MY FIRST 30-MINUTE SPEEDMAPPING SESSION

[Elio AF]

I just created a set of maps for Vanilla Doom 2 (they may not run with vanilla or chocolate doom tho, because they have a custom monster) and definitely cannot run with brutal doom.

They're speedmaps I did for 30 minutes or so each, so they're not as good as it's to be expected. Anyways, here's the time I made each map:

Map01: 29 minutes

Map02: 27 minutes

Map03: 32 minutes

Map04: 25 minutes

They may be short, but they are pretty tough.

It's called "Chaos Project", but if it were really a project with thought put into it, it would be far better.

Has been tested with Skulltag, ZDoom, GZDoom, Zandronum.

Here are some screenshots, all taken from map 01:

ChaosPro.zip

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by Elio Nako : Fixed a little bug on MAP04 and re-uploaded it

[Misty]

There's crispy doom with raised limits and prboom+ for testing too to see if everything works as intended. I tried a bit to play, but I can't say much about gameplay and layout. 

[Elio AF]

You can actually run this wad on vanilla doom, you just need to delete everything between SS_START and SS_END, however the new enemies will appear as Wolfenstein Soldiers. Map 1 and Map 3 actually run with no problems, however the enemies do appear as wolfensteins when they attack, and you can also only see them when they attack, but map 2 and 4 will not run properly.

[Elio AF]

I made a playthrough of it. Enjoy 😉

[Elio AF]

On 8/31/2019 at 7:45 PM, Misty said:

There's crispy doom with raised limits and prboom+ for testing too to see if everything works as intended. I tried a bit to play, but I can't say much about gameplay and layout. 

Probably also works with crispy doom, prboom+ is a definite yes. Also, what do you mean by can't say much about gameplay and layout?

[Elio AF]

Map 2 playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQYIdcbL78E

[Misty]

7 hours ago, Elio Nako said:

Also, what do you mean by can't say much about gameplay and layout?

Because I tested it so little of it. 

[Elio AF]

48 minutes ago, Misty said:

Because I tested it so little of it. 

No, really, I don't get what you mean, not even in this sentence?

[lirui1001]

Map 4 cannot be finished with prboom+ because the blue door won't open.

[Elio AF]

19 minutes ago, lirui1001 said:

Map 4 cannot be finished with prboom+ because the blue door won't open.

F**k me. I need to test it out with every engine possible. Have you tried out clinging to the blue door? Because the red door keeps opening and closing, right? Well maybe try getting closer. If you already tried this, again, i'm a dumbass.

[Alper002]

Prboom+ and gzdoom are the only two ports you should need to test when making boom-compatible or limit-removing maps.

Prboom+ is near the vanilla end of the source-port spectrum, while gzdoom is on the other end. Either of them can have minor problems if you only test for the other port.

 

Also worth noting that Skulltag and Zandronum are based on zdoom, so it won't help much to test with those ports.

 

Edit:specifity

Edited September 3, 2019 by Alper002

[lirui1001]

9 minutes ago, Elio Nako said:

F**k me. I need to test it out with every engine possible. Have you tried out clinging to the blue door? Because the red door keeps opening and closing, right? Well maybe try getting closer. If you already tried this, again, i'm a dumbass.

 

You got it.

[Elio AF]

50 minutes ago, lirui1001 said:

 

You got it.

Does that mean I was right or..? Sorry I'm kinda dumb

[Elio AF]

55 minutes ago, Alper002 said:

Prboom+ and gzdoom are the only two ports you should need to test when making boom-compatible or limit-removing maps.

Prboom+ is near the vanilla end of the source-port spectrum, while gzdoom is on the other end. Either of them can have minor problems if you only test for the other port.

 

Also worth noting that Skulltag and Zandronum are based on zdoom, so it won't help much to test with those ports.

 

Edit:specifity

Thanks dude. Probably not worth it since these are like my last maps, but still...

[lirui1001]

12 minutes ago, Elio Nako said:

Does that mean I was right or..? Sorry I'm kinda dumb

 

It happens just what you said before. The red door keeps opening and closing but the blue door won't open.

[Elio AF]

5 minutes ago, lirui1001 said:

 

It happens just what you said before. The red door keeps opening and closing but the blue door won't open.

Try staying in contact with the blue door. 

[Elio AF]

1 hour ago, lirui1001 said:

 

It happens just what you said before. The red door keeps opening and closing but the blue door won't open.

I tried it myself, it doesn't work on Prboom+ :(

[Elio AF]

It officially doesn't work with Prboom+

[Elio AF]

Has anyone even played this? All I wanted was some feedback.

[Elio AF]

19 hours ago, Elio Nako said:

Has anyone even played this? All I wanted was some feedback.

Just

[BoxY]

I played through a bit casually (UV with some continuous) but I used PrBoom+ (didn't read whole thread, sorry) and had the same blue key problem on MAP04. Didn't matter since I went to the yellow key room instead and found what felt like 50 cacos guarding it over a thin bridge and I had no rockets or plasma left so I knew I was screwed anyway, the door didn't matter. I've already fought enough caco swarms in cannonball's wads for one lifetime, so I was done.

 

I still have some casual observations though if they are helpful.

 

MAP 01: seems playable but I didn't fully finish it. I REALLY hate starting in a room with hitscanners instantly shooting me, it's a cheap and nasty way of boosting difficulty by basically doing a ton of instant damage to the player. On MAP01 at least it's nice to have a safe spawn zone so I can sip a drink or scratch my nose for 1 second before I start to play. There's barely any ammo, I guess it's supposed to be covered with berserk? You can't kill a mancubus with berserk though so I ended up killing it with the pistol when I ran out of shells, which is not fun. I got near the end and got ambushed by two hell knights in the hallway. I was happily punching them and then the third tele'd behind me and killed me instantly. I guess the the room they tele'd out of is too big so it was a slow spawn? Or the tele destination got blocked. I was tired and didn't feel like going again so I just idclev'd to MAP02.

 

MAP 02: fun map, I had no problem with anything breaking and gameplay was decent. Same dumb problem with spawning with hitscanners instantly shooting me but at least there's a chaingun. The blue armour is very nice to have, also the plasma gun and soul sphere, but when I first went through the elevator I nearly missed them, and the plasma is not optional if you want to live so it should be in an obvious place and not semi-hidden. After that, quite smooth gameplay, except MAP01 and MAP02 both have the same problem where I have to hit a random switch and it changes something unknown at the other end of the map, and I have to run around trying to figure out what I just did. Why not put the switches near to where their action is, or add some kind of clue? It helps gameplay flow enormously.

 

MAP 03: decent but half broken. The pain elementals in the starting rock area are awful because of the open space, they spammed 21 lost souls instantly and I could barely do anything to stop it. The lava in the pit is not a damaging sector so I camped down there and just shot all the cacos and lost souls I could until things calmed down. It's a good thing that the lava is broken because I'm pretty sure the only possible way to survive the 2 archviles that spawn when you get the blue key is by dropping into the lava and hugging the cliff face, there is no other place to take cover. What's with having to fight barons and pain elementals down those narrow straight hallways at the end though? That's the most boring way to fight any enemy.

 

MAP 04: yeah the compatibility is busted, if what you did is incompatible with plain old Boom then something really messed up must have happened with the scripting. In the blue key room there's a weird broken trap with a ton of chaingunners behind a random staircase (?) where you can just kill them with rocket splash. I jumped into the area because staircase = player is supposed to be in there?, but it's just an untextured HOM inside with no apparent way to get out. I had to noclip out of it. That room with all the hitscanners behind the bars is basically just that one annoying room from Waste Tunnels, extra dumb edition, so I had to camp in the hallway for minutes and slowly snipe the enemies before I could go through. Partial invisibility in the entrance would have made it more playable. As I mentioned, I didn't bother finishing this because of the broken key and the caco room. Put a rocket launcher and 20 rockets outside the caco place and it's reasonable.

 

Hope that at least kinda helped. For maps made in half an hour each, my expectations weren't crazy high I had some good fun.

[Elio AF]

2 hours ago, BoxY said:

I played through a bit casually (UV with some continuous) but I used PrBoom+ (didn't read whole thread, sorry) and had the same blue key problem on MAP04. Didn't matter since I went to the yellow key room instead and found what felt like 50 cacos guarding it over a thin bridge and I had no rockets or plasma left so I knew I was screwed anyway, the door didn't matter. I've already fought enough caco swarms in cannonball's wads for one lifetime, so I was done.

 

I still have some casual observations though if they are helpful.

 

MAP 01: seems playable but I didn't fully finish it. I REALLY hate starting in a room with hitscanners instantly shooting me, it's a cheap and nasty way of boosting difficulty by basically doing a ton of instant damage to the player. On MAP01 at least it's nice to have a safe spawn zone so I can sip a drink or scratch my nose for 1 second before I start to play. There's barely any ammo, I guess it's supposed to be covered with berserk? You can't kill a mancubus with berserk though so I ended up killing it with the pistol when I ran out of shells, which is not fun. I got near the end and got ambushed by two hell knights in the hallway. I was happily punching them and then the third tele'd behind me and killed me instantly. I guess the the room they tele'd out of is too big so it was a slow spawn? Or the tele destination got blocked. I was tired and didn't feel like going again so I just idclev'd to MAP02.

 

MAP 02: fun map, I had no problem with anything breaking and gameplay was decent. Same dumb problem with spawning with hitscanners instantly shooting me but at least there's a chaingun. The blue armour is very nice to have, also the plasma gun and soul sphere, but when I first went through the elevator I nearly missed them, and the plasma is not optional if you want to live so it should be in an obvious place and not semi-hidden. After that, quite smooth gameplay, except MAP01 and MAP02 both have the same problem where I have to hit a random switch and it changes something unknown at the other end of the map, and I have to run around trying to figure out what I just did. Why not put the switches near to where their action is, or add some kind of clue? It helps gameplay flow enormously.

 

MAP 03: decent but half broken. The pain elementals in the starting rock area are awful because of the open space, they spammed 21 lost souls instantly and I could barely do anything to stop it. The lava in the pit is not a damaging sector so I camped down there and just shot all the cacos and lost souls I could until things calmed down. It's a good thing that the lava is broken because I'm pretty sure the only possible way to survive the 2 archviles that spawn when you get the blue key is by dropping into the lava and hugging the cliff face, there is no other place to take cover. What's with having to fight barons and pain elementals down those narrow straight hallways at the end though? That's the most boring way to fight any enemy.

 

MAP 04: yeah the compatibility is busted, if what you did is incompatible with plain old Boom then something really messed up must have happened with the scripting. In the blue key room there's a weird broken trap with a ton of chaingunners behind a random staircase (?) where you can just kill them with rocket splash. I jumped into the area because staircase = player is supposed to be in there?, but it's just an untextured HOM inside with no apparent way to get out. I had to noclip out of it. That room with all the hitscanners behind the bars is basically just that one annoying room from Waste Tunnels, extra dumb edition, so I had to camp in the hallway for minutes and slowly snipe the enemies before I could go through. Partial invisibility in the entrance would have made it more playable. As I mentioned, I didn't bother finishing this because of the broken key and the caco room. Put a rocket launcher and 20 rockets outside the caco place and it's reasonable.

 

Hope that at least kinda helped. For maps made in half an hour each, my expectations weren't crazy high I had some good fun.

Thank you so much! You were literally the only helpful person, after @lirui1001 .Really helpful feedback. I'm not planning on making any changes on the wad, since it's almost garbage anyways, but this will definitely be an improvement for me. Also, I had no time to think it all through, so ig next time I'm speed mapping, I'm setting a looser time, such as 1 hour. Thanks again for the review.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Elio Nako