Beleth Posted August 1, 2019 (edited) Hey folks, because of the release of Sigil, i became attracted to good old Doom again and finally started to design my own levels. The first result is called "Below", you can find the download-link here, as i´m not sure its bug-free and not tested enough for the idgames-archive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RnE7p2HQPZEo4IBbLpvcEGbjl6oB0rrO It´s a small wad that contains three levels at the moment. First two use the Doom-format, third is UDMF as i first wanted to start easy. Its tuned for UV, other skills are implemented but not tested, the same goes to coop-play. I´m happy if anyone likes it and/or finds bugs and comments. After some testing and re-editing i will hopefully be courageous enough to put it in the idgames-archive.. A short description is in the zip-file. It uses Doom 2, jumping/crouching disabled, freelook enabled. At least for the third level, hardware acceleration is necessary because of some issues with the skybox. I use GZDoom, so i only tested it with this engine. I used Ukiros OTEX-wad (https://doom.ukiro.com/otex-downloads/), so you have to include that in the GZDoom-start as i don´t know at the moment how to do that within the wad. Gameplay is intended to be at medium-difficulty, difficult but fair. The intention was that you are low on ammo and health and have to take care about that as you progress. But i learned that tuning a map to this can be pretty time-intensive so i stopped at some point and hope it´s playable. Cheers, Belleth edit: version updated, third level was lacking ammo. edit: i had some time during the last days so i made an update. Thanks Magicana, Rhanin and Zortakka for the beta-testing and the good input! I also updated the screenshot, because i learned how to disable the hud for that ;) Edited August 6, 2019 by Belleth : update of wad 17 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 1, 2019 (edited) Edited August 6, 2019 by Belleth : update of wad 5 Share this post Link to post
Magicana Posted August 1, 2019 I'll give this a playthrough some time tomorrow, but as a side note, while it's very easy to bundle the resources into the .wad itself (Using Slade 3), you're 100% doing the right thing by not doing it here - The author of Otex doesn't want people bundling it into their own wads, but rather to do what you did and link to the download. 2 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 1, 2019 Cool, let me know what you think. My intended solution for the otex-wad would be to kind of hard-link it in the zmapinfo. So if otex.wad is in the same directory like the wad, you don´t have to manually add it to the gzdoom-startup. 1 Share this post Link to post
Magicana Posted August 2, 2019 Did a playthrough of all three maps (I forgot that there were multiple, got a bit surprised when map02 was something! For all three maps: These are not your typical "First wad" maps. Lets start with map01. Pretty cohesive little map - Ammo did get a bit tight at times, but it was pretty enjoyable. Some of the hanging decorations had different textures on each side - Which is something that kind of irked me. There was also a door at one point that had sky1 flat. The combat was pretty decent - I quite liked the section towards the end with the arch-vile. I like that everything else was waking up except it. Made me pick priorities, and enough cover that you could keep everything under wraps. Only had one death when I was ruminating thinking everything was dead and two arch-viles got a jump on me. The environment could have played a larger role in threatening the player though. I'll take the example of the crushers in the toxic sludge - The sludge isn't a damaging floor, which means you can take your time with positioning and multiple breaks. Make the floor damaging, give me a sense of urgency. Map02 was also quite solid. I'm not a huge fan of pitch black environments, but it wasn't terribly done. I did have a problem with the large area towards the end with the damaging floor - It would be very easy for the player to get softlocked in that area. I'm also not a fan of being unable to max the level - I just didn't have enough ammo to finish that cyberdemon. There may be ammo in the secret areas, but I missed them. Map 03 was also quite good; I feel like each map was an improvement over the last. I couldn't help but laugh at the crusher puzzle (I almost figured out the rocket launcher, but you also gave one in the next room). The progression was a little fuzzy, but once I knew where I had to be it was pretty good. I enjoyed the bridge fight - You had room to move, but pressing threats coming as well. 0 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 3, 2019 Thanks a lot for the feedback and the videos. It´s good to see how you played it and what things should be improved, like the acid-pool in the first map where you couldn´t escape, (which was not intended as a death-trap), the fight in map02 in the dark, the door after the crusher-puzzle in map03 where you kind of needed the yellow skull to continue, etc. At least for me, your time was good invested ;) 1 Share this post Link to post
Magicana Posted August 3, 2019 2 hours ago, Belleth said: Thanks a lot for the feedback and the videos. It´s good to see how you played it and what things should be improved, like the acid-pool in the first map where you couldn´t escape, (which was not intended as a death-trap), the fight in map02 in the dark, the door after the crusher-puzzle in map03 where you kind of needed the yellow skull to continue, etc. At least for me, your time was good invested ;) That's the whole reason I record the play through - You get to see how I reacted in real time. I enjoyed all three maps. 1 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 6, 2019 *bump* Thanks everyone for the input. I had the time to work a bit on the wad and updated it. I fixed some gameplay-issues with fights happening in unintended places, added some rooms and also learned how to use monsters as action-triggers ;) Have fun playing it! 0 Share this post Link to post
KVELLER Posted August 6, 2019 I got stuck in MAP02 in the room after the one with the pentagram. I checked the map in GZDoom Builder and I see that a wall is supposed to lower when you pick up the blue skull key, but that didn't happen for me. I don't know if I managed to break the map somehow, or if GZDoom changed the way it handles linedefs at some point (I'm using 4.1.3). 1 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 6, 2019 thanks for noticing! i‘ll have a look into it! 0 Share this post Link to post
Doomkid Posted August 7, 2019 Beautiful screenshots, great use of the otex pack! 1 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 7, 2019 10 hours ago, KVELLER said: I got stuck in MAP02 in the room after the one with the pentagram. I checked the map in GZDoom Builder and I see that a wall is supposed to lower when you pick up the blue skull key, but that didn't happen for me. I don't know if I managed to break the map somehow, or if GZDoom changed the way it handles linedefs at some point (I'm using 4.1.3). Bug found and corrected. It was an issue if you where moving to fast and the floors haven´t lowered to their lowest point at that time, which broke the intended sequence ;) A new version has been uploaded. 1 Share this post Link to post
KVELLER Posted August 8, 2019 20 hours ago, Belleth said: Bug found and corrected. It was an issue if you where moving to fast and the floors haven´t lowered to their lowest point at that time, which broke the intended sequence ;) A new version has been uploaded. Cool! I'll check it out once again. I was having quite a bit of fun with it. 0 Share this post Link to post
Suitepee Posted August 9, 2019 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/464924652 I play this at 3:28:39 into this playtest livestream. For a first wad release, this was quite impressive. 2 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 10, 2019 very nice to hear that you liked it! i only watched the first minutes of your playthrough because sadly i lack some spare time now. i really liked your idea with enemys spawning to areas where you‘ve been to but have to go through again. at first i thought that it‘s boring because you would kind of expect it, but on the other hand, some expectations are worth to be fulfilled, especially when you kind of „wake up“ the enemies with an assault from behind, so in many areas it would really fit for the maps. i also like the idea of having time to get familiar with an arena before the combat starts, like in my map 3 in the cyberdemon-room. map-making is a really good way to be creative and make something nice for people ;-) 0 Share this post Link to post
Doctor Nick Posted August 12, 2019 Wow, this is your first WAD? It's great. We will watch your career with great interest. 2 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 13, 2019 Thanks! These are my first levels and the first wad, hopefully not the last ;) Thanks also Suitepee for the recordings, very good to see what you did and thought about the maps, helps a lot for refinements and the search for mis-aligned textures ;-) 0 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 19, 2019 *bump*: Fixed a bug in the third map, found by @Suitepee (trapped in the yellow key room), made minor adjustments to maps 1 and 3 and added ammunition and health-drops for Mancubi and Arch-Viles. New version is up on GoogleDrive and the idgames-archive. Hopefully, I´ll have a bit more time in the upcoming weeks for diving into mapping again and also enjoying other wads as well. 0 Share this post Link to post
DavidN Posted August 24, 2019 I did a recording with commentary as well after plucking this off the new releases on DoomLauncher! I absolutely refuse to believe these are your first maps ;) The architecture and texturing are great throughout - you really use the OTEX pack to make something with a feel very unlike vanilla Doom. Ammunition is definitely tight in the first map and I couldn't work out how to leave the yellow key room in map03 at all so I cheated (sorry). But there are some great moments in there, like the way that you gradually find yourself picking your way around the large cave in map01, the wide open fireball-dodging space of map02, the more puzzle-themed rooms of map03 - especially finding you're trapped on an island with cacodemons coming towards you! There's really a great feeling here of descending and discovering hidden places. I would love to see it continued :) This video was sponsored by the Send Lawyers to Hell appeal! Playing Doom WADs to raise money for RAICES. https://streamlabs.com/davidxn/v2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-R3_fVcWcE 1 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 24, 2019 Thanks for the roses and cool that you enjoyed it! I am working on an update at the moment to fix some issues, like the yellow-key-room in map3 or some linedef and teleport-stuff in map2. Also, a 4th map with a glacier/snow-theme is in the pipeline. There is no such thing of enough beta-testing as it seems ;) 0 Share this post Link to post
DavidN Posted August 24, 2019 Fantastic :) Did I miss the true way out in map03 or was I actually trapped in there? 0 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 25, 2019 i didn’t watch your video yesterday, it’s on my todo-list ;) the intended way would be to kill the cyberdemon and after that, the gate should open again. i also tried with an optional kill and the possibility to escape, but this is doom and therefore you want to pick the fight ;) In the published version i used some walls as well as three extra-linedefs for closing the door after you entered the room, i thought that would work well, but turned out to be a bad idea if you walked over the untriggered linedefs after killing the cyberdemon.. during testing it always worked well. life is constant learning ;-) 0 Share this post Link to post
Magicana Posted August 25, 2019 7 minutes ago, Belleth said: i didn’t watch your video yesterday, it’s on my todo-list ;) the intended way would be to kill the cyberdemon and after that, the gate should open again. i also tried with an optional kill and the possibility to escape, but this is doom and therefore you want to pick the fight ;) In the published version i used some walls as well as three extra-linedefs for closing the door after you entered the room, i thought that would work well, but turned out to be a bad idea if you walked over the untriggered linedefs after killing the cyberdemon.. during testing it always worked well. life is constant learning ;-) With Boom mapping (I think you're using UDMF so it should still work) you can use conveyor belts for this as well. I've got a short and shitty explanation of how it works over in this thread: 2 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted August 30, 2019 Back from holidays and errors in the maps fixed. Uploaded a new version on the google-drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RnE7p2HQPZEo4IBbLpvcEGbjl6oB0rrO Enjoy! 0 Share this post Link to post
Turin Turambar Posted September 19, 2019 This looks very nice, I will try! 0 Share this post Link to post
I_Punch_Demons Posted September 20, 2019 All the narrow ledges and the neutered cyber demon fights. I can definitely see the Sigil inspiration. Especially on that first and second level. Also, the part where you are below in a maze fighting a cyber demon really seems to mimic the one map in sigil where you have to do the same. But unlike Romero, you made it in Doom 2 and I am grateful I didn't have to single barrel any barrons too much. This was a great wad, especially for a first attempt. Thank you for sharing! Keep in mind with the video below, I did the entire wad in one sitting. I also edited out the death strings. So if you see a fade, I am literally saving you minutes of time there. Also, I just want to say 2019 has been a really great year for wads. Please keep up the good work y'all. 1 Share this post Link to post
Turin Turambar Posted September 20, 2019 It was a very good mapset for a first try, although personally I think it's missing some low-level combat (some zombiemen here, some imps theres) in between the key combat areas. There is also an excess of Cacodemons but that's because for a lot of time you are moving in between platform or in between lava, etc. 1 Share this post Link to post
Beleth Posted September 23, 2019 Nice to hear that you liked it! In hindsight i would have picked less barons and more knights, but everything is a learning process ;) Thanks for the low-level combat-hint. I kind of like it to have some areas where nothing happens and you just walk around and explore the area. But especially in map 2 and 3 are be some good occasions for random imps. I don´t like hitscanners, because i prefer running around, dodging fireballs. Also the available hitscanners in vanilla didn´t fit the theme of the maps, so it was an easy decision to not use them ;) 0 Share this post Link to post