[Community Project] "Gorehounds of Doom"

first playthrough for burnt to crisp @CittyKat112

It was a bit harder than I expected :D 
Couple bugs I noticed. Hanging corpses after cyber demon are blocking. Door out from a room with 4 imps has skybox in it.

1 hour ago, muumi said:

first playthrough for burnt to crisp @CittyKat112

It was a bit harder than I expected :D 
Couple bugs I noticed. Hanging corpses after cyber demon are blocking. Door out from a room with 4 imps has skybox in it.

Thanks for the playthrough! The revenants at 01:57 get crushed in their monster closet after you get past the cyberdemon area so they never spawn if you don't take where the chaingunners were. As for bugs, I just checked and only one decoration was restricting my movement - hanging torso on the right, the other one seems to work fine. I'll test it again, and remove that decoration... As for skybox - it was intentional because I was lazy and didn't want to design the outdoor area :D

21 hours ago, CittyKat112 said:

Here's my map: Burned to a Crisp.7z

I only tested it with saves because I want to get this off my chest as soon as I can. The map is pretty short and it's a combat oriented map and the visuals are a bit ugly but I tried my best. The last two fights are either luck based or I didn't find a good strategy for them... I'm not exactly a good player, so I'm mostly posting this for playtesting purposes and also because it's like 99% ready. 

Here's screenshots:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I focused mostly on the combat in my comments. Many of the fights can be cheesed in ways that probably weren't intended, so that's something to look into. I recorded a demo of what I think is the easiest way to beat the map that shows a lot of these (recorded with rewinds, although the last fight only took a few attempts). Aside from these issues I think it's a solid effort.

Gore_BTAC_SCF.zip

Some specific comments:

Here's my map. 

Name: Patientia
Mapslot: 2
Difficulty Levels: yes
Coop starts: yes
Music: "Of Serpents Nailed to Fate" by Cammy

Textures:
I mapped in Doom 2 (Doom) using only stock textures, let me know if that's cool.
I'm not married to the sky but I would like something hell-themed.
 

Screenshots
 

Download:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HZLfOsaV4cbQsPkb-haw811QPq8yoEF3?usp=sharing

burnt to crisp uv-max 

demofile crisp-00020.zip

I think the first fight is hardest of the level, agree with SCF that you could probably drop the second av from there. Also I found a cheese for the final fight. i think door to final arena is also single use

10 hours ago, SCF said:

 

I focused mostly on the combat in my comments. Many of the fights can be cheesed in ways that probably weren't intended, so that's something to look into. I recorded a demo of what I think is the easiest way to beat the map that shows a lot of these (recorded with rewinds, although the last fight only took a few attempts). Aside from these issues I think it's a solid effort.

 

Gore_BTAC_SCF.zip

 

Some specific comments:

  Hide contents

• First of all, the starting area is broken in GZDoom's software renderer. I'm not an expert, but it looks like the problem is all the two-sided walls that are marked as one-sided (which cause a hall of mirrors effect in-game). It seems like the wall sectors that separate the inside and outside of the building could just be deleted.
• In general, most (if not all) of the doors seem to be fast-closing. There's a few places where you can use the doorway to corral enemies, and making them close quickly doesn't make that any less effective, just more annoying.
• The first real fight is pretty brutal. I noticed the archvile in the back sometimes gets stuck behind one of the chaingunners because of the monster-blocking linedefs. Whether he joins you in the main area or not makes a pretty significant difference, and I think the fight is already plenty challenging already without him.
• For that same fight, if you ignore the imps in the room before then none of the teleporting enemies wake up. Most players will probably kill the imps, but it's still a way to 'break' the fight. Especially since one of the archviles does get teleport in, and as long as the door is closed you can take him out without waking up the other enemies. (I did this in the demo).
• In the rocket launcher room, the door to the corridor where pinkies come from can only be opened once. This doesn't really matter because the pinkies can open it and there's nothing else inside, but I thought I'd point it out anyway.
• After you pick up the plasma gun room you can just run back through the door, which trivializes it completely as you can take out the pinkies from safety. Even then, clearing out the archviles/revenants is a bit of a pain.
• The rocket launcher is a bit hidden, considering it's almost required for this and the next room. First time around I missed it and went straight to the plasma gun room, only to get stuck on the way back because I had 50 rockets and no usable ammo.
• The second last fight (BFG) is pretty reliably beatable, but for the final wave I have no idea. It may be consistently doable considering you can take a few hits, but I don't deal well with fights where I'm constantly blinded by archvile flames, and the fact that you're surrounded and there's very little cover makes it hard to avoid that. The fight also seems kind of pointless, since you can just ignore it and exit the map straight away.
• The map doesn't allow much backtracking to kill any missed enemies. It's not required or anything, but it would be nice to have. In particular, there's bars that close behind you after you grab the red key and go through the corridor. I don't really understand why they're there, because all they mean is that you can ignore the archviles

 

Thanks for the feedback!

And I can't play back your demo for some reason :-( I'll address all of the points below.

1) I didn't test the map in GZDoom as I don't use it often heh, should've done that before posting.

2) What areas to be exact? I'll try to fix that as soon as I can.

3 The arch-vile in the back is idle, the player is supposed to use revenants to damage the first arch-vile. After some testing I realized rushing to kill the first archie right away works too, even though it's more risky. I'm gonna remove that second arch-vile on HMP instead of getting rid of it completely because the fight is essentially over after you've killed that first arch-vile :/

The second arch-vile being stuck is almost intentional, if you'll try to rush the first archie, the second one will head towards you most of the time making the fight considerably harder.

4) I'll replace them with bars and add a shootable switch :D

5) I didn't want the player to take cover in that room, so that's why the pinkies can open it... I'll probably just add a couple teleports for them now. 

6) I was aware of this, but thought it's not a big deal but now that you mention it I'll block the player in that room before getting the red key :D

7) Great point, I'll place a switch that opens a door leading to plasma rifle!

8) At first I didn't care about it while testing but then I thought it was a good idea to give the player an option to skip the last fight if they think it's too bullshit or something like that.

9) That was a deliberate choice mostly because I didn't want to add any secrets. I'll leave it this way because teleporting in and out of arenas might leave some more room for cheese, I think. The reason those bars raise is because if you try to kill the arch-viles before going through the corridor, they will teleport in the red key room, I thought it's a good way to discourage door fighting (not so sure about it after watching muumi's UV max though). So before I added those bars one of the arch-viles always teleported in the red key room and started resurrecting dead pinkies so the fight didn't play out as intended.

11 hours ago, muumi said:

burnt to crisp uv-max 

demofile crisp-00020.zip

 

I think the first fight is hardest of the level, agree with SCF that you could probably drop the second av from there. Also I found a cheese for the final fight. i think door to final arena is also single use

Thanks for the demo! Damn, I didn't think it's possible to run past the mancubi... I'll make that door open by a switch hehe. The way you dealt with the arch-viles in the corridor made me feel like I should change the teleport destination for them. I chuckled at 04:09 when you checked if the revenants will spawn after you got the red key lol :D I'm surprised you didn't shoot the imps while standing in the doorway at 06:10, I thought cheesing the fight like this doesn't make much of a difference because some of the imps would be resurrected but you beat this part of the map without any cheese lol.

10 hours ago, Pistoolkip said:

Here's my map. 

Name: Patientia
Mapslot: 2
Difficulty Levels: yes
Coop starts: yes
Music: "Of Serpents Nailed to Fate" by Cammy

Textures:
I mapped in Doom 2 (Doom) using only stock textures, let me know if that's cool.
I'm not married to the sky but I would like something hell-themed.
 

Screenshots
 

  Reveal hidden contents

Download:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HZLfOsaV4cbQsPkb-haw811QPq8yoEF3?usp=sharing

There's no rules regarding usage of the texture pack, but:

Quote

Quality threshold?

 

Low, but not null. As I mentioned, no restrictions in mapper experience, size, lenght or gameplay either in an upward or downward direction. Give it your best shot, you'll have plenty of time to have your map thoroughly playtested - I'm sure we can count on other participants, as well as the kindness of the usual playtesting suspects.

 

As a project lead, however, I reserve the right to eventually send maps back to the drawing board (never outright reject) in three borderline cases:

 

- Your map includes questionable material. No, Wolfenstein Nazi textures are not questionable material. We all know what questionable material is, don't we? I know it sounds silly and lectury but, believe it or not, I've seen it happen. Let's not. 

- Your map is clearly, unmistakably, without a shadow of doubt a single afternoon's rushed job cobbled together to make deadlines. If you really want in and couldn't make for any reason the singup deadline, or any other subsequent deadline, I'd much rather we have a chat and figure something out. 

- Your map completely and utterly ignores the provided texture pack's exclusive textures. It might not be OTEX, but it's a very good pack: versatile, on spot with out theme, and compact, no useless recolors, just the right stuff in the right places. 

So... Yes, you can ignore it.

Sorry if I copy pasted too much, I thought the irrelevant part of the quote was important for context.

I'll play the map later :o

44 minutes ago, CittyKat112 said:

3 The arch-vile in the back is idle, the player is supposed to use revenants to damage the first arch-vile. After some testing I realized rushing to kill the first archie right away works too, even though it's more risky. I'm gonna remove that second arch-vile on HMP instead of getting rid of it completely because the fight is essentially over after you've killed that first arch-vile :/

The second arch-vile being stuck is almost intentional, if you'll try to rush the first archie, the second one will head towards you most of the time making the fight considerably harder.

I did not even think to just use revenants to kill the first av, even thought i did notice that the second one is idle. That would have made it lot easier. 

55 minutes ago, CittyKat112 said:

Thanks for the feedback!

And I can't play back your demo for some reason :-( I'll address all of the points below.

 

Strange, playback works for me in dsda-doom 0.22.4, using:

dsda-doom.exe -file "rfhelltx003.wad" "Burned to a Crisp.wad" -complevel 21 -playdemo Gore_BTAC_SCF.lmp

(I don't actually know if you need to specify complevel for playback)

32 minutes ago, muumi said:

I did not even think to just use revenants to kill the first av, even thought i did notice that the second one is idle. That would have made it lot easier. 

Well, I usually tried to land a few rev rockets on the first so that it would take 2 (but most of the time it was 3) SSG shots instead of 4, using revs to kill it would take too much time. Also if you try to use rev rockets, the second arch-vile will be roaming around near the chaingunners instead of running straight to your position :D

Quote

(I don't actually know if you need to specify complevel for playback)

I tried to use this line: dsda-doom.exe -file a. Burned to a Crisp.wad b. rfhelltx.wad -playdemo Gore_BTAC_SCF.lmp -complevel21

Guess I screwed up somewhere, I just tried your line and it worked! I didn't have this problem with other demos posted here, hmmm. Also, I read up on that yesterday and from what I've read demos recorded in PrBoom+/DSDA have a complevel embedded in demos so you only need to specify complevel if you're trying to run vanilla demos if I remember correctly.

7 hours ago, CittyKat112 said:

I tried to use this line: dsda-doom.exe -file a. Burned to a Crisp.wad b. rfhelltx.wad -playdemo Gore_BTAC_SCF.lmp -complevel21

Guess I screwed up somewhere, I just tried your line and it worked! I didn't have this problem with other demos posted here, hmmm.

It probably didn't work because the wad's filename has spaces in it - when that occurs you need to enclose it in double quotes so the command line parses it correctly.

patientia played casually. Cool map and it looks really nice. I kinda feel like I missed a weapon and ended up being semi pacifist. @Pistoolkip

What's the final deadline? Got a bit softlocked by real-life issues.

3 minutes ago, Pechudin said:

What's the final deadline? Got a bit softlocked by real-life issues.

I don't blame you for not being able to find it, a bunch of pertinent info on the project is scattered throughout the thread...

 

On 4/15/2022 at 6:17 PM, Thelokk said:

- May 30: Something. Here, on this thread, just post something, anything that might work as a sign that you have actually put some thought into the project. Doesn't need to be anything playable - even a screenshot of an untextured WIP room is fine. Just drop by a token showing that you haven't completely packed this project up and put it away in the attic of your mind.  

- July 15: playable beta of the map. Minor changes will still be allowed past this date, but what you post on July 15 should be a version of your map that is playable from beginning to end, can be shared for feedback, and gives a very strong sense of what the final result will be. 

12 minutes ago, muumi said:

patientia played casually. Cool map and it looks really nice. I kinda feel like I missed a weapon and ended up being semi pacifist. @Pistoolkip

You didn't miss a weapon (except for the secret Chainsaw).

The idea is that it's a stealth map until you get the SSG. Thus, be 'patient'

Thanks for the video! I didn't expect you to continue playing pacifist for this long, but the Hell Knights are the only real obstacle, I guess. 

pacientia-00002.zip pacifist demo

I only recently started working on my map but I've been making good progress this weekend. I should be able to get this done by July 15.

Here are some progress shots:

i wonder if anyone here can help me with my car ...

Just submitting in my proof of work for this project (the map in the screenshots is one I have decided to call The city of boiling blood, and is almost finnished - I'll be releasing it in just a day or two from now).

9 hours ago, PinkFlamingo said:

I only recently started working on my map but I've been making good progress this weekend. I should be able to get this done by July 15.

Here are some progress shots:

 

Why does this remind me of the Nostromo?

I almost forgot i had to make a map for this project, and completely forgot that i had to post a screenshot as proof of work in May 30th.

Whoops, looks like doomguy crashed his car again...

I've been sitting on this map for a while, but here's a picture of my progress. I'll release the full version sometime soon.

Happy to report that I've finally made a start on my entry. A little teaser shot taken in UDB is available in the spoiler below.

Something brews...

Thank you everyone for the progress pics, I'll get a list going for who has met the deadline. Now the next step is to have a playable beta by July 15th!

Submitting your beta before the deadline is not required but encouraged. With the limited amount of members we may be able to release this a bit earlier, though its not an expectation.

Rather than a screenshot (as visual flair is generally the last thing I implement in a map), here's a tech demo/single concept fight from my plans.

light_demo.zip

I include a text file which explains what to do, since I am essentially dumping you right at what will be the end of the map. The short version is:

1. Collect five torches and place them on the pedestals
2. Kill stuff until you can circle-strafe safely

Feel free to check out the demo and let me know what you think, but it's in extremely rough form right now.

(To clarify, by "demo" I mean short bit of gameplay, not a Doom demo lump).

Sharing my finnished map (I'll fill you guys in on the info and credits about the map in a later post as I don't feel like providing them right now, but I will say that I strongly recommend using saves if you're planning on playtesting it - if you play the map you'll find out why soon enough ...)

The city of boiling blood.zip

And now I'm sharing the details & credits of my map that I promised I'd share:

Estimated Length: 30 minutes (on UV),

Targeted Source Port: DSDA Doom (though it works on GZDoom just fine),

Preffered lighting method: somewhat irrelevant, given that I didn't use any dynamic lights or any other fancy stuff like that,

Jump, crouch & freelook: You can leave them on if you wish, but it won't make much diffrence if you use it vs. if you don't AND

Dificulty preference: for a casual playthrough I'd recommend HMP (as the map is actually kind of rough as I already said), whereas if you looking for a challenge than you need to go UV all the way. Also on that note, the map also has multiplayer (which nearly doubles the monster count) so if you want to really go all out (and you know how & where - in which source port, to set it up) you can even play on UV+, though I'm pretty sure that that would make the dificulty kind of insane...

Also the music is from Sunder (though I don't know which map, so if anyone knows their Sunder better than me, I'd appreciate if they told me that...), so the credit for it goes to whoever made it...