[WIP] Hellclimb, Map 28, Looking for feedback on my first Doom map in 25 years (vague attempts at Doom Eternal-style gameplay)

[Mystiq6]

This is my first Doom map in about 25 years. Please, be gentle.

 

Quick facts:

• Tested in GZDoom using doom2.wad.
• Different difficulty levels are not implemented (and likely never will be).
• As probably an above average Doom player, I find this map fairly difficult. A few wrong moves and I'm dead.
• Don't stop moving.
• My best win time so far is about 15 minutes, which I'm happy with. 10-15 minutes seems like a good length for a final map with a single encounter.
• I tried to mimic Doom Eternal gameplay in Doom 2 as best I could. Let me know if there's even a hint of that. There might be too much BFG ammo but I wish Doom 2 had one more, more powerful super gun.
• The way to beat the map is pretty straightfoward once you realize what all the teleporters do. Watch the center. You just need to not die.
• It gets more difficult the longer you take. Totally intended.
• Sorry not sorry about the end.

 

This is the final level in what will be a 28 map WAD. (The map itself is level 1 in the wad I posted.) It was originally one gigantic ass map but I got tired of being told "can't make nodes!111!!1" and broke it apart and made everything bigger.

 

The WAD's gimmick is you're traveling through parts of a very large demon's intestinal tract and revisit the stomach several times throughout the WAD as its immune system attacks you. The final level is once again back in the stomach, things have drastically changed, and now you're trying to finally kill it. I do have a love of excess and so this map consists of just a couple of superstructures.

 

There's lots of monsters and you will be firing lots of rockets and BFG shots. It is not intended to simply be mindless shooting, however, and I hope that comes through.

 

 

 

If you're interested in the map's creation, as much as Doom 2's in-fighting gets some fun attention, it can make making a superstructure level difficult. The reason the inner chamber has only mancubii is because if I put anything else they start in-fighting and it drastically drops the difficulty. I like the concept of temporarily turning Doom into a bullet hell game and this was the only way to do it. Some of the earlier levels also use superstructures and often feature one type of monster in the larger rooms. (There's a room featuring only Zombiemen, the Chaingun, and a lot of Health Bonuses that I'm particularly fond of.) I have no way of getting you to fairly fight a larger room of varied monsters without assuming some are going to kill each other. As such, to amp up difficulty: the monsters are forced to split by blocking AI pathing, a room may have only type of monster or there's just a shitload of everything. Pinkies, however, are fucking fantastic from a design point of view in this game because they're the only monster I can throw at you in larger numbers that guarantees you'll have to move.

 

Also, that room with all mancubuses (you'll know what I mean) used to be full of cyberdemons (but with only 5 cubbies of monsters instead of all 14) but I found that version excessively difficult as you can only take one or two rockets before being killed, which didn't seem very fair when you're literally surrounded. The only way I found to guarantee survival was to run straight towards one cubby holy, firing at the Keens and pray to Satan you don't die. (This room went through so many iterations it isn't funny.) As it is I think that area can be a little more difficult with a few more ways to replenish your health.

(28) Kill the Demon.zip

Edited March 21, 2021 by Mystiq6 : typo; new title

[Omniplex]

Now that is one big slaughter fest map, I was even laughing (in a good way) about all the stuff going on at once XD! The design of this map looked interesting, and indeed you just have to keep moving fast throughout the whole map with monsters spawning endlessly with a large amount.

 

I found two problems here:

 

 

The first one is small, which is about the glitchy portal. As far as I know, this is the only teleporter that has this effect, perhaps you forgot to texture it.

 

And the second problem is in this part of the map:

 

 

This is where you keep moving until you get the berserk pack with the lowering ceiling. However, once the ceiling goes down; it never goes back up and down again like how you did with those large crushers in the main area next to this square area, unless it was intentional. This is just to point out some errors, that's all :)

 

Overall I really had fun with this map!

 

[Mystiq6]

1 hour ago, Omniplex said:

Now that is one big slaughter fest map, I was even laughing (in a good way) about all the stuff going on at once XD! The design of this map looked interesting, and indeed you just have to keep moving fast throughout the whole map with monsters spawning endlessly with a large amount.

 

I was thinking to myself, "what are people gonna do that want to do a 100% kill?" And the answer is you absolutely cannot, especially with the ending. Parts of this are just supposed to be deliriously over-the-top If I could do more, I would (perhaps in newer levels).

 

Quote

 

I found two problems here:

 

 

The first one is small, which is about the glitchy portal. As far as I know, this is the only teleporter that has this effect, perhaps you forgot to texture it.

 

I noticed that after I uploaded. Thanks!

 

Quote

 

And the second problem is in this part of the map:

 

 

This is where you keep moving until you get the berserk pack with the lowering ceiling. However, once the ceiling goes down; it never goes back up and down again like how you did with those large crushers in the main area next to this square area, unless it was intentional. This is just to point out some errors, that's all :)

 

Overall I really had fun with this map!

 

 

Took me a minute to figure out what you were talking about. Yep, that square part is actually the entrance in what is the first level. (The ceiling closing forces you to move forward against the monsters that are in the there the first time you see it.) I should probably just lock it and delete it from the later levels. There's no reason for you to go in there anymore. The individual levels will be designed to be pistol-startable (which also makes the game design much simpler).

 

How difficult/easy did you find it?

[Mystiq6]

I started slightly adding to the first map (also titled Entryway). It really took a left turn.

 

 

You can certainly see the progression in what maps I made first vs. the more recent ones.

 

I'm gonna work on the individual maps and then post the WAD as a whole, maybe within a few days to a week.

[Omniplex]

Alright, I found it quite difficult to finish this map due to many things going on and I liked the concept here.

 

I am looking forward to see more maps from you, keep it up :)