[vanilla mapset] Dark Caliber

While going through my countless Doom directories, I found a handful of unfinished maps from different unfinished projects. Together with Alter we decided to make an attempt at releasing some kind of high quality Doom2 vanilla mappack, basing on some of the maps that were already started and compatible (or could be easily made compatible).

We aim to release a classic 7map episode, ephasizing on good detail and architecture and of course - gameplay that will demand some serious skill. It uses vanilla code only, but you will require a limit removing port for it.
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The following screens come from the first and second map in the set. I hope they are not too dark, but I might have trouble telling. They look okay on my screen:
MAP01: Dawn of Ancients(by Alter)



MAP02: Totally Bricked (by ellmo)

What I'm seeing looks pretty nice so far. As always, keep us updated. :)

Snarboo said:

As always, keep us updated. :)

Of course, something we could update - here's a current maplist we're working on:

• MAP 01: Dawn of Ancients (Alter)
  Architecture/Layout: 100%
  Item Placement: 100%
  
• MAP 02: Totally Bricked (ellmo)
  Architecture/Layout: 100%
  Item Placement: 70%
  (needs music!)
  
• MAP 03: Blown in 60 seconds (ellmo)
  Architecture/Layout: 15%
  Item Placement: 10%
  
• MAP 04: -
  
• MAP 05: -
  
• MAP 06: -
  
• MAP 07: the Vein (ellmo)
  Architecture/Layout: 20%
  Item Placement: 0%
  

Those screenies look great. Really original while still maintaining a traditional Doom feel. Nice work.

<--In first with offers of playtesting !!

[Edit] Looking at the screenies again, I realised they remind me of a couple of levels from AV. Specifically sections of Map 10 and map 15 (I think it was 15)

I agree. This still gives me a very classic feel, but looks highly original nonetheless. The screenies are gorgeous, BTW. Nice work! Keep it up.

Looks great dude. Alter's really gotten a lot better in the past.

Wow yea, I love those shots! Looking forward to an end product, for sure :O

Looks good I like the shot with the brown slime the most, is Alter still losered?

ELLMO'S BACK!!!! But while on topic, nice looking shots, and interesting use of textures combinations. Has a very industrial theme to it.

dutch devil said:

Looks good I like the shot with the brown slime the most, is Alter still losered?

Unfortunatley yes. But he reads this topic.
We've decided to release those two maps as a teaser/demo/beta when they are finished, so be sure to post your thoughts later. We're both interested what you've got to say.

Bloodskull said:

ELLMO'S BACK!!!! But while on topic, nice looking shots, and interesting use of textures combinations. Has a very industrial theme to it.

Hehe, hey there Bloodskull/Shadowrunner. Nice to see you're still here.
My map may have some dark industrial theme, yes, but Alter's is more Gothic, very Doom2 -ish.

*progress updated*

Both sets of screenshots look great, looking forward to playing it. :)

Yes. Nice indeed. My only minor criticism is with the first pic which shows the evil eye clipping? into the wall.

* progress updated*

Both maps are technically finished. Alter's map went throught serious revamping (and as it was a very nice map, I now find it really outstanding), but I found a little quirk; and my own map needs a lot of playtesting to get the gameplay right.

hawkwind said:

Yes. Nice indeed. My only minor criticism is with the first pic which shows the evil eye clipping? into the wall.

They are only visible in OpenGL, which clips the sprites. The wad however is dedicated to vanilla-like source ports ( Prboom -complevel 2 ftw!).

Hey ellmo, move your ass and update the progress as i updated/revamped the map fully... it's 100% now in everything

Ps. I'm unlosered and promised that i will not participate in threads like hokuto no doom ever again, ellmo be sure to check your mail for final version of map

alterworldruler said:

Hey ellmo, move your ass and update the progress as i updated/revamped the map fully... it's 100% now in everything.

Yeah I know. I had some serious networking issues while on my weekend in the woods :P

I had to put my map on hold for a day or two. I should get back to it tonight tho'

*Progress updated*
- Map01 is finished
- Map02 is another few steps closer to completion
- Lot of midi music has been tried, but I haven't found the right one for Map02 yet.

These look pretty nice.

Hmm, this looks pretty cool. The Doom Community could use more of these quality vanilla maps.

New screens from map04 "Twisted changes" since ellmo is very busy right now with programming stuff for companies

@Alter: The new shots look okay (first one is the best-looking, imo), but very flat and extremely cramped...192 is a good width to aim for when making corridors.

esselfortium said:

(...)but very flat and extremely cramped...

I disagree. There are significant height variations which don't seem to have an impact on player's movement. From all the Alter's maps I've played recently none are cramped. They may be tight and fast (and I perefectly like it), but I don't recall having trouble moving.

I'll try to post the two-map demo today (or tonight). I'm still very busy, but my map is about 30-60 minutes of work away from being finished.

New screen from map04 "Twisted changes"... ellmo god DAMMIT, send me Totally Bricked over mail and i'll enhance it before releasing demo! ok?

Here it is, the goddamn two-map demo! Ellmo, you better goddamn put the link in the first post!

http://files.filefront.com/darkcbrzip/;11667867;/fileinfo.html

Only map01 and map02, there are no others in the wad!

I see a map01, map02 and map04.

Khorus said:

I see a map01, map02 and map04.

Sorry, map04 isn't meant to be played yet! And that's why it doesn't count

I've got some input for you guys of things you might want to take a look at.

MAP02:
-If you find the SSG, you have to NOCLIP out of the pit it's in because the pit's floor height is 120 and the surrounding sector's floor height is 152 (a 32 unit difference). =(
-Linedef 5173 is too close in front of linedef 2417, so the latter can never be activated. The latter line needs to be moved away at least another 9 units to be far enough for Doomguy to activate.

MAp04:
I know this map isn't finished and shouldn't have been included, but since it is, here's some things I found to make sure look at.
-The staircase raised by linedef 579 does not raise the front step with Doom2 compatibility (PrBoom -complevel 2), so the player cannot proceed in that direction
-The health bonuses in the corners of sector 60 and the other similar rooms cannot be picked up because the rooms are at 45 degrees to the grid, so Doomguy's square self can't reach them, which is a minor issue, but kind of annoying since it appears you want the players to be able to get them.
-Linedef 2270 and similar linedefs have no back textures though their back sides are visible.
-Just a suggestion, the last 20 enemies in the map are never awakened because the player never has an incentive to fire their weapon in the last room, which is also kind of strange. I assume this was not deliberate.

Other things I noticed:
In the screenie below, see the shotgun shells floating in the corner out of reach? This is because there is a very narrow sector along the edge of the room (for decoration) that they are too close to, so Doom thinks they're on top of it with Doom2 compatibility. With the tight ammo in this mapset, that gets very irritating, and I saw this effect consistantly in all 3 maps.

Also, in MAP01, remember that Doomguy can activate switches at an infinite Z axis. The switch below can be activated from this location without walking around and up the stairs to raise the floor to the switch's level. This makes no difference in the level progression, but I thought I should point it out in case you guys want to move it somewhere else


I hope this was helpful information. =)
I'm liking what I've seen and played so far, so keep up the good work. The gameplay has been fun and the atmosphere has been solid. I look forward to the remaining 4 maps.

I really enjoy how the level constantly opens up with switches and everything looks interesting. Its not always immediately obvious what a switch does and with so many you're bound to go wandering around not knowing what to do/where to go at some point probably. There are some kinks but I quite like it.

Whoa thanks Death-Destiny, i'll save it up in "to-do" txt file... i'll get my ass around fixing those annoyances today...

EDIT: Fixed all of those annoyances, figured out how to fix stair bug, it had to do with sector number index, if sector numbers of stairs don't go like 1,2,3,4, Special doesn't work

Sorry for double-post but i'm going to announce something important, now we have Bloodskull on our team, he will make map05 for us, it's up to him what map will be like and what name will it have, Bloodskull have fun and enjoy your time!

Death-Destiny said:

MAP02:
-If you find the SSG, you have to NOCLIP out of the pit it's in because the pit's floor height is 120 and the surrounding sector's floor height is 152 (a 32 unit difference). =(

Damn. I knew I forgot fixing something.
Thanks for the heads up.

ellmo said:

Damn. I knew I forgot fixing something.
Thanks for the heads up.

Ellmo, i fixed those annoyances already even that SSG bug so do not worry, i'm taking care of this stuff