Tweak map progression for Chocolate/Vanilla Doom

hey, i'm making a 4-map WAD for Doom II, to be compatible with Chocolate Doom (in theory Vanilla too), and i'd really love to make the fourth map in it a secret level. i'm kind of a newbie with Doom mapping, but i've still tried all sorts of different approaches i found online to change the way the map progression works. however, i haven't been able to do much of anything about that for Chocolate Doom, as it seems to only be compatible with DeHackEd (which seems unless towards this) but otherwise ignores MAPINFO, which is what i've used to tweak the map progression for GZDOOM.

I came up with the idea of putting the levels in the proper spots (MAP01, MAP15, MAP30, MAP31) so that secret exits work, and then just filling the rest of the episode with small dummy maps with a quick teleporter exit, but that's cumbersome considering it's 28 dummy maps and only 4 legit maps; and also i'm worried about how unconventional and obnoxious it might be for players to deal with that just to get through the campaign.

so I ask: is there a Chocolate (if not Vanilla)-compatible approach to this that's been used before to change the map progression? or secondary, is there an approach to make Doom II skip maps, or a standard mapper approach to dummy maps that can complete in less than a second or so? i hope these questions aren't too crazy :P

I think the easiest way would be to make just one dummy map as map01 that says, perhaps using a custom texture, "warp to map13". Then you start at map 13, and when you get to map 15, you can either use the normal exit to "end" the game (instantly going to map16) or the secret exit to get to the hidden map, which would be in slot 31.

If you want to use this approach, I recommend making a custom texture using the Doom font using these programs:

http://www.mydoomsite.com/programs/programs/Doom Writer Setup v2.0.0.zip

or if that doesn't work,

https://doomshack.org/~doomkid/Utilities/DoomWord.zip

On 1/9/2020 at 2:26 AM, Doomkid said:

I think the easiest way would be to make just one dummy map as map01 that says, perhaps using a custom texture, "warp to map13". Then you start at map 13, and when you get to map 15, you can either use the normal exit to "end" the game (instantly going to map16) or the secret exit to get to the hidden map, which would be in slot 31.

I'm trying to avoid using any custom textures beyond maybe the level names, and the cheats would break the immersion too much :C

On 1/9/2020 at 2:26 AM, Doomkid said:

If you want to use this approach, I recommend making a custom texture using the Doom font using these programs:

http://www.mydoomsite.com/programs/programs/Doom Writer Setup v2.0.0.zip

or if that doesn't work,

https://doomshack.org/~doomkid/Utilities/DoomWord.zip

I'm totally gonna use these to change the names for the levels, thank you!!

One possible solution is to make your project for Doom 1 instead of Doom 2. Episode 1 has its secret exit on the third level, so that would seem perfect.

You wouldn't necessarily need to loose out on Doom 2 textures, decorations, or even monsters, as the textures can easily be imported and you can actually use Doom 2 things in vanilla (obviously you'll need to supply the sprites for any D2 decorations or monsters you use in the .wad). About the only Doom 2 thing you wouldn't be able to make use of is the SSG. Since this is vanilla .exe behaviour, I'm assuming Chocolate Doom will support it, too.

17 minutes ago, Bungleist said:

One possible solution is to make your project for Doom 1 instead of Doom 2. Episode 1 has its secret exit on the third level, so that would seem perfect.

 

You wouldn't necessarily need to loose out on Doom 2 textures, decorations, or even monsters, as the textures can easily be imported and you can actually use Doom 2 things in vanilla (obviously you'll need to supply the sprites for any D2 decorations or monsters you use in the .wad). About the only Doom 2 thing you wouldn't be able to make use of is the SSG. Since this is vanilla .exe behaviour, I'm assuming Chocolate Doom will support it, too.

That sounds like a great idea but I'm trying to not mess with textures too much, and also I already have levels built around the player having the SSG so it'd suck to have to go back and reconsider weapon and ammo placement for stuff. Still tho, that's a great idea, thank you!

There is no non-ZDoom method of redefining the map progression, so you're stuck with utilizing the hardcoded progression for vanilla, Chocolate, or Boom, for that matter.

If you don't want to make new textures, my suggestion would be to do the following (notifying players that the first map is Map 13):

Map 13

Map 14

Map 15

Map 31

Map 32

Map 16

But wait! Isn't that 6 maps? Yes, but allow me to explain. Your first three maps would be the ordinary maps as you planned them. From here, the other three maps depend on what you want to do.

• Big battle on Map 15 with a regular exit and a secret exit.
  • The regular exit leads to Map 16.
    • Make some sort of congratulatory message out of linedefs (so visible in the automap, like in Map 21 of Scimitar) or have something spelled out in torches/candles/whatever (like in Map 17 of Whitemare) or a map with scenery and no gameplay (like Map 06 of 2017 Collection or Map 02 of Saturnine Chapel). Map 16 would not have an exit and would be where the player would close the game.
  • The secret exit leads to Map 31 (obviously).
    • There will be text going into Map 31, so you can set up your final battle in Map 31.
    • Alternately, you could congratulate the player with some sort of text message, and then have Map 31 be a decorative map without gameplay, as described above.
  • If there will be a battle in Map 31, there would only be a secret exit, so you could congratulate the player with the text screen. Then Map 32 could be a decorative map without gameplay.
    • Or, you could forego the congratulatory text screen and use the regular exit to take you to Map 16, which will be the decorative map described above.
    • Or make Map 32 just a decorative scene with a teleporter, which would take you to Map 16, which would be the decorative map.

If you're concerned that players wouldn't know that your map started at 13, you could make small rooms with a single teleporter for Map 01 through 12. You could make them simple or elaborate, and put text screens after Map 06 and Map 11 that remarked about reading the text file and knowing that the actual mapset started at Map 13.

2 minutes ago, Pegleg said:

my suggestion would be to do the following

Holy crap, this is like the best approach to this, this is genius! Honestly, thank you so much! I already decided to go a different way but it's great to keep this in mind in the future!