E1M7 DM. Plus New DM map!

New DM map from scratch: DW100a.wad


View screenies: E1M7-DM and Screenshots and video of my DM map based on E1M7. As well as screenshots of DW100a.wad

It retains some of the atmosphere and texturing of the original but more importantly it focuses on flow and gameplay. It is made up of areas of E1M7 with a few new sectors and some tweaking of existing sectors (to improve flow and spaciousness). Should be ideal for 4-8 players.

Download E1M7DM with SSG starts

Download E1M7DM with shotgun starts

Download E1M7DM with shotgun starts and a BFG

Comments and criticisms appreciated!

I don't have the source port that uses WAD files with a PNG extension. Where do I get it?

Fixed... did you look at the screenies?

A bit, but I prefer WADs :p

Interesting, although I'd suggest testing it on Chocolate Doom to catch some visual glitches, including a medusa effect and some bad step texturing.

myk said:

A bit, but I prefer WADs :p

Interesting, although I'd suggest testing it on Chocolate Doom to catch some visual glitches, including a medusa effect and some bad step texturing.

I do not see why there should be a glitch on that step. Also, Chocolate Doom crashes when I playtest the wad in it. Any idea Why? BTW, I uploaded more screenies.

I'm not all that big into DM but I thought I'd point out a few things I noticed. The layout of the level is significantly different than E1M7 though the basic structure is still there so good job on that. I noticed a lot of misaligned textures, mostly on the walls but occasionally on the steps as well, nothing earth-shattering though. Any problems with the textures are similar to the texture misalignments found all throughout E1.

Looking at it in Doombuilder, there are a few curiosities. There are two small sectors near the bottom of the map that don't seem to serve any kind of purpose, though they are both fully textured and have various sectors within them. I also see that a number of the doorways and stairs are marked "Block Sound" which I found rather strange since there are no monsters to block the sound from. That said, I'm assuming these were just left over from the original E1M7 design and weren't taken out.

The only other thing I noticed was that a lot of the health bonus potions were sitting on ledges that were too small, having the effect of the potions sinking into the ground.

I ran this on prBoom-plus 2.5.0 and it ran just fine with no glitches and glancing at Doombuilder I see no obvious problems. I also ran Doombuilders error checker and it likewise found nothing.

Maybe this is just me, because I'm not a huge fan of DM, but it seems like there are an awful lot of SSG's and RL's. I capped my ammo out just running around the level once. This could be how DM matches are supposed to be though; the only DM match I remember ever playing was on E1M1.

FrozenNemesis said:

I'm not all that big into DM but I thought I'd point out a few things I noticed. The layout of the level is significantly different than E1M7 though the basic structure is still there so good job on that. I noticed a lot of misaligned textures, mostly on the walls but occasionally on the steps as well, nothing earth-shattering though. Any problems with the textures are similar to the texture misalignments found all throughout E1.

Looking at it in Doombuilder, there are a few curiosities. There are two small sectors near the bottom of the map that don't seem to serve any kind of purpose, though they are both fully textured and have various sectors within them. I also see that a number of the doorways and stairs are marked "Block Sound" which I found rather strange since there are no monsters to block the sound from. That said, I'm assuming these were just left over from the original E1M7 design and weren't taken out.

The only other thing I noticed was that a lot of the health bonus potions were sitting on ledges that were too small, having the effect of the potions sinking into the ground.

I ran this on prBoom-plus 2.5.0 and it ran just fine with no glitches and glancing at Doombuilder I see no obvious problems. I also ran Doombuilders error checker and it likewise found nothing.

Maybe this is just me, because I'm not a huge fan of DM, but it seems like there are an awful lot of SSG's and RL's. I capped my ammo out just running around the level once. This could be how DM matches are supposed to be though; the only DM match I remember ever playing was on E1M1.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the block sounds are left over from the original. I didn't perfect the alignment of textures because I feel like there is something "inorganic" about doing so--when everything looks so neat and clean--and you made my point for me that all throughout the originals there are misaligned textures (in fact, you can find a rather lengthy thread where I talk about said misaligned texs.)

The health potions weren't doing that in Zdoom; thanks for letting me know.

As far as all the weapons: you could say it is one way of designing a DM map. It is by no means *THE* way DM maps need to be (with tons of readily available weapons). I like making dm maps with an SSG at every dm start (sometimes I use SG instead) so that there is no down time or frustrating deaths trying to find a decent weapon. I like easy access to Rocket launcher too because it is such a fun weapon. You'll notice plasma rifles and BFGs aren't all over the place tho. If there are a lot of players in the map, you can still run low on ammo if you are completely indiscriminate. I wanted there to be plenty of ammo, especially SSG shells. Thanks again for your comments/observations.

EDIT: I forgot to address the dummy sectors. In previous versions of the map, the staircase leading up to the switch which opens the pillar to the chainsaw was still in place. I had made a fancy lift contraption that lowered the steps and windows when you pressed on the window so that you could pass through the hallway but still walk up the steeper steps to the swtich (I'm describing what the original looks like). Then I decided the lift was too cumbersome for DM play and streamlined the whole thing by just having the thing the way it is now. I probably should have deleted the dummy sectors, but I just as well left them in as "easter eggs".

Hellbent said:
I do not see why there should be a glitch on that step.

The Y alignment on that step texture is 64. Set it to 0 and the issue is gone.

Also, Chocolate Doom crashes when I playtest the wad in it. Any idea Why?

No idea. Where exactly does it crash? Do you get some sort of message? What does stderr.txt say after the problem occurs? I didn't get a crash or abortion anywhere using Doom v1.9, but I could have missed something...

strr.doc says nothing--empty doc file. No error message. Crashes nearly immediately.

my command line:
C:\doom\chocolate-doom 1.2.1-win32\chocolate-doom-1.2.1-win32\chocolate-doom #set sv_cheats 1 -iwad c:\doom\doom2.wad -file e1m7dm6a.wad -deathmatch

It doesn't terminate on my system, but #set sv_cheats 1 doesn't do anything (it's not something Chocolate Doom supports). You aren't running it in true multiplayer mode so cheats will work anyway. To run it in multiplayer mode (where cheats do get disabled) add -server to the command line and hit space to join (with one player).

Does Chocolate Doom run alright when you don't load the PWAD?

Another way to test vanilla is with Doom2. If you're on Windows XP or Vista, use DOSBox, or, more simply, a plain command prompt and run the game with -nosound.

I thought the map was interesting with some interactive bits (lift to the ammo and plasma switch). There are lots of corridors here, a nice throwback to the old E1 style. I understand you want the map to have fast gameplay with every player ready to roll at the start, but the weapons do seem a bit excessive to me. You have 20+ super shotguns and you could had 1/4 that number provided you gave regular shotguns or chainguns when players spawn.

In any case, it's an intersting level that isn't expansive and maze-like such as the original E1 DM experience but still offers some nice fluid motion with a dash of hide and seek gameplay.

it runs fine without the wad loaded, although the imps don't throw chocolate ice cream cones. It doesn't crash under dosbox doom19.exe. BTW, what is the "medusa effect"?

A situation where you see a tutti-frutti-like effect which slows the game down while looking at it. The cause is a multi-patch texture applied to a double-sided linedef. The light in the alcove, next to where the buggy step occurs, suffers from this effect.

To manage that light in vanilla, add a texture to TEXTURE1 that applies those four white glass patches over the brown background, in the middle and aligned as appropriate, then use that texture in that location. Another solution is to just make a slight window (cavity) there, and use the white lights in the cavity.

I'm not sure what you mean Myk regarding adding a texture to TEXTURE1.... It doesn't make a medusa effect in zdoom (or slow it down) but I do know what you're talking about.

I updated the download link. No errors in dox box testing with doom.exe 1.9.

Hellbent said:

I'm not sure what you mean Myk regarding adding a texture to TEXTURE1....

He means to add a new texture to the TEXTURE1 lump using a wad editor such as XWE.

Right, to avoid the slight indentation and get the previous result, but it looks nice as it is currently and it's an easier solution, so don't bother.

I spotted another step tutti frutti, look at the light we've been talking about, turn right, step down into the archway beyond, look left (the 1st step).

TheCupboard said:

I thought the map was interesting with some interactive bits (lift to the ammo and plasma switch). There are lots of corridors here, a nice throwback to the old E1 style. I understand you want the map to have fast gameplay with every player ready to roll at the start, but the weapons do seem a bit excessive to me. You have 20+ super shotguns and you could had 1/4 that number provided you gave regular shotguns or chainguns when players spawn.

In any case, it's an intersting level that isn't expansive and maze-like such as the original E1 DM experience but still offers some nice fluid motion with a dash of hide and seek gameplay.

Thanks for the positive feedback. I will see about making a version with "normal" weapon placement.

Myk said:
I spotted another step tutti frutti, look at the light we've been talking about, turn right, step down into the archway beyond, look left (the 1st step).

Thanks Myk for pointing those out. (wad re-uploaded with fix.)
There are now three versions of the wad to download: SSG starts, shotgun starts, sg starts and a bfg.

i added another wad with two screenies on my site.