CAMARO.WAD a single map for doom

[AustroDoomer]

Hi Doomworld community !

 

I m new an this is my first public map. This map is out from a old three episodes megawad
for doom, that i built together with my brother in 1995/96.The name of this wad is ZOOM.WAD.
The level editor which the wad is build was one of the first versions of dmapedit.
Some maps  of the  megawad are at the time unplayable and I  currently working on it with
Gzdoom builder. (i will try to post this megawad here in a few months.)

So this single map is E3M4, one of the reworked maps of ZOOM.WAD
I hope you like it. criticism and suggestions are welcome.

 

Download link:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/2u5ohcj8n602aw2/CAMARO.WAD/file

 

 

description:

 

This is a medium sized map in vanilla doom format  in a hellish - stone "house of pain-ish" style.
There also some secrets ... can you find them all ?

 

GAME: DOOM - iwad DOOM.WAD

 

FILE NAME: CAMARO.WAD

 

MAP:  E3M4

 

No freelooking,jumping or crouching required

 

Designed for single player and cooperative 2-4 Player

 

No deathmatch starts !

 

Additional Credits to : Dmapedit and Gzdoom Builder

Tested With : ZDoom, GZDoom, PrBoom+ and Doom95.exe

 

Difficulty Settings : Yes ,in my opinion the hard skill is very hard but
not impossible

 

Screenshots:

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by AustroDoomer : Updating

[Cheshire Sphinx]

Just had a play through, had a blast (heh). Very reminiscent of Ultimate Doom and really encapsulates the essence of 90's/Vanilla gameplay in all the best ways. I /loved/ the subtle and overt nods to the original game (including the damned pinkie at the end, it startled me >_>).

 

I don't have a playthrough demo but I killed 215 of 275, and found 5 secrets. Had a lot of fun and left my comments below, thanks for uploading this. :)

 

A couple of minor things:

 

Technical:

I had trouble after getting the red key in that I couldn't find a way to double back, the skin door is one way, the lift back down into the area and the red door is past both those issues.

 

Aesthetic/personal preference:

Some secrets could stand to be better marked. A lot of it is backtracking and you can pick up on those with audio cues (good work on that btw!) but some of them are just completely incomprehensible unless you're wall humping.

 

The subterranean area with the red stone and soul sphere could use some texture aligning; the red stone and white stone are just repeating across some of the linedefs and it really stands out among an otherwise quality texture job. 

[zodiac]

Definitely a good first entry. I liked the feel of the exploration, with the level opening up as you play. I didn't mind most of the secrets - I wouldn't have found the radiation tunnel one or the drop wall right before it, but they don't give too much benefit compared to the other. The one I didn't like was the 1-time lift. I actually saw it, but was still fighting and didn't make it back in time - not strictly needed, but disappointing that you can do a lot right and still mess it up. As far as pure exploration, my favorite areas were the spider room, which just feels ominous with all the dead marines, and the underground cave with the soulsphere on the red rock. Both evoked an Episode 3 feel while still being fresh. The net effect was that the map still felt original, and the homages like the crate room and Halls of the Damned tunnel seemed like fun callbacks rather than dominating the experience.

 

As far as combat and balance, I'd have liked to see more open combats for straight fights, and more tricks for the close encounters. In the corridor fights you mostly just shoot what's in front of you. As one really good example, the bunch of specters right before the spider room don't do much but eat punches, but if the area was open enough for them to try to surround you, the slime behind you gives a real damage threat - you couldn't just keep backpedaling, and they become harder to see in the darker corridor. The sheer amount of beating a few cacos or several demons/lost souls in areas thin enough that they come one at a time from the front is the weakest part of the wad. One easy trick is to have attacks from multiple directions. You could loose a couple specters on each side instead of several in front, or warp an enemy to threaten a camping spot from behind.

 

I did like the Barons at the end - that's good use of cramped terrain, and leaves enough room to be a pressure fight. It would have been cool if they could go on the teleporter though, so that if you think laterally to try telefragging them you could save the resources. You could use a monster-only teleport to get them back in the end room if you don't want them chasing you into the starting area. That's because while health and armor was plentiful, ammo is tight if you try to max the level. I did, and I literally had zero and chainsawed the last 100 health of the final Baron. Whether that health and ammo balance is good depends on what you're trying for, but if it's trying to match Doom 1 probably a bit more ammo and less armor in particular.

 

The other really stand-out fight was the crate room - it made me miss the secret, but it perfectly captured the episode 2 feel of running around with a big mess of imps and demons in tow, and the specters/barons/cacos gave the fight some teeth. There, though, I was able to think laterally and let the crusher do most of the work, which was great fun allowed by the level design there. The cacos were also good in the blue key room, where they'll fly up over the pillar for a good surprise attack. Less so in the skinmetal cage room, where they're stuck while you fire rockets or whatever into them.

 

Progression-wise I'd have liked a lot of the non-cell firepower to show up a lot earlier, at least in secrets. There's enough demons early on that an early berserk would be welcome, since with no SSG it takes a while to wear them down. An earlier rocket launcher isn't needed, but would be fun on clusters of imps and possessed - you'd limit the total impact with the low ammo count until right before the Spider Room visit. The chainsaw is basically useless since you can't get it until the very end. You could slot some of these into early secrets instead of the health, armor, and invisibilities. I didn't mention them before, but without many Sarges, their benefit is limited.

 

If there's a specific direction you want to take this map I could give more feedback. If not, I'd rather see another map revised from the original wad. Some of these issues are less a concern if the other levels are more open, and this was supposed to be 'the claustrophobic one', like E3M3.

Edited May 26, 2018 by zodiac

[AustroDoomer]

 

Hi! Many thanks for your feedback. I am glad you like  90's style of the map.

 

#Cheshire Sphinx ,when you pick the red key on the raised platform in the spider cave,
a teleporter also will raise (this is not really good visible when you have the spider mastermind in
your neck).This teleporter will beam you in the near of the starting room.
(Look at the screenshot at the end of this post)
The one way skindoor is intentionally.
I try to make some secrets "visibler".

#zodiac

Thanks also for your feedback. I am pleased you like the texturing and the gameplay atmosphere.
The one way lift i want long ago to change this and make it repeatable.

To the combat balance, especially the spectres i can try to teleport them unexpectedly
in the spider cave. And here is a question.The teleport for monsters only linedefs 125,126
only works in DOOM2 and not DOOM. (the older doom.exe not doom2.exe versions doesn't support this)
However, its possilbe that works with Zdoom based ports and prboom+.
The barons in the end room,i still thinking to remove the block monster flag and so the can
be fragged.

Thanks all for testing! I will make some changes in the map.

[Cheshire Sphinx]

Ah! Yeah, I missed that because I left the spider alive >_>

 

Hanging a proverbial lantern on it would make it much easier to find, I think, yeah. :)

[zodiac]

Just want to clarify that linedef actions 125/126 should be fine to use. They work in Doom 1.9 (Ultimate Doom), you can see 126 right in E4M1's dark room with the sarges. I confirmed it for custom maps running in Chocolate Doom now to be 100% sure and it works there as well.

 

If you think it feels less like Doom E1-3 using them that's valid though. You could loose wandering monsters behind the level the way some of the later Romero maps do as an alternative with pretty similar effects on the fight.

[AustroDoomer]

Thanks for that information zodiac !

I did not know that. I thought it was only for DOOM2.

I will see what i can do.

[AustroDoomer]

File in the first post updated.
The most important changes are: a litte bit more cell ammo is shown earlier in the map.(secrets)
the lift in the red stoned room is now repeatable, monster teleporters in some areas,
(especially in the spider's cave) and a better texture alignment .

Barons in the ending room can now telefragged.

[AustroDoomer]

Updated the link again.

Better texture alignment - now in all areas of the map.