finnks13 Posted August 5, 2022 (edited) Jaws of Destruction is a set of 11 vanilla maps I made in an effort to get better at making easier combat and to mess around with vanilla textures. I've aimed for a difficulty curve similar to Scythe, where the first couple of maps are pretty easy but it ramps up near the end. The maps generally take between 5-10 minutes to complete, and are very gameplay-focused. The maps are of various themes - techbases, outdoor valleys, small cities, floating hell fortresses - to name four. The wad is currently in a beta, but I don't intend to change much beyond fixing bugs that arise. While the maps are 100% vanilla and work perfectly in Chocolate Doom, I have included sky transfers to make for a more natural progression for the levels, so I would highly recommend playing in a port that supports these. PICTURES: MORE INFO: Maps: 01-11 (with a map to stop you going into DOOM2) Difficulties: Yes, UV has the most testing, but they all implemented. Co-op/DM Starts: None Yet, will add these in a future update along with proper coop support. Format: Vanilla (with sky transfers for ports that support it) Tested With: dsdadoom v0.24.3, Crispy Doom v5.4.0, Chocolate Doom v3.0.0 Full credits for music can be found in the textfile included with the wad. DOWNLOAD: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/j-l/jawsofdest Old versions: Spoiler BETA 1: jawsofdest_BETA.zip BETA 2: jawsofdest_BETAv2.zip Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, but I hope you enjoy the maps! Edited December 11, 2022 by finnks13 : Updated download link to idgames 38 Share this post Link to post
scwiba Posted August 5, 2022 I can personally attest to this mapset being good as hell. 7 Share this post Link to post
Dusty_Rhodes Posted August 5, 2022 10 minutes ago, scwiba said: I can personally attest to this mapset being good as hell. Ditto Good work mate, it was a blast playtesting this and seeing the wad progress. Love it. 2 Share this post Link to post
JustAthel Posted August 6, 2022 Another finnks release? This time in vanilla? I gotta play this one! I'll letcha know what I think about it when I complete it. The screenshots look amazing and have that classic feel to them, so I can only imagine how they play. Great work. 2 Share this post Link to post
galileo31dos01 Posted August 7, 2022 Very cool set, fun combat, fine visuals, lovely fireblu and good music selections. Played on crispy doom, UV/PS and had no serious issues, I knew you were going to pull no punches towards the middle half, coming after lunar lace :p As for minor things: - In map 06, found an arachnotron stuck in the woods. The sector where it teleports needs to be moved away a bit. BTW I loved how you exhibited smaller portions of each "dimension" in the corridor, really added to immersion (yes, pun half intended) - This tiny sector in map 09 is perhaps best not shown in the automap, it could be confused for a secret. Thanks for sharing and hope more folks try this out, and hope to see more stuff from you in the future! 2 Share this post Link to post
finnks13 Posted August 7, 2022 26 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said: Very cool set, fun combat, fine visuals, lovely fireblu and good music selections. Played on crispy doom, UV/PS and had no serious issues, I knew you were going to pull no punches towards the middle half, coming after lunar lace :p As for minor things: - In map 06, found an arachnotron stuck in the woods. The sector where it teleports needs to be moved away a bit. BTW I loved how you exhibited smaller portions of each "dimension" in the corridor, really added to immersion (yes, pun half intended) - This tiny sector in map 09 is perhaps best not shown in the automap, it could be confused for a secret. Thanks for sharing and hope more folks try this out, and hope to see more stuff from you in the future! Thanks for giving the set a play! I'm glad a fellow FIREBLU enjoyer appreciated my texturing :P I'll get on fixing those errors, thanks for reporting them. 1 Share this post Link to post
Doomdude89 Posted August 8, 2022 (edited) Map07 Once you kill everyone how do you lower the pathway to the BFG? 0 Share this post Link to post
finnks13 Posted August 8, 2022 4 hours ago, Doomdude89 said: Map07 Once you kill everyone how do you lower the pathway to the BFG? That's odd, the bridge should raise to the level of the platform. For now I'd just suggest noclipping over, since there's no way of lowering it. What source port are you using and what compatibility settings on that port? I'll add this to the fixes list for the next version. 1 Share this post Link to post
Doomdude89 Posted August 8, 2022 1 hour ago, finnks13 said: That's odd, the bridge should raise to the level of the platform. For now I'd just suggest noclipping over, since there's no way of lowering it. What source port are you using and what compatibility settings on that port? I'll add this to the fixes list for the next version. GZdoom 1.9 1 Share this post Link to post
finnks13 Posted August 8, 2022 2 minutes ago, Doomdude89 said: GZdoom 1.9 Right, I've just been doing some testing with GZDoom and was able to reproduce what you've got in the video. If you set GZDoom's compatibilty settings to "Doom" or "Doom (Strict)" then the bridge will raise the correct amount after killing all the arachnotrons. If you've got a save at the start of the map, then replaying it with those compat settings should work and if not then just noclipping over to the island should solve the softlock. I've added lift linedefs to the platform for the next version in order to prevent this, so thanks for reporting it. 1 Share this post Link to post
Doomdude89 Posted August 8, 2022 (edited) Thanks :) but even when i set the compatibility to Doom (Strict) The bridge never rose sadly. Edited August 8, 2022 by Doomdude89 1 Share this post Link to post
pavera Posted August 8, 2022 Looks very cool! Will have to try it out soon. 1 Share this post Link to post
Koff3Katt Posted August 9, 2022 16 hours ago, finnks13 said: That's odd, the bridge should raise to the level of the platform. For now I'd just suggest noclipping over, since there's no way of lowering it. What source port are you using and what compatibility settings on that port? I'll add this to the fixes list for the next version. Yeah, I came across this problem with the Woof! source port as well. It was on default complevel settings. 1 Share this post Link to post
kalensar Posted August 9, 2022 (edited) I'm playing this with my DBMB: Doom But More Build mod. Its been super fun so far and diggin the music. Made it to Map04 so far on HMP. This wad is super fun and also a major heart racer! More updates to come. Died on my hardcore run at Map04. Definitely dig this mapset for sure. I havent found a single part I didn't like! Edited August 9, 2022 by kalensar : update 1 Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted August 9, 2022 Just died in Map 06 probably 3/4 through and I wanted to express my appreciation for using "Recapture", a vastly underused Icarus midi I'm not sure I've heard but once outside Icarus. And contrary to what someone said, this is definitely easier than Lunar Laceration. Maybe just develop the vanilla detailing just a little bit, but then, "High Street" actually has some really good Doomcute and "Habitat Research" flirts more with your traditional ruthlessness. I might play some more, but I might jump in on a stream soon, and plus, many maps have come out in the past couple of days, so urm, maybe 1 more. 2 Share this post Link to post
Koff3Katt Posted August 9, 2022 (edited) Spoiler Blue Door at the first level recreation in MAP11 doesn't actually need a blue key to open. Small oversight I found 1 Share this post Link to post
finnks13 Posted August 9, 2022 Here's v2 of the BETA, fixing all of the oversights mentioned here - notably Map07 should no longer softlock you if you're not playing in a vanilla compatible port (it'll look a bit odd, but you won't get stuck). jawsofdest_BETAv2.zip Thanks to everyone who's given the set a go already, I really appreciate it :) 4 Share this post Link to post
Arsinikk Posted August 10, 2022 I really really really like this combat of this mapset! It's definitely my cup of tea! It feels very Plutonia, but also fair imo. You can see the stream vid of my playing thru the whole thing here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1557690381 I look forward to your future endeavours! 1 Share this post Link to post
finnks13 Posted August 10, 2022 2 hours ago, Arsinikk said: I really really really like this combat of this mapset! It's definitely my cup of tea! It feels very Plutonia, but also fair imo. You can see the stream vid of my playing thru the whole thing here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1557690381 I look forward to your future endeavours! Just finished watching the whole thing. Thanks for streaming the set - shame I was asleep while it was going on or I'd have popped in to say hello (bloody timezones!) I'm glad you liked it :) 1 Share this post Link to post
Endless Posted August 10, 2022 Had fun with it, well, most of it. The last 3 maps have huge jump in difficulty indeed! and kicked my teeth straight on. I think the skill curve feels more like Scythe 2. But that's probably cause I'm very bad at slaughter. The maps are pretty well done and I loved the little creative tidbits in the way the layouts are designed. Makes the gameplay flow smoothly! 2 Share this post Link to post
Firedust Posted August 16, 2022 This was a fun little episode! I have no bugs to report, managed to uv max every map. Shame the final level is IoS, never been a fan of those... 1 Share this post Link to post
finnks13 Posted December 11, 2022 Just bumping the thread to say that Jaws of Destruction is now on /idgames! Sorry it took so long, I'm working to get a lot of my backlog finally uploaded to the archives. Get it here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/j-l/jawsofdest And since I'm here, I may be working on a sequel: Spoiler (Recognise this place?) 8 Share this post Link to post
Dusty_Rhodes Posted December 11, 2022 Hyped for the sequel mate. Glad this is on /idgames now, congrats! 3 Share this post Link to post
Captain Keen Posted December 12, 2022 Just discovered this and played it. Great work, fantastic wad! That is all. If the screenshots look enticing to you I highly recommend giving this one a spin. Congrats on the release. 2 Share this post Link to post
Floowand Posted December 12, 2022 I just finished, love it! My favorite map was 08, good way of making the player taking a breath and offering something different at the same time. 1 Share this post Link to post
shickenchalad Posted December 12, 2022 (edited) This was a lot of fun. It does a great job keeping the player moving with some really fun hot starts. Only negatives I have are the theming of the maps are pretty unmemorable besides that devilish stealth map and its EVIL cacodemon. I very much appreciate the ending maps not being a grind, they manage to be difficult without relying on bad slaughter cliches. Good stuff! 1 Share this post Link to post
Lorcav Posted December 14, 2022 Really enjoyed playing through this set, difficulty curve was good for me and traps and combat kept me on my toes. On Map 5, High Street, I found a softlock. To the right of the revenant platform, you can fall behind that crate and be pinned in... Spoiler 1 Share this post Link to post
ryiron Posted December 16, 2022 I got a microphone recently and wanted to try recording a first play-through of something about this challenging. I'm learning that recording and playing at the same time is tricky. Here's the first (almost) four maps. I'll record more later because I'm quite enjoying the set. 2 Share this post Link to post