Cold Front Now on /idgames

[Egg Boy]

 

 

Cold Front is a 4 map wad for limit removing ports featuring snowy landscapes and Egyptian architecture.

 

After 4 months of on and off work, Cold Front is finally ready for play. Really, I designed around 7 or 8 maps, but a number of them were scrapped and subsequently replaced with what I believe are superior versions. Hopefully you will agree :)

 

Tested in: Crispy Doom and Pr-Boom+

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

Download

Edited November 9, 2020 by Egg Boy

[SP_FACE1]

Beautiful maps, loved the theme. I was supposed to just quickly test but 45 minutes later found out that I had played through all of them. I played on HMP and the last map was a bit too slaughterfest like for my tastes. But nothing impossible.

[SilverMiner]

Architecture is almost good except black painted beams

Gameplay is a bit... too linear?

[Tango]

this looks incredible mate!

[Hitboi]

These maps look hella great, The mix of egyptian and winter theme is wonderful.
The gameplay sounds like a mix of shoot 'em up and slaughterfest. Perfectly matches my taste!

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

Cold Front

 

Ultra-Violence mode || GZDoom || PowerSlave

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MAP 01:

 

Status:

*Deaths: 1 - (killed by Pinky)

*Saves: none

(I had to play the map again because I forgot to capture it...)

 

 

 

The map is really interesting, because of the way everything is structured, with that essence of what is a kind of Egyptian city, really interesting to observe, with the trees covered with snow, and the interiors really decorated with torches and other things. The difficulty was a bit high, without taking into account that at no time what is an armored vest to protect yourself is received, nothing at all, so it was a bit frustrating to see how the enemies were draining your health based on of shots, projectiles, and bites (I say this for Pinky), even having a berserk in a secret, not that it was much help really, and the surprise of the Archvile at the end... I will only say that the only thing that I saw the good with respect to that bastard, it was the fact of getting more ammunition for the shotgun, only the approval of that, and finally, the second secret where you find the other weapon up to the top of a pillar, consider it a shit for not knowing what the hell to press, interact or shoot to get it down, very bad at that last.

 

MAP 02:

 

Status:

*Deaths: 1 - (killed by Pinky)

*Saves: none

 

 

 

In this following map, the structure of the site is curious, for the simple fact that now, there are no open areas to a great extent, many of the roads that lead to different areas of this strange temple, are mostly small, also that with the decoration of the site, there really is not much to comment on here, although if I could just highlight 2 things, the first is the fact that the place is located in areas with a lot of cold water, both in areas a little open, such as In really closed areas, an example is in the part where you fight against several Shotgunners that appear in front of a portal that lead to a secret, and the second thing, would be the detail of seeing ice frost, or parts of a very frozen wall all over the temple, they really give it that touch of being in a completely cold area. Now with the difficulty, here it is again elevated, since the Archviles already begin to appear more constantly, and in various places, among these places, the really narrow and small places, accompanied by other demons that simply interfere with the combat with the Archvile, as is the case of the Pinkys, other demons such as the Imps, the Revenants, or the Mancubus, also appear on this map, like the Hitscanners, but at the same time they are placed in specific areas that, although They cause a certain problem in combat, they don't become as much of a nuisance as the Archvile or the Pinkys are, at least I'm glad that this time I could go for the weapon that I couldn't pick up in the secret of the first level.

 

MAP 03:

 

Status:

*Deaths: 2 (1. Killed by Imp; 2. Killed by Hell Knight)

*Saves: none

 

 

 

Arriving in this area, the structure I found was really large, with many areas that have outdoor spaces, almost the same as the first level, and a little more than the second, this site already looking like a complete gigantic temple, with many corridors and traps, many grids and many switches to press, it was really interesting to see, appreciate, and above all, to be killing enemies more than three times, the last one being the charm, but the truth is that this place It has areas that could well be considered memorable, such as the place where you go by the yellow key, the concept that was taken for this area is really interesting, although it served more like a trap, many of those details make the experience entertaining and nothing monotonous. Now in the difficulty, here if the difficulty is somewhat screwed up, because there are many areas where they put really strong enemies, as is the case where to access the part where you must go through the Rocket Launcher, you will see or hear as a Archvile will be at the beginning of the road to try to kill you, the same thing happens when entering the area where the blue key is, many Imps, 3 Revenants and at the end another Archvile, and so I can continue all the time, the truth is that in Ultra-Violence The enemies are really cruel to the player, due to the appearance of many Archviles in different areas, Revenants, Imps, Hell Knights, Mancubus (although it only appears about 2 times in this level), Barons Of Hell, and finally, as a final enemy We have a Cyberdemon that blocks the exit and the portal that returns us to the beginning, which makes the fight very uncomfortable because it is only a straight view of the Cyberdemon, and having very reduced space to fight it, with the disadvantage that any missile can to kill the Marine at any time, and with the secrets of the level, at first I had a complaint, but then I solved it without problems.

 

MAP 04:

 

Status:

*Deaths: 0 -  (not counting instant death at the end of the level)

*Saves: none

*The first and only map in which I did not die trying...

 

(Take extra pictures of this map because I really loved the visual structure it has)

 

 

 

 

This map was really complicated, the structure it has is really beautiful, all blue on the outside, and there is also it on the inside of the Egyptian temples, with some structures and designs of rocky walls with a lot of snow on top, and other walls that They appear to be 100% solid ice, some platforms have been used very well here, as have traps. Now touching on the issue of difficulty, it really is complicated, but not as much as you think, at least not so much if you bring weapons and ammunition from past levels, because otherwise, with Pistol start it would be too complicated, there is too much monster to kill and very little chance of surviving without the correct weapons, although they give you rocket launcher ammunition at the beginning, that does not mean that you can already kill all the enemies that cross your path, to summarize everything, it is a map with Slaughter touches, really screwed up to only contain 147 enemies, with a reduced space and many of the strong enemies to kill, the Archviles again make a presence on this site, and also the Revenants come in too large groups, the situation is really ugly if you don't go With caution, since in this map, you must be very observant and look everywhere when you press a switch, that could save your life, an example of how ugly the situation can be It's when you get the red key, and you use it on the red switch, things get very horrible, with Mancubus, Archviles, and a lot of Revenants, now that I remember... the Imps and Pinkys also come in large groups, to emptying many bullets into them, and although this level contains the BFG 9000, the ammunition is only given to kill specific groups, therefore, knowing how to use it carefully is the ideal way to win, at least the pain is only present at the beginning and in the middle of combat, since in the last, things become a bit quiet, but just as dangerous.

 

In conclusion, enjoy this group of maps a bit, the architectural concepts they have are really interesting, and the structure in which their visual appearance is formed, very well achieved, but as for the difficulty... I really got frustrated in certain starting points, because of the traps that really became a bit cruel to me, and caught me off guard, it was not impossible to pass, but having to repeat the scenarios was torture, my fault if it was for not making saves from the start, but I did not imagine that... being maps that included less than 150 enemies they would cause me problems due to the various things that each map had, either due to lack of Medikits, ammunition or simply being trapped / cornered in an area very narrow without any escape, all that really bothered me, but hey, at least I felt happy to win the last map without dying, so, as last words, they are very good maps, with very good designs and structures, but with a horrible and uncomfortable difficulty, at least in the first levels, since the end is a little more tolerable if you don't start it with Pistol Start, anyway, very good work on these maps, mostly in the visual aspect.

 

 

[Egg Boy]

@ElPadrecitoCholo thank you for playing, I would recommend lowering the difficulty if it is too much for you, also I noticed you're playing with a gameplay mod, this could also influence that aspect. Thanks for the kind words regardless.

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

4 minutes ago, Egg Boy said:

I would recommend lowering the difficulty if it is too much for you

 

@Egg Boy  If it really was too much for me, I would have died more than necessary, and would have done "Saves" about it, but nevertheless, it is not that it was a big headache for me to have played everything again in the beginning, I quickly learned the patterns and I discovered certain tactics to avoid dying as many times as possible, anyway I appreciate the advice from you, although it is not my nature to play Wads in "HMP"

 

7 minutes ago, Egg Boy said:

also I noticed you're playing with a gameplay mod, this could also influence that aspect.

 

You're right, I played it with a mod, and despite what you say that can affect the game, actually I did it more due to the fact that there was a kind of similarity between the group of maps, and the gameplay necessary to play it, as if it were a kind of custom Wad, or to be clearer, that the maps had a gameplay related to the theme, as in this case we are talking about ancient Egypt (with a lot of clear snow), then weapons of that style would be good to fight with more sense to hell, as if it were an improvisation style "Final Doomer +". That and I also really like playing PowerSlave :-)

[Doomkid]

Gotta check this out. Looks excellent.

[GarrettChan]

Spoiler

Map02:

The corner formed by Linedef 588 and 589 eats rockets, but maybe it's too subtle to fix.

 

Map03:

Maybe move the Armor outside for the Blue Key fight. The first half of the fight is actually threatening IMO.

 

Map04:

I... missed the BFG... and the death exit doesn't work.

Oops, tester mode activated by accidental.

 

Overall, pretty fun maps with nice external views. Difficulty wise, there are so hard encounters here and there. I would say it's slightly easier than Plutonia.

[Arbys550]

I mean, it looks great, the maps have an awesome layout and fun combat, but the fact that the new HUD doesn't display ammo count is really turning me off. I assume that's some sort of bug?

[Egg Boy]

22 minutes ago, Arbys550 said:

I mean, it looks great, the maps have an awesome layout and fun combat, but the fact that the new HUD doesn't display ammo count is really turning me off. I assume that's some sort of bug?

Well its not a bug, it appears that the HUD itself does NOT include the total ammo count on the right, the ammo count on the left works, no worries I'll make a quick edit and upload that version.

[Egg Boy]

Sorry for double post, but @Arbys550 I edited the status bar to include all the ammo names and counters on the right, took a few mins to recolor it from the original, but it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. Also, I added a bit more ammo to map02 (its rather stingy in that regard) and fixed an odd visual bug in map03. 

[ZeMystic]

Lost my shit at "Stank Dick Island." 9/10.

 

On a more serious note some beautiful architecture with some absolutely evil enemy placement.

 

Ammo is scarce, and I wasn't able to find all secrets.

Spoiler

Like one secret I ran out of ammo on, and wasn't able to shoot the shootable switch. Thanks Egg Boy, Very Cool.

 

 

[rehelekretep]

really enjoyable, nasty traps without feeling unfair. apart from map04 where i just ran past the bfg and then realised something was definitely not right lol. i would make the bfg more visible.

 

fda's with some saves - uv pistol starts

[Uni]

Loved it overall. The maps were compact, action-packed and well balanced with solid modern design approach that works pretty good in all aspects. I can't think of anything major I didn't like about it unfortunately except a few nitpicks here and there. Played on Crispy continuously on UV and it was a decent challenge, especially map 3-4. 

 

A few points to consider :

Spoiler

 

* There was a tendency to put green armor in front of critical switches thus forcing one to waste a already used armor. I don't know if this is a deliberated choice.

 

* The Cyberdemon in map04 can be easily cheesed from the bridge by hiding behind the little square pillar.

 

* I noticed some black textures on the big supporting pillars on map04, not sure if this is a deliberate design choice.

 

 

This is definitely worth checking out. Nicely done.

[Egg Boy]

13 hours ago, Uni said:

* I noticed some black textures on the big supporting pillars on map04, not sure if this is a deliberate design choice.

The black texture is used to create the impression of 3d floors, its basically a detailing implement. This is also how I made the arches, it gives the impression of depth, despite it being a black texture.

[MattFright]

Just played through the whole thing. For context, i played this on the Eternity Engine, on Ultra Violence (MAP01 and MAP02 without saves, MAP03 and MAP03 with saves. More on that later). this took me much longer than i had expected. I'd normally give a more extensive review but it's getting far too late for me to be able to fit in every single thing i want to talk about the wad, still, here's my best shot at it:

 

MAP01:

Spoiler

WOW! Now this is a GREAT opener! I might prefer non-linear levels where you can approach things in several different ways, but as far as linear maps go, this is one of the best executions i've seen, at least in terms of pure flow and pacing. The secrets were also incredibly fun to find: not too trivial to find, but not worthy of a 30 minute secret hunt either. I love how it makes you go through several locked doors to remind you where you are going next, really helps memorize the layout of the map without breaking the flow of exploration and combat. Great texture usage, great song choice, very fitting custom HUD, and i feel like the subtly custom color palette really enhances the look of the mapset, too. This map got me extremely excited for what was to come.

 

MAP02:

Spoiler

This map didn't disappoint my expectations at all, in fact i found it even more fun! I only found one secret, but i found it clever, and punching down the pinkies after getting it felt like a really neat touch to the secret and MUCH more memorable too. The rest of the map felt quite hard but still fair, i died in dumb ways yet the map was so much fun that i found it extremely fun to restart the level from scratch and revise my approaches to encounters so i could have more ammo and health left for the last few encounters. Once again extremely good pacing and level structuring made in such a way that backtracking was extremely intuitive and i didn't get lost even once. I especially loved the encounters with the archies and mancubi the most.

 

MAP03:

Spoiler

Now... I started out quite enjoying this, but the more i died, the more i got frustrated, because unlike the previous two maps (which even got me excited to replay the whole map over and over), this just felt extreeeemly unfair. To elaborate on this, a lot of the encounters felt like they were made with the few best case scenarios in mind. For example, the revenants on top of the two slabs at the start: what if they shot missiles nonstop? what if they shot mostly seeker missiles? what if both at once? This might sound silly, but because of the height difference and the way that vertical aim works, they get enough of a time frame of an advantage to make a frustrating difference against the player, and unfortunately there are several revenants throughout the whole map under this kind of setup. Another big issue is how tight some arenas are, resulting in pathfinding RNG being a problem, too, so the encounter at the bridge that leads to the blue skull and yellow skull can either be a breeze, or nigh impossible. It all depends on whether the barons and hell knights get stuck on each other (and on the revenant problem i mentioned earlier, though in this case it's much moreso in the case of homing ones, since the height difference isn't too extreme here). Now, this all wouldn't have taken me so many hours to beat, what takes that crown (and the whole reason i started saving in the first place) was the whole gauntlet to get the blue key. Please tell me if i was just screwing something up, but no matter what i did, it all came down to pathfinding RNG and revenant missile RNG deciding whether i'd live or die, and also RNG of whether revenants spawned at the very beginning or not. My best strategy was to block one of the teleporters while SSGing imps coming from another teleporter, and just eating the fireballs from the imps coming from the teleporter from the opposite side, then when the revenants would teleport in i'd equip the chaingun and try to circle them, but again, pathfinding RNG wouldn't let this be a possibily over half of the time, nor would revenant missile RNG. Anyways, this map took me 2 hours to beat and pretty much killed the excitement i had built up from the last two maps.

 

MAP04:

Spoiler

This honestly felt so much more fun and fair than MAP03, but i was left in such a grumpy mood that i probably shouldn't try to give too many thoughts on it, as they may be obscured by my still lingering frustrations from the previous map. Still, here are the positives, since i know those weren't affected by the previous map: SUPER fun start, i kept experimenting things cluelessly, half wondering whether to shoot or not (and ended up only shooting at the imps at the BFG bridge, since i couldn't just sneak past the imps), so that was by far the most fun part of the map. The other encounters were also quite fun but my mind is too cloudy from the previous map to give many thoughts past that. I hope i get the time to go back to this map in the future, since it really feels like something i'd love playing without saves (which i only started using due to previous frustration) and seems just as well designed as the first two maps.

 

In conclusion: i still had a LOT of fun with this. This and the last wad you've released (blood foundry i believe it's called?) were some of the biggest highlights in regards to doom wads i've played in the past month or two. I'll keep an eye for any future releases coming from you from now on :)

[tourniquet]

Started playing this yesterday and enjoyed it a lot, nice setting and theme. Difficulty-wise fairly manageable with a few rough spots here and there.

 

cldfrnt_TNq.zip

 

FDA's for all maps. 1 & 3 are DNF.

 

- 03 could perhaps use a bit more ammo/Berserk, unless there's a secret one i missed?

- 04 If it's meant to be a death exit it's not working as intended

[Aurelius]

6 hours ago, MattFright said:

the revenants on top of the two slabs at the start: what if they shot missiles nonstop? what if they shot mostly seeker missiles? what if both at once? This might sound silly, but because of the height difference and the way that vertical aim works, they get enough of a time frame of an advantage to make a frustrating difference against the player, and unfortunately there are several revenants throughout the whole map under this kind of setup.

 

Turreted revenants aren't that uncommon. The ones at the start of the map are practically trivial to shoot down before anything else even occurs in the room. The one further back can easily be dodged. To be honest, turreted revs are the easier kind to dodge because you only need to get past the initial shot and it will most likely hit the ground right after. A little bit of healthy continuous movement should get you past this area with no trouble.

 

6 hours ago, MattFright said:

the encounter at the bridge that leads to the blue skull and yellow skull can either be a breeze, or nigh impossible. It all depends on whether the barons and hell knights get stuck on each other (and on the revenant problem i mentioned earlier, though in this case it's much moreso in the case of homing ones, since the height difference isn't too extreme here)

 

It's important to realize that hell nobles are slow, and therefore you can kill the revenants with relative ease well before the nobles arrive. Alternatively, you can just put your back against the wall and kill the nobles first, since the revs can't shoot you from there where they are.

 

6 hours ago, MattFright said:

the whole gauntlet to get the blue key.

 

It's not a good habit to start by shouting RNG, because there's "RNG" in almost every encounter in Doom. It's all about how to mitigate the effect of that RNG. In this particular fight, the best way is to just run in circles (not full speed, mind you) and taking shots at the imps as they teleport. Don't stay still. It's important to realize the imps are the threat, and not the revs. The imps block your way, so you need to make your shots count as you have limited time to take out enough imps to have space to move. The revs will also fight with the imps, making your job easier. It is tight, but in no way too tight. Now all the while you need to keep in mind the AV is coming in, and once he does you gotta dash behind him, try to get rev rockets to hit him, and then SSG him to death from behind while hiding behind the corners to avoid his flame and also moving against him to block him from entering the cubicle he emerged from. If you're nimble enough, you can also pick up the plasma rifle without triggering the teleport (though keep in mind you have use for that plasma in the next fight too). Alternatively you can do the yellow key route first and possibly have better starting gear (like armor) when you go into the blue key fight.

 

I don't mean to be harsh, but sometimes it's better to take the difficulty down a notch if you feel overwhelmed. The fights were very tame for UV for the most part, but it always depends on what you're comparing to. Still, take this as friendly advice, not as a lecture :P

 

Now I already gave my feedback to @Egg Boy, but very fun maps, good looking with fun fights. No minor quibbles, a good thing to keep in mind is that if you only provide one walkover trigger linedef, you run the risk of a player moving too fast to skip it. Two ways to combat this are:

 

1. Put another set of linedef activators exactly 16 map units away from the previous ones. This should guarantee they can't be skipped. Now this can have some unintended side effects if the player activates them twice, so only do this if it doesn't matter how many times a trigger is activated.

 

2. Use S1 triggers whenever possible, since those can't be skipped in a similar manner.

 

[Biodegradable]

Man, this Egg Boy is hard-boiled I tell ya hwat! Not sure where I was going with that, but my point is your cruelty got amped up a notch since your last miniWAD, fam hehe. Really cool set here, well-designed with an interesting theme, fun layouts, gritty combat and some really mean traps. You well and truly stir-fried me to perfection over a dozen times, but I didn't give up. I had to cheese the final battle a little, but I think you'll find how I did so interesting. I certainly surprised myself a little. A challenging experience, but nothing felt too rough or bullshit except maybe one small area. I'm sure you can guess which one from my playthrough ;^) Anyhoo! Excellent work mate. You are fast becoming a new favourite mapper of mine.

 

 

[rehelekretep]

what gameplay mod is that @Biodegradable ?

especially around the 47 minute mark the bfg seems to be doing nothing to that group of revenants. that would explain a bit why that section is giving you trouble.

[Biodegradable]

3 minutes ago, rehelekretep said:

what gameplay mod is that

 

Final Doomer

[Clippy]

Dammit @Biodegradable you beat me to the punch again :P

 

I finally had time to play this morning and my video is processing ... got my ass handed to me a lot but still fun and I managed to beat it all somehow haha

 

 

 

[Egg Boy]

5 hours ago, tourniquet said:

Started playing this yesterday and enjoyed it a lot, nice setting and theme. Difficulty-wise fairly manageable with a few rough spots here and there.

 

cldfrnt_TNq.zip

 

FDA's for all maps. 1 & 3 are DNF.

 

- 03 could perhaps use a bit more ammo/Berserk, unless there's a secret one i missed?

- 04 If it's meant to be a death exit it's not working as intended

Thanks for playing! I've never done a death exit before and it seemed to be working for me in crispy but this is not the first time I've heard it doesn't work, is there anyway you can point me in the right direction of fixing this?

[MattFright]

3 hours ago, Aurelius said:

It's not a good habit to start by shouting RNG

 

It can always be minimized, i wouldn't think it's a hot take to claim that some doom maps rely on it too much while others don't. I even asked whether i was doing something wrong or not because of how weirdly out of place that difficulty felt for my approach. Maybe i'll come back to that map sometime to re-evaluate my probably poor performance on that map, but i believe i did what you're suggesting and i still had times where revenants infighting only made for unpredictable movement/rockets, and revenants spawning in early reaaaally throwing me off. Either way, i appreciate the corrections, i really didn't want to give negative thoughts about an otherwise good map only due to my own poor performance.

[Pirx]

Snow in Egypt, ha

Checking out later, looks great 

[Egg Boy]

4 hours ago, Clippy said:

Dammit @Biodegradable you beat me to the punch again :P

 

I finally had time to play this morning and my video is processing ... got my ass handed to me a lot but still fun and I managed to beat it all somehow haha

 

 

 

Thanks for playing! I noticed in your video you were wondering if you could jump or crouch. As stated in the OP this is a limit removing map set, meaning it was designed for crispy Doom, in which (Like vanilla) jumping and crouching is not possible. I appreciate the playthrough FDAs are usually a great way to give feedback.

[Clippy]

2 hours ago, Egg Boy said:

Thanks for playing! I noticed in your video you were wondering if you could jump or crouch. As stated in the OP this is a limit removing map set, meaning it was designed for crispy Doom, in which (Like vanilla) jumping and crouching is not possible. I appreciate the playthrough FDAs are usually a great way to give feedback.

 

awesome I hope my video was useful I just like to play Doom so I figured why not record myself and say some random things

 

This is a unique experience the Egyptian winter time Doom 2 maps. Snowy trees etc

 

I'm definitely going to have nightmares about that revenant/imp balcony lol

[tourniquet]

5 hours ago, Egg Boy said:

is there anyway you can point me in the right direction of fixing this

 

Simply add more barrels and one IOS into the room, if you don't like the Boss screams you could replace them with silent audio files or something else, that's what i did in Mutabor. Your current setup is way too unreliable, i remember similar problems with a Map in Nova2.