Internal Energy - third map from boom format episode "Run Like Hell"

Internal Energy - is third map from boom format episode Run Like Hell for DOOM II. Maps are based around idea of Knee-Deep in the Dead episode but reversed. All maps are completly new and contain little refferences to original maps from DOOM.

This map was built in 4 months and takes about 40-60 minutes to complete.

Like always, feedback is appreciated.

• Boom format map;
• Require limit-removing port;
• Tested in GZdoom, Zandronum and prboom(-complevel 9);
• Require hardware rendering;
• Tested both with mouselook and normal look;
• Jumping and crounch are disabled;
• Difficulty settings are implemented;
• Map slot Map03;
• Maps in episode made with pistol start in mind.

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iwuHxG6grb49if5axhJ4L9HmbV1Df4Ay/view?usp=sharing
Map 04 topic - 

Screenshots:

Yes, third map! As usual, played on Zandronum on UV.

- While there was a long time with just a pistol in your second map, here there is a long time with just the SG/CG and a whole ton of mid-tier enemies to fight. You have Revenants, Cacodemons, Hell Knights, Arachnatrons, Mancubii and Barons to take out up to the Red Key fight.

- And I've now stopped at the double AV fight, mainly because I died. I've had to kill over two dozen of the above enemies, and nearly 100 enemies in total, with only a SG and CG, and you now want me to kill 2 Arch Viles (and many other enemies blocking the arena) with only those weapons?

You need to give a SSG, or some other powerful weapon, much earlier in the map if you want to have these kind of fights. (Or, if such a weapon is already there, I've missed it, so its placement wasn't obvious)

21 minutes ago, Degree23 said:

you now want me to kill 2 Arch Viles (and many other enemies blocking the arena) with only those weapons?

Are you talking about blue key fight? Because there is actually 2(+ 1 secret) encounters where you fight with 2 AV.

I agree that this map is more difficult than previous maps but i feel its still beatable. On lower difficulties there less enemies and AV in particular (but i still working with lower difficulties). And overall i don`t feel that i should change enemy/resources placement on UV difficulty (but it`s still WIP so i`ll take a look).

Oh wait did you played v1.1 or previous one? Because i realised that i made wrong player start position in v1.1 (already fixed).

11 hours ago, Frank Harper said:

Oh wait did you played v1.1 or previous one? Because i realised that i made wrong player start position in v1.1 (already fixed).

Ok, that would explain some of the frustrations I was having, as it turns out that this start point was quite far through the map! Playing again from the correct start location:

- I think the HK is being blocked here but I don't see any reason why he should be. There was also a texture error here.

- The narrow tunnels where you're silently teleporting between two different versions to create a whole "dimensional shift" effect was awesome.

- The section with the MegaArmor and lots of lowering switches and ambushes is really tough to deal with given I only have a SG and CG. How I didn't die there is some kind of miracle. (I've now realised I could have got the SSG before doing this fight, but that requires knowing to go down the hallway that leads there first, and then backtracking for no obvious reason given that there's a switch that opens a door in front of you. The circular room with the Mancubus ambush just outside the MegaArmor trap is the latest point in the map that I would put the SSG, though I would like to see it a little earlier in the map)

- I've killed 243 enemies before I get to the SSG. You need to give this earlier in the map. Many of the encounters are not overly difficult, they are just extremely tedious without the SSG. If you have to kill the odd HK/Revenant/Cacodemon/Mancubus/Pain Elemental with only a SG/CG it's not too bad, but I've had to kill a lot of these. The SSG speeds this process up a lot. It's possible there is a secret RL/PG I've missed somewhere, though I've never been a fan of secrets being mandatory for making good progress.

- Blue Key fight was fantastic! When I saw the timed rising and lowering sections, I knew they'd be to use as cover from AVs.

- Arriving at the "wrong start" location, it certainly plays a lot better than it did compared to having to start there! The double AV fight where I died originally is still quite challenging, but the SSG makes it more on the "tough but fair" side than it was without the SSG.

- The Baron at the bottom of the stairs through the red door was a bit annoying due to the height difference created by the stairs and he doesn't really serve any purpose. I'd just remove him.

- I wasn't too sure why there was a yellow skull door near the final fight when you don't actually pick up a Yellow Skull Key. (It opens with the normal yellow keycard)

- In the Cyberdemon fight, I'm not too sure what the point of the timed lowering and rising barriers was. You can just run back up to the central raised area where the Cyberdemon is and easily move around between the sections. I thought there was going to be a set piece battle where moving between sections was going to be important, but this turned out not to be the case.

Overall this was quite enjoyable, other than needing a SSG earlier than I got one.

12 hours ago, Degree23 said:

I think the HK is being blocked here but I don't see any reason why he should be.

There is monster blocking linedef which kinda works if you starting with left side but if you coming from right side it's useless. I will probably remove it.

12 hours ago, Degree23 said:

(I've now realised I could have got the SSG before doing this fight, but that requires knowing to go down the hallway that leads there first, and then backtracking for no obvious reason given that there's a switch that opens a door in front of you.

Yeah when i think about it`s a lot easier when you backtrack from it. I probably place SSG at the end of "dimensional shift" tunnel and add some additional monsters in that section.

12 hours ago, Degree23 said:

The Baron at the bottom of the stairs through the red door was a bit annoying due to the height difference created by the stairs and he doesn't really serve any purpose. I'd just remove him.

If you talking about "temple" entrance i add him to prevent player just rushing through the ambush. I didn`t find it so annoying but i will see what i can do (probably make him able to get upstairs).
 

12 hours ago, Degree23 said:

I wasn't too sure why there was a yellow skull door near the final fight when you don't actually pick up a Yellow Skull Key.

There is no yellow skull and you should open door with yellow key. I thought that "yellow strip" will be out of place. But it seems to be confusing so i will change it.

12 hours ago, Degree23 said:

In the Cyberdemon fight, I'm not too sure what the point of the timed lowering and rising barriers was. You can just run back up to the central raised area where the Cyberdemon is and easily move around between the sections. I thought there was going to be a set piece battle where moving between sections was going to be important, but this turned out not to be the case.

When i tested this fight multiple times, i thought that going through central area it`s risky move, as you can get caught by Cyberdemon upstairs and demons downstairs. I thinking about adding damage floor so you can`t go through upper area so easily.
 

I had lots of fun with this. I usually don't like long maps but this always kept me on my toes with it's very nasty traps. I haven't encountered any problems with the map everything worked correctly. Overall a very solid map keep it up! I hope it helps.

9 hours ago, Frank Harper said:

If you talking about "temple" entrance i add him to prevent player just rushing through the ambush. I didn`t find it so annoying but i will see what i can do (probably make him able to get upstairs).

Ah ok, yes he does serve that purpose. Maybe a Hell Knight would do there though.

9 hours ago, Frank Harper said:

There is no yellow skull and you should open door with yellow key.

Yes I did open it with that. My point was that the yellow skull decoration is usually reserved for doors which need the Yellow Skull Key to open, rather than the Yellow Keycard, and as there is no Yellow Skull Key on the map, it felt kinda weird.

9 hours ago, Frank Harper said:

When i tested this fight multiple times, i thought that going through central area it`s risky move, as you can get caught by Cyberdemon upstairs and demons downstairs. I thinking about adding damage floor so you can`t go through upper area so easily.

There is so much space to move around in the raised area though, you can just circle around the Cyberdemon and dodge most incoming stuff, not to mention the Cyberdemon is highly likely to infight if you divert some enemy attacks up there. Making the raised area a damaging floor (5 damage) would be a nice way of deterring the player from hanging around too long up there though. You could maybe also move all the Revenants to one side and all the Hell Knights to the other as well to decrease the amount of infighting. I played the final fight again to check something before my last comment and both sides had quite a lot of infighting going on.

Alternately you could just ditch the timed barriers, but it feels like this fight has potential to make good use of a mechanic like that.

13 hours ago, azerty said:

I had lots of fun with this. I usually don't like long maps but this always kept me on my toes with it's very nasty traps. I haven't encountered any problems with the map everything worked correctly. Overall a very solid map keep it up! I hope it helps.

 

Thanks for the video. I`ve already thought about redusing number of switches in plasma gun secret, and now when I see gameplay from "the side", I clearly see that in current state it`s quite annoying, so I will reduced their number.