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valkiriforce

Akeldama - Now on Idgames!

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http://doomshack.org/uploads/adama_v2.wad

 

The name is "Operation Pump and Dump"

 

Sorry it's taken me so long to post anything. This is about 80% complete, but the map is currently kind of easy and doesn't have an ending section. I wanted to make something that felt old and comfortable to classic Doomers but I think this is a little too comfortable and I don't want it to be flat out boring EDIT: I've attempted to spice it up a bit.

 

I'm thinking about implementing some more of the old "monsters teleport in later in the map" trick but haven't gotten around to it. Ideas for more traps / ambushes and feedback in general is greatly appreciated.

 

Almost forgot to mention, the midi is from map31 of exec.wad

Edited by Doomkid

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I played through on UV and found it fun, I like the "oh crap I need to move fast" moment you have at the beginning of the level. There are two issues I noticed. First is a Cacodemon that got stuck behind a computer and the second is the exit room. I was able to stay in the doorway and blast away the Cacos and Hell Knights using the Rocket Launcher with no danger to myself. 

Spoiler

DfNJVVv.png

 

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I try playing your incomplete map @Doomkid on Chocolate Doom loaded with the AK resource wad but I got this error message :(

 

Screenshot_233.png.ec82cabce27c771f4cd4bf51149fc917.png

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That is very odd, I got it to load just fine in DosBox.. I wonder what’s causing that?

 

Classicgamer6 thank you for pointing both of those issues out, will have them both fixed soon.

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4 hours ago, Philnemba said:

I try playing your incomplete map @Doomkid on Chocolate Doom loaded with the AK resource wad but I got this error message :(

 

Screenshot_233.png.ec82cabce27c771f4cd4bf51149fc917.png

Are you using the latest version of the resource pack?

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5 hours ago, Gothic said:

Are you using the latest version of the resource pack?

 

I redownload the resource wad and it seem to do the trick.

 

Anyway cool map despite not being finish yet. 

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Played your map @Doomkid , looking good and with a nice classic feel despite few places are a bit bare for now and it isn't boring at all. The start is quite tricky with few rockets that you have to use well to open a way to collect the CG or the SG, in my first attempts I tried to force my way going into the storage room first but visiting the room at north with the CG seems a more viable option, though both routes have a good opposition. I liked a lot the grey nukage area and the linear catwalk worked well. The idea of the exit room doesn't seem bad, maybe you can reveal some monsters with closets later so it's less of camping behind the doorway.

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@doomkid

 

It took me a while (25+ tries I am embarrassed to say) but I finally beat your map on HMP in a single playthrough.

 

Visually its a very good looking map without resorting to unnecessary detailing. I really liked the look of this map. You did a lot without all of the fluff and it works really well.

 

The fights were outstanding; though I really think on HMP and lower you need two additional medkits. The first I would put in the starting area between the windows and the next one I would put in the “blue room” with all of the chaingunners. Additionally on Easy I would cut one of the cacos from the starting area (and maybe a chaingunner or two from the blue room). I also think a box of rockets on HMP/Easy at the start is worth considering. (for easy I'd keep the original two rockets and just add the box of rockets; but on HMP I'd swap out the 2 starting rockets with the box).

 

The exit room was kind of a letdown. First the blue flooring seems out of place here with the exposed ceiling, the exit switch is unmarked; and finally there's the deep pit which would suck to fall into after everything this map throws at you. There needs to be a way out of the pit at the very least. (Edit: I just noticed that the southernmost line of the pit acts as a lift; it looks the same as all the other lower walls so I would change it to something different to signify that it is a lift)

 

I did enjoy the sgt/hell knight/caco fight that came out of this room, that was fun and slightly tricky as I used my last 5 rockets to soften the monsters up before burning through my shotgun shells (I ended the map with 26 shells and 20 cells, everything else was used up).

 

Overall the map is very good and surprisingly hard due to excellent monster placement. I like that there isn't a shotgun in either direction until you pass into the second area beyond the first; I thought that was a really good way of making the difficulty increase. I'd love to see some more single player maps from you after playing this.

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I'm really late coming here to post this, but I did play @ETTiNGRiNDER's map as well as Doomkid's recent submission.

 

On Top Secret Research Facility:

 

I like the openness of the layout, however I did feel there were a lot of big and empty rooms that really didn't need to be that large. There are a lot of long corridors and spaces where it can take a while to get to the other side of the fortress or even outside and around the place. I was having an ammo and health crisis throughout the map since I spent time fighting some outside enemies before entering the facility, and I ended up using IDDQD at some point because I just couldn't find any more health/ammo, so I decided to look through the map as such. I think besides the health/ammo problem I felt a lot of areas were just too bare with single-textured walls and some misaligned textures like the brick windows outside where the lines were left without the upper/lower unpegged options. There were some odd textures choices in some areas as well, with some brown and rocky areas adjacent to the techbase areas, which I felt could have been transitioned to a little better.

 

I don't think I was able to find many of the secrets either, however it looks like two sectors were accidentally marked as secrets instead of just one of them (sectors 377 and 379). I also thought some parts of the gameplay weren't that interesting - I think the size of some of the rooms can make enemies like the revenant less threatening as well as all the wandering demons. Sometimes I would only encounter a handful of enemies and I could just run past them. I wasn't much of a fan of the placement of revenants on those platforms near the beginning where they can snipe the player, since it would be kind of tedious to take them out from those platforms without a rocket launcher. It was also a bit of a drag to play a lot of this map without the SSG, which thankfully can be found right away if you venture in the right direction, but it's possible for players to choose another route in the map and pay for it with fighting lots of mid-tier enemies with a single shotgun or chaingun. I felt the two arch-viles just before the exit really kind of dragged the map since you could rush in and out of the doorway to snipe at them with a rocket launcher.

 

I did give the map another run and decided to ignore a lot of enemies, and I fared much better this time. The chainsaw secret also came in handy this time, which I used to save up on ammunition. I was later killed by that arch-vile trap on the star-shaped platform where the doors lock behind you and I took a hard hit followed by some other teleporting monsters and I pretty much lost my steam to continue at that point, but I can always try it again later.

 

Other than that, I don't remember coming across any major errors when it comes to testing it with chocorenderlimits, so that's a plus. I do think there's a lot to be done for the map though, as I feel it could use a major overhaul of some kind to work out a lot of these points I brought up. Otherwise I wouldn't find this map to be acceptable in it's current state. I may suggest either handing it over to someone else to give it a good facelift or it may be that the map itself won't be accepted, as I felt there were a lot of issues in the map.

 

Onto @Doomkid's map:

 

I was having a lot of fun with this one actually, despite having died a handful of times. I like rushing with the rocket launcher as an early weapon and trying to find another good weapon before running out. I would often head for the southern area where the shotgun and backpack could be found along with a green armor. There's plenty of dangerous encounters in this map, and I don't think it would be too much to include a couple of stimpacks near the start to lighten the oppression a bit. My concern for this map though is that it's smaller than dt_'s Chillwell, so I may want to swap those slots possibly, however I do think a decision like that would warrant making this map a little easier to handle. If it does come to this, I'd prefer being able to play it with a more arcade-like feeling of being able to rush through certain areas rather than playing it too safe with all the hitscan enemies like chaingunners and other such widespread enemies. It's part of the challenge of arranging a megawad when there are bigger and smaller maps with a difference in difficulties.

 

I did unfortunately encounter a segs overflow where a large HOM would appear when standing in sector 50 and looking northeast. I'm not sure just yet how to go about fixing something like this, but I know something can be figured out. There's also a solitary thing in that same area that randomly blocked me when I was exploring in the toxic waste (thing 300). I also missed the single secret but I don't have any problems with how it can be accessed. I did think the toxic pit in the exit area could use some fixing up, as I'm aware it does have the one side that raises the pit at level with the surrounding floors, but it does look a bit odd to have an animated liquid texture at level with the rest of the floors after it's been raised up. I think a lift would be preferable, or maybe create a smaller sector surrounding the pit where the liquid could raise up without reaching the height of the blue floors. The exit area could also use an exit sign for players who aren't ready to exit the map just yet if they want to go looking for other items or secrets. I would almost prefer an exit door with an exit switch so the player knows for certain this is the map's end similar to a lot of Doom 1's maps.

 

There was a feeling I had that something was missing in this map while looking over it, and I'm starting to think it's the sector 1 area; it's really big and almost feels like it needs something to fill that space like a tower or mini-fortress for some enemies and maybe a secret. There's plenty of ideas for brainstorming what could fill that space, although I'm aware it could intrude a bit on some of the distant enemies that would snipe at the player from there (and possibly run other risks for vanilla). Another idea I had was about the northern hallway by the chaingun (the sector 13-16 area); maybe some windows there to the outside would look nice visually, and possibly a secret way to get out there would be a pleasant surprise. A skylight for the chaingun area would look pretty cool as well; I did notice sector 96 doesn't have any linedef tag actions or any visual difference to the surround sector, so maybe that can be enlarged and turned into a skylight.

 

Very minor nitpick: I noticed there were a lot of areas that used that metal hexagonal texture; maybe change the texture to something more varied in either the sector 11/29 area or sector 13-16 areas. Overall I thought this was a good, classic experience that could use some more visual flair from the above points I mentioned.

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Well, here is the refined version.

- Mancubus in the foyer moved further into the map.

- Compressed some of the eastern areas.

- More places to hide in the summoning room.

- Tweaked the ending area some.

- Removed an erroneously duplicated secret flag.

- Fixed animation on a switch.

- Added in some more health/ammo here and there.

- General polish.

 

I guess it's probably not going to be accepted either way, so I'm fine with someone remixing it if they think it's salvageable or just dropping it from the project, however you want to do it.

eg-akel.wad.zip

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I did download it, I probably just forgot to update the first post's link.

 

Today marks the deadline of episode 1 maps, so I will no longer be accepting any more outside map entries for episode 1. MAP08 is the only slot that wasn't filled, and I'm sorry to say it's likely MAP10 will be replaced as well. Work will be done to fill those two slots, but in the meantime we'll be focusing on getting episodes 2 and 3 finished.

 

The deadline for episode 2 is May the 8th.

 

I should also add that map fixes for any episode 1 entries is totally fine; we'll be working out any additional bugs/fixes until the megawad's eventual release.

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It's not likely to happen anytime soon - I would rather wait until we have at least the first two episodes finished before attempting anything like it. It is important for mappers to keep in mind though that most areas should be accessible more than once for multiplayer settings. Try to make sure areas don't permanently close off so other players can access certain areas of the map that are necessary for completion.

 

@DukeOfDoom I'm thinking for MAP31 it's likely going to be a collab map further down the road, though I haven't figured out what MAP32 should be about just yet.

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First of all, kudos on the maps so far! I just tried some of them and the level design is very impressive, the flow and way things stand out so things don't look samey or confusing, all very good. Better maps than some in pretty acclaimed WADs I'd say even.

 

That said, I sometimes like to chime in with feedback from the sloppy player's perspective. I've said before, since the active Doomers who are usually up for testing are generally very skilled, it seems to make even "easy" wads tougher over the years. And for me, this is quite tough! Actually @Doomkid you mentioning your map had been easy was what got me to try these. That's usually what gets me to test something, almost as a funny challenge to show that it really isn't easy. And as usual, I can confirm this map is unbeatable for a casual/sloppy/just not that good Doom WAD enthusiast such as myself. Though I figure you'll add difficulty settings in by release, I noticed this had the same number of enemies on HNTR etc.

 

Even the seasoned Joe mentioned that it was hard and took 25+ tries. Me, I took 40 and no victory as of yet. And this is map 4 of a classic inspired WAD here. I have it on record that I can beat map 9 of Memento Mori without saving no problem on HMP (I say this lightheartedly, since that took me many tries and practice). One of my personal favs. Also for the record I didn't beat map 2 or 3 here either, but I'm sure I could beat map 2 if I saved a bunch of times and stuck with it. Did beat map 1.


I'm all for mappers making what they want to make. Just for feedback, I'm sure there are plenty of lurkers and Doom players just as sloppy at the game as I am. Memento Mori is mentioned, even the early AV maps aren't this tough or anything. The OP makes it sound like being a relentless tough combat gauntlet isn't the intention of this, but at the moment it is. You said it's "staying true to the original Doom 2 formula of gameplay", just the results here don't seem to, at least from my perspective. Exploration and smooth organic maybe even subtle combat were what classic Doom and Memento Mori etc were often about to me. But I just have different interests there. Anyways, just sharing my perspective, I don't think relentless combat testing the player is what made Memento Mori so memorable for example. But at least maybe consider HNTR being genuinely easy (not much tougher than the original game), and not an afterthought. I've always been an HMP guy, but lately I'm thinking HNTR would be more enjoyable.

 

Short version, very impressive and cool maps, genuinely, just for me the combat doesn't seem like an ideal fit for the intended mission statement.

Edited by PsychoGoatee

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I do intend to add difficulty levels thoroughly as I do with most of my releases. Most casual Doomers find my stuff palatable on HNTR and I plan for that to be the case here as well, but I’d really like you to test the fixed up version when I release it, PsychoGoatee. Thanks a ton for the feedback, the perspective of people who are more casual is invaluable to me as, - in theory anyway - my goal is to make my stuff accessible and enjoyable for the highest possible number of Doomers!

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With 18 maps submitted I am getting closer to submitting my map. Pretty happy with it so far, done the UV load-save test run with success and provides a good challenge and all sector actions work in Chocolate Doom with no VPO's, everything has been double checked. The aim is that this map is the absolute final version so no changes are needed once it is submitted.

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@PsychoGoatee I very much agree with your post, and I definitely value this kind of feedback. I actually feel the same way about a lot of wads, in fact I've been playing through some wads on easier settings lately and it's crazy how many things can slip under the radar. I do hope to give this wad a try at that and leave feedback eventually, though at the moment I've been focused on just testing and giving my thoughts on UV. It can take me over an hour to write feedback on a map sometimes, so it can be pretty slow for me getting to all of these maps, which is why I need help with checking this stuff out.

 

I definitely agree some wads can be punishing even on lower difficulties, so I hope to balance that out here to make it much more accessible for many Doomers such as yourself. It's also one of the reasons I really admire Memento Mori, since for me it hits a really sweet spot of being a collection of levels that are neither too large or too small, and not too difficult or easy. It's the kind of experience I find to be highly replayable, and I hope we can achieve a similar goal with this megawad.

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@PsychoGoatee

id appreciate you playing my map if you had the time “map05”. I often felt like I have a somewhat decent sense at designing difficulties, but I play to my level so I usually base it on theoretical. Any criticism would be greatly appreciated. If you have the time.

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1 hour ago, DerFurer'sFace said:

@PsychoGoatee

id appreciate you playing my map if you had the time “map05”. I often felt like I have a somewhat decent sense at designing difficulties, but I play to my level so I usually base it on theoretical. Any criticism would be greatly appreciated. If you have the time.

 

For sure! Love that classic Lee Jackson tune by the way. I appreciate how you get a lot of bullets and the chaingun up front on HNTR, and firepower in general. Going west, I get stuck on the ambush of enemies in the small cavern, gets me down to 70%ish armor and health. My first death is the ambush from the semi-obscured chaingun guys flanking you upon entering that one area. Died there a couple times. Even knowing they're there and strafing back doing the shotgun shimmey, I'm down to 42 health after defeating them and their shotgun guys etc, and I appreciate all the health pickups after. Here I save, I tend to save a bit. But I didn't die after that.

 

By the time I've killed 89 enemies around that area I run out of shotgun shells and bullets, but have 50 rockets which is fun/different, so use those on pinky demons etc. Fun using rockets on regular enemies a bunch here, since I'm used to saving them. In general it's smooth sailing from there, I like it! Fun stuff, really nicely done map aesthetically and fun to run around in. And I liked the combat, felt like a warzone, but a forgiving one. 13 minutes, 0% secrets (and I did hit use on some walls).

 

Tried it on UV for science, did die more often, and I could use more ammo in this difficulty. 35 enemies in and I'm hiding out punching lost souls while they peck down my health since I'm all out of ammo. Died a lot, seems reasonable for UV though, but yep I'd call it a hard map on this difficulty. Also played it on HMP, those groups of shotgun guys sometimes killed me, but still very doable for me.

 

Now personal taste, one thing is I kind of like to see maps with fewer enemies more often, especially in a megawad. I really enjoy this map, especially as a solo map, and understandably most solo released maps feel like a big notable climactic event. But if you have 20 of those in a row, and you've fought roughly 4000 enemies, for me the combat becomes a chore. But I'm into different stuff to some degree, I'm less interested in Doom's combat as the main attraction of Doom, odd as that may seem. It feels more like a journey to me if sometimes you feel like you're just exploring, in a not fully populated map. So I think a lot of maps could have less enemies, especially in the first half or 1/3rd of the megawad. This map rocks though.

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Played Gothic's Map06 over the weekend and am extremely impressed with this map.


 

It does so many things right (secrets, flow, overall texturing and look, and pacing) that I didn't mind the number of deaths it took me to beat this on HMP (11 deaths total). Either I'm getting better – highly unlikely after all this time – or there's more than enough health to offset the times I dipped into the low double digits. Hardest area for me was getting into the northern-most section; that chaingunner is a bitch to kill without finding the RL until afterwards (I missed that secret despite an earlier play-through where I thought the lighting was significant to finding a secret—duh, it was....). Anyways, I ended up just rushing down those steps/platforms to get him and that works just as well; it's costly, but it works. My final total was: 99% kills, 73% items and 66% secrets (I don't remember my ammo count but it was generally low across the board with the exception of shells).


Random thoughts (HMP);

I was half expecting a Hell Knight or deaf Revenant(s) to be waiting for me in one of the southernmost alcoves of the NE cement room. Also figured the southern alcove in that room could use a teleporting Hell Knight for added player suppression.


The SE section I really enjoyed but I think if the central structure was ASHWALL3 on the exterior; the imps would stand out better as they fire upon you. (and it would look cool in that dim lighting). (This suggestion came about because when I was in that room, I noticed how much darker the northern and southern walls of that structure are compared to the east and west walls due to that bug in the renderer; and I ended up thinking those walls looked better being darker).


I don't get why the lightposts in that room are split into 2 sectors with a light of 140 or 150. I would think the light posts would just be the brighter value. I didn't see any tags or light effects tied to these, so I'm kind of puzzled. (this is what happens when you examine something you really liked—you find things to complain about). Also the transition between the Stone4 and Tanrock in those 4 windows is abrupt, some sort of support texture or border texture would be good there.


I think the trigger for the pop-up floor should be moved to the outside of the yellow door (shouldn't affect the imps activating prematurely and this will keep the hell knight pop-up near the end a surprise).


I really like how you did the secrets in this maps; it's just enough to make the player question a texture's purpose.

 

The blue door courtyard can be door camped (it's how I survived there); not sure that's intended. Also I think that you could lull a player into a false sense of safety in the short hall leading up to the hell knight/exit if you got rid of most of the monsters in that hall (maybe keep a lost soul or two for the hell of it).

 

The demon-filled soulsphere area in the SW isn't a secret; not sure if it should be honestly (sure technically it should be, but I think everyone expects a secret behind that woodmet2 texture with the way it was used here; so you are kind of rewarding player expectations...)(ignore this)


One of the stimpaks in the opening courtyard should be a med-kit for Easy.


 

I really did enjoy this map; and would continue to enjoy it/replay it if you did absolutely none of these suggestions (though moving the yellow door floor pop-up trigger I recommend highly).


 


 


 

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Did some slight tweaks to my map upon replaying, just moving some health around and expanding the area for a stuck revenant. Link Updated

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@Doomkid
ak-doomkid-AC.lmp FDA for your map.

Recorded in PRBoom+ 2.5.1.5, -complevel 2

 

I enjoyed this, as I expected to, as I do like your maps.

It wasn't particularly difficult for me, personally (as you can see, I one-shot it), even without the secrets.

I like the way it starts off by giving the player a rocket launcher straight away, but not many rockets for it, enforcing care of use with it.

I do have to agree that the metal hex plate texture should be changed, I feel that something with more "weight" is in order here.

The fact that the rockets are given, but not in large amounts, is an aspect I appreciate, and the lack of an SSG makes this map more interesting, with the juggling of weapons from one to the next to deal with threats as they come.

I feel that some of the fights would benefit from a few monsters coming in from behind to shove the player forward and help deal with the areas that feel like they could be cheesable (such as doorways), and others where they do, I think a higher count would do some good.

I also know this map isn't quite finished yet, but I think it's fine in its current state, it just needs a couple tweaks here and there (like the unmarked exit switch, which I just noticed has been mentioned already).

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Thanks a ton Aquila, I’ll keep your feedback in mind when I’m tuning it up.

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On 3/11/2019 at 5:44 PM, valkiriforce said:

I'm thinking for MAP31 it's likely going to be a collab map further down the road, though I haven't figured out what MAP32 should be about just yet.

Now I have a layout (with a secret exit) both in my mind and on paper, so I will start making it tomorrow.

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@DukeOfDoom I'd actually appreciate it if you would wait - as I do already have a concept in mind for MAP31. We also have a number of people working on episode 3 submissions, so I've put the last few slots on hold for a later time. Feel free to share any ideas you might have though, as I was thinking MAP31 could be a good hub-based map where people can collaborate to create separate areas - some with more traditional Doom themes and others with a surreal atmosphere. I thought it might be a fun idea to play around with, but at the moment I'm focusing on getting episode 1 finished up while episode 2 is a work in progress.

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