"ISOLATION" speedmapping project - BETA 2 RELEASED

21 minutes ago, SiMpLeToNiUm said:

Oh shoot @Jimmy my map made it in? That was... not supposed to happen lol

Your map is broken. Teleport is not working in the sewers area.

Hi @Jimmy - I've been playing in GZDoom (as is my custom) and, as you've done a few cosmetic differences for the port anyway, I figured the GLDEFs could stand to be fixed up. Like with the ones I've been doing for the DBPs, the attached file should be compatible with Zandronum, because it doesn't have the "attenuate" parameter in it anywhere (I hope).

 

Lost Souls now light up green, grey/white torches should be as flickering a slightly dull white and the green and silver keys light up appropriately as well. Up to you if you want to include this, of course!

isolation_gldefs.zip

Fail video, I said that I could record 5 maps and I ended with 4. SO.....maps 21 to 24.

 

 

6 hours ago, Phobus said:

Unless I'm mistaken, pistol-starting is enforced in GZDoom by default in at least Strain 1 of the beta 2 release. Is this intentional? If so... Why? It kind of defeats the object of compilation if you can't choose to play them continuously without editing the .WAD

Jimmy confirmed in Dragonfly's Wednesday Isolation stream that it was, indeed, intentional when I prodded him about it; the stated reason being that these were all designed for pistol start, and continuous play might destroy the intended balance.

 

I can respect that, but I do kinda wish there was an option to turn it off even if the default remains keeping it on.

I don't mind having pistol start sets since the maps are doable ^{(even if I missed weapons or ammo in a couple of maps)}

Hey, @Jimmy! I Hope i'm not too late. Here is my fixed map: no_mic underground sickness fixed.zip

Thanks for the warning,  @plums .  I didn't know this could happen. 

dang... a wad with over 60 maps... thats really huge. like how are you all gonna manage that? unless if i missed something. let me know. man, this looks super good. itll help with the quarantine :DDD

@CommanderRex328 It's actually 2 wads! Just to not break the 32 map limit of Boom, but yeah, the project got over 60 maps, so I'm guessing it'll be in beta until all of it is sorted out well.

More testing on stream. We're at MAP24 of Strain 1 so we'll likely finish testing that half of the project today.

https://www.twitch.tv/dragonflyos

 

How far we'll get into Strain 2 is unclear at this point. Drop along anyway!

 

 

Fixed the bugs i've seen after leodoom's testing video:

a-message.zip

 

• Reverant now have difficulty skills!
• Commander keen beyond the TV screen is changed to a barrel due to missing chance to shoot at it
• Nukage tunnel in the tech room before the key are now damaging
• Secret exit added at the "Charlie Chaplin" portrait in the key locked bedroom, just push it! (or is better shooting at it?)
• Removed a unused switch in the aftermentioned bedroom

"Depurify" "Nuclear Twilight" and "Cracks of Nuke" are all great levels but they're on the longer side so when the wad is properly ordered, they should be interspaced with some shorter maps.

 

After replaying "A Message From the President" seems like you ironed out all the problems. What does the barrel/Keen do? I think I missed that.

Edited April 7, 2020 by DoubleCakes

@an_muttif you saw my latest video, will you fix that softlock in the blue key area?

22 minutes ago, Voltcom said:

I love that you say "at last a chaingun", then abruptly get teleported to a different location on the map lol. Thanks for the feedback!

you freaking troll :D

Corrections in my both maps :

 

Map 24 :

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/457164374717759488/697334445102989323/Ro_isolation2_v2.wad

Correction of the "Cursed" switch texture

 

Map 27 :

 

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/457164374717759488/697334451037929472/Roofi_isolation_v2.wad

 

A medkit was not on F_water1. It's fixed now.

 

 

9 hours ago, DoubleCakes said:

After replaying "A Message From the President" seems like you ironed out all the problems. What does the barrel/Keen do? I think I missed that.

 

Nothing, just a icon of sin placeholder if you think to shoot when you hear the voices... At least I think that people reaction are that, but from the videos reaction on that map I was wrong :)

10 hours ago, leodoom85 said:

@an_muttif you saw my latest video, will you fix that softlock in the blue key area?

I wasn't aware of your video until now, but thanks for pointing it out! I'll make the necessary fixes now.

 

One thing I'm worried about is that later in your video the silver key fight doesn't work properly, were you playing on the correct compatibility level? That floor which reveals the imps/invul sphere/ etc. is supposed to lower immediately. I just checked on my end and it works as intended in prBoom.

 

Anyways, thanks for the vid!

2 hours ago, an_mutt said:

One thing I'm worried about is that later in your video the silver key fight doesn't work properly, were you playing on the correct compatibility level? That floor which reveals the imps/invul sphere/ etc. is supposed to lower immediately. 

I don't use any compatibility settings in GZDoom but, it should work as you said....I wonder why...

 

At least I figured it out sooner than never lol

Here's my final update (hopefully!), fixing the bugs shown in Leodoom's video as well as a couple others I noticed. I also added difficulties, finally. Also the midi was changed to something a little more fitting (and hopefully a little more indicative of the map's major influence, given the recent plagiarism drama lol).

 

Feeling Run Down v. 3

Meant to post this like a week ago but got distracted by a ton of other things. Regardless, after watching Dragonfly play through my map, I've made a v3. Changes:

• General toning down of some fights a bit (mostly Barons->HKs). The central gauntlet got a ton:
  • The central gauntlet to raise the bridge now only has 36 monsters teleport in instead of 64.
  • The southeast teleport exit is actually used now, it somehow wasn't before.
  • There's only one Pain Elemental on UV now instead of somewhere between 3-5 (I forget) in v2
  • Cacodemon count has also been scaled back a smidgen.
• Adds more ammo and armor in general.
• 3D bridge is more decorated on the inside's walls. (It's just some SUPPORTx textures breaking up the bricks, nothing earth-shattering.)
• Switch puzzle:
  • Added a Berserk to the start.
  • The blood floors that you're not supposed to even get out to now really don't hurt you; apparently they still did in v2.
  • Added arrows after you activate the switch in the center to make it clearer (hopefully) which direction to go.
  • Made the hints placed around the map to the solution somewhat more blatant.
• Changed the Health Bonuses for one secret in UV to a Megasphere (and in so doing moved the health that was there onto the water where it should've been to begin with). I'm keeping the "piss filter" at the start in UV with the Armor Bonuses tho; I specifically wanted to give them less than a full Green Armor there and that's the only way I can think of to do it. Does mean it's the only instance of it now, though.

Playing through Strain 1 on UV in my usual GZDoom setup, I had a pretty good time on... roughly 20 out of the first 23 maps. Mostly enjoyable, mostly small and mostly not too hard. Some of them look and play very nice! Then the bit with the two Cybers happened on MAP23, so after a few strikes I concluded it was bullshit (looking a couple of posts up, it seems it was actually bugged) and skipped ahead. The next three maps all seemed like they hit my personal bullshit threshold after a couple of attempts and that kind of broke the appeal to keep going.

 

I may look into Strain 2, as I'm hoping for more of the same kind of thing I really enjoyed from people like @Guardsoul and @rf`, although a set of bitesize maps like the first eight or nine would be very welcome too.

On 4/14/2020 at 5:35 PM, Phobus said:

Playing [...] in my usual GZDoom setup [...] the bit with the two Cybers happened on MAP23

Love GZDoom, such a great port.

 

One last fix: an_solate.zip

Map 11 -- Pools of Unmaking

Fresh off my comment about "the usual use of Boom specials", here's 'Sid to make me look dumb(er), with the crazy whipsaw-slime-current room which is this short/grouchy-looking map's party piece. The rocket launcher is my personal favorite of Doom's weapons, so a level centered almost exclusively on using it is pretty much guaranteed to score at least few points with me, especially if it doesn't insist on harping on the weapon's potential for self-damage at every single turn (which this one fortunately does not). The whipsaw-current fight isn't bad as it might at first seem, just try to aim at where your target is going to be in a second or two, instead of at where it presently is, and you'll do fine.

 

A couple of the monster teleporters are a bit unwieldy slow or congested -- chaingunners in the highest pool, as well as the imps which appear on the lift (almost guaranteed to be unable to hold them all at once). Also, it's a minor thing, but in stark contrast to the general air of m06, m08, and m10, the altered colormap really makes this level look dismal and dreary and washed-out, almost to a point of fault.

 

Map 12 -- Wine Flu

A rock-solid OG Doom-style speedmap which I somehow failed to retain literally any memory of playing until watching my own recording. Mea culpa, maybe I had a touch of the Wine Flu myself or something (or an 'Ale Ailment', more like)? Most notable feature here has got to be the transformation of the central hub, which is genuinely surprising and cleverly used to make nukage-trotting a primary feature of the map, a design tack which becomes more and more prevalent as we get into the more advanced/ambitious reaches of Strain 1.

 

Map 13 -- The Washing Well

This is a weird little map with a weird little midi (which I found quickly grating in this case) that, like m11, garners some goodwill for focusing on the RL, though here it's more a matter of simple point & shoot. Nevertheless, I think I died once in here, because I didn't understand that the concrete corridor leading up to the key was going to require a radsuit for protection. At the time I was unsure if this was intentional or an oversight, but in hindsight it's pretty clear that it's intentional, and that the bollard on the ceiling with the 'Radiation' signs on it is supposed to clue you in on the hazard. The presence of the ooze just before arguably muddles this a bit, but in a map this tiny I reckon it's difficult to muster too terribly much butthurt after being compelled to repeat all of 30 seconds of content on that account (and in fact I might have survived even without the suit that first time, but I broke one of my own rules and just sort let my brain shut off because I initially thought I'd encountered a bug).

 

Map 14 -- Back Shift at the Sludgeworks

Sporting a Doom II look and an OG Doom ambiance, TheOrgangrinder's map is rather understated in comparison to much of what's seen deeper into the mapset, but also very classy, I felt. It's successful for many of the same reasons that Joe Pallai's map from earlier on is; it uses and reuses its limited amount of real estate to the fullest over its short running time, and its subtle thing-balance, particularly as regards ammo, gently compels you to do things you might not normally do without feeling like it's actively playing to an 'austerity' angle, or indeed to any other immediately obvious trope. For example, the chainsaw is integrated into a credible (though naturally brief) place in progression rather than being a cast-off, something uncommon even in miser-style maps. It also plays well at a variety of paces, either slow and deliberate to rushing progression to the endgame, something only possible in wisely-designed spaces. Not a difficult map -- my brush with death is entirely due to my own ineptitude in this case -- but just enough of a flash of teeth to maintain interest, as well. Nice work.

 

Map 15 -- A Message from the President

Another map that's perhaps pretty easily interpreted as a goofy little oddity (Walter has certainly made his share of those), though in contrast to many of the others in the set it's got more of a mordant/morbid take on the COVID-19 disaster, a bit more in the way of symbolism -- death in the house, miasma outside the house, and vague/inscrutable proclamations from leadership. vs. the set's other tiny-tiny-tiny maps this is of course not necessarily the most refined, but its brief burst of odd atmosphere does make it more memorable than most of them could hope to be.

 

Also, chainsawing revenants is good, all the cool kids are doing it, etc.

Presumed bug: the last stretch of ooze heading towards the keycard is not flagged as damaging.

 

Map 31 -- Unrelenting Fear

Sporting a texture scheme and general look that's a mite, uh.....dopey (props for the Sigil reference used to suggest fear/danger outside of one's own front door though!), I nevertheless found this enjoyable to play, with a brisk little melee to begin (which can be blended into the second wave for a larger one) and a solid cyber-turret setup in its second stage that seems smartly playable in a few different ways, but which I managed to fuck up royally at least twice in the span of 60 seconds. In his maps, PCorf often it plays it far too cute/safe as regards the action to hold my interest, but this has enough edge to be entertaining throughout, nice work Paul.

 

Also, the TP gag is funny, and now that I think about it more it kind of plays into/with some of the level's interesting texture selection, yeah?

 

Map 32 -- AAAAAAAAAA

aaaaaaaaaaa, where's the ammo?????

 

....you might be asking. Don't cave, BoB, don't change the balance, it's good. Rare is the map where you can run completely out of ammo and maintain forward momentum. There is one issue: it is -very- easy to take the hidden berserk pack without registering the secret. Given lack of space, the easiest (though not failproof) solution to this is probably to have the pack come to rest elevated slightly above the silver rim sector (so the player 'steps up' into/onto it), rather than recessed down slightly below it as it currently is. Might look slightly odd, but when has that ever been a problem for Big Bill?

 

Map 33 -- The Close Encounter

Initially looks really nasty, and might require 1 - 2 trial & error attempts to get a sense of the whole situation (I died once being willfully/brazenly stupid), but once that's done it's a total tissue-paper tiger: there's more than enough ammo and suits to simply grind down the group of viles in the central panopticon (which are the driving force on which every other development in the map is predicated), which renders the rest child's play. I imagine that many players probably like it better this way, but for my part I tend to feel that a focused battle-puzzle like this seems to want to be loses a lot of its effect when the simplest and most obvious solution is to refuse to play 'by the rules', so to speak.

 

Map 16 -- A Bad Day for the Subway

RJD's map blends realistic/representational trappings with surreal abstraction in overall concept and staging, something which Doom continues to prove to be better at doing than many much more modern games. Similar to the better portion of m04 from earlier, the combat on/between the flooded out trains, particularly the larger battle in the higher tunnel near the end of the map, is a a good example of realistic structures being used to shape a distinctive type of encounter/enemy flow which would read much less naturally in a more traditionally abstract setting. Looks pretty good all considered, but the map does perhaps show its speedy creation in that something like 90% of its action/content is completely irrelevant to and even spatially distanced from its actual progression scheme/route, but this is more an analytical curiosity than an actual problem for something like 99% of the playerbase, I'd warrant. ;)

 

Map 17 -- Depurify

A more loose/spacious map that renders a similar service to this second episode as m06 did for the first. My first play of it was somewhat halting, inelegant, and perhaps overly deliberate, and the secrets here totally defeated me (witness me wasting all kinds of time fruitlessly looking for them at various points during the recording). At the time, the map did not leave a particularly strong impression on me, though looking back it certainly appears to be the sort of level that I would likely find more enjoyable on a replay, as its airier construction and looping route seem to invite blending different encounters/stages of progression into bigger, more unpredictable battles.

 

Map 18 -- Nuclear Twilight

Really like this midi, I ended up IDMUSing to it for one of the later maps.

Like m12, to me this had a very Ultimate Doom sort of feel, despite making frequent use of the Doom II roster -- the most obvious comparison is probably The Abandoned Mines (though the name suggests a Plutonia reference may have been more directly implied?), and yet more than anything I got a kind of Thy Flesh Consumed vibe from it. Maybe it's the nukage, maybe it's just me? Anyway, it's the traversal of nukage that gives the level most of its flavor, as passing through it vs. staying out of it is what drives progression and shapes most of your discrete maneuverings, far moreso than the combat, which tends to be on the sparse/minimalist side throughout (though overall thing balance means it doesn't entirely lack an edge).

 

Map 19 -- Cracks of Nuke

Alright, this is more clearcut, I reckon the intention to invoke the feel/flow of OG Doom is pretty obvious in this one (E2/E3 Petersen/Hall crossovers, specifically); the pure 'authenticity' on technical points is perhaps debatable, but the overall intention comes through loud and clear, nonetheless. It's.....a rather ugly map most of the time, and mostly not in the genial/interesting early Petersen way, IMO, though perhaps this is a case of the altered colormap being rather unkind to the intended effect. Gameplay is kind of flat/simple, but not entirely without flavor, very much made by pure thing balance and item placement rather than by choreography or geometry (ammo : enemy HP ratios and such) which adds enough to the pistol-start to keep it from being a mindless hallway shooter. To its credit, the map also fits in with others in this part of set by taking the nukage-rule to heart and making it a major factor in progression, rather than sort of tacking it on to check a checkbox.

 

Map 20 -- Virutech

Doesn't leave a particularly strong impression. Other than some alignment snafus along stairways, it looks okay, and one gets the sense that most of the mapping time was spent on visual/peripheral trim in this case. Gameplay has a kind of dry room-clearing pace to it, but benefits from a couple of age-old tropes that will never not have value, like releasing monsters from large closets in the hub each time the player returns there. The biggest knock against it is the more or less total symmetry between two of the key fights -- doing it once it's okay (again I nearly even died there because I suck), but the impact (and the immersive capacity of the map) is severely undercut repeating it twice. Map would probably have read better with only two keys (failing a unique encounter for the third).

 

(to be continued)

1 hour ago, Demon of the Well said:

Map 04 -- Disease Disaster

The demons/specters on the pump-room floor (just after the chainsaw secret) should probably be allowed to ride the little lift up if the player toes it down; they're obnoxious to meet with either way, but this would feel a little better than a blind/infinitely-tall-affected leap.

In the first beta, this map had some ZDoom-isms and the lifts didn't lower, and in my FDA I repeatedly ran into the infinitely-tall pinkies trying to get down/across. I don't know if that demo is directly responsible, but it seems that for this version Orka has both fixed the lifts and given the player a bit of space where the demons can't enter. I agree that it's not really necessary now that the lift works properly.

Finally got around to updating my map with difficulty settings. Also took some of DoTW's feedback into consideration.

 

Clicky.

Map 21 -- Death in the Wind

This is another one I evidently didn't retain much memory of when I set out to write this, but watching my own recording of it I must say I was pretty engrossed and left with a generally positive impression of the map. I think it's very successful in establishing a dismal atmosphere of uncertainty and ill portent, and the texture selection and encompassing darkness seem to work a lot better/more convincingly with the colormap here than they did in m11 from earlier, which seemed to want to take a broadly similar tack. The Hexen midi is well-chosen as well. Not a super-stressful or super-nuanced map from a combat standpoint, though your fortunes as regards ammo (and thus tactics) seem like they can vary in significant ways early on depending on which route you take/which monster group you encounter first.

 

I'm mostly familiar with this author for work in ZDoom, but would like to see more Boom/Limit-removing work from them, as this map turned out rather well.

 

Map 22 -- Exiled

This is....okay. Being realistic, I reckon many players will probably like it more than I do. It's a very standard Doom-y 'underground techbase' sort of setting, delivered to a generally high/clean standard as far as the visuals go, with the 'angle' being that you spend much of the map shut out of places (rather than shut in, as in many of the other maps), hence the title. My relative lack of enthusiasm mostly stems from the gameplay, which from beginning to end is a pretty unrepentant frontal corridor-shooter, though a couple of the later interior rooms add a bit height variation for good measure. There's also an opportunity to platform into the interior halfway along what seems to be the 'intended' route, potentially adding a bit of interest there as well. Far from offensive, any of this, mind you....just didn't grab me. I would definitely recommend toning down the prevalence of useless fodder-specters in the outer tunnels, they contribute very little but a persistent slowing of the overall pace, and read to me mostly like stopgap ammo-taxes.

 

Map 23 -- Feeling Run Down

For what little it's worth, this was my clearcut personal favorite from the entire set of 60+ maps, and I enjoyed almost everything about it, save for the loud-ass OoT midi in the version I played, which I ended up IDMUSing away from (to the track from m18) sooner rather than later. Just can't take that endless OOOOuh OOOOah OOOOuh OOOOah ahhhhhhh ad nauseum, you see.

Anyway. Of all the set's maps, this one feels like the truest adventure, and also offers by far the richest treatment with the nukage concept, which is the most interesting/potentially gameplay-transforming of Isolation's various session rules. This is a complicated dungeon where the need to cross and gradually build a route through the green stuff is the overarching goal of all progression, and the variety of ways an_mutt has staged to work around and within this persistent hazard are quite inspiring, from relatively simple tacks like treating radsuits as a bona fide progression item to subtler developments like the opening of various shortcuts at different layers or levels of the dungeon which allow you to maximize your travel efficiency in clever ways. Very much a level where you are expected to actually think and engage with the layout rather than just laconically steaming on ahead, something I like very much and feel is far more important for actual immersion than any number of pretty visual details could be (though those don't hurt either, mind!). Battles often take the form of little setpieces, and apart from being entertaining in themselves smartly feed into the level's overall conceptual cohesiveness, often using the presence of nukage as their core defining element.

It could perhaps be argued that secrets might be too powerful or too important to " " " fairly " " " be secrets in the map as a whole, in the sense that certain encounters seem like they might be a LOT nastier if you've found no secrets, but I think this more cerebral aspect of play gels well with the immersive 'dungeon' styling of the map as a whole, which values wits as much or more than raw combat reflexes. Fine work.

 

Map 24 -- Trentenaire en Quarantaine

Didn't care for this, seemed pretty undercooked, more like it was made in an hour rather than 12. A couple of large and more or less featureless rooms stuffed with assorted monsters (and radsuits) which mostly riot among themselves, the single most credible threat probably being the second arch-vile, who definitely has the situational advantage over you when the two of you first meet. The spiderdemon is the most interesting feature from a purely analytical standpoint: it's quite an effective "pusher" on a purely psychological level, since you clearly don't have the ammo to stay up there with it when it first appears, yet in practice it has very little actual participatory impact on gameplay and more often than not will simply be eaten by the specters which share its platform, or perish 'off-camera' in some other sad and undignified way.

 

The backpack trap is pretty sassy, to say the least, and probably will not be hugely popular, to again say the least. I'm not prepared to call bullshit on it, as I think if you're clever/intuitive enough you *can* outwit it the first time you see it; that just simply wasn't me in this instance.

 

Map 25 -- Alfonzo Allows Himself to be Mugged Because He's Such a Nice Guy

I could see Alfonzo consenting to his own mugging, yes. Not so much out of pure congeniality, mind, as for the trade value of the resulting anecdote, you see.

 

A straightforward speedmap-y outing in a modern idiom, drive and pressure eliding from a pronounced and persistent skew towards some of Doom's heavier hitters. Simple, but fun. I like Tarnsman's handling of the 'blue room is the safe/healing room' rule -- he puts by far the sassiest and one of the most thrilling encounters in Isolation in 'that' dropdown, one of very few instances in the entire set of an author trying something unexpected/subversive with that particular rule.

 

Various misalignments in the main room, and the arch-viles encased on/in the three pillars which eventually open there are easily knocked off (and sometimes stuck/neutralized as a result) due to an absence of blocking lines.

 

Map 26 -- Mutagen Rapidem

As other players have said, this map is badly broken in the current official posting. The most serious/obvious problem is the teleporter out of the dark 'basement' area not working (no destination presumably), but other dysfunctions include: green switch does not actually require the green key, green key pad is randomly damaging for some reason, action which releases the big wave of cacos can be unintentionally or intentionally skipped by the player (thus defusing the intended driving force of the entire map), wildly inconsistent behavior of the 'sluice' gate in front of RL, and so on.

Despite these malfunctions, my FDA does eventually successfully exit after a few attempts, via brute-forcing a sort of quasi-pacifist strategy. This in itself could arguably be taken as further dysfunction, heh.

 

So, yes, this is an interesting concept for sure -- COVID-19 as portrayed by a roiling mass of angry green tomatoes pursues you doggedly, and you have little hope of beating it back, and so must try to outrace it and stay a step ahead, a process mightily complicated by the many other meaty obstacles (and some switch-hunting) standing in your way. I applaud the moxie, this is an interesting take on a challenge map that mandates speed in a creative way. In practice, it currently doesn't really work, being way too rough/indeterminate in execution and implementation to be consistently viable. Simpletonium has correctly judged that the monster/ammo/item balance needs to be decidedly unfavorable to the player to make the concept work, but this 'force' period lasts too long and does not adequately account for widely varying speeds at which the horde will move out in different attempts, which is predicated on a lot of more or less random factors largely beyond the player's control (how many of the imps on the two raised western quadrants live/thus impede the cacos as they're released, etc.). Either the outflow of the overall situation needs to be made much more consistent, or the point of 'fightback' needs to reachable earlier, or both. Even fixing the mechanical dysfunctions, without addressing these deeper issues the map is bound to be little more than an abrasive curiosity.

 

Map 27 -- Le Petit Chaperon Rouge

I found this more interesting than Roofi's earlier map. Timeofdeath is very obviously a keystone influence here, from the general look/aesthetic to the rather mechanically laborious mapstart to the BFG-spamming later stages, though there are of course other/personal touches in effect as well. Can be tough/dangerous for sure, but this is another map that can go a lot more smoothly for you if you think things through and occasionally take it slowly. The first green armor secret is interesting -- you have to go through rather a bit of hassle to actually collect it, striking considering how this is often (rightfully) considered a rather minor item, especially in a map with this kind of general monster composition, and yet its damage mitigation can prove surprisingly relevant/powerful in the underground tunnel portion of the map, which is far and away its most dangerous leg.

 

vs. the backpack trap from m24, allow me to spoil something for you: the radsuit here is blatant trolling, nothing more -- don't bother if you play yourself. Whether this is truly in bad taste is debatable, as so many things are (given the inspiration it could be involved in a weird sector-lift secret or something, but it also really, really, really looks like a trap unless you're totally naive); my curiosity got the better of me, thank goodness for -cl 9 savegames, as the first part of this map is probably much less engaging to replay after a death like that than it is to explore blind.

 

Map 28 -- The Underground Tower

This map offers a fairly striking setting, but never really seems to reach a point where it's firing on all cylinders as regards the gameplay from moment to moment. A fairly large number of monsters loiter around outside, and surprising number of them end up teleporting in while you're inside the tower's outer wall at ground level, though little structure is emphasized in any case beyond a sense of volume (which is still very far from a flood or horde, mind). Many creatures seem to exist solely to fill space, a challenge structurally inherent to the fact that the outdoor portion of the map has a lot of basically empty space to fill -- it's a challenging proposition for the author, the need to avoid a feeling of barren emptiness without also overemphasizing basically 'fluff' filler combat. The indoor part of the tower has the opposite problem, since a lot of progression is (needs must) crammed into the actual physical boundaries of that space, a sacrifice needed for the map to maintain its intended sense of scale (which is generally its most striking/effective aspect, I'd say). There is a very minor puzzle to solve, which adds a little extra something-something, perhaps.

 

Given more time, I could see a remake/remaster of this same map maybe using Boom's silent teleporters to rescue the tower interior from having to conform rigidly to a single chunk of in-game space, could be interesting to see.

 

Map 29 -- The Lonely Deceased

I felt this to be another of the set's strongest maps, and a fine choice for the m29 slot. Very 'classic' in overall presentation, with an abstract Doom II Hell/Limbo vibe, conveying a subtly poignant/melancholy feel. The actual geometry is instantly recognizable as the author's own (particularly the sort of 'rock salt' natural terrain), but it doesn't feel or even really look like anything I've seen him make before, which speaks to his growing versatility as an author. While the visual angle favors clean/reserved classic minimalism, it's always a pleasure to look at by virtue of dramatic architecture and topographical contrasts -- I particularly like how you can see over rock formations to distant features on the horizon in the hub area, and the spindly marble struts and staircases juxtaposed against the empty black shadows and lurid green slime in the northerly leg, to name two examples. Lovely midi choice, as well.

 

Gameplay is maybe slightly lighter than I might've expected, perhaps due in part to the map's fairly spacious nature + relatively sparse population, but it's nevertheless entertaining, which again is largely a function of moving/fighting in geometrically interesting spaces rather than of a great deal of bloodiness or pressure. Another interesting point as regards making something interesting out of something simple is that the map is another one of few here to try to do something creative with the healing water rule -- all you get for health is five soulspheres, freely available from mapstart, with budgeting/best utilizing them being up to your own discretion. To add further intrigue, the map also hides some (unflagged) super-secrets as well as a pair of standard (flagged) secrets, which tend to factor as erstwhile little sidequests that play out in interesting ways, further rewarding your curiosity. I did feel that the conclusion was maybe a little more softball than it needed to be, but then, I did have the BFG, so....

 

(very nice work AD_79)

 

Map 30 -- Stir Crazy

Lacking any form-fitting final map, Scotty brings Strain 1 to a close with this somewhat odd-looking (but undeniably striking) setpiece-style map which paces out its discrete fights with some bounding/jumping in its cavernous, psychedelic central space. The collection of discrete battles showcase a selection of familiar (to some) choreographic tropes. In a vacuum, the RL fight is probably the one I like the most (surprise surprise), but the map as a whole is most interesting for its non-linearity, in the sense that each of its fights feels drastically different depending on the order in which you visit them, which is entirely up to you.

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Demon of the Well

@Demon of the Well re Level 24...what I guess...I believe it literally WAS made in an hour!

 

@Jimmy The CWILV for Strain 1 Level 26 still says 'The Abandoned Mines' at least as of a beta I downloaded a few days ago.

@Jimmy Here is a new version of my map which adds a secret exit.

 

DOWNLOAD

7 hours ago, Demon of the Well said:

Map 13 -- The Washing Well

This is a weird little map with a weird little midi (which I found quickly grating in this case) that, like m11, garners some goodwill for focusing on the RL, though here it's more a matter of simple point & shoot. Nevertheless, I think I died once in here, because I didn't understand that the concrete corridor leading up to the key was going to require a radsuit for protection. At the time I was unsure if this was intentional or an oversight, but in hindsight it's pretty clear that it's intentional, and that the bollard on the ceiling with the 'Radiation' signs on it is supposed to clue you in on the hazard. The presence of the ooze just before arguably muddles this a bit, but in a map this tiny I reckon it's difficult to muster too terribly much butthurt after being compelled to repeat all of 30 seconds of content on that account (and in fact I might have survived even without the suit that first time, but I broke one of my own rules and just sort let my brain shut off because I initially thought I'd encountered a bug).

 

Thanks for the characteristically detailed feedback. I'm unapologetic about the MIDI - the mapping session was silly fun, in my eyes, so a silly MIDI chosen for the pun seemed fair. It's a two-minute map made in about three hours, so the lack of additional signage in the damaging corridor is a forgivable oversight, I'm sure.

12 hours ago, Phobus said:

 

Thanks for the characteristically detailed feedback. I'm unapologetic about the MIDI - the mapping session was silly fun, in my eyes, so a silly MIDI chosen for the pun seemed fair. It's a two-minute map made in about three hours, so the lack of additional signage in the damaging corridor is a forgivable oversight, I'm sure.

For sure. You (that is, 'the player') practically have to bonk your head on the bollard with the radiation warning on it to drop down into the corridor; me failing to see something literally right in front of my face should probably not be taken as indicating there's a "conveyance" problem with a given map. I do think the ooze just a few virtual feet away (required by the session rules to be present + damaging in some capacity) probably blinded me to the possibility of damaging non-ooze surfaces somewhat, but you know what they say about assumptions and all that.