Arcane Archive: Another standalone map.

[Alfwin]

The concept for this map is fairly straightforward: this is the UAC's database of demon lore, a labyrinthine library of computer banks and ancient tomes, with a Shores of Hell-inspired aesthetic.  I wanted to make a very interconnected level that felt simultaneously open and claustrophobic; I think I succeeded, but of course, I welcome any feedback/criticism.  The difficulty here should be a bit spicier than my previous map, Dumping Ground, was. It shouldn't be unfair, but if you pick Ultra-Violence difficulty, don't expect it to be a walk in the park.  Estimated playtime of 20 minutes, maybe a little more.

 

Arcane_Archive.7z

 

COMPATIBILITY INFORMATION:

- Replaces MAP01 of DOOM II: Hell on Earth

- Vanilla compatible; tested in Chocolate Doom.

- Freelook, jumping, and crouching are unsupported and may lead to sequence-breaking.

- Difficulty settings fully implemented.

- Multiplayer is NOT supported (co-op nor Deathmatch)

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by Orcsbreath : Updated description to better reflect what I've seen from people's playthroughs.

[Biodegradable]

Fucking hell fam, you really turned up the heat with this one, kicking the fuck out of me repeatedly. Absolutely jam-packed with demons infesting every single bloody corner, hitscanners up the wazoo, Pinkies and Cacos working in congress as irritating moving walls, a lonely Hell Knight just doing his best to be an inconvenience and a fuck-ton of other pricks. Bugger me, this one kicked my arse and left be bruised, bloody and begging for more! Tight, frenetic, fun, exasperating and downright fiendish. It has an interesting theme to it as well. I like the idea of fighting in some kind of archive/library setting. You've got a knack for coming with interesting themes for your maps, dude. Awesome stuff, you absolute bastard. ;^)

 

 

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

Arcane Archive

 

Ultra-Violence || Zandronum || Vanilla

 

Status:

-Deaths: 0

-Saves: none

 

Spoiler

 

A map that from the beginning already makes it clear that things will get complicated, for a map that does not reach 200 enemies, it has quite a bit of difficulty in confrontations, such as the fact of putting in the vast majority resistant enemies such as the Hell Knight, Mancubus, Cacodemons, and the Archviles, all very ugly, although at least the map was very considerate with the ammunition, because it was really taking a lot for the confrontations, and it is not that the Hitscanners cannot provide it, but the the great majority of these were limited to the Chaingunners, and the ones that were left over were the common ones. The architecture used here was interesting and very good, although also very claustrophobic, because there were hardly many spaces for the combats with so many enemies, and to finish, it is very appreciated that you have put the Chainsaw in one of the secrets, because with that weapon, ammo abounds well for all the rest of the map. By the way, that trap with the Cyberdemon was really good, because it took me by surprise, but fortunately I did not kill myself in the attempt, great job with this map, friend, although please leave some extra space just to have less awkward fights.

[Clippy]

So @Biodegradable told me you have another map out already! I can't believe it haha - and I heard it was quite challenging and diabolical! Maybe that heads up made me play more cautiously, that and I been watching the karate Kids movies and channeling focus from Mr. Miyagi. Either way this was thrilling for me to see if I could survive it, and on my first attempt it was a sketchy run. I misused ammo with the yellow key situation and kept coming up short, anyway here is the video I hope you enjoy - I don't know how I pulled it off very lucky haha but don't be fooled this map is a serious threat, you did it again!

 

 

[Alfwin]

(I tried to post this hours ago but Doomworld was being difficult)

@Biodegradable Always great to hear your commentary, mate.  Those opening 10 seconds got a laugh from me; I'm glad you've been enjoying my maps so far.  This map was supposed to be tough, but that looked like it was just a bit tougher than I intended.  I guess because when I was testing it, I knew where all the sound-blocking linedefs are so I knew how far I could push into the map without waking more monsters up.  Sometimes I do have trouble telling whether you're genuinely annoyed by a map, or just being challenged while still having fun with it, so there were more than a few encounters there where I thought, "do I need to tone this down?"  But I don't think I do; that's what the other difficulty settings are for.  You made to choice to play on "hard" mode, so that's what you get. :D

 

@ElPadrecitoCholo Thanks for the feedback!  The scarcity of ammo on this map was a deliberate choice; I wanted to force the player to continually push deeper into unsafe/unexplored territory in search of ammo pickups.  Same goes for the confined spaces, which were intended to pressure the player, although I do agree that at least a couple areas could've been made slightly more open, for example, the upper level of the library.

 

@Clippy heheh, your frustration on realizing you could've had the SSG almost from the start of the map... consider that my payback for when that happened to me in your Feel the Burn WAD!  I'm actually kind of glad you missed it; it's good to have confirmation that it's possible to get 100% kills on UV, without the SSG or chainsaw, and a bunch of ammo wasted on the cyberdemon.  Shame you locked yourself out of the chainsaw secret at the end by using the last few bullets on that mancubus, but oh well.  You saw the chainsaw, and you saw (and figured out how to access) the switch to open it, even if you forgot about the latter and didn't make the connection, so I'll consider that a successful UV Max run. Well done!  And yeah, that music track is rather quiet.  I added it fairly early on, when all I really knew about the map was that it was a maze-like library of demon lore, and I wanted the music to feel "mysterious".  I think it still fills that role, but now that the map's finished, I wonder if Sinister or The Demons from Adrian's Pen might've better fit the pace of the gameplay.  But well... I know it's silly, but I felt kind of bad for They're Going to Get You.  That track doesn't seem to get a lot of recognition.

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

25 minutes ago, Orcsbreath said:

@ElPadrecitoCholo Thanks for the feedback!  The scarcity of ammo on this map was a deliberate choice; I wanted to force the player to continually push deeper into unsafe/unexplored territory in search of ammo pickups.  Same goes for the confined spaces, which were intended to pressure the player, although I do agree that at least a couple areas could've been made slightly more open, for example, the upper level of the library.

 

Well, apparently you achieved your task, because if it caused me certain problems that of the certain shortage of ammunition that was there, although that did not stop me from trying to win the map without being defeated, and hopefully I hope to see that of the rooms with a little more space in upcoming companion maps. Great job anyway on this.

[Biodegradable]

3 hours ago, Orcsbreath said:

Sometimes I do have trouble telling whether you're genuinely annoyed by a map, or just being challenged while still having fun with it, so there were more than a few encounters there where I thought, "do I need to tone this down?"  But I don't think I do; that's what the other difficulty settings are for.  You made to choice to play on "hard" mode, so that's what you get. :D

 

Yeah don't even sweat it, fam. If I thought any of it was complete bullshit and you were just being a dickhole, I would've raged-quit and then told ya! I did get a little bent out of shape but at the end of the day it's all in good fun and I enjoyed the map. ;^)

[LVENdead]

Gave this a play a few minutes ago. Managed 99% k, 33% s, 0 deaths. It was a pretty challenging map but somehow I managed to keep it together for a deathless run. I can see the point of anyone who complains about resources, but at the same time the map is almost entirely open and gives you plenty of alcoves to duck into so you can play cat and mouse with the different demons. I relied heavily on infighting, and the chainsaw is almost essential; I think it's good that the secret is very easy to find. Without it I would have probably felt a lot different about this map because I already felt like there was barely enough ammo, and I ended up chainsawing basically every pinkie/spectre and even multiple cacos. The arch-viles only serve to further put the squeeze on the player's resources, so I could absolutely see someone who runs out of ammo on this map.

 

The map did a good job of overall feeling like one large arena made of a variety of interconnected spaces. Each one had a distinct look to it without violating any kind of visual consistency. It reminded me a lot of a combination of elements from E2M6 and E2M7. The lighting does a lot of heavy lifting and contributes to a nice aesthetic. I also like how you managed to incorporate degrees of verticality into the map while retaining its cramped feeling, and gave good opportunities for the cacos to really shine as pursuit enemies.

 

I thought the cyberdemon encounter was interesting as a quick little puzzle. Maybe some would consider it underwhelming? But at the same time, it would be such a shift if you had decided "okay now it's time to give the player a bunch of ammo and weapons and make them actually fight this thing." And besides, for me the real "boss" was the archie that spawns near the exit at the end and starts resurrecting monsters.

 

I'm impressed by the speed at which you crank out consistently good maps. There are certainly some detracting points, but so far none of them has any major showstopping flaws or glaring examples of rushed or careless mapping. Whatever your process is, it's pretty good.

[Alfwin]

@LVENdead Yeah, the ammo in this one was pretty hard to balance.  I wanted it to be scarce enough that the player had to manage it carefully, and to make you push deeper into unsafe territory in search of more.  It might be a little too stingy with ammo for some people's tastes, but I know that it is possible - with a bit of luck with Archie's resurrections - to get 100% kills on UV without the chainsaw.

 

In terms of the layout and arena design, this is the map I'm most pleased with so far.  Highly-interconnected levels with lots of different paths through the space are some of my favourites to play, and designing one was a lot of fun, too.  I'm not surprised it reminded you of E2M7; just before I started mapping, I played through a couple of IWAD maps that I knew had a similar flow to what I wanted to create, to try to get some clearer inspiration, and E2M7 was one of the ones I played.

 

The Cyberdemon was always meant to be a quick puzzle, not an actual "fight."  Wearing down its 4000 hit points is never the most interesting part of a cyberdemon encounter, and as you say, suddenly giving the player a ton of ammo and weapons to fight him would be too big a shift from the feel of the rest of the map.  When making the level, I was also thinking of the archie near the exit as the "boss."

 

To be honest, I'm not sure what my mapping process is.  I've just been "in the zone" when it comes to DOOM mapping lately.  I do try to hold myself to a decent standard, at least.  I won't work on a map if I don't really have any good ideas for it - that's why Incursion MAP03 hasn't yet seen the light of day - and I try to remain conscious of what purpose everything I add to a map serves, both in terms of gameplay and visuals.  Other than that, I really just take an initial concept and see where it takes me.

[LVENdead]

40 minutes ago, Orcsbreath said:

It might be a little too stingy with ammo for some people's tastes

 

It's going to absolutely be mostly a matter of people's preference. Personally I think you're allowed to make whatever map you want, especially if it's a one-off. You did incorporate the difficulties for a reason. And I think the chainsaw kind of tows the line, again, as a mandatory find, but you can also argue "Well that's the point of playing the map multiple times. If you want to beat it on UV, you might need to practice it or beat it on a lower difficulty first."

 

I also need to point out, I did not even realize there was a SSG in this map until I came back and looked at this thread. That's one big reason this map felt very Doom 1 to me, even with the presence of some Doom 2 monsters.

 

 

[Suitepee]

https://youtu.be/HwNm9jF6wlk

 

My playthrough of this starts at 2:07:00.