New project: Evolved - second map for testing: Castle of Varanops

[nicolas monti]

After almost a year since my last release I'm trying to make new stuff and my previous project (ater fieri) is being procrastinated by now.

My goal for now is an 11-map episode with varied themes, using some extra textures and trying to apply a little bit of more detail compared to my previous stuff

I'm open to any criticism so I can make this map better, I've tried to keep a low monster count since this map is intended to be the first of the episode but I might change that (monster count) depending on what players feel about it.

 

MAP02: Castle of Varanops http://www.mediafire.com/file/b4spc13t2ao3p1f/CASTLEVARANOPS.wad/file

 

EDIT: map fixed, compatible with any port!

 

 

MAP01: Caseid Swamps http://www.mediafire.com/file/c4zmiavzx1xxf22/CASEIDSWAMPS.wad/file

 

updated file with minor changes: http://www.mediafire.com/file/ltzhl39i2z1utxd/CASEIDSWAMPS2.wad/file

- a couple of alignments

- demon teleport trap gives you more milliseconds to react

- monsters in the star teleport area can go back to that area via monsterteleport lines

- cave strafe jump is a bit easier

- sign for the cave elevator that goes down

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by nicolas monti : File update

[wintertowns]

Here is my fda, I died to the last three skellies.

 

cs01.zip

 

I thought it could do as a map placed later on in the wad, with some more monsters. Feels a little bit too long and complex to be an introductory start of a mapset, and the large outdoor ares felt a bit underused. I liked the custom textures in combination with the classic stuff, it felt like they improved the scenery and interiors without standing out too much.

 

The lowering platforms connected to the water dungeon was hard to see, I actually missed one and wandered around aimlessly for a good while before even realizing what it was. Maybe elevate the platforms a little bit above floor height, so it's easy to spot when they lower. Especially the one in the dungeon.

 

I personally like maps with little health, but I can see how some people would think that healthbalance is on the lower side. I think the ammobalance has to be spot on like it is though. Armorplacement felt logical.

 

Good luck with the other maps.

[Firedust]

Good to have you back! Love your stuff, as usual. You always manage to capture this kind of old-school vibe, so every time I play through your maps, I feel like I'm going on this massive nostalgia trip. Looking forward to the rest. Your Favillesco episodes are the best.

[gaspe]

Glad to see you back! I recorded a fda: caseidswamps_gaspe_fda.zip

 

I also died at the last 3 revenants, the teleporting demon traps you into the closet so you don't have so much chances to react. I liked the layout with the towers to explore. I also liked that you are putting more details and use some custom textures though I have to criticize the texturing. I think it would be better if you are a bit more selective with the new textures or use them in a different manner, the look tend to be messy and confusing at times.

[riderr3]

The wooden pier immediately reminded me of the Caribbean

[lowpass30Hz]

Screenshots and new textures look great. Not such a fan of the parts circled below though.

[lowpass30Hz]

4 minutes ago, riderr3 said:

The wooden pier immediately reminded me of the Caribbean

 

Reminds me of the first map, Boat Docks from the Blood add on, Cryptic Passage. 

[Memfis]

I found this map quite interesting and more unique than most other wads you've made in the recent years. Looks like you had some good fun working with these new textures. It's very good that you're experimenting like this. The only problem I found is that prboom-plus crashes on exit with some message about CWILV00. Not sure what is wrong with it exactly. Anyway, here is a demo of me playing:

CASEIDSWAMPS_mem_FDA.zip

[Salt-Man Z]

Monti WADs are my favorite WADs! I'll be first in line to download/play this when it's finished.

[srk:.]

Highly entertaining. A pleasure to play, as always. I loved your trademark "organic like" structures and the gameplay was really satisfying, revolving around the center area which keeps changing.

 

I particularly enjoyed this secret:

Spoiler

at first I thought it was one of your "find the right spot form were to shoot the switch", but then i dropped here. Maybe it can be shot from the crates with a super shotgun...

 

Maybe this jump was a bit too difficult, but I've never been a great strafe jumper, so it might be my fault.

 

Great map. I'm happy you're back.

[nicolas monti]

Thanks everyone, I've updated the file with some minor adjustments, nice to talk to some of you again and nice to hear some of you had died... in the map :)

I'll try to keep working on the other maps soon, next map will be castle /medieval themed.

This project will take some time but I'll try not to give up so feedback is very appreciated!

[galileo31dos01]

May I ask before playing the map, what is the compatibility? (vanilla, limit-removing, boom, zdoom, etc). Or more important, what source port you use to test your map(s)?

[nicolas monti]

20 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

May I ask before playing the map, what is the compatibility? (vanilla, limit-removing, boom, zdoom, etc). Or more important, what source port you use to test your map(s)?

 

limit-removing, It could be vanilla I guess but i don't know if there are any limits regarding to lines or vertices and currently there is some error popping up when I run the map in chocodoom so I'm testing it with boom

[HAK3180]

Not much to say. I enjoyed it. 

[Deadwing]

Just finished the map, I've loved it! It definetly has your style all over it, although with a very nice twist with the new textures. Even with the alignments, the aesthetic feels a lot abstract and organic, creating some sort of rusty industrial place mixed with tech. The enviroment is very rich, unique and the gameplay, focused on exploration rather than non-stop action, reinforces that feel. It's a fairly easy level, and a bit long, but very fun because exploring the whole thing and fighting enemies in odd/vertical situations makes the experience a lot rewarding. At last, song is amazing and captures well the atmosphere of the level.

 

Can't wait to see where this is going! :D

Here's my playthrough (still uploading, it'll be avaliable in one or two hours):

 

 

 

[nicolas monti]

On 8/3/2018 at 6:07 PM, Deadwing said:

Just finished the map, I've loved it! It definetly has your style all over it, although with a very nice twist with the new textures. Even with the alignments, the aesthetic feels a lot abstract and organic, creating some sort of rusty industrial place mixed with tech. The enviroment is very rich, unique and the gameplay, focused on exploration rather than non-stop action, reinforces that feel. It's a fairly easy level, and a bit long, but very fun because exploring the whole thing and fighting enemies in odd/vertical situations makes the experience a lot rewarding. At last, song is amazing and captures well the atmosphere of the level.

 

Can't wait to see where this is going! :D

Here's my playthrough (still uploading, it'll be avaliable in one or two hours):

 

 

 

I really appreciate your feedback, I was out like 8 months and recently I released a new map unrelated to this project, I'll see if I can work in the second map of this series. 

[nicolas monti]

Second map ready for testing: Castle of Varanops

[Ribbiks]

Greetings again. Was made aware of the second map here so I played it.

 

You're right it had some weird blockmap issues, so I went ahead and rebuilt the nodes and it ended up perfectly fine. I attached to this post the version of the wad I played.

 

This map was actually fantastic imo. the arch theme is great, and is possibly the closest I've seen a monti-map approach semi-modern sensibilities ;D. The sense of height is nice and imposing, and I like how the spaciousness of everything is made dangerous by inconvenient distant mobs. The ammo seemed overly generous, having so many cells made the finale feel a bit meek. Good stuff.

CASTLEVARANOPS_fda_rbk.lmp.zip

CASTLEVARANOPS.wad.zip

[nicolas monti]

7 minutes ago, Ribbiks said:

Greetings again. Was made aware of the second map here so I played it.

 

You're right it had some weird blockmap issues, so I went ahead and rebuilt the nodes and it ended up perfectly fine. I attached to this post the version of the wad I played.

 

This map was actually fantastic imo. the arch theme is great, and is possibly the closest I've seen a monti-map approach semi-modern sensibilities ;D. The sense of height is nice and imposing, and I like how the spaciousness of everything is made dangerous by inconvenient distant mobs. The ammo seemed overly generous, having so many cells made the finale feel a bit meek. Good stuff.

CASTLEVARANOPS_fda_rbk.lmp.zip

CASTLEVARANOPS.wad.zip

Nice Ribbiks, so it was nodebuilder problem? Which one did you use? I'll check your demo once I got home tomorrow, glad you've enjoyed the map, I'll see if I cut some cells for the final version! I'm aware that not everyone can BFG the cybies in 2 shots but sure cell count will be slightly reduced.

[Ribbiks]

15 minutes ago, nicolas monti said:

so it was nodebuilder problem? Which one did you use?

 

I used zdbsp (no reject). It's strange, because looking at the map itself nothing stands out as being weird or problematic. When loading your version in prb+ I see this message:

 

P_LoadBlockMap: This map uses a large blockmap which may cause no-clipping bugs.

 

But the geometry of the map isn't big enough for that to happen from natural causes. So my best guess is that something weird occurred while saving the map that might have corrupted it in some way?

[nicolas monti]

7 hours ago, Ribbiks said:

 

I used zdbsp (no reject). It's strange, because looking at the map itself nothing stands out as being weird or problematic. When loading your version in prb+ I see this message:

 

P_LoadBlockMap: This map uses a large blockmap which may cause no-clipping bugs.

 

But the geometry of the map isn't big enough for that to happen from natural causes. So my best guess is that something weird occurred while saving the map that might have corrupted it in some way?

I changed the nodebuilder to avoid some slime trails but at this cost I'm returning to the default one, anyway I'll check all of this when I'm home, thanks for your help, I've got to think it was a brboom problem, and about geometry, yes, the map is not something overly complex, only many lines for the arches but that's it, the map is mid sized.