The Gate + Blood Pools - 2 Vanilla Maps for Doom 2

[Brxyz]

IMPORTANT: The Gate replaces Map 01, Blood Pools replaces Map 32

 

 

• DESCRIPTION

Two vanilla-compatible maps I've been working on sporadically a year ago and I've decided to finish or improve them recently.

The Gate, which replaces Map 01, is the more ambitious of the two maps, although admittedly a bit linear,

it is sprinkled with various traps and challenges which I hope won't be too easy or too frustrating.
You will fight outside and inside a fortress to open the fortress' giant gate and get inside, be wary though, as it is heavily guarded.

 

Blood Pools is the shorter of the two, it replaces Map 32 so you'll have to use commands to start there. In the level you will descend a dark, gloomy mountain, entangled by gigantic tentacles. However, at the end you will face a different challenge. It may seem less polished since it is the older of the two maps, and actually one of my first ever made.

 

The Gate takes about 30 minutes to beat, while Blood Pools takes about 10-15.

 

• COMPATIBILITY

Those are vanilla-compatible levels, so definitely no jumping allowed. Freelook should be fine though.
Tested with Chocolate Doom, Crispy Doom and GZDoom, first map breaks the vanilla save limit unfortunately,

so I'd recommend using Crispy Doom or another port if you wish to use saves.

 

Use -merge when loading the maps with Chocolate Doom.

Only Ultra-Violence difficulty, because I honestly have no idea how to balance levels for other difficulties. The levels should be decently challenging.

 

• DOWNLOAD

TheGateandBloodPools.zip

 

 

• RESOURCES USED

Music

Excalibur - Rise of the Triad

The Demons from Adrian's Pen - Doom

 

Textures

Recolored Doom Texture Pack - Realm 667

Blood 1 Textures - Blood/Realm 667

Recolored sky texture taken from Hell Revealed 2

Some edits by me

 

Sprites

Warrior Statue - Realm667

 

Programs

SLADE

Doom Builder 2

Edited April 4, 2020 by Brxyz : new version

[Clippy]

 

[Brxyz]

9 hours ago, Clippy said:

 

 

Thank you for your playthrough, I appreciate the comments and criticisms. (And apologize for all the hitscanners and Cyberdemons)

 

I've uploaded a new version with some of your points taken into consideration. Thank you for pointing out the problem with the filename. I've put a bit more health in the spots I've noticed you couldn't find any. I like your idea about the web blocking monsters and I've implemented it.

 

The method to get the yellow key was to approach it and then if you turn back or return to the area you can notice the wall containing the two Revenants and Chaingunners lowered. The button there which lowers the wall hiding the Arch-vile and the Chaingunners also lowers the pillar holding the yellow key. I admit it's hard to notice the wall lowering when you approach the key, so I've changed the way it works.

 

The yellow key is used to unlock a passage in the big area with colorful pillars going up and down, there were actually two passages to exit through. I've made them a bit more noticeable and given a big hint where to go to use the yellow key.

 

I've made the second map a bit brighter and instead of shells and a helmet, the secret contains the nightvision now. I've also put more health in the map. The way to reach the teleport to the cave was to jump there from the higher platform. I'll consider changing the maze area completely.

 

Next time I'll consider focusing on shorter and more tame maps :)

[Clippy]

This map reminded me of 1996 Eternal Doom (not to be confused with the new Doom Eternal)

 

The look and feel - big elaborate puzzle type map

 

But with the difficulty of Hell Revealed.

 

If you ever played those mega wads for Doom 2.

 

There is a lot of good stuff here buddy and everything I said is just my opinion - I just like playing and saying stuff.

 

Sorry I gave up on the super maze ha hah - I think after an hour and a half of game play I was ready to quit anyhow :P

 

Good times I hope more ppl show up here so you can get different view points :)

[Austinado]

 

[plums]

Hi, I just got to playing these now. I think I played the revised version of the wad. Really liked the first map, it was a nice mix of puzzley combat and hard-but-fair traps with a lot to explore. I could see how the non-linearity / where-do-I-go-next factor might frustrate some people, I didn't mind, but perhaps keep in mind trying to guide the player a bit more for later maps; nonlinearity is great but works best when it doesn't make the player feel lost. Also I don't really remember any hard platforming?

 

The new textures were generally good, I especially liked the blood waves at the edges of the large lakes. The super-colourized textures were a bit ugly, especially the wood ones; I think you can colour-code things a little more subtly and the player will still pick up on it. Not really a big deal though.

 

The second (32nd?) map was OK but I felt it had too much "fall to the bottom and then teleport back up to the start" action. The feeling of largeness was nice though, especially for a vanilla map. Mazes are historically not very popular in Doom maps, but at least you didn't hide the linedefs (and the not-so-hidden computer map secret was helpful).

 

There's an eye switch you're meant to shoot, not sure if you're aware but you can shoot above it and it will still trigger the switch -- linedef actions are always infinitely-high, regardless of the texture you've got.