Bifrost - single map with rainbow bridges (Boom+)

[Albatross]

 

Single map based on the idea of rainbow bridges.

 

Gameplay: Single player.
Difficulty: Medium.
Tested in: ZDoom, GZDoom, PrBoom+ and Eternity.

 

Download

Edited July 17, 2022 by Albatross

[baja blast rd.]

Awesome aesthetic. Feedback below: 

 

Spoiler

Still feels pretty rough. Most of the fights feel very undercooked, as if they exist just to fill the six-key concept. My preferences (in order of favorite to least): 

(1) The vile peekaboo. I found this one the most exciting. Fun mix of vile herding with potential for timed dodging if there is some dispersion.

(2) The cyb menage a trois. Straightforward fun. Not as dangerous as (1), but requires paying attention.

-gap- 

(3) The baron fanblade. I don't particularly enjoy rubbing against the impassible two-sided linedefs bordering the rainbow bridges. In most of the map, it's not a huge factor because you have enough space to avoid it, but movement is at more of a premium here. That aside, an okay fight.   

(4) The merry mastermind and its minions. A bit of a pushover, but wins some points for the concept, and has some interesting dodging mechanics should the viles target you. It is too susceptible to RNG -- the viles are fickle with their attacks and can give the player a clear pass around the track. I also found it kind of annoying how the mastermind can shoot at you while you are telefragging the viles. Not too meaningful as far as survival goes, but still irritating. Maybe raise pillars blocking its line of sight, once the end of the racetrack is reached. 

-gap- 

(5) The arachnotron slinky. A bit pointless -- just race through and it's over. I would not mind that as much if getting to and from each arena were a lot faster, but running around a sixth of the outer loop just for this feels like a waste of time. 

(6) The mancubus spiral staircase. Again, not much point to this one. Hard to take much damage, and I don't find the core mechanic (lobbing rockets at mancs on stairs) too satisfying. This is my least favorite because it lasts a lot longer than (5).

 

This is a really cool theme, so I think it'd be a waste not to overhaul these encounters to some extent. Encounters (5) and (6) feel the most overtly like filler to me, although (4) at the very least could use some changes. 

 

Here is a very casual max. bitfrostrc_rd_cpt.zip

 

Edited May 25, 2018 by rdwpa

[SiFi270]

The color scheme made this map look like the top of a big, fancy cake. The fact that I could not actually eat it was a source of great frustration, because it looked delicious.

[SP_FACE1]

Beautiful style.

I always forgot which rainbow areas I had already done and ended up visiting old places multiple times. I would be pleased to see some way for the level to mark where player has already gone.

[HAK3180]

This is exactly the kind of map that should appear in a traditional megawad's slot 31, in my opinion. I generally agree with rdwpa's ranking/points, although I really liked the concept of the arachnotron run; it was just too easy.

 

I also really liked the beginning overlook.

Edited May 25, 2018 by HAK3180 : typo

[SuperCupcakeTactics]

Neato map! I like the shapes you made, such as the middle of the map resembling that of the Eightfold Path.

[riderr3]

[galileo31dos01]

Nice map, beautiful combination of colours, fitting music, quite fun. I recorded a demo on Ultra-Violence here:

 

[EDIT 2: finally!]

 

 

Some personal feedback also in spoilers:

 

Spoiler

I really liked how you can take any direction, and how each teleport's island is visually built to resemble the area to visit. 

 

- My top favourite part is the circle of archviles, it has a small bit of RNG gameplay that's still manageable to come out uninjured, although you will see me tanking damage in the demo, I could succeed in that before. If I ever replay the map, this section will be my first choice, since it was the trickiest one.

- The colorful stairs of mancubi was fine, definitely one of the easiest, if I'd make that part I'd leave a empty space between each manc simply because the upper ones can't do much from above.

- The C-shaped setpiece with the two cyberdemons was simply more pleasant, had no problems in this part.  

- The barons section took me a couple of tries, and I could never not avoid damage, the geometry can make the player glue the block lines if they decide to squeeze past the yet-not-dead barons, something that was less probable in the C-shaped at least from my experience. I still liked that section, pretty sure there's a proper strategy to not become a damage sponge that I'm missing.

- The race towards the telefrag-chain is very easy, unless you don't realize what you're meant to do in the first seconds of teleporting there. Didn't seem boring to me, just too short and forgiving imo.

- I left the other circle of archviles plus spiderdemon to the end, because my health was low and realized the missing item could be a megasphere (found it while recording). It's also one of my favourite parts, but there is a thing with the archviles: with that limited cover and how RNG works, I thought the most viable approach was to knock off the viles one by one. There is where I realized about the telefrag chain (no ammo in that section is the clue), but it didn't look trustworthy enough to go that way, which is why you can see me killing the viles and then taking the teleport. Sure, the spiderdemon can attack you meanwhile, but depending on the route you take, with 200% hp/armor in stock the few bullets can barely impact on the player (some sort of switch-gimmick-based cover could be fine too, if you decide to change something), so it's all good imo. 

 

Overall, not only satisfied but very pleased with the rare twist of colour scheme you granted us, besides the gameplay style, which I agree with HAK3180 that it would fit perfectly in a megawad's secret or bonus map. Thank you!

 

Edited May 26, 2018 by galileo31dos01

[Lingyan203]

This wad is perfect in honour of the Pride Parade!