Production Line: a tiny industrial-themed map.

[Alfwin]

This is the smallest map I've ever made.  Inspired by some of the early Doom II levels (mainly The Focus and The Crusher), this factory-themed level can be beaten in around 5 minutes (my best time is 1:15).  It's got action, traps, and secrets - everything you could want in a tiny Doom level!

 

Compatibility:

Doom II - Vanilla (tested with Chocolate Doom and DOSBox).

Intended to be played without freelook, jumping, &c.

All difficulty settings supported.

Multiplayer implemented but untested.

 

Download: Production Line.7z

 

 

Screenshots:

Edited March 1, 2021 by Orcsbreath : Re-named the WAD to avoid confusion with an existing map called "assembly line"

[Egg Boy]

whew this map is short, but rude. The first room made me think it might be a fast paced scythe-like, but the rest of the map is much more deliberate. The section with the opening and closing windows with hitscanners behind was a tad frustrating for my liking and reminded me of something like Plutonia but on a, somehow, smaller scale. The last section with the catwalks wasn't too much trouble as long as the player grabs a few rockets and takes cover where the exit door is, safely taking out the PEs before grabbing they yellow key. Overall, a positive, albeit, somewhat frustrating experience.

[Biodegradable]

You've really got a knack for fun little maps with solid themes/motifs, man. This one gave me Duke3D vibes, which is always a plus hehe. Good fun :^) The opening battle is deceptively nasty.

 

 

[SP_FACE1]

Great map. I think you captured the punishing and dark atmosphere of The Focus and The Crusher well.

[Alfwin]

7 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

You've really got a knack for fun little maps with solid themes/motifs, man. This one gave me Duke3D vibes, which is always a plus hehe. Good fun :^) The opening battle is deceptively nasty.

 

Thanks, man!  I try to make sure each map has its own identity; glad to hear I've been successful with that.  Shame you lost the footage of the first run; I'd have liked to see that alleged perfect run through the crushers (as well as how easily you found the secrets).  Few things are more frustrating than recording a video, then finding it got corrupted, I know!

[Azuris]

Played on Chocolate Doom - Hurt me Plenty.

Sorry, i've cheated at the first Door... 
Was playing on my Laptop and the "use" Key was mapped on a defferent Key... Thought the Door was broken X)
But at the second one i was like: "I am stupid..."

Died a couple of Times but it was a fun Map :) !

Short was what i have needed now haha

 

 

Edit:
So i've played again without Chats (In the Name of Honor!)

But with one of my Cats as a Handicap, you can see exactly the Spot where i had to "readjust" her when i am pausing.

 

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Azuris

[Gez]

May I suggest a name change? Just to avoid confusion with this other recent Assembly Line.

 

[Alfwin]

41 minutes ago, Gez said:

May I suggest a name change? Just to avoid confusion with this other recent Assembly Line.

Oh, whoops.  I hadn't seen that one.

Changed mine to "Production line."  Hopefully that's enough to disambiguate.

[Alfwin]

1 hour ago, Azuris said:

Played on Chocolate Doom - Hurt me Plenty.

Sorry, i've cheated at the first Door... 
Was playing on my Laptop and the "use" Key was mapped on a defferent Key... Thought the Door was broken X)
But at the second one i was like: "I am stupid..."

 

What's up with people having technical trouble with this map?  First Bio loses his recording, now you had to noclip... have I created a cursed map? lol

Anyway, thanks for playing!

[Azuris]

Just now, Orcsbreath said:

 

What's up with people having technical trouble with this map?  First Bio loses his recording, now you had to noclip... have I created a cursed map? lol

Anyway, thanks for playing!

 

Hahaha nooo it was my fault! :P

But i have an additional Suggestion!
If you ever make an Megawad out of your single Maps.
Make This Map01 and Dumping Grounds Map02.
This would mean that they produce Trash :>

[Alfwin]

1 minute ago, Azuris said:

But i have an additional Suggestion!
If you ever make an Megawad out of your single Maps.
Make This Map01 and Dumping Grounds Map02.
This would mean that they produce Trash :>

 haha, I was actually already seriously considering that!  Although I kind of see this as coming after Dumping Ground, since that map sort of feels like it's approaching the factory.  But yeah, that might end up happening!

Actually, this map even has the same sky texture as Dumping Ground.  An earlier draft of this was going to have an outdoor area.  I changed it, because it didn't fit thematically, but I never removed the custom sky from the WAD.

[Azuris]

3 minutes ago, Orcsbreath said:

 haha, I was actually already seriously considering that!  Although I kind of see this as coming after Dumping Ground, since that map sort of feels like it's approaching the factory.  But yeah, that might end up happening!

Actually, this map even has the same sky texture as Dumping Ground.  An earlier draft of this was going to have an outdoor area.  I changed it, because it didn't fit thematically, but I never removed the custom sky from the WAD.

 

Haha i am looking forward to see whats coming after those two :)
Still have your Dumping Grounds without the "Secret Fix" on my List to find it.
This one here two.
But this is a Task for Tomorrow

[Kurogachii]

a map simple but effective, with a number of strategies available to surpass the challenge, this map is fair and rewarding, good job!

[Arrowhead]

Alright, another small map! Really enjoyed this one. Maybe more than the last one? I'm not sure... Took me 5:28 to UVMAX on my first go - was quite fun really. I don't want to spoil too much of the map, but I almost had a heart attack w/ that first trap lol. I liked your style of progression, (the snaking conveyor belt was hard, but fun) and I felt your placement was great - like I said, one trap scared the crap out of me haha. The secret/s was/were very nicely detailed / expansive, very nice. I also thought the texturing was very clean - didn't see anything I didn't like, or misalignment, or anything.

 

Top notch work!

[Alfwin]

@Arrowhead12 I'm glad you enjoyed it!  Haha, sounds like I did my job well in setting up the traps.  And I try to be strict about my texture choice & alignment.  I tend to be a fairly visually-oriented person, so having a clean, consistent aesthetic in my maps is important to me!

 

I saw you've got a new map out, incidentally.  I look forward to playing it when I get a chance!

[Pseudonaut]

Played the map. I'm posting two demos: one is an FDA, including one death, followed by UV-Max in 5:11 on the second attempt. The other demo is UV-Speed in 0:36. I was going to say those hitscanners in windows are needlessly annoying for max runs, but you can flank them in the secret area so it's not a problem. It's a pretty good map.

 

prodemos.zip

 

 

[Alfwin]

@Pseudonaut Awesome!  I wasn't brave enough to try running through the crushers like that, or jumping directly from the yellow key to the final conveyor belt.  Even if I were, I doubt I'd have gotten a time below 50 seconds.  Nicely done!

 

It turns out I don't know how to properly play back demo files, though.  The UV-Speed run worked fine, but the FDA froze right after you killed the first pain elemental (and I had trouble getting it to play at all; for some reason, I had to input it as "prodfda" instead of "prodfda.lmp").

[Pseudonaut]

7 minutes ago, Orcsbreath said:

It turns out I don't know how to properly play back demo files, though.  The UV-Speed run worked fine, but the FDA froze right after you killed the first pain elemental (and I had trouble getting it to play at all; for some reason, I had to input it as "prodfda" instead of "prodfda.lmp").

 

Well, "prodfda" is what I put in the .bat to record, maybe that caused one of the problems. I recorded these in PrBoom+ 2.5.1.5, maybe that can cause problems with playback in Chocolate Doom or Dosbox if that's what you're using, but I don't know much about this myself.

[Clippy]

 

[Alfwin]

@Clippy Thanks for playing!  Hm, do you think it's genuinely too harsh on a blind playthrough or was it just the dodgy mouse screwing you over?  I generally approach my maps with the view of "hey, if you picked ultra-violence, you asked for it" but I still want it to feel fair.

Sorry for tricking you with the lava not-secret, lol.  Wasn't my intention, but I have a strict "no inescapable pits" rule so there had to be a way out of there.  And since I also have a strict "no unobtainable ammo drops" rule, I figured I may as well have the way out of the lava go up through the chaingunner trap.

[Clippy]

6 minutes ago, Orcsbreath said:

@Clippy Thanks for playing!  Hm, do you think it's genuinely too harsh on a blind playthrough or was it just the dodgy mouse screwing you over?  I generally approach my maps with the view of "hey, if you picked ultra-violence, you asked for it" but I still want it to feel fair.

Sorry for tricking you with the lava not-secret, lol.  Wasn't my intention, but I have a strict "no inescapable pits" rule so there had to be a way out of there.  And since I also have a strict "no unobtainable ammo drops" rule, I figured I may as well have the way out of the lava go up through the chaingunner trap.

Nah is all good

 

Only part I found really frustrating was rocket launcher room with all the hitscanners

[Alfwin]

12 minutes ago, Clippy said:

Only part I found really frustrating was rocket launcher room with all the hitscanners

Yeah that seems to be the map's weak link, from what I can tell.  I want it to feel dangerous - the main reason I included it is because it always frustrated me how The Focus didn't really use the opening/closing shutters idea in a way that actually affected the fight - but maybe I could've done it better.

I might just increase the light level slightly in the hitscanners' rooms.  It seems like part of the problem is just how hard to see they are.

[Walter confetti]

Cool short map, pretty hard in some parts, recorded a video of it:

 

The only "issue" i have is the usage of STEP1/STEP2 and curved lines, it crashes the sense of "reality", i think.

[Alfwin]

31 minutes ago, Walter confetti said:

The only "issue" i have is the usage of STEP1/STEP2 and curved lines, it crashes the sense of "reality", i think.

Yeah, I know it's not ideal, but STEP1/STEP2 were the only flats that looked convincingly like conveyor belts, and of course there aren't corner step flats, so I had to improvise.

[PeceMan]

Always slow to the party, but I'll be damned if I let all of the half-assed work I put into this go to waste

Spoiler

 

Great level, I love the theeming. 

9/10, could use more secrets

[Alfwin]

@PeceMan Thanks for the video!  I don't know if it's the recording, or your GZDoom settings, but the room with all the hitscanners behind the shutters definitely looked darker than I intended it to be.  I might bump the light level there a bit.

The lift out of the lava pit is only there because I don't like inescapable death pits, and I don't like zombies placed in areas where you can't get their ammo.  But I've seen enough people think it's a secret that I might actually add one there.  Maybe a Soulsphere, idk.

 

I'm not going to actually update this WAD again, but I'm planning to include it in a megawad I'm working on, so any future changes will be reflected there.