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I'm slowly working on a single player wad for ZDoom. The idea is that you start off in a map with multiple exits and each exit will teleport you to a different map. After completing the map you will be teleported back to the starting map where you can choose a different exit in order to play a different map, and so on. I'd like to add a fair amount of monsters to each map as well as include generous amounts of ammo and health. Also, jumping and rocket jumping areas will be included in order to advance through the map or to find secret areas.

So far only one map is almost finished, though it's not detailed, and I was wondering what people thought about it and the basic idea of the wad so far. While it is a BFG spamming map, the other weapons will be put to use in other maps.

MAP03: sloth3g.zip

Screen 1 - Screen 2 - Screen 3 - Screen 4 - Screen 5 - Screen 6 - Screen 7 - Screen 8


A few coop maps that I made will be converted into single player maps to be included in this wad as well:

Screen 9 - Screen 10 - Screen 11 - Screen 12 - Screen 13 - Screen 14 - Screen 15 - Screen 16 - Screen 17

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I think equinox did something just like this. I may be wrong though.

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Equinox faked it. Three of the maps were almost the same (each time you encountered it though, a different teleporter would have been active). Since it was designed for vanilla doom (?) instead of ZDoom, it was a strictly linear affair.

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I wouldn't be surprised if a wad like this has already been made. :)

Originally it was supposed to be a "choose your own adventure" wad, like those novels where you're given a few options at the bottom of the page and you turn to a certain page depending on which option you choose. But, I doubt I could pull that off. Though, I think something like that would be more interesting than something like this.

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I’m stuck when I want to open the fourth door in the first room (the non-keyed one). What must I do? How can I go on top of the platforms around the central one?
The player can also be stuck between the moving up and down bars.
Note: I’m using ZDoom 2.0.96 in Linux.

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Oops, I forgot about those bars, thanks. They'll be pressable from the inside now.

After shooting the switches behind the key doors, go to the western tunnel where the exit signs are and press the three switches (also, you could even forget about the keys and just press around where the switches should be since they are still pressable before they've raised). Once you have the rocket launcher, rocket jump to the western outer platform. There is a switch on the western, eastern, southern, and northern outer platforms that lower the walls in front of the exit switch in the starting room, so now you can rocket jump from platform to platform, going counter-clockwise, while hitting the switches on the way. When you get to the northern platform and hit the final switch, you can run straight off the platform directly north for a secret area where you can spawn some more ammo, armor, and health while grabbing an invulnerability sphere for the final battle in front of the exit in the starting area.

Thanks for playing. :)

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OK, I tried to jump there but I did not think about rocket jumping.
Strangely, some monsters appear but are counted only when they teleport in the level (archies and stuff when I hit the three lonely switches).
The other two maps are strange. They are test maps?

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Strangely, some monsters appear but are counted only when they teleport in the level (archies and stuff when I hit the three lonely switches).

I'm guessing because Thing_Spawn was used instead of actual monsters, so the initial monster count is a bit screwed. If you're scared like me, you can prevent the archviles from spawning by walking into the tunnels from the back, just enough to hit the switches. There are walk-over lines in the three tunnels with bars which spawn the arch viles in the starting room. Walking through the western tunnel with the exit signs won't spawn any viles.

The other two maps were a joke, pretty much, and were meant for infinite ammo. MAP01 was originally made to test how the automap displays long lines in ZDaemon and it didn't have any monsters. MAP02's purpose was to see how many kills you could get with the endless spawning monsters, but it eventually gets really laggy (for me at least) with all the corpses.

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Yeah, Black Void and I did this exactly in captain mancubus 1. You're on a spaceship and warp down to 4 different planets in any order, or something like that. And after you beat all 4, the boss map opens up. Good times.

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I wouldn't worry too much about detaiiling your map.. Judging by the screenshots, you have a shitload of monsters, and the corpses will literally hide all the detail anyway. You can get away with doing minor detailing and still make a wicked wad.. I'd suggest going deus vault style, grand architecture, minor detailing to make the level really look and play good. Besides, who really concentrates on that incredibly detailed courtyard when 10,000 cacodemons (aka hissy's) are trying to find their way back to hell via your sphincter hole.

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Fusion said:

I wouldn't worry too much about detaiiling your map.. Judging by the screenshots, you have a shitload of monsters, and the corpses will literally hide all the detail anyway. You can get away with doing minor detailing and still make a wicked wad.. I'd suggest going deus vault style, grand architecture, minor detailing to make the level really look and play good. Besides, who really concentrates on that incredibly detailed courtyard when 10,000 cacodemons (aka hissy's) are trying to find their way back to hell via your sphincter hole.

@Fusion: You spelt it wrong; it's "Deus Vult" and in Latin it means "God wants...".

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I stand corrected. Maybe i better brush up on my Latin skills, which are effectively 0 :)

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MAP04 is finished. It's an outdoors map with switch puzzles, instant-death crusher traps, rocket jumping, and 5555 monsters.

WAD: sloth04
Screenshots: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9

I used the Quake texture pack that Afterglow put together (thanks!). And just to clarify something I mentioned in my first post, this wad isn't solely for ZDoom but also for ZDoom compatible ports.

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TimeOfDeath said:

Do not play this wad with the newest version of ZDoom (2.1.4) because you won't be able to spawn any cell packs. The most recent ZDoom version I have that spawns the cell packs is 2.0.98 (the demo in the zip file was recorded with ZDoom 2.0.63a).


Apparently that bug has been fixed in 2.1.5.

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AgentSpork said:

Apparently that bug has been fixed in 2.1.5.


I can’t reach the ZDoom website since several days. What’s happening?

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My mistake, thanks for the update AgentSpork.

Edit: Do you think difficulty settings would be a good idea, Thor (different monster counts for each difficulty)? It might seem silly, but I'd like to have at least 4000 monsters, or so, in each map on ultra-violence. I guess you could call this wad my rebellion against multiplayer mapping (where we have to lower the monster counts for online playability). ;)
I'll make sure to add enough ammo and health.

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Well, that really does sound like a good solution, i don't think its very silly, and of course, i could be wrong about the game play. If your willing to take the time to do difficulty settings then be my guest. I was just saying that in most maps with huge clumps of monsters, i get bored of holding strafe and mouse1 and i just leave.

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UM. So yeah, map03 was modified in 2008 and released as FLANAGAN and map04 was modified in 2009 and released as LOINK. But the "spirit" of the original maps was lost (ie: mandatory rocket jumping, instant death holes, instant death crushers, only one green sphere in map03 and no green spheres in map04, shortcut prevention in map04). So I slightly modified the original maps while retaining their "spirit" and added some dehacked that makes certain monsters not leave a corpse or drop an item when they die (to help prevent lag). Also, map02 was modified so that it will never get laggy with too many corpses.


Download: SLOTH 2009 (ZDoom 2.2.0, demos inside zip)


MAP01 - Requires infinite ammo. Just a test map, pretty pointless.

MAP02 - Requires infinite ammo. Endless spawning monsters without lag. You control how crazy it gets.

MAP03 - Requires rocket jumping.

MAP04 - Requires rocket jumping.


MAP02


MAP03


MAP04

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EDIT: Since this post is already here, I could use it to comment!

I've never played any of your maps before (except for some DiB coop on Skulltag, a long time ago) and I've gotta say - these actually aren't that hard. The player is still quite likely to die, of course, but that has less to do with raw player skill (as long as you know how to use BFG effectively, rocket jump and circle strafe) and more to do with knowing the maps. I, however, almost never care about any map enough to want to practice playing it, so I found I could best appreciate these maps just by watching the demos.

But, on the subject of the demos, it's a little weird when an author uses "exploits" when running his own maps. Part of the fun of watching exploits in demos is the fact that the runner has defeated the mapper, in a way. When the runner and the mapper are the same person, and these little shortcuts have been intentionally put there just to aid the mapper's own speedrunning attempts, and these shortcuts remain obscure to everyone else who'll play the level (until they open an editor), it's a little bit like cheating.

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Creaphis said:
these actually aren't that hard.

I might have given you the idea that they are harder than other slaughter maps when I talked about skill in the other thread, but I was referring to the use of player skill and experience as a basis for mapping. The maps are designed around the act of playing. The maps are not that hard in terms of being completed, but I think I'd get nowhere if I were to compete with TOD or another player skilled at a combination of rocket jumping and horde slaughtering, nor would I be very practical creating maps like these.

As for recording one's own maps, it's inevitable if one likes to play them and and share demos, and others don't record within a reasonable period. Also, it may seem unfair, but once the author records, anyone else can see the route and can improve it.

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@Creaphis

My maps usually aren't intended to be ultra-hard in terms of just getting to the exit. In these maps, there is a lot of ammo and plenty of health, so you can be cautious while killing monsters or you can be more aggressive and aim for speed (speed is the point). But, with that said, these maps are probably some of the hardest playable maps ever because of the mandatory rocket jump parts. How many people on Doomworld could even beat the maps without monsters? Like 5? (no offence). The map03 rocket jumps are easy, but the map04 platform rocket jumps are tricky (especially without turn180). I'm pretty sure I didn't miss any jumps in my demos. All maps become easier when you memorize them.

lol @ cheating. Maybe if I kept my demos to myself, but I always share my demos. Anyone who wants to record a demo should watch available demos and look at maps in an editor. Most shortcuts in my maps were put there intentionally, but not to give myself an unfair advantage. I think shortcuts are fun, depending on how they affect the map. To be honest, I think the shortcuts in these maps were originally unintentional (pressing the switches in map03 before they raise, rocket jumping onto the wall to bypass the walk-over line trigger in map04). Though, I do think that map authors generally have an advantage over other players, since they have intimate knowledge of the map.

(btw, check out chips19.wad if you want)

EDIT: myk said it first

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i remember playing some of these designs back in rjsloth3a where it was just rjs in empty maps. i think tod does the right thing by including walkthrough demos, because navigating in such huge and entirely non-linear maps was hard and confusing and i can imagine it only gets worse with throngs of monsters everywhere. the trick exploits... well, he's a speedrunner at heart, i bet he just couldn't resist. :)
i like tod's maps. they look imposing and of course, mandatory rjs in rj non-specific maps make me giggle like a schoolgirl. this concept needs milking until we all hate it. :) my only gripe with his style is the monster count. i am awful with slaughtermaps and i still remember the shock when i loaded up flanagan unknowingly. so rocket jumpers like me might get scared away by the hordes while slaughter fans might just fail at some jump i would consider fairly easy. tod excels at both, so he maps what he likes and creates a very narrow niche. but he's the best at it. after the latest drama around his maps, i will probably give it another shot, because it got me interested. :)

tod> would these maps work under zdaemon? i kinda dislike the zdoom rj behaviour.

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myk said:

I might have given you the idea that they are harder than other slaughter maps when I talked about skill in the other thread, but I was referring to the use of player skill and experience as a basis for mapping. The maps are designed around the act of playing. The maps are not that hard in terms of being completed, but I think I'd get nowhere if I were to compete with TOD or another player skilled at a combination of rocket jumping and horde slaughtering, nor would I be very practical creating maps like these.


Oh, alright. Yes, that threw me off a little bit. I agree that competing with other players for the fastest time would be very challenging, but simply completing the maps isn't too daunting a task.

I know that recording on your own maps isn't really cheating - I'm just voicing a thought I had while watching ToD's demos. A few times I thought, "Heh, that's a neat trick," but this was then immediately followed each time by, "Wait, he's the one who put that shortcut there," which just dampened the experience for me, a little bit. The entertainment value and helpfulness of the included demos are still far above zero, so this little "crime" is of course excusable.

TimeOfDeath said:

How many people on Doomworld could even beat the maps without monsters? Like 5? (no offence).


I think I'll try to record a -nomonsters demo.

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@dew - yes, they should work in ZDaemon. I think they were originally made for ZDaemon back in 2006, but I used ZDoom for recording demos. These maps were actually made before rjsloth - all I did was delete the monsters. :)

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