[Doom2] Escape from Jabba's Palace

Those screenshots look cool! The 3rd one gives me a Chex Quest vibe somehow. This ones on the to-play list for sure.

Just started playing. Surprised you didn't go with a Star Wars midi of some sort. 

Alright. Just finished the map with 99% kills and 75% secrets on UV. Took about 40 minutes taking it slow and looking for secrets. The layout and design of this map was nice. Textures were used well and the whole thing tied together pretty nicely. I like the way the map starts and the berserk is perfect. I used it nearly exclusively for the first good bit of the map. Health was a little tight, unless you found a few secrets, but overall I thought the map was a bit too easy. Even on UV with 329 monsters the only real threat was the one room with the Mancubus and Archvile and only then because of really good chaingunner placement. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the map a lot and if you're going for a more casual approach you nailed it. If you want UV to be a challenge then I would add in more mid tier monsters in some spots. 

Had a really good time with it. Pinkies are perfect replacements for Gammorrean guards.

18 hours ago, Doomkid said:

Those screenshots look cool! The 3rd one gives me a Chex Quest vibe somehow. This ones on the to-play list for sure.

Thankyou Doomkid. Chexquest uses a number of orange textures, so maybe that has something to do with it hehe 

14 hours ago, kknot5889 said:

Just started playing. Surprised you didn't go with a Star Wars midi of some sort. 

Thanks for playing and posting your thoughts kknot. I had toyed with the idea of a new midi, but put it off until the map was finished, and in the end just gave it a pass. I kind of feel like I have a secret joke with myself - my new maps are just a sugar pill to make folks listen to d_runnin again lol. You're right though, if I ever do a final release candidate for the map I will include a new music track.

13 hours ago, kknot5889 said:

Alright. Just finished the map with 99% kills and 75% secrets on UV. Took about 40 minutes taking it slow and looking for secrets. The layout and design of this map was nice. Textures were used well and the whole thing tied together pretty nicely. I like the way the map starts and the berserk is perfect. I used it nearly exclusively for the first good bit of the map. Health was a little tight, unless you found a few secrets, but overall I thought the map was a bit too easy. Even on UV with 329 monsters the only real threat was the one room with the Mancubus and Archvile and only then because of really good chaingunner placement. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the map a lot and if you're going for a more casual approach you nailed it. If you want UV to be a challenge then I would add in more mid tier monsters in some spots. 

Nice! Good score too, it's cool that you took your time with it.  I appreciate the kind words, my level building style is rather slow and deliberate, and I like to reward players who explore. The map was started a long time ago as an experiment to see if I could recreate the Rancor pit from the movie, and when it functioned OK I figured it was something worth expanding on. I added the Mancubus room at first just to see if I could make that location, and when it turned out as well that was the go ahead to make everything in between.

A few times while making the level I got stuck for ideas and set it aside while I worked on other maps, but the last half and finalizing was done in the last two weeks or so. As far as mapmaking style I've always been more of an 'environments' type as opposed to encounter-focused, but at the same time I always try to make the player balance resources carefully, especially early on.  

I see what you mean about the difficulty. I had intended to hold off on the big variety until the Mancubus room to simulate the menagerie of aliens that we see in the movie. As the map got longer I held fast to the theme of lower-tier monsters being the main type, though maybe I was a little heavy-handed in that regard. In any case, you got the idea - this map wasn't meant to be extremely challenging, more of a test in layout and progression, so I'm glad you had a good time with it on those terms. If I was to prepare a final version I might add a bit more health and mid-lvl monsters, your thoughts confirm suspicions I had while finishing the map.

13 hours ago, kknot5889 said:

Pinkies are perfect replacements for Gammorrean guards.

lol seems like you had the same thought as I did. When placing enemies, I tried to do comparisons between each monster type. Hell Knights are Droids, Imps are Gran, and former Humans are Rodian/Trandoshan smugglers.

Thanks again for playing, and providing your feedback.

@reflex17

Hope I was able to help! I can definitely see where you're coming from design wise, fitting everything inbetween the two areas and all that. The rancor pit was a great idea. I especially liked that little section with the C shaped alcoves you have to navigate. That was a lot of fun and definitely added a lot in the way of encounters. That and the storage depot were my favorite parts. Very neat ideas. 

Wow, I didn't read all this thread before, but I have very similar thoughts to kknot5889.

Is there no link? Can someone upload please?

33 minutes ago, Kennyj7132 said:

Is there no link? Can someone upload please?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ep70xwwmrxzbbwp/JABBA.zip?dl=1

I updated the map with a music file so it was too large to upload here on DW.

Just finished it, Reflex and it was really neat. While having to listen to the same Star Wars track over and over got a little grating after a while, it didn't distract too much from the experience. I can tell you put a lot of work into it and I loved all the little details you put into it to make it feel like Jabba's palace. My only real gripe is you don't get to shoot Jabba in the face and rescue Leia once you reach his throne room. ;^)

Ah good, someone resurrected this thread. I have been playing this map as well in the meantime and did like it very much. Really lovely layout with some very interesting places. I did like the... Cantina / Bar / Restaurant (?) section the most, with those round shapes. I am not sure which difficulty level I played on but I thought it was quite a bit too easy. Other than that, very cool and I would like to dabble in the Dark Forces textures as well some day.

1 hour ago, Biodegradable said:

Just finished it, Reflex and it was really neat. While having to listen to the same Star Wars track over and over got a little grating after a while, it didn't distract too much from the experience. I can tell you put a lot of work into it and I loved all the little details you put into it to make it feel like Jabba's palace. My only real gripe is you don't get to shoot Jabba in the face and rescue Leia once you reach his throne room. ;^)

hahaha I thought about adding in new sprites but there's really nothing good for the Rancor, in Mysteries of the Sith it was a 3d model by that point. Thanks a lot for playing.

38 minutes ago, elend said:

Ah good, someone resurrected this thread. I have been playing this map as well in the meantime and did like it very much. Really lovely layout with some very interesting places. I did like the... Cantina / Bar / Restaurant (?) section the most, with those round shapes. I am not sure which difficulty level I played on but I thought it was quite a bit too easy. Other than that, very cool and I would like to dabble in the Dark Forces textures as well some day.

 I appreciate the feedback, there are some things I might change about the gameplay, I agree, I might update for UDMF someday so I'll keep that in mind. the 'bar' section at the end was heavily inspired by jabba's ship from Dark Forces, it has a similar circular booths and i figured his palace might have something similar ehehe. thanks elend!

Fun fact, tho a bit off topic

On this day, 1977, OG version of A New Hope was premiered

I'm glad I found this wad to play it as a celebration

59 minutes ago, RemoveUwU said:

Fun fact, tho a bit off topic

On this day, 1977, OG version of A New Hope was premiered

I'm glad I found this wad to play it as a celebration

whoa, i had no idea, cool bit of trivia! from one Star Wars fan to another "may the Force be with you" and I (a new) hope you have a good time with the level. thx RUwU = )

And for Dark Forces fans LuciusXL is working on The Force Engine (TFE) a much advanced port then DarkXL, see more here:

https://theforceengine.github.io/

something about the sense of scale in the screenies gives me big build engine vibes