MAYhem 2018 - Orange Version!

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

1 hour ago, Roofi said:

 

wut

I thought that was a baron when I built this map. I can't exactly fix it, but since I never got the updated resource wad, wherever there was a cybruiser I just assumed there'd be a baron.

I'll have to trust Obsidian to fix that, I suppose, since I'm not exactly in an amazing position for uploading wads (uploading images is a hard enough process that takes two hours) since my hard drive crashed a couple weeks ago because A+ to Hewlett Packard.

Actually it was probably my fault it crashed, but the problem stands, regardless.

 

I also don't remember any real lack of ammo when I initially tested it... I don't usually hold back on ammo like that in my maps, but I suppose it's possible I had an oversight this time. Not sure.

[Obsidian]

If you like I could appoint someone to fix it up. The SM I can take care of myself, heh.

[Benjogami]

There's one in Crunchynut's map too:

 

[Obsidian]

...I distinctly remember switching that around. Argh.

 

Gimme a moment.

[Obsidian]

Alright, the OP has the new beta: something must've fudged up with the saving, I probably had the wad open in two programs. Also added Nirvana's latest version of their map.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

Shouldn't take too much more ammo if my memory serves. As I remember, the hallway with that cybruiser (where Roofi got stuck) had two things of shells and cells and there were some rockets situated in the large round room. If it would work better, adding two more things of shells should suffice to kill that cybruiser and leave enough ammo to deal with the scant encounters in the caves beyond that broken door, blue skull excepted.

After that, there should be sufficient ammo afterwards to deal with the fatsos (if I remember properly) in the large room near the start and the Hades Elemental at the end.

If it's widely agreed to be too little, feel free to sprinkle more shells/clips/whatever's appropriate wherever the shortage(s) is/are glaring.

 

I'll go through the headache of moving this to my old laptop and play it back over and see the problem firsthand. If possible, I'll try to fix it and supply an update. The earliest we can expect is tomorrow.

[Obsidian]

Take all the time you need. :)

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

Okay, after fighting with my machines for an hour straight trying to move one fucking file, I played back through my map on a no secrets run.

It is possible, and lack of ammo only becomes apparent at the end. The only enemies I didn't kill were the last four: the Hades Elemental, two cacos, and a vile.

The only real issue that stood out at me was the lack of health, but that's partly because the beginning really depends on how much the Random Number God likes you. Since he hates my guts, I had to cheat to actually test a no secrets run properly (despite this iteration being easier than the first, which I didn't have to cheat to do).

However, I will add a touch more here and there, replace the first cybruiser with something less ridiculously dangerous, and fix a horrid misalignment near the end. I trust you'll know what I'm referring to when you get there.

Regardless, I will move my map out, fix it up, and reupload it by some point in the near future.

 

Edit: Holy hell, I don't know why it's so difficult to upload a 700 kB file, but here it is!

AC-Rigel Kentaurus

Changes include: little extra ammo in the green card room and just before the Hades Elemental, three extra stimpacks in the green card room, and a green armor just before the Hades Elemental. And the first cybruiser was changed to two knights.

 

I know I need to stop stressing so much, but when my machines fight with me every step of the way, it makes not stressing really difficult.

 

Let me know if the link doesn't work, it's to Google Drive, not Mediafire, so I've no certainty it will work.

Also, I tested it in GZDoom 1.8.2 (highest my old laptop can use), so while it shouldn't suddenly break in PRBoom, I'm just letting you know.

Edited June 8, 2018 by Aquila Chrysaetos : Upload

[Marcaek]

4 hours ago, Obsidian said:

Alright, the OP has the new beta: something must've fudged up with the saving, I probably had the wad open in two programs. Also added Nirvana's latest version of their map.

 

Be glad Ribbiks didn't submit a map, or you would somehow end up replacing the latest version with the first

[Roofi]

 

(writing my review , I accidentally posted...)

 

Map 03 : @Nirvana

 

I realised that an old version of your map was in the RC1 wad just after I recorded  my demo ... so , my review will be based on it but I liked your map in any case.

 

I liked the textures usage in your map despite the fact that some textures are a bit misaligned imo. I thought I was in a kind of wooden haunted house at the beginning but the theme became more tech as long as I progress in the level. The whole looked quite surreal , like Ribbiks' maps and I enjoyed it.

 

Your level proved to be quite difficult at the beginning. I died a couple times and the first chaingunners can be very dreadful when your health is low. However , the last trap with the BFG was kinda easy to be honest (EDIT : I checked the new version on doombuilder and some cybruisers were supposed to teleport). It's also very simple to escape the first fight with the cyberdemon by taking the lift , you should prevent the player to use it during the fight. My favourite fight is when you have to kill 2 "Super Cacodemons" (forgot the name lol). They are so dangerous that you are forced to constantly look up while monsters are teleporting on the ground. You can be killed in few seconds by the explosive lost souls if monsters manage to stuck you !

 

My last remark will be the lack of teleporter in the last arena. I wanted to kill all monsters and find all secrets but I couldn't.

 

A good map overall , but I'm a bit bothered because the RC1 seems to have a lot of partially broken maps.

 

EDIT : Well  , a RC2 was just released.

 

DEMO

 

@Obsidian My map is named "Floréal" . I think you didn't see it because I put the infos in a spoiler.

Edited June 8, 2018 by Roofi

[Nirvana]

Yeah the version of my map that's in RC1 is totally broken. The masterminds block voodoo dolls and break teleporters, so likely not a great example of what the map is meant to be like :D

[Roofi]

I will replay your levels  but I will wait a  bit before testing again. I can't make decent reviews when the maps contain critical bugs. I think that the RC2 corrected many of them.

[Nirvana]

Also @Roofi if you could point out any texture misalignments that would be good -unless you just meant that the textures didn't match particularly well in your eyes, then that's a different story.

[Roofi]

Here are 2 little exemples of what I call "little misalignment". Honestly , you don't really have to be worried ,I'm maybe a bit too meticulous on it lol.  The textures match well , I've nothing to say about your choices.

 

 

[Redead-ITA]

I have a question: is the order of the maps already choosen or it is just for testing purposes?

also in regards of the secret map, im just gonna say this

Spoiler

Wow

 

[Obsidian]

The map order is random at the moment (with the exception of MAP31). Also heh.

[Redead-ITA]

in annother note i also updated the Map, with some extra detailing on the arena and switched the baron to a spidermastermind in order to make the cyberbruiser appear

Asterion.zip

[Walter confetti]

hopefully fixed: maydai.zip

[Nirvana]

New version that makes RSK fight harder to leave, fixes some midtex issues, rebalances final fight slightly and a few other touch ups here and there:

Autumn Equinox v5

[CarboxylicAcids]

fixed a few misalignment issues .

Ferrous2sulphate.zip

[valkiriforce]

Any word on the Orange maps? I still haven't gotten any feedback on my map. I'm fairly certain it could use some outside opinions.

[Roofi]

I will continue my reviews tomorrow, I just wait in order to play the maps without critical bugs but it should be ok now. I planned to do the maps in the order imposed by the mapset but I can test your map tomorrow . :)

[Roofi]

@valkiriforce

 

I played your map , it was very good but also unexpectedly difficult lol. I recorded a demo on your map but I eventually gave up and finished the map with saves. I will share you if you want to watch it. It must be played with the RC2 and my first attempt was my best so watching the whole may not be really interesting imo.

 

DEMO

 

As I said before , your map was hard to beat (I played on UV) . I miraculously survived in the trap near the blue armor's secret in my first attempt  but that trap was also why I stopped recording and began to use saves instead. xD. I liked the way you used the cybruisers , they can be more dreadful than a cyberdemon in close-quarters fights and are good snipers. The only fight I didn't like was the one near the blue armor because I never managed to survive without escaping. You are litterally dead if you stay in the room too long and cybruisers teleport behind you. However , I liked the idea to allow the player to kill only the revenants if he finds the blue armor's secret before triggering the trap.

 

Concerning the secrets , is the map possible on UV without searching them? I managed to kill all monsters even if the ammo was very limited but I had the feeling that the soulsphere and the blue armor were quite necessary because medkits were really scarce.

 

Another thing I liked in your map was the non-linear gameplay. You can grab the two keys in the order you want. The "Super Rocket launcher" was not useful to be honest so I had no a lot advantage to collect the red key first. The major part of your level happens in rather cramped areas so I always use the classic RL and the plasmagun was by far the most useful weapon.  The Super RL could be useful for the last trap but I ran out of rockets  so I used the plasma instead. I must say that the red key's trap has a lot of cybruisers . It was not really hard but those monsters have a lot of health so the only good thing to do was to kill them once I have done everything in the map . Killing them before increases greatly the risks to run out of ammo in the others traps.

 

At last , just a little thing I found weird :

 

 

I guess that showing the AV's teleportation room was for decorations purposes and also to warn the player that he will fight some AV as in Plutonia's map 11. However , I found it kinda useless tbh because the few arch-viles were by far less dangerous than the numerous cybruisers I killed so I saw no utility to scare the player with two poor AV. x)

 

Also , the bridge after the blue key renders buggy when it raises. I didn't manage to take a screen because it raised fast. It's maybe normal on Boom-compatible maps.

 

EDIT :

 

I'm quibbling a bit too much , it was a very good map !

Edited June 14, 2018 by Roofi

[Urthar]

It's questionable how useful any of these will be, since they're mostly very short. (Hurt Me Plenty)

 

FDAs (MAY18O_RC2.wad) MayOrangeFDA.zip

[Roofi]

@Demonologist

 

I beat your map on Ultraviolence and I killed all monsters and found all secrets. I recorded a demo but as the valkiriforce's map , I didn't manage to beat it entirelly. I stopped recording and finished the map with saves. I died in the last fight after the cyberdemon and the hoard of monsters in my last attempt.. :)

 

DEMO

 

It was a really big adventurous hard map that I globally enjoyed it exploring. The strong point of your map is the non-linear gameplay which allows you to grab the keys in the order you want. Also , each path leads to various places but  has a very linear structure so you are never lost and it's a good thing. I liked the dark atmosphere of your map even if I find RoTT's music overused in 2018. x)

 

Your map was long but I didn't get bored thanks to epic but tough fights you put in your level. I especially enjoyed the penultimate fight with the cyberdemon which was actually more epic than hard. I managed to survived in this battle in my first attempt but  I found funny that the "little" final fight with custom monsters was considerably harder than the previous one. lol It reinforces my opinion on the fact that the custom monsters are maybe a bit overpowered for my taste , especially the "Super cacodemon". The only part I didn't really appreciated was the platforming sequence in the gigantic underground cavern. I like adding a few platforms in my levels but it was a bit too much for me even if it was not really hard to not fall.

 

Ammo and Health were generally well balanced but I think that a little more ammo where you fight the first custom caco would not be too much. The two cybruisers have a lot of HP , I had to skip them in my demo because I had no more ammo. I suggest to place some shotgun shells where the AV is perched so that the player will have to take some risks if he doesn't want to run out of ammo. The secrets were well hidden and the idea to make an optional fight in an exploration map is always good. However , I think that the switch which allows you to go to the blue's key secret area were really ridiculously hidden. I found it with a lot of luck but there's no clue of its presence and the switch is small and deeply located in the stone...

 

The aesthetics were good and the textures's alignment was correct. I liked the various interconnections between places except the long 64-wide corridors which I found pretty cheap. Also , I don't know if it's just because of the textures but I had the impression that a lot of rock textures were very misaligned.

 

 

I found a very misaligned texture on the brown crate :p

 

 

 

 

 

Why not making stairs in this little curved corridor instead of a lift?

 

 

Anyway , it was a very good map. :)

[Roofi]

@NeedHealth

 

I played your level again , consequently my demo isn't a FDA. I killed all monsters but only found one secret because the exit linedef was closer than I expected...

Your level was short and quite fun , it could be well in the first maps. I've not a lot of things to say because of its shortness.

 

However , I'm not a fan of the aesthetics. The outdoors areas at the beginning and at the end at level were quite pleasant to see but I found the texture usage quite weird inside the base. Your base contains a lot of details but the whole looks jambled because the textures don't match very well . It's a matter of taste but I must also highlight the very approximative alignments of textures . Just few exemples , I wrongly opened the RC1 version on my doombuilder but nothing changed in the RC2.

 

Look at the  floor texture at the bottom left

 

The light texture is cut in half in the ground, it's ugly. Same for  the brown square textures.

 

Also , some obvious misalignments.

 

 

- The HOM in the sector 163 has not been corrected yet.

 

- A little mistake here with the liquid.

 

 

 

The gameplay was ok , but the map needs some rework.

[NeedHealth]

Thank you. I'll fix it soon. @Roofie - there being sector 163 hom is something nobody has made me aware of.

[valkiriforce]

@Roofi What port were you testing in that caused that to happen to the bridge? Thanks for the feedback by the way!

[Catpho]

Woop, i slacked off. World Cup is making me busy too, but i'll try to post some feedback on Sunday :P

[Roofi]

@CarboxylicAcids

 

 

I just played your map , I recorded a successful demo because I finished your level in one attempt on UV. I'm quite surprised on account of the last trap's dangerousness.

 

DEMO (must be launched with the RC2)

 

I enjoyed playing your map because it was short and fun. Also , it looks heavily inspired of Death-destiny's maps especially with the immobile monsters which move/teleport once you press a switch or grab a weapon. Despite of that , the level was not that hard even if the difficulty seriously increases near the end. I was a bit disappointed there was no secret . I think that every map should have at least a secret in order to encourage the player to explore the map even if it mainly focus on hard fights.

 

The very beginning was kinda rough in reason of the surrounding zombies which can easily cut you to shreds. However , the first traps were very fair  in general because you can easily escape the trap in order to take cover. The first cyberdemon near the blue key is inefficient if you play carefully but he can be really dangerous if you try to kill him with the slow crusher. It's actually a good idea for speedruns because killing a cybie take a while and you need to take some risks to do a good time. :P

 

Your map become really hard in the last room where I survived by chance I think. The AV were dreadful due to the fact that no wall can protect you from their attacks but also a lot of accumulated revenant's missiles were purchasing me... I had to move a lot in order to make them crash against a low wall. The last cyberdemon was more dangerous than the previous one.

 

A map with a lot of homogeneity in the textures can be beautiful but the omnipresence of the same brick textures made the whole very monotonous. I think adding a little more texture variations and especially more diversified colors can make your map more exciting to explore. Also the texture alignment was mediocre. Some screens :

 

 

Also , I don't like how the bricks are cut to make steps.

 

An exemple of a very misaligned texture (It's not recommanded to put the middle texture on the same linedef as the upper and lower wall.)

 

 

Conclusion : A small map with a good and hard gameplay but needs more in-depht work on the aesthetics.

 

@valkiriforce I test all the maps with Prboom+.