Blood Foundry, 3 Vanilla Speed Maps

Fun little wad, just blasted through it in about 15 minutes!

Main points of whining:

-Map01 and 02 could really use a secret

-What with how mean 02 is about damaging floors, a secret with a soulsphere or even a medkit or two would make the balance on this golden

Really tiny, but 15 minutes of pure quality is more my speed these days than grand adventures anyhow. In terms of the layouts, they loop in on themselves in creative ways, the abundance of windows/views to later areas is great too. Monster placement is on point. Visuals are super sleek, love the gold and red color scheme.

This type of wad really puts the "fun" in fun sized, IMO.

These are awesome maps, Egg. Simple, slick, straightforward progression, tidy and memorable designs, good challenge (especially MAP02) and fun combat. It's a quintessential Dooming experience in terrific little package. 10/10!

Good stuff, at risk of trotting out the most cliché comment on short maps imaginable, this plays a lot like early Scythe, but it's true. Simple and direct gameplay without too much getting in the way, perfect for chilling out. The forced damaging floor in the opening part of map02 does give me a migraine, it's something I dislike in any map, but it was balanced fairly well (maybe just a bit more health in case of getting screwed by shotgun RNG?), so I can't complain too much.

I found a fairly serious softlock on map02: if you jump back down to the switch area with the two revs after raising the bridge for the blue key, you get stuck as you can't lower the bridge again. It just needs a lift action on the west side of the bridge sector.

Also, the imp placed right under the lift to the BK area in map 03 can cause some blocking issues, it made me avoid the whole area because I couldn't see how many there were and thought I was going to get scratched to death, but it's not a huge deal, maybe just put monster block linedefs around the lift area or move the imp.

Tried recording some FDAs but I scrapped the first two because of wrong ticrate settings (felt wrong to re-record and not be a true first attempt), however I have one of me bumbling around map03 if it's of interest here (-complevel 2)

I appreciate the feedback I've got so far (within and outside the forum)! Despite these being speedmaps, I felt the need to make a few small changes to the first two according to what I've been told about them.

Here's the changelog:

Map01

-added a new secret, containing a chaingun as well as a invisibility sphere (super useful ;) )

Map02

-added a new secret, containing a soulsphere (upon @Doomkid's suggestion)

-fixed a softlock discovered by @BoxY, not sure how I missed that, especially on a map this small

Map03

-no changes were made to map03 at this time, the lift does have monster blocking lines surrounding it, and I figured I'd leave it that way, I may change this in a later update if I do another.

Here it is! (the OP has also been updated)

Blood Foundry.zip

I recorded my playthrough of these maps. I feel like calling them "pretty easy" was not quite accurate. I definitely found these to be challenging.

You didn't specify, but I ended up playing each map from a pistol start. Trying to play continuously would have left me with an insurmountable health deficit.

Maybe the issues I had were more to do with my own lack of skill, but anyway this is my own opinion about these maps:

I liked maps 1 and 2. Though:

I felt like the pair of revenants in map 1 was also a little bit too much. Personally I would have put some cover in that big open area so that the player isn't spending more time shepherding homing missiles into walls than actually shooting at the revenants. It's not a big deal, but it's a change I think would improve the map.

I think the archvile encounter in 2 has room for improvement. The only way I was able to get through this part of the map was by dying several times finding out where the archvile was teleporting in and then rushing that spot as soon as I hit the switch. I just couldn't find another way to deal with that swarm than to run to where the archvile was coming in before the place got so crowded I couldn't maneuver anymore. There's room in Doom for this kind of get-intel-by-dying game design, but here it felt out of place to me. I think the later part of this map could really benefit from more health and ammo so that there's more flexibility in how to deal with this encounter.

I didn't like map 3.

There's a bit where you hit a switch and the floor lowers and you become surrounded by hitscans. As far as I could tell, this part of the map had no point except to shave 20 or 30% health off the player with unavoidable hitscan fire. I think there really needs to be a significant amount of health and/or armor near the teleport out to make going here worthwhile and not just an irritation.

In general, I think the first two maps used hitscans effectively. When I was getting hit, it was generally avoidable and my own fault. Not checking corners, that kind of thing. On the third map, there were so many points where you're just going to get shot by some hitscans and there's nothing you can do about it. And exacerbating this issue is how little health there is to find on this map. The health pickup to unavoidable hitscan ratio is way off. I finished this map with 1% health left, most of it lost to hitscans I couldn't have possibly avoided.

Why are there three medikits on a pain sector, and no radiation suit to be found anywhere in the map? This upset me. Those medikits were practically useless to me, I didn't even try for them because I assumed the map would be reasonable and give me a radiation suit at some point. I could have really used that extra 75% health in this map.

The encounter with the baron was weak, in my opinion. All I had to do was stand there and wait for the monsters teleporting in to mostly just kill each other, then take pot shots at the baron from that ledge above. I mean, I appreciate that there was an encounter that didn't kill the crap out of me like a lot of the others did, but it felt out of place among all the other, much better encounters in the WAD, and it was one dud of a finale.

Overall:

The map layouts were good. They looked visually quite nice. While I think there are some opportunities for improvement, in general I think the encounters were well made, too.

@meapineapple Thank you for your honesty! I think map03 is actually my favorite, but that doesn't make your criticisms invalid. A quick note about the "unavoidable" hitscanners in the lowering room (which also lowers the lift allowing you access to the yellow key) the chaingun in the room is a hint that that is the optimal weapon, and the crates give you a bunch of cover, its possible to get through that without losing any health, even gaining some if you get the medikit. Still, I understand if its not to your tastes or liking. I'm currently not super interested in doing complete overhauls to these maps, so I'll have to take these notes to my next project. I appreciate you giving your time to play my map, and I appreciate the detailed response even more.

11 hours ago, Egg Boy said:

@meapineapple Thank you for your honesty! I think map03 is actually my favorite, but that doesn't make your criticisms invalid. A quick note about the "unavoidable" hitscanners in the lowering room (which also lowers the lift allowing you access to the yellow key) the chaingun in the room is a hint that that is the optimal weapon, and the crates give you a bunch of cover, its possible to get through that without losing any health, even gaining some if you get the medikit. Still, I understand if its not to your tastes or liking. I'm currently not super interested in doing complete overhauls to these maps, so I'll have to take these notes to my next project. I appreciate you giving your time to play my map, and I appreciate the detailed response even more.

Playing the WAD was overall a positive experience for me, so I'm not here to hate, but I will belabor this one point a bit more.

I hear what you're saying about the chaingun and the crates, but I strongly suspect that the majority of players are going to lose health here, or break even at best. Even with the crates here, you're surprise surrounding the player with a bunch of hitscans. It seems like the only way to not lose a nice chunk of health here is to 1. know it's coming ahead of time and 2. get lucky. I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad setup, just that I think there needs to be a lot more than just a single medikit at the end of it, otherwise you get players doing like I did where I exited the area and asked myself what was even the point of going over there. In general, I think that is not the kind of question you want players asking themselves, not even the players like me who aren't good enough and/or lucky enough to avoid losing more health than they gained from the medikit.

I played these with GZDooM. Very pleasing visual style. Texture and color combinations hit deep into my aesthetic nerves. I was sorely missing the double-barreled shotgun in some fights and just avoided some enemies altogether because of that. Could be that I just missed it but if it wasn't there I would add it.

I'd like to play more of these.

hc_bf_fdas.zip

I made some -complevel 2 FDAs. Hopefully my bumbling around will be informative, or at least morbidly entertaining.

The MAP01 demo's a little boring due to me taking the time to slowly snipe the Revenants down after escaping their pit; I wasn't sure whether to trust the exit door or not and was paranoid about a possible FINAL final wave.

The way I occasionally got confused on where to go next in MAP02 isn't so much the map's fault - it's generally pretty good about signposting objectives as you recross your path and retrace your steps - and I didn't lose all that much HP wandering about, but I still never stood a chance against that unfortunate ghost Chaingunner. Never even got a bead on where that Arch-Vile was coming from.

A bit of an awkward moment with the red key in MAP03; I was so concerned with evading the monsters which had been released that I didn't notice its pillar lowering, so it was out of sight when the dust had settled and I had a moment to wonder "what did triggering that trap get me?" My cowardly tactic of always bugging out after hitting a mystery switch was prevented by the structure of the freight elevator trap. Kudos on that one, it was a well-constructed moment of panic.

Each map had its own distinct gameplay beats while maintaining a cohesive look: pleasing to the eye while sticking to a unified minimalist style in order to be easy to read at a glance. The pervasive use of lava floors throughout the maps give them a distinct character, and the focus on low-tier weapons made things threatening without being tedious & grindy. I could imagine this mapset continuing on and introducing additional weapons & threats if the inspiration was there for further variations on the theme of industrial catwalks & canals. It was very stingy with health & armor, though. Never impossible, but certainly precarious. In fact I would argue that, for the demos which I survive, most of that can be chalked up to getting low damage rolls rather than any particular skill on my part. :P

I recorded myself while playing blind with PrBoom+ and not bothering to use saves. Nothing fanciful, I take my sweet time and actually die three times. I play 95% of the time with GZDoom, freelook+freeaim, autosaves and quicksaves, so make out of that what you will. The demo features:

- Me dying stupidly at the hands of extremely tall bites.

- Sniping every enemy I can. It's not cheating when it's one against one hundred!

- A cacodemon floating away into the sunset. Goddammit.

- Me bumbling around (I'm actually fumbling with the automap).

I like that there isn't a SSG. It would make the levels too easy to be fun. This way the occasional revenants and the archvile work as substitutes of the cacodemon for middle-tier enemies in a UD style combat. I like how the archvile came out of the blue from and adjacent corridor surprising me but still being manageable without prior knowledge. On the other hand I think I survived the crate elevator in the final level by pure chance, if I have been in any other spot I would probably have been turned into cheese. I don't think it is necessarily bad, saves are a thing and anyway the level is short enough as it is to be too much of a punishment if you die. (And really, I expect to die when playing, that's sort of the point about a shooter).

Didn't find any secrets except in map 3, which you can casually deduce on your own. I'm not a fan of wall-humping, so I liked those. The regular resources seemed enough to beat the maps comfortably, in any case.

Visually looks good enough. It's not blocky, decorations don't get in the way and you are using two specific warm colors plus greys for contrast, so the colors are appealing.

Overall, easy but fun and doesn't overstay its welcome.

bloody-foundry-demo.zip

I've been meaning to play this map for some time but I don't think I was ready for it haha

I didn't play so good but these maps were great

7 hours ago, Clippy said:

I've been meaning to play this map for some time but I don't think I was ready for it haha

 

I didn't play so good but these maps were great

[video]

Thanks for playing, Clippy! I'm glad you enjoyed the maps. Don't be so down on yourself, I don't think the problem was your skill, but rather, your approach. These maps reward aggressive gameplay for the most part, for most encounters, I tried, in some way to force the player to push through the enemies. However, in most of these, you like to hang back and wait for the monsters to come to you, nothing wrong with this approach, but it doesn't work quite as well for these maps (notice how you are basically on a timer for map02, since there are very few radsuits, if you play fast and offensively, its enough to get you through the map without taking any more floor damage than what you recieve before getting the first one). Also, thanks for playing continuous, they weren't really designed for this in mind, but it seems to work fairly well. I imagine this would not be the case if that soul sphere wasn't in map02 haha. Anyhow, no worries, my next map set will have difficulties implemented. Again, thanks for playing, and thanks for being fashionably late ;)

24 minutes ago, Egg Boy said:

Thanks for playing, Clippy! I'm glad you enjoyed the maps. Don't be so down on yourself, I don't think the problem was your skill, but rather, your approach. These maps reward aggressive gameplay for the most part, for most encounters, I tried, in some way to force the player to push through the enemies. However, in most of these, you like to hang back and wait for the monsters to come to you, nothing wrong with this approach, but it doesn't work quite as well for these maps (notice how you are basically on a timer for map02, since there are very few radsuits, if you play fast and offensively, its enough to get you through the map without taking any more floor damage than what you recieve before getting the first one). Also, thanks for playing continuous, they weren't really designed for this in mind, but it seems to work fairly well. I imagine this would not be the case if that soul sphere wasn't in map02 haha. Anyhow, no worries, my next map set will have difficulties implemented. Again, thanks for playing, and thanks for being fashionably late ;)

Yes I tend to be too timid sometimes on blind runs. Which is probably not good when it comes to playing Doom haha. I'm going to have to get more aggressive eh. 

I'll probably revisit your map sometimes now that I know them 🤠

I don't have much to say other than the music in MAP01 is kick-ass, and this WAD gets a 7.6/10

Very cool set of speedmaps you've got here! These are really quite polished for speedmaps, featuring neat interconnected layouts and a pretty unique color scheme. Gameplay is solid fast-paced fun, not too tough overall but interesting nonetheless. Map02 was my favorite out of the three (though I thoroughly enjoyed map01 and 03 as well), with the great looping layout, pressure from all the damaging floors and that nice final battle with a horde of teleporting monsters. Might be a sign that I've played too much Doom if I can read the mapper's thoughts this well, but I was pretty much expecting an Arch-Vile or some other "boss" monsters(s) to pop in at the exit door, which is why I was waiting around the area. I agree that the finale in map03 is a little weak for a climax as there's no pressure at all and the Baron is really easy to dispatch. I entertained myself with taking him down with the berserk fist but it wasn't necessary at all from ammo point of view.

Overall good work!

FDA_bldfndry_01-03.zip