Akeldama - Now on Idgames!

[valkiriforce]

I was thinking along the lines of a secret hangar in a mountainous area. It was originally going to be snow-themed but we've had a number of snow-related maps already, so I went for the natural setting. I can send it along your way when I'm feeling confident enough to do so; I'm sure you'll get the idea of the theme when you see it yourself.

[pcorf]

On 3/20/2019 at 2:18 AM, valkiriforce said:

At the moment not really - I'm still keeping the last few slots reserved for a later time, but there's always a chance someone will drop out or we don't get enough maps by the second deadline, so I'll be sure to keep you in mind for that (as well as the possibility of a collab map for MAP31).

 

Been stuck at 17 maps for quite a while as mappers are trying to sort out the bugs. I think it's going to take time. I am probably not going to submit my map until the July deadline.

[valkiriforce]

@NaZa @antares031 @wolfmcbeard @Juza @Pegleg Today is the 8th of April, and we have 1 month left for episode 2's deadline. Feel free to share any updates on any of your submissions if they are still a work in progress, as it's been a while since I've heard from anyone.

 

Currently I'm just working on MAP10 before I send it off; I also have a MAP08 submission from DJVCardMaster which is not 100% completed, but needs thing placement and other possible changes. Shouldn't be too long hopefully for episode 1 to have all finished maps; I also want to playtest them on lower difficulties for better balancing for all players. At the moment I'm just focusing on getting the last of the episode 1 maps finished while episode 2 maps are being worked on and submitted. Here's at least another screen of the WIP MAP10:

 

[NaZa]

Honestly, have not started work on it yet. Sorry. Will attempt to get something worthy of screenshotting by the end of the week!

[Pegleg]

@valkiriforce

I have started my map. My plan is to have the layout finished in the next couple of weeks.

 

You may have addressed this at some point; if so, I apologize for not remembering exactly. Since I'm currently sitting in the Map 20 slot, I would like to know if you plan on adjusting the order of the maps at some time following compilation? Or should I plan on making the episode-ending map?

[wolfmcbeard]

I've been working on my own project somewhat, whilst slowly chiseling my submission into shape.
That said I haven't made much progress on it, gimme a about a week and I'll post some progress. 

[valkiriforce]

27 minutes ago, Pegleg said:

You may have addressed this at some point; if so, I apologize for not remembering exactly. Since I'm currently sitting in the Map 20 slot, I would like to know if you plan on adjusting the order of the maps at some time following compilation? Or should I plan on making the episode-ending map?

 

Depending on the map size and difficulty, if the maps have to be rearranged I will do so. I would like to reserve the bigger maps toward the end of each respective episode, so I'll likely take that into consideration if any previous maps happen to be bigger with a higher difficult. I do think it would help to keep that in mind when working on a map for a later slot, as waverider's MAP11 was pretty huge with plenty of monsters in it, for example. Hopefully it'll stay the biggest map though since he had to use ZokumBSP to manage the blockmap limit, and I think it would help to stay within vanilla's limits.

[galileo31dos01]

Hello, playtester reporting back. Tested three more maps, my settings are Chocolate Doom 3.0.0, first casual playthrough on UV aiming for 100% everything, then a couple quick checks on HMP/HNTR on iddqd to see differences, alternative ways, etc. Lastly, a -nomo general check of each map to focus on misaligned textures, HOMs or whatever else. I spent some saves where I felt like. Keep in mind I'm not a mapper, yet, and I speak from an "average casual doomer" perspective. I will post my comments on  map 13 tomorrow because, for you to know I started writing this 10 hours ago (not continually) so I'm pretty tired now. Anyways:

 

@Gothic Map06:

 

Spoiler

 

- First of all, I played this a couple weeks ago up to the yellow door section where Chocolate crashed due to savegame overflow. I retried yesterday.

- I had mixed feelings with this one. Some monster placements seemed just there to occupy space or slow down the pace: ambushes/hordes appear mostly in front of you, on UV tons of imps/pinkies hordes makes combat a little grindy, delayed teleporting stuff too, some forced door-camping product of incidental hordes right behind doors. In a way, the simplicity of certain areas reminded me to HR, specially the northwestern part (yellow door), minus "walls with health" that is. Imho it could use some tweaking here and there to improve the flow, but if others found everything fine then it's just me. 

- Following the previous item, things that come to my mind that would help improve the flow (from my POV) are: 

• Soulsphere room, have those pinkies teleport in once you pick it up. Alternative: when you start shooting the commandos, pinkies start teleporting next to each door to prevent escaping. 
• South section, takes long for all cacos to teleport. I would add a revenant to teleport in the middle, and only two cacos. I'd also move the two HMP sergeants to UV along with the cacos, and use imps on HMP instead, since sergeants represent more threat than cacos in the majority of scenarios.
• RL secret, on my first time I saw the revs could walk down the steps into the RL so I thought the trap was ok. What I didn't like was the pinkies from before, they only consumed my time with no threat at all. 
• Hitscanners room at the south, I'd make a couple of those chaingunners on the floor to teleport in along with the revs for added pressure.
• Bridge section (going for YK), I'd make the pinkies teleport behind so you have pressure from both sides (they'd push you inside the room with the PE and hitscanners). 
• At the northwestern big room, ledges with baron textures, when you flip a switch every marble wall lowers revealing HKs. Fighting one side is fine but when you get to the other side the HKs will be camping the entrance. You could position yourself on the bridges and spam rockets, though it isn't engaging. I preferred the HMP version with cacos instead, but still, it's a symmetric setup so maybe experimenting with different monster types behind each marble wall would break said symmetry. Also, the cacos that are released earlier could be released the moment you flip any of the switches. To mix things a little bit, maybe cacos and lost souls from one closet while one or two PEs in the other closet. 
• BK area, I'd delete all the imps right behind the door, they make you camp from safety. The teleport trap with spectres/PEs is ok but I think it could be spiced up a little bit more. I thought of two alternatives: make those imps teleport when you flip the switch, and make them able to walk down the stairs, if this causes the game to crash then nope. Another alternative, these same imps teleport in each hallway, plus two chaingunners above the stairs for pressure from every side.
• Only thing I'd change in the last room is no chaingunners on HMP or replace them with imps maybe, because hitscanners are a different enemy type that in that context aren't any less violent than revenants imo.

I know it's a lot of things I suggested. For example, the last room is a good example of measured incidental combat with imps to slaughter while dodging rev missiles. I liked the RK trap too. Anyway, as I said before, if the map is considered all fine as it is, ignore the items above. If anyone else read this and agreed/disagreed with something, feel free to discuss.

- Switch and BK stick have green slime textures on them which looks odd. 

- There are 4 radsuits at the computer map secret, that's quite generous considering you don't spend much time in the slime. Not a big deal though but I'd suggest to tag three of them to MP-only or replace with stimpacks since one is enough, or else leave two for lower skills.

 

 

@The Mysterious Moustachio  Map09: 

 

Spoiler

 

- First of all, I played an older version two weeks ago ("wintstrong-013119-2") so I had some notes for that, but then checked the newest version yesterday. 

- This got seriously beefed, I went from casually beating it to dying twenty times at the start, which surprised me a lot. I also noticed a few things I wrote down from the previous version got fixed/tweaked, like the stuck zombies next to the red bars and some weird things in the YK section. With that many enemies added at the start, you get very little space to move around and ammo to kill them all, which could push you to outside where you can get annihilated in seconds, but that could be fun. The problem was balance, on UV I run out of ammo before the crushers part, two times, even if the second time I opted to skip the RK trap, just had no ammo to keep going through. So that you get an idea, the third time I was extremely careful and almost lost it all (see here going to secret): at the start, woke up everything, grabbed plasma and armor and took the lift up, while everything down killed themselves. Then went for YK, let revs and HKs infight, then aimed for PEs to die asap with plasma. Then through yellow door, released the trap, some infighting happened too (I had good ammo count by then). Went for RK, three quick rockets to the PE and left the rest alive. BK trap left me with little ammo left. Carefully went through crushers room and had just enough to gain space. This is when I took the picture above. I could fill in ammo in the next sections, and finally backtracked to the RK section to clean up. Playing this carefully means to skip traps that loose a purpose later and pursue infighting in a slower pace which should be optional imo, it can lead to frustration. My suggestion would be to add ammo at the RK section and maybe a cell pack in the alcove next to the red bars, or a berserk in every skill level (then test if it helps). HMP was fine, if a little tight in ammo too. 

- Found this imp stuck, also a slime trail.

- This revenant should be flagged UV only.

- No prince ever came to kiss-wake up this arachnotron through the entire playthrough.

- One less archvile at the end on HNTR imo.

- During my god mode test on HMP, when I backtracked to the RK section to clean up I heard dudes from that sector above. They started to teleport in the section after the crushers, very late for some reason. When are they supposed to spawn in and what triggers them? 

- Misaligned texture here and in there.

- For some reason these two imps on HNTR took their time, I thought nothing would spawn in for a moment. Maybe they should be closer to the teleport linedef. 

- Saw a slime trail here, I know it's not important at all, but still wanted to mention it.

- It's overall a very solid concept of a map, I really dig the combat and varied geometry. It gets a little weird towards end but nothing bad. I guess a new midi will be assigned for it someday. 

 

[galileo31dos01]

@Juza Map13: 

 

Spoiler

 

- Well hello Alien Vendetta and Deus Vult II!, nice vibes there. Enjoyable linear map. Very cramped in spaces and rough traps. Dig the visuals at the start and the green cave specially. Please keep the Doom I midi.

- I would place a medikit in there. 

- Big HOM here.

- This teleporting ambush here isn't very effective, you simply stand still shooting. 

- Secret to plasma rifle seemed to be one-time, not sure if that's intentional.

- I'd suggest to place those ammo boxes in the eastern section somewhere not in the middle of the way. On HMP or HNTR with less enemies you can top easily and possibly pick them up when you don't need them (example).

- Not sure what's the point of this hidden path.

- Visual glitch here.

- Third imp closet near the start has a different texture.

- Some slime sectors can hurt you and others don't, which is inconsistent: e.g. here you're safe, but here it hurts; the steps aren't pain sector when the rest was (could also change the texture to slime in last step and add a puddle too, just for visuals).

- There's a chainsaw flagged on UV only near the end of the map, but I don't see the point of it.

- Saw a lot of misaligned textures in the green cave that aren't really important. A few in the archvile trap are quite visible though, where you added light effects (picture with Crispy so you can see them better). Also here and there if you want to fix them, and in this pit, though who cares if you can't escape :P

- Differences between skill levels seemed overall fine, but could be tweaked a little bit more. My personal suggestion would be to tone down HNTR in places, unless you were trying to recreate AV's balance which I'm unaware of. For example:

• Section with popup archvile, I would flag him UV/HMP or no revs on HNTR; only one teleporting chaingunner on each side on HNTR. 
• YK fight, no spectres on HNTR, but keep the same HK count from HMP. I found that the spectres were the most dickish part.
• Hitscan teleporting ambush post blue door, on HNTR less of each type or some zombiemen replacing the chaingunners.

 

 

[joepallai]

@galileo31dos01 great reviews! 

 

Here's latest progress shot:

 

SW corner w/ exit complete now I'm working in the central area and SE corner.   Managed to add a nasty VPO late last night that I figured out a nice fix for (sometimes accidents are useful); finally starting to like the map (yeah, I'm one of those guys...) as the non-linear section doesn't break the map's flow.  

[DFF]

@complexDoomer Had time, decided to playtest your map12

Spoiler

+Overall the map visually is quite pleasant, some areas feel a little too open but generally very nice and fun.

-Red Key seemed to be missing on UV (difficulty I played), couldn't locate it even with noclip.

-For MAP12, the level feels rather easy. Not every map must he a slaughter plutonia map, but nothing in this map really felt challenging (even the 2 archvilles at the end were good but not serious). Possibly some more monster variety could fix this as well as generally adding more (remove lost souls behind areas walled off (sector 272), they are useless here as they cannot touch the player at all really).

-the 4 sergeants in the exit trap are stuck because the area they are in is too small, make it larger (sectors 110, 112, 117, 114), this was tested with GZDoom.

 

[DJVCardMaster]

Just sharing some pictures of what map08 is going to look like, monster placement is going to be made by another person.

Map's name is going to be Artic Base

[valkiriforce]

Currently working out the monster placement + additional details on your MAP08 entry to help some areas stand out more. Shouldn't be too long before it gets posted here. I've also finished my part on MAP10 and sent it to The Mysterious Moustachio recently, so I look forward to seeing where it goes from there.

[valkiriforce]

Finished out the thing placement + detailing on Arctic Base; only playtested a handful of times but I decided to post it here for everyone else to try it out: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qmlm1c3oswrubr1/targeted-jp.wad?dl=0 (updated)

 

 

Edited April 14, 2019 by valkiriforce

[galileo31dos01]

@valkiriforce

 

Quick questions:

 

1. The maps prior making this thread (by yours, Paul977 and waverider), do you think they need more testing or should I focus on the maps posted here?

2. IIRC in the wad file you sent me a while ago, there was a big map in the third episode. What happened to it?

[valkiriforce]

1. Any additional testing is welcome, as there is always a chance someone else catches something that nobody else spotted that might need fixing, or any other input regarding the difficulty and item balance.

 

2. The map is still in there - I assume you're talking about Bitter Waters? It's MAP27 in the first post.

[galileo31dos01]

Nah, I was talking about Aqueduct Fortress that I confused the slot, sorry. That was one I wanted to properly test again and talk about because I had my serious doubts about the pace. Will be another time though. 

[DJVCardMaster]

It turned out to be a lovely map, I already gave it a test, I'll let the people decide what needs to change, I'm really liking it as it is right now.

By the way I left this THICCRATE as a stapple from me ;)

[valkiriforce]

Whoops, thank you for bringing that to my attention again - I meant to add that big crate texture to the resource wad. I'll update the resource to include it.

 

Also, MAP10 is pretty much finished outside of some playtesting, so I'll update to include it shortly.

[valkiriforce]

Here's MAP10: Hangar Facility. Had to make some changes due to a segs overflow near the blue key area, so reduced some of the segs there and kept the area mostly looking the same. Also made some other changes as I saw fit, hopefully it plays all right. Kind of thinking of changing the name slightly due to having already named another map Carnage Facility...

[Denim Destroyer]

I played on UV and found it to play fine, harder than I was expecting but still pretty fun. I would widen the doors at the beginning to avoid doorfighting with the shotgunners and pinkies. Also I would move the bridge monster teleporter line back some as I found it annoying to have a revenant teleport almost inside of me.

[joepallai]

Just finished playing Map10 "Hanger Facility" on HMP and loved it!   It felt authentic and modern at the same time; the lighting was perfect, the fights were extremely well staged and the secrets were fun to find.   I wouldn't change a thing.

[joepallai]

Lots of small changes and fixes plus the SE corner is taking shape.   Red Key secret's access has been figured out as well as the reward for it (BFG).   70% complete

[dt_]

 

FDA of all e3 maps in order, maps that are next to each other have been played continuously

[wolfmcbeard]

Ok, I had to get a new pc, I'll get to work on my map as soon as I can since it'll take some time to move my files over and get this thing set up.
My computer luck has been -1 out of 10 lately, hopefully that trend has come to an end.

[joepallai]

Red Key areas started, SE corner still going strong, multiplayer start location placed.  75% complete.

[valkiriforce]

Just here to remind everyone that the deadline for E2 submissions is now a couple of weeks away (May the 8th as a reminder); after that I will no longer accept outside submissions for Episode 2 unless the map in question is already close to completion.

[joepallai]

Current progress shot of SE corner.   Wish there were better 112 unit high midbar textures...(the one there is too crowded I always thought).  

[NaZa]

Pulling out, there's not enough time for me to make something anymore.

[wolfmcbeard]

I'm having the same gzbd bug fix issue I was having before, it won't even attempt to start so I'm not even sure if I can fix it and get it working in time since I'm not entirely sure why it started working again last time.
If I can't get it working in two or three days, does someone want to take it over, see if it can be finished?