Rowdy Rudy II: POWERTRIP (Development Thread)

[Philnemba]

I forgot that I was making a map for this a few months ago -_-;

[DFF]

Wanted to make a 2nd map for this project, but have been busy and stuck with interception 2. I think some speed mapping might help the creative juices. Let’s see what I can do in a couple weeks

[RonnieJamesDiner]

These should be the latest versions of my maps, @Doomkid

 

RJD_rowdyrudy2.zip (Rumble in the Canyon & Clearing Inventory)

 

 

[TravyB]

Ambush! - https://www.dropbox.com/s/51s6s2al5fvr14c/AMBUSH.wad?dl=0

 

Cliffside Punch-out - https://www.dropbox.com/s/vsq2p1h30u4ygkb/rudyslaw.wad?dl=0

 

I haven't made any changes or anything to them so they should (hopefully) work just fine. 

[Aurelius]

Jungle Hijinx

 

Made some more edits to balance out stuff, also squashed a few visplane issues and misalignments. I also added a pitch black flat and texture since I didn't see any in the resource. They're named TBLACK (patch) and FBLACK (flat) and are at the end of their respective lists in the provided wad (includes my map and the mapping resource). If it's alright with you @Doomkid, it'd be cool if you could add them to the resource, or at least the final compilation. Who knows, maybe somebody else might find them useful too?
 

[Doomkid]

Definitely will be adding them! Actually, I put together a build that had a handful of custom textures by Doom_Dude and I think it had the solid black ones as well, then the PC I was compiling on just had to eat shit and die... Really, that's been a huge reason for the delays lately - About a month ago that caused me to lose a couple days worth of progress and it just killed my mojo dead in it's tracks. I'm ready to get stuck into it again though! I think I just needed some time away after that motivation killer, lol.

[Aurelius]

Well we're all glad to have you back! This looks like to be a killer set, so many fun maps.

 

If you happen to find contradicting black textures in different maps, you can use the the Find and Replace mode in the editor (in UDB at least) to find the particular flat textures and change them all at once to the one you end up using. I can also fix mine should that be needed, once the black is added to the resource.

[kalaeth]

(just a note to say I've finished the beta and it's awesome. I love the weapons, any chance we can get them separately?)  

[DFF]

Here's a re-link to the latest version of Security Station

Also question for @Doomkid, a while back I talked about making a map using oil textures, and the deadline has given me motivation to work so the map is in progress.
my question is, is it still possible to find textures to add the liquid and the waterfall textures? currently the oil flat takes up slime 5-8, and don't have any for the falls.
If not i'll just make it the mud/brown liquids instead, here's a picture link

[DFF]

I also realized I may have misread the post and that no new maps may be accepted and just updates. I'll continue work and if there's no room/desire to allow new maps this close thats fine, no worries.

[Doomkid]

If you are working on another map that's fine, I really enjoyed Security Station and would welcome another if you want to submit it. I'll try to find an unused animated texture to use for a black oilfall. At worst, I could use the TNT method of making really long textures and just changing the offsets. I really like the idea of some oil falls to go with the flat!

[Hellbent]

 

[snapshot]

Hey @Doomkid I noticed you still didn't include the final version of my map so I'm just tagging you to send the link again, in case I'm not around when you start compiling the next version.

 

Here's the new version.

 

This is all coming together very nicely.

[Doomkid]

16 hours ago, Hellbent said:

(vid)

Thanks for recording this Hellbent! I enjoyed watching you play through and listening to your thoughts on the various things throughout the first maps. I already noticed a few things that could use some fixing up thanks to this, hope you play some more.

 

2 hours ago, sluggard said:

Hey @Doomkid I noticed you still didn't include the final version of my map so I'm just tagging you to send the link again, in case I'm not around when you start compiling the next version.

 

Here's the new version.

 

This is all coming together very nicely.

Awesome, thanks for this sluggard. I'll make sure this latest version is compiled into the next build!

[DFF]

Finished V1 of Black gold.

Due to the nature of the map design its almost breaching visplane limits but should be safe.
The map is designed as a kind of Dead simple design or caughtyard (no macubus walls, but consists of 2 'arena' segments). Designed for lots of player movement and combat rather than exploration.

Please let me know of anything I can do to make it better.

[Solmyr]

This is the latest version of Drowning Pits.

[xdarkmasterx]

Current version of my map https://www.dropbox.com/s/xd2sa6o776no7zf/death_god's_shrine.wad?dl=0

[Doom_Dude]

Current version of my map... hopefully the final. ;)

 

Grim_Sector.zip

[MikeyScoots]

On 4/19/2020 at 7:24 AM, Doomkid said:

Hey everyone, I apologize for the bout of stagnation recently, but rest assured this little project is coming into the 4th quarter!

I'd request that all mappers have the really real final versions of their maps sent to me/uploaded here by the end of May 2020.

I think someone mentioned mine might cause visplanes and Im super busy with Hell Unleashed now. You have free reign to remove whats needed. Im pretty sure he said it was this area specifically, which Im really bummed out cause I tried NOT to go overboard.

[Doomkid]

I should be able to cut some corners and get it vanilla compatible - I’ve had to cut down maps many times now to get them vanilla compatible and am oddly efficient at it by now. If I have to do anything “major” I’ll of course run it by you before finalising anything, since I want to bastardise the map as little as possible.

[Dimon12321]

I'm under big impressions of this project. This sequel is like one of those from middle 2000th: it's better or, at least, tries to be better than the first part in every aspect.

 

I have passed the whole wad without any saves on UV. Sure thing I died for several times, but now I see at least some of the maps can be passed with a pistol rifle start. I wasn't looking for every last secret, but I faced no problems with seeking them because I have a habit of looking for unchecked trails on the automap.

The weapons are beautiful and really different. Don't know why, but I haven't had the precise of mind to play with one weapon until the ammo is out. In regular Doom, I just play with an SSG and forget about the shotgun till the end of the game. RR2 is a real powertrip. Well, I have some wishes, but I won't articulate them because they are not major.

 

Mappers are obviously excited about their hobby because I can't pick the worst map, actually. They all are not just good, but they have... soul, or highlight, or zest, or ... . I'm not good at English expressions. I didn't check any of the "final versions" posted above, but I'm curious how they have made their maps even better.

 

//No conclusion speech. You know we're waiting and so on =)

Edited May 22, 2020 by Dimon12321

[MikeyScoots]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NpVUAfYrg7ekdZc-gzBWi6WmtIVRV5_b/view?usp=sharing

 

Level 13 up.

[Doomkid]

Been slaving away over this little sucker the last few days.. Got some notes about things that still need to be done, I'll go ahead and share the latest build (as of May 25th). The bulk of stuff is out of the way at this point, now it's all about attention to details and playtesting.

 

The to-do list:

 

== Mapping Improvements ==

-map02, improve water horizon effect, add minor hot start (to justify such an amped-up MIDI), add health bonuses to water

fall hole to give it more of a purpose

-map03, replace 4 medkits at end of David's map with lone Soulsphere (looks more appealing as a secret)

-map05, replace plasma with ssg and all cells with shells (too early for plasma), fix coke machine texture alignment, fix

minor VPOs

-map06, convert pointless window into stairs, fix HOMs on Soulsphere pedestal

-map07, fix stair texture alignment, make bridge raise higher (to be more obvious)

-map10, fix exit, add a secret or 2 (currently 0)

-map12, fix inescapable hole with big HOMs, not enough ammo

 

== Difficulty Settings Needed ==

Map01,

Map04,

Map05 (already partial but needs to be further implemented),

Map06,

Map08 (already partial),

Map09 (already partial),

Map10,

Map11 (just a touch more),

Map12 (also just a touch more),

Map14 (A _teeny_ bit more),

Map20 (Maybe just a little easier on easy settings? Maybe it's fine as-is though)

 

== General Notes ==

-Implement custom title and intermission screens

-Balance MIDI volume levels

-Fix bad light spreading (strobe effect) when the Chaingun is firing

-Implement the frakking FBLACK floor, solid black wall, and Oil Falls textures already!!

-Some maps are missing MIDI files

 

Current maplist, for those wondering:

Map01 - Storming the Bayside Base by Doomkid

Map02 - (untitled) by sluggard

Map03 - (untitled) by DavidN

Map04 - (untitled) by Doomkid

Map05 - (untitled) by Voltcom

Map06 - Clutch Cargo Hold by Doomkid

Map07 - Secluded Rifts by riderr3

Map08 - Cliffside Punchout by TravyB

Map09 - Security Station by DFF

Map10 - Plutonic Relations by Doomkid

Map11 - Clearing Inventory by RonnieJamesDiner

Map12 - Ambush by TravyB

Map13 - Mutagen Plant by Moustachio

Map14 - Rumble in the Canyon by RonnieJamesDiner

Map15 - Jungle Hijinx by Aurelius

Map16 - Grimm Sector by Doom_Dude

Map17 - Black Gold by DFF

Map18 - Drowning Pits by Solmyr

Map19 - (currently has MikeyScoots' map)

Map20 - Death God's Shrine by xdarkmasterx

 

*This maplist is most certainly still not finalized, some things will still need to be moved around.

 

I also would like to check in on @Philnemba @Mr.Rocket and @NeedHealth because you guys showed off some very interesting screenshots. Did you end up making any progress? It's no pressure of course, but I just wanted to follow up as you all showed interesting map snippets earlier in the thread!

 

...Also, as by far the saddest part of this post, I'm going to have to reject one of these awesome maps: The one recently submitted by @MikeyScoots. This is a beautiful map with excellent texture, an awesome "sense of place" and a perfectly reasonable and enjoyable difficulty curve. Monster placement was done with care, and despite a few (tiny) texturing flubs and unclosed sectors, I'm a big fan.

 

The only problem is, this map is nowhere near being within vanilla limits. The upper visplane limit for the vanilla EXE is 128 visplanes, but the majority of this map has the player seeing nearly 200 visplanes at any given time, and some areas are in excess of 300 visplanes (!)

 

With that said, to get this map to be vanilla-compatible, I'd have to completely mutilate it, and ruin it's current stylistic-and-clean look beyond recognition. I know I said I'm good at "vanillafying" maps, but usually those maps were "trying" to be vanilla and capped out somewhere around 150-160 visplanes, an amount that can conceivably be cut down without destroying the map's soul. That's just not an option here, cutting it down would basically be tantamount to completely destroying a perfectly good map.

 

I didn't want to reject this map because I really like it, so I sat on this decision for about 4-5 days weighing it up and considering my options... After taking a crack at cutting it down, that's what I realized that the time and effort could be spent making a new map that has vanilla limitations in mind from the get-go rather than bastardizing a perfectly good, albeit really limit-removing map.

 

Maybe it could be included as an "unofficial" side bonus map for ZDoom/PrBoom only or something. This is always the worst part of heading a community project, telling people their maps have to be rejected.. but usually it's because the quality is too low - This time it was the exact opposite, in a sense.

 

Here's a screenshot of the map in Visplane Explorer. Note the pinkish/reddish areas are crash spots, and the redder, the crashier:

 

Edited July 23, 2020 by Doomkid

[Doomkid]

I completely forgot to post these screenshots of the HOM / inescapable hole issue in map12:

 

 

@TravyB I'm not actually sure how the setup should be changed to avoid this happening, but I just wanted to bring it to your attention. Also I had basically no ammo almost the whole time, I would really appreciate some more being added in, even in Expert mode. I really struggle with it from a rifle start much more than in any of the other maps, so really it's just an attempt to keep the difficulty curve in check throughout the set.

[RonnieJamesDiner]

1 hour ago, Doomkid said:

Map11 (just a touch more)

 

1 hour ago, Doomkid said:

Map14 (A _teeny_ bit more)

 

Hey, as far as adding to/tweaking the difficulty settings on these maps, could you elaborate a little bit on what you had in mind? I'd be more than happy to tinker with them, just not sure if there was something specific I should be addressing.

 

Thanks for the update! I'm excited to see this project is getting so close to completion.

[Doom_Dude]

About the @MikeyScoots map. I playtested it and I totally agree, it's a very nice map. If Rowdy Rudy III is ever a thing and it happened to be a limit removing project (you may already have other ideas or something), then his map could always be reserved for it. That's if he actually wanted to wait that long. ;)

[Dimon12321]

6 minutes ago, Doom_Dude said:

About the @MikeyScoots map. I playtested it and I totally agree, it's a very nice map. If Rowdy Rudy III is ever a thing and it happened to be a limit removing project (you may already have other ideas or something), then his map could always be reserved for it. That's if he actually wanted to wait that long. ;)

I think such a cool map won't be abandoned anyway. It's just a matter of time someone will pick it up.

[Doom_Dude]

27 minutes ago, Dimon12321 said:

I think such a cool map won't be abandoned anyway. It's just a matter of time someone will pick it up.

 

Indeed. I have no doubt Mikey will find a good home for it. :D

[Doomkid]

5 hours ago, RonnieJamesDiner said:

Hey, as far as adding to/tweaking the difficulty settings on these maps, could you elaborate a little bit on what you had in mind? I'd be more than happy to tinker with them, just not sure if there was something specific I should be addressing.

 

Thanks for the update! I'm excited to see this project is getting so close to completion.

I think the current monster counts are fine, but I do think the easier settings could use just a touch more ammo. Unless there IS more and I'm somehow missing it. It's kind of hard to directly compare difficulty settings other than looking at the monster count.

 

I wonder if there's an automated tool that spits out all the differences for each difficulty setting in each map. Would be very helpful for making sure every map has them somewhat thoroughly implemented..

[Dimon12321]

28 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

I wonder if there's an automated tool that spits out all the differences for each difficulty setting in each map. Would be very helpful for making sure every map has them somewhat thoroughly implemented..

The question is, how the tool would decide which monsters and ammo should be removed have specific skill flags? 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Dimon12321