River Mansion - First published doom map

[musiconstereo]

So this is my first wad on the forum. Contains 1 map, spent 2 weeks on it. 

Don't question the wad name.

 

Download: https://gofile.io/d/fcJdxG

 

Name: River Mansion (I need to be better at names)

IWAD: Doom 2

Compatibility: Any source port supporting general actions

(MapInfo, which edits the intermission screen displayed at the end of the level and the music, is only compatible with ZDoom and GZDoom. It is not required, however)

Game Configuration: GZDoom: Doom 2 (Doom Format)

 

Tested on GZDoom

Freelook would be useful but it is not required.
Disable jump.

 

I tried to do a wood/stone/outdoor combination, though it is you to decide if this has been done well.

Criticism accepted! I will learn more with every comment. Tell me what I did good and what I did bad. 

All monsters and items spawn in all difficulties. 

The difficulty is roughly the same as Doom 2.

I focused less on detail and more on size. 

 

Things I am aware of:

Poor texture alignment

Unpegged surfaces which really shouldn't be unpegged

Inconsistent Difficulty

 

Spoiler

Map

 

Edited October 17, 2020 by musiconstereo : Just added the images directly post + wow epic map

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Screenshots look pretty good. You have some height variation, which is the biggest flaw in most "first map" maps. Detail could be added, but that takes a backseat to layout/functionality when you first start mapping.

[musiconstereo]

Thank you,

But might I ask, why is height variation a bad thing?

[musiconstereo]

3 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Screenshots look pretty good. You have some height variation, which is the biggest flaw in most "first map" maps. Detail could be added, but that takes a backseat to layout/functionality when you first start mapping.

Thanks for the comment,

But why might height variation be a bad thing?

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

2 minutes ago, musiconstereo said:

Thank you,

But might I ask, why is height variation a bad thing?

No no, I was saying you HAVE height variation going on. It would be bad if you didn't have any height variation :) sorry, I worded that wrong.

[musiconstereo]

Just now, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

No no, I was saying you HAVE height variation going on. It would be bad if you didn't have any height variation :)

Oh, thank you anyway! 

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Just now, musiconstereo said:

Oh, thank you anyway! 

No problem, sorry I didn't say that right. Most beginner maps lack height height variation is what I meant to say.

 

Also, name suggestions:

 

The Devil's River

River At the House of Hell

The River Runs Red

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

River Mansion

Ultra-Violence || GZDoom || Final Doomer+

Status:
*Deaths: 0
*Saves: none






 

The whole level looks really great, I like the fact that it starts in an area totally far from the intended site, as it is in this case with the mansion, although another curious detail is that when you get to that mansion, the entrance is find inside a cavern, or at least a place that looks like a cave, and with enemies to be killed, at least it was fine to put a Shotgunner at the start to get the shotgun, since later, there will be Shotgun cartridge packs and packs to use during various fights, which I quite like the fact of using both the shotgun and the Super Shotgun in each battle, but before I get to the Super Shotgun, I must first mention the set of each site, and is that, many of the places that are going to be explored, both in open areas and in closed areas, have a very pleasant way of looking while avoiding dying at the hands of demons, for example, the beginning has good style starting in some rocky areas, followed by a small river of lava, then reaching that kind of cave and then reaching the entrance of the mansion, that in there, the way it is structured, it is really acceptable, there is no Much decoration to really highlight here, many of the textures are almost the same as those used inside that large warehouse in Map 12 of Doom 2, but on the upper floor, the architecture changes, as do the textures, and they present which is a lot of decoration of a cryptic and dirty place, as if it were some kind of drainage, since, in all that place, there are many rivers of blood and large pools that are really toxic if they are stepped on.

 

Now let's move on to the difficulty, and at this point, certain things really stand out on this map, to begin with, the level contains some strong enemies and a large portion of weak enemies, among the weak we find many Hitscanners but they are only the possessed that charge Shotguns and chainguns, I think I remember that the zombiemans were not among the group, then the Pinkys follow that come in a considerable amount, unlike the Imps that these do come a lot, now with the somewhat tough enemies we have the Hell Knight, Barons of hell, in normal quantities, some Cacodemons, some Revenants and only one Archvile, and at the end of the map we have the Cyberdemon as boss, but with him I will pass soon, for now I give a quick summary of the enemies: 1. at the beginning It is somewhat easy to deal with the demons that you meet, just imps, Pinkys, a Hell Knight, and a Shotgunner; 2. In the Mansion there are few enemies inside, a Cacodemon, a few Imps and Pinkys; 3. the upper floor has some Pinkys, a few Shotgunners, although in a trap where the acid suits can be a problem, and few Imps; 4. on the outside of the back door of the mansion is the Super Shotgun, and a number of 5 to 6 Cacodemons that will attack, with the weapon in hand it will be easy to kill them, Barons of Hell on a high part of a cliff, and in At the entrance of a cavern there will be some Hell Knights, Chaingunners, Shotgunners, Imps and Pinkys, and later where the red key will be, they will appear as 3 Revenants and the Archvile; 5. On the second floor of the Mansion, since the text 4 was in the "lower" part of the mansion, accessing the entrance it has, there will be a Chaingunner and 2 Shotgunners, and around the corner we will reach the end of the level with the Cyberdemon as the boss, but regarding this part, it really is easy to beat with a simple method that I use in full combat and without spending a lot of ammunition, which I will tell the method to the first one who asks me, and in the exit portal, there will be a little surprise that will make you remember something familiar.

 

Finally, I will only say that the secrets of this map were a bit easy to find, one in one play, and the other in my second play, but without going into details, in general, this map was really entertaining, with a certain challenge, although it really is something easy to happen if you ask me, having enough ammunition and enough health, if you think there will be a challenge here, you really will not find what you are looking for, since this map seems made more for a casual player than for a veteran, which I am not saying is wrong, just that it is not made for experienced Megawads or anything like that, although if you are looking for entertainment, a bit of action and feeling rambo, this map is the one, anyway, it was great and fun to try, and the truth, excellent work with the design that has been achieved here, and with the gameplay as well, I really doubt that anyone will lose on this map, but hey, well done, @musiconstereo

[YestoDooM]

I played this several times because of the briefness, and it got more fun when I went through it faster. Like previously stated you have good height/size variation and verticality in the map, and the different sections are destinct.

 

Spoiler

When I got the red key the monster closet's speed made it very easy to get past the archvile without it awakening or even knowing it's there. If it was a bit faster and raised instead of lowered the Archvile would see you easier.

 

Lots of simple enemy replacements would make the map more challening; replacing some of the hell knights/barons with revenants or mancubi or arachnotrons in the right places would make them more challenging to deal with. Cannon fodder enemies were used well.

 

There was a lot of unnecessary supplies. Some of the boxes of shotgun shells could have been replaced with the small shells pickups. Some of the Medikits could be replaced with stimpacks. You didn't need as many soulspheres as there was. Reducing the supplies in the level would have made the secret supplies more valuable.

 

Spoiler

 

Speaking of secrets the shoot secret was clever, looking in the peephole too see the switch is pretty cool. But, the second secret is kinda dependant on the automap from the first secret and once again redundant because of the megasphere and the soulspheres in the cave area.

 

You seem to have the spirit of a good mapper, with the verticality and the big cyberdemon section and the surprise ending! Just way to many supplies for the maps difficulty level.

 

P.S. Is the midi from you or did you get it from somewhere?

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

55 minutes ago, ElPadrecitoCholo said:

River Mansion

Ultra-Violence || GZDoom || Final Doomer+

Status:
*Deaths: 0
*Saves: none






 

The whole level looks really great, I like the fact that it starts in an area totally far from the intended site, as it is in this case with the mansion, although another curious detail is that when you get to that mansion, the entrance is find inside a cavern, or at least a place that looks like a cave, and with enemies to be killed, at least it was fine to put a Shotgunner at the start to get the shotgun, since later, there will be Shotgun cartridge packs and packs to use during various fights, which I quite like the fact of using both the shotgun and the Super Shotgun in each battle, but before I get to the Super Shotgun, I must first mention the set of each site, and is that, many of the places that are going to be explored, both in open areas and in closed areas, have a very pleasant way of looking while avoiding dying at the hands of demons, for example, the beginning has good style starting in some rocky areas, followed by a small river of lava, then reaching that kind of cave and then reaching the entrance of the mansion, that in there, the way it is structured, it is really acceptable, there is no Much decoration to really highlight here, many of the textures are almost the same as those used inside that large warehouse in Map 12 of Doom 2, but on the upper floor, the architecture changes, as do the textures, and they present which is a lot of decoration of a cryptic and dirty place, as if it were some kind of drainage, since, in all that place, there are many rivers of blood and large pools that are really toxic if they are stepped on.

 

Now let's move on to the difficulty, and at this point, certain things really stand out on this map, to begin with, the level contains some strong enemies and a large portion of weak enemies, among the weak we find many Hitscanners but they are only the possessed that charge Shotguns and chainguns, I think I remember that the zombiemans were not among the group, then the Pinkys follow that come in a considerable amount, unlike the Imps that these do come a lot, now with the somewhat tough enemies we have the Hell Knight, Barons of hell, in normal quantities, some Cacodemons, some Revenants and only one Archvile, and at the end of the map we have the Cyberdemon as boss, but with him I will pass soon, for now I give a quick summary of the enemies: 1. at the beginning It is somewhat easy to deal with the demons that you meet, just imps, Pinkys, a Hell Knight, and a Shotgunner; 2. In the Mansion there are few enemies inside, a Cacodemon, a few Imps and Pinkys; 3. the upper floor has some Pinkys, a few Shotgunners, although in a trap where the acid suits can be a problem, and few Imps; 4. on the outside of the back door of the mansion is the Super Shotgun, and a number of 5 to 6 Cacodemons that will attack, with the weapon in hand it will be easy to kill them, Barons of Hell on a high part of a cliff, and in At the entrance of a cavern there will be some Hell Knights, Chaingunners, Shotgunners, Imps and Pinkys, and later where the red key will be, they will appear as 3 Revenants and the Archvile; 5. On the second floor of the Mansion, since the text 4 was in the "lower" part of the mansion, accessing the entrance it has, there will be a Chaingunner and 2 Shotgunners, and around the corner we will reach the end of the level with the Cyberdemon as the boss, but regarding this part, it really is easy to beat with a simple method that I use in full combat and without spending a lot of ammunition, which I will tell the method to the first one who asks me, and in the exit portal, there will be a little surprise that will make you remember something familiar.

 

Finally, I will only say that the secrets of this map were a bit easy to find, one in one play, and the other in my second play, but without going into details, in general, this map was really entertaining, with a certain challenge, although it really is something easy to happen if you ask me, having enough ammunition and enough health, if you think there will be a challenge here, you really will not find what you are looking for, since this map seems made more for a casual player than for a veteran, which I am not saying is wrong, just that it is not made for experienced Megawads or anything like that, although if you are looking for entertainment, a bit of action and feeling rambo, this map is the one, anyway, it was great and fun to try, and the truth, excellent work with the design that has been achieved here, and with the gameplay as well, I really doubt that anyone will lose on this map, but hey, well done, @musiconstereo

Another nice review man! The italics are growing on me. I like that I can always identify your reviews when I'm scrolling through posts.

[Deleted]

Hello, I'll give this a shot in a little bit and post my thoughts after playing.

 

 

Edit - after playing, my thoughts:

 

This is a neat looking room:

 

 

Was not expecting this after opening the door, which is good. The more you do this (opening a door and revealing something not expected), the more interesting your map will be:

 

 

This part is smart. You start at the bottom, vertically travel upwards, and then get to jump back down after finding the keycard:

 

 

Avoid doing this - cover up the extra buttons if you are placing a switch texture on something tall. For example, making a small sector in front of the switch and pulling down the ceiling height to cover every switch besides the "real" one probably takes ten seconds. I didn't even realize that this was supposed to be a switch at first because of the repeating skulls:

 

 

You said that you spent two weeks creating this. What if you were to, say, spend another two weeks working on this map? Not adding extra areas, but instead just improving the existing rooms? Even simple things like playing with sector brightness settings does wonders. The best way you could improve this map is to focus on the rooms where it's just a giant textured sector with nothing in it:   

Edited October 17, 2020 by hjordan159 : review

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

16 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Another nice review man! The italics are growing on me. I like that I can always identify your reviews when I'm scrolling through posts.

@TheMagicMushroomMan I appreciate it partner, your word is really worth a lot regarding the comments I make in various wads that I play, and I am happy to know that little by little you are adapting to the italics of my texts, hahaha.

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

17 minutes ago, YestoDooM said:

I played this several times because of the briefness, and it got more fun when I went through it faster.

@YestoDooM To take better advantage of this map, it is more advisable to play it in Nighmare, since this will make certain stages more difficult, and the spheres and other objects that seem unnecessary in Ultra-Violence, will be more useful in Nighmare.
 

I'm going to play it on that difficulty and then I'll comment on how my experience was in the game.

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

River Mansion (again)

Nightmare! || GZDoom || Final Doomer+

Status:
*Deaths: 3 (1. killed by a Pinky; 2. Killed by a Cyberdemon; 3. Killed by a Cacodemon)
*Saves: none





(After taking this photo, the Cyberdemon resurrected and killed me with a single shot... :-/)



(I killed him on the fourth try)



Now if the real challenge of this map is in Nighmare, the corridors are so small that... damn, the chances of living fast are really low, and the problem is not on the outside of the map, this Inside, with the Shotgunners firing fast and the Pinkys running and biting faster than normal, they make it difficult to get out alive from the narrow place that is the second level of the mansion, but instead outside, when you go through the red key, There is no choice but to try to Speedrun, otherwise the Chaingunner lowers health and armor too much to the point of leaving you as if you had not grabbed any sphere, the combat here is really hard, but only in closed areas nothing more, although it does make it more entertaining than just passing the map only in Ultra-violence many times.

Edited October 17, 2020 by ElPadrecitoCholo

[YestoDooM]

@ElPadrecitoCholo yeah definitely nightmare shakes things up. I don't have much nightmare experience so I'm dying really early, but I can tell it's making me use the rocket launcher earlier. I almost best the cyberdemon near the end but lost and still trying to beat the map. That crowded marble hallway is the real slugger on both modes. I'm hearing the midi a lot and it's worming into my ear now

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

@YestoDooM That was what I said, the real problem of the map in Nightmare, is that marble hall, many Pinkys, Hitscanners and Imps, really complicated, which took me a long time to achieve, even with the weapons I had it was not easy access, the good thing is that health abounded, at least you managed to get out of there by the hair. Look, here is a quick advice, so as not to be so much with the midi of a single level, it would be useful to download a special music package, for this map I use a package that I like a lot called "SynthDoom MK2", believe me if you are one of those who like music with an intense vibe or Outrun style, you can continue without feeling bored so quickly. By the way, if you need help with the Cyberdemon, I can help you with a method that will make things simple for you, even more in Nightmare mode than in Ultra-Violence.

[YestoDooM]

@ElPadrecitoCholo Aw no I meant I like the Midi and wasn't thinking of muting it, but I'll try SynthDoom for in general because it sounds good. I'd be interested in hearing what sort of crazy Cyberdemon trick you're thinking of.

[Biodegradable]

 

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

2 hours ago, YestoDooM said:

but I'll try SynthDoom for in general because it sounds good.

 

@YestoDooM  Believe me bro, you're going to enjoy it a lot

 

2 hours ago, YestoDooM said:

I'd be interested in hearing what sort of crazy Cyberdemon trick you're thinking of.

 

Good to know that you are interested in that trick, partner, although it is not a trick in itself, rather it is a kind of tactic that is better used in Nightmare than in Ultra-Violence, and this technique is simple to perform:

 

-It consists of coming and starting, during the fight against the Cyberdemon, to look for what would be 2 skull swicthes, press only the swicth that is far apart at the bottom of the other two, and then, press the switch that is just one side of the entrance, when you do, you will see that little by little the platform will descend, do not press the last switch that is on the side of the portal, by doing everything right, you can get behind the portal that does not go down entirely, and let the Cyberdemon fires its missiles at you, you will see that it will not hurt you because it has something that blocks the shots, but it is also in sight and the perfect proximity to only use the shotgun or the Super Shotgun, even use a few missiles to Shoot it and lower it more health, by doing this, the Cyberdemon will begin to walk in circles in the direction of the place where you decided to hide, with the intention of killing yourself, but using the portal lock in your favor, you only have to let it fire while it is close to the impact range of the weapon, and thus, you will manage to kill it by spending almost half of your shotgun bullets, but managing to destroy it completely.

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

Wow, I thought that no one was going to die on this map because of the excess of health they had, but now I see that @Biodegradable  was the first to break that belief that I had, and was in Ultra-Violence mode.

[Clippy]

17 hours ago, ElPadrecitoCholo said:

Wow, I thought that no one was going to die on this map because of the excess of health they had, but now I see that @Biodegradable  was the first to break that belief that I had, and was in Ultra-Violence mode.

 

That seemed like a weird semi-rude thing to say out of the blue. Anybody can die any time in Doom and @Biodegradable made a little mistimed dodge behind a very narrow pillar. Not sure why you felt the need to call this out?

 

Anyway here's my play :)

 

 

 

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

4 minutes ago, Clippy said:

That seemed like a weird semi-rude thing to say out of the blue. Anybody can die any time in Doom and @Biodegradable made a little mistimed dodge behind a very narrow pillar. Not sure why you felt the need to call this out?

@Clippy  Well, I hadn't really made the comment by way of wanting to offend Biodegradable in any way, it just seemed strange to me what had happened to him, besides that also in one of my comments I had said that "I doubted that anyone could lose this level ", mainly due to the excess of Soul spheres that there was, and also because of the vast shotgun ammunition that was abundant throughout the map...  :-|

[musiconstereo]

Hi all, Ive seen that youve questioned about the cave up the waterfall.

There were supposed to be more enemies, more distributed out the cave, hence the health pickups.

But I forgot to add more enemies and sound blockers. 

 

I also have a new map I am working on, where ammo is considerably more sparse and where mancubi are just everywhere. 

Flooded Fortress

[musiconstereo]

10 hours ago, ElPadrecitoCholo said:

@Clippy  Well, I hadn't really made the comment by way of wanting to offend Biodegradable in any way, it just seemed strange to me what had happened to him, besides that also in one of my comments I had said that "I doubted that anyone could lose this level ", mainly due to the excess of Soul spheres that there was, and also because of the vast shotgun ammunition that was abundant throughout the map...  :-|

 

11 hours ago, Clippy said:

 

That seemed like a weird semi-rude thing to say out of the blue. Anybody can die any time in Doom and @Biodegradable made a little mistimed dodge behind a very narrow pillar. Not sure why you felt the need to call this out?

 

Anyway here's my play :)

 

 

 

 

On 10/17/2020 at 3:18 AM, ElPadrecitoCholo said:

 

@YestoDooM  Believe me bro, you're going to enjoy it a lot

 

 

Good to know that you are interested in that trick, partner, although it is not a trick in itself, rather it is a kind of tactic that is better used in Nightmare than in Ultra-Violence, and this technique is simple to perform:

 

-It consists of coming and starting, during the fight against the Cyberdemon, to look for what would be 2 skull swicthes, press only the swicth that is far apart at the bottom of the other two, and then, press the switch that is just one side of the entrance, when you do, you will see that little by little the platform will descend, do not press the last switch that is on the side of the portal, by doing everything right, you can get behind the portal that does not go down entirely, and let the Cyberdemon fires its missiles at you, you will see that it will not hurt you because it has something that blocks the shots, but it is also in sight and the perfect proximity to only use the shotgun or the Super Shotgun, even use a few missiles to Shoot it and lower it more health, by doing this, the Cyberdemon will begin to walk in circles in the direction of the place where you decided to hide, with the intention of killing yourself, but using the portal lock in your favor, you only have to let it fire while it is close to the impact range of the weapon, and thus, you will manage to kill it by spending almost half of your shotgun bullets, but managing to destroy it completely.

 

On 10/17/2020 at 1:13 AM, Biodegradable said:

 

Hi all, Ive seen that youve questioned about the cave up the waterfall.

There were supposed to be more enemies, more distributed out the cave, hence the health pickups.

But I forgot to add more enemies and sound blockers. 

 

I also have a new map I am working on, where ammo is considerably more sparse and where mancubi are just everywhere. 

Flooded Fortress

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

@musiconstereo That's fantastic mate, I'll be waiting when you have the map ready.