Hell Anomaly Beta "Deimos Episode"

Hell Anomaly is a map set that I've been working on for about a week. My goal is similar to that of Doom the way id did. I am re-imagining 'The Shores of Hell' in a way that aesthetically is similar to the original, but the maps will be new (and hopefully fresh feeling). GZDOOM is the source port to be used. (prboom and crispy crash upon hitting the exit switch, giving an error about WILV10 or something? I used WhackEd to change the name of the map. So idk what the problem is. Just use GZDOOM) Let me know what you think! (and if I should keep continuing this little project) Oh, and DOOM1 is the IWAD...

H_ANOM_Alpha.zip

2 hours ago, Perdition666 said:

giving an error about WILV10 or something?

don't use bmp format for graphics. it should be in doom format.

7 hours ago, ketmar said:

don't use bmp format for graphics. it should be in doom format.

How do I change it to doom format?

In Slade it's as simple as right click > Graphic > Convert to... > [make sure Doom Gfx is selected on top]. There's also a simple icon to do it in the upper right.

The potential issue is whether it will still look the same.

So the wad is limit-removing if not for this issue? You used simple Doom 2 format?

26 minutes ago, HAK3180 said:

In Slade it's as simple as right click > Graphic > Convert to... > [make sure Doom Gfx is selected on top]. There's also a simple icon to do it in the upper right.

 

The potential issue is whether it will still look the same.

 

So the wad is limit-removing if not for this issue? You used simple Doom 2 format?

I used Doom - Doom (Doom Format) for the editing. I used Doom Writer to make the WILV10 graphic. In theory the map should be vanilla compatible because the maps don’t use any fancy boom or ZDoom  features and its not a ridiculously huge map. I’ll look into more source testing after converting the image. Thank you for telling me how to do so.

So, I converted the image to Doom Format, but now on the end screen, the level name colors are all glitched and bad looking. The image I used was in greyscale though. I don't know what exactly went wrong. But it can be played in crispy and prboom now. The only bug is the messed up colors for the level name.

I gave this a quick whirl in ZDoom (2.8.1, not GZDoom) and it seemed to work just fine there.

So, this is very reminiscent of the original E2M1: Deimos Anomaly, possibly more than you might have intended, depending on just how you plan to balance things between your stated goals of "aesthetically similar to the original," vs. "hopefully fresh feeling."  If you're shooting specifically for a "Deimos Anomaly remixed" sort of feel, there are a couple of things the original map does that I think are worth giving consideration to incorporating into your own.  For example, the original E2M1 has a similar disorienting progression from area to area via teleporters as your map here, but it also connects two of those areas via windows so that the player can figure out how those spaces fit around each other as they explore, building up a sense that they're part of the same structure, however weird and warped it might be.  That's missing from your map and it leaves me feeling as though the decision to wrap those spaces around each other in Experimental Anomaly is a somewhat arbitrary one; you could drag them apart and whatever the distance between them, however they're placed relative to one another, it doesn't make any difference to the gameplay and to the player's experience of the space they're exploring.  That's more of a concept-level thing that you maybe want to think about; you've followed the premise and the pattern of E2M1 to a particular degree, but not in this particular way and I guess what I'm looking for is an understanding of why you've stopped at that particular point and what your goal in going that far and no further was.

In terms of more specific things...

• The exit door (sector 27) has a starting ceiling height that's actually below the floor height so it starts embedded in the floor and looks quite peculiar as it opens.  Additionally the back side of the door (linedef 173) is missing an upper texture, so the player experiences a graphics glitch if they step into the exit room and turn around to look back out at the rest of the level.
  
• Thinking about the way you've done windows, I kind of want the ceiling of sector 2 to be higher than it is.  Imagine standing at the right-hand side of the window (the north end) and looking diagonally left (in a south-west direction) out of that window; to the south of the window there's a large, tall room, and to the west of that room there's a cubby full of monsters, and the apparently low height of the wall suggests that the player should be able to see "over" it to the exterior of those structures.  Raising the ceiling exterior to the window so that the wall formed by linedef 6 appears taller would resolve this.  It's not really an issue with the other window/exterior (sector 63) since there are no protruding structures in that part of the map.
  
• Not a bug or an error, just an observation: just about every line in the map is flagged as Block Sound (including one-sided lines) and while I can appreciate not wanting sound to propagate endlessly and wake up every monster in the map, the degree to which this flag is used here makes me wonder if there was some other underlying problem that you were trying to solve.

That's about the sum total of my thoughts so far.  Deimos is probably my favourite environment and aesthetic out of all the classic Doom motifs so I'm certainly interested to see where you go with this project.

2 hours ago, TheOrganGrinder said:

I gave this a quick whirl in ZDoom (2.8.1, not GZDoom) and it seemed to work just fine there.

 

So, this is very reminiscent of the original E2M1: Deimos Anomaly, possibly more than you might have intended, depending on just how you plan to balance things between your stated goals of "aesthetically similar to the original," vs. "hopefully fresh feeling."  If you're shooting specifically for a "Deimos Anomaly remixed" sort of feel, there are a couple of things the original map does that I think are worth giving consideration to incorporating into your own.  For example, the original E2M1 has a similar disorienting progression from area to area via teleporters as your map here, but it also connects two of those areas via windows so that the player can figure out how those spaces fit around each other as they explore, building up a sense that they're part of the same structure, however weird and warped it might be.  That's missing from your map and it leaves me feeling as though the decision to wrap those spaces around each other in Experimental Anomaly is a somewhat arbitrary one; you could drag them apart and whatever the distance between them, however they're placed relative to one another, it doesn't make any difference to the gameplay and to the player's experience of the space they're exploring.  That's more of a concept-level thing that you maybe want to think about; you've followed the premise and the pattern of E2M1 to a particular degree, but not in this particular way and I guess what I'm looking for is an understanding of why you've stopped at that particular point and what your goal in going that far and no further was.

 

In terms of more specific things...

 

• The exit door (sector 27) has a starting ceiling height that's actually below the floor height so it starts embedded in the floor and looks quite peculiar as it opens.  Additionally the back side of the door (linedef 173) is missing an upper texture, so the player experiences a graphics glitch if they step into the exit room and turn around to look back out at the rest of the level.
• Thinking about the way you've done windows, I kind of want the ceiling of sector 2 to be higher than it is.  Imagine standing at the right-hand side of the window (the north end) and looking diagonally left (in a south-west direction) out of that window; to the south of the window there's a large, tall room, and to the west of that room there's a cubby full of monsters, and the apparently low height of the wall suggests that the player should be able to see "over" it to the exterior of those structures.  Raising the ceiling exterior to the window so that the wall formed by linedef 6 appears taller would resolve this.  It's not really an issue with the other window/exterior (sector 63) since there are no protruding structures in that part of the map.
• Not a bug or an error, just an observation: just about every line in the map is flagged as Block Sound (including one-sided lines) and while I can appreciate not wanting sound to propagate endlessly and wake up every monster in the map, the degree to which this flag is used here makes me wonder if there was some other underlying problem that you were trying to solve.

 

That's about the sum total of my thoughts so far.  Deimos is probably my favourite environment and aesthetic out of all the classic Doom motifs so I'm certainly interested to see where you go with this project.

Thank you for all this information. I’m going to analyze it and make changes accordingly. Once I finish up a few other maps I can release another version with all the changes.

the map is cool, it does feel like the shores of hell, and i would like to play an entire episode like this.

Only one problem though, the ammo box is a bit redundant, since the player only has the pistol. SO i ended up using only the pistol against the cacodemons to try and save on shotgun ammo.  Maybe you could fix this by either giving the player the chaingun, or instead of the ammo box, giving a shell box.

42 minutes ago, PeceMan said:

the map is cool, it does feel like the shores of hell, and i would like to play an entire episode like this.

 

Only one problem though, the ammo box is a bit redundant, since the player only has the pistol. SO i ended up using only the pistol against the cacodemons to try and save on shotgun ammo.  Maybe you could fix this by either giving the player the chaingun, or instead of the ammo box, giving a shell box.

There’s a plasma gun that can be used

On 12/31/2019 at 10:07 AM, Perdition666 said:

There’s a plasma gun that can be used

I mean yeah, but it was a secret. I didn't find it in my first playthrough. So i did end up having to fight the cacodemons with the pistol.

24 minutes ago, PeceMan said:

I mean yeah, but it was a secret. I didn't find it in my first playthrough. So i did end up having to fight the cacodemons with the pistol.

Oof, sorry. I thought the secret was easily spotted, I can add a box of shells earlier 

On 12/30/2019 at 3:38 PM, Perdition666 said:

Hell Anomaly is a map set that I've been working on for about a week. My goal is similar to that of Doom the way id did. I am re-imagining 'The Shores of Hell' in a way that aesthetically is similar to the original, but the maps will be new (and hopefully fresh feeling). GZDOOM is the source port to be used. (prboom and crispy crash upon hitting the exit switch, giving an error about WILV10 or something? I used WhackEd to change the name of the map. So idk what the problem is. Just use GZDOOM) Let me know what you think! (and if I should keep continuing this little project) Oh, and DOOM1 is the IWAD...

 

H_ANOM_Alpha.zip

Interesting. Might like to check it out!

4 minutes ago, iconofeggsafe666 said:

Interesting. Might like to check it out!

Finished the map. Quite quaint and easy!

7 minutes ago, iconofeggsafe666 said:

Finished the map. Quite quaint and easy!

Glad you checked it out, are you currently working on another wad?

7 hours ago, Perdition666 said:

Glad you checked it out, are you currently working on another wad?

Yes. I'm working on a megawad based on what if doom 3 was released in place of Quake, and Quake came out like a year or two later.

Well this was a fun little map. Definitely felt like e2m1, that's for sure. Can't really say a single bad thing about it. Played it on UV, secret was easy to find and the only time I took damage was going across the lava to get the armor. I'm always looking for Doom 1 wads, so keep at it! Thanks for sharing and good luck with the rest of the wad.