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HAK3180

WIP Limit-Removing Megawad Crossbearer (Hiatus)

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@LVENdead, alright, I watched your video. Thanks a ton for playing all these over the months.

 

Some Map 26 stuff:

Spoiler
  • I think I might have added some extra bullets early in an unreleased update, but it’s worth noting that you picked up a box of bullets at 14:04 that is right there on the critical path at the beginning of the map
  • Timed secret when worried about rad suit – yes, valid point, but there are more suits on medium and more yet on easy. Ultra-Violence allows you only one, possibly two “wasted” ones
  • Lot of opportunity to use the rocket launcher – yes, a big goal of the map
  • What is the point of coming up here (where the arachnotron suddenly appears)? Well, you picked up the red key, and you’re definitely not the first one not to notice that. That’s another thing already moved in an unreleased update.
  • That was very satisfying footage of the big revenant + barons fight. You were moving, you were shooting, you were strategizing on the fly, and it killed you just a couple times.
  • Ooh, you almost had the puzzle at one point. If you don’t work out the clue of the sequence (no one has; it’s changed in the update), then it could still help you to remember exactly how lifts work, i.e. that they lower to the lowest adjacent sector at the time. So if you have two lifts right next to each other, lowering one first could change the height to which the second one lowers. That is what’s manipulated in this puzzle, but you’re not really supposed to see all that. You’re supposed to just work out the color sequence, but it’s too cryptic. The 1, 2, 3, 4 is there to tell you that it’s a 4-part puzzle, even though there are 3 switches. And the order is given to you via torches in the map. The only torches in the map are a single blue torch, two green torches, three blue torches, and four green torches. So that was my original thought, but it’s obviously too obtuse, so I’ve changed it a bit.
  • You did get a little bit lucky in the actual fight though because you chaingunned all that fodder, meaning none of them were gibbed, meaning they could all be resurrected (they’re intentionally clustered to entice you to rocket), and they happened to fall right in the path the archies took to you. I’ve never seen that fight go that smoothly. However, I have planned to alter things so that it’s easier to get the yellow key and harder to do the fight without it. That’s a tricky balance for sure, and your point is well taken, but I think it makes for an interesting task with two viable options: either skill in combat or some mental cleverness will give you the win. I got the idea from E4M6 Against Thee Wickedly, where the last key basically just gives you the invulnerability that is sorta off the beaten path, but of course, the other option is put your big boy pants on and slay that cyber without it.
  • Yes, there are a couple views of Map 25 here, and yes, it is an intentional shotgun trolling at the very end.

 

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@LVENdead, no, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe confused crushed monsters, which is still compatibility settings dependent anyway. Either way, I didn't test the fight too much without invulnerability, as the main goal was make the puzzle plausible, which I failed at. Then once the puzzle was too hard, I was happy there was at least a somewhat reliable way to beat it, so, in a weird twist, the total balance is technically fine, just not what I want and definitely anticlimactic.

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@BluePineapple72, man, you’re a couple weeks early. I should be coming out with an update, including two more maps by mid June, one of which you would have played in this sequence.

 

I would absolutely love to see what you can for M_Doom, HUD, etc., in addition to anything else art-related because I suck at these things. My only request is not messing with the menu sounds, which to me are just iconic and almost essential.

 

Just a few comments/responses:

 

Spoiler

Map 06

A lot of folks forget about the BFG. There is only one shot, two on easy (and medium?), and the arch-vile spot is the best place for it difficulty-wise, but that section is certainly doable without.

 

This level was altered fairly significantly in that the damaging floor is all -10 now, except the beginning. The previous concern had been the possibility of surviving at the very beginning, essentially skipping a bunch of level, so it had to be -20, but now I’ve just walled that area off.

 

Map 07

I think I may have added a couple rockets in the update, and I eliminated some of the rogue fireballs (i.e. imps). You picked up on a workable strategy pretty early; it just became a matter of executing it well.

 

Map 10

I had a Warhammer phase long, long ago.

This map has seen very little change since its release. It's pretty much the delineating line of Crossbearer quality. Maps worse than it are not so great, and maps better than it are at least okay, in my opinion.

 

Why are some maps skipped?

At the onset, I decided to work on the maps not in order for a few reasons. Since I started this project the exact moment I started mapping, I knew that I would get a lot better, so I didn’t want all of my most experienced maps to be the last ones, never to be played by anyone at all, because the earlier maps were inferior. I was wise enough to sense that, even if I didn’t realize at the time that I would probably end up scrapping some maps altogether (if you continue this playthrough, you will very soon see which ones are first on the chopping block). I personally would not recommend the way Alfredo is doing it for someone like Alfredo. I think he is still in the significant mapper growth stages, so I anticipate he’s going to get to about Map 18 and suddenly hate Maps 1-10. Maybe it all comes out in the wash if he ends up redoing 1-10 and I end up redoing 1, 13, 15, 22, etc., but I guess I would just find that more discouraging throughout the process. And the other reason was because of the mapping process. If I’m playing around with a concept, it’s nice to be able to put it into 2-3 maps in a row because those maps are not going to be next to each other in playthrough. It’s also nice to have a little more variety in visual theme. I can work on a hell map and then a city map even if they are ten map slots away. Same with difficulty. The first ones I did were 13 and 1, so I did a more difficult one long one and a super easy short one. I also like this approach for early playtesters like you, because this is a pistol start wad, so even players who ignore that and want to do everything continuous (thus rendering their combat feedback pretty meaningless) will have to pistol start most of these (pretty much all of them earlier in the process).

 

What will I do with secret slots?

Those are probably the last two maps I will do because I probably won’t release them to the public before at least an RC state. I have ideas for both, but they may change. I will say I agree with what you (and I, apparently, at some point) expressed for preferences for secret maps.

 

In general

Your play is very interesting. It's fairly reckless and seems somewhat absent-minded, as you talk at length about unrelated things, yet you seem to have a pretty good handle on what you're doing, as far as objectives and familiarity with the space you've already been in. I tend to think of my maps as requiring (or at least suggesting) a relatively high degree of mental focus. I have not done a full puzzle map yet, but you you are almost always going to get some combination of nonlinearity, exploration, and a sense of accomplishing objectives (switches altering accessibility, etc.) It's encouraging that you don't seem to be overly observant, but you're doing just fine.

 

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Version 10.0 is now ready to go, most prominently featuring two new maps: Map 08 and Map 24. Grab the wad in the original post or download right here. Maps are tested on all difficulty levels in Crispy, PrBoom+, Retro, ZDoom, Eternity Engine, and GZDoom. The only issue is that if you use Pr/GlBoom+, you should use -cl9 due to sky transfers (however, the newest two do not use transfers).

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

08-1.jpg.20df1f85c49950e1296c2f6747e7916e.jpg08-2.jpg.275dc81b7a24b67452b1b0e10eb52074.jpg24-1.jpg.eb5e532c3a833b3c9c1d1bce8553f182.jpg24-2.jpg.93133bbf69d7b737367e7c1899115ecc.jpg

 

Full wad info is in the OP. Brief writeups about the new maps are below:

Spoiler

Map 08

This is a little bit of a power trip. It has a lot of meaty monsters, but you're not starved for firepower. There are several moments of reused space and looping or minor backtracking, so the geometry itself would probably suggest a map slightly shorter than what it is. There's a little secrets gimmick in play. Each secret allows you to skip a locked door, and you can even complete the map without picking up a key.

 

Map 24

The first of the three obvious weapon restriction maps, this one is probably the closest this wad will come to "true" slaughter; the enemy count does not reflect the level time/length. It consists of a few distinct fights with one choice of order that changes things significantly. Because of that, this became a very technical Doom map in terms of behind the scenes editing. There's quite a bit of poorman's (vanilla) "scripting" to set up the fights for players coming from different directions. For that reason, I'm very curious about balance. The goal for this map was to be on the slaughter spectrum with some distinct character; innovation was much more important than challenge.

 

Let me know what you think about these, and take a look at some of the others while you’re at it.

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I played this map - for the record it's a second attempt, the less said about the first attempt the better. I really enjoyed this one

 

 

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@Clippy, I remember that first run. Good times. Not a whole lot has changed, to be honest, except the very last fight.

 

A few things to point out:

  • Early on you somehow did all the things to make the map harder on yourself and still managed okay. Hopefully that indicates balance among nonlinear options.
  • You found the red door skip secret but then you ended up doing the whole red door sequence anyway, haha. At about 15:00, you can just go on with the level and skip the whole outdoor arch-vile fight. 
  • You unintentionally, opened the blue door skip secret but never explored it, and I learned something new today:
    Spoiler

    It's a shoot switch that you never actually shot at. The door is closed at about 18:00 and then open at about 19:00 and you were nowhere near it. After scratching my head and testing, I figured out what happened. We all know that originally, and in less advanced ports, rockets and plasma cannot activate shoot switches. That alone is not an issue. But apparently, rockets and plasma will go slightly through void space when they collide with a wall, just a few map units. Practically, what this means is that if a one-sided impassable line that is a shootswitch is approached from the other side, through the void, it can still be shot if the void space is small enough. Well, in this map, it's only two units, as pictured here. You can see whence it's supposed to be shot, but you shot it from where the Thing is placed when you were firing plasma at a revenant there. I never knew about this phenomenon, and it never happened to me in testing mostly because I don't test in GZDoom a ton, but I also don't use manual vertical aim, and I believe you needed to get the Z height right too. Unfortunately, I can't just move the trigger line up to the north because then it will be easier to hit mistakenly/cheesably from the intentional side. I'll have to think about what to do here...just to avoid some obscure GZDoom idiosyncrasy.

     

    1894618511_PlasmaGR.png.0d625d1fc3d63fd7ee3eaee537c7ce40.png

     

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All caught up again - this map was nuts - easily the hardest map which is giving spider map a run for it's money. If you wanted to only give the player the BFG but still make it extremely hard I think you succeeded. You balanced this out pretty well actually with the berserks, soul spheres and megaspheres. But what a hard start lol I hope you enjoy my suffering. I'm a little confused how to properly access the exit and trying to solve the map while fighting off massive armies really brought the panic - good stuff

 

 

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@Clippy, many thanks for the footage.

 

Spoiler

 

24 is not really a map that you can figure out easily without things being dead. It's definitely speedrunable, but not really until you know what's going on. So your concerns about not knowing what to do - well, that becomes a lot more clear when you have time to take the level in. (tntem - figure out what's next - load is totally acceptable in my opinion, in the name of footage efficiency). 

 

Personally, I don't find this to be the hardest map, but it is probably more of a combat puzzle than any other. That is, figuring out a good strategy makes more of a difference here than in perhaps any other map.

 

"How am I supposed to know those are lifts?" Actually, I completely forgot those worked. That was from a slightly different progression a long time ago and I meant to remove those triggers. However, the switch by where the megasphere was in the same room also activates them. Oh, you figured it out later. Yeah, you're not supposed to be able to "click on it directly." I've removed that for next version.

 

Literally as you were saying this map is hard to figure out, you stepped on the trigger to lower the remaining bars. Remember how those platforms always triggered something in Maps 25 and 26? (haha, probably not) Same thing here. And I intend to introduce that concept in a more risk free environment probably in Map 23.... Oh crap, you died and then didn't trigger it again.... Oh, wait, now you finally did. Okay, you never looked through the window to see that the bars were lowering. I will see if duplicating those sectors unseen in the void closer to the trigger will at least make the sound louder; that might help. Or perhaps different lighting. 

 

I'm glad to see you ultimately managed with leftover supplies on Ultra-Violence. 

 

A reminder: All difficulties have been significantly thought through and tested with a specific goal of not making medium feel like less of an experience. Feedback and footage on all skill levels are equally valuable to me. I would say the most valuable is the difficulty on which one will struggle some, but not mightily.

 

 

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A new map, Map 16 is released in the new update. See the original post for more wad info.

 

Crispy, Retro, anything Z-related, Eternity. If you're a Boomer, this one does use sky transfers, so consider -cl9.

 

Some screenshots:

Spoiler

16-1.jpg.e7236737d9d7947f2a91d869553a28a7.jpg16-2.jpg.91b59b6be6d6ea1e59c0414d0c3305d5.jpg16-3.jpg.d1eb535c50511c78ad92d00c95900dcb.jpg

 

Little writeup:

Spoiler

 

This is another map of numerous small/preliminary objectives, even featuring the (pseudo) usage of six keys. This is by far the least densely populated map I have made, but that doesn't mean it's easy. It's a bit of a hub map and a bit of a sandbox, nonlinear in function but without many distinctly different areas. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I rather enjoyed figuring out some of the vanilla trickery to get this thing to do what I wanted.

 

 

 

 

Oh, and the update also includes a brand new Map 01 loosely inspired by the original Map 01, which was the second map I ever made.

Edited by HAK3180

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@Clippy, good times.

 

Spoiler

 

The point of the dark area is mostly just to be an alternate route. You can skip the red key by going through there. It’s also the only way to get a max. Doom 1 had several of these alternate route secrets that didn’t always give you an obvious “benefit”; the fun part was simply being able to experience more map and see it fit together in more ways.

 

The switch puzzle is coded by picture and by height. The switches you hit are the same image as the platform they raise (lion, satyr, gargoyle). And the higher (left) switch raises; the lower (right) switch lowers.

 

Why do the switch puzzle? Because it opens the exit door.

 

I think monster-encounter-altering secrets are interesting, so I have several of them throughout the wad. In this case, if you find the armor bonus secrets early, it allows you to score a barrel kill on unsuspecting enemies that you otherwise have to deal with later. It’s not a one-time secret, but its value depends on whether those monsters are still alive yet, so it rewards you for having a keen eye during the course of the map. I’m not a big fan of missable content, but I do think secret hunting after you reach the exit when everything is dead can be a bit anticlimactic, so I put into Map 01 an encouragement to be on the lookout in the moment.

 

 

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8 minutes ago, HAK3180 said:

@Clippy, good times.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The point of the dark area is mostly just to be an alternate route. You can skip the red key by going through there. It’s also the only way to get a max. Doom 1 had several of these alternate route secrets that didn’t always give you an obvious “benefit”; the fun part was simply being able to experience more map and see it fit together in more ways.

 

The switch puzzle is coded by picture and by height. The switches you hit are the same image as the platform they raise (lion, satyr, gargoyle). And the higher (left) switch raises; the lower (right) switch lowers.

 

Why do the switch puzzle? Because it opens the exit door.

 

I think monster-encounter-altering secrets are interesting, so I have several of them throughout the wad. In this case, if you find the armor bonus secrets early, it allows you to score a barrel kill on unsuspecting enemies that you otherwise have to deal with later. It’s not a one-time secret, but its value depends on whether those monsters are still alive yet, so it rewards you for having a keen eye during the course of the map. I’m not a big fan of missable content, but I do think secret hunting after you reach the exit when everything is dead can be a bit anticlimactic, so I put into Map 01 an encouragement to be on the lookout in the moment.

 

 

 

Spoiler

Nice haha - I re-looked at that map and then figured out the connection between the faces and the pillars and I should have figured what it was sooner. I know exactly how it works now but I didn't realize it opened the exit door. That seems so elaborate that I thought it was some kind of secret so it totally distracted me and surprised that is actually required to beat the map. Interesting 

 

The remake looks good and it does look better than the original but I still like the classic feel of the older map too. Even though it may no longer be up to snuff for your standards 

 

I really enjoyed the artwork at the start as well. The little Doom cute stuff that you put in. I might have been a little out of it while playing and then I went to bed shortly after but I eventually figured it out. Man I had a hard time figured out how to get out of the start even lol but the interesting way I also kind of Segways into the platforming and you have to set up for yourself later 

 

I really want to see other people play this to see other people solve that too

 

Anyway the dark crushy room was unexpected and I'm not usually a fan of that type of gameplay but now I get that it lets you skip the key. That makes it extremely beneficial especially if you're trying to get a par time 

 

The only thing I miss is it seems you cut down on the secrets. You know how much I love secrets lol 

 

Anyway it's great

 

I'll try the other map sometime and not before going to bed when I'm more alert and focused

 

Great times

 

 

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Commenting to save, because this wad looks really dope and its clear you put a lot of time and effort and passion into this set and I am really looking forward to playing it in full once its completed :) 

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Map 16 was amazing - I played it a few times!

 

I have to go on another one of my classic adventures so will leave this here - let it cook for an hour or so before it's ready to view

 

 

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@Clippy, wow, thanks for playing. Some stuff is below:

 

Spoiler

 

Whoa! How the heck did that cyberdemon get down!!?? Twice, too! They should be permanently stuck on the blue areas just by virtue of their own hitboxes. I’ve never seen that. Maybe it’s a weird GZDoom thing or maybe some sort of momentum push from someone’s attack at some point. Interesting.

 

Plasma gun – really glad you found it and gave it another run. Looks like you initially just carried over your memory from the previous night in which you kinda absentmindedly missed it.

 

I can’t believe you almost tripled the kill count, hahaha.

 

Yeah, you never had a clue how you telefragged that arch-vile. I may have to revisit that.

 

I do think the cyberdemons are cheesable from the blue area, but the whole premise is to build up enough ammo to deal with them. By the time you have enough to take them down, they’ve served their purpose, so I don’t really care how you do it. And even if you pile up all your resources early just to kill one of them, now you’re gonna be ammo starved most of the rest of the way.

 

I think I can make the blue armor jump easier and fix the rogue cyberdemons with a very simple adjustment.

 

Pain elementals basically come out when you grab the yellow key, but my trigger line has a slight gap – a replica of when the lift was in a different location. You pulled something like this in Map 06, haha.

 

Read below on how this map seems to feature six keys in simple Doom 2 format

Spoiler

You can’t actually differentiate keycards and skulls until you get to Boom, but you can kinda fake it in vanilla. So, you technically just need the three keys to exit. However, if you hump the bars with just the keycards, the door will attempt to open to its exact current height, so it won’t move at all. This is because a dummy sector tied to the bars has a height 4 greater than the height of the bars, so when you try to open it, it goes up to four below the lowest adjacent sector, because that’s what doors do, so it just stays put. But when you get the skulls, you simultaneously trigger a line that raises the height of the dummy sector, thus allowing the bars to open to a much higher height. So technically, you don’t need the skulls at all; you just need to cross lines that it’s almost impossible to cross without getting them. Plutonia Map 29 does something similar. When you approach the red key, an area lowers that contains a switch that lowers the red bars, but you don’t actually ever need to grab the red key. There may be other iwad maps like that, too, but I don’t think any of them ever use that strategy to fake the use of more than three keys.

 

I’m glad you enjoyed it. I thought this one came together rather nicely.

 

 

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A few somewhat meaningful issues have been addressed in various maps.

 

The latest version is here, and the original post has also been updated accordingly.

 

And just for fun, below is a no secrets run of Map 24, one of the most brutal maps in the set.

Spoiler

 

 

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2.5 new maps are up (05, 17, 22), bringing the total to 23.5. Download the .zip here. New map info below. Wad info in the OP. Limit-removing, mostly tested in Crispy and DSDA.

 

Spoiler

Map 22

Spoiler

22-1.jpg.48c4c6af08cb0f01e0dd98676dbebb2c.jpg

Map 22 has moved to 23, so 22 is new. It is also unfinished. Visually, I have done almost no work on it, so it is very ugly, but this is a shorter level with pretty straightforward progression, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue in that regard. I just wanted to release it at this time too before I go back and make it look nicer. I have also not yet done difficulty implementing on this one. Usually that means it’s somewhere between the eventual Hurt Me Plenty and Ultra-Violence, but I don’t know – this map is tough. I started this map shortly after a playthrough of Plutonia gave me a renewed appreciation for Caged and The Twilight: fast paced action without much room to maneuver. Visually, this is very different from those, and it is also my first map to feature the "Containment Area Effect," (or Downtown) if you know what I mean.

Map 05

Spoiler

05-1.jpg.b24696adbbb37078627470f5a48d5de8.jpg

05-2.jpg.7c0b75c9f770f3ae4d4e47af71cefb35.jpg

Map 05 has been probably my least favorite map at the time of finishing/release, but I'm giving it time to grow on me. Within the megawad, it does what I want it to do as a short map and temporary departure from the main campaign, but it's like half the time I think it's visually cool, the other half stupid. Half the time I like the action a lot, but the other half it feels amateurish.

 


Map 17

Spoiler

17-1.jpg.fcd02f1344ae237897c2107372c1dac8.jpg
17-2.jpg.8023df28d6902a3ed10094f2ec2cdeb5.jpg

I like Map 11 a lot, but it ended up morphing into something that was not really the initial design. This map is kinda the second attempt at that original vision, which is a very Doom 1-feeling, mazelike, thoroughly unguided sprawling base adventure. There's really only one setpiece at all, and almost never only one path to take. I took inspiration from the layout of E3M3 Pandemonium, which really epitomizes that sense of freedom, I think. This map also boasts the second most secrets and easily the most per square foot. And check out not one, but two different vanilla faux floor-over-floor setups. [Note: I consider a max of this map 6 enemies short of the counter. That’s 97% on Ultra-Violence.]

 

 

 

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@Clippy, haha, that’s definitely not the stair effect but is indeed floor raise to next with a bunch of dummy sectors.

 

I never intended it or thought of it as a Christmas map or the white liquid as snow, just as some indeterminate liquid. This is the second “dream map,” so if Christmas is your take, that’s fine. Oddly enough, Map 17 is fairly heavy on reds and greens and is also not a Christmas map.

 

It’s good to get your footage. Your playstyle is so different from mine in a lot of ways. You came very close to one of the other secrets, intentionally I might add. The final one just never occurred to you, and it’s hard to get by accident. The berserk secret does have a slight indicator (the door starts out barely cracked), but if you’re just guess humping, that will be easy to miss.

 

Ah, good memories of the 12 Days of Doommas from last year.

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In the end I bitched about the end only haha - I enjoyed the map as a whole tho - this seemed to be a perpetually low health experience for me because I kept goofing up - may play it again - good times

 

 

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@Clippy, very cool. Some stuff below:

Spoiler

 

  • I was happy with your secret finding: 3/8 and very close to two others. I’m sure you would have gotten at least six with a dedicated hunt.
  • The ending is basically a cinematic forced pistol start for Map 18, which you might remember is the prison map you enjoyed. It may be possible to kill the viles (I haven’t really probed it at all), but there’s still no way to avoid the death exit without cheating.
  • ADHD – that’s good! I really wanted to make a map characterized by freedom. There are only two things you have to do besides get to the exit: lower the support bars that block the yellow door and get the yellow key. You, for example, only went into the basement slime area via the secret, but there are two other ways to get down there.
  • I never really try to use berserk on the demons in the demon + cacodemon yellow key fight, but it definitely seems plausible, at least with infinite height on.
  • I like using those one-way steps because they function like a one-way dropoff or blind teleport or door closing behind you, but they require very little space to set up and they are often less obvious, which can feel more organic and also maintain the element of surprise better.
  • You definitely ended up hording cells and rockets in this one after initially being pretty plasma happy.
  • I was glad the ammo distribution worked out. I tried not to use too many larger pickups, especially in optional areas, and the only backpack is a secret.
  • I find it helpful, especially in nonlinear maps or where anything resembling a puzzle is present, to stop and freeze when hitting a switch. Mappers often place switches so that you can see (or at least hear) their effect, especially if it’s not something you would otherwise react to immediately. Sometimes I will save before a switch and if I don’t see what happened, I’ll load and try again. Very often I’ll catch it on the second time.
  • If you're planning on playing Map 22 in its current state, well, it's really hard...

 

 

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@HAK3180 glad you are finding my vids useful I do really enjoy your maps

 

I'll do a spoilerific reply too

 

Spoiler

Oh that wasn't the stair effect lol - why are you so anti stair effect? To me it seems easier than messing around with thise dummy sectors ... but then again I'm lazy. I did use something like this for "The End" for the plasma gun secret behind the revenant teleporter in the chaingunner grill room to make stairs actually appear to lower to outside.

 

Dream map sounds interesting I am dreaming of Christmas real hard lol - 4 work shifts til a nice month long vacay!

 

I knew I should have jumped on that chaingunner ledge that felt like a secret to me

 

22:

 

3/8 secrets eh - I love secrets so much - I spend waaay too much time adding them in my maps. My new upcoming one has 13. I feel like I should be better at secret finding because of this but not really

 

Ah now I understand that exit - it made me angry cause I couldn't fight those guys but I get your plan now and it does work!

 

I feel I do want to explore this map again some day

 

That pinky and caco combo room was nuts- I was going to punch out the pinkies before I seen they tagged in some meatballs for help. You know I play with Gzdoom default settings so monsters can fly over things. Not sure if that makes the fight better or worse. I can run under cacos but they can also get me easier flying over the pinkies hmmmm

 

One way steps is interesting I think you used em before. I may want to try it. For some reason I was thinking they would lower for an escape before I realized I had to jump out by the yellow key

 

I will try 22 - you said it's short - gearing up by playing in order - stay tuned we will see how badly I get beat up haha

 

good times

 

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47 minutes ago, Clippy said:

why are you so anti stair effect?

 

I'll have you know I successfully used it in Map 22. See if you can spot it. I'm not against it as much as I don't plan enough for it. I often don't know if the stairs will all be uniformly 8 or 16. And if some of the stair sectors will be shared with differentiated ceiling detail or lighting or something, then there's more issues, I think. Dummy sector floor raise to lowest ceiling gives me more control and more ability to procrastinate solidifying final design. Maybe.

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41 minutes ago, HAK3180 said:

 

I'll have you know I successfully used it in Map 22. See if you can spot it. I'm not against it as much as I don't plan enough for it. I often don't know if the stairs will all be uniformly 8 or 16. And if some of the stair sectors will be shared with differentiated ceiling detail or lighting or something, then there's more issues, I think. Dummy sector floor raise to lowest ceiling gives me more control and more ability to procrastinate solidifying final design. Maybe.

 

You are right your option gives you a lot more customizability but it's more work and I'm lazy haha. The only function for raise stairs are to raise them by 8 units slowly or 16 units fast. Your way you can do 16 or 24 or all sorts of ways 

 

If you have a chance to check out my new map I'm going to drop soon I made a crazy elaborate stairs raise by eight slowly situation that goes through a wall which lowered earlier - I got er to work with the stair raise function

 

I did some playing around and didn't lower that wall first and when you press the star button the wall instantaneously goes to the height of the step as it raises 

 

There's also another section of the same wacky staircase that has a button that lets you lower a few steps to pass through

 

Anywho I'll have to look for these stairs of yours

 

Mapping is fun I enjoyed discussing stairs with you and making those demo maps

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Ive been finally playing/testing Crossbearer and wanted to give some thoughts, some sort of individual little reviews that might

be interesting for you. Im playing pistol start UV (freelook), currently at map 11.

Ill try to keep the pace and complete the rest.

Be ready for the wall of text buddy, excuse any wrong grammar in there.

Spoiler

01. Incipit
I think is quite good as an opener. I did play this map back in the day
but now is very different, mostly the start area (which has some cool Doomcute and its visually great)
and outdoor area. The switch "puzzle" at the end was interesting, looks almost like a tutorial
for future puzzles. I did find the secrets, but missed some kills in the pitch dark crusher area,
which I had to avoid since I wasted the googles.

 

02. Project Subterrane
 Great transition from maps giving you a feel of a real place. The layout gave me urges for exploration
sadly the place feels a bit empty but at the same time gives the map a gloomy atmosphere.
Found 3 secrets, and after 100% kills found the last via IDDT, it was another different texture
wall that I missed hiding a chainsaw. Another snack before the bigger dishes.

 

03. Sordid Methods
Again nice transition from map to map. I enjoyed this one A LOT. Its a small one but packs
a punch, great monster placement linked with cool little traps, just my kind of thing!
Those translucent UAC windows and doors are a nice touch. I found 3 secrets and found the
4th via IDDT, this time I missed an invisible wall hiding a little room with a soulsphere.
Great one!

 

04. Crux of the Matter
Hectic start, its a classic scheme that doesnt get old, run and dodge until you feel safe
and start to clean what you just left in panic. Its really cool the fact that for a fun map
you only need a shotgun, a chaingun and your loyal pistol. This one gave me Doom Episode 1 vibes
with cool exterior spots (some secret) that can be seen from different rooms.
The arch-vile/chaingunner trap was spicy and left me really injured, funny how I recovered
with a very cool secret (the pillar/berserker one), and later found that tricky switch
to access the blue armor. Couldnt find a way to get the blursphere (no IDDT this time).
The room with Arachnotrons was a cool detail, looked almost like a school classroom.
Its another banger, just like the previous one.


05. Somnia Amara
This one caught me off guard from start to end. Difficulty is a bit odd, might look menacing,
but once you figure out where to go 1st and where the keys are located is pretty easy.
It feels a bit empty and theres too much space to dodge. Played it twice for
a speedrun which was quite fun (par 0:56), I had a feeling of playing Doom II The Courtyard.
No secrets found.

 

06. Dormant Vagary
Tormenting and annoying to navigate on purpose, the geometry and enemy placement put
danger in every corner. To beat it had to play very carefully, died a bunch of times,
mostly falling into the barely escapable pit, I could have used some others stairs
here and there but I guess its part of the challenge. Only could find 1 out of 3 secrets (mega-armor).
The ending was fun, really well calculated piece. Really hard and rough around the edges map, but fun.

 

07. Exigency
Oh man, I think I remember Clippy discussing about the arachnotron fight a while ago,
Its surely an "exigent" encounter. Its a bitter-sweet situation since everything before that fight
felt like a continuation of "Crux of the Matter"style, and the mentioned spider situation feels excessive.
At the same time, Ive done that in my own maps for a final punch, so I can understand that bold move.
All secrets found.

 

08. Anger and Apathy
I dig this map a lot, its kinda hard but at the same time always fair to the player.
Ammo & Health balance was pretty solid and made things more enjoyable.
The layout is pretty good, outdoor and indoor areas blend well.
I did find the secret under the Yellow key, no clue about the other two.

09. *empty slot*


10. Hollow Venture
Similar to the previous map (08), it has the same basics with some extra details.
Again, the enviroment blends well and its nice looking overall.
I found 3 secrets that helped me a lot, Soulsphere, Berserker and the Mega-armor,
pretty cool design for this one. Solid map.

 

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40 minutes ago, Soulless said:

Ive been finally playing/testing Crossbearer and wanted to give some thoughts, some sort of individual little reviews that might

be interesting for you.

 

Thanks for your valuable thoughts. I've always thought you and I had somewhat similar mapping styles, so I'm not surprised that some of your favorites are some of my favorites and some of your criticisms are things I know/agree I need to improve. Map 02 is one of the earliest maps I made, and one of the only ones I have not done major updates on. Map 05 is just...I don't know. I feel like I can do a better "weird" map, but sometimes when I play it I really like it.

 

Fair warning: soon you will come to the unfortunate trio of Maps 13-15, all of which are decent-sized and not very good. Hopefully they won't scare you off. I don't want to just delete them from the wad without replacements, but I'm afraid they will need significant work if not a full redo.

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On 12/6/2021 at 5:26 PM, HAK3180 said:

Fair warning: soon you will come to the unfortunate trio of Maps 13-15

Well, I think they werent that unfortunate, having fun so far with your adventure, heres the second part of the "review".

Spoiler

 

11. Betrayer of the Code
Loved this one for the constant action and how the monsters were placed all around.
Its hard but still fair for a blind run. Theres lots of little connections and its very easy to
navigate. I found a couple of secrets, after the mandatory 100% kill I went for an
IDDT examination and managed to get the computer map (cool one), and to my
surprise also found a blue skull key at the start of the map by just touching the wall.
Guess theres a well hidden blue door around but I totally missed it.
The only thing I would have changed a little would be the Spider Mastermind encounter,
not too much cover and not too many high tier monsters for infight, theres probably
a secret or alternative way to tackle the fight, but it felt weak compared to the rest of the map.

 

12. *empty map slot"

 

13. Twilight Depot
Being your 1st map ever looks good, much better than the average 1st entry.
Isnt as engaging as previous maps but still enjoyable, maybe not the best mapslot.
I only could find 2 secrets, one of them being the classic "press behind the switch"
which granted me the BFG, it helped a lot in a couple of situations. Missed a hidden mancubus (IDDT).
Good enough, although Ill tweak that final long and empty terrace where the biggest threat are just 3 revenants.


14. A Glimmer of Hope
Very interesting map, I think even though fights can be upgraded (not to much really), the map
has personality, the music and sky helps for sure and the set of textures selected for all the outdoor enviroment is pretty cool,
but too many of these type of "mountains" can get repetitive to the eye, im sure some decoration of trees and other stuff
like waterfalls here and there should help, that if you want to  upgrade it to the next level, which can translate into a lot of time.
Maybe im too blind but I only could found 1 secret.


15. Obscure Alliance
Another tech-base that I really liked, I really dig damage floors and how the change gameplay.
Its enough big for exploration, layout really helps for this purpose and the secrets were cool (5/9).
Couple of secret stuff I wanted to know about. I did opened that door that let you inside the secret exit
but wasnt fast enough and closed behind my back, I couldnt replicate so I couldnt make it through,
I would make it repeatable but its a secret so...
Another moment that confused me (which I think its related also to the secret exit) is the teleported barrel,
which is triggered by a switch inside a very well crafted hole, I guess is part of this obscure alliance.
The only thing I didnt like too much was the regular exit, the caves felt like the way to end it,
but maybe its because of how the next map starts, just a minor thing, Solid map.

 

16. Vicissitude
Simple but extremely fun. Its a classic gimmick but works pretty well. I enjoyed looking for every key while trying to survive
the bull brothers. I had to kill one before trying to reach the yellow key and make progress, probably as intended.
Really fun to play. (2 out of 3 secrets found)


17. HR Operation Complex
So far this is the one that feels like a complete round journey, feels very polished.
Has a lot of decision moments, and depending on your run and how health and ammo is going
the adventure is going to be a little different on each run. Balance is really good and goes perfect
with the action presented. Fun fact, I found the SSG when I was 70% done with the map.
The secrets that I found were cool to find 5/8. Great map.

 

18. Decarcerate
Damn, loved this one! Such a classic scheme, escape out of your cell and then out of prison.
Visually is perfect and I never felt lost, even the switches were clear about what they were doing,
The trays were an exquisite detail that blended with the room perfectly. The route is also exciting,
and made sense all along the map. The only minor thing I would tweak is lowering a bit the 2 towers
with Arachnotrons on the final fight, they did nothing at all. 3/4 secrets.
One of my favourites for now.

 

19. Crucial Voyage
I liked the transition from the prison escape to an outdoor scenario.
I also like to get lost in this kind of maps, has a very cool atmosphere, those streetlamps were cool.
Reminds me of your other large outdoor map, but not as repetitive visually, and more engaging combat-wise.
Again I found the SSG when I was about 70% of the map, im cursed!
The 2 final archies+ a pain elemental felt a bit weak compared to the rest of the map, but thats it.
Found 2/4 secrets that were really helpful (plasma).
Im on a streak of solid maps, digging the adventure so far!

 

20. *empty map slot*

 

 

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