.

Thanks for the playthrough John @Suitepee! That was a fun experience, I was surprised you weren't mad at some of the nastier setups but seeing you were able to handle them without a problem, means they are fairly balanced. Don't forget to play Evershrine someday hahaha.

Leo's playthrough was just as entertaining, i've already disclosed my thoughs on that one, on discord to him :P.

So, i'm gonna look into seeing what else I can still tweak, then it's off to /idgames soon.

Great fun for the most part.

- A backpack somewhere near the middle of the map would be good. You have plenty of ammo later on (that you need) and having to backtrack because I could only have 300 Cells was a bit annoying.

- The end was not that fun for me, as it is quite likely you're blasted up high and not able to kill that many when you're invincible. A good few Arch Viles could be removed from this section and still retain the idea.

Thanks to everyone who helped test this, it has officially made it to /idgames.

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/alt-end

Now I can not map for a while, I am burned out, hopefully when I come back to it, i'll come up with something new, about time I start doing something else than boom maps heh.