Slime Institute - A Boom Compatible Map

[[Vitz!]]

A huge thanks to @OfficalGeeDee for the template he sent me. I used it to make this map. 

 

Slime Institute download

A simple, small and fairly open "military" techbase map with 6 keys and 4 secrets to hunt and some nice boom features sprinkled here and there (like some transparent textures, a green colormap for the slime, slime has depth and friction and so on). I wanted to go for a bit of an antithesis of the previous map that I've made that was big, very linear, had lots of secrets, had fewer keys and didn't take advantage of boom features properly in my opinion and I believe I succeeded at that. 

It also has the Acerola Doom rebalance mod built-in, so playing with monster and weapon mods is heavily discouraged since they tend to bypass dehacked lumps. I made the map as a "proof of concept" for the mod as well so it was made with the mod's quirks in mind.

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Info:
 

• iWAD required: DOOM2.wad (if you're playing on ZDoom based ports you won't need to choose the iwad on startup)
• Number of maps: Just one.
• Size/Duration: Medium-small. Might take a while depending on how you handle the encounters I've set up.
• Monster Count: Around 132 in UV. Probably more if you set up your sourceport to count Lost Souls.
• Secrets: 4
• Recommended difficulty: Ultra Violence, but Hurt me Plenty is also an option. The map was tuned with Ultra Violence in mind.
• Ports Tested and that work (I can't guarantee perfection in software rendering): GZDoom, LZDoom, ZDoom, Zandronum, PrBoom+, Glboom+ and Odamex. 
• Mods: No. Highly discouraged.
• Features: Acerola Doom Dehacked Mod. Check the topic for more info on what it changes.

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Screenshots:

Spoiler

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Credits: 

 

Spoiler

• Music

Title Loop 1 - Shoji Meguro (from Shin Megamie Tensei III: Nocturne, sequenced by Thomash Lee)
RoboCreeping - Lee Jackson (from Duke Nukem 3D, but changed from the key of Cm to the key of Dm by me)

Large Map - Shoji Meguro (from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, sequenced by Thomash Lee)
 

• Other stuff

Map basic template: @OfficalGeeDee
Green Colormap - Boom Edit Example Wad

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100% Walkthrough
 

Spoiler

 

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Changelog

Spoiler

12/01/2020

• Fixed the SSG room door not being properly tagged for non ZDoom ports. Now it opens like it should.

This topic will be updated depending on feedback or me finding new stuff to fix (that I can fix obviously).

Edited January 12, 2020 by [Vitz!] : bugfix

[Pablo_Doom_Guy]

I'll give this one a try tomorrow . If it's on the same level as your other maps then i'm sure that i will enjoy this map 

[TravyB]

I thought that was thoroughly enjoyable. The big highlight for me was the changes made to the weapons, and the plasma in particular. Made it feel like a big, heavy BAR kinda gun, very cool. Everything looked good and played good, and while I thought it could definitely be harder it was nonetheless enjoyable and felt like a good vanilla map. 

 

[[Vitz!]]

Updated the topic with a 100% walkthrough of the map made by me.

[Horus]

Demo attached using prBoom+ I had to remove the space between Slime and Institute in order to record the demo (unless there's a trick I don't know about), not sure if that impacts playback at all. I died multiple times lol.

 

Weapon modifications were definitely useful given the lack of SSG. Generally a fun map, and no complaints about the difficulty from me.

The teleport line is marked on GZDoom, but not on prBoom+. Which led to me cycling through the start/exit area a couple of times.

You can get the megasphere and ammo cache whilst skipping the SMM battle entirely.

demos.zip

[[Vitz!]]

3 minutes ago, Horus said:

Demo attached using prBoom+ I had to remove the space between Slime and Institute in order to record the demo (unless there's a trick I don't know about), not sure if that impacts playback at all. I died multiple times lol.

 

Weapon modifications were definitely useful given the lack of SSG. Generally a fun map, and no complaints about the difficulty from me.

The teleport line is marked on GZDoom, but not on prBoom+. Which led to me cycling through the start/exit area a couple of times.

You can get the megasphere and ammo cache whilst skipping the SMM battle entirely.

demos.zip

 

Which teleport line? 

 

One of the doors doesn't open like it should (refer to the playthrough to see how it should be). The door that doesn't open has the SSG you should've get. I'm looking into the issue (prboom+ should be a lot less finnicky with stuff, honestly).

The fight with the SMM is optional on purpose. 

[baja blast rd.]

Throughout the map's length, the gameplay leans almost entirely on unidirectional corridor fighting, which I found very dull. On numerous occasions, steep stairways prevented fluid pathing: the early spectre trap, if run past, is a clear case (playing in prB+ here; dunno if GZDoom is free of that). I do understand that you might have been more inclined to design 'basic fights' to show off the mod's essence, in a purer form, but they don't have to be this basic.  

The one part of the mod I found fantastic was the berserked chainsaw, which melts stuff. When I finally decided to use it, it quickly became the only weapon I felt like using; it even handles barons well.

 

The rest of the mod feels varying degrees of patchwork or wonky. Sprite and sound replacements would help the weapons feel a lot better. The pistol looks funny, firing so fast, with stock assets. Conveyance is a strong benefit of new sprites; I would have used the chainsaw sooner if it had two blades or something.

 

The mid-tiers' HP buffs felt detrimental, preserving the originals' grindiness in spite of the weapon buffs. (The offensive buffs to the HK and baron still don't make them engaging in hallways in low numbers, which is how they appear in this map.) The HK walking speed looks wonky.

 

Zombies are too OP for zombiemen; with their buffed HP, fast attack speed, and burstfire attack, the early fights with them are campfests if you don't want to take lots of damage. (Imo using just two of those three characteristics would be better.) The chaingunner's buff would have had a similar effect on them if they were more common.

 

The AV's attack change means that if you want to design challenging encounters around the AV, you will turn off players intimately familiar with the original's timing and who can do 'high skill' things involving that (like turning one's back and dodge at the last moment based on timing).

 

With changes so rampant you are, for various reasons, better off getting new sprites and presenting most of the bestiary as original monster variants.

 

Anyway, sounds harsh, but I hope some of that is helpful. 

Edited January 12, 2020 by rdwpa

[Horus]

3 minutes ago, [Vitz!] said:

 

Which teleport line? 

 

One of the doors doesn't open like it should (refer to the playthrough to see how it should be). The door that doesn't open has the SSG you should've get. I'm looking into the issue (prboom+ should be a lot less finnicky with stuff, honestly).

The fight with the SMM is optional on purpose. 

The one at the very start that teleports you into the base

[[Vitz!]]

10 minutes ago, Horus said:

The one at the very start that teleports you into the base

 

That teleport line is one sided, so it should teleport every time you walk from the right direction (which is the direction you walk towards when you're at the start of the map). I left it that way so you could go back to it and explore the whole map from the point it teleports to and, in the case of multiplayer, avoid softlocking from one use teleporters.

By the way I fixed the door that couldn't open. Updating the topic with the change ASAP.

[[Vitz!]]

Topic updated with a small bugfix.

I hope I don't have any other door bugs after this one! lmao

[randomgamerguy1997]

I just got done playing the map and I think it's some good work.

[Pablo_Doom_Guy]

Well it seems that i like to play your maps on the hard way . I now read that the door i was unable to open was bugged in non zdoom ports =( , the green armor and the SSG would have been a great help for me , i did almost half of the level with no armor and regular shotgun hahaha , and of course i only found 1 secret (a cell pack) . Well guess i'll have to give it another try now .

 

 

[Sir Hattington]

Cool map.

[Pablo_Doom_Guy]

OK well i did it , 100% on Slime Institue

 

 

Having a 2 Mega Health and 1 Mega armor made things much easier =) 

 

I would love to play a Doom2 PWAD made by you , or a Doom1 chapter , 8 levels (+1 secret) with the desing of this and your other single level maps, the boss level could be something like Vale do Despero , a big map with a final boss as a reward, like e1m8b 

 

 

[Austinado]