My first WAD - Into the Complex

[Pechudin]

    Hello everyone! After a couple of years of lurking, I have decided to make my first map. This is a single map for Ultimate DooM, replacing E2M6 (mainly for the music). My goal was to create a relatively cramped map, inspired by some of the The Innocent Crew maps from late 1994 (atmosphere-wise). The final product is fairly linear (I guess I will get better at making interconnected maps later). No jumping or crouching, and ideally no freelook either (not critical for fighting but might ruin a secret).

    The name of the map is pretty much just filler, this is the first thing that came to mind. Hopefully you have fun! I had fun making it, and please report any bugs you might notice!

 

Made in: GZDooM Builder Bugfix r3107

Tested in: PrBoom+, GZDooM 4.3.3.

Format: BooM format

 

    There are no new textures or enemies, maybe I get to that later. Difficulty levels are implemented, mainly consisting of more ammunition and health, not many enemies are removed between the difficulties. Map should take you about 5-10 minutes to complete. There is a .DEH patch in the .zip file, mainly to change the map name on the automap (for simpler ports).

 

The Download Link:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/f5ow8wvdg9fu665/Into the Complex.zip?dl=0

   

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: Fixed some mapping errors, like the ability to sequence break by SR40 to the RL (at least I was not able to anymore), and some slime trails. The map should be done now.

Edited April 28, 2020 by Pechudin

[Loomis]

It's a cool map. Already a lot of details for a first map. Nice oldschool Doom 1 feeling. Exactly when I thought that it is rather easy the difficulty suddenly increased.

Some clever secrets. Very good start!

[Rymante]

OK, I tried your map in GZDoom on Ultra Violence.

 

Good news, I rather enjoyed it!  It looks nice, starts off easy but has some nice difficulty spikes with it's traps.

 

I agree with Loomis this map has a very old school Doom 1 feel, would fit right in as an Episode 2 map.

 

I only found 2 out of the 3 secrets, I've attached below a recording of my playthrough.

 

 

[Pechudin]

2 hours ago, Loomis said:

It's a cool map. Already a lot of details for a first map. Nice oldschool Doom 1 feeling. Exactly when I thought that it is rather easy the difficulty suddenly increased.

Some clever secrets. Very good start!

    Thanks, that is nice to hear. I was afraid it would be too easy, since I blazed trough it whenever I playtested it.

 

2 hours ago, Rymante said:

OK, I tried your map in GZDoom on Ultra Violence.

 

Good news, I rather enjoyed it!  It looks nice, starts off easy but has some nice difficulty spikes with it's traps.

 

I agree with Loomis this map has a very old school Doom 1 feel, would fit right in as an Episode 2 map.

 

I only found 2 out of the 3 secrets, I've attached below a recording of my playthrough.

    The last secret is a bit harder, its trigger is not a common trope. Also, I found it funny that you almost missed that last Baron, those three Barons were intended as anti-coward meatwalls for those that try to doorcamp the teleporting horde. I like to doorcamp, but seems others are not as cowardly as I am heh. Also, seems like you beat the warehouse section in a different way than I did. That section can be alot more dangerous with infinite height on. Thanks for the playtrough!

[Horus]

prBoom+ demo in complevel 9 attached

 

A pretty good first effort! It's been a while since I played an Ultimate Doom level. Detailing was good, lighting had some variation, and there were no obvious errors that I could see. Difficulty was fine, not the hardest map, but at the same time enough is going on sustain interest.

 

I don't think I played the crate warehouse fight the way you intended. I did some SR40 onto the rocket launcher crate and grabbed the YK, then cheesed the warehouse fight by heading back to the poison room. Then I walked past a random linedef and it triggered a lone baron. Looking at it more closely, I think you intended for the player to traverse round the upper section and trigger the battle from the other side.

 

I did enjoy the trap by the plasma gun though, kept the player engaged and not entirely comfortable, didn't seem cheesable from what I could see. I also liked the 'descent into the cave' ending. Like the others I managed 2/3 secrets.

 

So yeah, well done! I've seen you post in the DWmegawad Club before - I don't know about you, but I felt like my participation there has helped my own maps, critically analysing others' maps has helped me learn and apply the same criticism to my own maps.

 

Finally, when you say you playtested with prBoom+ it helps if you also include the mapping format. Seeing that it was an Ultimate Doom map, I instinctively tried to record in complevel 3 (Ultimate Doom compatibility), but it turns out this is a Boom format map so it won't work in vanilla, it instead requires complevel 9 (Boom compatibility). So my demo is partially a second attempt rather than a first.

0intothecomplex.zip

[ShadesMaster]

The type of visuals in his map are my favorite, personally - I like that Doom 1 feel. It's a little cramped in areas, but I find it works well with the sort of monster placements utilized here. Good work, wanna see more!

[SleepyVelvet]

Thanks for the map.

Here's an FDA recorded in prboom+ (complevel 9)

I got stuck (softlocked the map actually) looking for the last secret tho.  Perhaps I sequence broke an intended trigger?

noisy_E2M6_Pechudin.zip

[DynamiteKaitorn]

A brilliantly detailed map for the BooM engine with a cool twist with the plasma rifle trap. I do love how that looks! With that being said I have a few problems:

 

1 - This map is rather stingy on resources. For being only the Medium difficulty, this map was a pest to try and finish since there's barely enough ammo and health did feel a bit harsh (I know you can get a good bit of ammo from former sergeants but when you're surrounded by many demons that doesn't help).

 

2 - You can very easily cheese the plasma trap by simply not firing at the former sergeant and tanking 1 shotgun blast to the back (if he even hits you at all). I'm kinda glad I discovered this as it did make the map easier to deal with.... until I ran out of ammo and died trying to get more.

 

3 - I noticed a sector leak style bug whilst testing this with MBF. It's not really necessary to fix since GZDooM doesn't show this bug and it only effects the celing mostly.

[Pechudin]

7 hours ago, Horus said:

I don't think I played the crate warehouse fight the way you intended. I did some SR40 onto the rocket launcher crate and grabbed the YK, then cheesed the warehouse fight by heading back to the poison room. Then I walked past a random linedef and it triggered a lone baron. Looking at it more closely, I think you intended for the player to traverse round the upper section and trigger the battle from the other side.

 

Finally, when you say you playtested with prBoom+ it helps if you also include the mapping format. Seeing that it was an Ultimate Doom map, I instinctively tried to record in complevel 3 (Ultimate Doom compatibility), but it turns out this is a Boom format map so it won't work in vanilla, it instead requires complevel 9 (Boom compatibility). So my demo is partially a second attempt rather than a first.

0intothecomplex.zip

 

    Thanks for playing. Yeah, I see now how you can circumvent the trigger for the crate room fight by strafing, come to think of it I think I even did it once during testing, but I didn't seem to notice it. That'll get fixed.

Edited April 28, 2020 by Pechudin

[Pechudin]

4 hours ago, DynamiteKaitorn said:

A brilliantly detailed map for the BooM engine with a cool twist with the plasma rifle trap. I do love how that looks! With that being said I have a few problems:

 

1 - This map is rather stingy on resources. For being only the Medium difficulty, this map was a pest to try and finish since there's barely enough ammo and health did feel a bit harsh (I know you can get a good bit of ammo from former sergeants but when you're surrounded by many demons that doesn't help).

 

2 - You can very easily cheese the plasma trap by simply not firing at the former sergeant and tanking 1 shotgun blast to the back (if he even hits you at all). I'm kinda glad I discovered this as it did make the map easier to deal with.... until I ran out of ammo and died trying to get more.

 

3 - I noticed a sector leak style bug whilst testing this with MBF. It's not really necessary to fix since GZDooM doesn't show this bug and it only effects the celing mostly.

 

    When did you run out of ammo, at which part of the map? The start can be a bit hairy, and so can the end if you do not stay in the room with the plasma gun. That being said, ammo scarcity is something that is a bit neccessary in Ultimate DooM maps (that being said, when you haven't got ammo, then atleast you should have space, and this map is cramped, so I do see a potential problem).

 

    By sector leaks I assume you mean 'Slime trails'? I myself experienced this problem when testing, in the outdoor area on the metal ceiling, but fixed it by snapping some vertices to the grid. And as you said GZDooM has no such problems, I experienced it only in PrBoom+.

 

    As for the PG trap being cheesable, there are actually two ways to cheese it but the other involves the secret (but if you find the secret then you deserve the easy way out). At this point I am unsure what I could do with that, maybe teleport the barons in front of the door first to force the player to fight.

[Pechudin]

5 hours ago, NoisyVelvet said:

Thanks for the map.

Here's an FDA recorded in prboom+ (complevel 9)

I got stuck (softlocked the map actually) looking for the last secret tho.  Perhaps I sequence broke an intended trigger?

noisy_E2M6_Pechudin.zip

 

    Christ almighty that was painful to watch (for me as the creator), you really pointed out all the ways to break the map. This is perhaps more valuable than runs that do work out! Yeah, you sequence broke by strafing for the RL (unintended). That one switch in a monster closet is a S1 switch that lowers the boxes that trap you in, but you pressed it early.

    Next up, by ignoring the Sargeant in the final room you did not wake up the teleporting horde, and there was a slime trail on the blue ceiling in the computer room! I never caught these when playtesting. Thank you so much for this demo, I'll probably fix it sometimes today.

[doomfighter667112349]

 very nice looking map i like the detail very episode 2 style good job

Edited April 28, 2020 by doomfighter667112349

[Austinado]