Last Man on Earth

EarthQuake approves.

Out of curiosity... how many nicknames have you gone through on this forum, Earthquake?

Ok beta testers, I will have something ready for you in a few hours.

I've decided that instead of having a team of beta testers, I am going to make open betas of LME. This way I can get feedback from everyone and we can work together to make this the best wad ever.

Sigvatr said:

I've decided that instead of having a team of beta testers, I am going to make open betas of LME. This way I can get feedback from everyone and we can work together to make this the best wad ever.

Awesome! Now I have yet another thing to distract me in a good way :)

I forgot to ask: Is this being made for that GZDoom port that really seems to be hip nowadays?

Yup, it is GZDoom for many reasons. It doesn't detract from classic Doom gameplay much though.

Ok, Last Man on Earth Open Beta 01 is ready for play testing. This represents (at a bare minimum) only one tenth of the planned wad, but it is enough to show off what to expect in game.

I am releasing this primarily to gather advice and critiques on the gameplay. I want to make sure it is as balanced and fun as possible. If you download and play this, please give me some kind of criticism.

It requires GZDoom to play.

The download is here: http://doom.sigvatr.com/junk/lmeb01.zip

Thanks :)

Wow!

That was pretty neat. Probably one of the best things I've played all month. Although you could tell the maps were not very detailed or complex, the new textures and GZDoom's eyecandy really make this wad atmospheric and pretty :)

And the gameplay was not too shabby either. When the game first started, I was constantly on my toes. Was pretty thrilling for a change. And seriously, the revenants fucking scared the shit out of me. I wasn't expecting that at all. Your Hell section was pretty neat too, considering it's simplicity, but overall, some are probably going to argue that there's not enough detail. However, I think this is going to be successful as it is, as long as you keep things varied and interesting.

Also, what's up with the music? It stops after playing through once :(

Scuba Steve said:

Out of curiosity... how many nicknames have you gone through on this forum, Earthquake?

This is my only account. I'm Seismos on IRC though...

It looks great, yet I lost my motivation to play it properly when I had to kill a Revenant with a pistol. I think the chaingun secret should have to be more evident (also it can be picked up before you climb over the stairs), or give the player a chaingun, normally.
The hell area (with lava that doesn't hurt) looked great, still out of place. I saw it more like a tour or a showcase of what will be the eventual hell level/s. I think it'd work better (if you're not going to move it to a later map), to replace the teleport with a lift that moves to an underground cave. As a hell area it doesn't fit for me with the rest of the map.
The music played well for me, it looped all the time. I was playing with low res textures and no dynamic lights though, I guess I did something wrong. Yet I like it on that way.

The door that closes at your back in the first rooms while a nice touch, kinda annoyed me as I didn't explored the rest of the first area, I planned going back before continuing with that room and had to noclip to do it.

I'd remove the hell knight at the hell area, or give the player an extra box of shells (or perhaps a chainsaw or berserk pack) to prevent forcing the player to fist monsters.

Overall, I think it looks very promising, but needs some touches here and there.

Edit: The detail was good for me, I don't like overdetailed maps.

Same what EarthQuake said, looks nice, has a nice pace to it (especially with that music) and the revenants scared me too :) could add some more detail. oh and use some effects like deep water, it feels so solid now :(

Just.....awesome :D

I won't comment on gameplay much, because I had godmode on. It seemed OK, but those first revenants were a bit overkill, I would replace them with hell knights.

The textures looked pretty good, even though they were atypical for Doom. The crates seemed a little too colorful, IMHO.

The biggest problem for me was the water. The water was laughably shallow even though it looked deep, mainly because it was too reflecting. I would remove the reflections and/or make the water deeper, at least in those parts where the water is flowing.

I mostly agree with Vegeta's comments.

I don't know how to make deep water. I see a tutorial on the ZDoom website on how to make water you can swim in, but I just want to make water that you kind of wade through. Any idea on how to do this?

I am going to add some more ammo as well, and fix the lava. I think the hell knight in the hell part is probably out of place too.

By the way, did anyone look up when they got outside?

I played in Software rendering mode with this level and it still looked pretty good to me.

The firefights were pretty intense. There should have been some more ammo throughout the level. Maybe some shotgun shells or extra clips lying around near some dead marines or something. I also agree with Lordk that there should be some swimmable/deep water in the level. Another thing I want to point out is the lava in that Hell section of the map. Shouldn't the lava be damaging the player?

Aside from that, I liked it.

I played in the "Hurt Me Plenty" skill setting. (i.e. the default skill setting.)
Basically, the beginning was perfect. I was able to reach the shotgun and the green armour vest without sustaining any massive damage.
And obtaining the chaingun was fair enough.
And the first encounter with the 2 revenants seemed fair due to the sufficient amount of shotgun shells.

However, the problem began when I stepped through that yellow/orange teleporter. I appeared in a huge cavern surrounded by imps and lost souls, and I couldn't find any stimpacks or health potions anywhere.
So...May I suggest that you add some stimpacks and health potions in those caverns after the teleporter?
You don't have to place them in the middle of the path to make it too easy, but at least hide them in a few corners behind some imps, you know.
That soulsphere on that high ledge is such an emotional teaser. Oh man.

Otherwise, I am deeply impressed by the textures and the music.

P.S: I haven't finished playing it yet, due to the fact that I ran out of spare time while reloading my quicksave over and over again in that cavern. But I will finish it later.

Cheers!

get it done son! oh, and as for deep water, to do that you should probably get an example wad. its not hard to do, but im terrible at explaining it. i could probably make an example wad if you are interested, or you can find one on the zdoom wiki.

Sigvatr said:

By the way, did anyone look up when they got outside?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y280/teh_death/DOOM0000.png

That what you're pointing out?

Edit: I loved the map, by the way. Are the ambient lights on the creatures and other things added using that DOOMDEFS file in there?

Sigvatr said:

By the way, did anyone look up when they got outside?

Oh, yes. That was pretty impressive.

I played through this last night and I have to say it's a great map. Very promising. It's amazing what good texture work can do for an old game. :) I liked the water effects. My jaw literally dropped the first time I saw it. You might want to weaken the reflection, but otherwise I think it's perfect.

Once you get used to the flow, it's not too difficult, but I agree with the other posters here by saying you should either replace the revenants or tone them down. Maybe only have one at a time? Otherwise, give the player a more powerful weapon, such as the chaingun.

There needs to be some ammo and health in the Hellish section. I basically gave up killing the monsters and just ran for the exit when I reached that part. If you're worried it might not make sense for ammo to be just lying around in Hell, you can always place it near a human corpse.

This looks like a very promising mapset. Keep us updated. :D

That's a good idea with the corpses.

Good work. The level is atmospheric and plays quite well. One thing I noticed though - at this part of the level you can get stuck if you first step into the hallway with the two revenants and then quickly step back out before the door closes. After that you are left behind the closed door and there's no way to open it again. I noticed this when I was startled by the two hallway revenants screaming and by instinct started immediately backing out to get out of harm's way. I assume it might as well happen to others playing the level, so IMO you should fix it somehow.

Alright, I believe that I've ran it through to the end now.
Is that outdoor area outside of the warehouse with the 2 Mancubi supposed to be the end-level trigger? Or will the level still be expanded from there?

Anyways, the part after the blue teleporter was very nicely balanced in terms of health & ammunition.
While the cavern part before the blue teleporter was very unbalanced.

EarthQuake said:

EarthQuake approves.

As does the man quoting you.

But seriously, that is very nice looking.

I liked what I saw, but there were a few things that bugged me a bit. First of all, could you make it so flying monsters could go over the rails? It seemed kind of odd watching a cacodemon fly all over the place, trying to get past a 2 foot tall rail.
I'd also like to see a bit more consistency between the different areas too. The transition from the storage area to the sewers just seemed a bit odd. You just went down some bland looking hallway, and then you were in a sewer type area. What you might want to do is have the player drop down a pipe or change that hallway to something like a tunnel with a catwalk going over a river of sewage water, or something like that.

I think the transitions were fine. My only gripe was the tour in the hell area, that for me was a kinda out of place. More opportune for me should be a pipe or a lift to it making it look like an under cave filled with lava. I think you could put a pipe where you fall in, then a tunnel that teleports you with no fog to another tunnel that continue to the cave area. And get back a lift that send you to the respective area.

How do I make a rail stuff can fly over?

Sigvatr said:

How do I make a rail stuff can fly over?

how do you mean? like moving sectors? a path-follower?

Sigvatr said:

How do I make a rail stuff can fly over?

http://zdoom.org/wiki/SetLineBlocking
Use the last one on the list, Block_Railing.

It would be an honour if we could be able to play the next demo version of this thing on Doom's 14th anniversary (which is coming up in 8 days!)